Issue 2 | 2022
Time with delegates and master coaches of the Colombia National GProAcademy sparked joy for Ramesh. He spent several days in Medellín earlier this year and returned excited about what God is doing in Colombia and through RREACH’s church health initiatives.
RREACH envisions changing the way One Billion Individuals think and hear about the Lord Jesus Christ by personal, media, and local proclamation.
DEVOTIONAL
It’s hard to believe it’s almost 2023. The last few years of the pandemic have seemed both slow and fast. On the one hand, things have been slow in returning to “normal.” In some places, it is still the norm to see masks and hand sanitizer everywhere, and mild colds continue to keep people from work or school for a few days. Just a few years ago, these habits would have been only for those with some obsession with cleanliness! On the other hand, it seems that time has jumped forward, as we are well into the third year of experiencing COVID and its effect on our world.
The effects are not just global but also personal. Many of us desire to go back to what is familiar and routine. We can be fearful as we look into an unpredictable future. For me it has been a good reminder that everything about the future is unpredictable— no matter how much I plan for comfort and security in my life. The question, then, is how we resume taking responsibility for what God has given us to do, as we come out of this season of fragility and into a season of the unknown.
I was recently reading through the book of Nehemiah. It is the story of a man who was directed by God to return to Israel and rebuild the wall around the city that represented to the world God’s presence with His people. For Nehemiah, it was a complete change of roles and a great resumption after a period of exile when God seemed to be quiet. The wall was broken and useless. Therefore, it needed to be rebuilt.
It is reasonable to assume that when Nehemiah’s brother Hanani came to him, Nehemiah’s life was good. He had a good job in the court of a powerful king. Why should he have cared that Jerusalem was not in good shape? Why would that matter for him? He cared because he identified with His God and, therefore, with God’s people. With this perspective, he could not bear to hear that the city that exemplified God’s faithfulness to His people was lying in ruins. There needed to be a resumption of God’s activity amongst God’s people. He had to rebuild the wall.
The rebuilding of that wall was not just another civil construction project. It re- established and restored Israel as a people in the land God had given them. It had to do with their identity. You can feel and hear his consternation. In the first chapter, we see that Nehemiah wept, mourned, prayed, and cried out to God, confessing his own sin and the sin of his family and people. He then clarified the problem as he went trembling before the king to ask him this favor: “How can I not be sad? For the city where my ancestors are buried is in ruins, and the gates have been destroyed by fire” (NLT).
As the story continues, God granted Nehemiah favor before the king, giving him the opportunity to rebuild. This was the resumption of activity of the people of God in their land. As you read through the book, you will notice much opposition to this resumption. Nehemiah was subject to the authority of an earthly king. The local governments were against him and the work they were doing. Even the amount of work itself was quite daunting.
Despite all this, he had a clear motivation: resuming the work God had given to Israel and bringing the people back to the land would be a testament amongst the nations to the Living God. Their resuming activity in Jerusalem demonstrated God’s faithfulness to them and to His promises.
So, as we enter a new season and see the daunting challenges that might lie before us, we no longer have to yearn for the fa- miliar and comfortable past nor fear the un- predictable future. Instead, we are called to recognize God’s favor and care for us, even throughout these last few disorienting years. We can trust God during this period of re- sumption in our lives. And He has work for us to do: we must proclaim His faithfulness to the nations.
Robby lives in Greenville, SC, with his wife, Nathalie, and kids, Joshua and Emma. He is Pastor of International Outreach at Grace Church.
Questions to think about:
1) Are there certain areas in your life you wish were “back to normal”? Why do you feel this way?
2) Anxiety and fear about the future can highlight our need for control. Are these common feelings for you as you experience the “resumption”? Identify the things that are difficult for you to surrender, and pray that you can trust God with them.
