Greetings from Ekballo University!
From the rural areas and small villages to the urban cities — in India, Thailand, and Myanmar — the International Ekballo U teams send greetings and a report of the fruit of their labor from September 1st through September 30th.
INDIA
According to traditional accounts, the apostle Thomas was the first one who brought the message of the gospel to India, landing on the Kerala coast in AD 52. In his twenty years of ministry, he planted eight churches. To this day, the Kerala region of India is still more prominently Christian than the rest of the nation. However, even after thousands of years, there is still a great need in India for “Thomases” of the present day, who will love the people of this nation and share with them the Bread of Life.
The battle for souls is visible here in many ways. The government and India’s mainstream media have concluded that Christianity is a threat to the culture and the deeply rooted religious beliefs of the region, making it increasingly dangerous for missionaries to be open about their intent to share the gospel. Even in the domain of social media, content posted through Indian-based pages can be removed or restricted if it is perceived as “disturbing the peace”.
Our present-day “Thomas” team of digital evangelists in India have been independently sharing gospel content through social media for some time. However, a variety of these gospel-averse societal factors halted their progress through rejected ads and page restrictions. Online gospel conversations in India often includes valuable time working to dispel the false notions that people have about what Jesus represents. A bitter history of colonization and nationalist propaganda have sown a lot of confusion, but the online evangelists see sparks of curiosity. Eager for their online evangelism work to continue, and knowing the increasingly restrictive rules regarding social media usage, the team began to pray that God would somehow provide a way to run the page from a US based account.
This place of practical need is where Ekballo University was able to partner with this team of strategic and technically inclined evangelists, sharing the resources of a US based Facebook account with access to the back-end infrastructure needed to digitally reach and respond to people who are curious about the gospel!
This place of practical need is where Ekballo University was able to partner with this team of strategic and technically inclined evangelists, sharing the resources of a US based Facebook account with access to the back-end infrastructure needed to digitally reach and respond to people who are curious about the gospel!
PARTNERING WITH EKBALLO U
Our India Team story highlights an important aspect of the work and ministry of Ekballo University. Around the world, and specifically, in the 10/40 window, there are many, many faithful and effective teams of missionaries, evangelists, pastors, and churches who know how to best serve the people of their nation. However, they often are unable to fully access the technological tools needed for effective digital evangelism. Among the most common limiting factors are adversarial international laws, finite financial resources, and a need for technological training.
In the case of our India team, these faithful brothers and sisters in the Lord already had a strong understanding and a vision for the potential Kingdom purposes of social media. However, they were particularly eager to partner with Ekballo University to help clear the political red tape and to share in the use of our pre-built, digital evangelism infrastructure in their nation. In partnership, we were able to set up a new Facebook profile for this India team with an immediate reward for their labor. Audience interest in their gospel content and invitations to view media-driven gospel stories has continued to show a genuine hunger for the truth in the nation of India!
WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY
Since the Ekballo U Facebook page was started in India, the team’s social media reach has been streamlined for effectiveness. Automation makes content ready for people to receive information immediately, whenever their hearts are ready, using a gradual release approach of Gospel content. This allows those who are curious about the Gospel to seek understanding, even when digital responders aren’t immediately available to converse.
Because of the ever-changing regulations on internet access and social media, we don’t know how long this window of opportunity will remain open. For that reason, groups of volunteers and missionaries in India are collaborating to expand to other languages and local regions as soon as possible. For this reason, we invite you to pray in agreement with this team’s success for the Gospel in India.
“How unsearchable His judgments,
and His paths beyond tracing out!”
Romans 11:33b
Women in India seem to carry a significant spiritual role in performing daily worship for the family and the keeping of various special fasts and rituals for the benefit of their husbands and children. This pattern of spiritual interest among Indian women also extends beyond their families, influencing leadership in church-planting movements as well. While this is a beautiful inheritance for women in the nation, men have not been as represented in Indian churches, highlighting a significant demographic in need of Jesus.
Responsibility to provide for their families moves spiritual pondering to the last line of the “to-do list” for many husbands and fathers. Many of them are working seven days a week and don’t have the time to attend church meetings. But like many of us, they make a familiar choice to decompress after a hard day’s work by scrolling through their phones on social media. Digital Evangelism reaches right into the heart of this aimless alone time.
Interestingly enough, the demographic most engaged with our gospel content is young men! Many of these men are deeply curious about spiritual things but won’t step foot in a church. Often, their conversations with digital responders begin with something like, “My mom goes to church, but I don’t really care for it.” However, they continue to converse with our team, searching for more information about Jesus in the secret confidence of our online Digital Evangelism chat sessions.
Surely, we see the faithfulness of the Lord to these unknown praying mothers, as we witness their sons inquiring about the message of Jesus at their most unguarded and unseen moments!
