News & Stories

Am I Willing to Pay the Price?

Map_SoutheastAsia_Child Pastor C, in South Asia where I just returned from, came home recently to find two oil cans in front of his house.  This was a clear and brazen message being sent to him.  The message was this: “We could have just as easily burned down your house; and we could still do so at any time.”  Since there have been recent church bombings in this area, this was no idle threat and C knew it.

But the comment he made to me was this: “I have to keep asking myself this question: am I willing to pay the price to follow Jesus?”  His point was clear.  He would follow wherever Jesus leads him regardless of the cost.

I wrote of this incident in our travel blog because it has caused me to consider this question personally.  I have reflected on just how singular my focus really is on following Jesus alone.

Hope Changes Everything for Women

WVTC3 (Small) Just a little over six months ago in a tiny, rented room in Kitale town in western Kenya, a women’s vocational training center (Dorcas Hands) was started.  We opened with a few sewing machines, a couple of volunteer teachers, some materials and three students.  Today we have a professional tailoring teacher, a larger three-room facility in order to accommodate five new students, as well as the knitting machine, more sewing machines, and an overlock machine.  Christine, one of the first three students, is just about to graduate.  Elizabeth, the director of the school, reports that students “are celebrating and thanking me every day for coming up with Dorcas.”  She says the women are literally transforming before her not only physically, but spiritually and emotionally as well. 

What Would Your Life Be Like--If No One Had Brought You the Gospel Message?

Oaxacan_girl This is the question that motivates the missionary team we were just with in Southern Mexico. 

They talk of one thousand unreached villages around them where people are steeped in superstitions and fears.  When a family member dies, relatives will spend months at the gravesite repeating rote prayers believing that this is the way the deceased will pass into heaven.

Through medical clinics, work programs, and church planting, this team is working to see hundreds of these villages impacted with the same message that changed your life and mine.

What Happens in Three Days of Training?

What happens in three days of training?  It is impossible to describe all of the dynamics that take place as relationships are built, vision is extracted from the team, principles of church planting movements are taught and discovered through teaching, sharing, and case study exploration, team issues are dealt with, and personal issues often come to the forefront.

But just to provide a glimpse into one part of the outcome, here is a list that the team in Southern Mexico came up with that they intend to apply in order to produce greater fruitfulness in church planting:

Orphan Healed

Orphan'sFoot An eight-year-old orphan in the village of Bikeke, Kenya needed a miracle.  Open sores had broken out on her body and were not healing.  Besides the pain from the disease, no local school would allow her to attend.  A neighbor offered to sponsor her to attend a private school, still she was shunned and refused  admittance.

Finally, she was brought to the school we partner with in this rural village.  They took her in, allowed her to attend classes, and daily the teachers and principal gathered to pray over this beautiful girl.  Within weeks the sores began to heal.  Within months her skin was nearly restored to normal.  Further, she has proven to be one of the top students of her class academically and is an example in her study habits to other students.  Her healing and progress has touched so many in that area.

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