Case Study: Spiritual Overview

I love the way our ministry cooperates with God’s own work in the world. In a nutshell, Global Media Outreach uses modern digital marketing techniques to connect seekers all over the world to thousands of online evangelists.

GMO Ad

The same technology that mysteriously puts the exact products you’ve been shopping for in your Facebook feed, your search results and websites you visit places inviting gospel questions before the people most likely to ask them. How many of us put off a decision for Christ, while the Holy Spirit’s conviction of sin and the meaninglessness and brevity of life continue to intrude on our thoughts? As the famous poem, “The Hound of Heaven,” asserts, we’re betrayed by everything we look toward for hope, security or significance, until we look to Christ. Ads like the one above provide contacts a window to that hope, with a way to be connected to a helper who will guide and pray for them.

Our “Comments” map (witnesstoall.com/map/comments) puts the viewer in a perspective above the world as people are making decisions for Christ. We encourage people to visit regularly and pray for the visitors while reading the comments. (As I’m writing this, I’m praying for someone who just said “Yes” to Jesus in Portland, OR.)

In Heaven you’ll have much closer relationships with some people you now know, but it’s also true that you may never have met the closest friends you’ll ever have.

— Randy Alcorn

Our Response Center enables leaders to review conversations between the Online Missionaries and the contacts. One I saw recently was between Ron, an 87-year-old great-grandfather in Texas, and Haruna, a welder in Nigeria. Haruna let us know he’d prayed to receive Christ at one of our websites in April, 2012. Over the past 8 years of their relationship, they’ve prayed together over temptations, disappointments, hopes and dreams. In April, 2014, Haruna reported, “I thank God for my life. My life is gradually becoming straight . No more up side down.” Ron tirelessly led Haruna through Bible studies on prayer, the New Heaven and New Earth, the spiritual war, and forgiveness for the next several years. Meanwhile our devotional material was provoking questions to drive his discipleship forward. “What is hard about walking with Jesus? How can we pray for you?” prompted him to share that he was being underpaid by his employers.

In 2017, Haruna’s prayer was: “I pray for God to empower me to spread the Gospel.” Haruna seems to never fail to thank Ron for his teaching and almost always answers the questions Ron sends him.

Haruna has a well-qualified teacher, as Ron graduated from Dallas Theological Seminary in 2009. Ron (and Haruna) are some people I look forward to meeting one day. If not here on earth, then in the heaven they love to talk about!

Cindy is Global Media Outreach’s Volunteer Care Coordinator. It’s part of her job to build relationships with Online Missionaries like Ron by emailing and telephoning them periodically. Now that you know a little more about some of the volunteers we have serving with us, you know that can be a real treat. She hosts prayer conference calls with them and has been blessed to hear some of them call it the highlight of their week.

Emily and Luke will soon be completing their school year. Like everything else in 2020, it’s a little different this time. Both of their colleges decided on in-person classes this year, but in-person classes will end at the Thanksgiving break. It’s Emily’s senior year (!!) and two of her roommates are international students from South Korea. We’ve invited them to spend the break with us, since it won’t be possible for them to return home.

Please pray that:

• Mike’s next cystoscopy (scheduled for January 22 at 9:15AM CDT) will be clear. To recap,

◦ Feb 2019 - bladder cancer first detected

◦ Mar 2019 - tumor removed

◦ Jun 2019 - clear test: cancer free

◦ Dec 2019 - another tumor detected

◦ Jan 2019 - tumor removed

◦ Apr 2020 - clear test: cancer free

◦ Jul 2020 - another (very small) tumor removed in the office.

◦ Oct 2020 - clear test: cancer free

◦ By God’s grace, the tumors have all been stage 0a noninvasive papillary carcinoma.

• Emily will sense God’s leading regarding graduate school. Despite her chronic pain and other symptoms from her Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, she’s been a diligent student who has pursued excellence in her academics, her relationships and her spiritual life. Please pray for courage and provision.

• Luke will continue to gain confidence as he pursues his own college education. He's in the middle of his second year in the Mechanical Engineering program at LeTourneau University. All the math and physics is extremely challenging, but we’re praying he will continue to find the work stimulating—he just completed an interesting team project: constructing a COVID-19 ventilator for under $200. Luke was in charge of quality control and wrote much of the report. His college is close enough that we’ve visited him several times and even attended services with him at his church-away-from-home.

• Your fellow ministry partners will remain healthy and experience God’s abundant providence in their lives. (See Philippians 4:14-20) We’ve already connected with some of you who have had the virus and we’re grateful for your recovery. Others have suffered some recent losses unrelated to the virus, and we grieve with you. Our adversary is like a roaring lion, 1 Peter 5:8 tells us, while the next verse goes on to remind us that the family of believers throughout the world all experience the same kind of suffering. Please pray for this selfless team of people who love us and support our work the way that you do. A few of you already know and love one another. The rest of you have some wonderful people you can look forward to meeting one day before God’s throne!

We are so thankful for your love for us, your consistent prayers for us and your faithful support of our work!

Love, in Christ,