All of the staff here at Bethany: John David and Charlotte, Teresa, Deanna, Jerry, Mary, Alma and Jackie and myself want to wish you all a very merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! May this Christmas be a blessing for you and your loved ones.
I also wanted to let you know that we have exceeded our goal for foreign missions. Our total giving towards the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering now stands at $1,160! Yeaaaaa!
If you still haven’t had a chance to give towards our foreign missions goal this Sunday will be the last Sunday. Also it’s not too late to sign up for our mission trip to Nicaragua.
One more thing: Please be in prayer for which affinity group you will commit to pray, give, and go too. What’s an affinity group? The International Mission board has divided up the globe into 9 sections: American Peoples, Central Asian Peoples, East Asian Peoples, European Peoples, Northern African and Middle Eastern Peoples, South Asian Peoples, Southeast Asian Peoples, Deaf Peoples, and the Sub-Saharan African Peoples. This year alone we have reached four of the nine affinity groups. Who has the Lord called you to go to specifically? We know that we are commanded to go to our Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria – but let us not forget the ends of the world. Be in prayer about who you are to be on mission too and may we not forget our neighbors.
Christmas is a reminder that Jesus came on a “mission trip” to our world leaving a perfect Heaven in order to raise up other missionaries like Himself. Have a great Christmas and Happy New Year! We love you all!
Just wanted to let you know that we have received $685 towards our goal of $1000! Yeaaa!!! Would you please pray about what you can give this Christmas towards spreading the Gospel around the world? As I’ve stated earlier, if 10 people gave $100 each – we would reach our goal of $1000. Or if 20 people gave $50 each we would reach our goal of $1000. Let’s exceed our goal!!!
Also would you consider praying for 1 of 2 things during your morning quiet time: a) Prayers for the Persecuted Church (b) Prayers for the 9 Affinity Groups.
How do you know what to pray? I have a poster in my office that I use to remind me how to pray for the persecuted church that I received through Voice of the Martyrs (http://www.persecution.com). The title of the poster is called “10 Ways to Pray for the Persecuted Church.” Option “b” is found through the International Mission Board for Southern Baptists (https://www.imb.org>pray)
What 10 Ways are we encouraged to pray for those persecuted for their faith in Jesus? (1) Pray that they will sense God’s Presence (2) Know we are praying for them (3) Experience God’s comfort (4) See God open doors to evangelism (5) Boldly share the Gospel (6) Mature in their faith (7) Be granted wisdom in covert ministry work (8) Remain joyful amid suffering (9) Forgive and love their persecutors (10) Be rooted in God’s Word.
Where are they being persecuted? I have another map for that from Voice of the Martyrs: Mauritania, Cuba, Columbia, Morocco, Algeria, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Sudan, Central African Republic, Tanzania, Kenya, Somalia, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Eritrea, Yemen, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Turkey, Iran, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Maldives, United Arab Emirates, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Brunei, Vietnam, Philippines, Laos, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikstan, Kyrgyzstan, China, and North Korea.
Have a great day and remember that your prayers are as incense to the Lord: a sweet smelling sacrifice. What’s really amazing is that He keeps them near Him at His Throne. Your prayers and mine are a treasure to Him.
Read the following carefully: “GODISNOWHERE.” What did you see first: “God Is No Where” or “God Is Now Here?” If I were to arrange it in the following way what do you see: “NOwhere” or “NOWhere?” In Spanish there are three words to distinguish proximity: aqui (pronounced a-kee) = “here;” alli’ (pronounced a-yee)= “over there;” and “alla'” (pronounced a-yah) = “way over there.” Here, there, or way over there.
When I used to pray to God I imagined Him far removed – in outer space somewhere. He was distant, angry, and ready to pounce on anything I did wrong. I believed that He was swift in delivering punishment. Anything I was suffering was attributed towards something I had done wrong. I would try to recall what I had done to cause my suffering. When I met Him it was as if someone removed a veil, or pulled back layers of dark, insulated shades. In a flash of a moment I realized, “He is here.” As I experienced His Presence and Love I realized that He had already taken my punishment on the cross and wanted me to be with Him. It was quite the surprise when I realized that one of His Names is “Immanuel” = “the God Who is with us.” It was also a mystery to ponder the meaning to the formal Name of the Godhead: “Yahveh” = “I am, what I am.” (Or as Popeye would say, “I yam, what I yam.”) It wasn’t until later I realized God exists outside of the constraints of time. He is not limited by past, present or future. He simply is.
