Bruchko

Wow! I am just about finished with an amazing book called Bruchko by Bruce Olson. It is the story of his experiences among the Motilones, a "head-hunting" tribe of people in Columbia with whom Bruce, named Bruchko by the tribal members, shared the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. I highly recommend it! I have finished it in almost three days. I plan to read it to my older girls.
Here is a summary, from Forerunner about him which is very encouraging. It's awesome to see God's hand at work!!!


Missions Report: Bruce Olson's and Colombia's Motilone Indians
By Jay Rogers
Published October 1992

Since 1961, missionary Bruce Olson has labored for the gospel of Jesus Christ among the Motilone Indians deep in the jungles of Colombia’s high Catatumbo region. But today Olson’s most exciting missionary work still lies ahead.

In the past thirty years, Olson has founded bilingual schools, medical clinics and agricultural centers among the Motilones. His Christ-like humility and work of service to the Motilones has earned him the status of a tribal member. Indian chiefs throughout the region representing 50 tribes and half a million tribe members look to Olson with great awe and respect. He has become a friend of five Colombian presidents; has spoken before the United Nations; and has received educational awards from the Colombian government. Although he completed college only through correspondence schools, his work on translating the Scriptures into the native Indian dialects has earned him honor among linguistics scholars.

Nineteen-year-old Olson first travelled to South America with only a one-way plane ticket and $70 in his pocket. A young person with a deep burden for Colombia’s hidden people, Olson set out in in search of the Motilones: a fierce, primitive tribe that no white man had ever encountered and lived. Olson’s adventures in Colombia brought him face to face with the Motilones when he was shot through the leg with a three foot arrow. He was brought as a prisoner to their camp to recover. “Bruchko” – the name the Indians gave him (the Motilones were not able to pronounce Bruce Olson) – eventually won over the hearts of these tribal people. Today the Motilones are almost universally converted to Christ.

Three years ago, Bruce Olson was kidnapped in the mountain jungles of Colombia and detained for nine months as a political prisoner by communist guerillas. Hoping to win him as a valuable communist leader, the communists attempted to indoctrinate him through daily political dialogues. “Papa Bruchko” – as they called him – became a source of fascination among the young recruits in training. Many of them began to join Olson in prayer and Bible study. As many as 60 communist guerillas eventually gave their lives to Christ. His refusal to join ranks with the communists earned him death threats and he narrowly escaped execution by a firing squad.

Fearing the reprisal of a united war effort of 50 jungle tribes, the guerilla leaders released Olson in the summer of 1989. The Indian tribes of Colombia had united against the guerillas in a war-pledge to defend Olson’s cause if he was executed. The unity of the Indian tribes behind one white man was unprecedented in Colombia’s history.

After his release, Olson found that he had become a national hero in Colombia. In the major cities, articles demanding Olson’s release had appeared almost daily in the newspapers. Olson’s courageous stance against the guerillas was one of the key factors which inspired the common citizens of Colombia to take a bolder, tougher stance against the drug cartels.

Since this time, the openness of the Indian tribes of Colombia to the gospel has become phenomenal. Many tribal leaders have requested that Olson begin to set up clinics, schools and agricultural centers. Some tribes have asked specifically to be taught about Jesus Christ. Olson reported recently: “In August, I was among the Cogi Indians in the mountains adjacent to Santa Marta. I baptized more than 40 adult believers. Several Motilone pastors accompanied me.”

In America, the story of Bruce Olson’s captivity brought unprecedented financial support for the work of Christ among the Motilones. For 28 years, Olson had operated with no official sponsorship, relying on only the contributions of friends, but when Charisma magazine ran a two part series: “Bruce Olson’s Nine Month Colombian Captivity” (November & December 1989), donors gave $100,000 to help “Bruchko” continue his humanitarian efforts and evangelism among the tribes of Colombia.

In addition to providing clinical supplies, scholarships and agricultural development, Olson has built several centers for the Motilones. In a recent letter, Olson explained the uses for one of the structures he is building: “Our Tibú Community House of Twelve Cultures, which we have named in Motilone: ‘Axdobaringcayra,’ is well on the way to completion. … The house will provide lodging for visiting Motilones. Tibú is the principal port of commerce for the growing tribal economy and it is the seat of government. Here we will organize Colombia’s first native language regional newspaper and house staff personnel for the northeast Colombian indigenous cultural publications.”

The cultural center he is now building will be a base from which to reach many of the tribal groups of Colombia. Olson reports that he still needs about $60,000 to complete this center.

Bruce Olson and the Motilone believers are the key to fulfilling the Great Commission in this area of the world. Jesus Christ has commanded us to go and “make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:18-20). Many of the nations – referred to by missiologists as the ETHNE, or “peoples groups” – in this area of Colombia are completely unreached with the gospel. We have an exciting opportunity to reach half a million people who have become miraculously open to the gospel in the past three years.

The Jesus Film and Haiti

All of us were so sad to learn about the devastation in Haiti following the January earthquake and I'm sure many of us continue to think of them and remember them in our prayers. Our 5-yr-old daughter, Rebecca, continues to be burdened for them and to pray for them every day. I was encouraged to watch this video and learn about the work God is doing in Haiti, specifically through use of the Jesus film.
Jesus film in Haiti
If you are wondering what the Jesus film is, it is a ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ  Jesus Film. This is a description of the film for those unfamiliar with it:

Every four seconds, somewhere in the world, another person indicates a decision to follow Christ after watching the "JESUS" film.

Every four seconds... that's 21,600 people per day, 648,000 per month and more than 7.8 million per year! That's like the population of the entire city of Seattle, WA, coming to Christ every 27.5 days. And yet, if you are like most people, you may have never even heard of it.

Called by some "one of the best-kept secrets in Christian missions," a number of mission experts have acclaimed the film as one of the greatest evangelistic tools of all time. Since 1979 the "JESUS" film has been viewed by several billion people all across the globe, and has resulted in more than 225 million men, women and children indicating decisions to follow Jesus.

"But how can any single film reach so many people and touch so many lives?"

It is the power of the Word of God in their heart language.

Based on the Gospel of Luke, the "JESUS" film has now been translated into more than 1,000 languages, with a new language being added nearly every week. This brings God's Word to people in more than 200 countries in languages they know and understand. By God's grace, it is yielding a spiritual harvest of unprecedented results.

Not only is the story of the "JESUS" film one of effective evangelism, but also of a powerful tool for expanding the church worldwide. In fact, according to Dr. Stephen Steele, former CEO of DAWN Ministries (c. 2001): "Three quarters of all churches planted in the last decade around the world used the 'JESUS' film as part of the church planting process."

God is using this film in powerful ways to reach people and build spiritual movements worldwide. The following video will show you how He is using the Jesus film in Haiti.
Jesus film in Haiti

Why Missions?

