One Just World

This is a free forum that discusses many of the biggest challenges that the developing world faces. This is a great way of finding out the different problems that are happening around the world (because you won't hear about many of them on the news). You will also find out what some of the different groups are that are working on these issues, and how they go about them.

This is not a Christian group, so you do need to be wary. Not everything that they would advocate will be in line with Christian values. That said, there are a lot of people in the secular world who have done (and are still doing) some great work to improve the lives of the poor around the world.

There are videos of the forums online, and you can register to attend any of their forums. Registration is not essential to attend, but it does mean that they can better prepare for the amount of people who attend.

I (Sam) am planning to attend the next forum in Melbourne. Do join me!

Forum: Telling the World's Stories Date: 28/08/2012 6:00:00 PM

We’re used to international news media bringing developing crises into our homes – conflict, famine, corrupt governance, military atrocities - reports of what is happening in countries somewhere else in the world. But what about people living in countries without an independent media - what does this mean for women and men in these countries who are struggling to have their voices heard?

Location:
BMW Edge Theatre
Federation Square
Melbourne VIC

Uganda Prayer Points:

• HIV/AIDS
o Drop in infection rate
o Back to the ABC program
o Comfort for those bereaved
o Lack of exclusion for those affected
o Medication – anti-retroviral and the vaccine (Amy’s working on this!)
• LRA
o The dissolution of the LRA
o Integration of those affected back into their communities
o Those in camps
o Ps Sam Childers and others working with those affected
• Economics and Politics – corruption
• The Church
o Superficial and syncretistic
o Missions focus
• Landslides
• Literacy rate – 68% - lower in rural areas, which leaves people very open to exploitation, both material and spiritual
• Bushikori

Ways you can help
- Sponsor a child or donate to Bushikori, or a similar organisation - do check it out first though!

Review: God's Missionary

This is a great book by Amy Carmichael, a famous missionary to India. It is very short and an easy read (which is quite nice on those very tired days!) but is full of well thought out wisdom.

Mainly, this book is about how we can be the most effective missionaries possible, and realising that our focus needs to be first on God, and then on the people we are aiming to reach and serve, and not on fellowshipping with those who are exactly like us or in "escaping" with something that does not better fit us for the work Christ would have us do.

It was a great book, and I really recommend it.

Day 6 (13 Dec 2011)

Matthew 5:16
What does a lighthouse do? It does not draw ships to itself, but it directs the ships to safety. We are the salt of the earth and the light of this world. Why should we let ourselves lose our saltiness and cover our light by hiding it? So let Jesus shine through us.

Today, we did a hospital visitation in the morning. We first assembled at Bethel Bible College (Yes, another long trip...) where we met Alvin and Jace, the freelance missionaries originally from Hope Brisbane, and more familiar faces (to the rest, not to me). To refresh your memory, here is our wonderful team:

For the hospital trip, we went with Alvin and also with another lady who became our translator. Oh, why the fancy colours, you ask? That's because we're going carolling in the hospital! Silly Paul didn't bring his green shirt.

After an uneventful bus trip, the 9 of us arrived at Calalang General Hospital. Our task was to visit patients in their rooms, sing carols and give them a blessing pack, then finishing with a carol performance in the lobby.

We split up to cover as many rooms as we can. Me, Nilla and the translator lady (wished I had remembered her name) went in a team. We met many different kinds of people and patients, one had a mark on his liver. He refused to take his blessing pack and instead asked us to bless others with it. Sometimes, we are unsure of what to talk about, other than their name and what they are there for. We got the children's infirmary, and we hoped our carolling cheered them up a bit. One child had a case of dengue, but the results have yet to be confirmed. She was a pastor's daughter with he grandma looking after her. We also met an aspiring pastor with his mother in one of the rooms with multiple beds and heard his story.

We met up with the other team later close to afternoon. They had to wear masks in some rooms. Alvin himself was quite well-known in the hospital. He was cheerful, smiling all the time, able to connect with the people. One lady in the wheelchair he talks with  her like an  old friend. She must be a regular. She got to hear the whole team sing three carols.

All right, time for the main event!

Er...no. I wasn't holding the hat out to collect donations. That hat had candy in them to share all around. People did make that mistake tho' and offered cash. No thank you sir!

Before we left, we were also ushered into the doctor's room and we gave them a dose of Christmas cheer. We then took pictures with the chief owner of the hospital.

