This book by John Piper is one of the few that is not available for free on his website. But do go out and buy it, because it’s brilliant!
This book goes through the reason why God is supreme over all missions, working through them, through worship, prayer, and suffering. It then moves on to how God is sovereign over all nations and how faith in Christ is absolutely necessary for salvation (which he also expounds in his book, Jesus: The Only Way to God, reviewed HERE). Both these doctrines are under attack within the church, and Piper does an admirable job of defending them.
The bit I found most informative was the prayer part – the part where Piper discusses the effectiveness of prayer upon world missions, and how viewing God as sovereign should motivate us to pray all the more for the lost. As this is one aspect of missions and theology that is often critiqued, I found it really useful to have a Biblically sound response to these objections.
This book is fairly heavy; not light reading, but it IS really worthwhile.
Tuesday, 27 November 2012
Saturday, 24 November 2012
Soup Kitchen
As believers we are called to reach out beyond the four walls of the church, to impact and bless our local community, that's why Caulfield LG is proud to be participating in Soup Kitchen!
Once every three months on thursday evenings, partnering with a local church, 6-8 of us head out to Boronia Bellbird Senior Citizens Hall to cook up a 3 course meal for 30-40 people. We are tasked to plan our own menu, timed at 45 minutes to cook our meals as dinner has to start on time at 6:30pm! By 6:15pm, the hall is filled with people of all ages, elderly people seeping their teas/cordless and kids running around the hall.
Part of the Soup kitchen experience also involved washing dishes for 30-40 people with hands, no dishwashing machine! Depending on the man power available, it takes about 45 minutes to wash up after dessert is served.
At the end of the day, though the team is physically tired but very much refreshed at our hearts knowing that at the end of the day, we have made a difference!
Wednesday, 21 November 2012
Review: Reasoning from the Scriptures: Muslims
This book was a good analysis of similarities and differences between Islam and Christianity. I didn’t find it to be as useful as the same book about Jehovah’s Witnesses, but it was still a very interesting book.
It covers the core beliefs of Islam, the history of Islam, and the similarities and differences, and how they view certain terminology completely differently. This is really important when we are having conversations with our Muslim friends – the same thing can mean very different things to each of us, and so we can be completely miscommunicating if we are not careful. This book is one that is really clear as to these different things are – and I know that it has made spiritual conversations with Muslims easier.
If you have regular interactions with Muslims and want to be better able to influence them for Christ, this is a very useful book for you to read.
It covers the core beliefs of Islam, the history of Islam, and the similarities and differences, and how they view certain terminology completely differently. This is really important when we are having conversations with our Muslim friends – the same thing can mean very different things to each of us, and so we can be completely miscommunicating if we are not careful. This book is one that is really clear as to these different things are – and I know that it has made spiritual conversations with Muslims easier.
If you have regular interactions with Muslims and want to be better able to influence them for Christ, this is a very useful book for you to read.
Sunday, 18 November 2012
Thursday, 15 November 2012
Review: Faithful Women, Extraordinary God
This book is by Noel Piper, the wife of the famous neo-Calvinist preacher John Piper. It traces the lives of five famous women of the faith, and how they trusted in God and how He used them to transform the world.
Not all of these women were missionaries. Sarah Edwards was the wife of a preacher (Jonathan Edwards), and Esther Ahn Kim was a persecuted Christian. Gladys Alyward, Lilias Trotter, Helen Roseveare were all missionaries.
I enjoyed this book. One of the things I liked best was that it emphasized the missionary work that women have through the acts that many consider to be minor – such as the bearing and raising of children to being a major act that can advance Christ’s kingdom. It was also a great introduction to the lives of these five women, not all of whom I had heard of before.
It’s a fairly small book, and so each section can be read in one or two sittings (depending on your reading speed), and can be downloaded for free at the Desiring God website.
Not all of these women were missionaries. Sarah Edwards was the wife of a preacher (Jonathan Edwards), and Esther Ahn Kim was a persecuted Christian. Gladys Alyward, Lilias Trotter, Helen Roseveare were all missionaries.
I enjoyed this book. One of the things I liked best was that it emphasized the missionary work that women have through the acts that many consider to be minor – such as the bearing and raising of children to being a major act that can advance Christ’s kingdom. It was also a great introduction to the lives of these five women, not all of whom I had heard of before.
It’s a fairly small book, and so each section can be read in one or two sittings (depending on your reading speed), and can be downloaded for free at the Desiring God website.
