📿🪢 Holding the Rope for God’s Mission 🪢📿

Have you ever thought of the mission field as a mine, and the lives touched by the Gospel as treasures, waiting to be uncovered for God’s glory? ⛏️💎 Our ministry in Prague through Faith Community Church is somewhat like that—a mine full of riches for the Gospel, waiting to be unearthed. But to extract these priceless riches of lives transformed by the Gospel of grace, some of us must go down into the pit, while others play the crucial role of “holding the rope” back home. 🤝💡 Thank you for holding the rope for us!

“I will go down into the mine, but you must hold the ropes”. ~William Carey

The Legacy of William Carey & Andrew Fuller: Mining Treasures of God’s Grace for the Gospel

In 1792, as William Carey, the "father of modern missions," began his lifelong mission to India, he understood the immense potential for seeing millions of people from hundreds of unreached people groups in India, reached with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, for God’s glory. But William Carey knew that he couldn't do it alone and that the partnership of those back home in England was absolutely critical for his ministry in India. In particular, Carey’s friend and fellow pastor back in England, Andrew Fuller, whom Carey told in a letter, “I will go down into the mine, but you must hold the ropes”. 🪢📿

William Carey’s role was to be the “miner” or missionary who was called to descend into the mine ⛏️, and Andrew Fuller enthusiastically launched into his role as a “rope holder” back home, providing prayer, encouragement, and financial support, as well as helping to mobilize others to join in holding the rope for Carey and his fellow workers in India. Both of their roles were vitally important callings to take part in God’s mission. In the same way, each one of us today who are Christians are called to either be “goers” or to be “senders” who help hold the rope in support of those the Lord has sent.

Prague: A Post-Post-Christian Landscape

Many American Christians today may be completely unaware of just how deeply secular Europe has become. You might even visit Europe and see beautiful, historic churches all around you, but today, many of these churches sit largely empty with the exception of tourists and a small and aging but devout remnant of believers gathered on a Sunday morning. These ancient and beautiful churches and cathedrals are often monuments to an ancient but fading Christian past whose days are all but forgotten in Europe. Its a stark reminder for us that the Bible's understanding of what a "Church" is ("εκκλησία", or "ekklesia" in the Greek New Testament, meaning "assembly"), is not a building -no matter how beautiful and ancient- but a people.

The Bible-believing Christian population in many European nations today, including the Czech Republic, is often less than 2%—a threshold below which Christianity struggles to grow and sustain itself without the help of foreign missionaries. In William Carey and Andrew Fuller's day, the most critical needs for mission sending and the light of the Gospel were to the so-called "dark continents" of Africa and Asia. But today in the 21st century, after centuries of mission sending and surging indigenous churches in Africa and Asia, the "dark continent" most in need of the light of Christ today has become Europe itself, formerly thought of as "Christendom".

In "post-post-Christian" Prague, Christianity hasn’t just been rejected recently—it’s often not even been considered. Many Czechs and other secular Europeans living in Prague have never encountered a Bible-believing Christian who could share the Gospel with them in a meaningful way. In fact, the percentage of Czech Bible-believing Christians was estimated a decade ago to be just 0.76%, and is probably significantly less today, making Prague one of the most challenging yet critical mission fields for the future of Christianity in Europe and the western world. This makes our mission incredibly urgent and impactful, as we seek to bring the transformative message of Jesus to a community that’s largely unaware and untouched by it.

How You Can "Hold the Rope" for Us in the Mission Field of Central Europe:

🙏 Pray: Lift us up in prayer as well as for those we minister to and come in contact with to hear the Gospel and receive it with gladness.

🤝 Support Financially: Your donations help sustain and expand our ministry efforts. 👉 Give Here: mtw.org/bean

📢 Encourage & Share: Share our ministry in Europe with friends, family, and with your church, to help grow our support network and awareness of how God is at work.

👥 Mobilize Your Community: Invite others to join our Facebook group, share our email updates and blogposts with them, and encourage your church to support our mission through prayer and financial partnership.

