Newsletters
December
The Current Situation and the Lord’s Move in India
The Pandemic
According to the statistics of the health department in India, over 1 billion people have received at least the first dose of Covid-19 vaccination. As the vaccines have been administered widely, although there are still about 10,000-20,000 cases daily, the overall situation of the pandemic has shown signs of slowing down. The lockdown restrictions are being lifted in different stages in various parts of the country due to constrains socially and economically. Taking the capital New Delhi for example, only a few cases are discovered daily and the situation overall has gotten much better and more stable. The public transportation, offices, businesses, colleges and schools and even general gatherings are open mostly. However, in some places where the pandemic has not stabilized, there are still many restrictions.
The lasting economic and social disruption caused by the pandemic has affected the livelihood of Indian society. Many people are at risk of falling into job layoffs and thus poverty. Many smaller businesses are facing economical threat and some were already forced to close. The situation is also true among a few saints in the church life. Although the economy in India is struggling to go up again from decline, it may take a considerable period of time before the economic situation can become stable again.
The Present Church Life Situation
There are currently 193 churches in India, with 4,929 saints attending the Lord’s Table Meeting regularly and 8,248 saints in the church life.
As far as the practice of the church life is concerned, as the pandemic relaxes, the saints meet both online and offline to recover and strengthen the church life gradually. On the one hand, through the bigger gatherings online, the Lord’s present speaking has been brought among the saints more commonly. For the past July Semiannual Video Training, 2,113 saints registered. For the national Serving Ones’ Training held in early November, around 1000 saints participated. As the situation allows, the saints also meet physically to contact people, to visit one another and to recover the small group gatherings among the saints. By encouraging the saints to exercise their spirit and have mutual concern for one another, we hope to recover many believers and new ones whom we couldn’t visit or take care of during the lockdown.
The Lord’s Move and Blessing
The Furtherance of the Gospel
Since the outbreak of the pandemic, because of the outward change of the environment, which stimulated anxiety among men, the attitude of the people toward the gospel has been quite open. Hence, we encourage the saints to contact their acquaintances by various means and invite them to join the online gospel meetings. Quite a number of saints were able to establish regular contacts, thus entering into the practice of the God-ordained way.
Propagation on College Campuses
The College Students’ Trainings were held in various states in September. There were 382 students that attended these training sessions. Taking a turn in the campus work, we continue to encourage the students to take up the burden of preaching the gospel and shepherding themselves. At the same time we encourage the working saints to participate in the service with the students, promote weekly service fellowship of the campus serving ones and the students, and collect statistics to help the students be steadfast in their practice of contacting people.
Promotion of the Ministry Books
We also coordinated with “Rhema Free Mass Distribution” by advertising free Rhema literature on Facebook. As result, we received a number of positive responses from many open and seeking believers. On average we received hundreds of new contacts each month. We then invited these seeking ones to attend our monthly Rhema seminars online in various states. So far 3,435 seeking ones have attended these Rhema seminars at least once. Meanwhile, we encouraged the saints to establish weekly home meetings with some of these open ones to get into the ministry materials with them. Through such an exercise, the saints gradually established the habit of shepherding, and at the same time the seeking believers were helped to know the Lord’s recovery little by little.
The Full Time Training in New Delhi (FTTND)
In the present term of training there are 40 trainees. Through online College Students Trainings in various parts of the country, many young ones received the calling from the Lord to join the training. This term there are 19 new trainees, more than the past terms. As the government lifted the pandemic-related restrictions at the beginning of this term, all the trainees were able to gather together in the training facility for a more uplifted quality of the training. During the weekends the trainees go out physically to preach the gospel. There was also a 10-day intensified propagation. The trainees all seized the opportunity to preach the gospel and gained a number of open contacts.
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Laos―A Testimony of Migration
When I joined the full-time training in Taiwan in 2004, the flow of consecration was at its peak. In the various conferences and trainings, the messages and testimonies all strengthened my resolve to participate in migration overseas. Thus, carried along by the flow of consecration, I, together with many other saints, declared to God: “Lord, when You sound Your call, here we are.” The love of the Lord constrained me to consecrate myself and my entire life to the Lord.
I got married in 2016. My husband and I had a busy church life. In 2017, a Taiwanese businessman returned from Laos and invited my husband to go work with him. Initially, my husband was not interested. But because of this businessman’s persistent invitation, we agreed to go and see. At the time both of our jobs were quite stable, and the church life in Taiwan was sweet and joyful. Such a sudden move never occurred to me. “Lord! Is this Your calling?” Many concerns and questions popped up in my mind: “My English is so bad! And where exactly is Laos?”2 Getting information about Laos on the internet was not as easy as popular tourist destinations. In fact, when one of my relatives heard that we might move to Laos, she was so apprehensive that she even googled to see if Laos really existed!
In July 2018, my husband went first for work. Within two months, he asked me to quit my job in Taiwan to join him there. Recalling my earlier consecration, I did not hesitate to pack up and move in early 2019. At the start, I found it difficult to blend into the local church life because of the language barrier and the cultural differences. Gradually I picked up some Laotian words and forced myself to speak English with hand and body gestures to communicate with saints who could speak English. Now, I am enjoying the church life here more and more.
Eighty-five percent of the saints in the churches in Laos come from the denominations. The church that I meet in is very young. The brothers and sisters are fully attracted by the words of this ministry. Once they have enjoyed the rich provision in the pasture, they cannot go back to the sheepfold. A sister close to me told me that before she came into the Lord’s recovery, she never touched the real life, light, and joy. The saints are attracted by the Lord’s love and touched by God’s word in the recovery. I am also drawn to run after the Lord by their eagerness and enthusiasm. My husband blends himself into various services in coordination. There are saints from different countries in the church life―Korean-speaking, Filipino-speaking, and Chinese-speaking. Before the pandemic, Thai-speaking saints often came for blending. Sometimes the brothers’ meetings are held in our house. I can testify those meetings are truly a blending of different cultures and languages.
The more we get into the church life here, the more I realize that the Lord’s need here is great. The brothers and sisters are very eager to practice the genuine church life. My husband and I cannot do much; we simply go on living here and do our part. Although we do not know how long we will be staying in Laos, but we are willing to renew our consecration and ask the Lord to put us in the most suitable position in Laos that we may go on strongly together with the brothers and sisters. (Sister L)
October
A Report from Pakistan
The Lord’s move in Pakistan began in 2012. The first local church was established in Lahore (the second largest city) in March 2013. The second was established in Islamabad (the capital city) in March 2014. The third was established in Karachi (the largest city) in November 2015, and the fourth was established in Rawalpindi (the fourth largest city) in November 2016.
The pandemic that began in 2020 disrupted the rhythm of our church life. From the outside, it may seem that we have been disturbed by the enemy. But in reality, we must thank the Lord for the special grace given to us in such a special environment. We sing praise to Him, for nothing can stop the move of the Lord on the earth. The damaging work of the enemy only proves that the grace of the Lord is sufficient in all kinds of circumstances! The following are some encouraging reports from the four local churches in the recent months.
The church in Lahore
There are 139 saints in the church life here, meeting in four districts. The average number in attendance on Lord’s Day is about 49. Weekly meetings include the Lord’s Day meeting, prayer meeting, small group gathering, fellowship among the responsible brothers, and sisters’ meeting. During the past months, through fellowship with the older brothers, we have seen that the primary way for the church to go on is through prayer. Prayer causes us to be joined to God’s will and to gain God’s strengthening. So the whole church, beginning with the responsible brothers, has been practicing to live a life of prayer. We begin every meeting with at least 30 minutes of prayer; we practice to have at least 20 minutes of personal prayer and 30 minutes of corporate prayer every day. When the responsible brothers took the lead to have this kind of exercise, the sisters followed suit. The saints sign in daily in the online prayer groups and are mutually encouraged.
