2011 Fruit!

We’re praising God for the fruit born in 2011 through our affiliates! 

28,473 Salvations

5,144 Students were taught in Bible training centers

3,392 Services or meetings were held

1,343 Average church attendance in churches pastored by LWM affiliates

2,065 People received formal discipleship training

236 Missions teams were sent out to unreached villages, primarily in West Africa

40,277 Children and youth were ministered to, many on a weekly basis such as in Religious Education Programs

5,111 People were served food

765,317 Gospel materials were distributed

168 Hours of ministry via radio

Your support enabled LWM to translate The Believer’s Authority book into the Fula language, launch a Mandinka radio program, and initiate a church planting strategy for Muslim unreached villages in Northwest Africa.

You helped our US office serve some of the most dedicated missionaries on earth…providing administrative services, leadership training, a prayer network, resources, and a week-long retreat.

We couldn’t do what we do without you!

The books are coming!  200,000 of them! 

Scheduled to ship the end of this month, these books are a gift from Christ For The Nations.  They will be distributed throughout West Africa in Bible training centers, evangelistic outreaches, discipleship programs, and churches. 

Books are the greatest need of our Bible training centers.

This shipment will provide books for two full school years plus other outreaches.  This is a dream come true!

$7000 is needed to ship and clear the container.  If you’d like to contribute to this excellent project, please let me know.

Thank you for your partnership in 2011!  None of this work could be done without the support of friends like you. 

2012 presents us with more opportunities than ever before to build the Kingdom of God…Bible schools to launch, churches to plant, Muslims to be reached, children to be cared for and fed, books to translate, and the list goes on. 

Together we can do even more in 2012!  We need your help!

Partnering with you in the nations,

Wonderful News!

We have some wonderful news!

We shared with you about our partnership with Live School, a church planting training that has been very successful in southern Africa. We were privileged to coordinate the first pastors' meeting to present Live School in Gambia, a 95% Muslim nation. The following is a portion of the report from Chip Carroll, Live School's West Africa Representative:

"From my perspective, the meetings went great. My take on things here is that it is like a powder keg ready to explode! All that is needed is a spark to ignite the Church. I believe the Live School is a tool that the Lord wants to use to accomplish this. The pastors and leaders that came all seemed missions-minded. Alieu pulled the right ones together and plays a key role in the Gambian Church...41 on the first day... So, we had great attendance... better than we've had anywhere else on the first time in a country. But more important to me is that they are solid in Christ and simply need to be mobilized. ...At the end of the day, we have a potential response of 13 schools starting!"

The Christ For The Nations book project is moving along with a goal of shipping 200,000 English and French books in January. These books will be shipped to Liberia for distribution to our affiliates in West Africa to use in Bible training centers, churches, and evangelistic outreaches.

Our responsibility is only for the shipping and clearing costs which total $7000. We are in need of sponsors for this project. If you are considering end-of-the-year giving, this is a wonderful project with great potential to impact thousands of people!

Finally, it's with great joy that I introduce the newest members of our LWM leadership team: Jean-Claude and Sundie Noah! The Noahs are not new to LWM, as they've been part of our ministry family since 1996, serving in Cameroon. What is new is that they now live here work as part of the US office. Jean-Claude now serves as our Coordinator of Field Operations and Sundie is helping as an administrative assistant.

With Jean-Claude serving in this role, we have for the first time since Russ' homegoing, someone solely dedicated to the coordination of field activities. He has the grace and experience to serve in this role and greatly increases our capacity to advance in the nations.

I'm so thankful for the Noahs and especially thankful for the step of faith they've made.

As you prepare to celebrate Christmas, I hope you will consider giving to make an investment into the nations where Jesus is not known. My family is doing just that...giving to missionaries and missions projects, thankful that we know the reason for the season.

With love and blessings,

Two New Opportunities!

We're still basking in the goodness of God and the generosity of our partners to provide for our August retreat. It truly was a connecting and building time for our ministry family. Our missionaries have returned to their nations of service and we are as committed as ever to hold up their hands.

Over the summer two outstanding opportunities for partnership were presented to us.

The first concerns church planting.  Live School is a church planting strategy that has been very successful in southern Africa.  We were privileged to host Eddie Robinson, a representative of Live School, at our August retreat.  Through Eddie’s presentation and the time we spent with him we recognized God was bringing about a partnership.  This was an answer to prayer for us because we’ve sought the Lord for the right church planting strategy, especially for unreached areas of West and Northwest Africa.

