Unreached Network

Stories From Newfrontiers: Reaching The Nations With Faith

Newfrontiers is a group of apostolic leaders partnering together on global mission, joined by common values and beliefs, shared mission and genuine relationships. It was founded by Terry Virgo, and the name ‘Newfrontiers’ was adopted for the ministry in 1986. In 2011, it was redefined as a network of apostolic spheres worldwide, and fifteen different apostolic leaders took on leadership roles within these spheres. The Unreached Network serves across the Newfrontiers family. You can find about more about Newfrontiers here.

In this post, we look to share stories that highlight what’s been happening across Newfrontiers recently in its work in reaching the nations. Anything we’ve missed? Please contact us here to let us know.


Advance

Advance is a family of churches partnered around their shared doctrine and values, attitude to mission, genuine relationship, and suitably gifted leadership. The focus of Advance is this: ‘Let’s do it again. Let’s do the Book of Acts again. In our generation.‘ They have churches based in Europe, the Asia-Pacific region, and North America, with locations in Africa coming soon.

The following story was uploaded to the Advance blog on their website. You can read the original post here.

Flood Relief: Chiang Rai, Thailand.

One of our partner churches is located in Chiang Rai, Thailand, an area recently devastated by flooding as a result of Typhoon Yagi. The damage was widespread, ravaging homes, buildings, and infrastructure. In response, our movement has partnered with the church there both in prayer and through financial support as they address the immediate needs of the community.

In the wake of this devastating flooding, a local resident and member of One Light Church (an Advance Partner Church) shared the following reflection on the profound damage, the church’s response, and how God is at work in the midst of the disaster:

“It has been a life-changing time for the city of Chiang Rai. There was no running water for weeks, people without places to live, so much mud, sewage, and mould throughout the homes and businesses in the city, and entire houses filled with things that were ruined. Many of our church families affected by Typhoon Yagi are still recovering, searching for new places to live, continuing to clean, and processing what God is doing during this time.

However, we have been able to witness God at work in our church! We are encouraged by the ways our members have been supporting one another during this time. It’s a beautiful sight to see people love one another by putting their time, effort, and finances to help others.

As difficult as this situation has been, there have been many ways that Christ’s love has been displayed. We have been able to mobilize outreach teams to pray for and provide food, cleaning, and pressure-washing manpower!”

Thanks to the generosity of the Advance Family, funds were provided for relief aid, allowing the church to support both members and the broader Chiang Rai community. These donations have helped purchase groceries, clothing, school uniforms, washers, refrigerators, beds, bedding, and other household items for many families, including those without family or community support. In addition, church members have packed and distributed over 1,200 boxed lunches to those in need.

“We cannot stress our gratitude enough for our Advance Family and the support you’ve given both through prayer and financially! Thank you to God for His provision through you in the midst of suffering and natural disasters!”


Commission

Commission is a global family of churches on a mission to serve the local church together. Their vision is to see ‘Thousands of lives transformed through hundreds of churches in tens of nations‘. Commission have church locations in North America, Africa, Europe, and Asia.

The following story was written by Paul Williams on the Commission website. You can read the original post here.

Humbled in Mongolia

Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia June 2024

Welcome to Mongolia, a nation six times bigger than the UK & home to 3.6 million people.

Almost half of that population live in Mongolia’s largest city, Ulaanbaatar, a city that is flavoured by a history of Buddhist heritage & Russian influence. Sitting in a valley on the Tuul river, the city is surrounded by stunning lush green mountain views & is a picture of both industry & natural beauty. It’s a city that does not sleep with tall residential & commercial buildings continuously being developed. Throw a stone blindfolded & you’ll hit a Toyota Prius, they are everywhere! An example of measures to help combat the troubling pollution issues of the city.

It’s here that Kevin, Russ & myself came as a Commission team to explore what God was doing in this city & nation, this place of both great challenge & potential. It’s here that we came to support & serve an indigenous church plant that was seeking to build a Word & Spirit church in Ulaanbaatar.

Let me introduce you to Ari, a church leader carrying a great heart for Mongolia. Through him we have learned that the nation has had a staggering explosion of Christianity over the past 25 years from just four Christians in 1989 to now thousands who gather in hundreds of churches.

The people are incredibly kind, generous & passionate. They made it easy for us to quickly love them! Their hospitality was outstanding, with us being treated to meal after meal & we discovered that family plays such an important part of everyday activity. Family & meat, there is always a lot of meat involved!