In addition, in order to help the saints understand the truth and take the way of being constituted with the truth, we set up a plan for truth pursuit: a daily reading of the Life-studies as well as three chapters of the Old Testament and one chapter of the New Testament. After three months of practice, we finished reading all the Life-study messages of Matthew and some Life-study messages of Genesis. At present, ten saints are still following this reading schedule.
The church in Islamabad
The number of saints in the church life is 145, meeting in four districts. The average number in attendance on Lord’s Day is about 114. Weekly meetings include the brothers’ service meeting, prayer meeting, and small group meeting every week. The saints also go out to preach the gospel every week. Besides, we also have the sisters’ meeting, young people’s meeting, and children’s meetings in various districts during the week.
The saints have been closely following the Lord’s speaking in the seven annual feasts to enter into the fresh speaking of the Lord, receive His present burden, and learn to serve and coordinate in one accord. A group of saints function as priests in the church life. The serving brothers from all districts come together every Monday to pray in one accord for the various needs of the church and to seek the Lord’s up-to-date leading. After the meeting, the brothers would then labor and serve diligently, faithfully carrying out the burden from the fellowship.
With the resumption of physical meetings, we also resumed the preaching of the gospel through door-knocking. About 40 brothers and sisters participate in the weekly gospel move. Furthermore, recently the church has been blessed by the Lord in the matter of shepherding. Some brothers have been praying for the weak, backslidden, and dormant saints in the church life. Although these brothers are busy at work, they still give priority to the shepherding of the brothers and sisters. Through their visiting, shepherding and having love feasts with these ones after work, many backslidden ones were restored. In June and July, the average attendance on Lord’s Day was at about 100; in August, that number rose to 108, and in September, reached 120. Thank the Lord! The Lord has truly poured out His blessing on the church through the one accord of the brothers!
The church in Karachi
The number of saints in the church is 42, and the attendance on Lord’s Day is about 28. Every morning, the brothers have corporate morning revival. They practice PSRP in order to dig into the Holy Word for Morning Revival. Every Lord’s Day, the local brothers take the lead to practice prophesying. Once a month, the saints gather for a blending meeting to share on crucial points of the truth from books of the Bible. In this meeting, the saints are led to memorize and speak the truth in order to be constituted with the truth.
Due to the pandemic, we stopped our gospel outreach for a period of time. On September 22, five local saints teamed up for outdoor gospel preaching. At present, we are gradually recovering the preaching of the gospel. Since we never had our own meeting facility, all church meetings were very restricted. We recently purchased a place for meeting that can accommodate about 50 people. It was officially put to use in October. All gatherings have been held online since the outbreak of the pandemic, except for the Lord’s Day meetings. Now that we have our new meeting hall, we hope that all types of physical meetings will gradually be resumed that the saints’ enjoyment of the Lord may be enriched.
The church in Rawalpindi
The number of saints in the church life is 34. Despite the fact that many of the saints came from Christian backgrounds, they are unfamiliar with the Bible. Many lack a basic foundation of the truth even though they’ve been practicing daily morning revival, attending weekly meetings and prophesying on Lord’s Days since coming into the church life. A year ago we began to examine how we might lay a good foundation of the truth for the word of the Lord to dwell in us richly. We began by reading through the Book of Genesis in two weeks, going through five chapters a day. Before we started reading, we each wrote down a summary point for each of the fifty chapters of Genesis based on the outline of the Recovery Version and on our understanding of the word. After reading five chapters each day, we would take a few minutes to review what we read and the five summary points of the five chapters. We would then repeat these points again and again during the day and speak it to one another. Through constant repetition, the fifty points of Genesis were impressed into us. In this way, the Book of Genesis was opened up to us. The brothers and sisters all affirmed that the practice was very helpful. What we gained in two weeks surpassed what we had gained in the past ten years.
Applying the same method, we continued to read through the Bible chronologically except for the books of poetry, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and the short epistles in the New Testament. We not only memorized the main points of the Bible, but also used these points as the framework to enter into the details of each book. We hope that through faithfully entering into the word, everyone will have obtained a solid foundation of the truth in three years. We also hope that in the coming years, the saints will be able to enter richly into the crystallization-study of the Bible and other publications. Ultimately, we pray that the saints will arrive at the peak of the divine revelation and be brought into the experiences and growth in life to become the overcomers.
Last year, the co-workers gave a fellowship on the burden of migration to cities which were without the Lord’s testimony. The local saints received such a burden and have been praying for this matter. Three couples are now preparing to move to another city. Please pray for them. We hope that the testimony of the Lord can be brought to all the cities in Pakistan through the migration of the saints.
Prayer Items: 1. Pray for the perfecting of the local saints. We are planning a one-week perfecting raining for the serving brothers in November. The content will be mainly from the International Training for Elders and Responsible Ones held this fall. We are also planning for a three-month perfecting training for the young people from January to March next year. May the Lord gain some useful vessels through the training! 2. Pray for the propagation through migration. May the Lord release some families from the four existing churches to migrate and grant them thoroughfare!
Turkey
Some saints went to a city on the coast of the Black Sea for three days and studied the book of Revelation with a sister in August. The sister told the saints that the missionaries she met were not willing to explain Revelation to her, so she felt that something was missing. During these three days, from morning to evening, they entered the texts with the outlines and the saints explained all the important items in the book of Revelation to her. The words of the Lord were opened to her in a very solid way. After this three-day fellowship, she fundamentally changed her goals in her Christian life and advanced in her experience and enjoyment of the Lord. Please pray that the Lord will continue to speak to her, enlighten her, and lead her more into spiritual revelation and reality. Please also pray for the readers who received the Rhema books and the ministry books. May the Lord use these books to open their hearts and eyes that they may understand His will and seek fellowship with the saints.
Most of the local saints have been vaccinated and therefore have begun to visit one another at home again. May the Lord use such traffic to strengthen the communication and building among the saints and open more doors to the gospel. Please also pray for more saints to come to Turkey for coordination and propagation.
Update on Nepal
Update on Nepal
Affected by the second wave of Covid-19 in India, the situation in Nepal is quite dire. As Nepal and India share an open border of about 1,750 kilometers with 35 entry and exit points, people from the two countries can travel freely across the border. Since the outbreak in India in April, many Indians and Nepalese working in India have returned to Nepal. This resulted in a huge rise of new daily cases, from 100 in early April to more than 8000 after May 5, and the daily death toll exceeds 50. As of May 9, the total caseload has exceeded 390,000, and there have been 3720 deaths so far. For a country with a population of nearly 30 million, the current development of the epidemic is close to that of India. At the end of April, the capacity of the country’s health system had reached its limit. The government has imposed lockdowns and curfews in various places since April 29 to prevent the further spread of the epidemic.
Concerning the saints in the 4 churches in Nepal, all the church meetings are currently conducted online through Messenger, WhatsApp, or Zoom. Some saints who live close to each other seize the opportunity to visit the saints while going grocery shopping after taking preventive measures. So far, 6 saints have been infected, and 4 saints are suspected to be infected. At pesent 1 saint has recovered and saints who have not yet recovered only exhibit mild symptoms.
