Pray&Go

Tag: christian

  • The Year-End Review Newsletter

    The Year-End Review Newsletter

    December 2025

    Welcome Letter

    Dearest Friends & Partners in Christ’s Service,

    Welcome to my December 2025 newsletter update! I have been eagerly awaiting the opportunity to give you an update on all the Lord has been doing in and through our ministry work across the nations, and I am so glad you are here reading this now. May God bless you and fill you with joy through the testimony of Jesus during this season as we celebrate our Lord’s divine birth. May God be with you as you read.

    In this year-end review newsletter, I am sharing photos and testimonies highlighting moments from 2025, with short sections describing what I was seeing and a part of doing in the nations we traveled to this year as a ministry team. I am also sharing what I am currently doing and preparing for as we move into the new year, including plans to return to South Africa in January.

    2025 has been a year filled with joy, triumph, glory, wonder, and awe. Looking back, I am truly astounded by all the Lord has done and by the many unexpected blessings throughout this season. It has been a joy to be part of the Fire & Fragrance South Africa family and the broader Potchefstroom community. I am deeply thankful for the experiences I have had—and will continue to have—through partnership with faithful prayer warriors, financial supporters, and ministers of the Gospel both here in the United States and abroad. I truly have the best job ever, and I cannot fully express how thankful I am for all that the Lord has done.

    Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to both you and yours!

    — Matthew Forrest Akre


    Stories from the Nations — 2025

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    Sustainable Farming & Bible Distribution

    Bushbuckridge, South Africa | February 2025

    We were invited by our brothers at Wycliffe Bible Translators to train local church members in sustainable agriculture, and our team was thrilled to serve the South African community through both practical training and the sharing of God’s Word. We traveled to Bushbuckridge in Mpumalanga Province, bringing Bibles in local languages and partnering with friends who facilitate Farming God’s Way training.

    This trip was especially meaningful for me as I learned more about the simplicity and effectiveness of sustainable agriculture practices. I was filled with faith and vision, realizing how these methods could one day be applied in other parts of Africa to help families and communities steward their land and provide food in practical, sustainable ways.

    During the training, we were able to distribute free Bibles to participants and share simple discipleship moments alongside the farming instruction. It was also during this trip that our leadership team received the initial idea to build a Bible Distribution App for the FFSA community—an idea that continues to serve the wider ministry today.

    God’s Story Training & Translation

    Egypt | March 2025

    “From Cape to Cairo, all of Africa will sing, Worthy is the Lamb!”

    – FFSA Prayer Room

    In March, our Project 54 team traveled to Egypt to participate in preparation and training for the God’s Story Oral DTS (GSDTS). This trip gave us the opportunity to learn more about oral discipleship methods, strengthen partnership with the Project 54 team, and support their ministry through Bible translation training.

    During this time, I was also able to meet with long-term translation partners connected to sensitive regions of Africa. These conversations opened the door for extended time together, where I was able to provide foundational translation training while still on the ground.

    As a result, several new translations of the God Stories were initiated—a collection of 35 Bible stories being used to multiply discipleship across Africa. I left deeply encouraged by how these translations are expanding access to God’s Word in communities with little or no Scripture available.

    This trip also marked the beginning of a significant ministry transition for me, as I shifted into Project 54, a ministry focused on multiplying disciple-making movements throughout Africa. I now serve as part of the full-time staff at Fire & Fragrance South Africa, and I am grateful for how God has been faithfully leading each step.

    Bible Translation Accelerator

    Nepal | May 2025

    From Cairo to Kathmandu, our year was filled with unexpected invitations to the nations. While in Nepal, we learned about new oral Bible translation tools and saw firsthand how accessible it is to translate Scripture using simple mobile recording methods.

    As we trained alongside teams from other nations, it became clear that we are part of a much larger family of Kingdom workers committed to bringing God’s Word to people in their heart languages. During this time, we also reconnected with close friends serving cross-culturally and spent time with leaders involved in translation efforts among persecuted communities.

    This season felt deeply divinely appointed. God marked us in a fresh way for the global movement of Bible translation, and what began as vision-casting conversations quickly became reality. We are now working with tools that support both Scripture translation and God’s Story translation for disciple-making movements.

    Flood Week & Youth Evangelism Outreach

    Emalahleni, South Africa | July 2025

    In July, our teams at Fire & Fragrance South Africa participated in our annual youth evangelism outreach known as Flood Week. Our team had the privilege of serving in Emalahleni (Witbank), where over the course of approximately 11 days we preached the Gospel to more than 26,000 primary and secondary school students.

