There is a Fountain filled with Living Water that is our Gateway to God! Serving the Christian Community with Love & Commitment.
A MINISTRY OF ACTION, COMMITMENT AND DISCIPLESHIP BASED ON THE WHOLE WORD OF GOD.
There is a Fountain filled with Living Water that is our Gateway to God! Serving the Christian Community with Love & Commitment. A MINISTRY OF ACTION, COMMITMENT AND DISCIPLESHIP BASED ON THE WHOLE WORD OF GOD. |
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Mission Articles Page 1 Serving The Christian Community With Love and Commitment. Welcome to the missions article page of The
Fountain Gateway. Below you will find recent articles concerning missionaries or
from missionaries around the world. Please read what they have to say and "we
ask" that you be in prayer about what they request! This is as God would have us to
do. Thank You from the webmaster Mark K. Doty. If you have a missionary article or concern
that you would like to have posted here please contact the webmaster at the following
email address: tfg@fountaingateway.com.
All Linked Scripture is courtesy of The Blue Letter Bible or the World Wide Study Bible! IMB News Stories Baptism of bishop,
priests sets off persecution, revival: JINJA, Uganda (BP) -- Hidden by the darkness of the night, the men slipped across the street to Samuel Lubogo's home. The silence was shattered as the intruders beat down the door. The night of terror began for the Lubogo family when they recognized the intruders as police officers and members of their parish. Lubogo's wife, Norah, cried as she watched her personal possessions carted off. One police officer grabbed Lubogo and another handcuffed his eldest son. The two men were dragged off to jail while the rest of the family was thrown out on the street. A photograph published in that day's newspaper had shown Lubogo -- a high-ranking Church of Uganda official -- being baptized at the local Baptist church. The intruders were sent to teach him a lesson. It was a lesson that backfired, though. Lubogo clung even closer to his newfound faith. "That night, all of the people stared at us. They persecuted us just because I was now following the truth," he said. "As I watched what was happening, I worried about my family but I still praised the Lord for considering me worthy." Lubogo is not the only official from the Church of Uganda to make public decisions for Christ. Since April, more than 50 priests also have professed a faith in Jesus Christ. A spiritual awakening for Uganda is starting in one of the most unlikely places -- The Church of Uganda -- said International Mission Board missionary Bill Waddle. The Church of Uganda is an offshoot of the Church of England and was founded in 1875. While the church believes in Jesus Christ and the resurrection, it also adheres to a rigid hierarchy of authority. "Their stance on the Bible is that you don't need one," Lubogo said. "You don't need one because the bishop will tell you what to believe and how to act." Lubogo was bishop-elect -- next in line to become archbishop -- with charge over 3 million parishioners and priests in his diocese when he left the Church of Uganda. He was not only the second in command in the Church of Uganda, but also a prince in the royal family of Uganda. One Baptist preacher in Lubogo's diocese, Godfrey Mayimba, was praying for a spiritual awakening in the Church of Uganda. Mayimba grew up in the Church of Uganda and knew its teachings. He was one of the firstfruits of Baptist work in his area more than 20 years ago. "When I was 14, I felt God telling me to go and lead my people to Him," Mayimba said. "I started praying for the Church of Uganda then. Many Ugandans have some sort of tie to that church and it has such a stronghold on the people." Mayimba met Lubogo through a local humanitarian program. The two began meeting and talking about the Bible. Lubogo began to ask questions and search out the truth. "Finally I came to the point where I asked myself how long am I going to sit on this truth," Lubogo said. "The truth haunted me. I had to act on it and acknowledge it -- even if the church was against it." Until Lubogo's baptism, his conversion had been hidden from the community and church. After police stormed Lubogo's home, he spent four days in jail and then was asked to reconsider his decision. Other Church of Uganda priests are suffering through similar situations as their decisions become public. One priest had all of his possessions taken from him, including his Bible. Lubogo remembers when he inflicted persecution on evangelicals on behalf of the Church of Uganda. "I apologize to those that I persecuted before I knew the truth," he said. "Now, I want to live so that people can see the change in my life. I want to show people that Jesus Christ has control over me." Community members are curious about the changes they are seeing in Lubogo and the other priests. Many