For many Christians, "missions" is, at best, a necessary responsibility. For hundreds of years the church has always "supported the missionaries," and so tradition continues - yet often without God's heart and passion or even a compelling purpose to win boys and girls, men and women to faith in Jesus Christ.

No wonder, then, when many of us think of a missionary, strange images come to mind!

You may picture some young adventurer - clad in khaki safari clothes - trudging through the jungles with a machete. Perhaps you imagine him (or her) meeting a group of dark-skinned natives, dancing around mud huts and a raging fire, all moving to the beat of a pounding tribal drum. Or maybe your only view of a missionary is of some strange older couple, in outdated clothing, presenting never-ended blurry slides or a shaky home video for some "special" Sunday evening service. Completing this picture are uninspiring stories of terrible food and awful living conditions, ending with that dreaded drawn-out plea for money.

(Is this the truth? Or are so many in the church today missing out on the most exciting move of God the world has ever seen because of their lack of interest in worldwide missions?)

As Christians, what is God's purpose for our lives? What are His goals and vision?

Our primary calling...is to know and love the Lord. But, if that were all, God could have taken us to Heaven the moment we received Jesus Christ.

Our primary mission...is to glorify God in and through our lives and to help make God known throughout the earth.

With our primary mission clearly in view, it's obvious we need to help proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ and obey God's words to "go into all the world." We need to ask ourselves if we really believe the Bible is the true and inspired Word of God. Do we honestly believe people must be saved, or "born again," as Jesus said in John 3:3, and can we comprehend the eternal reality of heaven and hell? If we do, these beliefs should radically affect our lives!

Think for a moment about how different your life would be if you were born in a land isolated from God and filled with extreme poverty, sickness and disease. What would it be like if you were born in an area where praying to an idol or giving homage to an ancestor was your only hope? What if constant fear of evil spirits consumed your life? Wouldn't you want someone to share God's life-giving message of salvation with you?

We have received God's light, but it's not just for us. We're called to shine God's light in the darkness.

For those of us who live in developed countries, (do we truly realize how much God has blessed us?)
- We are blessed! Every day we enjoy clean, hot running water - without a thought.
- We are blessed! Our typical meals often include ingredients from all around the world: fruit from California and the Polynesian islands, olive oil from Italy and the Middle East, and perhaps coffee from Columbia. We eat better than the ancient kings!
- We are blessed! (We have the freedom to travel to the next city, state or country...a freedom those in communist countries do not enjoy. We can send our children to school for free, choose any number of private schools or homeschool them...a privilege unheard of in most developing countries. We can choose freely what we want to believe and how we want to worship...not easy to do in many countries in the 10/40 Window.)

God has given us the greatest "Good News" of all time and a job description to "Get this news out!" He has given us an abundance of resources to accomplish the task and a challenge that "To whom much is given, from him much will be required" (Luke 12:48).

(Taken from The Mission Minded Child by Ann Dunagan)

I have not always been mission minded. For most of my life I haven't really given missions much thought. I had other passions God had given me...like being pro-life and adoption, and other passions are wonderful! But God has been impressing on me, more and more, that our primary mission, as Christians, must be to fulfill the Lord's Great Commission. They were His final words to us before He left the earth. They summed up His whole purpose for being here. And the fulfillment of the Great Commission will usher in the Lord's return, “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.” (Matthew 24:14)

My prayer is that this blog will encourage and excite you to have a passion for missions; to see the awesome move of God in this world, and to realize the incredible privilege we have to be a part of it!!!

Christianity is surging in Indonesia says Time magazine

This article was in Time magazine on Monday, Apr. 26, 2010. You can find the article at Christianity's Surge in Indonesia  God is doing AWESOME work in Indonesia and throughout Asia!!!

Christianity's Surge in Indonesia  
By Hannah Beech / Temanggung

They flocked to the open field by the hundreds to praise Allah. In a village in central Java, just a few miles from where Indonesian special forces shot dead an Islamic terrorist linked to the fatal July bombings of two hotels in Jakarta, worshippers raised their hands to the heavens. But this ceremony, which took place as the call of the muezzin echoed in the sultry air, was not a celebration of Islam. Instead, in the heart of the world's most populous Muslim-majority nation, Christians held a Pentecostal revival, complete with faith healing and speaking in tongues. As a tropical downpour fell, believers' tears mixed with rain — and a line of sick and disabled took to the stage to claim they had been cured by a God they, like Indonesian Muslims, call Allah. "People think Indonesia is just a Muslim country, but look at all these people," says pastor David Nugroho, whose Gesing church boasts a congregation of 400 worshippers today, up from 30 when it was founded in 1967. "We are not afraid to show our faith."

A religious revolution is transforming Indonesia. Part of the spiritual blossoming entails Muslims embracing a more conservative form of faith, mirroring global trends that have meant a proliferation of headscarves and beards in modern Islamic capitals. More surprising, though, is the boom in Christianity — officially Indonesia's second largest faith and a growing force throughout Asia. Indeed, the number of Asian Christian faithful exploded to 351 million adherents in 2005, up from 101 million in 1970, according to the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, based in Washington, D.C.

Much of the growth comes from Pentecostal and Evangelical conversions, which have spread charismatic Christianity across the globe and are a large reason for estimates that by 2050 a majority of Christians will be living in developing nations. Already, less than a quarter of the world's 600 million Pentecostals reside in the West, where the modern movement has its roots. Indeed, Pentecostalism is believed by some to be the fastest-growing faith in the world, if measured by conversions as opposed to births.

Because of the relative youth of these Evangelical sects, they are less bound by the history of colonial conversion that has complicated the legacy of, say, Roman Catholicism or mainstream Protestantism. Instead, by focusing on personal salvation adapted to local environments, Evangelicals, especially Pentecostals, have found great success across Asia in recent years, from Indian metropolises like Chennai to rural China where homegrown sects are drawing in tens of thousands of people each year. The world's largest megachurch is the Yoido Full Gospel Church in South Korea, which claims a membership of 830,000 people. Its Pentecostal Sunday services regularly attract a quarter of a million people to an upscale neighborhood of Seoul. In poorer regions of Asia, as well as within many ethnic Chinese communities, converts are lured by the so-called prosperity gospel, an American theology linked to charismatic Christianity that promises riches to those who follow a moral path.

For many in the global Evangelical community, though, it is the faith's inroads in Indonesia — a nation with some 215 million Muslim adherents — that are most riveting. Exact figures are hard to gather in a country where conversions from Islam to Christianity face a stigma and likely lead to an underreporting of Christian believers. The 2000 census counted just under 10% of Indonesians as Christians, a figure many Christian leaders believe is too low. Anecdotal evidence paints a compelling picture of the faith's rapid rise. In the early 1960s, for instance, there were no Evangelical churches in Temanggung, where the soccer-field revival took place; now there are more than 40. In the capital Jakarta, newly built megachurches that might seem more at home in Texas send steeples into the sky. Other Christians worship at unofficial churches based in hotels and malls, where Sunday services rival shopping as a popular weekend activity. Asia's tallest statue of Jesus Christ, built in 2007, presides over Manado city in eastern Indonesia, while Indonesian cable TV beams 24-hour Christian channels.

