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May & June - 2021
Editorial
Dear friends,
These first days of the month of May is very special for thousands of Muslim people. They all are dedicating themselves to prayer and fasting, in hopes that their god will listen to them. This also is a great opportunity for us to pray for them. Read the article My Ramadan Experience in the Field, by Marina Sordi Bryant, and learn more about Ramadan and how to pray more specifically.
On our section about Mission Life Style, you will find the article The Inescapable Culture Shock I Thought I Had Overcome, written by Juliana Kath. Juliana shares about her experience of shifting from one country in Africa to another, the challenges, the differences between the cultures and the cultural shock. This is also a good opportunity for you to learn how to pray for the missionaries who are working overseas.
On Highlights from WNI, you must read about our community center in Indonesia, the Hope and “Happy Day” - LifeCenter. We also want to invite you to know more about this project and we would love to have you as our partner in it!
In the Project Report section, we invite you to know more about the work WNI is doing among the Unreached People Group (UPG) and how to be part of this!
And of course you cannot miss the Leadership Lessons from our executive director, Matt Mattos! Every edition you will learn short and practical ways of how to be a better leader, according to God's Word.
In the Wise Money section, we have more practical hints from our partner, Ana Lis, who is working in Indonesia. She is teaching about Two Money Tips You May Not Know in order to be a good steward of what God is trusting in your hands.
Blessings,
How To Make Friends and Be an Influencer
My Ramadan Experience
in the Field
Ramadan—the holy month for Muslims—started April 12th and will end May 12th. It is a month of prayer, fasting from sunrise to sunset, nightly feasts, celebrations, and recitation of Qur'an. They celebrate the initial revelation of their holy book, the Qur'an, which they believe Muhammad received from the angel Gabriel.
Ramadan is when the atmosphere changes in Muslim majority countries. During the entire month, Muslims fast water and food from just before sunrise to just before sunset. In some countries, they can go 19 hours without eating or drinking anything! It can be very hard and help them to experience the hunger pain some of the people experience everyday. It's also a month of charity and fraternity.
I remember when I was living in the Middle East during Ramadan. There was a mosque about a block away from my house. The minarets were blasting with Quranic recitations—one of the traditions is to recite the entire Qur'an, their holy book, during the month. People would go in flocks daily to celebrate the end of the fast, the night prayers, and the whole night of eating and chatting together.
They would decorate their houses, the streets, and the mosques with lanterns and lights—almost like our Christmas time. The stores open at night, especially the ones that sell sweets and cakes. It's a full month of celebration.
My friends would invite me over to have iftar (the breaking of the fast meal) with them. If I told you the amount of food that was put on the table, you wouldn't believe it. Generosity and hospitality were things that most impacted me in Arab societies. They would give you all the food they had at home. It's an incredible culture.
The iftars with my Muslim friends were always opportunities for great spiritual conversations. They are open and searching for meaningful stories, for discovering the meaning of life, love, and spiritual connections. Jesus was also constantly around the table with friends and people who were searching for Him, because the table is a place of openness and warmth.
Around the table comes meaningful conversations, telling of stories, sharing of life experiences, sometimes with tears of sadness, but many times with laughter until the belly hurts. Around the table they could see Jesus in me, because He was definitely there.
You can be part of this mission, being a collaborator
Jesus is near to the brokenhearted, to the people who are searching for Him. And this is what the Muslims are doing during that whole month: looking for God. They are looking for answers, searching for hope in a troubled world. They fast and pray to get God's approval, to get closer to Him. But what they really don't know is that Jesus is at the door of their hearts, knocking.
My prayer for my Muslim friends is that Jesus will reveal Himself to them in a supernatural way, that the Lord will give them dreams and visions with Him, and help them to see the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
Would you join me in prayer for them? The Muslim population makes up to about 22% of the world's population. A survey carried out by Joshua Project shows that about 3,1 billion people have never heard of Jesus Christ. That means that about one of every four people alive in the world today have never heard of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, not even once.
This is where we, as the World Nations team, are putting our efforts: to reach those who have never heard about Jesus before. Those people are called Unreached People Groups and with our projects and programs we are reaching nine different groups. Those groups are living in Muslim majority countries, like the area in which I used to live.
As you read this, and through your prayers and financial support, you are also helping bring the good news of Jesus Christ to those who have never heard it before. Let's continue to pray for our friends. As Luke beautifully puts it in chapter 16:9: "Here’s the lesson: Use your worldly resources to benefit others and make friends. Then, when your possessions are gone, they will welcome you to an eternal home."(NLT)
written by:
Marina Sordi Bryant
Communications Team
How ro make friends
Golden Nuggets
World Nations International is a registered Christian 501 (c) 3 non-profit organization, founded in November 2016. Our mission is to fight hunger and poverty through sustainable agriculture, healthcare access and community development projects in vulnerable communities worldwide.
