The Road Ahead of us; the Faithful Behind Us

In our 11/14 letter, we pictured laying groundwork for a foundation supporting more stories in our new location. It’s fitting to live that out literally.

We feel like the visible tip of the iceberg: small, fragile, seemingly isolated. This is God’s way of reminding us it’s His Body which bears us up. Jesus is really our foundation, and He won’t crack under pressure!

First, an update that is personal—and profound—for us: Thank you for the prayers and gifts toward our home repair expenses! God’s grace, and our partners’ generosity, enable us to choose the best solution from among all the options.

Other ministry successes from 2015

‣2015’s efforts brought the cost of exposing a visitor to the gospel down to 5¢. The ultimate goal, discipleship, is down to $3 per contact messaging us. ‣We developed an “On the Ground” connection system for new disciples, establishing partnerships with other ministries in China, India, Indonesia, Mexico and the Middle East.
‣We held events to thank our Online Missionaries in California, Dallas, Delaware, Mexico City and Bogotá—16 in all. ‣We began “Journey”—a donor program in which a partner receives ongoing updates about a specific contact’s walk with Christ.
‣The GodLife site was completed in French and Portuguese, while our Next Steps discipleship App for Android and iPhone was released in Turkish, French and Russian, joining Arabic, English, Spanish and Portuguese which were already available in the App.
‣In October, our founder, Walt Wilson was on The 700 Club, telling about his time at Apple and how he got the idea for GMO.
‣The “Response” team is made up of staff members and thousands of volunteers who follow up with visitors. We increased efficiency and reduced average response timefrom 27 to 17 hours in 2015. My training division also oversaw the release of 18 eLearning courses for Online Missionaries in 7 languages.

In 2016…

We launched the Arabic, Indonesian and Hindi language GodLife sites, completing the original 9-language outreach strategy.
‣I took over the responsibility of publishing all our devotional letters in November, reviewing all content for biblical accuracy and writing many. Emails go out to almost 1.7 million people weekly in English, Spanish and French. Chinese begins in February as we work toward an integrated strategy.
‣We’re also working on two smartphone apps simultaneously: a new “small Bible” (for inexpensive phones) and a complete revision of our “Next Steps,” including a new evangelism and messaging system: essentially serving as “GMO-in-an-App.”
‣Within the next 18 months, our core Response Center will be re-written by our in-house programmers.
‣Keynote speakers Lee Strobel and Janet Perez-Eckels,worship leaders Paul Baloche and George Williamson will kick off our “Founder’s Forum” fundraiser in Arizona, April 13-17.
Because you are behind us, because the everlasting armsare beneath us, the road ahead of us is bright!