Much later in my walk I discovered the experiences of the prophets going to Heaven. I would imagine gathering around His Throne, often use the imagery when praying. Over time Immanuel, the God with us, returned to being the God out there, or way over there. But in His mercy brought me back to where He has always been through the apostle of prayer, T.W. Hunt. He recalled a time in his life when he had become disappointed with God regarding God’s call to teach missionaries rather than be a missionary. Adding injury to insult, they were struggling to pay their daughters’ tuition for school. The more they prayed the worse their finances got. Their daughter got into a minor accident in which their insurance was not able to cover all the hospital and doctor bills. Next she had to have a root canal which cost them more money than they had. Matters got much worse when the university began sending second notices regarding the overdue tuition. As the debts got heavier, their prayers became more fervent. T.W. became broken, not over his inability to pay the bills, but the strange delay in the answer to their prayers. He began reexamining every aspect of his relationship with the Lord and with others. One day when speaking to his wife he asked, “Why do you suppose God won’t let me be a missionary?” She answered, “Have you talked to Him lately about it?” T.W. responded that he didn’t want to talk to God about his being rebellious. She responded with something very profound, “Then maybe you should quit teaching in your seminars that He is a Friend, because you can talk to a friend!” He entered their prayer room that day and spoke to his Friend about why he found mission work so exciting. After an hour Jesus, his Friend, revealed why He needed teachers to equip the missionaries and that they were His helpers too. Following his prayer time, he received a letter from his daughter’s university stating, “This is to inform you that a friend [!] who wishes to remain anonymous has paid your daughter’s tuition for this semester.”
From T.W.’s example and many more I learned that I needed to practice Jesus being here – in the now. He challenged me with an exercise in practicing His Presence. In the exercise you set up a chair across from the one you plan to sit and pray. You prepare your favorite beverage or food, and place it in His chair. Then sitting across from Him, you imagine He is there, while you simply share the time with Him as your friend.
Throughout this week I have become conscious of my need to practice this throughout the day. I imagine Him sitting in the truck with me as I drive to church. I imagine Him being there when I am ministering to another. I imagine Him when I am praying, and meditating in the Word – and I talk with Him – as if He is right there. For you see – He is.
I read a gripping story of a godly old man whose days were coming to an end. A minister went to visit him in his hospital room and noticed an empty chair beside the man’s bed. He asked, “Have you had a visitor?” The man replied, “No, I haven’t had a visitor. But when I became a Christian as a youth, someone told me that praying was like talking to your very best friend. When I heard that, I decided to pull up an empty chair beside me every day and invite Christ to sit and talk with me. And I just finished my conversation with the Lord.”
After the man passed away, his daughter wrote of her visit to the hospital room. She said of her father:
“He seemed content, so I left him for a few hours. When I returned, I knew that he had gone to be with the Lord. But the interesting thing was that his head was not resting on his pillow. His body had turned and his head was resting on the seat of an empty hair that had been pulled up close to his bed.”
Eerily barren, the tiny uninhabited island of Hart Island sits in the shadows of Manhattan’s looming skyscrapers – a short distance but a far cry from the bright lights of New York City.
Initially named after the human heart by British cartographers because of its shape, the 131-acre island, only a mile long and 0.25 miles wide, has seen a series of incarnations since its birth; from serving as a psychiatric institution and hospital for tuberculosis patients, to an American Civil War prisoner camp. But perhaps its most fascinating legacy has been its function as America’s largest mass burial site (and the largest tax-funded cemetery in the world), where more than a million unclaimed and unidentified bodies have been buried since 1868, when the island was first purchased by the city.
The island – still used as a burial site to this day – is located at the eastern tip of the Bronx, just off the west coast of Long Island Sound, and became a part of New York City even before its present day boroughs of Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and Staten Island.
