Stories | Beyond

Would You Walk 13 Hours for Training?

Aug 24, 2022 | Africa, Stories

Justin Long, Beyond’s Director of Research, recently returned from a trip to a Disciple-Making Movement conference in Africa. The first four days were a “Catalyst Camp” for DMM practitioners. The last two days were a 24:14 African leaders’ meeting for strategy and planning.

“It was an amazing time of worship, stories, and training,” Justin reports. “On the first night, I shared the dashboard* of what God is doing through movements worldwide. Surprised at the scope of the work, one man said, ‘I thought this [DMM stuff] was just something I did in my backyard. I didn’t know it had spread so far!’

Many fellow disciple-makers shared stories: people who walked 13 hours one way to be trained in disciple-making, of COVID and unrest bringing previously unreached people groups within reach of the gospel, of churches started in ghettos and among witchcraft practitioners, of widespread openness to the gospel amongst Muslims, of many previous “mission graveyards” becoming fruitful vineyards, of tens of thousands of new believers, of “Sauls” (persecutors) becoming “Pauls” (evangelists), of people bearing scars and disabilities because they refused to renounce their faith, of whole families and villages turning to Jesus as a result of the love and obedience of Christ-followers.

Please pray for these many African movement leaders who wholeheartedly work among nearly 1,000 people groups and strive toward gospel-movement engagement for the whole continent.

WATCH JUSTIN’S PRESENTATION

When the Wheels Literally Came Off

Aug 12, 2022 | Stories

As Luke* drove back home after visiting a remote village high in the Altai Mountains of Mongolia, the front right wheel came off his vehicle.

While he was making repairs, the jack toppled, causing the vehicle to fall on him. Thankfully, a ministry partner was there and able to free him, but Luke suffered broken ribs, a broken back, and separated shoulder ligaments. He needed immediate medical attention, but the closest decent hospital was many days’ journey away.

After arduous hours of driving through the snow, they finally found a place to rest, at a location Luke had previously visited. He asked about Dache*, a man who used to work there, but people told Luke that Dache had moved away. So everyone was surprised when Dache arrived shortly after that!

“We started catching up right away,” Luke says. “I found out that we now live in the same city. Later, he asked, ‘Are you a Christian?’ When I answered that I am, he asked me to disciple him. I asked.‘If I disciple you, will you disciple others?’ He agreed that he would!”

After focusing for a time on physical recovery, Luke began discipling Dache. In their first few Bible studies, Dache discovered so much: that God created everything, that family was God’s creation, that suffering began with sin, and sin makes God sad. As a result, Dache has committed to following God’s word, loving his family, and sharing God’s story with others.

Dache is growing strong in faith and obedience. He and Luke currently meet three times each week for a Discovery Bible Study. He retells the Bible stories to his coworkers and relatives. Luke is hopeful that Dache will want to be baptized this summer, and prays Dache’s family will join him in baptism.

Out of Luke’s accident, God brought something wonderful! Pray that God will bring about a disciple-making movement in this region.

*pseudonym

Finally Home

Aug 1, 2022 | Stories

Yulia is an eighteen-year-old orphan from a town on the frontlines of fighting in Ukraine. About two months ago Ron received a message asking if he and his family would house a young woman who has been evacuated. Yulia had been in the airport ready to board a plane to a host family in the US. Someone had told her she could fly without her passport. It was in a government building when the women and children had been evacuated.

Ron and Kaylie’s family had just moved into a new house. They had very little furniture; and they were already hosting a family of five other refugees from Ukraine. But they had floor space and a mattress – and Yulia needed a home.

All Yulia wanted was to get to the family in America who wanted to adopt her, the family she already called ‘hers’. She needed to get vaccinated, someone to find her passport, and then a smooth trip to the States.

At any step, something would go wrong. Days turned into weeks and Yulia’s hopes rose and fell several times.

One day, a huge legal hurdle appeared. It was so big that Yulia might be forced to go back to Ukraine! Yulia declared she would never go back, and Ron and Kaylie quickly went to prayer. Ron prayed over the phone with Yulia and her host mom. He knew God would show them that He is real and that He cares about orphans.

