Missionary Insights

"...we know that all things work together for good..."

2011-04-05T20:47:00.002+10:00

This past Sunday morning we left for church or I should say churches. (I preach at two churches each Sunday.) We were only about five minutes down the road when my tire went flat and a horrible noise started coming from the back end! I turned around, went back to the house, changed clothes, and began to work on the vehicle. It was only 8:30am and it was already very hot! I discovered three of the four bushings went out on the rear equalizer/stabilizer bar! (How that happened all at once is beyond me.) I would not be able to use my Land Cruiser.

All was not lost, though, as I still have my old white truck. I only use the truck for short distances because the tires are completely bald, and I only have one spare. (One needs two or three spares here because of the condition of the road.) Also, the white truck needed fuel if I was going to take it all the way to Kudukudu for church. I managed to find some diesel in a container I have, and it did have enough to get me to the village and back. Even though the distance worried me with the tires, I decided to go ahead and use the white truck since the Lord did provide us with enough fuel. I took another shower and then we prayed and asked the Lord to watch over us, especially our tire situation. Keep in mind if we end up with two flats, which is common, we are stuck! There is no AAA to call or Goodyear store to go to.

By the time we got on the road, it was already too late for me to preach at the first church in Sohun. They would still have preaching, though, as a man I have been training in the Bible college is doing the work of pastor at that church. I knew I would be very late for the work in Kudkudu, but I was confident I could make it before any one started leaving. I still pastor this work, as I do not have a man ready to be pastor there yet. The trip was going fine until about 3 or 4 miles from the church. We heard a big BOOM, and I knew a tire just went out! (I have attached a picture of the tire.) Since we were just a few miles from the church, I changed the tire and then as we left, the truck started experiencing some fuel problems. Thankfully, it did not die. It was probably some bad fuel from my container. At that time, a man came out from the bush down to the road, and he was headed to the river to wash. This was Steven. About four years earlier, he came to church for about three or four Sundays, but he had not come back to church since then. When he saw me, and noticed I was in the white truck, he decided jump in the back and go to church instead of the river. We made it to church without any further delay, and no one had left yet! We had three visitors, including Steven. We had a very good service. I am preaching through Matthew and I was starting the Sermon on the Mount. I preached from the first 12 verses from Matthew 5 on how to truly be a blessed man. I showed how the verses are like steps which lead to salvation and then steps of what comes after salvation. After the preaching, three people asked for prayer concerning salvation. One of those three, then put his hand up to signify he wanted me to talk with him about salvation. That man was Steven! I took him aside and explained the gospel to him, and he put his faith in Jesus Christ for salvation! Steven left his house that morning to go to the river to get his body cleaned. Instead, the Lord took over and he went to church and received the “washing of regeneration”; his sins washed away!

Afterwards, we talked about all that God had done so he could hear the gospel that day! I told him all the trouble I had in getting to church: from tire problems, bushing problems, having to switch vehicles, etc… The fact was, without all of those hold-ups, I would not have been there on the road the moment he came out from the bush to go the river. Also, had I not been in my white truck he would not have stopped me and said he now wants to go to church with me. All that “trouble” I had was just the Lord putting things together because He loved this man and wanted him to hear the gospel! How true the verse is “…all things work together for good to them that love God and are called according to His purpose.”!!!

PS
By the way, I made it all the way back home with no problems, even though I only had one good tire, three completely bald tires, and no spare on a very rough road! Amen!!!

Working All The Bugs Out

2011-02-01T07:16:00.004+10:00

Having a church service in the jungle leads to interesting things happening. Our church is only about 40 yards from the ocean and we have no walls. Now, by this I do not mean we have no doctrinal “walls”, we most certainly do as does any true church of our Lord. I mean we literally have no walls! While preaching a few years ago, several dolphins came up to the shore and stayed there listening. I think they thought I was a great preacher! I have had a crab crawl up on me, and I have swallowed many bugs while preaching. I am just trying to be more like John the Baptist. :) I have even had to remove rhinoceros beetles from my girl’s hair during services! Those things are mean and big!

This last Sunday we had another incident. I was leading singing, and things were pretty normal, including my pathetic singing voice. Mariann was sitting in the front pew with the girls. All of the sudden, Mariann threw her song book backwards, hitting a lady four pews behind her! No kidding! (Thank goodness it was not a visitor!) She then stood up quickly and started heading to the back of the church. I thought my wife just went charismatic or perhaps she could no longer stand my great singing voice. She then returned to her seat telling me she was fine.

After finishing the song, I asked what happened. A grasshopper had jumped onto her song book scaring her, and caused her to throw the book! It was all she could do not to scream. Now this type of grasshopper is not like the ones in the States. I used to catch grasshoppers in my hand all the time as a boy. This type of grasshopper you don’t go near! It bites, and it hurts! When I first saw one, I did not even know what it was. It was large and looked mean. I was told it was a grasshopper and told to stay away from it because of its bite. I do not think it is poisonous; I believe it just hurts. So when a critter like this jumps in your song book during church it is not easy to remain all pious and church-like. Sometimes you just have to throw your song book without regard to who it will hit! Once we worked all the bugs out we continued with our service!

For the next song we sang, "When I see the bug, I will throw the book over you." :)

The Doritos Story!

2011-01-22T10:41:00.000+10:00

When my family and I first arrived on the mission field in 2003 life was much more difficult than we thought it would be. We were well aware, when we arrived on the island of New Ireland in Papua New Guinea, our life would become very challenging. My wife and I both came here for a survey trip. (As a side note, this survey trip was not to determine if this is where God wanted us, as is too often the case today, but to get acquainted with where God had called us to.) During the survey trip we recognized many of the challenges we would face, but it is something different when you arrive in a place like this and you do not have a return ticket in your pocket!

When we arrived we found ourselves without electricity, water, and in a culture vastly different then what we were accustomed to. We thought we would have 12 hours of power each day, as it was during our survey trip, but that changed by the time we arrived on the field. The place we made arrangements to live in had a water tank (our source of water is rain water), but we were not told it leaked, and was completely empty. We did not even know where there was a river for us to get water and wash. Needless to say, we all experienced culture shock! After a few weeks I did purchase a generator, and the owner of the place where we were staying purchased a small water tank, so we had running water in the house.

After four months, we were still figuring out how to survive in this environment. We had the help from a small mission work I was working with, and those people really looked after us and helped us. By March, we had our first of what would be many run-ins with Malaria. I was the first to get it, and it was very severe. I thought I was dying. We battled rats in the house and had confrontations with them nightly. (I have many rat stories!) I was not getting anything accomplished with language study or ministry-wise. I was just trying to get by. Then one day my entire perception changed, all because of a bag of Doritos!

About six months into our time here I went to our small trade store to pick up a few things. This store would be smaller than the convenience stores in the U.S. and not a quarter of the selection. We can get basic things there though, for which we are thankful. I just walked in, and as I passed by an aisle I noticed something. I quickly went down the aisle, and behold there was one small bag of Doritos! (As many of my friends and family know, Doritos are my favorite snack food.) I was shocked, stunned, surprised, and thrilled. There is nothing in this store from the States, and I mean nothing! I bought the bag and quickly walked back to our house, and Mariann was sitting outside. I hid the Doritos behind my back so she could not see them. I approached her and asked, “What is my favorite snack? She replied, “Doritos!” I then threw the bag on the table in front of her. (Our kitchen and dining room were outside at this time.) She was shocked as well. We both stood there amazed at this bag of Doritos! I was thrilled. I did not even want to eat it. I then returned to the store to talk with the owner of the trade store, who by this time was my friend. I asked if he had more of these, and he said yes. He told me he had one case of Doritos that came in. One case! I bought the whole case!
The trade store owner did not “order” a case of Doritos; they just came in with his other food items. The trade store has never again carried Doritos, but I knew exactly why that one case of Doritos arrived. Why? Because I knew when I saw the lone bag of Doritos on the shelf, it was the Lord telling me, “I know right where you are. I am here.” There is not a doubt in mind those Doritos were there for me and my family. The bag of Doritos did not change my circumstances one bit, but it did change my view of my circumstances. I learned how to have joy in the midst of hard times.

Oh how we need to heed the lesson of keeping our eyes on God and not on circumstances! It truly does change everything, even if nothing changes!

Fathers Day Present.

2011-01-14T10:30:00.003+10:00

From time to time I would like to write about different occasions where God answered my prayers. I will start with one my favorites in May/June of 1993. I was still in the Air Force stationed at Holloman AFB. I was very active in the ministry at Berean Independent Baptist Church. About one month before Fathers day, I was looking through my closet, and noticed I did not own a single suit. I had mix matches of jackets and trousers, mostly thrift shop items. As I stood there I asked the Lord for a suit, and then asked that I have it by Fathers Day in June. I was not demanding of the Lord, as if he owed me anything, but asked as a child would humbly ask his Dad.

I arrived for visitation /soul winning at church on Tuesday night, 5 days before Fathers day, and still no suit. As I pulled in, our song leader, Earl Faulkner, pulled in beside me. He said he had something for me and he went to the back of his car to get it. He pulled out a suit! I was thrilled and could hardly believe it. There was still a problem though: This suit used to belong to him, and we were not nearly the same size. I weighed 140 pounds fully clothed, at least 20 pounds lighter than Earl Faulkner, and I was shorter. The next day I took the suit to a tailor to have it fitted to me. The tailor called that Saturday and said the suit was ready. It was now the day before Fathers Day, and the suit was ready! However, there was still one more problem. The tailor said the price was $50, for all the work she did, and she did have a lot of work! I did not have $50 to give her, so I could not go and pick up the suit. Of course, the Lord already knew I did not have the money and He was already working.

Later on that day the mail arrived, and I had a card from my Mother in Ohio. I opened the card up and there was a $50 bill inside! I stood there amazed at all the Lord did from a simple prayer made while I was looking at my closet. Needless to say I quickly went to the tailor and picked up my suit, which I wore to church the next day, Fathers Day!

That Fathers Day was a special one for me; not because of me being a father, but because of my Father in Heaven, who always shows such grace and mercy. How true is the saying from the book of Matthew, "If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?"

2010-12-31

2011-01-11T10:25:00.001+10:00

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A New Year!

2011-01-01T10:26:00.000+10:00

A new year is now here! New Year is a time when many set as a time to start afresh, to begin anew, a time to make resolutions on improving ourselves. Many people will set out this New Year seeking change for their life, but the fact is most will fail, while few will succeed. I wonder how many times I have been asked or have heard people ask, "Can I change?" When I hear this question, often what comes to mind are the words of Jesus Christ, "The spirit is indeed willing but the flesh is weak." Let's face it, in and of ourselves, it is hard to change. All of us, at one time or another has struggled with attempting to change.

The key to real change lies in God and not in our own strength. All the power to change is there: The power to turn a drunkard into a deacon; the power to turn a prostitute into pious person; the power to turn a struggling person to a rock. The problem lies not in God unwilling to supply the power we need, but in our willingness to humble and submit ourselves before Him. The fact is, the biggest item we need to change about ourselves is not our weight, or bad habits, but our selfishness, and lack of desire to lose our life for Christ. In our desire and submission to Him we find the power to truly change. May we say as the Apostle Paul did, "For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain."

Update and Post on Acts 2:38

2010-06-08T12:38:00.005+10:00

Here is an update on events this past month.

The past month I have led three people to the Lord. Two of whom were a mother and daughter. The daughter was round 25 and the mother in her 40's, I would guess. It is always nice to see family coming to know the Lord together. Mariann and I were out visiting in the village when we talked with both of them and they made a decision to put their faith Christ. The daughter has been attending church for several months now, and her mom was in the village visiting her. The mom lives on another island about three hours away. The other person was also in the village visiting family. She had not been back in her home village for several years. She works in the capitol city on the main island. While she was away, both her Mom and Dad received Christ, and come to church. She attended church faithfully with her family during her few weeks here with them. The Sunday before she left, she put her faith in Christ.

We also had two weeks where are water tanks went empty. This happens from time to time in dry season. (Last year we did not have one day without water in our tanks!) When the tanks are empty we head to the river for washing. Once you are used to it, it really is not all the bad. We have a river about 1 mile from the house that has fresh springs coming into from under ground. Very clean water! This past Saturday we had a big rain arrive and both are tanks are now about 3/4 full.

I have also received a new opportunity to put an article once a week in the main news paper for Papua New Guinea. It is called the Post Courier. My first article was published this last Saturday. I pray the Lord will use each article. My articles will deal with Biblical issues. I think it is a great opportunity, I hope it helps many! From time to time I will post on here the same article. The first one dealt with Acts 2:38 and Baptism. I will post below the article.

Acts 2:38 and Baptism
Baptism has been a divisive issue for centuries in the history of Christianity. One verse we hear a lot about in Papua New Guinea is Acts 2:38. I would like to examine a portion of this verse as it relates to baptism.
(Act 2:38) “Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.”

Acts 2:38 is a verse that is widely misinterpreted by well meaning people. The misinterpretations are leading to a false gospel destructive to true Christianity. Many groups today use Acts 2:38 to teach that in order to go to heaven one must be baptized in water. I am a Baptist preacher, and place great emphasis on baptism. I was baptized shortly after my conversion, and I have baptized many here in PNG. However, baptism is not the entrance into heaven, nor does Acts 2:38 teach any such doctrine. Those trusting in water to wash away their sins have missed the true gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Does Acts 2:38 say one must be baptized in order to have their sins removed? No, it does not! Acts 2:38 does not say “Repent and be baptized to receive remission of sins.” It says, “…for the remission of sins”. Many think the word “for” in the verse means to receive. That is incorrect. “For” in this verse means as a result. You could see this by studying the meaning of the word and in the 1828 Webster’s Dictionary as well. There are many different ways to use the preposition “for”. I think we should allow the Bible to determine the meaning. Let’s look at Revelation 16:10 to understand the English word “for” better:

(Rev 16:10) “And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues for pain,”

Notice the last two words “for pain”. Read the verse again and ask yourself, did they gnaw their tongues to receive pain or because they were already in pain? The answer is they gnawed their tongues because they were already in pain, or as a result of pain. Now, if you interpret “for” in the verse the way many interpret “for” in Acts 2:38, you would have to say they gnawed their tongues, because they wanted to receive pain. That is clearly wrong. Let me give another example from the common English saying, “He jumped for joy!” Does the person jump to receive joy or as a result of joy? The answer is as a result of joy!

When you understand the meaning of “for” correctly in Acts 2:38, you see it is teaching us as a result of the remission of sins, we need to be baptized. After a person has his sins removed by faith in Jesus Christ, he should be baptized. It is not the water that washes away your sin. It is the blood of Jesus Christ. We are saved by grace thought faith (Eph 2:8, 9). If you add anything to that, it is no longer by grace through faith. My friend if you are trusting in water to save you, you have been deceived.

Punam

2010-05-04T11:49:00.002+10:00

Last week, I was asked to preach a funeral for a 21 year old girl who died, when she fell out of the back end of a truck. I was told her uncle led her to the Lord one week before she died. The uncle was the one who contacted me and asked me to preach the funeral. The funeral would be in the village Punam which is about 5 miles from the work in Kudukudu. I was to preach twice in the village, first on Tuesday night and then again on Wednesday morning. In a village funeral, the whole village attends, so it is a great opportunity for the people to hear the Gospel. On Wednesday morning, I preached a strong Gospel message on Nicodemus. The people listened very intently. For most, it was their first time hearing a clear presentation of the gospel. (There is a church in the village. It is a “United church”, where the people hear salvation is by your works plus Christ. The United Church has strong Charismatic influence upon it. It also lacks much Bible Doctrine.) As I was preaching, it was clear the Lord was working on many hearts. When I finished preaching we buried the girl, and then talked. I came back to the village on Saturday to see if there was more who wanted to talk. A man stopped me, named Maswaton. He is in his 50’s and a member of the United Church. He wanted to know more about II Corinthians 5:21, a verse I talked about on Wednesday morning. I went over the Gospel with him, but he did not put his faith in Christ. This was all new to him and he knew it meant much of what he had been believing all these years was wrong. He wanted to consider what we talked about. He then came to my house on Tuesday morning to talk more. We talked about the Gospel for about an hour. He then said he wanted to receive Christ, which he did!