Let us pray for Nepal:
1. Pray for the infected saints to be preserved, healed, and be strengthened in their faith in the Lord during their recovery process
2. Pray for the government to implement effective control measures for the epidemic to be controlled as soon as possible
3. Pray for the saints’ personal enjoyment of the Lord and their participation in the church life to be strengthened during the lockdown period.
4. Pray for the saints to continue living a life of gospel preaching and shepherding via online messaging applications during the pandemic.
Brothers in Nepal
5.10.2021
Update on India
Update on India
The second wave of the pandemic was much more severe in India than the first. The country was not prepared for it. As the first wave had somewhat subsided, people, even government, began to relax, shops, cinemas, everything was opened up and people started to have large gatherings as before which eventually led to the serious outbreak. As a result, there is an immense shortage of oxygen cylinders and hospital beds. As of now the situation is grim and is expected to peak by the second week of May. Many cities are going into lockdown again.
Regarding the saints in the churches in India, unlike the first wave, this time more saints have been affected. At this point we have lost six dear brothers and one dear sister among us in the church life (all above 50 years old.) Among the affected saints, some have recovered and some are in the process of recovery with mild to moderate symptoms. As far as the church life is concerned, the saints are still coming together on Skype, Google Meet or Zoom. In some areas where the situation is not as serious, few are physically coming together in smaller groups.
We believe that in the midst of this situation the Lord is gaining His saints and the churches more through the supply of the Lord’s speaking in the ministry. Last week there was a Sisters’ Training in the southern states, more than 500 sisters participated online. This week we have just finished a 3-day training of the serving ones where over 900 saints gathered on Zoom to enter into the 2021 Spring ITERO messages. These days through the supply and prayer of the Body we can testify that the saints are strengthened in the midst of the difficult situation. At the same time, we are also encouraged by the Lord to continue praying persistently, to spread the gospel and the ministry, and to strengthen the mutual care and shepherding of the saints for the building up among the churches.
We need much prayer at this critical time. Please find below the prayer points for India:
1. Pray for the 2nd wave of the COVID outbreak in India to be under control without further spreading, that the Lord of all can come into the situation to withstand the work of the enemy and to control the worsening situation.
2. Pray for the opening of people’s hearts; pray that through God’s sovereign arrangement in the environment as the Leader, many can be open to Him as the Savior, and that He would give repentance and forgiveness of sins to the people.
3. Pray for the rising up of the spirit and the burden of the gospel among the saints in the churches for the continual spreading of the gospel of the kingdom to the friends, relatives and neighbors of the saints so that many more can be brought into salvation.
4. Pray for those who are in high position in this country to have the wisdom to handle properly of the current outbreak.
5. Pray for the strengthening of all the saints in India (192 churches, 8000 saints), and for the strengthening of the church life with mutual love, mutual care, mutual shepherding for the building up during the 2nd wave of pandemic.
April
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan is a stable, secular Muslim nation located on the Caspian Sea, between Iran, Turkey and Russia. Collectively the region is known as the South Caucasus or West Asia. A couple first moved here more than two years ago, and some more saints arrived later. After a while some of the saints returned to their home localities. By His sovereignty the remaining saints continued to live near one another. Such arrangement allowed us to meet for daily coordination.
Last fall we began to remember the Lord at His Table, but we have not yet taken the ground. Since February of last year there have been regular online meetings conducted in the local language and several other times of online blending with overseas saints. Last year we walked through Paul’s four Epistles—Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians—the heart of the divine revelation and through the Gospel of Luke. We read through and fellowshipped over all of the associated Life-study messages. To be built up as the Body and the Lampstand depends upon our eating of Jesus.
In chapter five of “The World Situation and God’s Move” we read: “What the Lord is going to recover is simply this: Christ as the mystery of God to live in us as the indwelling Spirit¡K. Do not be preoccupied with anything else.” Chapter seven says, “Our responsibility is to live this Christ, to bring this Christ wherever we go.” We must not just preach the gospel. We must bear the testimony of Jesus…. We must bring forth fruit by abiding in Him…. After a few years there could be a small testimony in many countries.” While non-residents cannot preach the gospel openly in this country, our homes are open to receive friends. We have a few college students and local saints under our care. We also contact about a dozen seekers. We simply live a normal church life day by day. Our life seems to be along the lines of the above fellowship.
In October, Azerbaijan went to war with Armenia for 44 days until a political resolution was arrived at. Though it was a time of painful loss for both nations, even worse human destruction was averted through the prayers of the Body reaching to the throne and through the diplomatic settlement. During this time, we participated in a three-week training with Amana Trust in the UK together with four new ones here. This helped us quite a bit to see the heavenly vision and to endeavor to get on the way of the healthy practices which are ordained for us on the ground that God has chosen.
Through all of the blendings and speakings in the various inter-national conferences we have come to a fresh realization that we are slaves who have each been given one talent. All we can do is renew our consecration to take the way of truth, life, the church and the gospel, which are the four pillars of the Lord’s recovery according to the book of Acts and the Epistles. May the work of the literature continue to progress here so that many can be gained as part of this corporate vessel. “Be sober and alert that the Lord may grant you the proper guidance—whether to stay or to go, where to go, and the way to go…. A lampstand is not big like a lighthouse; I believe the Bible uses the lampstand to signify the church in order to give the sense that the church does not have to be a big thing.” (The World Situation and God’s Move, Chapter 7)
We thank Him for the grace which enables us to bear such a responsibility and for counting us worthy to take part in the one work of the ministry. Please pray for us and for His move here that we may continue to stand firm for the Lord.
Prayer burdens:
1. Pray for the printing and distribution of 6000 copies of the six Rainbow Booklets in Azerbaijani, 1800 copies in Russian, and 1000 copies of Mystery of Human Life in Azerbaijani.
2. Pray for the recipients that the booklets in their hands will be read and shared, and that they will receive nourishment and enlightenment from the booklets and seek God’s economy.
3. Pray for the continual shepherding of two brothers that their spiritual appetite for the Word of the Lord will increase more and more, and that they will become companions pursuing together.
4. Pray for some contacts to be raised up through faith and become stable pillars here.
Bangladesh
Dhaka and Chittagong
Daily Online Pursuit
Due to the pandemic, all the church meetings have moved online. Starting in August last year, the churches in Dhaka and Chittagong formed a Daily Manna Pursuit group, sending out daily messages and setting up a reward system to encourage the saints to enjoy the Lord’s daily portion of grace by memorizing verses and sharing with one another. Now many saints are in the group. They not only memorize and share Bible verses themselves, but also actively invite other saints into the group to enter into the Lord’s word together.
Perfecting Meeting
The brothers had a desperate feeling that online trainings and perfectings were necessary. Starting in July, we spent one hour every Friday afternoon helping the saints get into the book of 1 Peter. Before each meeting, we would gather some brothers to prepare for it together. Then on Friday, these brothers would coordinate to release the message. Gradually the saints became vital and released. Not only are there more brothers willing to serve in the meetings, but also more saints willing to join the meetings. The spiritual condition of the participants has advanced significantly, and they function proactively in the meetings. In the past, some were reluctant to join the perfecting meetings. But they had a great turn after they got assigned fixed services such as leading the hymn singing, message preparation, etc. On the one hand, they were faithful in the services; on the other hand, a genuine burden for such gatherings gradually grew within them. Some even invited their relatives to join the saints’ daily pursuit. May the Lord continue to bless the perfecting meetings.
