Quietly passing along the gospel

Ken and Maryanne Stacey* are a couple of volunteers who live in an area with a high volume of internationals who desire to learn English. They are often in contact with a mostly male population from the 10/40 Window of Asia.

For the last 12 years, the couple has been effective by simply befriending the internationals who came to study English. Maryanne said, “We do what we as believers would consider to be normal kindnesses and then let them see the love we have for them. [They often] start to wonder why we love them when there is no ‘payback’ for us. All through this process we are open about our faith in Jesus, and we are looking for open doors to conversation about him.”

And often those doors do open. Maryanne says that when that happens, she and Ken gladly share the good news of the gospel with their “sons.” But it’s not necessarily a simple matter to do so. Many of those they interact with come from cultures very hostile to the gospel. For them to be seen with a Bible or any Christian literature could invite persecution.

So the Staceys have discovered that quietly passing Christian materials to these men via thumb drives is very effective. The couple is even careful to use a flash drive that looks discreet, so as to not draw unnecessary attention to their method of relaying the materials. In this way, they have passed on Bibles, Christian teaching, and more recently, All that the Prophets have Spoken, GoodSeed’s tool written specifically to those from an Islamic cultural background.

When they learned about All the Prophets, the Staceys desired to pass digital copies to two men they had befriended, one from Egypt and another from Yemen. One young man had been actively searching for the truth. The Staceys were thankful they could pass on All the Prophets to help answer his questions. The other gentleman was an eager-to-learn believer, actively sharing his faith with others. The Staceys hoped All the Prophets would help him be a more effective ambassador by strengthening his foundations in the gospel.

They are eager to have access to more translations of All the Prophets. While currently available in several major languages including Arabic and Farsi, they have had many opportunities where they wished they had the book in some of the other regional languages.

The reason for the Staceys’ passion to share the good news with these men was summed up by Maryanne, when she wrote, “It is a true joy to see those without hope come to faith in Jesus… [When they do], they gain that hope that we are so familiar with as believers.”

(* All names changed as per GoodSeed policy.)