OBEY, BE CAREFUL

PRAY WITH ME FOR AFRICA: Tanzania is about 20% Evangelical and growing, over 30% Muslim and about 13% Ethnoreligionist (tribal religious practices). There is a strong focus on planting new churches and reaching the lost. The maturity of the church has been limited by a lack of biblical teaching and a focus on choirs rather than discipleship. Please pray for both the expansion and maturity of the church in Tanzania.

Sometimes you have to dig deep to find a diamond. I have been reading through the mountain of civil and ceremonial and moral laws in Leviticus and found these verses:
The Lord said to Moses, "Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘I am the Lord your God. You must not do as they do in Egypt, where you used to live, and you must not do as they do in the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you. Do not follow their practices. You must obey my laws and be careful to follow my decrees. I am the Lord your God. Keep my decrees and laws, for the person who obeys them will live by them. I am the Lord.'"
As God's chosen people Israel was to reflect the image of God to the surrounding nations. That was the purpose of all the rules and laws given to them. They were to be a holy people, not bearing the  image of Egypt from which they were delivered, nor the image of Canaan to which they were going, but bearing the image of the Lord, their God. As God's people they were not to do as the Canaanites did, nor to follow their practices. They were to obey God's laws and be careful to follow all of God's decrees and display the glory of God. Why? Two reasons - I am the Lord your God; You will live by following these laws and decrees.
As a believer, God and His Word are the authority over all of your life and mine. By humbly submitting in obedience to the Holy Spirit to the clear teaching of the Word of God we acknowledge that the Lord is God and we display the glory of God to those around us, and we find the fullness of life we were created for. May we be most careful in our study of God's Word and in prayer, in our living and obedience, in all the choices that we make, to display the glory of God and to enjoy the fullness of God.

Good Articles This Week:
You Do Not Have Much Time

PHILIPPINES 2018 TRIP REVIEW - CANADIAN STUDENTS

PRAY WITH ME FOR AFRICA: This week we begin a prayer focus on the country of Tanzania, one of the more populated countries on the continent of Africa with 55 1/2 million people and growing more quickly than other African countries. Swahili and English are the two official languages. TLI is teaching courses in Tanzania. This is a very poor country but has a stable democratic government. Find Tanzania on a map and pray for the growth of the church in Tanzania.

One of the great privileges and a great joy on my last few trips has been to connect with Calvary Christian School in St Catharines, where my grandkids attend, and to share emails and videos with a particular class, and for the class to interact with my TLI students. Here are a couple of videos from my trip to the Philippines. The last video is the video the class sent to Liberia in December.

Video from my class in the Philippines to class in St Catharines. (click on link)
My Philippines class really enjoyed this interaction.

Video from St Catharines to Philippine class.

My Philippines class responded with a long video to answer their questions and I learned a few things myself about the Philippine culture.

Video from St Catharines to Liberia December 2017.

 The snow amazed my students in Liberia.
I am praying that through these videos some of these students will have a heart for worldwide missions.

Good articles this week:
US Christian Baker wins Supreme Court case

Yemen war: Saudi-backed forces begin threatened attack on key port of Hodeidah

  

Some thoughts from a missionary friend who has served in the middle east for over 25 years

Hi Ron,

Thanks for the fellowship. I enjoyed your insights on your blog. (June 12). The tragedy of Africa where so many call themselves Christians and yet there is so much obvious bondage to Satan and his ways. This has challenged me a lot over the past few years.

I think it is somewhat the mistake of missionaries who sought to see tribal leaders come to Christ as a way to lead whole tribes to Christ. The end result is Christian tribes who are not transformed by Jesus. I don’t want to do the same thing in the Arabic Muslim world. No discipleship probably is a contributing factor.

I asked one African church leader and he said that we foreigners who brought the gospel didn’t understand the culture when we discipled them. He said that Africans were oral and that all the discipleship material was written; with written Biblical truths and then questions to be answered. He says the nationals learned the correct answers to the questions but never understood the truths because they didn’t have an oral story to illustrate the truth from their own context.

The disaster for missions in Africa I don’t think is being taken into consideration as we teach the new generation of missionaries how to reach new communities with the Gospel. Maybe the closed countries will have a more authentic church than Africa which was wide open to missionary involvement.

The stranglehold of tribalism on people’s lives was never broken in Africa. People never entered the tribe of Jesus because missionaries never told them that Jesus had a tribe. (Jesus introducing His Kingdom in the Gospels indicates that Jesus was talking tribal truths to people living in a tribal culture.)

Thanks again Ron for being a faithful brother

PHILIPPINES TRIP REVIEW - STUDENTS AND GRADUATES

PRAY WITH ME FOR AFRICA: Pray for the Christian Church in the Congo (DRC). The Church is the only viable national social structure to survive and retain some credibility. The Church is the hope for Congo's future. The Church needs revival, Biblical teaching, separation from syncretism, and decentralized leadership, while maintaining unity. Pray for the Church of the Congo and its leadership.

Last week I focused on Travel and Food but what is most important are the Pastors that came for training with Training Leaders International (TLI). A number of these Pastors travel a long distance to attend these classes. TLI's aim is to teach these Pastors to focus on the Bible text and find in that text the main idea that God was communicating to the original audience, and then from the text to develop a sermon outline that supports the main idea, and then to apply that main idea and the supporting points to their particular circumstances, with the understanding that Jesus is the subject of all Scripture and that each text is part of the whole Bible story. As teachers we encourage the Pastors to ask questions of the text and to see the text in its wider context of the Bible book and the whole Bible, which is not a common practice in their culture. I was encouraged to see progress in the exegesis of these Pastors from year to year and trust that the church will mature and grow under the leadership of authoritative biblical preaching of these Pastors.

