Dear Partners,
Jesus Is Using CRM to Empower Gospel Movements
In Acts 1:8 Jesus told His disciples “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
This verse supplies the major theme for the Book of Acts. The Holy Spirit led Luke to record the events and sermons which led to the fulfillment of the Lord’s promise. The book starts on the outskirts of Jerusalem with our Lord Jesus addressing His not-yet-fully-ready Apostles. In the last chapter of the book, we find the Apostle Paul in Rome sharing the Gospel with all his visitors, and with Roman soldiers. In the rest of the book, we see how the Holy Spirit empowers the followers of Jesus to carry the Gospel over much of the known world.
Empowerment. The word implies that there is someone, or some group, which lacks the power or resources required to fulfill their mission. It also implies that there is someone, or some group of people, who can supply, either in part or entirely, the power and resources required. The Lord Jesus poured out the promised Holy Spirit upon HIs church on the Day of Pentecost. On that very day, Luke records that 3,000 souls were saved and baptized. The movement was started. Luke made it clear where the power to initiate and sustain the movement came from “and the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved” Acts 2:47.
In Acts 4:23-31, Luke records that after some of the Apostles had been arrested and beaten, they immediately went to their fellow believers and led them to pray for more empowerment, as they recognized in a fresh way that the odds, humanly speaking, were clearly stacked against them. In that section we read “And now Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus. And when they had prayed, the place in which they had gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit…” As Luke records, God answered their plea. However, believers still died at the hands of persecutors. Many had to flee Jerusalem and became refugees in foreign lands. Others spent significant time in prison. However, THE game-changing factor for them, wherever they ended up or in whatever set of circumstances they found themselves was God’s empowering presence
CRM’s reason for existence revolves around empowerment. Our mission statement is Empowering Gospel movements among least reached people. This implies that CRM’s leadership, prayer partners, and donors, are committed to being used of the Holy Spirit to come alongside national believers who need training and material resources to initiate and sustain a Gospel movement. CRM is doing this for people of different tribes and nations. Those with whom we are partnering are preaching the word with boldness. They are standing firm in the face of much opposition. They are serving God in hard physical circumstances where war, famine, flooding, drought, and other obstacles make life and ministry tough. However, through your prayers and donations, God is empowering these brothers and sisters to literally shake the areas where they gather for worship and ministry.
Tanzania Training March 21-25
On March 18, Renee and I will join eight other people in leading a Story Cloth training event in Arusha, Tanzania. As always, we will carry out different scriptural resources to give to the believing communities represented in the training. Those resources include story cloths, micro-SD cards loaded with audio NTs and gospel films, solar powered MP3 players loaded with audio NTs in multiple languages, projectors for showing the films, etc. This training event will only take place because of your giving. The resources were bought with your donations.
These forms of empowerment will result in the Gospel being shared with least reached people.
The people whom we will train, and resource represent different tribes and circumstances. The majority will be Tanzanian Maasai who are committed to carrying the Gospel to other Maasai who live in very isolated areas. Others will come from western Tanzania and who are of tribes which are primarily Muslim. One brother will come from Darfur so he can influence the MBBs in attendance, and so he can carry back more resources to Darfur. HIs transport cost is expensive, but because of your giving, those believers from western Tanzania are going to have a unique opportunity to be taught and encouraged by a fellow MBB who is currently experiencing firsthand a genuine movement.
News about how our Lord is working in and through some of CRM’s field partners:
Sudan
In Darfur, Sudan, God has used your prayers and donations to enable local believers to purchase land and build upon it a center which contains a Bible school, and a partially completed primary school. The current Bible school class has 18 students. Just a few weeks ago, six men were involved in an assassination attempt. This took place within the Bible school facility where the students and teachers sleep. God’s angels protected the believers, and no one was shot. Local police became involved and have arrested the perpetrators. Based on the last report from our Sudanese field partners, those six men were hired by Muslim leaders of the area.