The first reported burial took place here in 1881 and around half of those buried there are thought to be identified children under the age of five who died in the city’s hospitals. No burial ceremonies have been held since the 1950s and there are no unique markers for each plot, with one exception – the grave site of the first child to have died of AIDS in New York City, who was buried in isolation. The island is also a disposal ground for amputated body parts which are kept in boxes labelled ‘limbs’.
It’s still used today. Bodies are transported by ferry from the morgue at Manhattan’s Bellevue Hospital on weekday mornings, amounting to around 1,500 a year, and buried by prison inmates from the Riker’s Island jail complex in the Bronx.
What’s even more sobering than this mass grave is that 155, 252 people every day are dying without Jesus. That’s 56,666, 980 people each year. That’s 4,657,560 people each month. Why do these numbers matter? Because these numbers represent people who – as far as anyone knows – have never heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Certainly Everyone Has Heard?
One sometimes hears the comment “Certainly most everyone has heard of Jesus by now. Surely missionaries have been sent to every country. Haven’t we just about completed the Great Commission?” While the spread of Christianity has been nothing short of supernatural, there are still huge segments of the world’s population that have never heard the name of Jesus let alone a clear presentation of the message of salvation.
Countries or Nations?
While the Gospel has gone to every political country in the world, when Jesus commanded His followers to “make disciples of all the nations” in Matthew 28:18-20, He was not referring to political nations such as Canada, Kenya, Russia, etc. Many of these, such as the United States, did not exist as entities when Jesus gave the command. The word Jesus used for nations in Greek is “ethne” from which we get the English word “ethnic”. “Ethne” can simply mean any non-Jew i.e. Gentile or it can mean a collection of individuals with a common identity. The definition used by mission strategist for people group is “a significantly large grouping of individuals who perceive themselves to have a common affinity for one another because of their shared language, religion, ethnicity, residence, occupation, class or caste, situation, etc., or combinations of these.” For evangelistic purposes it is “the largest group within which the gospel can spread as a church planting movement without encountering barriers of understanding or acceptance.” Current data suggests there are about 17,000 distinct people groups when country boundaries are considered.
Reached vs Unreached?
An unreached people group is “a people group within which there is no indigenous community of believing Christians able to evangelize this people group.” In the middle 1990’s mission strategists sought to quantify this definition. They settled on the criteria for unreached as less than 2% true Christ-followers and less than 5% Professing Christian (this includes all forms of Christianity i.e. anyone that would call themselves a “Christian.”) While these percentage figures are somewhat arbitrary, “we should not underestimate the significance of the small group of people who have a vision of a just and gentle world. The quality of a whole culture may be changed when two percent of its people have a new vision.” – Robert Bellah, Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton University, originally quote in Psychology Today in the 1970s, currently quoted in Christianity Today Oct 2011: 42.
So how many of the approximately 17,000 ethnic people groups are considered unreached i.e. less than 2% Christ-follower and less than 5% Professing Christian? The latest estimates suggest that approximately 7,000 people groups are considered unreached. That means over 40% of the world’s people groups have no indigenous community of believing Christians able to evangelize the rest of their people group. Over 42% of the world’s population live in these over 7,000 people groups.
44 of these 50 unreached people groups are in the 10/40 Window, 47 are in sensitive countries.
It is important to note that this does not mean every individual within an unreached people group has never heard of Jesus or the message of salvation. There is often a small percentage (less than 2%) Christ-followers in these groups, but the vast majority of the group has minimal, if any, exposure to the person of Jesus Christ and the Good News of God’s free gift of salvation.
For arguments sake, suppose for every true believer there are ten who have heard of Jesus but not embraced Him. That would mean that in an unreached people group 20% had heard of Jesus and 80% had not. In other words, possibly 4 out of 5 individuals in an unreached group are totally unaware of the Messiah.
Consider for example the 136,000,000 unreached Shaikh of Bangladesh, the 61,000,000 unreached Brahman of India, 62,000,000 unreached Yadav of India or the 37,000,000 unreached Java Pesisir Lor of Indonesia, most of the individuals in these groups and thousands of other unreached people groups are completely ignorant of the King of Kings.
