“We thought Jesus was only for foreigners. We didn’t know He could be our God too.”

Disciple-makers in Myanmar heard this over and over as they shared the Good News of Jesus in a least-reached community. It was eye-opening for Burmese people to meet someone who shared their language, culture, and context but followed Jesus Christ and embraced Him as Savior and Lord.

This comment is not unique to Myanmar. It crops up frequently in reports and testimonies from those seeking to reach least-reached people, reflecting a common gap in understanding that Jesus is the hope and salvation for every person. The near-culture worker bridges that gap and is key to our Global Disciples model for reaching the least-reached.

When you hear the Good News of Jesus from people who look like you, sound like you, and understand your cultural and religious background, you see that this new life in Him can be yours. It doesn’t carry the baggage of western culture, colonialism, or racial differences. Yes, issues of prejudice, division, history, and conflict still come into play—even people in related groups don’t always get along. Yet overcoming those with the Holy Spirit’s help, offering peace and reconciliation in place of enmity and hatred, speaks volumes to the power of Jesus Christ.

If you want near-culture workers, you need local churches. We are grateful for the generations of cross-cultural workers and the traditional mission-sending strategies. Thanks to their dedication and sacrificial lives, the global Body of Christ is mature and thriving in many places. Now it’s time for the next step: tapping into these local churches to train and send out their people as a new generation of mission workers. 

As Global Disciples, we partner with local churches to equip and send out their people as disciple-makers and church planters who are able to use small business for sustainability and develop leaders for the multiplying church.

They are near-culture workers, able to connect more deeply and authentically with the people they seek to reach. Obstacles like language, culture, religious background, economic and educational diversity, are reduced because they are shared. Even where language is not the same, a related or trade language often gets them in the door. The near-culture worker has access to many places and people that a cross-cultural worker, from outside this context, could only dream of reaching.

“Equipping people to reach their nations” is the Global Disciples tagline for a reason. Near-culture workers make it possible every day around the world. 

How can we introduce Global Disciples to more people across North America?

This is a question our leadership team has asked, investigated, and prayed over for several years. As our international trainings grow at amazing rates, growth in our support base also needs to expand. We are so grateful to the generous, committed, and passionate community of partners God has given to Global Disciples. Now, we want to bring in more people who are excited about this effective near-culture model for reaching least-reached people.

God surprises us with unexpected opportunities at times. 

Early in 2024, Global Disciples was approached by the producers of Viewpoint with Dennis Quaid. This short feature runs on public television stations, highlighting organizations and institutions that influence positive, hopeful change. The producers were interested in adding profiles for faith-based initiatives. That’s when their research team discovered Global Disciples.

Global Disciples is now one of the featured organizations in a segment on Viewpoint with Dennis Quaid, rolling out to public television stations nationwide. The broadcast segment will be a helpful tool to introduce a national audience to our highly-effective model and the Global Disciples vision. (Airtimes are at the discretion of the local, independent public television station, so we can’t provide a schedule.) 

Our segment features interviews with leaders from our international and U.S. teams, a board member, and an advocate, who provide a well-rounded perspective on our near-culture model. Entrusting our story to someone completely outside of our circle was a stretching experience, but it was exciting to see how the Viewpoint team caught the vision and told it on our behalf.

The segment for public television is one part of the project. The Viewpoint team also produced a commercial for Global Disciples which aired nationally on Fox Business. Additionally, Viewpoint created a corporate profile video here and short videos we can use in further communications—all valuable assets to our toolkit.  

Releasing a profile like this on national television by our own efforts would have been a long time coming. Yet, this unexpected opportunity opened the door—we trust God to use it to expand awareness for Global Disciples. In the end, our dream is to give as many people as possible a front-row seat to God’s work through Global Disciples in reaching the least-reached.

Ishan attended a Global Disciples training in India to equip his church to make disciples. He heard seed funds would help launch his program, so he planned to train while seed funds lasted, then quit. 

After three years, Ishan couldn’t stop. Demand for discipleship-mission training increased, and his church cluster found ways to support it. As people came to faith in Jesus, churches were planted in this primarily Hindu community. Fifteen years later, Ishan’s church cluster now uses Global Disciples’ discipleship-mission, leadership, and small business development training, all sustained by local resources.

This success in sustainability is unfolding around the world. What makes the Global Disciples model for sustainability a success? As we asked key leaders, these themes emerged.

First, this model taps into an existing vision. Churches in Africa, Asia, and Latin America have a vision for reaching least-reached people. In fact, that’s required to partner with Global Disciples. Global Disciples provides training and start-up help to accomplish their vision.