Entering into the Word Corporately in Prayer
In November, some of us brothers began to pray-read the Lord’s word together every morning at 7 o’clock in order to enjoy God. Although each time it lasted only for about 10 minutes, this kind of strong and corporate enjoyment uplifted, strengthened and enriched our spiritual condition. Then we felt that the sisters could also follow. So the sisters, especially the wives of the previously mentioned brothers, also began to pray-read and pray together, keeping up with the burden of the brothers. In this way, more and more homes were gained one by one to enjoy and serve the Lord together and to become His testimony in their locality. We look to the Lord for further blessing and for more saints to join and to be blended together.
Online Gospel Meeting
In October, we started a weekly service fellowship with some saints after each Friday perfecting meeting mainly to share about the world situation and the burden for gospel propagation. The brothers deeply felt the need to rise up and preach the gospel. In December we held our first online gospel meeting. The saints invited their gospel friends. At the same time they prepared the gospel messages and prayed desperately in one accord for this matter. Thank the Lord! He is a God who listens to prayers. The number of gospel friends participating in this meeting was much larger than before. The new ones brought even newer ones. They came together, shared their enjoyment together, and called on the name of the Lord together. Through this the brothers and sisters also became more burdened for the gospel.
Being Burdened Continually for the Gospel
This year we are still limited in our gospel move as the pandemic persists. But the Lord’s word for us is to “proclaim the word; be ready in season and out of season”. In response to the fellowship concerning the gospel last year, several young working saints took the lead in this matter. A young single brother had some friends over his home for a love feast and invited some saints to join in online to share the gospel. Another young working brother also asked the saints to coordinate with him to preach the gospel to his family online. All of the invited friends and relatives called on the name of the Lord, and some were willing to receive the Lord.
Gospel Propagation in the North
Thank the Lord for still opening the way for the gospel to go out in the north in the midst of the epidemic. At the end of February we started to spread the gospel in northern Bangladesh through the help of the internet. At each place we went, we set up a laptop and a brother would preach the gospel remotely online with a local brother watching and translating simultaneously. Later on we replaced the laptop with a projector and a screen. After the gospel message, the local brothers would distribute Bibles and booklets to the audience and encourage them to get into these spiritual materials. We printed 10,000 booklets and 1,000 New Testament Bibles to meet this need.
The local brothers visited village after village almost every day for such online gospel preaching. Most of the residents in this area have Hindu backgrounds. Once a Hindu priest visited us and joined an online gospel meeting in front of the Hindu temple. There he got saved and baptized. Praised the Lord!
From February 20th to March 30th, around 1,200 people in about 30 villages in northern Bangladesh heard the gospel. The local bro-thers followed up by visiting and shepherding the saved ones in these villages with the view to have the proper church life there. Every Friday and Saturday, we also share the word of God online. Usually 30 to 40 saints participate. Currently we are pursuing Revelation and Galatians. Please continue to pray for us that the Lord will raise up the proper church life in the places where the gospel has been preached.
March
An Update on Nepal
The Church in Pokhara
After the outbreak of the pandemic last year, many saints left Pokhara and returned to their villages. Yet the saints continued to have morning revival and evening prayer times by phone and via internet. In response to the global prayer watch, every night there is a prayer meeting of the church. By entering into the daily scriptures and messages corresponding each day’s prayer burden, we have become more burdened and the content of our prayers richer. The saints enjoy this kind of prayer meeting. With the recent return of the saints from the villages to Pokhara, the church life is now more stable and regulated, and some saints have been shepherded back to the fellowship of the Body.
The church in Pokhara has endeavored to perfect the local brothers in two aspects—entering into the truths of the ministry and serving in the church. The riches of Brother Nee and Brother Lee’s ministry are introduced in online meetings to the brothers, who are encouraged to take notes and share their enjoyment in the meetings. Through their enjoyment of the word, two local brothers received a burden to purchase a piece of land in Pokhara and offered part of that property for the building of a meeting hall, which can also serve as a small training center. At present we have found a suitable land and signed the land purchase contract with the landlord. The payment must be paid in three months and we will then consider the building of a meeting hall.
Currently there is a weekly online blending meeting of the churches in Pokhara and Lalitpur every Monday night. Through PSRP, the saints get into the crucial points of the outline of that week’s portion of Holy Word for Morning Revival. At first the attendance was low and the saints could not grasp the main points of the outlines. But through continual practice, the attendance gradually increased to even exceeding the number limit of Messenger, to the point that now we have to host a Zoom meeting simultaneously each time to accommodate everyone. All the saints enjoy such blending, and the prayers uttered by the saints at the end of each meeting are so rich and full of joy.
Due to the pandemic, we have not been able to go door knocking. Instead, we found a new way to preach the word through gospel broadcasts. We made broadcast programs on “The Mystery of Human Life”, “Shepherding materials for New Believers”, “The Orthodoxy of the Church” and “The Recovery of the Church” and broadcasted them twice a day. Many local listeners who are interested in the gospel and the ministry truths have since called in to inquire about our materials and express interest to have further fellowship with us. Two local brothers were thus brought into the reception and fellowship services in relation to the broadcasts. May the Lord gain more local people who seek the truth out of pure hearts so that the testimony of the church may be strengthened and the number of believers increase.
The Church in Lalitpur
We began to participate in the 21-day global prayer watch since last April. Then in May we deeply felt to continue such prayer practice, praying daily using the word of the ministry and for the Lord’s current move. Because of such practice of praying at set times, a number of saints have been strengthened in their burden and became more energized in taking the God-ordained way. These ones preach the gospel and contact the new ones steadfastly and have brought quite a number of new ones into the church life.
Praying at set times has also stirred up the burden within the saints to shepherd the new ones. Two households were shepherded and became stable in the church life last year. As of January, four other new ones’ households are also under the local saints’ continual shepherding and have joined some meetings.
Since last September, the brothers have been sharing with the saints migration testimonies all over the world. The saints are thus full of feelings for the Lord’s testimonies to be raised up in the two neighboring towns of Mahalaxmi and Godawari. In some saints’ fellowship with a brother from Mahalaxmi, this brother expressed his willingness to provide land for the church to build a meeting hall. In the subsequent times of fellowship and prayers with more saints, everyone felt at peace and full of anointing. So in the first week of December, after the pandemic restrictions on gatherings were lifted, we resumed the physical Lord’s Day meeting in a home in Mahalaxmi and fellowshipped with the local saints about the need for the construction of a meeting hall. All said “Amen” to the fellowship and began to offer financially. The amount needed to build the meeting hall was quickly reached. The construction started on December 14 and was completed in less than three weeks. On January 2, 2021, we had the first bread-breaking meeting in Mahalaxmi. A total of 29 saints came on that day, including 8 new ones and 8 children. The gathering was joyful and glorious.
Online Rhema Publications
In May or June of last year we began producing short gospel videos and compiling short ministry messages periodically for the Facebook page of Rhema. Within a short period of time, many truth-seekers joined our FB community. At present, every week we receive questions and requests for Rhema Books from the seekers. We are still learning and seeking the effective ways to shepherd these seekers online. We look forward to having face-to-face contacts with them in the coming days.
Please pray for the following matters:
1. Pray that through gospel broadcasts and the promotion of online Rhema Books, more seekers would be contacted and brought into the church life; pray also for more local saints to participate in these services.
2. Pray that the saints would be stabilized in the church life during this pandemic and that more saints would be burdened to practice the God-ordained way and to practice shepherding according to God.
