Letters From Paphos

New Site

2007-12-20T16:29:00.000-06:00

I'm moving sites.

New site is now www.e3sudan.com

blog url
http://www.e3sudan.com/index.php/e3sudan/blog_archives/

I will be leaving this on up.

I found my Paphos. It's Sudan.

2007 Wrap Up

2007-12-17T12:36:00.000-06:00

I've been wrestling with what exactly to say to all of you to wrap up 2007 for e3 in Sudan. You've probably picked up on my presupposition that we are all so overwhelmed with information, that for me to get you to read anything about Sudan, David Kaya, or e3, I have to be quick to the point. Photos seem to help too. So here's a super fast end of year note. Photos? Hmmm. Hang in there for a sec.

A huge Thank You from me, Ali and David and Gloria. Just this week, I asked the folks in my home church/fellowship/community group? (We have a bit of an identity crisis right now.) To pray for an issue I was having. Guess what? On Saturday morning the issue was resolved. As I was driving on Saturday thinking about how God was answering prayer, it hit me: Our entire ministry in Sudan is carried by your prayers. Ephesians 2:10 talks about the good works God prepared for us to walk in. I seriously think that between those good works God prepared and your prayers and support, David and I have the fun task of walking in obedience.

The scale and scope of what is happening in Sudan is so beyond the two of us, that to credit ourselves is laughable. In fact, we laugh all the time about how crazy all of this. But that’s the fun, cool part of being a Jesus follower. Remember in Luke 10 after the 70 came back from door to door evangelism? They were amazed at what the Lord did through them. I know exactly how they feel.

I laid all this out in my hard copy newsletter. If you didn’t get that in the mail, I’ve made links to them available here:

Photos via PDF
Word doc that explains the PDF

In a nutshell:

We have begun to address the issue of Christian leadership. The bible school in Kajo Keji is literally a dream come true for David, Edward Dima, and Kenneth Dila. David called me this morning and asked me about how to set limits on who can attend because the demand is rising dramatically. We can only house and feed so many right now. When David first told me his long-term dream was to create a seminary, I thought he was dreaming a bit too big. Now I share that dream.

That bible school is sort of like a tree farm. We won’t see too much immediate fruit, but I pray we’re growing oak and mahogany trees. Trees with deep roots, large canopies, and massive amounts of fruit. But those take time to grow because we’re trying to raise up a generation of leaders. How heavy is that? See how we need your prayers!

We raised up regional e3 leaders:

Kato Duku in the east.
Samuel Malish in the west.

They’ll train pastors to plant churches, how to use the evangecube and how to make disciples.

We identified and are sending out four indigenous missionaries. All are going to unreached areas to establish new churches.
The Lord established 14 new churches. He also drew 3,115 new followers of His Son to Himself.
The Lord removed a curse through the prayer of a campaigner.
He used local pastors to cast out demons.
He healed many from addictions.
He sent our guys into Congo where revival broke out.
He raised the resources to dig a well that saved a community.

And we’re just getting started. I can’t wait to keep walking in the good works He has prepared for us in 2008. I’m praying for more leaders for the harvest. (Matt. 9:38) I’m also praying for:

A great medical strategy
More biblical leadership training centers
A partner for water wells
Confirmation of a possible open door with the Southern Peoples Liberation Army (SPLA)
More leaders!
A women’s ministry to begin
Direction on what to do with the primary school at David’s mother church

Thanks again for all your support. For praying, for giving, and for going. I hope you’ll keep up the support in ’08.

Photos

2007-12-17T12:23:00.000-06:00

Great photos from a missionary friend working in Sudan.
Click here to see them all.

For True Sudan Geeks

2007-11-19T09:01:00.000-06:00

A post from Wretchard caught my eye.

"Armies of God, by Dominic Green, is an history of the clash between Islam and Christianity, Empire and Ummah that begins and ends in the Sudan. "

You can read the whole thing here.

In other news. Salva Kiir was at the White House last Thursday.
Quote,

I assured our friend that the United States is committed to helping the Sudanese people; we're committed to making sure that the peace agreement that we helped you negotiate is implemented. We're also committed to helping the people in Darfur.

I want to thank you for spending time with me to strategize about what we can do to save lives in Darfur. Our strategy that we want AU forces to be complemented and blue-helmeted -- in other words, the United Nations should be invited in. We talked about how best to get that done in order to save lives. Obviously, there is still a lot of work to be done.

Watch the video here.

Consult and Conference

2007-11-15T15:46:00.000-06:00

Hello pray-ers.

I promised a read out on the Consultation we hosted here at e3 World HQ a week or so ago. The bottom line is it rocked. We had about 65 folks show up, but more importantly Jesus came and He brought the life of the party, the Holy Spirit.

We had churches, laymen and women, ministries that ranged from cleaning up water to starting children’s churches, Humanitarian Aid organizations, to wacked out missionaries living on the bleeding edge. We worshipped, we wept, we challenged each other, and we learned a ton from one another.

Work groups

On the right is John Rowell, auther of To Give or Not to Give

I walked away with four potential new partnerships. Training centers may potentially get built. More kids may receive inoculations, and I had my financial giving paradigm smashed, then kicked, then buried.

I’m praying that Kaya and I will now:

· Learn how to set up children’s churches

· Train Southern Sudanese Army chaplains

· Set up vaccine programs

· More effectively train our leaders to plant more churches!

*****

Something big to pray for:

Right now, David Kaya is leading a Pastor’s conference in Kajo Keji. We have 66 pastors who have come. It’s a time of refreshment, a time to seek the Lord, to learn, and to be challenged for greater work in 2008.

David called me this morning and told me that four of these men are called out now as indigenous missionaries to go plant churches in unreached areas.

As the Spirit continues to move amongst them, please take a moment to lift them up.

In Their Words

2007-11-01T13:59:00.001-05:00

Members of my last team gave me permission to publish their most memorable moments. Some didn't actually give me permission. Sorry. They're too good for me to hold onto.

Here we are, the whole team, jumping for joy, or something.

Michelle Scott

My most memorable moment occurred on the last day of our evangelism. It was after a long week where God had already been humbling me left and right. He also opened my eyes and changed the very perspective I see this world with.

So picture this: Sun beating down on your shoulders, sweat dripping down your back, and I am off to face the day. We start with words of encouragement and prayer with my Sudanese pastor Edward I had been working with for the past few days. That was a special day. We got to go around to three primary schools on a motorbike. So we hop on and I am literally in awe as we drive from one place to the next. The lush mountains scaling in the background underneath God’s beautiful blue sky. So we get to the second school of the day and the children swarm me with giant smiles and warm hearts as I approach. I get a little anxious because there was like 15 kids. I prayed for clear words and the Holy Spirit to be with me and in the hearts of the children as they introduce me. I gave my presentation and said things more from the heart and well I think God was really working. I know they listened at the very least and when I asked who wanted to accept Jesus into their hearts a few slowly raised their hands and then almost all of them did. In that moment it all came together for me. This trip, the point of missions, the power that God can do ANYTHING, even use us imperfect humans. It was a moment I hope to never forget. I think God for his beautiful earth, the amazing emotions and senses he as equipped us with, and that he has invited us to spend eternity with him. Praise God.

- Michelle

******************************

Kate Ousley

On the first day of sharing we visited a school of 500 children. Close to half accepted Christ that day. Two days later, as my translator and I were beginning our 30 minute walk to the village, 10 school children passed us on the road. After they greeted us and continued walking, one of the children turned around and yelled, “Hey, we want Jesus.” My translator told me what they said so we stopped. I shared the Evangecube with them a second time. At the end I asked who wanted to accept Jesus. Every one of them raised their hand. All prayed. Then two people sitting close by asked to hear about Jesus and accepted also. We continued on our walk to the village.

- Kate

*******************************************

Kari Owens

I felt the whole trip was such a clear picture of Christ and His disciples. The command was “Go.” As a group we each encountered a unique part of what that meant. Praying for the sick, preaching and teaching the Word, encouraging other believers and most of all sharing the Gospel! The “highlight” for me was simple. I connected with the women, especially the six who cooked for our church in Litoba. We spent a small amount of time together each day. The last day we were there, we cooked together and fetched water, talked, laughed…we had so much fun. We shared our testimonies and prayed for each other. Mike Congrove was right…women are the same no matter what country they come from.

- Kari

***************************************

Steve Grote

Ministry was very challenging in Kajo Keji. Tuesday was our first full day of work. We went from hut to hut sharing our testimonies and the gospel. All of us felt a lot of resistance. We did not feel like our message was getting across. As we shared Tuesday evening, we were all feeling a bit discouraged. Wednesday morning as we arrived at our church site, we heard a very encouraging story. Tuesday evening after we had left, the pastor and some of the church members were walking home after the evening service. Along the way, a spirit possessed man came from the tall grass along the path and raised his hand to strike the pastor, Kenneth. Those with Kenneth surrounded the man and prevented the attack. The man kept screaming, "Why did you bring these people here? This is my territory. Go over the boarder to Uganda. Leave from here!" He again raised his hands to strike the pastor and once again he was diverted. They all commanded him to leave in the name of Jesus. After some more dialogue, the man ended up running away, back into the grassy field.

Though the story left me a bit uneasy, it also left me very encouraged. After experiencing a day in which we felt like we were hitting barrier after barrier, God was still moving. He was moving so much, that Satan's strongholds were beginning to be dispelled.
We never truly know where God is working and moving in the lives of people. We are only called to be faithful in sharing the Gospel. This experience reminded me to not rely on my understanding, but to trust that God moves in our obedience.

- Steve

***********************************************

Jonathan Owens (center)

It was the typical scene: A woman with several children, her husband had left her. An old woman (the tallest, thinnest, most elderly lady I’ve ever seen)was with us. She was the grandmother. There were several kids sitting around.

This lady was sick though. The translators said it was malaria. After the EvangeCube presentation she talked about how when her husband had left it was hard and she turned to alcohol. She said that several times she had thought about suicide. Dying would be easier than taking care of her children on her own. She said this with tears streaming down her face. And it was then that she told us she had just accepted Christ into her life. We gave her a New Testament. That encounter impacted me.

- Jonathan

*****************************************

Chastin Scharfe

I am departing Sudan with many precious memories. I have experienced the full range of emotions while on this trip. There have been tears shed from witnessing the extreme poverty and the inability to help due to my luggage being lost. There was trepidation entering into villages of unknown people groups with unknown expectations. There were feelings of incompetency in sharing the gospel. Mostly there were many memories of laughter and joy especially as many beautiful African faces greeted us with smiles and waves. That is one of my favorite memories I will carry with me from Sudan. The Sudanese people would stop anything to warmly greet the white Americans.

My other memorable moment was during the last cell group meeting. More than 25 men and two women gathered on wooden branches to listen to three white American women teach them about prayer, giving, and discipleship. They listened intently for three hours as we shared what the Bible says on these topics and how to practically apply the info. We witnessed the Holy Spirit dispelling cultural myths and deception taught in some local churches. God’s word was used to break strongholds from false religious teachings formerly taught. Lives were changed as the people sought the Bible to address many issues relevant to their lives and culture. In our weakness God used our willingness to “go” and “share” His good news and I was blessed by seeing God’s strength and power he gave to complete His work throughout the week.

- Chastin

Experience this yourself by clicking here.

Photo Essay

2007-10-19T16:09:00.000-05:00

Homemade toys.
Kari embracing the culture.

Last night, Michelle and Kate go for braids.
Kaya's backyard.
Our church buildings: Design patented by God.
Kari really loved on these ladies.
Egg, egg, chicken. Duck, duck, goose doesn't work. There are no geese.
A few of the bible school students. The man on the right, Michael, is pastoring the church plant.

Taking tea.
The mother church has primary school. I had no idea.
Moi. Saved in April of 2007. Now he's attending our bible school and was out with us evangelizing. Transformed by Christ!
Receiving Christ.

Eddie Duku. He'll run our agriculture program that will feed our students at our school, and probably those primary school kids too.
Intestinal worms.
Lunch.
Two ladies in the U.S. donated wedding dresses. Here's one of the stores of the donaters in Dallas.

The Mark

2007-10-19T16:06:00.000-05:00

In one village, Mike Scharfe, a U.S. campaigner on our trip from Norflolk/Virginia Beach, came across a young boy. He was maybe four or five years old. Each day when Mike would see him, the young boy would run away from him. Mike also noticed that the boys peers and even the adults around him wouldn’t interact with him. They didn’t quite shun him, but they didn’t engage him either.

Guess which one Mike is.

On the third day of working in the villages, Mike came across the boy again. Mike, and the nationals with him, were at a home. Many at the home needed prayer for various sicknesses. That’s when Mike learned part of the boy’s story. He had a mark on his arm. A witch doctor had put the mark there and cursed the boy to die. Hence the failure to engage him. Why engage the dead?

Mike’s translator asked him to pray for all the illnesses. Mike prayed and during his prayer, he lifted the boy with death mark up to our Father.

The mark vanished. I believe the Lord broke the curse. Then as Mike walked to the next home, the boy ran up and grasped Mike’s hand. They walked hand in hand for awhile down the road. Christ’s love manifested.

When the apostle John wrote his Gospel account he said, “And there are also many other things which Jesus did, which if they were written in detail, I suppose that even the world itself would not contain the books that would be written.” 21:25 I know how he feels. I can’t write all that the Lord did, and you don’t have time to read it, but this is a taste. I’ll write you another taste or two this week. We’ll dribble them out so as not to overwhelm.

The Stats

· 587 Sudanese put their faith in Christ Jesus.

· 1 new church was established.

· 2 churches were strengthened, including one planted by the e3 team in April of this year. Ah, discipleship.

Thanks for praying. The four who fell behind caught up, Mike Scharfe was one of them. I supposed the story above is one reason the Lord worked things out.

Water Crossings in Sudan

2007-09-29T15:07:00.001-05:00

Tis the rainy season. Here is David's email and a few shots he took driving from Kapoeta to Kajo Keji.

Men of God,

Thank you so much for praying with us during the difficult time of our return from Kapoeta. We almost lost the LandCruiser by overhead flood from the Mountains of Imatong. Look at the picture and then give thanks to God for his Protection.

Am very happy for all the works of the Holy Spirit in the ministry, Thank you for your prayers and I want to repeat thank you!!!

Kaya David

Deviate from Sudan

2007-09-27T12:34:00.001-05:00

For, who else? Bono

Bono: That's between me and God. But I'd be in big trouble if Karma was going to finally be my judge. I'd be in deep s---. It doesn't excuse my mistakes, but I'm holding out for Grace. I'm holding out that Jesus took my sins onto the Cross, because I know who I am, and I hope I don't have to depend on my own religiosity.

Assayas: The Son of God who takes away the sins of the world. I wish I could believe in that.

Bono: But I love the idea of the Sacrificial Lamb. I love the idea that God says: Look, you cretins, there are certain results to the way we are, to selfishness, and there's a mortality as part of your very sinful nature, and, let's face it, you're not living a very good life, are you? There are consequences to actions. The point of the death of Christ is that Christ took on the sins of the world, so that what we put out did not come back to us, and that our sinful nature does not reap the obvious death. That's the point. It should keep us humbled… . It's not our own good works that get us through the gates of heaven.

Assayas: That's a great idea, no denying it. Such great hope is wonderful, even though it's close to lunacy, in my view. Christ has his rank among the world's great thinkers. But Son of God, isn't that farfetched?

Bono: No, it's not farfetched to me. Look, the secular response to the Christ story always goes like this: he was a great prophet, obviously a very interesting guy, had a lot to say along the lines of other great prophets, be they Elijah, Muhammad, Buddha, or Confucius. But actually Christ doesn't allow you that. He doesn't let you off that hook. Christ says: No. I'm not saying I'm a teacher, don't call me teacher. I'm not saying I'm a prophet. I'm saying: "I'm the Messiah." I'm saying: "I am God incarnate." And people say: No, no, please, just be a prophet. A prophet, we can take. You're a bit eccentric. We've had John the Baptist eating locusts and wild honey, we can handle that. But don't mention the "M" word! Because, you know, we're gonna have to crucify you. And he goes: No, no. I know you're expecting me to come back with an army, and set you free from these creeps, but actually I am the Messiah. At this point, everyone starts staring at their shoes, and says: Oh, my God, he's gonna keep saying this. So what you're left with is: either Christ was who He said He was—the Messiah—or a complete nutcase. I mean, we're talking nutcase on the level of Charles Manson. This man was like some of the people we've been talking about earlier. This man was strapping himself to a bomb, and had "King of the Jews" on his head, and, as they were putting him up on the Cross, was going: OK, martyrdom, here we go. Bring on the pain! I can take it. I'm not joking here. The idea that the entire course of civilization for over half of the globe could have its fate changed and turned upside-down by a nutcase, for me, that's farfetched . . .

