World Outreach Week 2026

Welcome to World Outreach Week at Twin Lakes Church. If you are a guest visiting for the first time today, this is a very unusual weekend for us, but you picked a great week to learn about the heartbeat of our church. If you are a regular attendee, you are going to leave so inspired because in a world full of bad news, you are about to hear a truckload of really good news, and not just good news, but good news that you were a part of.

My name is René Schlaepfer, one of the pastors here at Twin Lakes Church. It is really good to be back home here in Santa Cruz. For the first time in my life, I literally went around the world, traveling from San Francisco to Istanbul, Cairo, Dubai, Jakarta, Singapore, and back home. Along the way I visited Egypt and Indonesia to serve alongside our TLC team and our global partners.

About a dozen of us volunteered at the World Venture National Conference in Indonesia. I had the privilege of being the daily Bible teacher and helping with the kids, while others led worship and childcare so parents could attend the conference. It felt especially meaningful to do this right before World Outreach Week.

I want to thank everyone who served on the Indonesia team and all of our global partners who are visiting with us today. One of the least-known facts about Twin Lakes Church is that we give ten percent of our income right off the top to global outreach ministries. That means if you have ever given to Twin Lakes Church, you have supported all of these partners.

Through your giving, you support African AIDS orphanages, pastor training schools across sub-Saharan Africa, church planting ministries around the world, children’s homes and vocational training centers in India, mission aviation reaching remote regions, music camps bringing healing to traumatized children, floating hospital ships providing medical care, and domestic partnerships like ministries in the Navajo Nation and Camp Attitude.

This matters because it is easy to feel like we have no agency when we see wars, famine, and division in the world. But you are already doing something about it. I encourage you to visit the lobby, meet our partners, pray for one throughout the year, and even reach out to encourage them.

When I was in Egypt, I spoke with a local church planting leader about whether missionaries are still needed. He told me that the church must be multicultural and that without people from other cultures, Christianity can become a nationalistic caricature. The church is a living thing, and it needs a robust gene pool to stay healthy.

This is why we do world outreach. Jesus told us to. Matthew 28 tells us to make disciples of all nations. Mark 16:15 calls us to preach the good news to everyone. Acts 1:8 reminds us that we are witnesses to the ends of the earth.

In Luke 10, Jesus sends out his followers and describes the mission as a harvest. He sends us as lambs among wolves, not with coercion, but with gentleness. He tells them to heal the sick and proclaim that the kingdom of God has come near. Every ministry we support reflects those two components, compassion and communication.

I saw this firsthand while visiting a wellness clinic for Sudanese refugees supported by Twin Lakes Church. There I met a nurse named Zacharias who told me his hope for Sudan is Jesus Christ, and that until Christ sets all things right, he shares that hope through word and deed.

A Sudanese woman at the clinic told me she was not a Christian, but that she had received unconditional love there. She said that this love in action is the answer to the world’s problems. This is what it looks like to live the way Jesus taught, cultivating a harvest through compassion and faithfulness.

One of the reasons we hold World Outreach Week is that we pray God may stir some of us to consider serving more deeply, whether locally or globally. Many of our global partners come from this church, and their stories are shared each year through our World Outreach documentary.

After watching these stories, I want to ask a simple question. Can you pray the prayer, Here am I Lord, send me. Wherever that may be, near or far, may we be willing to go where God calls.

Lord, thank you that we were reached, and help us to be part of reaching others. Thank you for our global partners and for reminding us that our faith is a global faith. In Jesus’ name we pray.