have approached Lubogo and asked him to start a new church. "The people want to hear about Jesus Christ. They want to know the truth," Lubogo said. "The problem is that these priests cannot come before their congregations and preach salvation without being fired or their lives threatened." Efforts are being made to find ways to disciple the 50 priests and support them in their decision, Waddle said. He feels these priests will be important players in spreading the gospel. "They are the leaders of the community. People recognize and follow them," he said. "If these priests are serious, the people are going to respond to the message they bring." Lubogo said many lives already have been changed through the priests' example. "A revival is taking shape here," Lubogo said. "I would give up my title and wealth again just so I can take part and be used by God. He is moving in mighty ways and people will respond." IMB News Stories Blackaby, Willis say missions is outcome of experiencing God By Louis Moore GLORIETA, N.M. (BP) -- The call to salvation is a call to be on mission with God to share Jesus Christ with the billions who do not know Him, two noted Southern Baptist leaders said. When someone trusts Christ as savior, he or she automatically becomes part of God's plan to reach the whole world with the salvation message, they said. Henry Blackaby, who wrote "Experiencing God," and Avery Willis, who wrote "MasterLife," teamed up in a seminar to teach "Experiencing God on Mission" July 24-26 during the first-ever International Missions Week at Glorieta, a LifeWay conference center in New Mexico. "God is the One who is on mission," Blackaby said. "God is the One who has been at work throughout eternity and throughout (world) history to bring the lost to Himself." "God is at work all the time, everywhere," Willis said. "God calls you to Himself so you can be on mission with Him. "God has a bigger plan than just to appoint every Southern Baptist as a missionary," he said. The two leaders -- whose respective works have exerted extensive influence around the world -- said the ultimate goal of missions is that God will be glorified throughout eternity. "There is no way God can be glorified throughout the whole earth unless His people go throughout the whole earth," Blackaby said. "Worship of God -- not missions itself -- is God's ultimate goal," Willis said. Both referred to biblical references about people from "every tribe, every nation, every tongue" gathering around God's throne to praise Him forever. God's kingdom will last forever, but missions will come to an end someday, both speakers said. Missions is the avenue for gathering the heavenly chorus, they said. It will become unnecessary in eternity. Blackaby said, "God's ultimate goal is for you to respond to Him, so that you will never question where He wants you to go." Both speakers cautioned about allowing temporal matters such as material possessions and physical security to stand in the way of following God's will. "You can't go any further in your walk with God than your love relationship with God," Blackaby said. Loving and trusting God go hand-in-hand, he said. A true test of faith occurs when God asks a person to do something he or she realizes can't be done without God's assistance -- and then the person acts with confidence in God's leadership. "God initiates a covenant of promise and obedience with His people in order to accomplish His mission throughout the world," said Willis, who is senior vice president for overseas operations at the International Mission Board. "What is it God wants to do among (Southern Baptists)? "Southern Baptists were nobodies -- just simple, plain, ordinary rural people," he said. "(In the past 150 years), God took us and multiplied us and formed us. So, why has God blessed us? "Not because we have money or because we are so smart. It's because He wants us to be on mission with Him throughout the whole world." Lest Southern Baptists think too highly of themselves in the missions endeavor, Willis pointed out, "the biggest thing happening in missions today is the way those who were receiving missionaries are now sending missionaries." Blackaby agreed. "Very soon the Third World countries may be sending more missionaries than (Christians in the United States) are," he said. Both noted that Christians all over the world are mobilizing to do missions, and closed doors throughout the world suddenly are swinging open. That global expansion points to a coming grand finale in missions, they said. "We've never before seen the marshaling of the people of God globally like we are seeing today," Blackaby said. He said this "great movement of God" may mean Jesus' return is imminent. IMB News Stories 1. Baby boomers choosing missions for 'second half' significance By Jenny Rogers RICHMOND, Va. (BP) -- Look out, baby boomers: You are about to become one of God's most