ACCTSin actionTo assist in the development of Christian leaders in the armed forces of the world and in the establishment and growth of military Christian fellowships.Our MissiOn:

APRIl 2015

ACCTS staff member Rick Ryles ministered in six Southeast Asian nations in January and February, visiting mil-itary Christian fellowship (MCF) leaders and members. Three of the countries he visited could not participate in Global Interaction 2014 -- Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand – and he provided them with an ACCTS briefing and Afteraction report on the conference. Another goal was to energize all six nations to participate in the AMCF Southeast Asia Regional Conference this year, which takes place from 23-26 November in Metro Manila, Philip-pines, hosted by the Military Christian Fellowship-Singapore.

SingaporeIn Singapore, Rick discussed ongoing ministry activities with the MCF-Singapore’s chairman, executive chairman, and general secretary, as well as their wives. The Singapore fellowship has had several leadership changes in the last few years and is in a rebuilding mode. There are no restrictions on religious freedom in this extremely diverse nation, where Buddhists, Muslims, Taoists, Christians, and Hindus work side by side; however, the government is sensitive about evangelism on military bases. “Singapore’s military Christians are numerous, and the MCF has a vibrant ministry,” Rick states. “Churches in this nation do have outreaches to the young men who will do their national service, so a unique challenge the MCF has is getting people to understand the need for military fellow-ship.” MCF-Singapore has a new outreach to national service men just prior to their compulsory service and we are investigating how ACCTS can be of assistance in this new initiative. Rick gave them 25 English audio Bibles

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energized in asia Myanmar MCF prayer with Rick Ryles 2015

Courtesy of TamasMatusik, Creative Commons license, flickr.com

ACCTS IN ACTION • PAge 2 • APrIl 2015

from our partner, Faith Comes by Hearing, and will be getting more Bibles on SD cards for them to distribute in the future.

MalaysiaRick met with the president of the Malaysian MCF and nine MCF members for fellowship, encouragement, and sharing of ministry ideas. The situation for Christians in the Malaysian armed forces is different than in the past, because the per-centage of ethnicities in the armed forces has changed. Malay people, who are primar-ily Muslim, account for about 65% of the population but about 95% of the military. This has led to some limitations in how military Christians can share their faith with their co-workers. However, the MCF and an area church do have a dynamic ministry at a local navy base, and they hope to provide Bibles in Bahasa (a Malay language) to many military personnel through Faith Comes by Hearing. Rick will work with FCBH to get these to Malaysia this year. Rick also gave the MCF 20 English audio Bibles players to distribute. At Global Interaction, Rick met with Eric Martin, development manager for Alpha for Forces, and learned about Alpha’s vibrant outreach to military members through local churches in Malaysia. The Malaysian MCF was unaware of this outreach, so during this trip Rick was able to link MCF leaders with Alpha for Forces’ outreach in their nation.

ThailandAfter visiting with the chairman and general secretary of Thailand’s MPCF (Military and Po-lice), Rick learned that they have been meeting with local pastors and churches to help them understand why the MPCF exists and how their churches can be a part of military and police outreach. Rick also attended a meet-ing with military Christian police in Chiang Mai and encouraged them in their faith walk. There are several high-ranking officers who are believers, and being a Christian doesn’t hinder their careers as it does in some Asian nations. The large size of the nation does make fellow-

ship a challenge, but they have monthly gath-erings in three cities – Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, and Bangkok – which are growing and thriving. Their annual MPCF meeting will occur from 4-6 May 2015, in Chiang Mai. Rick gave them 30 Thai audio Bible players, which they have already distributed to their different groups. During this visit, Rick also met MAJ (USAF Ret) Uk Chong, a Cadence International staff member, who lives and ministers to the Thai MPCF from his home in Chiang Mai. Rick will link him into other regional AMCF activities in the future.

laos and Myanmar In Laos and Myanmar, Rick was one of the instructors in a week-long program for military Christians that ACCTS’ South Korean ministry partner, Mission Support Organization (MSO), executes each January and February in each country. These Cornelius Fellowship Disciple-ship Training courses have been held in each country for numerous years now, and MSO has done tremendous work in discipling military Christians in both these nations. Rick notes that the participants in both courses were enthusiastic -- writing notes, asking questions, and engaging in lively discussions.

