I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always offering prayer with joy in my every prayer for you all, in view of your participation in the gospel from the first day until now. (Phil. 1:3-5 – NASB95)

At a recent STN International Board meeting, we were discussing how faithful STN’s prayer warriors and donors have been since the very beginning. As an organization, we really don’t do a lot in the area of fundraising. We often wish we could do more, but our board is comprised of all volunteers and we don’t have the time to focus on that component of the ministry. That is why we are so thankful to God for all of you and the way you support this ministry. Some of you have been supporting STN since we incorporated 10 years ago. Words cannot express how grateful we are for your generosity. The gospel is spreading into unreached areas and churches are being planted because of your faithfulness.

Because of your sacrifice in giving, the Board feels very accountable to use the funds as wisely as possible. We prayerfully seek the Lord, research what the needs are around the world, and then focus our energies on what we believe will make the maximum impact for Christ. As the Lord opens new doors for ministry we seek Him to know how to best utilize the resources He has provided for maximum impact. Right now, that means we are focusing more of our attention and financial resources on regional trainers.

The First 100

In the early years, we were training 100 church planting pastors in India and Nepal, and fully financially supporting about 40 of them (including two medical doctors). It took us about six years to train those men and they are being used mightily of God in unreached villages. Over the past few years, the training ministry has expanded into more areas of India and Nepal, and we started new ministries in Bolivia, Honduras, Guatemala and Southern Mexico. Instead of training 100 men (twice each year at two training centers in India over a 6-year period), we are currently training 500 men in about 18 different locations in six countries. Because they are able to meet weekly, the training can be accomplished in about 2 ½ years instead of 5+ years.

The Current 500

Right now, STN has over 100 people who have graduated from the BTCP training. Add in 500 people currently in training and we have a total of 600 who will be finished with the training by 2019. We are asking each of those people to find at least 10 more people to be trained. What kind of exponential growth are we considering? If we multiply by 10 every three years:

• Year 2019 = 600+ trained church planters
• Year 2022 = 6,000+
• Year 2025 = 60,000+
• 2028 = 600,000+ trained church planters going to unreached parts of the world where they can reach the lost, plant healthy churches, and multiply again and again.

Why train so many pastors and church planters?

There are nearly 3 billion people currently in unreached people groups with little to no access to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Those 600,000 church planters would have to each share the gospel with 5,000 people in unreached people groups to reach the 3 billion currently unreached. And more people are born every day!

The challenge with training that many men is not lack of vision, desire, or commitment. The challenge is the financial cost of supporting them after they are trained. Even at $100 per month per church planter (full support in the poorer areas of the world), the total cost would be staggering to the imagination. Just supporting 600 men would be $60,000 per month. Supporting 600,000 men would be $60,000,000 per month. Our current plan is to continue to support some of the church planters, but the future focus will be primarily on supporting the regional trainers. These regional trainers need our financial support so that they can each devote themselves to train, resource, and encourage hundreds of new church planters.

These men will provide on-going support and accountability to church planters as they go out by faith and plant churches for the glory of Christ.

Your Partnership

Please pray for the financial resources to support our current regional trainers as well as more of them in the future as the Lord directs. If you know of any individual donors, small groups, churches, and/or foundations that would like to get involved with STN, please send them our way. The Lord keeps opening doors into new areas of the world and we need a lot of ministry partners to join us.

Thank you again for your partnership in this growing ministry. We know that you are giving sacrificially, and we are confident that our God “will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:19). May you enjoy His goodness each and every day, and may His grace and peace be yours in fullest measure!

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“You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.” (2 Timothy 2:1-2 – NASB95)

God loves multiplication! He loves it in the local church and He loves it on the mission field. That is why STN is committed to training national pastors to not only plant churches but to equip others who will equip others… For many years, foreign missionaries would go out and do all the work themselves, but at this time in history it is critical that we train nationals to reach their own nations.

Let me give you a few reasons why:

• Language. It is difficult enough to teach a missionary one language so they can minister in a foreign environment. But imagine a nation like India where there are 22 major languages and 780 dialects. It is much better to equip nationals that already know the languages so they can reach their own people.
• Culture & Religion. Beyond the language barrier, there are a myriad of cultural practices and religious beliefs that are different than what we have experienced. STN strives to train people who already understand these beliefs and practices.
• Politics. Currently there are a number of countries (including India) that are beginning to ask missionaries (or foreigners) to leave when their visas expire. Recently I was told by the vice president of a large ministry that his application for a visa was denied. It is imperative that we train permanent residents who can stay and keep the work going.
• Finances. In many countries we can support anywhere from 10 to 60 nationals for the cost of supporting one American missionary. It is our desire to maximize the donations given to STN and get as many church planters out to unreached areas as possible. We still value sending highly trained American missionaries but primarily want them to be sent as national directors or regional trainers. In those positions they can recruit, equip, and deploy hundreds of nationals to reach unreached villages.
• Effectiveness. Because of the reasons listed above we believe our effectiveness is increased exponentially by focusing on training and resourcing nationals in every country. And what joy it brings us to see them going out with a heart to MULTIPLY workers for the harvest fields.