Monday, 12 November 2012
Day Six: Monday 18.06.2012
We went to the Joshua Primary School, and helped out in the classes. I managed to get into P2, and so got lots of opportunity to see my Shamim. She is a very conscientious student, not the fastest in the class, but very thorough in her work. She is also quite shy, and so she didn’t push to be in photos like many of the children. She smiled at me a lot, a serious smile, especially as the day went on.
We had lunch in the library, and the school gave us a lot of the more expensive food – meat, rice and matoke – while the students had posho and beans. While I love rice and matoke, I would have preferred the cheap beans to the meat. We only had the meat sauce, and left the chunks for Linus and Dan.
After lunch I stayed in the library for two library sessions with P1 and P2 (prep and year 1). P2 is one of the biggest classes in the school, with 55 students. They start with around 30 in P1, but children sometimes fail and repeat, or drop out and start a few years later when they have money (or are sponsored). Sponsor children are the most likely to actually finish primary school because all their fees are paid, so unless their sponsorship stops and they can’t get another sponsor, they continue as long as they are willing to stick at their education.
Library time was interesting – it was a combination of a story, a drawing activity, and free ‘reading’ of the different Picture Story Books. I read a few books to the children, which was great. I also wrote the first draft of a grant proposal for a building extension for the library. The library is a public library and a school library, but it is difficult for both groups to use the library at the same time due to distractions (for both the kids and the adults!)
We went home and had dinner. Anne came home after we had finished, and told us about a boy who had written a book in his library time, and Anne was wandering if it would be possible to get it bound for the Commissioning Day. I told her it wouldn’t be possible for then, but that we could announce it at the Commissioning Day, and get it done afterwards. We could also look at getting it published, either privately or professionally, to encourage the children and to let people know more about the work that is happening here at Bushikori. I will view the book tomorrow and that will give me a better idea about how to proceed with this.
Above: Ivan, the author.
The other big this that happened was that a little after 4PM, when the younger children had gone home, and just the P6 and P7 were still at school, one of the P7 students, who comes from a family know for its occult activities snapped and screamed for about 20minutes before they were able to calm him with prayer and praise songs. It isn’t the first time (either with him or generally in the school) and it serves as a reminder of the spiritual forces at work in Uganda. Truly, we do not war against flesh and blood, but against the powers and principalities of darkness.
We had lunch in the library, and the school gave us a lot of the more expensive food – meat, rice and matoke – while the students had posho and beans. While I love rice and matoke, I would have preferred the cheap beans to the meat. We only had the meat sauce, and left the chunks for Linus and Dan.
After lunch I stayed in the library for two library sessions with P1 and P2 (prep and year 1). P2 is one of the biggest classes in the school, with 55 students. They start with around 30 in P1, but children sometimes fail and repeat, or drop out and start a few years later when they have money (or are sponsored). Sponsor children are the most likely to actually finish primary school because all their fees are paid, so unless their sponsorship stops and they can’t get another sponsor, they continue as long as they are willing to stick at their education.
Library time was interesting – it was a combination of a story, a drawing activity, and free ‘reading’ of the different Picture Story Books. I read a few books to the children, which was great. I also wrote the first draft of a grant proposal for a building extension for the library. The library is a public library and a school library, but it is difficult for both groups to use the library at the same time due to distractions (for both the kids and the adults!)
We went home and had dinner. Anne came home after we had finished, and told us about a boy who had written a book in his library time, and Anne was wandering if it would be possible to get it bound for the Commissioning Day. I told her it wouldn’t be possible for then, but that we could announce it at the Commissioning Day, and get it done afterwards. We could also look at getting it published, either privately or professionally, to encourage the children and to let people know more about the work that is happening here at Bushikori. I will view the book tomorrow and that will give me a better idea about how to proceed with this.
Above: Ivan, the author.
The other big this that happened was that a little after 4PM, when the younger children had gone home, and just the P6 and P7 were still at school, one of the P7 students, who comes from a family know for its occult activities snapped and screamed for about 20minutes before they were able to calm him with prayer and praise songs. It isn’t the first time (either with him or generally in the school) and it serves as a reminder of the spiritual forces at work in Uganda. Truly, we do not war against flesh and blood, but against the powers and principalities of darkness.
Friday, 9 November 2012
Review: Orphaned
This book is about the work of Haregewoin Teferra, an Ethiopian woman who loses her daughter to HIV/AIDS, and shortly afterwards is asked by her church to take in two children who have been orphaned by the disease. She agrees, and the number of orphans in her care quickly grows as the orphan crisis grows larger and larger.