State of Grace — and Disgrace
What is it about Evangelical Christianity that has so resonated in Indonesia? As in many other crowded, developing-world countries where a person can feel lost in a teeming slum, the concept of individual salvation is a powerful one. At the same time, the attempted hijacking of Muslim theology by a small band of homegrown terrorists who have killed hundreds of Indonesians in recent years has led some to question their nation's majority faith. So, too, has the general trend toward a more conservative Islam that has given rise to hundreds of religiously inspired bylaws, from caning for beer-drinking to enforced dress codes for women.

Not everyone, though, is celebrating Christianity's boom. Some Muslims view the faith as an unwanted foreign influence, even though Islam, too, is an imported religion. Since the country exchanged dictatorship for democracy more than a decade ago, a great diversity of voices has arisen. But an unfortunate byproduct of this pluralism has been an uptick in religious conflict, which has affected unorthodox offshoots of Islam and Christian sects alike. Although bloody outpourings — like the communal riots that claimed more than 1,000 Christian and Muslim lives in Poso and Ambon around a decade ago — have ceased, spasms of violence are still occurring.

Over the past couple of years, Christian groups say, dozens of churches and theological academies have been destroyed or forced to shut by Islamic groups who accuse Christians of stealing believers from Muslim ranks. Despite appointing prominent Christians to his Cabinet, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has said little to defend religious minorities, and has remained silent as dozens of local governments pass Islamic-based laws that threaten Christian rights. Such moves "conflict with the constitution and have the potential to threaten freedom of religion in this country," according to Hendardi, chairman of the Setara Institute, a Jakarta-based NGO that promotes pluralism.

Last year, the Indonesia Ulema Council, an influential Islamic clerical body, sounded the alarm about Christian proselytization and called on Muslims to more staunchly guard their faith. The pace with which unlicensed churches are being shut down by local authorities is also increasing. Christians complain that gaining official sanction to build a mosque is easy while getting similar permission for churches is glacial. As a consequence, most Christian houses of worship are unofficial. "There is a real fear that Christianity is on the march," says Mike Hilliard, a Scottish minister who with his Indonesian wife runs an orphanage outside Jakarta that has been targeted by militant Muslims. "Because of this fear, emotions are easily stirred up and mobs can form quickly."

Defenders of faith have mobilized in neighboring Malaysia too. After a local court ruled on Dec. 31 that a Malaysian Christian newspaper could refer to the Christian deity as Allah, many Muslims, who constitute the multiethnic country's majority, protested. Christians professed puzzlement: when speaking Malay, they had used the word Allah for centuries — why the sudden outrage now? Prominent Islamic activists responded by saying that sharing one word for two different gods could lead some Muslims to unwittingly stray to Christianity. By January, passions had spilled onto holy turf, with around a dozen churches, one mosque and a Sikh temple attacked. Late that month, eight people were arrested for suspected roles in the firebombing of a Pentecostal church in the capital of Kuala Lumpur.

As both Muslims and Christians more fervently express their faith, a kind of spiritual siloing is developing in Southeast Asia, in contrast to the sectarian mixing that often characterized relations in previous generations. "Even compared to five years ago, relations between Christians and Muslims have worsened," says Father Andang Binawan, a Roman Catholic priest in Jakarta who holds a Ph.D. in theology from a Belgian university. "Many people now, including government officials, feel pressure by society to identify themselves as good Muslims and they worry that by associating with people of other religions, they will be seen as less pious. Even saying 'Merry Christmas' to a Christian can be seen as a problem."

At the same time, aggressive proselytization by Evangelical groups, both foreign and local, leads to accusations that Christians are hungry for souls — and church donations. Website and sermon invectives, in which some Christian preachers dismiss Muslims as terrorists, also feed a prejudicial cycle that is spinning both sides away from Indonesia's pluralistic underpinnings. (Unlike neighboring Malaysia, which was set up as a Muslim state — although one that guarantees minority religious rights — Indonesia recognizes six official faiths: Islam, Catholicism, Protestant Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism and Confucianism.) "We have many [religions], and they all coexist peacefully," President Yudhoyono told TIME last November. "This is the capital we will use to show that a clash of civilizations can be prevented." But even as he spoke, Christian theological students were staging a sit-in on a busy Jakarta street to protest having been intimidated into evacuating their campus after threats from Muslim mobs. A clash of civilizations seemed to be exactly what was taking place.

Raising Spirits
To get to the hip-hop concert, you have to walk through a five-star hotel's lobby, go past a parking lot and take a cramped elevator ride to the 12th floor. There, in an anonymous Jakarta annex syncopated by a purple strobe light, Indonesian youths dance for Jesus. The congregation bops to the beat, waving their arms in the air as the lyrics implore them to let their "lives be a celebration" of Jesus' love. After pastor Jose Carol takes to the stage, some worshippers whip out their iPhones, onto which they have loaded electronic copies of the Bible. Back when the Jakarta Praise Community Church formed a decade ago, only a couple hundred people attended its services; today the congregation has grown to 5,500 mostly young urbanites.

A few hours earlier, in Jakarta's Kemayoran business district, parishioners gathered in the main auditorium of the Evangelical Reformed Millennium Center, which seats more than 4,500 people. Above the crowds, a pair of giant TV screens broadcast the sermon of Stephen Tong, an Indonesian pastor who conducts weekly services throughout Asia — including Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan and Hong Kong — and ministers to a regional congregation that has grown to 15,000 in just two decades. Opened in 2008, the church complex cost $30 million to build — and it took 17 years to obtain permission from local authorities. The privately funded church is the largest licensed one in the capital, although an unofficial megachurch with space for 10,000 faithful is nearing completion in a Jakarta suburb. When Tong, 69, raised a crucifix onto the church's massive steeple, worshippers at a nearby mosque complained. Tong didn't back down. "Jakarta has 1.2 million Christians, so a church for 4,000 people is nothing," he says. "We did this all legally, so why can't we put a cross on our church, just like mosques have their symbol?"

Other Indonesian Christians worry that such towering icons will only serve to inflame Muslim sentiment. The dangers are all too real. Take the hundreds of students from the Arastamar Evangelical School of Theology, who staged the November sit-in. They were subsisting in refugee-like conditions, sleeping on thin mats in an abandoned Jakarta building with no electricity or running water. Before that, the beleaguered students lived for months in a park, 35 to a tent. Yet on the outskirts of east Jakarta, the Christian college actually had a handsome campus. In July 2008, hundreds of Islamic extremists crowded the school's gates, accusing students of proselytizing among the local Muslim community — a charge the institute's leaders deny. When three students tried to escape, thugs threw acid in their faces. With local government officials advising the student population to decamp because of continuing danger, Arastamar officials had no choice but to accept the government's proposal for makeshift housing. "How can you say there is true freedom of religion here if things like this can happen to us?" asks school principal Jusup Lifire.