    We partnered closely with local church leadership, and throughout the week we witnessed thousands of young people respond to the Gospel, along with healing and freedom encounters as the Lord moved powerfully among the youth.

    During this outreach, students were also mobilized to reach their own schools and neighborhoods through The Send South Africa, a global missions mobilization movement launching nationally in 2026.

    Youth Evangelism Training

    Nkhata Bay, Malawi | August 2025

    During my first trip to Malawi in early 2024, I met a young local leader who has since grown into a strong servant of God helping lead an evangelistic ministry in Nkhata Bay known as Christ’s Messengers Malawi. Over the past two years, the ministry has started more than 100 small groups across eight villages, reaching many who lack access to local churches.

    In August 2025, I returned to Malawi with a ministry partner to provide disciple-making training and co-facilitate a youth evangelism conference. During our time together, we witnessed salvations, healing encounters, and were able to support the ministry with Bibles and hymn books.

    I am currently hosting a weekly coaching call with the core leadership team, walking through the book of Acts to discover how disciple-making movements multiplied in the early Church.

    Ministry Fruit & Stats

    Youth Evangelism Outreach — Emalahleni

    • People Gathered: 26,032
    • Salvations: 6,276
    • Recommitments: 143
    • Healings: 11
    • Deliverances: 12
    • Schools Reached: 31

    FFSA Prayer Room (2025)

    • 235 Days of Prayer
    • 705 Prayer Topics
    • 46,000 Hours of Prayer

    Bible Distribution — FFSA Teams

    • Total Bibles Distributed: 4,710

    God’s Story Translation Progress

    Translations started in the following languages:

    • Arabic (Fusha)
    • Sudanese Arabic
    • Afrikaans
    • Chichewa
    • Maasai
    • Moro
    • Lokoya
    • French

    Gratitude & Looking Ahead to 2026

    Thank you for standing with me through prayer, generosity, and encouragement. As I prepare to return to South Africa, I am filled with faith for what God will continue to do through Fire & Fragrance South Africa and Project 54—especially in disciple-making, Bible distribution, and oral Scripture translation across Africa.

    Merry Christmas & Happy New Year 2026!

    Become A Partner

    To support Matthew’s ministry efforts financially, please click the link above. And thank you for your generosity!

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  • Prayer Guide for End Bible Poverty Now!

    Prayer Guide for End Bible Poverty Now!

    Psalms 1 – February 2025

    This prayer guide is structured around Psalm 1 and related Scriptures, aligning our prayers with God’s Word as we seek His guidance, wisdom, and provision for the mission of Ending Bible Poverty Now (EBPN). Read and meditate on Psalm 1, praying through the prayer points as you go along. Related verses are also included to help guide your time reflecting on God’s Word. You can feel free to use this prayer guide in whatever way it serves you in your intercession time. Some suggestions would be to break it down into 6 days of prayer and fasting for the global End Bible Poverty Now movement, and pray through one verse per day for six days; or, you could even ask God for a particular nation or region of the world, and then pray these verses over the people of that nation. Have fun, and remember to enjoy Jesus!

    1. Walking in God’s Ways

    Psalm 1:1 – “Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, or set foot on the path of sinners, or sit in the seat of mockers.”

    (Jude 1:24-25 – God is able to keep us from stumbling and present us blameless before His glory.)

    Prayer Focus:

    • Pray that EBPN workers, missionaries, and translators will walk in righteousness and integrity.
    • Ask God to protect them from worldly influences and discouragement as they serve.
    • Pray for wisdom and discernment in partnerships and decision-making.

    2. Delighting in God’s Word

    Psalm 1:2 – “But his delight is in the Law of the LORD, and on His law he meditates day and night.”

    (Romans 12:2 – Be transformed by the renewing of your mind to discern God’s will.)

    Prayer Focus:

    • Pray for a deep love for God’s Word among all believers, especially those receiving the Scriptures for the first time.
    • Ask for transformed minds and hearts as people engage with the Bible in their own languages.
    • Pray that those involved in Bible translation and distribution would personally delight in Scripture, drawing strength from it.

    3. Bearing Fruit in God’s Timing

    Psalm 1:3 – “He is like a tree planted by streams of water, yielding its fruit in season, whose leaf does not wither, and who prospers in all he does.”

