Global Partners
JFP Net Casters Newsletter
Stories and Testimonies from Global Partners JESUS Film Teams
subscribing... please wait monthly update, Net Casters.
Please check your e-mail and click the link to confirm your registration.
If you did not intend to join the update, simply delete the e-mail.
NOTE: To help ensure the safety of nationals and missionaries, there will be times when we will not use last names, or we will not use names at all.
The JESUS film teams press on in spite of the challenges. Many of our teams work in countries that have “rainy” seasons. This could mean rain every day for months on end. They work in areas where roads are often difficult or, in some cases, nonexistent. They wrestle against spiritual darkness in the face of witch doctors and hostile religions (Muslims, Hindus, Animist, Buddhists, and others). They have to deal with equipment failures and technical problems often in remote areas where little or no assistance is available. They work in areas where malaria and other bacteria born illnesses are a constant threat. Yet they press on!
When you pray for our teams, you are enlisting the hosts of heaven against the onslaught of the Enemy. Satan fights on every hand, but God remains faithful. The strength and commitment exhibited by these men and women is a direct result of the grace of God. Your prayers are petitions on behalf of these soldiers of the cross. With God’s help they press on. Thirty-five partner teams in 21 countries are currently using the JESUS film.
Every month, on average, the film is being shown 102 times. Approximately 40,000 viewers see the film each month, with over 12,000 people responding to the message. Our partner teams are responsible for 42 new cell groups started every month, resulting in an average of six new church plants each month. This is in spite of the challenges. They simply press on!
Here is a list of the twenty-one countries and the number of teams operating in that country. Will you please pray for these countries and these teams by name? Let us lift their hands up while the battle rages. Let us be faithful to pray and give as they go into these dark places to face the Enemy of Light. There will be a new village reached with the gospel message this week through the JESUS Film Partnership teams. This month alone 1,000 people will respond to the message and over 40 new cell groups will be started. Six new churches will be planted in the next month.
Countries with GP JESUS Film Partnership Teams
Bougainville (1), Burkina Faso (1), Cameroon (1), Colombia (1), Costa Rica (1), Cuba (1), Democratic Republic of Congo (1), Equatorial Guinea (1), Ghana (2), Haiti (1), India (1), Indonesia (1), Liberia (1), Mozambique (6), Nepal (7), Papua New Guinea (1), Philippines (1), Sierra Leone (2), South Africa (2), Zambia (2)
This is a partnership. We are holding up our end of the commitment in prayer. We are making sure that the necessary funding is available to train, equip, and resource these teams. Somewhere right now one of our teams is preparing to show, is showing, or is following up on a showing of the JESUS film. As the Apostle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 3:6, “I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase” (KJV). To God be the glory!
June Prayer Requests
- Pray for these 35 teams in 21 countries.
- Pray for John Croft and Dr. John Connor as they travel to Papua New Guinea on July 6-16 to training and equip a new team for the Highlands.
- Pray for new teams that have just started in Burkina Faso, Costa Rica, and Equatorial Guinea.
- Pray for opportunities that lay ahead in Northeast India, Bangladesh, and Myanmar.
Are you on Facebook? Follow us and “Like” on Facebook at www.facebook.com/jesusfilmpartnership.
Spread the word! Pass this newsletter on to a friend or share it on your personal Facebook page. When it come to people praying and supporting, “more” is good.
In His Grip,
John Croft
Director of the JESUS Film Partnership of Global Partners
STORIES FROM THE FIELD
NEPAL
Hindu Priest Comes to Jesus: 
One evening at the completion of the film, we met an old man who came to us and invited us to his home. He was a Hindu priest, and the things he saw in the film confused him. In the film Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” That old man thought he would never go heaven since he worshipped idols. He had fear that he would have to face judgment, so we helped him understand that only Christ is the way, the truth and the life and that he could also be the son of Christ. He was shocked to hear this and asked us how he could be the son of Christ. We showed him through Scripture to confess all his sin and invite Jesus into his life. That night, in his home, he and his wife both accepted Christ. He is 56 years old and his wife is 51 years old.