Muslim converts to Christianity are also targets, their apostasy viewed by some radical Islamic scholars as deserving of execution. Syaiful Hamzah grew up as the madrasah-attending son of a Muslim family in Jakarta that helped build the neighborhood mosque. But while working in eastern Indonesia's Maluku archipelago, which has a substantial Christian population, he was swayed by Evangelical teachings. By 2000, he had been baptized at a Pentecostal church and returned to Jakarta to begin theological studies. His family cut him off; one brother threatened to burn his house down. Undeterred, he began lay-preaching to a house-church congregation in his modest home near Jakarta's port. In 2008, a mob armed with clubs showed up and demanded Syaiful stop. He shuttered his church but still guides Muslim converts to Christianity, the number of which he says is growing, in part, because of the terror attacks unleashed in Indonesia in the name of Islam. "So many have converted," he says, "but they are afraid to say so publicly because Muslims will harass them."

The numbers of converts may not be as high as Islamic groups fear. Some so-called converts were Christians all along. In the 1960s, a government anticommunist drive forced each citizen to pick a religion for inclusion on their national ID card. (Suspected communists were quick to pick a religion to convince authorities they were not atheist Marxists.) Worried about future persecution and loath to give up the chance for certain career opportunities reserved for Muslims, some Christians chose Islam for their ID cards, even though they quietly kept going to church. Now they're officially switching to their true religion, seeing safety in growing numbers. Another significant group of Indonesian converts to charismatic sects is ethnic Chinese. But they are abandoning Chinese religions or mainline Protestantism, not Islam.

Still, it's hard to ignore the power of a revival like the one held in Temanggung — and easy to understand why some Muslims have reservations about encroaching Christianity. Permission to hold the meeting was only granted after the organizers put up a sign forbidding Muslims from entering. Nevertheless, among the line of sick and suffering hoping to be healed was an elderly Muslim man who others said was blind. After fervent prayers from worshippers in the driving rain, he suddenly blinked and gazed at the gathered crowd. "A Muslim who can now see," said pastor Jason Balompapueng, tears rising in his eyes. "It is a miracle." The faithful urged the tottering man onstage to bear witness to his regained sight. As the man clambered up the stairs, he removed his peci, an Indonesian fezlike hat often associated with Islam. A visiting minister from Jakarta blessed him. Another soul was saved, the Christian pastor rejoiced. Tomorrow, he vowed, there would be more.

—With reporting by Jason Tedjasukmana / Jakarta


Find this article at:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1982223,00.html

Releasing Your Child to God

As Hannah embraced her little Samuel one last time, what thoughts must have filled her mind? As she placed his timid fingers into the hands of the old priest, Eli, . . . and let go, . . . what questions did she surrender to the Lord?
As Hannah looked back toward her home, what did her mother’s heart feel? How could she walk away from the answer to all her prayers? How could she release this dream she had so desperately longed for—this dream that was now a real little boy looking up at her with questioning eyes and a quivering lip, trying to obey her loving instructions, and trying to hold back his tears?
If only Hannah could have known at that moment how the story looks from our perspective. We know her Samuel would soon hear the audible voice of God, he would impact the entire nation of Israel, and this very act of her obedient surrender would be recorded and recalled for generations.
But Hannah didn’t know the future. She only knew it was time to say goodbye and go home—childless once again. She must have turned her face quickly so Samuel wouldn’t see her mixed emotions.
As Hannah walked away, she released her little one into the mighty hand of God and chose to worship. As she did, God’s plan began to unfold. For this child was not just Hannah’s dream; he was God’s dream. At the time, the nation of Israel desperately needed a new spiritual leader, and God had found a mother desperate enough for Him to willingly yield to His plans.
As parents...we don’t always realize the importance of our vital role in the kingdom of God. Will we equip our children to fulfill God’s purposes and to reach for God’s potential? Will we train our children to reach their world for Jesus?
Through this (website) I desire to light a spark for world missions (like God has lit in me) that will grow into a fire for the unsaved like you’ve never had before. I want God’s love for unreached people to burn so strongly inside you that it will start spreading to others, specifically to your own children and to the young people you come in contact with.
Over the years I’ve seen many of our world’s appalling needs. I’ve had opportunities to travel to dozens of countries (with the U.S. Air Force). However, in this particular season of my life I’m primarily called to be at home. I love being a mother, raising a family, and teaching children. But sometimes, I admit, I get frustrated.
Many days I wonder if I am “doing” anything of significance and I often struggle with a horrible “striving” mentality in my flesh. When I hear of “big needs”—like the “big need” for world missions—I feel a striving to want to do something “important” (for God, of course!).
I want to be busy!
I want to go!
But sometimes it feels like I’m meeting only “little needs”—like sweeping the kitchen floor over and over, reading that naptime story (again!), and simply watching my children grow.
Yet, deep inside, I do know the truth. Raising and training children (and serving my husband) is important! “Striving,” or mere “busyness,” is not the same as “fruitfulness,” and all God really requires is for me to stay close to Him and obey Him, day by day.
Today the Lord is simply showing me to be faithful—that is, to love God and to support my husband here at home; to be fruitful—to be a mother and to teach and train our children in the ways of the Lord; and to keep my eyes on the future—to eagerly anticipate the Lord’s return and keep living in His joy.
As parents and teachers, we must “train up a child in the way he should go” (Proverbs 22:6), and in the Great Commission; Jesus said the way we should go is “into all the world and preach the gospel” (Mark 16:15).
David Livingstone said, “God had only one Son, and He made Him a missionary.” Jesus came as our missionary to earth. He relinquished everything in heaven to provide the way for us (and all people) to come into relationship with Him. He knew the cost before Him, and the price He paid was beyond anything we could imagine.
In Hebrews 12:2, the Bible says we are to look to Jesus, “the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame.” Jesus’ incredible love compelled Him to the cross. His burning desire was to fully obey the will of the Father, providing a way for humanity to be reconciled back to God. Jesus was willing to sacrifice whatever it took: His position in heaven, His unsurpassed riches and glory, His reputation, and even His very life. Jesus was whipped, beaten, tortured, and despised—all for the joy that was set before Him.
Isaiah 9:2–3 describes the joy of harvest as a light shining through darkness. There is rejoicing when a lost coin is found! There is joy when a shepherd finds a lost sheep or when a prodigal finally comes home! Luke 15:7 tells us that “there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance.”
This is the joy that led Jesus to the cross.
How many of us are so captivated by God’s love that we would be willing to lay down everything to follow Him?
We should take a moment to consider our lives and our priorities from God’s eternal perspective:
- As we teach and train our children, what are we hoping they will achieve?
- As we steward God’s resources, what are we saving toward?
- As we influence the next generation, what dreams are we instilling?
- As we talk to God, what is the primary focus of our prayers?
As Christians, we must realize that God’s love, His passionate love, resides in us. Are we willing to allow this love to flow through us (and through our children) to the world? Second Corinthians 5:14–15 says, “For the love of Christ compels us . . . that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.”
Like Hannah, we must realize that our child is actually God’s child—entrusted to us for only a short time. We need to release our child to God and then follow His guidance to raise His child for His divine purposes!
My prayer is for the simple words in this (website) to penetrate deep into your soul and spirit. I know you don’t need more information; but we all need more inspiration. I pray that God’s love for the world will explode in your heart like a blast of dynamite. I hope you will be moved by the things that move God’s heart and that you will allow God’s precious Holy Spirit to impart this heart into your child.
We’ve all heard the famous saying, “The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world.” I say, “May the child in our cradle reach the world . . . for the One who rules it all!”