Culturally the Mongolian people are naturally nomadic, so we went with a heart to draw alongside these beautiful followers of Jesus to help sharpen a focused effort to the city of Ulaanbaatar. Our desire was to help embed the beauty of the local church into the DNA of Ari & the team around him, & we were wonderfully encouraged to see how God was drawing a team together for what feels like a significant season ahead of richer discipleship & gospel breakthrough.

It was a packed itinerary, which included a two-day leadership conference, a two-day visit to Erdenet (Mongolia’s 3rd biggest city) & spending time with the Lord Reigns Church. We taught, we prayed, we worshipped, there was laughter & there were tears, our whole time there was a tremendous privilege. We were absolutely blown away by these faithful brothers & sisters.

God is doing something powerful with his people across the other side of the world & we came away with a strong conviction of hope for this city & nation. What a huge privilege to know that we are part of something much bigger!


Confluence

Confluence is a family of churches together on mission, working to ‘strengthen existing churches, plant healthy churches, equip leaders, and partner with [their] global family‘. They are mainly based in the USA.

The following story was uploaded to the Confluence website. You can read the original post here.

From Self-Medicated to Mission

On December 22nd of this year my brother Jesse is moving to Cambodia to love and minister to the people there, alongside his wife Megan. Amazing in its own right, yeah? But if you knew my brother three years ago, you would realize that this is nothing short of miraculous, and proof that our God is living and active in the lives of unbelievers even when we stand in the corner laughing at the impossibility of His promises to us.

Life Apart

Three years ago, I had a non-existent relationship with my brother. I knew through talking with family, and a slowly growing relationship with his long-time girlfriend Megan that he was heavily self-medicating from our mutual childhood trauma with marijuana, alcohol, and “anything else he could get his hands on.” He worked as a local bartender, and will tell you himself that he was hopelessly trapped in a cycle of escaping from the pain of abandonment and re-living the codependency he’d been taught in childhood.

Megan had always loved Jesus, but she loved Jesse more, and had submitted to a very dysfunctional relationship with him for almost 10 years. They lived together, and though they did their best to love each other, there was continual pain and brokenness between them – apart from Jesus that’s the best any of us can do.

Planting Seeds of Prayer

Megan and I started spending more time together, praying for Jesse and for a shift in their relationship. Within a couple of months, a dear friend of ours had a dream that felt like it was for Jesse from the Holy Spirit. It instructed “three” of us to get on our faces in prayer for Jesse, with a promise that there would be an “arrest” made. We had very little idea what this could mean, and even worried that it meant the worst (Jesse had expressed some suicidal ideation when Megan had threatened to leave him in the past). But we felt fairly confident that the Lord’s hand was on this. We invited my dad to be the third party of our prayer group, and for 9 months we met bi-weekly to bring Jesse before the Lord – sometimes hopeful and expectant, other times weary and fearful – but obedient to what we felt like was the Lord’s instruction.

Over the course of that time the Lord was working in my heart, growing a love for my brother that I didn’t know I had, a love that felt like HIS love for Jesse, not my own. Megan began to feel peace about doing what had felt impossible – splitting up with Jesse, and one night she very bravely asked him to leave. My sweet brother, found himself on our doorstep with all of his things, abandoned and terrified as he had been as a child, without God and without hope. We had a spare room in our basement. I gave him space to get set up, and we all went to bed, but that night I heard him crying and aching in the basement, and asked the Lord how I could love him. We had NO relationship prior to this. The months of prayer had knitted my heart for Jesse to the Father’s heart for him so I felt confidence and peace as I went downstairs with a cup of water. I just sort of held him and loved him while, as he likes to put it – “he howled like a wolfman in my basement.” He was violently detoxing from alcohol and had been for several days as a last-ditch effort to salvage relationship with Megan. He had also been having episodes of anxiety where he would suddenly lose his vision, and one of these began to happen as I sat with him. I found myself putting my hand over his eyes and praying with authority that the Lord would open his eyes, and show Jesse His deep love for Him. And Jesus did it! The detox and loss of vision ended abruptly. We were both amazed at how obvious the presence of God was in that moment.

Growing in Love

Over the course of the next couple of days and weeks Jesus continually revealed himself to my brother through our church family at Church without Borders, through reading the scripture alone in his bedroom, through worship, and walks in the woods. He quit his job at the bar, and completed his GED. He had been radically loved by Jesus, and changed by that love in what felt like an instant, but the healing kept coming. Within a couple of months, CWB was planning our yearly trip to a community in Phnom Pehn, Cambodia that we’ve built a beautiful relationship with. Jesse decided to go. It was in this season of his life that he began to see how God could use all of his brokenness, his experiences with poverty, feelings of being an orphan, and “couch surfing” to love the least of these. Jesus could make beauty from the ashes of his life. He went out to Montana to participate in a DTS with YWAM complete with an outreach in Thailand, followed by a three month stay in Cambodia.

