Thursday, November 20, 2008
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Doing Missions When Dying Is Gain
Peru student missionary dies in bus accident
Gregory Gomez IV, 22, a student missionary serving in Peru for the summer through the International Mission Board, was killed in a bus accident July 5. Another IMB student missionary and a Peruvian translator received minor injuries. Gomez was serving on the REAP (Rapid Entry Advance Plan) South Team. He had been traveling around southern Peru researching unreached people groups. Originally from Natchez, Miss., Gomez was living just outside St. Louis, Mo., prior to his service. He is survived by his parents, Elida and Gregory Gomez III, of Glen Carbon, Ill., and two sisters. - IMB E-Letter
Listen to John Piper's Sermon-"Doing missions when dying is gain".
Before we listen to this sermon, are we prepared to leave with a deeper commitment to deny ourselves and rejoice in the path that God is preparing us for?
After listening to this sermon, we need to ask ourselves has it changed us?
Has it changed our outlook on life?
Has it caused us to want to conform to the will of God in all things?
Is Christ so valuable to us that no loss we experience for His sake will feel like losing in the end?
Father, May this young man's life be an example to the young and old, right here in America, to boldly go out into the nations proclaiming Your Name.
May You offer comfort to Mr. Gomez's parents and siblings.
May they be reminded that "no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for You and the Gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age (homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields — and with them, persecutions) and in the age to come, eternal life.
May they rejoice knowing that their son has glorified You, their Father.
Thank you Lord for Gregory Gomez IV a young man who did not waste his life.
Amen
Friday, July 11, 2008
Oh My GREAT God and King. EE-tauo EE-tauo!!!!
You will cry tears of sadness, tears of amazement, tears of happiness and then, at the end of this clip, your tears will be tears of great joy, in the wonderous Redeemer that has saved us.
If I hadnt been sitting under my carport and people had not been walking by, Im certain that I would have clapped for joy.
You, God, are amazing. I thank You for revealing Yourself to us. Thank you!
Monday, June 02, 2008
God is doing big things around the world-LOUIE GIGLIO
God is doing big things around the world and is still calling people to be a part of these things.
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Free Church Missions Software
Compu-Books of Glendale, AZ is offering their Church Missions 3.0 software free to Christian churches and Mission organizations. This solution tracks church mission projects with missionary information, contribution records, communication log and reports. They give you a free single-user version - a contribution receipt for the donation is requested in return ($99 value). It’s available for Mac and Windows. Visit their website ‘products’ page to request your free copy.-Missions Blog for Curches
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Missions-Preperation Through Prayer
Preparation through Prayer
Whenever you share the good news of Christ you are involved in spiritual warfare. Our enemy, the devil, does not want people to be saved. He is a liar, thief and destroyer of lives. Jesus said, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10). We must be prepared for a spiritual battle when we go on mission with God.
Ephesians 6:10-20 says:
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints. Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.
We ask you to bathe your mission trip in prayer. Here are some suggestions:
Pray every time your mission team comes together. Whether the meeting is for training, logistics or something else, always include time for prayer.
Pray for God to prepare each team member spiritually. Each person who is coming on the mission trip should spend time in prayer and Bible study every day, getting spiritually prepared for the trip. You may consider creating a “30-day prayer guide” or something similar to help prepare your team members.
Pray for God to work out all the details of your trip. From logistics to ministry projects, there is much to coordinate and prepare for; pray for God to bring it all together, and that the team will come here prepared to serve Jesus.
Pray for God to give each team member opportunities to share the gospel. Pray that God will open your eyes to the opportunities all around you to share the gospel while you are on the mission trip. Pray for boldness to share Christ with others. Pray for wisdom on how to share Christ here.
Pray for God to give each team member a servant spirit and willingness to be flexible. Jesus was the greatest servant of all, and he followed the leadership of the Spirit to be exactly where God wanted him to be at all times. Sometimes on a mission trip, adjustments to the schedule must be made at the last minute. We will trust God to put us where he wants us to advance the kingdom of God.
Pray for people to be saved! The most important reason your team is coming here is for people to hear the good news of Jesus. Pray that people will be saved in the Adirondacks – before, during and after your mission trip!
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Ten Commandments for mission trip participants
Healthy attitudes on short-term mission trips
You shall not forget that you represent your home country and the Lord Jesus Christ.
You shall not expect that things will be the same as they are at home, for you have left your home to find different things. [ mono-culturalism ]
You shall not take minor things too seriously. Accepting things as they are paves the way for a good mission trip.
You shall not judge all insert name of target people by the one person with whom you have had trouble.
You shall not let other group members get on your nerves. You raised good money and set aside this time. So, enjoy yourself.
You shall not be overly worried. The person who worries has no pleasures. Few things people worry about are ever fatal.
