12 Symptoms of Spiritual Awakening

12 Symptoms of Spiritual Awakening
1. An increased tendency to let things happen rather than make them happen.
2. Frequent attacks of smiling.
3. Feelings of being connected with others and nature.
4. Frequent overwhelming episodes of appreciation.
5. A tendency to think and act spontaneously rather than from fears based on past experience.
6. An unmistakable ability to enjoy each moment.
7. A loss of ability to worry.
8. A loss of interest in conflict.
9. A loss of interest in interpreting the actions of others.
10. A loss of interest in judging others.
11. A loss of interest in judging self.
12. Gaining the ability to love without expecting anything.

Go Ahead - Criticize The Church

Expressions of sharp and even violent criticism of religion and the church have been welcomed [in this collection], for they usually imply sincerity of thought. If caustic criticism of religious institutions and practices is irreligious, then Amos, Isaiah, and Jesus were very irreligious men. In fact, that is exactly what many of their contemporaries took them to be.
(Halford E. Luccock (1885 1960) & Frances Brentano, The Questing Spirit.)

Truest Friends Are Few

"Oh, the comfort, the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person, having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but pouring them all out, just as they are, chaff and grain together, certain that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and with a breath of kindness blow the rest away." (George Eliot)

I Found A Bigger God

"Aslan says to Lucy, "Every year
that you grow, you will find me
bigger."  (In C.S. Lewis’ Prince Caspian.)

Distorted Pastoral Power

"If your Christianity depends upon a pastor’s preaching, then you’re along way from being where you should be." (AW Tozer)

Immensely true......

When Church Organization Takes All Your Time

"The Church ceases to be a spiritual society when it is on the look-out for the development of its own organization." (Oswald Chambers)

A Good Religious Experience Market

"There is a great market for religious experience in our world; there is little enthusiasm for the patient acquisition of virtue, little inclination to sign up for a long apprenticeship in what earlier generations of Christians called holiness."  (Eugene Peterson)

God Bless You With Anger At Injustice

May God bless you with anger at injustice, oppression and exploitation of people so that you may work for justice, freedom and peace. May God bless you with tears to shed for those who suffer pain, rejection, hunger, and war so that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and turn their pain into joy. And may God bless you with enough foolishness to believe that you can make a difference in the world so that you can do what others claim cannot be done.
- Franciscan Benediction

The Kingdom is Already Built. So You Don't Have To.

This just blew me away.....theologically and practically. A good reminder of my actual position in things.

"Nowhere in the New Testament are we told to "build the Kingdom." lt is already built "from the foundation of the world," built into the nature of reality. You "see," "enter," "proclaim," "suffer for the Kingdom, but never "build" it. For the Kingdom is not a relativism to be built, but an absolute to be accepted, submitted to, obeyed."
(E. Stanley Jones (1884-1973), The Christ of the American Road)

"

multiplication of man's machinery and the diminution of God's power

"We live in a day characterized by the
multiplication of man's machinery and the
diminution of God's power. The great cry of our day is work, work, work, new organizations, new methods, new machinery; the great need of our
day is prayer. It was a master stroke of the devil when he got the church so generally to lay aside this mighty weapon of prayer. The devil is perfectly willing that the church should multiply its organizations, and deftly contrive machinery for the conquest of the world for Christ if it will only give up praying."
R. A. Torrey (1856-1928), How to Pray

multiplication of man's machinery and the diminution of God's power

"We live in a day characterized by the
multiplication of man's machinery and the
diminution of God's power. The great cry of our day is work, work, work, new organizations, new methods, new machinery; the great need of our
day is prayer. It was a master stroke of the devil when he got the church so generally to lay aside this mighty weapon of prayer. The devil is perfectly willing that the church should multiply its organizations, and deftly contrive machinery for the conquest of the world for Christ if it will only give up praying."
R. A. Torrey (1856-1928), How to Pray

School Destroys Some Kids For No Reason

"But what hit me hardest was this. One boy stood out: he had remarkable powers of observation and intuition. When I mentioned this to his teacher, her reply astonished me: “I must tell him. It’s not something he will have heard before.” When a child as bright and engaged as this is struggling at school, the problem lies not with the child but with the education system. We foster and reward a narrow set of skills." (George Monbiot. Rewild The Child)

We Are Church Members. Some Just Can't See It.

