World Outreach Week 2025

Wow. Everybody say wow. Wow. It's amazing. Once a year Twin Lakes Church does this. It's our World Outreach Week where we focus on some of the global ministries we support all over the planet. My name is René. I'm another one of the pastors here at Twin Lakes Church. Who is happy that it's World Outreach Week? Let me hear ya. Who is happy that it's also Chinese New Year and Groundhog Day? Let me hear ya. Who is happy that there's free Marianne's ice cream at church today? That gets the most votes.

We'll change your mind by the time this is over, but I wanna get you stoked about what God is doing all over the planet. If you're a first time guest today, you picked a really great week. This is totally different than what we normally do on a normal weekend, but it's great because you're gonna get a chance to kinda look under the hood and see the DNA of our church. And really kind of the heartbeat, what makes us tick as a church.

And if you came in kind of feeling a little bit down today, you are going to leave feeling uplifted because if you came in feeling down maybe about the state of the world or the state of the nation or what's happening in history, you're going to see what God is doing in a way that's going to lift you up. And if you came in as kind of frankly a little bit of a bored believer, like your spiritual life has been kinda flat lined for a while, I think it's gonna get a jump. You're gonna get a jolt to your spiritual system and not only leave with inspiration, but also a challenge.

But why are we even doing World Outreach? Why has this church for over 50 years done a World Outreach Week every single year? Why do any of this, right? Well, Twin Lakes Church gives at least 10% of every single dollar that comes into the church to a global ministry. Our church tithes on what we receive to missionaries and organizations doing great work all over the planet.

So this week, it's not a fundraising week. This is a chance for you as the investors, so to speak, into this stock, into this project, to see your return on investment. And of course, if you haven't given and you'd like to participate, you can do so at tlc.org/give. But why do that? Why even do World Outreach? Why care about the world? Why don't we just focus on our own families and our own church? Why give away anybody? Why care about other countries? Let them take care of their own problems.

Well, for one thing, we do this because Jesus told us to, very specifically in what's popularly known as the Great Commission at the end of the Gospel of Mark. For example, he said, "Go into all of the," what? World. Say it again, say world. World. And preach the good news to everyone. Let's read this verse out loud together. That's our theme verse for this week. Go into all the world and preach the good news to everyone. So that's pretty clear.

The question is, how do I do this? How do I do this in a way that's respectful, in a way that's not unintentionally destructive even? Well, that's a great question and the Bible's very clear about it. The primary metaphor is to plant seeds. Like the Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians. He said, "I planted the seed in your hearts. Apollos watered it, but it was God who made it grow." We don't go out there and make converts. What we do is plant seeds and water the seeds and then the Holy Spirit works in people's lives at their pace and he makes it grow if they are receptive to the word he plants there in their hearts.

In other words, it is not about coercion, but conversation and invitation that leads to transformation by the power of God. And seeds are planted in this way in many different methods with our global partners. For example, we've got global partners that are pastors, that are building churches, that are planting churches. Others are assisting refugees. Others are on, as you heard Paul talk about, the Mercy Ship, the floating hospital off the coast of Africa. Others are supporting orphans. Others are training pastors and leaders all over the planet. And again, these are all people that you already support.

Now, let me just give you some context for this because there's a couple of different styles of ministry here. A lot of our global partners serve in parts of the world that are already, you could call them culturally Christian. Like the United States is culturally Christian, right? South America, Europe, much of Africa. And so what's their role there? Those countries are already culturally Christian. Well, so is America. So their role is to move from culturally Christian to personally Christian. People who might have grown up in a church but haven't yet made that personal commitment to Christ.

In fact, I'd love to see a show of hands. How many of you maybe went to some kind of a church when you were little, maybe you stayed, maybe you left, but came to a moment later in life where you went from culturally Christian to personally Christian? Can I see that show of hands? Look at that. Yeah, and we saw it on this stage, right? Last weekend, we had 25 people publicly proclaim their faith in Christ through baptism. It was remarkable. Yeah, let's just give God glory for that. Look at the look on these faces. Fantastic.

