Dear Beloved AFM Partners, Friends, and Family in Christ,
As we’ve begun our liturgical year yet again with Advent, my heart is overwhelmed with gratitude to God for the year we’ve just completed. I’m thankful for AFM’s cross-cultural workers (CCWs) and for you, our unwavering partners in this missionary society. Indeed, the Lord has moved mightily in our midst in 2025. Allow me to share a few highlights.
First, 115 individuals from the AFM missionary family gathered in Ridgecrest, NC, for three days before the New Wineskins Conference. Testimonies from AFM CCWs, teaching from Anglican bishops, and the movement of the Holy Spirit among us buoyed the spirits and deepened the faith of all who gathered. Two attendees were just accepted as AFM long-term CCWs, and several others are in the application process. The result: We’re one CCW short of our faith goal of 10 new CCWs in 2025. So, keep on praying!
Second, stories of the Kingdom’s inbreaking through CCWs’ ministry on the mission field continue to inspire me. From isolated villages to bustling urban centers where the name of Jesus remains largely unknown, AFM CCWs are pressing forward and embodying the Great Commission, baptizing, teaching, and modeling Jesus to new disciples. Their work is not easy; it demands immense physical, spiritual, and emotional resilience. Yet with each new success and every new soul brought into the light, I see God’s faithfulness to his promises manifested. I’m reminded of his goodness.
One Candle in the Darkness: The Legacy of Ion Keith-Falconer
As we celebrate your partnership, I’m reminded of the great missionary saints who established the precedent for AFM’s vital work. One such man, Ion Keith-Falconer (1856-1887), purportedly said the following: “I have but one candle to burn and I’d rather burn it out in a land filled with darkness than a land flooded with light.”
Son of a Scottish Earl and a Cambridge graduate, while studying colloquial Arabic in Egypt in 1881, he heard God’s call to spend his life on behalf of Arabs living in darkness. In 1885 he visited Yemen and returned for long-term service in 1887, but died of malaria within six months of arrival. Nonetheless, his life inspired many others, including Samuel Zemmer, often called the “Apostle to the Arabs,” to serve Jesus in the Middle East.
Burning Brightly on the Frontier
Each AFM cross-cultural worker (CCW) also carries a single candle—the life that God’s given to them. When you partner with AFM, you’re doing more than simply sending a donation or interceding in prayer. You’re supplying fuel for their candles. You’re providing the protection and the windbreak that allows their candle to continue burning, steady and bright, in the harsh conditions of the frontier. You’re enabling the precious flame of their witness to ignite hundreds of other candles in communities bereft of the good news of Jesus.
And so, on behalf of AFM, I’m grateful that you share in Falconer’s vision, believing that no group of people should be left without access to the gospel simply because they are hard to reach.
As you gather with family and friends during Advent and Christmas, may you be filled with the joy of knowing that your faithfulness is resulting in new life, new hope, new disciples, and new communities of Christians, which we call the church. So, thank you for your partnership in 2024. May God richly bless you and yours.
With heartfelt thankfulness and great hope for the New Year,
The Rev. Chris Royer, PhD
Executive Director, AFM
