Tag Archives: Websites

Spreading the Gospel all over the world

How would you give out the Gospel if you could only quote Scripture? Suppose you could only speak words directly from the Bible. How would you tell people that their sins are keeping them from a relationship with God and that repentance and faith in Jesus Christ is the only way to Heaven?

This is a challenge that we have before us at this time! Though we have some help from people that speak the language a bit, in some languages we have nothing other than the Bible to present to people. So what should we say? Should we just quote John 3:16 over and over again? This is a point I have been pondering for years now. How much of the Gospel that I give is directly from the Bible?

The last few weeks have been very fruitful as we are expanding our outreach! It is exciting to see what God is doing.

Last week almost 10,000 people viewed content from our Facebook pages. Most of these people are from French speaking countries where we have been advertising, but a good portion of them are from Brazil and from Haiti also. How wonderful it is to get comments, questions, and responses from people who are encouraged by the Word of God.

Here is a breakdown of what has happened over the past few weeks to expand this work…

1. An Arabic page has been started on Facebook.
2. Bible studies have been added to the website in Haitian Creole.
3. A Frequently Asked Questions page was added to French so we can answer more questions quickly.
4. Business cards with the website were distributed to a few Haitian people in Porto Velho, and they will also be receiving several of the Bible studies in the near future.
5. A German Facebook page has been started.

Though these are just small opportunities, the Lord has given them to us and we are doing what we can to reach the World through Brazil. Please take a few moments and pray for this Arabic outreach this week. We started advertising today in Jordan and Iraq. In just a few hours we have had more than 50 likes. This is a great opportunity to reach into the 10/40 window with the Gospel.  Please pray!

Here is an image of our Arabic page.

Arabic Page

I have also listed our Facebook pages below and you can take a look at them if you would like.

Facebook page in Portuguese
Facebook page in Haitian Creole
Facebook page in French
Facebook page in Arabic
Facebook page in German

— Jeremy

God is Working all over Brazil

It is amazing what God can do when we simply allow ourselves to be used of Him. One of the most exciting things in missions is to know that God is at work all over the world. He is at work in the lives of all 7 billion+ people on this earth. Since He is already working, all we have to do is get in on it.

Years ago we started the Gospel website ConhecendoDeus to spread the Gospel to different areas around the world. This ministry has grown quite a bit with the help of Facebook and a few other tools that we use. Though it is not an enormous ministry, it does take time and effort to keep it going.

It has been several months since we have updated you on this part of our ministry. God has increased our influence over the past few months.

The blessings are many, so I will share just a few…

  1. Every week we receive a few prayer requests from all over Brazil. These prayer requests vary in subject, but many of these are requesting God to give them back a boyfriend, bless their health, help them find a job, and things of that nature.
  2. Over 500 people receive a daily posts on Facebook about a passage of Scripture and the application of it in their lives.
  3. We are in contact with people all over the globe because of this website. Recently I have communicated again with our friends in Pakistan that we met through this website.
  4. We are able to provide many resources for pastors, Sunday school teachers, and others who want to study the Bible. Every day people access the site through searches on the internet. Most don’t stay for long, but a few stay for over an hour reading and studying through the site.
  5. Every month we get hits from every state in Brazil as well as hits from other countries around the world. This year alone we have had visits from over 50 different countries.

Specific situations…

  1. Please pray for a man named Erinaldo who has been corresponding with me this week. He was about to end his life when he found our website and wrote asking for prayer. Over the past few days we have corresponded and he wants to be discipled. He related how he had trusted Christ as his Savior about 6 years ago, but was never taken any further. He has a desire to know the Lord and has requested that we teach him and counsel him.
  2. Another individual recently wrote on the website asking what kind of Bible studies we were giving. He wanted to join the Bible study, but was unsure about the methods used. He wanted to know if it was by correspondence, by internet, or how we conducted the studies. Unfortunately we had to write him and tell him that all of our Bible studies were local and being held in person. We are not yet ready to developing online Bible studies. Yet, it seems as thought he Lord keeps urging us to set up some sort of online study. Dozens of people have requested this. It would require a few hours of work a week to video, edit, and upload the studies. Please help us pray!

The Limitations…

    1. We need more laborers. This area of the ministry takes many hours each week. Others have volunteered their help at times and God has used them to get us where we are today. However, we are constantly adding more content and expanding the website useability.
    2. We also need wisdom. John Kokenzie and I have both stretched ourselves in the area of technology to try to reach more people. Our knowledge of web design, graphic design, computer programming, photography, audio/video technology, etc… are being used as best we can.
    3. Our resources are limited. Everything we have done with technology so far has been through open source programs that are free. There are two reasons for this. The first one is because missionaries operate on a limited budget. The second reason is because we want what we do to be reproducible by the national pastor or his people. If he cannot afford what we can, then our tools are useless to him. He will then covet our money, not our God.
    4. God’s blessing is essential. No matter how much we try, we believe that this ministry will only be used as God blesses it. The real work is done by the Holy Spirit in the heart of those that come to the website. We also believe that the Holy Spirit is the one who leads people to search the website and find the things that this website offers. We pray often that God would lead people to the website that need and want to know who God is.