Second, it encourages ownership and creativity. Training programs belong to a group or cluster of three or more churches. They carry the plan: budget, location, participants, outreach, follow-up, etc. Global Disciples equips their director to build the plan, and the local churches creatively choose how to train in their setting with their resources. Resources can be simple—sleeping mats, rice and chickens to feed participants, or a room in an empty school.

Global Disciples provides seed funds for three years, covering a percentage of the training costs, but in decreasing amounts and never more than the church provides. If training costs $300 over three years, the church contributes $210, and seed funds cover $90. By year four, it’s all sustained by local resources. One trend is churches using a small business—thanks to our Small Business Development training—to support training. They invest in their own mission!

This creates belief in success; it changes a mindset from dependence to confidence. A history of poverty and international aid often reinforces the idea that outside money makes things happen. A young leader in India wanted to plant churches but struggled without resources to support himself or launch a fellowship. He decided he needed a sponsor to support him. Then he met Jai, who directs a partner program.

“You don’t need a sponsor,” Jai said. “You need to connect with Global Disciples!” Jai eagerly shared his success in using our model, giving hope to the church planter.

This new mindset is confident: “We can do Kingdom work with what God has given to us.”   

Lastly, this model multiplies generosity and growth. It invites people to participate. As they see the results—new believers, churches planted, businesses and families thriving, communities influenced by Jesus Christ—excitement grows and draws more people to generously invest in what God is doing.

Sustainability is an opportunity for people like Ishan and his fellowship to thrive. Our sustainable model cultivates a passion for mission, generosity, a sense of value, and lasting impact for the Kingdom.

One African leader said, “We wanted to get in the water, but we didn’t know how to swim. Global Disciples pushed us in, and now we can swim!”

Ever wonder what happens when you pray for Global Disciples and give to further this mission?

Well, here’s one example.

Simplice came to his first Global Disciples training carrying low expectations and a heart heavy with discouragement. He left with a radically different outlook!

“That training reignited the fire in me! I went home transformed and restored in my ministry,” he said.

Simplice now directs a Global Disciples partner program in Cameroon. Among the participants was Anna, a leader in the church. She had separated from her husband Abel due to bitterness and a lack of forgiveness.

As Simplice taught a lesson on ‘The Leader and the Family,’ the Lord ministered to Anna’s heart to forgive Abel. She was moved to tears as she repented before the Lord.

Anna asked Simplice to go with her as she went back to Abel to ask for his forgiveness. God moved mightily; her husband forgave her, and they reconciled. Simplice said Abel’s walk with the LORD has also been restored!

This is what happens when you partner with Global Disciples through prayer and with your financial support. 

You make it possible for people in 71 countries to enjoy a personal relationship with Jesus. Broken lives are restored, marriages are renewed, and communities are transformed!

In fact, because of you, over 13,530 disciple-makers were trained last year by leaders like Simplice. Those disciple-makers applied what they learned and reached out with the Good News, leading to 61,741 new believers, and planting 2,996 new churches!

We praise God for His favor, and we thank you for your generosity to Global Disciples. You are part of our team, along with more than 1,400 generous partners and churches, all working to see that everyone has an opportunity to choose and follow Jesus Christ. The need is great, but together we are making an impact! 

Thank you!

You can give to Global Disciples today here. Thanks to some generous business leaders, every gift of $1,000 or more given by June 30, will be matched.

Mothers are amazing people, aren’t they?

God gives them hands to touch with love and strength, and feet to take them where they are needed most. Arms to embrace in love or lift the weak. Minds and voices to guide, direct, encourage, and correct. Eyes to see need and ears to hear another’s joys or sorrow. And hearts to love their families, their communities, their God.

God includes mothers in His amazing work, not only to nurture their children to know and follow him but to reach out and nurture new spiritual generations. As Global Disciples, we hear stories of many mothers who are part of what God is doing to birth, nurture, and raise up His children of faith.

Eve is one of those mothers on a mission. She came to Christ as a teenager in Tanzania. She pursued her walk with Jesus as she matured. She married a young pastor, and they were blessed with several children. Together they planted churches along the coast, in a challenging Muslim region. Finances were difficult, and during a particularly hard time, Eve’s husband started an argument. He accused her of having a “poverty spirit”; that he had not experienced “the blessing of God” since they married. Then he left her and their children.

