January 2004 - Posts

• Burning the Past

  Drastic measures to remove the past High on the terraced hills of southwest Uganda people are coming to Christ. Pastor Elias and a group of believers from his congregation together with CBI missionary Skip Sorensen traveled west of Kabale and then an hour off the main road to conduct evangelistic services in July 2003. They also went door to door and showed the Jesus film at night. To get there they had to walk and carry all their equipment, including a generator, video projector and water. It was dry season. Way down in the valley they could see those preparing their fields for the rains. But God had already prepared his fields high up on the hillside. After the first night's showing of the Jesus film three or four people prayed to receive Christ as their Lord and Savior. Phoebe, a widow, was one of those people. And she understood what it meant to follow Christ because the next morning Phoebe came to pastor Elias and asked him to come to her house to help her get rid of some things. After her husband died, Phoebe went to the witchdoctor who instructed her how to keep her dead husband's spirit from bothering her. She was to gather bones of a chicken she had sacrificed to the evil spirits, bones of a goat, some pieces of wood and her husband's smoking pipe and bury these objects in the mud floor of two different rooms in her home. Phoebe knew that now as a believer in Christ she needed to get rid of the objects in her home to show that she was no longer trusting in the evil spirits and to show that she was really trusting Christ. Pastor Elias prayed with her, confirmed that she really understood salvation and was trusting in Christ and then asked to be shown the spots in the floor. The first was in a bedroom. Almost immediately, using a hoe, the pastor started digging up pieces of bone and wood. Then they went to the second spot, in a corridor. There two more objects were found. After carefully sifting through the dirt in both places they made a pile of things outside getting ready to burn them. Pastor Elias asked the woman if she had anything else. She said she also had grown tobacco and had the leaves drying and she knew it wasn't good to smoke. The pile grew. Finally when everything was gathered the believers added the hulls and dried sticks from the recent bean harvest to start a roaring fire. All objects from her former life were consumed. In October 2003 Phoebe and 12 others were baptized.         Posted Jan 29 2004, 02:00 AM by Transformed

• Changed by the Word

  A transformed life Paola, a girl in our church was asked to go out with Gustavo. Paola said she would be happy to but he had to talk with her pastor first. Gustavo was a bit surprised but because he really wanted to hang out with Paola he came with her to meet me. I opened my Bible to the first chapter of John and rather than talking together we read John chapter one. Gustavo asked a number of questions and left. Each week it was the same until we got to John chapter 6. Gustavo said, "I don't need to read with you any more." I asked him why and he said, "Now I believe in Jesus, you don't need to read to me any more." Gustavo has been baptized and now teaches Sunday school in our church. Posted Jan 29 2004, 02:00 AM by Transformed

• Confrontation Brings Healing

  James was a seminary intern at our church in Taiwan. He was a jokester, loud at times and through his humor he would offend some of the youth. He also tended to order them around. I had been away at a pastors' conference and just returned home when the phone rang. Yoshen, one of the older students, was calling because he had been offended by James. Grace, who had helped found the church told Yoshen to contact me. In Chinese culture and in Taiwan people are very reticent to confront and even more reticent to admit wrong. Yoshen was nervous just talking to me about the situation. I knew James had offended people in the past as well so I said that I would talk to James. But I also encouraged Yoshen to read Matthew 18, the passage that gives instruction on what to do when we are offended. I encouraged Yoshen not only to read the passage but also to study and pray about what it said. And then I encouraged him to talk to James directly. He was very scared about the thought of doing that. On both Friday and Saturday I tried to call James but could not reach him. I had wanted to talk with him before Sunday, the last day of his internship after which he would be returning to seminary. On the fifth Sunday of the month in our church the congregation shares testimonies. James was the first to get up and I was not expecting what I heard. James asked people to turn in their Bibles to Matthew 18, proceeded to say what he had learned from this passage and that Yoshen had come to talk with him. James thanked Yoshen for confronting him and asked the congregation for forgiveness. He asked that if there were others who he had offended he wanted to know so that he could ask them directly for forgiveness. God used his Word in James life for good. Posted Jan 29 2004, 02:00 AM by Transformed

• Prayers Over Time

  Overcoming the past Sophia became pregnant in 1998. She was the unmarried daughter of an Austrian woman and a man from Nicaragua. Trying to help her daughter, Sophia's mother brought her to our church. It couldn't have been a worse Sunday to come. My husband was preaching through Timothy and was talking about the role of women in the church. Sophia, as a very strong feminist, couldn't stomach the sermon and didn't come back. But her mother did come until she moved back to Nicaragua. After her mother left, Sophia began coming to our church. She said she was drawn to the church in part because she wanted a spiritual foundation for her now born son. She wanted him to have Christian influence. But Sophia just couldn't place her faith in Christ. She had trouble understanding how a God of love could allow suffering. Her father had verbally abused her and her ultimate problem was that she knew that if she were to become a Christian she would have to forgive her father and she just didn't want to do that. I told her, "God won't require you to forgive your father until God has repaired your heart." Our home assignment was coming up and I told Sophia that with her permission I was going to tell her story to every church in America in which we spoke and I was going to ask them to pray for her. And we did. The first Sunday back in Austria when I saw Sophia I knew there had been a change in her life. She was there with her mother and said, "What you were telling me, I did." She had placed her faith in Christ and she had forgiven her father. We had such a day of rejoicing the following Sunday as she told the entire church about her new faith and that she was not only able to forgive her father but love him and she was even financially supporting him. God repaired her heart to love her father. Sophia is truly changed, her heart is repaired and she is trying to share her faith with others. Posted Jan 29 2004, 02:00 AM by Transformed