Unengaged People Groups
Data from the International Mission Board (IMB)of the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest denominational mission board in the world, suggests that there are possibly over 3,000 ethnic people groups that are not only unreached, but also completely unengaged meaning there is no known active on-site church planting effort underway and few if any know believers. The Finishing the Task initiative suggests this number may be significantly lower.
It is a great injustice to think that 2,000 years after Jesus gave the Great Commission that many people groups have no witness in their midst. To say that a people group is unengaged means there are definitely no missionaries, in all likelihood no outreach, no church or fellowship of believers, no Christian materials, and few if any Bibles in these people groups.
While it is certainly possible the Lord has been supernaturally at work among an unengaged group without outside involvement, this would not be the typical way He has ordained for the spread of the Gospel. He commanded the Church to go. There are millions of individuals in these unengaged people groups that have never heard of Jesus or His work of redemption.
Bible Translation Need
To make, not just a convert, but a disciple of Jesus requires the Scriptures to be available in the mother tongue. Wycliffe Bible Translators reports that approximately About 1,600 languages have definite translation need.
That means for mother-tongue speakers of those 1,600 languages no Scripture exists at all. They may have limited access to the Scriptures in trade or major languages, but no access in their heart language. Of course the languages with the larger number of speakers have been translated but many millions still do not have the Scriptures in their mother-tongue.
Limited Access
Even if the Scriptures are translated and news media available, an estimated 1 billion adults are considered illiterate. Much of this is concentrated in only eight countries (Bangladesh, China, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Nigeria, and Pakistan) all countries with very high concentrations of unreached people groups.
Extremely low literacy rates are concentrated in three regions, the Arab states, South and West Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa, again highly unreached regions. World Factbook.
In addition 60% of the world’s population is considered oral learners meaning their preferred learning mode is oral, not written. Some estimates suggest that up to 70% of the unreached peoples of the world are oral-preferenced communicators. For those that are either illiterate or oral learners, newspapers, books, printed matter, internet text, even a physical Bible will have minimal impact. International Orality Network
A little over half of the world’s population has internet access. So a little less than half the world’s population does not have online access to spiritual information and the message of the Messiah. The situation is worse in areas where the Gospel has least spread.
For example, internet penetration is only 45% in Asia and 27% in Africa. The 10/40 Window region, where most unreached peoples reside, has some of the lowest internet penetration. These regions are also some of the poorest, thus further limiting internet usage even where it is available. Internet World Statistics
Only about 10% of Muslims in Asia personally know a Christian, whereas about 70% of Muslims in North America know a Christian.
Possibly only about 15% of all Muslims worldwide personally know a Christian.
Asia is the most isolated continent with less than 20% of the more than 4.5 billion people claiming to know a Christian.
81% of all Hindus, Muslims and Buddhists do not know a Christian.
Summary from Respected Sources
Operation World presents data suggesting that after peaking in the mid-1990s the growth rate of both Christianity in general and Evangelicals (an approximation of true Christ-followers) has slowed significantly.
After describing numerous advances of the Gospel, Operation World states “The sobering fact is that, even with all this activity, probably 24-27% of the world’s population have not had the good news presented to them in a way they could appreciate and meaningfully respond to.” (Operation World p. 10) That translates to very close to two billion individuals, one in four individuals, without any knowledge of the Savior!
The recently released Future of the Global Church has a section on the unevangelized. While the percentage of the world who are unevangelized has decreased, the absolute number of unevangelized has increased. The text on page 161 says “The disturbing truth is that there may still be nearly 2 billion individuals who have never had a chance to hear the Gospel.”
