– [President] For the 100th time, I welcome you to a video blog. Thanks for joining us. Today, I pray that our hearts and eyes and minds are enlarged to what this Alliance family is part of. With others in Alliance leadership, I’m in Ecuador for the quadrennial meeting of the Alliance World Fellowship. You’re aware that we’re part of this bigger family called The Christian and Missionary Alliance Worldwide, and the fellowship that gathers us together under the leadership of our brother, Jura, is a wonderful fraternal organization that brings together the national churches of The Christian and Missionary Alliance and the leaders of those churches.

A few years ago, I was in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, and a layman in one of our church plants, who was overseeing air traffic control in that city, was at lunch. His English was good, we were having a conversation, and he looked at me and said, “So, I just have one question.” “What’s that?” “Are you in charge of the whole world or not?” He knew that I was president of the U.S. Christian and Missionary Alliance, and, from a Catholic background, he was kind of curious about how our structures were set up. I was able to explain to him, “No, no, no, no, I’m not in charge of the whole world. We’re not trying to run the world for the United States. In fact, when we come into a country and plant churches and bring the gospel, those churches eventually support themselves, lead themselves, train themselves, multiply themselves, and then when our role in that mission-developing work is done, we’re able to move on to another country, leaving behind a national church that is fully organized.” So, I told my friend, “You have Enrique, who is your president, and just as I’m president, I’m not ‘jefe’ over Enrique; we’re peers.” So, I think he appreciated my missiological explanation, but he leaned back in his chair and said, “Oh, I was wrong. I told all my buddies that the pope was coming.”

Well, I’m happy to say that I am not the pope of The Christian and Missionary Alliance and that our strategy has been, for a very long time, to build national churches that, as I just said, support, lead, train, and multiply themselves, and also now will become mission-sending churches. So, the theme of today, that I trust will enlarge our hearts, minds, and eyes, is the theme of “Did You Know?” Did you know this about your family? I’m going to welcome in various of the participants of this event that I find passing through this courtyard. I’m glad you’re here.

– [Woman] Did you know that The Alliance is represented in 88 countries through the Alliance World Fellowship? I had no idea! We are part of a big, global family. I have met women who do things just like I do in their context, and it has been super encouraging to be connected with this global family.

– [Man] Did you know that in Ukraine, we have Alliance work? Pastor Sergei has led the planting of three churches, and now we’re in the midst of joining 10 to 12 churches with some new church plants that are just beginning, providing pastoral training, humanitarian resources, clothing, food, ministering to families and to children. And so, in the next months, would you be praying that as our churches join, that more churches then would be planted, more people in Ukraine would hear the good news about Jesus. Thank you.

– [Man] Did you know that The Alliance in Ecuador sent a family to Northern Thailand to prepare for translation work among people groups, and I, on special assignment with The Alliance in the United States, met up unexpectedly with Agustin Reynoso.

– [Man] Could you imagine what Obi thought when I told him to learn Spanish? It happened that an English speaker went to Thailand, where they speak Thai, to work for the least-reached people groups in India, where they speak other languages, and had a crazy Latino come and say to him, “You must learn Spanish.” This is what happened, and now we are bringing Latino people as new workers for being equipped in Thailand for their further service and deployment in the least-reached people groups. All this happened of this family of The Alliance.

– [Man] Did you know that The Christian and Missionary Alliance of Hong Kong raises almost $3 million a year for missions and that they send out over 100 missionaries around the world, many to places that the U.S. C&MA are not sending workers to.

– [Man] Did you know that in the aftermath of the port explosion in Beirut, that because the damage was so extensive throughout the city, the local government actually asked The Christian and Missionary Alliance Lebanese National Church to adopt two neighborhoods near our Bible school there to invest in the rebuilding of these homes? And because of the generosity of people in the United States and outside the U.S., the national church was able to rebuild over 300 homes, repairing walls that had been broken, windows that had been smashed; and because of the impact of The Alliance, the ministry and the voice of the gospel went forward. It’s exciting to see that The Alliance is now going to build a coffee shop in the middle of those communities so that ministry and connection can continue on into the future.