    — Jeremy

    Another Project Complete

    Through the years, we have worked on many different projects. The Lord has given us a burden to reach our generation. One of the tools we have to reach our generation is the internet. This has become such a vital part of our ministry and efforts because so many people are spending time online.

    We live in a very remote part of Brazil, but that has not stopped technology. In our city of over 37,000 people, over 15% of the population uses Facebook. The numbers of internet users are much greater than this.

    Though our work is not perfect, it seems to have somewhat of a professional look and it is useable. We work with the resources we find at relatively no costs other than time invested. Sometimes this causes some issues, but the Lord keeps us pressing forward through the difficult spots.

    This week we finished a new website for the one of the only Independent Baptist publishing companies in Brazil. We have partnered with them by moving them forward in the technology realm. We realize the importance of Christian literature and have invested in this project knowing that it will pay off in the future.

    Good books are hard to find in Brazil. Therefore, we created an online store for this publishing company, Editora Maranata to help them get the word out and become accessible to the modern world. Click on the picture below to visit the new website and also online store.

    Over the last two years, the Lord has slowly expanded the influence of this publishing company. We now are sending the monthly paper out to almost three times as many people and that number is growing at a steady pace.

    Please continue to pray for the future of this ministry. We hope the web store will enable and expand the sale of books on a national level so that the publishing company will be more self-supporting and less dependent on churches in the US. There is a group of pastors and missionaries working together to not only keep this ministry alive, but to move it forward. There are three new books being prepared for publishing, and several others asking us to publish their materials.

    Good literature is essential to soul-winning, training disciples, and equipping leaders. False doctrine is spreading very quickly across Brazil and we must continue to battle the false doctrine and defend the faith which we so dearly cling to. This ministry is one means by which we are seeking to do this. Please keep praying.

    — Jeremy

    2012 London Olympics – True Victory

    True Victory

    One of my projects over the past 6 months or so was the design of a new website for the 2012 Olympics in London. The Olympics will soon be beginning, and thousands of people will be traveling to London from all over the world.

    Many of you are excited about the sporting events and the excitement as you cheer on your country. However, others are awaiting this event with the prospect of reaching the world through London. They see the souls for whom Christ died and see opportunities to reach people with the Gospel.

    We have been working along side Bro. Allen Johnson and Wings Bearing Precious Seed to develop a website similar to our Conhecendo Deus Gospel website. This website, appropriately named truevictory.net is also a Gospel website. It not only gives the Gospel, but also attempts to give the personal story of athletes who have made professed Jesus Christ as their Savior.

    Please visit the website and pass it along to your friends. I know there are several different outreach programs going on in London during this time. Please remember to pray for all these people reaching out to the lost with the Gospel. May the Lord work on the hearts of these athletes and spectators to give them

    Online At Last!

    After more than three weeks, we are finally able to access the internet again. Things have been busy for us over the last few weeks. We have tried to be patient, but after having been wandering around for the past twelve months, we are very anxious to get settled. I guess I could say we experienced 1/40 of what the children of Israel did in the wilderness. I am sure what we have been through does not even compare to that. We have been spoiled in many ways most everywhere we have been. God is good!

    I am looking forward to updating everyone on our latest adventures and getting you up to speed on our ministry progress. I am very excited about what God is doing. Most of the news will have to be posted a little at a time. However, I will give you just a taste of what God is doing.

    Several weeks ago, the Lord brought two Haitian men across my path for a brief instant. We were in and out of the same town for about two weeks. Then they moved and I moved. Now we are about 200 miles apart. However, God is still working in their hearts. Every week I receive a phone call from Adrim. The Lord is doing something special in his life and bringing him closer to the Lord.

    Shortly after trusting Christ as his Savior, he lost his job and had some very disappointing things happen at the next job he took. This forced him to move to a new location where he could be closer to some friends. Though there are some negatives, he is encouraged in the Lord. He will soon receive his very first Bible in his native language! That will no doubt be a big help and boost in his Christian life.

    Manoel, the second man also trusted the Lord and is well. He also is looking forward to receiving a Bible and some studies that he can go through to grow in his Christian life. Please keep praying for these men.

    Since our move to Ouro Preto do Oeste, the Lord has brought several people across our path who are in need of spiritual help. One young saleslady in a department store after answering our questions asked if we were Christians. She then began to ask for spiritual advice. She has been looking for a good church and is disgusted with all the options available to her at this time. Please pray for her. Her name is Edinalva. She has many questions and is looking for the truth.

    Yesterday our neighbors came over to bring us a little treat and we found out that their oldest daughter (15) is interested in missions and has already been reading our Gospel website. We also had a great conversation with some of our other neighbors a few days ago.

    Our website influence is growing slowly, but steadily. Though not many have written us on the website, traffic has increased and people from every state in Brazil as well as other countries are accessing the Gospel website ConhecendoDeus every month.

    Over the next few weeks we will be posting pictures and telling you more about what has happened in the last few weeks and keeping you updated with what is going on presently as well. Below is a picture of the view from the kitchen window in our house.

    — Jeremy

    Panoramic