Rick taught courses on inductive Bible study, conversational prayer, and personal testimony. Most Asian Christians are very receptive to these courses because they are methods not commonly used in their daily lives. “Christians

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Malaysia MCF members and Rick

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in Asian nations often live in societies which encourage people to learn at the feet of scholars, such as pastors, rather than studying and learning for themselves,” Rick shares. “The inductive Bible study method helps them study individually and in small groups. Conversational prayer then helps people hear the heart of each person in the group, thereby bonding brothers and sis-ters together. They really enjoyed using God’s Word and praying conversationally to unite them in fellowship.”

Audio Bibles have also been extremely popular in Asian nations that are audio cultures, where stories and truths are passed down through tradition and verbal storytelling. “When I passed out audio Bibles, during the breaks participants were listening to their Bibles with smiles on their faces.” Rick is working with MCF leaders and Faith Comes by Hearing to provide more audio Bibles for distribution, and states, “FCBH has been phenomenal in helping me for my trips to Central Asia and Southeast Asia. They have shipped me all Bible sticks in the translations I need for each country,” he shares. Thirty audio Bibles players were given to each of the two MCFs in their own languages of Lao and Burmese, and Rick is working with FCBH to take different dialect translations on his next trip in their countries.

Vietnam Rick met with a pastor in Hoi Chi Minh City who attended December’s Global Interaction 2014. Together they prayed and discussed how the pastor can form a fellowship group for military Christians under his church’s umbrella of ministry (a necessity in Vietnam; their group will be organized similarly to laos’ MCF). The pastor is writing up a charter for the group, which Rick helped him with, and is now working through the bureaucratic process to get approval for the group. Rick gave him 15 Vietnamese-language audio Bible players, which the pastor will distrib-ute to active-duty and retired military Christians as he interacts with them.

Praise God for the military Christians in these nations, who are faithfully living for Christ and sharing Him with others, and for our partnership with Faith Comes by Hearing, which helps us get Bibles to thousands of military Christians around the globe. Also, we are thankful for our part-ner in ministry, MSO in Korea, who have tirelessly and sacrificially ministered to the new MCFs in Asia for many years. We are also very thankful that Rick Ryles was able to fly round-trip Space A military travel to Singapore at no cost for this trip.

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Christ the Lord is risen today, sons of men and angels say.Raise your joys and triumphs high; sing, ye heavens, and earth reply.Love’s redeeming work is done -- fought the fight, the battle won.Death in vain forbids His rise, Christ hath opened paradise!--– Charles Wesley

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ACCTS prAyer reminder • April 2015

1 Easter brings with it opportunities for ACCTS staff members to share Christ with international military students in the U.S. Pray for them during this time, and pray also that more U.S. Christians will desire to befriend international military men and women who are sent to the U.S. by their gov-ernments for education and training.

2 The Jewish holiday of Passover starts tomorrow and Easter is Sunday. Pray for military and civilian believers in Israel this weekend, when the Holy City will be full of religious pilgrims from around the world.

3 Good Friday “He carried in his own body on the cross the sins we committed. He did this so that we might live in righteousness, having nothing to do with sin. By his wounds you were healed.” 1 Peter 2:25, Common English Bible

4 Many military Christians and military Christian fellowships (MCFs) will host Easter-related events this weekend to reach out to their coworkers, fam-ily, and friends. Pray that the Holy Spirit will guide and direct all these events.

5 Easter “He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.” 1 John 2:2

6 Pray with Phil Exner and Dell McDonald as they meet with U.S. chaplains this week to discuss a future Chaplain’s Interaction training program for international military chaplains.

7 Pray that military believers in Rwanda will con-tinue to make known what the Lord has done for them. Ask that they be guided daily by the Holy Spirit.

8 In Laos, military Christians meet as part of a church Bible study, which is allowable by their government. Please pray for these believers as they follow Christ in a nation where they are less than 2% of the population.

9 Pray that military Christians from Bangladesh and India will be able to participate in next year’s Cornelius Fellowship Discipleship Training cours-es (see newsletter for details).

