Spring 2020
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There was a great deal of anticipation as we entered 2020. Many evangelistic ministries in the UK sensed that 2020 was to be a significant year in evangelism. Something needed to change in our society. Something needed to shift, a shaking that would draw the attention of people, stop them in their tracks. Surely, a concerted preaching of God’s word the breadth and depth of the UK would see something happen? We were in eager expectation, especially here at K180 as we have been closely involved with the ‘Graham Tour’, an initiative of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.
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And then COVID-19. Did we get it wrong? Did we mishear God? My conviction is far from it! Indeed, as you will have seen, the COVID-19 pandemic has shaken our world like nothing else in our generation. And we believe the Lord is preparing the ground for harvest. Indeed, something had to change, to shift, to be shaken. Now is not the time to withdraw. When the fire rages, Christians run toward it, holding out the word of life, giving a cup of cold water, partnering with our majestic Jesus in rescuing as many souls as we can. And we are most definitely seeing a softening of hearts. In the last few days, I have heard first-hand accounts of 4 people, formerly indifferent at best, seeking out Jesus. Now is the time. If not us, who? If not now, when?
“Of Issachar, men who had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do…"
This is our prayer. To understand the times and to respond accordingly. We need His wisdom, to hear His voice, and to press forward in obedience. Within the pages of this newsletter you will read of adventures pre-COVID-19 where the Gospel has been clearly proclaimed, where men and women have been equipped for Gospel ministry. Now the shape of ministry has changed, at least temporarily, with new windows of opportunity. Our core team, and indeed our teams across Europe, are pressing forward with renewed passion and purpose. This is their moment. Be encouraged as you press forward. Jesus is on the throne!
Many blessings,
Many blessings,
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Europe Ablaze with the Gospel...
...has been the God-given vision of K180 since He called the ministry into being.
God continues to bless us with opportunities to serve His work across Europe. The pins on the map are where the team have travelled during the last 7 months of ministry, and the work continues in many more. You can read more about how God has been changing lives in the pages that follow.
All this is made possible by the partnership in the gospel of individuals and churches. We are enormously grateful for this and hope that as you read about what God is doing through the work of K180, you will be encouraged to continue to pray, give and go!
God continues to bless us with opportunities to serve His work across Europe. The pins on the map are where the team have travelled during the last 7 months of ministry, and the work continues in many more. You can read more about how God has been changing lives in the pages that follow.
All this is made possible by the partnership in the gospel of individuals and churches. We are enormously grateful for this and hope that as you read about what God is doing through the work of K180, you will be encouraged to continue to pray, give and go!
London Impact
Unashamed
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Along with our work across Europe, K180 have a particular burden to equip the church around us locally, in West London. We continue to run ‘Unashamed’ training events a couple of times a year. This January, we kicked off the new year (and decade!) by looking at the key area of Digital Evangelism – how we can effectively reach out to people online. Gareth led the training, which was based on our History Makers session of the same name. We hope that the morning encouraged those who attended to make the most of online opportunities to share Christ.
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For a short Digital Evangelism training video from Gareth, see our resources webpage |
Friday night outreach
We continue to lead regular street outreaches in Ealing Broadway, West London. Our team is made up of Christians from many different local evangelical churches in the area. As I write this, the global coronavirus situation has forced us to think differently and creatively about how to best do this. Please pray for us as we seek to engage those walking past at the end of a long working week with the best news this world will ever hear. We are delighted that Scott joined the K180 team this Easter bringing with him plenty of experience in co-leading a street evangelism team.
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Heading into 2020, the team have been praying about starting a new street evangelism initiative, potentially in a different area at a different time of the week. Please pray with us as we consider this – particularly for God to send a nucleus of workers to form a core team for this. |
Indian Rocks Christian School team visit
In March, K180 hosted a team of high school students from Indian Rocks Christian School, Florida for the third time in four years. They came to London for a week to be equipped in evangelism and to reach out to the people of our capital city with the Gospel. In the mornings, we went through some of our core training sessions encompassing different aspects of evangelism, with plenty of practical things for them to put into practice. This is what we did with them most afternoons or evenings – with street outreaches across London, giving them opportunities to share music, testimony, illustrated messages, and to engage passers-by in Gospel conversations. The team also did some sightseeing while they were with us, spent some time at Speakers' Corner, and participated in a ‘Bible in the British Museum’ tour. We saw an eager willingness from all team members to reach out to the lost with the great Hope of the Gospel.
Our prayer is that God will continue to use this group of students as His witnesses back home in Florida and to the ends of the earth in the coming weeks and months. The team made it back to Florida just before the US announced further restrictions on UK-US travel. We thank God for His perfect timing for the team’s visit!