3) We cannot go back in time nor know the future. The only time we can “be” in is the present. We are called to remember the grace and favor God has shown us in the past, be grateful for His favor and grace in the present, and depend on Him into the future. Is it difficult for you to trust God with your life in this moment? If so, have a conversation this week with someone about trusting God and any struggles you might have in this area.
PERSONAL PROCLAMATION
The “hub” of RREACH—Ramesh’s personal proclamation of God’s Word—connects all our other efforts in evangelism and church health.
The pandemic had grounded international travel and directed itinerant proclamation energies toward online platforms—a change that offered an innovative range of opportunities for personal proclamation. RREACH teams have creatively maximized and multiplied those proclamation efforts with depth and breadth. Praise be to God.
“Some people have heard about Jesus but do not lead a Christian life. So, Jesus that night, but others told us they want to hear more about Jesus.” -Pastor A, Dallas GProAcademy graduate
However, with international travel resuming, our staff has again begun asking, “Where in the World is Ramesh?” all while building and sustaining online activities.
Lately, it was South America. Medellín, Colombia, dubbed “the most violent city in the world” till not long ago, brought 37 younger and select pastoral leaders from across the country (cf. page 9). They rejoiced and learned but then departed into lifelong pastoral ministry, having been connected, united and strengthened. Ramesh thinks
his best session was a one-hour Q&A, with questions anonymously submitted about matters usually neglected in public settings.
A private, pre-evangelistic dinner was the highlight of the trip. RREACH suggests audiences at LifeRocks events be at least 50 percent unbelievers—with each believer bringing an unbeliever. Not only did we have twice the number of anticipated guests, but just six highly influential opinion leaders brought 47 unbelieving family members and neighbours. Thirteen trusted Christ that night! Praise be to God.
“In Colombia, our context is very [Roman] Catholic,” said Pastor A, a Dallas GProAcademy grad who caught the vision and organized the dinner in less than three weeks. “Some people have heard about Jesus but do not lead a Christian life. So, some people received Jesus that night, but others told us they want to hear more about Jesus. It is a process, and we are following up.”
After three years of pandemic-related delays, Ramesh also resumed itinerant ministry to the most peopled region of the world. New realities and restraints in those parts disallow publicity (except by word of mouth), live streaming, or photography during his presentations. And yet God provided for 11 strategic engagements addressing hundreds—pre-Christ business leaders, younger pastoral leaders, and congregations of followers.
Ramesh celebrated the 75th anniversary of an organization that was quite formative in his teenage years. On the opening evening, he took a sold-out audience of 600+ youth on a walk down memory lane, for as a young man, he used to attend those youth festivals. When he offered to switch ages with any there, none was willing!
One conference organizer noted: “The conference was a blessing to many, and we are getting good feedback. The theme was a perfect fit for today’s context, and Dr. Richard blended it so well… We could sense the Holy Spirit igniting every word he uttered in his talk.”
“Sheaves of joy,” a biblical theme after a farmer’s hard work, describes this season of ministry resumption. During a recent health episode, he wondered if his last trip to a familiar part of the world had already taken place. “The trip was amazing, complete, and fast…enjoying friends, some from 40 years ago, making new ones with memories, and most importantly, sensing God’s pleasure in using His giftedness for my calling,” he wrote to the RREACH board. “…in existentially experiencing the sheer numbers and density of people, I was freshly reminded of why we have a ‘large numbers vision’ and strategies toward reaching them.”
Each day Ramesh prays for ideas, opportunities, resources, and activities for the health of the Church and the very best of many through his labors. His Lord Jesus has heard, answered, and confirmed his ongoing usefulness and fruitfulness. Praise be to God!
“Sheaves of joy,” a biblical theme after a farmer’s hard work, describes this season of ministry resumption—especially experienced during a trip to the most peopled region of the world.
MEDIA PROCLAMATION
EVANGELISM
Sending forth the Gospel into a dark and hurting world desperate for solutions is part of RREACH’s organizational DNA. Never absent from ministry activity, the resumption of RREACH’s evangelism efforts has consisted of a strategy shift.