"Are we all members of one Body? Yes. Does every member need every other member? Of course.

And that is exactly why so many millions of people are leaving institutional Christianity. It is not because they don’t want to be members of Christ’s church, but because they are members of Christ’s church, the Body, and have found that Jesus wants them to serve the Body and love the world in ways that waste less time and money." (Jeremy Myers. I Am A Church Member (but Thom Rainer doesn’t get it))

"Here are Rainer’s six recommended commitments (summarized and reworded for this review):

I will devote as much time and energy to my local church as possible, because if I don’t, I am letting Jesus down.
Nobody is perfect. Not even my pastor. So I won’t talk or think negatively about him in any way, or challenge anything he says or does, because doing so would damage the gospel.
Church isn’t about me. Even if I don’t like the music, can’t stand the preaching, there’s nothing for my kids, and I think the church is wasting my time and money, I will still attend faithfully.
No matter what, I will support my pastor and pray for him every single day.
I will bring my entire family to church with me, because the future of my family, the church, and the entire world depend on it.
I love being a member of this church, and I never, ever, want to stop being a member. It’s the best! I promise. It’s a gift from God.
Yes, yes, my summaries are a bit snarky. But if you read Thom’s book, you will see that my summaries are not that far off from what he actually wrote. I am using satire to point out how guilt-laden and performance-driven these commitments are.

Why do I feel so strongly about this? Because I am tired of church leaders with expensive church buildings and bloated church budgets trying to shore up their ineffective church programs by demanding further sacrifice and greater commitments from tired and weary church members. What ever happened to “my yoke is easy and my burden is light”?

While there may be some people are leaving institutional Christianity because they are rebelling against God or forsaking Jesus, the vast majority are leaving so that they can better follow Jesus into the world. Isn’t this something to be praised and encouraged?"

Why Our Life Is Like This.

When our lives aren't what we long for them to be, we often fall into blaming someone else. At first glance all of our problems appear to be because we didn't get something—or someone—we wanted. It often takes years of life chipping away at us before we’re willing to peek inside ourselves for the source of our discontent" (Kimberly L. Smith)

Getting Rid Of The Life We Planned For A New Ecosystem

Choices exclude other possibilities, and in life we have to understand this, or we will never be happy. The path we have chosen means we get to share in the enlightenment, joy, or sorrows following that path brings. We get to experience, enjoy, or despise the kind of people and relationships that are nurtured among people who choose this same path. It also means we cannot experience or benefits or struggles this other path and people share. How's your path working for ya? You can always change routes, but you can't have both. "We must be willing to get rid of the life we've planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us ."(Joseph Campbell. Reflections on the art of living. 1991. Pg 18)

"Whether it is the character you show or the persona you project, the individual is part of an ecosystem or group., integrated into a community or group. And almost by definition, being fully integrated into one ecosystem means pulling away from another-following something or someone means not following something or someone else." ( Leonard Sweet. I Am A Follower. Pg, 217)

The First Step Is To Leave.... Just Go!

For all the longing, crying, and whining, about a new journey, vision, or direction. The first step is always the one that trips most people up..... you've got to leave the old first. If you stay, you will tweak what you have, you will never venture out to  new reality. This my friends is what separates the crowd. Most never leave the familiar to risk encountering the unfamiliar. I was there for a few years and then went. Returned "home" and it became a prison to my mind, soul, and body. I had to leave once again to stay alive. But this time the leaving is divided between six months here and there.  Read this Quote, he hit a studio point.

"The very first sign of a potential hero's journey is that he or she must leave home, the familiar, which is something that may not always occur to someone in the first half of life. (In fact, many people have not left home by their thirties today, and most never leave the familiar at all!) If you have spent many years building your particular tower of success and self-importance —your personal "salvation project" as Thomas Merton called it—or have successfully constructed your own superior ethnic group, religion, or "house" you won't want to leave it. (Now that many people have second, third, and fourth houses, it makes me wonder how they can ever leave home.)

Once you can get "out of the house" your "castle" and comfort zone, much of the journey has a life—and death—of its own. The crucial thing is to get out and about, and into the real and bigger issues.