Meanwhile, Megan was home healing and seeking Jesus, rediscovering her First Love. She felt led separately to travel with CWB’s youth to Thailand on a two-week mission trip, and heard a commissioning from the Lord while there to spend her life in full time missionary work.

God’s Miraculous Restoration

When Jesse returned home from YWAM, they began slowly discussing what God had been doing in their lives. Their friendship was restored and soon after their love for one another, which for the first time ever was undergirded by their individual love for the Lord. They were married last November, and soon after began making plans to spend their lives following Jesus by loving the people of Southeast Asia. This December they will be traveling together to Battambang, Cambodia where they will complete a Discipleship Training School, and then start their life among the Cambodian people as Church Without Borders’ very first homegrown international missionaries. Their dreams are big. They long to see people pulled up from poverty through education (Jesse recently completed his TESOL certification), to bless street kids with a safe place to learn and play, and to serve the large community of sex-trafficking survivors in the region.

There is a light in my brother’s eyes and a change in his countenance that I honestly never imagined I would see. God has truly been so merciful and kind in restoring him to who he was created to be, and though there is still so much healing to do, it is a joy to know him and support him as he lays down his life for the God who died once and for all for the whole hurting, broken world. As a community we have learned to never give up fighting in prayer for this world that Jesus loves, and to expect the unexpected. He is always working on behalf of those who have yet to love Him back, and He is always “able to far more than we could ever ask for or imagine.”

Jesse and Megan’s Wedding, November 2019

Relational Mission

Relational Mission are a family of churches who seek to ‘preach Christ, and plant and strengthen churches to the ends of the earth‘. The name ‘Relational Mission’ combines what they see as two key elements present in New Testament apostolic ministry: relationship and mission. Their churches and church plant locations are currently mainly present within Europe and Asia.

The following story was written about in a newsletter by R Mission Bolivia. You can find out more about R Mission Bolivia here.

Bolivia: Rescue, Rehabilitate, Reintegrate

Isaac and Anali Butcher moved to Bolivia in 2021 with their 2 girls. They are building a children’s centre/home to help abandoned and abused children. They also help families struggling with poverty in rural communities and in the city.

Many abandoned or abused children end up on the streets, often in the cities, trying to find an escape or a new opportunity. We have been serving kids as young as 6 years old, mothers with new-born babies, teenagers, young adults, and the elderly. Poverty is a big driver of many problems; it leads to despair, fighting, abandonment, drug and alcohol abuse, child labour, low school grades, and more. Physical and sexual abuse also occur, not directly because of poverty, but because children from poor households are often left alone for long periods of time, and so are vulnerable. Slavery and trafficking of children in Bolivia are also well documented.

Poverty

4 in 10 women live in poverty. More men are employed but often leave their families to find work. Many people are barely surviving on around $12/day, and about 2 million Bolivians earn less than $140/month. Most struggle to eat, let alone live, for less than $150. This was evident at the end of 2021, with 26% of households not being able to afford basic sustenance.

Violence and Exploitation

In 2017, Bolivia was reported to have the highest rates of sexual violence in South America, with 1 in every 3 women experiencing sexual abuse before the age of 18, often from family members. Less than 5% of all sex crimes result in convictions. Around 15% of children between the ages of 7 and 14 are working, with some in dangerous jobs, including mining, working with explosives, and working in agriculture around dangerous chemicals.

Children that are rescued from the worst forms of child labour are not all referred to social services due to a lack of available care homes and shelters. Those that are referred are often soon cast out of their shelters due to being placed there on fixed timelines rather than by assessment of need. Better shelters and homes exist but are often understaffed or underfunded. The homes suffer from abuse and bullying within their walls, and some appear as correctional institutions rather than therapeutic homes that regard and treat residents as family.

SOME OF OUR MISSION WORK IN ACTION…

Isaac and Anali are writing a holistic program to help children to rehabilitate and pursue life as part of a family. This will begin within the centre, but they are also pursuing adoption and sponsorship ideas that can work with Bolivian children’s services. They are currently processing the papers required to register as a foundation (charitable organisation) in Bolivia, and by the end of 2025 they hope to have met all the requirements and to have finished construction of the centre.

Our mission work in the local market on Sundays sees Anali speaking and praying for many. We also lead worship with various helpers from local churches.

