And A-WAY We Goooooo!!!

Left at 4 a.m. for this round of India teams this morning.  Will be focusing my blogging energies on the team site (which you can view by clicking here if you would like to track it), so hope to see you there!  Feel free to comment!  It's always encouraging to the teams to hear from people back home.  Catch you all in 10 days! -samurai jack

Best Christmas Ever...

We just had the best Christmas ever.  I think i mentioned in a previous post that i'm not usually big on Christmas, but we made a concerted effort this year to really focus on trying to reinvigorate it with some fresh meaning.  Here's what we did:

* We attended GCC's Christmas Eve service together.  The kids totally dug the candle-lighting.  Elijah especially is a budding pyromaniac, so thought that 2,100 people burning things was a GREAT way to celebrate.

* We ate out!  Yup.  Part of our new tradition will 

be to NOT create additional stress by adding another meal that we have to prep and fix at home.  This year's Eve selection:  5 Guys.  Not exactly "Chop Suey Palace" from Christmas Story, but it got the job done and we had fun.

* We did a "year in review".  From the movies we watched to the things we did, we each went around the table and talked about things that were significant for us throughout the year.  Sami wrote them all down in one of her notebooks, and we'll transcribe them to a "formal journal" later.

* We came back home and exchanged gifts.  The catch, however, was that we "gave ourselves" in some special way.  Sami's gift to me?  More kissing this year!  Woo-hoo!!!  Not to say that i am kiss-deprived now... just that "drowning" in kissage will be a fun experiment.  My gift to her? Regulated alone time twice a month for her to just have quiet and space of her own.   No munchkins, no chaos, no errands... just Zen and Sami for at least two predictable spaces.

* We also decided to try to find a way for us to give "of ourselves" to Jesus in some way this whole upcoming year.  We came up with some great ideas, and are still smithing, but expect to have a firm plan by the end of the week.

* Then the kids had collaborated on a few gifts for us on their own.  Elijah gave me his favorite ARC Trooper action figure, and Peri gave Sami a roll of Scotch tape (which, in context, is a HUGE sacrifice on her part since we go through the stuff like water and there's never any around when Sami needs it).

The "topper" for the evening for me was a hand-written note from Elijah to Sami and me.  It read as follows:

"Dear Mom and Dad.  Merry Christmas! I hope the Grinch does not try to steal my Christmas because he can't steal mine.  Because my Christmas isint prsents, feasts, or treditions its about falmily and Ch[r]ist. Your son Elijah."

Maybe my heart will grow "two sizes" this year from its normal Grinchy "size and a half too small".  I'm starting to think so.  Merry Christmas.

1,000 Pounds of Love...

So how much does 5 complete bio-sand water filter kits, 2 complete "Indian Jiffy Lube" micro-enterprise sets, 1 portable ONE Prayer multi-media kit, and 1 duffel bag full of supplies for our Indian ground staff weigh?  About 700 pounds!  Add to that 3 hard-side "pelican" cases for our Media team, and about 4 "team" check bags, and you get about 1,000 pounds worth of checked gear spread across 7 large Army-green duffels, 10 blue "sport bags" (each carrying 50 lbs of sand), and an assortment of other bags.

Plus all our carry ons.  Holy cow!

So Dan Blacketor (who is leading our Construction Team) and i set out this morning to individually mark, package and pack everything that we currently have into their appropriate bags, and i thought you might like to see how we turned the GCC Atrium into a "staging area" for the better part of the afternoon.  

The tall blue cylinders you see are the container units for the bio-sand water filters we'll be installing.  These are "tester" units  and we will use them for demonstration set-up.  Later in January, 75 filters that we're shipping via boat will arrive for them to install village-wide.  

The clear bags are varying diameters of sand, gravel and rock.  Each water filter contains about 120 lbs of sand and various filtered forms of gravel and rock, and the answer to the most commonly asked question ("can't you just use sand, gravel and rock that you can find in India?  I mean... do they not HAVE sand and rock in India? C'mon!") is "yes, but we didn't have time to set up the appropriate filter operations to ensure sand and gravel diameter.  We'll do that in round #2 for next year.  

