Author: missionspaul

Desert

Today I go to Namibia.
Namibia, where 80% of the country is made up of desert.
Somewhere in that desert apparently is Kolmanskop, a town thriving with German miners at one stage but now is run-down and empty of people. Once there was a bustle of excited miners seeking their fortune with the diamonds that were being discovered. Now, no one. In fact tourists do come, but they now come to view the houses sinking into the desert. The desert is swallowing Kolmanskop.
I won’t have time to visit but it would be a good visit I am sure.

The Bible has lots to say about deserts. I won’t be reading today Proverbs 21:19, okay I lie, I did! But I certainly won’t be referring to that, not at all!

We all find ourselves in a desert at some point, we know what that feels like. A desert experience with God, at work, with our partner. I had coffee recently with a couple who were in this desert. Sadly, the desert is doing to them what the Namib desert is doing to Kolmanskop. They are sinking. They are not what they used to be.

How can you survive the desert?
1. Expect God to guide you through it, Jeremiah 2:6
2. Know you are not unknown. God does care, Hosea 13:5
3. Use the time to prepare for your future in God, Matthew 3:3
4. Resist the temptations that will be there, Matthew 4:1
5. Use this time to grow, Luke 1:80

Now let’s turn to Proverbs 21:19 …. only joking!

Stories

Leaders travelling from 600km away to receive training.
New Children’s centre about to be completed.
People being saved despite the Ebola disease.
New churches being planted.
Growth in language learning.
New people attending church services.
Young people changing their lives.
One man committing his life to Christ.
People signing up for evangelism courses.
Muslim and Buddhist children hearing of Jesus.
English language lessons doubled in size.
Unity amongst the churches standing in faith and prayer.
A new church building started to be built.

Just a day in the life of our Elim missionaries who shared together on the skype hubs yesterday.

Habakkuk 2:14 says “For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea”.

The news is bad news. Christians are dying. The Church is suffering. But God says the WHOLE earth will be filled with the knowledge of Gods glory.
This is Gods will.
His intention.
His plan.
So let’s keep telling the stories of what He is doing.

Graveyards and dishwashers

My office overlooks a lovely country church with a graveyard. I have never paid much attention to the graveyard until today.

Yesterday the manager of our Children’s centre in Cambodia was visiting where I work for her first time. Looking out of the window she was amazed at the graveyard. She has only seen them here in our nation.
Yesterday she took pictures of herself and our other project leader standing in front of a dishwasher! Again amazed at this brilliant and essential invention.
Graveyards and dishwashers.
Culturally acceptable for us. In fact it is only when they are confronted by those who are strangers to them that they stand out for us.

But how do we survive culture?

Jeremiah 29:4-9
Going into a different culture can be quite stressful and we can be anxious however ….

v4 God is still speaking from within a different culture.
v5 Build, settle, plant and eat = learn to live within a different culture.
v6 Marry …. Increase, let your children be born in a different culture.
v7 Pray for those within a different culture.
v8 Don’t let things within a different culture deceive you.

The morning of 10 sept 1984 9.05pm

“My life changed”

These are the words of Professor Sir Alex Jeffreys. He discovered that a human DNA could produce consistent patterns that could be traced to identify relatives.

The ITV drama, ‘The code killer’, recently told of the story of how Jeffreys discovery was then later used in criminal cases to reveal the guilty.
This DNA fingerprinting would be used 2 years later in a gruesome double murder plot that would reveal the killer.

As the drama unfolds we see such strong clinical working by Jeffreys.
We are shown an individual who was passionately on a journey of discovery. This resulted in many failures but he realised that every failure was one more step nearer success. He sacrificed much. Until one morning he said the words, “My life changed.”

