CLICK HERE TO RECEIVE THE NEWSLETTER VIA EMAIL
December 2023 – Merry Christmas from Your ITMI Partners
We asked our partners to share some of the ways Jesus’ kingdom was advanced this year. We hope you are encouraged by their answers and the special messages they have for you!
November 2023 – Sin Hurts and Jesus Cares: Examples from Around the World
Mary was orphaned when she was 10. Her siblings could go to school, but because of a disability, she could not. Now in her twenties, she recently fell and broke her arm. …
October 2023 – Romanian Bibles for Ukrainians, Gang Members Study the Bible with Moms, and an ITMI Partner is Promoted to Glory
Her face looks like it can barely contain her smile, doesn’t it?
Why is she so happy? …
September 2023 – Building and Launching the Goat Project in Pakistan
Abid and Saleem waited outside the worn-down double gate…
Download the PDF.
August 2023 – Reaching Gang Members with the Gospel in South Sudan
It was the morning of April 15, when residents of Khartoum, Sudan awoke to the pandemonium that would eventually kill thousands and displace over 2 million. …
July 2023 – Behind the Scenes at Casa Dorca Children’s Home
Giorgiana came to Casa Dorca Children’s Home when she was 14 years old. …
June 2023 – Honoring 20 Graduates in an Indian Slum
It was a warm spring morning. The small collection of rooms that houses Deepam Primary School was full. Tucked into the area of Bangalore, India, known as Modi Road…
May 2023 – How You’re Helping Ukrainian Pastors …and Churches in Poland, Evangelists in Zambia, and Teens in South Africa
“I cried my eyes out when I heard that’s where he was going.” …
April 2023 – 7 Things the Lord Impressed on Me in Asia
While planning my travel to Pakistan, many encouraged me not to go. Many expressed sentiments like, “You know what goes on over there!” “I don’t really think you should go to Pakistan,” or “Think about doing something different than going there.” …
March 2023 – What Two Hundred Dollars Can Accomplish
The 16-year-old sat motionless, wrapped in a shawl. She barely moved a muscle the entire visit. …
February 2023 – Hungry for More than Food
Mary* has never met her father, and her mother is incarcerated for dealing drugs. …
January 2023 – How God is Using Your Sacrifices in Ukraine and Around the World
“At a time when destruction is pervasive all around, the Lord has planted and is growing something new.”
December 2022 – Merry Christmas from your ITMI Partners
We asked our partners to share some of the ways Jesus’ kingdom was advanced this year. We hope you are encouraged by their answers and the special messages they have for you!
November 2022 – Your Gifts Shine Jesus’ Light into Darkness
“After many days, we slept well,” Sayida told ITMI’s Taru Kumar, mustering a gentle half-smile.
October 2022 – What Does Historic Flooding in Pakistan Mean?
It means small, exhausted bodies attempt to get a night’s rest on a large mound of dirt. It means having 10 minutes to get out of your house when water breaches nearby river banks…
September 2022 – Your Impact in Zimbabwe: A Day at Gwayi River Mission
Sibongile* straightened up from the stooped position she’d been in for most of the morning. The 22-year-old widow was…
August 2022 – The life of a missionary Teacher in a Rural Village in Zambia
Conrad Lucheta closed his Bible and rose from the metal chair where he’d been preparing for the morning devotion he’d be leading for his students. …
July 2022 – 5 Things You Should Know About the Gwayi River Mission Base in Zimbabwe
“I’m looking for Cozmore,” the visitor said loudly as he wove through the crowd of widows. …
June 2022 – A Trip to Ukraine with ITMI’s Adi Ban
“Don’t take pictures of soldiers or border personnel. You can talk normally, but be observant with what’s going on,” ITMI’s Adrian (Adi) Ban was instructing the group of Americans. Adi was in the driver’s seat of the minivan, deftly navigating…
May 2022 – An Unusual Response to Generosity
An act of care and generosity was so shocking for them that one pastor had to…
April 2022 – Heroes for Such a Time as This
“Our donors are heroes!” ITMI’s Mark Burritt enthusiastically commented. It was a Thursday. …
March 2022 – Authorities Say We May Have One Hour to Evacuate, but I Can’t Afford a Full Tank of Gas
Pastor Maxim and his wife, Elena, have three school-aged children. They live and minister one kilometer from Ukraine’s border with Russia.
February 2022 – Reaching 50 Kids from Unbelieving Families Near Ukrainian Front Lines!
Pastor Ilya shepherds a church just a few miles from the battlefront in eastern Ukraine.
January 2022 – What Stone Hill’s Early Childhood Development Center Means to Akhanyile, Buhle and Owethu
Stone Hill sounds like it could be the name of a planned neighborhood, like one you or I might live in. But in reality, Stone Hill or Kliphuewel in the local tongue, is just the opposite. …
December 2021 – Merry Christmas from Your ITMI Partners
We asked our partners to share some of the ways Jesus’ kingdom was advanced this year. We hope you are encouraged by their answers and the special messages they have for you!
