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In West Africa, truck driving is a dangerous and stressful job. Drivers face job insecurity, the threat of being robbed, and extortion from corrupt policemen. They also face cultural and linguistic barriers as they cross through borders taking imports from the coast to landlocked countries farther east. So when Christians offered to pray for Ahmed one day as he prepared to leave the port and transport his next load, he didn’t mind, even though he was Muslim. As he continued on his route though, he was amazed that the police never harassed him, just as the Christians had prayed. The next time he saw the believers at the port a few months later, he gathered a group of his friends and went over to them. The last time, the Christians asked him if he’d listen to a story, but he’d been in a hurr...

Jonas is a church planter affiliated with The Timothy Initiative in Kenya and a respected leader in his village. When his nation shut down due to COVID-19, he saw the havoc it wreaked on his community. People lost their jobs and income. Price gouging and food shortages caused families to struggle. Jonas saw that people needed help – and that people needed Jesus. Jonas used his own income to buy food to share with the needy. Others were inspired by his generosity and donated food, which was distributed to the most vulnerable families in his community. Three other church planters joined in on the effort, and as they showed and shared the love of Jesus, the results were astounding: 863 people heard the Good News; 211 people received Christ! Among them was a Muslim man named Aasir. He lost his...

The book of Acts is the exciting story of the advance of God’s Kingdom in the early days of the church. The good news of the Gospel had a lasting impact. Today, the book of Acts is still happening in many places around the world. You can read these inspiring stories in Joel News every week. We now turned these stories into something that has been on our mind for quite some time: a Bible reading plan that links stories from the book of Acts with similar real stories today. Our new e-book is a 7-day reading plan based on the first three chapters of Acts. It can be started on any day of the week. The Bible passages link to BibleGateway, where you can pick your preferred translation. Every passage is summarised and illustrated with a story from Joel News. Every day has a prayer or an applicati...

In Nepal, a majority Hindu country in the Himalayas, the government tries to hinder the growth of the church. But without success – the church grows strongly, often with miracles. Take the story of 18 year old Tilak, a deaf-mute teenager. One day Pastor Biju, a church planter affiliated with The Timothy Initiative, stopped to pray with him. As the pastor prayed for deliverance and healing he witnessed a bewildered look on Tilak’s face. Something amazing happened to the deaf-mute boy. Tears streamed down his face, as he discovered that he could hear and speak for the first time in his life. A miraculous healing had just taken place. Tilak rushed to his mother, who heaved sobs of joy and relief. Her boy was healed, and it was all because of Jesus. The entire family surrendered their lives to...

The first church was marked by the fact that the Christians had everything in common. There was no need among them. Many people in today’s fast-paced world have, for any amount of reasons, become social outsiders, pariahs, outlaws. For this group Timothy and Monica Chang started a community in Jongli, a town in Taiwan. God led Timothy to lay down his position as a pastor of one of the largest evangelical churches in the nation, and open the doors of his home to have a new family. In Jongli he met the poor, the despised and rejected, and with these people he formed a community called Hebron.  Today, the community of 200 is made up of poor people, mentally unstable, youth at risk, people who recently have come out of jail, but also rich people who decided to turn their lives around, as ...

A record-breaking 97,344 people accepted Christ in baptism during a two-week evangelistic outreach by the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Rwanda. The baptisms took place at 2,227 sites across the African country. Local church leaders credited the Holy Spirit and Total Member Involvement for the unprecedented number of baptisms. “When each member is involved, there will be a big harvest,” said Sophonie Setako, president of the church’s North-West Rwanda Field, as reported in Joel News. Total Member Involvement is the name of an initiative that encourages each church member to find ways to share Jesus with friends and communities. In Rwanda, the 720,000 members took Total Member Involvement to heart. Many studied the Bible with neighbours and went door-to-door, inviting people to the evangel...

