Loving the Least and the Lost

Hi, what’s your name?

Thomas - Adi - Victoria - Edward - countless other young people I meet and talk to

What grade are you?

10 - 6 - 11 - 7…

Are you going to school?

Eyes drop, feet shuffle, how does one explain? It is embarassing to admit - but school has passed them by. And with it the hope and possiblity of clawing out of the sinking bog of poverty.

Why?

Ahh - this is the common reply - said with a descending note at the end - not like “Ahh(with an ascending tone), I found something new and exciting!”, but like, “Ahh - that is about all that needs to be said - the obstacles mount up like an insurmountable wall - where does one start to explain? It is like the final breath that empties ones lungs at death - a final resignation to the inevitable.

That is what life is like for a child in Ngwenya Village - it is full of Ahh’s.  Questions like, “Do you have enough food?” or “Where is your father?” - usually get answered in the same way. 

We spent another weekend with them - Mandate mission team (www.mandateschools.com) doing a kids camp with them. I am drawn to them. (Remember, we spent Christmas day with them at our house?) These 80 kids who are full of contridictions in life - sometimes they pray like angels, and other times flirting for a nickle for sex. God, how can we reach them? How can we help empower them and lift them up from their destitute poverty? 

We want to bless Justin - the man who has been helping them for 5 years - with songs and prayers and bible verses. He can’t do anything about their school fees or hunger or family problems. He wants a well - $10,000 - to make gardens and chicken and goat farms for the kids. I tell him I will pray with him. Will you?

If you want to believe with me for the money to buy this well - or if you want to donate to it - write me at lovesdoor@gmail.com or send money with a note “To Justin’s Well” - to Love’s Door, c/o Open Door Church, 339 NW Sherman St, Sheridan, OR. 97378. Thanks.

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It’s cool to talk about going to the unreached, but man, it’s hard.

As we debriefed the team that had just spent four days camping on the land, we noticed the air was half let out of their balloons.

Just a few days ago Floyd McClung had taught them about going into the villages, sharing the gospel, connecting with people, finding a few to disciple, gathering them into small D groups, then teaching them to multiply. Our balloons were tight and ready to pop -a simple methodology, along with reignited faith in God’s passion and commitment to reach the lost had stirred us all to determination.

But in the village, with language barriers, cultural befuddlement like a ball of knotted twine, along with the hard work, the heat, the constant demand of children tugging at your hem - I sensed they were tired. Then one of them innocently got to the core - “I 

just wish we could stay in town more and minister to the people on the street.”

Ahh… That’s the truth. It is hard work going one step beyond your cultural group; try two or three steps, and we need a real good reason to be there!

Missiologists define it like this :

• E1 evangelism = reaching your own culture. This is the easiest and best.
• E2 evangelism = reaching a different, but similar culture - for me that would be Europeans, Mexicans, youth, Afro-Americans or South Africans.. Some language study may be needed, and the message put in their cultural context.
• E3 evangelism = reaching a culture that is distant and very different. One or more languages need to be learned, cultural understanding is imperative, come as a blind man, ready to be led by them.

You may ask - why even do E3 evangelism? Here is an amazing answer that may take a moment to reflect on the implications of:

If all the members of every church in the world were to bring every one of their friends and relatives within the same cultural group to obedient faith in Christ, and they in turn were able to bring all their friends and relatives to Christ and so on, no matter how much time you allow, there would still be billions who would never hear about Jesus! 

It’s cool to talk about going to the unreached - but man, it’s hard to do. You must be motivated, not for the coolness of it all, but out of love for Jesus - that his sacrificial death would not be in vain, but would accomplish its purpose - “you were slain, and purchased for God, with your blood, men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.” 

Singanga Village, which surrounds our land, is made up of Lozi people. But they are situated in a Tonga-leah chiefdom. Many of these people say they are Christians - there is large New Apostolic church building between several villages. But do they know Christ? It is doubtful if there are any who actually know Christ. Is there a witness for Jesus, a single church somewhere in their tribe of villages that will shine the light and win the whole?