November 2021 – 7 Reasons ITMI Partners Are Giving Thanks
When ITMI Director, Steve Evers visited Stone Hill, Dr. Kuhn expressed his desire to…
October 2021 – Saving Frank: How the Lord Chased Down a New Family Member!
It was 12:30pm on Saturday, September 11 in Zambia’s capital city, Lusaka. ITMI’s Steve Evers should have been about to board the third and last flight in the journey home…
September 2021 – I Never Thought I’d Own a Blanket!
Blankets are commonplace for many of us. We have extras hiding in our closets and attics. They aren’t difficult to come by here in America. But for the impoverished in South Sudan, where inflation drives the price of this “luxury” out of reach for most of the population, a blanket is something they never imagined they could own. …
August 2021 – Riots, Looting and Chaos in South Africa
For the past 3 days there have been mass looting, rioting and burning of buildings in the provinces of Gauteng and KwaZulu Natal. …
July 2021 – Crisis in India: Your Response
The believers delivering the food were so excited to help others they were crying. In an environment where even the young and healthy have succumbed to COVID-19, these believers that Paul has discipled were eager to risk their health and their lives to share Jesus with the hurting. “Let us go to the streets!” they beg.
June 2021 – Crisis in India
The pastors Paul meets with regularly to disciple and train via Zoom have been hit hard. Most have no income right now. Their families are hungry.
May 2021 – How the Fleeting Has Led to Lasting Impact
When word of pandemic-related lockdowns first reached us, it seemed for a moment that many of our partners’ ministries would grind to a halt. Schools that were the main point of contact with needy families would be closed. Churches wouldn’t be able to gather. But quickly, ITMI’s role became clear: help our partners make the most of these God-orchestrated opportunities. Project Joseph was born.
April 2021 – The Fruit of Your Giving: Learning to Center our Daily Activities on Christ
Twelve South Sudanese women sat on hard, wooden benches, their shoes on the cement floor of Living Word of God Church in the Buluk section of Juba, South Sudan. …
March 2021 – Spring of Love School Opens in Zambia
What once seemed like a dream is now reality!” This is how our long-time partner, Eugene Kalunga of Zambia describes what happened on February 1, 2021 in the village of Lubemba in Zambia. …
February 2021 – Project Joseph: Sharing the Gospel through food in South Africa and Zambia
“I can’t afford groceries this month,” Onthalie* mumbled, her eyes were glued to the tops of her shoes as she confessed her situation…
January 2021 – The Internet Pastor: Wielding Digital Tools and Connections to Expand the Gospel’s Reach
Filip* was surprised by the realization. After years of claiming there was no God, he now believed there was one after all.
He glanced at the copy of the psychoanalysis book on the table next to him. The archetypes explored in the book had made sense to him, and the book had played an important role in opening up this new perspective.
December 2020 – Merry Christmas from Your ITMI Partners
We asked our partners to share some of the ways Jesus’ kingdom was advanced this year. We hope you are encouraged by their answers and the special messages they have for you!
November 2020 – Meet Project Joseph’s New Believers!
Kuluda Aziza stared at her palms as they rested in her lap. The complex white and cornflower blue pattern of her dress behind her hands went blurry, reminding her to blink.
What she’d just heard struck her in a way nothing had before. …
October 2020 – Retired Arizona Couple Honors Riot Victims in India
David Raj Kumar turned to look at his wife, Taru, as the video call with ITMI Director, Steve Evers, concluded and his face disappeared from the screen of their phone. “Are we really going to do this?” her raised eyebrows said.
September 2020 – Provide a Loving, Christian Home for Romanian Orphans
“The only happy time we had at the orphanage was when we slept,” remembers Visinel Balan, now an adult. Visinel grew up in one of the many state-run orphan institutions during Nicholas Ceausescu’s dictatorship in Romania.” …
August 2020 – 3 Stories that Reveal Much about Our Partners
Piotr’s church does baptismal services on a regular basis, but the one last month was particularly special because…
July 2020 – “I was completely lost, and at the same time, so excited!”
“Andzia had never seen anything like what she was experiencing. She stood in the balcony of the large concert hall, tears spilling down her cheeks.”
Plus, several in our circle test positive for COVID-19, food parcels lead to equipping local believers to share Jesus with Muslims, and Casa Dorca Children’s Home thanks an ITMI supporter for help with a money-saving solution.
June 2020 – The Gospel is Advancing in Ways We Never Thought Possible
“The Kingdom of God is now advancing in ways we never thought possible; hope is being restored daily and none of this would’ve happened without your special donation, we truly appreciate the partnership,” writes Pastor Vuyo of Gugulethu, outside Cape Town, South Africa. Pastor Vuyo’s church ministers in a tough area, known as “gangster land.” Last month…
May 2020 – Opportunities to Share Jesus are Pouring in from Around the World
These are not families who have pantries full of supplies from Costco.