I have now been asked to come back and preach to the village again, which I will be doing tonight (Tuesday). There is no funeral or other event; it is just to hear the preaching. I am praying many more will turn to the Lord.

“…how shall they hear without a preacher?” Romans 10:14

Playing or Praying?

2010-02-04T13:32:00.002+10:00

Col 4:2-6 shows us today the importance of our prayer life and our public life, or as I put it on Sunday, our private life and public life. One of the most neglected areas today is prayer. Col 4:2 shows we should have persistence, passion, and the right position in our prayers. We are to “continue in prayer” or be persistent. Our prayer life should not be on Monday, then on Thursday and then again Saturday, if we have time. It should be on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. It should be persistent. It should be one of the most important parts of your day, every day! Continue in prayer!

The verse also said to “watch in the same”, or have passion in our prayers. If the devil cannot hinder you from being persistent in your prayer time, he will switch tactics. He will then attack how you pray. Many times we get the mechanical side down pat and we are persistent, but our hearts are not in it. During the “prayer time” our mind wanders from item to item. We spend 30 minutes to an hour with many vain thoughts during our “prayer time”. This is why we need to “watch in the same”. The Jews of old believed when you prayed, if your heart was not in it, then you never really prayed. I believe this to be true. When we pray we should pray with passion, with our heart staying focused on the Almighty God! We should leave the world we are in and go before His throne seeking Him! If we have the persistence without the passion we are wasting our time.

Next, verse 2 teaches the importance of having the right position when we pray. No I am not talking about kneeling or standing, eyes open or shut. I am talking about an attitude. The verse teaches we need the attitude of thankfulness when we pray. Thankfulness will produce at least two results that are keys to getting your prayers answered. First, it will produce humbleness. An attitude of thankfulness shows we do not come before God, demanding He answer us because of how great we are. God does not work for us, and just wait around for us to command Him. Some teaching on prayer almost treats God like He is some genie in a bottle, just waiting for us to rub it the right way and poof, He gives us three wishes. We come before Him humbly, ever so thankful he actually hears us! Secondly, it shows our faith in God. When we are thankful to Him, we recognize it is God who WILL hear our prayers and answer them. We also know the prayers He has answered already, were not answered because of some external circumstance, but because of God. Without faith we cannot please God (Heb 11:6), so this component is very important as we come to God in prayer.

Once we get our private life strong, it will greatly aid in our public life, which perhaps I will write about later.

2010-01-02T11:07:00.004+10:00

I am still preaching through the book of Colossians. The first two chapters deal with important doctrinally truths: 1) Christ is to be preeminent 2) we are complete in Christ; we do not legalism, rituals, etc... because, for the Christian, He has forgiven all our sin. (So many today do not understand we are complete in Christ. I need no other remedy for my sin.)

The next two chapters show us how the truths in the first two chapters should change our life. Lets just look at the first couple from Col 3:1-4:

1) It should change what we are seeking (“Seek those which are above”)
2) It should change what we are thinking (“Set your affections on things above”)
3) It should change what we are hoping for (we shall “appear with Him in glory”)

Christians today seem to show such little change after their “conversion”. It seems many still desire things of this world, and dwell on this life. We should be seeking those things which are above and truly living for God, and not just in word but in deed. Many do not want the change, then in truth they do not want Christ.

What are you seeking for this year Christian? What are you thinking of even now for this New Year? May Christ be what we seek, think and hope for in this New Year!

Divine Appointment

2009-11-13T18:53:00.000+10:00

My wife and I decided to travel out for our anniversary. It was our 20th wedding anniversary! (I met her in high school and we have been together ever since. I am thankful for the wife God has given me. I look forward to the next 20 years with her.) We were going to go to Kavieng for three days, but that did not work out. I decided to head to Kokopo on the island of New Britain. Kokopo is about a 2 ½ hour boat ride away. Kokopo has a few nice places to stay there that are very western. As we were getting on the small banana boat, a Chinese man also got on the boat. This man works in Kavieng, and missed his plane, so he had to drive five hours south to get on this boat and head to Kokopo. His English was very good. We began talking about differences between America and China. (How thankful we Americans should be for the country God has given us!) I turned the conversation to the gospel. I learned this man had never attended any church of any sort. I asked him how he believed the world came into existence. He believed in atheistic evolution. He said he had heard of the Bible and that some were available in China. He had heard about some stories from it, but what he had heard had been portrayed in a fanciful light, as if it could not possibly be true. He asked me to explain some of them. I did and he listened very intently with great interest. I then started in Genesis and went through the Bible explaining the need for a Savior. As I began to teach him of Jesus Christ, I was hoping he would see his need for the Son of God. He was still listening intently and asking searching questions. I covered the gospel with him, explaining what it meant for him, that this man who died 2,000 years ago was his only hope. (Most church going people today do not have a clue and how the death of Christ actually helps them. This is evident by all the false doctrines. For example, salvation is in the church, or in good works, or in the waters of baptism, etc.) This man did not make a profession of faith during our two hour conversation, but the seed was planted on what appeared to be good ground.

We have agreed to meet again in a few weeks to talk and play basketball. (I will probably be beat by a shorter Chinese man, at my country’s own sport! He plays every day, and I have not played in years!) I explained to him how the fact he missed his plane was not a coincidence, but of the Lord, a divine appointment! I knew when he told me his missed his plane, the Lord had arranged this time. I truly found it amazing when I thought about the two different worlds both of us call home, and yet here we were in this ever so remote place, which neither of us grew up in, and God put us together. I found it no less amazing than Phillip and the Ethiopian eunuch. This, too, was put together by the Holy Spirit of God! Be prepared every day, Christian, as you never know who the Lord will put in your path. Do not think those you meet are just by chance. There is an Almighty God at work, and we need to trust Him!

You never know when God will give the increase

2009-06-08T19:49:00.002+10:00

I received a short email a few weeks back that was amazing. The person who emailed me, I have not heard from in over 20 years. We went to High School together. Here is the email:

Subject: Awesome God

You were right. Saved at age 31. Thought you'd like to know. Sorry for being belligerent to you in High School. Will you forgive me?

Wow! Amen!
Our responsibility is to plant the seed faithfully. You never know when God will give the increase! I have since emailed this person and he informed me that he was given the book, The Case for Christ and that shortly after reading that book he made a profession of faith in Jesus Christ.

We all need to stay faithful witnessing and living for the Lord. You never know who is watching and listening, but rest assured people are watching!!

The Face of Missions

2009-03-05T08:36:00.001+10:00

The man, on the left, in this photo represents millions across the world. I first met him just a few weeks ago, on Sunday, February 22, 2009. I had just finished preaching two services in the village of Kabanut. Kabanut village was the only village on the island with an organized Baptist church, until 2007. It then was also the only one with an ordained national pastor, Pastor Wilson. The village sits on the west coast of our island, and the church has about 35 members. The village itself, I estimate, has around 400 in population. Pastor Wilson asked to me come and preach for them on February 22. We had a very good meeting with many visitors from the village. I did not count how many people were there, but it must have been close to 100, so 20% to 25% of the village. After the services, I was going around talking to different people. I noticed this man sitting off to the side and I went over and began talking with him. I am not sure if he even attended the service. I know his wife did, as he told me she did. During the course of our conversation, I asked him, “Wanem samting i pasim yu long putim bilip bilong yu long Jisas Kraist?” I basically asked him, what is hindering you from putting your faith in Jesus Christ as Saviour? He told, “mi no gat wanpela man i bin soim mi dispel rot . Mi no save wanem samting mi gat nid long mekim. “ He told me, No one has ever showed me what I need to do. I do not know what to do. This was a man who had never heard the gospel before. Yes, he had heard the name Jesus Christ, but he had never been shown God’s plan for man’s redemption from the Bible.

I then went into the gospel with this man. As I talked with him, he seemed to believe God could not help him. He believed his sin was too great. You see, this man killed his little sister. His sister at the time was around three years old. He said he was drunk, (Isn’t alcohol wonderful!) and he threw a bottle of beer. The bottle hit his sister’s head and she died from her injury. He spent four years and six months in a New Guinea prison for manslaughter. I explained to him how the death of Christ did, in fact, reach all of his sins. We talked for a while and when I was finished, he told me he now wanted to put his faith in Christ. He bowed his head, called on the Lord, and put his faith in Christ! The man looked up with a great smile. This was the first time during our conversation I had seen him smile!

Here was a man who was about 35 years old, and never heard the gospel. This was a man who, because of the magnitude of his sin, did not think God could even help him. There are millions just like him across this world, waiting for some one to come and tell them the truth of God’s redemption for mankind. It is true in New Guinea, in America, in China, in Korea, India, in Germany, in Poland, in Mexico, in France, etc…. This is the reason for missions!

What are you willing to pay?

2009-02-18T14:28:00.001+10:00

In my reading a few days ago, I read this verse, (2 Samuel 24:24) “And the king said unto Araunah, Nay; but I will surely buy it of thee at a price: neither will I offer burnt offerings unto the LORD my God of that which doth cost me nothing. So David bought the threshingfloor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.”

Is not the opposite of David’s attitude true in so many of us today? We do not want our service to God to cost us anything. If we were in David’s position, I wonder how many of us would say, “Boy, did the Lord bless, I did not have to pay anything for the oxen for the sacrifice, I did not have to pay for the instruments, or the threshing floor! God is so good!” We do not want our service to cost us anything! We want the path of least resistance. Many today find it to much to attend church faithfully, and yet that is nothing more than a baby step. We want to be counted as servants of God, but not at any cost, or very little cost. After all, we need to be culturally relevant.
Too often when the Lord begins to change our life, we put the brakes on. We decide this is costing us too much. We fail to see how much it cost God to purchase us! How selfish we are today. If you do not want your service to cost you anything, there are many churches out there where you will fit right in. They cater to every need you have. They are “seeker friendly.” For them is not about God, it is about you. However, as I study the churches of the New Testament, I have failed to find a “seeker friendly” church. I see churches which heeded the teaching of Jesus concerning the high cost of discipleship, (Matthew 16:24, Luke 14:26, 27). A life where Christ is preeminent and not you! (Phil 3:1-8) Oh, how we need to get over ourselves and focus on God. Life is not about us it is about God!

(This is a double post on the blog. I am making changes and testing formats.)

What are you willing to pay?

2009-01-31T19:29:00.001+10:00

In my reading a few days ago, I read this verse, (2 Samuel 24:24) “And the king said unto Araunah, Nay; but I will surely buy it of thee at a price: neither will I offer burnt offerings unto the LORD my God of that which doth cost me nothing. So David bought the threshingfloor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.”

Is not the opposite of David’s attitude true in so many of us today? We do not want our service to God to cost us anything. If we were in David’s position, I wonder how many of us would say, “Boy, did the Lord bless, I did not have to pay anything for the oxen for the sacrifice, I did not have to pay for the instruments, or the threshing floor! God is so good!” We do not want our service to cost us anything! We want the path of least resistance. Many today find it to much to attend church faithfully, and yet that is nothing more than a baby step. We want to be counted as servants of God, but not at any cost, or very little cost. After all, we need to be culturally relevant.
Too often when the Lord begins to change our life, we put the brakes on. We decide this is costing us too much. We fail to see how much it cost God to purchase us! How selfish we are today. If you do not want your service to cost you anything, there are many churches out there where you will fit right in. They cater to every need you have. They are “seeker friendly.” For them is not about God, it is about you. However, as I study the churches of the New Testament, I have failed to find a “seeker friendly” church. I see churches which heeded the teaching of Jesus concerning the high cost of discipleship, (Matthew 16:24, Luke 14:26, 27). A life where Christ is preeminent and not you! (Phil 3:1-8) Oh, how we need to get over ourselves and focus on God. Life is not about us it is about God!

Preaching at the Market

2008-12-20T18:35:00.003+10:00

The market here is the center of commerce. The villagers come from their different locations to sell their garden food to earn some money. The average person earns around 7 dollars at the market. 2 dollars of which will be needed to pay for the transportation used to get to the market. The market does business six days a week. On Saturdays, the market is very busy and is the best time to purchase food. It is also a good time for evangelism. Open air preaching at the market can be effective leading to fruit. In America, the culture is very different and for the most part hard against the gospel. Open air preaching in PNG is culturally acceptable and draws a crowd. The people will come and gather around you to hear what you have to say.

A few weeks ago, the family and I went to the market where I would preach. I preached a message about a religious lost man named Nicodemous from John 3. The people here are very religious. A large crowd gathered and listened intently even though a slight rain began to fall. After I preached, the family and I handed out tracts and talked with the people. No one put their faith in Christ that day, but the Lord is still working on hearts from it. Today, some three weeks after I preached at the market, a man came to talk with me. He said people were still talking about the message and he wanted to talk. He said he personally had several discussions with others about the message. We did not talk for long, but he said he would come by my house so we could talk some more. This man is a religious man in need of Christ. I was thrilled to see the Lord still working on hearts. We never know who it is the Lord will put before us, but we must be ready and willing to preach, leaving the results to God. A farmer does not reap in the same season he plants. Keep in mind though, if the farmer does not sow, he will not reap. Do not stop sowing just because you have yet to reap. Nor should you stop sowing because others have sowed the seed with carelessness. Do not be ashamed of our Lord. We have been given a command of utmost importance: ”preach the Gospel to every creature.”

2008-11-01T21:48:00.005+10:00

I thought I would post a few pics from this past month.

This picture is one of the boats Daniel and I used for a supply run. The boat was very weighted down. The Lord blessed and we made to New Ireland with no problems.

Volcano

Th volcano is about 36 miles from where we live. It is on the island south of us called New Britian

Volcano

One very large Cockroach!

This rat I shot and killed with a pellet gun in our house. We had a lot of clean up to do on our house becasue of damage to it from rats.

Good to be Back

2008-10-23T18:19:00.001+10:00

We are back in country now, and it is good to be back. We have seen the Lord do many good things for us since we have arrived. Our house was a complete mess from the rats when we arrived. I could not believe all the damage the rats did. Daniel and I first came over to New Ireland while the rest of the family stayed back on the island of New Britain. Daniel and I worked to get the house in order. Many of the people from the village came and helped us. We managed to get it livable and then last Wednesday I brought the whole family over. I have all the walls back up and painted as well as the cabinets. My office still needs a lot of work. Basically I have to redo the entire office. We are still waiting for our container to arrive, but it should be here by the first week of November. Please pray to that end.

We had to replace many items when we arrived, such as the stove, refrigerator, generator, kitchen table and chairs and washer. None of these items are the things in the container. The items in the container are mainly furniture items that needed replaced, such as boys beds, couch, living room chairs etc. The rats actually ate through the gas lines going to the burners on our stove! I traveled back to New Britain to get these needed items. When I enquired about a 6 or 7kva generator, I was informed there was not one in the country unless I was willing to spend K43,000 or about $18,000. While I was discussing this with a salesman, another salesman walked up heard our conversation. He then said there was a6 kva generator in country, even on New Britain! He said he sold it to a trade store, but they did not pick it up and payment had not been made. He said it has been sitting in a warehouse for weeks wrapped up and ready to go. He then called to make sure it was still there and it was! The Lord knew we would need that generator and He had it set aside for my family and me! We serve a great God! Almost the exact same thing happened with the stove we needed to purchase. It too was in a warehouse and unaccounted for! The Lord had it ready for us.