And so many of these people told me, I went to some kind of a church when I was little, but for some reason it wasn't personal for me. They went from being culturally Christian to personally Christian. And a lot of the ministries are like that. And this kind of ministry, we kind of recognize, right? Church planting and youth groups and sports ministries, but some of our mission partners go to countries where people are completely unfamiliar with Jesus as in, they have literally never heard the gospel, never heard the good news, not even one time to even consider it.

And so really the basic role there is to have people in those countries meet devout, loving Jesus followers because they may not even know a Christian. And so ministries in countries like that look like people who are what's traditionally called tent makers because the apostle Paul was an amazing history maker, but his job was not a pastor. His job was making tents. And as he did his job, he shared his faith and he influenced people and started an amazing movement.

And so in those countries where people are unfamiliar with Christ, missionaries go and they have like normal jobs, but then they have been trained to share their faith in respectful conversational ways to plant those seeds and then to see what God does with this. As you are about to see in a 20 minute short film we made of just three of the mission partners that are with us today, I love this because you're gonna be traveling around the world to see what is happening in these, you're gonna see innovation and enterprise, faithful, it's gonna be such a great film.

Now, one caveat for those who are joining us on the live stream and that's this, one of the couples that we're going to be featuring are in a country where it's very sensitive to share your faith. We need to be thankful for the freedoms we have in this country, but there's some countries that culturally it can even be dangerous in certain contexts to be Christians in certain situations. And so when we get to that part of the documentary here in the auditorium, we're going to cut away on the live stream and I'll be addressing you, the live stream people personally, but here in the auditorium you will see that part of the video.

So maybe this is kind of a plug to those of you who live here in Santa Cruz who normally watch on the live stream. If you watch on the live stream compared to the people, the people in the auditorium are going to see the censored part of the video and they're gonna get free ice cream. So join us next weekend. You're welcome here. But check this out. Here's just some of what God is doing all around the world thanks to your investment. Watch this.

I'm Bart.

I'm Kelly. We live here in Choma, Zambia and we live with our three kids. Bart's parents were missionaries here and we had come to visit. We instantly fell in love with the people.

If you were to ask any Zambian right now, if you went out on the street and asked anyone, are you a Christian, every single one will say yes. They just say, "Oh yeah, I go to this church so I'm a Christian or this is a Christian nation so I'm a Christian." Even the government calls themselves a Christian nation. If you turn on the TV, they'll say, "We're a Christian nation." I further declare that Zambia is a Christian nation.

When you sit down and actually talk to them and explain what it means to have a relationship with Jesus Christ, they have no idea at all. I would say that they would put football first, then maybe God, then school. Soccer, football, it's life. It's on everybody's phone, it's on their walls, it's all they talk about.

The little tiny boys are kicking bags that they make. They take plastic bags, they put them together, they make a little ball and they're playing with those in the street all day long and it's the best avenue for us to develop relationship. Let's engage in what everybody loves and see how we can help best and then use that as the opportunity to create the relationships.

Then through that relationship that we build, those real, real relationships, we have an opportunity to share the gospel. When we came here in, I know, about three and a half years ago, we had just this little small team out of a church. It was just basically, it would be like, it'd be like if you had a youth group of 10 young boys and a couple of old men who thought they could still play football.

There was people here in football who said, "It'll never work and it'll never do well because you're mixing God and football." That was the belief. We were here with maybe 20 or 30 and we thought, you know, God has this great opportunity for us, we'll be working with these 20 or 30. And then we've seen, we've just seen like just so much blessing and growth. Now we're at the place we need help almost. There's eight teams currently, like active, very, very active teams. That encompasses somewhere around 200 or 250 kids with coaches if you put them all together at one time.