The Atlas of Global Christianity based on the World Christian Database defines an “evangelized person” as “An individual who has had adequate opportunity or opportunities to hear the Gospel and respond to it, whether he responds positively or negatively”. Using this definition the Atlas breaks the globe into World A, B, C where World A is considered the unevangelized. The Atlas suggests there are over 2,000,000,000 (2 billion) individuals in World A. Atlas p. 312-313
As Ralph Winter aptly stated “The task of identifying and penetrating the remaining unreached peoples — the great challenge of “discipling all the nations” — still lies before us. But we are assured in Scripture that God will be worshipped by “a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language.” We are within range of penetrating every people group on the planet with the light of the gospel with more momentum than ever before in history. Be a part of it — find a place of historic significance in declaring “His glory among the nations!”
https://mybethany.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/grave.jpg456640Robert Shawhttps://mybethany.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/bethany_logo_FULL-copy.pngRobert Shaw2019-12-16 08:31:572019-12-16 08:32:03They're Just a Number
This morning I was praying asking the Lord what our goal should be for our Christmas offering to missions. The number I came up with was $1000. An hour or so later I received an email from Sherlyn Medlin, who is our church’s representative for this offering. She stated that after praying she felt that our church’s goal should be $1000. God speaks!
While I was praying I thought that surely there are 10 people from our church who can give $100 towards foreign missions. I thought of others who are having a tough year financially and I thought they can at least afford $50. If 20 people from our church gave $50 we would meet our goal in one swoop. Would you please pray about giving towards the fulfillment of the Great Commission and send out our monies as little soldiers in the fight towards making disciples of the world? As I’ve mentioned earlier we have brothers and sisters around the world, many are Americans, who are laying their lives down in some hostile and remote areas. They are the unsung heroes who are courageously taking the fight to the enemy of men’s souls. Please support their efforts and let’s see the Kingdom of God advance to the ends of the world.
In my last blog I asked, “What does it mean to be human?” We typically excuse our mistakes with a shrug of the shoulders and the statement, “I’m only human.” Songs have been sung attempting to rectify mistakes, or remove ourselves from taking responsibility for our actions. Yet what I’m discovering as I meditate on this question is that our answer and God’s answer are world’s apart. In fact we have typically learned from personal experience that our attempts at being good, godly, or great are often thwarted by our human, sinful nature. Thus we have learned to define this question from the fall of man forwards. In other words, We have allowed our sin nature to define us. What born-again believers in Jesus have failed to realize is that the sum total of what it means to be human is exemplified in Jesus. Lately I have realized why unforgiveness, judgments, and criticism are so abhorrent to God. These choices that we make actually dehumanize people. They make individuals, made in the image of God, less than who God made them. In fact when we participate in those actions we are dehumanizing who God made us to be. For years I have puzzled over the command, You shall not make yourself any graven image [to worship it] or any likeness of anything that is in the heavens above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth;…Exodus 20:4
The Hebrew word translated “graven image” literally means “an idol.” A graven image is an image carved out of stone, wood, or metal. It could be a statue of a person or animal, or a relief carving in a wall or pole. It is differentiated from a molten image, which is melted metal poured into a cast. Abstract Asherah Poles, carved wooden Baal’s covered in gold leaf, and etchings of gods accompanying Egyptian hieroglyphics are all graven images.
Thus a graven image could be a photograph, or video. Why would something so simple be considered sinful? My opinion is that ultimately, like unforgiveness, the graven image either deifies, or dehumanizes humanity reducing the person to an object. How often have we watched people murdered, accosted, or beaten on television, movies, or video games for our entertainment? The violence becomes less real and in the process we become desensitized to it. Could it be that this dehumanizing has led to increased acts of violence? Could it be that that this is why our society no longer values celibacy, marriage, children, and family? Could it be that we are being absorbed into the mechanization, and sterilization of humanity? We’re being absorbed, and assimilated into our technology, our idol. We are becoming what we behold.
The good news is that Jesus provided an escape from our inhumanity. His goal being to restore the original image. The Kingdom of God has come and is advancing. His Garden is in our midst. This is why the Great Commission is so important. His command, which provides us a vision, God’s vision, for all people to the ends of the earth, serves multiple purposes. First it spreads the Message that we truly are made for so much more in our redeemed humanity. Secondly, it humanizes a world that is foreign to us. May I add, a world that is easy to dehumanize, and demonize? A Christian lacking God’s vision is blind to the proportions of God’s Love – “how high, and wide, and long and deep.” Like the Grinch who stole Christmas, the Commission enlarges our hearts, increasing our capacity to love and see others. The most common greeting in the Zulu tribe is “Sawubona.” It literally means “I see you, you are important to me and I value you.” It’s a way to make the other person visible and to accept them as they are with their virtues, nuances, and flaws. In response to this greeting, people usually say with “Shiboka,” which means “I exist for you.” Jesus exists for us, and as Christians – literally “little Christs’ – we exist for the world.
