Impact at a Glance
A Note from the Executive Director
Miles Toulmin
Executive Director of Alpha Asia Pacific
Alpha had its best year ever in Asia Pacific in 2022. As churches emerged fully from the pandemic many used Alpha as a tool for evangelism, and we launched a number of contextualised Alpha Film Series – the Chinese Alpha Film Series, the Alpha Film Series: konteks Indonesia, the Hindi and Tamil Alpha Film Series, and the Alpha Cantonese Teens Series. These new products drove much of the growth in people being reached with the good news.
We thank God for all that He did amongst His churches, and in bringing in a harvest for His kingdom. Your prayers, your giving and your service makes a huge difference to the ministry – so, thank you.
“Praying that God will double the size of His church in Asia Pacific in this next decade”
As we launch our 2033 vision this year, which is 10 years until the 2000th anniversary of the resurrection, we sense that God is increasing the spiritual hunger in the region, and I am praying that God will double the size of His church in Asia Pacific in this next decade.
Thank you for your love and the difference you are making as Alpha continues to equip and empower the church in Asia for such a time as this.
2022 Highlights
Quick links: ARG 2022 | Every Tribe, Every Language | Youth | The Marriage Course
ARG is the most strategic regional annual event for Alpha.
Held across 3 days, ARG aims to inspire and envision strategic church leaders with the tool and process of Alpha. The programme is curated for leaders to receive prayer ministry, be connected and encouraged, as they hear from their peers and speakers who have a passion for evangelism.
Last year, we welcomed over 1,000 delegates representing 515 churches of various denominations from 21 countries. 60% of the churches advanced along their journey of engagement with Alpha and 30% went on to start running Alpha.
“Compared to past conferences, my ARG experience was more than ecumenical, it was THE NEW PENTECOST!“
Catholic Priest
ARG will be held this June 2023. Check out “Looking Ahead” section for more details.
Every Tribe,
Every Language
In Asia, Alphas are run in 34 languages.
We completed 21 Asian translation projects covering the Alpha Film Series, Alpha Youth Series, The Marriage Course and The Pre-Marriage Course for use in more than 10 countries.
We know that God’s Word reaches us best in our heart language. We are passionate about contextualising and producing core ministry resources to equip churches to reach as many people as possible.
Last year, we launched the Asian Alpha Film Series (AAFS) and the Alpha Cantonese Teens Series (ACTS). These products represent the major Asian languages – Chinese, Bahasa Indonesia, Hindi, Tamil and Cantonese.
The Chinese Alpha Film Series
The CAFS is the first fully contextualised version of the Alpha Film Series filmed entirely in Mandarin in a culturally relevant way. God opened doors for us to launch the series to 24,000 leaders via 27 events in 29 cities across 7 countries. We had the privilege to connect and partner with many Chinese churches from around the world.
“CAFS presents theological truth in an interesting, lively, and creative way!”
– Rev. Chen, Los Angeles
The Alpha Film Series: konteks Indonesia
“To be honest, I wasn’t interested in Alpha as it looked like a foreign product so it wouldn’t mean much as our Indonesian culture is different. But when I tried Alpha, there were scenes and stories of people from Indonesia, it was simple to receive and it was also powerful.”
– Hery, Alpha Guest on the Alpha Film Series: konteks Indonesia
The Alpha Cantonese Teen Series
In February 2022, ACTS soft-launched in Hong Kong and ran in churches, schools and homes. By the end of the year, more than 25% of courses registered came from outside of Hong Kong, reaching the global Cantonese-speaking community.
“ACTS gave me a deeper understanding of God.”
– Student Testimony
“ACTS presents theological truth in an interesting, lively, and creative way!”
– Teacher Testimony
Youth
Alpha has a significant opportunity to create space for young people to encounter Jesus and develop a personal relationship with him.
Thanks to your support, youth work has grown steadily over the last two years.
In collaboration with Barna, Biblica and World Vision, we conducted a study called “The Open Generation”, where we surveyed 25,000 young people (ages 13-17) from 25 countries and 17 languages about their views on Jesus, the Bible and making an impact. The study showed that nearly half the teens see Jesus as someone who offers hope, and the majority described him as loving, wise and peaceful.
Click here for more discoveries from the survey that are shaping how we reach emerging generations.