The lady to my left in the picture above, and on the front left in the picture below was our lady translator. She reminded me of Aunty Pansy from Hope Melbourne Waverley. The guy in white behind her is Alvin.

We had the rest of the afternoon to ourselves, so we took the opportunity to visit SM City North Edsa, supposedly one of the biggest malls in Asia. We got there by taking a bus.

We ate quite a feast at Bario Fiesta and tried out some exotic Filipino food. We also bought souvenirs, so I bought plenty for my relatives in Malaysia, which was my next destination after this. We also bought a guitar for Mark to use for the campus ministry. We took a taxi all the way back to our apartments.

That evening, we discussed strategies for the next day. We were going to do all-day evangelism in campuses located in the heart of the city and visit their lifegroups in the evening. Pretty intense. Nilla, the fearless leader, sat down and discussed for what seemed like an hour to work out the logistics. Meanwhile, I snapped photos of the church. It really feels like a place where you can just pop in any time and do things like fellowship or prayer...or ping pong.

Two more days to go, but there's still more to come! I ain't seen nothing yet!

Review: Answering Jewish Objections to Jesus Series

So, this is pretty much the definitive series of answers to questions and objections that Jewish people might have about Jesus. If you are interested in evangalising to people of Jewish heritage or religious beliefs, then this is a REALLY useful resource.

Not only that, but volumes 3 and 4 (Messianic objections and New Testament Objections) are useful for those who want to evangalise to pretty much anyone, because many people have the same type of objections - i.e. the question of who Jesus is, why He had to die, the reliability of the New Testament, and a variety of other objections.

You can buy any of the Answering Jewish Objections to Jesus books from Amazon, Koorong, Word, or you can ask Sam or Michelle to order them in for the bookstall (and get 15% off the in-store price!)

William Burns

"I am ready to burn out for God. I am ready to endure any hardship, if by any means I might save some. The longing of my heart is to make known my glorious Redeemer to those who have never heard."

Hobart Mission Trip (Hope Frankston) Part 1

It was late 2011 when Ruth and Phil (Center Coordinators) started encouraging people to go on mission trips. Due to the fact that we were small, they encouraged us to tag along when other centers went on mission trips. There were several opportunities to go overseas on mission trips but we decided not to be over-ambitious and stay within Australia. We were invited by Daniel Long from Hope Melbourne City Center to embark on a trip to Hobart.

We were told that Pastor Mark was the overseer of Hope Hobart and that he would regularly send teams to Hobart to support, train and encourage the church. Hannah and I stepped up to go on a adventure and what would be our first ever mission trip. The problem we faced was that Hannah would not know if she could get leave until a week or two before the actual trip! We waited and trusted that if God wanted us to go He would provide leave and at the eleventh hour, God came through. I (the author) felt bad that we left Daniel hanging till the last minute but he was gracious and was happy to have us on board, especially when more than half his team had to pull out for personal reasons. We hurriedly hunted down some flight tickets and thankfully, they were not overly expensive. The team was going to be in Hobart for a week but we did not have sufficient leave so we decided to go for four days.

We decided to go for the second half of the trip and before our arrival, Daniel, Ben and Leon had already gone to work. They had done campus evangelism at Hobart University and street evangelism at Salamanca market. They had also gone on prayer walks to pray for breakthrough on the city as well as visiting the Hobart Gaol (that's jail in old English for those of you who might be confused). According to Daniel, he felt that as a city, Hobart was anti-religion and felt that the church back in the day had forced convicts to attend service against their will which made them rebel even more against the church. Daniel and his boys also blessed the church by cleaning the Ministry House and cooking for our hosts.

To be continued...

Alan Redpath

“We will only advance in our evangelistic work as fast and as far as we advance on our knees. Prayer opens the channel between a soul and God; prayerlessness closes it. Prayer releases the grip of Satan’s power; prayerlessness increases it. That is why prayer is so exhausting and so vital. If we believed it, the prayer meeting would be as full as the church.”

Day 5 (12 Dec 2011)

Today we were scheduled to visit Parmantasan High School in Pasig and do evangelism on the campus for the whole day. We had quiet time in the morning as usual, led by Allan. The passage challenged us to know our part and play our part well. Since we're doing evangelism, we were encouraged to share our personal testimonies to the locals. I know my personal story, what God has given me, and though I know little Tagalog or apologetics, I can use still use my story to reach out.