Eve was heartbroken; she and her children had almost nothing. Despite her husband’s cold words, she continued to hold onto the Lord, praying for His help. God answered, prompting her to study more. So, Eve worked several jobs to feed her children and put herself through university. She became a teacher and enjoyed success in the city for a time.

Then she sensed the Lord leading her to take a teaching job in another region of Tanzania. It’s an area that is considered a center for witchcraft. People from around Tanzania and neighboring countries come to consult the witchdoctors and practitioners. Even pastors come to seek help and making sacrifices to “grow” their churches.

Eve believed the Lord wanted her there to make disciples and pray for people.

Eve’s church cluster connected with Global Disciples and sent her to the Directors Training. She was equipped and then sent to start a discipleship-mission training in this community steeped in witchcraft and spiritism.

God has opened doors, and Eve is nurturing and equipping disciples of Jesus Christ. Her training program has become a church plant. Prayer is growing and it’s threatening the power of the witchdoctors. They’re fighting back; Eve is often threatened and opposed. The local authorities released her from her teaching job—not because of her performance but because of her faith in Jesus Christ.

This mother is on a mission—even if it means standing for Christ in a fiery furnace of opposition and spiritual warfare. We honor Eve as a woman of God, and a spiritual mother to a new generation of God’s family in Tanzania.

So many people around the world face each day without knowing that God loves them. Or that His own Son, Jesus, died for them, and rose from the dead—all to give them hope and the opportunity to enjoy Him forever.

But what can you and I do? Realistically, can we “reach least-reached people”? It’s a big question.

How can we reach the more than 321 million Muslims of North Africa, and the Middle East—with little or no witness to Jesus Christ? That number of people is close to the entire population of the United States.   

What about China with 462 ethnic minority people who are considered unevangelized? There are only a few believers and churches within these groups. And only a small percentage of the 1.2 billion Han Chinese are followers of Christ. 

Then there’s 1.1 billion Hindus of Nepal, India, and across South Asia. What can we do to point them to the one true God, among the thousands of Hindu gods? Or the 494 million people of Buddhist background, mainly in Southeast Asia, determined to find enlightenment—but never knowing Jesus, the Light of the World. 

Is there a way to reach the one-third of our world that is still waiting to hear the Good News of Jesus in a way they can respond? 

Yes, there is! We can work together to equip and mobilize the Body of Christ around the world. We can train and send out those who follow Jesus and who already live within reach of these unreached people groups.

These disciples have access to regions where North American Christians can’t go. But Muslims who have come to know Jesus can reach their own people. Chinese Christians can. Former Hindus and Buddhists can share the freedom found in Christ to their people.

As Global Disciples, we focus on reaching those who have yet to hear the Good News of Jesus.

And we believe one of the most effective ways to do this is by working with and through the global Body of Christ. When we work side-by-side with believers and indigenous churches around the world, we can be part of reaching those who have yet to hear the Good News of Jesus.

It’s a big job—a task that seems impossible. But with God, nothing is impossible.                                                                                     

Have you considered the power of a snowflake?

On its own, that tiny ice-crystal is a fragile thing, even a breath can melt it.

But enough snowflakes together can bring daily life to a grinding halt! 

Like snowflakes, small things can come together to create big changes. Acts of kindness, gifts given with a generous heart—each is wonderful on its own, but together, amazing things are possible!

That’s the power behind THE REACH. Through Global Disciples’ monthly giving community, people are working together to support and equip disciple-makers with the Good News of Jesus. 

That community—people like you—makes it possible for churches to be planted, for pastors to support their families, and most of all, for lives to be changed for eternity among least-reached people. 

Don’t believe me? Let me introduce you to Pastor Tushar. He can tell you more about changes he’s seeing in his region, thanks to Global Disciples and people like you. 

Would you like to do more to impact your world with the Good News of Jesus? Then consider joining THE REACH community. It multiplies simple gifts and brings you into a group of people excited to change the world by introducing Jesus to least-reached people. We hope you’ll join us this year.

“How’s the food?”

“It’s great!”

We use that phrase of approval frequently. It can be our response to a question about the weather, coffee, worship, a football game, a Bible teaching, or prayer.

Great is also a word used to describe something which is ‘large in amount, size, or degree.’ In Global Disciples—and for most of us involved in taking Jesus to the world—we often attach the word great to the Great Commission.  

Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matthew 28:18-20). 

I was startled by the results of a 2022 study which said, “When U.S. churchgoers were asked if they had previously heard of the Great Commission and what it means, only 17% knew its meaning. Though 28% vaguely knew the phrase, just over half (51%) were unfamiliar.”¹ 

That is not a great sign! While I’m confident it’s not true in many of the churches I relate with, it’s very sobering.

