Where one journey ends, another begins

In September, TWR (also known as Trans World Radio) welcomed 98 leaders and representatives from 21 countries – most from Europe and CAMENA (Central Asia, Middle East and North Africa) – to its National Partner Conference in Central Europe.

Under the theme “Partnerships in Times of Transition,” partners compared notes on how patient, personal follow-up turns a first contact with a listener or donor into lasting partnership.

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Throughout the conference, partners and ministry teams shared updates on what the Lord is doing in their countries, along with impact stories and practical advice from their day-to-day ministry.

During the TWR Netherlands and Belgium session, partners watched a short video tour of Missie & Media, the team’s experience center in Barneveld. At the exit, the guide asked, “But what happens now? Where one journey ends, another one begins.”

Partners kept circling back to that question all week, because people rarely move toward faith or partnership in one big leap.

From visitor to partner

Sibold Buiten, manager of donor relations for TWR Netherlands and Belgium, still remembers a saying he kept on his wall 30 years ago, when he was a marketing agency entrepreneur: “Methods of yesterday in the market of today leads to bankruptcy tomorrow.”

Director Hubrecht Smits explained in their Donor Journey session how people are changing. “We had in the past … donors who were giving year after year because they belonged to a certain denomination, or their father did it,” he said.

“But now, the young generation want to be touched, and then they give, and then they stop giving, and they need another touch of their heart to give again.”

Dutch households have grown less likely to give when asked: 81 percent did in 2006, but only 34 percent in 2025, according to a Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam study.

Ideally, Smits said, every supporter would go on a mission trip. Since few can, “we take the mission field into our house and create an experience center.”

At Missie & Media, visitors smell the food of an Indonesian market, dress up, record their own program in a working studio and virtually climb a transmitter tower at TWR’s site on Bonaire. As the tour puts it, “It’s not just information, it’s an experience.”

So what happens after a visitor heads home? Communications specialist Gerranne Lozeman, who first came to TWR as an intern studying the donor journey, walked partners through an example.

Simon, in his 40s or 50s, has given about €1,800 over the years. Tess, in her 20s or 30s, visited Missie & Media but has never given. “If we don’t reach out to her, we’ll lose contact, and we’ll lose her,” Lozeman said.

The day after her visit, Tess receives a thank-you email. On day 10, a short survey asks what touched her most – maybe TWR’s ministry in India or the Women of Hope program.

By day 25, a newsletter shaped around her survey answers lands in her inbox. A phone call “is not necessarily always about asking for money,” Smits added. “It can also be just to say thank you.”

Nine months later, Tess stands alongside Simon as a partner. Lozeman encouraged smaller ministries: “You don’t need an experience center to start a journey. Your donor journey can start anywhere.”

From listener to local church

Bernard Oosterhoff, international director for TWR CAMENA, opened the Engage and Connect session by reminding partners where their work starts.

“Broadcasting is not a radio term,” he said. “It’s really a term that farmers use to sow their seed widely … we have this precious seed of Jesus Christ that we sow all around the world.”

Samuel Lacho, who directs TWR’s Central and Eastern European ministry, came to TWR after working in the church. “I realized that church wasn’t sowing enough, but was expecting the harvest,” he said. “And without sowing, there is no harvest.”

Today, he said, the seed stays the same, but digital platforms demand new packaging, and no ministry can do it all. “And there is where partnerships come into view,” he said.

“It is important to know our role, what we can do and where we need to partner with other organizations and churches so that the engaging and connecting is really happening.”

In Romania, TWR’s team started connecting with Thru the Bible listeners on WhatsApp and now stays in touch with 760 active contacts. Executive Director Mihai Papuc said they know of 15 people who turned to God and remain in church, and 55 more who “restarted their journey with Jesus.”

In Belarus, TWR turned a radio series on the country’s history into a textbook. “The message has not changed,” the director of TWR Belarus* said. “The gospel is the best answer to society’s problems, but society itself has changed.”

“It’s not fair to excite [someone from the majority religion] about the Christian faith, encourage him to make a decision for Christ, and then leave him without having the right tools to be able to grow,” said the leader of TWR’s Arabic ministry.*

That is why his team created the Talmatha discipleship program. People who reach out “need to feel accepted. They need to feel loved. And you have to be patient with them, give them time.”

Part of the orchestra

During the panel, the Arabic ministry leader offered a word of encouragement to partners stretched thin.

“Sometimes we feel burdened by the size of the ministry [and] it’s often beyond our ability to handle,” he said. “But it’s God who’s really handling the ministry. We have only a part to do. But with this part, we have to do it with excellence, faithfully, and trust God for the results.”

Then he added, “We are part of his orchestra, and he’s a great orchestrator.”

We saw it again and again: God uses many hands, in many places, to draw people to himself. Pray with us for TWR and its partners as they walk with people on both journeys, so every donor and listener who takes a first step finds someone ready to walk alongside.

Becky Matthews has served as a writer and editor for TWR Europe and CAMENA since 2013.

*Names withheld for security reasons.