I love Joshua Project website - www.joshuaproject.net . According to their research the Tonga-leya’s main religion is ancestor worship, while 30% claim Christianity as their religion. But there are few if any known evangelicals - less than 2% - and no known church planting in recent years, though some evangelical resources in their language. This gives them a fairly high rating of importance according to their logic.

Unreached? No. Unengaged? Not while we are here. But we may be the only ones! Do they have a church yet? No one knows. But hopefully soon.

But how do you convert a person who says he wants to trust in Jesus, but when his wife gets sick he wonders who put a curse on her, or when no rain comes on his crop he goes to the witch doctor to find how to appease the spirits, or when you ask him to do anything different than customary he is fearful of offending his ancestors?

Outwardly he will agree with you and say your prayers, but deep down he is unchanged. If the gospel does not change his culture, the man remains unchanged. And how do you help affect such a change? Sermons won’t do it. Development won’t do it. Worship doesn’t do it - they can all put us to shame with their worship and prayer.

Will Africa ever have a move of God where masses are convicted and converted? Does their cultural baggage preclude them from radical conversion?

Africa is like Europe in the dark ages - they need their own Enlightenment or Reformation. Can you imagine what might be unleashed in the world if Africa went thru such an awakening? They are untouched by Western Humanism and Unbelief. Is it possible that an Awakened Africa could be in the front of Kingdom Movements in the Final Age?

Until then… we do our best.

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Psalm 85:9ff spoke to me this morning - “Surely His salvation is near to those who fear Him, that glory may dwell in our land!… Truth springs from the earth, and righteousness looks down from heaven. Indeed the Lord will give what is good, and our land will yield its produce. Righteousness will go before Him and will make His footsteps into a way.”

God’s glory, his salvation, his truth and righteousness blooming all over our land in the villages of Southern Zambia is our aim. Where God comes He WILL make an impact - guaranteed! And we are intentionally focused on “making His footsteps into a way”. We see how Jesus walked - those solo foot prints across virgin sand. He loved like no one ever! He discipled a few. He touched the poor. His methods and concepts broke the norms and opened new vistas. These are his footprints. Then we try with large strides to step in the same prints as He - now it may be called a path; then we teach others to walk in the same path - it is becoming a road; hoping they in turn will teach others who will teach others, who will… - it will become a highway! His Ways - starting in our own little community, radiating through our lives and witness, will conquer poverty mentality, animistic and dead religious concepts, and hopelessness. COME GLORY OF GOD!

Our aim is to make the Ways of Jesus into simple, teachable and re-teachable principles and patterns so they can grow from a footprint to a highway in this land where the glory and salvation of the Lord are destined to dwell. It will only dwell in power where it is communicated from person to person in homes and gardens and schools - a grass-roots movement of desire for truth.

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We have been in Zambia for 40 days now. God has been so extremely good to us. One missionary said, “I have never seen a missionary move here and get so much done in 30 days!” I think it is the blessing of Jesus on us - “He who is generous will be blessed, for he gives some of his food to the poor.”

The Mandate team arrived a week ago (led by our kids Liana and Jason) and we are having “a gas”, as I say (much to my daughter’s dismay).

(A word about Mandate Schools (www.mandateschools.com) - this is an amazing school, and one of the best kept secrets around! For the paltry cost of $2400 for about 6 months of room, board, paradigm shifting Bible teaching, weekly travel adventures, besides at least two or three outside the country, community life that kills (the flesh), and food that makes alive (the forgotten dreams of a slim waistline), lifelong friendships, life-changing encounters with the Living God - it is really unequalled. Well, I am a bit biased I suppose. But if you want to see one of the coolest sites on the web, click above, and while you are there, just fill in that application and get your life messed up forever. Parents, you can sign up your kids - we have bars and locks on the doors.)

We all packed up into the truck - 16 in all, along with loads of equipment (we can now sympathize with sardines), driving those wonderfully unforgettable roads, and camped at the property - the first time whites probably ever camped there!  We christened The Land with our prayers and songs, we took rides with the village fishermen in their dugout canoes, we played tug of war with the 30 or more children who swarmed us, and we laughed at the torrential downpours from the heavens. Our two main tasks this outing were to mark the property lines (we just had points before - this tree and that bush…), and locate where we will build a round-hovel for a storage shed. We are buying a dugout canoe so we can inspect the hippo a bit closer and explore the river.

