Hope from the Edges
Watch the latest stories of what God is doing in South East Asia, Paraguay and Tanzania.
Come to the edges with us
Imagine living for over 25 years in the shadow of violent conflict. Where could you go? Who could you turn to? Our spring appeal focuses on the people of DR Congo who are finding hope and peace, thanks to the Church.
Find out more about the stories mentioned in this month’s Hope from the Edges:
From cleaning homes to building churches
Asia-CMS partners are equipping new leaders where followers of Jesus are a minority
Be sure to receive Hope from the Edges every time!
More stories you may like:
Video transcript
Hello everyone and welcome to Hope from the Edges. I’m Andy Roberts, CEO for CMS.
In the next few minutes, we’ll bring you inspiring news from three edges in our world. Stories that you are making possible through your gifts and prayers.
First, we will go to South East Asia for the story of an inspiring woman who is reaching her village with the love of Jesus.
From there we’ll go to Paraguay. And celebrate one mission partner’s remarkable 44 years of service and a linguistic legacy that will live on for generations to come.
Finally, we’ll go to Tanzania and zoom in on places where it’s tough to be a Christian, and we’ll meet our newest mission partners who are preparing to serve there.
First, meet Grace, whose name we’ve changed for security reasons.
Grace grew up in a remote village in a jungle area of South East Asia. When she was seven years old, Grace’s grandfather told her about Jesus. At age 14, Grace left school to help her family farm rice. A few years later, she signed on with a housekeeping agency and went to Malaysia to work for a family there. Though the housekeeping agency tried to take Grace’s Bible away from her, the family she worked for fought for her to keep it.
Over the next few years, she grew in her faith, through praying and reading her precious Bible. After several years of working in Malaysia, Grace felt the Lord telling her to return to her country for something new.
Back in her village, she worked odd jobs for the next two years, and looked for God’s purpose in bringing her back home. Grace got involved in her local church, and she realised how deeply the people in her district needed Jesus. She began praying that God would use her.
In 2025, church leaders offered her training to help her become more effective in her ministry. This is how Grace met Patrick, whose name we’ve also changed for security reasons. Patrick is an Asia-CMS partner who works with a local institute, training local mission workers and rural church leaders in discipleship, evangelism, and church planting.
Following her training, Grace returned to her village. Today, Grace is a pastor and is training 25 leaders in her church for mission and ministry. She also travels to other villages to share the good news of Jesus and work with local children and young people.
God is using CMS partners in Asia to transform vast numbers of lives across the region.
Now let’s go to the Chaco region of Paraguay where mission partner Tim Curtis is now retiring after an amazing 44 years in mission among Indigenous peoples.
Tim has spent 44 years helping translate the Bible into the Énxet languages and supporting the Indigenous Énxet people to interact with God’s Word. Tim first went to Paraguay in the early 1980s, teaching at Indigenous and Government schools.
He soon became involved in Bible translation, supporting a team of three indigenous translators to revise the Southern Énxet New Testament and translate the Old Testament from scratch. After many years’ hard work, the full Southern Énxet Bible was launched in 2016. In Tim’s words, “from start to finish it was surprising, even miraculous, how different people from different organisations, churches and institutions came together for the translation.”
In the years that followed, Tim and others worked to help people engage with the word through producing an audio version of the Southern Énxet Bible and dubbing the Jesus film into the language.
A related language group, the Northern Enlhet, also needed help translating the Bible into their language. In 2018, Tim joined their Bible translation team part-time as a consultant and continues support them from the UK even now. Northern Enlhet speakers hope to celebrate the completion of the Bible in their language in the late 2020s.
We’re so thankful for Tim’s hard work and the invaluable linguistic legacy that will live on among Indigenous peoples in Paraguay, empowering them for generations to come.
Now it’s my great pleasure and privilege to introduce to you our newly selected mission partners, Dave and Tricia Rollett, preparing to swap their life in the East Midlands for East Africa.
We believe God is calling Dave and Tricia’s family to Tanzania to support Christians who are in a minority to grow in their faith and work together to be a loving witness to their neighbours of other faiths.
They are hoping to move to Zanzibar this August so that they can get stuck into discipleship, partnership building and more as quickly as possible. We have faith that God will provide the money for them to move in this short time frame.
Could God be calling you to support the mission work they’ll be involved in? Dave and Tricia are featured partners in CMS’s Global Edge Church programme. This means if you sign up to support them, you’ll also be supporting other mission partners and local partners who are quipping and encouraging where followers of Jesus are in a minority. Go to churchmissionsociety.org/rollett to find out more.
And be sure to check the Trek for Tanzania sponsored challenge Dave will be doing, walking the length of Zanzibar to raise support.
Lastly, May is our recruitment month. Could God be calling you to go to the edges with CMS globally or locally? Go to churchmissionsociety.org/serve to discover more about how you could go to the edges with CMS.
Well, thank you all for joining me for these stories from the edges and for your prayerful support which makes them possible.
Please share this video with your church, small group or anyone you think could use some fuel for their faith.
Until next time, we are so grateful for your gifts and prayers as together we go:
With Jesus
With each other
To the edges
ENDS
Be sure to receive Hope from the Edges every time!