valuable -- and abundant -- resources in missions. The number of Americans over age 50 swelled to 72.4 million in 1998, more than a quarter of the population. By 2001, baby boomers (Americans born between 1946 and 1964) will be turning 50 at a rate of one every 6.8 seconds -- 2.4 seconds faster than in 1996, when the oldest boomers started hitting "the big 5-0." By 2030, a staggering 115.5 million people will be over 50, according to the American Association of Retired Persons -- about a third of the projected U.S. population by that date. Today's crop of aging baby boomers, however, aren't ready to head for the rocking chairs just yet. Thanks to modern medicine, technology and economic prosperity, they are healthier, will live longer and plan to retire earlier than ever before. And as they always have, boomers as a generation will continue searching for ways to change the world. So what does this mean for missions? More and more Southern Baptists are looking at retirement -- early or otherwise -- not as a perpetual vacation but as a new opportunity to use their time, talents and resources for God. Is it too late to start over after 50? Fifty-one-year-old Evelyn Malone doesn't think so. A Texas native, Malone taught elementary school for 23 years and helped lead church-based outreach cell groups that included Christians and non-Christians. Life seemed set. While visiting her daughter, who was attending a Christian college in Chicago, Malone met one of her daughter's favorite missions professors. He said something unexpected to her: "You're not here just by chance. The Lord has something to do through you." "I was so surprised!" Malone recalls. "I just stood there with mouth hanging open." Malone learned about missions opportunities through the college and participated in several short-term mission projects. After working with teen-agers in Bulgaria and singing praises to God in a Choctaw church in Oklahoma, she began feeling an intense passion to reach the lost around the world. She also began to seek full-time missions opportunities. Chance? Hardly. "What I see is the Lord preparing me for stages along the way," she says. "When my daughter graduated from college, I was without excuse." She followed God's leading to a two-year International Service Corps assignment in Mexico through the International Mission Board and is currently preparing for orientation. Malone will start a new career: teaching English as a Second Language at a college and starting Bible study groups -- much like her cell groups back home. "I feel like the Lord's planned this from the beginning of the world," she says. "I'm as excited about this as I was the first day I started teaching school!" Malone is in good company. Older Southern Baptists have been serving overseas through International Service Corps since it was launched in 1990. More than 1,100 ISC missionaries over 50 years of age have been commissioned to serve in assignments ranging from four months to two years. The oldest ISC worker currently overseas is Margaret Burks, 84, in Tanzania. With the number of Southern Baptist boomers continuing to climb, the International Mission Board recently launched the Masters Program, a new avenue for mission service with assignments of two or three years. Similar to the popular Journeyman Program for college graduates under age 30, the Masters Program is designed for people age 50 and above. It offers service opportunities all over the world, such as these: * Church planter intern in an
unreached area An even newer option for all ages is the International Mission Stateside Partners, which allows Southern Baptists to volunteer long-term on the International Mission Board's home office staff in a variety of management, professional and support positions. "If you are like many Southern Baptists, you may already be retired or facing that time of release from the daily grind with good health, adequate income and skills and experience that still hold great potential in God's kingdom," observes IMB President Jerry Rankin. Second careers in Christian service or short-term mission projects are a great place to begin your investigation of the possibilities. Programs like masters and International Service Corps make productive use of time and offer flexibility, adventure and -- most importantly -- significance. "Many people of the baby boomer generation have been very successful and done very well, but now they're looking for significance," says Jim Riddell, leader of the IMB missionary mobilization team. "So we want to provide them with an opportunity to have an impact on the world for the cause of Christ. This is an opportunity for them to make a dramatic shift in their lives." But there's a catch. Unless you prepare now, the odds you will actually follow up your "first half" with significant kingdom work are slim. Many people hear God's call but are afraid to step out into