As for the Tech Team, we are taking 2 complete sets of wrenches, socket-kits, screw-drivers, battery-testers, spark-plug/ignitor testers, pliers, multi-tools, flashlights and a host of other things.  The idea is that we will train a small number of families how to open a secondary enterprise venture that looks a lot like what we're calling an "Indian Jiffy Lube".  It's not a full-fledged mechanic or repair shop, but if you just need an oil change for your motorcycle or to have it spiffied up before you head to Chennai for the weekend, they'll be all set to help.  

Media Team is taking everything they need to fully shoot and capture footage for 3 complete "GCC quality" media, plus "B-roll" for training and other materials later.

It's a good thing that the Justice Team is planning to travel so light.  With this much gear, i'm not sure how we would get it all there otherwise!  

After we finished packing our "1,000 pounds of love", Dan Blacketor and i passed out on the ground.  Lugging it 9,000 miles to India is going to be a different story!

ONE Prayer: Phase 1 Report...

Hey, for those of you who are interested, we have officially published our first "Phase Report" for ONE Prayer.  Each of these reports outlines a lot of the technical specifics of how each of our field partners is approaching the mission objective of planting 500 churches in 4 countries (India, Sudan, China and Cambodia) in 18 months, and if you would like to take a look, you can go straight to the PDF version of the report on the ONE Prayer site by clicking here.

Cool! Or, More Acurately... Icy!

Rob and i went to grab a quick bite to eat over at Taste of Asia, and the strip mall where the restaurant is located has several little planters out front.  The ice-storm from last night was so fast and thorough that all the beautiful little plants outside didn't wither and die, but rather just crystalized standing up and blooming with a thin sheet of ice covering them.  I snapped this quick shot of one of the lovely little arrangements, and Rob and i stood out in the low teen weather to gawk at the marvelous little scene for a few minutes before rushing back inside to warm up.

From PC to "Apple"...

So i'm talking with Ed Buford in our IT Dept and lamenting how hard i am on hardware and technology.  I've been looking at a variety of "Toughbook" manufacturers like Dell, GTAC, etc., but the problem with each of them is that the units are a) most often prohibitively expensive and/or b) would sacrifice "performance" in some way in order to gain the necessary field durability that they boast.

At this point, i've been through 3 laptops in just over 3 years (yeah... do the math), and with the upcoming international travel schedule to faraway places in remote environments for both our work here at GCC and also ONE Prayer, am kind of at a loss for what to do.  I have every confidence that my little Dell is as tricked out as it can be, but every "business model" has its limits, particularly when it spends time around me for very long (apparently... i'm not your average user).

Then Ed said, "Well, Jack, i've got an Apple over here you can try if you really want to."  "Really?!" i said breathlessly, "Sure!"  Now, I'm typically not one to think of myself as a Mac user, but hey, would be willing to give it a shot if someone were to just "give" me one.  When we got to his desk, he turned around with a plump Washington red in his hand.  "Here you go...", he said, "all yours."  D'Oh!!! 

  

A Thing of Beauty!

Last night, i spent the better part of 2 hours with over 75 men and women from GCC who will be helping to lead our annual Food Drop.  Our Drop leader (Paul Chandler) and the rest of our core team (Mark Hatfield, Sam Rose, Terry & Sherry Ingle, Kurt Reiners, Dan Blacketor, Tim Papp) did a fantastic job equipping everyone for their various roles and responsibilities on January 10th, 2009, when annually more than 2,500 men, women and children will show up on our two campuses (here at GCC and also in Elkhart) to unload 6 semis of food and personal care items (pci) onto trucks circulating to more than 15 sites, neighborhoods and agencies.   

In conjunction with these semi's (provided through partnership with Feed the Children), each semi carries 880 food and/or pci boxes, and each box typically weighs about 25 lbs (for a collected weight of more than 130,000 lbs of relief and food supplies).  The food boxes contain enough supplements and staples to feed a family of 5 for 7 - 10 days, and each pci box contains about $50 worth of everything from shampoo to shaving cream.  In addition, this year, we will also be joined by two other area churches who will be participating in the Drop with us.  Mt. Carmel Missionary Baptist Church will be sourcing their own semi for delivery into the neighborhoods around their church, and Bethlehem Missionary Baptist Church will be helping to off-load in the Harber Homes community on the West side, where they are currently attempting to build relationships for service. 

