Event

We're having an event at Sam's (and Kallie's) house, on Wednesday the 29th of June, from 7PM to 9PM. We will be making parachutes for Voice of the Martyrs' parachute drop on Columbia:

Voice of the Martyrs is helping persecuted Christians, like Celso, who live and work in a country ravaged by drug wars and terrorism. In addition, we provide Christian literature and Bibles by air, water and road. We give Christians motors for their boats to travel to remote villages, fuel for airplane drops of parachutes filled with Bibles and shortwave radios pre-programmed with Christian broadcasts and vehicles for pastors travelling to places without good roads. Some persecutors now are Christ-followers and are bravely going back to their persecuted homeland to share the Gospel. You can support Christian evangelists like Celso by contributing to our Equipping the Persecuted fund. (View full page here)

If you want to be involved but can't make that time, you can buy a kit (along with a DVD on Columbia) here.

Bring scissors, needles and thread, and if you have white cotton material, bring that too! But mostly, bring a good attitude and a heart of prayer!

Please either comment here or email / text Sam to RSVP, and ASAP so she can make sure she has plenty of materials for everyone. Also, if you need her details, do likewise.

More Stats

TOTAL PERSONS: AD 33-2000

- All persons born since AD 33: 36,673 million
- All persons evangelized since AD 33: 12,105 million (33% of human race)
- All Christians since AD 33: 8,344 million (23% of human race)
- All martyrs killed since AD 33: 69,420,000
- Martyrs as % all Christians ever: 0.8%
- Martyrs among all Christian leaders ever: 2.0%

From Frontier Harvest Ministries

First Book Review!

Honey, We're Going to Africa by Harvey Thomas Hoekstra. Reviewed by Sam(antha).

I found this book in an op shop in Geelong for $1. It was definitely worth the money! It isn't easy found (though you can buy online) but if anyone wants to read they can borrow (read, return to me) mine. It now is published under the title From Knotted Strings to Talking Bibles

This book is about how Harvey and Lavinia Hoekstra became missionaries in Sudan and Ethopia. There are heaps of interesting (including gross) stories and information on the different people groups they ministered to. The story tells of the time where the cassette and aural ways of ministering to people in their native tongues, and their role in it.

This book goes into both the hardships and the blessings of being a missionary, and documents some of the effects on the native population of being in a pagan culture and then how their lives and culture changed dramatically as a result of significant numbers of people coming to Christ. For those of us who have friends who say how "happy" the Africans all were before Christians came (and yes, I've had more than a few conversations allong that line) this book will give you an insight into the truth on this matter.

There are also some small snapshots of family life - and it's interesting to note that at the time of writing 3 of his 6 children were also missionaries (the book was published in 1995, and I believe that one of his sons was as yet still at college.)

Harvey T. Hoekstra has a blog! Visit it at:
http://godspeaksinmylanguage.blogspot.com/

His book is available online as an audio book at http://www.audioscriptures.org/files/knotted-strings/knotted-strings.htm

Facts on the Lost

Who are the Un-Reached?
The number of people in the world today who have never heard the name of Christ is 1.9 billion. If all the unevangelised peoples in the world stood shoulder to shoulder they would stretch around the world 22 times. It would take 50 years of filling the MCG everyday before they all had a chance to visit our sporting icon. 1.9 billion people would stretch shoulder to shoulder from Sydney to Melbourne 1087 times. Any way you look at it that is a lot of people.

Statistical Data on Unreached People Groups:
The statistics of the numbers of non-Christians can be 865 million unreached Muslims or Islamic followers in 3330 cultural sub-groupings

- 550 million unreached Hindus in 1660 cultural sub-groups
- 150 million unreached Chinese in 830 groups
- 275 million unreached Buddhists in 900 groups
- 2550 unreached tribal groups (which are mainly animistic) with a total population of 140 million
- Forming a smaller -- though important -- unreached group are the 17 million Jews scattered across 134 countries
- Good news: Missions researcher David Barrett says the country with the most rapid Christian expansion ever is China where there are 10,000 new Christian converts every day.

Bible Translation Availability
At least some part of Scripture has been translated into 2,212 of the world's 6,500 languages
- 366 languages have the entire Bible
- 928 other languages have the New Testament
- Individual books (such as the Gospel of John) are available in 918 additional languages
- 80 percent of the world's people have access to at least some portion of the Bible in a language they can understand.

More information available here.

Combined Life Group

All life groups have been invited to a special event with a guest speaker – Ps Gary Deetlefs, a South African Pastor. Please confirm your LG arrangements with your leader.

Gary is a white South African. He pioneered a church many years ago and still pastors that today in Durban. He is a very anointed local pastor but also networks with other ministries and has a really national and global vision. He has numerous churches and leaders that link with him in South Africa and some other African nations. He will encourage the people and minister to them from a 'local' perspective but with a global vision.

It will be held on Friday, 10 June 2011, 8:00 - 10:00 pm at the church office.