Editor’s note: Some names have been changed for security reasons.

When Ruth visited Fran in summer 2023, Ruth didn’t expect to end up in the hospital, fighting for her life.

International Mission Board missionaries Wade and Catherine Hampton have seen God work in Southeast Asia, but they don’t always see Him work through an attempted murder. This story is one they shared with Southern Baptists, asking for prayer.

Ruth met Fran at a park earlier that year, and despite Fran’s initial friendliness, their relationship became complicated when Fran discovered Ruth was a Christian. Raised in radical Islam, Fran grew up hating Christians, and she began avoiding Ruth.

However, Ruth didn’t give up. She still occasionally saw Fran, always trying to steer their conversations toward God. Eventually Fran invited Ruth to her home, an opportunity Ruth approached with caution and prayer.

While visiting Fran’s home, Ruth felt nervous, but her husband, Matt, encouraged her to pray and trust God. The visit went smoothly, and Ruth shared more about the gospel with Fran. Days later, Ruth and her family stopped by Fran’s for an evening visit. As they were leaving, Fran offered them tea. Ruth, not wanting to reject Fran’s hospitality, accepted.

Three hours later, Ruth awoke with sharp pains in her stomach that kept getting worse. The pain made her dizzy and she could barely walk. At daybreak, Matt rented a car and took her to the hospital. Before they left, he asked other Christians to pray.

The first hospital wouldn’t serve Ruth because she was a Christian. Same for the second. This is unfortunately common for Southeast Asians who are living boldly for Jesus in a region hostile to the gospel.

Ruth was unconscious when her husband rushed her to a third hospital. Thankfully, they accepted her.

After three days in a coma, Ruth woke up in the hospital to sounds of her family praising God. They didn’t think she would live.

“The doctor was confident I was poisoned,” Ruth said.

The type of poison they found in Ruth’s body is commonly used in murder among a local tribe. The doctor asked if they knew anyone who wanted to poison her.

“Jesus taught to forgive and pray for our enemies … God had forgiven me so I could show love to others.”

Ruth was shocked. That was Fran’s tribe. The tea—it had almost killed her. And the woman had even offered some to Matt and their 2-year-old daughter. The girl’s small body wouldn’t have survived had she accepted it. Ruth was filled with anger.

“However, I remembered Jesus taught to forgive and pray for our enemies,” Ruth said. “I knew God had forgiven me and saved me so I could show love to others.”

Ruth contacted IMB missionaries, asking them to pray for her and for Fran. They shared Ruth’s prayer request with Southern Baptists in fall 2023 through IMB’s prayer channels, and soon, people from around the world prayed for Fran’s salvation.

As Ruth recovered, she and Matt struggled with doubts about staying on the island. They experienced persecution before, but this was different. They prayed with other Christians and ultimately felt led to stay, trusting God would strengthen them and provide for their needs. Ruth forgave Fran, but it wasn’t easy.

“At times things are still hard,” Ruth said. “I have side effects from the poisoning that will last a lifetime.”

Ruth’s forgiveness came from her love for Jesus. Over time, she became increasingly burdened for Fran, asking God to grant her salvation so Fran would know God’s love. Ruth was confident that if Fran knew such a love, her heart would break for her sin.

Over a year later, Fran’s adult daughter reached out to Ruth and Matt, asking for prayer because her mom was sick in the hospital.

Ruth and her family spent two days with Fran and her family, sharing the gospel. Fran seemed different. She eventually admitted to trying to kill Ruth. Fran also acknowledged that God healed Ruth. However, Fran still didn’t choose to follow Christ.

The next day, Fran’s daughter texted Ruth, saying Fran wanted to be cleansed of her sin and darkness. She wanted to follow Jesus. Fran’s daughter asked if Ruth could return quickly and bring a Bible because Fran’s son wanted to read it.

Ruth and her family rushed to Fran’s bedside, eager to share the gospel one final time. On the way, Ruth asked Christians around the world to pray for Fran to trust in Christ once and for all. The Hamptons shared the request with their prayer partners.

Fran died the next day, but not before repenting of her sin and placing her faith in Jesus. Like the thief on the cross in Luke 23, Fran entered paradise that very day.