unfamiliar territory, writes Bob Buford in Halftime, a book about preparing for success in the second phase of life. They decide to wait and finish what they're doing. But by the time they do, they're too tired, and it's too late. "(Management expert) Peter Drucker tells me that retirees have not proved to be the fertile source of volunteer effort we once thought they would be," Buford writes. "They cut off their engines and lose their edge. Peter believes that if you do not have a second career or parallel career in service by age 45, and if you are not vigorously involved in it by 55, it will never happen." With God's leading and a little planning, your "second half" could become your most productive. Otherwise, you may "join the ranks of those who are coasting their way to retirement," writes Buford. "But if you take responsibility for the way you play out the rest of the game, you will begin to experience the abundant life our Lord intended for you." For information about the IMB's Masters Program, e-mail masters@imb.org or call toll-free 1-800-789-4693. For information about the International Mission Stateside Partners Program, e-mail imsp@imb.org or call toll-free 1-800-999-3113 ext. 1670. Information also is available on the agency's website, www.imb.org. 2. Questions about starting an after-50 missions career RICHMOND, Va. (BP) -- Thinking about making the transition to missions after 50? Here are some questions boomers and retirees frequently ask about starting a missions career during their "second half." Q: Should I involve other Christians in my plans? A: Solicit the prayers of others throughout the process. "You have to bathe this totally in prayer and wait for His answer," counsels Evelyn Malone, 51, who's heading for a mission assignment in Mexico. "And don't wait until the last minute to let others in on what you're doing." Your church can be a valuable resource in moving, packing and preparing spiritually. Q: Is there an age limit? Q: What should I do about medical
care? Q: Do I need to buy my own health
insurance? Q: Do I have to provide my own
financial support? Q: What if I still have financial
commitments? Q: What about my house? Q: Can I go ahead of my spouse if he
or she is delayed? Q: What kind of living conditions
should I expect? Q: What about pets? Q: Do I have enough education to
qualify? Do I need seminary? Q: Will I able to return home during
my assignment? 3. Mobilization: multiplying gospel witness to a lost world By Erich Bridges RICHMOND, Va. (BP) -- American society is fundamentally shifting from "representation to participation," observes Leonard Sweet, church historian and futurist. "The culture," he contends, "will not tolerate representative leadership anymore." Translation: If Americans decide something is worth doing, they want to do it personally -- not hire somebody else or watch from the sidelines. That goes for public service, education, community projects and many other enterprises. Elective politics, for example, seems to draw a big yawn these days -- especially from younger adults. Yet three out of four college freshmen in 1998 reported doing volunteer work during the previous year. It also goes for the church. The church of the future will have "no laity, only ministers," Sweet predicts. "Sit-and-soak worship will no longer function as a way of experiencing God." Plenty of social research supports Sweet's position, especially as it applies to baby boomers, Generation X, Generation Y -- essentially everyone born in the United States since World War II. Many now distrust or disregard representative institutions and want personal, eyewitness participation in anything they deem worthy of support. Christians in these groups learn by doing, seeing, touching -- and crave specific opportunities to experience missions in their community, nation and world. "You need to experience it firsthand," teen volunteer Rebekah Duke said last year after participating in an international mission project. "I have to do stuff with my hands." That's why the Southern Baptist mission boards and related agencies are urging every Southern Baptist young person to spend at least a summer or semester in missions before college graduation. The tens of thousands of teens expected to attend Youthlink -- the mammoth seven-city Southern Baptist youth teleconference ushering in the year 2000 -- will be offered a chance to sign up for a specific mission project next year. And missions participation isn't the sole province of youth. Many older Americans are exploring early retirement or second careers to serve as local or international mission volunteers, International Service Corps missionaries, missionary associates or in the International Mission Board's new Masters Program. Others are dedicating their lives to be prayer warriors at home. More and more local churches are seizing the initiative to plan and carry out their own mission