EE Brings Hope to Desolate Places posted by John Sorensen on Jun 01, 2016

Dear Friend,

Imagine you were forced to flee home tonight and wound up in a refugee camp with thousands of others. Built to hold 50,000 people, the camp teems with nearly 150,000.

Instead of your warm bed, you’re forced to sleep inside a flimsy mass shelter made from wooden poles. The shelter is covered by plastic sheeting but mosquitoes get in and many suffer from malaria. A cloud of dust blankets the camp in dry season.  That’s what African refugees like Augustin Minani face now. An English teacher from Burundi, he took EE training over a year ago. But when civil war broke out, he fled to neighboring Tanzania and now lives in one of the world’s largest refugee camps.

Augustin, back row center, with fellow refugees he’s trained in EE

Yet in this desolate place, Augustin not only uses his EE training to share Jesus and bring hope, he is also equipping others to share the Gospel.  “We love to work for our Lord,” says Augustin, who took his EE materials with him when he escaped from Burundi. Now he uses his EE flip chart and Hope For Kids to share the Gospel with adults and children.

And Augustin is not alone in using EE to take the Gospel into squalid and bleak refugee camps. The same thing “happens all the time in most of our camps around Africa,” says Vincent Wanjala, our vice president elect for Africa. Every day, Augustin – and others just like him – wake up in African refugee camps and choose to make a difference for the Lord.

Your generosity makes outreach like this possible – and not just in Africa, but in Evangelism Explosion nations around the world.  But right now we have an urgent need – and an extraordinary opportunity.

Thanks to committed and generous friends like you, more than 10 million people made professions of faith in Jesus last year through EE. We praise God for this phenomenal and historic achievement.  But so many more need to know Jesus died for them. Nearly 2 billion people have never even heard the Gospel. That’s why I’m asking you to join us in seeing more than 11 million people come to faith in Jesus in 2016.

It’s crucial we reach this target – yet it won’t happen without your financial help.

To be honest, we’re falling behind in our funding right now. For that reason, with our fiscal year ending on midnight June 30, I ask for your generous support today. By God’s grace your gift will accelerate everything we are doing to see 11 million people make professions of faith in Jesus this year.

And let me give you two compelling reasons why now is the time to give.

First, EE is one of the best investments you can make to reach the world for Jesus. This past year we saw one person make a profession of faith for every $1.21 given to the ministry. We believe this year will be just as fruitful, and possibly more.  The reason is that, instead of training and sending American missionaries, EE equips native-born lay people like Augustin Minani to share the Gospel in their own language to their own culture.

That makes EE incredibly efficient and incredibly effective.  The bottom line is your gift to EE goes farther and does more to complete the Great Commission.  And let me give you one more reason why now is the time to give.

Generous friends of Evangelism Explosion just created a $150,000 Fiscal Year-End Matching Challenge Fund. As a result, every gift made to this urgent appeal – up to $150,000 – will be matched dollar for dollar. So when you give now, you’ll do twice as much to bring people to Jesus.

And your generous gift – doubled up to $150,000 – is urgently needed.

• There are children waiting to hear the Gospel because we don’t have the funds to print the Explorers Club materials that will disciple the children who come to Jesus through our Hope For Kids ministry. And the same is true for the adult materials desperately needed to reach men and women across the globe.

• In addition, EE field workers labor tirelessly to share the Gospel in places so poor some may be paid in rice for the evangelism training they provide at a church.

• Still others can’t openly raise support because it’s too dangerous. They’re willing to risk their lives to share the Good News.

• Will you stand with these dedicated workers and make your gift count by giving today?

Remember, every dollar you send means more souls won to Jesus. Plus, because of the $150,000 Matching Challenge Fund, your fiscal year-end gift by June 30 will be doubled and bring the free gift of eternal life to twice as many.

How many people would you like to be part of winning to Jesus today?

Don’t miss this opportunity to multiply the impact of your gift to bring the Gospel to lost men, women, elderly and little children in African refugee camps and nations around the world. Please let me hear from you today.

I’m grateful to have you partner with me in reaching the world!

Sincerely in Christ,

John B. Sorensen, D.D.
President