These are people who leave their homes each morning in hopes that they will earn a few cents to purchase food for that day.
Not being able to leave means not being able to eat.
April 2020 – How the Coronavirus is Affecting Our Partners
Though most of their churches have been unable to gather, our partners are continuing to minister. Now is most certainly a time when the people of God worldwide need to be reminded to put their trust in Him.
March 2020 – 5 Years Later: The Difference Discipleship Makes
Adanna (name changed for privacy) stared at her four-year-old grandson. His eyes were turned up at her earnestly. He had just uttered the words that would mark a critical turning point in her life.
February 2020 – How Our Partners Declared the Gospel at Christmas With Your Help
“There’s no life in gangsterism – what you see on the outside is not what you get on the inside, I gained nothing out of it except a criminal record, pain and regrets.”
Vuyo Anta pounded the side of his hand into his other open, flat hand for emphasis. Anta had served a 12 year sentence for a murder committed while part of a gang. Now…
January 2020 – How Support Opens Doors in Poland
When Jim LaRose returned home after serving at a weeklong summer camp for youth, an email was waiting for him, and it meant big changes. An American by birth and a school teacher by trade, Jim’s role at camp was to provide English lessons as part of the daily camp activities.
December 2019 – Merry Christmas from Your Partners
During this season of giving, we asked ITMI partners to share their heartfelt answers to several questions. May their answers bless and encourage you!
Download the PDF and read your messages now.
November 2019 – One Year Later, What Difference Does Clean Water and the Gospel Make?
ITMI’s Kent Reisenauer arrived at the Lusaka airport, weary after over 24 hours of travel.
With some trepidation, he began to search the baggage claim area for the black, plastic tubs that bore cargo important to the ministries of several ITMI partners as well as his own personal baggage.
October 2019 – 3 Haunting Stories You Can Help Change
Fear rose inside his chest as Bilal ducked under the door of his home – a mud hut where his family was squatting. At night, he still woke in a fearful sweat, remembering what happened the last time he and his brother had come home empty-handed.
September 2019 – “This is the First Time I Have Hope!” – How You Were Involved and Why it Matters
“Perhaps it’s hard to believe, (or understand) but the misuse and wrong interpretation of the Bible often leads to domestic neglect and abuse in India,” writes our partner, Molly. Molly continues…”
Steve shares from his heart with regard to 3 things we think you’ll want to know about in this letter to the ITMI team.
August 2019 – How South Sudan Supporters are Helping Traumatized Families
Dorca is a widow in Juba, South Sudan. She and her handful of children live like most of the just under half a million residents of the capital city. There were no others stepping up to feed Dorca’s children. The pressure and responsibility had been unceremoniously dumped on her shoulders. It was up to her – and the Lord. It wasn’t like she could just go get a job.How would she keep these children entrusted to her alive?
July 2019 – How ITMI Supporters are Changing Lives in Poland
One young polish pastor saw this deep need. The Lord called him to “translate the Bible for revival.” But as a young pastor in a post-communist economy, he simply didn’t have the resources to do what needed to be done.There were no organizations of Bible scholars who could tackle this task. Anyone with the qualifications was buried by trying to make ends meet as teachers or pastors. And that might have been the end of the story if not for…
June 2019 – Witchcraft and Corruption: 3 Eye Opening Stories
As Dora watched the boys yelling and throwing stones, she wondered what kind of snake they were trying to kill. She decided she had better go make sure it wasn’t a big one that would end up biting them or a spitting cobra that could injure their eyes. As she approached she heard…
May 2019 – The Perils of Following Jesus in India
His wake was a sad affair. Paul’s wife, Molly, described it this way, “all the guests and family came to ridicule the widow and blame the death [of her husband] on her faith as they do here.”
April 2019 – Why We’re Going Back
After narrowly escaping arrest in South Sudan, many might decide not to go back. But a return mission trip to Uganda and South Sudan is currently in the works for ITMI’s Steve Evers and Kent Reisenauer. Why risk entering a corrupt third world country where you can get arrested for recording a video interview with a friend at her house? Simply stated, the benefits are far-reaching and numerous.
March 2019 – The Remarkable Feats of God’s Word
The village dashed madly for their huts. They had caught one glimpse of the initial brownish-grey clean-out water spilling from the head of the newly drilled well. Moments later, they returned with the various makeshift containers, ready to collect the contaminated water.
February 2019 – Why We’re Better Together
When believers connect, it makes a difference. When we look back over 2018, we’re jazzed at what the Lord did through the connection between you and our partners. That last part is important. What the LORD did. It’s His mission, but graciously, He lets us be part of it. This month, we’re hoping you’ll be encouraged by some of the highlights from 2018 that He let us collectively be part of.