* Taken from the book The Mission Minded Child: Raising a New Generation to Fulfill God's Purpose by Ann Dunagan

EE-Taow

Last night a friend of ours, Riki, shared a video that had been shown at her church. It is called EE-Taow which means "it's very true" in the Mouk language.
The Mouk people are a tribe living in Papua New Guinea. This is the story of what happened when two missionaries went to live among them and teach them the Gospel. The missionaries took about two years to study the Mouk language and way of life, to educate the Mouk people, and to translate the Bible into the Mouk language. When the missionaries were ready to present the Gospel, they invited the entire village to a series of Bible teachings in which they explained the Bible in the language of the tribe. For three months, the villagers would gather together twice a day on Monday to Friday where each session lasted about an hour, while the missionaries chronologically walked through the key points of the Bible.

This video is the amazing story of what happened when they heard about Christ's love for them!!! Click on the link below.

EE-Taow

Travel the Road

Imagine two young American missionaries who take God's Great Commission very seriously, leaving America with all its comforts to take the Gospel to the remotest parts of the world, and asking America to join them. This is the reality of Travel the Road
It is a weekly show on TBN. Some of the episodes are appropriate for children, although I would view them first. Right now they are in Haiti. It is so exciting to see pictures and hear the stories of what God is doing in His world!

Eternity in Their Hearts

Who were the Magi who brought gifts to the Baby Jesus, and how did they know that a Messiah was coming?
Who was Melchizedek, the contemporary of Abraham, who was a priest of the one high God?
How did a fifteenth century Peruvian king named Pachacuti, recognize that there was only one true God, before the coming of the Europeans? In his own words, Pachacuti described the one true God, they called Viracocha: "He is ancient, remote, supreme, and uncreated...He manifests himself as a trinity when he wishes...otherwise only heavenly warriors and archangels surround his loneliness. He created all peoples by his 'word.'"
God has "made every nation of men...so that men would seek Him and perhaps reach out for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us" (Acts 17:26-27) Think about that for a moment...every nation of men...not just the Jews or the Americans or the Europeans or the Chinese, but every nation. Paul tells us that God has made them in such a way that men from every nation would seek Him. But do they? Is there any proof that when missionaries enter a new culture/nation with the Gospel of Jesus, that they may find a people who are already prepared to hear and receive the Gospel? The answer is an astounding YES!!!
I'm just finishing up a book called Eternity in their Hearts by Don Richardson. Don Richardson and his late wife, Carol, spent 15 years among the Sawi, a Stone Age tribe of Irian Jaya, Papua New Guinea. Don designed an alphabet suited to the Sawi language, authored 19 primers, taught the tribesmen to read in their native tongue and translated the entire New Testament. More than half of the Sawi accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior!
The premise of his book is that in every culture God has preserved for Himself a testimony. In His mercy, He has permitted every culture in the world to retain a portion of the truth. If a missionary goes into a region, searching the culture for its grains of truth, and then affirms that these ideas ARE true, and then presents the Gospel as the REST of the truth, he and the Gospel will quite often be received. The book is heavily documented with specific examples of missionaries finding and utilizing these culture keys, and seeing large numbers of people become Christian.
I'd like to share some of the many examples of this. I pray they will hearten any of you, including me, who agonize over the question of God's justice in regard to people who have never heard the Gospel.

In 1867, a Norwegian missionary named Lars Skrefsrud found 2.5 million people called the Santal living in a region north of Calcutta, India. Once Lars learned the language and began proclaiming the Gospel to the Santal, he wondered how many years it would be before he saw converts. "To Skrefsurd's utter amazement, the Santal were electrified almost at once by the Gospel message. At length he heard Santal sages, including one named Kolean, exclaim, 'What this stranger is saying must mean that Thakur Jiu has not forgotten us after all this time!'" Kolean then went on to explain that their forefathers had taught them that "Thakur is distinct. He is not to be seen with fleshy eyes, but he sees all. He has created all things. He has set everything in its place, and he nourishes all, great and small." These were people who had never met a Christian or Jew nor had seen any part of the Bible, yet their understanding of God was Biblical! Once Lars explained the Gospel to them, they began to experience "eighty baptisms per day (which) signified that young Santal churches in 'Hindu India' were growing more than 500 times as fast as churches in 'Christian Europe.'"
Before I share a couple more examples, I must admit that reading this book shattered a belief that I held. I believed that the folk religions (the native religions of a people group, distinct from the major world religions - Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hindu, etc.) of the world were almost entirely pagan and held very little hint or understanding of God. But according to Richardson, "We have been wrong. In actual fact, more than 90 percent of this world's folk religions acknowledge at least the existence of God. Some even anticipate His redeeming concern for mankind."

"The Chinese call him Shang Ti - the Lord of Heaven...In Korea he is known as Hananim, The Great One. Belief in Shang Ti/Hananim predates Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism by an unknown number of centuries." When missionaries entered China and Korea, they discovered this ancient belief in Shang Ti/Hananim and used it to explain a further revelation of God. Just as Paul pointed to the altar to the "unknown god" in Athens (Acts 17:22), the missionaries pointed to Shang Ti/Hananim. Today, "more than 3 million Koreans belong to Protestant churches...and Seoul contains the world's two largest Protestant churches." I can attest to this fact after living in Seoul for two years...there are crosses on the tops of churches everywhere! And in China, more than 23,000 people come to Christ a day!