Coach Mishek, one of our, you know, he's our head coach for the senior team, but one of like our just stronghold leaders that we have. We sat together and we said, "No, God has a plan." Athletes will come thinking they're just gonna be playing soccer for us. Then they'll turn around and see, you know, this is a life changing deal. First of all, we put God first. And if you look at our logo, it's written here, now, "Fibrian Sport," it's the thing I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

And also, this is our theme. Before we start our game, this is our theme. And looking at even the premier teams and, you know, the big teams, compared to us with what we do with these players, I think it's exceptional and it's something very different from other teams. One, how much we take would curve them, and also we look at their spiritual lives.

When we started this team, there was one thing that we are looking for. And, you know, when we talked with Bad, I said, "What could be the most important to this team?" And, you know, that way it wasn't with me, but it was discipline. Not only with yourself, but with other people, how do you associate with other people? How do you make people to understand that you are different from these other teams, you know? So you need to be disciplined. It's not by your power like you are saying. Without God, without Jesus in here, there's nothing you can do. And that's the most important thing.

Why are we here? Why are we Christians? Coach Misik really started this thing of having devotions on Friday. He always preaches the word of God. He's always like a dad. I'm really going spiritually each and day, yeah. It's a unique club that teaches more about Godly things. I love that about bands. They are kindly loving people.

You know, as Zambians, we do face a lot of challenges. I'm not dwelling so much on those things 'cause I know that my God has a plan on me. And no matter what, a God's plan was going to be prevailed upon my life. We took an approach of relationship and loving people. Like really, really genuinely loving people. Showing love by dedicating and committing our time, first of all, to people and developing a relationship in a genuine way, like we really care about them.

You know when I asked God to give me many children, he just gave me three. But then he gave me more, like 200. I'll be the second mom. I'm happy. That's rude. Yeah, it's very rude. Even the parents, when they see their kids, how much they've changed, they get inspired and say, "This is the right team." And in the community, they say, "This is the right team." And I think I will take my kid there. It's such an easy avenue to be able to go out and reach and it's constant new kids coming.

My name is Naom. I play football because I want to become a professional player someday. A lot of lives have changed on our girls' team. I wouldn't say that football was even a thing for them in the last 20 years. It's something that's up and coming. There are women coming out of this country who are making it. They can see a life where maybe it would be an opportunity to take care of their families.

Yes, they might just be a young kid, but mom is maybe tending a field or maybe she has a small job in the market. And so a lot of these girls are responsible for the whole home. There's a lot of awful things that happen here with young women and prostitution is one of them. And it's tough. We personally have girls on our team that have changed those ways. And we've been able to help them start small businesses so that they can provide for their children that they have now.

To have girls be able to come out of living in those situations, accept Jesus as their Savior, have a significant turning point in their lives where they say, no longer am I going to live the way that I was living. And no longer do I not have hope. I actually have hope for the future. The opportunity with them is just really beautiful. For real, their lives are changed forever, forever. This is the reason why we are here, is to impact these young ones and to change their lives. Because we start with God and we end with God. Without God, we are nothing. Then that's the truth. Inasmuch as you come to football, put God first. That's what I can say.

So my name's Lori Beyer. Keith and I met in Czechoslovakia in the summer of 1990, right after the Berlin Wall came down. So we were both on a summer mission project with Camp Scrutia for Christ, and we'd never done that before. I was called because I met people who never had heard the name of Jesus. And I was like, how can this even be? And I've got to go where people haven't heard. And I saw the need, and I saw how a lot of the other Americans had an awful time there, and I loved it. And I thought, maybe I am equipped for something more than just living in the small state of Vermont.

So about 31 years later, we are in full-time ministry, and we've lived abroad for 26 years. My role has to do with the training and development of our staff. I help them to work together and then to figure out why they're not working well together, helping our people grow and be equipped for the roles in the ministry that God's called them to within our organization.