January 2019 – What We Can’t Tell You
Unfortunately, we can’t tell you what ITMI’s Director, Steve Evers, saw when he visited the Indian village inhabited by people stripped of all value and called “untouchable” by the rest of their countrymen, because many parts of it are too graphic. This is a family-friendly publication. But we can tell you…
December 2018 – Eleven Partners Share Their Hearts (Latest)
During this season of giving, we asked ITMI partners to share their heartfelt answers to several questions. May their answers bless and encourage you!
November 2018 – 16 Bonus Byproducts of Your Investment in ITMI Partners
Several of our partners’ kids are grown and choosing to become involved in ministries of their own. Others are choosing to minister alongside their parents! It’s exciting to see a new generation of national workers equipped and ready for ministry!
Seventeen-year-old Jason van Wyk, the son of ITMI’s Charl van Wyk…
Download the PDF here.
October 2018 – 3 New Places We’re Sharing the Good News
It was a November afternoon in Uganda. From inside the walls of Mukono Prison, ITMI’s Muhindo Kawede was in tears.
For two hours, 300 prisoners listened as Kawede and two other teachers shared the salvation message and encouragement with them.
September 2018 – What Everyone Ought to Know About Fifi Smith
Why would she return, over and over again, to love and serve those who dish out verbal lashings?
When asked, she said simply…
August 2018 – An Expedition on the Zambezi
They are terrified of the idea. A group of grown men, scared of getting in a boat.
But you wouldn’t know it to look at them. They move intently…
Fifteen-year-old Dasha Kazimirova of Toretsk, Ukraine, was like any other teenager in the world in some respects. Her life lay before her full of promise and potential.
But in other ways, she wasn’t at all like your average youth.
What would you do if you found yourself living in a war-zone? If you regularly saw your neighbors’ homes pierced with bullet holes? If you didn’t feel safe in your home but felt even more at-risk outside of it. If the threat of tribal violence threatened your children?
Standing between the broken system that creates a cycle of poverty and hurting families.
Eight-year-old Ayan thrashed and yanked violently against the chains his mother restrained him with. But it was futile. He couldn’t free himself from the chains that kept him inside the run-down shed…
April 2018 – A Last-Minute Change of Plans
by Adrian Ban
We received the message days prior to our departure for Ukraine. It was a plea for help. The request was accompanied by images of rubble and destruction. It came from a small church of 20 members in Novolugansk. Novolugansk is right on the fighting line between Ukraine and the Russian separatists’ region of Lugansk. Our planning was already done, our routes and places to visit were already scheduled…
After three long days of labor, Laizah was experiencing complications and still had not given birth. The doctor ordered a C-section procedure. “If you don’t have money, they usually use student doctors or nurses to do the operation,” her husband, Cozmore, explains.
February 2018 – Almost Arrested
It dawned as normal as a morning can be for Americans visiting Juba, South Sudan. But it turned out to be a day we’ll never forget.ITMI’s Kent Reisenauer and I waited in our hotel’s small restaurant. Vicky Waraka, our long-time South Sudanese partner, was late for our breakfast meeting.
January 2018 – A Tragedy Interrupted
Confusion, fear, uncertainty swirled inside little Kamil’s four-year-old heart and mind. Why was this happening? Where was he going? How long would he be gone?
In hindsight, it was best that Kamil didn’t know the answers to these questions.
December 2017 – Nine Stories of Your Direct Impact in 2017 (Latest)
During this season of giving, we asked ITMI partners to give you their heartfelt answers to several questions. May their answers bless and encourage you!
November 2017 – A Small Church Reaches Far
It was the morning 100 Indian pastors and their wives had looked forward to with anticipation for a long time. But things weren’t going as planned.
October 2017 – A Simple Solution to a Complex Problem
Yonela pressed her fingertips into the corners of her eyes. She ran them across her dark eyebrows and shook her head in fatigue and frustration. From the front of the South African high school classroom, her algebra teacher was explaining a complicated concept in Afrikaans, Yonela’s third language. At home, Yonela speaks Xhosa and English. Yonela was desperately trying…
September 2017 – Roaring Lion: Everyone Needs to be Saved
It’s 1:30am. Traveling through the Kafue Game Park in central Zambia, I become aware of the most beautiful lion I have ever seen. Saying that I’m isolated in the middle of the night in the middle of the African bush, is an almost humorous understatement.
August 2017 – Last February Piotr Shocked Us…then God Led Him to Do the Impossible
It was shocking.
When ITMI’s Piotr Zaremba was in the US last February (2017), he was telling people he was “greedy.”
But Piotr is…
July 2017 – Sometimes We Wait on God for 400 Years. But This Time…
Sometimes we are asked to wait on God’s timing longer than we’d like. Israel waited on God to rescue them from slavery in Egypt for 400 years. This time, God did something different.