Finally, after much prayer and waiting, Yulia boarded a plane bound for America! Ron and Kaylie received a picture of Yulia and her soon-to-be official mom with the caption “finally home.”

Ron and Kaylie – and YOU – have been used by God to alter the course of Yulia’s life. Your giving has helped get critical documents, food, clothing, and more for many refugees. We couldn’t do this without your generosity and prayers.

*pseudonyms

The Great Commission: Not a Job for Experts Only

Jul 29, 2022 | Stories

“How are you doing at making disciples? Are you teaching them to obey what Jesus commanded?”

These questions were asked of Phillip’s group as they participated in a Phase One Disciple-making movement training, and they really challenged him.

“If I answer truthfully, I don’t know how I am doing at making disciples. I work at a Christian missions organization. I volunteer at my church. I spend time with my Christian friends. These are all good things, but they don’t leave much room for connecting with lost people.”

Far too often we place the responsibility for obeying the Great Commission on professionals. We believe it is for them to do. We illustrate this belief when we say things like: “I am just not gifted in evangelism.” Or, “I don’t know enough about the Bible.” Or, “I don’t want to offend anyone.” All excuses are just excuses.

Phillip says, “I am thankful for the Phase One training, because it shows me how to be open about my faith. If the task remaining was left only to Christian ‘professionals,’ Christianity would soon fade away.”

Beyond’s Phase One program helps everyday, ordinary Christians begin living out their faith openly and effectively. Our goal is to equip believers to be confident and competent in making disciples wherever they are. That way, if the Lord calls them to other nations, they will have already learned biblical principles of making multiplying disciples in their own culture. Thus they will be all the more ready to learn how to make disciples in the new cross-cultural setting where they will serve.

Learn More about Phase 1 Training

He Taught a Communist Rebel to Study the Bible

Jul 22, 2022 | Stories

Two years ago, Ethan and Nicole* led an introductory disciple-making training in the Philippines with 14 seminary-trained pastors. Honestly, they had doubts about the outcome. Would traditional, denominational pastors be willing to go outside the walls of their church, outside the walls of their own traditions, in order to obey Jesus’ command to “go” (not invite)?

Sure enough, months later, they’d barely heard a word from any of the participants. Then, nearly a year after the training, Jacob, one of the pastors, contacted Ethan. “I am mentoring a group of young pastors in Manila,” he wrote. ”Would you and Nicole spend a few days with us, doing what you did last year?”

After praying together, they decided Ethan would hold the training with Alex, a BEYOND colleague who lives in the Philippines. After the training, Alex could coach those wanting to apply what they’d studied.

Since then, Ethan has occasionally wondered if anyone was applying the training and, if so, how it was going. In May, he received an encouraging email from Jacob.

“Three months ago, “Pastor G” taught a former Communist rebel how to study the Bible in his home with his family. He has been doing this for several weeks. Last week, the rebel’s son became severely sick, to the point of death. The father remembered the story of the woman who touched Jesus and the story of Jairus’ daughter. At his son’s death bed, he prayed, “Lord, we surrender our son to you if this (his death) is your will, but can you please heal my son as you have done for this woman and for Jairus’ daughter?

His son immediately sat up and asked for water!

Thank you for this life-changing experience (the training and coaching). Today, our group has 45 non-Christian families studying the Bible in their homes.

Alex adds that since March, when the COVID-19 lockdown started, Pastor G’s church has transformed into eleven house churches, and it is still growing! They have many more people involved in these house churches than they had in their “building” church before the lockdown.

In Matthew 16:18, Jesus said, “I will build my church, and the forces of Hades will not overpower it.” Jacob and these pastors are discovering the joy and fruitfulness of simple obedience to Jesus. The Lord is building his church among the nations (the ethnic groups) of the earth! “All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations will bow down before him” (Ps. 22:27). Hallelujah!

*pseudonym