February 2024
UNLEASHED
Celebrating How Your
Support Is Releasing
The People Of God And The
Power Of God
INSIDE…
Building churches with soccer balls
Charles is a follower of Jesus who played professional soccer in Morocco, Tunisia, and Ukraine in 2016 and 2017. He leads a Disciple Making Movement (DMM) team in West Africa and recently shared how God has used him to impact his sphere of influence for Christ.
My city isn’t just the capital of the state I live in, but historically it’s been a major center of commerce and Islam that has attracted Quranic scholars from throughout western Africa.
As a part of New Generations, I have been taught about prayer walking, which takes us into our cities and neighborhoods as we partner with God to see Him work, opening the hearts of the people we most desire to see Him touch. In prayer walking, God opens our eyes to see where He is working while we pray that He opens their eyes to Him.
As I was prayer walking over time, I sensed the needs of the youth of the city who often felt hopeless about their future. So I began a compassion ministry of soccer to engage some Muslim youth who were hanging out in my courtyard.
At first when I began to play pick-up games with them, they were surprised at my ability and began to ask me, “Why have you come? Will you come and teach us how to play like that?” So I challenged a couple of them to meet with me at 6 a.m. during the week, and I started to train them with different exercises and drills to improve their skills. Then I suggested that they invite some of their friends.
After a foundation of trust was built, I invited a few of them on Saturday to start a Discovery Bible Study (DBS). I also focused on building relationships with their parents. Most were very grateful for my assistance since their sons lacked discipline of all kinds. Over time they noticed that not only the boys’ discipline in soccer improved, but their discipline in other areas of life was improving as well, even in school!
One of the young men, Ibrahim, became one of my first disciples, and his father, a local imam, put pressure on the owners of the stadium I had been using to refuse me entry for soccer practices. What’s worse is his father cut Ibrahim off from his community and kicked him out of his home.
At first, I took Ibrahim in, providing for him and paying his school fees. He worked hard and was very talented at soccer. I helped him enroll in a soccer boarding school in the country’s capital for two years, and eventually, Ibrahim was able to play soccer in Europe.
When Ibrahim was invited to play professionally in Europe, his parents changed their mind about my motives and allowed me access to land for a soccer field. Through family and friends of the soccer players, five churches have now been planted.
Thank you for helping empower so many DMM leaders like Charles, who are taking the skills and experience God has given them to impact many lives for the Kingdom. You are a part of their story because of your gifts and prayers!
From Growing Tomatoes to Growing Disciples
Margaret is a DMM leader who recently did a prayer walk in a new location in her village. And as she prayed and researched the needs there, she discovered that the youth of the village felt hopeless since there were so few job opportunities.
“Because I have experience as a farmer and gardener, I sensed the Lord encouraging me to start with growing tomatoes,” Margaret shared. “So I hired some people, and we began to sell our produce in the local markets.”
Business went so well that Margaret was eventually asked to be the leader of a farmer’s cooperative in the village. She declined, but suggested that her first disciple, Mohammed, become the president. Though he initially experienced some persecution, this was reduced when he began leading the cooperative. Mohammed now has seven churches multiplying out of his own networks!
Margaret took her experience as a farmer and gardener to meet a need in her community, and the cascading effect it’s having is incredible. God is using your gifts and prayers in communities like hers, so thank you again for your partnership.
A Meal is all it Took
Joshna was invited to a Discovery Bible Study (DBS), which was to be accompanied by a meal in her neighbor’s home. The people of her community love the fellowship of mealtime, so Joshna was delighted to go.
She heard stories of life-transformation from the group, so she kept attending. Joshna also got a Bible and began to read it on her own. She discovered many truths that were new to her, and she heard people sharing their stories about God working in their lives. All of this amazed Joshna, especially when she realized that God had been working in her own life even when she didn’t know Him personally.
Joshna and her family eventually came to know Jesus as their Lord and Savior and were all baptized. Today, Joshna leads a DBS group in her neighborhood with the hope, as people turn to the Lord as she did, to see it develop into a church that transforms many more lives. And to think, one simple meal is all it took!
How can you pray to support young churches
While we rejoice in all that God is doing through DMMs, it doesn’t come without a price. Many of the stories of miraculous growth and progress make it easy to forget the peril that many of our brothers and sisters face.
Here are some key areas where your prayers are coveted:
Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso continue to have political and security issues, impacting the church-planting work and reporting process.
New Generations recently held two large training sessions for churches in Malawi, and we also held training sessions for Yao youth attended by 40 individuals. We connected these youth to older mentors in their areas for coaching so that the movement may be sustained.
Lest we forget the danger facing new disciples: A young woman who took part in one of our training sessions feared that her father might harm her since he was angered by her participation. Tragically, she was found murdered in her home. Two other women trainees have been martyred as well. Pray for their loved ones, and for the DMM leaders who are ministering to them.
A challenge in South Asia is maintaining focus on generational multiplication within each engagement. The risk is the temptation to keep expanding to new engagements at the cost of going deep enough to fulfill our mission of seeing every engagement reach movement. Pray that catalysts will not do all the work of finding persons of peace in an ever-increasing number of villages, but spend their time catalyzing ordinary disciples to do it.
A WORD FROM HARRY
My friend Jerry Trousdale says…
“The church today is preaching to produce conversion; then teaching to increase knowledge; then giving periodic attention… to encourage converts to obey what they have learned….
“What Jesus did with the Twelve was exactly the opposite….”
How Jesus made disciples, if anything, was extraordinarily, unbelievably simple. He taught His disciples to make disciples in their natural networks and repeat the process. Yet I would argue that the church today has made disciple-making extraordinarily, unbelievably complex.
As a result, entire populations remain virtually untouched by the Gospel despite 2,000 years of effort and investment. The people of God are still losing the bigger war!
This is why we’ve focused this edition of Unleashed on things as simple as soccer balls, tomatoes, and eating a meal to unleash movements. And it’s why, as you read these pages, I want to challenge you to answer this question: What’s a simple need in your sphere of influence that you could help meet?
I don’t know if God has equipped you to coach soccer or plant tomatoes,
but I do know that He’s equipped you for “every good work” He’s called you
to (2 Tim. 3:17).
After being in full-time ministry for almost 50 years, I can attest that there’s nothing more thrilling than discovering what your “simple” thing is—and then letting God unleash that work for His Kingdom!
Thank you as always for your support and prayers, which, as you’ve read in these pages, is simply being used to make disciples and plant churches. Let’s keep the momentum going!
Blessings,
Harry Brown
President