Remember your passport (or other identification document) so that you know where it is at all times. A person without documents is a person without a country. [ passport info ]
Blessed is the person who says "thank you" in any language. Verbal gratefulness is worth more than tips.
When in insert name of country (Rome), do as the insert name of people (Romans) do. If in difficulty, use common sense and your native friendliness.
Remember, you are a guest in insert name of country. He who treats his host with respect shall be treated as an honored guest.
Okay, so these aren't the 10 commandments given to Moses on Mt. Sinai. However, the principles enunciated here are foundational to success in short-term cross-cultural experiences. So, violating these 10 commandments (even if Moses didn't get them) can spoil your short-term experience and even tarnish your attempts to witness for Christ.
Ten ways to ruin short term mission trips
Unhealthy attitudes on short-term mission trips
Believe it or not, it's possible to have a bad short-term missions experience. Most times, this is not the fault of the situation or organization. Often, the root cause is the short-termer's own attitudes and expectations.
To maximize your short-term experience, AVOID doing the things on this Top Ten checklist:
1. Keep narrowly focused on "spiritual" activities. Since you want to win people to Christ, focus on only the loftiest of things. Avoid menial work like data entry, loading trucks, or working on buildings. Such things will distract you from your primary task.
2. To tighten up your schedule, eliminate personal prayer and Bible study. You will be so rushed away that you probably won't have time. Besides, can't you get all the spiritual food you need from group devotions and from church services?
3. Stay organized and on schedule. Set detailed goals before you go. Establish schedules and refuse to deviate from them. Do not accept delays, last-minute changes, and impromptu visits and invitations. Those things will just keep you from getting things done for God.
5. Get involved romantically with someone. Being away from family and friends makes this the perfect time to get involved romantically. While it may distract you slightly from the work, you will be able to expose national Christians to America's progressive dating customs.
6. Don't embarrass yourself by trying to pick up the local language. People are always saying that English is spoken all over the world. So, insist that those people use it with you.
7. Immediately begin pointing out your team members' faults. Time is short. It will be difficult for people to make the needed changes if you don't help them right from the start. Focus your helpful criticisms on team leaders.
8. As you go all out in warring against dangerous germs, don't eat any of the local food. To be sure, you may miss some friendly opportunities with "the natives," but you'll keep those awful germs at bay!
9. Keep your distance from team members who couldn't raise their full support. They may try to mooch off you. Don't give in. Sweating over finances builds faith!
10. When you return home, scold your home church and friends for their lack of commitment, for their weak prayers, and for their inadequate giving to missions. This may be one of the few times you will have their deferential respect. Make the most of it.
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
How you and your church can be Rope Holders
What the Local Church Can Do:
1. Have a well-written missions policy.
2. Have a functioning missions committee.
3. Have a faith promise giving program for missions.
4. Have men's and women's groups with a focus on missions.
5. Have a missionary couple/family to lead Vacation Bible School and have a "penny march" to help raise money for them.
6. Have visiting missionaries speak in the Christian school chapel and Bible class.
7. Have a missionary speaker for Christian school camp.
8. Encourage the Christian summer camp where your church kids attend to have a missionary speaker.
9. Provide lodging and opportunity for service to graduating Bible college students who plan to go to the mission field. This will give them valuable experience before going on deputation.
10. Provide lodging during the summer for MK's (missionary kids) attending Christian college and help them find summer jobs.
11. Provide housing and transportation for missionaries on furlough, especially those sent out by your church.
12. Give generously to visiting missionaries (even if you can not take them on for support, you can still help them on deputation or furlough with a good love offering).
13. Help the visiting missionary with maintaining their automobile, etc. Provide them with an oil change. Check to see if they need tires or other auto work, then get together with several church members and pay for the work.
14. Maintain a missionary "closet" of good used clothing items, etc. for visiting missionaries on deputation or furlough to take what they need.
15. Have something special for missionary children when their parents are visiting your church.
16. Organize a missions trip for interested church members.
17. If the church has a Christian school, have the Senior Trip be a missions trip.
18. Send a construction team to help a missionary with a project on the field.
19. Have a section of the Sunday bulletin dedicated to missions (a quote by a missionary, statistics, etc.)
20. Pray for your missionaries. During prayer meeting, summarize the ministry of the missionaries who wrote that week, tell their specific prayer requests, and pray for the missionaries.
21. Communicate regularly with the missionaries the church supports.
a. Have members of the church "adopt" a missionary family for a year and communicate with them (including E-mail) to encourage them and to keep them informed of "back home."
b. Send them birthday and anniversary cards, "care packages," news about the church including the church bulletin, a photo(s) of a special church event, etc.
c. Also encourage young persons to be pen pals with missionary children of their own age.