In fact, this was the basic plotline of the founding myth that created the three monotheistic religions, with Yahweh's words to Abraham and Sarah: "Leave your country, your family, and your father's house, for the new land that I will show you" (Genesis 12:1), We seem to have an amazing capacity for missing the major point—and our own necessary starting point along with it. We have rather totally turned around our very founding myth! No wonder religion is in trouble."
(Richard Rohr. Falling Upward)

The Worst Disease is........... Acording to Mother Teresa......

"Mother Teresa once was asked about the worst disease she had ever seen. Was it leprosy or smallpox? Was it AIDS or Alzheimer's? No, she said, the worst disease I've ever seen is loneliness." (What Matters most. Leonard Sweet. pg 20)

By My First Pair Of Shoes....

"That night Ramon came by the house and apologized for the long doubts he had had about me. "I want to get started right away on the new chicken house," he said. "I'd like to buy forty-three of the new chickens to make an even fifty, and then after the corn is planted, build another chicken house. By June, God willing, I will have one hundred chickens. You know what I'm going to buy when I am rich?" he said, beginning to laugh with delight at the idea. "A pair of shoes. Oh, my God. My God."
(Living Poor. A Peace Corps Chronicle. Moritz Thomsen. Pg 83)

Impatience With Religious Games

WORD

"The first indication of spiritual health is your impatience with religious games Accepting church politics, empty routines,
meaningless repetitions, and other vacuous practices does not make you a saint; it makes you a robot, The point of the Christian faith is not to be a good church member; it’s to be a transformed child of God whose mission is to bless God and other people in ways that change human history." (Maximum Faith. George Barna)

Dressing Scandalously

"His beautiful old mother, the Senora Pancha, stopped me on the beach one day. She needed a sewing machine, one with a pedal. Would I please bring it to her the next time I went to Quito? "No." I told her. "I don't have that much money: it's impossible."
"When it comes," she said, "I'll patch your clothes; the way you walk around is scandalous."
(Moritz Thomsen. Living Poor. Pg 130)

Who Would Simply Help For No Payback?

"Wai could never understand what the Peace Corps was all about. It went against everything he had learned about life;there was something preposterous, something dangerous, about a rich white man living in his town and talking about working with him, helping him make more money—for nothing. He knew that there were strings attached, that he would end up compromised, his integrity flawed. No, no, no. No thanks.......
Later in  that same month Wai  came to my house on a Saturday night. He had been drinking a little, which was about the only way he could ever talk to me easily. He began to thank me for the rice, but he choked up, stopped talking, and suddenly burst into tears. When he could speak again, he told me that I was the only one in town who had helped him and that I was his friend forever. For a dollar's worth of rice and beans, I figured it was the biggest bargain of my life. He told me that he had talked everything over with his wife and his mother, and they had decided that there would be no danger in working with me. "The truth is," Wai said, "you were like a god out of heaven to us." Since I was already secretly convinced that Wai was some primitive deity, it turned into a real confrontation of the gods.
(Moritz Thomsen. Living Poor. Pg 128, 129)

"A Few"... Means Different Things In Different Cultures

"I think it was at this meeting that I asked a farmer if he would bring me a few bananas next time he came to town. He would be enchanted, he told me, and the next day he appeared in the street below my room leading a horse almost crushed beneath at least two hundred pounds of bananas, for which he charged me twenty-five cents. I hung them up on the porch, and the kids used to steal them and bring some of them to me as presents.
(Living Poor. A Peace Corps Chronicle. Moritz Thomsen. Pg 55-56)

We Need More Lousy Followers.... Courage To Step Out!

When you begin to think outside the box, you often become some other "leaders" lousy follower. This usually costs something"
(Andy Rayner)

There are so many books on leadership today and yet, the New Testament never once uses the word leader. (I will continue to point this out for years to come)

We have a great fear of bringing people to Jesus and leaving them there with him.  We seem to act as if we have this great doubt that our indwelling Jesus can show people what to do, how to serve, or how to live.

We have this visceral need to get up in front if them to show them how it's done, as leaders. How's that working for us?  Under this new leadership ethos, the last 25 years has seen pew sitter activity reduced from 20% doing the work, to 10% doing the work (but they are more highly professional).

Let's put it back on the followers, and teach them how to think, listen, hear his voice, and get direction for themselves ("my sheep know my voice"- I can assure you few do.... Few even know what that means, understands how that looks, or how it's even possible- most get visions of some crazy, hippy, wing nut, loose cannon, kind of person )

We often substitute His direction, for the voice of a man with his own vision.
My sheep know my voice? (Ask your church buddies if they experience this living reality)

I'm not saying that what leaders point us to is wrong. What I'm asking is if leaders should be doing that much pointing to "things" anyway. They should be sending us to Jesus to get orders. 