ONE Prayer Update: India

This is brother Vasanth Solomon. He is from a Christian family, and his father is a Pastor. After his father’s death, he assumed that he would simply acquire his father’s property and continue his mission, though he wasn’t exactly sure how to go about accomplishing that goal. Using basic evangelism tactics, Vasanth worked hard to build a network of over 150 new believers over a period of 5 years, but still believed that he needed additional training in order to further his effectiveness in the field.

Then he attended the Kingdom of God training (KGT) offered by Life Mission International through the ONE Prayer network. There, he learned about the importance of vision, goal setting and doing relational evangelism. He started praying for God to show him a place where he could plant a church and engage the community. Shortly thereafter, the Lord guided him to Puzhiyankannu village, where no one knows Christ. It is “completely unreached”. Here, all the people are high caste Hindus, and the village also supports two full time temple prostitutes.

When Vasanth started sharing Jesus in this village, the head of the village gathered all the people together and told them not to allow any other God to enter the village. In addition, when Vasanth shared a Gospel booklet with a member of the village, a young man pulled the booklet from his hand and tossed it into the fire. That night, however, the young man became so frightened and he quite literally went insane. This sent a wave of fear through the minds of the people in the village and gave them a high sense that they should not do any additional harm to Vasanth. In addition, Vasanth began praying for God to heal the young man.

After two months, people are showing great interest in learning about this new God. Thus far, 12 people have accepted Christ and are attending a small group Bible study. Vasanth is supervising 3 similar groups in this area, and also conducts a Children’s program in two places (currently, there are more than 60 children attending). Please pray that Vasanth will continue to make appropriate inroads for the Gospel and the Kingdom in this unreached village!

ONE Prayer Update: Sudan

The following came in from our field partners currently functioning in Sudan through the ONE Prayer network.  Enjoy! -sj

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Kajo Keji is exploding! Two hundred and seventy thousand people have already arrived from refugee camps in the north and west, and another one hundred thousand are expected this year. Most live in tents, but the government and aid agencies have begun to help with building mud huts.

According to Enoka and Michael, there is great hunger… not for food… but for community. “The opportunity to do church planting is incredible.” Enoka and Michael head up the ministry in this area and have organized the training for the church planters.

Several pilot projects have already been completed and seven schools were set up for the children of displaced families. Now 150 church planters are starting their training. They are being trained in “batches” of 20-30 and a main focus is the emerging neighborhoods of Kajo Keji (seen from the air). Some of the refugees moving into this area come from Christian villages where their families were attacked and churches burned to the ground. They are eager to help the teams of church planters to reach the larger population which has had no access to the gospel.

ONE Prayer Update: China

Crew!

The following is our most recent update from the ministry extending through our ONE Prayer partnerships in China.  Enjoy! -sj

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God’s Amazing Choice

Arthur Tian was born completely healthy, but with a hump on his back. For many years of his life Arthur felt completely useless in society. He had no purpose in life at all. Arthur was growing up secluded and reserved because of his physical appearance. Quite often people made fun of him and laughed at him. When Arthur turned 20, his parents died and he moved to live with his older brother. Later on Arthur’s older sister accepted Christ and begun to share Jesus Christ with him also.

Arthur went to church with her and discovered that people in church were different than people in this world. People in the world quite often laughed at him, but in church they showed him love and cared for him. It was here at church where Arthur for the first time in his life truly felt the love of God.

After accepting Christ as his Savior Arthur felt a deep desire to tell others around him about this newly discovered love of God. When Arthur’s parents died, they left him a small amount of money, which they were saving for their whole lives. His parents were afraid that Arthur won’t be able to provide for himself after they pass away and this money would help him a little, at least for a while. After Arthur became a Christian he spent all the money his parents left him to live on. He spent it on mission work. But God has not forgotten Arthur. God continues to bless his life.

This year God has blessed Arthur with a loving spouse, who is helping him now in his ministry of preaching the Gospel. Almost immediately after their marriage the young couple moved to a different town in China with the goal of planting a church there. In the last two months Arthur started a Bible study group and five people already have accepted Christ. PTL!

Please pray for Arthur and his ministry!