The boat ride over with these supplies was pretty exciting. Keep in mind I purchased theses items on the island of New Britain. I still had to get them to New Ireland. The means of transportation is a banana boat! The picture shows one of the two boats I used. It took us around 2 ½ hours for the boat ride. We made pretty good time all things considered. The Lord blessed! When I brought the family over on the boat, we had a chance to see several whales. When we were coming close to New Ireland, Levi asked, “Is this the wild?” I told him yes and this was his home. His eyes then grew big and with an excited voice he exclaimed, “I live in the wild?!”

We do have an important prayer request. We are in a drought, and our island has been dry since June. My family and I have to go the river for washing the clothes and bathing. The lack of rain is also hurting the gardens the people survive on. Please pray the Lord will send the needed rain.

Also, I already have a tire story but I will save that for the next blog.

September Prayer Letter

2008-09-29T11:47:00.003+10:00

Leaving For The Field!

After a little more than a 90 day delay, we have finally received our visas! By the time many of you read this, we will already be on the field. We will be departing the United States on the 30th of September. We have a full schedule once we arrive. We are going to fly into the island of New Britain first before going to New Ireland. We will be staying at a fellow missionary’s house who is on medical furlough. After we arrive there, Daniel and I will then fly over to New Ireland and began the repairs on our house. From reports we have received our house is not livable right now. Daniel and I are hoping that by mid October we can have the house in a place where we can bring the rest of the family over. We hope to have the house completed by the end of October at which time I will dive back into the ministry. Please pray for us as we transition back to PNG. We are all very excited about returning to the field and getting back to the work the Lord has called us to! I would like to thank the churches which have sent funds to help with $13,109 it is costing us to send our shipping container. So far $4,500 has been sent and we appreciate the giving very much. Please do pray for the more than $8,000 left. The container is on the way to PNG, and is due to arrive in the capitol on the 10th of October. We also ask prayer that the container will clear customs quickly without any custom charges. The container should arrive on our island around the first of November.

Highlights from the Past 90 Days

During our delay we have traveled little with only three trips out for meetings. We have spent much our time at Southside Baptist Church in Tampa, Florida. This church has been a huge blessing to my family and I. I would like to say thank you to Pastor Nance and the church. Berean Baptist church in Ogden, Utah flew my wife and I out for a meeting in September. I already reported back there last January, but they asked us to come since we had this delay. We enjoyed the fellowship very much. We stayed with Pastor Mallinak and he has a great family. He is one of those fellows who inspires you to serve God better by being around him. This past Saturday I led a lady to the Lord and it was one of those divine appointments. I knocked on her door and after she answered she said she had just been praying to the Lord. Her husband left her that week, and she was scheduled to have heart surgery in three weeks. She listened intently to the gospel message and with joy put her faith in Jesus Christ!

Update on visas/leaving for the field

2008-09-12T11:11:00.002+10:00

Our children’s visas have arrived! I just finished making arrangements for our flight out. We leave for the field on the 30th of this month! Please pray as we have a lot of work to do on our house. Rats and termites have reeked havoc while we have been gone. Fellow missionaries, the Crotts, who are located on the island south of ours, informed us of the damage after checking on our house. I will copy below an email from Joyce Crotts to my wife informing us of the damage to our house. What the rats did is truly amazing. It gives great "missionary insights!"

Here is the email:

Dear Mariann,
Just got home from Namatanai today. Busy ever since we got home, and it's
9:30 now. I finally got my WARM (-: shower and am propped up in bed ready
to type to you.

Where to start. . . .We started trying to go on Wednesday, hoping to get to
work on your house, but finally got good weather and all the arrangements
made and arrived on Friday about noon. When we got to your house we found
all our previous work to sweep up the rat poo was for naught in that they
had done it all over again. It was so thick on your kitchen table (poo and
pee) that if you had seen it you'd probably never want to eat on it again.
(I'd love to strip it or sand it and refinish it.) I wiped it and wiped it
again with disinfectant, but. . . . )-:

Well, my hubby's objective this time was to seal the house off from the rats
if we could. SO he put in new window louvers where they were missing or
broken or wouldn't stay in the frames. He had measured and thought he had
all he needed - bought some new ones at Steamies, but when he got there
found out he had made a couple mistakes so he was two short but he cut some
masonite for the two missing ones. We took Bro. Donald and Bro. Melky with
us and they helped Bro. Crotts hang masonite, etc. They also oiled all the
window louvres so they would shut all the way. . . .Some wouldn't before.
The only way we saw for sure that the rats are going in and out are through
the windows, so we tried to make sure the windows were all secured. I guess
we'll see if this works. We swept up and wiped up a gallon of rat poo I'm
sure. I cleaned out two big rats' nests in Daniel's room. It still stinks
awful as they have been all over the bed and the car seat and everything in
the room. The rats had gotten in to a couple boxes of tracts. They pulled
tracts all over the place and they made a nest of some of them in a toy box
(a plastic tub that didn't have a lid on it) I donned some work gloves and
pulled all the toys out (at least what wasn't all chewed up) and we burned
the rest. We found a nearly empty plastic tub and transferred the tracts
into it. I am sorry that we have shifted your stuff all around. When you
walk into your house you will feel like nothing is as you left it and that
is because we tried to purge it of rats. After my hubby was fairly sure he
got all the rats out of the hall closet he secured the doors shut with a
nail at the top of each door. These are the MOST AMBITIOUS RATS I have
ever seen! Daniel's room is not habitable by humans as it is. We swept the
worst of it up, but I just didn't have time to clean it good. Hate to feel
like we are invading your privacy too. I suggest a new bed for Daniel!
It's so yuchy! All flat surfaces have been poo'd on and pee'd on.
Upholstery MIGHT be cleanable and a strong disinfectant would be in order if
you have to continue using. BUT HAVING SEEN what was on all the upholstered
furniture before we brushed/swept it off, makes me loathe the thought of
sitting on them. I DIDN'T sit on them. (-: Your dining room chairs have
been totally fouled. I know how to re-pad and recover chairs like that if
you plan to continue using them. . .I would help you if possible.
Stop in Kokopo on your way through. . . We could get some fabric to repad
the chairs with. (-:

The rats have chewed up some of the curtains in the living room so they
wouldn't hang on the sticks anymore, but we did manage to cover the windows
with what was left. Some of the furniture has holes chewed in it and some
of it has the foam UNDER the chair torn up, etc. I COULD NOT BELIEVE what
the rats had chewed up! They have knawed on your little knickknack shelf
that you had in the kitchen. THEY EVEN chewed up the little lavender and
green lamp . . .knawed away most of the little ceramic shade. I was sad
because I LIKED that little lamp. I took the liberty to throw away some
things that were destroyed, but my hubby wouldn't let me throw away some
things. Kept reminding me they weren't mine to throw away. I promise I
didn't throw away anything was wasn't rendered totally corrupted or useless.
Some of the bags of clothes that Bro. Crotts told me the rats had gotten
into. . . The bags were ruined, but a lot of the clothes are okay. I just
relocated them for you to deal with if the rats don't get back in and carry
them away. I HAD to burn the green rugs you had in the living room. They
were soooooo stinky and chewed. You told me you have a new rug, so I didn't
think it would be a great disappointment. I just HAD to get some of that
stink out of there. (Oh yes, I burned some of your baskets that were chewed
to bits.)

Before I go any further, let me inject a bit of good news. The stuff in
your bedroom and the girls' room still looks like it escaped the rats. We
were very careful to keep those doors shut since they have so far escaped.
They only showed some signs of gecko activity. And I'm sorry that the
things in the girls' room are probably a bit more stacked than when you left
because we stashed some stuff in there to get it away from the rats. Don't
know why they haven't done so much in there and it doesn't stink like the
rest of the house. Some of the window louvers in there don't like to stay
in the windows. But your room seems still tight and my hubby put the
masonite up right away to keep it that way when he took the termite wall
out. It still smells fine in your room. Sure hope no rat snuck in there in
our going in and out. We didn't see it happen if it did. Other good news
is that we didn't see any fresh sign of termite activity, SO they put some
more masonite up, BUT they didn't hang the kitchen cupboards. Partly a time
factor and partly because it would be good to paint first, and the cabinets
need some work and might be easier to do it with them off the wall.

More bad news. . . .Your kitchen is basically un-usable. The doors on the
lower cupboards (sink-side) don't close well, and the rats have had a
heyday. In fact one practically jumped on me. . . Huge thing. .. . And I did
the cartoon-woman thing . . .screaming. . .running away. . . jumping up on a
chair. . . . But I didn't have time to clean them out. I also wanted to
know that the rats won't just undo any cleaning I did. Anyway EVERYTHING in
your kitchen has been fouled by the rats. It will probably make you feel
like puking. I will go help you clean if you want me to. I just feel sooo
bad for you having to go home to that. WE wiped down some things. . .the
things which the guys had to set out of your cabinets that were on the
termite wall which had to be taken out; small appliances and water filters,
etc. (ALSO! The termites took the walls down and gave the rats free acess to
those cupboards.) Those items are sitting on your table. We wiped them
down, but they are NOT disinfected. By the time we had wiped a few things,
I felt like the rags we were using were filthy. (I wore rubber gloves the
whole time.) Wiping things down just got them ready for a good washing in
hot water and disinfectant. The other thing that made it "fun" was that the
power had been out in Nam all week and was still out so we were carrying
water. . .
Your stove and fridge. . . .we swept up a lot of insulation that had been
pulled out of them and chased one rat out of the stove. Of course the stove
is sitting in the middle of the room cause the guys had to move it to tear
out termite walls and replaced the masonite on that wall this time. A big
blessing was that the weather was relatively cool when we were working.

The floor linoleums are totally fouled. There is rat poo and pee under them
and holding the stink. . . The guys had already pulled the ones out of the
bathrooms when doing the termite thing. I really wanted to take up the one
in the kitchen, but my hubby said to ask you first, so I didn't. (-:

We could have done more, but just ran out of time. They did get the walling
up on the shared living/kitchen wall, and another wall in the kitchen is
mostly done. No trim work is up.

My husband said to tell you that we would be happy to do what we can to help
you get back to a livable state. We can go over and help you carpenter and
clean, or I can babysit and my hubby can at least go help you trim out,
paint, hang cupboards etc. He's a quite handy fellow and does good work.
We are thankful that we had a key and went over and found the mess before
you got back because it would have been totally disheartening and ruined
your lovely furlough to have walked in to a termite and rat surprise that
you would have faced. We have swept up gallons of poo in the last three
times we've been there. I had no idea how filthy and destructive rats are.
The sheets you had over your living room furniture are fouled and some of
them chewed.

I am hoping that you are kind of planning on starting over with regard to
setting up housekeeping. Some things are salvagable of course. And I hope
you find a way to manage while waiting for your new things.
( I STRONGLY recommend some new muffin tins. You cannot imagine the state I
found your old ones in!!!!! I wanted to pitch them out, but hubby forbade.
(-:)

I feel really badly about what has happened to your house. I didn't even
talk about your husband's office. It is almost too awful to talk about. It
isn't possible to seal it off from the rats without a lot of work. Of
course now it is without interior walling because of the termites.

I remember you asking me what I did to leave our house in preparation for
furlough, and I feel like now my advice was very inadequate. I just didn't
figure rats into the equation.

I know you are eager to get back to the work and life God has called you to,
and I'm praying He gives you to grace to know that you will just have to
devote whatever time is necessary to getting set up again. I would love to
make it nicer for you, but feel so limited. We are serious about the offer
to help anyway.

Update on Visas and New Prayer Request

2008-08-13T06:39:00.002+10:00

We have yet to receive our visas, but there has been progress. I received an email on July 26th that the visas were finished. I then contacted the Papua New Guinea Embassy to get the visas actually issued. The Embassy informed me they have not received the needed paperwork to issue the visa. (This paperwork is sent via fax from immigration in Papua New Guinea.) I then contacted my agent in PNG handling this, and immigration told him they did fax the paperwork! That was last Monday the 28th of July, and we still are waiting for them to fax/refax the paperwork. Please continue to pray this issue will be resolved quickly. We are confident the issue will be resolved shortly. Once we have the visa issue resolved, I will be purchasing the plane tickets. We should be able to be back in PNG four weeks after receiving our visas.

Another Prayer Request
We are shipping a 20ft Container back to PNG. As most of you know from previous prayer letters, many of our household items have been destroyed by rats and termites. Our couch chairs, one bed, decorative items, kitchen table, and many other items have been either been destroyed or rendered useless. We have been able to replace many of these items while on furlough so we are shipping a container back to PNG. The cost of shipping the container is $13,109.00!
Please pray about this need. The cost to get our household goods from Fort Myers, Florida to Port Moresby, (Port Moresby is the capitol of Papua New Guinea.), is $7080. The cost to go from Port Moresby to Kavieng, New Ireland province is $6039. Even if I was to purchase these items over there I would still incur the $6039 expense and then have to purchase all the items over there. Household goods would be much more expensive over there, so I would still be spending around $10,000 altogether, yet I would not have the quality of goods I have from the United States. I did contact several different shipping companies, and I am going with Missionary Expeditors. They had the best overall price to PNG. I have no choice in the shipping company when it comes to Port Moresby to New Ireland though; only one shipping company. Please do pray much about our container situation.

April through June Prayer Letter

2008-06-26T05:45:00.002+10:00

Here is our latest prayer letter for April through June.

Urgent Prayer Request
We have an urgent prayer need and that is our visa situation. While on this furlough our children’s passports expired, and we renewed them back in December. Since the passports were renewed, we also have to complete visas again for the children. We sent the paperwork out for that in January and after a delay on the PNG side, everything needed was submitted to immigration in PNG in May. The first part of June, we received an email informing us PNG immigration is backed up and taking up to six months to process visas. Here is an excerpt from that email: “You might need to pray for a miracle with regard to your kids' visas. …….. the immigration office is thousands of visas behind and grossly understaffed. It is so bad that everyone is howling about it. It has been the subject of newspaper articles and we know personally of several horror stories. Our own passports have been in their possession waiting for our visas for about 6 months.” Under normal circumstances our visas should have been completed by the 25th of June, which is the day I am writing this. I have called the PNG embassy in D.C. and the visas are not ready. They would not even give me a time frame for when they would be completed! I was informed to just check back week after week.
My last meeting on this furlough is tonight (June 25th) and then we are ready to return. We were hoping to be back in PNG by mid July. We know the Lord is in control and has a reason for this. Please pray the Lord will intervene and allow our visas to come through. The situation leaves us sort of in a limbo. We will probably make arrangements to head back to Alaska to wait this out. I am also considering scheduling some other meetings as well. We need the Lord’s wisdom and direction. We truly desire to return to PNG ASAP!

Other news
The last three months have been filled with meetings. We truly enjoyed reporting back to our supporting churches on furlough. I have also held meetings in several new churches since mid May. Also please pray about our house in PNG. We received more news that the rats are still wreaking havoc in the house. We have much work to do on the house when we finally do arrive. Missionary Richard Crotts has been a blessing to us by working on our home in PNG. He has even opened his home to my family and I when we do return, until our home is livable. (He is located on the island just south of ours, New Britain.)
The family and I are currently staying at the D and D Missionary Homes in St. Petersburg, Florida. We arrived here on the 5th of May.

