Sissy!

During a thunder storm a young boy called to his mother. She came and he asked her if she could sleep in his Bed tonight. The mother explained that the storm is passing, God is with you, and I will be in the next room, so you don’t need to be afraid. He insisted, “But I want you to sleep in my bed”. The Mom explained, “Dear, I have to sleep in Dad’s bed, with your daddy.”, as she leaned over and kissed him on the forehead. He mumbled unhappily, “The Big Sissy!”

My Friend Steve Was Killed in Africa!

I received a shocking call from Africa today. A friend of ours, about 35 yrs old was killed in Northern Nigeria. Steve Rehn had interned with us in Abengourou, Ivory Coast in 1997. A fun loving adventurous young man. But a passion for people, for Africa, and for languages. He LOVED Africa. Africa got into his blood like it does for so many of us who work there. It kind of messes you up for life.

Anyway, we moved back to Canada and Steve eventually married and he and his Nikki moved back to good old Abengourou for few years, and then on to Cameroon for two years as well. There he help with national Bible translation projects while Nikki taught in a Mission Kid school.
Steve and Nikki eventually moved back to Calgary. However, Steve kept going on short term teaching trips almost every year. Steve was in Burkina Faso this  August- September, helping with some training, and decided to vacation in Africa after the work was done.
He decided to biking all the way from Burkina- through Niger, Northern Nigeria and then down into Cameroon, to his old stomping grounds. A 3000km bike trip in all.

Anyway, I got a call from a friend in Ivory Coast named Damon Jones. He asked if we knew anything about Steve. I guess the African bush wire was hot, and the news spread  and hopped and was alive with news they had heard that Steve had been killed in an accident in Northern Nigeria.

I was shell shocked, but I immediately called Steve's parents, Rick and Linn, in Calgary today. Steve's Dad answered and confirmed that Steve was supposedly killed by a car hitting him on his bike while riding in northern in Nigeria, 11 days ago between Sept 26 an 28th. They where just informed by the Canadian embassy in Nigeria yesterday, October 8th.

A Team from the Canadian Embassy is dispatched and was on their way to the north. The local Nigerian police station did not have any phone and none of the police wanted to use their own personal cell phones to call the Capital to inform the Canadian Embassy they had a Canadian on hand.

Rick and Linn decided not to fly over, as the Embassy is sending people up to see what is going on. Anyway, the family is expecting a call soon. They will know more what to do, then.

Steve covered about 1500 miles on his trip to date. But I know he made it the whole way to heaven in an instant.

Africa was made a better place because of people like Steve. Heaven will be all the richer as well for receiving a great servant. I will miss Steve Rehn very much.

My Sympathy to his wife Nikki, to his his Mom and Dad (who stayed with us on Prince Edward Island before) and all his family.
http://justaboutcrazy.blogspot.com/

Link to Steve's Blog

Memories of Steve www Site Link http://memoriesofsteve.com/

Why It's Hard to Be a MIssionary to Unreached People

“The unredeemed world lives in spiritual darkness. The eyes of unbelievers have been darkened by Satan, resulting in their hatred of the light of truth. For people who have lived a long time in darkness, a bright light that suddenly shines upon them produces pain. They cannot stand the light. They hate the light, and they do their best to put it out. Jesus explained the world’s reaction to His own coming into the world in these terms (John 3:19-20), and He told His disciples to expect exactly the same kind of treatment.

Speaking in modem terms, each group of people on this planet considers its own religion to be one of its most precious treasures. Thus telling them that their faith is wrong or untrue becomes an unforgivable offense and insult against them. The attempt to change their religion is perceived as an attack on their “national identity” This is why Christian missionaries are met with hostility and violence in every place to which they carry the gospel. For his part, the missionary must be convinced that the population to which he takes the Word lives in the lie of Satan and is damned to hell as a result of it. If the missionary is not convinced of this, he will not risk his life to kindle the light in their midst. However, when the ambassador of Christ speaks the truth in love, and meets death with joy, a strange, miracle occurs: the eyes of unbelievers are opened, they are enabled to see the truth of God, and this leads them to believe in the gospel. “

(Suffering And Martyrdom. Josef Tson, pg 182-183. Perspectives on the World Christian Movement, William Carey Library, 1909)

“Christians need no Missionary appeals when they are lead by the Spirit.”

(Crucial dimensions in World Evangelization, Hiebert, Glasser, Wagner, Winter, pg 9 William Carey Library, 1976)

Multiplication is the BEST "Church Growth" says McGavran?

