Preach through your actions!

Dear friends,

“Namaste!” This time I am writing our newsletter from India, and this is the greeting we hear every day. We are here for a whole month in the huge city of Mumbai, with over 20 million people.

Preach through your actions

The first week we were speakers in the conference of “Call2Compassion and Justice.” More than 400 people, including many pastors, had come from all over India.  The conference was about the integral mission of the church, or as a young Indian woman in a beautiful green and gold sari said: “Preach the good news of God through your actions!”

20-30 clients per night

Halfway through the week, everyone in the conference had the opportunity to visit a ministry of a local mission organization. Some went to see the work in the red light district where an estimated 150,000 girls and women work. They are forced to prostitute themselves with 20 to 30 clients every night. Others from the conference went to visit the aftercare programs for girls rescued from sexual exploitation.

Deeply shocked and tremendously encouraged

It is so important to see personally the joy and the suffering mirrored in the huge brown eyes of those children and teenagers. Everybody came back deeply shocked but also tremendously encouraged by all the wonderful people who inspire so much hope working in the different projects.

Wherever we visit, everywhere are lots of children!

Teaching in the Children@Risk School in Mumbai, India

C@R School: Multiplying work among children

During the remainder of the month we are teaching in the Children at Risk (C@R) School. The students come from various parts of India and have dedicated their lives to the Lord Jesus to be used by Him to reach children in need. They plan to go back to their cities after this school. We hope and pray that the classes we are teaching will be of great value for their work and lives!

Just one of the beautiful kids in Mumbai.

Needed: Places for 58,000 people to stay!

While we are in India, the preparation for the World Cup 2014 continues. Some international organizations had told us that they would like to bring 6,400 evangelism and compassion teams of 10 to Brazil during the World Cup.

So the big question is: Do we have room for 64,000 people?

Hmm… Yes, we think so.

Of course, if you divide them up over the 12 host cities the numbers become a little more manageable. It comes down to 500 teams per city. We believe there will be 500 churches in every city that can host such a team. So we are hard at work to see this happen. Some big churches have already guaranteed 6,000 beds, so we have “just” 58,000 to go!

Meeting God in Brazil

During the last two football/soccer World Cup competitions in Germany and South Africa, there have been very disturbing reports of the growth of prostitution, human trafficking and sexual exploitation. Will this happen in Brazil as well? When Brazil is already one of the most popular countries for sex tourism?

We are asking local churches and international teams to partner together during the World Cup to evangelize and to participate in the battle against human trafficking and sexual exploitation, so that Brazil will become famous internationally, not because of the children, teenagers and women forced into prostitution, but because of the extraordinary beauty of its nature, for it’s wonderful soccer, for its loving and hospitable people, but above all for its churches and followers of Jesus, where they can meet the love, the compassion and the justice of God.

Awareness through documentaries

One of the best documentaries on human trafficking we have ever seen is the movie “Nefarious.” It was made by Exodus Cry and IHOP (International House of Prayer). One of their film crews visited us in Brazil the day before we left for India and interviewed us for a new documentary about human trafficking in Brazil.

Another film team from Operation Blessing, linked to CBN, also came to do an interview. As soon as we have their material, we will post the link so it can be used for spreading greater awareness and action.

Little clips on mobiles

Besides the production of the bigger documentaries, we have asked for the release of 2-3 minute videos for specific audiences, for example, for taxi drivers. Here in Brazil there are associations for Christian taxi drivers. We would like to offer them these short clips, which they can use on their mobile phones.  When asked for a ride to a prostitution area or night club by a tourist, the taxi driver can show the clips, making him aware of the terrible life of the girls, forced to prostitute themselves to 20-30 different men each night. We hope lots of tourists will change their minds after seeing those clips.

Highways to hell

Another clip will be created to go viral on the mobile phones of truck drivers. Alongside all major highways are many places where children and teenagers sell their bodies. We would like to stop the lie, so easily believed, that those kids chose this life themselves--a life of humiliation, exploitation, abuse, violence and disease on roads that are nicknamed “highways to hell.”

Help through an App

Girls and women who clean hotel and motel rooms are another group we need to reach with awareness. For them and the general public, we hope to provide a free app to download, through which they can provide information without endangering themselves, if they believe they are witnesses of human trafficking.

24/7 prayer

All kinds of national and international organizations are joining together to help, each in their own area of gifting and focus. One organization wants to maintain a 24/7 house of prayer in the red light district in each of the 12 host cities. In Belo Horizonte we have offered the Recanto House for this purpose.

Bibles and the Jesus film on all mobiles

Another organization offered us a fantastic new technology for downloading the Bible and the Jesus film through Wi-Fi and Bluetooth on mobile phones. There is a choice of 6000 written languages, 700 languages for spoken New Testaments, and the Jesus film in over 1100 languages. What a great opportunity to be able to bless every tourist with the word of God in his or her own language!

In Brazil there are approximately 30 million evangelical Christians. Can you imagine the tremendous impact it will have if all of them know how to download the Bible on their own mobile phones, and also know how to share the Bible in various languages to the smart and feature phones of the tourists?

With God’s blessing

These are big plans. Johan and I will still have numerous meetings with YWAM coordinators and their teams in all of the twelve World Cup cities, as well as with pastors and leaders of partner organizations.  Without the blessing of God, a project like this is impossible. But we want to obey God and ask Him to increase our faith, in order that many lives will be transformed, injustice will be reported and exploiters punished. Salvation, freedom and healing will take place. With God’s help, local churches and international organizations will join together in unity for the glory of God. Please pray with us until we see the fulfillment of this dream!

Thank you so much, all of our friends who have upheld us in your prayers and supported us with your messages, emails and donations; you are such an important part of our lives. Without you it would not be possible to be the missionaries we are and to do the things we do. We want to thank you all, wish you a Christmastime focused on our Lord Jesus, and lots of blessings for the coming New Year!