3. Pray for many seekers to be gained and become remaining fruits in the church life.
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The Middle East Blending Conference
The Middle East Blending conference was held online on December 18 of last year. A total of 370 saints from 13 countries and regions attended. The content of the conference was the messages from the 2020 Thanksgiving conference. After each message, the saints were divided into groups for prophesying. The last session was an update on the current situation of the Middle East countries and the Lord’s move to Asia. Brothers from Bahrain, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Turkey, and Egypt fellowshipped on the Lord’s move in each country and presented their needs for prayer. The saints in attendance were greatly encouraged. May the Lord continue to strengthen His work in this area that the saints would be built up in the church life, perfected to function, and practice the God-ordained way to gain more local people for the testimony of Jesus.
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Turkey
On the evening of December 31 last year, we held a New Year’s Eve prayer and fellowship. The saints shared their experiences of the Lord in 2020 and thanked the Lord for His preservation and blessing in many ways. On the first Lord’s Day of 2021, the Turkish speaking, English speaking and Chinese speaking saints gathered together for a meeting online. Altogether there were 22 saints from Istanbul, 1 from Izmir, 1 from Antalya and 1 from Rize. Seven overseas saints from Hong Kong, Israel and Malaysia also joined us in this gathering. All the saints are encouraged and willing to renew their consecration to the Lord at the beginning of the new year to allow Christ to be their Alpha and their Passover Lamb and to labor more on Christ as the good land for the building up of His Body.
Rhema has resumed the distribution of physical books. May the Lord increase the number of subscribers and gain more seekers through this distribution. Recently, a reader came into contact with us. She was eager to know more about the Christian faith, but was persecuted by her family. May the Lord gain her and open a way for her to know the truth. Please pray that the Lord will preserve the newly saved one so that they can live a normal church life and be perfected to be useful vessels.
January
Sri Lanka
Newly Established Churches
The church in Rambukkana
The church in Rambukkana started with a sister and her family. They had to travel from home to Kandy every week to attend the Lord’s Table Meeting, which was a four-hour round trip. This spurred their burden to establish a church in their hometown. The year before last, some brothers preached the gospel there and gained another family, so the saints started to have meetings in Rambukkana. In the past year, three nearby churches―Kurunegala, Alawwa and Kandy―joined forces to propagate. Through the saints’ knocking on warm doors and regular weekly shepherding, ten households who were open to the Lord’s recovery were gained. Based on the fellowship of the brothers of the three nearby churches in the consciousness of the Body, the ten house-holds were divided into 3 groups, with each locality taking care of one group. Every week, there was a definite time of visitation to shepherd and perfect these seeking ones, and three local brothers were thus perfected into one accord. The Church in Rambukkana officially took ground on December 20, 2020. At present, the most urgent need is the continuous shepherding of the seeking ones to bring in the multiplication of the church.
The Church in Kelaniya
The Church in Kelaniya started with a pastor who led a free group. Three years ago, when the church in Gampaha was established, he sent someone to attend our meeting to find out about our teaching. After two years of observation, he became totally subdued by the truths in the Lord’s recovery. Starting in the year before last, three brothers from Biyagama regularly contacted and fellowshipped with him. Then beginning in last July, these three brothers started to attend meetings of this free group every Lord’s Day afternoon to share the truths with them. This pastor was very much convinced with the truths and encouraged his congregation to read the Holy Word for Morning Revival, our ministry books, and especially the book “The Economy of God”. Last October, we held a special conference for the seeking ones. The believers that came were all surprised by the truths among us that they had never heard before; they were very convinced. In November, the brothers started a morning revival group to take care of the seekers. Every morning about 10 saints would get on the phone with the brothers. They learned how to be revived every morning, call on the name of the Lord, pray-read and speak the word. Currently there are about 25 saints meeting in Kaleniya. Last year the brothers felt that the time was ripe, and on December 27, the church in Kelaniya was raised up.
The Church in Ella
The brothers got in touch with a certain Pastor in December 2019. He had functioned as an evangelist for over 30 years while holding a job at the same time. He had some conflict with the leading pastor in his congregation and began to meet in his own home. At one point he came across and read many of our ministry books. After half a year, he started to attend the meeting in the church in Batticaloa. He was fully convinced by the truths among us, and highly appreciated the content of the Holy Word for Morning Revival. Last year he came in contact with some believers in Ella through a brother. Since July, he and this brother have been coordinating in shepherding these believers in Ella by phone every day. Then in August some brothers went to Ella to hold a 3-day conference and baptized 8 new ones. These believers in Ella did not receive much supply of the word in the past. Through us they came to know the truth and witnessed the oneness of the brothers. They became clear that the way of the Lord’s Recovery was the proper way and chose to take this way. The above-mentioned pastor joined the trainings for the responsible brothers both in last September and October. His eyes were furthered opened and he became more burdened to labor in Ella. Since then he and the brothers have been in close coordination. Early in the morning from 4 a.m. to 7 a.m. everyday, they hold several online morning revival groups. They also have online Bible-reading and online prayer times with the brothers in Jaffna. At present, there are ten families, a total of 28 saints, in Ella. Eight of the saints joined the past Thanksgiving Conference online with the messages translated into Tamil. They were very joyful. The church in Ella will officially took ground on January 24.
The Short-term Trainings
At present we have four full-time trainees in Colombo―two brothers and two sisters. This lays a very good foundation for us to perfect more young people. We hope that more college students and working ones will be able to join the short-term trainings for two weeks or one month. Some may then stay for three months, and eventually, for the entire training. Having the four full-time trainees was a great turn for the Lord’s move in Sri Lanka this past year. May the Lord make them patterns for the young people that more will be perfected and some local full-timers will be raised up. At present, we have only one young person who finished the two-year full-time training. We hope that in the next five years, there will be 20 local young people who join and complete the two-year full-time training.
Prayer Request with regard to the Pandemic
In the second wave of the pandemic, Colombo and Gampaha are the hardest-hit areas; thus, currently both the church in Colombo and the church in Gampaha hold their meetings online. Although the government did not impose a lockdown, we refrain from going outside of Colombo for gospel preaching as people in general fear those coming from Colombo. Trainings for the responsible brothers are also conducted online. Previously we held physical trainings once a month; now we use a small segment of time every week for fellowship. The Young People’s trainings have also moved online. This pandemic has affected our propagation very much as we cannot go out and can only have meetings online. Although times are difficult, the Lord’s move continues to go on. We believe this is due to the one accord among the brothers and the daily steadfast and persevering prayers of the saints. Please continue praying for us.
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National Conference in Pakistan
Under the Lord’s leading and through the intercession of the members of the Body and the coordination in one accord of the brothers, the 2020 National Conference in Pakistan went smoothly in November. Due to the pandemic, the conference was held online and saints joined in online by groups. Around 210 saints attended this conference. Most of them were saints from the four localities in Pakistan, some were the invited seekers, and others were co-workers from abroad who coordinated to give the messages.
The subject of the conference was “The Uniqueness of the Lord’s Recovery” with a total of four messages. The first message was “The Difference between the Lord’s Recovery and Christianity.” This message strongly impressed upon the saints a clear vision that the Lord’s recovery is unique, that it is absolutely different from Christianity, and that there is an insurmountable gulf between the two. We must come out of Christianity to go outside the camp, bearing the reproach of Jesus. The second message was “The Recovery of God’s Economy.” What God is recovering today is His economy. In the Lord’s recovery, we must have a clear vision about God’s economy and be governed, controlled and led by this vision, being steadfast and immovable, cooperating with and living a life for His economy. The third message was on the God-ordained way. The God-ordained way is the way to build up the Body of Christ according to the Scriptural way of meeting and serving, which is in opposition to the traditional and natural way of meeting and serving. We need to become vital persons taking the God-ordained way, practicing begetting, nourishing, teaching and building up. The last message was on the producing of the overcomers. The Lord needs the overcomers to accomplish His economy. The Lord’s recovery is to build up Zion, the overcomers in the church. The overcomers are those who overcome everything that is against Christ or is a replacement for Christ. The way to become the overcomers is to eat the Lord Jesus.