Only twenty dollars a day spent on ads in India get about a hundred people who sign up to study the Bible!
THAILAND
We are connected by the Spirit
…and technology!
Our teams continue to faithfully serve the Thai people around the world, and they have shared their joy from last month’s work in the form of this particular testimony from France and Thailand.
A couple weeks ago, one of our Thai Digital Evangelists, currently based in France, shared the Gospel with a young girl living in central Thailand, where there are currently 6-8 trusted house churches. She had previously heard about Jesus from another pastor in the area, but hadn’t followed through on this prior encounter with the gospel. Our Digital Evangelist began conversing with her about the hard time she was going through. As she shared the gospel and listened to her story, the conversation ultimately led to this young woman giving her heart to Jesus!
From France, our team member offered to connect this girl with a pastor in the area. However, when this pastor reached out, the girl was hesitant to respond, realizing that she had no food or money to give, a common custom when welcoming a holy person in Buddhism.
Not only did this pastor allay these fears, she arrived to meet this new believer with food and basic necessities to share. The girl was deeply touched by the unexpected expression of love, as both her spiritual and physical needs were seen and tended to, something that Jesus himself modeled so perfectly!
Thank you, Lord, for these faithful laborers in the Thai harvest fields of the world!
Thailand. Rice terraces.
MYANMAR
More than enough.
While the crowd was following Jesus, He asked His disciples to feed his tired and hungry followers. And, yes, we know the rest of the story, He multiplied all they could find and it was more than enough.
Over and over, we have experienced the joy of seeing seekers who come to Jesus and turn into givers. Because, as a child of the Almighty, even in the most desperate situations, you still have One who IS more and HAS more than enough.
Today, if Jesus were to ask the faithful ministers of the gospel in Myanmar,
“What do you have?”
They would likely answer,
“We have nothing, only passion to share the Gospel.”
We can only imagine, that Jesus would look into their eyes with gentleness and answer, “That is more than enough.”
LET US INTRODUCE YOU
TO THREE FAITHFUL ONES…
Min Khant is a young 23 year old man, struggling to help his family meet their daily needs. Like so many people in Myanmar, his father lost his job in the aftermath of the devastating coup. Despite the hardships their family has faced, Min Khant has a passion to share the Gospel and has joined the evangelism programs and outreaches to local refugees. In the evenings he serves as a digital responder of the Ekballo U Myanmar Page, sharing the gospel through social media and praying for those in need.
Only a few weeks ago, we shared a praise report in our monthly newsletter that the Palaung people, an “unreached people group” were being reached for the very first time with the gospel. We can now share, more specifically, that a man named Aik Yu and his family are the first generations of believers from that unreached group in the north of Shan State in Myanmar!!
This remote area of Myanmar has been struggling for decades with the civil war and mass drug production. A year ago the whole family was forced to flee their homes to avoid military recruitment. They lost everything: land, livestock, and home. Yet the family’s passion to share God’s kingdom has not been diminished by their hardship. Not only have they been sharing the gospel with their own people, but Aik Yu has also joined in the Ekballo U Facebook campaigns whenever he has internet access!
Last year was marked with irreparable loss for a man named Poni. Due to complications with Covid, his precious wife passed away. In spite of this hardship, he continues as a caretaker of a hostel, welcoming and discipling many broken individuals, new believers, and youth. Poni is a true role model for the Ekballo U Facebook campaigns, as he serves and leads many of the individuals in his home to partner with him in sharing the gospel through social media. Through his loss and sadness, he continues to pour out blessing and service in bringing in the harvest in Myanmar.
LIVING TESTIMONY
Multitudes of people in Myanmar are in great need and are open to hearing the Gospel and receiving prayer in Jesus’ Name. Through the Ekballo U Facebook page, digital responders receive thousands of messages with requests for prayer which they respond to personally, often by recording their voice as they pray.
During September, the Ekballo U Facebook team prayed for several hundred people, including fighters from both the Burmese army and the resistance groups, and even from Buddhist monks as well. Here are a few testimonies from their September ministry:
- A girl named Yamin told one of our ministers that she wants to be happy and full of peace in her life. The team member shared that she can receive real peace and joy only from Jesus. On that very day, Yamin accepted Jesus in her heart as the Prince of Peace.
- One of our Digital Evangelists prayed for someone who wanted a guitar. Only minutes later (yes, minutes!), the person responded by saying that they had suddenly received a guitar as a gift!
- Over these last two weeks, one of the main prayer requests was for family relationships. Many marriages are under stress due to the economic crisis. One of the many calls was about a particular family relationship that was broken. God answered that prayer and the family was restored.
- Missionaries also prayed for a person who was scammed for over $400 (which is 5 months’ salary in Myanmar). She is facing a legal trial for a further $70. After speaking to her over the phone, she was delivered from the trial and said that she had come to peace with her loss of money.
