It has been said that prayer is the great engine of missions work. Without calling on the power of the Holy Spirit and lifting all nations up to God, we will never accomplish our great commission mandate to make disciples among all of them. It is simply impossible without the filling of the Holy Spirit. When it comes to missions and seeing all nations become disciples of Christ, the Bible is clear that prayer is essential,

"Seeing the people, Jesus felt compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, "the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore, pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.""

(Matthew 9:36-38)

When we look out at the world and see the great need of missions and just how many people groups are left for us to reach, we become aware of our inabilities, our weaknesses, and our fears. There is simply too much for us to do alone. Without prayer, we cannot do missions because we will be doing missions in our own power, and our own power cannot reach people. But when all of the fears and inadequacies about missions overcome you, remember Moses,

The Lord said to Moses come and I will send you...but Moses said, "who am I that I should go...?" And the Lord said, "But I will be with you..." But Moses said to the Lord, 'Oh, my Lord... I am slow of speech and tongue..." Then the Lord said, "Who made man's mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now, therefore, go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak."

(Exodus 3-4)

South Asia is often referred to as a sub-continent because of the breadth and variety of its culture. It is home to nearly 1 billion Hindus, as well as nearly 200 million M**l**s. According to the most recent government census, less than 3% of the population claim to follow Christ.

Over the past several years, the national government has sought to promote Hinduism as the national religion and culture. It has introduced laws and policies aimed to restrict Christian outreach and ministry. Attacks on Christians and churches have increased while in many cases government officials and the police have stood by, or even encouraged those inciting the violence.

Yet in the midst of the challenges, the gospel is spreading. While many of Christians are from the south, CCF Beyond has been working with local partners in the northern part of the country, which has been often called “the graveyard of missionaries,” for over 15 years. Our shared vision is to establish a house church in every village in the North – if successful, that would be more than 250,000 villages reached for Christ! But is such a vision possible?

To date, our partners have helped form over 26,000 house churches and small groups. Their goal by the end of 2025 is to increase that number to more than 100,000. Our partners have also reached out to more than 25 unreached people groups where they have established over 400 house churches and small groups among people who formerly had never even heard the gospel of Christ.

In the past South Asia has been one of the most hostile places in the world to the gospel. Even today there is persecution and resistance. But through the empowering of God’s Spirit and partnerships transcending denomination and organizational boundaries, millions of people are coming to Christ. It is the privilege of CCF Beyond to be part of one of the greatest movements in the history of Christianity – the spread of the gospel in South Asia!

Northeast Africa is one of the most diverse regions of the world. At just a sea away from Mecca, Saudi Arabia, Northeast Africa was one of the first regions outside of the Middle East to adopt Islam. Today, the majority religion in Northeast Africa is Islam, with most individuals considering themselves M**l**.

Northeast Africa is populated by over 202,000,000 souls and among the people groups that Beyond and our partners work with, they speak over 100 languages with nearly 92% of them being followers of Islam.

CCF Beyond began working in this region after a fruitful connection with a like-minded missions organization brought together CCF Beyond with local, Northeast African believers during a conference in 2016. Upon meeting these local, Christian Northeast African leaders, CCF Beyond forged a partnership with them to hold a vision conference in the region in 2017. From there, CCF Beyond trained and supported these Northeast African leaders to begin Phase 1 of our church multiplication process MC2 in 2018 among a pair of predominantly M**l** refugee camps.

Working in partnership with our local leaders, CCF Beyond has seen over 750 house fellowships and small groups planted, which are all led by local, M**l**-background believers making Christ-committed followers who make Christ-committed followers among their own people. And the movement has just begun. Our partners and leaders are continuing to multiply and saturate key target areas with the Gospel and house churches, including reaching people from places where no one has ever met a Christian or heard the Gospel.

As we look to the future, we are praying for this movement to multiply among many different countries and people groups in the region, so that tens of thousands of M**l**s hear the Gospel, become disciples of Jesus Christ, and plant churches among their own people, in one of the most difficult places in the world for the Gospel.

Southeast Asia comprises eleven unique countries: Brunei, Cambodia, East Timor, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Although Southeast Asians are known for being fun-loving, gentle, hospitable, and friendly, yet this region is also home to five of the top 50 countries where it is most difficult to follow Jesus. By the grace of God, CCF Beyond is privileged to take part in planting multiplying churches in three of these five countries—Myanmar, Vietnam and Indonesia. These are not easy soils to plant in. Christian adherents are heavily persecuted (mocked, threatened, jailed, beaten and even killed) due to religious nationalism, and religious persecution, and political oppression.