10 Today starts the military Christian fellowship (the COV) of Germany’s yearly family conference. Pray that God will bless and encourage the COV’s leadership and all who attend. May God raise up more workers to reach the unreached in the Ger-man armed forces. 11 In March, AMCF Vice President Nestor Ogilvie and ACCTS staff member Dell McDonald visited

ACCTS Prayer ReminderApril 2015

“The future is as bright as the promises of God.” -- Adoniram Judson, missionary

military Christians in Haiti to encourage them in their faith and witness. Pray that the Haitian believers will continue to turn to the Lord as their strength, song, and salvation (Isaiah 12:2).

12 Orthodox Easter Today, Orthodox Christians celebrate the resurrection! Pray that their celebra-tions will be Spirit-led and bring others to a deeper knowledge of Christ.

13 Last month, ACCTS volunteers led cadets and midshipmen on Exploration visits to Finland, Po-land, Jamaica, and Norway. Pray that these trips will continue to encourage the MCFs and inspire participants to find ways to share their faith with their family, friends, and coworkers.

14 Military believers in Thailand are preparing for their annual meeting in May in Chaing Mai. Pray with them as they prepare for this, as well as work toward their goal of building bridges to military believers in other Asian nations to better encour-age each other.

15 Mission Support Organization in South Korea is hoping to host a sub-regional gathering with Indochina nations such as Myanmar, Laos, Thai-land, Cambodia, and Vietnam, since they have similar cultures and challenges. Pray that MSO will be led by the Spirit as they consider this pos-sibility, as well as many other ministry opportuni-ties in these nations.

16 Praise God with us for the 25th anniversary of the Military Christian Fellowship of Singapore, which they celebrated in March with a Thanksgiv-ing and Prayer Dinner! The Singapore fellowship has had leadership changes in the last few years and are in a rebuilding mode – pray for them in this regard.

17 ACCTS and our ministry partner, Faith Comes by Hearing, have been privileged to work together to distribute Bibles to military believers around the world. These Bible translations are in the Christian’s native language and are in easy-to-use formats such as memory sticks and SC cards. Pray that more opportunities will arise for sharing this important resource.

18 Praise God for the Moldovan MCF as they work to provide life’s essentials to hundreds of Ukraini-an refugees who have fled the fighting in eastern Ukraine. Pray that God will provide all their needs and that many will see Christ through the Moldo-van MCF.

19 Staff members Carson Tavenner and Ed Ward request prayer for a 20 April – 2 May journey to Beijing, Changsha, Wuhan, Shanghai and possibly Shenzhen. This trip will help Carson and Ed recon-nect and start conversations with Chinese people they have known and worked with over the years and seek the Lord’s will for future outreach plans.

20 Pray with military Christian fellowships around the world who are trying to incorporate more ministry programs for military women, military spouses, and military families.

21 Some military Christian fellowships around the world need official government recognition to exist. Pray with them as they pursue this recogni-tion and take all the steps needed to comply with national regulations.

22 Praise God that, as a result of the AMCF Global Interaction in South Africa, several MCFs are exploring ways to incorporate the model of War-rior Training -- leadership training for young men and women in the armed forces -- into their yearly programs.

23 Military believers in Philippines are busy pre-paring for this November’s AMCF Southeast Asia Regional Conference (23-26 November). Pray with them in this matter and in all other areas in which they minister in their nation.

24 Pray with Emanuela Haien, Phil Exner, and others as they plan for this summer’s Interaction-Rocky Mountain High leadership program for young international military Christians.

25 We praise God for all who faithfully support ACCTS on a regular basis. Still, ACCTS, like many other organizations, is in need of additional sup-porters who will catch the vision of partnering with us to reach military personnel around the world. Ask God, who owns the cattle on a thousand hills, to connect us with new supporters.

26 Pray with Pastor (Colonel) Lee, who works as a full-time military missionary in Cambodia. Ask for the Spirit’s guidance on all he does.

27 Japanese military Christians are preparing for an East Asia Regional Conference later this year. Please uphold them in prayer as they plan for this, and other, ministries.

28 The military Christian fellowship in Nepal cel-ebrates 10 years of ministry this year. Praise God with us for these faithful believers and ask that God continue to use them in their nation.

29 In June, our partner organization in South Korea, MSO, will host a yearly conference for Christians from nations that do not have a military Christian fellowship. As ACCTS and MMI partner with MSO at this strategic conference, ask that God open doors in these countries so that fellow-ships can be formed.

30 Pray with Phil Exner as he continues planning for this summer’s Waterloo to World War II trip in Europe.

ACCTS prAyer reminder • April 2015