“…God chose the weak things of the world …” 1 Cor.1,27

ONE Prayer Update: Cambodia

Crew!  See the following update from our ministry partners in Cambodia for the ONE Prayer network.  Enjoy!  -sj

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Fear to Fruitfulness... the story of Pastor Saran

My life before I followed Jesus
I was born in 1965. My early years were shaped during a time of turmoil in SE Asia, including a horrible civil war in Cambodia. I had no respect for public authorities nor did I follow the laws of so

ciety. My life was lonely, full of fear, and panic. There was even one time during the civil war when I was almost killed. I wanted to kill those who were my enemy. I saw no place for forgiveness toward other people, and my life was totally without purpose. I even hated foreign religious beliefs, and I did not want them to be practiced in Cambodia. I followed the traditions of my parents and had been brought up as a Buddhist.

When I heard about JesusDuring those difficult days of my early life, I often questioned within myself whether there even was a “god”, or a place better than the earth. I wanted to know if there really was a heaven or a hell beyond this life. In 1991 a friend, who was not a follower of Jesus, told me about he had heard about someone called, Jesus Christ. I was interested in knowing more about Jesus and how His followers lived. So I looked for their meetings and attended for about three weeks. I did not understand at all what they were talking about, however, I was interested in the nice sound of the songs they sang praising to God. On the forth week of being with these followers of Jesus, I was touched in my heart when I heard them say that “Jesus can save humans from their sins”. This reminded me of a time when I was about seven years old, when I was able to read a little, I read part of a book that was saying that it was this same Jesus who created water, land, fire and wind.

I continued to meet with these people who followed Jesus, but I kept on wondering if Jesus was really a true God, and if God really existed. I also wondered what would happen to me if I became a follower of Christ. I wanted to know if others would hate me or love me. Then one day, I decided to ask a simple prayer of this God by asking Him to help me quit smoking, if he was a true God. On that very day in 1992, I felt that I did not want to smoke a cigarette at all! I was so happy because I had tried to quit smoking by myself many times, but always failed. I decided then and there to trust in Jesus as the true God. 

I made a commitment that I believed in Jesus always no matter whether others might hate me or love me. I started to tell my wife about the importance of following Jesus. I told my cousins and friends about Jesus as I wanted them to follow Jesus too.

The Call of God to Serve
I began to feel that God was calling me to serve him by telling even more people about Him. But I did not feel that I could do anything like that. I enjoyed attending the bible studies and fellowshipping with other believers, but I felt that to become a leader might be a very difficult thing for me to do. I spent all my money to buy a motorbike so I could attend bible study and worship more often. But, three months latter, someone stole it from me! I literally cried because of feeling so sad about the loss, and I wanted to know why there was such a bad thing happening to me. I even felt so ashamed about the bad thing that had happened to me, I no longer had the courage to share with my wife and others about Jesus.

Because of the shame, and sorrow of having the bike stolen, I knelt down and started to pray with tears, that if He gave me another motorbike, I would serve Him. About a week latter, I further prayed that I will serve Him forever, if He provided another motorbike for me. I started to believe that if God wanted me to serve Him, He would fulfill all my needs. Two months latter the wife of the thief who stole my motorbike came and confessed her husband’s crime. She also brought an older motorbike to us to replace the stolen one, so we did not make a complaint to the police. I accepted the old motorbike with joy and forgiveness. I then decided to start sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ with other people, and gather with believers at a friend’s house near my house.

I did not want to be the leader of the group, and I just helped to bring the new believers together to study the bible and with all my heart, I helped those who came to me for help. We met together for about six weeks, but there was still not really a leader among the ten believers. So I began leading the worship and visited the homes of the believers. I was hungry for the Word of God and I was curious to know the meaning and the good things the Word of God has for believers. I read and finished the New Testament about two times. But there were still many things I did not understand and wondered if I was really called to lead among the believers. I then met a Cambodian Christian from the US and he helped me discover many truths in God’s Word and I started to read the New Testament again with great joy and understanding. I joined with other believers to plant new churches in seven places by 1996 and as of 2008 we have grown to see churches planted in over 90 places as disciples continue to make disciples.