These are epiphany moments.
You know where you were and what you were doing. But news came or you finished your project, that breakthrough came, and your life changed for the good and for ever.
There are many chasing breakthroughs. Breakthrough conferences. Breakthrough teachings. But actually breakthrough comes after hard work that is persistent and faithful, where sacrifice is known. It is not these kind of breakthroughs that people are wanting, but more a hand-out.
Noah had a breakthrough but he had to build a boat.
Moses had a breakthrough but he had to stand against Pharoah.
David had a breakthrough but he had to go into the battlefield to face Goliath.
The list could go on.
People who experience breakthroughs are the ones who work hard.

Micah 2: 12-13

Today your life could change!

#Prayerline 40 days of prayer for Nepal.

PRAYING THE LORD’S PRAYER OVER NEPAL (MATTHEW 6:9-13)

1. Pray for God’s name to be held in high regard, for His Kingdom to come and His will to be done in Nepal.

2. Pray for the provision of the needs of the people in this land of physical and spiritual poverty.

3. Pray for forgiveness and reconciliation at all levels of society – especially among church leaders so that they unite, embrace and forgive each other in Christian love.

4. Pray for strength during temptation and for deliverance from evil.

5. Pray for many Christians in Nepal and beyond to unite in 40 Days of Prayer for Nepal and to lift the nation up in prayer before the throne of God.

Roadblock

On Saturday what should have been a 4 hour journey became a 5 hour one due to 2 roadblocks.
Road blocks are annoying at the best of times but they always seem to be put up just when it is essential you get somewhere punctually.

Exodus 13:17-18.

After 40 years the Israelites are ready to leave Egypt but God didn’t make it easy for them. He in effect chose roadblocks.

This last week we saw how cyclists on the Paris-Ropbaix jumped a roadblock only to miss by the nearest of margins a high-speed train whizzing by. Crazy! Why jump a roadblock?!

Maybe your life can be called a roadblock.
But note: don’t try to fight the roadblock, you may not even make it at all if you do!

What’s in your way may be needed to stay!

Part 2 of Be Free

….. Today 300,000 children are forced to do that for real. For those who have escaped or have found themselves as post-war civilians, they are living haunted lives, robbed of education, their years of development, they are now barely adults with a social stigma for having committed horrendous crimes. They have no future.
But ‘Be Free’ says they do.
We cannot eradicate slavery completely, but we can delete exploitation from one more individual.

3. Give money.
We may never be able to rescue a person or see a person’s life restored. We may never be able to travel to rescue children from a life filled with terror. But we can give money so that these things do take place. We can give money for urgent medical care, for trauma counselling, for nicole generating businesses.
Money helps. We can give it.

It is for freedom that Christ set you free.

Be Free

Last night at a hotel in Cardiff, Elim International Missions held a Charity Dinner to raise money for our ministry ‘Be Free’. I was so pleased that 170 guests came many not necessarily holding to the Christian faith but all sharing our humanitarian concern. We had a lot of fun and at the same time we all knew this was going to have a huge impact!
The whole event lasted 6 hours and in that time 820 people in our amazing world will have been taken!
What does it mean to be taken?
You are no longer a human being, you have become an object, a possession belonging to another person who has taken every option away from you so that you are forced to do things against your will.
There is no escape. This is your life now. All that you had and all that you were is now destroyed. It will become a distant memory.
Can you imagine being taken?
And every day 3287 are taken.
Already since you have been reading this blog 4 people have been taken.
43% of all victims of forced labour are trafficked for sexual exploitation.
Sex trafficking generates $7 billion each year, though Interpol says that it is nearer $19 billion.
10 million children are subjected to various forms of sexual exploitation in the commercial sex industry.
The largeness of these figures stand over us like mountains of doom.
How can we ever deal with this evil?

