Gord Martin

Greetings to our brothers and sisters at Wallenstein,

It's been a quiet family day for Heather and I. Well, not completely quiet. Heather's been on the phone with quite a number of people, I've been in touch with a variety of people by email, text and telephone. It's kind of a normal day.

Yesterday I spoke to the Spirit of Truth church by zoom. It was their 16th anniversary as a church. I was interested to show pictures to them of all of the locations where they have met since they began… including on zoom. This lockdown is pretty hard on them. They are a very relational people, not being able to meet, kiss or hug is a big problem! I said to them that perhaps the first day when we get to meet again we can spend the first two hours just hugging!

I would really appreciate your prayer for my friend Indy who is still in Burma after one year. Five or six of us have been meeting with him for prayer on zoom every Friday morning since then. We are especially concerned now because of the military crackdown taking place there. Because of his somewhat controversial past in his own country, it's even more dangerous for him.

On Wednesday morning of this week I will have zoom call at five in the morning with seven or eight leaders from around the world. It will be 9 p.m. for the Aussie! Each of them are responsible for a network of churches in their country. We will be hearing from each one of them, what have been your most strategic joys in the past year? And what are your most strategic challenges for the coming year? Each person will be speaking to those two questions.

You may have heard this but Heather's mother passed away last week. We had a funeral with 10 people in blowing snow on Saturday morning. I've never experienced anything quite like it! She was very ready to go home, almost 98 years old. Heather had been meeting with her every day for the past two weeks. Pretty exhausting for everybody.

Thank you for the gift forwarded to the office for our encouragement. May the Lord bless you,

Gord Martin

Vision Ministries Canada

145 Lincoln Road, Waterloo, ON

519-501-5933 cell

www.vision-ministries.org

Excellent Sermon God, I'm Hurting | The Place and Power of Lament

by Ken Taylor https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOqJECqSuGw

Raul & Jessenia Espinoza - Hope of Bastion School

Check out this video from Raul & Jessenia at the Hope of Bastion School in Ecuador! Click HERE to watch on YouTube.

Charlotte Martin: "December Blessings"

I breathed a sign of relief as I left the post office late on a Friday afternoon two weeks before Christmas. Our 50 global missions boxes were finally in the mail and on their way. As I nervously checked the tracking the next Monday morning I was shocked to see that some of the boxes were due to arrive that day. Messages began to come in from students who received a box and were grateful. Here are some of the things students expressed to us:

"I just went to the mailbox to get my box . Everything was intact. . . . I sooo appreciate it. I’m especially looking forward to reading the book on unreached people groups, and to pray through it."

"The box looks amazing, plus the things in them I just love. . . . And I will for sure be praying for the nations, what a lovely reminder!”

"I'm definitely going to take my time digging into all this over the Christmas break. This truly is timely and a blessing. I have so many things to occupy myself during these isolating times. I'm grateful for p2c. Thank you."

"I LOVE my global missions box. Everything in it was so meaningful and honestly such a gift to receive.
The socks, are my absolute favourite. If I were a sock, I would be these exact socks, no joke. I LOVE them."

As we start a new year, my team will continue to help students care about what God is doing around the world even in a season when we can't physically go to the nations. Personally, I desire to grow in prayer and missional leadership this year.

Wallenstein, thanks for standing with my team as we inspire students to learn about global missions and engage them in praying for the nations. I'm blessed to serve alongside you. Happy New Year! Praying that God would grant you strength and patience for the year ahead.

Russ & Meredith Martin - Different seat on the bus!

Hello WBC Friends,

As 2021 begins, we are tackling some new challenges and opportunities in leading the next generation of digital missions. On January 1, Russ began a new role as Director of Digital Engagement for the Lausanne Movement as well as stepping into the Managing Director role for Indigitous which he helped to found in 2013.

We remain full-time missionaries, based in Singapore, raising support with Power to Change / Cru as both Lausanne and Indigitous have no formal employees, but function as networks of like-minded believers and organizations joining together to make Jesus known amongst the nations.

Since its founding in 1974 by Billy Graham, the Lausanne Movement has been connecting influencers and ideas for global mission, with a vision of the gospel for every person, an evangelical church for every people, Christ-like leaders for every church, and kingdom impact in every sphere of society. The Lausanne Movement is one of the most trusted/influential global, inter-denominational convenors of the body of Christ.

As the Lausanne Movement prepares for the 4th global congress on world evangelization in Korea in 2024, Russ has been asked to build a digital transformation roadmap to help the movement embrace digital strategies in accomplishing its mission and calling the body of Christ to the task.

Learn more:
- Lausanne in 100 seconds
- Roadmap for Lausanne's future by Dr. Michael Oh, CEO (33 min)
- Why Lausanne? Billy Graham's keynote in 1974 (64 min)

Motivated by the reality that most humans spend an average of eight hours a day online and that there are still five billion people that don't know and follow Jesus we press on with our mission. Our daily focus will shift slightly, but the intentions and outcomes are the same, namely, how can we effectively use the "Roman roads" of our day - digital technology - to bring the life-changing message of the gospel where it has not yet taken root.

We will continue to be based in Singapore to maintain proximity to the 12 countries where the majority of unreached people live and to serve church leaders and missionaries in these places. These countries are Indonesia, China, India, Vietnam, Japan, Bangladesh, Thailand, Pakistan, Turkey, Iran, Egypt, Russia.

We are so thankful for your friendship and partnership in leading the next generation of digital missions. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to reach out. Even if you don't have questions, we'd love to hear from you too!

Dr. Michael Oh, Global Executive Director, A roadmap for Lausanne's future.
(Only 16 minutes at 2x speed!)

Russ & Meredith Martin

[Video] 10 Moments of 2020

Dear WBC Friends,
We made a short video to talk through our top 10 moments from 2020 in our family, life and ministry. Despite all the challenges we can see God at work. (It's only 5 minutes if you watch it at 2x speed.)
If you'd rather just look at the photos click here.
We are so thankful for your friendship and partnership in leading the next generation of digital missions.

Bonus: Three images from our Christmas break:
(1) Heading to the Bugis Market for fruit juice
(2) We boiled an egg at the local hotsprings
(3) Riding the cable car