Dr. Dennis Jackson
Executive Director
Dear Partners,
I never stop sharing the stat that 4 in 10 people live without access to the Gospel. These persons live in communities where they do not have a viable church. They do not have the opportunity to hear of a heavenly Father who loves them, that Christ died to save them and the Holy Spirit can transform them.
From a human perspective, this hopeless reality is that the need is far greater than our resources. But the mission to reach the unreached is ultimately God’s mission. And He invites and empowers us to join Him in His mission to share the gospel with all creation.
God has also given each of us gifts, and he has knit us together in the body of Christ. We cannot complete this mission without God, and we cannot complete this mission without one another.
Thank you once again for your partnership in sharing the gospel. It is with great joy that I share with you how God has blessed your investment in this past year.
In H+S Service,
Missionaries Mobilized
We celebrate stories of joy-filled, fully surrendered living—stories of giving our lives away for the global mission, just as Christ gave his life for the world.
NEXT STOP: LONG-TERM SERVICE
Young adults want to know more about the world and how they fit into it. That’s why we created NEXT, a mentored, cross-cultural internship designed to help young adults deepen their relationship with God and develop their understanding of themselves.
Five NEXT alumni were appointed summer 2024 to serve as missionaries with Global Partners. NEXT helped Haley discern her calling to be a long-term missionary. “I had a calling to go but didn’t know what to do. NEXT made my call tangible! NEXT was a safe space to discern where Jesus was leading me, and it stimulated my spiritual growth.”
Miranda* shared, “Working with a team was so encouraging. If you’re going overseas long-term, you’re not doing it alone, you’re meant to be a part of this team that’s spurring each other on.”
As NEXT interns discover more about themselves, they’ll see how God created them for a unique purpose and place in the world so that they can participate in His global church. Nito valued being connected to a community of workers. “That they believed in me and wanted to see me succeed was a game changer. Global Partners from the beginning encouraged me to pursue the Lord first and then see where he took me with the Great Commission.”
*Name changed due to security guidelines
Partnerships Engaged
We look for partnerships that are both relational and strategic. Relational means regular, ongoing contact. Strategic means a long-term investment with a clear aim in mind.
Join Team Amplify by setting up a recurring monthly gift today! By joining the team, your gifts help to clear financial hurdles for every Global Partners missionary.
Visit gponline.org/teamamplify for more.
FAITHFUL THROUGH THE UPS AND DOWNS
For months, Pastor Jon Allen and his Journey Church team (Michigan) were communicating with us about investing in church planting in Nicaragua. We dreamed, laughed, brainstormed and shared our hearts for Nicaragua.
After many months of discussion and after hosting our first Journey team, we were excited about taking the next steps; then everything fell apart. There was a horrible schism among our church leaders – our most successful and most active church planters were determined to go on planting, but independently.
After sharing our hurt with the Global Partners leadership team, we shared the news with the Journey Church team. I was sad to let them know what happened so soon after we had all felt encouraged about our future projects together.
Pastor Jon and the Journey Church leaders listened, asked questions and mourned with Sarah and I at a time where we were at our lowest point. They prayed for us, and they were ready to pivot as needed.
Months have passed since that Zoom call, and Journey Church continues to be faithful in prayer, support and with their presence. This past August, we worked with a great Journey Church team. Though life continued to throw curveballs, God was with us. On our last afternoon, the church planter Miguel shared with me “I needed this missions team. I am working alone, and it is hard. This team showed me that they are behind me and that they are part of my team.”
Generosity Inspired
Regardless of where your mailing address says you live, we all joyfully leverage all our resources for the sake of the mission.
A SIGH OF RELIEF
“We received an amazing donation from The Bridge Church,” I excitedly told my husband.
Time and time again we have seen the Lord prove Himself Jehovah Jireh (God who provides). But after nearly 20 years on the mission field, several of our long-term supporters have passed away and some new pastors at supporting churches have dropped our support.
My husband breathed a sigh of relief but seemed puzzled. “Who is The Bridge and where is The Bridge?”
Several weeks before, while he was out of town, I received a request from our home church (Foothills Community Church) and a Global Partners Mobilizer to contact Stephanie Williams, a pastor at The Bridge in Charles City, Iowa. The church was looking to come alongside another missionary unit.
Stephanie and I had a great conversation — I shared about The Balkans, our partnership with the public youth center and the vision to reach our Muslim friends and neighbors. After our pleasant conversation, The Bridge decided to come alongside us and now supports The Balkans generously every month — praise God! And, as importantly, they have connected us to a wonderful couple that checks in on us and shares our prayer requests with the church.
Followers Multiplied
As a result of partnering with Global Partners, your church will play a key role in more stories — stories of personal transformation and stories of the transformed being gathered into newly planted church communities.
TRANSFORMED BY GRACE
Sangita* grew up in a Hindu household on the top of a mountain in a village of 5,000 people. As she entered her teen years, she became possessed by a tormenting spirit. Her parents took her to all the typical places and people to try to find help for their tormented daughter, all without any satisfying results.