    (John 15 – Abide in Me, and you will bear much fruit.)

    Prayer Focus:

    • Pray that the work of Bible translation, distribution, and engagement would be deeply rooted in Christ, bearing lasting fruit.
    • Ask for perseverance for those serving in difficult places, that they would not grow weary.
    • Pray that new believers receiving Scripture will grow strong in their faith and disciple others.

    4. Separating Wheat from Chaff

    Psalm 1:4 – “Not so the wicked! For they are like chaff driven off by the wind.”

    (Matthew 3:11-12 – Jesus will separate the wheat from the chaff.)

    Prayer Focus:

    • Pray for the power of God’s Word to bring conviction and transformation, leading people to repentance.
    • Ask that false teachings and spiritual darkness be exposed and removed.
    • Pray that people encountering the Bible will choose to follow Jesus wholeheartedly.

    5. Standing in Righteousness Before God

    Psalm 1:5 – “Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.”

    (Psalm 24:3-6 – Who may ascend the hill of the Lord? Those with clean hands and pure hearts.)

    Prayer Focus:

    • Pray that entire communities will turn to Christ and stand as His righteous people.
    • Ask for godly leaders among the people groups receiving Scripture, who will shepherd and disciple their communities.
    • Pray for justice and righteousness to prevail in nations where the Bible is being translated and distributed.

    6. The Lord Guards the Path of the Righteous

    Psalm 1:6 – “For the LORD guards the path of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.”

    (Matthew 7:13-14 – Enter through the narrow gate that leads to life.)

    Prayer Focus:

    • Pray for God’s protection over missionaries, translators, and those distributing Bibles in difficult regions.
    • Ask for guidance and provision for those serving in the EBPN movement.
    • Pray that those who receive the Bible will choose the narrow path that leads to life.

    Declaring God’s Promises

    Lord, we stand on Your promises and believe that Your Word will not return void (Isaiah 55:11). We ask that You bless and strengthen the work of EBPN, so that every people group may have access to the Scriptures. May Your Word transform hearts, families, and nations, bringing light to the darkest places.

    This prayer guide can be used individually or in prayer gatherings, uniting believers in intercession for Bible translation, distribution, and engagement worldwide. Let’s stand together in prayer to see God’s Word reach every tribe, tongue, and nation! Thank you for praying with us!

  • The 2024 Year-End Review

    The 2024 Year-End Review

  • November 24′ Newsletter

    November 24′ Newsletter

    Preparing for the New!

    Since YWAM Together 2024, I’ve been getting settled into the new season back in Potch, but it’s definitely not a time to slow down. This new season has been quite a whirlwind as God is bringing fresh vision for the new year – which is just around the corner. My team and I have been working hard in making disciples, preparing the soil through our prayers, and building networks for revival across Africa! Hallelujah!!!

    Discipleship Bible School

    My DBS Small Group

    This quarter our campus in Potch is running a Discipleship Bible School (DBS). This is a three-month Bible school in which students spend time learning about God’s story from Genesis to Revelation, and discovering the common thread throughout the Scriptures of God’s redemptive plan for humanity. This is an opportunity as well for students who have finished their Discipleship Training School (DTS) to get equipped to enter into ministry in one of the six different lanes that our campus is running in full-time. Once they have finished a Bible school or an internship, they can start serving in Media, End Bible Poverty Now (EBPN), Training, Evangelism, Mercy, or Prayer & Worship. So, this is a very important step for many of our future, long-term staff to get involved with what God is doing here in Potch, South Africa, and in the nations!

    Currently, I am helping to staff the school part-time, as I fulfill my other commitments in EBPN and in Prayer & Worship. I have the privilege of discipling a group of five young men who are hungry for the Word of God, and I am so blessed by these students! We meet several times a week for small groups, Bible reading, inductive Bible study, and individual discipleship. It has been the joy of this season getting to work with these students and love them as they are growing in their relationship with God and the Bible. I’ve been having so much fun!

    Pray with me… For the students of the DBS to fall more and more deeply in love with the Lord throughout this time of discipleship and Bible study, that they would be surrendered to the will of God over their lives, and that the Lord will bring healing and deliverance to their hearts through His Word!

