Carpathian Mountain Outreach

This week my focus has been helping my brother prepare for a two month mission trip to Ukraine, to be part of the Carpathian Mountain Outreach. He is leaving bright and early Monday morning and there are a thousand final details to cover before such a lengthy trip. I'm so excited for him. Matthew will be working with missionaries Joshua and Kelsie Steele. This young couple is an absolute inspiration to me of missionaries with a vision for discipleship, for the people of Ukraine, but also for mentoring other young people serious about missions.

The Carpathian Mountain Outreach is unique, in that it is only for young men with a focused interest in learning about and participating in mission evangelism. Team members will have a full week of Ukrainian language instruction before going out. During the trip they will minister through film, chalk talks with open air preaching, one-on-one witnessing, and literature distribution. Matthew is excited to be participating as the team Gospel Chalk Artist.

So many people and places need our prayer. The Carpathian Mountain Outreach will be one of those places in my heart this summer, that God would guide, enable, and raise up young men with a missionary heart. If you are interested in getting updates about the Carpathian Mountain Outreach, you can subscribe here. They will be documenting God at work throughout the summer.

Pray for Nepal

Lots is going on politically in Nepal right now. Today in a speech, King Gyanendra announced that he would give up absolute power and relinquish authority back to the people.

Wow! This could be very significant for religious rights in Nepal. Let's pray that Nepalese Christians will set a good example of honoring the government during this turmoil. Pray God would use these political transitions to bring relief from persectution for Christians. And if not relief at this time, strength to stand strong.

Jonathan and Rosalind Goforth

The Urbana Today website always carries fresh articles about the global mission movement, particularly geared in bite size pieces for young adults. They have a 2 part feature this week on the life of missionaries Jonathan and Rosalind Goforth, Canadian missionaries to China. Reading such a life testimony makes me cry out afresh that God would continue to raise up more such men and women who are passionately in love with Jesus Christ.

Purusing more about his life today I read that Mr. Goforth had a list of 7 goals for his daily life written on the fly-leaf of his Bible. His love for Jesus Christ was fervant and he didn't want anything to hinder that relationship; these goals certainly helped safe guard and continually grow His relationship with Christ.

1. Seek to give much -- expect nothing.
2. Put the very best construction on the actions of others.
3. Never let a day pass without at least a quarter of an hour spent in the study of the Bible.
4. Never omit daily morning and evening private prayer and devotion.
5. In all things seek to know God's Will and when known obey at any cost.
6. Seek to cultivate a quiet prayerful spirit.
7. Seek each day to do or say something to further Christianity among the heathen.
   

Such goals should have a place in all our lives, don't you think?

Looking unto Jesus,

Christie

Maps and Missions - The last in a Series

“Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few; Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.” Matthew 9:37-38

Putting up a map in a visible location reminds us to pray continually for the Lord of the Harvest to send out more laborers.

Even if for no other reason, putting up a map in a visible location remind us to pray CONTINUALLY for the Lord of the Harvest to send out MORE laborers. Incredibly, it is not just our Christian duty, but our privilege to cooperate with the LORD of the Universe in prayer to send out more laborers.

What type of laborers should we pray for? I’ve been trying to learn from some of my mentors about this, and here are a few ideas I've gleaned…

• Men and women of a pure heart who can be clear vessels for service
• Men and women of hunger and thirst for prayer and the Word
• Those with a heart for discipleship and hospitality
• Men and women that will lay aside the things that hinder and run with eternal focus
  Long-term laborers
• Whole families with a heart to serve together and role model Biblical relationships.
• "Even so, here I am, send me"

You can find more excellent and specific ideas for praying for Harvest Workers here. I still have so much to learn about effectual and fervent praying. But I'm inspired and awed to keep learning, because the effectual and fervent intercessions of righteous men and women do avail much with God. He hears the intercession for more labors and delights to answer for His glory. That's why we must keep petitioning, “Lord, teach us to pray.”

Let your map be a tool for asking the LORD to thrust forth laborers into the fields.

Maps and Missions - Part 5 of 7

Why Maps?-Reason #5 of 7

Looking at maps can easily be turned into an enriching game for children to teach them about missions, geography, history, and government in God’s wild and wonderful world.

“Who can find Brazil first?”
“Who can find China. This country has many who still don't know Jesus?”
“Who can find the country of Sudan? It’s in Africa.”

A map is an ever ready game board.

As adults, our goal is to joyfully teach children about the world, and particularly about what is God is doing around the world, in such a way that gives them a hunger to learn more. Short and fast stints in front of the map stir natural curiosity.

Try it today with some children in your family or church and see what a simple resource it is for teaching children to have a heart for the world. Not because the map itself is anything spectacular, but because your own enthusiasm for the world spills over in your conversations around the map.

A Milepost or a Fork?

Missionary Jim Elliot once said, “Father, make of me a crisis man. Bring those I contact to decision. Let me not be a milepost on a single road; make me a fork, that men must turn one way or another on facing Christ in me.”

What a marvelous question to ask ourselves, and prayfully examine our heart with.

Maps and Missions #4

Why Use Maps to Grow you Missionary Heart?-Reason #4

Maps make a great conversation starter for turning a conversation towards the Great Commission.

As a mission mobalizer, supporter, missionary-in-training, your and my responsibility is to help bring relevance to God at work around the world. We are part of the network of bringing the news home in such a way that compels people to make a choice to be involved.