• She Is No Longer Afraid

  God protects those who believe in him She was standing on the hill as the crowd came up from the water. Some of them had just been baptized. She consistently resisted those trying to get her to place her trust in Christ. She felt she had good reason not to trust in Jesus. Around her neck she wore a scraggly string necklace. The pendant was made up of a few small pieces of wood. Looking at it, it was ugly, insignificant.  But to her it was her everything. It was her god. When she wore her necklace her crops grew, she had money to put her kids in school, she seemingly prospered. But there was a high price. She had sold her soul to the evil spirits. They controlled her. She feared them and what they could do to her. That is why every time the growing group of Christians in the area encouraged her to put her trust in Christ she steadfastly refused. She was afraid. She knew the power of evil that controlled her. I was with the group coming up from the baptismal service and noticed the woman standing on the hill. I said to the group, "Why don't we share the gospel with her?" "Oh we have but she refuses to believe," was the response. Like Jesus saying, "Cast the net on the other side of the boat," I said, "Why don't we talk to her again?" And we did. And this time she agreed to place her trust in Christ. But to believe she knew she had to remove her god, and she did. And Christ was faithful. He did protect her, he has provided for her ... and she is no longer afraid. Posted Jan 29 2004, 02:00 AM by Transformed

• She Led Dozens to Christ

  It takes only one Liva was a village woman who wanted a better life. She moved to Antananarivo, Madagascar, and began looking for work. She didn't find work but she found a group of women in her area who were meeting in a small group lead by CBI missionaries. The women in the group welcomed her, loved her, read the Bible with her and she found Christ. But when she didn't find a job Liva decided she should go back home. But her village was full of people who drank and stole from each other and life was miserable there. Liva's life was changed and she wanted to share her new hope in the village. But she did not have status to teach adults so she gathered some of the kids of the village and taught them what she had learned in the city. The kids came to Christ and their lives were changed. Their lives were changed so much that the village elders noticed the difference in their children and came to the woman and asked what she was doing with them. Liva suggested that a pastor and leader from the city should come and tell them about Christ. They agreed. The men came, shared and 30 adults in the village stood and said they wanted to believe. The pastor told them all to sit down and again explained that he was asking them to come to Christ. Again the same 30 stood. A man from the city went to the village to help the new group and the believers grew to 90. Stealing and alcoholism declined dramatically in the village. In fact a teacher returned to the village and was surprised at the changes. He came to Christ and went back and started a church in his school. People from the capital came back to their place of origin as required. There they found that many in their village found Christ and changed. Those visitors went back and started a church in the capital. A simple, uneducated, unemployed, unmarried woman was used by God to reach dozens of people in her networks and saw those people come to Christ. Posted Jan 29 2004, 02:00 AM by Transformed

• Sometimes You Reap, Sometimes You Sow

  Results take time The neighbors above us in our apartment in Budapest, Hungary, started a church about 10 years ago. They meet in a local school. We sponsor a Bible club for kids in the area. There was a first grader who wanted to come to the club but she was shy. So she came with Judit, her mother, to our club. Judit listened to my poor Hungarian with the kids. But Judit didn't just listen she would help me by correcting my Hungarian and retelling the stories so that the kids could understand. Over the months our stories spread from stories in Genesis to the life of Christ. Judit and her daughter stuck with us. Judit said, "I understand more about the Bible than ever." But she was not ready to place her faith in Christ. My wife, Beverly, would visit Judit and another believing neighbor prayed for years for Judit's salvation. Within weeks of beginning our home assignment we heard that Judit had accepted the Lord as her Savior on a retreat. We rejoiced that we were able to sow and that Hungarians were able to reap. Posted Jan 29 2004, 02:00 AM by Transformed

• The Depressed Woman and the Skeptic

  The power of God's word During the summer of 2000 a woman in our congregation held a Good News Club in a commons area near our church in Rome, Italy. Each week she shared the gospel with kids. The club started with 14 kids and dwindled over the summer to just two. At that point we canceled the club. In May 2001, three women came to us asking why we were not having the club in the commons. We explained our reasons but then asked them if they wanted to join us in a Bible study. They did and for the next six months the truth of God's Word penetrated the hearts of the two who were not believers. Paula was depressed. She wanted freedom from the depression. As she studied the Bible she learned from the Bible patterns of thought that led her to her depression. The Bible studies taught her how to think better. Nicoletta was a skeptic. She was a skeptic of us, of the Bible and of God. Through the Bible studies she became convinced that Christ was true. She found that Christ indeed is the way, the truth and the life. She placed her faith in him. On Sunday, October 19, 2003, both Nicoletta and Paula were baptized. They are continuing in their faith and growing in Christ. Posted Jan 29 2004, 02:00 AM by Transformed

