It's so exciting to have another exposure team going to Thailand this year. The team is really keen to go, starting to pray into their time away, asking what God would have for them and working together as they prepare. Praise God for the successful fundraiser at Together, which is a wonderful contribution towards their costs. Please keep them in your prayers over the coming months.
I'm also excited that we are working towards a trip to visit Nelson and Rachel in Mazatlan in January 2028. It is a long way off, but the cost will be significantly more, hence the heads-up at Together. This trip will be centred around the YWAM base there and getting involved with some of the projects in their neighbourhood. Please keep this in your prayers also, as we begin to plan and prepare. I expect there will be a lot of interest, but the cost could be a contributing factor to the final numbers.
Meanwhile, back in New Zealand, it's wonderful to see so many God conversations happening amongst students. There seems to be a real hunger amongst young people, many of whom have not grown up with any knowledge of Jesus or the Bible. Please continue to pray for these conversations and those who are working in universities across the country.
If you’d like to subscribe to future newsletters, please register your interest by emailing missions@thestreet.org.nz
Merrie Reddington
Missions Pastor
Nick & Sarah
The Way
A movement of missionaries, multiplying disciples & churches for the glory of God.
Thank you for holding us in prayer over the last couple of months. We deeply appreciate it. On Thursday 7 May we landed back in Wellington after two and a half weeks travelling in Germany and Greece. It was powerful to be with three missionary families in various parts of Germany, going out into the harvest field with them, and fellowshipping with the churches they have planted.
Our team mates, Vesna, Jihye and Jonathan joined us in Greece for the first ever gathering of European mission workers in the No Place Left network. It was phenomenal to be with over 50 workers all doing what we are doing, all experiencing remarkably similar barriers to the work, and all seeing breakthroughs as the gospel spreads and bears fruit. God is moving in Europe. The harvest is plentiful; more workers are being prayed for, trained and released.
Thank God for safe travel and good health for each member of our team as we spent time in Europe.
Thank God for the rich learnings and interactions each of us had while at the No Place Left training in Greece.
Thank God that we were able to join the mission work in three areas of Germany, encouraging and strengthening the believers there and sharing the gospel as we went.
Thank God for the time that Vesna (a team mate) spent in Serbia, on her way to Greece, and for the salvations and baptisms while she was there.
Pray for MUCH FRUIT from this time in Europe, both here and abroad!
The Way Queenstown has just planted a new church! The people are devoted to being trained and active in the Great Commission, reaching Queenstown with the gospel.
Thank God for the new church plant in Queenstown in the last month.
Pray for a harvest of souls throughout Queenstown.
A few weeks ago we trained Karl & Helene, a couple currently living in Papua New Guinea who were home in NZ on furlough. They are taking the training back to PNG where they want to see local and ex-pat believers trained and active in disciple-making.
Thank God for Karl & Helene who are taking the training back to PNG.
Pray that Karl & Helene will find willing disciples to train in disciple-making - including key indigenous people - who will themselves become both practitioners and trainers.
The second weekend of June will see us roll out what’s called the “5 in 12 training” in both the North and South Islands. Five trainings over 12 months will be run in both locations, focusing on seeing believers become practitioners and trainers of all things disciple-making! We really value your prayers for this.
Pray for deep conviction in the hearts of Jesus followers of the need to prioritise making disciples.
Pray for the seeds of multiplication - that we will see disciples and churches multiplied, to the glory of God!
Pray for spiritual protection and strength for all those who engage in training.
Thank God for brothers and sisters in Europe who are dedicated to coming to NZ to help with each of the 5 trainings.
Pray for the team from Europe - for their health and safety, their protection, and that the Lord will equip them with all that is needed for the work here in NZ.
Good Stuff Parenting has been launched and the next parenting module is now being developed. This is likely to take the rest of the year, including writing the material, producing the manuals and videos. Please pray for this project!
Thank God for the beginnings of interest across NZ.
Pray for churches and families to grab and run with these courses!
Pray for marriages and families across NZ to be strengthened by Good Stuff.
Thank God for the funds received to date, allowing us to continue to invest time and resources into the development of Good Stuff.
Pray for funds - that we will have all that is needed as we continue to develop Good Stuff Parenting all the way through to the teenage module (2027).
Pray for doors to open into other countries.
Thank you, faithful pray-ers. We pray that you will know the LOVE of God as you serve Him.
Ester
Wycliffe Bible Translators NZ
Praise God for
New things learned about PTXprint, the open source publishing software of our team and which I am being mentored to do user support.