At the end of the conference, the brothers fellowshipped specifically on the burden of migration. The world situation is an indicator of the Lord’s move on earth. Under the condition of the pandemic, we need to help the white horse run faster for the gospel of the kingdom to spread to the whole inhabited earth as a testimony to all the nations. For this, we should not stay and remain in our own place, but should be prepared to move and migrate with the Lord for the spread of the truth to bring the recovered church life everywhere .
May the Lord cause the saints to have a clear realization of the Lord¡¦s recovery through His speaking, and may the saints be absolute for His economy, practice the God-ordained way, and spread the truth of the Lord’s recovery. May the Lord also work to raise up more local saints to participate in migration and propagation that His testimony in this country may shine brighter!
November
India
There are currently 187 churches in India, with 4,684 saints meeting regularly on Lord’s Day and 7,495 saints in the church life. Since the national lockdown in March 2020, the saints have been established through the burden of prayer in the Lord’s recovery. Until now, there are still a good number of saints in the churches gathering in small groups to pray daily for the Lord’s move and His interest on earth. Though the saints are not able to gather physically, the prayer and fellowship among the saints have been greatly strengthened via online platforms.
In the month of May, the churches experienced a fresh turn when 2,908 saints from 82 localities entered into the Memorial Day Conference messages online corporately to receive the Lord’s speaking. Translation was provided in 7 Indian languages. Moreover, there were 1,921 unique IP addresses from India that accessed at least 1 message of the conference on LSM Webcast. Through the Lord’s speaking in the conference, many of the saints began contacting their friends, relatives, neighbors, classmates and colleagues. The common feeling among the churches is that there has never been a time when people in India are as open to the gospel as during this pandemic. Weekly gospel meetings and Bible study meetings are conducted in various localities. Many gospel friends and new ones are under the saints’ regular shepherding.
In addition, we began to have online College Trainings from the month of June. Since then, we have had 12 regional trainings over 7 states in India. Approximately 700 college students attended these trainings. Through the Lord’s up-to-date speaking, we encouraged the students to pray and consecrate themselves before the Lord, receiving a burden from the Lord to love and care for their friends. Based on the ministry books, such as “Witnessing” and “Rising Up to Preach the Gospel”, we encouraged the students to list out the names of their friends in order to pray for them and follow the Lord’s leading to distribute gospel tracts as well as invite their friends to online gospel meetings conducted during the trainings. About 1,500 contacts joined the gospel meetings. After the trainings, the students were encouraged to continue shepherding their friends. Recently some friends of the students got baptized through their regular contact and shepherding.
Rhema Seekers’ Meetings
The Rhema serving ones had to cancel the distribution trips since March 2020 due to the spread of the pandemic. This greatly affected the free mass distribution and the spread of the ministry. It was then the serving ones began to conduct online seminars for the existing Rhema readers in coordination with the churches. Being encouraged to see that a good number of readers joined the seminars, the serving ones then began to hold more seminars in Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu and Kannada languages.
As some churches planned to have regular meetings for the Rhema readers, there was a need to reach out to more seekers who could be invited to the seminars. Hence the serving ones began to promote the 7 Rhema booklets in electronic format via social medias, especially on Facebook. The promotion of eBooks started in a language called Marathi, which had 73 million native speakers primarily in the state of Maharashtra. Requests for eBooks soon poured in! In less than 3 months there were over 3,000 requests for Marathi eBooks. The saints in that state then called these contacts to help them download the books and invite them to the seminars. In one particular seminar there were 163 new ones from all over the state of Maharashtra. The saints also began to read the ministry with some of the eBook contacts. Some of the contacts then started to join other church meetings. One such contact who recently got saved and was meeting with another group had to stop going to the meetings due to the pandemic. As he was wondering what to do, he received the eBooks and joined a seminar. Now he joins all the online meetings of the nearby churches and is enjoying the church life!
Now the promotion of the eBooks is also done in Hindi language to reach the Christians in northern India. Seminars have been conducted for the contacts in New Delhi and its surrounding areas and the response has been very positive. Many new ones were thus brought under regular shepherding by the saints.
The Kannada language has over 43 million native speakers. The pandemic opened the way to distribute the eBooks in Kannada, especially in the cities where the saints had the burden to raise up golden lampstands. A total of 52 new ones joined the first seminar in Kannada. What’s more encouraging was that prior to the seminar, many saints rose up to function to call the Rhema contacts to encourage them to read the ministry and invite them to join the seminar.
The Video Training
The video training of the 2020 Summer Training was conducted online in various localities in India. Audio translation of the messages was provided in 7 Indian languages. The lockdown situation provided an opportunity for many more saints to join the training. Over 1,600 saints from 105 localities registered for this training. This was twice as many registered saints as last year.
To maintain a proper atmosphere of the training, the saints were asked to be punctual, each meeting began with prayer, the saints were divided into small groups for sharing, and testings were conducted. In several regions, the churches clustered together to conduct the training, which very much uplifted the atmosphere. Before the training, the saints came together online for twelve days for PSRP of the outlines. During the training, there were also review sessions. In some localities, following the training the saints gathered together to pray and fellowship over the up-to-date speaking of the Lord with its application, seeking a way to move forward in the church life. Many saints testified how the Lord not only spoke to them but also started working in their lives based on His speaking. The saints’ appreciation of the ministry has gone higher after seeing how the books of Jeremiah and Lamentations, which they previously considered difficult, have been opened up richly by the ministry. May the Lord’s word grow mightily, multiply, and prevail in India. May the Lord grace the churches in India to take root downward and bear fruit upward!
Please pray for the following matters:
1. Pray for the campus work, that through the functioning of the college students in contacting their gospel friends in various states, the burden of the gospel and shepherding may continue according to the present situation.
2. Pray for the Rhema booklet distribution during the present pandemic, that the word of God can grow, multiply and prevail in various states and many seeking ones of the truths can be gained for the church life and the Lord’s testimony.
3. Pray for the strengthening of the major cities in India, that the saints can be supplied in the word and can continue to grow in life and grow in number for the sake of the Lord’s testimony.
Laos
Thank the Lord for leading us in these days. As the pandemic spread, the churches first joined in the burden of twenty-one days of global prayer to pray for the Lord’s move on the earth. This was followed by the Memorial Day Conference messages, which became a timely supply for us to not lose heart or be shaken but to continue sending our roots by Him as the stream, see the spiritual vision behind the world situation, and rise up to cooperate with the Lord. Many brothers and sisters became burning for the gospel, inviting their family members and friends to the meetings to preach the gospel to them. Twenty-four people got baptized into the Lord from May to September.
The serving saints have the same feeling that we need to not only bring more people to the Lord, but also have more thorough and tender shepherding for the new ones. Although quite a number of people got baptized every year in the past, their growth in life was not sufficient and not many have remained and functioned normally in the church life. On the one hand, we asked the Lord to create an atmosphere of shepherding in the churches. On the other hand, we used the shepherding materials to perfect the saints in the matter of shepherding and help them go out to visit people.