We've learned in the last two years the importance of national indigenous leadership of the ministry. There is a time when you bring all the expats in from the rest of the world to get things started, but there's also a time to step away. The ministries of Campus Crusade for Christ are in about 180 countries around the world, and we have over 15,000 staff all doing different things.

We've brought you here today to our ministry office here in Tirana, Albania. They are called the New Life Institute. You'll have a chance to hear from two of the national leaders, their national director, Berti Barhami, and the leader of leadership development and human resources, Genzhi Novokhu, today. If you know the history of Albania, we were under communism for about 50 years. In 1967, Albania declared itself to be the first atheistic country in the world, so religion was forbidden by law after communism fell.

One of the missionaries that had worked here in Albania between the First and Second World War, he came back to see if there was anything left, and he was able to identify in the whole country only 16 known believers. So I did not hear the gospel at all. The only thing I heard about religion was that religion was a tool in the hands of rulers. That first short-term team of Americans that came changed the whole university and campus situation in Albania. And at the time, I was a college student. When I fell in contact with these guys that had this energy, this vision, this joy for the future, it impacted my life. And that's when I became a believer.

You can imagine what happened to the whole country, what collaboration and growth that took place and how the gospel spread across the country. Now we count over 100 full-time staff, almost all of them Albanians, only a few Americans. We did see how those first teams that came, they worked together. And it is not by just one person, no matter how gifted he is. I think working as a team on campus, it's crucial to build a movement.

David and Nicky, Nicky Doce and Tammy, that's the first team in Kosovo in 1999. Our goal is to help our staff to be more effective on sharing the gospel with all people, especially among young generation, teachers, businessmen, et cetera. We don't have to act like being alone, but we need to act that we have this interdependence among us. I say personally that I found a lot of support from us globally or originally. So I feel understood. And I feel that they are going through my challenges, too, that we have in our ministry. And we have a lot, by the way.

I think we are on the right page. And the right page is how to have more effective leaders, teams, and staff also to be successful in their ministry. So my role is a little different. I am the global vice president of leaders strategies. What does that mean? It means I help the 190 nations reach leaders with the gospel. I help them to know how to reach leaders, how to disciple them, and how to prepare them to go to their colleagues and their cities to tell people about Jesus.

So sometimes people ask me, why leaders? Well, leaders have an incredible opportunity that God has given them because in every nation, influence flows down. And leaders have a unique opportunity to make things happen. And when they come to Jesus and are committed to the Great Commission, they impact their cities and their nations.

I oversee about 18 different ministries and resources within my division that all focus on helping leaders know Jesus, walk with Jesus, and make an impact in their workplace. Here in Albania, we gather multiple people from multiple countries to work together to say, Lord, what can we do together to help impact leaders for Jesus? The job we've got, the fulfilling of the Great Commission, oh, here's coffee, fantastic. Thank you.

There's a sense of urgency. And because there's a sense of urgency, we've got to reach leaders and influencers. In their very being, they want to make things happen. They're change merchants. They're ambassadors for the future, usually their future focus. And because they want to make things happen, they're the people we want to connect with.

So think about the difference it would make if the CEO of a company was truly following Jesus and knew how to talk about his faith in an understandable and comfortable way. Or imagine if the leader in government was truly following Jesus. We have to accept that very often in our society, a leader is more heard than a normal coworker. So this is not a question of exclusivity to talk and to reach out to leaders. But this is a very clear understanding how you can reach a society.

And I think if we are Christians, we are called to reach out to leaders, to come together with leaders, to encourage them, to try to bring in the Holy Spirit led life into our society. Why do I keep doing this? I know this is a very simple answer. But when Jesus said go, therefore make disciples, there is nothing more incredible than seeing people's life change. And knowing that God is allowing me to be a part of that is far richer and a much greater reward than I could ever imagine.

This is what keeps me going because truly Jesus is the best thing that we could ever introduce people to. For those of you joining us on the live stream, we have to switch away from our in-person services for the next six minutes because the segment of our WOW documentary that the in-person audience is now watching features interviews with people who live in a country where they are at risk if certain authorities learn of their activity.