Seeking Those Things Which Are Above

2008-05-28T07:21:00.003+10:00

(Col 3:1,2) If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.

Seeking those things which are above!

In the busy world Christians live in today, there are many things seeking our affection. From advertisers, careers, education, relationships, religion and many other things. If we are not spiritual minded we will end up seeking the wrong things as a result. We need to make a concentrated effort to seek those things which are above, to set are affections on things above. I believe the majority of Christians today are struggling with carnality. Many Christians are even convincing themselves that their carnality is just fine, and God is okay with it. One reason for this is Christians seeking those things which are below, and setting their affection on things below.

The key, to seeking those things which are above, is understanding our new life in Christ in which we are “risen with Christ.” There may be multitudes of things on this earth seeking our affection and as we give in, we begin seeking those things. We then become carnal minded, and struggle greatly with our Christian life. We become obsessed with this life on the earth. We seek our joy from this world, and seek our fulfillment from this world. In reality we are seeking vanity as Psalm 4 puts it. We miss the fact that we have a new life in Christ, which IS contrary to this world. The new life seeks those things which are above. The person seeking those things which are above is not defined by a career, but by their God. He/she is not seeking things of the world. As Christians we have a new life in Christ: a new life that should be greatly different than the old life, a new life that strives to please God more than men, a new life that seeks after holiness, a new life that seeks to fulfill the gospel/great commission, a new life which is heavenly minded and not earthly minded.

What have you been seeking today? Where do your affections lie? Who are you trying to impress? Life is all about Jesus Christ, seek Him!

Close to Returning

2008-05-23T01:56:00.002+10:00

The family and I are now at D and D Missionary homes in Florida. We are nearing the end of furlough, and I have about 8 meetings left. We are awaiting to hear concerning our childern's Visa situation. We had to renew their Passports and thus Visas. As soon as I hear the Visas are finished, I will be purchasing our return tickets to PNG. Please pray we will hear quickly that the visas are finsihed. We have been waiting for several months right now.

The meetings have been going well. I have finished reporting back to my supporting churches. The rest of the meetings (8)I have are all new churches. We still have about $400 month more needed before returning. We are also sending a 20ft container back as as well. There is much going on as we prepare to return. We are all anxious to get back.

From Utah to Asia

2008-03-14T20:55:00.009+10:00

I have been very busy with meetings this year. As a matter of fact, I will be leaving Fort Myers in just a few minutes for West Virginia. I have been in Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Idaho, Florida, Louisiana, Japan, and Korea, reporting back to churches. The meetings have all been going great. The family and I are anxious to get back on the field. We still have some more support to raise, but we are confident we will be back in Papua New Guinea by the end of June or first week of July. My last meeting is the second Sunday of June.

Here are some pics from my previous meetings.

This photo is taken from the Haven Baptist church in Kunsan Korea. I am sitting between Bill and Linda Stewart, missionaries in Kunsan for over 30 years. The work there is geared to the U.S. Military. The Air Force base there is a remote assignment so the military can not bring their families. The airmen are assigned for one year at this base. This work has a new congregation every year! I was assigned there from 1994 to 1995. The Lord used the Haven in a great way in my life.

This photo is of Adam Wyrick, a missionary in Korea. He has a Korean work and is doing a great job.

This photo is from Kunsan AB. I was having lunch with Bro Stewart and some of the men who attend the Haven.

This photo is taken from Berean Baptist church in Ogden Utah. Pastor Mallinak is to the far left. Every year, this church does a theme from a missionary in the past for their conference. This year the theme was David Brainard. When they pick the theme, they also pick the garb out from that time frame and all the missionaries, as well as Pastor Mallinak, wear it. It is a good conference and alot of fun.

This is my former pastor and his wife, Willie and Patricia Byrd. He is pastor of Berean Independent Baptist Church in Alamogordo NM. I was a member there from 1991 to 1994. I enjoyed preaching and reporting back there and seeing old friends.

Why I like our deputation system

2008-01-20T04:06:00.000+10:00

The following is a post I made on another forum (jackhammer), concerning the deputation side of missions. I have edited the post so it flows here.

When I was preparing for deputation, I was not at all for it. I felt this way even before the Lord called me to the mission field. However, shortly after deputation began, my mind was changed. I am all for deputation now, and I do believe it is much more scriptural that the cooperative program the SBC uses. Even though I can not stand the calling part, the calling part does have some benefits. It is very humbling. My family and I truly enjoyed deputation.

Let me give some reasons why I am for our current system, and what changes I would like to see.

Why I like the current system.
1) I believe it is scriptural. I do believe the Apostle Paul was supported by several churches, from his sending church in Antioch, to his most faithful supporting church in Philippi. (Acts 13:3 , II Cor 8,9 , Philippians 4:17 ) (The apostle Paul might not have had monthly support, but the local churches were the source of support for the Apostle Paul. He also used his tent making as well.)

2) The missionary gains much needed PRAYER support by virtue of all the people he is meeting. I can not tell you how often I received an email or letter from a church member from a supporting church letting me they have been praying for me and my family. Many times I would receive their correspondence during very difficult times and it really helped. How many times did the Apostle Paul say, “Brethren pray for us”?

3) Helps keep missions on the mind in the local churches. I believe the Lord can use the missionary to help assist the local churches in stirring their people about the importance of missions. Many companions of the Apostle Paul were from a variety of churches not just Antioch, and were stirred when they met the Apostle Paul and thus traveled with him. Consider Silas, (Acts 15:40 ) I believe Silas’s home church was Jerusalem.

4) The missionary’s eggs are not all in one basket. If only one church was supporting and they have trouble, it is very likely the missionary will be off the field for at least for at least one year.

5) It allows for churches to accomplish the great commission and gives fruit to their account. (Philippians 4:14-18 )

6) The local church being able to give unto missions is well pleasing unto God. (Phil 4:18 ) Keep in mind the church at Philippi was not the Apostle Paul’s sending church, Antioch was.

What I would like to see changed or more common. (These are just ideas I believe would assist in the deputation stage of the missionary's life.)

1) I would like to see sending churches try to support for 1/6 to 1/5 of the total support needed. This would help greatly in the beginning stages, and cut down on the length of time of deputation. Of course, this would only be if the Lord enabled the sending church and it did not put them in a financial strain. (Many sending churches could not do this. I speak only of churches that are in a position to do something like this.)

2) I would like to see an average of $100 monthly and $70 at the very least. I still have several churches that support for $25 a month. Could you imagine if all churches supported for $25 of month! Deputation would take seven years! (I appreciate all of my supporting churches regardless of how much they support.) If churches took on fewer missionaries at greater amounts, it would cut down on deputation time.

3) I would like for all church secretaries to resign immediately. (Just kidding.)

4) If a pastor had a missionary in and the church really liked him and was behind what the Lord called him to, for the pastor to call other pastor friends and recommend him. This would assist the missionary getting meetings. The pastor getting the call would be less nervous about having a missionary in, if a fellow pastor recommended him.

Goal of Missions

2008-01-12T05:55:00.000+10:00

I thought i would post some comments I made about missions from Jackhammer. The topic this month is missions and the discussion was over the goal of missions.

As a missionary, my goal is to obey the Great Commission in reagrds to the work the Lord has called me to do. I am to follow Matthew 28:19 .20, Mark 16:15 , Acts 1:8 etc… (These verses, and other similar verses, are the Biblical authority behind missions.) I am therefore to preach the gospel and disciple those who trust Christ. As a result a church will be established. This is God’s design. Church planting is the ultimate goal.
Here is the Biblical pattern for Biblical mission work as I follow it in PNG:I am to go into new villages preaching the gospel. If there are converts as a result of the preaching, my next step is discipling, with the end goal a self supporting local church. If a local church is established, I have accomplished my goal for that village. A goal that I believe is Biblically mandated by verses like Matthew 28:19, 20 . (The only way to fully accomplish Matthew 28:19 20 is by establishing a local church. These verses are the directive for missions.) Granted, I can not accomplish it backwards. I do not start teaching Bible doctrine to lost people. This is absurd. It has to start with the gospel followed by conversion.

Bro Kent made a very true statement today, “We’ve made “church building” so complex.” The fact is church planting on our end follows a simple pattern, and yet when I read books on the subject they usually have one chapter on Bible methodology and then dive into 14 other chapters of man made efforts. By the time your finished reading you have list of 98 things you need to do to plant/build a church.
We need to be Biblically driven instead of numbers driven in our efforts to accomplish the great commission. Please do not think that I do not desire to see multitudes saved. I truly dream and day dream of entire villages coming to the Lord with only one true church in the village. However, we must stay focused on how the Lord has directed us and leave the results to him. I will not be judged based on numbers, but on my obedience to the Lord. Let’s remember, many of the churches in the New Testament were house churches. We have come to the place in America, that unless you meet certain worldly requirements such has a separate church building, pews, choir loft, baptistery etc… you do not have a “real” church.
Now, I am a realist. I understand it will be difficult to build a church in the American culture with a house church. However, as I already stated, we need to leave the results to God. Jesus said, “I will build my church.” He did not say “he would build your church”, nor did he say “you will build my church.” God knows how for provide for his work. We simply need to follow the Lord and trust him to provide. Matthew 6:33 is very true! I would whether have a house church with true converts who love the Lord, then a church of 500 who are sheep in wolves clothing or carnal. (My point is not that big churches are wrong. A church that does not follow God’s design is wrong regardless of size. A church that does follow God’s design is right regardless of size.)

2007-12-12T10:13:00.000+10:00

Here is a short 4 minute video I put together of clip and pictures from my first term. Hopefully, it comes out fine.

Video from the Field!

2007-12-01T00:24:00.000+10:00

I just noticed I can now load video clips onto my blog! I have many different clips I can load from the field.

I will start of with one from my youngest son trying to start our generator back in May. He is about 19 months old at the time. Knowing how to start the generator is a very important part of life! :)

(Also I just posted a story yesterday about a lady who put her faith in Christ a few weeks back. Be sure to read that.)

Finding Faith at The Flea Market

2007-11-30T12:54:00.000+10:00

I know, I know, it has been a very long time since my last post. It has been difficult for me to get into a normal routine thus far on furlough, with all the traveling. I appreciate some people letting me know they were looking forward to my next post, and they noticed I had not posted for awhile.

Several weeks ago, I was in Alabama reporting back to a supporting church. The church was Landmark Baptist in Lineville, pastored by Danny Rogers. The meeting was a Friday through Sunday morning. On Saturday, before the meeting that night, we spent a good part of the day making visits. One of the visits was very memorable. We went and visited a lady and her husband at a flea market. They had their own stall at the market. After making some small talk, I asked the couple what church they attended. The lady, Linda, told me she had been a member of Church of Christ, Methodist, AOG, and Baptist churches in the past. I knew right away that there was a good chance this lady was very confused about the gospel. I asked her to tell me what she would say if God asked her “Why should I let you into heaven?” She told me she prayed frequently asking forgiveness for her sins, she tried to do right and I think brought up baptism, but I can’t remember for sure. From there I went into the gospel, trying to present it as clearly as possible knowing her background. A small crowd started to gather as I presented the gospel. One lady came over and said, “I heard the word being preached, and that is free, so I came over here!”

It was difficult breaking through all of the false teaching she had learned, but I could see the Lord was working on Linda’s heart. I went into an illustration based on II Corinthians 5:21 (“For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”) By this time, Linda had admitted she was guilty before God and on her way to a lake of fire. After the illustration, it was as if the Holy Spirit turned the lights on for her. She looked up at me and loudly proclaimed, at least two times, “I get it! I get it now! For the first time I get it!” She then began to weep uncontrollably. Linda did not care about the crowd that had gathered. While she was weeping I asked if she desired to put her faith in Christ and Linda said yes, and then by calling upon the Lord, put her faith in Him! I was rejoicing, as well as Pastor Rogers. Linda was also rejoicing. After we talked, she told me, with conviction, she would be in church the next day. Her husband, however, was hard to the gospel. He was polite and kind but did not put his faith in Christ. By his non verbal communication it did not appear he was thrilled with his wife’s decision. Linda did not come to church the next day, and I talked with Pastor Rogers a week ago and she still had not come. More than likely the husband is the reason for this. Pray for Linda and her husband. Her husband needs to be saved, and Linda needs to get into church to live for the Lord with boldness.

Mission Conference, Shady Grove Baptist Church

2007-10-02T00:24:00.000+10:00

This last week, my family and I reported back to Shady Grove Baptist Church, during their mission conference. We had a great time during the week and the church really made us feel special. The last night of the conference one of the men in the church gave us a CD with pictures he took thoughout the conference. Here are some of those pictures.

The shoes in this picture represented one of the themes for the preaching during the week. Dr Joe West preached the conference. Each pair of shoes represented someone who played a big part in missions and has went home to be with the Lord. The question was asked over and over who is going to fill the shoes. The black shoes, on the top row fourth from the left, belonged to Dr. Lee Roberson. The brown shoes on the top row 6th from the right had belonged to Lester Roloff. The shoes on the second row belonged to missionaries. On the third row the shoes belonged to lay people who made it possible for missionaries to go to the field.

Dr. Joe West and his wife.

This is me in the dunk tank. My daughter Rachel is throwing the ball. For those at my home church, in the background you can see Eric Jones. He is standing close to the church building.

Men's Prayer Breakfast (Missionary Josh Adams and Missionary Jim Gulledge)

Missionary Bob Nichols. A second generation missionary to Brazil. (Again, for those from my home church, Mrs Paulette Jones is the background wearing blue, leaning against the wall.)

This the Pastor of Shady Grove Baptist Church, Dennis Blankenship

This is missionary Steve Anderson

The family and I singing after the international banquet.

Meeting new friends.

Pastor Blankenship and his wife, Karen.

Myself and fellow missionaries taking up the faith promise cards.

Traveling and Calling

2007-09-28T21:26:00.000+10:00

I am doing alot of traveling. I am currently with my family in a mission Conference in Bossier City, Louisiana, at Shady Grove Baptist Church. This is one of my supporting churches, and we are enjoying the meeting. I have a few more meetings in Louisiana after this meeting, and then I have a few in Alabama and Georgia. I am also busy scheduling new churches for meetings. We will need to raise addtional support before going back.

Getting the new meetings is a humbling, and at times difficult process. Back when I started deputation I had no idea how difficult it would be to schedule meetings. To some degree I understand this as Pastors need to be careful as to who they have come in. Obvioulsy, Pastors want missionaries in they agree with, so this is not the frustrating part. I also understand many Pastors receive several phone calls a week from missionaries, and there is no way they can have them all in. The frustrating part is just getting past the church secratary! If I could just get the Pastor on the phone and have him tell me yea or nay as to a meeting or not, would be great. Many times, as soon as I mention I am a missionary, I am quiclky told the Pastor is not available, when it appeared he was availble just seconds before I mention I am a missionary. :) I found that to be humbling as well. I had this crazy I idea when I started deputation six years ago, that as soon as the person answering the phone at a church heard a missionary was on the line, they would be more thany happy to get the Pastor on the phone. When I was assistant Pastor, I always looked foward to talking with missionaries, so this was a suprise to me.

Although, I must admit the frustration leaves when I remember the Lord is in control and He will put me in the churches He wants me in. Romans 8:28 is a great verse, truth and help. When we come to frustrating times we all need to rember the Lord is in control and just stay faithful, trusting Him.

