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It Is Written Missions: Miracles & Answered Prayer in Costa Rica

In March 2021, It Is Written conducted two mission trips to Costa Rica. The two groups went to a small countryside town called Las Juntas de Abangares to build a church, conduct medical clinics, and hold evangelistic meetings. Members from churches in Tennessee, California, and Washington, teachers and students from a church academy from Greeneville, Tennessee, and even our very own evangelism assistant, Maria Rayburn, and her 12-year-old daughter Gabriella were able to join in the trips. 

After months of planning and with 2020 behind them, the volunteers were beyond excited for this trip. After a four-hour flight, the team landed safely in Liberia, Costa Rica, and quickly removed their sweaters! From Liberia, the team traveled to Las Juntas de Abangares where they were greeted by howler monkeys in the trees right outside their hotel. 

Morning came rather quickly, courtesy of fruit bats outside the hotel windows. Shortly after breakfast, the team started work at the church building site. Some moved dirt while others raked it to level it out. They leveled the foundation and began building walls. The team needed a compactor to complete the floors, but there was nothing available to rent in the entire country. So the team prayed. The local pastor was driving to another town to see if they had a compactor when he happened to see one in someone’s yard. He stopped and asked if the owner would rent it—and he did! What a miracle.

The sun was extremely hot with temps usually above 90, and the team was so grateful for the daily lunch served at the church elder’s home. Next to his home is a small hut with a tin roof which serves as the local church. The local church community was extremely grateful for the work put in by the mission volunteers to build an actual church building.

Every night the group split up into small groups to do evangelism and maintain social distance. Maria was able to translate the meetings from English into Spanish. At one of the meetings, four children stepped forward in response to an appeal inviting Jesus into their lives and hearts. The students gave a health talk, told a children’s story, and shared a sermon that they wrote from their study in Steps to Christ.

During the day, another part of the team held free vision and medical clinics. The missionaries saw almost 750 patients, dispensed hundreds of pairs of glasses, and helped many people with joint pain and general health. Patients were given Steps to Christ in Spanish and invited to the evening meetings.

On one particular night, shortly after finishing the evening meeting, a church member came to Dr. Gordon Guild and said she was not feeling well. Dr. Guild examined her and believed she may have had a minor stroke. Dr. Guild and the rest of the team prayed over her that night. By the next morning, she was feeling much better and was back in the kitchen. Praise God for His blessings upon this woman!

Toward the end of the trip, rain was predicted just before the church floor needed to be poured. The students worked hard to complete their prep work before the rain moved in, and then they started praying. The following day, God held off the rain—it rained all around the team but not at the work site—until the floor was poured and walls finished. And then the heavens let loose. As the rain fell, the team reflected on the power of the Holy Spirit that had also been poured out during their time in Costa Rica. The people who had attended the evening meetings now had a place to worship, pain had been relieved, sight given, and hearts had made decisions for eternal life. These were mission trips for eternity. 

It Is Written is planning more mission trips for 2022. Please check itiswritten.com/missiontrips for updates as travel restrictions are reduced.

New It Is Written Series, Next Level Health, to Start April 23

It Is Written is pleased to announce its new online evangelistic series, Next Level Health. Join Pastor John Bradshaw and health experts from around the country as they share practical ways to enhance every area of a person’s life: physical, mental, and spiritual. Next Level Health runs April 23-29. Register and watch at nextlevelhealth.life

Next Level Health is the latest series in ACTS 20:21, the It Is Written full-cycle evangelism program for both churches and individuals. This series is designed to meet people where they are and address concerns heightened by the current pandemic. 

The seven-day series will be especially effective for churches reaching out to their local communities with practical life-changing health principles and for people witnessing to family and friends. Featuring physicians and medical experts and presented in a dynamic, magazine-style format, Next Level Health will cover hot-button health topics such as boosting immunity, improving mental performance, increasing energy, enhancing relationships, and promoting emotional wellbeing. 

“Last year we hosted Take Charge of Your Health and thousands participated.” Pastor John Bradshaw, It Is Written president, said. “When we asked those viewers how It Is Written could best help them reach their health goals, almost 50 percent asked for a follow-up series. So here we are!” 

