Dear Friends
From INcontext’s side, I firstly want to apologise for the long pause in our weekly resources. Our office closed for four weeks during the summer holiday in the southern hemisphere, but since the office opened on 10 January, we have been working on strategic planning for the year ahead. Thank you for your patience during this time and thank you to everyone who enquired about not receiving our resources as usual. It is good to know that it was missed, and we are excited to continue serving the Body of Christ as usual from this week on.
Something to look forward to is the launch of our new website. This goes in conjunction with INcontext’s 14th birthday that we will celebrate on 1st February. Yes, time surely doesn’t stand still, and we reflect with a lot of gratitude over the past 14 years. I have had the privilege of being a part of this journey for 12 and a half of those years, and I’m so grateful to the Lord for making me part of this amazing ministry. There have been so many highlights, and obviously challenges as well, but God has been faithful, and we are excited to continue serving Him through this ministry.
Another thing to look out for is our new news bite video. From mid-February we are planning to send one news bite per week in written format with a video – it will go out alongside one of our other resources such as a JAM, AWIM, infographic or another news bite. We are very excited about this new step, and we hope it will make the news we have been called to communicate more accessible to a wider audience since we know people are less inclined to read these days and more people enjoy watching a video instead.
We have also decided to send the Weekly email on Friday mornings from now on, instead of Thursday mornings. The fastest way to receive our resources, however, is to follow us on one or more of our social media platforms since our resources get uploaded there and onto our website once it’s done. Unfortunately, we have also decided to no longer translate the news bites into Afrikaans, however, if there is a specific article or news bite that you would like to have translated into Afrikaans, you are welcome to let us know.
We are looking forward to seeing what the Lord has in store for us this year, since we know there will be more than enough news stories to report on. We know the conflicts, natural disasters, persecution, and deception of the ‘evil one’ will continue to increase as we move closer to Christ’s return (Matt 24), and we know that God will continue to work in these events to draw people closer to Him. May we thus remain focused on Him and His Kingdom in the midst of all the turmoil this year will bring, and may we not be distracted from doing our part in bringing in the harvest.
Lastly, even though we are already well into the new year, I still want to say that it is truly my hope that you will have a blessed 2024. Not blessed in the sense that everything will go well and that there will be no challenges, but blessed in the sense that you will dwell every day in the presence of the Lord. Yes, we know there will be challenges and there will be tears, but we also know that we dwell in relationship with the only living true God and He says that He will be with us every step of the way (Matt 28:20).
GUSTAV KRÖS (Director of INcontext)