strategies -- at home and abroad -- through networking with missionaries and Christians around the world. All this illustrates the overwhelming importance of missions mobilization. What is it? Not just a fancy word for recruiting or fund raising. Mobilization is the highway that speeds local churches to their God-given task of global evangelization. There are many definitions of missions mobilization. One of the best: "the awakening and equipping of the whole body of Christ to participate in the whole mission of God to reach the whole world with the good news of Jesus Christ." The IMB's part of that colossal task appears in its vision statement: "We will lead Southern Baptists to be on mission with God to bring all the peoples of the world to saving faith in Jesus Christ." "It's not our job to do missions on behalf of Southern Baptists," board President Jerry Rankin stresses. "Our job is to mobilize them to do missions" -- unleashing the enormous spiritual, personal and financial resources of thousands of churches. Participation, not just representation. There's plenty of work to do on that front, despite the activist trend described above. Many church members -- if they acknowledge missions at all -- remain quite content to leave the work to career missionaries, the praying to Woman's Missionary Union circles, the giving to somebody, anybody, else. Why? They have yet to see the world as God sees it. "If all you're looking for from the Bible is how you can get saved, you won't see the dimension of the nations being saved, which happens to be the basic dimension," explains missiologist Ralph Winter. A tiny fraction of Southern Baptist church offerings currently reaches beyond our own borders. An even tinier fraction of Southern Baptists currently serve as missionaries. Mobilization could multiply those totals geometrically. It's happening in churches infected with God's vision. You will decide whether it happens in yours. "Hearing His Still, Small Voice" - by Erich Bridges IMB Posted 05/22/99 In silence, God speaks. Listening is the most important thing we can do.
Posted: 04/08/99 From SBM Spiritual darkness blinds 6 million Tujia people By Don Martin RICHMOND, Va. (BP) -- Three Chinese tourists pose for pictures at the base of a huge tower of rock that for generations has drawn admirers and worshipers to this small valley in central China's Wuling Mountains. The gray and white column of stone, which local
Tujia (pronounced Too-JAH) villagers worship, fascinates tourists. While this may be a "Kodak moment" for visiting tourists, the rock is anything but child's play for the Tujia, an unreached people group of more than 6 million people. More than 2 billion people in 1,739 ethnic people groups like the Tujia have little or no access to the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ. The Tujia believe the rock has special powers, explains "Eric Jones," (not his real name) who, along with his wife, "Lynn," are the Southern Baptist International Mission Board's strategy coordinators for the Tujia. If villagers have a problem, they come to the rock, write a request on its base, and then pray to the stone. Their petitions range from requests for help with a child's discipline to, say, the profitable outcome of a business deal, Jones said. "This is what Paul was talking about in Romans. 'They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator,'" Jones said, quoting Romans 1:25. "Satan has a grip on the Tujia," he added. "There is so little light here to show people that this thing is just a rock. But the dawn is coming. Satan is working to keep things the way they have been for hundreds of years, but there's nothing he can do to stop the dawn from coming." Among the 6 million Tujia, there are about 30,000 Christians. Most Tujia hold to a mix of shamanism, Taoism and ancestral worship. Briefly, shamanism depends on magic to appease an unseen world of demons and gods; Taoism focuses on both moral teachings and Taoist priests to bring order and prosperity to life; and acts of ancestral worship result from the belief that the eternal happiness of deceased ancestors depends on the spiritual care of living family members. "The search for hope can be so desperate among the Tujia," Mrs. Jones said. The couple saw the depths of this longing last August in a Tujia village when they visited a young Christian whom they had earlier led to the Lord. The Joneses had brought with them a small booklet about the life of Christ. They had intended to give it to the new believer, but a younger family member intercepted the booklet. "He was a 16-year-old cousin of the believer," recalled Jones. "When we gave the booklet to the family, one of the younger boys took it, but then this 16-year-old yanked it away and went and sat in a corner and guarded it very closely. He just sat there reading intensely, almost as if he were devouring the words. "He said