Floyd McClung was here for 3 days teaching the team the basics of evangelism and simple church planting in Africa (basic CPX material - see www.all-nations.info ) - Mandate may be a feeder school if we don’t watch out!

After looking at about 15 rental houses in Livingstone, we found the perfect one. Our budget was $350/month, but we settled on this place for $400. We eve

n have a hot water heater! (though it does not push hot water thru the shower hose unless you are laying down in the tub!)

For Christmas someone (I confess ~) invited 40 orphaned kids and a dozen teen workers to party at our (not fixed up yet) house (I am still in hot water for that one!) We had a great time of food and games and Bible lessons and song.. Some of these kids have never been into town before, so it was quite a treat. THIS is why we are here - to build into these children a different Kingdom Culture that will set them on a better path.

We are planning on helping this team of workers start a business that will keep these Ngwenya orphans and vulnerable children in school fees and uniforms. We have had about $250 donated for them, but find it will cost three times that to get it started. (Any donors want to add to this seed amount? DONATE BUTTON)

Speaking of business ventures - we are about to start a chicken business that will help Africans join our ministry and still be able to contribute some for their expenses, as well as learn business principles. Hopefully we can get village partners in this business as well.

PRAYER NEEDS:

• Grace and protection for the Mandate team who are camping on the land in the village.
• Thanks for the house that is perfect for my wife!
• My wife is turning 39 for the 17^th time tomorrow - blessings on her. It has not been the easiest transition to make.
• Thanks to Jesus - I had secretly been praying for a video projector for evangelism in the villages - but told no one. Jeff - a friend - just came from Phoenix to visit, and brought one with! Jesus does hear and answer when no one else knows!
• Ask God to provide all our needs - He knows what that means.
• Ask God to send servants to help and wisdom to know how to share the load - we are already getting tired and have done so little of our objectives.
• Blessing on our marriage - my goal is to improve it significantly this year.

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Reading a book about Livingstone - an awesome believer who was passionate about sharing the Gospel wherever he went.

And he went- right around Livingstone here. This was sort of home base for part of his time. I bet he spoke Nyanja - now I wanna learn.

but I had a day like one of his (not nearly so grand) yesterday - Went to the village to get grass for the roof of the shelter I am having built for the Mandate team to camp under. The headman found a place to buy grass “nearby”. So we traveled about 20 min west, found the dirt road to the correct village. In the truck we had the headman, me, and 3 of the men working on the shed. When we got to the village the negotiating started. Normally a “bunch” of 8foot long grass (about an arm full) is 5000Kwatcha - $1. - but because it was still in the bush we would only pay about 65 cents. we asked how far in the bush it was, and they said they walk 2 hours to the place. No problem - about 15min in my truck. So three more loaded in. We started on the track that was made by oxcart - probably never a car on this road! Many times it looked like we were in the middle of a jungle with no path at all - just making a path the best we could between trees, regularly running over bushes as tall as my hood, the guide seemed to know the way ok. This went on not for 15 min, or 25 or 40, but a full 55 minutes! I was exhausted. The last half mile was thru the “Bogs Of Despondency” - a low bog or tall grass as high as the top of my truck at times that no vehicle had ever come in before - not even an ox cart! And now I know why. They warned me as we started in the bog to go slow because there were “holes” in it! Yikes! But I could not go slow or i would bog down in the bog and never be heard of again. And no way could we see anything ahead because of the tall thick grass. So, with a prayer we took off thru. Twice we hit a pit of sorts that I was not sure we were getting thru - but we did. We loaded the long grass up over the top of the cab, tied it down good and started loading into the truck, but this time the three in the back could not ride back there - so pile on in! That means 5 adults in the back seat, and 3 in the front. So we headed back, and made it again.

