The following report was written by Darren Williamson, Minister of the church in Keizer, Oregon, who led the Myanmar mission team:
The Keizer Church of Christ, Keizer, Oregon, conducted a successful six-week campaign in Yangon, Myanmar this summer. The team consisted of eight members of the Keizer Church (Leon Haight, Bill Zoerner, Roger Elliott, Dick and Pam Haines, Joann Matson, and Darren and Melody Williamson), three members from the Lobster Valley church (Zach Snedker and Cris & Brian Leavitt), and one member of the Newberg Church (Amy Rockwell). This team worked closely with local Yangon evangelist, Philip Van Biak Liam, to reach out to students in the nation’s largest city.
The WEI website, the Eventbrite website, and personal invitations led to 53 students participating in the campaign and a total of 31 students receiving a certificate of completion. Many seeds were sown among the primarily Buddhist student population, and the team spent a lot of time encouraging (and being encouraged by) the small local churches in Yangon.
One of the highlights of the campaign was the relationships that developed between team members and their students. Many of these students will continue to study WEI materials online with teachers they met during the campaign.
An additional blessing of the campaign is that two members of the team, Dick and Pam Haines, stayed in Myanmar for a few extra weeks and traveled north to the capital city of Naypyidaw to follow up with WEI students. Dick and Pam not only studied with their current WEI students but enrolled more than a dozen new students in WEI. We are hopeful that through their efforts and follow up by local evangelists a new church can be established in Naypyidaw in the near future.
God is truly opening doors in Myanmar.
In a recent e-mail, Brother Prabhu Kumar (Director of WEI-India) reported that seven more people had been baptized by WEI teachers in India. All but two have come from Hindu backgrounds.
Brother Vinod Kumar, WEI teacher in Ambajipet, baptized five people: (1) P. Satynarayanan, a fifty-six-year-old government employee, Hindu, (2) P. Mariyamma, a fifty-year-old house wife, Hindu, (3) P. Baby, a twenty-one-year-old student, Hindu, (4) R. Struthi, a nineteen-year-old student, Pentecostal, and (5) A. Veeramma, a fifty-year-old student, Beraka Church. In the picture below, Prabhu and his wife are shown standing at the edge of the Godavari River, and Prabhu is pointing to the five new Christians. Brother Vinod Kumar is wearing a white shirt.
Brother Payani, WEI teacher in the Chittoor District, just baptized two people: (1) Chengamma, a fifty-one-year-old housewife, Hindu, and (2) J. Malini, a forty-eight-year-old house wife, Hindu.
This is a typical newsletter that Prabhu sends out each month. God is blessing WEI-India with ongoing success. To him be the glory.
One of the most fruitful ongoing works using the WEI tool for introducing lost souls to the Word of God and the Gospel message is WEI-India. Having visited and reported on this work in 2015 and again in 2016, I am compelled by a deep sense of love and admiration to promote this ministry under the direction of Brother Prabhu Kumar.
Sponsorship of WEI-India was assumed by the Maryville church of Christ under the oversight of their elders in 2015. We have struggled to gather the necessary financial support for this ministry since the passing of WEI Internet teacher and WEI-India founder brother Mike Hale. To date, this ministry has over 50 WEI schools operating in partnership with churches of Christ throughout southeast India. Many Hindu and Muslim people are learning the truth of God’s word while studying English with Indian WEI teachers trained by Brother Prabhu Kumar. The results have been nearly overwhelming.
From 2007 to present, over 48,000 WEI Bible studies have been conducted—mostly in underdeveloped towns and villages in the State of Andhra Pradesh, India.
- 2014 = 83 WEI students baptized
- 2015 = 102 WEI student’s baptized.
- 2016 = 32 Baptisms to date.(The schools conclude in December)
- 2007 – 2016 total = 531 baptisms.
The annual need to continue this fruitful work now sponsored by the Maryville church of Christ is $30,000. To date we only have approximately $10,000 in commitments to fund the ministry through 2017. We desperately need more funds to cover all the expenses needed to continue this most fruitful work and ministry for the year 2017 and beyond.
Please give prayerful consideration to supporting the WEI-India ministry. We cannot allow this beautiful and fruitful work to fold simply due to a lack of funding. Contact anyone associated with WEI if you wish to learn more about this opportunity. Thank you,
Tom Langley
When Jackie Harp, a faithful WEI teacher in Searcy, Arkansas, lost her eyesight and had to give up teaching the students she loved, her friend Lola Crouch continued teaching them.
Recently, Jackie received the following e-mail from Kuji Rotu, a grateful student in Indonesia: “You did not ever tire of telling me about the truth of God Voice. I just want you to know that my life really change. I try to involve God in my life. I have to be like Jesus Christ. … Thanks for all you have done for me.”