Why It Matters:

By holding the rope for us in Prague, you enable us and our team to dig deep, planting and nurturing churches that become lights of the Gospel in Prague, and we hope in the future, beyond into greater Czechia and Central Europe.

Just as Andrew Fuller’s support back home in England was vital for William Carey’s mission in India in creating a lasting church planting movement that continues to this day, your support of our work in Prague today is essential for our efforts to uncover and cultivate the Gospel’s treasures in Prague—all for God’s glory--together. 🤝🌟🙌

Thank you so much for all that you do to “hold the rope” 🪢📿 in supporting the mission of God to draw those who’ve never heard the Gospel to our gracious savior!

God is at Work Building His Church

You might recall our update a couple of weeks ago about Sara and Ray teaming up to teach English to South American Spanish speakers at our weekly Free English Classes outreach that we launched at IPC-Ealing in January. Sara and her mum Andrea are members of of our House Group Bible study that meets in our home weekly, and we were so encouraged to see Sara baptised yesterday and join the church at IPC-Ealing.

In fact, the past two Sundays we’ve been so encouraged to welcome into church membership at IPC-Ealing four members of our House Group Bible Study, as well as three other friends who we’ve enjoyed spending time with over the past year in Ealing. Sara amazes us with her bilingual superpowers and the way that she loves and cares for those around her, and how the Lord is using her already as a new believer.

In addition to Sara, we also welcomed into membership our House Group members Anthony, Justin, and Rebekah on Palm Sunday, as well as our friends Funso, Dana, and David, who is another of our English teachers.

Nothing encourages us more than seeing how the Lord is at work to build His church in this place, both in those coming to faith in Christ, as well as seeing longtime believers finding a church home and place to serve at IPC-Ealing, and helps remind us that missions works best when paired with planting and strengthening Gospel centered churches.

Please Pray for the Lord's Work Among Persians in London

Hello friends, please pray for us and our Persian friends here in London. Our long serving MTW colleagues David and Marcia, who've led the ministry to Persians here at IPC-Ealing for 13 years, had to leave to return to the U.S. permanently and quite suddenly last week when David was diagnosed with some significant medical concerns, after 40 years in the mission field.

Shanna and I have been helping David and Marcia with this ministry to Persians over the past year and gaining their friendship and trust, but they are absolutely gutted and feel that they have lost their spiritual parents. Many of them come to us already quite traumatised from their experiences in Iran and Afghanistan and their journey here to London, as well as the loss of loved ones and severed ties from their families and communities as part of the cost of following Jesus as saviour out of Islam. So this loss brings up quite a lot of unresolved past grief and trauma for many of them. We are deeply saddened by David and Marcia's departure as well.

We are trusting the Lord to continue this ministry to Persians now in David and Marcia’s absence. Some have said that they will no longer come if David and Marcia are not there, but we were very encouraged on Sunday to have a small group of about a dozen Persians come to church and our Persian Bible Study after the service, and even welcomed a new young grad student from Tehran named Sam, who just moved in down the street from us. We were also really encouraged to have two new Persian ladies come to our English class last night and invited them to join us for church and Bible study this Sunday.

Over the next couple of weeks, we hope to meet with as many of our Persian friends who are already Christians one-to-one as possible to care for them, as well as to encourage them to continue on in trusting the Lord together with us at IPC-Ealing. We also hope to meet with those who are still learning about Jesus to continue with us in investigating the Gospel.

Thank you so much for your ongoing prayers and partnership in bringing the Gospel to the nations here in London.

God is Drawing Persians from Iran to Jesus in London

Since our arrival in London earlier this year, it’s been our privilege to serve and reach out to members of many different unreached people groups here. One of the most significant of these has been Persian asylum seekers from Iran and Afghanistan as we have been learning from our much more experienced co-laborers in the Gospel at IPC-Ealing who’ve been reaching out to Persians in London for many years.