This article first appeared on IMB’s website.

Editor’s note: During Hispanic Heritage Month, the IMB is highlighting the contribution of Hispanics to global missions and celebrating the growing number of Hispanic churches committed to reaching the nations. Resources about Hispanic church missions efforts are available through the IMB.

“We did not go to work. We went to see God at work, and praise God that He used us beyond what we could do for His glory,” Annel Robayna said. 

Robayna, who serves as IMB’s Hispanic church mobilization strategist, recently traveled with church leaders and members of Hispanic churches in the U.S. to serve alongside Hispanic missionaries Adam and Janene Rios. The Rioses serve with the IMB in Southeast Asia.

During their two-week trip, 130 people heard the gospel, and 57 decided to follow Jesus.

In the Hispanic community, most people won’t sign up for a volunteer trip simply because they see it listed on a website, Robayna said. Personal connection is what motivates people to serve.

Robayna connected over a phone call with one of the volunteers on the trip to Southeast Asia. He met two other volunteers at an event in Texas and already had a relationship with another.

The perspective Robayna seeks to instill in churches and church members is a mindset of “What can I do?” “What can I bring to the table?”

He tells leaders and church members they can bring their “yes” to the table and then “be ready to see God at work.”

Stories that change lives

“Let me tell you about a story that changed my life, and it’s changing other people’s lives too.”

The Rioses, national pastors and other Spanish-speaking missionaries began conversations with this invitation, and the volunteers followed suit. After hearing the story, listeners were given the chance to respond.

In addition to national believers who translated, several missionaries from Spanish-speaking countries translated directly from Spanish to the local language for the volunteers who only spoke Spanish.

An older Muslim man with a military background was one of the 57 people who made decisions of faith.

He had trouble understanding God’s forgiveness because of his military background. He killed people under the orders of his superiors. Robayna shared about the forgiveness Jesus gives, no matter someone’s history.

After Robayna finished sharing, the older man rose from his chair and, with some effort, walked across the room and grabbed Robayna’s hand in a posture of respect. As tears flowed, Robayna and Southeast Asian believers prayed for him. His daughter-in-law also decided to commit her life to Christ.

The trip to Southeast Asia was the first mission trip where Andrea, from Louisiana, didn’t know the language and where she shared the gospel with mainly adults, many much older.

At one point on the trip, a flood of anxiety and fear poured over her, and negative thoughts swarmed in her mind. “Why would older and wiser people struggling with difficult things want to listen to me share the gospel?”

As she pondered that thought, Andrea prayed for the Lord to use her according to His will. She soon realized God can use even the smallest things in life for His plan. It didn’t matter how old she was to tell people what God did in her life and how He changed her.

“There’s no age limit to go out and share the gospel,” Andrea said. “All those people needed was for someone to come and plant a mustard seed, and God will handle the rest.”

God used her testimony to lead someone to place their hope in Christ. Andrea said the Lord empowered her to share the gospel in ways she never could have without Him.

From relationships to partnerships

Every time Robayna takes a volunteer team to places where IMB missionaries are working, the hope is for the volunteers to discover the needs, explore opportunities for partnership, learn about the IMB team’s strategy and return to mobilize their churches to take trips individually.

The next step is partnerships. Robayna is there to help, but the idea is for them to work directly with the IMB missionaries once the churches have a connection. A relationship with a missionary overseas has the potential to improve the partnership. Robayna explained if there isn’t a relationship, they will look elsewhere.

One woman on the trip had no previous connection to the IMB. She’d been praying about how to get involved in missions. After the trip, the Lord confirmed He wanted her to return to Southeast Asia to serve. She’s making plans to return to serve with the Rios family.

Carlos, a pastor and leader among Louisiana Baptists, said he’s been on trips to the country before, but this trip was the most productive, largely because of the missionary presence. His church had been searching for missionaries to partner with, and after meeting Adam and Janene, they decided this was the partnership they’d been waiting for.

A leader from Texas was discipled by the Rioses and will return this fall on a volunteer trip.

