This wonderful phrase, describing the growth of the gospel, is found four times in the book of Acts. It’s a short phrase, but one that describes incredibly big realities – the power of the gospel to change lives, to see people saved, churches established and new workers sent.

Whilst we know mission work will meet with all kinds of opposition and the going will sometimes be slow, we still live in an era where gospel progress is what we long for and gospel progress is what we can expect. This is not because we’re able to bring it about ourselves, but because God has promised it. Jesus is building his church and the gospel will be preached; indeed it must be preached, in his name, to all nations.1

What a joy to see this happening before our eyes across the UFM family. In recent weeks it has been thrilling to:

  • hear of a man saved through the outreach of a church in Ireland
  • welcome a new mission partner into UFM: a young lady being sent by her church to serve among Muslims in a ‘closed country’
  • meet with a brother from the Middle East who told us of the boldness of a 78-yearold lady giving out New Testaments on the bus in a country where it is illegal to have a Bible
  • partner with a Brazilian Bible college graduate and her church, providing some financial support to help her get to East Timor to serve in mission there
  • hear that, over the last 10 years, 350,000 Bibles have been shared on SD cards with least reached peoples through the work of OneHundredFold

In God’s goodness, the UFM mission family continues to grow. This is God’s doing, not ours! Over the last 10 years, the number of mission partners we have had the privilege of supporting has nearly doubled as God has answered prayers for new workers. We pray that through each of these 240 mission partners, the word of God would spread.

And as well as rejoicing in more labourers for the harvest field, we’ve also been delighted to see God open new doors for gospel progress that we are prayerfully taking, trusting in God’s provision.

One example is the growing opportunity we have at UFM to support the sending of mission workers from parts of Asia, Africa and Latin America. Places that traditionally have only received such workers, are increasingly sending, themselves. What a privilege to support such mission movements, particularly where they are sending for the very first time.

There is a growing opportunity to support the sending of mission workers from parts of Asia, Africa and Latin America.

We are investing staff, research and resources into this important area of modern-day mission. We already have mission partners from 28 different nationalities in the UFM family, and, as we begin to talk with different church groups around the world where we have historical relationships, we see so much potential. We are excited about playing our part.

With all of this in mind, we are relaunching our annual financial appeal, praying that God might raise up donors to invest in UFM’s new Development Fund. This has been created to support new gospel initiatives in mission and you can read more about it here.

Of course, with gospel progress comes opposition and challenge. This is felt acutely at times by many across the UFM family. Please pray that God would continue to strengthen, lead and provide for his people as the good news of Jesus is shared in the power of the Spirit. May the word of God continue to spread and flourish!

1. Matthew 16:18, Luke 24:44-47

 

Michael Prest, Director, UFM Worldwide