    Prayer & Worship

    In addition to making disciples of the Word, I was also part of a huge event that our base put on called EXALTED, which was incredible! Exalted is one of the ways that our base is working to bring Prayer & Worship to the local community in Potch, South Africa, and the nations. It is a two-day conference focused on exalting Jesus and calling on everyday believers to “Give Him No Rest,” (Isaiah 62:6-7), meaning that we want to see everyday believers activated in prayer and intercession, and obedient to the call of God to go to the nations until the Great Commission is fulfilled! (Matthew 28:18-20)


    “On your walls, O Jerusalem, I have set watchmen; all the day and all the night they shall never be silent. You who put the Lord in remembrance, take no rest, and give him no rest until he establishes Jerusalem and makes it a praise in the earth.”

    Isaiah 62:6-7 (ESV)

    Here’s your paragraph rephrased in the past tense:

    It was thrilling to have presented Jesus to our community through worship leading with our very own, FFSA Music! It was no easy feat to pull off an event like this. We had many rehearsals, worked hard to put it all together, and a team of people coordinated and spoke at the event. Reaching this point, where we were able to present Jesus to our community and invite local believers into a life of Spirit-filled intercession, and obey the call to missions was our joy and delight. In the week leading up to Exalted, we went to local high schools and government buildings to share Jesus and pray for people. We also did evangelism in the community, visiting the townships and areas in our city where there is a lot of poverty. We prayed to see a wave of souls come into the Kingdom as we flooded the city of Potchefstroom, Promosa, and Ikageng! Thank you so much to those who have been praying with us for this event! Here are the final stats from “FLOOD WEEK!”

    FINAL STATS:

    PEOPLE GATHERED: 8,922

    SALVATIONS: 1,815

    RECOMMITMENTS: 389

    HEALINGS: 117

    Pray with me… For all those who were saved, healed, and made recommitments, and those who got set free to be fully in for Jesus and excited to serve Him in all seven spheres of society! (business, education, family, religion, government, celebration, and media) Pray for all new believers to grow up until they reach full maturity in the Lord!

    End Bible Poverty Now!

    Finally, I just want to share about how our team has been doing so far this year with ending Bible poverty, our labor of love. This year has been a year full of pioneering vision for seeing Africa transformed by the Word of God. As a team this year, we were able to get Bibles into the nations of Malawi, South Africa, Nigeria, Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya, and Sudan. We attended events in South Africa, Nigeria, Uganda, the Philippines, the United States, and Albania, which all had a focus on ending Bible poverty. We were also able to help with training Bible translators of seven different languages in Malawi, who have started working on oral translations of the Bible in their own mother tongue! Praise Jesus!!!

    All of our hard work as a team has led to an urgent need for more prayer and partnerships to support the ministry that we are doing, and this is really good news! We are praying for God to open the doors for new ministry with our friends all over Africa. We are praying for opportunities to multiply the efforts of end Bible poverty now across the nations; programs which will aim to train and raise up new movements of the Word of God in Africa through oral Bible translation ministries, EBPN trainings and workshops, and locally-led, Biblical discipleship movements. Please join us in prayer and consider how you can join us in ending Bible poverty through your prayer and partnership with our movement!

    We are believing that, very soon, God is going to expand our work to reach more nations, people groups, and languages; and we are going to see a beautiful harvest of souls glorifying Jesus all across the nations of Africa and beyond! Wouldn’t you want to be a part of that?

    Pray with me… For End Bible Poverty Now (EBPN) ministries to be activated, launched, and multiplied across all 54 nations in Africa! For 54 movements of the Word of God to be catalyzed in all 54 nations of Africa! For funding for Bible distribution, translation, education and engagement programs in Africa and beyond! For our EBPN and Project54 teams in Africa to be blessed and highly favored, in good health and safe from harm, fully funded, and filled with the Spirit of wisdom and revelation at all times so that we can do our ministry with God!

    In Closing

    I am excited to share that I will be coming to Washington for the holidays! I can’t wait to see you at church and in fellowship during this special time of year, and to visit my family as well and spend some really nice time at home. Bless the Lord! I am also planning to send out Christmas cards this week to share more about how you can be praying for and supporting our ministry in South Africa. Please take a moment to fill out this contact form with your name, number, and mailing address so that I can send you a card as well:

    ← Back

    Thank you for your response. ✨

    Thank you so much for your prayers and support! I hope that I will see you very soon for the upcoming holidays! God bless you.

  • August 24′ Newsletter – Part I

    August 24′ Newsletter – Part I

    August 24’ Preview

    The OBT Upskilling Workshop!

