Case Studies

Because our projects are often carried out in sensitive locations with partners who have to be very careful what they say and to whom, we are vigilant for their safety. So, up front, we apologize here for presenting only the broad strokes of a wonderfully true tale of what God is doing in a Middle Eastern country right now. Here’s our attempt to share what’s fit to tell:

An American Farmer (we’ll call him AF) went to work with a Christian ministry in a country in the Middle East where there was war going on. There he met a gal from a nearby country (let’s call her AB- Arab Beauty) and, after extensive negotiations with her Arab family, married her. Although he wanted to remain there, it pleased AB’s family that AF agreed to move to her home country for their first two years of marriage.

The following story demonstrates the power of the right information placed in the right hands at the right time and therefore also illustrates why OC places so much emphasis on research.

What does it take to trigger an effective church-planting movement? Sometimes all it takes is a single piece of paper and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit! Ask the church planters in Brasov county in Romania, and they'll tell you how one piece of paper launched their vision.

Two years ago, the Mongolia Evangelical Alliance (MEA) approached One Challenge and proposed a combined research project to discover the number of churches in Mongolia as well as the health of these churches and how to best reach nomadic tribes or those who live outside cities. In this video report, Project Leader Eric Smith shares about the training of local field researchers and a general overview of the project.

The MEA has set ambitious goals for the future of the church in Mongolia: 3,400 healthy churches, 300,000 believers and 600 missionaries sent by the year 2020. Russ Mitchell, an OC researcher working on the project, writes: “The church in Mongolia has seen spectacular growth in the last two decades. In 1990, when the country transitioned from Communism to a democratic form of government, it is reported that there were just four believers. The Census in 2010 recorded 40,000 Christians. Today there are about 600 churches: 300 in the capital city of Ulaanbaatar and 300 in the provinces. During the Communist years, Buddhism lost a great deal of its following as people embraced atheism. This seems to have created a spiritual vacuum that has resulted in great responsiveness since 1990.”