Many people have heard about the priest who knows how to become a Christian! As a result others also wish to leave Hinduism and want to accept Jesus.
Jesus Loves the Little Children: We were showing the film in a village with around 90 people present. They seemed happy and eager to have such an opportunity. After showing the film, we also preached the gospel of God according to the Word and the book of Luke the film is based on. One couple came to us and shared that they had been married for ten years and had an eight-year-old child. Their child was born healthy and was normal until around five years old. He used to speak and perform all the activities of a normal child, but about three years earlier the child stopped speaking and wasn’t able to perform the work in school. They asked us, “Can our child be healed by Christ?” We replied yes and suggested they leave behind their Hindu life, confess their sin, and invite Christ in their life and accept Jesus as their Lord. The parents, along with their child, accepted Christ immediately. We prayed with this child to start to move and speak normally, and they are surprised and happy to see this unexpected miracle of their child being well. Now the whole family is going to church, and the child has seen steady progress in his body. Thanks to Jesus for such a great work in their life. Praise the Lord!
ZAMBIA
A Jehovah’s Witness Is Converted: Fisheni village is an equivalent of the cities of refuge in the Old Testament. In it you will find all offenders who have been banished from their villages for chronic antisocial behavior. All kinds of vices are found in this community. Doing church there is just going through the motions, and evangelism is very risky. There is a strong Jehovah’s Witnesses presence in the area, and our plans to go to this village were strongly opposed by this group. We are used to this, and so we simply focused on our business. And, as usual, the attendance was an opposite of the anticipated negative publicity that we had enjoyed from the Jehovah’s Witnesses (JW).
We broke through almost immediately on the first night because a number of the respondents were heavily demon possessed, and we had a busy night of casting out devils. One of the people delivered was a daughter to a JW elder. She was reported to have been demon possessed since she was seven when she attended a family ritual cleansing in which she adopted the spirit of her departed grandmother who used to be a witch doctor. Shortly after this transfer of spirits, she began to display evidence of being possessed but not as the family had expected—to become a witch doctor who would prescribe treatment and be a seer. Rather, she became violent attacking everyone when under the spell, and no one could overcome her.
When we came to Fisheni, she was attending a drumming session that was meant to appease the spirits. Halfway through the JESUS film, we noticed commotion in the crowd and within seconds she was half-naked and rushed to the screen, pulling it down until one pole was bent. We immediately began to cast out the demons in her while the other team members protected the equipment. We took her away from the scene where we continued to pray for her. Meanwhile, the pole was straightened and the film resumed.
An hour later she was delivered of her demons, and she testified to the crowd that she had never felt so relieved since she was seven. We counseled her about what had happened and requested her to return the following day for more help. The following day she came with a man we had earlier met as a JW elder. she introduced him to us as her father. He narrated to us how Ines had had to leave school at age nine because of the violent demons that had possessed her. Help had been sought from every possible angle but to no avail. He was convinced the God presented in the film was the God of the Bible because what had been done to his daughter even his church had failed to help. We shared with him the four spiritual laws and prayed with him. Today, he and his daughter are attending our Bible study in Fisheni as we work towards making it a church plant. We thank God for manifesting His delivering power and vindicating His name so that the JESUS film is not just another show!
God Moves in Many Ways: Her husband had given clear instructions that their children should not be permitted to attend the JESUS film showing that was being promoted in Old Jim, a community on the outskirts of Chipata. Knowing the consequences that would follow if this instruction were not complied with, this wife quickly prepared supper for her children. By the time we [the JESUS film team] were beginning the show, she had all her children locked up in the house away from the picture but not from the audio. For two days she judiciously fulfilled this requirement as demanded by her husband who, we later came to learn, had a volatile temper that would often explode into violence. He had apparently lost two of his previous jobs as a result from fits of rage that broke into fights against his colleagues. On the third and final day of the shows, she came to our site where we were also providing some counseling services to those who had responded to the invitation following the film. She had this interesting account to narrate:
My children and I have not been coming to the shows because my husband wouldn’t let us. But we have been listening to the message because our house is nearby, and we could hear the speakers loud and clear. One sentence has kept bothering me and last night I hardly slept as I kept hearing the words of Jesus saying, “Let the children come to me for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.”