“One of the leading exponents for church planting in this century was the late Donald McGavran. In a Dawn Report, Jim Montgomery related the following incident:

During the last months of Mary McGavran’s illness, my wife Lyn would frequently spend time with her. Donald McGavran would be there, too, disregarding his own painful cancer while taking care of his beloved Mary. ‘You can be sure Jim and I will continue our commitment to church growth after you’re gone,’ Lyn said to Donald one day. ‘Don’t call it church growth anymore,’ was his quick response. ‘Call it church multiplication!’ Two weeks before his death, he said, ‘The only way we will get the job of the great commission done is to plant a church in every community in the world.’

There is more interest today in missions, world evangelization and church planting than ever before in history. In AD 100 there were 360 believers for every one believer. In 1500 the ratio was 69 to one. In 1900 it was 27 to one. And in 1990 it was seven to one. Ralph Winter is the founder of the U.S. Center for World Mission. Concerning this shrinking ratio, he says, “In the last 20 centuries the meek have quietly been inheriting the earth!”

(Saturation House Church Planting, Robert Fitts, Sr. Chapter 55 in, “Nexus: The World House Church Movement Reader, Rad Zdero, William Carey, 2007 pg 465.)

Developing a Core of Leaders Essential

“In every movement that has had worldwide significance in the spread the gospel throughout the history of the church, lay men and women have had a leading role. John Wesley was a man of great learning with years education and religious training, but as the leader of one of the great revival and church planting movements of history he did not go to the establish schools of religious training to find his pastors and leaders. He said:

"Give me 12 men who love Jesus with all their hearts and who do not fear men or devils and I care not one whit whether they be clergy or laity, with these men I will change the world."

And that is just what Mr. Wesley did! To preach the gospel in the open air Wesley’s day was the height of sacrilege and a serious affront to established church. It was unthinkable in the Church of England to outside of the walls of the holy sanctuaries to proclaim the sacred word of God. The Wesley brothers and George Whitefield suffered years of persecution for breaking the long-standing traditions of the established church, but this did not deter them. They knew the Scriptures and were convinced that if Jesus could do it, it was acceptable for them to do the same as well."

(Saturation House Church Planting, Robert Fitts, Sr. Chapter 55 in, “Nexus: The World House Church Movement Reader, Rad Zdero, William Carey, 2007 pg 468)

Developing Tentmaking Leaders Essential

"Drawing again from the writings of the father of the church movement, Dr. McGavran, I quote from his book:"

“Develop unpaid lay leaders. Laymen have played a great part in urban expansions of the Church. One secret of growth in the cities of Latin America has been that, from the beginning, unpaid common men led the congregations, which therefore appeared to the masses to be truly Chilean or Brazilian affairs. In any land, when laborers, mechanics, clerks, or truck drivers teach the Bible, lead in prayer, tell what God has done for them, or exhort the brethren, the Christian religion looks and sounds natural to ordinary men. Whatever unpaid laymen, earning their living as others do, subject to the same hazards and bound by the same work schedules, lack in correctness of Bible teaching or beauty of prayers, they more than make up for by their intimate contact with their own people. No paid worker from the outside and certainly no missionary from abroad can know as much about a neighborhood as someone who has dozens of relatives and intimates all about him. True, on new ground the outsider has to start new expansions. No one else can. But the sooner he turns the churches over to local men the better.3"
3 Donald McGavran (1970), Understanding Church Growth, Eerdmans.

(Saturation House Church Planting, Robert Fitts, Sr. Chapter 55 in, “Nexus: The World House Church Movement Reader, Rad Zdero, William Carey, 2007 pg 468-469.)

New Church Paradigms?

As the body of Christ grows from the infant to the toddler stage, it is seeking direction for its journey forward. It has gradually stepped around the barrier of old wineskins and has come to view different infrastructures.
Our view is often limited. Old paradigms are blinders, making it impossible to see peripherally. To describe it another way, we now “see through a glass darkly.”
As we step forward, we must see the emerging Last Days wineskin for Christ’s ekklesia. It does not yet exist. Should the Lord tarry, perhaps it will arise in the last half of this century. Can we set our vision to pioneer its lifestyle?

(Ralph Neighbour, forward of "Nexus, The World House Church Movement Reader, Editor Rad Zdero, William Carry, 2007 pp. Forward)