Mission Lifestyle
Project Report
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Mission Lifestyle
The Inescapable Culture Shock I Thought I Had Overcome
You can be part of this mission, being a collaborator
Coming from another cross-cultural field, it is thought that adaptation will be quick. After all, Uganda - East Africa, where we have lived for over a year, and Mozambique - Southeast Africa, where we are now, are not that far away. Poor mistake. Who knew that although on the same continent two countries could carry such different cultures and customs.
I imagined an easy and smooth transition, however I came across the famous “culture shock”. I realized that having passed through it once in another country, I was not immune to facing it again. But I was definitely more resistant.
I learned that our adaptation depends a lot on how we see the world, how we face situations and how firm we are in our purpose. However, the presence of several external factors should not be ignored, such as the reception of the local people, the climate, the language. In our case, adaptation had another “small” problem: a global pandemic.
We arrived in Mozambique in February of this year and because we traveled in the middle of the COVID pandemic we had to go through a period of total isolation. There were 15 days without contact with locals, living in a church house on a temporary basis and basically talking to just one person who brought meals and groceries to us during this period. It was a very difficult two weeks full of afflictions. There was the fear of having contracted the virus on the trip and not knowing the village or the nearest city if we needed medical support, there was no good internet, we were without power in the house for several hours in a row, even days without power.
But do you know what that taught us? Patience! Perhaps for us it was a little more intense because we were so far away living in a village, but I believe that many people have experienced this during this pandemic. Patience is certainly a virtue that we should all improve. We must surrender our anguish to God and have faith that all that we are experiencing in the world will pass.
This situation that we are all going through reminds me of a story that you may know: Some men embarked on a trip when they were surprised by a violent storm, with huge waves that flooded the boat. Meanwhile, in the middle of that chaotic situation, one of them slept soundly until he was woken up by his friends screaming because they feared death. His speech was as follows: "Why are you so afraid, men of little faith?" Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the sea until everything was back to normal. After all, who is this that even the winds and the sea obey? He is the same that has total control of the world. He who searches our heart, repairs our fragility and allows us to overcome any and all adverse circumstances.
For us, those two weeks are over and now two months later, we are getting involved with the locals, learning the language and soon our project will be in full operation blessing this needy community here in Mozambique. The storm has passed. With God's help we have faced all obstacles to stick to His purpose for our lives. We know that difficult situations will come, so stay with us in prayer. Pray for our total adaptation, for new relationships with the local community and for the start of the project with the sustainable farm that can bless many poor farmers.
Faithfully,
written by:
Juliana Kath
Mission Lifestyle
WNI News
Hope and “Happy Day” LifeCenter
You can be part of this mission, being a collaborator
Hope is like a cog that drives us to move forward, even though things are not so good. It is the ‘hope’ that ‘achieves’ its best achievement. Hope is part of the material from which we were created. For in the midst of pain and suffering, we know intuitively, that we were not created for this - and precisely this demonstrates our most primitive yearning for the Lost Eden. In Eden is our collective unconscious that makes us believe that pain, suffering and death is not the place for which we were created. We hope to bring that hope to life through the “LifeCenter”.
LifeCenter isn't there, and yet it already is. Its physical structure, equipment and schedules are not yet in place, but the hope that moves us is already a present and palpable reality.
The structures must be the result of our commitment, performance and delivery. Only then do they live up to the tears and sweat that built them. Here we continue to plan and act. Every month we have a "Happy Day", a day that is awaited with fervent expectations by the children, who always send messages asking when we will come. We have directly and indirectly reached 30 to 40 children, offering leisure, educational tasks, games and snacks. Always trying to gain the trust of the community, to know their needs and to try to bring plausible solutions. Our desire is to awaken hope, while we sow a hope that will echo through Eternity.
Meanwhile, we continue with the bureaucratic challenges of opening the foundation, fundraising, strategic planning and necessary training. Our conviction remains even stronger, knowing that we are on the right path.
Faithfully,
WNI News
Golden Nuggets
The theme of this year for World Nations International is "Friends for Eternity", based on Luke 16:9. Here Jesus teaches that we should be generous with our wealth in this life to bless others and make friends which will result in friendships that endure into eternity.
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World Nations International in Mozambique
World Nations International, by the grace of God, is expanding the kingdom now in Mozambique, Africa.
After much prayer and divine providences, earlier this year we sent a couple of workers to that area. There, they will manage a 100 acre farm while being the hands and feet of Jesus in that place.
Our focus is to reach the community around the farm, through training farmers in sustainable agriculture and soil maintenance. For that, the farm, which has 100 acres of productive land, could be an example of agriculture, and a training place for other local farmers.
Our missionaries are agronomists, trained farmers, who love to teach and train other people to care for the land. They teach a method called “Farming God's Way”, which teaches sustainable agriculture in a biblical and kingdom-oriented way. Through this method, they will also be able to talk about the Gospel, so that the real transformation can happen: that is when people will understand who Jesus Christ is.