Connections made with new and advanced PTXprint users and people from other Christian ministries.
Learning about other translation and technology topics - many of which are AI-related e.g. the ethics of using AI, AI and the church, AI and missions etc.
Safe travels and good health throughout the duration of the workshops.
The new Wycliffe NZ executive director, Mark Penny. He will assume the role in August 2026. Pray for Mark and his wife, Jo, as well as their 6 children, as Mark transitions from his Language Technology Consultant role into leading WBTNZ. Mark is mentoring me in my role as PTXprint user support, but he will still have 20% of his time supporting PTXprint when he starts his new role with WBTNZ.
Pray for
The health of our Yiddish translator, Phil Goble, who was diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis. Phil is a Messianic Jew, and I have the privilege of assisting in typesetting the interlinear/ diglot Yiddish OT.
Salvation of the family of my brother Alex, as well as the families of my deceased brothers, Oscar and Victor.
Good health for myself as winter approaches
Paul & Barby
Auckland
At a personal level, we have enjoyed the Lord’s favour in two different ways over recent months:
One is that Paul was granted three months long-service/sabbatical leave from his work with Langham Preaching. We enjoyed going back ‘home’ to India, wandering around for six weeks, without any responsibilities—and then finishing up on a holiday with our son and his family, who work in South Asia in a mission capacity. Paul also spent (almost) every early morning working on turning parts of his blog into a book—and is hoping to finish the project this year. Here is a photo of the two of us in the pulpit of the church in Mussoorie (India) where Barby’s father was the pastor when we were growing up together.
The other highlight is that after a long, often discouraging, process, we have moved home—from Henderson to Māngere Bridge. We love it, even more than we anticipated! Barby now enjoys a 13 min ‘motorway-free’ drive to work at the Refugee Resettlement Centre. We are much closer to family, church and the airport. Paul has the best study-space he has ever had, by far. We recognise it as the Lord’s provision and look forward to sharing it with others because hospitality is now more possible than it has been for a couple of decades.
Paul has just started his 18th year with Langham Preaching. This ministry seeks to nurture grassroots, heart-language movements of biblical preaching across the countries of Asia, the Pacific, Africa, Latin America and parts of Europe. Studies show that 75% of the preachers in these regions will never get near a college for training. Langham Preaching exists for them, in a ministry now stretching across more than 100 countries.
Over time Paul’s role has transitioned away from training at the coalface to leading from the backroom. This starts with convening, serving and caring for the Global Leadership Team. He has a monthly Zoom with each person—and then they meet as a team each month as well. May we introduce them to you quickly? There is a smaller ‘executive’ with whom he meets each week: Ruth (UK) and Maggy (Egypt). Then there are the four directors of the continental leadership teams: Igor (Bolivia); Emeka (Nigeria); Andy (Hungary); and Dwi (Indonesia). In addition, there are portfolio roles, each with their own global coordinator: in Facilitator Development (Paul, in Kazakhstan); in Small Preaching Group Development (Dionisio, in Colombia); and in Prayer (Esteban, in Bolivia). 52 people are gathered into these teams of various kinds by these leaders. There are plans to add two new portfolios in local fund-raising and local indigenous resource development. So, yes, as you can imagine—Paul gets out of bed each morning to help these people shine on their way to seeing the preaching movements become locally owned, directed and funded.
Two recent highlights in the work has been the invitation to visit South Korea with Dwi (see photo) in order to explore the possibility of starting a preaching movement amongst the 60-70 pastors who have defected from North Korea and who have their own little churches. They feel reunification will happen soon. They want to prepare themselves for a return home with a ministry of the Word that can grow their people into maturity. WOW.
Closer to home—no area in our ministry was hit harder by Covid than the South Pacific. The fledgling preaching movements pretty much ground to a halt. Difficulties in communication and in travel conspire to create (almost) unique challenges. What should we do? Two years ago, Tukana Nakesu stepped into the Regional Coordinator (South Pacific) role—from his home in Suva. Almost immediately he pivoted to a fresh strategy. Rather than trying to commence preaching movements in different countries, one by one, his team carefully selected 20 younger leader-trainer-preachers from across six nations in the region and brought them together in a vanua vinaka (or ‘seedbed’) vision. The plan is to train them first and then build preaching movements around them. Last month Tukana responded to my enquiry into how their first gathering went—"Encouraged is an understatement. I have found my new calling. We were blessed with a good batch that is eager to learn. Afterwards it was hard to leave.” This is the best news to come out of the South Pacific since 2008 when we tiptoed our way into the region.