Like a canoe finding a current, our LifeRocks team sensed holy traction when launching a social-media-based, topic-specific, and geographically precise pre-evangelistic series on the topic of Uncertainty in late 2021.
Responses like this one began to flow in: I am feeling depressed all the time… because I’m suffering from depression the last four years and no one ever noticed. I keep thinking that if I die, it will be right.
Dedicated follow-up teams fielded these messages, inviting respondents into deeper conversation. They affirmed what our cold data is showing—people from the least-reached areas are hungry for Gospel conversations.
“With the Uncertainty campaign, we tried the follow-up partnership for the first time. I had my doubts about the effectiveness of sharing the gospel online. I was not sure if this would work,” said Pastor Joy Singh, who coordinates RREACH’s LifeRocks efforts. “But, having done this now for almost a year, God has shown that His word is powerful irrespective of the mode of communication.”
Over the past year, two additional series—“Life after Death” and “Saving Relationships”—have launched with similar responses. We praise God for reaching through time, space and even social media platforms and chat rooms to extend His rescue and grace.
These LifeRocks series tackle age-old human issues. Sensing an opportunity to also speak into current popular culture, Ramesh filmed a quick reaction video on the newest release from the Marvel Universe. More than 1.1 million across the US, UK and Oceania engaged by liking, commenting on, or sharing the video, pointing to an opening for the Gospel via the popularized “reaction video” to current media offerings.
CHURCH HEALTH
While sowing Gospel seeds, we also desire to grow fellow lovers-believers-followers of the Lord Jesus by distributing video, audio and text-based resources.
Efforts to reformat Ramesh’s articles into multi-day Bible reading plans through the YouVersion platform were recently extended to include the translation of plans into Spanish, Portuguese, French and Hindi. RREACH plans have been completed by users more than 43,000 times.
RREACH’s French social media coordinator noticed that the plans were garnering new attention online.
“People who do not follow our account are engaging with our posts about the reading plans, showing their relevance to the French-speaking community,” he said.
Six of the Bible reading plans follow Ramesh’s Intentional Life book trilogy for those seeking wisdom to find and build a life of meaning, strength and impact. A desire to make this trilogy more accessible recently resulted in the launching of TheIntentionalLife.net, which will feature blogs, testimonials and access to social media conversations, with full personal study courses coming soon.
LOCAL PROCLAMATION
God’s resumption of the itinerant aspect of Ramesh’s ministry has been mean- ingful. His recent trip to Colombia was cause for great celebration. We are praising God for His willingness to restart RREACH’s hallmark training program—the National Global Proclamation Academy—after more than 2 1⁄2 years.
The Colombia National GProAcademy held in Medellín included 37 younger pastoral leaders and was led by recent Dallas GProAcademy graduates who served as master coaches. Dr. Richard spent several days teaching and left deeply encouraged that the National GProAcademy model was producing a transformative event and a signature experience in participants’ lives.
“God is blessing this academy,” said Oscar Fernandez, coordinator of the Latin American National GProAcademy program. “Thirty- seven pastors from all over Colombia—so committed to studying and reading—it is incredible. Some traveled 20 hours on a bus to come.”
Dr. Richard’s time in Medellín also affirmed the role of other RREACH church health initiatives.
Pastor A, one of the organizers of the Colombia National, was 27 when he graduated from the 2019 Dallas GProAcademy—the last class before it was necessarily paused in 2020 for the pandemic. (CONTINUED BELOW)
Dr. Richard spent several days with the pastors and was deeply encouraged by their love for God and His church.
37 younger pastoral leaders came from all over Colombia for our first National GProAcademy in more than 2years.
(CONTINUED FROM ABOVE) “He’s now 30. The Lord inspired him in Dallas, and he’s taken on a national vision,” Dr. Richard said during a report to global staff. “Which tells me that the Dallas GProAcademy is an engine for a lot of what happens [in our church health efforts].”