Why do we call this commission Jesus gave to his disciples and us before he ascended to heaven great?

It’s great to be able to participate in the Greatest Co-mission assignment ever given—to be co-workers with Christ (1 Corinthians 3:9), sons and daughters of God and fellow workers empowered by the Holy Spirit.

Let’s make the most of this great opportunity! What a great honor to be alive at this time in history!

–Galen Burkholder, CEO

^[1] The Great Disconnect: Reclaiming the Heart of the Great Commission in Your Church, Barna Group Research, 2022.

^[2] Single quotes for words borrowed from the Cambridge Dictionary and Merriam-Webster Dictionary.

When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” –John 8:12

“While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” –John 9:5

What is the darkest place you’ve ever been? The depths of a cave? A tunnel or cellar or a mine-shaft? A citywide blackout or a cloudy night out in the wilderness?

Our local electrical transformer blew one evening, and suddenly my side of town was dark and powerless. No traffic lights, no streetlights, no garage or porch lights. Even the tiny lights on my stove and power strips were dark! All the light I took for granted was gone.

I’ve also visited one or two of the world’s “dark skies” areas—places where light pollution is minimal to non-existent. Yes, it’s dark but that is a misnomer. For in the absence of man-made light, the God-made light of the stars and moon shine even brighter.

When you’re in the dark, even the tiniest point of light makes all the difference. It tells you that the morning or rescue will come, that power will be restored, that darkness will end.

Light gives hope.

At Christmas, God gave us the gift of light and hope through Jesus. He came as the light, shining in the darkness. His light brings hope for you and me and the nations—so we can know His salvation, love, presence, and power.

Once we have embraced His light, Jesus also gives us a job to do: to be light to the world now—bringing hope in the darkness and reflecting Him, shining like stars in the night sky.

Galo reflects the light of Jesus in a dark, crime-ridden neighborhood in his Ecuadorian city. He and the disciples he trains take the Gospel light to communities where violence and death are daily realities. His team seeks to rescue and give hope to young people pulled into drugs, prostitution, or trained as sicarios—hitmen—for crime lords. As they share the Gospel on the streets, they duck and dodge drive-by shootings. One day, he saw a boy shot and killed in a spray of bullets. A kid who only a few minutes earlier heard the Good News of Jesus for the first time.

And Galo is just one of many, giving the gift of light through Jesus, to those who walk in darkness, without hope or a future. So many of our Global Disciples stories reflect how God’s people are shining with the light of Jesus, offering hope to people where systems and spirits are under the control of darkness.

You can too. You are perfectly placed, even today, to reflect the light and hope of Jesus to people around you who still live in the dark. Jesus brings the gift of light—a gift we can give to others, to bring hope into our world.

Shine on!

“You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” –Matthew 5:14-16

Prayer is a gift from our God our Father. It allows us to hear and see His heart for a relationship with us. As He works through us to make His name known, He wants to communicate with us personally. What an amazing privilege we have in prayer!

Take a moment to think about how you connect best with God through prayer. Do you sit in a chair as you pray, or do you kneel on the floor, or stand with your hands raised? 

For me, I love to go for walks in the middle of the night, or right before dawn, so I can see the stars and the moon. On those walks, I speak to God as I am humbled by the vastness of space.

As my eyes try to take in the majesty of His creation, I imagine entering the throne room as it is depicted in Revelation 4. John describes an incredible scene where God is on a throne, surrounded by magnificent creatures who are praising Him continually, saying “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come.”

John was seeing things he was almost unable to describe or explain. This is often how I feel when I pray as I gaze at the expanse of God’s night sky.

God has done a great and wonderful thing by inviting us into conversations with Him through prayer. As we participate in prayer, God aligns our path to His so we can more clearly see His direction in our lives.

Through prayer, God loves, encourages, reminds, corrects, and rebukes us. Prayer is an ointment to our soul, bringing us into agreement with the Father’s purposes and will. It gives us a connection to the Giver of Life that strengthens us in our walk of faith.

The mission God has given to Global Disciples—to see that every person has an opportunity to choose and follow Jesus—requires us to pray. This is a mission given by our Father, which can only be accomplished through continual prayer as we seek to make Him known among the least-reached.

–Howard Rich, CFO, Global Disciples

If you would like to use the gift of prayer by praying with Global Disciples, use our monthly prayer calendar or request the guide, Praying for the Least-reached.