Young leaders are inspired and empowered to create a space for exciting conversation about faith with their friends and peers, where true friendship can form to discover a relationship with Jesus.
David’s Story // Tamil Nadu, Southern India
Last May, David as a third-year student at St. Johns College, began running Tamil Alpha for 35 youths from his home church with the goal of spiritually restoring them after the pandemic had taken a toll on their spiritual well-being. These young people in turn invited 25 more friends to join them for the Alpha celebration day.
David’s zeal brought him to another town, Alangulam, where he ran Alpha for 90 unchurched youths. Many of them started attending church and five of these youth gave their lives to Jesus and were baptised.
Last December, David led a gathering for over 100 youth leaders from 35 churches in the Tenkasi district.
One spark of Alpha by one faithful young man has set ablaze a whole district. Please pray for our young men and women like David who are reaching hundreds more with the love of Christ.
Jellian’s Story // Philippines
When Jellian was little, her father left the family with another woman. Life became very difficult as the family struggled to survive and Jellian longed for her family to be healed and complete again, that her father would one day return to them.
“God works in all things that I entrust to Him.“
In 2022, Jellian accepted the challenge to run Alpha and ended up leading more than 20 other young people. She initiated running outreach programmes from her group, such as feeding the hungry and cleaning the chapel. Late last year, her prayers were answered – her father returned, and they were reunited as a family!
The Marriage Courses (TMC) ran in 16 countries in Asia Pacific and it grew 57% from the previous year to reach over 33,000 participants.
The number of family courses in the region made up 25% of all courses globally.
To address the unique challenges and pressures facing pastor couples, a new session for The Marriage Course was created as the eighth and final session. Entitled “Marriage & Ministry”, the content is based on the experience from leaders’ marriage retreats hosted by Nicky and Sila Lee. It gives guidelines to church leaders for how to minister out of their marriages – giving help and ideas for maintaining a strong marriage amidst the various pressures of ministry.
The launch of the additional video content for “Marriage & Ministry” and accompanying conversation booklet will take place this year. Translations for the additional episode and booklet have commenced this year.
“Even though we’ve been married for 20 years, it turns out there are so many things we needed to learn again…principles in marriage that we forget as time goes on. We are thankful for TMC because we felt refreshed after the sessions.”
– Sigit & Widia, Indonesia
How your giving helped serve the region in 2022
“Thanks to your partnership, God has blessed the work of Alpha in remarkable ways, making 2022 our best year ever.”
Because of you, we are able to play our part in Alpha’s global vision in seeing the nations evangelised, the Church revitalised, and society transformed.
The Evangelisation of the Nations
Everyone should have the opportunity to explore a relationship with Jesus, wherever they are in the world, regardless of their background.
Sua’s Story // South Korea
“I was a workaholic with anxiety. As such, my business went well and my social status was great but I couldn’t sleep because of the constant anxiety that kept building up. I often went for tarot card readings to have my fortune told and took part in all kinds of spiritual activities like Cheondojae, a ritual for the dead in Buddhism.
One day I followed my friend to church and participated in the Alpha course, at that time I was not a Christian and knew nothing about Christianity. I couldn’t shake off my anxiety no matter what I did, but when I attended Alpha, I felt at peace and later understood this was the peace of God. After attending Alpha, my sense of belonging to the church increased and having received loving service during the course made me think that I should also contribute to the church.”
The Revitalisation of the Church
Churches experience a radical culture change and are revitalised.
Rev. Markus’ Story // East Malaysia
Rev. Markus and his team faced challenges in building up their church in rural Sabah. They overcame obstacles with the use of the Alpha course for their growing community.
The Transformation of Society
Healthy Marriages lead to healthy families and communities.
Enson and Priscilla
Enson’s parents separated when he was a teenager. He picked up unhealthy habits and got into trouble with the police. Then he met his wife, Priscilla. At the depths of his struggle, Priscilla asked Enson, “Why don’t you just speak to God? There is nothing to lose.” He tried and poured out to God. He tried Alpha twice and through the Alpha Film Series he found the experience awesome. He shares how the episodes helped him define his faith. God’s love transformed and shaped him as a husband and father.