And so we don't want to endanger them. So I'm going to address you, our live stream audience, while the in-person audience watches the film. And this pause for us is really a good opportunity for us to remember our brothers and sisters in Christ who live in exactly those situations where their faith puts them at risk in certain circumstances. And this is not uncommon.

Did you know that in the past 100 years, more Christians have been killed and imprisoned for their faith than in all the rest of Christian history combined? This just happened 2,000 years ago in the time of the New Testament. This is going on right now. And these people are an amazing example for you and me. I mean, how do they keep the faith in such tough circumstances? This might give you some insight.

I found a poem written by a pastor in Zimbabwe literally the week before a major persecution started there. The situation is totally different there now, thank God. But this pastor was going into severe persecution. And he wrote in a letter that was widely circulated to the other pastors there, "I am part of the fellowship of the unashamed. I have the Holy Spirit's power. The die has been cast. I have stepped over the line. The decision has been made. I am a disciple of Jesus Christ. I am no longer in need of preeminence, position, promotions, or popularity. My pace is set. My gate is fixed. My goal is heaven, my mission clear. I cannot be bought, compromised, deterred, lured away, turned back, or delayed. I will not flinch in the face of sacrifice, hesitate in the presence of adversity, or negotiate at the table of the enemy. I won't give up, back up, let up, or shut up, because I am a disciple of Jesus Christ."

Wow. Now, what about you? And what about me? Can I be like that man? I want to be. Let me just encourage you. When you stick to your convictions, people notice. And you began to have influence. I met a guy named Dan Bauman. He's a Swiss American Christian, like me. And he went to Iran to work with the Christians there. And he was arrested and thrown into prison in Tehran. And he wrote a book about it that I've read called "Imprisoned in Iran." It's not some sensationalistic book. I really liked it.

But he describes how he is beaten, interrogated, tortured, kept in solitary confinement. And he gets the death sentence just for practicing his faith. Now, he was released due to international pressure again, thank God. But get this. Toward the end of his captivity, he overhears a conversation between his guards. And he knows their language. And they thought he was asleep. And they say to each other, this foreigner has affected me deeply. He has come here with a purpose. And he knows he could get killed for it. He has a reason to live and a reason to die.

What do we have? And the second guard says, yes, I stand by his cell sometimes. And I hear him praying for us. We could have him killed. And he says over and over, he's doing this all for love. I don't know anything about a God of love. But it sounds good to me. And then the first guard says, I want to become a Christian, like him. And the second guard says, I do too. And I know there's another who thinks as we do. And the first guard says, I have heard of a Christian church in Tehran. I'm going to find it.

And meanwhile, Dan Bauman's in his cell trying not to go crazy with joy. But what happened there? You see, they saw his convictions. And his convictions had an influence on them. So I want to encourage you to pray three things. First, be grateful for the freedom you have and pray for yourself to have that kind of spirit of courage. And secondly, pray for those Christians that they would have strength and courage to continue standing for their convictions and for the Lord, like Dan Bauman and so many others.

And then third, would you pray for our World Outreach Week that we as a church would not just be inspired by what God is doing around the world, but be inspired to live that way right here in Santa Cruz? Well, thank you for listening. And in just a few moments, we are going to rejoin the live feed. Again, we had to cut away because the people we were featuring in the documentary in person are in a situation where they might be put in danger if their identities were revealed here on the live stream, on the internet. So we appreciate your understanding of that situation.

Keep them in your prayers, even though they're anonymous to you. And in a few moments, we're going to rejoin the live feed at Twin Lakes Church. Can we just put our hands together and thank these amazing global partners? Fantastic. And also, thank you to-- so here, let me just name everybody on our video team that put this together. David Schlepfer. That's it. David Schlepfer. So let's thank David as well for doing a wonderful job. Proud of him.