Potential Partnership

2007-09-24T09:16:00.001-05:00

Applied Technology and Water Wells

2007-09-23T16:22:00.001-05:00

Saturday my friend John Lay set up meeting and a demonstration of an applied technology approach to water wells. Weston and I went to the home to Ray and Lauralee Lindholm. Ray and Lauralee served in Ethiopia for years and have a ministry called Heart for Ethiopia they've set up to support the work.
Ray and Weston.

The whole set up. The pipe that digs the well is supported by a pulley and ropes. You lift and drop this device while water pours down into the hole.

The bolt allows this tip to move up and down. Water come down through this pipe. The up and down motion of the pipe adds pressure to speed up the digging. The tip breaks up the dirt or rock.

The top of the pipe.
Pulley.
Once the hole is dug and casing is set up, this is your pump. The brown looking washers are leather and used for the pump itself.

Here's a quote from their website.

Drilling of wells to
Provide safe water supplies using conventional technology is
cost prohibitive for most rural families or communities. Heart
for Ethiopia has recently discovered a manual well-drilling
process that can be performed by local volunteer labor with
somewhat primitive locally made tools . The drilling process had already been successfully applied in several other countries. Now wells have been completed in Ethiopia by the manual drilling process and are supplying adequate quantities of clean safe water in remote rural villages. We have found that by using this manual process, a well can be drilled and fitted with a manual pump for a cost of only $200 (cost of materials only). [emphasis mine]

My hope is we can replicate this, or something very similar, in Sudan.

Adjumani II

2007-09-20T09:10:00.000-05:00

When David relayed the Adjumani story to me, he also told me he was tired. He was going to take an extra day of rest before heading to the other side of the country to meet the U.S. team. Yesterday, he sent me this email.

When I work out of my house I remembered the speakers which we will be using at Kormachi, so I connected them and started playing Music. Then I saw one man of a middle age coming towards me while crying, he stood beside me and said I have not slept for 10 days, I don't know what has gone wrong with me. I have fear at the night and some thing told me to come to you and get saved, so I am here to accept the Lord as my personal Savior today. When I heard the Phone singing I couldn't tolerate what the Spirit was telling me to do.

I for sure prayed for him and he went back home rejoicing .

Remember Mike, I told you that I was tried of work and I decided to postpone my trip to Kapoeta to the next day, I came to realize that it was God who was planing for the new soul to come to his kingdom. I rejoice in My spirit so greatly for what the Lord is doing through the ministry. Blessed be the Lord.

Adjumani

2007-09-18T11:23:00.001-05:00

Adjumani? Wasn’t that a movie? No, I’m thinking of Jumanji, the movie with Robin Williams. Adjumani is the town (village?) where David Kaya has been on an all-Sudanese church planting campaign. I spoke with David this morning and here is what he told me the Lord did.

It’s as if, once again, we walk into the book of Acts. First, allow me to reset the story for you. A man in Adjumani was possessed by a demon, and he caused terrible problems for the villagers by destroying things. The villagers turned to the few believers in the village for help who, in turn, sent a messenger to David’s home church. The church sent a pastor to Adjumani who, through the power of Jesus, delivered the man of his demon(s). Guess what? Just like in the book of Acts, the villagers wanted to follow this Jesus. Hence, these past three days.

When David and his men entered the village and began to go tukel (hut) to tukel, many people made professions of faith in Christ. When they gathered the people together that afternoon many more followed Jesus. Recall, that a family blessed David with a Landcruiser. David learned that the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) was in the area, and that vehicle draws attention. The LRA is a rebel military group in northern Uganda and southern Sudan. He withdrew from the village that night and slept elsewhere. In the village that same night, the new followers of Jesus worshiped Him and fellowshipped African-style, David’s description. That night the Lord encouraged David to go back to the village the next day.

Go back they did and began to baptize the new believers in the Nile. As darkness fell, they finished baptizing 105 people and were ready to finish the day. Then a wave of villagers came to the river and asked to follow Jesus and be baptized.

[I realize that this sounds so storybook as to be unbelievable, but I’m telling you, this really happened.]

When they finished baptizing them, a second wave appeared asking to follow Jesus and be baptized. Then a third group appeared and were baptized as well.

David was so excited when he shared this story. My favorite thing he said was, “Those demons helped us to open the door.”

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him,who have been called according to his purpose. – Romans 8:28

Thanks for praying and being a part of God’s amazing work. There is a campaign with U.S. workers leaving tomorrow for another town in Sudan, and David tells me to pray about the rain. It’s rained so much that a dorm at our bible school collapsed and the latrine filled up. Obviously the roads will be terrible.

Koreans and Sudan

2007-08-30T14:44:00.000-05:00

Perhaps you’ve heard of the Koreans who were recently released by the Taliban in Afghanistan? The Taliban kidnapped 23 Koreans, killed two, released two women who were sick, and now, 43 days after their capture, released the remaining 19. These Koreans were Christians, obeying the Great Commission and delivering aid to the Afghans.

During this same time period, David Kaya hosted a team of Koreans in Southern Sudan as well. We are soooo multicultural!

Via David ...

The Koreans did Evangelism in the first Baptist church in Wudu. 117 came to the Lord as the report they gave to the pastor for the follow up. They also showed the Passion of Christ in the Market of Wudu, They prayed for the nation of the Sudan and even fasted for a day for peace and stability of the nation.
On their last day of the mission the went to Pamoju church and performed a Karate which demonstrates the warfare of Christian and the Dark world.
Lastly they ended the work by showing the Passion of Christ which brought 47 people to the Lord. One thing which attracted over 3,500 people was the football [soccer] which they played after they have preached to the people, Many people praised them for the social attitude the Koreans have to Sudan!

They got a good praise from the people. they feed the school childern.

These are some of the things they gave to the church:

They gave offering to First Baptist Church Worth 900$
They also gavew second clothes to the churches of the Baptist as all of them were Baptist.

Another Torit Story and More Photos!

2007-08-16T10:51:00.000-05:00

Justin Colvard, a TCU student who joined us in Torit has posted his photos and journal on his Mac page.

Take a gander here.

Strategic World Impact

2007-08-14T10:13:00.000-05:00

Kevin Smith of Strategic World Impact's interview with Active Christian Media.

My wife jokes that I categorize people into those who "get it" and those who don't.

Kevin gets it. Big time. He describes Sudan extensively in this interview.

Listen to it here.

Sudan Trip through the Eyes of John

2007-07-31T13:45:00.000-05:00

John Jefferson, my friend, roomie on this trip, and a guy passionate about Sudan put together a great report. I asked him if I could post it on my blog verbatim and he agreed. Here goes. I changed the formatting, which causes some loss.

By John Jefferson

The trip to Sudan started out with the first ever Southern Sudanese Baptist Convention meeting in Rumbek. Over 20 pastors from throughout the country joined forces to bring together the Baptist Church of Sudan. Mike Congrove, the trip leader, and I traveled apart from the team for this leg of the journey. As a result of 20 yrs of civil war, most pastors didn’t know the others existed save their local counterparts. The conference lasted three days and was literally a once-in-a-lifetime experience for me and all involved. God will undoubtedly use what transpired to set the direction for the Baptist church in Sudan for many years to come. This in turn fits into what I believe God is doing in His church throughout Sudan as revival takes place after the war years. He is using people like us, through prayer and sacrificial giving, to do this mighty work!

The next stop was Torit, where Mike and I met up with the rest of the team to begin the formal church planting mission.

The E3 Torit team (pronounced “Toreet”) met every morning over hot tea and chapattis (basically flat, square donuts), before going out to the field. Mike would do a devotional, followed by prayer for guidance from the Holy Spirit, a few worship songs led by a young man named Josh from Waxahachi, Texas, and a time of sharing experiences of the previous day. There was always something new…

Then it would be off on a 1.5 hr [bumpy] journey east to the foothills and the village of Kor English, where one of the two church plants was to take place. Sometimes we’d pick up a hitchhiker or two. (Ones with M-16s got first dibs on space)

Everywhere along the road were signs of the recently ended, 20-yr “civil” war; disabled tanks, overturned trucks, and gigantic mortar shells from air & artillery raids. Kor English is a village of approximately 300, twenty miles east of Torit. The village relocated behind a military encampment after 28 people had been killed in attacks by LRA (Lord’s Resistance Army) rebels from Uganda in November of 2006. Some people remained in the mountain villages behind Kor English as well.

Technically speaking, the “Kor” is now an IDP (Internally Displaced People) camp located next to an SPLA military base (Sudanese Peoples Liberation Army). As one might imagine, spiritually speaking, the ground was very hard in the village due to all the strife the people had suffered. There was an abundance of alcohol abuse and a lack of decent medical care. This is where the team was to plant the first church. The village had a bore hole well in the center, which provided clean water and a center of activity where kids played and hard-working women filled 5-gallon containers of water, which they carried on their heads.
With every task in the village being done by hand, from pumping of the well for water, to collecting sticks for firewood, there was always a lot of work to do. Simple tasks like cooking a meal could be an all day affair by the time all was said and done. Washing clothes and any other domestic duties seemed to occupy a huge percentage of each woman’s day. Unless there was some fighting going on, the men seemed to have it a lot easier, except for those who farmed alongside the women, in the outlying fields.

Each afternoon a church service was held under a large tree in the center of the village. David Kaya (E3 Staff) helped structure the services and led them the first three days while the team added to the congregation bringing new converts, recommitted Christians and curiosity seekers alike.
One of the highlights of each day was seeing villagers stream to the “Big Tree” as the service began with songs of praise.

The Prestonwood Baptist Church Awanas group raised $1,500 for a feeding program for the school-aged kids, many of whom attended services each day.

I worked with a team in an area of huts sandwiched between the military barracks and the bush to the west of the village. Most of the 14 villagers we shared the Gospel with were wives’ of soldiers. Sadly, many of the men were out on “missions” patrolling the area, drinking, or resistant to receiving the Gospel. Despite these obstacles, God was faithful and by the end of the week a couple of the husbands had the Gospel presented to them and one even showed up at the Church service. (Thanks for the prayers!) The Great News is that most of the wives prayed to receive Christ, attended services when they could, and will provide a foundation for the next generation of believers. And who knows, maybe their unbelieving spouses will be won over too!

On the Sunday before the formal mission activity began, the team attended a church service at the local Africa Inland Church in Torit. One of the team members, Mark Jordan, spoke on suffering as a part of the Christian walk, something many if not all Sudanese can relate to.
Many came forward for prayer after the sermon. By “chance”, I met a man named William outside of the church, with whom I had worked in the northern part of Southern Sudan 3 years ago! He was my interpreter, and I had given him a compact Bible my wife, Dawn, loaned me for the trip. He still had it and told me it was the “sword” that protected him these past three years. (This means a lot more in Sudan than it does in the US for obvious reasons) He was in Torit for a couple of days visiting family he had not seen for many years due to the war…a very common story in Southern Sudan.

Despite all of the hardships and suffering, there is still an indomitable spirit in the heart of the Southern Sudanese. This mission revealed a people deeply wounded by the effects of Jihad, greed, and hatred, but still willing to embrace brothers and sisters from far away, with a timeless message of salvation and hope through Jesus Christ.

New Sudan Video

2007-07-06T09:55:00.000-05:00

Check out this incredible video that the greatness of Tim shot, produced, and edited.

This, by the way, is my favorite photo of Tim, then some others.

Plying his trade.
As close as we could get to the Burj.

Rule of Three

2007-07-05T08:55:00.000-05:00

Guy Muse knocks it out again. Love this guy's (ahem) blog.

Pulls a note from Curtis Sergeant regarding lessons to learn from the Marine Corp: Rule of Three.

Money Quote

The three tasks/goals for which each of us is responsible involve 1) going out and engaging the lost with the Gospel, 2) making disciples of those who choose to follow Christ (including baptism), 3) teaching/training them to be Christ's ekklesia where they live by obeying Christ's commands.

This is hedgehog thinking.

More Erin Pics

2007-07-03T22:56:00.000-05:00

Kaya means freedom.

Sudan and China

2007-06-28T14:52:00.000-05:00

Cooperating militarily.

Peter Pham writing in World Defense Review, writes:

Sudan. Despite the now three-year-old orgy of rape, torture, mutilation, and killing in which up to half a million black Africans have perished and another 2.5 million driven from their homes in the Darfur region – a situation that even the United Nations has labeled "the world's worst humanitarian crisis" – the chief of the joint staff of the Sudanese armed forces, Haj Ahmed El Gaili, enjoyed a weeklong "goodwill visit" to China in April courtesy of Liang Guanglie, chief of PLA general staff, who was undoubtedly eager to cultivate the officer from the country on whom Beijing is now dependent for 7 percent of its oil imports. According to a report from the official Xinhua news agency, the visiting Sudanese general also had an opportunity to meet with Chinese defense minister Cao Gangchuan, who gushed: "Military relations between China and Sudan have developed smoothly…China and Sudan have enjoyed profound friendship though the two countries are far apart. China cherished the traditional friendship with Sudan and would like to further promote bilateral cooperation in various fields." No doubt that cooperation will include new arms sales on top of the $100 million worth of Shenyang fighter jets, including a dozen supersonic F-7s, already delivered. In a report earlier this year, Amnesty International expressed its concern that:

[T]he Sudan Air Force has transferred these jet bombers to Darfur…without authority from the UN Sanctions Committee and is highly likely to use these newly acquired jets, as it has other aircraft, and the acquisition of expertise to fly the jets supplied from China, for indiscriminate attacks in Darfur in violation of the UN arms embargo and international humanitarian law, thus also posing serious questions about the systems of accountability and training provided to the Sudan Air Force to ensure respect for that universal law.

Photos of our Newest Missionary

2007-06-27T09:50:00.000-05:00

Erin Kaya /6 lbs 15 oz / 19 inches /
June 26th / 11:03 a.m.

WP: Sudan Interactive Overview

2007-06-27T08:23:00.000-05:00

The Washington Post put out a quite decent interactive map along with other helpful items when trying to grasp Sudan at a high level.

Click here, then click "more."

Torit Wrap Up

2007-06-13T10:49:00.000-05:00

The TEAM!!!

Allow me to share this wrap-up in my typical, rolling ADD, email-friendly fashion—or vain attempt to do so. You know the drill now, scroll away. I don't have many photos because I left my camera on the DC3 you see below. Fortunately the group operating the plane, AIM Air, is made up of believers and I got my camera back, but at the end of my trip.

First, cold, impersonal, human-inspired statistics; that said, each number is a story that we pray brings the Lord glory. In Sudan there are obstacles to, literally, every action a person takes—from a simple act like getting water, to sharing the life-transforming power of Christ. Add in the spiritual realm of opposition along with very concrete reminders to the team who walked among these grass and mud huts that it is the Lord alone who establishes His church, and we in no way can claim credit for whom the Lord alone has drawn into His kingdom.

Kor Ingles (aka church plant 1)

Gospel Presentations: 262
Prof. of Faith: 129
Follow Up: 98

ILangi (aka church plant 2)

GP: 218
POF: 127
F/Up: 58

Totals:

GP: 480
POF: 256
F/Up: 156

My Highlight A family had given the funds for a key pastor to start a small restaurant in the town where he lives. Another foundation supplied the funding to purchase a pastor two oxen and a plow. Both of these investments will supply ongoing income for these pastors. It eliminates the ongoing issue of dependency on America or e3, but frees them up to focus on the advancement of the gospel. The Lord also used them to speak to an official with the denomination we were working with: The African Inland Church (AIC).

These two gifts combined with seeing two new church plants get started in Torit stirred his heart. Stirred it enough that he and I sat for some time one evening talking about the future and a partnership. He oversees 60 churches in southern Sudan. He shared with me his goals for this year:

Every member of theses churches lead another to Christ.
Every member of these churches disciple two others, and prepare those two to disciple two more of their own.
A bible study/prayer group in every place (home, school, clinic, office) where they have influence.
100 pastors and or lay leaders trained and prepared to lead.
Each church pray specifically for five unreached areas.

I got goosebumps talking with him as we began to discuss how e3 may be able to help with these goals. Finding and working within these networks of indigenous leaders and churches has been a significant prayer request for us for some time. Another hallelujah!

Other highlights from US campaigners

Patricia -- who named a small, sick child "Faith" then saw the Lord heal her overnight.
John -- who, along with his wife, has prayed for Sudan for six years and was instrumental in seeing the church planted in the midst of drunkeness, spiritual opposition, and lingering trauma amongst a tribe recently attacked by a rogue milita.
Todd -- who soaked up the nightly gatherings at the mother church where we broke bread together with the pastors and the church members working alongside us.
Justin -- who saw the razor blade cuts on the forehead of a 12-year old girl; the cuts "treatment" for the fever brought on by her malaria. Justin's a pre-med student who was particularly moved by this and I suspect someone the Lord will use in the future to bring medical relief in the years to come.
Josh --fully embracing the local culture, singing songs in a local tribal language and enjoying a post-dinner treat of termites on our last night in Sudan.
Debbie -- One day she has a soldier threaten to shoot her if she comes near his hut. The next day, he professes faith in Christ and welcomes her into his home.