A leader always points us to Jesus, every time. Not to some "thing" Jesus might want us to do, but to Jesus himself, period.

Yes, being that kind of follower of Jesus, makes us some other leaders lousy follower.

However, as for myself, I want more lousy followers, of me.

 AJ  (Somewhere in Islamic North West Africa)

They Don't Know They Are Beautiful

"I am singing about all my relatives and friends living in the countryside in Mali and in Africa," Rikia Traoré says in the song "Sarama." "These women are simply amazing, because when I feel tired I imagine them in their life of every day. They never show that they are tired. They are like iron women: all the time working, but working and smiling and taking care of everything with nothing to support them.

"The amazing thing," she adds, "is that when I go back to my parents' village ... all these people telling me that they are impressed by me, it really makes me cry because they cannot imagine how beautiful they are in the middle of this very difficult life."
(Interview with Rokia Traoré. Sept 2013). Internationally famous singer from Mali)

Africa Us More Than Sickness And War

"But honestly, I mainly go to Africa because I like it. Africa isn’t all terrorism, famine and disease. It just seems like that because those are newsworthy topics. Outside of those stories, there’s art, kindness and beauty like I’ve never witnessed before. It’s a huge continent with all-night clubs, traditional ceremonies and everything in between." (Amy Maxmen)

We Just Don't Care

"Malaria causes more deaths in sub-Saharan Africa than car accidents, cancer, AIDS or war, even though the disease can be easily cured with an inexpensive pill. I find that fact incredibly disturbing.....” (Amy Maxmen Postcards from Mali
Sep 25th, 2013)

When It's Time To Go Home!

"Usually when I come home from a trip I feel like my life has changed, and everyone else’s has stayed the same, this time it’s the opposite. I struggled in Africa, too. I fought with malaria, I was broke almost the entire time, and I’ve never been so lonely in my life. After Cape Town, home was the only place that I wanted to be.

Though inspiring and beautiful, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t putting on a brave face for much of South Africa. For the first time in a long time, I wasn’t where I wanted to be. I wanted to be home. I wanted to see family, drink with friends, and maybe even just spend a couple days doing absolutely nothing travel related.

In Durban, I sat in my hostel room almost the entire time like an enslaved worker waiting for his holiday. I forced myself to visit the waterfront, aquarium, and the town center. And well beautiful, my heart had long left Africa.

Maybe there is a time I’ll return. Maybe someday I’ll buy another scooter and drive up the east side. Maybe I’ll live there someday. Maybe I’ll never travel to another country in my life. The only thing I know, is right now it’s time to go home."

 (Brendan van Son is a travel writer and photographer from Alberta, Canada.
http://www.brendansadventures.com/struggling-with-the-end-of-africa/

Can Christianity Survive Modern Leadership?

"This frightening hour calls aloud for men with the gift of prophetic insight. Instead we have men who conduct surveys, polls and panel discussions. We need men with the gift of knowledge. In their place we have men with scholarship— nothing more. Thus we may be preparing ourselves for the tragic hour when God may set us aside as so-called evangelicals and raise up another movement to keep New Testament Christianity alive." (A. W. Tozer, Keys to the Deeper Life)

All Of Humanity Is Basically the Same....?

I wonder if we really believe this about all of humanity, in all of her cultures and diversity? We are basically the same?

"The physical world has been mapped; but in the last analysis the Peace Corps is an intellectual exploration, the chance (if you are patient enough) to enter in some degree into the hearts and minds and feelings of alien peoples with exotic cultures. The final discovery, that we are all ultimately alike, is a hard-earned revelation. And it is well worth the trouble."

(Living Poor: A Peace Corps Chronicle. Moritz Thomsen.)

Missionaries to be Example to Nationals

This is a quote from over 30 years ago. Insightful!

“As missionaries we need to set the example and pace for the national churches and pastors. Our responsibility is to keep moving out to the cutting edge of the work. As new churches are planted, we will continue to break new ground rather than limit our efforts to organizing and training.”