Her eyes became teary as she continued to narrate how she had a related dream the previous night. In the dream a heavy storm was approaching her small maize field where she and her children were working. Fearing to be caught in the rain, she and her children began to run towards a small hut that was built on a hill. As the storm drew closer, the skies became darker while she and her children ran on. Going up the hill, she began to lose her breath and so did her children. A few meters before the hut she fell and began to crawl towards it. The door to the hut was halfway open, but it did not look strong enough to stand against the approaching storm. Just about the time she reached the hut, the door shut with a huge bang. She stood up and tried to open the door while she called to her children to hurry or they would be over taken by the storm. The door was tightly shut and that frail looking door could not give in to all the pressure she applied to it. It was while she was fighting with the door that she suddenly woke up and realized she had been dreaming. She narrated the dream to her husband who had returned home drunk that night, and he made nothing out of it.
Amidst sobs, she concluded, “I think God is showing me that I am shutting my children out of a lifetime opportunity that even I myself have no access to. God was sending a message through that dream, and it is clear He wants me and my children to give ourselves to him.”
She went on to plead with us to help her and her children, which we were glad to do. We led her to the Lord and encouraged her that she had the responsibility of bringing up her children in the knowledge and fear of the Lord by attending a Bible-believing church and taking her children to Sunday school. We further offered to visit with her husband and share the gospel with him too. She became a born-again believer that day. She attended our final showing with her children and gave her testimony to the crowd that evening.
NORTHEAST INDIA
Letter from Northeast India: Greetings! I am glad to inform you that the follow-up ministry program of JFP is going on well. However, I am sorry to say that the JESUS film could not be shown still as our equipment needs replacement. Please pray for us that we soon may have new equipment. I am here attached a copy of our follow-up report for the month of April 2013 for your information. I am also attached two photo of where we had organized our follow-up program. We will be very glad to hear from you soon. We are praying for you. Blessings!
In spite of the difficulties with equipment . . . God has blessed the showing of the JESUS film, and it has been evident in our follow-up ministry being held in the towns and villages we visited. They were greatly influenced by the film, which resulted in many young people giving their lives to Christ, leaving their bad habits, and attending church services. Some have even expressed a willingness to give funds to the development of the church. The follow-up has made it aware to parents that there is someone who cares about their family’s spiritual condition.
NOTE: Someone traveling to Northeast India in August is taking new equipment. Please pray with these workers as they continue to work and wait.
Important New Offer
If you have a smartphone, iPad, or tablet, you can now be a mobile missionary. The JESUS Film Project has developed an app to allow you to stream or download the JESUS film in all 1,164 languages, along with all their video media. Go to www.jesusfilmmedia.com or search JESUS Film Media in your app store. You too can become a mobile missionary!
Equatorial Guinea, Africa
An important man in the government was seriously ill, and it seemed like death was near. Someone told him that he should call Rev. Damian, national superintendent of The Wesleyan Church of Equatorial Guinea, to come and pray for him. So in desperation he called Pastor Damian. Pastor Damian prayed and the Lord miraculously healed the man.
Later, the man called Pastor Damian to come visit him. He wanted to do something for him. Pastor Damian said that he did not pray for him expecting anything in return, but the man insisted. So Pastor Damian told him that if he wanted to do something, he could possibly help the church. He told the man how they had tried unsuccessfully for a long time to secure land for a church. So the man arranged for land to be deeded to the church.
Today, they are building a new church on a large piece of beautiful land. Since they have received the land, the area around the church has been developed and continues to see growth in housing and business. Pray for this church as they continue with this significant project. Contact GP missionary Rick West at lamerica@wesleyana.org if you have interest in helping this powerful church complete their project.