It's always a highlight when you see the new believers gather under the tree for those first church meetings. Reality strikes you that if the pastors and their disciples follow up and keep up the work, a church really will be established.

In the area where drunkeness was particularly bad, a key leader in the area came to a church service and publicly swore off alcohol.

I enjoyed integrating prayerwalking into the trip and seeing the Lord break up the ground through appeals to Him.

The miracle of the unifying power of the Holy Spirit, who binds hearts and overcomes food, language, culture, and our hearts. A taste of heaven here on earth.

Photos that I do have or were emailed to me recently ....

Worship at one of the church plants.

More worship

I just dug his shoes.

Site of a church planted by the February team. Following up one day.The pastors who attended the first every Baptist Conference of southern Sudan.

Mark, the IMB missionary, teaching.Kaya, teaching our church-planting training.

Billy. 72 years old. Former Green Beret. God told him to go to Sudan. So, like a good soldier he obeyed. He's teaching literacy in the south. Using scripture to teach folks how to read. An outstanding man. Finishing strong!!! This is how you retire. Forget golf, come to Sudan.

Ladies.
The still.

The Lulu Tree

2007-06-13T10:41:00.000-05:00

My recent trip was divided into two parts: The first ever Baptist Conference of southern Sudan held in Rumbek; and the church-planting campaign in Torit, Sudan. At the conference, a tall, young Dinka pastor with a quiet demeanor named Benjamin stood to tell a testimony of his church. He pastors a small gathering of believers in the bush near Akot where they met under a large Lulu tree. Imagine a very mature pecan tree—sans pecans of course—and you can draw a mental image in your mind. The lulu tree provided the shade that makes meeting together bearable in the oppressive heat of Sudan.

Left to right: Benjamin, Abraham (another pastor), and John Jefferson (my travelmate, from Plano, for the entire trip) under a tree similar to the one described in this story.

One day, the local authority in the area informed Benjamin that he would have to move his church to a new location. The man wanted to establish a fish market beneath the great tree and the church stood in his way. Benjamin protested, but was overruled. The authority’s quote was, “I give the land and I can take it away.” Benjamin complied and the fish market materialized beneath the tree.

Then a funny thing happened. On the first day of the fish market, the merchants noticed the leaves falling from the tree. Within a week, the tree was dead, empty of the leaves that provided the great shade.

Who is the One who gives and takes away?

Prov. 23:11, “…for their defender is strong; he will take up their case against you.”

Water in Sudan

2007-05-26T04:09:00.000-05:00

At the beginning of April, David in Sudan sent me this note:

Church in Wagaru is face by stage of water after their water well dry up. all the church members kept on not attanding services as most of them move for four Kilometers to get water for their family. The chief said "this village is becoming impossible to live in unless God come to their aid. Lets keep praying for Wagoru, this is the village where the team is coming to do church strengthening.

So we prayed. And a family called me and funded the drilling of a new well in the village. Here's David's update on that:

Great joy broke out at the site of the site of the drilling of the water point. people gathered and women sing and p[raising the Lord for the relief which the Lord has gioven to them after suffering for long. One of the women said, " we did had enough time with our men in the house due to fetching of waiting for water for the whole night, I will now rested and have tiome with my familt instead of the water point stress". some said from today onward no one should speak against the Baptist church anymore.

Mike it was a day of joy in Limi and the chief gave a goat to the drilling campany just to express the joy of the water.

Thank to the family which gave the monry forthe water for the wogoru church. May his name be praised

Sudan Reflections

2007-05-11T08:55:00.000-05:00

Nadine, who will co-lead my next trip to Sudan and who partnered with me in Ethiopia just returned from a medical trip in southern Sudan. Here's the email she sent to her prayer team.

Hi everyone, I just wanted to thank you for your prayers which sustained me while I was in Sudan. I am feeling fine and am very glad to be home! [She got a bit sick while there.] You should have received an earlier email from me with the results of the trip so I won’t go over them here. Just wanted to give you some thoughts I had while I was away.

As some of you know I rent a cute little cottage in Readington Township. It is about 6 or 700 square feet and sits at the edge of the woods. I love my home and I thank God on most days for providing me such a nice pretty place to live, but being in Sudan brought my thankfulness to a new level. Here are just a few of my thoughts while I was laying sick on a bench in the middle of Southern Sudan. Although I have thanked Him many times for my home, I hadn’t thanked Him recently for my nice bathroom with a clean working toilet (don’t laugh, I’m serious) I thanked Him for my shower and that it has hot running water. I thanked him for my refrigerator and the fact that I have enough money to put food in it, I thanked Him that I can eat more than once per day. I thanked him for my washer and dryer, and the fact that I have a multitude of clothes to put in them, for running water in my house and the fact that I don’t have to walk miles to go and get it and carry it back EVERY day. I thanked Him that the water is clean and that I won’t get sick from drinking it, and for the fact that if I ever do get sick it is no problem to go to a doctor. I thanked Him for the floors in my house, that they are not dirt, for the nice doors and windows that I have, for the screens in the windows that keep the bugs out. I thanked Him for providing a car for me, that I don’t have to walk miles everywhere, that I have enough money to put gas in my car. Then I thanked Him for the roads that I can drive on. I thanked Him for my children, that they are healthy and that they have all that they need. The people in Sudan have NONE of these things NONE OF THEM, not one. Why was I born in the U.S.? I also thanked Him for the people in my life that love me, know me, and care for me.

I had one other experience that I want to share with you. It was when we were flying in a very small plane (20 seater) from one location in Uganda to another. We flew very low for more than an hour. This was a different experience as in the African sky you could see for what seems like hundreds of miles- a VAST nothingness- I was struck at how BIG God is by seeing all this vastness and knowing that I was just seeing a tiny part of the world that He created. Right in the middle of contemplating His greatness, I was amazed again at my salvation. That God who oversees and is intimately involved with this HUMONGOUS world, would reach down to a hospital bed 26 years ago, and take the time to change my life. I instantly thought of the song that says “ who am I that you are mindful of me, that you love me” and Psalm 8 When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful on him . . . .” I continue to be amazed at God and His work.

Sudan Links

2007-04-10T11:39:00.000-05:00

Blogs and Sites I visit regularly to keep up with Sudan:

News:
http://www.sudan.net/news/news.html
Google News Aggregate
Strategy Page

Three workers blogging about life in the South
Wandering Soul
Notes from the Field
Aaron

More U.S. Church Commentary

2007-04-04T08:24:00.000-05:00

I'll have more Sudan material soon.

Bill Kinnon has articulated and expressed what so many "feel" and "think" in the church. While I don't agree with everything he has written, he's dead on for the majority. He calls his post, The People Formerly Known as the Congregation. The comments are important to read as well because they enlarge the context and a few provide a nice critique. I excerpt and elaborate on that below.

Excerpt.

Let me introduce you to The People formerly known as The Congregation. There are millions of us.
We are people - flesh and blood - image bearers of the Creator - eikons, if you will. We are not numbers.
We are the eikons who once sat in the uncomfortable pews or plush theatre seating of your preaching venues. We sat passively while you proof-texted your way through 3, 4, 5 or no point sermons - attempting to tell us how you and your reading of The Bible had a plan for our lives. Perhaps God does have a plan for us - it just doesn't seem to jive with yours.

In the comments, Pastor M. writes a nice critique and asks a valid question,

"As I'm usually the contrarian in any bunch ... What I'd like to know is what the opposite of your polemic looks like. I'm not disagreeing with you. What I've found is that every criticism that someone has is really an affirmation of something. I'd like to know what you are affirming. While someone probably needs to say what you've said, it isn't a healthy place to stay. What's your ideal church community?

Today, Kinnon links to Ed Brenegar's response, and elaboration. Spot on as well. Thank God for these men who are able to write what jumbles around in our brains.

Excerpt:

Many churches are simply institutions. They are all program and process. Other churches are nothing more than fellowship centers. Others exist as a gathering place for the discussion and debate of theological and social ideas.
What I've found is that every church, every person, every relationship, every organization, family or community needs to have all three dimensions functioning for them to be healthy. This does not mean that the three are equal in weight. From my perspective, relationships trump everything else. It is where the action is.

Ideas don't have to be living. Structure doesn't have to be purposeful or effective. Both of these dimensions can exist as externals that are held as possessions like pews in the sanctuary. This is why I say that for many people Christianity is an abstraction. It exists as an external object that we can hold and reflect upon, just like we can our favorite basketball team. Just because you feel emotions for some ideas or some program doesn't mean that you have internalized those things.
...
The internalization of ideas happens in relationship. It is where we learn how to apply these ideas so that they make a difference in the relationship. In other words, our relationships with one another should change us. If we have not had a transformational experience in relationship with someone, we, quite possibly, have been treating relationships as abstraction as well. It is just another thing to focus my intellectual and physical energy upon. In this case, people are things we use to get the things we want in life.

Missional, Athiests, Maintenance

2007-03-09T10:54:00.000-06:00

Two blogs in two days created a link in my brainpan. First, GuyMuse posted this list that he saw here. After the list, read the money quote from the athiest who sold his soul on ebay. Make the connection.

The List

Maintenance or Missional

1. In measuring its effectiveness, the maintenance congregation asks, “How many visitors have we attracted?” The missional congregation asks, “How many members have we sent?”

2. When contemplating some form of change, the maintenance congregation says, “If this proves upsetting to any of our members, we won’t do it.” The missional congregation says, “If this will help us bless and touch someone outside of our faith community, we will take the risk and do it.”

3. When thinking about change, the majority of members in a maintenance congregation ask, “How will this affect me?” The majority of members in the missional congregation ask, “Will this help align our activities around the missio dei — the mission of God?”

4. When thinking of its vision for ministry, the maintenance congregation says, “We have to be faithful to our past.” The missional congregation says, “We have to be faithful to our future.”

5. The leadership style in the maintenance congregation is primarily managerial, where leaders try to keep everything in order and running smoothly. The leadership style in a missional congregation is primarily transformational, casting a vision of what can be, and marching off the map in order to bring the vision into reality.

6. The maintenance congregation is concerned with their congregation, its organizations and structure, its constitutions and committees. The missional congregation is concerned with the culture, with understanding how secular people think and what makes them tick. It tries to determine their needs and their points of accessibility to the Gospel.

7. When thinking about growth, the maintenance congregations asks, “How many Christians, who aren’t currently members, live within a twenty-minute drive of this church?” The missional congregation asks, “How many unreached people groups live within a twenty-minute drive of this church?”

8. The maintenance congregation looks at the community and asks, “How can we get these people to come to our church?” The missional congregation asks, “How can we go and be engaged with these people?”

9. The maintenance congregation thinks about how to save their congregation. The missional congregation thinks about how to plant new missional communities to extend the Kingdom of God.

Now the Athiest's money quote

Clearly, most churches have aligned themselves against non-religious people. By adopting this stance, Christians have turned off the people I would think they want to connect with. The combative stance I've observed is an approach that causes people to become apathetic—and even antagonistic—toward religion as a whole. Many evangelical pastors seem to perceive just about everything to be a threat against Christianity. Evolution is a threat. Gay marriage is a threat. A swear word uttered accidentally on television is a threat. Democrats are a threat. I don't see how any of these things pose a threat against Christianity. If someone disagrees with you about politics or social issues or the matter of origins, isn't that just democracy and free speech in action? Why do Christians feel so threatened?
You need to spread the message of Christianity—the message being what Christianity stands for—loving each other, helping the people around you. Those are things everyone can get on board with.

Also, atheists … we're not non-believers. We do believe in a lot of things, but they come from other experiences and other encounters, not necessarily a book.

Here's the whole interview with Hemant Mehta.

Fun with Videos

2007-03-08T09:20:00.000-06:00

A few videos I shot in Sudan.

.50 Cal Game: A game children play with .50 caliber shells (26 seconds)

Kids Singing (5 seconds)

The main Pastor we worked with using the EvangeCube and communicating with a deaf child. (20 seconds)

Welcome Song from a group at a church plant (26 seconds)

Playing Traditional Music Instruments (26 seconds)

Church Plant

2007-03-07T16:18:00.000-06:00

Speaks volumes, huh?
Shot in Kajo Keji by Radler.

Another Lesson from Veggie Tales

2007-03-02T12:36:00.000-06:00

From the Out of Ur blog, a few money quotes:

In 2000, Phil Vischer was running the largest animation studio between the coasts, had revolutionized Christian family entertainment by selling thirty million Veggie Tales videos, and was named one of the top ten people to watch in worldwide religion. Vischer’s vegetable empire, better known as Big Idea Productions, seemed poised to become a Christian Disney.

But by 2003 the dream was over. After a heartbreaking court decision, later overturned on appeal, Big Idea declared bankruptcy and Vischer had to sell the company’s assets, including his computer animated characters Bob the Tomato and Larry the Cucumber.

My evangelical upbringing said more impact is better. It’s better to be Bill Bright than Mother Teresa. Better to impact millions at once than one at a time. God has given us limited time and resources and we have to help as many people as possible—not just two or three. Mother Teresa should have franchised a system for feeding the poor on a massive scale. She needed an MBA.

What is your understanding of success now?
Now I understand God has a unique journey for each of us with unique measures of success. Now I ask myself, have I done what God has asked me to do? Am I walking with him daily? Success has very little to do with where I end up. I don’t know exactly why, but we seem wired to look for numerical results for affirmation. But success in ministry cannot be about measurable impact.

emphasis, mine)

Read the whole thing.

Sudan Wrap-up for February

2007-02-27T15:24:00.000-06:00

I wrote the piece below for a proposal recently, and then I realized it wraps this past trip up fairly well.

On this trip, I had a recently retired (25 years) Navy SEAL with me. He is a representative for a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO). He represents a secular NGO made of believers who fund community projects that the church can use as platforms for ministry. We are praying the Lord would have us partner with his NGO on a few projects. After 25 years in the Navy and going to hotspots around the world with his NGO, he told me that southern Sudan was the most underdeveloped place he’d ever visited.

We (the whole team) also were of one mind that a big driver for the church in Sudan is the seemingly imminent war for succession of the South. The governments have signed a peace agreement that expires in 2010; however, many believe there will be fighting before then or when it expires. With that in mind, our goal is to plant as many churches as we can, with a supporting network of accountability and discipleship, as quickly as we can. The rough total from this past campaign:

230 Gospel Presentations
140 Professions of faith in Christ
130 of the 140 followed-up with for immediate discipleship

First, a brief preface to the strategy. In Luke chapter 14 Jesus warned us to calculate the cost of following Him. If we aren’t willing to die to even ourselves and carry the cross, (perhaps literally?) we cannot be His disciple. Sobering words that apply directly to Sudan. God has clearly called us to work there. He confirmed that call through scripture in August when He gave us Romans 15:20-21, “And thus I aspired to preach the gospel, not where Christ was already named, so that I would not build on another man’s foundation; but as it is written, ‘THEY WHO HAD NO NEWS OF HIM SHALL SEE, AND THEY WHO HAVE NOT HEARD SHALL UNDERSTAND.”

Per capita, only India and Indonesia have more unreached people groups than Sudan. It is an incredibly unreached place where, in the south, the vast majority of the people practice traditional, tribal beliefs and live in a stone-age environment. We are becoming more and more convinced that planting churches and making disciples in Sudan will be costly. Costly not only in the financial sense, but spiritually, mentally, physically and emotionally. We need partners and participants who will calculate the cost and help shoulder what could be a very difficult load—a commitment to bring light to this very dark place. This was, conversely, a huge blessing on this trip. We left Sudan with a group of very committed men to keep our shoulders to this grindstone.

Our Plan

There is a surreal feeling at times when you move about in Sudan. You see elderly men and many men under the age of 25, but few in between. An entire generation, virtually, has been wiped out because of war. This fact mixed with the lostness of the people has created a vacuum on leaders. Combine that with very few roads, (none of which are paved) no electricity beyond generators and solar panels, no running water anywhere, and voice communication limited to satellite phones and powerful radios.

This was a "good" road. Unexpected rains stopped this lorry cold.

You can begin to see that there many obstacles to church planting, particularly building a church network; however, God is faithful and when we are weak, He is strong.

Now that we’ve spent more time on the ground, we have a clearer strategy for church planting. We first must find faithful men (2 Timothy 2:2), then train and mentor them for church leadership. To accomplish this, we’ve started a pastor/leader training center in Kajo Keji, Sudan. We’re also partnering with other training centers we can trust to form and mold leaders. Once they’re ready, we’ll send these leaders out to not only plant new churches, but to duplicate themselves and reproduce leaders.

A dorm room on "campus."

All of this is indigenous: Sudanese training, mentoring, and reproducing Sudanese leaders. Our goal is to equip and send, but to not create a system of dependency or to have too heavy a hand in the process, beyond assuring biblical principles in the process. Why? Because when/if the war comes again, we want the church to be able to stand alone if we are cut off from entering the country.

The classroom.

To create independent, self-sufficient pastors, we are looking at adding a vocational piece to the pastor training school. There we would bring in carpenters, mechanics, agriculture experts, and so forth to train the pastors in a simple skill they can support themselves and their families with.