My class of 13 students

After attending the nine courses taught over the last three years these Pastors celebrated a graduation which for them was a very special occasion. Each student worked very hard and was challenged to go beyonout of their comfort zone.

I am the puny little white guy sitting down :)

Graduation song

Thank you again for your support and prayers for these Pastors.

Good Articles this Week:
This week I would like to recommend two books by John Piper
1) Future Grace: The purifying power of living by future grace
2) Let the Nations Be Glad: The supremacy of God in missions
You will be richly rewarded in reading these books.

Flashfloods in Metro Manila a 'wake-up call,' eco group says | Inquirer

 (Garbage is very evident in Manila and is common sight and as mentioned in the article a problem when it rains)

PHILIPPINES 2018 TRIP REVIEW - TRAVEL AND FOOD

PRAY WITH ME FOR AFRICA: The Democratic Republic of Congo is experiencing an outbreak of Ebola in the province of Equateur. Pray that this outbreak will be contained. About 57 cases have been confirmed so far. Here is a quote from Operation World, "The powerful spiritual evil that presides over much of the land manifests in many ways, beyond civil wars, killing, tribalism, greed and corruption. Systematic rape, unspeakable mutilation and brutality, cannibalism and witchcraft and occult practices are evil enough. Practicing them against children as well as accusing tens of thousands of children of witchcraft (often as a pretext for abuse and abandonment) defies comprehension. That these horrors are so endemic in a land over 90% professing Christians is baffling, heart-rending and a call to spiritual warfare. Cry out for God to deliver this land, binding the spirits that exercise such wicked control over the suffering people."

The Team - Dick, Ron, Pat and Larry

Over the next few weeks I want to share with you some pictures and thoughts from my trip to the Philippines. I want to begin by thanking all of you who prayed and supported this trip. Without you this trip would not have happened and would not have been fruitful. Even this morning I am reaping the rewards of your prayers because I have experienced no jet lag upon my return to Canada. I have had two full nights of uninterrupted sleep and my body clock is fully adjusted back to this time zone. I did struggle with the twelve hour time difference when in the Philippines but did manage to sleep in until 4:30 one morning. First order of business upon getting up - make coffee. My roommate Larry brought along an electric kettle and I had the coffee. This was my second trip with Larry, a Pastor from Minneapolis. We have way too much fun together and are much too loud with our laughter in public.

Larry concentrating on pouring coffee at 3 am

The flight and all connections and the truck ride to our destination - Digos City on the island of Mindanao and return to Welland, a combined distance of over 16,000 miles, did not encounter any difficulties. Join me on a quick trip from the hotel to our teaching site (click video below).

One team member did not get his suitcase upon landing but did eventually get it 3 days later. Our accommodations were comfortable and the food at the hotel was suitable but with limited variety. The food provided at lunch by our host Pastor Levi was exceptional both in variety and taste, from squid and shrimp and beef and chicken to assorted fruit and vegetables. Sometimes during our break the students would go out and get some fried bananas coated with a sweet shell, eaten while still hot. Absolutely delicious. The team stayed healthy for the whole trip.

Fried bananas with sweet coating

We ended the teaching with a graduation ceremony on Friday, celebrating the completion of 9 courses over 3 years. The graduation was very encouraging to all the students and to us as well. The fatted pig was killed and roasted.

 

The feast was enjoyed by all.

  

 Next week I will share about the students and my class.

Good Articles This Week:

Pray for our persecuted brothers and sisters

MAURITANIA: Penalties for Apostasy Increased

Source: The Voice of the Martyrs USA

Christians in Mauritania are concerned about recent changes to the laws regarding religious conversion. On April 27th, the Mauritanian National Assembly approved changes to increase the penalty for apostasy.
According to the new regulations, the death penalty is now mandatory for those convicted of "blasphemous remarks" or "sacrilegious acts." Further, those found guilty of "the breach of prohibitions prescribed by Allah or the facilitation of their non-compliance," or "outrage to public decency and the values of Islam," can face a prison sentence of up to two years, along with a fine.

Pray that these legal changes will not cause the Christians in Mauritania to succumb to fear, but rather to rally together with increased spiritual fervor, unity and intercession for the good of their nation and fellow citizens. Despite the new restrictions, may those seeking truth not be deterred but further encouraged to pursue a personal relationship with our Lord Jesus who ultimately reigns supreme over all.

Quote from Let The Nations be Glad by John Piper
Life is war. That's not all it is. But it is always that. Our weakness in prayer is owing largely to our neglect of this truth. Prayer is primarily a wartime walkie-talkie for the mission of the church as it advances against the powers of darkness and unbelief. It is not surprising that prayer malfunctions when we try to make it a domestic intercom to call upstairs for more comforts in the den. God has given us prayer as a wartime walkie-talkie so that we can call headquarters for everything we need as the kingdom of Christ advances in the world. Prayer gives us the significance of frontline forces and gives God the glory of limitless Provider. The one who gives the power gets the glory. Thus, prayer safeguards the supremacy of God in missions while linking us with the endless grace for every need.