After much prayer and consultation, RREACH is pursuing an intermediate step with select graduates to relaunch the Dallas GProAcademy in June 2023, with the fuller program resuming in 2024.
PREACHEREACH
While in-person training is resuming, RREACH has continued with online efforts introduced in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Online 10-day PREACHERREACH academies circumvent travel-related obstacles and have delivered expository preaching training in four languages to 394 younger pastoral leaders across Asia, Africa and Latin America.
This year, the five-day PREACHERREACH Open was initiated, expanding accessibility to time-tested training. Three events have occurred—in Spanish & English—including 941 participants from Asia, Africa and Latin America. These participants have been from broader audiences, including those who do not meet age-related criteria for traditional PREACHERREACH academies.
One participant in a Spanish Women’s PREACHERREACH Academy wrote this encouraging note about how God used the PREACHERREACH experience in her life: “I loved every class. The kindness of all the teachers. The time in small groups where we could pray. It was very uplifting.”
ENLARGE Fund
Ongoing pandemic-related difficulties and economic and political hardships prompted a project that emphasizes physical help as part of strengthening pastoral leaders. Through our ENLARGE fund, RREACH has helped with the most basic needs of food, medicines and shelter for pastors and their families in places like Sri Lanka, Ukraine and Myanmar. One such pastor wrote to us:
“First of all, I would like to thank the God who used you and then sent [Pastor J] to find me, a person you don’t know. The gift of money you gave me made me so happy because it came on time. He found me in trouble with my house destroyed by the rain, and my son was asking me how he will go back to school. The gift surprised me, and I appreciated it. Thank you for blessing me with my family to repair the house and get the child a ticket to school.”
Used occasionally before 2020 (mostly in response to natural disasters), the ENLARGE Pastors’ Family Care fund has been engaged almost continuously throughout the pandemic. Between April 2020 and now, 5,630 pastors and their families in 61 countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America have received assistance.
Pastoral leaders in many parts of the world are in desperate situations. By making the ENLARGE fund the focus of our Giving Tuesday (Nov. 29) efforts, we hope to, with the help of ministry partners, distribute additional monetary gifts for food, medicines and shelter even before 2022 ends.
“First of all, I would like to thank the God who used you and then sent [Pastor J] to find me.” – ENLARGE Fund gift recipient
Moving Forward
As the world continues to reopen, RREACH prayerfully seeks God’s wisdom and provision for additional in-person church health initiatives, including the possibility of a major gathering for pastor-trainers in late 2023. Please pray with us!
VISION
RREACH envisions changing the way One Billion Individuals think and hear about the Lord Jesus Christ, to the glory of the Father, and by the power of the Holy Spirit.
MISSION
A Global Proclamation Ministry, RREACH implements God’s calling and gifting on Ramesh Richard to promote the Lord Jesus Christ worldwide.
STRATEGY
We accelerate our global impact by the wise use and mix of personal proclamation, media outreach, and ministry training to evangelize opinion leaders, strengthen pastoral leaders, and reach large numbers of individuals, especially of Asia, Africa and Latin America.
THEME VERSE
“And many will come from east and west and from north and south, and will recline at the table in the kingdom of God.” — Luke 13:29
Thank you for helping us to RREACH into large numbers of desperate souls around our broken world with lasting solutions.
Zoom Devotional and Prayer
Join Dr. Ramesh Richard and the RREACH team during a global staff meeting on the first Monday of each month. We’ll start the staff meeting with a special 30-minute time of praying for pressing world issues. Attendees may stay for a devotional comment from Dr. Richard or an international pastor.
First Monday Monthly PRAYERREACH allows ministry friends to pray and fellowship with each other and staff.
Mark your calendar for the first Monday of each month, at 8 a.m. US Central Time. Email brooke@rreach.org to receive information about how to join the call.