The Karen of Burma are another group of people magnificently poised to receive the Gospel with open arms when it was presented to them. They had been searching for centuries for a "white brother who was supposed to bring them a book...(whose) author is Y'wa-the Supreme God...that the white brother, having given them the lost book, will thereby set them free from all who oppress them." Their folk religion's hymns bear striking resemblances to God's character and "the Karen story of man's falling away from God contains stunning parallels to Genesis chapter 1: Y'wa formed the world originally. He appointed food and drink. He appointed the 'fruit of trial.' He gave detailed orders. Mu-kaw-lee deceived two persons. He caused them to eat the fruit of the tree of the trial. They obeyed not...they believed not Y'wa...when they ate the fruit of trial they became subject to sickness, aging and death." Wow! This was a remote group of people who had never come in contact with Jews or Christians before, yet their own religion, thousands of years old, had an incredible witness of the Lord! The Karen nation was thus poised like an 800,000 member welcoming party, ready for the first unsuspecting missionary who approached them with a Bible and a message of deliverance from God." When missionaries finally brought the Gospel to the Karen in the early 1800s, thousands accepted Christ almost immediately and "almost as quickly as Karen were converted and baptized, they became missionaries to spread the good news still further among their own people" and neighboring tribes!

There are so many more examples of people groups with prior knowledge of God, being prepared and ready to accept Jesus as Savior, once He was presented to them. It is truly amazing and so very comforting. It is our job to do all we can to bring them the Good News.
Malachi 1:11  says, "'My name will be great among the nations, from the rising to the setting of the sun. In every place incense and pure offerings will be brought to my name, because my name will be great among the nations,' says the LORD Almighty." May this be our prayer:

Lord, You are the true and living God, You rule over all things visible and invisible. The nations belong to You, and you have woven into the fabric of every culture a testimony to Your name.
I bring the unreached people groups of the world before you now, and I ask Lord that You would reveal those things in their culture, that reflect who you are and Your son Jesus. Cause the hidden treasures of Your truth to be brought up and displayed for all to see. Lord use these keys of insight to ignite a curiosity and hunger among them to know more about who You are. Give Your servants wisdom and strategy to use these keys to promote the Gospel among this people group. In Your name we pray,
Amen.

Death

There are a lot of touching emails out there these days. But this one really made me think and it reminded me of one of the main reasons I write this blog:

A sick man turned to his doctor as he was preparing to leave the examination room and said,
"Doctor, I am afraid to die. Tell me what lies on the other side."
Very quietly, the doctor said, "I don't know."
"You don't know?  You're, a Christian man, and don't know what's on the other side?"
The doctor was holding the handle of the door. On the other side came a sound of scratching and whining, and as he opened the door, a dog sprang into the room and leaped on him with an eager show of gladness.
Turning to the patient, the doctor said, "Did you notice my dog? He's never been in this room before. He didn't know what was inside. He knew nothing except that his master was here, and when the door opened, he sprang in without fear. I know little of what is on the other side of death,  but I do know one thing... I know my Master is there and that is enough."

That is enough! We are so incredibly privileged and blessed to have heard the name of Jesus and to have been given the grace to believe in His name. We don't know what lies beyond the grave (the details, what our bodies will be like, what we will do all the time, what it will look like, etc.) but we know who lies beyond the grave...Jesus Christ!
But there are billions who do not know what lies beyond...billions who fear death with every ounce of their being...who live in a very dark world and who will go to an even darker world when they die. Friends, this should not be!
I spend my early morning hours reading the Bible, praying and just getting to know Jesus more. I can't WAIT to see Him face to face and be with Him forever! I want the unreached people of the world to get a chance to be with Him as well. I can't imagine life without Jesus!!!

I encourage you to pick one unreached people group and start praying for them daily. Find out more about them...Joshua Project has a list of just about all of them with links to lots of information. I have been praying for the Hui of China for awhile now.
They need our prayers! They are people just like us. There, but for the grace of God, could be each of us. They are God's children too and He is asking us to pray!
 

God's number one agenda item?

There are so many good ministries and causes that Christians can be involved in today...pro-life, pro-marriage, adoption/orphan care, anti-sex trafficking, missions, persecuted church, Bible translation, VBS...the list goes on and on. But of all of these, I believe there is one that stands out as God's number one agenda item...saving the lost. Jesus told us to go into all the world and preach the Gospel...the Great Commission. I believe that He desires, more than anything else on this earth, that people would know Him and spend eternity with Him.

So, I believe, that the question for each of us, as believers, becomes: What am I doing to fulfill the Great Commission; to spread the Gospel to those who have never heard His name?

Although I love my country, I am not really talking here about spreading the Gospel in America. Yes, it is very important to share our faith with our family and friends. But, as Oswald J. Smith said, “Why should anyone hear the Gospel twice before everyone has heard it once?” I believe that each of us has the responsibility to take the good news of the Gospel to those in other countries who have never heard of Him. How we do this may be different for each of us, but it is a responsibility that we shouldn’t ignore!

There are over 1.7 billion people, that’s 30% of the world population, who have NEVER heard the name of Jesus. How will they hear if we don’t go or pray for and support those who do? And we shouldn’t desire that they hear just so that billions of people won’t suffer in Hell for eternity, though that is an incredibly important reason. The main reason should be our desire that Jesus receives the glory He deserves when people from every nation bow before Him as Lord and Savior! These are His children that He created and who He loves. He has asked us to tell them about Him. It is the greatest responsibility we will ever have.

You know, we only have about 70-80 years out of eternity, to tell others about Jesus and to gain people for His Kingdom. People are what He is referring to when He tells us to store up treasures in Heaven. People are the only things we can bring with us to Heaven.

Now many of you may be members now or in the past of a church which was very world-mission oriented...that is wonderful! I was not. I vaguely remember my childhood church mentioning a missionary here and there but the lost world did not seem to be the focus of my church. After leaving home, I don't remember missions being a focus in any church I attended until we lived in Seoul, South Korea from 2006-2008. Why was this the case?

More often than I can count, I sat through multiple services where the pastor asked us for money to improve our church and it's "campus." But what about money to build churches in other countries where they have never heard of Jesus? Never. I read recently that for the cost of one of the mega-churches in America, 7,000 churches could be built in a 3rd world nation. Are we truly being good stewards of the incredible resources God has given us?

If the Great Commission is to be on the heart of every Christian, as it was on the heart of Jesus and His disciples, why is the American Church, seminaries, major Christian personalities, and many Christian  organizations not more outspoken about the persecuted church and worldwide missions? According to Tim Dearborn,  “Lack of interest in mission is not fundamentally caused by an absence of compassion or commitment, nor by a lack of information or exhortation. And lack of interest in mission is not remedied by more shocking statistics, more gruesome stories or more emotionally manipulative commands to obedience. It is best remedied by intensifying people’s passion for Christ, so that the passions of His heart become the passions that propel our hearts.”

That's what happened to me! Some of you may be familiar with the song Hosanna by Hillsong. There is a line in there that has become my personal prayer: “Break my heart for what breaks Yours.” I began seriously praying that prayer about four years ago while living in South Korea, two hours away from the most repressive, closed to the Gospel, nation on earth...North Korea. As I began to really ask God to draw me closer to Him and to help me know Him more, I became more and more passionate about the lost and the persecuted Church. I write this blog because God has shown me what the number one item on His agenda is...winning the lost for Christ!