Leading a global ministry from the edge of the world has so many challenges—and not just the many long hours spent travelling and the many odd hours spent zooming. When Dwi visited New Zealand in December, it dawned on Paul that it was the first time that someone in the team he leads had been in our home—in twelve years! He was offering leadership without offering hospitality. Please pray for grace, wisdom and patience. And pray for the Langham Preaching ministry more widely, as it sails into the most significant financial headwinds that it has ever experienced.
As ever, we are so grateful for the way you continue to journey with us.
Paul and Barby
Sally Hong
Student Life, Dunedin
Dear Whānau,
It’s been 4 months since my move to Dunedin and nearly the end of Semester 1! I have loved being in Dunedin so far and doing ministry with the Otago Student Life team. God has grown my affection for the students in this city and the unique ways He is moving amongst the lives of students at Otago University.
The campus year began with our O’Week Outreach where we were able to reach many students with the opportunity to hear gospel through a free reusable cup! Over the first 4 weeks of campus it was a privilege to get to meet students who were interested in hearing about Jesus! Over the course of the Semester, some that were exploring faith with us through our initial O'Week Outreach have come to faith. We’ve also had socials to foster community, nightlife outreaches where we show God’s love in a practical way by giving out sausages to students going out to town on Thursday nights, regular evangelism on campus, and our weekly small groups (action groups). These things have fed into our Christians students growing in their heart for mission in community, as well as non-Christian students to explore faith.
One new thing we have initiated this semester is our weekly event called Student Life Connect. The heart of this was to create another evangelistic space where students can bring along their friends to hopefully start up spiritual conversations about faith and Jesus while addressing topics they care about!
Personally, I have seen God use this to start up a gospel conversation with a student who is now exploring faith with us! Here’s the story:
Christina and I met through mutual connections. Not sure where our initial catch up would go, I approached our first meet up with hopes that it would lead into an opportunity where Christina would come to know Jesus. But as I met with Christina, it was clear she wasn’t so keen on Christianity or faith. She shared she was an atheist, and even if God existed it wouldn’t matter to her. I was gutted, but recognising she was wanting some sense of community at Uni, I invited her to our StudentLife Connect with a bit of apprehension. And to my surprise she came!! Not only once, but continued to show up week after week. After a talk on the resurrection of Jesus, Christina tapped me on the shoulder and asked, “Would you still believe in God if Jesus didn’t come back to life?” This led to us deciding to have a coffee the next morning to discuss things further. And that following morning, Christina heard the gospel in full for the first time. Since then, Christina has been exploring faith with myself and Avi (student). We meet up regularly the day after StudentLife Connect to chat about life and all the questions she has. This week, as we looked into the evidence that Jesus is God, I asked her, “If Jesus is God, how do you think it would impact your life?” To this she answered without hesitation, “It would change everything. I think I would value life more… because it would mean my life has been intentionally designed by a Creator that is trustworthy. And I think I would be really grateful.”
Christina is one of many students who God is drawing to Himself at Otago Uni. As we continue into the next half of the campus year, please be praying that they would come to choose to follow Jesus.
In the next coming months, we have our annual mid-year conference coming up 3-8 July. Please pray that God would be at work over those 5 days - encouraging students to go all in for Jesus and experience the fullness of what it means to follow him.
Prayer Points:
Exploring students: Please pray for these students who are exploring faith with us to come to a place of putting their trust in Jesus because of God’s transformative power in their lives.
Young Christians & New Believers: Please pray that they would grow in walking in step with the Holy Spirit and desiring to be disciples that go on to make disciples everywhere. And that their motivation to do so would be sustained over the break.
Conference: Please pray for conference. Pray that students would be keen to come and experience life change through it. Pray for all the preparation to be Spirit-filled and led.
Thank you for continuing on in the mission with me and the crew here in Dunedin. This city, and these students truly value your partnership in the gospel.
Rachel & Nelson
Mexico
Hola familia, blessings from Mazatlan, Mexico. We have had such an exciting last few months with the announcement of a little baby brother for Lani due 3rd of November. We will be back in NZ so look forward to hopefully seeing many of you.
March was a big month for our family as Nelson was invited to the States to attend a leadership conference. This was an amazing opportunity to join a 4 year programme of leadership growth and the chance to walk alongside other Christian leaders both in missions and in the business world. The following week Nelson and his team helped host and teach at a week long YWAM event called ‘Next Gen’ in Monterrey, Mexico. The gathering brought together YWAM leaders from across Mexico to grow in communication, recruitment, and mobilization. Nelson shared about social media, marketing, and systems to help ministries better reach and disciple young people. It was encouraging to see different ministries unite with a shared heart to mobilize the next generation into missions.
