Most of Jordan is under 25. Half the country is younger than that. And in a nation of 11 million, the number of true believers is measured in the low thousands. Rakan Milkonian knows what it feels like to be overlooked as a teenager. Bullied. Left out. Now 28, newly married, and part of the SmallCircle Team in Zarqa, he sits with teens one-on-one behind closed doors and does the slow, unglamorous work of listening and disciple-making. Not running programs. Building actual relationships in a culture where everything else feels like another program—school, Instagram, family expectations, even religion. He talks about “hidden persecution”: the quiet pressure that young believers in Jordan deal with every day. You’ll hear about Nidal, who just needed someone to listen, and five years later is leading Bible studies and serving shoulder-to-shoulder with Rakan. Rakan shares about the teens who have been baptized and how they are discipling in slow motion preparing the next generation of leaders in the faith. You'll learn about Jordan's missing generation of men in the church (almost no leaders between 38 and 55) due to a lack of discipleship and the deliberate work of raising the next ones so that gap never happens again. This isn’t a success story with tidy numbers. It’s real people in a hard place choosing presence over performance, one conversation at a time. Here Rakan helps us to understand the deeper work, where “Discipleship is a relationship, not a program.”

Episode transcript: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2534947/19599262-the-hidden-challenges-of-jordan-s-youth-rakan/transcript

Egypt Summit Reel: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DZvjeb6p6iI/

Ep. 10

Thank you for listening!

Follow the SmallCircle Podcast for more on one-to-one disciple-making.

https://www.smallcircle.com/podcast

🌐 smallcircle.com
📱Download the free SmallCircle app: Search “SmallCircle Discipleship” on the Apple App Store or Google Play

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Hosted by Carrie McCoy, Director of Global Relations | SmallCircle

From the streets of Saint-Lô, Normandy — the “Capital of Ruins” after WWII — comes an extraordinary story of obedience, sacrifice, and God’s unexpected plans. In this on-the-go episode of the SmallCircle Podcast. recorded just minutes before catching a train, Steve and Carrie McCoy sit down with Pastor Mauricio Prunera in a car outside the Saint-Lô train station. Mauricio, originally from El Salvador, shares how he left a thriving youth ministry to follow his French wife sweetheart, Rachel back to her hometown in Normandy. What started as a painful transition filled with cultural shock, language barriers, and loss soon turned into a powerful calling. Through visits to the D-Day beaches, his mother-in-law’s extraordinary 13-year faith, and the moving moment he first led someone to Christ in French, Mauricio realized God had brought him to “liberate Normandy again” — this time with the Gospel.

Today, he pastors Chemin Nouveau (“New Way”), the only evangelical church in a city of 80,000. Pastor Mauricio and his church family welcomed SmallCircle to visit Saint Lô to experience a personalized training in SmallCircle tools. Twenty people responded enthusiastically, marking an exciting new chapter as they begin multiplying an intentional one-to-one discipleship in Normandy.

This episode is a beautiful reminder that God’s purposes often unfold through our hardest “yeses,” and that true love for family and obedience to God’s call can birth something greater than we ever imagined. A story full of God’s grace, resilience, and the power of simple faithfulness. Pray for the church in France and the work of liberating Normandy with the Gospel.

Click the link below to view our Instagram reel on our trip to Saint Lô, France:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DZF6gtao-ak/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==

Ep. 9

Thank you for listening!

Follow the SmallCircle Podcast for more on one-to-one disciple-making.

https://www.smallcircle.com/podcast

🌐 smallcircle.com
📱Download the free SmallCircle app: Search “SmallCircle Discipleship” on the Apple App Store or Google Play

Follow on Social

https://www.instagram.com/yoursmallcircle

https://www.facebook.com/yoursmallcircle

Love the show? Leave a review on Apple Podcasts — it really helps!

Hosted by Carrie McCoy, Director of Global Relations | SmallCircle

Listen to a real-talk sit-down conversation between Carrie McCoy and Pastor Marty Ertel — a genuine Ohio pastor, disc golf course builder, and passionate disciple-maker. Marty shares how he’s blending his love for the sport with intentional one-on-one discipleship using SmallCircle tools. Marty opens up about his journey with SmallCircle, how the Xchange process helped him move from good intentions to generational multiplication. From meeting people through lost discs and sharing the gospel on the course, to building a multiplying disciple-making culture in his church. This episode is full of practical encouragement, real-life stories, and fresh vision for everyday believers and pastors who want to get in the game. If you’ve ever wondered how to move from casual coffee conversations to confident, reproducible disciple-making, pull up a chair.

Ep. 8

Thank you for listening!

Follow the SmallCircle Podcast for more on one-to-one disciple-making.

https://www.smallcircle.com/podcast

🌐 smallcircle.com
📱Download the free SmallCircle app: Search “SmallCircle Discipleship” on the Apple App Store or Google Play

Follow on Social

https://www.instagram.com/yoursmallcircle

https://www.facebook.com/yoursmallcircle

Love the show? Leave a review on Apple Podcasts — it really helps!

Hosted by Carrie McCoy, Director of Global Relations | SmallCircle