• The Lord Is the Answer

  A couple finds the true way Lucilia wanted to commit suicide. Her husband was on drugs and living in France and because he was not around she couldn't even divorce him. The man she was living with was cheating on her. Then she met Lenna, a believer from our church. Lenna told Lucilia that she needed the Lord. Lenna shared the gospel, read Scripture with her and Lucillia found her hunger was met in Christ. She came to faith and believed that he was her Savior. Her life changed dramatically and after a few years the man she was living with, Marcel, came also to faith. Each was able to finalize their divorces from their previous spouses. Then on one dramatic weekend Lucilia and Marcel had their civil wedding on Friday, married before the government, on Saturday both were baptized and on Sunday they had their official church wedding. Now Lucilia is especially dynamic in sharing her faith. She knows for sure that the Lord is the answer. Her life has so turned around that she wants to share the good things she has found with others. In fact a couple from Angola in our church have followed Lucilia and Marcel's example and have been baptized and married in the church. Posted Jan 29 2004, 02:00 AM by Transformed

• The Power of One

  Forgiveness brings healing James was a seminary intern at our church in Taiwan. He was a jokester, loud at times and through his humor he would offend some of the youth. He also tended to order them around. I had been away at a pastors' conference and just returned home when the phone rang. Yoshen, one of the older students, was calling because he had been offended by James. Grace, who had helped found the church told Yoshen to contact me. In Chinese culture and in Taiwan people are very reticent to confront and even more reticent to admit wrong. Yoshen was nervous just talking to me about the situation. I knew James had offended people in the past as well so I said that I would talk to James. But I also encouraged Yoshen to read Matthew 18, the passage that gives instruction on what to do when we are offended. I encouraged Yoshen not only to read the passage but also to study and pray about what it said. And then I encouraged him to talk to James directly. He was very scared about the thought of doing that. On both Friday and Saturday I tried to call James but could not reach him. I had wanted to talk with him before Sunday, the last day of his internship after which he would be returning to seminary. On the fifth Sunday of the month in our church the congregation shares testimonies. James was the first to get up and I was not expecting what I heard. James asked people to turn in their Bibles to Matthew 18, proceeded to say what he had learned from this passage and that Yoshen had come to talk with him. James thanked Yoshen for confronting him and asked the congregation for forgiveness. He asked that if there were others who he had offended he wanted to know so that he could ask them directly for forgiveness. God used his Word in James life for good. Posted Jan 29 2004, 02:00 AM by Transformed

• They Find Christ Inside

  The provision of a church building The Duruma People live scattered over hundreds of semiarid square miles in Southeast Kenya and Northwest Tanzania. At the most only two percent of the over 200,000 Duruma would call themselves Christians. The rest are predominately spirit worshipers. Because of their dry land and their spirit worship, their lives are hard. But those who follow God have peace, freedom and don't have to endure capricious acts against them by evil powers. Samuel Mwanza is a Duruma. He also has a heart for God. CBI missionaries Bill and Mary Ellen Stroup first came in contact with Samuel. He was looking for work in the Kenyan coastal town of Mombasa so that he could make enough money to marry the woman he loved. Samuel earned some money by cutting the grass, tending the flowers and gardening for Bill and Mary Ellen. Many weekends Samuel would go to his home area, called Sapo, not only to get to see his future bride but to gather a few friends and family to worship the true God as best they could. For years the group of 15-20 people gathered in the end of a pump house. But as they worshiped God and read his Word, their knowledge of God, his love, his goodness and how to follow him increased. Samuel also attended the BTCP (Bible Training Center for Pastors). One day Samuel came to CBI missionary Tim Okken and asked if CBI could help the Sapo believers get a better church building and not have to meet in a dilapidated pump house. Tim replied that he would write to his supporters and if God motivated some to give he would help them with the building.   They were only given $100, hardly enough to even start on a building. Samuel and his small group stayed faithful. They continued to meet and Samuel continued to learn.  Over a year Samuel studied 10 TEE (Theological Education by Extension) books with other Duruma rural pastors. Now Samuel is one of the most biblically trained church leaders in Duruma Land. In 2001 Tim and Jan Okken again thought about the small but dedicated groups of believers at Sapo. They also realized that they had a year before their next home assignment. Maybe this time they could help the Sapo believers in getting a building. Tim and Jan sent out an e-mail. This time they were given $5,000, enough to build a very nice church building. So Tim helped the believers build the building and they went home on their home assignment. In the fall of 2003 Tim again visited the Sapo church. He was surprised and pleased to find 80 people regularly meeting with Samuel in the new building. Tim commented, "In this area where people live in houses built of mud sticks and grasses, it does seem that God uses a nice building to help people find Christ. People come to the nice building but they stay because they find Christ inside." Posted Jan 29 2004, 02:00 AM by Transformed