From Books a Million to Life Eternal

2007-08-25T23:49:00.000+10:00

This week I had an interesting encounter at a book store. I had to travel to a Best Buy to repair my laptop. Once I finished there, I noticed a store called Books a Million next door. I had never been in one of those before, and I enjoy book stores. I wanted to find a book called Safely Home anyhow, so I decided to go inside. After I entered the store, I quickly found the “religious section.” There was one other man in the same area, and he was looking at Bibles. The man approached me and asked if I knew what a “New Living Translation” was. He told me he just went to church for the first time in a long time the Sunday before, and they informed him the church used a New Living translation. I told him today there are over 100 different versions of the Bible and the NLT was the version the church he visited was using. I strongly recommend a KJV version and told him several reasons why. He then told me he remembered going to church with his Grandmother and that was the Bible she used. He said he remembered it was a KJV. (Of course, at that time that was almost the only version available! Oh, how far we have come! Today we have more versions than ever, and more coming out every year, and look how well America is doing today!)

From there, I quickly turned the conversation to the gospel. Wow, was this man fruit ready to be picked! The store we where in had a café in it, and I asked him he would like to sit down and talk. He said yes. I went through the gospel and we talked for about an hour. Near the end, I explained if he would repent and put his faith in Jesus Christ, the Lord would save him. While I was talking, he stopped, without any prompting from me, and bowed his head and put his faith in the Lord Jesus. He then put his hands to his eyes and wiped away tears. I was rejoicing with him. He then told me how amazed he was we had met that day. His wife had left him the week before. His life was a mess and he was seeking for God. That was the reason he went to church the previous Sunday. (He visited an AOG church.) The church recommended that he go to a “Barnes and Noble” and buy a NLT. While going to the store, he changed his mind a decided to go to “Books a Million.” While there, he could not find this version. (He did not know to look for “NLT” on the Bible.) While still at the store, he called a man from the church to ask again which Bible to buy. When he called the man was not available, but his secretary said he would call him back shortly. He was waiting for this call back when I arrived in the store. He saw me and decided to ask me about the NLT. Right after he asked me, the phone rang and it was this man from the church. He basically told him he found someone to help him at the store.

Think about all that the Lord arranged for this Divine appointment. Had my laptop not needed repaired, I would have never met him. Had I not followed the leading of the Lord to go to Books a Million, we would not have met. Had he went to Barnes and Noble, we would not have met. Had he found the version of the Bible he was looking for, we would not have met. Had he gotten a hold of his friend on the phone before I arrived, we would not have met. I am so glad the Lord gave me the opportunity to give the Gospel to this man. What a privilege! The man (Ted) left the store with the Lord and the KJV Bible!

Amen!

Family Camp (Furlough update)

2007-08-01T04:20:00.000+10:00

Last week, I preached my home church's annual family camp. This camp is always a highlight of the year. The week is filled with preaching, games, singing, testimonies, and fellowship. One man even created a human Foosball (SP?) game at camp. It was a blast. This last Sunday night I preached at Old Paths Baptist Church in Glenallen. This church is pastored by missionary Kent Lebouve. It was good to see him and his family again. (The picture to the left is from camp. One of the deacons from my home church, Chris Militech, and I were in a human wheel barrel race.)

My home/sending church has had a great blessing from the Lord this past week. The church has been packed in the current building for some time. My home church averages over 200 for all the services, and when the attendance hits 250, there is no space at all. The Lord has blessed with a new building (new to us). Another Baptist church in the area is selling us their facilities. The new building will be able to sit over 500. It is amazing to see how the Lord has worked all this out, so that my home church is able to purchase this property! It has been an exciting time to be back with my home church these last few weeks. Pastor Roach, my pastor, is thrilled at what the Lord is doing.

We will be leaving Alaska next Monday, heading to the lower 48. We are looking forward to seeing family. My Mom can not wait to see her grandchildren!

Daniel's Example

2007-07-07T04:07:00.000+10:00

(Dan 10:12) Then said he unto me, Fear not, Daniel: for from the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand, and to chasten thyself before thy God, thy words were heard, and I am come for thy words.

I read Daniel chapters 9 and 10 for my devotional reading today in the Old Testament. The above verse really grabbed my attention. Two times in the two chapters Daniel is referred to as “beloved” by God. Daniel had a very close relationship to God, and much of this is seen in these two chapters. Many times we miss it because we concentrate on the prophetic aspect of the two chapters. In the verse I gave above, the angel was sent in response to Daniel’s prayer. I want you to notice the two things mentioned that Daniel did which pleased the Lord: 1) He set his heart to understand 2)He chastened himself before God.

Oh, how we need Christians to follow Daniel’s example today. Oh, how I need to follow Daniel’s example. How we need to set our heart on God and to seek to understand. How we need to “chasten” ourselves. Instead of seeking things of this world, we need to be seeking to understand God and what he has given us to do, seeking to draw closer to him, and seeking to understand His Word. Then deny ourselves and submit to God in all things. Perhaps if we had more of these attributes in our lives, we would see God moving more in our prayer life.

Furlough

2007-06-22T04:08:00.000+10:00

I know it has been awhile since my last post. I do have a very good reason though. My family andf have started our first furlough.

We left New Ireland on June 13th and we arrived in Alaska on June 16th. I am currently sitting in a library making this update. This is my first oppurtunity to get on the net. It has been great to be reunited with my home church, IBCA.

We are adjusting to life in America again. It has been in the 60's and 70's (tempature) here in Alaska, and we have been freezing, but getting used to it. I am amzaed at how much has changed in the last 4 years. It has also been a challange driving with other cars on the road. Although it is great to drive on real paved roads!

I should be getting my own internet access this week. It will be through my cell phone! WOW!

I will post more later.

Work out, Shut up, Hold forth

2007-05-29T17:26:00.000+10:00

This week I will be preaching from Phil 2:12-16. Here are some thoughts from my preparation. Here are the verses first:

Philippians 2:12-16 “Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. (13) For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. (14) Do all things without murmurings and disputings: (15) That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world; (16) Holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither labored in vain.”

We can not remove these verses from the context in which they have been given. To do so we would lose WHY we need to follow verses 12-16. If we lose the WHY, in a short matter of time you will struggle to obey the verses, not realizing why you need to obey the verses. We see the why is the previous 41 verses. Let me summarize them quickly. We see in Chapter one Christ is our life and that in all that we do we are to magnify Christ. In chapter two, we see we are to do this with humbleness, allowing Christ’s mind to be our mind, understanding that one day ALL will bow before him and confess He is Lord of ALL to the glory of God the Father. In light of this we need to do three things. First, work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. Secondly, do all things with out murmuring and complaining. Thirdly, we need to hold forth the word of life as walk in this world. As we briefly look at these three areas, remember, following these verses is not an option to the Christian, but a responsibility in light of the purpose of our life and what awaits us in our future.

First, we need to work out or our salvation. This verse does not say to work for our salvation as some would have you believe. You can not work for your salvation as Ephesians 2:8,9 and Titus 3:5 teach us. We are saved by grace through faith. If you are trusting in anything besides or in addition to Jesus Christ you are not saved and need to repent. However, if you are saved, you need to work out what God has worked in. The Lord has given much with our salvation. He has not just saved us from hell and that is all. No sir. He has given us power over the world with our salvation, I John 5:4. He has given us power over sin with our salvation, Romans 6:11-14. He has given us the key to joy with our salvation (I Peter 1:5-8). You have no excuse for living a defeated Christian life. NONE! God has given you everything you need to be successful and glorify Him with your life. You can not blame your pastor, your parents, your husband, or your wife, if you are not serving the Lord as you should. One day you will stand before God, I hope you have not run in vain!

Secondly, we need to serve him without murmuring and complaining. How dare we complain in our service to God as though it is unreasonable! (Romans 12:1,2) Our God has done everything for us and deserves everything we have. People have often told me how they appreciate the sacrifice my family and I are making as missionaries in PNG. I understand what they are saying and appreciate the kindness. However, to say this is a sacrifice is a stretch. No, this is my reasonable service for my Lord and God. How dare I ever complain about what the Lord has asked of me. Dear Christian, do not complain about the circumstances the Lord has you in. He is God and He is in control. Do not complain about the church the Lord has you in. Do not complain about the area of service you have. Maybe you only clean the church, rejoice and be thankful for the area of service God has given you. Then do it with all your might unto the Lord. According to verse 15 we cause great harm by our complaining. I never want a lost person to see me complaining about my Christian life. We need to understand we are to shine as lights in this world! We are to be blameless and harmless. Quit griping about standards you don’t like and love the Lord with all your heart. Trust in Him knowing he does know what is best.

Thirdly, we need to hold forth the word of life (verse 16). Many Christians are doing many things for the Lord, but it is all for nothing. Yes, that is right, all for nothing! It is not just that we work for the Lord and serve Him, but that we work and serve Him according to His Word. It is not just sincerity that pleases God. It is sincerity with truth. All that we do must be according to God’s Word. I don’t care how great or wonderful people think you are, if your work is not based on God’s Word and done His way, it is for nothing. I do not want to stand before Christ and have all my works burned up in the fire because it was nothing more than wood, hay, and stubble (I Cor 3:11-15). Examine yourself now, are you holding forth the word of life in your work for the Lord, or are you doing what is right in your own eyes?

So here we have our responsibility in light of the truths given. We are to work out our own salvation, do so without murmuring or complaining, and hold forth the word of life in our service to God.

Past Few Weeks

2007-05-10T18:05:00.000+10:00

The past few weeks have been pretty eventful. Ministry wise, things are going well as one more person has made a profession faith. My wife wrote an email to her Mom, talking about what has been going on for that last few weeks and she said I could post it here. So here is her email to her mother:

Dear Mom,

I am glad you emailed because I have been meaning to sit down and update you on life in PNG for awhile. The last month has been hectic for us. Levi has had malaria twice, and everything we own is just breaking. Except for the new truck which is doing great. We just returned from a supply run to Kokopo, where I had a tooth pulled, and then it became infected. I also contracted some kind of virus at the same time. Beth got cellulitis again, and our air conditioner broke yesterday. Now THAT was the last straw and I just cried. But I have joy that all of the kids are well and healthy, and the Lord knows all about it, so I'll try to please Him and be content.

About a month ago, we had another missionary family here for a special Sunday. Levi played hard in the water and sun, and that night started a fever. By the next day he was having up and down fevers, the up being 105, and the down 103! No other symptoms because the shakes hadn't started yet. Then at bath time he became cold and started shaking and we knew it was malaria. I had already tried to give him the medicine, but it wasn't working and neither was tylenol for his fevers. So, I went to the haus sik, because they treat malaria all the time. They gave me Fansidar, which I didn't want to give him, because it is a strong sulfa drug. So I tried soemthing else, but it didn't work. So, I gave him the Fansidar and the pediatric cloroquine chewables. He threw them up. He was only keeping breast milk down at this point, thank the Lord he wasn't weaned! THEN I was finally able to give him the Fansidar and Artusenate, (a good chinese drug for malaria). That finally stayed down. He also had antibiotic shots and fever reducing suppositories. It finally worked and we were so glad when his fever went down to 101! So, we finished the treatment, only to have it came back two weeks later. Malaria isn't actually cured until you kill the parasite. It is just suppressed and lives in your liver, until you get weakened and it comes out again. (Basically) This time we used the same treatment and went longer and he is doing great today. I am still trying to find out if it is possible to give him the medicine to kill his malaria. It is a radical treatment, so I am not sure if I should. There is a hospital in London that is best in the world for tropical medicine. I looked them up on the internet and they reccommended the treatment that I gave him. So, I feel more confident that I gave him a good treatment. Today he is doing good and back to his old self and playing with his guns. We have a picture of him taken after his second treatment and you can see how worn out he looks. It just broke our hearts. So, there's the Levi story.

We went to Kokopo this week and got some good groceries we can't get here. I also got some new medicine for Levi so we are prepared if he relapses again. They have a good Philippino dentist there right now, so I went to have a tooth pulled. I had a temporary crown that broke and the whole top of my tooth was gone. Just the roots in there! So he pulled them out and did a good job, I thought. When he saw the roots he said wow, big tooth! They were HUGE roots. I was shocked. Well, then I had a humungous hole to heal, and it is just hurting really bad. The next day I went back and he cleaned it out again and I srarted antibiotics. It is getting better, but I can't sleep without pain killers. It's great having the tooth out, I don't miss it, but I wish this spot would heal faster. On top of that I got some kind of flu! So in the middle of this I had to shop for supplies and all that. Terry wanted to let me stay there and go back to the dentis, but I wanted to come home.

The day we got to Kokopo, beth started swelling up huge. Thankfully I already knew what it was. I boughtsome antibiotics right away, and she is all better today.

Well, I better get going, but Terry will be emailing with the thingie you needed.

Talk to you later...
Love
Mariann

The two pictures are of Levi and I on the boat heading to Kokopo for supplies. At the time of the picture he was well into his recovery. The second picture is the one my wife referred too in the email. He looked 10 times worse during the height of his Malaria.
----- Original Message -----

For Me To Live is Christ!

2007-04-23T17:19:00.000+10:00

I am currently preaching through Philippians. It is a great book. In chapter one, we see Christ is our life, in chapter two Christ is our mind, in chapter three Christ is our goal, and in chapter four Christ is our strength! Of the 103 verses, Jesus is mentioned over 70 times! He truly is the theme of this epistle.

This last Sunday, I preached in chapter one verses 12-30. (Please read those verses.) Here are some thoughts from the message:

Within our text, we have a very powerful statement, which sums up the entire reading, or even the entire epistle. The statement says, “For me to live is Christ and to die is gain.” The Apostle Paul truly lived this. In the previous verse, verse 20, we see Paul’s purpose for his life, which led to this statement. Paul’s purpose was that in whatever he did, or whatever happened to him, he would magnify Jesus Christ. If we have this same purpose in our life, we too will be able to say “For me to live is Christ and to die is gain.” The only way you will be able to say this is if the truth of verse 20 is true in your life.

Now, before we look at this purpose in Paul’s life, I would like to ask you, what is the purpose for your life? What is it that you live for? Some live life without purpose and this is a waste. They simply live for whatever the day brings, without any real direction to their life. Many today are hedonistic. They live for pleasure. Their sole purpose is to do whatever pleases them. They live for sex, money, bigger houses, boats, cars, etc… This too is a wasted life, which is vanity (Ecclesiastes). Some live for pride, to build a name for themselves. This too is vanity. For the Christian our purpose is to be that same as the Apostle Paul’s. Even in our text (verses 27-30) we see Paul’s life purpose was to be the purpose for all those who named Christ.

Consider Paul's circumstances. Paul was in prison and more than likely had a guard chained to him 24/7. Other preachers were talking bad about him. Some preachers were trying to elevate themselves, since Paul was in prison (12-18). Yet, Paul shows no bitterness, no anger, no malice, and no disappointment! Within the text, we see he is filled with Joy! Why? How? You see his life’s purpose truly was to magnify/glorify Jesus Christ. As long as this was being accomplished, he had joy. Why? Because magnifying Christ truly was his life’s purpose. Let's look at verses 20,21 and think on these words in relation to Paul’s current situation:

Philippians 1:20,21 According to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

That Christ would be magnified was his life’s purpose! (To magnify here means to make bigger, glorify, honor, or to increase.) Thus, as long as Christ was being magnified, as a result of his life, he was willing to endure hardness, to suffer, to endure persecution, etc… What is it that you live for? What is your purpose in life? What are you willing to suffer for? What are you willing to endure for? Many will work 80 hours a week to buy that new car or boat. They will endure the long hours to fulfill their pleasure. What are you willing to endure for Jesus Christ? Is Jesus Christ your purpose in life?

When your purpose in life is to magnify Christ you learn:
1) To have joy in suffering.
2) Christ name means more than your name.
3) Christ’s ministry is more important than “your” ministry.
4) Life is about God!