    This week, I have been staying in Los Angeles, CA with my team, learning from our partners and leaders of the OBT movement about all aspects of the ministry that we are a part of, and building vision for the future of our ministry as we endeavor to see the Word of God translated into every mother tongue on earth! We have been getting “up-skilled” in so many areas: from the process of internalizing the Scriptures to the project management systems that have been designed for Bible translation teams, we have been very busy with our workshop. Working together with our global partners and international teams has been a joy, and I have learned so much from them!

    I have also made lots of new friends. We have people from many different countries, including Brazil, Australia, South Africa, Papua New Guinea, Canada, Chile, Fiji, Samoa, New Zealand, India, Togo, Mozambique, Madagascar, Germany, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, South Korea, Malaysia, Colombia, and Angola! It has been so much fun getting to know some people and building more understanding of OBT through the diversity of perspectives being shared. Jesus is so good, and He is meeting with us and bringing us together for the united mission that we have in front of us, it requires teamwork, and a lot of faith!

    Today we have been learning a lot about what it means to be true Christians, and how to live out the values that we have as missionaries in YWAM through teamwork, and partnering with other Bible translation organizations to finish the task in unity with the Body of Christ. We have had guest speakers from two different Bible translation orgs, one from SIL and another from Seed Company, and they have been sharing with us about new technologies that have been developed for the sake of the ministry that we do. I am so excited to share what I have been learning with the other members of our team back in South Africa, and see how we can really work together with other organizations to see the task of Bible translation completed across the continent of Africa!

    Testimonies from, “California Will Be Saved!”

    Over this past weekend, my team and I went to Hollywood to pray over the streets and prepare the ground for the time of evangelism and worship on Sunday. We were able to pray over so many different buildings and parts of Hollywood Boulevard, and even for the next Summer Olympics that are going to be held in LA. Although it wasn’t easy at times because of the many distractions, and spiritual forces of darkness that are so prevalent in that place, we knew that God was with us, and we felt His presence and love strengthening us as we prayed…

    On Sunday, the event called, “California Will Be Saved!” was happening, so we joined in for the street evangelism and for the worship in the middle of Hollywood Boulevard, it was amazing! God was so with us, and we saw so many people come to the front of the stage to make a public declaration of faith in one of the most spiritually dark places in our country, to take a stand against the darkness in that place! We also saw many people receive miraculous healing by the power of the Holy Spirit as we all prayed for one another, and declared the powerful name of Jesus over the land. It was so clear that God was moving in that place, and it was actually so funny to me just how quickly the spiritual atmosphere shifted as so many people came together to pray and worship the Lord in that place!

    …The truth is, when God manifests His presence in a place of darkness, His light always wins, and the darkness is put to shame every time! I believe that there is a legacy that God wants to leave in this city, and that in the next four years preparing for the Summer Olympics in LA, our prayers are going to make a huge difference. This is a call to prayer and evangelism for all of us, we must take a stand against the darkness that is spreading throughout our cities, and bring the true light to those places that are so desperately in need of the Gospel! Please pray for LA, and let’s believe together that “California Will Be Saved!”

    Hollywood

    Prayer

    I will be sharing much more on this gathering once it is over, but for now I want to invite you to pray with me for this event!

    • Pray for those who are suffering from sickness at the conference to fully recover, and quickly!
    • Pray for God to send the Holy Spirit to dwell here in LA, and to meet with us during this powerful time together!
    • Pray for Bibleless languages everywhere to be translated, and for open doors and divine strategies to be released from heaven!
    • Pray for protection and covering over our ministers, and over our families, that God would keep us safe from spiritual attacks, and also attacks on our health and wellbeing.
    • Pray for God to break through in Los Angeles, and that He would prepare the ground for the upcoming 2028 Summer Olympics in LA, where we believe that so many people will be saved!

    Thank you and God bless you all for your commitment to the Holy Word of God! We need your prayer covering, and all the encouragements that you feel to share to keep our spirits strong when we face challenges of various kinds. Thank you!

    Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy.  For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow.  So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.

    If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking.  But when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind.”

    – James 1:2-6 (NLT)

  • July 24′ Newsletter

    July 24′ Newsletter

    *Please go to the web-version of this post and remove any content blockers if necessary so that you can see all the media clearly!*

    My car crew on the way to Every!

