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I want to share with you about a fruitful tour that occurred in North Africa last month.

The team I’ve been working with throughout central Asia the past few years, TACO, has launched a new initiative to reach students in North Africa. It’s not only a new initiative but we’re working with some key churches in a profound way.

The first TACO team to go to North Africa and launch this initiative, Unishow, of which I was a part of in Turkey this past summer, was comprised of a band, two dancers and our world champion unicyclist. They reached 13,000 people with the gospel in just 10 days, with thousands of pieces of bible literature being given out. The team experienced such an impact that even new bible studies were started up for many interested students who attended the events!

As I’ve seen many times partnering with TACO in doing creative performing arts outreach in that part of the world, throughout these recent performances in North Africa, God’s presence was felt as He did some pretty special things in many students’ lives.

At one event, a girl’s high-end smart phone had had been stolen by boy during that actual program, leaving her absolutely devastated. Sadly, she was certain to face a beating as a result. Amazingly, after the show this kid realized how much God loved him and became so convicted that he confessed to the theft and returned the phone!

In another instance, four boys snuck into the performance without paying the very minimal entrance fee. After the message, they confessed feeling God’s love, then confidently confessed to the leaders of their transgression and willingly paid their fee. According to local organizers, these acts of repentance are unheard of and a sign that God was at work in changing hearts.

Even the owner of the light and video company the equipment was rented from for the tour, a Muslim man, came to one of the events was very affected. He said he’d never seen this kind of event and this much joy before. He asked our organizer, “How did you get these people so happy?”

To my disappointment, I wasn’t able to join them, however, I was there in spirit as the team often had a giant screen with them where they showed video clips of my performance and message I developed just for the North African students.  Due to the sudden transition in sending organizations, I had to postpone my involvement in this project. However, reactions from students were great and the individual event organizers have already asked when I can come… this time in person, of course.  Seeing the wonderful work they did in organizing events, I can’t wait to serve with them!

Here’s what DW, founder of TACO and lead tour team leader shared:

“From working with Adrian Van Vactor several times over the past several years we know he will add a key component to the North Africa tour team we’ve put together. The combination of a world class illusionist with our other artists is a hard combination to beat. Added onto that is Adrian’s unique ability as one of the best communicators I’ve ever met of the greatest news that has ever hit the planet.

It was an unfortunate set of circumstances that Adrian wasn’t able to come on the first tour. What helped to redeem the situation was Adrian being able to share his art and his unique gospel illustration and message while not actually being there. Another great thing is we now have this video to use in the future as needed. It’s not the same as a “live” Adrian, but it’s the next best thing.”

I am already scheduled to be in North Africa in the fall and have eager invitations to serve in South Asia as well as partnering with TACO. In fact, I was invited to join the team for tour 2 in North Africa as early as February! Planning is already under way. You can see some of the excitement in the event hosts towards the end of the video above.

DW went on to say,

“We hadn’t been to North Africa for years and we wanted to move forward knowing that we we’re not just doing glorified entertainment but something on the cutting edge for the kingdom. After doing this ministry for 20 years in many countries, our ground team event hosts were the best national ground team we’d ever worked with. They had a vision to reach the whole country and are organized for the long term to work with us.

You don’t know how wonderful it is to work with the largest “Christian” church entity in the Middle East/North Africa. This is unprecedented and a key evangelical presence in North Africa. I was amazed that we were able to obtain such a key connection in such an un-reached part of the world. So, that gives me another reason I’m totally behind Adrian’s focus and ministry. Unlike many ministries and churches, he has a heart to focus on the most un-reached peoples in the world.”

It seems, for international projects, my efforts in reaching the nations is not going to pause in the least, but I need your support to continue this work.

Here are just a few of the projects your support will allow me to accomplish in 2016:

• International Ministry Outreach – North Africa and South Asia
• Operation Armor – Youth training workshop to help equip teens to defend their faith when they reach college
• Secrets of the Supernatural Exposed – I’m writing a book along with Dr. Don Bierle, President of FaithSearch International.
• Outreach events throughout the U.S. with a focus on youth and college students.