Training Young Leaders for Gospel Ministry
The exhortation from an Armenian pastor at the end of a recent History Makers training summed it up… “Don’t miss anything. Squeeze it [History Makers] like a lemon. Every last drop!” The History Makers training is making a difference across Europe. Participants are trained and sent out, further equipped for strong, biblical Gospel-centred ministry. Teams are being formed in many countries, the movement is growing, and our prayer is that all this will work toward the fulfilling of the vision; ‘Europe Ablaze with the Gospel’.
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Bulgaria
"There was one young man, A*, who stood out to me. I called him a young Hudson Taylor because he looked like a photo of him. During the vision workshop he stood up and said that he wanted to be like the apostle Paul and preach the gospel everywhere he could and suffer for it like Paul did. He was so sincere, innocently naïve – no one has told him yet that it doesn’t work like that, just like the boy with 5 loaves and fish. No-one had told him that his lunch wasn’t enough. I hope no one ever tells A* either because I believe he’ll go on to be a real History Maker for Jesus.” Turkey
Georgia
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Russia
Montenegro
Luxembourg
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UK
2019 saw the History Makers UK team try a new approach in equipping young leaders in the eight core values for leadership – to split the usual training week into two weekends. The first of these was in October, and the second in March (held entirely online due to COVID-19). Between the two weekends, we had a ‘guided growth period’, encouraging participants to engage with a book, a film, and online talks, as well as to meet with existing mentors, and engage with their prayer triplet groups from weekend one. We will make some tweaks going forward, but the team feel that the new approach brings a fresh opportunity for participants to grow in vision and leadership over a longer period, including reflecting on things whilst ‘living out’ the core values in their current context for ministry.
"It has given me confidence and a boost to keep focus[ed] on what God wants me to do." |
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Dates are already set for History Makers UK 2020-21! Is there someone you could encourage to prayerfully consider applying for HM?
6-8 November 2020 and 15-17 January 2021. See our HM UK webpage for more info
6-8 November 2020 and 15-17 January 2021. See our HM UK webpage for more info
UK - British Sign Language (BSL)
In November, K180 led the first ever History Makers training in British Sign Language – a regional event taking place in West Sussex in the south of England. We were a small group of 11, including teachers, which worked well, as the venue could only sleep 14. The weekend was a packed whistle-stop tour of the eight core values that proved insightful and helpful for all who attended. We hope to plan another BSL HM event in the near future. There is a great need for the Gospel in the UK Deaf Community.
K-Accelerate
It really has been a thrilling 18 months embarking on the brand new initiative known as K-Accelerate. With 12 young leaders/evangelists from 9 different European countries invited to participate, it has been quite a journey. The goal, by God’s grace and His leading, is that this initiative would truly accelerate Gospel impact across Europe. With a laser focus on equipping for dynamic Gospel ministry, each participant was assigned a mentor and was also charged with intentionally investing in 3 ’Timothys’ for the duration of the training. Multiplication is key. This project was not just for 18 months. Perhaps the bigger question is “What happens next?” We look to the Lord…
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“One of the first things I heard at Behold Europe [first practical assignment] was to be an evangelist is not a choice. It is a calling. God spoke that phrase into my heart. K-Accelerate may have come to an end, but it’s just the beginning. It has launched things in my life, like a plane waiting to ascend. It’s like K-Accelerate has set on the engines … and the momentum of K-Accelerate is beyond my comprehension” |
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Each participant… 1. Attended, taught/preached, and received leadership mentoring at three selected overseas projects during an 18-month period, with a written reflection due after each project. 2. Committed to specific guided growth during the 18 months, which included book study, regular online mentoring sessions, and one site visit by a K180 team mentor. 3. Was expected to mentor three evangelists/leaders in parallel to the mentoring they received. 4. Attended a central gathering held in February 2020 designed to reflect together, receive teaching, and prepare for the ‘what next’. 5. Had opportunity to present a new evangelistic project toward the conclusion of the formal training, with ‘seed’ money being granted to help launch viable projects. 6. Was expected, as a final project, to organise a one-day training event for leaders/evangelists in their respective countries. |
“It’s been a wonderful 18 months and our relationship [with his mentee Dave] will continue for many years to come. I would love to see K-Accelerate continue because it has been so beneficial to Dave and myself and, indeed, to our families and churches as well” |
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Behold Europe
In November, we saw the launch of Behold Europe, a gathering of young evangelists across Europe. Though the heartbeat of the conference was gathering alumni and participants from the various EEI (training evangelists) groups across Europe, we welcomed many other young evangelists from different parts of Europe with the intention of being spurred on in what the Lord has called us to - reaching the lost people in our communities. We welcomed evangelists from 12 different countries for the weekend held just south of Barcelona.