Today, as we see the purpose in Paul’s life, you need to ask yourself, if Paul’s purpose is your purpose for your life, if this is what you are living for. Magnifying Jesus Christ, is the only purpsoe that matters on this earth. There is no other purpose that can be compared to it. I would like for all of us to determine to make this purpose of glorify Christ our life’s purpose. That we too can say with all boldness, “for me to live Christ and to die is gain.”

Youth meeting - "Sak"

2007-04-13T18:00:00.000+10:00

Sorry I have not posted sooner. I should be back now to posting at least one post a week, Lord willing. I have had many things going on the past few weeks. I preached a youth meeting, in which one made a profession of faith. The meeting went pretty good with around 35 youth attending, most of whom have already made a profession of faith. The youth here have a very difficult time making a true commitment to Christ. There are many things pulling them. I preached a series of messages on being resolved to serve Christ.

The last Sunday, I had an interesting event occur. I was dropping off a family at the end of the village. The man asked me to stop at certain location so he could get a “sak.” In the tok pisin language he asked. “Stapim ka, mi laik kisim wanpela sak bilong mi.” I assumed he meant some type of basket, but I was wrong, very wrong. I stopped and let him out, and I could not see where he went, as he went into the bush. A minute or two later he returns with a SHARK! It was not a sak he was going to get; it was a shark! He was trying to say the English word, and I thought he using the village language, when he first told me what he needed to get. The shark was a black-tip reef shark. The man, who caught it, caught it standing of the beach with a fishing line wrapped around his hand. The villagers do not have “fishing poles.” They just wrap the fishing line around their hand, a bottle, or a small plastic device designed for it. The man was simply throwing his line into the ocean from the beach when he caught the shark. Our waters are very plentiful so there are many sharks in the waters.

The shark of course was dead. He had gutted it, and then cooked it whole in the ground. They call this a “mumu.” When they cook here, almost all of their cooking is done in this “mumu” style. They dig a hole; light a fire, then put big rocks on top of the fire, many big rocks (rocks about the size of a softball). They then wrap the food in banana leaves and place it on top of the rocks and then put more rocks on top of the food. A few hours later the food is ready to eat, and it is cooked thoroughly. This shark was going to be the family dinner that night. Since there is no electricity, thus no freezers, everything will be eaten in one sitting with others in the village.

Every week brings something different here. I never know what to expect next.

(The picture is of Levi trying to “help” Heather with her school work.)

Two Tires!

2007-03-29T19:59:00.000+10:00

Yesterday, my family I and headed out for literacy class and mid-week service. It ended up being a pretty eventful trip, but none the less normal for PNG. We had to leave a little early as this was the first day of the literacy course for the Christians at Bible Baptist. Many of those who have trusted Christ can not read or write. This is one reason why spiritual growth is some what impeded. They need to be able to read the Bible for themselves. (This is the second time we are going through a literacy course.) However, we would never make it to church for the class or services. As we left, the weather was not good. It had been raining for almost one full day, and I knew the rivers would be high. During rains like this the rivers can become impassable. Two of the rivers have no bridge at all and I have to drive right through the river. I was not to the river yet, and was asking the Lord if we should just turn around and go back. About that time, a tire went flat. I pulled over and as I got out I noticed it was not one tire that was flat, but two tires! Both my back tires took nails. (Many of the youth put old nails in the road as a form of entertainment. I really need to introduce a baseball and glove to the young people!) Now I had a problem, I only have one spare tire and I am 10 kilometers from home and it is pouring rain. As Daniel and I were assessing the situation (by the way this day was Daniel's sixteenth birthday) the villagers began to come over. I was in a village called Namarodu. They all knew I was the missionary and wanted to help if they could. One of the ladies there was a lady whom I had witnessed to a few years ago. I met her and her husband in the haus sik. They were their with there baby who had malaria. I prayed with them and gave the gospel. Daniel and I decided to change the "worst tire." The Lord allowed for one tire to have a little air remaining. I had a gauge with me, and there was not enough air in it to move the gauge, but the rim was not on the ground. Since the rim was not on the ground, that was the better tire.We changed the one tire, and headed back. Daniel and I were soaked and muddy. I prayed the Lord will allow us to make it back. We took it easy, and the bad tire held all the way home. I was amazed. I did no damage to the tire or rim either. The Lord allowed us to return without having to walk back in the rain. The rain still has not stopped and that was 24 hours ago. I was able to get the two tires repaired at one of our “tire shops.” Getting a tire repaired here is an adventure in itself, as there is no real equipment to do it, but they fix tires everyday.

The Lord is good and we rejoice in his care and protection over us. I think the Lord was making sure I did not try and cross any of the rivers!!

Tsunami

2007-03-11T18:22:00.000+10:00

We had a Tsunami hit us this past Tuesday night. It was a series of three waves that hit back to back. By my estimations each wave was around 35 miles long, with a possible fourth wave about half that size. I live in a place called Namatanai. My house is less than a quarter of a mile from the ocean, but we are on top of a hill. The village next us had several houses destroyed. These are bush houses so it does not take much. The village where I started the church was hit hard, and had three houses taken into the ocean. The church sits close to the ocean as well and the ocean did come into the church but only a few feet. Had the ocean went another 30 feet inside it would have carried our pews away. The picture, to the left, shows how close our church is to the ocean. The picture was taken three years ago when I had several men from my home church come and help build a church house. Our church house was not damaged but our church ground was changed. Parts of the ground are no longer there! The ocean swept it away! Where I used to baptize, it is now nothing but sand. It was chest deep water!

There has only been one death reported from the three waves. A small child was taken out to sea. There were other children who needed to be rescued though. Some lost their live stock, pigs. The tsunami was very small compared to the major one that hit our neighbor Indonesia two years ago, but it was still destructive. It was a reminder to the people on the island how fast life can end. I preached in a village Friday night called Wilo, where I started a mission work. There were two who made professions of faith. This village was not hit by the Tsunami, but they were only a few miles away from where the tsunami had hit.

Praise the Lord for his protection. When you live on a small island that is only a mile or two wide in most parts, you often think about tsunamis. For the Christian, though, we know that God is in control, and that nothing happens to us without his permission. Romans 8:28.

Update On "Truck Trouble."

2007-03-06T19:31:00.000+10:00

Back On January 8th, I blogged about "Truck Trouble." My truck is still out, awaiting a new head! However, several of my supporting churches sent funds to help me purchase another vehicle. Without the Lord using them, I would not have been able to get another vehicle. I wanted to say thank you to them and to those who prayed that the Lord would help us. The picture is of the 1993 Land Cruiser we were able to purchase. Here is a list of the churches that sent funds to help us.

Independent Baptist Church of Anchorage AK (My home/sending church)
Bible Baptist Church - Fairbanks, AK
Pilgrims Baptist Church - Wasilla, AK
Homer Independent Baptist Church - Homer, AK
Valley Baptist Tabernacle - Wasillia AK
Landmark Baptist Church - Lineville, Alabama
South Side Baptist Church - Tampa, Florida
Harvest Baptist Church - Hagerstown, MD
Faith Baptist - Misawa, Japan
Immanuel Baptist Church - Kenai, AK
Grace Bible Baptist - Leesburg, Florida

Now that the Lord has blessed us with another vehicle, the ministry is back to full throttle. During the time we had no vehicle, I was only able to preach on Sunday's. (On Sundays, I would hire a vehicle from a trade store owner.) All other ministries had stopped. (Discipleship, Bible Institute, mid week, village visitation, etc...) During that time we were praying the Lord would supply us the funds for another vehicle, and, after talking with my Pastor, I sent out a prayer letter about our situation to our supporting churches. The Lord met our need in an amazing way! My family and I were amazed at the funds the Lord provided. I knew we needed around $18,000 to find a decent used 4x4. Vehicles here are very expensive. We were praying for $18,000 and a little over $18,000 came in!

With this new vehicle, my family we will have seats now as as well! That was not the case with my truck.

Nakedness and the Bible

2007-02-23T11:20:00.000+10:00

(I have been doing a lot of traveling on the island as of late, so it has prevented me from posting. I hope to be back on track now.)

I was asked in the comment section on my last post about nakedness and the Bible. I have also been asked the same question, about my post, from another person as well. Here is a short answer to that question, but none the less, an answer that gives Bible truth to the question of nakedness and sin.

Gen 3:7, 21

Genesis 3:7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.

Genesis 3:21 Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them.

In verse 7, because of sin, Adam and Eve knew they were naked for the first time. They felt shame. Adam made an “apron” out of fig leaves. From the word apron we know Adam only covered the groin area. (The word means “loin covering.”) It was not enough though. In verse 21 God makes a “coat” out of animal skin. Death has entered the world. An animal had to die to cover their shame. Notice it was a “coat” God made. The Hebrew word implies robe/long garment. God covered their nakedness. He did not cover their nakedness with just a loin cloth, but with a “coat,” or long garment. God has set the standard here for us to follow. (First mention principle) God covered Adam and Eve with clothes. We, too, need to be covered with clothes. Allowing others to see your nakedness is sin, except for your spouse.

Lev 18 is a good chapter for seeing we are not to look upon each others nakedness.

Some think nakedness is just the groin area. That is not true Biblically as we seen in Gen 3. A coat covered much more than the groin area. When we compare Gen 3 with Ex 28:42, we see we need to be covered from our chest area to at least our knees. Our thighs need to be covered. This is true of both male and female.

Many times nakedness in the bible is associated with sin rebellion, shame, peril. One verse to see this is EX 32:25

Do a study on nakedness in the Bible, not in light of American culture, but solely based on what you read in the Bible. I believe many Christians will be surprised!

Cultural Differences

2007-01-29T17:03:00.000+10:00

(This post I originally wrote in response to a question on how to handle cultural differences. The person asking wanted to know how a missionary determines what is right or wrong in a culture and how does one go about changing something that is not right within the culture. I thought it would make a good post here.)

I am in a missionary working in a jungle village on a small island in the south Pacific. The culture here is incredibly different then what I am used to as an American. When I first arrived the culture shock was incredible and almost paralyzing.

After some time, I began my first church plant. When preaching and teaching on Sundays, I would have some women with no tops on. These women were usually breast feeding mothers who did not cover up after feeding their children. The children here breast feed until two to three years old. The children would be running around while I was teaching, and then run to their mother to feed. I am in a culture where fornication is rampant and expected. Most youths have lost their virginity by fourteen, especially if they’re female. Rape is against the law, but none the less it too is a cultural norm. A wife is almost property here and husbands beating their wives is common. Having more than one wife is also common. All of these items are clearly against Scripture. (Not the breast feeding of course, but the nudity, which occurred in between feeding the children.)

Now, my primary mission was not to end the nudity, remove the fornication, or stop the rape and wife beatings. My primary mission is to preach the gospel and as a result establish local churches. However, if a true church is established those things will change. The more who truly trust Christ, the more the local culture is affected and changed.

Let’s remember as Christians, in any part of the world, we will be different. We will be strangers and pilgrims on this earth. The people should begin to reflect the culture of heaven instead of the culture where they physically live. The missionary does not change the culture, but the Holy Spirit does as He changes lives. It is not up to the local people to decide what is culturally right or wrong either, it is up to God and His Word. Based on the authority of God’s Word, not my own authority, I teach against the unscriptural practices. There is something wrong in any part of the world where people make professions and yet there is no change.

“If any man be in Christ he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” The Lord

As a missionary my focus is not on what part of the culture is wrong, but on drawing the people closer to a holy and righteous God. As a result, a new culture is formed in the church. This is not a western or village culture, but a heavenly one!

How is Your Vision of God?

2007-01-17T19:55:00.000+10:00

Isaiah had seen the Lord as he never had before in Isaiah chapter six. The event forever changed his life. He saw the Lord “high and lifted up.” He saw a holy God with amazing strength. He saw the true “King” and “Lord.”

Today, many see God wearing a Hawaiian shirt and wearing flip flops, as one popular preacher described him in a book. They see the “man upstairs,” or their “buddy.” How we view God is very important, because it is directly tied to how we serve God. Yes that’s right; your view of God does determine how you will serve God. The devil has done a good job at painting a distorted picture of God, and it has affected Christianity today.

So, how do we get a proper view of God? Has God revealed himself to us? Yes he has! First through creation and second through His Word. In creation we see an all powerful God, who is remarkable. In His Word, we see a special revelation of God. We learn of his attributes. We see how He works, and what He desires. We see, first, a holy God. A just God; a perfect God, a righteous God. We also see a God full of mercy, love and grace.

As we get a clearer picture of God through His Word, this affects how we serve Him. You see in His Word, God is not my buddy or the man upstairs. He is not sitting down on a beach some where in a Hawaiian shirt and shorts. He is HIGH and LIFTED UP! He is holy! As you get closer to the Lord you realize, as Isaiah did, that you are “undone.” That you are a wretched sinner in need of grace and cleansing. The closer you get to God the more you realize how far from being like God you really are. The devil paints the opposite picture: one in which leaves off the holiness of God. The holiness of God is what drives me to try and be holy. Did the Lord not say, “Be ye holy for I am holy”?

This in turns affects our standards such as dress, music, social standards, and others. Our music is less holy, because we do not see the Lord as we should. The same applies to the other standards as well. Too often, standards in fundamentalism are solely based on what the preacher says and not a vision of God. When this happens people simply conform to where they are. This is why you see some people change their standards when they move to a new location and change churches. Their standards were not based on their view of God, but on the preacher. In other cases, their standards ARE their god. It is here where they judge their spirituality. This, too, is because they lack a clear picture of God.

How do you view God? Your view God will affect how you serve Him! I, for one, am sick and tired of the irreverent views of God portrayed today. Is it any wonder why sin is so rampant today! The media portrays Him as a God who makes homosexuals; as a God who if exist has no absolute standard for man. Religion paints him as a God of no judgment; a God where there is no personal accountability. Most people only know of God through what they have seen in Hollywood or liberal “churches.”

I suggest we dive into His Word and learn of Him! It will forever change your life!

Books I am Reading

2007-01-14T21:19:00.000+10:00

Here is a list of books I am currently reading or have just recently finished:

The All Sufficient Christ, studies in Colossians by Theodore Epp.
Flyboys, Non-fiction about WWII flyers
Becoming A First Century Church, Clarence Sexton
Teaching to Change lives/Seven ways to make teaching come alive, Howard Hendricks
Deadline, fiction Randy Alcorn

Truck Trouble

2007-01-08T16:50:00.000+10:00

Sorry it has been awhile! I appreciate the faithful still coming and reading.

Last week was a very trying week. Tuesday, I headed to Kavieng to get supplies. It is a five hour drive from where I live. We finished getting supplies for the month and headed back home Thursday morning. About one hour down the road, my water pump went out in my truck. The pump went out in the same area where three years ago my entire wheel flew off my truck! There is a bush mechanic right there in that village. This man let me use his truck to go back to Kavieng and get a new water pump. I went back and, praise the Lord, they had a water pump for my truck available. We decided we would head out Friday morning again. However, this time the starter went out and seized the engine! This happened before I left town, right at the work shop. They fixed that problem in about four hours. They did not have the needed part, but they did get the truck working again to where I could drive it until the part I needed arrived.

After I picked up my truck, we decided to try a third time to get back home. This time, about 30 kilometers outside of Kavieng, a welsh plug blew out of the side of the engine block! I left the family at the truck (we had supplies in the truck) and I headed back for Kavieng. Once there, I found a friend to come and tow my truck back to Kavieng with his vehicle. Other problems also occurred: my truck blew out the head gasket at the same time, the glow plugs also fried the day before, and I was leaking power steering fluid everywhere!