Join the 35/35 Team

My goal is to reach $2,200 in monthly support by the end of 2015. I am 45% of the way there! That’s exciting.

I need 35 new monthly partners to reach my goal. I would like to invite you to be a vital part of what God is going to accomplish through my ministry with FaithSearch in the coming year. Would you prayerfully consider making $35 monthly commitment so that I can continue sharing the gospel with evidence with thousands of people around the world?

Of course, your monthly commitment of any amount is deeply appreciated.

Thank you for reading and have a blessed Christmas!

The post Hearts convicted and lives changed in North Africa appeared first on Adrian Van Vactor International Ministries.

The best laid schemes of Mice and Men, they say.

It’s easy to plan a long vacation or just a weekend family get-away and find Murphey’s law creating some good tests to your patience. When planning a mission, on the other hand, for some reason I tend to think, “I’m doing this for you God. Everything should go just as planned. Right Lord…. Lord?”

Unfortunately, even the most worthy of causes are not immune to the laws of human error and chance.  I might add, the closer you follow God’s way, the more of a threat you are to the enemy and his futile schemes.  So begins my fourth visit to Turkey.

There was nothing unusual about the long journey to Istanbul. In the over 40 missions I’ve been on, one thing I’ve been fortunate to rely on are those faithful men and women who handle and guide my equipment (insert sarcasm) from flight to flight. I’ve actually never missed a program due to a delayed bag and I’ve never had an airline tell me that they lost my luggage. I guess my time had come.

My flight landed at midnight. As the belts and gears stopped running, I thought to myself, surely my baggage is just one of the last bags to come out of the mouth of this metal luggage dragon (I was tired). Nope. Surely it will be on the next flight the following afternoon? Nope. Surely one of the 4 or 5 flights arriving that evening? Nope. How about the next morning after that… I digress.

After keeping my ride, whom I’ve never met, waiting for over 2 hours as I made my way through immigration, lost luggage claims, and customs, I was surprised to see him still there as I exited the customs area. He was so tired (it’s now after 2 am) he got us on the wrong bus going in the opposite direction for, what should have been, an hour or so long journey to his uncle’s house.

Exhausted from being up for over 35 hours without a full night’s sleep, as soon as I walked in, uncle Safak said in his broken English, “ok, we leave in one hour for airport to meet team and fly.”  “No equipment!” I replied.  Both exhausted, we shrugged it off and went to bed and I didn’t meet the team. But, there was still time to catch a later flight alone and not miss any programs since that next day was just a travel and debrief day.

Anxious and truly anticipating to find my luggage, I made my way back to the airport thinking to myself, well, surely they at least know where my luggage is? And once again… Nope. “We lost your luggage sir”, said the metal dragon keeper with his thick Turkish accent.  “Okay God… no props, no show, no tour.” My thoughts naturally wandered to suppose that I needed to confess some sin. And maybe I didn’t pray enough before I left and instead spent too much time rushing to have everything ready. Whatever the case may be, this is obviously not God’s will, so, “Lord, I come before you right now….” And on goes my feeble attempt to appeal to the Lord to send his metal airport dragon slaying angels to come and subdue the greedy tin beast to relinquish the treasure that is my show… to no avail.

The next two days were all but debriefing and performing as planned. Instead I sat, alone, tired and discouraged at the airport Starbucks or Popeye’s chicken. Yep, they have those here.

Tragedy  Strikes

Meanwhile, in a galax… err, city, far, far away (about a 3 hour flight), called Diyabakir, the rest of the team had been forced to retreat and remain indoors. You can read about that story and update here.  Needless to say, the city was on edge, and the host community of believers thought it wise to cancel the two days of events we had scheduled.  This gave me more time to retrieve my luggage!

Back in Istanbul, after two days of sitting in the airport, my equipment finally arrived! I honestly thought it was gone for good. I kicked the luggage dragon in the head and headed for the domestic airport terminal.