Yesterday we praised God together as a church at IPC-Ealing as we baptised a new Iranian Christian, who we will call “N”. "N" is the fourth member of her family to be baptised at IPC-Ealing, following her son, daughter, and son-in-law into saving faith in Jesus Christ from Islam. "N" and her grown children have suffered much to come to London from Iran as asylum seekers, having literally lost almost everything to come here and to now follow Jesus.

Please join us in praising God for "N" and her family’s faith in Jesus Christ and for their family’s bold witness as they continually reach out to others with the Gospel. Please also join us and our Iranian friends in praying for the people of Iran as they continue to suffer under an oppressive Islamic regime that suppresses the Gospel and Christ’s church in their home country, and many Iranian Christians, moderate Muslims, Zoroastrians, and secular Iranians have fled Iran over the past several decades and come to London.

Back at All Souls for Evangelism Conference

Shanna and I are back at All Soul’s Church again today for an Evangelism Conference with Randy Newman, author of “Mere Evangelism”! Really great content and I’d recommend his book of the same title strongly for those who’ve a heart for sharing their faith and an interest in C.S. Lewis.

The Full English Breakfast

Norwegian church planters Thomas and Niko ham it up as Niko dares to try the Black Pudding from his "Full English" breakfast at one of our local pubs. A "Full English" breakfast typically consists of fried eggs, bacon, sausage, fried potatoes, black pudding, tomatoes, mushrooms, baked beans, and toast, and was on the guys' to-do list for their time in London with us. Even though it was lunchtime, the kitchen staff at our local pub were thrilled to make it happen for the "out of towners"!

***Please note that the pictures we post in this private group have been shared with the permission of those pictured. When necessary we obscure the faces and name tags of some of our friends who may one day have to return to a home country where their involvement in a church sponsored event, associating with a missionary, or even walking into a christian church may put them or their family in danger. Please don't share these images further without permission. Thank you for helping us keep them safe!!!***

Catalyst 2022

This past week our host church here in London, IPC-Ealing held our annual equipping conference for church planters, pastors, missionaries, and emerging leaders, Catalyst 2022. Over 250 attendees from numerous denominations and independent churches throughout the U.K. and Europe benefited from three days of fellowship and Biblical teaching from renowned Scottish theologian Sinclair Ferguson, Westminster Seminary professor Jonathan Gibson, American pastor Jonathan Landry Cruse, and some really great local church leaders from here in the U.K.

Shanna and I, and our entire church staff put in many hours to help make this year’s Catalyst conference a success, and we couldn’t be more happy with the results. For many of these church planters and pastors, who faithfully spend tireless hours preparing sermons and Bible studies for their churches and disciples each week, this is a rare opportunity to sit under good Biblical teaching themselves and rest and “recharge” with good fellowship with one another.

Among those in attendance were our friend and fellow MTW missionary and church planter Jonas Stava and three members of his church planting team, Niko, Thomas, and Kenneth from Hamar, Norway. These brothers don’t just envision planting a single church, but an entire network of Gospel-centred churches in Norway! We were thrilled to get to host them in our home on Tuesday evening for a cookout in our “back garden” (backyard) along with a key leader in the IPC denomination, Gethin Jones and his wife Katie who serve together in Paris, France. In addition to being an IPC pastor in Paris, Gethin serves as the stated clerk for the IPC and was able to visit with these church planters and answer their questions about their church plants joining the IPC and how the IPC can help and encourage them in their church planting efforts in Norway and as their churches mature into fully formed congregations.

It’s an honor and privilege to have such an encouraging gathering happen (literally!) in our own backyard that we hope the Lord will use to help strengthen Gospel-centred church planting in Norway!

***Please note that the pictures we post in this private group have been shared with the permission of those pictured. When necessary we obscure the faces and name tags of some of our friends who may one day have to return to a home country where their involvement in a church sponsored event, associating with a missionary, or even walking into a christian church may put them or their family in danger. Please don't share these images further without permission. Thank you for helping us keep them safe!!!***