This book isn’t about missions – but it is about those serving God during the crisis of their country, and the challenges and successes that they have.
Given the ongoing crisis that HIV/AIDS is, in many countries all over the world (most obviously in developing world countries, but there are many sufferers in developed countries as well), it is vital that those who wish to be involved in missions understand the challenges that these countries face, and the ways that these countries are dealing with these crisis, and how well they are working (or not working).
The other aspect of this book I found valuable was the detailed chronicling of the legal difficulties and smear campaign that Haregewoin faced along with her success. Especially as Christians, we kind of expect that when we are doing the right thing people will applaud us, or at worst, ignore us. This is not the case – we are in a battle for the nations, and it is a battle. We need to realise this, and the chronicling of the difficulties that Haregewoin faced was a reminder of that.
If you are interested in missions in Africa, or in countries affected by the HIV/AIDS crisis, this is a great book to read.
This book isn’t about missions – but it is about those serving God during the crisis of their country, and the challenges and successes that they have.
Given the ongoing crisis that HIV/AIDS is, in many countries all over the world (most obviously in developing world countries, but there are many sufferers in developed countries as well), it is vital that those who wish to be involved in missions understand the challenges that these countries face, and the ways that these countries are dealing with these crisis, and how well they are working (or not working).
The other aspect of this book I found valuable was the detailed chronicling of the legal difficulties and smear campaign that Haregewoin faced along with her success. Especially as Christians, we kind of expect that when we are doing the right thing people will applaud us, or at worst, ignore us. This is not the case – we are in a battle for the nations, and it is a battle. We need to realise this, and the chronicling of the difficulties that Haregewoin faced was a reminder of that.
If you are interested in missions in Africa, or in countries affected by the HIV/AIDS crisis, this is a great book to read.
Tuesday, 6 November 2012
Day 8 (15 Dec 2011)
Hi, it's been a wonderful journey in the Philippines. Our mission is coming to an end. I must say, this last day is probably the most exciting of them all! Why, you ask? Because we landed in prison! Shockers! Horrors! Shall we start from the beginning?
We were supposed to wake up early at 4am, but we missed the alarm and woke up at 5pm instead. Thankfully, we completed most of our packing yesterday night. I said goodbye to our apartment and to the security guard (before leaving a farewell gift with him). Henry was waiting for us in his four wheel drive Sportivo downstairs. He wasn't even going to be involved in the plan today. Kudos to him for waking up early to send us off. We, of course, bugged him to tell us his story of how he and Hani got together, as we drove all the way to Las Pinas. Why the early rush? My flight from Manila was around 2.30pm and Allan had to leave early at 11am, so we had a tight schedule to keep. We looked for a landmark (SM shopping centre) and got down at McDonalds. Upon inspection, Henry realised he had a flat tyre. From here onwards, we said goodbye to our last contact from Hope Manila, and he left to fix his tyre. At McDonalds, we had a Big Breakfast. I drew a card for the Brisbane team.
After giving it to them, they also encouraged me to draw something for the couple missionaries, Alvin and Jace. Oh yes, we were waiting at McDonalds for Alvin and Jace to pick us up and drop us off at a nearby church. They had to do it in several rounds because we had luggage as well. We talked with a pastor there.
Okay, our last item on the agenda was to visit a prison and do a Christmas blessing for the prisoners. It was basically a prison outreach. Got you worried there, didn't I? :P Anyway, we could the prison from the church.
It was literally in our backyard. We then walked to the prison armed with only a guitar, some PA equipment, our Christmas get-up and scripts, and a lot of soap. The prison was an unusual building. It was three stories high, the ground floor was the police station, the floor above it were the prison cells for ladies, and the top floor was the men's. On the top floor there were only three cells, each able to house 194, 150 and 130 prisoners each. They mostly slept on the floors but some who were rich could buy a bunk bed attached to the wall. The toilets and showers were all on one side of the wall. The ladies' cells were the same but more...pink. The justice system is quite corrupt, or not efficient at all. Some did not deserve to be in prison but were only held up there because their case was still being processed, and they have been waiting for a long time. Some had no visits from their relatives at all. In a way, our visit to them was a blessing to them. I didn't mean it to sound arrogant, but from the feedback, the prisoners were thankful we came and visited them.
We sang carols to start the program off.