Joseph S. McCullough, Our First Priority”, The Andean Outlook (Plainfield N.J.), Fall, 1971, p7

Wash Your Hands Or Rats Will Chew On Them

"Rio Verde was a seacoast town, and there wasn't a house, of course, that wasn't cursed with rats. A bamboo wall was no challenge at all; a good self-respecting rat could walk through one without slowing down. I had awakened several times, my flesh crawling, with rats running across my legs or over my arms, and the kids told me that they must wash their hands after having eaten fish or the rats would chew on their fingers while they slept."
(Living Poor. A Peace Corps Chronicle. Moritz Thomsen. Pg 68)

Getting Rid Of Old Life.

"We must be willing to get rid of the life we've planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us."  (Joseph Campbell)

Some Journeys Are Against the Flow.

"I know that I have life only insofar as I have love.....Help me, please, to carry this candle against the wind." (Wendell Berry)

Romanticising Poverty

The poor have all kinds of relational problems, attitudes, and issues too, just like the rest of us. How true this is, we sometimes romanticize poverty by mistaking it for "Simplicity".....

"It was a romantic conception, because at that time I thought that poor people were somehow better, more honest and more alive, than people with money, not realizing that the absence of money in a society built around it could be as corrupting as money itself. The little village was going to be romantic as hell."(Living Poor. A Peace Corps Chronicle. Moritz Thomsen. Pg 24) 

New Website The Invisible Humanitarian

I'm now known as "The Invisible Humanitarian" Check out my stories and African Adventures at www.theinvisiblehumanitarian.com

Or twitter as "invisiblengo"

Church Has Changed But the "Church" Does not Know It Yet

Peter Wagner has had a large influence on the church over the past several decades from his focus on church growth to prayer movements.  While we might argue the merits of how some of his thoughts have shaped the contemporary church, he is, nevertheless, a senior voice at 82 years of age.
I would like to quote part of a recent article in which he looks at “The America of Tomorrow” and the future of the church.

“We are now experiencing the most radical change in the way of doing church since the Protestant Reformation. Notice the words, “doing church.” We are not talking about a change in the theology of the Reformation. We believe in the authority of Scripture, justification by faith, and the priesthood of all believers as strongly as did Luther or Calvin. However we are talking about the ways in which the church is beginning to live out these theological convictions day after day…

“In fact, of all the radical changes characteristic of the New Apostolic Reformation, I consider this the most radical of all: The amount of spiritual authority delegated by the Holy Spirit to individuals. Notice that the operative words in this statement are “authority” and “individuals.” We Protestants are not accustomed to individuals having much spiritual authority.  Traditionally, the final authority in our church bodies has resided in groups, not individuals. That is where we get such ecclesiastical terminology as “deacon boards” or “synods” or “sessions” or “congregations” or “general councils” or “presbyteries” or “vestries” or “state conventions” or “monthly meetings” or any number of similar terms-all referring to groups as over against individuals. The inevitable implication? Individuals cannot be trusted with final authority in the churches.

While I do not envision this “New Apostolic Reformation” the same way that Wagner does, I certainly agree with him on two fronts:

1. The church is re-defining Biblically what it means to be the church and, thus, what it means to ‘do church.’  There is no going back.  The implications of this are far reaching as more and more people truly understand that we are the church… period.

2. Spiritual authority is becoming highly decentralized (not non-existent) and we will have to step into the new wineskins in order to see how God will orchestrate His leadership throughout the whole body. 

Interesting times!

Let's Make a Show That Always Works

"Ten years ago, together with my Wife, Rae Ann, I set out to plant Life on the Vine Christian Community in the northwest
suburbs of Chicago. We had ten people join us in the effort. Shortly after, Geoff and his Wife, Cyd, came along. We joined together to figure out how to be a church amid these challenges. We had no idea of the difficulties we faced.

In a few years, We had thirty people and
decided We needed to reach out to the
community. We tried everything. We tried
doing a daily vacation Bible school in order to attract busy neighbors Who, you would think, would be happy to send their children to a recreational venue in the neighborhood. As it turned out, only Christians came. We tried providing a date night, offering baby-sitting services for families in the neighborhood who couldn’t afford it. Again, only Christians came. Someone proposed We do a fair on the grounds we had been given to start this church. The costs Were prohibitive. The chances of competing With the local school district or megachurch in offering these kinds of services were just about nil. Back then, these ideas were what was called outreach. What e learned quickly was that non-Christian people in our neighborhoods would not come to an event or service held at or associated with a Christian church.
Even non-Christians with friends who are
Christians will resist. The question, then,
was Why would we even try these events. In a culture that distrusts Christianity, a
society that no longer sees the church as
positive, Why do we seek to attract people to come to us? Why not instead use this time and energy to be in our neighborhoods, at our local park district gymnasiums and fairs, donating our time, getting involved, knowing the people, and bringing the gospel there? We were living in a culture that no longer wanted to do the things churches do, yet We were doing them anyway." (Prodigal Christianity)

Softy Cynics!

