It is not our story,
but His!
It has been a long journey of discovery, renewal, and breakthrough. God has taken a “rag-tag” group of Christians and given them a significant purpose for the Kingdom of God. He has spoken to us through His Word and directed us in the way we should go. The Word of God lit the way forward when we sought a name in 2007. This name had to be unique and unused worldwide. As we journeyed through the holy books of Revelation and Isaiah, we received the inspiration we needed. The phrase Ear-to-Hear stood out to us, and so we incorporated it into our name: EAR2HEAR.
But that was not the end of the process. We had to ensure no one else was using it at that time. We conducted extensive inquiries and internet searches and found that no one else was using the name. It was the first of many miracles. There are thousands of ministries and organisations with remarkable names, and God saw our desire and came through wonderfully.
Organic Groups
From 2007 until the end of 2008, we kept things simple. We maintained a network of Organic Groups (small groups) in people’s homes. Hillsong Music, along with many other Christian worshippers, brought incredible blessings into our lives. The Bible, especially in the New Living Translation, brought a deeper understanding to our ever-growing knowledge. Brother Yun’s book, The Heavenly Man, also challenged us greatly.
The Start of 4 Streams…
God began to challenge the Organic Groups to reach out; otherwise, we risked becoming an internally focused group. To maintain balance, God placed it on our hearts to move beyond Jerusalem, one step at a time. To prevent things from becoming too complicated, we decided to divide our activities into four distinct streams, each represented by a different colour in our logo.
Our first stream was EAR2HEAR, represented by the colour green, which signifies growth and nurture. This stream covered anything related to our publishing and mentoring activities. Later, we would expand to include the Pray, Network, and Care streams. Under EAR2HEAR, we published a regular newsletter called The Refreshing (taken from Isaiah 28:12), which we used to encourage the people we worked with and Christians in the wider world. However, it soon became clear that this was not God’s final intention for us. There was more to Christianity than these activities.
A Desire for Christian Unity: The Result was Organic Networking
One Sunday afternoon, after an Organic Group meeting in Hillcrest, a member jokingly suggested that we should hold a united conference for all the Organic Groups and organisational leaders working with us. Little did we know that this suggestion would become a reality. A few months later, we hosted the first UNITY Conference in March 2009. Around 80 delegates from far and wide joined us at a local theatre. This conference taught us that God truly sees our hearts’ desires (Psalm 37) and that we must be careful in what we say and ask of God.
Before the Unity Conference, we had already met and helped a number of organisational leaders by consulting with them on their work. This consulting and mentoring, carried out by several of EAR2HEAR’s leaders, led to wonderful relationships and partnerships. It also brought us to a place where the people and organisations we helped started asking us to work more closely together.
At the first UNITY Conference, we decided to launch the next stream of our organisation: the network, or EAR2HEAR NETWORK, represented by the colour blue. Blue is synonymous with peace and cooperation. We were given a clear mandate to pour our time and resources into this network. We called this form of cooperation organic networking, which involves sharing contacts, resources, ideas, volunteers, and support. Today, this network has served over 60 ministries and organisations, and we partner with around half of them, with several more in the pipeline.
A Greater Need for Prayer
While prayer has always been a significant part of EAR2HEAR’s life and activities, it was in light of the EAR2HEAR NETWORK that we decided to incorporate our third stream, represented by fiery yellow, now known as EAR2HEAR PRAY. The fiery yellow colour clearly spoke to us of our prayers being a fiery offering to God—a call for His glory to move in the lives of all people. Today, this prayer network calls on intercessors both locally and internationally to pray for matters affecting the Kingdom and the Global Church, as well as for issues impacting the EAR2HEAR NETWORK.
Humanitarian Needs
In 2009, we established our fourth stream: Care or EAR2HEAR CARE, represented by pink. Pink represents health and well-being and reflects our desire to meet people’s physical and emotional needs. This stream has become a support to network partners and friends with organisations focused on humanitarian aid and outreach. This includes feeding schemes and houses of safety for those working with the homeless and trafficked persons.
Resources for Reaching the Lost Locally and Internationally
In 2011, EAR2HEAR not only consulted with organisations and ministry leaders but also became a supplier of Bibles and evangelism materials to individuals and organisations, both within and outside the EAR2HEAR NETWORK. This was a service we were able to provide for free—a significant step for us. Since then, and until 2024, we have been blessed to supply over 200,000 units of resources for one-to-one evangelism. Hundreds of boxes of free resources have been distributed to almost 60 organisations, which, in turn, have shared them in over 20 countries. From December 2015 to February 2024, EAR2HEAR supplied resources in 99 languages to over 30 countries.
Continuing the Mission
EAR2HEAR continues to help organisations and individuals reach their potential. Through consulting and the supply of resources, we are able to assist organisations and ministry workers in being effective on the mission field.
…And So
We have come a long way over many years, and we certainly wouldn’t dare attempt to list everything God has done through us. All we can do is thank God for every precious day He has given us to be involved in such an incredible undertaking!