Belarus Update

Thank you very much for your interest and prayers regarding Gospel Ministry in Belarus. 

We are grateful to God for 7 young people who  were baptized last Sunday in our church. We were preparing them through Zoom! Praise God for such technologies at times like these. Please  pray for Nastya, 25 years old (second from the left).  Her parents and her sister refuse to talk to her after she was bapized, accusing her of their betrayal. They asked her to leave home and live on her own. They consider themselves to be Orthodox. The cost of following Jesus is that high for Nastya. 

Please, pray for two new church plants.
Valery Beza is launching a new church here in Minsk.

Sergеy Mozenkov is starting new church in Mogilev, the third largest city of Belarus. 

Please pray for political situation in Belarus. the 9th of August there will be a Presidential election in Belarus. The current President has been in office for 26 years. And he is not willing to let anyone to replace him. It is very frightening to see what is happening in our country now. 

In June our sons turned 10-years-old! We are happy for them and pray for their walk with God! 

We understand that it is a very challenging time for every nation. We pray for you all so that you will continue to be strong in faith! Our God is Sovereign! Thank you for your partnership! Yours in Christ, Dema, Alyona, Bogdan and Daniel Lazouta.

The Pangrati Project • Athens Greece

https://mailchi.mp/b03d5c03cffe/the-pangrati-project-newsletter-605930  

The Pangrati Project is the church planting effort of The Greek Evangelical Church of Glyfada. Our vision is to hear the narrative of the city, find its needs, and serve them in a new and unique way.  Our goal is to intentionally bring the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ to every relationship we build, serve the needs of the residents of Pangrati, and create a new community of faith that will eventually become an evangelical church.

Thank you for your prayers and support of The Pangrati Project! As we all know the Corona-virus has changed the atmosphere of the whole world at the moment. With everyone anxiously waiting for this to pass, we wanted to send a quick update on how the project is moving forward at this time.

Corona-Virus in Greece 

We are very thankful and impressed by our government's quick response to the threat of the virus. On March 10th they closed all public and private schools and shortly after that all large gatherings. From there they continued to close all public places, as of now, we have been on lockdown for almost two months. The only places open are pharmacies and grocery stores and you must receive an online permit to visit them. Despite the strict "stay-at-home" measures we have found creative ways to stay connected as a team and continue to pray for our area. 

What This Means For The Pangrati Project

Unfortunately with all the restrictions outreach ministry in Pangrati has been put on hold. But with the relationships we have already established, we are staying in communication with them as best we can through calls, messages, and social media.  
Fortunately, we are also able to continue our team training and prayer meetings through Skype. Every Friday evening we come together, through our screens, to see one another's faces, to pray for Pangrati, and the effects of the virus around the world. Every other week we look forward to receiving training, lead by Emmanuel, to learn more about how to better serve our area. A curriculum that focuses on personal growth, community building, and evangelism. 

One of the creative ways we are staying engaged as a team and continuing to think about our community is through small groups. We have divided into three different groups, each of which, is focusing on one of our three target groups; families, college students, artists. Each group is reading a book on the topic of their target group, discussing it together, and planning creative ideas for outreach in the future. At our bi-weekly meeting, they also share these ideas, along with what they are learning, with the rest of the team. 

Even though we cannot be together physically, we are so thankful for the ability to continue meeting together online, and we are excited about the things we are learning as a team.  

We are also taking advantage of this time to work on the more technical side of church planting, such as websites and social media. We are using these platforms as a way of engaging with our community, connecting people with our space, and "advertising" events. If you would like to check them out, click the icons below.

Our main prayer request in this season is that as a project, a team, and individuals we will use this time to seek the Lord more, pray more, and listen more. We want this time to be fruitful and we hold on to the truth that God is in control. 

• We pray for new ideas as we continue exploring creative ways of reaching out to our community through social media during this time of social-distancing. 

• We pray that God will make clear to our team in what ways we can help the spiritual and physical needs of our neighborhood without putting anyone at risk.

• We pray for direction as a team on how to move forward once the restrictions are lifted, and how we can be prepared to support those who need fellowship.

In this interesting time, we look forward to seeing and being a part of the ways the body of Christ can serve and bring hope through this situation. If there is any way we can be praying for you and your community please let us know!

Thank You!

Once again we just want to thank you for your continued support of The Pangrati Project, for believing in the vision God has placed in our hearts of seeing the establishment of a community of faith where one does not currently exist. 

If you have questions about the project, want to know how to pray for us, or are interested in knowing how you can get involved, please contact:

gec.pangrati@gmail.com

+306985633486

www.thepangratiproject.com

Update from Movement Leader Khen Tombing :: India

In the midst of many changes due to COVID-19 the Lord has been enabling us to continue in our church planting efforts and we are grateful to him.

• Belpuan Church is supposed to be the first to be inaugurated but due to COVID -19 we have to tentatively fix August 23 for dedication.

• Sinzawl Church is ready for inauguration and dedication on 18 July. Since we are under LOCH-DOWN order, we will take travel permission from our District Magistrate and go for Sinzawl Church DEDICATION service on 18 August.

• Please see photos of the construction progress for SINZAWL PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.

PRAYER REQUEST:

• Thank God that we are making a good progress in building construction and wining people to Christ without any obstacle. God is at work in Sinzawl Village.