Our bark really is not meant to have a bite......

"My glass, while not necessarily half empty, is usually half full of sarcasm, 1 . And I need you to be gentle with me. We calloused cynics aren't as tough as we seem. That's the ruse. The truth is we build these emotional walls so dang high because we're hiding behind them. We're not strong like you, we're all soft and broken on the inside and the walls are our only defense." (Jessica Bowman)

Half Listening Christians

"There is a kind of listening with half an ear that presumes already to know what the other person has to say. It is an impatient, inattentive listening, that despises the brother and is only waiting for a chance to speak and thus get rid of the other person. This is no fulfillment of our obligation, and it is certain that here too our attitude toward our brother only reflects our relationship to God. it is little wonder that we are no longer capable of the greatest service of listening that God has committed to us, that of hearing our brother's confession, if we refuse to give ear to our brother on lesser subjects. Secular education today is aware that often a person can be helped merely by having someone who will listen to him seriously, and upon this insight it has constructed its own soul therapy, which has attracted great numbers of people, including Christians. But Christians have forgotten that the ministry of listening has been committed to them by Him who is Himself the great listener and whose work they should share. We should listen with the ears of God that we may speak the Word of God " (Dietrich Bonhoeffer.  Life Together: The Classic Exploration of Faith in Community.)

Changing Centuries Old Habits is The Real Key in Community Development

We humanitarians, NGO's and mission workers often forget. The "amazing" technology is not the main thing, the main help. It's life change, people willing to modify decade, even century old habits, attitudes, and mentalities. These are the real start of community development. The things we bring accomplish nothing without it. In fact, this is the real work. Anyone can plunk down some project that involves setting up some extremely helpful new technology, and then go home in two weeks and feel good about yourself.  But most of it fails (unless you want to keep returning all the time and dump money in it year after year) because we have not even acknowledged the hang ups of the people, and e all have them.

"In the village the saddest and finally the most infuriating expression to the average Peace Corps Volunteer, if my own experience is any guide, was that, frightened sentence they pulled out of their hats when you were talking about change or when you were trying to push some slightly new idea. I was eating dinner one night with Alexandro, and he used the expression four times within a half an hour. What he said four times was: "The people aren't accustomed to doing it that way." Each time it was a little more irritating, especially, I think, because finally it was even irritating to Alexandre. The last time he said it he even blushed a little. The conversation offers some insights into both the problems of a poor town and the problems of a Volunteer working to change things in a poor town."
(Living Poor. A Peace Corps Chronicle. Moritz Thomsen. Pg 55-56)

Preconceived Ideas About Poverty

"This kind of experience was jolting. Our preconceived ideas about the meaning of words like poor, uneducated, poverty-stricken, underprivileged, or disadvantaged were being destroyed. You didn't need a sociological study to see that our neighbors were all of these things. But these adjectives were only the backdrop for the human beings with whom we were now face to face. How can you change people if you can't accept them as they are?"

(Barrios of Manta. Rhoda Smith Brooks. Pg 84)

Community Development Work Realities

Speaking about development work in Ecuador...... "And the basic problem still remains: if it is too dry in the dry season and too wet in the wet season, just how and when does one make a garden?" (Living Poor: Peace Corps Chronicle. Moritz Thomsen. Pg 103. Rio Verde, Ecuador)

The Life Bush Life of Rural International Workers

"We were poling our way through the outpost country, a country of lonely, isolated farms, of messages that never arrive or arrive too late, of sudden sickness and inexplicable fevers and death, of snakes and bugs and downpours of rain, of loneliness, of women living and working alone all day in hacked-out jungle clearings, hauling water in gourds, pounding clothes on rocks, caring for sickly children, worrying. It was a country of distances, separations, longing, of deferred dreams, of small rewards; of muddy trails, stumbling horses, plants that grow two feet a day and choke the crops, armies of ants, blood-sucking lice on the bodies and in the eyes of the livestock. It is heroic country, too.