As we were getting near the village, we saw the storm clouds coming - and we had another load to get! So we quick off loaded and went back, praying it would not rain till we got out of the bog. A word about the rain here - the drops, I dont know how it defies the laws of physics, but the drops are 3 inches in diameter and carry a pound of water each! So just 10 min of rain in this bog and we would be turning to diamonds in a few centuries! Well, it started coming down just as we started into the bog. Ok, we’re toast. But praise God, we made it out again.

If you love me, will you give God a big thanks again for that truck he gave us. It has proven itself such a blessing to us.

We were all so relieved when we got back to the village, I bought everyone a dough ball - a misshapen lump of dough fried in sugary oil - mmm.

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“No, let me take care of this! You are foreigners,” the man pleaded as he tried to step between us and the girl. The girl could feel his patriotic embarrassment over her condition, and tried to walk away, but we were undeterred and pressed in to help.

She was 25ish, looking a bit disheveled with her corn-rows and pants sprinkled with dirt as if she had been on the ground. She wore a sle

eveless tee shirt tied in a knot in the back, giving her the “profile” of being a bartender at a no-name side street bar, hired to attract some business. But the thing that called out for our attention was the egg-sized swelling of her left eye. She was miserable and disoriented.

I could understand the man’s point: he was of this culture and town, had seen this sort of thing many times before, and knew just what to do - send her back home to suffer in seclusion. We, on the other hand, oozed with “foreign” concern for her misery, and indignation at the crime that must be brought to justice. In this land sympathy is a luxury few can afford.

But who really is the foreigner here? The one who unwittingly is in harmony with dark lords of the air claiming ownership of this world; or the one who is in league with the conquering forces of light, the one who lives in the realization that “every place your foot shall tread” is hers to influence, who acts as if he really is the bearer of light and life whose emanating rays are protons of goodness beating down the neutrons of corru

ption, who understands that the resources of the entire universe are at his disposal - the Deputy of Peace. Now who’s the real foreigner here, eh?

So as we walked the streets late Friday night with that fire-brand “Deputy” Rob Murphy, who loves to overturn the tables of injustice by offering understanding, counsel and hope of a better life to “ladies of the night” right on the very ground of their willing torture, right between clients and experiences that are shattering their souls, I realized that here is a man who understands he can go into the darkest alleys of perversion and, with impunity, release those legally held in prison because he holds a higher authority.

This is the authority Jesus 

walked in - an authority not of this world - yes, foreign, yet the true and rightful owner nonetheless. His miracles did not follow requests to Father, but commands to the elements or the spiritual forces of this age. To me, this indicates not just that his father is more powerful, but that, though he is not of this world, he is the exiled Prince who is in process of coming back to claim His own, and all of creation is at his beck and call. Though foreign, he is no foreigner. And we are his kin!

Later, as we sat on the hospital bench beside Patti (we found out her name), hearing her story of being robbed and beaten and allowing our imagination to fill in the cracks of a soul caught in the backwash of life, we suddenly realized why we were here - to give her a chance of escape! Was this one of the ones “purchased for God with (Jesus’) blood, those from every tribe and tongue and people and nation”?  Were we here, not as sympathetic foreigners, not merely to relieve her suffering for a moment, but as ones deputized to bring home what was purchased? Was this girl one of the rewards of Jesus’ suffering? As we prayed for her and the tears flowed we could see a heart being reunited with her rightful Father’s love.

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We have finally arrived at this landmark on our path that we have long been awaiting - we have “moved” to Zambia. We have been praying for this for so long, it is hard to believe it is really done.

No, we don’t have a house yet (crashing temporarily at a missionary friend’s), but we have a pickup (bakkie for our SA friends) with all our worldly goods stuffed into the back, and we have two team partners here (Mike and Nimisha) along with a few still waiting for the right moment to join us. We have land for a base of ministry in a village of so much potential. And we have a team coming from our own discipleship school in Oregon to break in the ground and set the ministry wheels rolling. We also have a number of people coming to help and conspire with us at sometime on the horizon. So we feel almost at home.

We prayed so hard about our trip north, full of so many potential hazards on the road and especially at the hands of greedy border marauders - but God gave us the smoothest trip ever : 14 elephants standing in majestic greeting, potholes filled to reasonable smoothness, border marauders turned to gentlemen concerned for our welfare! And the pickup ran sooo nice! THANK YOU JESUS!!

