In may last post I mentioned hearing from our two summer missionaries to Japan and their thoughts on how to pray. Here are Caleb Jentsch' words -
Some ways y'all can be praying for Japan are:
1) Pray for the missionaries that are over there right now that they would be safe.
2) Pray that the Japanese will realize that hey need the Lord and that their hearts will be open.
3) Pray for the believing Japaneses Christians that they will continue to grow closer to the Father and be able to share who He is with the people of Japan. The impact they have sharing in their own country is so much more effective.
I also mentioned the Baptist General Convention of Texas has sent funds ($25,000). One of the great things about being connected with an organization like this is the ability to respond quickly. Becasue you have given to Northside and because Northside cooperates with the BGCT, you have already helped to send those funds to this disaster.
Texas Baptist Men have now sent a team to Tokyo. Disaster relief veterans John LaNoue and Gary Smith along with Yutaka Takarada, pastor of a Japanese Baptist Church in the Dallas area have joined videographer Rex Campbell. You can find out more ways to pray and read daily updates from this team at
www.texasbaptists.org/disaster
For the journey....
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Praying for Japan
We have had two of our students spend summers in Japan serving as missionary interns. I have asked them to share their thoughts about Japan and how we can pray for the people there especially now. Here are Kelley Williams' thoughts:
The Japanese people are incredibly polite and kind, but they are not always very receptive to the gospel. The vast majority worship the gods of Buddhism, Shintoism, materialism, and success. The soil is hard and the fruit is rare, but God is definitely working. He has been in Japan long before now and I fully believe a great Japanese revival is coming.
This past summer, my fellow interns and I were completely broken for the Japanese. We wanted the people that God had taught us to love to know the One True God and Savior. We prayed that God would do whatever it took. I do not think that the earthquake, tsunami, and current nuclear crisis is in any way a punishment for the Japanese worshipping false gods and idols. I believe He will use this to make Himself famous in Japan, Asia, and the rest of the world. That is what we prayed for anyway.
My favorite verses to pray over Japan are Isaiah 64:1-65:3. It starts off, "Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountain might quake in your presence...", and ends with God saying, "I was ready to be sought by those who did not ask for me; I was ready to be found by those who did not seek me." Japan is not a nation that has been seeking God, but He is passionately pursing them with His grace and love.
Please pray that the strongholds Satan has had in Japan will come crashing down. Pray that as a tsunami brings water that damages, the Holy Spirit will flood Japan with joy and salvation. Pray for the workers in Japan, pray they would have divine appointment after divine appointment. Pray that the Japanese Christians will be shaken from their timidity and would speak boldly to their friends and family about their hope and peace in Jesus alone. Pray, pray fervently for a great Japanese revival to unfold from this tragedy. God is bigger than any force of nature and He will use this for His glory and renown.
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Mission Trip Moments
There are so many things about Northside's mission trip to the Rio Grande Valley that I wish I could tell you about - sights, sounds, smells. Well the wind blowing over the regional garbage dump right down the street from the church made the smells very ...interesting but I don't need to go into that. But the smell of good food made by loving hands was also a constant too.
There were images that I want to carry with me - the sight of three churches from two different cultures coming together to do a work in a poor neighborhood. There is the the sight of the smiles of teh families whose homes we touched and the sight of one of those families attending the church that week. There is the sight of an auburn-haired, teenager named Crystal coming down during the invitation time Sunday morning to receive Christ. Her green eyes filled with tears that fell on our hands as we prayed together for Christ to come into her life. She attended church for the first time the week before.
There were sounds that were constant. I will remember the sound of the praise band made of our's and their's and singing in English and Spanish and all to the Lord. I can still hear the sounds of voices speaking loudly and boldly in Spanish proclaiming the change that Jesus can make in anyone's life. There were the sounds of saws and hammers and cement mixers as work took place around the church and three homes. I heard sounds of laughter and it did not matter what language you spoke, laughter is the same in any language. I also was reminded that you can smile, clap and move folding chairs the same in any language.
Then there was the ever present sound of a generator running outside the church providing electricity to the activities within. That sound was a constant reminder to me that colonia church without electrical power is not a church without the power of God. Thank you Northside, Austin Street and Fe y Poder for giving to the Lord.
Join with us Sunday evening, March 27 at 6:00 pm in the Student Center as we share our memories and reflections.
For the Journey...
There were images that I want to carry with me - the sight of three churches from two different cultures coming together to do a work in a poor neighborhood. There is the the sight of the smiles of teh families whose homes we touched and the sight of one of those families attending the church that week. There is the sight of an auburn-haired, teenager named Crystal coming down during the invitation time Sunday morning to receive Christ. Her green eyes filled with tears that fell on our hands as we prayed together for Christ to come into her life. She attended church for the first time the week before.
There were sounds that were constant. I will remember the sound of the praise band made of our's and their's and singing in English and Spanish and all to the Lord. I can still hear the sounds of voices speaking loudly and boldly in Spanish proclaiming the change that Jesus can make in anyone's life. There were the sounds of saws and hammers and cement mixers as work took place around the church and three homes. I heard sounds of laughter and it did not matter what language you spoke, laughter is the same in any language. I also was reminded that you can smile, clap and move folding chairs the same in any language.
Then there was the ever present sound of a generator running outside the church providing electricity to the activities within. That sound was a constant reminder to me that colonia church without electrical power is not a church without the power of God. Thank you Northside, Austin Street and Fe y Poder for giving to the Lord.