22. List the missionaries which the church helps support in a special section of the church directory.
23. Maintain a church Web site with a special section on the missionaries the church helps support including mail and E-mail addresses. If the missionary or their sending agency or church maintains a Web site, provide a link to it.
24. Have a church missions bulletin board where prayer letters, etc. are posted and where there is a world map indicating location of the missionaries the church helps support.
25. Make missionary biographies available for purchase or for lending from a church resource table/display rack.
26. Have an annual missions conference or a missions emphasis month (this can include such events as an International Dinner, having missionaries send E-mail messages of greeting to be read at the conference, and having a missionary call during the conference and it arranged so that all in the church can hear the conversation).
27. Have pastoral leadership (preaching on missions, public invitations to surrender to full-time Christian service, using stories relating to missions as sermon illustrations, mentioning special missionary prayer requests and praying for them publicly, regularly having missionaries visit to present their field of ministry, etc.).
What the Individual Can Do:
1. Pray for missionaries during personal prayer time as well as during family worship time. Keep a list of missionaries and pray for 2 or 3 of them each day.
2. Read true missionary stories and biographies of missionaries as part of family worship time.
3. "Adopt" a missionary family or two (perhaps one you have had in your home for dinner when they were on deputation or furlough); sincerely care for and fervently pray for them.
4. Regularly write, E-mail, or phone a missionary (get your children involved as well in writing to the MK's.)
5. Send birthday, anniversary, and Christmas cards (again, do not forget the MK's and to get your children involved too).
6. Send care packages.
7. Attend all the services in which missionaries are speaking and/or presenting their ministry.
8. Show hospitality to visiting missionaries on deputation or furlough (be willing to help where needed).
9. Give visiting missionaries prepaid phone cards.
10. Instead of trading in your car, donate it to your church for missionary use; or let a missionary family use an extra car (in good condition) while they are home on furlough.
11. Open your home during vacations and summers to MK's attending Christian college "home side" and help them find short-time employment if needed.
12. If the missionaries have elderly relatives living in your area, offer to provide them help and support on behalf of the missionary.
13. Host and provide meals for visiting missionaries and their families (you and your family will be richly blessed!).
14. Give generously to missionary projects and love offerings for visiting missionaries.
15. Volunteer to serve on the missions committee.
16. Volunteer to maintain the church's missions bulletin board.
17. Give out missionary biographies to encourage others regarding missions.
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Proselytizing vs. Evangelizing
- John Stott, Christ the Controversialist (173, 174)
Wednesday, March 05, 2008
Mission Song
From the C.D. Songs of Grace
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
The Untragic Death of Linda Lipscomb!
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Preach to the World
As you go, preach this message: 'The kingdom of heaven is near.'
“God has called me to preach His word and if I knew that all the elect had a yellow stripe painted down their backs, then I would give up preaching the gospel and go lift up shirt tails!”
How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!"
And this Gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.
Lord Jesus come!
Tuesday, February 05, 2008
A people group has vanished
A woman and a tribe's world pass into the beyond
Marie Smith Jones died Jan. 21 at the good age of 89, the last full-blooded member of Alaska's Eyak Indians. For almost everything on earth there will come a last day, a last remnant, a final goodbye, but Jones' death brought an entire culture to an end. Jones was not only the last full-blooded member of the tribe - she was also the last person who spoke its language.
The Eyak began as a prehistoric tribe, breaking off from a larger tribe as long ago as 1,500 years before the birth of Christ. Never a large group, some believe the Eyak never numbered more than a thousand. As recently as the early 1800s, they commanded quite a bit of territory around Prince William Sound, but by the time Jones was born in 1918, only five Eyak families remained, all in a small town called Cordova.
As a young girl, Jones saw the final disintegration of the Eyak culture, brought on by disease, alcoholism and educators who forbade children to speak Eyak. In other words, the modern world did them in.
One of her daughters explained that she'd never learned her mother's language because in the mid-20th century, students were expected to speak only English. A long time ago, I learned of such nonsense from my mother, born of German parents who taught her not a word of their language, to protect her at school. Some call this assimilation.
The language of the Eyak is the first of 20 languages native to Alaska to disappear. Jones' sister also spoke Eyak, but she died in the early 1990s, leaving her sister as the last of her kind, like an endangered species no longer in a position to carry on the line.
It ended with her, an old lady picking salmonberries on a nearby mountain, speaking a lost language out loud to herself, doing her best to keep the memory of it. It's the kind of thing many of us do when working out a language other than our own. We try the words out loud, pushing them past our twisted tongues into the air.
In 1993, the Smithsonian Institution returned the bones of an Eyak Indian to Cordova, bones that had been at the institution since the 1930s. Jones played an integral part in the repatriation ceremony.