Then, a small Wesleyan Church in their community began, led by a young lay pastor. Sangita was taken to this young congregation and heard the Good News of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. The young congregation had child-like faith and boldness to simply pray for Sangita’s deliverance and salvation. God graciously responded to those prayers and Sangita was wonderfully delivered from the tormenting spirit and gloriously saved!
Sangita became one of the most enthusiastic believers in the church. The Nepal Wesleyan Church network invited her to participate in a three-month discipleship training for ministry, where she grew in her faith and received seamstress vocational training.
Today, Sangita supports herself and her family with her sewing skills and is a vibrant witness in the local Wesleyan Church in her community, even though she remains the only believer in her immediate family to date. Pray for Sangita as she continues to witness to the saving and delivering power of Christ.
* Names changed due to security guidelines
Leaders Developed
As the gospel takes root in an area, we are eager to turn over responsibility and authority to well-equipped local leaders. We are continually working ourselves out of a job.
A GROWING WESLEYAN MOVEMENT IN EAST ASIA
For more than 25 years, Global Partners used medical service in East Asia as a platform to facilitate national churches in their evangelism, discipleship and church planting efforts – with many thousands coming to know and walk with the Lord. Global Partners, in a very open-handed way, supported any national church that held to an orthodox Christian position with no definite intention to plant a specifically Wesleyan Church.
Unexpectedly, in the last 5 years, national churches and their leaders have expressed a desire to affiliate with The Wesleyan Church.
In the process of facilitating the sending of East Asian missionaries to different parts of the world, church leaders began to express a deep interest in understanding Wesleyan perspectives – which led to the formation of an ordination class for East Asian pastors in 2022. In March of 2024, the first 11 pastors graduated. In October, two of these graduates became the first ordained East Asian Wesleyan pastors. They are the first fruits of what we hope will soon be a growing Wesleyan movement, which will contribute to the growth of God’s Kingdom purposes in East Asia, the protection of His Church there from heresy, the joy of the Christian believers, and the glory of the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Churches Reproduced
Global Partners’ missiology seeks to move each field through five phases—the fifth and final phase being “Multiplying Movements.” A church reaching this phase is not only mature enough to be self-supporting, but it is also parenting new works by planting churches and sending missionaries.
A MOSQUE THAT BECAME A WESLEYAN CHURCH
After I completed my theological training in 2004, I felt God’s calling to win souls and plant new churches in northern Mozambique, where 90% of the population is Muslim. Since then, we have planted more than 100 churches in the same number of communities.
On May 20, 2023, my team and I went to show the Jesus Film in the village of Kazuzu. That night, Mr. Juma Amade, leader of a mosque in the nearby village, came. At the end of the film, Juma accepted Jesus Christ as his Savior and Lord of his life. Then Juma asked us to take the Jesus Film to his village, specifically to his mosque. When we arrived at Sheikh (Juma’s village) we found more than 40 Muslims from an entire mosque waiting for us. We showed the Jesus Film that night, where more than 40 Muslims from an entire mosque surrendered to the Lord Jesus. After three weeks of discipleship, we took the group to the Muali River, where they were baptized.
Today we have a church planted with more than 60 members. After the baptism, we began intensive training work with Juma and three other ex-Muslims, and now Juma is the Pastor of the Church. People from many countries around the world have come to visit and witness this miracle, and they were impressed by God’s action.
Nations Transformed
We are convinced that the gospel of Jesus Christ has the power to transform lives, families, communities and entire nations. We eagerly anticipate the “great multitude” from “every nation, tribe, people and language,” standing before the throne of God. In the meantime, we believe God can use us to see nations made new – from everywhere to everywhere.
HISTORIC GATHERING FOR THE ASIA-PACIFIC REGION
The 2024 Asia-Pacific International Conference of the Wesleyan Church was the first conference of this kind for the Asia-Pacific region.
There were nearly 100 participants from about 20 nations. It was indeed a historic and blessed conference for the Wesleyan Church of the Asia-Pacific region.
All the speakers were from the Asia-Pacific region. The worship in song and prayer was shared by groups representing different countries, which fostered a unity in spirit amongst all. One of the sensitive and touching aspects of our time together were the stories shared by those who were enduring great persecution and hardships for their faith.
When everyone finally made it to the conference, there was much joy and celebration. For some, being at such an international conference was a first-time experience. The fellowship and encouragement were indeed invaluable.
The Theme “Stronger Together” was highlighted in all the preaching and sharing times.
To further strengthen the ministry of the Church in this Asia-Pacific region, a “Missional Advisory Council” was formed to foster greater collaborations and effective ministry in this part of the Wesleyan World. The conference concluded with the joy of having been together in Thailand with a well-represented family of Wesleyan brothers and sisters from the region. Glory to God!