Unfortunately, beyond the war headlines, most people don’t keep up with international news and geography. I think mostly, because it doesn’t seem to be relevant. At least that’s my temptation, and I have to work against it.

Maps became a spring-board resource that never wears out for sharing prayer requests and action points with those we come in contact with. They allow us to share this information in a way that is both memorable and practical, particularly because it is hands-on.

In order for maps to work as a conversation starter, howerever, they have to be accessible in the conversation centers of your home, such as a living room, dining room, and bedroom. They also need to be big enough to read and examine. If you have to use a magnifying glass to read, it probably will only rarely be looked at. I’ve also found that up-to-date world globes and attractive coffee table atlases are great resources too, allowing flexibility to pass around and carry with you.

There are some fabulous, yet inexpensive maps available online, but I’ll talk more about that in another post. You can also get quality world maps from your local bookstore, rolled carefully in a tube and ready for mounting.

Map It:
Try using a map as a conversation starter about world missions with a friend or family member this evening. Check out a local national headline and share some of what you find out with your family this evening. Point out where that news is happening on your world map. The more you do this, the more natural it will become. You will be blessed to keep at it as you see the new understanding and global interest that spreads from using this simple resource. I'd love to hear your feedback on maps, so let me know what you think.

Getting Organized?

Have you ever seen a quality day timer that helps focus you on missions every day? Well I've come across one recently on the net, produced for the past 25 years in conjunction with Youth With a Mission. It's still not too late in the year to get organized and pick up this fabulous YWAM Personal Prayer Diary / Daily Planner .

The YWAM bookshop describes it as a:

• "Practical planner / organizer with all the customary planning and tracking aids (weekly and monthly spreads, note sections, etc.)
• Marvelous tool to inspire and inform your devotional life with a strong missions emphasis, containing a Bible reading plan, illustrated unreached peoples profiles, prayer points, maps, country profiles, and more."

Because we are a few months into the year already, YWAM is selling these at some great discounted prices, as low as $12. It's not that I'm trying to sound like a sales person, I just want to share mission resources as I come across them.

So, if you've been planning to get a daytime for awhile and still looking around for just the right one, you may want to consider this YWAM mission/prayer edition. May God use it to bring Him glory.

Bibles Unbound!

Here is an opportunity for an outreach delivering Bibles to persecuted people, right from your own home in America. I think this it would be especially great for children to be involved in because it allows hands on participation. Bibles Unbound, sponsored by Voice of the Martyrs sends you the names and addresses, as well as Bibles and packaging, for you to personally send into restricted areas such as China, Columbia, and Egypt. Check out their web site for more details.

Maps as a Mission Resource - Part 3

Why Maps?-Reason #3

Maps remind us that God has made a wonderful and intricate world for us to explore and take dominion of.



"And God saw that it was good." Gen 1:10

Isn't our universe an amazing display of God's creativity and power? Scientist and explorers will never come to the end of new discoveries and natural mysteries. From the depths of the sea, to the heights of snow capped mountains, God created beauty and order in a way that reflects His character. "The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament showeth His handiwork." Ps 19:1

Sin has marred the original beauty and perfect creation, but it has not eradicated God's fingerprint. Every mountain, island, and ocean current reveals its Designer. "There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard," Ps 19:3.

The Psalms of David reveal the beautiful balance between enjoying God's creation, praising Him in it, and in desiring the nations to be reached with God's truths. We don't have to decide between the three. All three go togeter.

After all, in learning about the intricacies of the Design, don't we come to know the Designer more. Shouldn't Christians be the most curious scientists and explorers? Shouldn't all our explorations and curiosity for God's creation only compel us to be ever more vocal about sharing His glory among those who don't know how to explain the design all around them? Looking at a map can keeps that curiosity fresh. May it be for His glory.

Map It:
Explore your map for some new mountains or rivers you have never heard of. If you can, take a moment to look it up on the Internet and learn something about it. Praise God for the beauty and design He plants even in the most unexpected places. Notice in the Psalms (such as Ps 97:6, and Ps 98: 7-9) how King David, under Holy Spirit inspiration, combined the majesty of God's creation, with compelling prayers for the nations. Pray that God will use His creation to prepare many hearts to hear the Gospel, especially in those regions where He has not yet been named.

Giving that Makes a Difference

"You can give without loving. But you cannot love without giving." -- Amy Carmichael, missionary to India

Maps as a Mission Resource-Reason #2

Maps keep the world before our eyes and remind us that the task of spreading the Gospel is far from finished.

Particularly, look at the 10/40 window, that vast expanse of population between the 10 and 40th parallel that contains the majority of the world’s still unreached people groups. It encompasses the most heavily populated countries in the world, including China, India and the Middle East. It contains over 70% of the world's people but only 8% of the missionary efforts.


Spending even 5 minutes looking at the countries in the 10/40 window is enough to stir my heart. The 10/40 window is not just mission’s terminology; it is made up of real places, real people, and souls precious to God.

It is way too easy to become complacent living an average Christian life in America. But when I look at my world map each night, hanging just above my bed, the Holy Spirit reminds me that the task ahead is still so big, life so short, and God’s glory so magnificent, that Christians must not compromise, give up, or loose heart before finishing the assignment.

Map It:
Take a moments with a world map to familiarize yourself with the 10/40 window is and what countries are located there. Here are some facinating facts about this region. Do you know any missionaries working over there? Pray for them today. Pray the Lord will send workers into His Harvest.