We’re in the process now of launching a pilot Live School in Gambia, to target the Muslim unreached villages in the entire Senegambia region.  The financial provision has already been made for this initiative.  We now need Gambian pastors and facilitators with a call to missions and church planting to become involved.  We’ll share more as this project progresses.

The second opportunity concerns books for Bible training centers.  Christ for the Nations has offered to ship 200,000 English and French books for our use in West Africa!  CFN is providing the books at no cost.  Our responsibility is for the shipping and clearing of a 20-foot container to Liberia, a total of $7,000.

The books will serve Bible training centers, evangelistic outreaches, discipleship programs, and churches in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, and Gambia.  

These are exciting partnerships offering the potential to reach LOTS of people!  Glory to God! 

I so appreciate the partnerships God brings to us.  We simply cannot do what God has called us to do without the partnership of others in the Body of Christ. 

Your supply in prayer and finances is crucial and not secondary to our part.  We cannot do what we do without you! 

With love and thanks,

LWM Family Retreat!

By Wendy Tatro

International Director

Living Word Missions

What a time we had at our LWM Family Retreat!  Our Father was faithful in every way and I really want to praise Him for His goodness to us!

Rather than telling the story I’ll allow our missionaries’ testimonies and the photos to say it all.

“We too had a wonderful time with … the LWM family. It is truly a very special group of people. We were truly blessed in every way. “

“It was a wonderful week in every way.”

“…all areas of my life were refreshed during the LWM Family Conference.  Praise the Lord for you all for the FRESHNESS, THE GRACES in and upon your life POURED into my life. Thanks to Jesus...Thanks to you....(JESUS...love to say that name).”

“It was a great retreat. Thanks again for all ya'lls efforts to make it such. Thanks for the gifts, books, music, fellowship, counsel, prayer... it was all awesome.”

“ ‘Thank you’ doesn’t even begin to express my gratitude to you, the LWM staff, volunteers and missionaries for the difference you have made in my life and ministry.  The security of safe harbor combined with the challenge, equipping and examples of excellence in character and ministry make LWM unique, and a very precious part of my life.”

“[We] are very appreciative of you for the excellent hospitality we enjoyed in Sharon, MA. …We enjoyed rich fellowship with all the missionaries as well as members of the advisory board.  …That the Lord is taking LWM to another level is evident. “

“Thank you for the wonderful time we had during our family retreat.”

“I wanted to thank you and all the team again for a truly remarkable conference.  There was something quite special to me this year, different than before.  It was an atmosphere of blessing I would call it.  It was truly a blessing to attend and to be a part of the conference."

 Thanks to every partner of LWM who contributed in finances and prayer for this retreat.  It really was a bonding and launching time for our ministry family.  I am expecting great strides to be made for the Kingdom of God in the nations where our missionaries serve.

With heartfelt appreciation,

Enjoy Photos from the 2011 Retreat!

Retreat Tomorrow!

By Wendy Tatro
International Director
Living Word Missions

Our retreat begins tomorrow! Missionaries will arrive from around the world for a week of ministry, training, and strategic planning. 

I would really appreciate your prayers for the missionary adults, children, and teens, and for all of us who will be imparting to them. We want the perfect will of God to be fulfilled. 

Thanks for your partnership in every area! We could not do what we do without you! 

With love and appreciation,

Retreat Coming Soon!

By Wendy Tatro
International Director
Living Word Missions

Our LWM Family Retreat is coming soon...August 18-26! We're praying and planning for a most relevant time for our missionaries. We only get to spend this time together every two years so we want to hit the center of the target.

Want to participate? You can! Here's how:

Pray!

Our prayer list:

1. That every spiritual need of every missionary be met! 
2. For a refreshing for every missionary. 
3. For relationships to be strengthened. 
4. For wisdom for every one of us planning the schedule. 
5. For every person ministering or presenting, for utterance. 
6. For clear strategic direction for every missionary. 
7. For marriages to be strengthened. 
8. That our missionary youth and children receive everything they need in terms of friendship and personal ministry. 

Give! 

We're collecting gift cards for the missionaries and we're believing for an overwhelming response! We're asking for $20 gift cards from Best Buy, Staples, and Wal-Mart. If you'd prefer, we can buy the gift cards for you. Just send an offering with a note attached stating, "gift card." 

Also, we're believing to finish up the retreat budget. About $10,000 remains to be raised. 

We appreciate any contribution you can make...in prayer, in giving gift cards, or contributing to the budget. Every contribution is a seed sown into a missionary's life and ministry! 

Thanks for your partnership!