June 16, 2020
Dear Friends,
We are gripped with the current protests going on in the U.S. and also now in other countries. With the strain of COVID-19 still evident, the protests against racial injustice have created an important conversation. We welcome this conversation and long to see the Gospel of Jesus Christ lived out in our midst.
Yet, during this season, we have a responsibility to report on the mission God has called us to serve—developing leaders who first experience personal transformation and then extend the transforming power of the gospel to those communities around them. We strive to change the few who change the many. And you help us do that!
JUST HAPPENED
Because of you and your generosity, we were able to (soft-) launch a new country in South Asia recently. It’s a country filled with strife and at the center of Islamic fundamentalism, a place where the Church is under constant pressure and often attack. They have been begging us for several years to come but the challenges have been formidable.
And because you helped us start the digital initiative for A3 through our matching grant, we are now up-and-running in this new country. Throughout the week, the sessions with a really good cohort of pastors from the country were conducted entirely online... for the first time ever. The leaders were elated to get started on this A3 journey with each other!
COMING UP
We are exploring opening a few other countries this way, as well. Hopefully, the travel restrictions will lift soon so we can meet in person. While everyone loves the digital connection for now, it’s clear they prefer being life-on-life and face-to-face. Longer-term the digital features will be supplementary as well as crucial for countries like the creative access country we just launched where it may be impossible to actually send faculty.
Thank you for participating in our match and pray that we can finish. We only have $97,950 more to go. See the thermometer below.
PRAYER & PRAISE...
- Pray for a breakthrough for COVID-19 and the corresponding economic challenges.
- Pray for our colleagues who are deeply impacted both economically, as well as by the health challenges.
- Pray for the continued conversation about racial equality to bring God-honoring change.
- Praise God that A3 can open a new country, even in the midst of COVID-19!
- Please pray that we can creatively open a few more new countries across Asia this year for both pastors and marketplace leaders.
- We’ve been invited to share at the Religious Liberty Partnership to talk about ways to strengthen the lives of those facing persecution.
- Pray for wisdom as we prayerfully look beyond 2020 to 2025. Leaders from Africa, Latin America, Europe and the USA are asking us to come serve their countries, so we need to lay this before the Lord.
- Pray for the right resourcing to leverage the opportunities we sense God is providing.
With Christ,
Joe Handley
Rev. Joseph W. Handley, Jr., Ph.D.
President
@jwhandley
@jwhandley
A3 UPDATES
Digital Platform to Support Revival
- Enable our leaders to stay connected securely and learn from each other
- Allow leaders and pastors to get proper information on COVID-19 to one another and their congregations
- Remove the fear of persecution for those living under governments where Christians are persecuted
- Support a revival in process! There is much more to tell you about how God is moving in the midst of this crisis.
Read more about this project here: http://www.a2stories.com/2020platform
Recent Stories
- Isolation Makes Way for New Connections in Japan
- Love Each Other As I Have Loved You
- COVID Forcing Philippines to Change Pastoral Ministry, Church Model
- A Wesley-like Revival?
MORE STORIES AT: http://a2stories.com/blog
GIVE AT: https://www.asianaccess.org/give