In September, Lola received the following email from Kuji: “Thank you so much for your attention for me. I want you to know that I did baptize today at 17:15 PM.” Lola shared this email with Jackie, and together they “cried and cried for joy.”
Since WEI is registered in the State of Oregon as a non-profit church-related educational institution, and since the Gresham office has a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status with the IRS, WEI is in the process of unifying the Gresham and Maryville offices financially. This will streamline our financial record-keeping and will solve a lot of problems. As of January 1, 2017, all funds (income and expenditures) will be processed through one bank account in Gresham.
As of January 1, we would appreciate it if all of our partners in world evangelism would send their support to the Gresham office at the address on this newsletter.
Jesus identified his earthly mission when he said to Zacchaeus, the chief tax collector in Jericho, “Today, salvation has come to this house . . . . For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost” (Luke 19:10).
In the first century, Jewish tax collectors were regarded as traitors. Yet when Jesus saw Zacchaeus sitting in the Sycamore tree, he saw a man who was lost and needed to be rescued; so he invited himself to Zacchaeus’ house for dinner.
That was an astonishing thing to do. Decent people didn’t eat with tax collectors and sinners. A Jewish Rabbi once wrote, “There is joy in heaven when one sinner is obliterated from the earth.” By contrast, Jesus said that, “there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent” (Luke 15:7)). God is not willing that anyone should perish. He wants “everyone to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).
As we teach our WEI students on the Internet or through postal mail, let us “speak the truth in love.” I have never known anyone to be argued into the arms of Jesus. It is counter-productive to argue with students about their religion. The most effective way to win people to Christ is to tell his story.
The greatest demonstration of love the world has ever known was the voluntary suffering of Jesus. He was falsely accused, beaten, mocked, ridiculed, humiliated, and left to bleed out on the cross. Yet, he looked down from the cross with love in his eyes and prayed for the people who were killing him: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34). That scene brings tears to the eyes of our students and draws them to Jesus.
A German Jew said, “Suffering is a language that everyone understands.” The suffering of Jesus is the universal language of love. A woman in India, upon hearing about the suffering of Jesus for the first time, said, “I have known about him all my life, and now you have told me his name.”
Help us spread the name of Jesus to the ends of the earth. We love you.
Dick and Maudine
We are thrilled to announce that Rhema Christian Academy in Uruk Otong, southeastern Nigeria, has received official accreditation, and students from K through 12 are back in school.
Thanks to generous contributions from American churches and individuals, the RCA multi-purpose building has been completed and has passed government inspection.
On September 20, Aniefiok Akpan, Founder of RCA and minister of the Campus Church wrote, “Today, we had a full house of pupils, students, and staff gathering to sing songs of praise to Almighty God who has saved our beloved Christian school from extinction. Prayers of thanksgiving and blessings were offered for the Christian brethren who sacrificed their resources to ensure the completion of the building and the sustaining of our Christian mission in Uruk Otong, Nigeria.”
Aniefiok says, “Today, we assigned World English Institute Introductory Lessons to the first batch of high school students. We will be teaching our high school students English and the Bible on a daily basis using WEI study materials. We prayerfully hope to lead them to Christ through these studies.”
On October 2, Aniefiok shared the following good news: “One of our new World English Institute students accepted Christ and was baptized today at Uruk Otong. The student’s name is Precious Eddy James. My wife Queen (Etang) is her WEI teacher. Precious is so excited about her new relationship with Christ and his church. Queen accompanied her to the village stream and witnessed the baptism.”
Aniefiok concludes, “Please keep us in your prayers that our renewed zeal in evangelizing with WEI studies as resource materials will continue to bear desirable fruits.”
Brother Prince Ugbe preaches for the Township Church of Christ in Obudu, Nigeria, a village located in a remote mountainous area about 150 miles northeast of Port Harcourt. Prince is also the director of the Darrell Memorial Bible Institute (an affiliate of Sunset International Bible Institute) that was named in honor of the late missionary Darrell Foltz who was killed by robbers while working in Obudu. Prince is sponsored and supported by the Southwest congregation in Tigard, Oregon.
In April of this year, Prince conducted a WEI teachers training session for twelve graduates of DMBI and five other church leaders, equipping them to use WEI to lead people to Christ.
Then in July, he conducted a week-long WEI seminar for fifty-eight men, women, and young people from that area. The attendees were divided into small groups, and each group was taught WEI lessons by a different teacher.
On July 30, Prince reported that four young men had “obeyed the gospel in baptism.”