But when you ask yourself why anyone would live here, completely cut off from the world of comfort and security, there is no easy answer. Perhaps it is man's deepest wish to struggle against great odds, or perhaps the answer lies in that little band of grandchildren swarming around Don Julio. Maybe it is all for them."
(Living Poor: Peace Corps Chronicle. Moritz Thomsen. Pg 107. Rio Verde, Ecuador)

Jesus Is Moving Among Muslims

"The work God is doing today among Muslims is so historic and
unprecedented that I wonder if any of us can truly comprehend it. Never
before in the 1,400 years since the death of Muhammad have we seen so many Muslims coming to faith in Jesus as their Savior and Lord. And these are not just isolated individuals but whole families and communities. In our lead article for this issue, Dr. David Garrison reports on an unprecedented number of movements to Christ developing among Muslim communities all over the world.

As Garrison reports, in the first 1,300 years since Muhammad, there was only one voluntary movement to Christ among Muslims of 1,000 or more believers. In the last 20 years of the 20th Century, there were eight. In just the first 12 years of the 21st Century there have been 64. That is not a misprint. As of 2012 there were at least 64 documented movements to Christ taking place among Muslims, each with over 1,000 baptized believers and 100 worshiping fellowships. And the number of these movements is growing." (Mission Frontiers Journal. august 2013)

The Heritage Of Sharing With The Poor

"Although by our standards these were among the poorest people in the world, each of them would give free fish to those families most in need. Many centuries ago these people learned to share in both good and bad times; it is now their heritage." (The Barrios of Manta. Rhoda Brooks. Pg 83. Ecuador)

Less Church Structure & More Church Substance!

So far I've planted nine simple, economical, low budget churches, with no outside funding, that are lead by unpaid staff, both in Canada and Africa.

I just do not require all the gimmicks and "Stuff" many Christians have come to expect today.
What I need are people genuinely interested in my spiritual welfare, and I in theirs.
Learning, correcting, encouraging and living the word of God together on mission to the place we live. I don't need a building, a PHD teacher, PowerPoint, and live entertainment, to keep me interested. Where there is genuine relationship over mutual growth, there is no lack of interest on my part. I could assemble in a living room, under a mango tree, at a park, and my "church" could include a BBQ as well as communion and that would notch the interest level way up for me.

"The Roman Catholic Church went on to canonize the system. Luther reformed the theology surrounding the gospel, but left the outer forms of “church” remarkably untouched. The Free Churches freed the system from the state, the Baptists then baptized it, the Quakers dry-cleaned it, the Salvation Army put it in uniform, the Pentecostals anointed it, and the charismatics renewed it, but until today nobody has really changed the system. The time to do that has now arrived."

(The House Church Book. Wolfgang Simson. Barna, 2009, pg xiv)

A Life Not Guided By Fear and Pressure.

"I knew what I wanted in theory: to live a personally fulfilling, deliberate life dictated by principle and passion, as opposed to fear, and guided by an internal compass, not external pressures."
(Peace Corps worker Michael Buckler. From Microsoft To Malawi.)

When People Die Young......

"How can a country thrive when
the average person is frequently under the weather and ultimately expires at the
age of forty, barely reaching the zenith of his potential as a parent, village elder
or worker?

(Michael Buckler. From Microsoft To Malawi. Pg 73)

Problems Will Remain In Africa

"Yes," I nod, desperately wanting to believe his words. "These are old problems," he explains, pointing to our surroundings, "They existed before you came, and most of them will remain after you leave." (Old man in Malawi said thus to Peace Corps worker Michael Buckler: From Microsoft To Malawi. Pg 75)

Relationships Save Us......?

"Much of history has been determined by personal relationships, especially the "personal" in relationships. Why did USAmerica drop the atom bomb on Hiroshima and not Kyoto? Because Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson had a personal relationship with the city of Kyoto. He spent his honeymoon there in 1926 and loved the Japanese art and culture. Although Kyoto was at first designated as the target for the atomic blast, Stimson intervened with President Truman and Kyoto was spared. If you give it some thought, you'll see how your own life has been spared from destruction by personal relationships."

(Leonard Sweet. What Matters Most. Pg 13)