later that he had once heard about this Jesus but had never been able to find out more. When he was reading, we could sense a hunger that went way beyond mere curiosity," he said. Other Christians who are working with the Joneses to plant churches among the Tujia report a similar hunger, Mrs. Jones said. One (Han) Chinese Christian who was teaching from the Bible in a Tujia village said it was difficult drawing the village Bible studies to a close. "Once the meetings began it was hard to stop," Mrs. Jones said. "The meetings continued into the night, sometimes past midnight. The people were begging for more study and prayer." Yet most Tujia are far from this kind of spiritual hunger for God, Jones said. "When we have the chance to speak about Jesus to those willing to give us a hearing, we often see a response and lives are turned toward God," he said. "But Satan's deceptions remain strong here. Things like this rock remain the objects of their worship. Scripture has called Satan the deceiver. How sad it is that his lies are the foundation of their hope." After a few more poses, the tourists circle the rock and a few seconds later laugh out loud with their change of perspective. >From this new view, the stone's optical illusion vanishes, turning the teetering tower into a solid outcropping. The Joneses know a similar change of perspective is coming for the Tujia. "Satan's lies are no match for our Lord's truth. We know that day is coming." *** How to pray for the Tujia: If you would like to be a prayer partner with the team taking the gospel to the Tujia, call 1-800-772-9562. ---------- SIDEBAR Strategy coordinator's heart burdened for lost Tujia By Don Martin RICHMOND, Va. (BP) -- "Eric Jones" (not his real name) and two Southern Baptist volunteers fashion a small cross from two dry sticks tied together with a thin vine and plant it just off this path that winds down the mountain toward a small Tujia village. "This is ground zero," declared Jones, an International Mission Board strategy coordinator who, along with his wife, "Lynn," works with other Great Commission Christians to start a church-planting movement among the Tujia, an unreached people group of more than 6 million. "We are praying for the day when this village not only has a living church rooted here, but that this church will be the hub of a movement of God that spreads through all these valleys," he said, waving his hand toward another part of the Wuling mountains. Jones has stopped along this path before and prayed for the village below. Today he has brought along two Southern Baptist volunteers from Lake Pointe Baptist Church in Rockwall, Texas, to pray and videotape an appeal for others to pray for the Tujia and even join Jones' team in this church planting effort. "We have this wonderful vision for the Tujia, but we are very aware of how small we are in all this," he said. "As a strategy coordinator, I'm in awe that I'm out here, holding God's hand as He brings the nations to Him. I feel that I'm part of a group of the most privileged people in the world. "We know that God has others out there who
will join us. The task is huge, and my wife and I are only two people. It's Prior to China's revolution in 1949, there were small pockets of Tujia Christians in central China. Some were Protestant Christians and others were Catholic. But today, less than 1 percent (30,000) of the Tujia profess to believe in Jesus. The vast majority hold to the beliefs of local gods and demons, as well as to the worship of ancestors, according to Christian researchers with the AD2000 and Beyond Movement. There are also those who worship images of a white tiger. For some, the white tiger is a powerful image because it relates to stories of an ancient people called the Ba of Sichuan Province. Many trace the Tujia's lineage to the Ba people, who were said to have been reborn as white tigers. Just underneath these colorful stories of ancestors and tigers is a world of spiritual fear and bondage, Jones said. "That's the key to working in these villages. There is a need to get beyond the fear. And that will happen as the Holy Spirit works through us to touch even complacent hearts." The Lake Pointe team completes the videotaping and, while they check the recording, a Tujia man herding a water buffalo and her calf passes by on the path. The man stares at Jones as he walks past. A few steps later he looks at the cross as he and his animals slowly move down the mountain. "We have this path that God has given us," Jones said. "At first, it was just the two of us, but that's already starting to change. And the change is leading to the day when this path will be filled with Tujia Christians worshiping our Lord. "And you know, most of them won't even know we
were here --just like that man probably doesn't know what that cross means. It is a good
path."
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