After Next Level Health, ACTS 20:21 continues with a prayer series, an online Bible studies series, and a full-cycle evangelistic series all available virtually and with interactive and local follow up by It Is Written-trained church members.

“This is a new day for evangelism,” Pastor Yves Monnier, It Is Written director of evangelism, said. “People’s hearts are open right now, and church members are excited. They are able to engage with people who may never have attended an in-person meeting, but barriers are broken down through virtual outreach.”  

Register and watch the series at nextlevelhealth.life. Tell your church and community about it by using advertising resources available at itiswritten.com/rtresources. Learn more about the It Is Written full-cycle evangelism series, ACTS 20:21, at acts2021.com.

And That’s a Wrap: It Is Written Online Evangelistic Series Hope Awakens Concludes with Thousands of Responses for Christ

The media production team and Pastor John Bradshaw

The production team behind Hope Awakens poses together in the It Is Written studio after the completion of the series.

Hope Awakens, a global, online evangelistic series recently conducted by It Is Written, concluded May 16. The series of twenty, sixty-minute, livestreamed meetings began April 17. That was to be the date when Revelation Today started in a number of cities in Indiana, including Indianapolis. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, those in-person meetings were canceled, but within a matter of days It Is Written was planning a virtual series that would reach all of North America and the world.

The meetings aired on hopeawakens.org, itiswritten.tv, Facebook, Roku, YouTube, LifeTalk Radio, Apple TV, Google Play, Amazon Fire, and through the It Is Written mobile app. More than one million people reacted to the social media advertising campaign. Almost three quarters of a million people responded to It Is Written directly. Tens of thousands of people registered to attend Hope Awakens. Over 3,500 people made decisions for Christ during the meetings and are being mentored by volunteers from the 600 churches who signed up to be a part of the initiative. 

Many attendees of Hope Awakens are attending local virtual communities to continue their studies with Bible workers who received special training by the It Is Written SALT (Soul-winning And Leadership Training) team. Attendees have also been invited to attend Take Charge of Your Health, the new It Is Written virtual, one-week series starting June 22.  

Stories are pouring in from people blessed by Hope Awakens:

Denise worked on a cruise ship and was quarantined on board the ship off the Florida coast after a crew member was diagnosed with COVID-19. Denise found It Is Written online and discovered Hope Awakens. She began watching and looking into the Bible to study the texts that were being shared.

Denise’s sister wrote, “She loved the presentations and learned so much and was fascinated to learn about how the Sabbath was changed. In fact, she was angry when she discovered this truth, knowing what God says had been kept from her for so long. Internet troubles prevented her from filling out an online decision card, so she emailed her decision to an online Bible worker who sent her decision to It Is Written! On May 2, 2020, right on the ship, she kept her first Sabbath, and she did the same the following week. What a God!”

Another viewer wrote, “During the past four years, I’ve been praying for my son Chris, who struggles with addiction. He’s been watching the Hope Awakens meetings every night and requested that I call him after each meeting to pray with him. One night, his girlfriend, (who also struggles with addiction) asked to join us and tearfully surrendered her heart to Jesus while praying. Last night I heard my son pray for the first time. I am so thankful for these meetings. Jesus is changing my son’s life, and I’ve been given the privilege to witness it!”

 “Last year my church started a community garden,” said a third viewer. “We invited community gardeners to join our weekly Bible study, and two attended. One man went through the whole series of lessons and attended church once. We invited him to watch Hope Awakens. He did, and he made decisions. We just voted him into church fellowship on the profession of faith during our online church service.”

One of our Bible workers dropped off a Mother’s Day gift and the book Steps to Christ to someone watching the meetings. The recipient shared, “I think I clicked on Hope Awakens because I was depressed, and now God is answering my prayers.”  

That was the point of Hope Awakens: to awaken hope in our Savior. To give people in an uncertain world a certain hope. 

In addition to being streamed in American Sign Language, Hope Awakens has been translated and shared in seven Indian languages. Meetings are also being held in French, Italian, and several languages for refugee groups in the United States. Pastor Robert Costa just completed a companion series in Spanish, and the meetings in English are being aired in New Zealand and Australia. 