Looking Ahead
Quick links: Alpha Regional Gathering | Global Chinese Alpha Conference | Alpha Studios | Reaching Youth
Over the next decade, we want to play a significant part, serving the churches and working alongside other organisations to give everyone on the planet an opportunity to hear the Gospel.
“…and the Lord added to them day by day those that were saved.” Acts 2:47
A huge opportunity at our doorstep
Our great hope is to give 1.5 million people in Asia the opportunity to experience Alpha in the next 3 years. None of this work is possible without you and we love doing this together!
We will accelerate our pace of putting Alpha as a resource into the hands of thousands more church leaders with continued launches in cities worldwide for the Asian Alpha Film Series (AAFS) and the Alpha Cantonese Teens Series (ACTS). We believe that God will use these series greatly to reach the diaspora of Asians around the world.
Alpha Regional Gathering
(ARG)
11-14 June 2023
This year, we will share the 2033 Vision and a series of sessions on Alpha and its ministries, which will have a focus on Youth and Family.
We are gathering strategic church leaders who are already leading Hub Churches, and inviting them to partner with us in planning and praying to discern the part they might play for the next decade.
We are encouraging senior pastors to identify their emerging leaders and youth leaders to come and be envisioned to reach the new generation for Jesus.
Global Chinese Alpha Conference
全球华人启发大会
12-13 July 2023
This July, we are anticipating to host 800 Chinese speaking pastors from around the world in Singapore. We are expectant for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit to prepare workers for the harvest. With the fully contextualised Chinese Alpha Film Series (CAFS), God is increasing our reach to the 1.5 billion Chinese worldwide.
The First Global Contextualisation Hub with Alpha Studios
Whilst 30 million people from all around the world have tried Alpha over the years, there is still an estimated 5.5 billion people who do not know Christ.
We are investing into our first ever global in-house studios to make content for the whole world. By being a hub centre of excellence for product development, we can centrally contextualise content with economies of scale and quality control.
We previously launched the Alpha Film Series (AFS) in 2016 and over the last 7 years have translated it into 58 languages.
For the new AFS2.0 we anticipate releasing contextualised versions in 70 languages, making it available at scale for others like Undarmaa to encounter God’s love. Please join us as partners with a contribution to this work.
“Over the last 30 years we have worked hard to develop and refine Alpha as we have offered it to all churches around the world. We believe now is the time to press on further, using all that we have learned, to make Alpha still more widely available…“
Nicky Gumbel
Reaching Youth
We believe that developing innovative ways to reach emerging generations with the Gospel is one of the most pressing priorities for the global Church.
There are 1 billion young people on our planet from different cultures.
In June this year at the Alpha Regional Gathering (ARG23), we will launch “The Open Generation” study done in collaboration with Barna, Biblica and World Vision to begin a conversation via organised forums for youth to explore faith with friends. As we listen and learn in these forums, we will craft and contextualise the upcoming Alpha Youth Series for Pan-Asia.
Realising the Asian Opportunity
Alpha Asia Pacific’s three-year goal is to equip and support in doubling the number of local churches running Alpha across the region.
“Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your curtains wide, do not hold back; lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes. For you will spread out to the right and to the left; your descendants will dispossess nations and settle in their desolate cities.“ Isaiah 54:2-3
Going to the nations
The mission field covers 21 countries, 11 with National Alpha Offices.
Alpha Asia Pacific Hub serves by providing:
- Strategic direction and leadership for regional ministry.
- Shared services from a centre of excellence – Digital & Marketing, HR and Finance.
- Creating contextualised product and resources to equip local leaders for ministry.
- Financing, hosting and empowering regional initiatives.
- Fundraising, impact measurement and governance.
Thank you for your partnership.
Give
• You can give online at asiapacific.alpha.org/give.
• For other methods and if you are considering to make a bequest to the work of Alpha in Asia Pacific in your will, scan the QR code for more details.
• For more information about giving, please contact: [email protected]
Pray
• For the unity of churches and teams to embrace a culture of evangelism and leadership.
• For guests coming on to Alpha to experience God’s love.
• For the development of the new Alpha Film Series 2.0, Alpha Youth Series 3.0 and the Alpha ontextualisation hub.
• For our partners, volunteers and staff to be blessed with good health, protection, wisdom and fruitfulness.
Serve
Get involved in Alpha by volunteering at an Alpha course near you or join the Asia Pacific team.
