Project North Africa

The Oakland A’s got a new GM a few years back named Billy Beane who has totally turned the program around from the bottom to the top of the pack. At the top of the list of changes he has made is that he questioned all traditional wisdom about baseball. What he found is that batting average is not all it is cracked up to be. Instead, through crunching some numbers he determined that the on-base average (a stat not even found on the back of the Topps cards) leads to a better team winning average though the batting average makes the individual player seem more impressive. So, he started hiring batters who knew how to get walked. They came cheaper got more done. Many felt threatened though, at the beginning.

So what about in your church? Have you ever noticed how we send our best young men off to bible colleges where they are often judged by their outward appearance? How do they look in a suit and part their hair? Do they sing well in the big choir and  learn to obey all the rules to the “t”? Do they accept with exuberance the indefensible pet doctrines of the institution making sure to blow the whistle on any dissident who dares to question the biblically of it all? The whole time it doesn’t seem to bother anybody that the guy has no original ideas, has never discipled anyone, and is often viewed as a complete Pharisee by his peers who watch him when the president of the college isn’t.

Fast forward to the mission field and the values that mattered back in the states are of little importance. Nobody cares how the guy looks with a part in his slick hair or if he would pass a white glove inspection of the dorms. Now the habit of questioning everything pays off as the missionary makes disciples who don’t come from the same christian background. He has biblical answers not a notebook from Dr. Bottlestopper. Now the ability to disciple men through moral failures becomes much more important than the ability to spot a rule being broken from a mile away and apply the appropriate demerits. Now his ability to sing a solo matters little compared to his ability to find and test new ways of outreach in his antagonistic environment. Before it mattered how silently he followed but now it matters how well he can lead. In this position on the field where no one is looking or cheering, the missionary that fails is the guy who was always striving for recognition. The guy who seemed to care a little too little about the opinions of others keeps going with bull-dog like determination.

So do you know how to identify those guys with the skill set that matters? What are some skills that are overemphasized in a young missionary trainee? What are some of the real skills to look for a develop?

South Sudan became the world’s newest country on July 9, 2011. For more information on that you can read A New Flag Raised: South Sudan Celebrates Birth by clicking on it!

I got the following notes from missionary Keith Shumaker who serves in Burkina Faso.

As most of you know, I had the unique opportunity to go to South Sudan.

South Sudan is the newest country in the world. They got their independence in July.

They were ravaged by war for many years. Over 2 and half million were killed in the war. The stories of war are terrible.

While there we passed out thousands of tracts. Lead some people to the Lord on the street. It wasn’t a quick pray after me. We could have had hundreds of those.

They love Americans. If you see the president he always wears a cowboy hat. George Bush gave it to him.

I have never seen a country with more of an open door than South Sudan. The country is now being built. The door will probably not be as open in 5-10 years.

It many times bothers me that the Jehovah Witnesses and other groups are already there and we aren’t.

The opportunity is unreal.

It really needs a missionary with the right training, vision and good work ethic.

There should be a video of our trip coming out soon. I will let you know about it.

Please pray that God would raise someone up to work in this needy country.

What a strong plea for workers! Would you please pray about being the man to go?

The following came from wikipedia:

The transitional constitution recognized English as the official language of the new republic, cementing the belief that English is a global lingua franca that can encourage development and differentiate South Sudan from Sudan where Arabic is the primary language. With more than 40 ethnic groups, South Sudan is very linguistically diverse. Perhaps in choosing English as the official language of the new republic, South Sudan can avoid the problems of a nation like Morocco, where classical Arabic is the official language, the local population speaks the Moroccan Arabic dialect of Darija, and the elite use French and English in the halls of government.

The following came in another email:

I of course don’t speak Arabic so I don’t really know but we passed out many tracts in arabic. A decent number asked for the Arabic tracts.

After we ran out of English and were just passing out Arabic, many got upset with us. Saying we don’t want Arabic here, we want English. They truly dislike what the Muslim north did to them and I don’t blame them.

Supposedly Bid Laden practiced chemical stuff on the kids in the hospital, killing many of them.

This country will call for a very strong family that is willing to pay the price. Would you consider praying for this country? Project North Africa is looking for a man that will step up and go? Read and see if this challenges you or discourages you!

I do want to say that the climate was dry and warm. Not quite as bad as Burkina but hot.

It is one of the most expensive towns in the world. Housing is terrible but I think in 5 years it will get better. social groups and government groups are paying a huge amount for housing/hotels and stuff.

It would be a tougher than Burkina in my opinion. It will change and probably be better after many years but it will take awhile.

Ministry would be great, life for many would be tough. Just wanted to be honest if somebody was interested.

I would go in a heartbeat if I wasn’t already in needy country and a ministry that God is blessing. I still feel peace about Burkina and the needs here are great.