Robayna said, in general, ethnic churches focus on ministering to their ethnic groups. His prayer is for more churches to catch the vision for international missions, go beyond cultural preferences, and be open to taking the gospel to places where they don’t speak the language or know the culture.

Some names have been changed for security.

“We can’t control the results, but we can measure our faithfulness,” said Jason Harris, team leader for the International Mission Board’s Paris team, explaining its strategy for gospel outreach during the 2024 Summer Olympic Games.

Part of that strategy includes facilitating and mobilizing more than 300 short-term volunteers to hit the streets of Paris sharing the gospel.

The team Harris leads in Paris is young and growing. No team members have been there longer than a few years. They are united around a common vision to make Christ known among Europeans and a long-term goal to plant five churches in Paris over the next five years.

Harris explained that short-term volunteers are vital to sharing the gospel broadly and making connections that will catalyze their local church-planting strategy and lead to longevity.

Each week of Olympics outreach, volunteers are focused on sharing the gospel within specific geographical and cultural segments of Paris. They are using a number of creative strategies as entry points for evangelism and have invited local French churches to work alongside them.

“My prayer has been that the outreach for the Olympics would be a launching point for church planting in the city,” Harris said.

Ultimately, the harvest is in God’s hands. They have already witnessed God drawing people to Himself through volunteer efforts this summer.

Zach Beasley, campus minister at Alabama State University and Tuskegee University—two historically black colleges in Alabama—led a team of six students to join a week of pre-Olympic outreach to Paris in May.

One thing the students didn’t expect was the spiritual darkness they felt almost immediately on arrival in the “City of Light.” Beasley said more than anything this trip has motivated them to pray for missionaries and their long-term presence on the mission field.

“We realized to really make a lasting impact, you have to be there for years,” Beasley said. “It takes years for boundaries to be broken down and relationships built.”

The team from Alabama spent eight days passing out water bottles, prayer walking, distributing flyers and doing spiritual surveys.

“The work we did with the local church was very familiar to our students. It’s the same thing we do on campus, going out and sharing the gospel,” Beasley said. “We collaborate and build the local church, and I loved seeing that reiterated here for our students.”

At the end of the week, Beasley and his team were excited to see many people they had given flyers to show up for an outreach event at a local church.

“We were praying they would come, and they actually did,” Beasley said.

IMB missionary Diane In came to Paris from a nearby country where she lives to help with the Olympic outreach. She joined a group of 90 volunteers partnering with local Chinese-French churches. On their first day, they handed out more than 1,000 portions of Scripture in French, had 300 gospel conversations, and saw several professions of faith.

The missionary shared how she has seen God provide divine appointments for the gospel. At the end of one day, In and one volunteer—a Chinese pastor from the U.S.—sat next to some members of the Chinese press on their way back to the hotel. The pastor gave one of the men a custom-designed pin and shared the gospel with him. On their way out of the station, they ran into two more members of the Chinese press—a man and a woman—who were lost and asked for directions. As the pastor gave directions to the woman, In pulled out another pin and shared the gospel with the man.

Brant Bauman, a digital engagement strategist for the IMB, gave an exciting update on the first round of virtual volunteers and their strategy to extend on-the-ground evangelism. Bauman said digital responders around the world are getting exactly the kind of interaction they have been hoping and praying for. Volunteers are serving on a week-long virtual mission trip where they’ll be on call to answer chat requests.

“It’s a strange thing to say, but the volume on my computer is turned up and there is a little chime that goes off roughly every 30 seconds,” Bauman said. “Normally that would drive anyone mad, but not tonight, because that is the sound of new people responding to our online ads and reaching out to us. Better yet, it’s the sound of doors being opened and the gospel being proclaimed by so many digital responders scattered all over the world.”

Bauman added that despite challenging discussions, team members are excited and bold in their interactions. “We have already seen countless prayers responded to, quite a few spiritual conversations and gospel shares, and some that have expressed a desire to meet up face-to-face and find a church.”

Harris asked for prayer as their team begins to follow up with new contacts in Paris.

“The number of connections made could be really challenging to follow up with effectively,” he said. “Pray that, ultimately, people become disciples of Jesus and don’t just hear the gospel once.”