We were supposed to wake up early at 4am, but we missed the alarm and woke up at 5pm instead. Thankfully, we completed most of our packing yesterday night. I said goodbye to our apartment and to the security guard (before leaving a farewell gift with him). Henry was waiting for us in his four wheel drive Sportivo downstairs. He wasn't even going to be involved in the plan today. Kudos to him for waking up early to send us off. We, of course, bugged him to tell us his story of how he and Hani got together, as we drove all the way to Las Pinas. Why the early rush? My flight from Manila was around 2.30pm and Allan had to leave early at 11am, so we had a tight schedule to keep. We looked for a landmark (SM shopping centre) and got down at McDonalds. Upon inspection, Henry realised he had a flat tyre. From here onwards, we said goodbye to our last contact from Hope Manila, and he left to fix his tyre. At McDonalds, we had a Big Breakfast. I drew a card for the Brisbane team.
After giving it to them, they also encouraged me to draw something for the couple missionaries, Alvin and Jace. Oh yes, we were waiting at McDonalds for Alvin and Jace to pick us up and drop us off at a nearby church. They had to do it in several rounds because we had luggage as well. We talked with a pastor there.
Okay, our last item on the agenda was to visit a prison and do a Christmas blessing for the prisoners. It was basically a prison outreach. Got you worried there, didn't I? :P Anyway, we could the prison from the church.
It was literally in our backyard. We then walked to the prison armed with only a guitar, some PA equipment, our Christmas get-up and scripts, and a lot of soap. The prison was an unusual building. It was three stories high, the ground floor was the police station, the floor above it were the prison cells for ladies, and the top floor was the men's. On the top floor there were only three cells, each able to house 194, 150 and 130 prisoners each. They mostly slept on the floors but some who were rich could buy a bunk bed attached to the wall. The toilets and showers were all on one side of the wall. The ladies' cells were the same but more...pink. The justice system is quite corrupt, or not efficient at all. Some did not deserve to be in prison but were only held up there because their case was still being processed, and they have been waiting for a long time. Some had no visits from their relatives at all. In a way, our visit to them was a blessing to them. I didn't mean it to sound arrogant, but from the feedback, the prisoners were thankful we came and visited them.
We sang carols to start the program off.
Saturday, 3 November 2012
Review: 6th Inn of Happiness
This is a movie about Gladys Aylward, a missionary to China. It’s a good introduction to her life, but as is to be expected from a movie, it’s rather Hollywood-afied. The ending isn’t quite the same as her real life (in the movie she gets the guy and lives happily ever after, whereas in real life she broke up with the guy and had pretty bad health for the rest of her years).
The biggest problem I had with this movie was not the romance (which was in her real life, they just overplayed it, and besides, IT’S A HOLLYWOOD MOVIE, OF COURSE THEY AMP UP THE ROMANCE) but the underplaying of Aylward’s Christian values. Aylward goes to China… well, just because she thinks she needs to go there. She stops foot binding… because it’s the right thing to do. She goes into the prison thinking how God actually won’t keep her safe because “it doesn’t work like that”. And most annoying to me was the fact that on the march they don’t sing hymns, or any other Christian music, but instead sing “This Old Man Came Rolling Home.”
However, it is an interesting movie, and there are a lot of moving scenes from her life – such as her rejection from missionary agencies, her trip overland to China and the different dramas it entailed, and the prison scenes. It’s well made, mostly consistent with Aylward’s life (except for the examples I’ve already specified), and very watchable. I recommend it, especially as a movie for young Christians or pre-believers to get them interested in missions and missionaries.
The biggest problem I had with this movie was not the romance (which was in her real life, they just overplayed it, and besides, IT’S A HOLLYWOOD MOVIE, OF COURSE THEY AMP UP THE ROMANCE) but the underplaying of Aylward’s Christian values. Aylward goes to China… well, just because she thinks she needs to go there. She stops foot binding… because it’s the right thing to do. She goes into the prison thinking how God actually won’t keep her safe because “it doesn’t work like that”. And most annoying to me was the fact that on the march they don’t sing hymns, or any other Christian music, but instead sing “This Old Man Came Rolling Home.”
However, it is an interesting movie, and there are a lot of moving scenes from her life – such as her rejection from missionary agencies, her trip overland to China and the different dramas it entailed, and the prison scenes. It’s well made, mostly consistent with Aylward’s life (except for the examples I’ve already specified), and very watchable. I recommend it, especially as a movie for young Christians or pre-believers to get them interested in missions and missionaries.
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