If anybody wants to talk about it, I am available and would be willing to help in any way that I can. I am burdened about the need and country and don’t want us Independent Baptists to miss the opportunity that God has given us.

I hope as you read this that God has burdened your heart. Will you go? Will you make a difference in a very needy place? I would love to hear from you!

China seems to have two faces.

Face #1: Five years ago I went to a northern city in China and heard about how dangerous it is to be a Christian in this communist country. I only stayed three days so I didn’t have time to visit the any house churches but I remember the impending sense of doom I felt when we flew out. Going along with this face presented to us are a few common threads that I hear repeated from many who have a similar surface experience with China like I do:

1. Bibles must be smuggled into China.
2. Foreigners cannot participate directly with house churches.
3. There are cameras and microphones everywhere. A word can’t be spoken without it being heard by The Party. Therefore, don’t use words like Jesus, church, missionary, Gospel, etc. or someone will go to jail.
4. Chinese leaders must be bi-vocational (since their vocation as preacher would be too easily known) and can only be trained in secret, remote locations.
5. The churches must meet in secret locations and stay silent.

Face #2: Last week I returned to the same city in Northern China and saw more than just a little different face. I attended a house church on Sunday and spent the week teaching three young men who are training to be pastors. I noticed the following themes at this church:

1. All the Bibles they used were bought from the local Christian bookstore and Three Self Church. They cost $2 and were bought in bulk. When the police interviewed the pastors last month it was a positive that they used the same Bibles since it helped to identify them not as a cult but as a genuine Christian church. (The police don’t like cults but assume that Christians are peaceable people not trying to cause trouble.)
2. The pastor and founder of the church was an American friend of mine. For four years they have had summer interns and other foreigners participating for the church. The Sunday I was there there were six foreigners present not including my wife and myself who were just visiting.
3. The church sang loudly about Jesus. Eighty people strong packed into an office space with an overflow room with a closed circuit TV showing the preacher. Earlier last week I was in Beijing and asked my taxi driver through a translator if he was Christian like me. He enthusiastically told me that he is and that he attends a house church since it’s closer to his house. He called me his brother and gave me a big hug. No hint of fear from cameras.
4. The preacher that day was a Chinese young man who had been trained by the missionary. I spent two days speaking about discipleship with three Chinese men who have all left secular employment to be trained for ministry. They have all told their family and friends and the police, in fact, what their profession of calling is.
5. The church passed out thousands of invitations with their churches address printed on it. They had a number of visitors that way. They are right now in search of a second location to start another church out of that church. I went with them to the real-estate agent whom they informed that they were looking for a place to rent to study the Bible in.

So here are some common solutions in our Western minds to this duplicity:

1. There must a different amount of persecution in different regions of this huge country.
-While this may be true to an extent, I don’t believe this is the reason since I saw both attitudes in the same city. There are over 200 missionaries teaching English in this same city where I went to church all operating under the first face I saw five years ago. They don’t go to church. They call themselves macaroni’s and not missionaries. They are afraid. They have little or no fruit.

2. Someone is lying
-While it is true that there are lazy missionaries and opportunistic nationals in every country I have been to who would love to make a profit from fantastic stories of persecution, this is hardly the norm. Most Christian pastors and missionaries are good men who are not lying. So, again, this may be part of the problem but certainly a small part and not the major reason for the disparity.

3. Fear gets more press than Faith
-This, as you might guess, is what I think lies at the cause of these two faces. In Numbers 13 twelve men were sent to spy out the land that God had promised to Israel. Ten men told all the people who had not yet seen the land of how dangerous it was. Their testimony was full of “can’t”. Two men tried to still the people and beg them to listen. Though it was true, the people were strong, it was also true (and perhaps true-er) that God’s power was greater. They were confident that the people should go in and take the land. After hearing the testimonies from both sides, the people wept. They had not listened when faith had spoken. Fear gets better press than faith. People love stories of fear and danger.

Below you can read their story:

And they went and came to Moses, and to Aaron, and to all the congregation of the children of Israel, unto the wilderness of Paran, to Kadesh; and brought back word unto them, and unto all the congregation, and shewed them the fruit of the land. 27 And they told him, and said, We came unto the land whither thou sentest us, and surely it floweth with milk and honey; and this is the fruit of it. 28 Nevertheless the people be strong that dwell in the land, and the cities are walled, and very great: and moreover we saw the children of Anak there. 29 The Amalekites dwell in the land of the south: and the Hittites, and the Jebusites, and the Amorites, dwell in the mountains: and the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and by the coast of Jordan. 30 And Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it. 31 But the men that went up with him said, We be not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we. 32 And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature. 33 And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.
Chapter 14:1 And all the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night.

The choice, then, is not about which reality is true but how will we chose to act. Will we go in boldly and take the land? Or will we have faint hearts and timid mouths?