The church in Equatorial Guinea is experiencing growth and has a vision to plant many new churches. They dream of when they can send missionaries into surrounding countries like Gabon. Today, there are 17 Wesleyan churches in Equatorial Guinea. With the start of a JESUS film evangelistic team, they believe God is going to help them to realize their goals and vision for Kingdom building in their country. Will you agree to pray for our National Superintendent Rev. Damian and our JESUS film team of Alberto, Tomas, and Antonio?
Costa Rica, Ibero-America
The Wesleyan Church of Costa Rica has trained a group of volunteers as JESUS film evangelist. Their goal is to reach indigenous Indians and other unchurched areas with the gospel utilizing the JESUS film. Earlier in May, Director John Croft, Dr. John Connor, and Rev. Steve Bradley traveled to Costa Rica to do the training. We enjoyed the experience of worship with this vibrant church and the many opportunities to teach and preach, plus the JESUS film team training.
The Wesleyan Church of Costa Rica receives wonderful leadership from National Superintendent Luis Azofeifa. He has a contagious evangelistic spirit that has motivated many to give themselves to evangelism and service. Mercedes Vargas Corrales will serve as the JESUS film ministry leader. Merce, as she is known, is a lovely, Godly lady that will be responsible for organizing and sending out the teams each weekend to targeted locations. Please pray for these incredibly passionate people as they seek to see many come to know Christ as their Savior and to see new churches planted.
Campaign 300 Review
Our Campaign 300 goal is 30 teams showing the film to 3 million viewers resulting in 300 churches planted over three years (by June 2015). Through the generous giving of many, we have surpassed our goal of teams. With the training of our team in Equatorial Guinea, we now have 34 teams serving in 20 countries. We are so grateful to our many donors and prayer supporters. You, through the grace of God, are the driving force behind this ministry. Thank you for being faithful in your generosity.
Prayer Requests
- Director John Croft will travel to Panama on May 22-27 to train national leaders in using the JESUS film as an evangelistic and church planting tool
- New developments in forming JESUS film teams in Northeast India and Bangladesh
- New JESUS film teams getting started in Costa Rica and Equatorial Guinea
In His Grip,
John Croft
Director of the JESUS Film Partnership of Global Partners
Follow the JESUS Film Partnership on Facebook at
www.facebook.com/jesusfilmpartnership.
CLICK LIKE and share the page with your friends.
STORIES FROM THE FIELD
SIERRA LEONE
With donations from two generous donors, the JESUS film teams of Sierra Leone gratefully received a new Toyota truck for the work of the teams. Mr Steve Ullom, retired director of Finances of GP and former GP missionary to Sierra Leone was very instrumental in getting the truck at a great price and getting it imported.
The director of the JESUS film for Sierra Leone reports: It is also good to report that at recent meeting held with both teams on Wednesday, we have assigned the period (June-October) as a follow-up period. The raining season has commenced, with hardly any outdoor activities. Rains do come with heavy breezes, backed by thunderstorm. New areas were also mapped out for new showings after the rains.
The work in the south/eastern region has more premium and focus. New church planting areas have been identified. This would greatly be achieved with the coming of the film truck. All team members and national leadership are deeply grateful for this timely donation. Indeed, it would go a long way to promote the Sierra Leonean harvest. Thanks for your good work!
NEPAL
Witchdoctor’s Son: At one place where we showed the film, an adult man came who was a Hindu witchdoctor’s son. He had a disease which his father was powerless to cure. He had heard from others that people were often healed at the showings of the JESUS film, so he came specifically for that reason. He didn’t know anything about Jesus; in fact, he had never even heard the name “Jesus” until we came. After watching the film and listening to our message, he testified to his faith in Jesus and his belief that one day he would be healed. We also prayed for him and his family. We returned from that place, but later we heard his disease has been cured. We really thanked God for His blessing in this man’s life.