June 2017 – The “Other Side” of the Tracks – How Paul Crossed the Tracks and Gained Trust
Many have died just attempting to cross the mainline train tracks and return home from getting water, but no safety precautions – not even a simple caution sign – have been enacted. Because those lives “don’t matter.” Slum residents literally live among the trash, as if they’ve accepted that it is what they are. They were completely forgotten and devalued. Trash. Until…
5 Things Our Partners Get from Seeing You, and What Their Hosts Got, Too!
Hosting an overseas worker while they are here in the U.S. may not seem like a big contribution to God’s Kingdom. BUT IT IS! Here are just five of the many ways our partners have benefitted from their time in the States.
April 2017 – Haunted After Captivity: A Real Story of Honest Struggle
Jahim’s mother, Rebecca, was taken captive. She endured years of slavery and abuse before being reunited with her family in an incredible turn of events. It would be tempting to put a neat bow on this story and say they lived happily ever after as a big happy family.
But that wouldn’t have been quite accurate. Not yet anyway.
March 2017 – I Couldn’t Believe People Like That Exist!
Viola couldn’t believe her ears. Could this be for real?
February 2017 – A Not-So-Typical Day in the Pasture
Gerhard le Roux and four of his kids took their sheep to pasture in the typical way, but what happened next was anything but typical.
January 2017 – Completely Now – “In His Grip”
ITMI Founder, William Bathman, or Bill as most know him, has experienced dying for the final time. He graduated to Glory on December 11th, 2016.
Bill’s life was a story of dying. Dying to self, dying to safety, dying to his dream of missionary piloting, dying to pastoring in the States, dying to comfort, to finances and security.
December 2016 – Six Stories from Around the World You Won’t Want to Miss
During this season of giving, we asked ITMI partners to give you their heartfelt answers to several questions. May their answers bless and encourage you!
November 2016 – The Story of Stone Hill’s Soldiers for Christ
Several years ago, Stone Hill was a forgotten squatters’ camp outside Durbanville, South Africa. But now…
October 2016 – How God Opened a Door That Was Once Firmly Shut
Twelve years ago, the city of Gniezno, Poland wanted ITMI’s Bread of Life and the Gniezno Church to open a soup kitchen and transition home for men. But after Bread of Life paid for renovations on the building they’d been given, the city that asked for help from a Christian organization would no longer allow that same organization and partner church to hold Bible Studies in that location. Fast forward to present day…
September 2016 – Exposed: How Religion Steals the Gospel
“I was very religious,” says Daria Przybyla, “but at the same time as a teenager, I was suicidal and depressed.”
August 2016 – Out of the Ashes: What Will Rise?
What Dule’s sister was worried about turned out to be the answer to his prayers.
July 2016 – Celebrating 35 Years of Keeping You In Touch
ITMI was founded by Bill and Harriett Bathman 35 years ago as a link between believers in America and the persecuted church behind the Iron Curtain. In doing this, we discovered how effective national believers were at reaching the people around them. That’s where you came in. At one time or another, you responded with a gift that empowered a national to make a huge impact. It’s that impact we’re celebrating. Your impact. You’ve put Bibles in people’s hands, bikes under evangelists and pastors, medical supplies and relief in skilled hands, cared for the orphaned, widowed, elderly, poor and forgotten, equipped pastors, planted churches and shared the Good News around the world! God has allowed us to do so many exciting things over the years. One of the biggest projects we have poured into is…Read More Here.
June 2016 – 5 Ways We Are Influencing a Community and Building Trust
“When we came to Onseepkans, the Lord gave me a portion of Scripture over and over again,” ITMI’s Gerhard le Roux said in a recent interview.
May 2016 – The Truth About Growing Old in Romania
The images were forever branded into her memory. Elderly women, abandoned by their children in icy, un-heated homes. Soiled sheets and meager blankets, their only defense against a bitter winter. Bedsores and other ailments unattended to. Limp legs and arms, frail with age and hunger.
April 2016 – The One Idea You Must Embrace to be a Kingdom Builder
ITMI Monthly chats with ITMI partner, Charl van Wyk, for a behind-the-scenes look at what happened a couple years back that turned his ministry around.
March 2016 – Why a Ugandan Bible School Director Roughs it in the Bush Between Terms
What does ITMI’s Muhindo Kawede (“Kawede” as he is called by most) do with his “time off” between terms at the International School of Missions? Something you wouldn’t expect.
Also, read Steve’s letter: Dear Team, What I Wouldn’t Have Seen if I Didn’t Go to South Sudan.
February 2016 – A Nebraska Family Makes a Mountain of Difference
Christmas is a time of year when many who would otherwise be uninterested in things of God are more receptive to His message. So whatever their resources, ITMI partners are often found creatively designing ways to reach people around them this time of year. The result?
Read all about it here.
January 2016 – 4 Things I Learned from ITMI Partners (Latest)
On a recent trip to Southern Africa with Director Steve Evers and ITMI board member Jon Dekkers, I learned some very important things about missionaries, things which will help me appreciate them forevermore.
