It's been a series of months of intense work, of high joys, of difficult tangles. Yes, the stress count was pretty high. So Glenn and I have taken a few days of rest in Abidjan, eight hours by road from home in Ferke. We stay with missionary friends who share their home with us, a courtyard in a suburb where few people know us. And this time we even took three days at the beach. We will soon be celebrating our 39th anniversary and both of our birthdays; this was our party.

I often…

"When the tsunami warning sirens went off, residents in a south Sendai neighborhood fled to the local school. Together with panicked children still in class they climbed to the rooftop. Some 600 altogether watched as the great tsunami of 311 surged ashore and crushed everything in its path, including a church several hundred feet away between themselves and the shoreline. The raging wave came to the very brink…

Ten years ago God planted a seed in my heart - a compassion and concern for Brazilian men. He used the seed of Malachi 4.5,6 to plant that vision and told me that I needed to be part of the solution for seeing this prophecy become a reality.

To most observers Brazilian men…

The other day as I was spending some time in the Word early in the morning, I became aware of the steady tick tock-ing of the wind up clock next to me.  With each tick-tock I was reminded of the fact that time is passing, and with each hour and day, more opportunities are coming my way to serve the needs of people around me.…

"The Shepherd Leadership Conference is an annual highlight for us, as we have been praying for a long time about ways to reach higher levels of church leadership - an often times 'untouchable' crowd.

This is our fifth year partnering together with various churches and Christian ministries to provide top-quality biblical teaching for Rwandan church leaders. While it is always enjoyable to hear about the impact of the conference (a somewhat 'vain' reaffirmation that it is still a good…

"For years, W lived as a transvestite without a single friend, but with an inner longing to change and connect with God. Today, he’s a hungry young believer, hungry for fellowship and growing in God’s grace.

For 12 months, W stood outside the church wall of PIB (1st Baptist Church of Curitiba) listening every Sunday morning to the entire service, but with too much shame to go inside. A year ago, a young woman from the church stopped long enough in his "work zone" to share a brief…

"In Madagascar, there is a lot of spiritual warfare and demon worship. When a believer is making a public statement at baptism, it is a common time for a spiritual attack."


—WorldVenture Africa Ministries Department

The morning baptismal service started with a time of worship and Rich presented the message. Then, we went to the river to baptize 45 people. Seven of them were demonized at baptism. This is not unusual for this part of the country. Baptism…

Pastor Dominic came to the PTS (Pastoral Training School) as a “prophet” in his church who functioned much like the abapfumu (“witchdoctors”) of the traditional culture. People would come to him for special words about the future, hidden sins, reasons for sickness. He would pray and some would be healed or find answers to their problems. They would bring him gifts of food or money – just as they would the abapfumu in times past. His followers were forbidden to go to regular doctors – God…

The mansion sits in the heart of Maputo, Mozambique. From the street it looks abandoned. Its walls are crumbling, the windows are broken and overgrown shrubs and trees hide the once grand entrance. But inside there are signs that this place is still a home. The ceiling is black from cooking fires. In the bedrooms, mattresses line the floors and pages torn from magazines decorate the walls. Local anti-trafficking activist Katie Magill often visits the mansion and other squatter housing in the…

"M was a typical village Kazakh, born in an obscure corner of the Soviet Union to a family who was resistant to the Gospel. By the time he was 25, M's life had included a stint in the army, failed relationships, an unplanned baby, alcoholism and drug addiction.

And then Christ found him... using a missionary English teacher. M was one of our trainees on the course that just finished. This 40-something, barrel-chested guy got all choked up when telling us how Jesus had turned his life…

Lifting up our prayers this morning at the WorldVenture HeadQuarters. Will you join us in prayer today? 

Visit www.worldventure.com/pray to know how you can be praying regularly.

If a missionary is in trouble,…

Great video from Drew Hayes.

Over the past few months, there have been times when I could hardly bear the thought of leaving the beauty that is Ireland.  Part of that beauty is contained in the church family members who have been part of our lives for the past seven years.  It is hard to imagine not hearing the lilting speech and the sometimes comical, but always descriptive, idioms of our friends.

But leaving the geographical beauty behind is also tough.  I can remember Emmylou saying that the beauty of Kansas…

Dorota had been hurt in two past relationships and is currently living at a women’s shelter with her three children. Honorata, who runs the shelter, attends our church. Here is part of Dorota’s story:

“My life began to change the day when I came to church in Lubin with Miss Honorata and Slawek. On this day through the songs, hearing the Scriptures and conversations with people at the church I felt that I wasn’t alone. I know that I had wandered around in circles,…

The other day I spoke with a man who is a committed Roman Catholic. A couple times the conversation centered around the fact that we humans are lost and must be forgiven of our sins in order to be saved. The only forgiveness before God comes from faith in the finished work of Christ. His last words on the cross were, "It is finished." But each time we approached that subject the man's reaction was the same: we must do penance in order to be fully forgiven. When I asked him for an example of…

"At the beginning of March, I started a fellowship with international students in Lublin. There are several hundred students from the U.S., Taiwan, China, Africa and other European countries. The American students, usually of Indian descent, are mostly from Hindu and resistant backgrounds. Our fellowship has a core group of eight, mostly men, and they are excited about moving forward in Christ.

Just as the group was beginning, one of the Hindu students (V) had an accident that…

No one in our church can deny God’s wonderful and mighty answers to prayer in 2011. Through the discipline of fervent prayer, people witnessed with awe His answers and how He miraculously provides for each one’s needs.

L’s story is one example. L is a believer who loves and fears God. Over a year ago, she suddenly became disoriented and her behavior unpredictable. She would go outside in freezing temperatures with very little clothing on. She called members of the…

“Spy!” he remarked as we passed by on a typical Friday morning prayer walk. For many reasons, it was evident that he was a devout adherent of his faith. His comment didn’t register until after we were several steps away. Realizing what he said, we chuckled to ourselves. I think he was referring our new colleague, my new prayer walk partner, who is now living in this neighborhood. In this part of town, there is little doubt that there are those who might be suspicious of us -- those whom many…

OUTREACH WEEKEND. Wake up ... yawn, stretch, gulp some coffee ... then cram into vehicles to travel into the interior of the country for a weekend of partnering with national believers as we together seek to share the Good News with men, women, and children who have never heard the Gospel, as well as to encourage the small groups of believers in the surrounding villages.

145 teenagers and adults (including a group from the U.S. joining our students) composed the team. Each person was…

Our objective was to share the Gospel message of salvation in Jesus with as many people as would listen to us. The strategy was to visit people in their homes in the afternoons and then present the Jesus film in the evenings as part of an open air evangelistic service. In the mornings we were given a good dose of Biblical preaching and teaching as we prepared ourselves to share with others.



The first evening we went out, one of the young men in our group went to the bus station to…