The next day, Prince reported that five more young people had been baptized. By the end of the seminar ten of the fifty-eight attendees had been baptized into Christ.
Prince is already making plans for another WEI seminar in Obudu next summer.
Fred Jewel, retired professor at Harding University, and his wife Alice, spent most of the month of September in Tirana, Albania teaching their WEI students.
On September 8, Fred wrote, “Things have gotten off to an excellent start here. After only two days, we have had a significant development. I’m excited to report that one of my WEI on-line students who has traveled an hour each day to come to Tirana from her home outside of Durres announced today that she had decided to be baptized.”
“Her parents are cultural, but not practicing, Muslims, a condition most common here in Albania. They will not be happy, but they will not oppose her. She said, “I am 22 and able to make my own decision about the most important thing in my life.”
On September 12, Fred wrote, “Meet your new sister in Christ. She is Dorentina (Dora) Hysa from Durres, Albania, baptized this morning in Tirana. Bledi Valca delivered a brief explanation of what we were doing, and why, in Albanian to Dora’s sister, brother, and best friend who attended the baptism. I then had the privilege of immersing her into Christ.”
“This lady/girl has such a pure heart and sweet disposition. After the baptism, we walked with our arms around each other’s waists to the restaurant 10 minutes away from the building where all of us present for the event had a celebration lunch; then we walked back to the building in the same manner. Her expressions of gratitude and affection were so sincere and continual; she didn’t want to let go of me. It was both an humbling and exhilarating experience.”
Fred is Chairman of the International Missions ministry at the College Church of Christ in Searcy, Arkansas, the congregation that has sponsored Ellen Walker as a missionary in Tirana for more than twenty years.
Most of us love to sing, but do we hear what we are singing? When we sing “Seeking the Lost” or “Christ for the World We Sing,” do we sing with understanding? This week at the Abundant Life Retreat in Branson, MO, this was one of the themes:
“I May Never Pass this Way Again”
“I’ll share my faith with every troubled heart
That I shall not have lived in vain.
I’ll give my hand, I’ll sing my song.
I’ll share my faith because I know
That the time is now to fulfill each vow,
For I may never pass this way again.
“I’ll serve my Lord in every precious day
That God gives me to live and love;
I’ll help my neighbors, friends, and lost to know
God, for I may never pass this way again.
“I’ll reach out to the weary, weak, and lame,
And never waste a single day.
I’ll serve my Lord; I’ll help the lost,
I’ll reach to those who don’t know God;
For the time is now to fulfill each vow,
For I may never pass this way again.”
(Wizell and Melcher, Verse 2 Kay Gowen)
When our time on earth is over, and we meet our Creator, will we wish we could go back and do more for him—perhaps something we had planned to do but never did? Instead of waiting for “someday,” recall the words of this song and start now.
Moses gave God excuse after excuse why he shouldn’t be the one to fulfill the task God had for him (Exodus 3).
Isaiah said, “Here am I. Send me” (Isaiah 6:8).
The WEI Internet program continues to grow in nations around the world, and the seed we can sow is limited only by the number of willing sowers. “Anywhere with Jesus” is another old song still sung often. WEI Internet teachers can go anywhere with Jesus with their computers.
Why not say with Isaiah, “Here am I. Send me!”?
Bob and Jan
When I think about the vision of World English Institute, I am truly in awe and eternally grateful. God continues to bless WEI in so many wonderful ways. One of our greatest blessings and resources is our teachers. They are simply amazing! Many of them labor several hours a week teaching and encouraging their students all around the world. Our teachers are tireless servants of God who are investing in the lives and souls of their students. They have learned from Jesus to create meaningful and lasting relationships with their students. Through our committed and faithful teachers, God is spreading the sweet aroma of Christ everywhere. Many precious hearts are being touched and changed daily through their study of the Bible. Praise God for all our wonderful teachers!
In addition, we are recruiting and adding new teachers every week. God has blessed us with 236 new teachers so far this year! We can never have enough teachers! Please help us by sharing our WEI ministry with your friends and family and encourage them to become a WEI teacher. Students are always waiting for that special someone to become their wonderful teacher!
Our WEI staff has been discussing possible ways to invest and encourage our teachers. We strongly desire to have opportunities to share and learn from each other’s WEI experiences. Since we are spread out all over the USA, we are planning to have several WEI teacher workshops in strategic locations where we have a large population of teachers in the surrounding region. I am very excited to share that we are planning to have our first WEI teacher workshop in Norman, Oklahoma on April 29, 2017. Future locations and dates will be announced as soon as we confirm sites and dates.
God bless all you wonderful teachers! How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news! I thank my God every time I remember you!!!