On the day of the burial, she told an Anchorage Daily News reporter that the low-hanging clouds and gray sky were absolutely perfect for the ceremony, as orthodox Eyaks believed that on such days God often lowered clouds so the ancestors could return and be near the living without frightening them.
Marie Smith Jones. Try it again: Marie Smith Jones.
Nope, doesn't work. The weight of her passing doesn't feel right sitting on a name like that - Cleopatra, maybe, or Nefertari. Marie Smith Jones is a mere mortal's name, and in the end that's all she was: mortal, just like the rest of us. But in her case, the dying flesh was a vessel holding a world soon lost.
And the sound of shattering glass you heard on Jan. 21? Just the sound of an old Alaskan woman dying in her sleep, dreaming of the past, knowing the future.
I hope that on the day of her burial in Alaska, the sky was gray and the clouds low, as there were probably many on both sides of that great divide between the living and the dead who wanted to be near.
The next time I hear glass breaking in a restaurant, I'll try not to think the loss is someone else's problem.
Kurt Ullrich is a free-lance writer who lives near Maquoketa, Iowa. Jones
Monday, February 04, 2008
Are We Telling People To Go To Hell?
Friday, January 25, 2008
Vida Eterna
"The sad part is that illegals often come here wanting to provide for their families back home—but the reality is that their absence often deteriorates the family more than if they’d never left.”
For some reason I was not able to link to the article "One Question" at The WeB Magazine Of the Presbyterian Church in America, so I copied and pasted it below.
One Question
ByFaith asked four pastors and missionaries, all of them with years of experience with Hispanic immigrants this question: How should the fact that illegal immigrants have knowing broken the law affect our attitudes toward them. One pastor in Florida told us: “I don’t ask the immigrants we help whether they are here legally or not. It’s incumbent upon us to love our neighbors and to help meet their needs.
But I take a different stance about those south of the border. Those who want to come here illegally shouldn’t do it. But we can’t close our doors to those who are already here. We’re still called upon to love mercy and act justly toward them.
The sad part is that illegals often come here wanting to provide for their families back home—but the reality is that their absence often deteriorates the family more than if they’d never left.”
Here are three other replies.
Question: How should the fact that immigrants knowingly broke the law affect our attitudes toward them?
In many cases, we don’t know why people are breaking the law (whether it’s for a family member in need, for example). So my attitude should be to try to understand why they’ve come to the U.S., what their needs are, and their reality here.
But I disagree with those who put water bottles in the desert for illegals crossing the border. I think it’s better to discourage that behavior.
An illegal Mexican immigrant visited the church I pastored in Houston and asked for advice on what he should do. We talked and prayed about it, and it didn’t seem to me that he had a good reason to be here. I counseled him, “For your own good and for the good of your family, I think you should go back.” And he did.
Another illegal couple had become Christians after they moved to the U.S. They were concerned about the lies they had told, and I counseled them to tell the truth to the authorities. They had the mindset that they would be at peace either way: whether they were deported back to Mexico and would help plant a church there, or whether they would stay in our church community in Houston. The authorities let them stay, and that man is a deacon in the church today. It’s a great story of Christians having a big view of God.
Alex Villasana, a Mexican national (both he and his wife have green cards, their two children are U.S. citizens) is planting a PCA church in Norcross, Ga.
Question: How should the fact that immigrants knowingly broke the law affect our attitudes toward them?
We must show hospitality to the alien among us. The state and the kingdom of God do not have the same interests, so we shouldn’t get caught up in the tenor of national politics on this issue.
Violating immigration law is not the same thing as committing murder, though some have equated the two. Our missionaries overseas violate immigration laws all the time. So the question to me is, why do we treat illegal immigrants differently than we treat congregants who speed in traffic or lie on their taxes?
We’re trying to enfold our Hispanic community members into our church. Instead of establishing another church, we’re trying to welcome them into our existing family. It’s hard, but it’s what the gospel is all about.
Travis Hutchinson is pastor of Highlands Presbyterian Church in LaFayette, Ga. The church offers blended services (English and Spanish together) in an increasingly Hispanic community.
Question: How should the fact that immigrants knowingly broke the law affect our attitudes toward them?
Christians are not thinking gospel-centered when it comes to this issue. They reveal a confusion of sword with cross, and the state with the gospel.
Jesus did not do any background checks, and He didn’t question the reason for anyone's sins or oppression, but instead ministered respectfully and gracefully to all. Therefore, the gospel of Jesus Christ embedded in our attitude is the only rule of conduct for ministering to sinners, even illegal immigrants. Are we servants of the gospel or enforcers of the state?
However, I believe that Christian illegals, if they can't get legal papers to stay, should go back to their countries out of their relationship to the lordship of Christ.
Al Guerra is a Cuban-born pastor to Hispanics in Chicago, who is getting his doctorate of ministry degree through Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando.
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
It Was Truly A Miracle