We began praying steadfastly for this burden since May. The saints began to see the importance of shepherding and started going out in twos and threes. In the prayer meetings of the church, prayer for shepherding has become an indispensable item. There are now seven regular home meetings in the saints’ homes. From October 24th to 25th, about 25 to 30 saints gathered together to enjoy a video conference held in Thailand on shepherding the flock of God. Some saints were touched by the Lord and cried bitterly when they saw their unworthiness and peculiarity, some saw that only thorough shepherding could the Lord gain His Body in this age, and some repented for not taking care of new ones whom they brought to salvation. After the meeting, the saints invited each other to visit and shepherd their new ones in twos and threes. Thanks to the Lord who is the great Shepherd of the sheep! Please continue to pray for this work of shepherding in Laos that the churches will continue to have a shepherding atmosphere and more saints will rise up to go as shepherds to people’s homes in twos and threes, bringing divine and heavenly food to the new ones.
Three trainees from Laos completed the full-time training in Thailand in October and returned to Laos to serve full-time. They will participate in a two-month propagation on college campuses. Please pray for this propagation that 20 young ones would be gained and become remaining fruit for the Lord’s move in Laos.
September―October
Vietnam
Serving One’s Training
From July 7-9, a training for the serving ones was held for the first time at Zion meeting hall in Ho Chi Minh City by the churches in Vietnam. This training was for the coworkers, elders, responsible brothers, full-time serving ones, and all brothers and sisters coordinating in different aspects of service in the seven regions of the country. The burden of the training was to bring all the serving ones into the same vision and burden and for all to press on in the same direction with the same practices for the Lord’s recovery in Vietnam.
The content of the training consisted of two parts: messages and reports. The general subject of the training was “Being Formed into an Army to Fight with God for His Interest on Earth”. The six messages of the training were “Being Governed by the Vision of the Lord’s Recovery and Maintaining the Nature of the Lord’s Recovery,” “Putting to Death the Natural Life, Experiencing Christ as Life and Ministering Christ to the Churches,” “Being Trained to Take the New Way and Continually Researching and Improving,” “Enjoying Christ as the Heavenly Manna and the Richness of the Good Land to Prophesy for the Building Up of the Church,” “Praying at the Incense Altar for the Formation of the Corporate Army,” and “Our need to be Formed into an Army to Fight for God’s Move on Earth.”
In parallel with the messages were reports and fellowship on the work and the Lord’s move in the seven regions, including statistics and the general situation of the church life in each locality. This was the first time that a detailed statistics was made with the coordination of the coworkers and the churches. While there was much to be improved, it was indeed a great step forward. Service groups of the literature work, the college students, the young people and children took turns to give fellowship. The brothers in charge of children’s service have been working on translating children’s songs and creating a website for children’s lessons. The Nazarite training was suspended at the end of last year. Our goal is to transition that training to the two-year Full-time Training in Vietnam, pending further fellowship and help from the Body.
Burdens for prayer
1. Pray for the elders, responsible brothers and coworkers in each region to coordinate together for the producing of church life statistics regularly.
2. Pray for the Full-time training to be established in Vietnam to perfect the young people for the Lord’s move in Vietnam.
3. Pray for the continual labor by the brothers and sisters involved in children’s service to complete the children’s songs and lessons.
God-man Family Living
After joining two God-man family’s trainings in Taiwan in April and August, 2019, many saints were enlightened and had the burden to pray for the practice of a healthy God-man living at home.
From July 25-26 of this year, the church held a healthy family camp for all families with children between the ages of 5 and 12 in Ho Chi Minh City and 8 nearby churches. The content of the camp was on 3 characters: single, corporate, and open with the story of Nehemiah returning to Jerusalem to rebuild the city wall as an illustration. This is the first time the churches in Vietnam had such a family camp which parents and children attended together with the view to bring in a healthy family living.
Praise the Lord! By the serving ones’ persevering prayer in one accord, a total of 95 children, 45 parents, and 36 serving ones joined the Camp. The parents used the three weeks prior to the Camp to pursue the materials with their children and prepare the lessons. Many of the parents were touched by the Lord and developed a burden to enjoy the Lord with their children at home.
The parents were enlightened on the importance of taking care of their children in the Lord for children were the heritage of Jehovah and were parents’ main responsibility. This was opposite to their previous practices of merely bringing children to the meeting hall and handing them to the serving ones without taking adequate care spiritually of their own children.
The serving ones encouraged the parents to coordinate with the local saints in their respective localities and districts to open their homes for children’s meetings on weekdays. May the Lord bless such endeavor that all the families would have a healthy living and their children would be nurtured to be proper vessels for the church life.
The Situation in Central Asia
Central Asia is a region which stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to China in the east and from Afghanistan in the south to Russia in the north. It includes five countries: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. This region is an important part of the ancient Silk Road, through which the gospel was brought from Jerusalem to the East.
Kazakhstan is the world’s largest landlocked country with a population of more than 18 million. There are currently four churches with about 88 saints, of whom 33 are in the capital, Astana.
Uzbekistan has a population of about 33 million. The capital, Tashkent, is the third largest city in the former Soviet Union after Moscow and St. Petersburg, and is an important aviation hub in Central Asia. Currently there is a church in Tashkent. The total number of saints in the country is about 71, of which 53 are in the capital.
Kyrgyzstan is located in the Tianshan Mountains and has a population of about 6.5 million. The saints have been gathering together since 1997 or 1998, and the church life there is more solid and stable. There are five churches with 105 saints, 50 of whom are in the capital, Bishkek.
Turkmenistan, with a population of more than 6 million, does not yet have a golden lampstand. Turkmenistan used to be an extremely closed country, formerly known as North Korea in Central Asia. It has only opened to tourists in recent years, but the whole country is still not so open. Tajikistan is located in the Pamirs, with a population of more than 9.5 million. There is no golden lampstand yet.
Except for the majority in Tajikistan being Persian people who speak Persian, the majority of the other four countries in Central Asia are Turkic, speaking Turkic languages. As these five countries were all ruled by the former Soviet Union, Russian language is still widely used in these countries. The total population of this region is about 74 million. Currently there are ten churches and about 264 brothers and sisters. Among them, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan have no golden lampstands. There are saints in several strategic cities in Central Asia: Astana, Almaty, Bishkek, Tashkent, and Samarkand.
These five countries are basically Muslim countries. In the three countries that have the Lord’s testimony, their constitutions stipulate freedom of religion, but prohibit proselytism. Christians can neither share the gospel in public nor have the intention of evangelism. For example, a person may own a Bible for his own use, but is prohibited to have two or more Bibles. People can only perform religious activities in the so-called places of worship.
In spite of the outward restricted environment, the saints can still preach the gospel in private. People are saved whenever the gospel is preached. The Lord’s Table meeting in the capital of Uzbekistan was banned ten years ago, so the saints gathered at home instead. As a result, more than 20 homes were opened, more saints were able to function, and the number of saints increased. More than ten years ago, the church in Kyrgyzstan bought a meeting hall and was officially registered. The saints started to enjoy various gatherings freely in the meeting hall. Special conferences and trainings thus can be held, making the church life in Kyrgyzstan more stable.