This leaf is a papaya leaf. Papaya grows everywhere around us; it seeds/plants itself even on main roads, so the leaf is basically free. We have many on site, and this wonderful creation of God is amazing medicine for dengue fever, but not many people know this! It helps regulate the immune system, it’s anti-viral, and it increases blood platelet count. Isaac did a workshop on how to use the leaf as medicine in a local rural community (named Puerto Rico) with a large percentage of poor single parents. At the time, there was a large outbreak of dengue and many were suffering, including Isaac and his two daughters.

Despite our challenges, we were back on mission in the city as soon as possible, feeding the hungry, and praying for the sick and the discarded, bringing love and hope into darkness and despair.

We ventured into local rural communities and we discovered many poor families, sick children, cancer, gastric illnesses and anaemia. Many are living in decaying and crumbling mud, stick or wooden houses, and cooking on a wood fire mud stove without any covering. There was a serious lack of protection from insects, snakes, bats and scorpions, with gaping holes in walls, and web and dirt covered ceilings.

Every family has different problems and needs, but what they all struggle with is poverty, and often malnourishment. Some families we visited live down paths through the jungle forest which, for many days in the year, are only accessible by foot or bike. To access these places by vehicle, you have to wait for the river to dry up. We tended to find the women and children at home as the men were often in the fields working. In one small cluster of houses, after chatting and praying together, several ladies and children received Jesus.

One poor lady we have been helping lives with her daughters in a mud and stick shack. She used to cook with fire on a mud stove outside. This style of cooking can be a good option for poor families but it is often subject to the weather and difficult to maintain without plenty of firewood. Normally, it is also limited to 1 pot cooking, and the constant smoke emitted is not good for lungs or eyes. The lady broke down in tears when we presented her with a twin gas stove and a full canister of gas. Isaac installed it, and we prayed with her and her daughters.

In August, a family came to Santa Cruz from the UK. They used to live, work, and support ministries here in Bolivia. They had been here for 12 years, and we were very blessed to have met them just before they returned to England. We have stayed in touch with them ever since. One of their daughters, Evie, was born and grew up in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. This is her story emailed to Isaac from her dad, Ben:

Evie felt like she wanted to help people on the streets of Santa Cruz, and decided to raise money through baking biscuits and brownies, and asking for donations via her church in Poole, UK. Friends in Exeter heard about what Evie was doing, and decided to also have a bake sale to support her fundraising. With this help and generosity, Evie was able to raise over £500!

She was amazed at how God multiplied the small act in order to be able to give so much. She was able to visit the Butchers in August, visit the families whom the Butchers regularly support, and see the people living on the streets of Santa Cruz. All of Evie’s family loved seeing how God cares for the poor, and the amazing work that the Butchers are doing, caring, loving, and practically supporting vulnerable people and families in need.

We’ve been maintaining our connection with a Guarani Indigenous Community about 4-5 hours away from the centre. They live in an arid area, and struggle with survival, lacking access to many items, including medicines. Good nutrition is also limited. We donated lots of food, clothes, shoes, children’s activity books and packets of colouring pencils to them. Ladies from the village helped to make food as we also helped to lay foundations for what will be a church and community hall.

In November, we had an opportunity to start constructing a permanent water intake system. We worked into and through the night on several occasions. Many days we started earlier than normal so we could make use of cooler hours as we carried over 40 tons of material up through the jungle. It was possible to use the car to help, but only up to halfway, and so the final 300m was by foot, sack by sack. Each sack was about 35kg. It was really hard work, and on one day we worked 28 hours straight, but thankfully God provided some extra hands. We were also able to employ additional young men from a local rural community, and this was a blessing for all.

The system is mostly complete, but will need some tweaking and improvements down the road as we test its ability to aid the filtration of water, and look to prevent air from blocking the pipes. We have now installed two cartridge filters before the main storage tanks that clean all the sand and clay out and help to maintain the pipework and machines, like the washing machine in the centre. Later, we plan to add a ‘drinking water’ filter option in the centre to enable us to drink the water.

What’s Next?

Isaac tells the Unreached Network, ‘We are still building the foundations, and praying for a bigger community and staff on the ground to help us as we move forward towards opening doors. We can, as Newfrontiers boldly states, ‘Do more together!’ We welcome anyone with a heart for mission in South America to get in touch and see how God can connect us as a global community, as we reach the lost and the abandoned, and raise up children of God.’

The team in Bolivia have also stated, ‘Skills we could really use include carpenters, tree surgeons, builders, missionaries, doctors and dentists. If this is of interest, please get in touch and we will arrange a zoom meeting and put you in contact with our leaders.’

A rural community of Bolivia

If you’d like to get in contact with Isaac, you can message him on WhatsApp at +591 6886 7996, or by email at rmissionbolivia@gmail.com. You can learn more about the work of R Mission Bolivia here.