So much, so much. What a task! The Lord can do all things.

And overarching all of this is the verse:

In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps.

May we be obedient.

Wulu, Sudan

2007-02-26T15:53:00.001-06:00

Mark Jordan speaking in Wulu under the mango tree.
The Lord established three new churches in Sudan through the campaign there two weeks ago, with the possibility of a fourth if a leader steps up. Our team divided up and worked in three areas. One was 27 miles away from the mother church, and it took our guys a full hour to drive there one way in a Toyota Landcruiser. It was a very rural area with no evangelical church within miles of the area. There were some very angry, disturbed bees who sent an entire cattle clan, and a couple of our guys, running, but that’s a whole ‘nother story.

Two very interesting things happened in Wulu. One I referenced earlier. It was when the guys on the team prayed Matthew 9:38, that the Lord of the Harvest would raise up laborers out of the harvest to be a leader(s) in Wulu. Shortly after praying that a young man rode by on his bicycle and told them, “I am the one.” What’s your name? they asked, and he repeated, “I am the one you are looking for.” Turns out he is a gifted evangelist and we pray he will continue to lead in that gift set for the new church.

Secondly, the week went something like this:

Day one gathering the new believers together: 20 came to the new church
Day two, 30
Day three, 40
Day four, 55 (35 of whom were adults)

This new church met under a giant mango tree and before the final meeting, the men cut away the grass and lashed poles together to form benches for the people to sit on. At the last meeting, the chief (the chief!!!, this is a big deal!) stood and said, “What has started here, we will continue.” Here’s a very short clip of the first day’s meeting. Finally, we provided a bicycle for the mother church to travel the 27 miles and back to keep discipling the new believers and mentoring the church leaders.

Tomorrow, final thoughts, stats, and our plan (for now) to establish churches in Sudan. In the meantime, check out Tim Kimberling’s photos. Tim shot a lot of video and is producing a DVD from this trip.

February Sudan Trip Part I

2007-02-21T18:31:00.000-06:00

Kato, a pastor and missionary serving in Kapoeta.

Church planted in Kajo Keji in July '06. Note the structure behind them on the right. It has no roof because thieves stole the straw to cover it.

Michael Radler holding a two-week old baby. The father is teaching at a bible school we're starting in March.

Note the poles with no benches. The Anglicans come and steal the benches from this church. Drunks pass by on Sunday mornings and yell at them while they worship.

Our accomodations in Chukudum.

Dinner in Chukudum.

The kitchen on the church compound in Chukudum.

David Kaya, Pastor Jacob, and Boscoe. Jacob is the pastor of the African Inland Church in Chukudum. He's also hosting David next month for our church-planting training. Boscoe is a pastor/chaplain in the SPLA.

Leftovers from the war.

Musical instruments in the church in Chukudum.

The AIC church in Chukudum.

Those are .50 caliber shells in her hands.

They play a game w/ the .50 caliber shells. Setting them up in two parallel rows, then throwing other shells to knock them down.

This church tells a story. It's in the middle of nowhere. A Kenyan missionary built it and didn't consult the locals first. If you build it, they won't necessarily come. A waste of funds.

Driving to Chukudum from Kapoeta, we found these abandoned vehicles buried in a dry riverbed.

A few boys near Didinga mountain looking after their cows. Once we stepped out of the truck to get their photos, they ran away.

The road between Kapoeta and Chukudum. About 60 miles and it took about 6.5 hours to drive it.

Same road.

The bass.

The demining guys set up this display in a camp in Rumbek.

A few of the pastors we worked with in Rumbek. In the gray/black/white patterned outfit is Pastor Chol.

In Kajo Keji at a church planted in October 2005. The man on the right is meeting Michael Radler. He has polio, but radiated with the Holy Spirit. They told us no one has memorized more scripture than this man. He's counting it all joy.

Andrew, the pastor of the church in Kajo Keji planted in July. He's holding a Gideon New Testament. One of only two bibles the church has.

You are Amish

2007-01-24T08:21:00.000-06:00

From JollyBlogger

My best translation of what he is getting at goes like this. Evangelicals really talk only to other evangelicals and not to the broader world. I don't think he said this, but I would add that we talk "at" the broader world. In talking to ourselves though, we assume that we are talking to the world around us and that they hear us and understand us the way we understand ourselves.

However, what we don't realize is this - we seem to the world around us as the Amish of Lancaster, PA seem like to us.

This is not to cast aspersion on the Amish, it is a comment on our self-perception and our perception of the way the rest of the world perceives us. We are as odd to the world outside of evangelicalism as the Amish are to us.

Books

2007-01-02T09:34:00.000-06:00

Here are the last few books I've read and some comments on them.

Blue Like Jazz
If you're under 40 and you grew up in the church, this book will totally resonate with you.

7 Practices of Effective Ministry
I typically avoid these books, but it was assigned and it turned out to be great.

Raising a Modern Day Knight
Excellent book if you have a son.

Shame
I picked this up from the camp bookshelf in Sudan. I couldn't put it down. Rushdie does a masterful job and it's super relevant to today's issues with Islam.

Emma's War
A British Aid worker marries a Sudanese warlord. The author is a journalist who tells the history of the conflict in Sudan, plus the complexity of delivering aid to Africa in the context of Emma's story.

Sudan in December

2006-12-19T09:25:00.000-06:00

It's midnight and you're riding back from the airport in Nairobi for the third time. You still don't have your bag. The bag with your water purifier, malaria meds, clean underwear; you know, seemingly important stuff. Your plane leaves at 9 a.m., the same time the next flight from London lands, potentially with your bag. What do you do? Stay or go ...

Four hours later at 4 a.m. I woke up and considered what was in front of me. My main concern was clean water. I wasn't sure what the water situation would be in the two "towns" (villages, really) that David Kaya and I were flying to. We'd be flown in, dropped off, and left until the scheduled pick up. As an aside, the ministry that flew us, AIMAIR, is absolutely top notch and indispensible for ministry in Southern Sudan where there are very few roads.

I was a bit nervous. Add to this a feeling of being completely overwhelmed by the church situation in Southern Sudan. A situation David and I had spent a good bit of time discussing. We talked about not only how to plant a church or two in a few villages, but how to build a sustaining church network that would be healthy and strong over time. I was, and am still, feeling supremely unqualified for this task God has called me to. And that's not false modesty, it's fact. There is no sheepskin hanging in my office certifying that I have any idea how to do this large of a task. But I am a warm body who has an intense love for these people in Southern Sudan, and as my last Sunday School teacher (hat tip Reed) used to say, "[as believers] we have an unfair advantage." My anxiety level lying in that bed in Nairobi was really high. As I prayed two verses "popped" in my head: "Do not worry then, saying, 'What will we eat?' or 'What will we drink?' or 'What will we wear for clothing.'(Matthew 6:31); the second verse was, "faith, if it has no works, is dead." (James 2:17) Seems fairly clear, don't you think?

I got up, called Ali completely disrupting her entire day because the kids began to wail, and then I stepped on the faith roller coaster that's becoming more and more addictive to ride. Now hear how faithful our Lord is, how merciful He is to not just meet our needs, but to do more than we could possibly imagine.

Later that morning David gave me a pair of socks and my taxi driver gave me about five clean shirts. He's a great driver. If you're ever in Nairobi... I picked up a toothbrush and some toothpaste, stuffed 4.5 liters of water into my backpack and drove to the airport to proceed into Sudan.

At the airport we met James. He's a Sudanese pastor heading up ALARM's work in Lietnom (sounds like Vietnom with an "L"). This was the first half of our trip's mission: To see for ourselves what ALARM was doing in Sudan and create an official partnership between e3 and ALARM. You may recall that ALARM is a ministry that focuses quite a bit on reconciliation and trauma counseling. Two things in huge need in a country that not only has seen almost constant war, but a big need amongst the tribal people who operate on a system of revenge for even minor slights.

Because our Cessna couldn't carry all of us from Lokichoggio to Lietnom and back without refueling, we made a pit stop on the way in Akot. This is a village I visited in August. After arriving in Lietnom, we took took a tour of ALARM's facilities, listened to James' vision, then sat in his house with a local pastor for hot chocolate. Yes, hot chocolate. Yes, it was 85 degrees.

Refueling.
ALARM's training center in Lietnom.

David and James (right) greeting folks in town.
Abraham and James

James and Abraham have a heart for planting churches. He told us that he had already seen the EvangeCube and one evangelist used it extensively in over 30 villages. We shared approaches to church planting and ended up agreeing to partner. David will return to Lietnom in March to train 50 pastors in church planting and the EvangeCube.

I was struck by one of James's questions to David and me: How do we build a self-sustaining church network? James elaborated with the story of western missionaries coming to Sudan and creating a system of dependency. Once they left, the church would collapse. This is a profound question in a developing country where foriegn aid supplements so much activity, and one that encouraged me greatly. A window for church planting is open in Southern Sudan, but it is one that could close any day. We have to create a church that is totally self sufficient. This in a country where in most villages there is virtually no economy. Do you see what I mean about not feeling qualified. (Help Lord!)

Video of James talking about the window of opportunity in Sudan.

While in Lietnom, I stayed at a Non-governmental Organization (NGO) camp. David and I shared a Tukel, the round, mud and thatch huts. The NGO had clean water and good food. Now what was I worried about before? My hotel room, the building behind it had about five roosters. I rose early.

From Lietnom, we flew to Kapoeta. We were really praying because at this point we were walking by faith. I had found a place for us to stay and I had a list of names of people to try to find. One name from the IMB missionary and a set of names that my Didinga friend in Dallas provided. That's it, that was our plan in its entirety. Once we landed, a camp manager, Jonas, picked us up and confirmed what we had been told earlier: we'd only have a vehicle capable of driving around town. There were no 4x4s that could make it on the roads leaving the town. We made arrangements to visit the two churches in town Jonas knew about. We registered with the local government who informed me that I was not allowed to take any photographs outside of the camp or the churches. They were still tense because of insecurity, and David told me if I took photos it might get complicated. I asked him to define complicated. He told me I'd see the inside of the jail. I was convinced and pocketed my camera. No one yet recognized a single name I had written down. I found out later they were all in another town that we could not get to. Now it gets good.

Just a quick note on the camp. We stayed in a nice, big tent on the owner's personal property. That meant we had nice shower, cho (bathroom), and three hot meals a day. The camp ringed the owner's main business: digging water wells. Suffice to say, clean water was not a problem. What was I worried about again?

Water drilling rig.

Our room at the camp.

Jonas dropped David and I off at the church. We walked into the compound and quickly met an evangelist. He guided us over to a set of white plastic lawn chairs in the shade where two other pastors greeted us. When we sat down, suddenly a man came over and shouted, in friendly way, towards David. They were from the same clan and had grown up together in the same refugee camp in Uganda. Instant contact, instant credibility.

David's friend and fellow clan member. His name is David also.

This is getting long, so I'm going to cut right to the point. This group of pastors represented the main towns and villages we want to reach in this region of Sudan. In about two hours, we sealed an agreement to train roughly 150 pastors and church leaders this March. In just over those same two hours, the Lord opened up the entire southeast portion of this country to e3. These were solid guys, strong pastors and leaders with a strong faith. They could identify the big problems in the tribes they worked with: cattle raiding, revenge, violence, animism, witch doctors and so forth. When I asked them what their top needs were, I was again surprised. They listed training for pastors and help tranforming the hearts of the people, particularly the tougher tribes with long, deep roots in cattle and cattle raids. No one asked for money, water, medicine, or food. And believe me, they need all that and a whole lot more. It's just that these guys appeared to have set their minds on the eternal. It's a humbling thing to be a part of.

The pastors.
Later a chaplain from the Army joined us. He'll bring five of his guys to David's training in March.

The African Inland Church (AIC) on the compound.

David's reaction to the day in three videos.

Summary
God is soveriegn and He can be trusted in every way. While there was more time and work involved, essentially in two meetings, the Lord not only opened up the entire southeastern portion of Sudan to e3 and, we pray, many new churches, He set up David to train about 200 Sudanese this coming March. He also reminded me what I really need when we serve Him?

Him.

Thanks as always for your intercession and support. Ali and I and David and Gloria are eternally grateful.

A final note and prayer request for David. He had a rough week personally. His cousin, working in Australia, was beaten severely. After a week on life support, he died. The fifth and last son of his parents to die, all in their 20s. David is on track to become the leader of his sub clan, in most ways he already is. Please remember this family during a tough time emotionally for all of them.

Other Stuff

Video of a water well.

A song/prayer greeting

Children in Lietnom

Driving on a back road at night we came across this woman. She's scooping water from the potholes so she'll have water for her family. How can I possibly comment on this? It's sort of stupifying and takes your words away. More feeling of inadequacy. The needs are indescribably great.

Toposa girl.

More Toposa girls.

And a few more.

The army used the church compound for their headquarters. Here a leftover.

Disliking Praise & Worship Music

2006-11-10T15:13:00.000-06:00

I used to couldn't stand praise and worship music. I didn't particularly love going to church either for awhile. Then when the taste of church wasn't so bitter, I still didn't love P&W. I kept thinking the repitition was for brain washing. If I had my druthers, I'd be just late enough to miss everything except the sermon. That I could tolerate when I wasn't daydreaming. This was few years ago.

Wednesday night my heart almost burst being a part of praise and worship. Sometimes I can't sing because if I do I'll cry. This started on the mission field. This week I'm in Alton, Illinois in a small baptist church who are on the cusp of seeing God move powerfully through their people. They invited me up to their Global Impact Celebration. In a nutshell, it's the culmination of many months of work to get their folks "on mission." On Sunday night many will commit to serve, in their gift-set, where God is leading. I'm here to hopefully catch a few wanting to go to the ends of the earth. God has already orchestrated some strategic meetings for me with folks from other mission agencies all over the world. What a cool mosaic to be a part of.

They have loved me beyond description. The make us missionaries feel like a million bucks and it's been a refreshing time for me personally. Their pastor is like a dream. His heart is on fire for missions after 30 years in the pulpit. I thought that was impossible. (mostly kidding) They built a building and a Trust called them. The overseer of the Trust said they'd pay off their $1.6m debt if they'd take the money they'd raised for the building and apply it to missions. Hallelu-Jonga! It took them totally by surprise. God does indeed own the cattle on a thousand hills, and faithfully provides for His people.

This is how I've spent a bit of time in my "off-season." This church had me come speak a couple weeks ago, and I can't wait to see how the Lord uses the small to do BIG things. My heart had the same feeling worshipping there.

1st Love

2006-10-30T07:50:00.000-06:00

Trying to attribute this. I'm pretty sure he wrote it.

The Church of Ephesus was a powerhouse for God in Asia Minor at one time. The Apostle Paul founded the church and soon it was pastored by the young man Paul had discipled, named Timothy. Later on it became the residence of the last living Apostle, John. The church was a mighty weapon for God as it invaded the gates of hell and set many captives free from sin and idolatry. Paul wrote an Epistle to this church in about 61 AD and the book of Ephesians remains to this day as one of the most complete books ever written on the Christian life.

But over time things changed. Thirty years later the Church in Ephesus was not even close to what it was in the beginning. Why was it so different now? The Apostle John said that the issue was that of “love.” Love? That seemed strange. Ephesian believers were hard working, served faithfully, and hated evil. They were even commended for their persistence in the midst of difficult times of testing in which they had remained strong. Jesus revealed to the Apostle John in the Book of Revelation that their love for Him had grown cold. Three decades before, they were known for their passionate love for Christ. Their intensity had turned to indifference. It was a tragic end to the Church in Ephesus.

Friday Eschatology

2006-10-27T14:14:00.000-05:00

I don't dive into eschatology much. But when I read this today, it tripped my trigger.

What he fears is the next strategic genius; the next Hitler; the next Lenin allied to the opportunities of the 21st century. Many readers of this site will notice that we have touched — touched — on these themes only briefly because they seemed too outlandish to consider. But here's Ikle, a former undersecretary of defense, giving the theme his best shot.

The greatest threat to the world order in this century will be the next Hitler or Lenin, a charismatic leader who combines utter ruthlessness with a brilliant strategic sense, cunning, and boundless ambition—and who gains control over just a few weapons of mass destruction.

This new threat, still offstage, now awaits us. Any such evil but charismatic leader will be able to attack a major nation from within even if that nation possesses enormous military strength and capable police forces. If this new tyrant turns out to be strategically intelligent, he could prepare to launch a couple of mass destruction weapons against carefully chosen targets—without training camps in another nation, without help from a foreign terrorist organization, without a military campaign across the nation's borders. He would thus offer no targets for retaliation and render useless a nation's most powerful deterrent forces. By contrast, an expanding caliphate—the utopia that jihadists dream about—would offer the leading democracies plenty of easy targets for retaliation.

The purpose of this new tyrant would not be to destroy landmark buildings, highjack airplanes, attack railroad stations and religious shrines. His aim would be to paralyze the national leadership and spread nationwide panic, to ensure that the center could not hold. He would be well prepared to exploit this chaos by seizing complete control of the nation's government and imposing his dictatorship.

