Great Memories from Celebration of Nations 2025!

TWENTY20 FAITH NEWS
Jun 16
5 min read

By: David J. Swandt, Founder and President - Twenty20 Faith

CELEBRATION OF NATIONS 2025!

On Saturday May 10, 2025, Twenty20 Faith hosted its fourth Annual Dinner Banquet - "CELEBRATION OF NATIONS 2025!" - at the beautiful Kalahari Resort and Convention Center in Round Rock, TX.

It was an extraordinary evening filled with joy and inspiration as we celebrated and honored the world-wide impact God continues to author through the ministry of Twenty20 Faith.

We would like to say THANK YOU to all of our donors and partners - through your extraordinary generosity, we raised $39,673 to advance the mission of Twenty20 Faith around the world. We are humbled and grateful for all you do.

At this event we re-united a special group of ministry leaders who were last together in Botswana, Africa in 2003. It was through this ministry team on that missions trip that the seeds were sown into the Swandts to formulate a new discipleship ministry for brand-new Christians.

And it was directly from those seeds that God would eventually cause the ministry of Twenty20 Faith to unfold. This reunion was truly special in every way. Pictured left to right:

Pastors Kelly and Sam Mata (Shoreline Church)

Pastors Mike and Cheryl Johnson (Tree of Life Church and Frontline Ministries)

Dr.'s Jerry and Jana Lackey (Love Botswana)

David and Joanne Swandt (Twenty20 Faith)

THANK YOU to all for your generosity! May God bless you beyond measure.

OPENING CEREMONY WAS FABULOUS!

As it does each year, Opening Flag Ceremony set the tone to the entire evening. This year we celebrated God's impact in people's lives around the world in 76 languages (20 new languages added in the past year). THANK YOU to Rebecca Garza de Haro and the student volunteers for making this such a special and engaging experience for all of our guests! You were amazing!

THANK YOU TO OUR GUEST SPEAKERS!

Jana and Jerry Lackey: We welcomed Dr.'s Jana and Jerry Lackey, the Founders of Love Botswana in Maun, Botswana, Africa. They truly inspired us all as they shared their incredible journey into the mission field in Africa, and how God's faithfulness was on full display the entire way through the ups and downs. The love they have for the wonderful people of Botswana shined brightly through them as they shared during our evening. It truly was an honor to have the Lackeys join us as our keynote speakers for the evening. Thank you Jana and Jerry!

Pastors Mike and Cheryl Johnson blessed our evening with powerful words and prayer reminding us of the importance of missions and the Great Commission. They brought us back to our beginnings in Botswana, and reminded us how God can take a small seed and make it grow profoundly. Thank you Mike and Cheryl for being a part of both our evening, and a part of the ministry journey of Twenty20 Faith.

Pastors Sam and Kelly Mata inspired us at the close of our evening with encouraging words of faith and a powerful prayer for God's blessing upon us all. Their connection to the ministry of Twenty20 Faith from the very beginning, along with their love and faithful friendship with the Swandts over the years to this very day is irreplaceable. Sam and Kelly - we thank you for your love, support and encouragement!

Ron and Katie Brigmon of Ron Brigmon Ministries gave our banquet leadership team and board members a powerful, scripture-filled devotional and prayer to bless our evening. God truly answered their prayers. Thank you, Ron and Katie, for all you do.

Gerald Bailey gave us a brief summary of the approach Twenty20 Faith will be taking with its new ministry platform - THRIVE 4CE - as we move into 2026. Gerald has graciously agreed to serve as Chief Engineer of our new ministry technology platform, helping us ensure this comes to fruition with the quality and completeness it deserves. THANK YOU Gerald!

You all helped make our evening so very special and memorable. We thank you.

WE ANNOUNCED "THRIVE 4CE" - OUR FUTURE MINISTRY PLATFORM

At last year's annual banquet event, we announced the formation of our Engage Pillar Expansion planning committee to prepare a strategy and plan of action to expand Twenty20 Faith's ministry to fully encompass helping those new Christians we minister to around the world connect with a trusted local fellowship where they live.

The committee consisted of 20 members of diverse backgrounds including Pastors, High Tech Professionals, Business Leaders, Missionaries, and International Charitable Programs. Each member held the strongest possible passion for the ministry of Twenty20 Faith to new Christians globally. Their work - spanning 6 months of effort - is represented in Twenty20 Faith's newest initiative:

THRIVE 4CE

(Pronounced "Thrive - Force")

As part of your generous giving, we received $20,000 in THRIVE 4CE Founders Level giving and $6,660 ($555/month annualized) in our PLUS 2500 monthly pledge campaign toward THRIVE 4CE.

We are truly humbled and honored by your extraordinary generosity, and the excitement so many of you shared with us about our future ministry platform. We are continuing our outreach to meet the financial goals needed to get things started. We will communicate regularly on progress in our newsletters and social media.

THANK YOU to all who have helped advance us toward these goals!

together we celebrated!

We are truly humbled and grateful to all who joined us at Celebration of Nations 2025. It was indeed an evening of celebrating and honoring the work of God and His faithfulness to help countless thousands around the world "build lasting clarity and a lifetime of growth in their walk with God."

THANK YOU to all in attendance and for allowing us the opportunity to share with you all that God is doing through Twenty20 Faith, and for your partnership with us in ministry.

THANK YOU to all of our volunteers for making our evening possible, and to the Kalahari Resort and Conference Center in Round Rock, TX for helping to make this such a wonderful experience for all in attendance.

And we give a special "THANK YOU" to Jonathan Owen and Tier One Creative from Colorado Springs for their outstanding work capturing our evening so vividly with their excellent professional photography.

THANK YOU!

learn more about TWENTY20 FAITH

We invite you to engage these resources to learn more!

OUR IMPROBABLE JOURNEY OF MIRACLES:

Join Piet Van Waarde on his Sidewalk Conversations Podcast as he interviews the Founder and President of Twenty20 Faith - David Swandt.

They explore David's mid-life change from the marketplace to ministry and discuss the highs/lows of that transition, as well as God's extraordinary provision all along the way.

For more information, or to support Piet's work, visit PietVanWaarde.com

TWENTY20 FAITH - TODAY AND BEYOND:

Join David, Joanne and others in this video as they share about Twenty20 Faith's ministry around the world today, and the vision we believe God has placed in our hearts looking to the future. We know you'll be inspired and blessed to learn more about all God is doing through the ministry of Twenty20 Faith.

READ AND SHARE OUR DEVOTIONALS AT NO COST

Download, read and share the devotionals that God is using to impact so many around the world in either the YouVersion Bible App or online from twenty20faith.org.

We make these available at no cost to those we minister to.

Read our devotionals in the YouVersion Bible App: HERE

We hope you will be encouraged and blessed by them. THANK YOU!