May 2020
Has anyone else felt a dramatic change during these last months? Churches, businesses, schools, and sporting events have been shut down or moved to a completely virtual platform. Many, including us, have been stuck in our homes under “safer at home” or “shelter in place” orders that left us wondering when things could start to get back to normal. Unemployment is nearing the level of the Great Depression, and only the future will tell what the long-term economic effects will be. These have been unprecedented days for everyone.
We had our share of discouragement as we had meetings cancel and our plans falling apart. But we have also been able to see God’s hand at work through this time. To highlight a few things we are encouraged about: 1. God has taken great care of us! We had not launched out into full time deputation and left our house or job yet. We are grateful we were not stuck somewhere out of town with no place to stay when this started to take place. Some of the timing with how things have worked out for us at my job has been almost unbelievably in our favor for our family and our deputation ministry. 2. God has kept our family in good health. Our son Mark Gedeon is about to be 6 months old! He is already such a big boy; he is very healthy and cute! 3. One of the most encouraging things has been our experimenting with social media advertisements. When all of this started happening, I had lots of ideas about how to use this time to get the gospel out online during this time of crisis. Only part of what I had in mind has
been able to be carried out so far, but we are excited with what has been able to happen. We were able to pay for ads both in English and Hungarian for gospel tracts and videos with the gospel to go out.
Here is a short summary of what God has allowed us to do so far.
English Gospel Tracts: 30,449 reached, 3,924 clicked or engaged (high chance they read it), 226 shared the post.
English Gospel Videos: 90,320 reached, 8,170 viewed, 11 shares.
Hungarian Gospel Tracts: 136,888 reached, 12,800 clicked or engaged, 418 shares.
Hungarian gospel videos: 84,447 reached, 20,390 views, 38 shares. Youtube has 11,000 views totaling to 31,390 views.
Pastor Zoli Kiss, my brother in law David, and others from the church helped to translate the Coronavirus tracts. Mike Frueh edited the Hungarian video that Pastor Kiss recorded. Ramona helped me proof things for the tract design. I am thankful for the teamwork that went into this as I do not know the langue well enough to be able to do any of this myself yet. Pray that people will be saved as a result of these gospel materials and that some will become disciples winning others themselves.
A few prayer requests for us:
1. Pray that we have wisdom launching into full time deputation and what to do with our home during these uncertain days.
2. Pray for continued wisdom and blessing for more social media outreach in the future. We want to use this eventually to find people to do discipleships and Bible studies with, not only promote gospel materials.
3. Pray that we get to the field of Hungary as quickly as possible. We are resting in God’s timing, but we don’t want to hinder the process ourselves or be hindered by the evil one.
God bless you all. I trust your families are healthy and doing well during this time. Jesus has not left His throne during this crisis. We can look to Him to find comfort and encouragement remembering that He is in control of everything that happens. We are looking to bring glory to the Lord in these days!
Sincerely,
Jake Allen
תגובות