Driscoll Dress Up

2006-10-26T07:34:00.000-05:00

Driscoll on church dress.

My favorite.

Sudan Video

2006-10-25T15:40:00.000-05:00

Video of Sudan. Hat tip to GR for the song.

Sudan Church-planting Campaign

2006-10-19T14:29:00.000-05:00

Mekindya Baptist Church, noted below.

I love David Kaya's attitude and determination. When the U.S. team fell through this month, he didn't fold his tents. He recruited more local believers and led an all-national church planting campaign. Now God is blessing. They've been working for several days now. Today, he sent me these photos and this email.

Greetings from Kajo-Keji,

Glory be to God for all what He has done through his children in Kajo-Keji.

Mekindya Baptist Church, 40 Came to christ, Pastor Simon Sokiri, he is assisted by Onya Simon
Wogoru Baptist Church, 53 Came to the Lord, Kauda patrick Pastoring.
Saregoro Baptist Church, 61 Came to Christ, Chandiga Moses Pastoring that church.
More still to go.

A new church, meeting under this tree.

In case you missed them, here are his previous emails and notes from calls to me.

First Update: I just heard from David Kaya. Thanks for praying because the Lord as established one church already with 40 new believers. They are continuing to work until next Sunday with the goal of planting four more churches. Please continue to pray for David and his all-Sudanese team. (Who needs the token white guys?) This week, they anticipate persecution from a few existing churches in the area. That’s a sad statement, and I think a terrifying one for those churches, but it’s true.

Second Update:I spoke with David this morning. He thanks you all for praying and gave me this quick report. We talk via a satellite phone so the discussions are quick and to the point to save money.
Seventeen families came to Christ yesterday. He asked that we specifically pray for a female witch doctor in the village where they worked yesterday. Several of her family members accepted Christ as their savior, but she rejected him.

Please pray for these families and their pastor as they now form the beginnings of a new church.

David and the 28 local believers and pastors he recruited move to a third village today to work. Please take a minute to lift them up.

Stuff I'm Reading

2006-10-18T08:57:00.000-05:00

Bob Robert's latest post

Alan Hirsch and I have been hanging out this weekend and have talked, debated, evaluated and had a blast the past 3 days. Last night, we were talking about movements. Why did movements in the early church grow like they did? Why has China, and now parts of India, exploded like it has? This isn’t meant to be comprehensive at all, but, as we talked, three things really stand out in my mind. ... More

From Out of Ur
A big pet peeve of mine: The Christian Imagination, or lack thereof (fear).

On Good Friday we helped people enter the biblical narrative with their imaginations by adapting the traditional stations of the cross into an experiential journey with Jesus from Gethsemane to the grave. While holding a bag of silver coins people contemplated what they valued more than Christ. Children, using a stool if they were too short, lifted a cross suspended from the ceiling while considering if they would have helped Jesus carry his burden. Newcomers jumped as someone nailed a spike into a beam while Isaiah 53 was softly read. Some adults who have known the story since childhood were brought to tears as their imaginations, perhaps for the first time, traveled with Jesus through the suffering.

The whole thing.

Guy Muse
Theory meets real world. That's my phrase, not Guy's.

The student clarified, "they are teaching and leading churches..."

"Yes", I replied, "and not only that, they are winning new people to the Lord, discipling them and starting new churches. They consider themselves 'ministers of the Gospel' just like you and me..."

Women church planters.

Lots of Church Planting Information

2006-10-02T10:20:00.000-05:00

Guy Muse, and IMB missionary in Ecuador has posted a bunch of great posts on church planting. It's rubber-meets-the-road material. Just keep scrolling down and reading.

Read all of it here.

Mars Hill Jesus

2006-10-02T10:04:00.000-05:00

Mark Driscoll's church focuses on Christ.

round the age of thirty, Jesus began a public ministry that included preaching, healing the sick, feeding the hungry, and befriending people who were marginalized because they were perverts, drunks, thieves, and such. Jesus’ ministry spanned only three short years before He was put to death for declaring Himself to be God. He died by shameful crucifixion like tens of thousands of people had before Him.

Curiously, His résumé is rather simple. He never traveled more than a few hundred miles from His home. He never held a political office, never wrote a book, never married, never attended college, and never visited a big city. He died homeless and poor.

Yet He is the most famous person in all of human history. More songs have been sung about Him, artwork painted of Him, and books written about Him than anyone who has ever lived. Furthermore, billions of people from the nations of the earth worship Him as God.

Glocal Trekker Blog

2006-10-02T09:52:00.000-05:00

From Bob Robert's Blog
Thought provoking to me ...

I was visiting one of my Jewish friends that always makes me think. I deeply respect and love him. He’s a thinker/doer. Thinker/writer’s are nice. They sell books and speak, but thinker/doers live and change things for the better. He challenged me not long ago to be more open if not an universalist. We both love the world and people and God. He told me I’ve yet to cross that line. He’s right. I have and continue to ponder deeply over our conversation. Here are some conclusions. He told me I understood the Great Commission as a literal thing that causes me to evangelize and that short circuits all I do and all I say. Here are some of my thoughts.

First, fifteen years ago I did start with the Great Commission. It was the command--not any more. Today, I start with the Great Sermon--Matthew 5-7, and focus on the disciple. Then, Matthew 25--the way we touch the world. To me, the Great Commission is the culmination and result of reading all the rest of Matthew. I believe our global work is short-circuited often because we start at the end of Matthew instead of the first.

Sudan

2006-09-15T14:37:00.000-05:00

At one time the man who built and ran the camp where we stayed in Sudan had a pet hyena. He sported two pet chimpanzees, a snake venom business in Kenya, and had a pet goat that not only roamed the camp (keeping the grass down?), but needed to eat a cigarette every morning and evening to feed his nicotine addiction. When he was younger, a mentor told him to pick a skill. His choice: underwater welding.
Cattle and goats had the right of way on the few roads (uh, both of them) the UN had recently graded. This was a place where people are jailed not for punishment, but typically for protection—usually to let the one who wants vengeance cool his heels. We ate dinner with UN peacekeepers, treehuggers, literacy advocates, de-miners, and wacked out bush pilots. Us few goofy missionaries with our Sudanese national, David Kaya--who as sure as I’m typing this I’m not making this up--is from the Coo-Coo tribe, fit right in.

Welcome to Southern Sudan. It’s like a place the world forgot, or perhaps just never really got around to bothering with since there are so few resources. The one big resource the south does have, oil, is piped away with as little infrastructure or money sent back as possible.

I loved every second of being there. So did one of my closest friends since college, Bob Funk. It was incredibly cool to have Bob there with me. The Dinka tribe, the dominant tribe in the south, are a naturally tall people. Bob is 6'5". He became "The White Dinka." It was a great ice breaker.
This photo was taken in Kenya. Bob (left) and I were allowed in the cage with three cheetahs for this photo. What a rush!

On our fourth morning we were there, David Kaya and I co-taught 32 leaders and pastors our First Steps (church planting and EvangeCube) curriculum. Bob and Dana Crawford, another e3 staffer, took that time to visit the hospital in Rumbek. Rumbek was the town we stayed in, and it's become a significant hub of activity for UN workers and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs). We were told that doctors performed major surgeries in this hospital. This piqued the interest of Dana who was specifically researching medical trip possibilities.

Teaching the Leadership Development Conference.

Without spending a lot of time describing Bob to you, I'll summarize by saying he's a well-travelled, wordly guy who doesn't get rattled easily. Going to that hospital bothered him. Seeing the way the people lived--in mud and thatch huts called Tukels--, seeing hungry people, not seeing any opportunities for even the beginning of an economy, and on and on was building up inside of him.

On our last full day in country we drove to another village, Akot. There we toured an existing clinic. I was particularly impacted by the maternity ward. When I showed Ali the photo, her immediate response was, "We wouldn't have any children." Alexa came by emergency C-section and Weston spent three weeks in the NICU. I had the exact same thought when I walked into it. The inside of the maternity ward in Akot, Sudan.
The sick around in inside the clinic in Akot.

That evening Bob and I stayed up and talked late as was our habit. He began to talk about the potential of the muslims from the north coming south building schools and hospitals to sway folks to Islam. The more he talked the more agitated he became. Finally, he looked at me, still agitated and said, "Your model's not going to work here." His agitation was rubbing off. I wanted to shoot back, "Well what are you going to do about it!" But I didn't and we kept working through what God had shown him that week. God had moved in his heart.

By this point seeing the volume of sheer need had hit its crescendo within him, really within all of us. His point about out model was valid: We had to address the physical need in the context of church planting. We talked about James 2:15-16, "If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, "Go in peace, be warmed and be filled," and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that?"

And so we spent the rest of the night stratagizing ways to meet the needs we saw, AND plant churches. It capped a great week of foundational work for the ministry to come work for years ahead.

Other Notes
A calling confirmed. I went asking God to confirm for me if He wanted me to work in Sudan. One morning I woke and read this from Romans 15:20-21, "And thus I aspired to preach the gospel, not where Christ was already named, so that I would not build on another man's foundation; but as it is written, 'They who had no news of Him shall see, And they who have not heard shall understand." Shortly after I read this, we were asked to pray about adopting two unreached people groups: The Toposa and the Didinga peoples. Two tribes "who [have] no news of Him."

We made a strong connection with the only IMB (S. Baptist) missionary in all of Southern Sudan. He's lived there 8 years and was a wealth of information, and a blessing in too many respects to mention here. Here's his website: www.dinka.org

Unreached People Groups - We're now planning ways to target two tribes in Southern Sudan who are unreached.

You can be involved as well. Next year, here's my list of trips to Sudan:

May 3-13
Sep. 20-30
Dec. 27-Jan 6

A few faces from Sudan below.
A church under a tree. We literally drove through the bush (grass taller than our Landcruiser) to find this church.
Leading worship.
Bob, leaving the church.The church we worshipped at on Sunday.

Me and Bob in front of a Tukel in the Baptist Compound in Akot.

Tents on the Baptist Compound.

On the right is Mark, the IMB Missionary. We walked through this building to clear "customs."
The water on the right was a main place folks bathed. Mark baptized his daughter here.
A pagan place where locals sacrificed animals.

The carvings.A people mover at the clinic.

Making tea for our leadership conference.

She wanted no part of me.
A wireless mini bulldozer for de-mining work.

A young man called to be a pastor. He was just learning how from Mark's disciples.
Catch of the day.
Roasted nuts. In the background is a new clinic Mustard Seed International is building.
Our chariot.

Baggage Claim.
Mark's house.

Ethiopia Pics

2006-09-12T11:04:00.000-05:00

Tony and Lisa Svendsen, prepping for the week. Now they're starting the process to come on staff with e3. Here's a link to their blog. Great stuff there too.
Yogi Logsdon. Yogi had one of the most fruitful areas and the enemy knew it because he broke his fibula and was really sick for 1.5 days.
An alter to the angel Michael the Orthodox put up in the area where I worked. Men bring the rocks placed at the bottom and pray to the Archangel.
Scott Russell from Tennessee.
My disciple maker, Hymie sharing the gospel. The home is in the background.
My good friend and Sunday School teacher Scott Marks.
The animals (as you can see) share this water for drinking with the folks who live near here.
Lucy Chang and a sweet little girl near the main church we worked in.
These girls are about 11 years old. That's a bag of rocks/manure on her back. In this village, she may be married off in the next year or so.
The woman on the right received Christ two years ago. Previously, she was deep into witchcraft. She burned all her witchcraft materials and follows Christ now. The people in the village have stolen all her livestock and she suffers humilation for Christ. Despite this, she offered up this home for a new church!
Clint Blalock from Park Cities Baptist here in Dallas. He led worship for us and was an amazing blessing all week.
Natalie Sebastian adopted the culture incredibly fast. She even could lead a song in their language, Amharic.
Tadele Worku who is Ethiopian but lives in Dallas had us all come to his mother's home in Addis Ababa where they cooked this feast for us. This is his sister who arranged the great meal.
The team.
These boys were resting in the shade when we ate lunch. We called them over and shared the gospel with them. The one in the middle was a believer. The other four were from Orthodox families. All four prayed to receive Christ and the one on the far right broke down weeping as he prayed. Their families will be extremely opposed to their following Christ.
Me and Hymie.
Taxi service in my area.
Tad and his mother. While much of his family are believers, his mother is not. She is Orthodox.
Demese (Dim-eh-say) and his wife. Demese was our national leader and the man who organized everything on the ground for us.
Injira!
Bekele (Bek-ehl-lee) and his wife. Bekele partnered with Demese to plan and execute our trip. Bekele is an e3 staffer in Ethiopia.
Dinner at Tad's.

Ethiopia & Sudan Part IV

2006-09-11T15:25:00.000-05:00

Nadine Breiner is a full-time e3 staffer who helped me lead this Ethiopia trip. This is a story from her area.

On Monday, our first day in the field, our national leaders asked us to prayerwalk our areas. Nadine did just that, plus they evangelized a bit in the afternoon. They decided to gather the new believers together (to start the church) under a tree beside a school. They reasoned the school was a good landmark to direct folks to.

On Tuesday she spent the day with one of our campaigners who became very sick and had to spend the day in bed. On Wednesday, our national leaders sent her to another area to work. On Thursday morning it became clear she was going back to where she prayerwalked if she had to walk there herself. The motivation was to see how God would honor their foundation of prayer three days earlier.

Boy-howdy did He.

In the morning, Nadine and Lucy Chang (another e3 campaigner) began to share the gospel with about eight men in the street. Suddenly cresting the hill and coming towards them to see what they were doing was a group of about 40 men. More came from other directions and Nadine and Lucy began to share the gospel with close to 60 men.

From my previous emails you may have gathered that few people would publicly pray to receive Christ. This was primarily out of fear of persecution and secondly out of deference to whomever in the crowd was the oldest male. Nadine is from New Jersey, she's pretty direct, and she called them out. She said, "I know in your culture you won't pray in front of one another, but Jesus said that if you're not ashamed of me on earth, He wouldn't be ashamed of you in heaven." (Luke 9:25-27)

As she continued talking the men began to peel off and walk away until only 13 remained. All 13 bowed their heads, publicly no less, and prayed to receive Christ. How glad they'll be when they stand before His throne.

The afternoon
That afternoon they gathered next to the school. "Inexplicably" the owner of the school came by. With God, however, there are no coincidences. Clearly he had brought the owner, a woman who lived nowhere near this school, to the site that day because He willed it. The owner asked Nadine what they were doing and immediately told them they could use the school as the new church. They went inside and began to worship, and the owner fell down and actually laid down flat on her face in the dirt. She wept and the team led her to faith in Christ.

On Monday, Nadine's team had prayed for a person of peace. (Luke 10) This school owner had influence over not only many teachers in that entire region of Ethiopia, but she had almost completed building a new hospital and had wondered how she was supposed to use it.

The Lord, I'm sure, has a specific plan ...

Next, a photo montage from Ethiopia and how God is leading us in SUDAN!

Ethiopia & Sudan Part III

2006-09-09T08:43:00.000-05:00

Sorry for the delay. I had to work out a bug with my aol subsribers. Now, two more Ethiopia stories, then I have a summary of Sudan to share. I've wrestled a bit with this next story for fear it's more interesting and unusual than spiritual. But the reality is that this shows exactly how real the spiritual realm is that we move about every day.

On my first day working in Dire (Deer-Ray), Ethiopia we stopped for lunch. The landscape was generally open. I worked in a farming community and spent a good deal of time walking through fields and talking with farmers. As we sat down on the edge of one of these fields it began to rain. Seeing a house about 300 yards away, Hymie, the disciple maker I worked with, saw the lady who owned the house and the next thing I knew we were heading to her home.

The landscape in Dire.

Stopping to eat lunch.
Why I thought we were in an Orthodox home, Hymie pointing.

In front of her home she had a bull and a few goats, inside her small "compound" she had her main house and a small mud and thatch hut. She directed us into the hut. At first I thought we'd stumbled into an Ethiopian Orthodox home because the hut had pictures of Jesus in an Orthodox style. The woman was very friendly towards us and when a lady on my team brought out her camera, both this woman and her son quickly ran to change clothes. The wanted their "formal wear" for the photos.

Her main house in the background.
The boy on her hip is the reason for her invitation to us. He was an orphan and her motive was not kindness for us, but money or to give the child to us. Obviously these are all "before" pics.

With everyone in the hut, I handed my EvangeCube to Hymie and asked him to share the gospel while we waited out the rain. Suddenly, I looked back at him as this normally soft-spoken man barked a few sentences commandingly out at this woman. Before I could register why in the world he acted like that, it was if I found myself in a Hollywood movie set. The woman began to convulse, shake and yell/babbly incoherent gibberish. Then she ran out of the hut and into the main house.
Hymie about to share Christ with her.

Hymie slowly followed her and as he passed me, he turned and said, "She has an evil spirit in her."