Our missionary friends have invited us into their castle until we find our own, and our fellowship is sweet. Heiko flies ultralights over the Falls and is a source of endless radical African adventure stories.  His wife Anita has been so welcoming and hospitable in opening their home to us.

So thanks to you who prayed for us - God be praised for His faithfulness.

Now the mission: we went to the village property on Wednesday - a 4×4 fanatic’s dream come true! Already, at just the beginning of the rainy season, the road is nearly impassable. We learned that many missionaries go home during this time because village access is severely limited. We talked to the headman about making another road that would be better - pray for success here.

But it was sweet to be there - they were so welcoming and happy for us to come. The headman was groaning about the people in the village who drink and carouse and told Mike, “I am happy that you will bring the gospel to us in this village”!! He may be our first “man of peace”!

We walked the land and established corners and boundaries with the headman and villagers. We are impressed again that they have more initiative and sanctified character qualities than many we have met. The neighboring village is jealous and trying to give us some problems, and this headman is young and so is reticent to confront them too strongly. Pray for him.

Now here is the next list of prayer missiles:

• Pray for a house - we are expecting around 30 people will be thru our base before the end of August - we need big space, cheap space, space that does not demand constant attention.

• Is there a plumber-handyman who could serve us for 6 months?

• And is there a desk geek who could serve us until Sept making phone calls and arranging teams and making an office here? You could serve orphans too.

• Pray for a “roadway in the wilderness” - the mud bogs.

• Pray for agreement with the neighboring village - that the land boundary will be established without contest and they will quit burying people there.
• Pray for finances to be released - a steady $3000 per month.

We just heard the Mandate team is leaving Oregon Jan 1, returning Feb 15 or so. If you want to join - better hop to!

If you have some year-end giving that is still undesignated, would you consider blessing us with a donation?

Or if you want to give a Christmas gift to some orphans in Ngwenya Village, we are going to give them a Christmas celebration on the 25^th - food, gifts, clothes, love and courage - perhaps Bibles if we can. If you want to designate a gift to them write on your donation - “orphan Christmas”.

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I started taking note after the third prophetic word given to us that said basically the same thing - “God will part the waters before you” or, “you will stretch out your rod over the water and just watch as the Lord parts the waves and allows you to pass over on dry land!” By the fifth time in two weeks I knew some impossible obstacle was coming, and God was preparing us to face it.

The best stories are when things get so bad, so impossible, so ugly, sinful and scary - and then, when all other hope is gone, God shows up and gets loud cheers for how faithful and powerful He is.

Like when Moses’ hapless band of discontents were caught between the impassable (”impossible”) Red Sea and the blood-thirsty army of Pharaoh. That was a good story! God got glory from that for ages.

So it should not be surprising that we are finding it “impossible” to own the truck that we bought. (Remember in the last blog where God gave us this perfect truck for an impossible price?) Look at this impressive list of impossibilities:

• First we find out that because we hold tourist visas we cannot legally buy a vehicle in SA (so ALL NATIONS  will register it in their name, and we will have a company vehicle for the first time in our lives! - God is good),

• The previous owners have moved to Australia, but didn’t complete the correct paper work at their bank before leaving!

• Their bank won’t deal with anyone but them.

• And the vehicle registration agency is requiring things from that bank that we cannot obtain.

We have been soaking ourselves in books of prayer, and in prayer itself since arriving in Africa. God is taking us to new lessons of walking with Him, though we are just novices in much of this.

• God is waiting for a wo/man to stand tall, lift out the rod over the waters, and order the elements to conform! “SPEAK TO THE MOUNTAIN”; “EVERY PLACE YOUR FOOT TREADS I HAVE GIVEN TO YOU”; “REIGN IN LIFE”; “RISE UP AND WALK” - these are the words he is whispering in our ears.

