Reach Beyond

CEO Letter February 2026

Dear Friend ,

What a start to 2026! Thank you for praying with us.

We had a great time at Festival One (the big music, arts and community event held just out of Cambridge every year).

Thanks to the amazing skills of Robbie Pearson, Josh, and Bob we were able to have the mission pole trailer onsite and fully operational. I have attached some pictures showing people using the charging facilities on the mission pole. Unfortunately, the weather had a profound effect on our ability to speak with people. However, in saying that, I was able to have some significant conversations with some of the crew who noticed it and wanted to know more. Josh also was able to have some good conversations and our website traffic increased significantly. This sort of thing is long term brand recognition and as the story of RBNZ and what we do gets out there, people put the dots together.

Of course, I had the RBNZ Land Rover there too which was a great attention grabber. Let’s pray that next year the weather is perfect and we can have even more conversations.

Sharing Jesus
Giving Hope
Transforming Communities

Another exciting thing that is happening is that the mission pole trailer will be up at Waitangi for the Waitangi day celebrations. Jerome Edwards, one of our board members, was able to talk to the organisers and facilitate this. There is a path from the lower Marae to the upper Marae that is dark and we have the opportunity to place our trailer there to

light the path and through the loud speakers play a beautiful song (waiata) in Te Reo Maori. It will be playing ‘How great thou art’ (Whakaria mai). I think this is a profound opportunity for us as a mission to serve New Zealanders on our National day. Our little mission is having a great impact. Please pray for Jerome as he organises all this and for Bob as he sorts out the programming. Of course, OAC and Maori Postal Aotearoa will be giving away the bilingual comics (I just had 10,000 more printed). Please pray that these comics will find receptive hearts.

Beyond Words Beyond Borders

Beyond ourselves

God is incredible. On my way back from Ghana last time, I sat next to a very fine Christian man who has a responsible job with the Ghanaian Government. He is responsible for the allocation of Government funds to aid rural development and empowerment in remote communities. As we chatted and I told him about the mission poles he got very excited as he could see how the poles could help advance the desires of the government to better the lives of rural villages. We swapped phone numbers and I have been chatting with him on a regular basis since then. He has asked me and Bob to travel back to Ghana to meet with him and the Minister of Education to talk about the poles and how we might work together. Isn’t God amazing! Of the more than 200 people in economy class, God placed me next to just the right man! Please pray for the upcoming meetings and for our relationship with the Government.

And finally, we are not far off from making the order for the 40 new mission poles to be made in China. Please pray for wisdom for Bob and I as we negotiate with the manufacturer, other suppliers and the shipping agent.

Thank you for supporting us. Please pray with us that Reach Beyond will always stay true to our mission of “Sharing Jesus, Giving Hope and Transforming Communities”.

If you would like to chat with me, please contact me on 021 985 810 or rgrainger@reachbeyond.org.

Pastor Russell Grainger

CEO, Reach Beyond NZCEO, NZ

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