– [Woman] Did you know that God is on the move in Central Asia? In August, we had two families go back to a country that we had been kicked out of 10 years ago, and we’re just seeing one miracle after another- places to live, schools to go, new business. Keep praying for them. Did you know that another country is receiving new workers from Chile to be fully part of our team there? Please be praying for them as they make relationships with the local people and they have to learn the language. They don’t speak English, so it’s an interesting dynamic. Please be praying for our team there. And did you know that as rough as the situation in Afghanistan has been, that we have refugees in one of our countries that our teams are working with there?

– [Man] Did you know that The Alliance has six churches in the Canary Islands off the coast of Africa next to Morocco? There is a big volcano that just keeps spewing lava at the moment, impacting the lives of the people in our churches there, and I would just ask you to pray for them because these are committed Christians committed to sharing the gospel, to living for Jesus in their city. Did you know that France is a very spiritual country? It’s so spiritual, we actually have a hundred thousand registered mediums. And at the same time, we only have 5,000 evangelical pastors. How are people going to hear the gospel if there is nobody there to share it? Come and join us in France. Be part of the Alliance mission in France.

– [Man] Did you know that The Alliance Church of Ecuador has five workers in a West African country? And they have a vision of planting the first Alliance church in that country.

– [Man] Did you know that you can pursue your college degree while on the mission field? That’s what I’m doing at Toccoa Falls College while doing ministry in Ukraine with the Alliance team there. There, I’m working with the youth ministries in our local churches where we take kids in from the neighborhoods surrounding the church, and we share the gospel with them. And just recently, we were able to baptize six of them, and I got to be a part of that baptism while pursuing my college degree to get to the mission field long-term.

– [Woman] Did you know that The Alliance in Puerto Rico has 52 churches and 19 international workers in Latin America and Europe?

– [Man] Did you know that many of our AWF partnered churches around the world are sending their own workers? My wife and I spent a number of years in Gabon, the church there planted in 1934 by U.S. Alliance workers. Today, they’re sending and supporting five missionary couples in five different nations and doing it on their own. And that’s just the joy of seeing the full circle of how God is using The Alliance around the world.

– [Man] Did you know that according to Joshua Project, the five countries with the most unreached people groups are India, Nepal, Bangladesh, China, and Pakistan? During the pandemic, the Alliance family has been able to provide relief to three of these five countries that have the most unreached people groups- India, Bangladesh, and Nepal.

– [Woman] And did you know that through these COVID relief projects in these countries, that many nonbelievers were able to hear the gospel? Many of our national partners were able to share the gospel. Two weeks ago, a Hindu lady was baptized into Christ.

– [Man] Did you know that a delegation of four pastors from Cuba came to Ecuador for AWF? And did you know that we signed another memo of understanding with that great country to help them plant churches, train leaders, and reach their nation for Christ?

– [Woman] And did you know that this week at AWF, there are many meetings going on with Latin American IWs who are being called to places like Europe, Middle East, North and Central Asia and West Africa?

– [President] I’m sure you just heard many things, but I hope at least you heard this: The investment that we have made through the decades has now been multiplied- national churches outgrowing the U.S. Christian and Missionary Alliance sometimes and now sending churches, taking the gospel of Jesus to places we cannot get or have not been. But the U.S. Alliance family is now part of this global sending movement of Alliance churches around the world that have kept the DNA from our earliest days until today that the gospel of Jesus is to be known, and the name of Jesus is to be loved and worshiped by every tribe and tongue and people and nation. This is what we’re part of. The Kingdom is advancing. Be encouraged today. Goodbye from Guayaquil, Ecuador.

– [Crowd] Ecuador.

– [Woman] Thank you so much. You did a great job.