The devil intended to use this event to instill fear in the believing community. Instead, God is using this set of circumstances to build His church. Subsequent reports from our partners make clear that rather than causing the MBBs of Darfur to shrink back in fear, those events have brought everyone together. People are stepping up and using their Spirit-given gifts like never before. Their boldness and willingness to suffer for “the Name” has become even more evident.
CRM sent $6,400 to sponsor a 5-day training event for 50 women from all over Darfur. The dates are March 10-15. Please pray our Lord will protect and provide for those who will teach and those who will be taught.
Two ongoing ministries in Darfur supported by CRM involve the showing of the films of the Jesus Film Project, and women’s coffee gatherings. The latter are carried out each Friday in various places by 4 different groups of women.
This week, CRM has sent the money required to purchase 500 copies of the New Arabic Version Bible called Kitab al Hayat (Word of Life). The Bible seller lives in Khartoum and imports them from Egypt. The Sudanese-Egyptian border is currently closed, so we thank God for the quick response of CRM donors to give immediately upon hearing the news that money needed to be sent quickly so we could purchase them. As the seller said, “with the border closed, I have no idea when I will be able to import more.” Believers in Darfur have made it clear that hard copy Bibles are needed to facilitate scripture memorization, and also with evangelizing Sudanese Muslims who can read.
South Sudan
Because you prayed and gave, our Lord is using His people in the Western Equatoria State of South Sudan to build a youth center in the town of Maridi. As mentioned in past newsletters, this ministry flows out of the successful soccer tournament CRM sponsored for the youth of that area. Local folks, politicians among them, took notice, so land and lumber were given for the center by various government offices, and some local believers donated thousands of bricks. CRM donated $6,500 to help buy other construction materials. Local believers have carried out the construction work and are currently placing the roof on the building. The center will host various forms of events aimed at evangelism, discipleship, and vocational training for the youth of that war torn area.
CRM is also working with Nuer evangelists/church planters named Mathew Dhol and Ding Lual. Austin Henry recently carried out 5 projectors and 300 SD cards loaded with films and audio NTs in the languages of Nuer and Sudanese Arabic. These resources have been, and will be, used among Nuer people living in the Unity and Upper Nile States of S. Sudan, as well as in the Gambella Region of Ethiopia.
India
Because you gave, CRM was able to support Pastor Raj of southern India in carrying out his first Story Cloth training event of 2022. He reported that 22 people attended. Ten of those in attendance were pastors, and the rest were a mix of church members who are government workers, or who own their own business. He distributed some of the 100 micro-SD cards we sent out to him in late January. As people use this first batch of 100 cards in evangelism and discipleship work, they will report to Raj regarding their effectiveness in that context. If, as I suspect, the results of this field testing are positive, then CRM will enable Raj to purchase blank cards and load them there with the same resources Renew World Outreach loaded on this first batch of 100. Raj is being empowered as he learns how to produce and use digital resources.
Maasai-land Kenya
This week John Rampei sent the following message regarding the results of the evangelism work done in January in conjunction with the CRM affiliated team sent out by the Sevier Heights Baptist Church of Knoxville. “As you know we have just concluded the ongoing construction of buildings of the Oloika Children’s Home. I am now working on when to go back to the areas where we did the evangelism mission in January/ February for more discipleship and church planting. .We want to make sure we reap the fruits of that bush evangelism. I have been receiving 100s and 100s of calls from those communities’ members asking me to go back to speed up the discipleship. I will take with me some of our pastors as their way to learn more on discipleship and church planting. The results of new churches show that they are growing faster as we are continuing to empower those young pastors to lead their flocks according to the Will of God. We are also continuing to pray for CRM and it’s leadership as one of our major partners. CRM has played a big role in helping us meet our target of evangelism, discipleship, church planting and a lot of other activities that are going on in our churches and community.”
The examples I have regarding how CRM is empowering national believers do not tell the full story of how we are using your gifts, nor the whole story of how God is blessing and protecting those whom we support. However, I hope they suffice to encourage you to continue praying and giving, and thereby enable us to purchase even more resources.