    Every: Permission Granted

    Local Youth Outreach:

    Young people choosing Jesus in South Africa!

    Last week, I went with a team of 15 young adults to a city called Witbank for an outreach where we toured over 21 local schools, both primary and highschools, sharing the message of Jesus and an invitation to live out a life of faith through prayer and evangelism. We saw over 11,000 young people and preached the unstoppable Gospel to them over a period of 10 days, seeing many healing, deliverance, and love encounters with the Holy Ghost. Out of the 23 gatherings we facilitated, over 3000 young people chose to follow Jesus, making Him Lord of their life and choosing to obey the greatest commandments: one, to love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength; and two, to love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:34-40). These two commandments are fulfilled by living a life of prayer (having a love relationship with God through direct communion with the Holy Ghost), and evangelism (loving others by sharing the love of Jesus with them through the power of the Gospel).

    These ten days were quite eventful, but all in all, we saw the love of God on display in the way He met each and every young person with His healing touch, bringing restoration and deliverance to so many souls that were just being saved, and many of them for the first time. God is a way-maker, transfering the soul out of the pit of darkness and despair, into a hope-filled life of freedom and endless joy in His presence, despite the circumstances…

    ‘Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. ‘

    John 17:3

    This is the message of Every: that everyone in South Africa would be living an activated Christian life of prayer and evangelism. Will you please pray for this message to spread to every corner of South Africa in Jesus name?

    Spontaneous worship moment after children chose to follow Jesus for the first time!

    Have You Heard About Bourbons?

    Opportunities for Giving:

    This is IMPORTANT so please read to the end! We as Fire & Fragrance South Africa were given the opportunity to purchase a nightclub in one of the darkest parts of the city so that we can transform it into a missions training center and sending base here in Potchefstroom, South Africa! We want to give one final push for your support for this amazing opportunity, and we have ONLY 36 HOURS LEFT until our deadline!!!

    Please pray and ask God how much you can give towards what He wants to do here in Potchefstroom, South Africa, and the nations! All the information is here in this PDF file below, and the link to donate I will post right here: https://ffsouthafrica.com/building – this link will take you to a page where you can make a tax-deductible donation to our base for the bulding fund, please act NOW to see this God-sized dream come to fruition in Jesus name!

    BULT_PROJECT_FIRE__FRAGRANCE_SOUTH_AFRICADownload

    Prayer Points for July-August

    Prayer Points:

    • Pray for the bult project (Bourbons) to be FULLY FUNDED NOW in Jesus name!
    • Pray for South Africans to be trained and sent out to the nations for the work of the Kingdom, sharing the Good News!
    • Pray for salvations, healings, and deliverances to keep happening each day in our ministries here in South Africa, and in the Fire & Fragrance community around the world! – REVIVAL FIRE!

    I just really want to encourage you to see what God is doing here in South Africa and ask for the same thing to happen in your nations, wherever God has called you to right now, and that you would see miracles, signs, and wonders in your own life too! Whenever I give, I want to make sure its a worthwhile investment, that the fruit of my giving will actually be multiplied. Our base is growing rapidly in size and also bearing much fruit, just like I shared in the beginning of this newsletter. I will encourage you to ask God how much can you give to this amazing opportunity to impact the nations with the Gospel, and let the Lord bless you in your generosity by not giving out of compulsion, but out of a cheerful and generous heart! May God bless you and multiply all the fruit of your life 30, 60, and 100-fold in Jesus name!

    Finally, here is a fun video my friend shared from our time on outreach last week:

    Let me know what you thought of this newsletter in the comments! I love receiving all of your encouragements and prayers!

  • April 24′ Newsletter – OBT Outreach to Malawi – The OBT Workshop

    April 24′ Newsletter – OBT Outreach to Malawi – The OBT Workshop

    MALAWI OBT OUTREACH – 2024

    Our recent Oral Bible Translation (OBT) outreach to Malawi was a pioneering trip filled with unexpected twists and turns, but one thing that we really saw God moving in was our preparation for the workshop we held in early March. My team and I had no idea what to expect in coming to this workshop, but we felt that our preparation was paramount to what God wanted to do in that short window of time with our friends and mother tongue translators. Our goal was to see 70 mother tongue translators (MTTs), or 7 languages and 10 MTTs from each language, trained in OBT and prepared to begin working on the translation of some short Biblical text. In order to approach this training, we would need to facilitate the translation of our YWAM OBT curriculum.