If you watched Hope Awakens, please take the short follow-up survey: iiw.us/has. Archives of the meetings are available on demand at hopeawakens.org. The new It Is Written virtual series, Take Charge of Your Health, will begin June 22. Registration may be completed at takecharge.life.

It Is Written Spared From Tornado Days Before Global Evangelism Initiative

A tornado touched down just feet away from the It Is Written ministry headquarters in Collegedale, Tennessee, early Monday, April 13. Reports of power outages, missing persons, and deaths filled local news reports Monday morning. 

The It Is Written offices were running on generator power Monday. When staff went to check on the building, they were met with debris all over the parking lot and hundreds of trees snapped in half all around the building. Power was restored to the building Tuesday.

“Miraculously, the building was spared,” shared Pastor John Bradshaw, It Is Written president. “It became clear when we looked at drone footage that tornadoes had come through on either side of our ministry home. They flattened trees along two distinct paths before lifting just yards short of a nursing home and a dental practice. We’re extremely grateful to God, and we are praying for those families and businesses that have experienced devastating loss. We were spared from what would have been a disaster. Literally a few feet in either direction and things would be very different today.”

The storm came just days before It Is Written is set to begin Hope Awakens, a virtual online evangelistic series. As of Thursday, April 16, over 40,000 people had registered for the live event, which begins Friday, April 17 at 7:00 p.m. Eastern Time. Registrations continue to pour in. 

“We are trusting God to get us up and running in time for the meetings,” Pastor Bradshaw said. “God knows how urgent it is that people hear hope and certainty, when there is so little in the world right now.”

Pastor John Bradshaw will be the featured speaker during Hope Awakens, which will livestream online and on mobile apps. Registration for the series can be completed at www.hopeawakens.com.

It Is Written Missions: Belize Update

In late February, 27 students and teachers from Jefferson Christian Academy in Jefferson, Texas left for the country of Belize on their first It Is Written mission trip. They didn’t know what to expect, but they were excited. From freshman to seniors, the group was ready to work. And they worked hard. 

Belize is a small, lush Central American country squeezed between Mexico, Guatemala, and the Caribbean Sea. In February, the weather is beautiful: warm in the day and cool at night. The students were welcomed with open arms and quickly learned to love the local fare–beans and rice. 

The students made their two-week home at the La Loma Luz Hospital and set out to make friends for Jesus. Several of the students were assigned to build housing at the hospital–a project that has seen very gradual progress over the past three years. In just a few days, they made record progress. A mechanic and fellow student leader repaired several local vehicles, shared some of his trade tricks, and left some of his tools so that more repairs could be made. 

Pila, the academy’s boys dean and trip leader, knew this trip would be different. For the first time, the students were going to be preaching some of the three evangelistic meetings taking place in the evenings. Joined by the mission team choir and equipped with It Is Written media slides and notes, the students prepared to share what they believed in English and Spanish. 

One meeting took place in a tent across the street from a city park filled with young people, loud music, and alcohol. One night, as the students preached, a man approached Pila and asked him about Daniel 11. Pila could smell the alcohol on his breath as the man shared that he had been baptized 45 years before. Pila saw him the next night, listening from under a tree across the street. He prayed that hope was being planted in the man’s heart again. 

During the day, the student choir provided a Vacation Bible School program at a nearby grade school. The teachers took a needed break while the It Is Written mission team sang songs, played games, shared stories, and made friends. Nathan caught the eye of Erian, one of the grade school students. Just seven years old, Erian came from a broken home. When things were not going well at home, his mother would pack him a bag and send him out to the street until the police would pick him up.

Nathan and Erian soon became inseparable. At the end of the two weeks in Belize, the team planned an outing to tube some caves and do zip lining. Nathan couldn’t leave Erian behind. He decided to let his friends go on without him, and he spent the day with Erian. As Nathan left for the airport the next day, Erian hung on for dear life. He didn’t want his new friend to leave. 

As the team left, students gave up purchasing memorabilia from their trip. Instead, they saved the money to buy their new friends in Belize gifts like crayons and colored paper. Nathan said he wanted to save the $45 a year it will cost to keep Erian in Christian school. 