1. Work Hard
“Being a missionary is hard, physical work,” said Johan Leach. He knows, because…” Read More.
December 2015 – He Comes to Make His Blessings Flow
“Why are you drinking?” Her answer, “I drink so that I can forget what I have gone through all the years was a slave.”
This and many other stories of God’s provision were shared by one ITMI partner this Christmas, including direct messages for you! Enjoy.
November 2015 – God’s Unique Camouflage
Last month on the ITMI team’s trip to Zambia, God clearly showed He is still providing and caring for His faithful even today, even in Africa, even against all earthly logic.
October 2015 – A Life-Changing Trip
ITMI partner, Gerhard le Roux, serving in Onseepkans, South Africa shared this story. Gerhard had the opportunity to bless, invest in and build a relationship with a local Christian leader in a neighboring town, Pofadder. Gerhard shares how Manie’s worldview and understanding of Christian living was expanded through experiencing Christians from other parts of Africa and the world. Enjoy Gerhard’s story!
September 2015 – What Happened When an ITMI Partner Asked Trespassing Vandals to Come Back Next Week
Gerhard le Roux surveyed the down cast eyes of the trespassers and the police who had been called to the situation. He realized the hopelessness of the situation.
August 2015 – Keeping Company with God’s Saints
Dr. Nick was a brilliant doctor serving the medical community in a vital position and well known internationally. The communist authorities had grudgingly tolerated his Christian activity, but when he resigned his practice to pastor a Baptist Church, serious problems began.
July 2015 – 5 Unexpected Things Happened Under a Blue Tarp
“Salvation comes primarily through works, not by grace through faith.”
“God’s main mission is for His people to prosper, and you can purchase this benefit through financial contributions to organizations bearing “Christian” in the name, particularly mine.”
These are the heresies that African pastors claiming to represent Jesus often proclaim. To make things worse…
June 2015 – Loving the Unloved
Its hard being a woman in India. Women are expected to be quiet and respectful, never speaking out or disagreeing. But it gets worse.
May 2015 – A Faraway Place Brought Near
India really is a far, faraway place. Visualize a place, an excessively hot, sticky, humid place with 1.3 billion people crammed together who are empowered by generations upon generations’ permissions to judge and even openly oppress those around you who don’t happen to be like you.
A long-lost son hears from his mother after 20 years. Then she tells an unbelievable story. She was bone tired, but sheer terror of her captors kept her from collapsing…
March 2015 – Why We Do What We Do
“Why do we feed the poor? They stink. Why do we go to dangerous and semi-closed countries to evangelize and disciple the persecuted? We could get a disease or be killed. Why do we do all that?”
February 2015 – An Insider’s Story
ITMI Monthly catches up with our own Daniel Machlowski. Raised in America but 100% Polish, Daniel uses his past to build bridges into people’s future with Christ. Enjoy his unique perspective, from inside our dynamic team!
January 2015 – God’s Miraculous Protection
December 15, 2013 a fierce tribal conflict created upwards of 500,000 to 600,000 homeless refugees that now struggle to survive on a daily basis. Jahim Buli was himself one of the “lost boys of Sudan”…
December 2014 – A Very Blessed and Merry Christmas
The Christmas season has been hijacked! This reality was never more apparent to me than last year when I visited Piotr Zaremba in Poland just before the end of the year. …
November 2014 – 3 Unexpected Things God Used to Provide
Steve and ITMI partner, Timothy Keller, were on an overland mission from South Africa to Sudan. They stopped at a roadside stand to make a purchase. Part of the purchase included Steve throwing in two small LED flashlights he had in his pocket. Daylight was waning. They still had to cross the border into communist Zimbabwe. Tim said, “Let’s go!” Steve left mid-deal. It disappointed him, but God had something else in mind for those two flashlights.
October 2014 – Unknown: the untold stories of persecuted believers
It happened to me in 1972. A friend of mine in Ecuador wrote to his Christian friend in Czechoslovakia and casually mentioned, “Brother Bill is bringing Bibles soon.” The border guards were waiting. I was arrested, declared persona non grata, deported and on a ‘black list’ until the Berlin Wall came down 17 years later.
September 2014 – Shattered: How moving 300 miles away from his family brought them together
Not long ago, Slawek’s alcohol-induced tantrums estranged him from his family. He was unable to hold a steady job. His entire life’s work, everything he’s been working so hard to build, turned into a million tiny, almost un-reconstructable pieces. He was doing his best to kick the addiction on his own. “The longer I went without drinking, the harsher the blow was for my family when I inevitably got wasted and reset the clock all over again.”
August 2014 – How Enemies Became Friends Through Death Threats
After Jahim delivered food to one of the refugee camps, the political leaders from the other tribe were convinced he was against them. Jahim was being watched and threatened with harm to his family. They read his email. They tracked his activities.