We are living in exciting times! The move of Christ throughout the world is amazing and He is asking us to join Him. I shared these stats before but they are worth repeating. This comes from the book 2020 Vision by Bill and Amy Stearns

- An average of 160,000 a day hear the message of redemption in Christ for the first time.

- Every hour, 3,000 more people decide to follow Jesus Christ which results in 72,000 new believers in Jesus every day, 91% of which are found in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

- 1,600 new churches opened every week around the world

- 80 percent of the world's people have access to at least some portion of the Bible in a language they can understand

- Daily, in Africa, 20,000 new believers; Africa was 3% Christian in 1900 and is now more than 50% Christian

- In India, the home of the largest number of unreached people groups in the world, Gospel for Asia plants an amazing 7-10 churches a day!

- Uganda: One church in Kampala seats 10,500 and is filled to capacity for four services every Sunday. The church has planted more than 1,000 daughter churches across Uganda. Twenty-five years ago, Uganda’s population was 22% Muslim. Today that figure is around 6% Muslim. To find out how God is using one young lady in a remarkable way in Uganda go to Amazima

- Explosive growth in Latin America...almost all unreached people groups have been reached with 50,000 new churches per year

- In 1950 in China - 1 million believers; 2009 in China - 80 million Christians with average of 10,000 - 23,000 new Christians daily

- Mongolia - In 1989 there were only four known Christians; today there are more than 10,000 indigenous believers.

- Afghanistan - Before Sept. 11, 2001, there were only 17 known Muslim-background followers of Christ. Today there are more than 10,000.

- During the 1990s, the number of born-again believers in the world doubled!

- In 100 AD, the time of the earliest persecution of the Church, there were 360 non-Christians for every true believer...today that number has shrunk to just 7 non-Christians for every Christian as the Holy Spirit continues to move in our world

God is doing amazing things in the world and He will do them with or without our help. My fervent prayer is that we will be involved...pray, get educated, teach your children, tell those around you, support financially, go if God calls you!  "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field." Luke 10:2

Voice of the Martyrs

One thing I would like to do with this blog is to introduce you to some of the wonderful ministries that are out there, helping spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ and helping those who are sharing the news. One  such organization is Voice of the Martyrs. I first learned about VoM when we were in the process of adopting our oldest daughter from China. I didn't really know much about the daily persecution that Christians undergo throughout the world for their faith and their incredible testimonies. VoM helped me learn so much and in fact, I am now a trained speaker for them, sharing the message of the persecuted church with churches and small groups. I feel so privileged to be able to represent them, pray for them and have my heart broken for them. I look forward to meeting them in Heaven one day!

When Jesus was asked by His disciples about His return, Jesus spoke these words (Luke 21),
"But before all this, they will lay hands on you and persecute you. They will deliver you to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors, and all on account of my name. This will result in your being witnesses to them. But make up your mind not to worry beforehand how you will defend yourselves. For I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict. You will be betrayed even by parents, brothers, relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death. All men will hate you because of me. But not a hair of your head will perish. By standing firm you will gain life.”

Persecution, betrayal, martyrdom - these are not things that many of us may think of very often in America, where it is relatively easy to be a Christian. But in many countries, our Christian family is treated horribly! Imagine yourself at church on Sunday morning or at a ladies' Bible study. Now, if you lived in North Korea, Vietnam, China, Pakistan or a host of other nations, the police could come into the room, take everyone to prison and torture or even kill you without any legal proceedings. Just last month, Muslim terrorists broke into the offices of World Vision in Pakistan and killed more than 10 people there. And on March 7, Muslim herdsmen attacked Christian villages near the Nigerian city of Jos, killing more than 500.

When many Christians in America do think about persecution and martyrdom, they automatically think of Rome, the gladiators, lions, Stephen and Paul. But do you know that more Christians became martyrs for their faith in the last century, approximately 41 million, than in all the centuries before that combined?
I encourage you to go to the VoM website, Voice of the Martyrs, read through it and sign up to receive their free monthly newsletter. You can also order the free book Tortured for Christ. Learn about what our brothers and sisters are enduring as Christians so that your heart will be broken for them and so that you will pray for them. Prayer for the persecuted church is the number one thing each of us can do and it is the main request that they have. We need to do what Hebrews 13:3 asks of us, “Remember those in prison as if you yourselves were prisoners, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.”

But why all this persecution? Because in no other act of a human being is God’s love shown more profoundly. Jesus was the ultimate martyr. He gave His life for us and He tells us time and again that we must be willing to do the same for others. And that is just what Christians are doing all over the world. As people willingly sacrifice their lives, not just through death but also through other types of loss and persecution, those around them see a God who is worth giving everything for. As they see Christians give everything for God, they begin to believe that God loves them and will give everything for them.

Let me interject some thoughts about America at this point. Right now, there is much concern about the future of America, both financially and morally, but I don’t think we, as Christians, should be worried and concerned or look on this as entirely bad. According to Robert E. Coleman, "The Church should not fear affliction, though it causes anguish and even death. Suffering may be necessary to convince us that we do not live by bread alone. When received as an expression of God's trust, our suffering can be a means of helping us comprehend more of the love of Christ, 'who suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps' (1 Pet 2:21; Heb. 2:10, 5:8).

Without hardship, probably few of us would learn much about the deeper life of grace." We all know this is true in our own lives. When we go through difficult times, it draws us closer to the Lord. Well, maybe God has more difficult times ahead for the Church in America, in order to draw her closer to Him and purify her for greater works as we anticipate the return, someday, of our Lord Jesus Christ.

After you read a bit about the persecuted church, you may ask yourself, why am I not hearing about this on the news? One reason is that the visual media have eroded the faith of believers in God’s sovereignty in the world. Television cameramen swoop down on the wars, famines, disasters and tragedies of this world. (if it bleeds, it leads). The beautiful, wholesome and good is less photogenic, so what God does and what God’s servants are achieving are rarely noticed. Like Elisha’s servant (2 Kings 6), we need our eyes opened to see reality. The view from a heavenly vantage point is very different. There is a titanic struggle going on in the heavenlies between the forces of the Lord Jesus and the hosts of darkness and the effects in our world are dramatic. Yet the victory has already been won on the cross!”

Sharing the good news of that victory and encouraging the persecuted church is what VoM is all about. There are many different things that they do, but I will just highlight a few:

They launch balloons, covered with Bible verses, into North Korea...the most closed nation on earth; they also send weekly Christian faxes to North Korean businesses...using any means to get the Bible into North Korea. They help with Chinese safe houses where North Koreans can find shelter and safety when they are escaping from North Korea. At these homes they often find faith in Jesus Christ as well.

