what next?: Training is in January.
We have a letter we're wanting to send out to folks to tell them about what we're doing and giving a general update, it's coming hopefully in the next few days. We need to construct our mailing list and it is taking us some time to accomplish in the midst of all the holiday busy-ness and work schedules, and all the other things that eat up time.
We need to begin medical preparations which means doctor visits and physicals and shots etc. Our kids seem to be pretty good with shots so that's not a major issue.
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Perspectives... only 1 more week to go.
Did you know that a lot of missionaries have taken this course throughout the years?
Last night the speaker was very supportive of the perspectives course, he called it a major tool of God.
Rich Lederer (not sure of the spelling of his last name).
Texan, spent 13 years in Mongolia, is now in iraq. 57.
He was very much a straight shooter who really was passionate about our goal being the kingdom of God. The topic was contextualization, which basically means that when we teach people about Jesus, we're careful not to destroy their culture and bring in "our" culture. Let a born again muslim still pray in mosques, knowing they are praying to God now. Otherwise you remove them from the very culture they can be effective for Christ in.
He said a lot of good things, and shared a lot of good stories.
One thing he did was confirm that he was listening to the call of the Holy Spirit and following it.
He didn't address how that process worked for him but he told a few stories.
One of which stands out to me. For me, once you respond to God's calling, you start to see Him working in certain terms.
4 weeks ago, Rich began reading the "Camel Training Method". He became convinced that we would see no movement in Iraq for Christ until the strongman was bound, until we fought against the principalities in place in that area.
He was in the family room and his daughters were there and his wife, and he was working on his laptop when his daughter let out a gasp. There was a 4" long scorpion on the floor near his daughter. While he was searching for something to kill it with, his daughter reached out and said "daddy do you want me to ...." and then killed it.
After it calmed down he sat back down and said.. "family, look what I jsut typed into my system."
Luke 10:19 - I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you.
God works, God talks to us. This to them was a confirmation their move to Iraq was the right one, and that their decision to bind Satan out there was the right one and an encouragement that God has given then the authority to be bold and be victorious!
A lot of my life I have wanted God to talk to me, tell me what to do, and make it not confusing but to be clear. It doesn't jsut happen, you don't wait around to hear God, you seek Him out. You seek God in the scriptures, in prayer. You respond.
Another thing he said was he often hears the concept "we have to earn the right to be heard." This is a cultural sensitivity that has been taught to preparing missionaries for decades. Don't simply preach, earn the right to be heard.
He confronted that concept. He said, "Jesus earned the right to be heard, we need to go forward boldly." He re-iterated that we shouldn't be insensitive, but we should also not be timid and pass up opportunities.
I tell you last night as this man spoke, I felt like I was in the presence of the shadow of Paul. This man was enthusiastic, bold, encouraging, accurate, and every thing he said rang with wonderful truth and conviction. He was very focussed on shaping the church movement up.
You know I'm not so sure God has called us to go and do anything spectacular like what this man has done, but I'm sure God has called us. We don't know what we're going to end up doing, but we know our passion and we know what God has told us to do and that's what we're doing.
God has called us to this work in PNG. He has confirmed it multiple times. It is where He wants us for whatever reason, and we do not do this thing to further our career, or appear to have achieved some holiness that others lack. We do this thing because our Father has called us to it, and we can't ignore it. It isn't a glamorous thing we go to do, it is a very very simple thing.
Our focus is not on spreading "christianity as a culture" but on furthering the kingdom of God that all would worship Him in spirit and in truth.
I write this because I want to make sure that no one ever looks at us and says, "I wish I had __________ that Kendal and Chad have." or "I could never do what they're doing." You can. Never say of us "you're doing a great thing." We possess no special thing of ourselves that enable us to do this thing, it's completely from God.
How to Pray:
- one of the things we were reminded of this week was that a typical quality of the larger church movements was ... primarily.... extraordinary prayer. One director said to his board "if you're not going to pray every day... EVERY day over this, resign now." That's the type of mentality, the dedication of prayer that is going to be required to fight against the strongman. So...
-pray that as we build our address list, we find the people who are excited about what we're doing. That God would show us the people and the churches that would support us in prayer and financially and be excited to join our ministry with theirs to reach and support the translation work in PNG.
We know that God has prepared their hearts, we want to find them... and then join our small part of this ministry with theirs to become a team.