Thank you for participating with us in the vital ministry of STN. Your time spent volunteering and praying is making a profound difference in India, Nepal, Bolivia, and beyond. And your monetary donations are making it possible for the equipping and resourcing of hundreds of workers who will ultimately be involved in planting thousands of churches. Please pray for us that we would be wise and faithful stewards of what God has entrusted to us. To God be the glory great things He is doing!

The Apostle Paul was in prison and very aware that he was going to die, so he wrote to his protégé, Timothy, and encouraged him to continue the work in the church at Ephesus. Paul couldn’t reach everyone, and Timothy couldn’t reach everyone, so the ministry of multiplication had to be a priority. Paul basically challenged Timothy to do for others what Paul had done for him. By God’s grace followers of Jesus have continued this philosophy of ministry down through the centuries and it is the strategy we are implementing in India and Nepal today.

In their first year back in India, Ryder & Flory Kumar are focusing on training men who will plant healthy churches where they can train men who will plant healthy churches… To that end Ryder has already conducted several Teacher Training Workshops (TTWs) in different regions of India to equip and qualify men to teach the Bible Training Centre for Pastors (BTCP) materials. Now these men will begin teaching the BTCP curriculum to men in their regions on a weekly basis. By teaching weekly (instead of two five-day conferences each year) they can teach through all ten books in about two years.

The current plan is to start training about 230 men to be new church planters. Imagine these men going out in the near future to each plant multiple churches. Then imagine these men each being trained to take ten or more new men through the materials and equip them to go out and plant churches in unreached areas. It is our prayer that the Lord will bless this and we will see hundreds of new churches planted in the next three to five years. On top of that, we are getting requests from all over India, Nepal, and Pakistan for the same training to be offered to them.

What can you do as a partner with STN?

The need is great and we are grateful that you are partnering with us to meet the need. Here are four things that come to mind:

1. PRAY! Please pray for Ryder & Flory and for the men they are equipping to go out and multiply. Pray for spiritual vitality, physical endurance, and God’s wisdom. With so many needs, please pray for discernment as to what they should and should not do.
2. GIVE! We currently have several pastors who need sponsors. You can fully support one of our 7 pastors in Northern India for $100 per month or one of our 6 pastors in Southern India (three that need $30 per month and three that need $60 per month). Or you can help support Ryder & Flory as they are currently about $2,000 per month short of their need. We are making up the difference out of our reserves but would love to apply those funds to other areas of growth.
3. VOLUNTEER! We could use more volunteers to help us with administrative tasks, researching and writing articles for our Facebook page and newsletter, or serving on our Fundraising Team.
4. SHARE! Please tell other individuals and churches about the ministry of STN. We would love to give them more details and have them join with us in this work in India, Nepal, and beyond.

We are overwhelmed by God’s grace and provision to grow the work of STN in India and Nepal and expand into other nations as well. He is answering all of our prayers for wisdom, key leaders, financial resources, and open doors to train more nationals to reach unreached areas of the world with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Growing in India

Ryder and Flory Kumar will be moving to India very soon to give leadership to the movement in India & Nepal. Ryder will establish a base of operations, work with national leaders of other ministries as well as the 75 men we have already trained, and oversee the training and sending of more church planters to new areas. We have some reserve funds to cover his salary for a little while but he still needs about $2,000 per month in additional support to be fully funded. Please pray for this need to be met quickly. We desire to utilize the reserve funds for some major projects in India in the coming days (i.e., purchase or build a Training Center and National Offices for STN India). We are also hoping to identify and support two or more Regional Directors in India & Nepal to help facilitate training and mentoring more church planters. Beyond that there is a desire to do the same thing in countries that border India.

Imagine the 75 trained men in India and Nepal expanding to 500 in the next five years. Then imagine the 500 expanding to 5,000+ a few years later… Consider with me a growing number of trained men who are zealous to see their own people reached with the Gospel and organized together into growing, healthy, reproducing churches.

Expanding into South America

Pastor Eddie Bueno has a burden to oversee a new work in South America starting this fall. He knows some key leaders in Bolivia that he hopes to work with to launch STN Latin America very soon. We are hoping to begin with about 36 carefully chosen men in the near future and then send them out at the end of a two-year training process to plant churches in new areas. STN would then support those men for up to three years until their churches can support them. While that is happening we will train more men to be sent out and keep the process going. Once the work is established in Bolivia we hope to expand to other Central and South American countries. Pray for wisdom for Pastor Eddie as the foundation is laid in the next few months.

Praise God that $110,000 has already been donated to launch this new area of ministry for STN. That will allow us to do the groundwork, identify the right key leaders, and start the training, but we will be in need of more monthly sponsors to support specific church planting pastors in the coming months. Central & South America desperately need solid Bible-teaching churches!

Will you join us?

Will you commit to pray and support STN monthly? Will you spread the news to other believers, churches, and foundations so they can join with us? We need likeminded partners who are committed to the Great Commission and will sacrifice to see it fulfilled in our generation.

Footnote: Special thanks to the leadership and people of The Bridge Bible Fellowship who allow us to have the STN International Offices on the property at no cost. Beyond that they have included STN in the missions budget! This allows STN to operate without normal overhead costs.

There are billions of people who don’t yet know Jesus. The Lord has blessed us with spiritual and financial resources. Let’s be a conduit for those blessings to flow to the rest of the world!