I have never encountered anything like this before. I took our translator and the other American with me and we immediately began to pray for her and Hymie. He stood on her front porch and talked with her for a few minutes then came back to the hut. The rain had mostly passed and he told me we needed to leave.

Hymie and I stopped back in her yard by the livestock and I asked him a few questions. My heart was beating a little fast and I was still processing what I just saw. I asked him if he'd encountered this before. Oh yes, many times he replied. Then I asked him why we couldn't command the spirit to leave the woman. I learned something from his reply. He said there had to be some inkling of desire within her heart to have Jesus enter and to want the spirit to leave. She had neither. There appeared to be at least three spirits living among her. They told her they'd kill her if she disobeyed them, and she made money selling prophecies they gave her for her neighbors. She made a clear choice that day to remain in bondage to those spirits. She told Hymie that they were why she had us go to the hut instead of the main house. At least one lived in the main house and because we had the Holy Spirit in us, he directed her to put us away from him. (No I don't understand all that was going on.)

Then Hymie pointed to a black bull standing nearby and said a spirit lived in the bull as well. I was a bit incredulous and asked him how he knew. He said, "She told me."

As we walked up the road from her home, my translator asked me if I encountered people like this and evil spirits very often in America. He asked because this was relatively common in this part of Ethiopia, and in many parts of Africa. I told him that if I went looking, I could find it but that it is extremely rare for a spirit to manifest itself in the U.S. The Enemy uses other means of distraction with us: primarily idols of materialism.

Ethiopia & Sudan Part II

2006-09-06T11:27:00.000-05:00

On my second day in the villages where I worked, word had gotten out that a white man was moving through the area telling people about Jesus. That afternoon as we walked along a road that was more like a rain gulley, two young boys appeared beside us, John and Thanksgiving. It wasn't unusual to have kids tagging along. Many were curious about me and what we were up to. Some wanted money, so I didn't pay much attention to these two kids. After walking with us for about 10 minutes my translator told me they wanted us to come to their home and pray for their sick father.

We agreed and found their home just off the main market square. We walked through their gate and into a small, mud-walled room where these kids' dad lay on a bed. All I knew was that he was sick, and as I bent down to shake his hand and do the sort of half hug traditional greeting I had no idea if I was about to pick up whatever he had.
This is how we found him. Note the wrapping around his waist.

Turns out his back was injured. He was a contractor who'd hurt his lower back. When we walked in, he could barely sit up and was in enormous pain when he tried to change positions on his bed.
They pulled up a chair in front of his bed for me to sit on. Hymenot, the disciple maker I was working with, sat near his head on a mud bench built into the wall. He told me the man and his entire family were believers, and he wanted us to read some scripture and pray for him. Hymenot read a passage from Job and I picked one from Psalms. We read and prayed.

Then Hymenot stood up and placed his hands on the man's lower back. Since I was sitting right there, I placed my hands on the man as well. Hymenot began an impassioned prayer in their language for this man. The Spirit of God enveloped the room in a palpable sense. He turned to me and asked me to pray.

Afterwards we sat back down and the injured man's wife began a traditional Ethiopian coffee ceremony: essentially three cups of espresso. You can see in this photo how she began with green coffee beans that she roasted over hot coals. Then she ground them up and made hot us hot coffee that she served with rolls.
Roasting the beans, preparing the coffee.

As I drank my coffee, several other men entered the room. I asked them each to share their testimonies. As I listened, I noticed the injured man had sat up on the bed. A moment after this, he got up and walked out of the house and back in. We continued to talk and he remained sitting up on his bed. Finally I asked my translator to ask how he felt. My translator looked at me and said, "He feels fine."

I couldn't believe my eyes. Right before me sat a man totally healed.
Note the wrap is gone, he is sitting up with no pain.

The next morning the first place we went is back to this house. Since his entire family were strong believers (his wife had come out of witchcraft to come to Christ), the house became a place we could send new believers to start being discipled in a safe environment.

When we entered the home, everyone was on the floor praying. A woman heard about what the Lord did and came to be prayed over as well. She was a relatively new believer. When she professed faith in Christ, her neighbors shaved her head. Inexplicably, she started having pain in her head after it was shaved.

We laid hands on her and prayed over her as well. I'm not sure because we left fairly quickly after praying, but I believe she may have been relieved of her pain as well.

It was if I was walking through the book of Acts. More of why I say that tomorrow when I tell the story of coming face-to-face with an evil spirit.

Ethiopia & Sudan Part I

2006-09-05T10:53:00.000-05:00

I saw people healed before my eyes, came face-to-face with a demon-possessed woman (and bull—yes, a bull), saw 412 people come to Christ, and 10 new churches planted—oh and I went into a cage with three cheetahs, took a pic and pet one. And, outside of the cheetah, that’s just in Ethiopia. Sudan is a whole ‘nother story. If it’s okay with you, I’ll send you a story each day this week of what the Lord did in East Africa. For various reasons, I had no access to the Internet.

Story One – Gato
Sitting in the shade of an enormous tree on a hill overlooking the village where we worked, I asked my translator and an Ethiopian “Disciple Maker” a question, “What will happen to the ones who accepted Christ this week?”

They replied: First, they will be assaulted. Second, their cows and goats may be stolen. If anyone dies, they won’t be allowed to bury their dead. Finally, they may have their homes and possessions burned.

With this as the context of the village I worked in, I want to tell you about Gato. Gato is a young guy, probably late teens who spends his day either weeding fields by hand or digging rocks out of the ground to sell for a pittance. His father died recently, so he and his mother look after his brothers and sisters.
Unfortunately, I didn't take a close-up pic of Gato. He's second from the right in the light green suit jacket.

In their village, Dire (Deer-ray), as we shared the gospel it was extremely rare for anyone to publicly pray to receive Christ. As we shared, small crowds would gather to see what the “Ferange” (white guy) was doing and saying. Because the cost of publicly following Christ was so high, many were afraid to pray out in the open. Instead, they’d tell my disciple maker (the man who would start the new church and do one-on-one follow up) that they wanted to receive Christ. He’d make a follow-up appointment with them to come to their home and pray with them privately.

Not Gato.

With a crowd around him, and with honest-to-goodness scoffers, he bowed his head and prayed to follow Jesus. The people around him were literally laughing out loud at him, and one woman yelled for him not to listen to us. He showed more courage than most of the physically strong, older men in that village.

Later that week, I saw him again at our follow-up appointment. I could barely talk as I fought back tears while I tried to encourage him. I told him that all the persecution he was about to face, our Lord faced also. All the while knowing I was going to return to comfort while he paid such a high price.

My disciple maker had his home burned down four months ago, and he saw how much Gato had affected me. He told me he’d personally look after him, but I remain heartbroken knowing what he may face even this week. The good news is, our Lord will reward his faith greatly in paradise.

Off to Sudan and Ethiopia

2006-08-14T06:38:00.000-05:00

Off today first for Sudan, then Ethiopia. I'll have stories here probably after September 4th. Please remember me and my teams in prayer.

Tongue-N-Cheek List

2006-08-12T08:52:00.000-05:00

An Aussie makes a list of what a church should do to plant churches.

Ouch.

God at work in Asia

2006-07-27T08:12:00.000-05:00

A man has a dream 20 years ago that leads him to Christ a few weeks ago. Watch the video of his testimony here:

Create your own video for free at www.onetruemedia.com

Then go here and read the rest of the stories, just scroll down.

Bishop from Sudan

2006-07-20T08:17:00.000-05:00

Ali and I hosted Bishop Wilson Garang from Southern Sudan earlier this week. I'll use these next few posts to tell his story, and the stories he passed on to me. I'll leave his denomination nameless, many can figure it out. (It's not entirely fair to disparage this whole part of the church because of a few bad apples.) I will say that although he dresses like his denomination and structures some of his worship like them, he's totally disassociated with them now. Or, rather, they've disassociated themselves with him. He's committed to ministering to a certain state in Southern Sudan. When his denomination wanted to move him to a more resource-friendly area of the country, he refused, so they dropped him. Surely it wasn't quite that simple, but at a high level, it's the gist of things. He has a heart for his tribesmen in that part of Sudan, and with 3 million of them unchurched, he's almost unshakeable in his commitment.

During the last Sudanese war (not Darfur), he fled to Ethiopia where, in a refugee camp, he encountered and began to follow Jesus. I loved his description of learning how to go to church where the pastor had to ask him to stop spitting while he sat in church. When it was safe, he returned to Sudan and started a church under a tree with his three sisters and mother. His father remained an animist.

Today in that state there are 150 churches. Any wonder he wouldn't leave his diocese? Now he's trying to finish seminary (my stars, a non seminary trained man planted 150 churches, it can't be!) and return to the area where he can better train pastors and meet the huge physical needs of the people.

More VBS Pics

2006-07-14T12:46:00.000-05:00

What a week. About 10 kids made professions for Christ and we began to get to know a few neighbors. Many seeds planted, now we have to fertilize, water, and keep praying for how and when to harvest.

Antonio in Ecuador

2006-07-13T09:41:00.000-05:00

A brief diversion from VBS.

Dave Johnson, with our ministry, e3 Partners, sent this story from his recent trip to Ecuador.

"When Heather [pictured, right] came to the door of a home in the poor neighborhood called Laura Flores, Ecuador, she was met by a rather gruff man named Antonio. Upon hearing the Gospel Antonio described a dream to Heather where Jesus, dressed in white, was walking without his feet touching the ground. He asked Heather what it meant. Heather told him that she wasn’t sure about the dream, but went on to talk about the holiness of God and the perfect life of Christ. Antonio prayed to receive Christ, but Heather wondered if he really understood. The next day Heather went back to Antonio to begin the first discipleship lesson. Antonio then told Heather the rest of the dream…a dream that he had 30 years ago! In the dream a woman came to him and said the exact same things that Heather had spoken of the day before! He knew that she was sent from God."

Vacation Bible School

2006-07-11T23:23:00.000-05:00

12 kiddos showed the first night (Monday) and tonight we had 26. We have to go and round up kids before each night, but we've been pretty happy with the turnout. Particularly since this is our first real event in the neighborhood. Enjoy the photos below.

Partners With God

2006-07-10T10:29:00.000-05:00

Another small excerpt from this book, (page 159):

"There's a riddle in the Talmud that goes like this, 'If God intended man to live on bread, why didn't he create a bread tree?' And the answer is that, in fact, God could have created a tree that produced crusty loaves of bread, but he prefers to offer us a grain and invite us to buy a field and plant the see. He prefers that we till the soil while He sends the rain. He prefers that we harvest the crop while He sends sunshine. He prefers that we grind the grain and knead it and bake it while He gives us air in our lungs and strength in our arms. Why? Because He would rather we become partners with Him in creation."

Bolivia Wrap Up

2006-07-01T17:14:00.000-05:00

Remember Javier? He was our street’s security guard who allegedly is afraid of his mother. The more I got to know him, the more I wonder if I missed something in the translation regarding the mother issue. But, moving on …

After Javier accepted Christ, we talked about the first steps of discipleship:

Praying daily
Reading your bible every day
Getting plugged into a gathering of other believers
Telling others about Christ

Then we set a follow-up appointment. He couldn’t talk much at the time because he was working. His hours? 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. seven nights a week. No vacation, no sick days, no benefits. I think because I was so caught up in the moments I’m going to describe, I took no pictures of his home or his family. Let me attempt to paint a mental picture for you. Instead of his home being a brick and concrete structure like the majority in the neighborhood, his home was a one-room tin shed that leaned against a larger building. He shared that home with his wife, three children, cousin, his cousin’s wife, their 11-month old, and his mother-in-law.

When we arrived for our follow-up appointment, Javier gathered his chairs for us to sit in his yard. He only had two, so my translator and I took those while he sat on the ground. (It’s hospitality man, you’re the guest and it’s their honor to do stuff like that for you.) We started by teaching him what a bible is and how to use it. I had given him one the night he accepted Christ and I don’t think he’d ever cracked one before that night. We talked about it being God’s own words to us, truth he could trust, and life’s practical instruction book (hat tip to Reed Ashwill for that last one; I heavily borrow that lesson). Then we showed him the table of contents and worked from there. I noticed the rest of the family milling around and asked if they’d like to see the EvangeCube. All but the mother-in-law came over and listened as we described how God has made a way for us to reconcile with him through Christ, and how He alone has the power to take away our sins. All three prayed to accept Christ. After talking for a while longer, we left. Now check out what happens.

In our last evening’s service—the celebration service—I had the privilege of leading the adult cell group, doing my best to encourage them to keep pressing on and challenging them to multiply the work by planting another church in one of their homes in the next two years. After I spoke, the pastor began talking and three more people prayed to receive Christ. One of them, a lady probably in her 50s, told us her story. Her grandson asked her to come. He had told her what great experience this house church was, and then she pointed to her son and his wife. They had made professions of faith in Christ this week and were coming to learn more about Jesus. Who was this lady? Javier’s mother. The whole family, just about, came to Christ. It reminded me of my first time in Bolivia when two sisters who helped us all week saw their father make a commitment to Christ at the dinner on our last night. It was a real sweet moment. As a side note, I followed up on that father. He’s not attending church and one daughter and his wife went to Spain for work. I write to you about a lot of victories, but it’s not all cherries and whipped cream. This was disappointing to hear.

I titled this as a wrap up, but rather than summarize the week, I’d refer you to our Tuesday night meeting again. That night was just unbelievable: The night I experienced the Spirit of God in our midst unlike any other night. Now some numbers that I hope show you God's glory:

In our area we saw 62 people make professions of faith in Christ.
Overall just over 1,600 made professions.
In our neighborhoods, we followed up with 80% of that 1,600. The folks on the trip were great about disciple-making, not just evangelism.
The Lord established eight new churches
The Lord strengthened nine churches
In three areas, we had teams who worked to restart dying, or dead, churches.
162 locals participated in the work.

Up Next: A newsletter that will essentially be from Ali (hat tip to Todd Salkowski)

Sudan and Ethiopia in August.

More pics from Santa Cruz

2006-06-29T20:47:00.000-05:00

Below Samuel, in yellow, gets ready to sling a rock against a wall. He broke our hearts on our last night when he crashed into me, hugging me tight and sobbing. He is a great son who looked after his younger brothers and sisters all week. It was obvious his parents depended heavily on him.

Segunda speaking with Bryannia about her day. Behind her, the one-year old baby, Belin, sleeps in the stroller.
Paula gives us a big smile.
Pastor Angel shares Christ with Esther. When she prayed to accept Christ, she wept uncontrollably. In Bolivia men don't hug women who are not their wives, but I couldn't take it. I reached through that barbed wire and hugged her. She was so overcome by the saving power of Christ, it was too much for me. She came to our meeting that evening and wept again and shared with everyone how happy she was that Jesus forgave her of her sins.
Nancy, mother to our translator, David, shows me her hot empanadas. These were filled with cheese and so delicious I could have made myself sick on them. She was part of the faith story of our week. Feeding us lunch and dinner on our third day because our host family could not afford to. God provided through Nancy, and it was a great provision.

Pastor Angel telling Mary that Christ can take her to heaven. Mary prayed to receive Christ then asked us to pray for her husband who struggles with alcohol.

Below is Alberto. He was a huge encouragement to us. When we came to his home, he preached to us. God radically changed his life. Three years ago a missionary from Korea came and challenged him to read his bible with all his heart. Now Alberto reads his bible constantly and was tremendous at proclaiming God's truth. He came to the meetings to encourage the new believers and gave a powerful testimony of Christ's redemptive power to the entire church. He was a blessing from God and one we're praying will continue to help Pastor Angel make disciples in this new work.

God's Spirit Fell on Us

2006-06-27T22:16:00.000-05:00

Tonight the Spirit of God fell on our meeting.

I’ve never experienced a cell meeting like we had tonight. First, remember that this church had no members, just a couple with nine kids and the faith to step out and plant a church in their home. Tonight we learned …. the rest of the story.

Before we came, the pastor tried to run away, but God told him to stay. He then tried to quit two or three times before we started, including the first morning when he came to pick us up at our hotel. (we knew none of this) His family had no money to support us. The host families feed us lunch and dinner every day and our family (Angel’s) could not afford to feed us and their family. The Lord took care of us, as He always does. First, the pastor’s daughter asked her boss for additional money, and he agreed. Then another family stepped up and asked to have us in their home for meals one day, than another on the second, then another on the third, and so forth. You may ask, “Why didn’t you buy them their meals?” It would be inappropriate according to my translator, and God used this situation to show His faithfulness to everyone who attended tonight’s meeting. How many attended?

70.

From 0, God brought 70 including just under 20 adults. Then He filled the church with His Spirit. We wept, people who were strangers had tears pouring down their cheeks while telling how happy they were that Christ forgave them of their sins. Others told of returning to the Lord after being away for years. Husbands and wives had marriages strengthened. Our pastor made himself totally vulnerable and transparent and God moved in our hearts in a way I can’t describe.