Wait a sec, “how am I going to pay for another airline ticket?” I recalled the night I was with uncle Safak when I asked him what would happen to the ticket they had already purchased for me. He simply blew into his hand and said “it flies away”.

At this VERY SAME time, a dear brother in Germany whom I’ve known for many years (he has even hosted tours for me there) sent me a gift via paypal in Euro’s that more than exceeded the cost of the extra plane ticket. I jumped on the next flight at 1 am to meet the team in Diyarbakir from where we continued our journey to the next schedule city of Mardin. I didn’t miss a thing, except the fellowship I would have had, had I been with the team since the start. I was exhausted and hadn’t had a real night’s sleep in about 4 days.

Just before I got on the plane, I received this message from a dear brother from my home church who was completely unaware of my situation at the time he sent it:

“Adrian… I’m praying for you and wanted to remind you that we serve a God who works at His own pace. He’s never in a hurry even in the times we’d like Him to be, and yet always accomplishes the things He wants to do. And knowing both His pacing and patience in equal measure it’s important to know the things He’s doing in our lives aren’t being delayed.  Just like the things He’s created grow at a very gradual pace and the trees He made produce fruit very slowly, He does this to remind us of how patient He truly is. Not only proving His mercy toward our mistakes, but the assurance of knowing the good and beautiful things He started in our lives will be worth the wait to see when finally in bloom. All we have to do is trust Him and preserve those crops”.

Needless to say, I was encouraged and heard exactly what I already sensed in my heart.

Now that we’ve been on tour, looking back, my situation was trivial and pretty much had little to no bearing on the tour, or at least nothing I could change, anyway.  I was on time, all my needs were met, and we are sharing the gospel with those who truly have never heard.

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Headline….  Turkey coal mine disaster: Desperate search at Soma pit

That was the news as I sat in my room in Istanbul last year prepping to do an extensive tour in many cities throughout the country. In the end, 301 deaths and a time of mourning. The results were a cancellation of nearly half of our events. We had to improvise, since music or “entertainment” of any kind in public would have been considered offensive during a nationwide grieving time.

In the end, we still had a fruitful time despite the challenges. There were even instances that the tragedy brought a very noticeable awareness of our mortality as I shared the gospel, making the message about the need for salvation for eternity all the more captivating it seemed.

Today, I’m on my way for my fourth visit to Turkey with the goal and hope to continue making an impact for Christ in one of the most un-reached countries in the world. I’ll be traveling with a world champion unicyclist (husband and wife team) as well as some other talented artists to do another national variety arts outreach tour, June 10-24.

I’ll be partnering with the same group, Taco, as I have in the past couple of years, whose focus is primarily on the Muslim world. After the gospel message at the end of our program, we always invite our audiences to enroll in a bible correspondence course specifically written for a Muslim audience. The follow up strategy is great!

As I’m prepping for the tour, I get an email from the tour director with this link to another headline:
Two dead, 100 hurt in blasts at Kurdish rally in Turkey

I’m seeing a trend here. I know the enemy is de-toothed and de-clawed, but, he still roams. Perhaps this is coincidence or perhaps there is more to it than that. One thing I know, our battle is not against flesh and blood.  So, please pray for our tour as it starts on Thursday. Our first two days are, yep, you guessed it, DIYARBAKIR, where the bombings just took place.

I am not afraid, or even worried. I trust the Lord to keep us safe for the sake of the gospel to go out. I’ve not worked with a bolder, more faithful group in this part of the world. It’s always a privilege.  However, as I said, the enemy roams… but our Lord God is on the Throne, and prayer is where a large part of the battle is.
Pray that:

• Venues would not cancel our events
• Health and strength for us performers
• For the follow-up teams to keep in touch with those who are responding to the grace and call of the Holy Spirit to come to faith
• And for clarity on how to connect and share Christ with our audiences.

UPDATE: The night before our first program, more violence occurred and we ended up having to cancel our first two programs in and leave Diyarbakir and head for our next city. Thank you for your prayers.

Thank you for your support and partnership in making projects like these possible.

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