NOTE: Pastor Saran is a trainer and supervisor in his province for the One Prayer church planting initiative in Cambodia. There are still hundreds of unreached villages in his province without even a single believer. Pray that the Lord will bless them with an additional 25 – 30 new churches as they reach into these needy villages and that a church planting movement can begin that will spread to surrounding villages and provinces.

ONE Prayer Update: India

Crew!

Wanted to inlcude the next ONE Prayer update from Raj and our teams in India.  Enjoy! -sj

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Can a Woman Plant a Church in India?  Duh!....

India is one of the oldest civilized countries in the world, and has a rich cultural and linguistic heritage. In fact, some of the languages in India (including Tamil) are estimated to be more than 3,000 years old. However, despite its depth of tradition and culture, India continues to face the difficulty of regularly practiced traditional atrocities. One of these practices is called “Sati”. Satī is a funeral practice among some Hindu communities (now very rare and outlawed in modern India), in which a recently-widowed woman would be expected to throw herself alive onto her husband’s funeral pyre, thus dying with him in order to demonstrate that life would be unacceptable without his continued presence. This practice was condemned by William Carry and then by Indian reformers, but while it is openly denounced by Indian officials, it is still practiced in many remote villages throughout the country.

In addition, in recent centuries, and due in large part to the Dowry System (a price paid by a young woman’s family as a gift to her new husband), many families have undervalued their female children. This has paved way the regular practice of female infanticide because parents know at birth that they will be unable to care for the little girl, but will also be unable to raise a dowry to marry her when she is older. Because of this, when a female child is born, the mother or the relatives will simply kill the child. This practice continues today, and is an issue that many ONE Prayer church planters are being mobilized to engage as they plant churches in areas where infanticide rates are high.

Finally, the Indian people are divided by Caste System, which has existed in India for thousands of years. The Caste System creates a social heirarchy where certain individuals are granted greater worth than others, and thus entitled to varying levels of privilege, wealth, and even access to the gods within the Hindu pantheon. Within this Caste System, women are still regarded as “lower than men” and cannot sit or walk equally with them. They are the “oppressed among the oppressed”.

However, things started changing when the missionaries started coming to India. They taught people, protected them with laws, and helped them to succeed in life. Today in India, the Church is beginning to understand the importance of women getting involved in building the family, society, the Nation and even the Church in the light of fresh understanding from the Scripture. Many parts of our country allow women to do “evangelism” but not planting or pastoring. But in Tamilnadu, whereONE Prayer church planters are being trained, the Churches are more open and thus allow their daughters and sisters to get engaged in the ministry of the Church.

One such jewel is Pretha! She once wanted to end her life because of a tragedy that occurred in her life, but came to know the Lord through the ministry of a local Indian Church. Today, along with her, her parents have accepted Christ and are assisting her in the ministry. Her uncle, who is also a Pastor, now helps them in the planting process.

Due to recent violence and government reactions, as well as increasing legal stresses and persecution, the doors for Crusades, street preaching and tract distribution in many parts of our country are simply closed. But Pretha is following the “One to One” method of basic discipleship and small group Bible study that is seen in the Book of Acts. She hopes to baptize around 40 people in the beginning of next year. God is using her mightily among the poor people in the slum area where she works. She has a big heart for them, and ONE Prayer resources are ensuring that Pretha is well equipped for her task!

A New Leaf?

Okay, so i'm not big on Christmas.  In fact, every year at about November, i start getting an anxiety-feeling "bulge" of looming dread in the pit of my stomach that doesn't go away until sometime after the first of January.  Most of it's just "baggage" from a variety of experiences over the years, but a lot of it is that i just don't like the culture-wide "greed festing" that occurs as the result of the odd marriage of spirituality and materialism.  I actually heard a pastor one year tell the Jesus story blended with Santa Clause in such a way that it was really unclear by the end whether or not the kids should expect Jesus or Santa to barrell down their chimneys and deliver presents for Christmas morning.  Yeck!

Anyway, i'm trying to reform my ways.  Trying to change my perspective on things.  Trying to find a new way to infuse the time of year with meaning that doesn't relate to how much we can max out our credit cards on a pile of stuff no one will remember or care about in two months.  And now i'm asking for your help.  I'm betting that lots of you out there have traditions within your families or other relationships that really help you to see beauty in this season.  We're now formulating ours, and i'd love to hear your ideas.  What do you do?