KHARKOV, Ukraine – It was still dark outside as I rose to go to prayer. A chill in the room told me that it was going to be a frigid mile-walk to the square. I wanted to crawl back under the covers, but resisted. “I’ve been doing this for only three days while my Ukrainian friends have done it every day for five years,” I rebuked myself. Leaving the hotel, I picked my way around frozen piles of ice and deep muddy puddles, bent my head away from the wind, wrapped my scarf a little … [Read more...]
‘I don’t want to be thirsty anymore’
CHIAPAS, Mexico – "I have been feeling such thirst, and I don't want to be thirsty anymore," Eugenio told me after our Bible study at breakfast. Eugenio and I were introduced by a local language school to help us learn each other’s language. We hit it off well and discovered that we had much in common. We were close to the same age and shared similar experiences in business. We were just two men talking about life experiences, trials, and life in general. We drank a lot of coffee, shared … [Read more...]
FIRST-PERSON: ‘As a disciple-maker, I’m not the whole story’
I first met Khalid* through an online follow-up request, a way some people seek answers for their troubled souls. We have seen our opportunities to share the gospel in our area gradually change over the past couple of years, with a new openness that has not been present for many generations. We are now increasingly having open conversations in coffee shops, malls, or while sitting on park benches, about the hope that lives within us and how that allows us to live and serve with … [Read more...]
Eastern European school community recognizes Christians by their love
EASTERN EUROPE – Natalia* is the only evangelical believer among the staff at the Eastern European school where she teaches English. She’s raised her own children in this border town populated by Muslims in a country of nominally Orthodox “Christians.” The reality is that most of the people she knows, Muslim or Orthodox, try to earn God’s favor through good behavior. For years, Natalia has taken every opportunity to share God’s love with those in her school. She remembered Jesus said … [Read more...]
All Saints Day: Celebrating the dead or fighting for the living?
KRAKOW, Poland (BP) — I had no idea what All Saints Day celebrated. Two years ago my wife and I moved to Poland, a traditionally Catholic country. As night fell on November 1, the soft glow of thousands of candles spread over nearly silent crowd walking or standing near the graves of their loved ones and ancestors. We joined a historical tour that took us to one of Kraków’s largest cemeteries. We stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the locals among the booths selling candles and flowers. … [Read more...]
A bold yet suspicious witness
CENTRAL ASIA – Ruslan’s* ritual Muslim prayers, which he performed five times a day, brought no relief to the ugliness he felt in his heart. He was a tough young man. He angered easily and was a troublemaker in his village in Central Asia. But when he first heard the gospel from relatives in the big city, he couldn’t sleep for days. On the fourth day, he visited their church and heard the truth about Jesus again. In tears, he repented and believed in Christ for salvation. Ruslan began … [Read more...]
Every prayer, every trip matters: ‘Let us pray even more’
CZECH REPUBLIC – Tears of joy flooded Stan and Abbey Wilcox’s* eyes. It had been years since these IMB missionaries lived in the Czech Republic. Back then, the spiritual darkness had been so overwhelming at times. And now— Were they hearing this correctly? Were two people they had never met thanking God publicly for leading them to start a church where Stan and Abbey had prayed nearly a decade earlier? Eight years ago, Stan and Abbey took a volunteer group of US teens to see what God was … [Read more...]
FIRST-PERSON: ‘My struggle to mirror Christ in the mundane’
It's the little things, the mundane, that cause me to fail as a cross-cultural witness. On the other hand, the catastrophes and emergencies—these events are catalyzers for my witness: A colleague has been kidnapped. A believer is undergoing severe persecution. When these things happen, my husband and I call our prayer networks. We fast and pray as a team. We pour over Scripture and cry out to the Lord. The body of Christ comes together in unity and it bonds with stronger cords of … [Read more...]
FIRST-PERSON: ‘Things were going as planned until we got to India’
INDIA – Things were going as planned until the day we all arrived in India. Two trainers joined me on this trip—one from South Africa and the other from America. The city where the church planting training was to take place had two major problems. First, there was flooding. I was shown a video of the building that was provided for the meeting. The street was like white water rapids. In the video, I saw three people swept away while others on the sidewalks tried to save them. I didn’t see … [Read more...]
The neighborhood bully shows us how to repent
CENTRAL ASIA – Anger consumed the “old Ali,” and he didn’t hesitate to act out on it. Muscular and young, he was confident in his own ability to win any fistfight. All the neighbors on his street in Central Asia knew they shouldn’t cross him. When Ali started yelling, they walked away. Rarely did a week pass when he wasn’t involved in a fistfight with another man or in physical abuse toward his own wife. Yet Ali knew something was deeply wrong in his heart. When Eric Marshall* and Gary … [Read more...]
Deaf Thais start a church where you can’t ‘fake’ it
CHIANG MAI, Thailand – Sombat Apichai* understood only 50 percent of the Thai Sign Language interpretation of the sermon at his church in Chiang Mai, Thailand. The sermon was translated into what is known as word signing, which is in Thai word order, and is different from Thai Sign Language, thus making the translation choppy. To complicate things further, Thai religious vocabulary is hard to understand, even for hearing Thais. Sombat and other Deaf Christians were unable to truly … [Read more...]
IMB worker Andy Leininger of Missouri dies at 56
BOLIVAR, Mo. – Andrew (Andy) N. Leininger, who served as a Christian worker in the former Soviet Union for 22 years, died in his home state of Missouri on Oct. 13. He was 56. In November 2016, Leininger was diagnosed with Glioblastoma Multiforme, an aggressive cancer that caused a brain tumor. In the months that followed, he had multiple surgeries and treatments. On October 12, 2019, his wife Elizabeth shared an update on Facebook that Leininger had moved to hospice care. On October 13, … [Read more...]
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