• Pray the Lord will add new believers daily as everyone in the village is witnessing for Christ in the village and its vicinity. Pray for boldness and tactfulness in their gospel presentations. 

• Date for dedication is set for July 18, 2020. Thank God that we will be able to complete and dedicate the church building even earlier than scheduled.

Submitted by: Pastor Khen Tombing, Church Planter in India

Sinzawl Presbyterian Church building construction in progress

Update from Movement Leader Ricardo Agreste in Campinas, Brazil

We are excited to share how God is moving through our movement leaders in Campinas, Brazil

Global Outreach 2019-2020 Annual Report Released

 We are excited to share our 2019-2020 Annual Report with you.  Please pray God will use the our vision of church planting to bear much fruit in the years to come.

Good News is a local Church with a Global Vision. We partner with church planting movements around the world. We partner with movement leaders to plant gospel-preaching, national-led, self-supporting, multiplying churches. In 2020, we will start 15 new churches and surpass 100 new churches planted.  $25K helps launch a new church plant with the goal of making disciples in its local context.

Will you partner with us and join the church planting movement?

Mongolia Update

Lucas and Juliana received Christ in 2006. Since the beginning, they were involved in evangelism, discipleship and church planting projects at their local church and in partnership to help other churches. 12 years ago, Lucas was called to Mongolia and he spend 10 years preparing to serve this amazing people. In 2013, they Lucas and Juliana went first time to Mongolia. They visited missions, some local churches and places which tell the Mongolian history. In the countryside, they spend with a nomad family some days and they could see the great need and gap on the making disciples among the nomad families. All they did that time to plan better how to establish their family in this different culture and how they could plant a relevant church for nomadic people.

From August 2015 to June 2016 they lived in Trinidad and Tobago to learn the English Language. At this time they supported and served in the local church. The country is divided by three major world religions: Christianity, Islam and Hinduism. Islam and Hindu have very strong presence and trained them to deal with the challenges of how to live in a different culture.

Mongolia first phase report

In 2017 May, Lucas and his family moved to Mongolia. First year and four months in the capital Ulaanbaatar they could start learning the Mongolian language and adjusting the family in this different culture, also at this time they travelled though 17 provinces of Mongolia to know about some of the needs, to listening the locals, to see the reality about the fewl churches in the countryside and listen the missionaries who is working over there. This was to find out the Jesus direction about where they should leave and start the project.

Well, Khovd Province situated at the extreme west of Mongolia by the China and Russia’s border was the place chosen by God for them to leave. In 2018 end of September they moved to Khovd Province to leave in a Ger (Mongolian traditional tent or yurt) and start to introduce their life into the real Mongolian nomad culture. There they are improving the language, creating connections, visiting families in the village and among the nomads, serving the community – as a part of their volunteering job with World Vision that is giving them the visa to stay in Mongolia, and they already start sharing the Gospel of Jesus to some families. By God’s grace Lucas and Juliana are gathering with two families to study the Bible, counselling, worship our Lord Jesus and discipling those families who showed open heart to the Lord.

Parallel to this, they are meeting in different towns and cities with some believers to encourage them and enable them to share their faith and make disciples in order to plant new churches. Lucas and Juliana have regularly met Christian students, doctors, and teachers so they can make new disciples in their own environments.

Even with great challenges, they have been visiting nomadic families and sharing the Gospel for them. Also, twice a week they meet to ask God for the lives of the Mongols and Kazakhstans. Now in September 4 th they are back to Brazil to present the report for this first years of the project and to show all the partners the next steps and they had their baby Marcos who was born in November 7th in São Paulo Brazil. In March, when the baby get all the vaccines they are planning go back to Khovd in Mongolia to continue the project. (READ MORE BELOW.)

Luncheon for Movement Leaders from Brazil

Good News Church recently hosted a luncheon for key partners from Brazil. Movement Leader Leonardo Sahium from Rio de Janeiro brought two church planters GNC has invested in:

1) Pastor Maksuel from Muriqui

2) Pastor Evaldo from Monte Alto

We had a meaningful time hearing how the churches are doing and the future vision of church planting in Brazil. Thank you for your joyful generosity to help make the GNC church planting vision a reality!

Missions Trip • Durango, Mexico

Wanted to share a piece of what happened down in Durango on our mission trip to help Vida Iglesia nacional Presbiteriana de Mexico, the only Presbyterian church in Durango, and the one Good News sponsors.

Our group helped with their VBS. The first day we had around 20 kids show up at the park where it was held. By the end of the week, we had reached over 40 kids. Noe, a pastor leading VBS, who is also trying to build a congregation to open the second location for Vida church, spoke with our group and told us that he had been trying to build a congregation for over a year and had been holding a Bible study out of his house, but over the last month or so, he said he had started to question if this was really Gods will or not for him to start a church. He said after seeing the support he got from us coming there, the increase of children attending VBS, and being able to talk to numerous parents dropping their kids off and people walking through the park, he was able to get 6 more people to start attending his study. This experience with us he said, had renewed his faith in this being Gods will to continue building a congregation for a church.

Interview with Slava from Belarus

Slava is a movement leader in Belarus. The country’s population is 9 million people and the country has less than 1% of evangelical churches. Please pray for them to find mature leaders and to grow to be church planters. Pray for the government to grant permission to plant churches.