We were delighted to have guest speakers with us from Germany, India, Spain and the UK. Alongside some excellent teaching, there were interview sessions with the key speakers which provided an opportunity for participants to ask questions and glean from the wealth of experience each one brought. Leaders from the EEI countries also provided an update on the ‘state of the nation’ with the participants praying for each country in small groups. Thank you for praying for this event. We believe this was a strategic move for Europe which will result in Gospel transformation in the coming weeks and months!
“Being an evangelist is not a choice. |
“[The teaching sessions] gave me an increased hunger to preach the word of God, and made me see the great need across the world…” |
Behold Europe seems to be sparking a new co-operation across countries.
Please pray for the various country leadership teams as we explore greater partnership for His glory.
Please pray for the various country leadership teams as we explore greater partnership for His glory.
EEI - Raising Up Evangelists Across Europe
One of the really exciting elements of the ministry God has called us to as K180 is the training and equipping of evangelists. The EEI training model, which began in the UK, has now multiplied with trained evangelists who have completed the four-module programme in six European countries. You will have already read about how we gathered them in Spain at ‘Behold Europe’. Alongside a central gathering, the training continues to take place in each of the countries. Here is an update from Russia, Germany, and the UK.
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Philippus Netzwerk, Germany
The leadership team of Philippus Netzwerk (PN) have an exciting vision to raise up evangelistically-minded young evangelists and leaders to have an impact for the Gospel in Germany. In October, the group of over 30 gathered in Saxony to explore the module 'The Evangelist and the Church', which saw the first few graduates of PN Germany. Gareth went out to teach on behalf of K180 and EEI UK, and was joined by K-Accelerate participants Bogdan (Romania) and Jana (Czech Republic).
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Academy of Evangelism, Russia
The fourth module, 'The Evangelist and the Church', also took place for the first time in St Petersburg, where some graduated the Academy of Evangelism (AoE) programme. The AoE leadership team have a passion to equip evangelists across all of the former Soviet Republics. The next module is planned to be held in Minsk with participants invited from Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus. This will hopefully expand to include representatives from the Central Asian former Soviet Republics.
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EEI, UK
We gathered in early October for our module on ‘The Evangelist and Context’. Andrea Williams, from Christian Concern, taught on the state of the nation in the UK and highlighted key areas where evangelists need to be engaging with people and culture. We were also joined by Hélder Favarin, a church planter and missionary based in Granada, Spain. Hélder himself is a graduate of the EEI programme and so brought a unique perspective to the group. Sadly, we have had to postpone the spring module (April 2020) due to restrictions in place to stop the spread of the coronavirus. Please pray for the participants as we minister the Gospel in the light of this, and for God to raise up more evangelists to train with EEI who will be heralds of the Gospel in our nation in the coming days.
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Euro Street Teams - Hungary
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In September, a K180 team partnered with Biblia Szól (‘The Bible Speaks’) church in Szeged, and their church plant in Békéscsaba. The Szeged church already had a team out on the street weekly, engaging people in Gospel conversations. What an encouraging weekend of training and outreach! The local believers were keen to receive training, and several members shared testimonies and illustrated messages on the street for the first time. There was a great openness to the Gospel, many heard about Jesus, and there were a good number of gospel conversations with people from various backgrounds. Please join us in praying for God’s church in Szeged and Békéscsaba. May God draw many people to Himself as the Gospel is shared.
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"Well done good and faithful servant"
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At the end of March we were saddened to hear that our brother in Christ and much-loved fellow evangelist, Gareth Owen, had departed this earth. Whilst serving with ‘Open Air Campaigners’ (OAC), Gareth joined us regularly on Friday nights, travelling from East London every week in order to share the Gospel on the streets of Ealing. He also travelled with us across Europe and joined our team in Zambia on several occasions. Gareth was one of the most effective ‘one-to-one’ evangelists we have known, easily engaging in conversations from ‘cold’ and confidently sharing the Gospel with a most winsome spirit. Gareth has been promoted to glory. Our loss is heaven’s gain. Thank You Jesus for Gareth’s life, for his passion for the lost and the example of his undying love for His Saviour. Thank You that Gareth is now in eternal rest. Until that day…
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One of our favourite photos of Gareth preaching - note the bird attentively 'listening' on the top left hand of the sketch board!
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Where are they now?
Marie Ehlers (née Adamkova) was with K180 as a trainee about 10 years ago. It has been quite a journey since and now Marie with her husband Josh, and children, are about to move to the Czech Republic to serve the Lord there. Here is some of her story…
Growing up in the Czech Republic, I became a Christian when I was 16 years old. After high school, the Lord led me to London to intern with K180. To say that K180 has forever shaped me is an understatement. First and foremost K180 taught me to have a deeper intimacy with the Lord and to always be on mission. I was given practical tools that helped me to evangelize the lost. It also grew my love for the local church as I was taught its centrality in everything we do. I will always be grateful for the two years spent serving with K180.
