Our heart for tomorrow begins today, and it can start with you! With your help, we could enter 2019 with a chance to empower 500 indigenous missionaries to reach more unreached people than ever! Generous donors have offered a $100,000 matching grant for special gifts given at year-end. Your gift could result in twice as many people hearing of God’s heart for their future.

Meet The Inspiration Behind Our Year-End Campaign

Matano and Judith live in a remote village in Kenya where they are bringing both needed education and the love of Jesus to two unreached tribes. Take a minute to watch this video and get to know Matano!

Worldlink is blessed to call Matano and Judith our indigenous missionary partners. Jack Nelson, WL Founder and President, had the privilege to visit Matano and Judith recently and hear stories about their ministry. One such story has inspired this year’s campaign. Read Jack’s letter to discover the miraculous ways God is using Matano and Judith to reach the unreached and to find out how you can make a difference for tomorrow, today!

Dear Friend,

You have been used by God to help indigenous missionaries reach unreached people. Thank you. You probably do ministry like that in your own community. Let me ask you a question.

How would you react if someone threatened your life because you love people like Jesus loves people and want them to have a relationship with Him? I know what one of my friends and ministry partners recently said to me:

“We cannot love our lives more than those of these people”

I want to tell you their story and to ask you to help me empower more remarkable people like them to reach their countries for Christ. This is our heart for tomorrow and right now, any gift you give will be doubled!

THE STORY

During my recent trip to Africa, I was in a remote village near the semi-arid Kenya/Somalia border visiting with Matano and Judith who are bringing both needed education and the love of Jesus to two unreached tribes. They are “people of peace,” but not everyone in their area appreciates that they are educating the girls who are commonly married at age 9 or 10. Not everyone appreciates that they are acting to lessen tribal animosities because some long to attack their neighboring tribe. Not everyone appreciates that, along with running the only area school, they quietly share the Good News of Jesus. This enraged some fanatics.

Matano and Judith’s home is a 45-minute drive from the nearest electricity and a 4-mile walk from the nearest water. Existence is hard in the bush. Ministry is harder. The opposition is perhaps the hardest thing. Matano is a marked man.

One tribesman buried a live goat, which in their tradition curses Matano and means that he should die within three days. It did not work. Another sold them a chicken to eat, but Matano was uneasy in his spirit and decided not to kill and eat the chicken that night. They discovered that the chicken had been poisoned. That plot did not work.

The final scheme was hatched about two weeks before I arrived on my visit. It did not work either. Let me tell you about God’s protection.

A young school boy came to Matano on a Friday night and warned that he had overheard four men at the mosque planning to kill Matano and Judith. The men had obtained a gun and intended to come to Matano’s home (a mud and stick hut with a tin roof) late at night. They planned to call to Matano from the edge of the property as is customary, and when Matano met them in the darkness, they would shoot him and then kill Judith and the four tribal children they have adopted.

Matano, Judith, the kids, and the team living with them immediately fled across the dry riverbed to the school and spent the night in huddled silence hiding from those who would do them harm.

At morning light, Matano sought out the village leaders. He relayed the plot (but not how he became aware of it). He asked the leaders for their help. The leaders sent runners to bring the four conspirators and when they arrived, the leaders confronted them saying, “It has been revealed to this man that you were planning to kill him. What do you say?”

At this point in his explanation, Matano told me that, since he had not exposed how the plot had been revealed to him, the accomplices seemed to conclude that it had been divine revelation. With that, the four men became visibly afraid and assured everyone that they had no such intentions. To prove it, they offered to protect Matano and Judith by patrolling around their home at night. (That sounded to me like the fox guarding the hen house.)

GOD’S PROTECTION

Matano was understandably unenthusiastic about that offer, but then God stepped in. I believe that God can move even unbelieving leaders to wise decisions. With wisdom, the leader accepted the plan to make the attackers into protectors and then said, “You will assure that they are safe and if anything happens to them and their family, the same will happen to you and your family.”

And with that, God’s protection was evident and revealed His heart for tomorrow’s continued ministry. And God’s progress in the ministry has been evident as well. Because of the faithful witness of these faithful indigenous missionaries, 12 people from 2 unreached tribes are now secret believers. Because of the danger, they will not allow anyone to know of their new faith in Christ, but they now meet privately with Matano and Judith learning how to follow Jesus.

Judith told me that some of their friends advised that they leave the area due to the threats. Then, with moist eyes she said, “We know it’s risky, but we’re happy because we know Jesus and are making a difference. We cannot love our lives more than those of these people.” This is Judith and Matano’s heart for tomorrow.

My heart was humbled as I sat in the presence of such commitment. I have experienced that same feeling as I have spoken with Worldlink partners all over the world. And, as I sat there in the shade of an acacia tree, I was convinced that God wants Worldlink to empower many more.

OUR HEART FOR TOMORROW

OUR HEART FOR TOMORROW IS CLEAR:
WE WANT AS MANY PEOPLE AS POSSIBLE TO KNOW AND FOLLOW JESUS

You know that indigenous missionaries are uniquely positioned to reach unreached people for Christ.

Right now, Worldlink partners with 415 indigenous missionaries in 38 countries who are seeing remarkable results by God’s grace. In the past 12 months, they have shared God’s love with 602,859 people and have seen 50,857 of them profess faith in Jesus for the first time. We have the opportunity to do more!

Right now, knowing that they can leverage their gifts and encourage others to do the same, a few friends have offered to double your year-end gift up to $100,000. Imagine what that might mean:

• Imagine if we could unleash 500 indigenous missionaries to reach their own countries

• Imagine if more hurting and hopeless people encountered Christians like Matano and Judith

• Imagine if more orphans entered loving Christian Children’s Homes

• Imagine if more girls forced into prostitution were offered new lives and new life

• Imagine if more new believers who had been expelled from their homes found refuge

• Imagine if more churches were started in places where no one had heard of Jesus

I can imagine all these things because I have seen what God has done so far. God is at work. I believe that God’s heart is mirrored in your heart. As we all link hearts we can reach the unreached!

So, please pray and give as generously as God leads and we will unleash into effective ministry many more Matanos and Judiths, who do not love their own lives more than those of the people they serve.

Honored to Serve with You,

Jack Nelson
President

P.S. With your help, we could enter 2019 with a chance to empower 500 indigenous missionaries to reach more unreached people than ever! Generous donors have offered a $100,000 matching grant for special gifts given at year-end. Your gift could result in twice as many people hearing of God’s heart for their future.