We want you to be part of what God is doing in Mozambique. There are ways to participate in this project: Praying for our missionaries in the field, taking the time to serve with your own gifts and talents (when the borders reopen, we will have vacancies! Stay tuned.) You can also help financially by donating to this project. That way, you will be making a big difference in the lives of many people.
And please keep us in your prayers! We need lots of prayer and intercession for workers, for people who will hear the Gospel and for the projects we are running.
If you want to know more, contact us at contact@worldnationsusa.org!
We would love to have you as our partner!
Faithfully,
Project Report
Golden Nuggets
Golden Nuggets
Don't Wait For Permission to Be Great
You can be part of this mission, being a collaborator
"Don't ask permission to be great". I like this phrase and it reminds me of a story of a friend. Michael and I used to train Brazilian Jiu Jitsu together. He was in his early 20's and used to work night shifts at Walmart.
One of those days, after our training session, he started opening up a little and talking about his life. I was asking some questions about him, because I'm passionate about getting to know people. Every single person in this world is a treasure and has a whole new world inside of them because of their different backgrounds and life experiences, so I like to spark conversations to get to know them.
As the conversation progressed, Michael told me about his job and his desire of going back to school to finish his degree. I felt he was hesitant and having concerns about it in his mind. So we kept on talking.
I get very excited for people and one of my passions is to inspire them into action. One of the things that makes me come alive is to see young men become mature, resolute, strong men who will take responsibility to change the course of their lives and to pursue their dreams.
In my own life, when I first met Jesus, He transformed me, He saved me and started this long ongoing story of redemption. My whole way of thinking had to be redeemed: the way I used to deal with frustrations, the way I dealt with commitments and relationships, my use and view of money, even my self talk, everything needed Jesus' transforming grace. And that’s what Jesus does - He brings change and restoration to every area of our lives.
So, when I'm talking to people I believe that my part is to plant a seed of the Gospel into their hearts and give them hope for the future - showing that they can dream big, go beyond and achieve more than what they think they are capable of.
I understand that sometimes circumstances of our lives will become barriers and they will limit our action or even the possibility of advancement. However, I know that through prayer, worship and fasting as well as mentorship by older, godly men and having a heart that is willing to hear and obey God, we can overcome many struggles in life. Redemption will come, like rain in the harvest, so that we see God's infinite love and power and the possibilities begin opening for us. Once we accept God’s transformation and face our lives with His permission to be great for His glory, we are freed to be all that He called us to be.
That night I looked into Michael's eyes and said, “You don't need permission to be great. If you are waiting for someone to tap on your shoulder and tell you what to do, or tell you to wait for a better time, or a better job, you might be waiting for a while, and even lose the window of opportunity. Here I am now and I can tell you. Go, become everything that you were created to be. Be strong and courageous. Go and be great"
So now I tell you the same, my friend, go and be great.
written by:
Matt Mattos
Executive Director
Wise Money
Two Money Tips You May Not Know
You can be part of this mission, being a collaborator
In this article we are going to talk about two basic guidelines in our financial planning. The first guideline is about an Emergency Reserve, I believe that many of you have heard about this term or about the famous Savings. Since I learned to manage my finances better, I made it a habit to always have a savings account for certain situations.
The emergency reserve is a certain amount separated monthly until it reaches the amount of 6 to 12 times the amount you receive monthly. The ideal is that this amount should be separated in an investment fund, yielding significant interest, however, with easy withdrawal and without loss to the acquired income. It is an emergency reserve that needs to be at your disposal at the exact moment of need.
A segunda orientação é bem simples no conceito, mas, talvez para muitos, seja difícil de executar. A orientação é viver um pouco abaixo do seu padrão financeiro, ou seja, que o seu padrão de vida não comprometa 100% do seu salário.
Why an amount of 6 to 12 times of the amount received monthly? If unemployment or illness knocks the door, or a reduction in wages occurs, or some other need that affects your budget, you will have a reserve to cover your expenses and help you to recover within 6 to 12 months.
This reserve is not to be used in any situation, such as a trip, for example. But, in situations that really affect your monthly budget a lot. And whenever it is used, it needs to be replaced again.
Tip: Before starting any type of investment, first build your emergency reserve and once this reserve is built, use your interest on other types of financial investments. That is how to make the money work for you.
In the book of Proverbs, chapter 31, we have the account of the exemplary woman who knew very well how to manage her financial resources. Below are some of her qualities: She evaluates a field and buys it; with what she earns she plants a vineyard - verse 15. She knows how to do business: she evaluates, buys and has already planned what she will do with the purchase. She manages her profitable business well - verse 18. She is a good manager, she does not lose money.
Faithfully,
written by:
Ana Lis
Field worker
Wise Money
(706)-614-1230
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