During this time Rachel helped to organise and run a paediatric brigade with a team and a paediatrician from the States in a community. We were able to treat close to 30 children and babies and alongside kids ministry and bible teaching we were able to prescribe much needed medications and give children supplies of kids vitamins.
The following week, the whole Carreno family travelled to the remote, indigenous village of Zapote de Picachos for a multi-day medical brigade. Rachel has been to this village multiple times in the last 7 years, but it was the first time our family has gone on an outreach to a remote location. We were able to set up our medical clinic in 5 different villages around the river over 5 days, treating 140 people, which has been our dream since Rachel scouted in these smaller locations over two years ago. We were able to pray with many people and support the local Christian leaders.
Remnant surf ministry: One of the biggest reminders of God’s faithfulness this season has been Chava’s story. What started as a simple surf friend, over the past year, we watched God completely transform his life. Chava completed his DTS earlier this year, trusting God to provide for his outreach to Brazil, and is now back in Mazatlán helping lead and disciple other young surfers through Remnant.
Prayer:
For health, strength and capacity over the next three months in Mazatlan and as we prepare to return to NZ to have baby, and so that Rachel can work to maintain her professional certificates.
Finances: we experienced a big loss in finances last December, and we ask for prayer this year as we continue to trust God to restore and exceed our previous income. Prayer for a possible fundraising trip to the States in July.
Pray for moving to a house closer to the base at the end of June. After much prayer, we know this is the best option for the family.
Ministry: Prayer for the family ministry trip coming up in July, where we will travel to the States to promote youth into missions. Also for two local medical brigades and a three maternity health course Rachel is organising.
Prayer for Remnant for the guys attending to continue to have a passion to learn more about God and know Him more.
Caitlin Ormiston
TSCF, Wellington
Reaching students for Christ, changing students for life
Hey Church,
God is at work through TSCF groups on campus! As we head towards the middle of the year, it was so encouraging to pause as a staff team recently, to pray and to hear stories from term 1. We are seeing the fruit of persistence in hard places, and we’re seeing God open new doors to gospel opportunities. We are meeting students from all walks of life and backgrounds, and from all over the world, with the same hunger to explore faith and openness to be introduced to who Jesus is. I’ve recently heard stories of students queuing out of the door to come to start-of-year welcome events, of groups that previously only consistently drew 5 participants to be joined by 15-20 on a weekly basis. I even heard a story of a student being asked if they believed anything about Jesus, only to respond “I was just thinking about that question in the bathroom!”. These are just glimpses of a renewed hunger to explore questions of spirituality.
Earlier this year we were excited to appoint Keri-Ann Hokianga as Te Kaikawe O Te Rongopai (Carrier of the Gospel) in Auckland. Already Keri-Ann is seeing an openness to opportunities as she seeks to pioneer work especially in te wananga o Aotearoa to help students also become carriers of the gospel, across New Zealand and to the ends of the earth. Pray for Keri-Ann as she seeks to build relationships in these new spaces, that she would see where God is leading her and step forward with courage.
Students are taking up the mantle, too, with many stepping into roles of leadership in their groups. This is what we long for – students equipped to be carriers of the gospel to their campuses and trained up and equipped to do that in all of life beyond their student years, too. Pray for more to have courage to step into leadership, especially in locations where current leaders prepare to graduate and new leaders are needed to take the groups forward.
Coming up, from 28 June – 2 July we will be heading to Queenstown for Summit, TSCF’s annual national student camp. This year’s theme is ‘On Earth as it is in Heaven’, looking at what Jesus teaches about prayer, how the Lord’s prayer guides our future hope, and God’s mission in the world. We’re looking forward to having Reuben Munn (Shore Community Church) and Emma Stokes (Carey Baptist College) as the main speakers, but even more so we’re looking forward to students getting alongside one another, learning to be carriers of the gospel in their unique contexts across the country. Please pray that we would fill the camp with students hungry to know Jesus – whether they already do or not – and that we would present him clearly and faithfully. Please pray for God’s protection over this time together, from the final logistics, travels, and on site details. Pray that there would be no distractions from what God seeks to do through our time together.
Whilst there is so much to be encouraged by, there are still pockets of communities struggling to capture the vision that God invites us to be carriers of the good news to those around us. Please pray for these campuses, and the staff who are supporting them, that there would be a renewed love for Jesus. Pray that he would transform hearts to see that his hope is not only for those who already believe in him, but for all people on campus. Pray that he would transform these campuses for his glory.