1. See the heart of God.
Let’s read a few verses today:
Deuteronomy 10:18
Psalm 68:6
Psalm 146:7
Isaiah 61:1

2. Make the heart of God your heart. The answer is not to lose sight of the one child, the one woman, the one man.
That 1 who right now is taken and is trapped.
We can change 1 person’s world.
That is the purpose of our Be Free ministry. Be Free from human exploitation.
When I was a child I played at war games, killing my friends who were the enemy, making a noise with my wooden stick imagining it being a Kalashnikov.
Today 300,000 children are forced to do that for real. For those who have escaped or have found themselves as post-war civilians, they are living haunted lives, robbed of education, their years of development, they are now barely adults with a social stigma for having committed horrendous crimes. They have no future.
But ‘Be Free’ says they do.
We cannot eradicate slavery completely, but we can delete exploitation from one more individual.

3. Give money.
We may never be able to rescue a person or see a person’s life restored. We may never be able to travel to rescue children from a life filled with terror. But we can give money so that these things do take place. We can give money for urgent medical care, for trauma counselling, for nicole generating businesses.
Money helps. We can give it.

It is for freedom that Christ set you free.

Selma

It is 1965, Martin Luther King Jr. is travelling to Selma in Alabama. The reason is to lead a series of non-violent protest marches to help African-Americans have the right to vote. He faced strong opposition.
It was here he made the “I have a dream’ speech. But it was his many other speeches that would be the inspiration and give the resolve for his followers in the face of adversity. A few words struck me as I watched this film whilst enjoying my upgrade on the flight home last night ( I wanted to write about the upgrade from economy to business class but I didn’t want to boast!). The words:
“We can do this. We must do this. We can overcome.” By the end of the film President Johnson would say the exact same words as he rallied his own followers.
The film focuses on the 50 mile peace march from Selma to Montgomery and the momentous scene at the Edmund Pettus bridge. I loved the film not for the violence and the depths of hatred that man can have to man. No, I loved it for the heights of sheer determination, of conviction to the calling of mission and the obvious spirit within King of ‘if not me then who?’
As the credits rolled I wondered what we could achieve in the nations of our world if we approached our mission of sharing God’s love with the words “We can do this. We must do this. We can overcome.”
Today lets read:
2 Corinthians 4: 7 – 12
2 Corinthians 11:23 – 12: 10

So I call to you today as you are demonstrating God’s love to the broken world you are in at home, work, neighbourhood and in your leisure, pray, give, go. The mission hasn’t changed, nor lessened, the need is there. The Spirit calls:
You can do this.
You must do this.
You can overcome.

Sent from my iPhone

Goodbye

Today I leave the Philippines, it has been fun training many Pastors and leaders on aspects of leadership.
Last night the leaders gave me a typically wonderful Filipino send-off and now saying my goodbyes I head out to the airport and my flight home to say hello to my family.
Of course I will need to do various things along this journey. I will need to carry things, know the correct gate to board the plane etc. Oh and of course the security!
A U.S. citizen traveling from Tel Aviv told authorities at John F. Kennedy International Airport that he had nothing to declare. His definition of nothing? More than $1.2 million in diamonds.
A 78-year-old woman at Stockholm’s Arlanda International Airport in 2008. Instead of placing her luggage onto a baggage chute, as instructed, she plopped herself down on it! Reclining on the conveyer belt of the unmanned chute like a tray in a cafeteria dishwasher, she traveled to the baggage handling area before someone rescued her.
I will keep my eyes open for anything strange to report!
Anyway back to the thought of journeying.
Our life is a journey isn’t it? Twists and turns, ups and downs. In my blog today I just want to pose some questions and for you to answer one or two.
But first read, Joshua 3:1-8
What are you carrying?
What is important to you?
Who is helping you to carry the load?

Where are you going?
What are you doing with what you are carrying?
What is the next 5 years going to look like for you?

What is your Jordan?
What is the barrier in the way of where you are going?
What are you worrying about the most?

What does standing in the Jordan look like for you?
Are you standing or are you burying your head in the sand?
Are you waiting for God to move first and show some sign of provision or is He waiting for you?

Who is following you?
Who is doing life with you?
Why are they doing this?

Off I go!