Ministry raises $1M with virtual Christmas concert to reach the unreached
A ministry raised over $1 million with its annual Christmas concert, which was virtual for the first time, to support five Christian organizations that help share the Gospel with over three billion people who haven’t heard it.
“With your generosity, we raised over $1 million,” said The BLESS Foundation, which mobilizes people and resources to reach the unreached, about the Light the World concert that featured a live interview with Christian athlete Tim Tebow as well as music by the African Children’s Choir, Shane & Shane and Drew Womack, according to Mission Network News.
The annual concert is normally held in Austin, Texas, but the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions didn’t allow the ministry to hold an in-person event. But by going virtual, it was able to reach a wider audience than ever before.
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“In the American Church, we can get so inward-focused,” said Tom Watkins of the multinational evangelical Christian media distributor Trans World Radio, one of the five ministries being supported with the money raised.
“And then I think this year of COVID is really weird for all of us because I think inherently, we’re all becoming more inward-focused — not that we really want to be, but I think people are drawing in,” Watkins was quoted as saying. “Our circle of people that we’re involved with is less. We’re more concerned about safety.”
The other four beneficiaries are Young Life, which introduces young people to Jesus across Africa while “transforming hearts, lives, families, and communities in the process;” Justice Ventures International, which “brings freedom, justice, and restoration to those suffering from human trafficking and other extreme injustice;” Christar, which serves among “least-reached” people groups, including the deaf, around the world; and Ethno360, which sends missionaries from local churches around the world.
The Bless Foundation says on the concert’s website that it is raising funds in support of five categories: ending the orphan crisis, fighting human trafficking, mobilizing cross-cultural workers, advancing the Gospel, and supplying life-sustaining resources.
Ethno360 said BLESS partners provided funding for the translation of the four Gospels in the heart-language of the Wantakian people in Papua New Guinea in 2018.
JVI said its teams in northern India will “rescue hundreds, protect thousands and transform communities bringing sustained freedom, justice, and restoration for vulnerable men, women, and children.”