Back home, the academy students asked Pila if they could go across the street and spend time with the grade school children here. They realized how a little attention and a smile could make a huge difference in a child’s life. 

“We will definitely do an It Is Written mission trip again,” Pila promised. “Everything went so well. It was such a blessing to be on this trip. I asked the students to raise their hand if they enjoyed the trip. Everyone’s hands went up and they told me, ‘We went to teach but they taught us. We didn’t just enjoy it, we were blessed!’”

It Is Written hosts mission trips around the world every year. Learn more at itiswritten.com/missiontrips

Escrito Está Speaker/Director Meets Guatemalan President, Prays with Him

On Wednesday, March 13, 2019, Pastor Robert Costa, speaker/director of It Is Written’s Spanish-speaking ministry Escrito Está, visited the president of Guatemala, Mr. Jimmy Morales, to express Escrito Está’s commitment to sharing Jesus and to pray for him in his role as the country’s leader. Pastor Costa gave the president a brief report of what Escrito Está and local churches have been doing in the areas of education, health, spirituality, communications, and social work to relieve the needs of Guatemala’s citizens. Pastor Costa was warmly received by the president and gifted him and other members of the government a favorite book about the life of Jesus, The Desire of Ages, another devotional book, and an Ambassador of Peace medal. Toward the end of the meeting, Pastor Costa prayed for God to lead and bless President Jimmy Morales and his country.

The meeting was made possible thanks to the president’s butler, who is familiar with Escrito Está and connected to local churches in the area. It is the second time Pastor Costa has met with local government officials in Guatemala, as the local church seeks to reach people in all levels of society with a message of hope in the second coming of Jesus. Pastor Costa was in the country to celebrate Escrito Está’s 25th Anniversary and held a series of meetings entitled, Un Futuro con Esperanza (A Future with Hope). The meetings concluded with 210 baptisms.

butler, Guatemalan president, Robert Costa

Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales, center, poses for a photo with Pastor Robert Costa, right, and his butler, left. During his March 13 visit, Pastor Costa gave President Morales an Ambassador of Peace medal.

The Guatemala Volcano Tragedy: A First-Hand Account

The Guatemala Volcano Tragedy: A First-Hand Account

We stood on what was essentially a glacier of sand, ash, and rock. It had snaked its way relentlessly down from the 12,500 feet summit of Volcan de Fuego, the Volcano of Fire, in southern Guatemala. Fuego has been erupting more or less constantly — and harmlessly — for the better part of the last twenty years. Apart from a false alarm in 2012 when 33,000 people evacuated, Fuego hasn’t done much more in recent times than beat its chest and belch smoke into the air.

As we stood in its shadow, the giant was still emitting smoke, but gently rather than a roar. But three weeks ago, before our It Is Written team arrived, Fuego roared. The desolation on which we stood was deceptive. There was no way we could know that we were standing where a town once stood.

The volcanic debris was piled up so high that heavy equipment operators were digging through thirty feet of piled up ash and dust to reach the road and clear it for use. We stood level with what once was the second-floor level of several houses. Virtually all buildings were completely buried. People had been trying since the initial eruption on June 3 to dig out buried family members.

While official figures state that two hundred people are still missing, one man told us he is certain at least 1,500 are still unaccounted for. Another told us that he has lost at least seventy family members in the tragedy. As one person told our team, “In many cases entire families have been killed. They’ve simply disappeared. There’s nobody looking for them, no one to report them as missing.”

As we filmed in what was once the village of San Miguel Los Lotes, a family waited for earth-moving equipment to arrive. The bodies of the man’s brother and his family are buried in the first-floor area of their home. Only the second story rises up out of the ash and debris. Why did the family not flee? “They couldn’t,” their relatives told us. “They had a disabled daughter and weren’t able to get her out. So they stayed.”

In spite of very clear warnings, many others chose to remain when they could have fled. “Some believed that if they locked the door of their home and shut themselves inside, they would be safe,” Rosa Chacón told us. Rosa volunteers for a government agency that issues emergency warnings when Fuego threatens. “I urged so many people to leave, to get to safety. They wouldn’t listen.”