Today's trip took us on a long journey ride through polluted roads to reach Pasig. We were accompanied by Mark, who was a student and a CCM member from Parmantasan High School. We were greeted by Che Che and several other students from the school. Che Che briefed us on things to share to the students when inviting them for life group such as venue and times for life groups (boys and girls separate) and church service, as well ask for their contact details and Facebook. The team also planned a small gathering at 1pm at nearby park for mini gathering similar to a life group. We got into the school and strangely enough, weren't asked for our IDs or to leave it with them. Security is pretty relaxed today. Hmm...

No matter, onto the mission ground we go. The time was 10.30am. Nilla, Mark and myself went in a team, and we talked to the first students we met under the green arch in front of the main entrance. Nilla talked to some girls herself, and Mark and I got to talk to two guys doing I.T. Introducing Voltaire and Aeron, my first mission targets (he he). You would think this would be a scary experience, talking to foreigners (look who's talking!) about myself and trying to steer the conversation towards Jesus. Well, they told me they were Catholic, so that helped me jump straight into sharing how I used to be a Catholic but learning how I needed Jesus in my life. I don't know how, but I soon found myself before two guys who were willing to accept Jesus into their lives and led them in the sinner's prayer. Woo hoo! Praise God! Mark later told me that they had been coming to life group for a while but had never made an outward declaration to follow Jesus. Well, at least I was able to sow into their lives.

Onwards to our next group of people (Nilla went ahead of us). We climbed up the school building and talked to four guys who were passing up their assignments. I used the same approach, but could sense they were distracted and their answers weren't sincere. We left them after getting their contact details and waited for Nilla while she was talking with 8 girls (she was receiving a lot of attention). We regrouped later and went to McDonalds for lunch. Mark is the guy with the tie on the left, and Che Che is sitting to the left of Judith. On her left is Grace, who draws, Paul and myself. Whilst munching, we shared some stuff about CCM.

We made our way to the park for the afternoon gathering. Unfortunately, none of the new contacts we made were able to make it for session as they all had classes. Amazingly enough, Mark, Che Che, and the girls from the school: Janine, Arlette, Zoey and Naomi, all applied for leave from their classes to join us that day. We had praise and worship by the river park (wouldn't want to swim in it) and went back for a second round of evangelism. This time I was with Myrna and Ning Ning and wandered around the canteen area. Ning Ning had all these Tagalog tracts that I didn't know what to do with, so I stuck with sharing my life story. We first shared to four girls. The dynamics were different now, Ning Ning did most of the sharing by going through the four spiritual laws and gospel with them. Myrna and I just made small talk and shared our testimonies. I thought they were pretty open to our sharings. Next, we talked to a boy and a girl, who I remember was called Annajoy. The boy was seeking the truth but feels distracted by all the different versions of truth he hears. The girl believed in God and Jesus but not the Bible. I basically shared how I received 4 confirmation verses in a row once when praying for a major decision, and how God doesn't speak to me directly but I can still receive through the Word. Personal testimony can be a very powerful outreach tool, and different situations call for different testimonies. Believe that God has equipped you with the experience and knowledge for that one moment of sharing.

The sun started to set and hence, we had to make our move. Before we left, we took lots of group photos!

Hmm...I'm sure we had more guys than that. The CCM members of Parmantasan High School Pasig are well versed in their gospel tracts, and very bold and enthusiastic about sharing the gospel to their fellow students. It's like their second nature. Please pray for them and CCM, that they could get their own office and promised land on the campus! They have an advisor to the club who is actually a strong Christian who supports CCM and other christian clubs. They have to deal with the likes of other cult clubs. One such club grants the privilege to enter heaven once a student joins the club, but the initiation ceremony involves 100 lashes with a whip.



That night, we visited the pastor of Hope Manila, who was in an accident because of a road accident. At certain places where we stopped the car, children would run up and bang against the car to beg. It's terrible to try to ignore them. The team commissioned me to draw a card for pastor, after hearing that I could draw. Oh well, since I'm such a nice guy...

Continue in Prayer

Please pray for me. I am back safely, but had a serious allergic reaction in Doha airport, which had me vommitting and in a wheelchair.

I am walking, and functioning okay, but I am having on-going problems with nausea and am not able to eat much at any time.

Please continue to pray for me and my health.

Incidentally, my health was perfect in Uganda.