Through K180’s connection to a church in Auburn, Alabama, I graciously obtained support that enabled me to attend Union University in Tennessee where I was able to get my bachelor degree in music. It was during those years that I met my husband Josh who was attending seminary at that time. God was weaving our stories together and gave both of us a desire to serve him and make him known to the nations. During the first few years of our marriage it became clear that God was calling us to Europe, specifically to the Czech Republic where I grew up. Like most of Europe, the Czech Republic has become highly secular and postmodern. 72% of the population claims to be non-religious and only 0.7% is evangelical Christians (www.joshuaproject.net). This dire statistic is our driving force to go and make God known.
Through K180’s connection to a church in Auburn, Alabama, I graciously obtained support that enabled me to attend Union University in Tennessee where I was able to get my bachelor degree in music. It was during those years that I met my husband Josh who was attending seminary at that time. God was weaving our stories together and gave both of us a desire to serve him and make him known to the nations. During the first few years of our marriage it became clear that God was calling us to Europe, specifically to the Czech Republic where I grew up. Like most of Europe, the Czech Republic has become highly secular and postmodern. 72% of the population claims to be non-religious and only 0.7% is evangelical Christians (www.joshuaproject.net). This dire statistic is our driving force to go and make God known.
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Our passion is to use our gifts and come alongside Czech believers in order to help plant new churches. We will evangelize the lost, disciple the found, and train up leaders to plant new churches. Please pray for us as we work alongside a local Czech church that desires to plant a new church in the Moravian region in the next few years.
To God be the glory, Marie, Josh, Jonah, Roman and Emma |
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Why not check out Josh and Marie’s website - www.theehlers.net
Looking Ahead...
As we entered 2020 we were delighted to agree two new appointments to the K180 team. Veeraka de Mel has joined the team as our Finance Operator, whilst Scott Gentry has joined as an evangelist. We are full of expectation has to how God will work in and through Veeraka and Scott, and indeed, what difference this will make to the ongoing ministry of K180. We will hear more from them in due course. Welcome Veeraka and Scott!
As we navigate the unchartered waters of 2020, we do so with Captain Jesus at the helm. We have no need to fear or to be alarmed, just to keep our eyes on the Author of life. He is working His purposes out. Whilst postponing some training and evangelistic events to later dates, others we are adapting to work with the context. This includes brand new initiatives as well as increasing online content. We are working closely with our teams across Europe and seeking to equip the church. See our website for the latest COVID-19 resources.
As we navigate the unchartered waters of 2020, we do so with Captain Jesus at the helm. We have no need to fear or to be alarmed, just to keep our eyes on the Author of life. He is working His purposes out. Whilst postponing some training and evangelistic events to later dates, others we are adapting to work with the context. This includes brand new initiatives as well as increasing online content. We are working closely with our teams across Europe and seeking to equip the church. See our website for the latest COVID-19 resources.
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May we encourage you to check out our newly refurbished website www.junction316.co.uk This site is evangelistic in purpose and has a YouTube channel to accompany it. Maybe there is a video you can pass on to an unsaved friend? And why not subscribe to the channel to receive notifications of the latest video resources?
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How to Partner
Thank you for standing with us as we press ahead with His call. Thank you for praying, going, and supporting us financially. We are thankful to God for such partnership. We cannot go alone. There are many opportunities ahead and, as you will know, huge Gospel need across the UK and Europe.
If you would like to know more about how you can support us financially, please see www.k180.org/donate or click the button below.
And if you would like to pray regularly for K180, please email prayer@k180.org and we will send you a monthly prayer guide.
Navigating these new waters of opportunity with you,
If you would like to know more about how you can support us financially, please see www.k180.org/donate or click the button below.
And if you would like to pray regularly for K180, please email prayer@k180.org and we will send you a monthly prayer guide.
Navigating these new waters of opportunity with you,
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and the K180 team
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If you would like to partner K180 financially, please click here, or the button below, which will take you to the donate page of our website. Every gift makes a difference and enables us to take the many gospel opportunities before us. Thank you for your interest and support.
Kerygma180 – A Registered Charity: 1123294
A Company Limited by Guarantee Registered in England and Wales No 6481900
A Company Limited by Guarantee Registered in England and Wales No 6481900
Please note that we have regular email updates from K180 available. These include video testimonies, latest updates, news of evangelistic resources etc. Please click to ‘subscribe’ if you would like to receive these.