So this is kind of cool. What I would love to do is to have all the global partners that are here with us right now in this room. They're all probably already setting up out there. But if you are here inside, could you just stand up so that we can identify you? Just go ahead and stand. We got some people in the back. Very, very good. Good. Let's thank them for the amazing-- Jamal, good to see you.

So just a couple of updates. You saw Vigee Kamoff back there. So a couple of weeks ago, I told you about Dr. Kamoff. She started Little Flock Children's Home in India. And I told you the story of how Little Pavithra was brought in when she was just three years old, had had a very traumatic background, and Little Flock was able to nurture her. And I ended my message by saying that she has just graduated from medical school as a medical assistant. It's so exciting.

Well, let me just give you the latest update. This is brand new this week. Vigee just hired Pavithra. She's the new nurse at Little Flock Children's Home. So thanks to you. That is part of the investment and lives you have done. Here's another cool update. So if you are into soccer, especially women's soccer, you might know that the Bay FC is the big women's soccer club over in San Jose. And they have probably the biggest star in women's soccer, Rachel Kundanaji. She's from Zambia.

Until a couple of weeks ago, she was the highest paid female soccer player on the planet. Well, she heard about what the Barkers are doing in Zambia. And she has decided she is going to put her endorsement and her volunteer time into their ministry, giving a huge boost of legitimacy to what they're doing in Zambia because she has a relationship with the Lord, too. So praise God for that. That's also hot off the presses. So God's doing great things. God's moving in the world. Don't believe all the bad headlines, right?

So what's next for you? Well, grab your bulletin. And if you open it up, you can see the wow schedule all week long on one side. And on the other side, you can see a map of the lobby. And probably your attention is being attracted instantly to the little box that says ice cream. Yes, free ice cream, berry and several flavors. So you can grab that and then stroll. Like the Capitola Art and Wine Festival talks about sip and stroll. This is scoop and stroll right through the lobby.

And there you see on the legend there, those are the different ministries that are represented from all around the world. And the numbers correspond to the lobby. So if there's a specific person you want to look at, you can look at them. Your kids can get the passport stamped. You can engage in the Nativity game, which is over there in that corner of the lobby. When a $25 life gift card and $500 will go to support a global partner of your choice. There's so much cool stuff going on. Come back on Wednesday for our midweek class as well.

Listen, when I talk to global partners and I ask them, what is the number one way we can support you? They always answer with one word. What do you guess that word is? Pray. So choose one of the people you talk to. Pick up our free magazine that details their stories. It's available all over the lobby. Choose just one of them that you're going to pray for regularly, daily, or weekly throughout the year. That's going to be a blessing to them. And you know what it does is it opens up our eyes, the blinders, the local blinders get opened up to what God is doing all around the world. Isn't that awesome? I'm so stoked about this.

Now, before we close with one final song, I just want to give you a preview. Want to alert you. Next weekend, obviously, here in this country and all over the planet, there's a major event happening that the whole planet's been talking about. You've been seeing all the commercials and stuff. You know what I'm talking about, the continuation of our series, How Joyful People Think. Here. I'm going to be here sharing about that. I hope you join us. It's really going to be a lot of fun. There is a surprise in the message. I think it's going to be a blast.

But right now, let's pray. Would you bow your heads with me? Listen, with your heads bowed, I want to invite you to just pray a simple three-word prayer today. I dare you to pray this prayer silently in your heart. God, use me. God, use me. Just use me. I want to be a part of what you're doing to reach the world. Open my eyes to the opportunities.

And God, we pray for all the ministry partners visiting with us. They can go many months with very little encouragement. It's a tough job. May we as a church pour into them our gratitude and our support, help them know that they are loved. May this week not be a drain for them, but a joy infusion. As we speak to them in the lobby right now, may they get the sense they have a second home here with people who support them and love them, bless their ministries, we pray in Jesus' name.