With that in mind please be in prayer for what your family should be giving to foreign missions this Christmas. In the past our church’s goal was $745. Surely by God’s Grace and Spirit we can surpass this goal. Let’s be a part of the prayers offered around the world being a source of encouragement to those who have given so much. Our brothers and sisters around the world are laying down their lives, often literally, for God’s vision. Please seek to be an answer to their prayers.
https://mybethany.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Sawubona.jpg294500Robert Shawhttps://mybethany.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/bethany_logo_FULL-copy.pngRobert Shaw2019-12-12 16:00:592019-12-12 13:52:01I'm Only Human
This morning I received a phone call from Charlotte regarding John David needing our prayers. Recently he was diagnosed with having malaria and is receiving medical care as we speak. Please keep him, Charlotte, the girls, Linda and James (who is traveling with John David) in your prayers. The symptoms of malaria include: Pain in the abdomen or muscles; chills, fatigue, fever, night sweats, shivering, or sweating, diarrhea, nausea, or vomiting. Also common symptoms are: fast heart rate, headache, mental confusion, or pallor. Malaria is caused by parasites released through the mosquito bite which attack the red blood cells and body.
Again keep John David in your prayers as they begin their long trek home from Uganda. They will be in the US by Saturday.
https://mybethany.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Prices.jpg12001600Robert Shawhttps://mybethany.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/bethany_logo_FULL-copy.pngRobert Shaw2019-12-12 14:56:112019-12-12 15:11:17Prayers for John David
There was a time in my life when I was embittered, angry, and unforgiving towards another when the Lord revealed to me that I should release them from the expectations that I had placed upon them. When I did this it empowered me to see them as another human being. This paved the way to understanding and forgiveness. Recently I realized that when I am unforgiving, demeaning, critical, and judgmental of another I am simply de-humanizing that person, and that this is the root of many of the sins we commit against one another. When I call some one a derogatory name, or measure them according to the yardstick of self – myself being God, judge, and jury – I am in turn defacing the one who bears the fingerprints of God. In the past 30 years or so it seems that the march to dehumanization has quickened its pace as we become more like the technology that is our idol of choice. Instead of evolving as popular science suggests we digress downhill in becoming more like the animals we’ve been taught that we evolved from. Sexual immorality, fornication, adultery, homosexuality, child molestation, pornography, abortion on demand all become symptoms of our animalistic lust. In other words we become less than human. We turn other human beings into commodities to be traded, used, abused and tossed on the garbage heap after their value has been extinguished by our self-centered whims. It’s time to awaken to the Imago Dei, or the Image of God, and embrace once again what it means to be human. This cannot be fully realized apart from Jesus Who provides us with not only the Model, but the empowerment of the Law of His Spirit and Grace to attain it.
https://mybethany.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/imago-dei.jpg168300Robert Shawhttps://mybethany.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/bethany_logo_FULL-copy.pngRobert Shaw2019-12-08 08:00:242019-12-08 08:00:28What Does It Mean to Be Human?