The region is home to 674,179,000 people. Of this total, 334,125,000 (or 49.6%) people in 686 people groups are still unreached, having little access to Christ. CCF Beyond has been involved in Vietnam since 2013, Cambodia since 2017, Myanmar since 2018, and Indonesia since 2019 assisting local partners through our church planting movement strategy called Multiplying Churches and Communities (MC²). Through this partnership these countries have seen 1,200 house churches and small groups planted (pre-COVID). Today, amidst the COVID pandemic, the movement is currently being challenged by the heavy lockdowns and political climate where local governments blame Christians for spreading the virus through their physical church meetings, thus forcing them to discontinue assembling as a church.

While some churches in the region struggle to physically meet and multiply, CCF Beyond has seen some of these churches adapt to the COVID situation. Such is the case in Indonesia, where leaders continue to train church planters online which has resulted in 56 new house churches and small groups (3 generations deep) with 250 new converts in a span of 1.5 years in Q1 of 2021. These encouraging numbers have led us to pursue opportunities to partner with other international Christian groups in different countries that do digital evangelism. Just this August, we have started experimenting with our Digital Church Planting initiative with the goal of winning people online and discipling them in digital house churches using the same principles of church planting movements (MC²).

We pray that you will partner with us in prayer as we continue to assist struggling churches in meeting physically during this COVID situation and also pray for us as we also target new people groups online and disciple them in digital churches to adjust to the new normal. May we see hundreds of thousands of digital churches worshipping Jesus and multiplying in the next few years!

East Asia is one of the oldest civilizations in the world, blessed with a rich culture and heritage. East Asian people comprise around 1.7 billion people, making up about 38% of the population in Continental Asia and 20.5% of the global population. The religion of East Asia is predominantly Buddhism & Taoism with Shintoism in different countries. Islam is also practiced in some parts. Many people in this region are atheist also. Christianity is the minority group in this region and Christians are being persecuted in some countries.

CCF Beyond is training and ministering among the East Asian leaders using the MC² (Multiplying Churches and Communities) training which started in 2012 when Pastor Jim and Sis. Lui had a vision casting and MC² Phase 1 training among selected leaders from East Asia. After the said training, they went back to their respective cities to implement. Since then, we have also conducted several trainings in East Asia in coordination with different East Asian churches, church networks, and parachurch organizations. We also have established leadership teams and coordinators in different parts of the region.

In Taiwan, we started the MC² training in 2017 in coordination with the Taiwan Campus Crusade for Christ (Cru) Global Church Movement. Then in 2020, we also started our own training in Taipei, Taoyuan, and Taizhong. We also do Go Viral training among Filipino OFWs residing in Taiwan. To date, have helped start more than 100 small groups and house churches in different parts of Taiwan.

Presently, by God’s grace, we have helped establish more than 2,100 house churches and small groups all throughout East Asia. We have trained leaders in 16 different cities and provinces. We pray that by 2025, we will help start 20,000 house churches and small groups and have a leadership team in every key city and province. We look forward to establish more movements and win even more cities and provinces in East Asia for the purpose, kingdom, and glory of God!

The past year has been trying for nearly everyone on the planet. The COVID-19 pandemic has given us a few stops, starts, and even some U-turns as we journey through life. However, as believers in Jesus Christ, we know that God is still on His throne. He promises to work things for the good of those who love Him and are called to His purpose.

Rather than be shaken, the Council of Servants (COS) prayed that this could be a good opportunity to strategically bring the church closer to the community across Western Sydney. They prayed specifically:

• To safely return to corporate worship by observing the required maximum number of people in a venue
• To safely promote physical fellowship while observing proper social distancing
• To create an avenue for evangelism by bringing Sunday venue closer to members and the community, thus, being able to invite visitors and new contacts
• To create opportunities for new leaders and volunteer development, resulting in future church planting

IWith this vision in sight, they quickly began to make their tangible plan of action. They sub-grouped the Sunday congregation strategically across CCF Sydney West into 4 smaller groups to comply with the COVID-19 restrictions:

• CCF Northwest at Castle Hill RSL Club
• CCF Central West at Rooty Hill RSL Club
• CCF Southwest at Casula Powerhouse Museum
• CCF West Hub stays at Blacktown Workers Club

Rather than stopping the growth of CCF Sydney West, the pandemic forced them to reassess and seek the Lord’s direction. Then He answered their prayers in His typically creative way. He has provided new venues, which are closer to the people they desire to reach. He has raised up new leaders and volunteers to serve in the new venues. And He is already helping them reach out – seven first time visitors were connected to small groups in just the first two Sundays!

It always amazes us to see the way God works. Though CCF Sydney was growing before the pandemic, now because of the pivot to multiple venues, there are even more opportunities to see Him work!