In Pakistan they encourage and give legal aid to Christian prisoners and their families; you can send Action Packs into Pakistan...bags filled with clothing, blankets, the Bible and Christian literature and they produce and distribute many evangelistic tools to help win Muslims to Christ.

In China they support Christian prisoners and their families, provide aid to Christians whose churches have been destroyed and make it possible for American families to send Bibles into China through the Bibles Unbound program.

There are many more ways that VoM can help you to help the persecuted church: signing up to receive the weekly prayers requests, writing letters to prisoners and sending blankets to Sudan. We have been given SO MUCH in America. Jesus asks us to help the least of these. VoM makes it very easy to do this. It has changed my life!

Yes, the persecution of our Christian brothers and sisters can be shocking, sad and depressing. If...we stop here. But, there’s more to this story! I’d like to conclude by sharing with you what God is doing in these three countries specifically. Jesus reminds us in Matthew 16:18, that “I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.” Satan is doing his best to destroy Christians and keep the lost from ever hearing about the good news of Jesus Christ. But our God is greater and more powerful and He is winning the battle one person at a time!

In North Korea: the number of Christians is growing despite persecution with the percentage of Christian as high as 10%!  Hearts are longing for truth and for a loving relationship with their Creator so much so that many who flee to China and receive Christ go back into North Korea, with the reality of certain death if they are caught, to share the Good News with their family and friends. Many believe that the North Korean government will fall and South Korea, a very Christian nation, is waiting to flood the country with the good news of Jesus. Just as a side note...100 years ago, Korea had no Protestant Church and was thought of as “impossible to penetrate.” Today the country is over 30% Christian and in Seoul, alone, there are over 7,000 churches...we lived there for 2 years and I can attest to the truth of this!

In Pakistan: Christians have become the second largest religious minority. Incredibly, God is appearing to Muslims in visions and dreams (more than 1/3 of the converts in Turkey said they came to Christ because He appeared to them in a dream).


In China: Every day approximately 23,000 Chinese come to know Christ! In fact, right now there are many more Christians in China than members of the Communist party. There is so much more I could share but I will end this. God is doing incredible things throughout the world and it is our joy and privilege to be involved!!!

What's the "One Thing"?

Two individuals came to Jesus, each with a deep spiritual problem. One found life, but the other lost it. What went wrong in this counseling session?
The first person was a rich young ruler who approached the Lord with the most burning question of his heart: “What shall I do to inherit eternal life?” (Luke 18:18).
He was not seeking a religious debate as so many others did. He honestly wanted to know. When Jesus listed five of the commandments, the young man replied that he had a perfect record in keeping them all. Christ simply responded to him, “You still lack one thing. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor . . . and come, follow Me” (Luke 18:22). Scripture tells us that the rich ruler went away sorrowful (see Matthew 19:22).
The second man was also rich, but he had gained his wealth by shamelessly defrauding others. Zacchaeus was a well-known crook. When Jesus came to his house, He said nothing to the man about selling his house or giving his money away. Amazingly, Zacchaeus freely made the decision to give half of his possessions to the poor and restore four times the amount he stole to everyone he’d cheated.
What was it that compelled Zacchaeus to respond so differently than the rich young ruler?
When Zacchaeus saw Christ, he saw the pearl of great price. He saw in Him everything, all things, completion. He realized, If I have Him, I can easily give away everything. What else do I need?
But when the young ruler saw Jesus, he didn’t see the pearl of great price. If we could know what his thoughts were that day, I imagine most of them were focused on what he would be giving up, more than what he would gain in Christ.
We very often make the same mistake as the rich young ruler. We truly want to follow Christ and experience His abundant life, but we focus on what we may have to give up and are afraid to let go of those things we have relied on for so long.
I believe the Lord looks for that “one thing” we grasp so tightly and depend on. It could be anything: our strength, our abilities, our education, a meaningful relationship, our years of Christian experience, our connections, the good reputation we have established, our position, our extraordinary discernment and other spiritual gifts, our plans for marriage or the things of this world like the rich young ruler.
In the New Testament book of Revelation, we encounter a group of people in the church of Laodicea who were convinced that they were rich and lacked nothing. Yet the Lord told them that they were wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked. Why did the Lord think they lacked everything? It is because they had become self-reliant, which prevented them from experiencing the genuine life of Christ.
As long as we hold on to that one thing in which we trust, we will never be able to surrender fully to Christ. Consequently, there will always be a distance between the Lord and us. Such lack of closeness results in frustration and discouragement on our part. In addition, that one thing will be a constant hindrance for the rivers of living water to flow freely out from us and give life to others.
How do we recognize the “one thing” still lacking in us? We will know it by the discouragement, tension, bitterness, frustration and irritation that fill our hearts, when that “one thing” is tampered with. God will open our eyes, and we will recognize it if we truly desire to. We will then have the grace to surrender it to the Lord, not by looking at what we are letting go, but by looking at all that we have in Christ— the pearl of great price.
You see, if “our riches,” that which we value most, are the Lord and what we have in Him, then no raging storm can cause any disturbance. Amy Carmichael once wrote, “A cup brimful of sweet water cannot spill even one drop of bitter water, however suddenly jolted.”
If “our riches,” that which we value most, are the Lord and what we have in Him, then no raging storm can cause any disturbance.
I believe the Lord wants us to live in a continual state of seeing Him as everything and being content in Him alone. Those whose life is full of joy and the unhindered presence of the Lord are the ones who experience a continuous feast on Him. Nothing else will matter to them, and abandonment to Christ alone is their obvious choice. Will you believe that He is truly the pearl of great price?
Step out. You’ll find Him to be so much more than you imagine.


This was taken from the book Destined to Soar by K. P. Yohannan, leader of Gospel for Asia. You can download the book for free at Destined to Soar

Help your kids learn about Bible translation...great free 8-week curriculum!

I just came across a wonderful program for getting us and our children involved in Bible translation. But before I go further, you should watch this quick, 1-minute video with your kids: Without

It's called OneVerse and it's free. You can go to OneVerse to learn more about it. It's an 8-week program that started March 1st but you can get the previous weeks until mid-June. It looks great! I plan to start with out girls today!

 Here's a peak at just a few of the things you and your kids can do if you register:

• Meet Lisa - your video blogging OneVerse tour guide!
• Read about heroes of modern Bible translation.
• Discover a language that is spoken ... and whistled. (Yes: people can understand each other solely by whistling!)
• Find out why some believers in Papua New Guinea say "Jesus carries his liver for me." (Can you guess what this means? Find out in Week 3!)
• Enjoy age-appropriate, fun activities related to each week's theme.
• Read about Kaylee's big decision to change her priorities and care about people on the other side of the world.
• Discover an alphabet that has only 11 letters!
• Listen to John 3:16 in a new language each week.
• Watch a video of the startling things that happen when the Gamo people watch the "JESUS" film in their own language for the very first time.