Just a few days ago, our team was begging God to move. I asked you to pray on our behalf because this was a challenge unlike any I’d faced before. This pastor and church have no support and no workers. I had no idea what would happen. We’re praying God will raise helpers for them from the harvest, and tonight five or six mature Christians looking for a church to assist near their house! Our God is a faithful God who hears our prayers!

The Spirit of God is like fire. Tonight I saw what it looks like when the fire is uncontained and His Spirit runs wild in His people. I have no idea why God in His mercy allows Ali and I to be a part of this.

Ali ate Cow Stomach

2006-06-26T22:52:00.001-05:00

Our team. Note the pastor's NINE children.

Let’s start with something that has a humorous bent to it before I give you a serious “missions” moment. Today I went to Javier’s home. He’d come to our children’s meeting on Sunday, and since he was the only dad to show up, I was really interested in following up with him. When I went to his house my translator mentioned that he really didn’t want to talk right now because he was scared of his mother seeing him. Yes, this man below who guards our portion of the neighborhood (he’s the overnight security guard) is scared of his mother. Or that’s what came through in translation.

He said he’d stop by as he was making his rounds and talk to me. Sure enough he came by to first check on me, then came again to talk to me about the gospel. He just soaked up the gospel. His eyes filled with tears when he heard that Jesus could take away his sins and he prayed to follow Christ while his children worshiped a few feet away. It was a great moment in a great day.

Ali

God continues to use her in unique, powerful ways. She’s really connected with her translator and several ladies in the neighborhood. God used her testimony in tonight’s meeting to show that this church in a home will be one of redemption, love, and grace. So many of the folks in the neighborhood have problems and troubles that we’re able to send a message to the people that this church, His church, will be a refuge and light.

Oh, and Ali ate cow stomach in the market today. Ha! The things we do for the sake of the gospel. Then she had to eat lunch about an hour later, and here you clean your plate. Good times.

Thanks for praying for our pastor, Angel. I’ve attached myself to his hip the past two days and seen a man with a real pastor’s heart. He fully understands how big of a job lies before him, and today he shared how big a vision he has. He has caught a vision to plant churches and wants to learn everything he can this week so he can replicate this process (Paul’s ministry with Christ’s commands) in the countryside.

What’s been encouraging is seeing Angel’s family share the gospel with the EvangeCube, and seeing them begin to lead all aspects of the cell group meetings at night. The Lord is doing such cool things to encourage him. We’re finding a sprinkling of believers in his neighborhood that we’re praying will come and, as mature believers, help disciple the baby believers. And God is moving. It’s still a tough(er) area, but today many made professions of faith, which was a shot in the arm for all us, but I think especially for the pastor.

A puppet show for the kids below.

Starting From Scratch

2006-06-24T22:25:00.000-05:00

This is turning out to be the most challenging area I've worked in, but also one of the most exciting. Ali and I are in a mission church plant in the truest sense of the word. Our team of locals consist of the pastor, his wife, and his nine children. Oh, and that's the same folks who make up the congregation. But wait there's more, the pastors wife, Segunda, can't work too long because it takes so long to prepare meals. (No fridge in the house and she has to borrow propane to cook.)

The "church" (shown above) is four months old and really what we have is a pastor with a huge heart and desire to plant this new church, and not a whole lot else. I'm loving this huge challenge the Lord has placed before our team. There is no mother church, no team of locals helping the pastor. It's us and our translators. What this means is that this church, as it grows, will begin with all baby believers. The pastor really has his work cut out for him. His name is Angel (ahng-hel) and he needs not angels, but divine help.Ali
Ali shared with a woman (Carla) that she came all the way from the U.S. to Bolivia just to tell her God loves her and Jesus can take away her sins. When Carla heard this, she broke into tears that Jesus led Ali to come all this way--and not Disneyworld (many latin Americans' dream trip) Then Carla prayed to accept Christ.

Tonight Carla showed up at our worship service and Ali got to hold a little, women's bible study for new believers.

Off To Bolivia

2006-06-21T08:46:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow we head south to Santa Cruz, Bolivia. 42 Americanos partnering with pastors and leaders to plant churches.

Jerusalem

2006-06-13T08:48:00.000-05:00

So hotshot, you're going to Africa, South America, and the Middle East; what about that first part of Acts 1:8? What about your Jerusalem?

Several events transpired (conspired?) that continually brought this question to mind. It's one I'm constantly dealing with, as are others in my ministry. Basically, if you're going to other countries and teaching and preaching church planting, yet coming home in your local megachurch, what does that mean? Oy vey, conviction.

Our Sunday School class, er "connection class" has begun an outreach project in a local neighborhood. We're slowly walking through church planting steps; however, I have no idea if we'll plant a church or attempt an "in-drag" rather than an actual "outreach." I'm still working my way through the book, "The Shaping of Things to Come: Innovation adn Mission for the 21st-century Church." The authors have my head spinning as we reach out to this local community.

Here's our current challenge in a nutshell: After 6 weeks of prayerwalking, how do we really "engage" the community? On paper it seems simple, in practice it's actually quite difficult, particularly when you don't live in the neighborhood.

How do we engage, without compromising the gospel, in the most culturally contextualized way possible? How do we check our hearts so we develop real relationships based on love, not just a notch-in-the-gun-handle motivation? We recognize that our church actually has some barriers to entry. Not on purpose, it just is what it is. What do we do with those?

We're seeking the Lord to help answer these questions, and yes, I'll read this next.

The cool thing that has happened already is to hear and see God moving in our lives as we obey. John 14:15, "If you love me, you'll obey my commands." Jesus.

Church Isn't Growing

2006-06-01T10:21:00.000-05:00

Back in the USA ....

Ed Stetzer in his article, "Church Growth: When the Formulas Don't Work" writes: (hat tip to the great George Robinson)

"Seven years ago my church growth world began to come apart. Many of the
sure-fire, guaranteed, great-new-whiz-bang-programs weren't working in my church or
the churches we were starting. They were supposed to work, they worked in other
places, they worked for some of my friends, but they didn't work for us! We kept trying
some of them, but my community just didn't respond as the church growth experts
promised. When I became a seminary professor, my students told me the same thing—
the sure fire methods just were not that sure fire.

"Every time I read a book from a church health pastor (particularly those
mentioned earlier), he warned “Don’t copy me. You are not in [my community].” I didn't
listen very well. As I look around me, I see that lots of other pastors didn't listen either,
as clones of successful mega-churches popped up across the continent. The temptation
was too great—we really wanted to reach as many people as they did, so we copied
their models and hoped for the same results. Unfortunately, it didn't work in most
places."

Read the whole article here.

And click the picture for another great article.

Photo Report From Uganda

2006-05-25T16:33:00.000-05:00

A national e3 leader, Joseph Oyuki, sent this photo report recently from Serinyabi Island in Uganda.

The Bible school was opened officially,

21 Pastors from 7 islands turned up. Eager to learn and expressed their need for Bible school on each island.

Movements from one island to he other is very difficult and expensive.

"Many pastors are not Trained and most of these islands have few churches. The Training offered in Discipleship and the Bible skills Institute using DVDs will be a great help to changing of lives and resulting into health churches. we have been requested to pray for Gods provision of materials and equipment for Bible skills institute"

Joseph reports

"Over 250 belivers and 21 pastors attended the conference.

The Connection from one island to the other is very difficult.

We have been requested to pray and provide more of our teaching materials to the pastors of this place.

That will result into health Discipling churches.

Joseph Reports over 71 people gave there lives to Jesus during the out door evangelism"

The boat used to ferry to and from the Island.

Sharing Jesus, via the Evangecube on the boat.
More evangelism in the village.

Training pastors and leaders.
Praying.

Ethiopia Report

2006-05-23T11:45:00.000-05:00

Yoseph Menna, our national leader in Ethiopia reports:

“In the first 4 months of 2006, 137,389 people heard the gospel message; 5,105 professed faith in Christ and 255 new churches were started in Ethiopia!!!”

(yes, the pic below is from Ethiopia)

Praise Report from an Ethiopian Leader:

“We conducted a campaign in Zeway and the surrounding Rural Peasant Associations. It lasted for seven days. The first two days we spent the time in prayer about all the areas we are to reach. We started the evangelism on Monday through Saturday. God has called 2307 people to hear the message of the gospel, of which 461 people accepted Jesus Christ as their personal savior. Magnificent harvest!!!!

“There were challenges during the mission. The challenges cam from rigid Muslims as will as traditional believers who tried to protect others from hearing the message of the gospel, they themselves closing their doors….People of all ages opened their ears and hearts for the gospel….Women were also there to accept Jesus as their savior, though many of them were urging us to first tell this message to their husbands because they are under the total control of their husbands and they cannot decide on any issue in the absence of their husband. This is what they said: ‘We love to hear about the Truth to escape eternal doom, but look, we have no right to choose what we like. In case we are found following Jesus in the absence of our husbands, we face the risk of getting bitten, firing from the family, divorcing and even death. Please challenge our husbands and then you can easily reach us.’

“The evangelical churches in collaboration with the churches that participated in the mission agreed to form a team that would constantly share Jesus to the unbelievers in the town as well as the rural areas. They also accepted the mission of coaching the newcomers. Having EvangeCubes and gospel tracts in the heart language of the people we serve is a blessing.

“The awesome news about the aftermath of the campaign is the fact that evangelical churches established a usual witnessing team from all the functioning local churches in the rural areas. They have already started praying about the converts and receiving a favor from the Lord to witness to him before people with boldness.”

Blessings,

Menna Prayer Captain

Burning Man and the Church

2006-05-22T09:31:00.000-05:00

I'm reading this amazing book about "the church" in this century and what does it open with?

Burning Man.

Money quote: "And yet, once you've been to the Nevada desert and tasted something as overwhelming as Burning Man, what does the contemporary traditional church have to offer you?"

They follow with, "We, the authors, take the view that the transformative power of the gospel of Jesus Christ is greater than anything offered at Black Rock. But we are realistic enough to admit that unless the church recovers its role as a subversive, missionary movement, no one who has been to Burning Man will be the least bit interested in it."

Story Telling

2006-05-18T09:39:00.000-05:00

Steve Sims is our Director of Oral Communications Strategies, which is fancy for Storytelling. We're practicing and learning how to tell the stories of the Bible. It's remarkable how powerful stories are and how difficult it can be to tell a good one. One that is even provided for us in God's word. I practice on my four year old, but they are equally affective with adults. As you prepare to tell them by reading and re-reading and studying the story in great detail, you always notice something you'd missed before.

Steve related that very thing to the story of man's fall. In Genesis 3, Adam and Eve have eaten the forbidden fruit. Their "eyes were opened" and they knew they were naked. They sowed some fig leaves together to cover up and then they heard the Lord walking in the garden. At his sound they hid.

What Steve then brought out was fascinating: Our Lord's initial reaction to their devastating disobediance. He asks, "Where are you?" As if He doesn't know. Like an adult playing hide-and-seek with a small child whom he or she hears giggling behind the door. Of course he knows, yet he asks. Then "finding them, He asks, "Who told you that you were naked?" Then after a response to that, He asks, "What is this you have done?"

Steve's takeaway was a fascinating: This is the character of our God. Did He render judgement? Of course, we still feel it today. But look how he engaged his fallen creation initially. Not with a club, nor a rod, nor a harsh word, but with gentle questions.

More on Storytelling the Bible Here.

To Chew On

2006-05-15T17:13:00.000-05:00

Keith, whom I've never met nor conversed with, put up a thought-provoking post. Here's an excerpt. The comments are worth reading as well.

Have we lost sight of God, or re-made him in our own image? These unsettling and provocative observations and questions come from an evangelical Christian friend, who has given me permission to share them with you.

"I find myself in the place where my view of God is shifting. Well, maybe that's premature. I guess I've realized that as much as I would try to deny it, my God is very white & very Western. I've been reading outside my comfort zone lately, and have realized that I can't reconcile my God to the world I see. Clearly the problem isn't with God, it’s with me.

How does one understand God when your whole village has been starving for as long as you've been alive? How does one understand God when your country has been destroyed by war, and He doesn't seem to intervene...

…I guess what is rolling around in my head is the uncomfortable exposure I've had to evangelicals who laud God for providing them a parking space when they need it; or when getting a good deal on a manicure, call it a "Holy Ghost deal". Not to say that I believe God isn't interested in the details of our lives... but...

... when millions of women pray for food for their starving children, or that someone would take care of their children when they've died of AIDS... or water to drink... or seed to plant...”
On the heels of this, we sent out this email on behalf of David Kaya in Sudan:
An urgent request for prayer has come today from David Kaya in the Sudan.
David has asked for prayers for his health. He is “sick suffering with malaria” since his trip to the Aweil Diocese last month. It was a difficult journey to an area where “the condition of health is very, very poor compared to the rest of the world.” David was not able to take enough clean water or food with him, so he had to do the same as the Dinka do for survival. The Bishop of the area told him, “This is the end of the earth. Be ready to hear and see for yourself what it means to be born a Dinka in the heart of the Sudan. The people eat and drink anything that can occupy the stomach – even dirty water and leaves from trees. The water is the greatest contributor of all the sicknesses in that area.”

Please take a few minutes right now to pray for David Kaya’s health. He also requests prayers for clean water for Aweil and for the health situation there to improve.

Blessings.

Kaya Prayer Captain

KayaPrayerCaptain@e3partners.org

Color

2006-05-15T13:06:00.000-05:00

Ali thought I needed more color. Alas, more color.

The Golden Ticket

2006-05-15T08:40:00.000-05:00

Ever see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, or read the book? Perhaps you can recall that Charlie desperatly wanted a golden ticket because with that ticket he'd get a tour of the amazing Willy Wonka Chocolate Factory. Remember that through dramatic circumstances, his grandpa Joe gave critical money for Charlie to purchase a chocolate bar and in dramatic fashion, that lone, last bar held a golden ticket?What if you held those tickets in your hand instead of having them randomly placed inside chocolate bar wrappers? Not only do you hold these tickets, but you know what's inside the factory. You've worked with Willy Wonka, you've ridden a candy boat on a chocolate river, and you've seen it all.This is pretty much how it feels to be an e3 Church Planter. You're walking around with Golden Tickets, knowing what's in the factory. The tickets are short-term, church-planting trips and Willy Wonka can be either Christ or one of our national leaders in the countries we work in. Generally speaking, folks who come experience God in such a fresh, unique and powerful way that, like Charlie, they're transformed by seeing God transform others' lives.

Take a ticket.

Bolivia Wrap Up

2006-05-09T12:18:00.000-05:00

As I, somewhat, feared on Sunday morning I had no translator. So there I was, the “missionary,” the gringo, the guy who flew all that way. Surely I would need to speak, encourage the believers, deliver a short message. What would I report to my supporters!? Ah! Surely that impure thought never crosses my mind. No never.

Yeah right. Want another confession? I can be seduced my numbers. X number of people accepted Christ; We trained X number of pastors in church planting; X number of people are attending church Y that was planted (on this date).

I don’t know how God speaks to you, but Sunday morning He told me "to just be still, be quiet and worship Me. If I need you to speak, I’ll make a way." This is the whole point of what we do. It's not about me or numbers. It's about worshipping a sovereign God, and He showed up that morning.

This is where Pastor Enzo and I were on Sunday morning.

This neighborhood is called Jericho and last May, a group of college students worked with this pastor, Alberto Ortiz, to plant this church. For four years, pastor Alberto and a few workers only taught children here, now they have multiple meetings each week with over 40 adults. (look a number, flee from temptation) Get this, he asked me for more discipleship materials. They’ve run out of the first few volumes of material we gave them a year ago. On Friday nights about 30 adults gather to listen to an audio tape of the New Testament in Spanish. They listen and then ask discussion questions so every is exposed to the Word, even those who can’t read or write.

Back to the worship. A young guy and lady and a girl around eight led worship along with a young guy on guitar. The Spirit of God came into that place. I was moved. I sat on a thick board that sat on top of two milk cartons. It stretched the width of the room. A gentle breeze was blowing, it was around 70 degrees, the sun was out, and when I looked out the open side of the building I could see a beautiful tree that was in full bloom with pink flowers.

Once the music subsided, Enzo stood to preach. He preached on this passage. Proverbs 30:

24 "Four things on earth are small,
yet they are extremely wise:
25 Ants are creatures of little strength,
yet they store up their food in the summer;

26 coneys ^[d] are creatures of little power,
yet they make their home in the crags;
27 locusts have no king,
yet they advance together in ranks;
28 a lizard can be caught with the hand, yet it is found in kings' palaces.

How appropriate. These churches are small, yet the believers have a strong, committed faith.

Below, Jose (left) gives a testimony of the Lord sparing him despite a nasty car accident while Pastor Alberto (right) looks on. Jose is a key member of this church, purchasing many of the supplies and food the church needs. He's storing up his treasure in heaven.

Above the children recite memory verses for the congregation. Below, the younger children have their lesson under the tree.