    God made a way for us to translate the OBT resources by sending three YWAMers from the base in Malawi to help us! During the first two months of our outreach, our team of facilitators and mother tongue translators worked for many hours translating the Embodied Principles of Bible Translation, the Holistic Oral Bible Translation chart, and the Translation Village Story, a story-lesson inspired by true events that our teachers, Marcia and Suzuki, leaders of the OBT movement within YWAM, had experienced as young people in the Amazon jungle of Brazil. We hoped that with all of our hard work, we might see the churches of Malawi equipped to do the work of Bible translation, and our friends who helped us might get inspired by Marcia and Suzuki’s story and want to continue doing something within OBT as well. We prayed that this work would catalyze the multiplication of our movement within the nation of Malawi in a way that could only be an act of the Holy Spirit, seeing the entire nation of Malawi discipled by the Word of God!

    CLICK IMAGE TO SEE THE TRANSLATED WORK!

    Thanks to our incredible friends at the YWAM base in Malawi, who together translated the OBT curriculum into the bridge language of Chichewa, we were able to begin our workshop with the 70 MTTs in the city of Mzuzu! Our time with the MTTs inspired our whole team and the community around us, who could see that God was inviting many people to take part in the work of Bible translation. We were able to collaborate together with many different churches from all over Malawi to start 7 Oral Bible Translation projects with the story of the Widow’s Offering out of the Gospel of Luke (Luke 21:1-4). And not only that, but we were able to see how by using the YWAM OBT curriculum, many people were being discipled and discovering that they can translate the Word of God themselves! All in all, our outreach to the nation of Malawi was successful in bringing together the body of Christ for the sake of Bible translation, but what has made it even greater is that in all of the hours of hard work translating OBT resources, God gave us the opportunity to build true friendships with the YWAMers in Malawi and with the inspiring Malawian people who chose to come and learn about OBT with us. With the wisdom of God and the willingness to follow it, anything is possible when we work together for His glory!

    OBT Outreach – Testimony Night

    A Few More Testimonies:

    Muslims Hearing the Gospel

    One of the people groups that attended the translation workshop is a primarily Muslim community, and they were able to hear the Gospel preached in a language that they understand, and worship Jesus together with many other Malawians. We could see that God was moving in their hearts over our time together, and we really feel that God is going to mark this community through the work of Bible translation in the future!

    Free Dental Clinic for the Community

    A team of OBT leaders/mentors/content creators came to help us with leading the workshop and give wisdom to our team, and one of the ladies on the team is a dentist. They brought a whole dental clinic, and a local doctor joined her to help with performing free dental procedures for the whole community around the church. Many people including the chief of that village came to receive dental care and see what we were doing, and many people were touched by the love of Jesus in receiving dental care and seeing their own people learning about Bible translation! God moved in this dental clinic!

    Bibles… Healings… The Love of Jesus…

    Every Malawian who attended the workshop, including the ladies who cooked the food, received their own Bibles in Chichewa! Also, we saw at least two women get healed from stomach issues while we were sharing the Word of God and praying together! Not only that, but we were so blessed to hear from the Bishop of the church that he has received a deeper hunger for prayer and worship now because of the time we spent together during our outreach. God bless him!!! PRAISE JESUS!!! Here are some photos from the workshop below:

    More Recent News

    This week I celebrated my 25th birthday (April 16th), and I just wanted to ask for your prayers over this year, and if you receive any encouragement, to please send it to me. I am so grateful to God for saving me and bringing me into this new life that I now have, praise God! I am also very grateful for all of your love, prayers, and support, and I just want to say thank you for supporting me and blessing me to be able to do this work. Some prayer points for this year are below.

    Prayer Points for the Year:

    • Pray for financial support for all of the travel expenses for this year. I have many potential travel plans to do ministry/training, and to visit friends and family for weddings and holidays, but I need God’s provision to make these opportunities possible.
    • Pray for wisdom and prophetic insight and vision over the next year and into 2025, because without vision men perish. I am asking God for increase in wisdom and favor from both God and man (Luke 2:52).
    • Please pray for protection and wisdom, strength and good health for me and all those associated with me, asking God for specific prayers, that it may be well with me, my family, friends, and associates. Pray as if they were your family, because hopefully they will be!
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    Until next time… Blessings and so much love to you and your family! 🙂

    Malawi OBT Workshop – 2024

    How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity!

    – Psalm 133:1