July 2014 – Saved from Mob Justice
“The people of Cankozo were fed up with the witchcraft practices of Mr. Buyongwe. One day the community decided to (punish) his witchcraft lies by setting him on fire.”
June 2014 – 3 Ways Bread of Life Ivory Coast is Doing a Lot
She darted toward the path of an oncoming vehicle. Acting quickly, Bread of Life’s Benoit Ouatara picked her up, preventing the deadly accident. “You can have her.” He looked around. An older woman, who appeared to be the girl’s grandmother was watching the whole scene from nearby. “If you want her you can have her,” she said again. He stared at her, then gently put the child down.
May 2014 – More Powerful than Dark Spirits
When ITMI’s Muhindo Kawede was a boy, his mother told him to behave or else the ghosts of his ancestors would eat him. And she meant every word. He was constantly afraid of the dark and the ever present ancestral spirits.
April 2014 – How a Miraculous Deathbed Prayer led to Something Unexpected
“I don’t think he knows who we are,” Pastor Mlungisi Zuma told ITMI’s Kelly Smith. They were in a well-lit, non-private hospital room near Zulu Natal, South Africa. The two men were visiting a man they knew as Mr. Cele.
“He is mumbling and saying a lot of things, but he is making no sense at all,” the pastor observed. Kelly and the new South African pastor of his church continued chatting with the delirious patient.
These 4 heroes paved the way for something amazing to happen in Poland. And the 5th hero of this story may come as a surprise!
February 2014 – Home Alone in Refugee Camp
Last month ITMI’s Steve Evers sat out under a Ugandan shade tree, seeking some refuge from the intense equatorial sun, while at a small guest house in Kampala, Uganda. Jahim was really glad to see Steve, and he was wanting to discuss what opportunities there were in South Sudan, but Jahim wasn’t Jahim.
January 2014 – Hope for South Sudan
“I’m hiding on the floor with my family.” “We didn’t sleep much last night with all the bullets and artillery….”
“Two hours ago [Monday, December 16th] a military truck with soldiers came to my neighbor’s house, pulled him out and shot him dead. He is still laying out there and no one can go out to get the body [because all were afraid to show their faces in public].” These were the chilling comments ITMI’s Director Steve Evers heard over a long distant phone, in broken South Sudanese English on that fateful Monday morning.
December 2013 – Merry Christmas!
“Glenn is not going to live,” the doctor said. But eight-year-old Glenn did live through crippling and consuming burns that devastated his lower body. Then the doctors insisted it would be impossible for Glenn to walk again. But Glenn never gave up. It didn’t matter what the doctor said. He decided no matter how much it hurt, he was going to walk again. Even more, he was going to run.
November 2013 – Slaying the Monsters
Spring had finally arrived to the southern hemisphere and more specifically to the Northern Cape of South Africa. There were signs of growth and new life everywhere. God’s yearly quilt of unlimited color blankets the otherwise barren sheep-land which borders the 185+ kilometer dirt road “shortcut” that leads to the Orange River and the outpost called, Onseepkans, South Africa. This is where ITMI’s Gerhard and Elmane le Roux and family are fighting the monsters that come from an almost forgotten and godless society.
October 2013 – How Anyone Can Impact a Village in Zambia
Where once there were many deaths by crocodile, now there is safety. Where once there was risk of disease from contaminated water, now there is a greater chance of living longer. Where there once was hardship, now there is relief. Where there once was witchcraft and animism, now there is freedom and community. Where there once was darkness, now there is hope. What happened?
September 2013 – Why Did a Church in “Gangland” Move Their Pews Outside?
He was one of several bystanders who hovered near the courtyard gate of an old church building. Across the street behind him, “Welcome to Gangland” sarcastically welcomed all to the area where no one really wants to go. He wanted to go in, but remained outside, uncertain whether he should enter – or could enter.
August 2013 – More Than Conquerers
ITMI’s John Jere is fearless. He willingly goes where the Spirit of God leads him. It doesn’t matter that he is a poor swimmer as he steps down into a small, unstable and tipsy hewn out log canoe that is the only way to cross the wide, crocodile and hippo filled Zambezi River in Western Zambia. John does this so that…
Among all the other daily pressures and challenges of spreading God’s good news in a Hindu and Muslim dominated India, Paul and Molly and family have lived under the added pressure of not knowing if they could keep their family together.
June 2013 – The Salt Shaker
Jahim’s passenger slid off the back of his small motor scooter, or bota bota as it came to a stop, eager to distance himself from the morning heat the motor was adding to the already sweltering temperature. Jahim Buli wiped his hands, sweaty from navigating the insanity of African roads on his pants and took the meager payment for the transportation he’d just provided.
When Sarah Phiri’s grandmother brought her to ITMI’s Samaritan Children’s Home, she was in bad shape. Born with HIV/AIDS and a lame right foot, she was very weak. A Tuberculosis-like cough shook her frail frame, which was covered in sores.
