The Living Water Across Southeast Asia

photo credit: Unto

Thank you to Unto for sharing these encouraging stories! Join us in celebrating how God is working in and through his church.

GACX members, Unto, The Timothy Initiative (TTI), Global Church Movements (GCM), and The Jesus Film Project (JPF) are collaborating in their church planting efforts. Each organization brings different skills and approaches to assist each other. By building wells and water tanks, Unto helps pastors and church planters build trust in the world's hardest-to-reach locations. 

"Unto expresses the love of Jesus Christ in the toughest places on earth by relieving suffering, restoring dignity, and revealing hope through humanitarian aid. We address issues related to food and agriculture, clean water, and critical aid. Our partners at Cru work in more than 190 countries in the world."

Together, they can care for people's physical and spiritual needs. This helps local churches build relationships and have a positive influence in these communities. Collaboration is empowering God's church to relieve suffering and multiply the church.

66 Water Tanks Given Out

Approximately 600 heard the Gospel through the water tanks, with 28 families accepting Christ. Plus, one church has been planted, and two others are at the beginning stages of being planted.

The project provides access to very hard-to-reach minority groups, both spiritually and logistically. These villages are very remote and are spread apart. The new water tanks provide access to these people. It has created credibility with the people because they have seen how the church and local pastors love and care for them, and oftentimes, they accept Christ soon after.

One girl, a 19-year-old mother of a 2-year-old boy, got married at 17 years old according to their custom. Shortly after receiving the water tank, she accepted Christ into her life and quickly joined the church. Her husband works at a factory far away, and she only sees him during an important holiday once a year. Her husband accepted Christ and has changed. Before, he would drink to get drunk. Many husbands will do this and become verbally abusive to their wives and even beat them. He has changed since receiving Christ. Also, once they began going to the local church, they provided clothes for the naked kids, which is according to the church tradition in this area.

In another village, the new water well helped to plant a new church in this area. The well gave the local pastor access to the village and people and helped him to build credibility. They saw many accept Christ and started the new church as a result. Praise the Lord that God provided the water well in this village so that many families came to get the water and have a chance to know more about Jesus Christ. The church helped people get free water, and they do not need to pay anything. Now, the church members can show their love to people in the village and have a chance to share the gospel. Praise the Lord that the new church has been opened!

Families Changed

“Thankful to God that the gospel was preached to this village and a new church has opened.” 

One day, a man heard the gospel and came to faith in Christ. He opened his heart to receive and accepted Christ into his life as Savior and Lord. That is a turning point in his life. He was so happy in life. He shared his faith with his wife, but his wife became angry and rejected it. She said: 

“Our family for many generations has worshiped the ancestors. But today, you believed in Jesus Christ, and you forgot our ancestors, that is so bad.”

From that day, she felt uncomfortable with her husband, and many conflicts happened in her family. The husband feels sad for his wife and decides to leave his house. Before he left, he wrote a note for his wife: 

“If you want me to come back home, you must believe in Jesus Christ and have the same faith with me.” 

After that, he left his house. 

His wife sought him from house to house, but she could not find him. She asked many people, but no one knew where he was going. She felt lonely and so sad because she could not find her husband. 

The husband went out to the mountain to fast and pray for his family, and He asked God to save his family. After 7 days, God answered his prayer. He decided to come back home. 

When the wife saw the husband come back home, she was very happy. She ran out and held him in her hands. She asked him so many questions, but the most important question was: 

“Who is your God that you cannot leave Him, but you are willing to leave me?” 

The husband started to share the Gospel with his wife, who was now willing to believe and accept Jesus Christ into her life. Since that day, his family has been joyful and has become a happy family. He also started to share the gospel with his brother’s family and led them to Christ. God is at work, God is working in this village, and bringing many more families to worship Him. The new church has been opened in his house, and many people attend the worship service every Sunday.

To learn more about these ministries or how you can collaborate with them, you can visit their websites through the links below.. 

https://unto.com/ | https://ttiglobal.org/ | https://www.jesusfilm.org/ | https://globalchurchmovements.org/