Steve Kempton leads church planting training in Phnom Penh

Two reasons to celebrate!

God is on the move in the nations, writes Elim International Missions Director Iain Hesketh

Our missionaries and Global Partners have experienced many of the same challenges as we have here in the UK over the last few years, as well as several challenges we haven’t had to face. Despite all this, there are lots of reasons to be encouraged as we look at all that God is doing in his world. Let me to tell you about two great reasons to celebrate.

MACEDONIA

Scott Jackson serves in Macedonia

Scott Jackson, one of our missionaries in Macedonia, travelled in October 22 to Balkan Call, a prayer event gathering believers from across the region to pray for repentance, forgiveness and reconciliation. Almost 400 believers came together for three days to pray.

The Balkans is a region marked by political and relational tensions of Soviet rule, but also going back further in history to events under the Ottoman Empire.

The Balkan Call prayer event saw representatives from each nation stand and offer forgiveness for past crimes against their nations and repentance for their own nation’s wrongdoings. Scott writes, “Over the course of the gathering, a key message was the need for each of us to see ourselves first and foremost importantly as citizens of heaven, as a family of a holy kingdom. The church cannot hope to see reconciliation between nations if we ourselves are divided because of nationalism. We need to see ourselves as united in Christ, and to treat each other as such.”

CAMBODIA

Elim Cambodia has a vision to plant a church in every village in every province of Cambodia. It is actively raising , training and deploying leaders to establish new communities of believers around the country. Towards the end of 2022 a group of church planters met in Phnom Penh for some training with Steve Kempton and Bhab Ghale, an Elim Global Partner from Nepal.

This was the end of three years training in church planting. During these three years each student has been faithfully studying, praying for the kingdom of God and planting churches.

There was deep joy amongst the group as they celebrated all that God has done over the last three years of their training, and looked ahead to what he will do as they returned to their villages.

Elim Cambodia is continually investing in new leaders who will plant a church in every village.

There are so many more stories I could tell you of what God is doing in the nations. Our missionaries and Global Partners are engaged in disciple-making ministry in a wide range of contexts around the world. Our website is regularly updated with the latest stories as missionaries send us their newsletters.

Head to the Elim Missions website or follow us on our social media platforms to keep up to date with what God is doing in the nations.

May those stories encourage you to pray for our missionaries, but also to join in with the mission of God where you are as well!

This article first appeared in the April 2023 edition of Direction Magazine. For further details, please click here.

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