• God is challenging us, “Do you believe that I can change hearts, move mountains and release blessings without your intervention?” So I find myself praying for my kids and kin, trusting God daily with specific issues where I used to just shrug or worry. For finances and direction expectation is replacing worry. My little toy hammer of intervention has been replaced with God’s earth mover of heart changing power - and he invites us on the seat with Him!

• 24-7 Prayer Manual and Red Moon Rising by Pete Grieg have been whetting our appetite for a “tent of meeting”, and the tangible spiritual feast of much time spent there.

• The same books have also stirred up our vision for being 3^rd millennium monastics - devoted to the service of God and the poor, in radical community.

So as our planned three days in SA are nearing three weeks, this passage becomes our theme: Ps 27>

“THE LORD IS MY LIGHT AND MY SALVATION; WHOM SHALL I FEAR? THE LORD IS THE DEFENSE OF MY LIFE; WHOM SHALL I DREAD? … THOUGH A HOST EMCAMP AGAINST ME, MY HEART WILL NOT FEAR; THOUGH WAR ARISE AGAINST ME, IN (SPITE OF) THIS I SHALL BE CONFIDENT…. FOR IN THE DAY OF TROUBLE HE WILL CONCEAL ME IN HIS TABERNACLE; IN THE SECRET PLACE OF HIS TENT HE WILL HIDE ME; HE WILL LIFT ME P ON A ROCK. AND NOW MY HEAD WILL BE LIFTED UP ABOVE MY ENEMIES AROUND ME. AND I WILL OFFER IN HIS TENT SACRIFICES WITH SHOUTS OF JOY… I WOULD HAVE DESPAIRED UNLESS I HAD BELIEVED THAT I WOULD SEE THE GOODNESS OF THE LORD IN THE LAND OF THE LIVING. WAIT FOR THE LORD; BE STRONG AND LET YOUR HEART TAKE COURAGE; YES, WAIT FOR THE LORD.”

BREAKING NEWS: WE JUST GOT WORD - THE VEHICLE REGISTRATION WAS RELEASED!       THE WATERS HAVE BEEN PARTED…

OFF TO ZAMBIA!

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 There are sound economic reasons why vehicles are so expensive in Africa, but go tell that to God.  We were advised by many who know these things that we simply needed more money than we had budgeted in order to buy a vehicle that would survive the rough village roads.  There was nothing to do but pray.  Here’s what happened:

Dan and our loyal South African friend Rassie found a 1998 Nissan Hardbody four-wheel drive bakkie (that’s a pickup, for you Americans), complete with double-cab (for hauling lots of people) and canopy (for securely hauling luggage, building materials, etc.)  Because the seller is emigrating to Australia within a week, he sold it for about half the going rate.  Not only that, he held it for us for five days while we waited for our money to be wired from the States.  During that time, numerous people called about it, two of whom offered him $750 above the asking price-to which he replied, “No, it’s already sold to a missionary” (although he had not yet received a cent from us!)  The truck has been very well-maintained and a mechanic is now putting finishing touches on it.  It is MADE for Africa, and we can’t wait to get it on the road headed north.  Our three days here in Pretoria looks like it will stretch into about three weeks (bless our long-suffering hosts!) while we wait for paperwork to be completed, but meanwhile we are learning to wait and to trust.

On this sunny Thanksgiving Day 2009, we’re hardly missing the pumpkin pie because our hearts are so full of gratitude!  Truly, God is going before us.  I’m thinking often these days of Pilgrim women leaving loved ones to board ships headed for the great seas and many uncertainties…of Abraham and Sarah leaving country, people and father’s household for a land God would show them.  When I see what’s left of my kitchen stuffed into our suitcases with our clothes, I think of pioneer women departing from St. Louis, Missouri with a few precious items tucked into the corners of covered wagons.  I guess we’re in good company, poised to see the faithfulness of a God who gently but purposefully leads us. 

“For God has said, ‘I will not in any way fail you nor give you up nor leave you without support.  I will not, I will not, I will not in any degree leave you helpless nor forsake nor let you down nor relax my hold on you.  Assuredly not!’  So we take comfort and are encouraged and confidently and boldly say, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not fear or dread or be terrified.  What can man do to me?’”  (Hebrews 13:5b,6 Amplified).

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