Thanks, The Street, for joining with me and with TSCF in prayer.
In Jesus,
Caitlin
Gabe
YWAM, Tauranga
Konnichiwa Street Whanau!
This last half a year has brought me to some new places and God has blessed me with the privilege of being involved in some new ministries too, I’m excited to unpack it!
Following on from my last update, I’ve been to Japan and back coleading an outreach with two good friends and colleagues. Right away we got involved with some amazing ministries! We partnered with local churches, were involved in programmes for preschoolers, children with special needs, retirement villages and had some really fruitful times of street evangelism. A personal highlight for me was being involved in an after school care for special needs children. I quickly found this to be a community where children received care not just from the staff, but from each other. They treated each other with warmth and inclusivity. The more I went, I found that this really was a result of them receiving rich and genuine love from the staff team of this ministry, those that show up daily for these kids and treat them with fun and care and warmth and... well.. worth! What I saw was an overflow of love from within these kids to each other and it was a beautiful expression of their encounter of God's love through this ministry.
And God's love is truly moving in Japan! I was told that even just a few years ago it was quite hard to even have a conversation of spiritual views with strangers in Japan. But we definitely did not find that to be the case. We found that many Japanese were very open to talking about spiritual views. During one night as our team was carolling and evangelising, a girl named Miyu stopped and talked with some of our girls. She began coming along to some of the church's community gatherings with us and later gave her life to the Lord! God is truly moving through Japan!
In previous updates I mentioned coming to this base hoping to be more involved in Oral Mother Tongue Bible translations however since coming here, it does seem that there is not that much yet to be putting our hands to and so involvement in this currently looks like consistent meeting with our few but faithful team, supporting the global movement through prayer and keeping an eye out for opportunities that we can be involved with (ie. scouting trips to our partner nations, Bible distribution outreaches etc.)
For now though, I have found myself and my skills being put to use in other exciting areas. The Lord has given me a big heart for storytelling! It has taken many forms over the years, music, art, writing but now I’ve been able to pursue this through media. Really, the excitement of storytelling comes from stories that reveal, whether explicitly or not, who God is and what He's doing. So I've been given the opportunity to continue telling stories through photography and videography, which has been exciting to navigate in a more ministry focused setting.
I know in both trying and more restful seasons, it’s prayer to our mighty God that sustains so much of me. I’d love prayer for these areas:
It’s been a steep learning curve, learning the ropes with media. Please pray for discipline to keep learning and vision for opportunities of intentionally building God’s Kingdom through this.
Our base is receiving students for a couple of schools in the June quarter. Please pray for faith and expectancy in both staff and students, for God to touch hearts and speak specifically to students in powerful ways.
Thank you all so much for your continued prayer and support!
Warmth and Love,
Gabe
Ben and Bekah
Thailand
Greetings from Bangkok! As temperatures peak and we slowly transition into the rainy season, April ends the typical ministry year here in Thailand, and we have an important update to share.
Ben has accepted an invitation to join the Thailand Digital Strategies team! His ministry focus will shift toward reaching Thai people where they already spend much of their time, online. This is especially meaningful for Ben because it closely mirrors the kind of work he was involved in while serving at Cru’s global headquarters in Orlando. (Bekah will continue in her role on the campus ministry team.)
This opportunity is both strategic and timely. Thailand is one of the most digitally engaged countries in the world, with millions of people interacting daily through social media and online platforms. The vision behind Digital Strategies is to meet people in that space with clear, accessible gospel content, creating pathways for conversations, discipleship, and connection to local communities of faith.
What makes this even more compelling is the broader regional impact. Because Thai is mutually intelligible with Lao, content produced here has the potential to cross borders into Laos, an unreached and closed country where traditional missionary access is extremely limited. In that sense, this role wouldn’t just impact Thailand, but could also quietly reach into places where the gospel is far less accessible.
As we step into this next season, we would especially appreciate prayer as we work toward reaching full funding by June 30. At the time of writing this letter, we still need $200 in monthly support. We are trusting the Lord to provide the remaining partners needed for long-term sustainability in ministry.
We would also appreciate prayer regarding housing. We are hoping to move from our current housing situation into a place that would be closer to Ben’s new office while still being accessible for Bekah’s team and ministry responsibilities. We are praying for a home that is more affordable than where we currently live, has room for our family to continue growing (Lord willing), and is close enough to a good kindergarten option for the girls.
Thank you for your faithful support, encouragement, and prayers. We are deeply grateful to be on this journey with you!