Just a few yards from us in San Miguel Los Lotes a church once stood. Now it is entirely covered by the remnants of Fuego. The worshipers in the church were aware the volcano was threatening, and they received warnings to evacuate. Instead of heeding the warnings, they chose to remain in the church and pray that God would protect them. The entire congregation perished in the volcano.

As dust stirred by the heavy equipment was whipped through the area by gusting winds, a small crowd stood by as a yellow Cat digger removed bucket after bucket of volcanic debris. A body found while we were in the area lay covered by a pink sheet. The digger was stabilizing the area so the remains could be recovered. From there the digger would go the nearby home of the family with the disabled daughter to recover bodies there. The destitute families are covering the cost of hiring the digger and its operator as the government rescue and recovery mission has already ended.

As we were preparing to leave the area, a young man — maybe 18 years old — spotted someone holding several charred pages from a Bible. And with those pages — which included Luke 21 and the story of the widow’s mite — was part of a small sheet of pink paper. There were large letters on the page, written in pencil. While it was impossible to read the entire message, it was clearly part of what was once a card given to mark a special occasion.

The young man recognized it as soon as he saw it. “Please, may I see that paper you are holding,” he said to the missionary holding the page. “Yes, that’s it!” he said, clearly having found something very special.

He was now holding the remnants of a Mother’s Day card he had made for his mother years before. But while he had found what was left of the card, he had not yet found his mother. She was buried in the river of debris that had engulfed the family home. She was somewhere nearby, ten feet or so beneath where we stood. The young man wiped away tears.

Thank you for supporting It Is Written mission projects around the world. Please pray for our team in Guatemala and support It Is Written mission projects at itiswritten.com/give.

It Is Written Wins Six Telly Awards

It Is Written Wins Six Telly Awards: 39th Annual Silver Winner, 39th Annual Bronze Winner

It Is Written is pleased to announce that its production team has won six Telly Awards. The Telly Awards honors excellence in video on all screens and received over 12,000 entries this year from all over the country and the world. It Is Written’s “A Lamp Unto My Feet” won a silver award in the General Biography category, competing against others like NBC Sports Group, CBS Sports, Telemundo, and In Touch Ministries. “Effective Prayer” won two bronze awards for General Religious/Spiritual and General Education. Another General Religious/Spiritual bronze award was given to “The Holy City.” “Rome and the Reformation” received a bronze award for General History. Escrito Está, It Is Written’s Spanish-speaking ministry, won a bronze award for “Desmond Doss: El héroe de Okinawa” (“Desmond Doss: The Hero of Okinawa”) in the General Religious/Spiritual category.

“I continue to be so proud of our entire team,” said Speaker/Director John Bradshaw. “This recognition shows not only that our It Is Written team is working at an extremely high standard, but that there’s a genuine commitment to excellence in ministry. Good work means successful ministry. Our staff, and those who make this ministry possible — our Partners and supporters — can know that we’re working as effectively as possible to reach souls for God.”

Watch the award-winning programs:

It Is Written and Local Church Partner to Aid Guatemala Volcano Victims

It Is Written and Local Church Partner to Aid Guatemala Volcano Victims

It Is Written and Escrito Está are partnering with a local Spanish-American church in Collegedale, Tennessee to help the victims of the volcano eruption in Guatemala. On June 3, Guatemala’s Fuego volcano erupted, killing nearly 100 and leaving almost 200 missing. The country’s government estimates that 1.7 million people were affected. Displaced families need medical attention, clothing, and help rebuilding their lives.

From June 21 to early July, 40 volunteers including It Is Written staff members and local church members will conduct a mission trip in Antigua Guatemala, a city within a few miles of the volcano. The mission group will offer health services, clothing, and provide financial support for rebuilding infrastructure in the devastated areas. They will hold medical clinics in both Antigua Guatemala and Escuintla, where most of the shelters are. The group plans to purchase tents to provide temporary housing for those who lost their homes or became displaced by the volcano. The mission group will also be reaching out to specifically help children impacted by the disaster.

We are currently gathering supplies. Please help us meet this urgent need by donating now and selecting “Humanitarian Projects.” Right now, your gift will go directly to help the people of Guatemala. Thank you for your support.

Donate now