Mother’s Milk: We have been blessed this month with many crowds numbering 60-70, and in one place we had 353. After one of the showings, we were still praying and working with people, even though most had gone home. However, we noticed one very worried and sad young man within the group still there. We inquired why he was so sad. He told us that he had been married for three years, but he had only recently had a child that was born before full term. The baby was weak and didn't take the mother’s milk, so they were worried. They had taken the baby to the hospital, but they were unable to afford the cost of treatment. They were very sad and had lost hope, so he told us he had come to watch the JESUS film hoping God would know him and cure his child. We encouraged him and prayed for his child. We also asked him to take us to his home. He took us to his home the next morning, and we saw his wife and baby. We prayed for his baby and family and told them that God is the only doctor who can cure his child, but in return he should accept God. He and his wife accepted Christ. We taught them to pray and gave them a Bible and returned. After one week we heard his child started to take the mother's milk, and we thanked God for his great work in this life and family.
MOZAMBIQUE
Today in my local church, a Muslim woman came to convert. After I preached she received Jesus Christ as her Savior. Praise the Lord! –Abel Nove, JESUS film team leader in Nampula
At Eduardo Mondlane the chief received us. He took us to three places and asked us to plant a church in this area because they don’t have a church nearby. God continues to give our team favor with leaders and villages. –Pedro Wate, JESUS film team leader in Massinga
On April 11 at Nhagoh, many people received Christ. Two women came who were demon possessed. They were screaming and making a commotion. We prayed for them, and they were delivered. We give God all the glory! –Isec Sande, JESUS film team leader in Beira
BURKINA FASO
The first report out of Burkina Faso shows they had three showings with 612 viewers and 20 responding the gospel message. They have started three new cell groups with these new believers. Burkina Faso is a largely Muslim country (77%). Pray for this JESUS film team as they get established.
PHILIPPINES
I was able to visit the new church planted through JFP ministry in the village of Maligaya, Columbio, Sultan Kudarat. The population of the community was mixed Muslims and non-Muslims (“Christians”). The JESUS film was shown in the village on the night of March 12, and there were 60 viewers with 20 respondents. No Muslim came forward that night, according to JESUS film team leader, Pastor Dennis. But the usual hostile Muslim people in the area became friendly after the showing and welcome Pastor Dennis every time he visits the place for follow-up. There were two families as nucleolus of the new church. The community leader provided us a 600 square meter church lot for free where we are going to build the worship center. Let us continue pray for this new church that they continue to grow and thrive for the Lord.
Note: This is a new team, and they report planting two new churches in the month of March.
On March 16, 2013, one of our JESUS film teams in Mozambique showed the JESUS film at the Maganaga village in the province of Niassa District of Cuamba to more than 900 viewers. More than 600 people responded to the invitation. Ali Acabar, the village chief, invited the JESUS film team to show the film after listening to the testimony of the chief of the neighboring village of Rimbane. One year ago the JESUS film was shown in Rimbane with a very positive impact. Abacar, a Muslim since childhood, hoped for similar results in his village, so our team went to Maganage to show the film. 
During the JESUS film team tour in the southeast of Liberia, the team leader met 105-year-old Pastor Sarah Geeteh who is the founder of the Gbalawein Wesleyan Church in Sinoe County. Despite her old age; she praised God for answering her prayer. According to Pastor Geeteh, her prayer had been that one day The Wesleyan Church would bring the JESUS film to minister to her people in their mother tongue before her death. The arrival of the JESUS film team in Gbalawein with the Kru version of the film was an answer to Pastor Geeteh’s prayer. She ecstatically declared, “I praised God when I heard my Lord Jesus speaking to my people in our own native tongue. Then I believed that my prayer and suffering for the church has not been in vain.” One week after the departure of the team, we received news that the Pastor Geeteh has gone to be with the Lord.
Usually, in Nepal, the size of our crowds are not large, but in one place we had 530 people and 80 accepted Christ. In that same area, a group of 70 assembled at a different showing. One of the people there was a man named Padam. He had heard about Jesus before, but he just thought of Him like one of the many Hindu gods and goddesses. After watching the film, he realized that Jesus came to help people, not to just do His “god thing.” Padam accepted Jesus into his life, recognizing that only Jesus was the God who could save life and give eternal life. Please pray for our team as we continue to do follow-up, move into unevangelized areas, and meet head on the problems of showing Jesus to a pagan nation.