The saints in these countries are simple and love the Lord. They long to participate in the fellowship of the Body and welcome the saints to visit them or migrate there for the church life. Nearly ten years ago, two Korean couples migrated to Kyrgyzstan. Among them a middle-aged couple bought an apartment next to the campus and labored among the young people. Although this couple did not understand Russian, the young people liked to go to their home and enjoyed their care. Another senior couple in their seventies rented a house. They also did not understand Russian. Upon arriving in Kyrgyzstan, the sister bought about 60 kilograms of cabbage at the market and made kimchi, which they then distributed to the saints household by household. The brother, not knowing the language, attended the prayer meeting of the brothers and prayed loudly with an exercised spirit. A local responsible brother testified that whenever this brother was present in the meeting, everyone exercised his spirit. Such migration became a great blessing to the church life.
With a Chinese language learning boom in recent years, many young people in Central Asia are interested in learning Chinese and schools begin to offer Chinese courses. If some Chinese-speaking saints can come to teach Chinese, they will have the opportunity to contact young people in large numbers. At present, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan have no testimony of the Lord’s recovery, but some from these two countries are living and working in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. On the one hand, we pray that the Lord would open the door for the gospel of the kingdom to spread to these two countries. On the other hand, we also ask the Lord to gain some Tajiks and Turkmen in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan to not only receive salvation, but also be perfected in the church life and bring the gospel back to their hometown. Please pray for the advancement of the Lord’s move in Central Asia.
July―August
Myanmar
Currently there are 79 churches in Myanmar with over 5000 saints. The serving brothers labor to shepherd the churches by visiting them personally as well as by Zoom meetings.
On June 18, 103 trainees graduated from the Full-time Training in Yangon. A new term began on June 22 with 69 trainees. Four times a week four trainers from the Full-time training in Hamilton, New Zealand, gave online classes; eight local trainers take care of the rest of the training courses.
We plan to finish translating four ministry books into Burmese by the end of 2020: Ministry Digest Vol. 1, No. 1, Life-study of Genesis, Vol. 3, The Proper Sisters (from Chinese to Burmese), The Speciality, Generality, and Practicality of the Church Life. We hope these publications will render rich supply to the saints and meet the different needs in the church life. In addition, the electronic version of the Holy Bible Recovery Version in Burmese can now be obtained from Google Play Store for the saints to enjoy the Lord’s word at every time and in every place.
Regarding the annual seven feasts, the saints get into either the hard copy or the audio version of the Holy Word for Morning Revival. Currently the saints are pursuing the HWMR of “A Timely Word Concerning the World Situation and the Lord’s Recovery” to receive the Lord’s timely speaking and supply.
Bangladesh
The Church in Dhaka
Due to the pandemic, many brothers and sisters returned to their hometowns. Even though the internet signal in those areas is poor, the brothers and sisters steadfastly endeavored to pray with the saints by phone. For those with better telecommunication signals, we get into the HWMR with them every morning for the Lord’s up-to-date speaking. Through such a practice, the brothers and sisters became more open to us and to the Lord’s Word. When we bring them to the small group meetings, they are also open in sharing their enjoyment of the Lord’s Word. Whenever they hear of brothers or sisters being sick, they take the initiative to pray for them and cherish them. Instead of praying for themselves, the saints gradually began to pray for others and for the Body of Christ.
The Church in Chittagong
It has been three months since the brothers started praying at 7 pm everyday. Such steadfast prayer has brought in much building up in reality among us. The majority of the young working brothers have established the habit of praying at set time regularly. Since the number of saints participating in the prayer watch continues to increase, beginning in this month we divided the prayer group into three groups: two groups of brothers and one group of sisters. Through our enjoyment of the Memorial Day Conference messages, our spirits were uplifted to take God as our faith and to persevere in prayer. Our prayers have also been uplifted and are no longer centered on our own needs, but on the Lord’s interests and for the turning of the age.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, many brothers and sisters experienced the Lord’s particular care. A specific case is that of a young couple who both work in a bank. The husband had previously joined the short-term training in India, but the sister had always been lukewarm toward the Lord. They are both first-generation believers, and none of their relatives are saved yet. We have been praying for this couple that pressure from their unbelieving family members would be alleviated so that both of them could serve the Lord. Toward the end of May, several of the sister’s family members had fever successively. Eventually, her mother was diagnosed with COVID-19 pneumonia and she had no choice but to return to her hometown. Despised, shunned, intimidated and threatened by people afraid of the disease, they felt helpless and hopeless with no one to help. In this most difficult time, the sister remembered that she belonged to the Lord and prayed together with her husband. The Lord was faithful in looking after them. On the very next day, they received timely help when someone brought them a large amount of supplies for their daily needs. Upon her return to Chittagong, the sister told us in tears that the Lord was indeed the living and true God. She could not stop calling on the Lord’s name. She also asked us to pray for her family to be delivered from such trial. After that, her mother-in-law, who used to worship idols in their house, suddenly stopped coming to their house. May the Lord release this household; may precious faith be produced within them after such suffering that they may firmly join themselves to Christ and renew their consecration to the Lord.
Other saints also experience the Lord amidst the spread of pneumonia. Please pray for Bangladesh as the number of infected cases continues to rise and many of the saints working in public places lack the necessary protection products.
The following are our prayer requests:
1. Pray for the couple whose family members are sick.
2. Pray for the safety and health of the working brothers and sisters; pray that their spirit, soul, and body would all be preserved.
3. Pray for the saints to have a stronger connection with the Lord and for our online shepherding and fellowship to be strengthened.
4. Pray for the Lord to meet the saints’ daily needs.
Turkey
Earlier this year an Ethiopian brother in London got to know three Christian sisters working in Istanbul via internet and introduced them to us. These three sisters met and served in a denomination for a period of time. At one point one of them felt their service was superficial, empty, and contradicting to her inward feeling, so she stopped going to the meetings. Later on these sisters obtained a copy of “The Normal Christian Life” by Brother Nee and were touched by it. When the government canceled the weekend lockdown at the beginning of June, we had a time of fellowship with them in person. Since then we have continued to fellowship with them on a regular basis. Please pray for their continual enjoyment of the ministry and for them to remain open for fellowship. May the Lord open their eyes and touch them with the word of the ministry that they would know the Lord’s heart’s desire in a deeper way and be preserved on the right way.
A Testimony of Migration for the Lord’s Move
In response to the call for the Lord’s Move to Asia, my wife and I came to Sri Lanka. We stayed in one place for two years from August of 2015 to July of 2017 and coordinated with the local saints in the church life. We had home meetings every day with different people. There were 20 homes under our regular shepherding. We began to visit another city and coordinated with the saints there in our second year in Sri Lanka. After two times of ten-day propagations, over 12 homes were open to us, and we visited these homes every other week. A year later the saints began breaking bread in that city. Eventually we moved there in September of 2017 to continue our shepherding of these homes.
In the past five years, we learned many lessons on how to approach people of different religious backgrounds, how to shepherd people according to their needs, and how to respond to different questions by providing biblical references and leading people to the truth concerning Christ and the church.
During our time here, we experienced being infected with diseases and suffering unexpected injuries, but the Lord faithfully kept and delivered us from every danger and adversity. May the Lord continue to preserve us that we would have the same mind as the apostle Paul: “But I consider my life of no account… in order that I may finish my course and the ministry which I have received from the Lord Jesus to solemnly testify of the gospel of the grace of God” (Acts 20:24). May we remain faithful to follow the Lord’s move in the fellowship of the Body. (Brother D)
Prayer Requests
Pray for the 12 Asian countries with no testimony of the Lord’s recovery: Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Bhutan, East Timor, Iraq, Maldives, North Korea, Palestine, Syria, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Yemen. May the Lord open the way for more saints to migrate to these countries for the propagation of the Lord’s testimony.