This morning I woke up around 2 A.M. to brush my teeth, get dressed and make the drive over to Waxhaw to pick up John David, and his friend James. They are flying to Uganda for a short term mission trip to save lives – physically and eternally. After dropping them off at the airport terminal – which is nearly deserted at 3:30 in the morning – I had a time of prayer for them and thanksgiving to the Lord. Driving along, praying, and giving thanks I began to think of the ways that we need to be in prayer for them. Having traveled on many a mission trip several things come to mind in regard to prayer needs: that their luggage and mosquito nets make the many transfers from Charlotte, to New York, to Kenya and to Uganda. Pray for their protection, and their families protection while they’re traveling to and from the country. Pray specifically for the protection of Charlotte, Reagan, Stella and Linda. Pray that lives would be touched, hearts changed, and souls saved as a result of the gift of the mosquito nets. Pray that a door and doors would be opened for partnerships between our church and the local missionaries, pastors and churches in that region. Pray that God would call and raise up missionary laborers from our church who would be willing to go to Uganda and make disciples for Jesus. Pray for their protection from the internal bugs, and parasites that can be obtained from mosquitoes, eating the food or drinking the water. Pray that John David and James’ lives would be changed forever by the things they experience while there. And pray that they will be filled with the Holy Spirit overflowing Jesus’ love to all they meet and encounter. On a practical note pray that they will make the transition to a new time zone and being able to sleep when it’s time, and stay awake when it’s time. On a more somber note pray for the people of Uganda. For example, were you aware that Uganda is the epicenter of the AIDS crisis that swept Africa years ago and is still wreaking havoc today? Were you aware that witchcraft is practiced and is believed in so strongly that child sacrifice is on the rise to insure the “gods” (demonic spirits) respond to their prayers, and spells?
There’s a reason Jesus said to Go! It’s a command empowered by grateful hearts compelled to share the Love Jesus has shared with us. A Love so great that a million lifetimes of “thank you’s” would never suffice. Jesus’ strategy was quite simple and clear cut. In Acts 1:8 He stated: “But you will receive Power when the Holy Spirit comes on you and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.”
We owe a debt of gratitude to the people of Israel and Lord willing one day we will visit those lands with the Gospel, but on a more practical note we need to be asking: What is our Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria. Before Thanksgiving I was grateful for all who drove out in the pouring rain and delivered thanksgiving meals to needy families in Union County. I was encouraged as I listened to Mary Quinn, and Kristy Whittington share how they went to Common Heart to go through the Literacy Orientation and training to help those who can’t read – right here in our own backyard. They reminded me of the desire I had to participate in this same program. So last night I attended orientation from 6:30 – 8:15. All of this came as a result of one family – the Pooveys – who have faithfully served alongside the ministry of Common Heart for years delivering food to needy families and sharing Jesus’ love. Their example paved the way for the Wagenmaker’s to participate in the delivery of food and the annual food drive which opened the door to invite the leadership of Common Heart to speak at our church and present their challenge.
Many of our people are actively involved on the front lines of the cultural battle to save the lives of the unborn. Lisa Drogan, Sam Nunemaker, and others are sacrificing their Saturday mornings to go out to the largest abortion center in the southeast to pray, to serve, and to offer parents of unborn children alternative options away from our culture of death.
Our church’s purpose is to glorify Jesus through a wedding of the Spirit and the Word; watching and learning how to be students of Jesus; walking it out in love to the ends of the earth. If there has been a wedding of the Spirit and the Word then there will be a desire to watch and learn how to be students of Jesus – to join Jesus where He is working. When you see what Jesus has done and is doing, and you are His student, you are going to walk it out in love to the very ends of the earth.
God has given us a task to reach the world with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It’s every student of Jesus’ job. There are no excuses. Our church’s goal is to reach the nine major affinity groups of the world with the Gospel, developing partnerships with missionaries, pastors, and churches. In one year we have already been to four of those affinity groups: the American Peoples – in Nicaragua, Central America; the Northern Africa and Middle Eastern Peoples – in Ethiopia; the Sub-Saharan African peoples – in Tanzania, and Uganda; and the Southeast Asian Peoples – in Indonesia. How powerful and amazing is that?
Jesus gave us a mission and we are a people on mission with Him. Praise and thank the Lord for what He has done in 2019 with our little church. Pray for John David, James, and their families. And please pray about which affinity group God would call you to be a missionary to, partner with, pray for, and give too. God bless you precious people of God!
https://mybethany.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Uganda-Pray.jpg239211Robert Shawhttps://mybethany.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/bethany_logo_FULL-copy.pngRobert Shaw2019-12-04 05:55:462019-12-04 05:55:51Pray for John David and Uganda