That afternoon, Enzo and I rode over to Montero. A smaller town about 45 minutes from Santa Cruz. We had a little time before church started, and a translator showed up (hallelujah), so we talked for awhile. I got a major reality check, and a serious reminder how important prayer is to this country. Enzo related many of the challenges he’s faced in trying to mobilize pastors and the even larger challenge of them really catching the vision for saturation church planting. There can be many obstacles.

That night we visited a church planted in July 2005. Below is a picture of the people worshipping. There are times I quite articulate my feelings, thoughts and impressions about a place, but this church was an encouragement. Montero is more rural than Santa Cruz and I think all, or virtually all, of these folks have lived in Montero all their lives. Imagine you're just scraping by, trying to find work, raise your family, and just make it in this world. One day someone comes to your door and tells you about Jesus. The King of Kings wants to know you, He will take away all your sins, He will give you a hope and life more abundantly. And after you die, He has a place in paradise ready for you to live for eternity. That 's the story of the folks below. Many began following Jesus less than a year ago. Hallelujah.

Me and a few of the members. Actually most of the members of the church.

********************************************************

Other Pictures I liked.

The next time we complain about doing the dishes ...

Anna

The Campus Crusade building where we held the church-planting training.

Another Anna, the pastor's wife at New Hope Church. Her daughter is doing dishes above.

Wise Counsel

2006-05-05T15:47:00.000-05:00

A quick keyword search through the Wisdom Books at BibleGateway, produces this:

Proverbs 1:5
A wise man will hear and increase in learning,And a man of understanding will acquire wise counsel,
Proverbs 1:4-6 (in Context) Proverbs 1 (Whole Chapter)
Proverbs 12:15
The way of a fool is right in his own eyes,But a wise man is he who listens to counsel.
Proverbs 12:14-16 (in Context) Proverbs 12 (Whole Chapter)
Proverbs 19:20
Listen to counsel and accept discipline,That you may be wise the rest of your days.
Proverbs 19:19-21 (in Context) Proverbs 19 (Whole Chapter)
Proverbs 24:6
For by wise guidance you will wage war,And in abundance of counselors there is victory.

One of the things I've appreciated about our ministry's approach, albeit far from perfect, is that we do our best to avoid a paternal approach to missions. What that means is that we do our best to avoid the "We're superior and the source of missiological knowledge because we're from America" attitude. The past two days, we've tried to live this out. First, yesterday we met with Raul Justiniano, (pictured on left; Jorgensen on right) a very respected international leader in Latin America. He's clearly a visionary and a man full of wisdom. He explained at some length how the church should and could respond to what appears to be a left-leaning political movement in Latin America. His response was totally biblical. We traded information and listened carefully for his wise counsel.Today, we spent a good deal of time with Tito Ramos. He's Campus Crusade for Christ's Bolivian National Director. When we went to meet him we found him here.

This is a small sea or university students at the largest university in Santa Cruz, and probably Bolivia. He was giving a lecture on business and marketing principles to these students. Most of it geared towards starting your own venture since employment is difficult in this economy. At the end of the lecture, he posted a slide and said, essentially, the following, "None of these marketing and business skills matter unless you have character. Where do you learn character? Where do you develop your personal character? Would you like to learn how God can held you develop your character?"

Then about 15 CC student workers passed out sheets of paper for the students to put their contact information on for follow-ups. In these follow-up sessions, the gospel will be presented clearly.
After this meeting, we sat down with Tito to ask his advice on how to form our national strategy in Bolivia. The Lord has blessed e3 in the areas we've worked in, but the Lord has burdened our hearts for a national church-planting strategy and, of course, for a church-planting movement to break out!

Tito immediately caught the vision and provided valuable advice we'll heed. How do we get 5,000 Bolivians trained in how to use the Evangecube in a matter of months? How do we reach every region of Bolivia? How do we find out where the unreached people groups are? Let us pray that we'll be wise in listening to good counsel.

Tonight, the training begins ...

Santa Cruz, Bolivia

2006-05-04T19:59:00.000-05:00

After flying all night from Miami to Santa Cruz, we took a brief rest and then headed into the outer parts of the city. We went to two areas where e3 teams planted recently. This first church, below, is called House of Prayer Church in El Dorado. An e3 team worked with a mother church to plant this work in July of 2005.

Rosa and Anna pictured here were integral to the planting of this church. Rosa's husband owned this plot of land, and their home is adjacent to it. He donated this tract for the church. The boards you see on the sides are recent addition. Winter, while mild, is nevertheless on its way here below the equator and the boards serve as a wind block.

If you look closely at the top picture, you can see a yellow piece of poster-size paper hanging on the wall. This listed 19 names of active members over the age of 12 years old.

From here we drove to another neighborhood where an e3 team planted a church two months ago. The benches and chairs under the tree is where this baby church of around 40 members meet three times a week. After meeting for awhile, the members met to pray for an entire day. After praying, they went out into the neighborhood to evangelize. As they were speaking with folks in the area, they realized they had a problem: They had no name. The pastor had everyone write down what he or she thought the name of the church should be. They placed the papers in a hat and drew out their new name. Now, they're the New Hope church. This church is on fire, they recently came to their pastor, Franklin, and asked to begin meeting a fourth night per week to learn more about the Bible! As always, you wonder and pray for the plants after you leave. What an encouraging day we had.

The pastor, Franklin his wife, Anna, and daugthers, Anita and Yspana.

Here is Anna showing us the bread she's letting rise to sell later today.

The family moved here in January and until they erect a permanent structure, this is their home. The oven that will bake the bread is in the middle of the wall.

Romans 8:28 In Practice

2006-05-01T15:08:00.001-05:00

When we were in the Middle East, I heard a few reports from Iraq that brought this verse to mind. Romans 8:28 is the famous, "And we know that God causes all things to work together for the good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose."

We heard a report of terrorists waiting outside some Christian churches and shooting believers as they exited the church. We also were told that the number of churches in Baghdad went from 1 to 20 after Saddam fell.If the first report, the shootings, is indeed true, it's fairly easy extropolate how the Lord may turn that to good. If "The Church" is forced to go underground into homes, look out. Explosive growth may be right around the corner. From the beginning of the New Testament church, the Lord has continually allowed persecution to be used to show His glory and to grow His Church.

Wednesday I head to Bolivia. Today the president of Bolivia, Evo Morales, seized control of the gas industry--private companies included.
So the Christian persepective: How will the Lord use this situation?

Should political events affect us? How? And how do we synch our answer with Paul's instruction to Timothy?

No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier.

2 Timothy 2:4

Planting

2006-05-01T10:47:00.000-05:00

Quote from David Hesselgrave

"If you want to plant something that lasts a season,
plant a flower.

If you want something that lasts a lifetime,
plant a tree.

If you want something that will last for eternity,
plant a church."

Dreams

2006-04-29T17:07:00.000-05:00

Two pieces from my newsletter I'm posting here:

God is using dreams to touch the hearts of Muslims. One of our national leader tells this story.

His uncle owns a small shop in Syria. In his shop he had the Evangecube opened to the panel with Jesus on the cross. (Shown here) A young Muslim girl entered his shop and saw the cube. When she saw it, she was surprised and asked about the cube. He shared with her the first panel, explaining Holy God then opened to Jesus. When he did, she began to cry.

She had a cross necklace hidden under her dress. She took it off and gave it to him as a present. He asked her, “Why are you giving me this cross?” She replied, “I had a dream so I went and bought a cross. Now I came into your shop and the picture on the cube is exactly what I saw in my dream. She wept as she talked and professed faith in Christ right away.

North Africa

In a village of a few hundred somewhere in North Africa God used a dream to complete His will. One night every single person in the village dreamed about Jesus—the exact same dream. The next day, they began to talk about the dream, and they realized the Lord has sent every one of them the same dream about Jesus. They put their trust in Christ and that day the entire village began to follow Jesus. He said, “I will build my church…” Matthew 16:18 Even if man blocks His messengers, Jesus will fulfill his promise.

Da Vinci Code

2006-04-28T09:28:00.000-05:00

I can't get very excited about the Da Vinci Code movie, or book. In fact just writing that sentence makes me tired. However, I do like what John Miller wrote in today's Wall Street Journal:

The amazing thing is that church leaders, like those at Campus Crusade, have been among the most aggressive contributors to this enterprise. Instead of acting like the mad-as-hell crusaders of the recent past--a strategy that probably has backfired more often than it has succeeded--they are now assuming the role of debunking missionaries.
This marks a sea change in attitudes from a decade ago, when the American Family Association began its much-ballyhooed boycott of Disney for a variety of affronts, including its ties to Miramax, which was peddling movies such as the impious "Dogma" and the gay-themed "Priest." (The AFA's boycott actually ended to virtually no fanfare last September, in the wake of the Disney-Miramax divorce. Disney's release of "The Chronicles of Narnia" also helped smooth relations with the religious.) The content of "The Da Vinci Code" is arguably more objectionable to Christians than anything that ever carried the Miramax label, but the AFA isn't telling its flock to stay away from theaters. An article on its Web site even suggests that readers see the movie so that they'll know how to defend their faith. The AFA is also hawking "The Da Vinci Delusion," a DVD produced by Coral Ridge Ministries.

Read the whole thing.

Cost per Baptism

2006-04-25T18:07:00.000-05:00

From Guy Muse's Blog

However, I was COMPLETELY BLOWN AWAY this past week after reading James Rutz's, Megashifts. On page 117 he quotes Barrett and Johnson from their World Christian Trends. Their own calculation for the cost of each U.S. institutional church baptism is...

$1,551,466!!!

Can you believe it?

Could this be the difference between seeking to work solely in the power of the Spirit, and instead relying on the power of money for Kingdom work? I know we must be careful to judge and criticize. One cannot compare "apples with oranges" but surely the Holy Spirit is trying to tell us something if we would but listen!

Of course, this is what Rutz's Megashifts is trying to point out about the global grassroots megashift where:

"...traditional, top-down [church] systems are turning into gigantic, bottom-up co-ops...The revolution now upon us is a complete paradigm shift...It is going to be a lot bigger than the reformation...It is, at last, the reformation of Structure--not just flattening the pyramid a little, but turning it upside-down so that the true leaders are the servants, lifting up and equipping those they serve..."

Church Cultural Shift Stuff

2006-04-25T16:17:00.000-05:00

The Pharisees clumped together and built a parallel culture--refuge theology is Pharisaical. When dealing with Pharisaism, we are dealing with a religion that has nothing to do with Jesus. They have a heart for religion, but not a heart for God.

The missional church is the most radical resorting of Christians since the reformation. Those who are missional have more in common with those in other tribes than with those in their own tribe who don't get it.

The kingdom of God is all about people, and God has seeded the value system of the younger generations (Xer's and millenials) that will feed the shift He has begun.

Kingdom growth is profoundly anti- what we have typically been doing.

More from SBC Outpost Blogger ..

Water

2006-04-20T08:02:00.000-05:00

WATER IN SUDANESE REFUGEE CAMP SEEN AS ‘MIRACLE FROM GOD’

Despite problems in western Sudan’s Darfur region, the Persecution Project Foundation continues to work with more Christian and Muslim refugees in Northern Aweil county. The organization is working to meet the food and water needs of about 30,000 families fleeing genocide. Last month the organization dug a well in an area where the U.N. failed to find water. “The village leaders, especially the Muslim leaders of their villages, actually saw this as a miracle of God,” said Ed Lyons of Persecution Project. “We said, ‘Yes, you’re absolutely right,’ and handed them some Arabic Bibles and said, ‘This is the God who provided this water for you.’” The foundation is working with local Africans who are doing most of the relief efforts. “They also get a chance to preach the gospel message, and it’s having overwhelming results in this area.” Lyons added. While no churches have been planted in the area yet, this is one of the ministry’s goals. (Mission Network News)

Report from Sudan

2006-04-19T16:32:00.000-05:00

Here's another email from David Kaya in Sudan:

I am in Nairobi now on my way back to moyo Uganda. Brothers thank you for your support for the journey to the forgothen people of my country Sudan. I am sick as I write to you this letter. Live in the heart o the sudan is a hell on earth. I don't know how to write the report about my journey!!! It seems the world and the christian world has still done so little to help the situation and the need of the people for the gospel and the physical needs. To give you the summary of all things done on this trip, 1794 people gave their lives to the Lord on Sunday during my preaching,36 churches planted as the result of the training, 3women died in the service of famine and 4 childern died in the service also due to Malaria and other infections Mingisticsand cholera. all were burried in the church. A life of a person in adoor is not worthy a dollar, your dogs are even given treatement compared to the people in Adoor.

David

A Miracle

2006-04-09T01:24:00.000-05:00

“I am going to heal you so I can use you.”

This is the voice Jan heard the night before last. Jan is part of the intercessory prayer team that is with us in the Middle East. Some might wonder, why would someone travel all that way just to pray? Can’t you pray from home? As I’ve heard more about Jan and how she came to join the team, I’m convinced this is about obedience.

The Lord laid Jan’s name on Mike Jorgensen’s heart to invite her to come be a part of a prayer team. He obeyed and she accepted. She was the one I asked you to pray for her traveling here. Her plane was delayed by a day and she faced some tough obstacles on her journey over here—alone. She could have been discouraged and turned back, she pressed on.

Early in the morning she woke around the same time the mosque was calling out for prayers. She heard a voice saying, “I am going to heal you so I can use you.” Jan has suffered from arthritis since 1996, taking medication to ease the stiffness and pain in her hands and neck. Her hands suddenly felt very warm and she felt compelled to clench her fists, something she hasn’t been able to do since ’96. She then thought, well what about my whole body? And she moved her neck around with ease.

Later that morning she woke up and thought she had dreamed all of this, but then she moved her neck and clenched her fists easily. When she told Mike Jorgensen what had happened, he described her as giddy as a school girl.

Egyptian Church

2006-04-08T10:45:00.000-05:00

I was standing in the hotel lobby waiting with most of the folks on our team to go to Applebees for dinner. Yes, Applebees in the Middle East. Why Applebees? I think because a few guys could catch the Masters, or perhaps because there was already a craving for American food? Afshin, the American who grew up Muslim and became a Christian when he was 17 was going to speak at an Egyptian church and was waiting in the lobby as well for a taxi.

Applebees or Egyptian Church? Hmmm? Give me the Egyptian church!

I asked Afshin if I could join him. So off we went in a cab with an Egyptian who had attended our conference and would serve as our translator. Two minutes into the ride, “George” looks at me and says, “They will want you to speak also, okay?”

I had no Bible and no preparation. In the lobby, I promise you, we had just been talking about being asked to preach or speak with no notice when you’re on the field. So I said, “No problem, I’d be happy to.”

We twisted and turned up a few winding streets into what you might picture as a big city alley when the cab stopped. We jumped out and entered the church. It was packed with Egyptians coming to worship. The pastor was close to finishing his sermon, then we’d be asked to speak. Afshin went first, giving his powerful testimony. He connects with many in this area when he shares about his father disowning him after he told him he was a Christian. He gave an invitation and one young guy raised his hand to accept Christ. Hallelujah.

One funny moment. Afshin begins by saying how much he loves the country we’re in, how beautiful it is, and so on. Our translator stopped him and said, “Hey, these are Egyptians.” It was sort of like the commercial you see and hear of the rock star kicking off the concert by saying, “Hellooo Chicago!,” which is met with total silence and one lone voice from the crowd saying, “This is Denver!” Very similar and hilarious. Afshin, responds immediately, “I’d love to go to Egypt."

Afshin has spoken around the country as a full-time evangelist for several years. I’ve barely spoken a word from a pulpit. He had everyone stand and give me a standing ovation, a very nice thing to do. The great thing about not preparing is that you totally rely on the Holy Spirit. Between that and having to speak only for a little while sustained me. The first thing the Lord led me to say was that believers in America love the people in the Middle East. That the Holy Spirit and Jesus unify believers regardless of where we live or what culture we come from. Then I just told them why this white guy was standing there. That we plant churches and help teach others to plant churches. From there I taught all 120 or so of them the six hand signals and principles of church planting. I challenged them to plant a church in this city, with Egyptians or not. Four of the men who attended our conference were in the congregation, and I pray the Lord used me to set them up with the momentum to begin a planting work amongst these people.

As I was speaking, the pastor was seated directly in front of me. I realized I hadn’t run any of this by him. Who knows if he was on board with planting a new church or not? After a bit I sat down and the pastor assumed the pulpit. He held out a small amount of money and offered it to anyone who could come up front and repeat the principles I had just taught. A bunch of hands went up and one young man came forward and repeated it perfectly.

After the service ended, we shook everyone hand and walked to the street. I had many pull me aside to urge to tell you that they love America and believers in America. We walked to a main street to catch a cab when a young couple with a young girl asked us to come to their home. What a fantastic time. We had coffee and cookies and sat with the family and several other guys from Egypt. We swapped stories, then the husband, who leads worship, broke out his lute. Yes his Lute. We sang and they guys started dancing then we all prayed for one another and walked out into the cool Arab night. We were up high overlooking the city. It was beautiful on multiple levels.