Global representative consultant to develop working relationships with leaders and ministries and to help process the Bible Plans for launch in the Bible App. This position is for 3 days a week. Position description The YouVersion Team at Life.Church is excited to be right in the middle of what God is doing in the area of Bible engagement around the globe. We’re innovating new ways for people to interact and engage with God’s Word in a digital age, and we’re passionate about leveraging the latest technology to reach people no matter where they are or what language they speak. With more than 440 million installs of the Bible App to date, the YouVersion team continues to grow and evolve. We want to offer more great localized content and improve the Bible engagement experience for people ever...

Almost 25% of Muslims that come to Jesus encounter Him through dreams and visions, reports Joel News. Often these dreams and visions come to them when they seek God intensively, but don’t have a knowledge of the gospel or contact with Christians. These supernatural occurrences happen all over the Islamic world. Muslims experience these dreams with such intense reality, that they surrender their heart and mind to Jesus in the wake of the dream. Take Khalil, a radical Egyptian terrorist, changed from a murderous ‘Saul’ to a forgiving ‘Paul’. He set out to discredit the Bible but could not; and although he despised Christians and Jews, his heart was changed forever when the Savior appeared to him in a dream that penetrated his soul. Khosrow, a teenager in Iran, despaired of life itself. That ...

It was in February 1967 that the Holy Spirit fell on a group of Catholic students from Pittsburgh’s Duquesne University. They were on a spiritual weekend retreat, seeking God to deepen their faith. One of these students, David Mangan, wondered if the Holy Spirit could still bring tongues and power like dynamite. He decided to ask the Lord for it because his Christianity felt powerless and pedestrian. “My spiritual life was limping along. The way I describe it, it was like I was pushing a car uphill.” As he sought the Lord alone that weekend in a chapel located on the upper floor of the retreat center, David received a powerful answer. “The presence of God was so thick, so powerful, you could cut it with a knife. It’s the most intense experience I’ve ever had in my life. Time meant nothing ...

Almost every significant move of God in history was preceded by fervent, united prayer. This inspired Christians in Whatcom county on the north-west coast of the United States to establish a ‘canopy of day and night prayer’ over their region. This Light of the World Prayer Center gathered Christians from all kinds of backgrounds and churches. Soon pastors joined in for a monthly meeting to build spiritual friendships and seek God for the county. “This is an unbelievable blessing,” says Grant Fishbook, pastor of Christ the King in Joel News. “Trust has been built over time as the message sunk in that we’re not each other’s competition. Our competitor is the devil, but we are family and on the same team. We love each other and want to live that out. Now the pastors text and call each ot...

“Die with Christ, rise with Christ. Holy Spirit, come, set her free and fill her up.” An outdoor baptism forms the dynamic opening scene of a documentary about ordinary disciples of Jesus who have been inspired and activated by the Book of Acts. The film covers a phenomenon that has not been covered much in the mainstream media: thousands of ordinary Christians, without theological training, that go out on the streets, heal the sick, preach the Gospel and baptise people in bathtubs, lakes, rivers and oceans. We don’t see stereotypical street evangelists, trying to convert people by shouting the Gospel at them. Instead, we see non-assuming Christians offering a relaxed and quick prayer for healing. People with various forms of injury and pain seem to receive instant relief. “Pain, go now, i...

The Church in Cambodia is growing steadily with 8% each year, in particular in the animist countryside. The key element? Christians really care about others. In Cambodia over 85% of the population is Buddhist. Pagodas, monasteries and monks dressed in red or orange are everywhere. In many villages this Buddhism is interwoven with animism, which means that people believe in natural spirits. In a large tree in a prominent place, on a hill or in a river, spirits can dwell. People have to keep them as friends, otherwise things will go wrong. The number of Christians is steadily increasing in these largely animist villages. Bible translators Kees Jan and Mirjam Bos from the Netherlands worked for Wycliffe under the Kuy for fifteen years. The Kuy are an ethnic minority group with its own languag...