The sound of glass fragments raining down on the concrete floor caused the group of young boys to laugh loudly. Makalo, the rock throwing culprit, threw his hands in the air triumphantly as the other boys dropped their rocks. Makalo had just broken what was probably the last unshattered window of abandoned buildings in Onseepkans, South Africa.
March 2013 – Transforming Minds
A low groan came from the cot in the corner of the room. Her three-year-old son tossed restlessly, entangling himself in the thin covering she’d placed over him. There was no relief from the Zambian heat, and the fever just kept rising. Lily felt so powerless, watching him suffer. She knew the people of her church were praying for her son, but thought, “I need to do something more.” Gathering him into her arms, she set out…
February 2013 – Poland to the World
It had taken him years of studying and hard work, an international move from America to Poznan, Poland and many sacrifices, but he was finally about to taste the reward. Bruno was in his last weeks of medical school at Poznan University in Poland. Nonetheless, when the phone rang, he answered.
January 2013 – An Extreme Short-term Missions Trip
Hell on earth. Literally. The worst living conditions you could imagine. No, scratch that. Worse living conditions than an American could probably imagine. It’s not the mission field anyone really wants God to call us to. But God called a young, thirty-year old Sudanese believer to live according to the Biblical story of redemption in the midst of a Sudanese prison for 10 weeks.
December 2012 – Merry Christmas
We asked our partners to share with ITMI Monthly readers the top five things God has done in them or their ministry this year. We pray you are blessed in knowing that these are possible through the generosity of supporters like you.
201211_ITMI November E-Newsletter
Children’s screams pierced the forsaken calmness of the cold, biting air that hung over the desolate and remote area outside Onseepkans, South Africa. ITMI’s Gerhard le Roux quickly rolled out from under his family’s 1994 Land Rover. He and his ministry partner, Eric, were muddling through repairing it – again. The two men sprinted to the house where the screams were coming from. As they reached the door, they saw…
“Good news!” was all the young boy could manage between breaths. The women, most balancing heavy jugs of water on their heads while carrying one in each hand, kept walking toward their village just a few steps ahead. They moved only their eyes toward the boy, who again heralded breathlessly, “Good news!”
2012 September – A Preview of the Kingdom
The meager change landed next to her with a short clang. Twenty-two-year-old Magashwari had just finished washing the clothes of an upper caste family in Southern India in exchange for a few coins they tossed her way. Because of her blindness, she’d been told and treated like she didn’t matter by her family and society for so long that she believed it. And then one day there was a knock at her door.
August 2012 – Building Strong Marriages
Ana followed her fiance, Mihai, up to the stoop of ITMI’s Adrain – Adi as they knew him – and Ema Ban’s home in Oradea, Romania. As the couple welcomed them in with smiles, Ana immediately felt safe and warm. She fidgeted nervously with her fingers, hair and anything else she could find. She and Mihai were there for a diagnosis of their relationship. Ana knew the Bans wrote and published a book on marriage – she assumed they were a picture of perfection.
ITMI’s Anna Gorski stood in front of a group of strangers in Phoenix, Arizona. She could feel their eyes glued on her – and it was almost as if she could physically feel them stuck to her skin. She wiped her clammy palms on her jeans then reached up to play with her dark brown hair, only to realize she had pulled it back to keep it from the roving reach of her nervous hands. She was scared to death.
It was an intense 103 degrees Farenheit. There were about 2000 people gathered for an Easter service. Most were sitting in plastic chairs crowded underneath sheets draped on hefty tent poles that were erected each Sunday for the young church’s gathering. Those that couldn’t find seats under the awning – or should we say oven – were sprinkled in any inkling of shade that could be found outside the structure.
May 2012 – From Suicidal to Saved
It was hard to believe that it all came down to this. Moses could hear his pulse pounding in his ears. The chaotic bustle of the city was a muted rustle, as if he was far, far away. Though standing still next to a busy road in an African city, he was breathing hard, gasping for breath like a drowning victim. He took a deep breath. Before anyone could stop him, Moses darted in front of the next speeding vehicle, intending to end it all.
“Then glaring at her 10-year-old son, she threatened, ‘Don’t come back here!’ then turned on her heal and left.”
Barren. Wasteland. Godforsaken. Or is it?
We don’t think so. Neither did Gerhard Le Roux. In fact, he bet the farm on it. Literally.
February 2012 – From Despair to Love and Life
“I come from a broken family. My parents- father addicted to alcohol and handicapped mother struggling with depression- couldn’t give me the love, care and safety I needed as a child. I wasn’t aware of the destruction that was going on in me- I was emotionally damaged, spiritually dead and physically suffering from epilepsy.
January 2012 – Removing the Millstone
The realization hit Pastor Raj [name changed for security] like a millstone and a heaviness sank deep into his stomach. He felt sick. The American’s words, “You are not God,” rang in his ears. He had been playing god.