Saturday morning, I hired a vehicle to take my family and I home with our supplies. We arrived home late Saturday afternoon. However, because I have no truck I could not head out to the two churches and preach on Sunday. The workshop in Kavieng tells me they will need at least a week to make the needed repairs to my truck.

When we arrived back home, I turned my generator on. Two hours into that the generator broke down! I also have a small back up generator, which is good for lights. I turned that on Sunday afternoon, and it, too, broke down, after only fifteen minutes of use!

Today, I was able to rig the generator so it is working. I simply bypassed the circuit breaker by rewiring it, and that got it working. Hopefully, by the end of this week I will have a new circuit breaker for my generator. My truck, though, is a bigger concern, please pray about that. The truck has almost 300,000 kilometers on it, and has constant problems. (The month before, on the trip to Kavieng, four wheel bearings went out!) My truck gets a lot of abuse because there is no real road here. It has to go through rivers everyday, and what road we do have is just dirt and filled with holes that are bigger than Rhode Island. Truly, the Lord has kept this truck running. I do think it is now time to get another vehicle. I can not have my family stranded on the side of the road and the ministry comes to a stand still while I wait for parts or repairs on my truck. Please pray about that. Vehicles here are very expensive and getting a vehicle loan is not an option. A decent, used, four wheel drive, diesel truck will cost 17,000 to 18,000 US. And this would be a truck three to four years old, the size of a dual cab Ford Ranger.

My family and praise the Lord for looking after us each time the vehicle broke down. It truly was amazing. We broke down once right by a bush mechanic’s house, the second time I was at the work shop in Kavieng, getting ready to leave, and the third time I was only about 20 minutes outside of Kavieng and it made it easy for me to go get help. Had we broke down two or three hours down the road, we would have been sleeping in a PNG “haus boi” for at least one night.

Pictures:
The one picture is of my truck broken down on the side of the road outside of Kavieng, waiting to be towed. The other picture is of the from the first breakdown. In that picture my family was loading up into the bush mechanic’s truck, so I could take them to Kavieng and get the water pump.

The Trial of Jesus

2006-12-09T16:36:00.000+10:00

Here are some thoughts from John 18:28-40; 19:1-15

The trial of Jesus Christ has some rather remarkable events take place throughout it. Jesus told Pilate in John 18:37 that he came to bear witness unto the truth. A trial is supposed to be about the truth. In the office Pilate held, he always had to determine truth. However, truth was not what Pilate was actually seeking. He was seeking to please the people. He was seeking to be a good servant of Caesar, and if truth got in the way of those two areas, the truth would be ignored.

In this trial, Pilate did not completely ignore the truth. The chief priests did, though. Pilate went out to the chief priests seven times, seeking the release of Jesus. At least two of those times, Pilate declared to the Jews, “I find no fault,” in Jesus. The chief priests heard the truth, but totally ignored it. They heard what Pilate said, but ignored it. They simply cried out “crucify Him!” The fact is the chief priests knew the truth before they ever brought Jesus to Pilate. How many people today simply ignore the truth, even when faced with it? They know the truth will forever change their life, and they do not want their life changed. They think they have found pleasure in sin, but true joy comes from the truth. These people are like little kids playing in mud holes, who when asked if they want to go to Disney World say no because they are having too much fun in the mud hole. They do not realize what they are giving up. The chief priests were looking to protect their power, but instead they rejected the One who gives the power.

The chief priests also exhibited another characteristic we should avoid. In John 18:28, the Jews bring Jesus to the judgment hall. The Jews did not want to enter the hall lest they be defiled, as a result of going into a gentile’s house. This custom came from their tradition. They have no problem killing an innocent man, but they do not want to dirty themselves by going into a house of a gentile! What hypocrisy! Oh how often we simply have an outward form of religion and IGNORE the truth. People who do this have their religion in vain. Their religion is not about God, it is about self. They do not attend church and maintain standards out of a desire to please and love God; they do those things to please men; to gain favor and praise of peers. This is wicked. Life is about GOD!!!

Now back to Pilate. Pilate knew the truth, but chose not follow it. Why? Truth was not his end goal. He wanted to keep the peace. He was more worried what the people and Caesar thought, than what God thought. He did not ignore the truth all together as the Pharisees, but none the less, when he could not reach a compromise he chose to ignore the truth. At one point Pilate asked Jesus, What is truth?” However, he did not stay for the answer. He turned and walked away after asking the question. Many people today base their actions on what others think instead of truth. They might even ask about the truth, but they do not really want the answer. Pilate wanted to accept the truth without having the truth affect him. This is not possible. Pilate wanted to let Jesus go. He knew he was innocent. However, he knew if he followed the truth in relation to Jesus Christ, it would cost him. It probably would have cost him is job and title. So he traded eternity for a few years of “prosperity” on this earth. How foolish! His problem was he was only thinking of the present and not the future. He should have been thinking of his own judgment before a holy and righteous God. He should have been begging Jesus for mercy. Many people today make the wrong decisions because they base those decisions on what others think, or they are only thinking of the present and not the future!

How do you respond to truth when the Lord works on your heart? Do you ignore it altogether? Choose to accept it provided it does not change you? Seek to compromise with the truth. Or do you willingly embrace it, allowing it to do its work in your heart. You will never be sorry you chose to follow the truth!

Back Online! Last Two Weeks

2006-11-28T10:56:00.000+10:00

I am finally back online! My internet company was having problems and I was not able to connect at all for about 1 week. Then I was able to connect periodically for short time periods. This is still the case.

The past two weeks has seen many trials and many blessings. We have had power trouble, we are without water again, and the lawn mower and truck are both having lots of trouble right now. During all this, though, the things that really matter have been going strong. Many of the Christians are really showing signs of growth. One man, I believe, has the potential to be the future pastor of the work. I run a one on one discipleship program with those who trust Christ, and Joel is really growing. He has a strong desire to serve God. I have been praying, asking the Lord to show me who is the man I should begin serious training to be the pastor, and Joel may be that man. During the past nine days there have been two men and another teenager saved! On Sunday, I baptized 4 adults, a 14 year old, and an 11 year old. The four adults were two married couples. The picture below is of one the married couples getting ready to be baptized. Saturday, during my visits, I spent time with two men and their families. They have been visiting the church for several Sundays. Neither man trusted Christ on Saturday. However, on Sunday both were in church again, and one of them, Bennett, made a profession of faith!

I must admit, I am coming across one of the hardest parts of being a missionary. This church is the first church the Lord has ever used me to plant. (I hope, because the need is great, it is the first of many.) The church in the village of Kudukudu was started almost two and half years ago. It is a true church plant, not starting from a split or pulling members from another Baptist church. There is no other Baptist church! It started with the Lord putting this village on my heart and I began praying. Then I led a man to the Lord from the village and the work began. Now, we are averaging 70 to 85 every week, and the work is growing at a steady pace, doubling over the past year. As I am pastoring this work, the love for the people grows everyday. My desire for them to grow is great. I know that soon the Lord will confirm who it is I need be training to be the national pastor. At the tim, that man is ready, I will step aside and let the church run completely autonomously. I look forward to that time, but at the same time, it is hard for me to imagine stepping aside. Once the sheppard has looked after the sheep for several years, He knows all of the sheep personally. He knows them by name. He knows which ones are strong and which ones are weak. He knows which sheep need to be encouraged regularly, and which ones encourage others. He loves the sheep. Yet he has to turn it over to another shepherd. This is not easy. These are people I have personally seen put their faith in Christ. The Lord, of course, reminds He is the true Shepherd. He is the great Shepherd. He also reminds that, “Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform until the day of Christ:” The Lord used a missionary to pen the words to a church He planted. This verse gives me great comfort when I think of the day I am no longer the pastor. I know the Lord will continue His work. We always need to be mindful the work is the Lord’s and we are simply the tools. Any true progress made in the lives of men is 100% a result of the Lord giving the increase.

Wedding Aniversary

2006-11-10T19:35:00.000+10:00

(I have received an email from at least one person telling me their comment did not get posted. If you have sent a comment and I did not post it, resend it. For some reason, I am not receiving some of the comments, since I have enabled comment moderation. **If I choose to reject a comment, I will post a comment saying so, most of the time.)

Saturday will be mine and my wife’s 17th wedding anniversary. We were married on November 11th, 1989, Veterans Day. (The war was on! Just kidding.) Looking back 17 years ago, little did we know what all the Lord had in store for us. Here we are now with five children sitting in Papua New Guinea!

My wife and I were married after I joined the Air Force and finished my training. I was 19 and she was 18 when we were married. We met in high school at a Bible class I taught after school on Thursdays. We ended up being members in the same Baptist church a few months later. She has had to put up with me all these years, but my good looks make up for any trouble I have caused her. :)

The Lord used good examples of other marriages to strengthen our marriage. There were three in particular: Pastor Willie J Byrd, Missionary Bill Stewart, and Pastor Stan Roach. Pastor Byrd became our pastor about one year after we were married. (Now, for our first year of marriage we had a pastor in New Mexico that was an example of everything NOT to do in a marriage!) Missionary Bill Stewart was our pastor while we spent one year in Korea. Pastor Stan Roach is still my pastor. He is pastor of the I.B.C. of Anchorage Alaska, my sending/home church. All three men loved their wives with passion. They did not bury their wives while they were working in the ministry. Their wives were right there with them. Growing up in a broken home, I had no idea how to truly love my wife, but through the influence and teaching of those men, the Lord showed me.

I wonder what the Lord has for us in the next seventeen years! The Lord is so good. He provides man with a woman, a completer/helper. A companion with which to share all the joys of life. I love my wife and am thankful the Lord has given her to me.

(Proverbs 18:22) Whoso findeth a wife findeth a good thing, and obtaineth favor of the LORD.

Missionary Wife Insights (Where's the Water?)

2006-10-30T19:58:00.000+10:00

I asked my wonderful wife to write another post. This is her second post.

When Terry asked me to write another entry for his blog, I really didn’t know what to write about. Our life in PNG seems to never have a dull moment. Compared to life in America, most every aspect of the culture is completely different. To many of the village-dwelling nationals, we are considered rich. Not because we ARE rich, but because we live in a house made of wood with a tin roof and a cement foundation, we BUY most of our food instead of growing it and eating the same thing every day, we have indoor plumbing, and a generator to give us electricity to run our computer, water pump, refrigerator and freezer, AND we own a truck and can fill it with gas and have it repaired, which we need to do quite often. (We have even had it repaired with super glue and duct tape, and when you look under the hood, there is inner-tubing tying together just about every part you can see!)
I decided I would write about what it’s like when we have to do things the hard way. There is a joke among many of our missionary friends here in PNG. We tease each other about whether we are REAL missionaries or not. If we have some kind of convenience that offers us some comfort and/or rest, than we are not being REAL missionaries. If we have to do without something or have it tough, then we are REAL missionaries. We have been real missionaries for a few weeks.
As for the indoor plumbing, our water is pumped into the house from two big tanks that are filled with rain water. Our gutters are connected to the top of the tanks, and the rain water is collected from our roof. A good rain for just two or three hours will fill both tanks. The only problem with this system is, well, when it doesn’t rain, there’s no water. No water in the tanks, anyway. There IS water in the rivers and springs. We have heard that when your tanks run out of water here in Namatanai, that you have to go to the rivers and springs and get some. We always thought that would be tough, and I was always so glad when it would rain just as we thought we would run out of water. Well, it finally happened. We ran out of water. I thought it wasn’t a big problem, though, because we would pray for rain, and ask others to pray for rain, and it would rain. That was three weeks ago. So, we have been going to a spring fed river about one mile from our house every day to fill up our liter jugs with water from the spring. (Daniel, my 15-year-old, has this job.) We girls also wash our long hair at Halis (hah-leece), and the baby gets to play. I do the laundry in two large tin tubs every other day. I fill them up with soap and water and put the clothes in to soak. Then we all rinse the clothes one at a time, wring them, and throw them in the basket. This gets repeated about six times. Oh, my aching back! Normally, my children do the laundry in our semi-automatic washer, and I hang them up, (and inspect them).
It has been annoying, but the Lord always gives me what I need o help me grow, and this has been one of those times. First of all, it has allowed me to focus more on my prayer life. This time when I prayed, there was no rain after a few days. Why not? What’s wrong? I am confident that it will rain, and the Lord knows what He is doing in our lives. I also know that my prayer life needs to be much, much better. This really is not an emergency situation. We can get water any time we want from the river. Will my prayer life be good enough, (‘good enough’ sounds as if it will be where it should be; maybe I should say ‘better enough’), when things really get difficult? I really need to work on that.
Having no water has been good for the children, too. Normally, they don’t have to work that hard. Their chores are easy. They have also been praying for rain. I think it’s wonderful when we are all pulling together to pray for our needs here on the mission field. It’s been good for all of us. Especially baby Levi. He loves playing in the water! I just received some heating pads for my back in a package from the US, and I am off to try them out…

Disclaimer: the real missionary joke is a joke because we all know it’s tough living here in PNG, away from family, medical care, etc. We are happy to be serving the Lord where He has called us.

Abiding in Christ and Abiding in His love!

2006-10-26T20:06:00.000+10:00

I am still preaching through the Gospel of John on Sunday mornings. I am currently in John 16. Here are some thoughts from John 15.

Chapters 13-16 of the Gospel of John is Jesus’s final discourse with the disciples before his death. His public ministry ended in chapter 12. Chapter 13 Jesus demonstrates amazing humility by washing the disciples’ feet. He then tells them one of them is a betrayer, that He is leaving, and that Peter will deny Him. No doubt, they all must have felt like they were just hit by a ton of bricks!! The news hit them hard and they were saddened by this discourse. In chapter 14, Jesus starts to encourage them. He tells them how He will come again and receive them. He tells them is preparing a place for them. Jesus tells them even though He is gone, they will do even greater works then He did on the earth. He informs them of the coming of the Spirit, the power of prayer and the peace of God. Chapter 15 Jesus gets even more practical in how they/we are to succeed while Jesus is in heaven and we are here.

John chapter 15 deals with our relationship with God, with other believers and with the world. In dealing with our relationship with God, Jesus said we are to abide in Him. Jesus tells us here that without abiding in Him, “we can do nothing.” (vs 5) He explains that without abiding in Him, we will not produce lasting fruit. (vs 5,16) The question is, how do we abide in Christ? Jesus answered it by using a metaphor. He said we abide in Him as a branch abides in the vine. Jesus gave this metaphor, so we could picture exactly what He meant by abiding in Him. The only reason the branch produces fruit is because it abides in the vine. The branch receives all of its strength, food, and power from the vine. The vine is the life of the branch. Jesus needs to be our life. He needs to be the source of our strength, not positive thinking. He needs to be our food, not our self esteem, and He needs to be our power, not our own intellect and education. He needs to be our life! In this process, the Father is the husbandman who will purge us. (vs 1,2) Purging, many times, involves pain. The Father will cut away anything that is hindering our growth and ability to produce fruit. This is not an easy process, but it is necessary for us to accomplish the will of God. The key to us being successful here on this earth, while Jesus is heaven, is to abide in Him as the branch abides in the vine.

By verse nine and ten, Jesus then tells the disciples to abide in His love. This would affect their relationship with each other. They were to abide in Christ as a branch abides in a vine, and here they are to abide in His love by virtue of their obedience:

(John 15:10) “If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love.”

Jesus told them in chapter 14, “If ye love me, keep my commandments.” Our love for God is directly tied to our obedience. You can not separate the two, although many try and do that in the day we live in. In Chapter 15, Jesus mentions a specific command of His in relation to abiding in His love, “that ye love one another as I have loved you.” Wow! Jesus Christ loves us unselfishly, humbly, and even to the point of giving of Himself unto death. These are to be our actions toward fellow Christians. Jesus also demonstrated His love toward us by being a servant. Don’t forget, minutes before this discussion He washed the disciples’ feet! This was the work of a common servant before a meal. Yet, Jesus took on this role. We need to love each other by our service.