Join with us Sunday evening, March 27 at 6:00 pm in the Student Center as we share our memories and reflections.
For the Journey...
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
A Mission Trip Lesson
As we return to the Valley for a mission trip, I am painfully reminded of a lesson a learned a couple of trips back. It was the last day and I was delivering some of the left over items we had to a church by myself. Everyone else was loading and leaving and I was to make this delivery and go get my daughter Kelley and head home. Walking back to my pickup after leaving the items at a vacant church, I had a sickening realization - I had locked my keys in my truck.
I was already running late, people were waiting, a long trip home was in front of me, I was tired and I had locked my keys in my truck. After several phone calls, I was finally able to get a locksmith and he told me it would be a while before he could come. I sat and waited and called and made excuses to the people waiting on me to get my daughter so we and they could head home.
What seemed like hours later, (it was actually sooner than I had been told) the locksmith showed up and in 5 seconds had my door unlocked. I hurriedly paid him, thanked him and as I was getting in my truck, he asked why I was down here. I quickly told him, then he asked more questions. I gave him a tract (or something spiritual) and told him I had to be on my way. It was several miles down the road when it hit me what I had done. I had a man asking me honestly inquisitive questions about spiritual things but I was too irritated with myself to really hear him and talk to him. I had missed a great opportunity because I was in a hurry. I don't know what could have been and that is what bothers me - I don't know what could have been.
I read once where it is impossible to show someone love when you are in a hurry. I know now that is true. Join me in asking God to slow us down, even in our worst moments, and see the people and opportunities God puts in front of us.
For the journey...
I was already running late, people were waiting, a long trip home was in front of me, I was tired and I had locked my keys in my truck. After several phone calls, I was finally able to get a locksmith and he told me it would be a while before he could come. I sat and waited and called and made excuses to the people waiting on me to get my daughter so we and they could head home.
What seemed like hours later, (it was actually sooner than I had been told) the locksmith showed up and in 5 seconds had my door unlocked. I hurriedly paid him, thanked him and as I was getting in my truck, he asked why I was down here. I quickly told him, then he asked more questions. I gave him a tract (or something spiritual) and told him I had to be on my way. It was several miles down the road when it hit me what I had done. I had a man asking me honestly inquisitive questions about spiritual things but I was too irritated with myself to really hear him and talk to him. I had missed a great opportunity because I was in a hurry. I don't know what could have been and that is what bothers me - I don't know what could have been.
I read once where it is impossible to show someone love when you are in a hurry. I know now that is true. Join me in asking God to slow us down, even in our worst moments, and see the people and opportunities God puts in front of us.
For the journey...
Friday, March 4, 2011
The Journey of a Summer Missionary
The summer between my sophomore and junior years of college I worked as an agricultural summer missionary on the Rio Grande River. It was north of Presidio, Texas near where the road on the US side ends and several miles past where the paved road stops. It was Ruidoso, Texas and Los Barancos, Mexico. It was hot and dusty and dry and remote.
It was digging holes in rocky ground near people's homes for peach trees to be planted later by another mission team. It was setting up a primitive home garden irrigation system that would water the trees and gardens around the adobe huts people lived in. It was living in an adobe hut too with no electricity and one faucet of running water. It was not seeing a TV or movie or a newspaper for 10 weeks. It was seeing a lot of conflict on my team, enough that people had to be reassigned, twice. It was questioning why I was there. It was rough.
Later I heard that all the trees that I had dug holes for died. I heard that the irrigation systems we set up did not work. I heard the pastor that we had worked with was arrested. I heard the church we worked with was failing. I struggled to hear anything from God.
I looked and did not see what I thought I would. I did not see anyone come to Christ that summer. I did not see the work of Christ furthered in what I had done. I did not see Christians working together in unity. I did not see any results - at least not for a while I didn't.
Even in that experience I heard a calling from God on my life. Even in that, I saw that I had made it through by the grace of God. In that experience, I saw results, just not the results I had been looking for. I saw that I had grown and the only tangible results that I could point to were the only results I needed. The results were in me. Sometimes when we join Him in His mission, we are the only results we see.
For the journey...
It was digging holes in rocky ground near people's homes for peach trees to be planted later by another mission team. It was setting up a primitive home garden irrigation system that would water the trees and gardens around the adobe huts people lived in. It was living in an adobe hut too with no electricity and one faucet of running water. It was not seeing a TV or movie or a newspaper for 10 weeks. It was seeing a lot of conflict on my team, enough that people had to be reassigned, twice. It was questioning why I was there. It was rough.
Later I heard that all the trees that I had dug holes for died. I heard that the irrigation systems we set up did not work. I heard the pastor that we had worked with was arrested. I heard the church we worked with was failing. I struggled to hear anything from God.
I looked and did not see what I thought I would. I did not see anyone come to Christ that summer. I did not see the work of Christ furthered in what I had done. I did not see Christians working together in unity. I did not see any results - at least not for a while I didn't.
Even in that experience I heard a calling from God on my life. Even in that, I saw that I had made it through by the grace of God. In that experience, I saw results, just not the results I had been looking for. I saw that I had grown and the only tangible results that I could point to were the only results I needed. The results were in me. Sometimes when we join Him in His mission, we are the only results we see.
For the journey...
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