We need to abide in Christ’s love by being obedient to Him. Especially, by our love for each other. The fact is, if we love each other as Christ commanded us, we will not be lying to each other; we will not be coveting from each other; we will not steal from each other; there would be no adultery, etc... We would be obedient to our Lord in all areas!

Abiding in Christ produced fruit, abiding in His love, by obedience, produces closeness to our Lord, a friendship.

(John 15:14) “Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.”

Why is it some are closer to God than others? Because they are abiding in His love by being obedient.

Are you abiding in Christ and in His love?

Reunion

2006-10-21T20:58:00.000+10:00

· One Sunday, several months ago, I held combined services with the work in Sohun and the work in Kudukudu. (Background information: The work in Sohun was started before I arrived in PNG. It was started by a man in the village named Joshua. When Joshua was younger, he left the village and went to the capitol, Port Moresby. While there, he heard the gospel and trusted Christ as the Savior. He became a member of Bible Baptist church in Port Moresby. He left there and went back to his home village, Sohun. He began a small fellowship and some of his family started getting saved. At that time, they began praying the Lord to send a missionary. I never met Joshua though. While I was on deputation, to come to PNG, he died of cancer. He was in his early 40’s at the time of his death. He did know I was coming to the island, though. I preach in Sohun each Sunday before going to Kudukudu. They do have a national pastor, James Able, there. He is not ordained yet. He has had some previous training and I am training him also. I hope to organize the work and run an ordination service for Bro James shortly. The work in Kudukudu was started by me in August of 2004. I am still pastoring this work until a national is trained.)

Alright, now back to the story: During the combined services, one of the men in Sohun, Pius, recognized one the men in Kudukudu, Wesley. Pius has been saved for about five years now, and had not seen Wesley for many years. Wesley and he were very good friends years ago. They used to get drunk together, and they even spent time in a PNG jail together. He had no idea Wesley and his family were now coming to the work I started in Kudukudu. Nor did he know Wesley and his wife had just recently trusted Christ as Saviour and this very service were going to be baptized with several other adults! After Wesley’s baptism, Pius and Wesley hugged and rejoiced that both were now new creatures in Christ. Both had found truth and meaning in life. I had no idea the two men knew each other from years past. I was thrilled to see the Lord give both joy over their reunion! The Lord was in control of all of this. How the Lord loves to give us delight!

Truck/Two Men/Rain/Post Office

2006-10-16T18:49:00.000+10:00

Saturday, I headed out to the village of Kudukudu for my visits. It is just about a one hour drive on a pretty rough road. I am currently doing some discipleship with Joel and Rose on Saturday mornings. You can read about there conversion here:

Joel and Rose

They are doing good and growing in the Lord. I also needed to visit a family in the village of Balai, which is on the other side of Kudukudu. However, as I arrived in the village Saturday, one of my front wheels started making a horrible noise. I knew it was the bearing. (Driving on these rough roads for the past three years, I have had to replace many parts, including several bearings.) Daniel, my son, was with me, and we decided to just turn around and head back.

About half way home, the bearing went completely out, making it impossible to drive. I was only about 2km from where the bush mechanic lives. I eased the truck to his house, and from there Daniel and I started the walk back. It was about 9:00am now and well over 100 degrees. We had just over 10 miles to walk. The Lord blessed and about one hour into the walk, a bush truck came by and took us back to Namatanai where our house is.

Not only did I have the problem of being without a vehicle, but the day before we ran out of water. I was planning on going to the river in the afternoon with several buckets to collect water for our house. When we are without water we also do all the washing of clothes and bathing at the river. It is about 2 miles from the house. I knew I needed to find a truck. We needed water for the house and the next day was Sunday. This is the first time in our three years here I have needed to find another vehicle. There are no car lots here; there are no rental car places. Very, very few people have vehicles here. I decided to ask one of the trade store owners if I could rent his vehicle.

Upon going into the trade store, it became clear why the Lord had allowed this day’s events to take place. I went to the back of store to talk with George, the store’s owner, but before I could bring up the need for the truck, he started asking me Biblical questions. This is not typical of George. George had been thinking about his future and talking with one of his workers about it. Both of the men were fearful. They were primarily asking questions about the Lord’s return. This opened the door for the gospel. This is not the first time I have witnessed to both of these men. About one year ago, I shared the gospel with George and about 18 months ago with the other man, Michael. We talked for awhile about the Lord. Neither man made a profession of faith, but the Spirit was working in their hearts. George and Michael both asked me to come back and talk with them again. The Lord knew I needed to be in the store at that time, and He made sure I was. Had I not needed a truck, I would have never went there that day! Oh yes, George did lend me a truck for the rest of the day and for Sunday.

Pray for George and Michael that they would put their trust in the Lord. Also, do pray for rain. We have been without water since Friday. It is no fun having to go to the river for your water. When my generator is broke down or our phone is out, it is still pretty manageable, but it is very difficult without water. We had a major volcanic eruption almost two weeks ago on the island just south of us. The people here are saying it is affecting our weather. The eruption occurred 36 miles from our house. Here is a link to a picture of it, from the PNG newspaper:

Volcano

Pray for my truck as well. A plane is due in the morning and it is supposed to have parts for my truck on it. Another thing to pray for is our post office. The government here has closed it down, again. This is the second time now. The last time it was closed for four months. When this happens we have to have our mail sent to a post office on the north tip of island and that is a five hour drive away.

Pray for:
George and Michael
Rain
Truck
Post office

Perseverance of the Saints

2006-10-11T19:52:00.000+10:00

For this post, we will examine, in the light of Biblical salvation, the doctrine of perseverance of the saints as taught by Calvinists. This post is not an attack on any one person, but on a false doctrine. Many saved people who love the Lord, as much as I, believe in this false doctrine. My desire is not to prove I am right! My desire is to , glorify my Lord, earnestly contend for the faith, and be of help to fellow brethren.

I need to finish off my last post first. I did not finish with what makes salvation effectual to a person. The answer in the Bible is (Act 20:21) Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.

When a person realizes they are a condemned sinner before a holy and righteous God and truly believe in the work Jesus has done for them, they need to put their faith in Him with repentance. All who do so are saved! Acts 3:19, Acts 17:30; John 3:16,36 Romans 10:9,10; Acts 16:31. (There are dozen of verses teaching us this.) We are saved by grace through faith (Eph 2:8, 9). It is the grace of God that enables this. You see, none deserve salvation! It is because of the grace of God, that God has provided a means of salvation for His creation. (Titus 2:11) If God does not give grace, then Jesus does not go to the cross and we are all condemned! The key attributes of God in play are Holiness, Justice, Love, and Grace.

My guess is the majority reading this would agree. It is the clear Biblical teaching.

So when a person “A” places their faith in Christ his sin was judged at Calvary, and he has received the righteousness of God! Because of these two FACTS person A is eternally secure. Why? His sin has already been judged. ALL of his sin. Two, he has now received the righteousness of God, in which there is NO sin. This righteousness has been imputed to the believer, just like his sins were imputed to Jesus. This is why the Bible gives us verse after verse on everlasting life. Our sin has already been judged and the Lord God has given us His righteousness!

There is no longer anything separating us from God. This is one reason why, at salvation, the Holy Spirit indwells the believer and his spirit is given life. At that moment he receives eternal life. Eternal life is NOT heaven. Heaven is a place. I will not receive eternal life when I die. I already have eternal life (John 3:36)! Jesus said, “I am the way the truth and the LIFE.” He is eternal life, and all true believers have received Him!

Here are some more scriptures teaching us what has happened to the believer’s sin.

(1Jo 3:5) And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin.

(Heb 1:3) Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;

(1Jo 4:10) Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

These verses teach us our sins have been taken away, purged, and that Jesus was the propitiation of our sins. (He satisfied the holiness of God by His sacrifice.) This is why the believer is eternally secure.

Now let’s compare that with the teaching of Calvinism. The Calvinistic doctrine of perseverance teaches perseverance is essential for salvation. They believe it provides the believer needed assurance, and that it is EFFECTUAL in their salvation. They believe it is the proof of a true believer.

I do not have so much a problem with the idea of perseverance providing assurance, as well it being evidence of salvation. The Bible does teach, “By their fruits ye shall know them.” My problem lies with the teaching making it effectual in salvation.

Now please don’t take my word for it. Let’s look at some of the teachings by prominent Calvinists of our day.

(All of this material, sermons, I have personally read. I went to NO book or web page teaching against Calvinism for this material! This has been my own research. )

First, let’s look at a comment by RC Sproul. He was teaching on the perseverance of the saints when he made this comment. I have NOT taken it out of context.

“In and of myself I am capable of sinning even unto the loss of my salvation, but I'm persuaded that God in his grace will keep me from that. (“Can a Sinning Christian Lose His Salvation”?)

According to Sproul perseverance is necessary for salvation. That without God keeping him from sinning, he would fall away and lose his salvation. Now, I have some questions for Bro Sproul, Were or were not your sins purged by Jesus Christ? If so, then how could you ever fall under condemnation again!? If all of your sin has already been judged, how can you be judged again for your sin? If you could, that would attack the justice of God.

Let’s go to John Piper,

These two quotes are taken from one of his sermons about perseverance of the saints.
(Title of sermon: “Be diligent to enter God’s rest.”)

“Persevering in faith to the end is a community project.”

His point here was we need each other to “persevere.” (I thought it was all of God!?)

“Anyone who puts faith in God's promises bought for us by the blood of Jesus, and is diligent not to throw that faith away, is a part of the people of God.”

He, too, asserts to the necessity of perseverance for salvation. Notice his last statement. He is adding works to salvation! Now, he escapes this work salvation by teaching his perseverance is all of God, not of himself. However, he clearly contradicts that teaching in this sermon as is evident by the first quote.

Eric Schumacher,

This Calvinist has a sermon online called “The Necessity of Endurance for Salvation.”

The title says it all, but let’s look at one quote from the sermon. The point he was trying to make, by this quote, is seen in many writings by Calvinist on this subject. I would like to address it. Here is the quote from that message:

“So, we see that sanctification is a necessary attribute of a saving faith. One cannot be a saint without being sanctified. This is one reason we must be striving to endure: our salvation.”

The first part of this statement I agree with, but his conclusion is unscriptural. He, too, is adding works to salvation. Notice WE must STRIVE. (Again he escapes saying he believes in works, because he is able to “endure” because of God not himself. That still does not change the fact that the enduring is his own work!

Many sermons, and books by Calvinist concerning the “P”, use sanctification to teach the necessity of perseverance in relation to salvation.

There are three Biblical aspects to sanctification. We will look at two of them here.

The first is positional sanctification. This takes place at the moment of salvation. (I Cor 6:11 “And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.”

Here the Bible teaches we are sanctified already. This sanctification has already taken place. How? Because my sins were purged and I received the righteousness of God. Notice the verse says, I am sanctified in the “name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of God.” No perseverance is mentioned or referred to.

There is also a progressive sanctification. The Bible says in I Peter 1:16 “…Be ye Holy for I am Holy.” While we are on the earth we need to strive for holiness. Not to be saved, but because we are saved. That is clearly seen is the context of the chapter in I Peter.

Problems arise when people mix positional and progressive sanctification.

Finally, let’s look at statements by John MacArthur. (All quotes are taken from his Master Seminary Journal lecture on perseverance of the saints.)

Here, Bro Macarthur was quoting from Murray:
“But let us appreciate the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints and recognize that we may entertain the faith of our security in Christ only as we persevere in faith and holiness to the end.”

Again, here he makes perseverance essential to salvation. This is a work of man.

“God's own holiness thus requires perseverance. "God's grace insures
our persevering`but this does not make it any less our persevering."21
Believers cannot acquire "the prize of the upward call of God in Christ
Jesus" unless they "press on toward the goal" (Phil 3:14).”

He is adding to the gospel, not understanding that all his sins have already been judged at Calvary. Perseverance does not make salvation effectual! Faith does!

Also, note he admits this perseverance is “our” perseverance, not simply God’s.

“The maintenance of a Christian's faith
is as much His work as every other aspect of salvation. Faith is
kindled and driven and maintained and fortified by God's grace.
But to say that faith is God's gracious gift, which He maintains,
is not to say that faith operates apart from the human will.

The means by which God maintains their faith
involves their full participation.”

Here he was teaching this “maintaining” of our faith is all of God, with our “participation.” If it is with our “participation”, then it is not all of God. Yet salvation is of God. I am not kept saved by my “participation.” That would be me working. There is no way around that. I am kept saved because of the Lord Jesus Christ alone.

It is clear Calvinist believe perseverance is necessary for salvation. It is making faith contingent upon perseverance, which is a work of man!

Bro MacArthur again,

“Consequently, many people who utterly lack any love for the Lord Jesus Christ are being given a false hope of heaven. True Christians love Christ.”

Here, he is exactly correct. His conclusion is true, Christians love Christ. AMEN! That is exactly right. We love Christ not to BE saved, but because we are saved. Yet the teaching of following the Lord faithfully (perseverance) fails to distinguish this point.

Many people think if perseverance is not true then you can sin all you want and never face consequences. That is not true and it too lacks understanding of what took place at salvation.

When the Lord saved me, he indwelled me. (Rom 8:9) He gave my spirit life. (Eph 2:1) As a result I am a “...new creature: old things are passed away behold all things are become new.” Because I am saved, I will follow my Lord. Those who profess to be saved, yet do not follow are not saved. John 8:31 We all agree a vain profession saves no one! At the moment of my salvation all my sins were imputed unto Jesus and His Righteousness was imputed unto me. (Romans 4; II Corinthians 5:21) Thus I am eternally secure. The penalty of sin has been paid for on behalf by Jesus Christ.

The teaching of the perseverance of the saints makes a RESULT of salvation a CONDITION of salvation and thus the error. This error is believed and taught because of a lack of understanding of what took place at our salvation.

The fruit of repentance will show up in a desire and love for the Lord. It is a result of salvation.

Please remember back to my first post on how salvation works. It is our sin that has to be dealt with. Our sin was dealt with by the work of Jesus Christ on the cross. It is not dependent upon my perseverance.

Let me finish with the Bible, itself, address the issue. The following verses are Romans 4:1-8. The key verses being the last few. (One might be thinking, why Romans 4:1-8 it does not talk about perseverance. Exactly!!!)

(Rom 4:1-8) What shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found? For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God. For what saith the Scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.

I hope and pray this post is of help to some!

Calvinism cont..

2006-10-10T18:59:00.000+10:00

Salvation
(This is my second post in the last two days. Yesterday, there was a large increase in traffic to my blog due to my Calvinism post from last week. Many new comments were posted. I say that so that you will not miss out on the previous blog I posted Monday. Please take time to read it.)

This post is my second post on the Calvinism issue.

I would agree with Calvinism in that one who has truly trusted Jesus Christ will not lose their salvation. However, I strongly disagree with how they come to their conclusion of WHY a true Christian can never lose their salvation. The “P” of Calvinism demonstrates a lack of understanding on how salvation works.

First let’s look at how salvation works. (This, of course, will not be an exhaustive study on soteriology, but a general overview.) What is the one thing that has separated man from God? Sin! (Isaiah 59:2)Sin is the cause of death (separation). (Romans 6:23) Sin is the reason we need a savior. Sin is the reason all men are condemned. Sin is the reason for physical, spiritual and eternal death.

The fact is all men are going to die and face judgment. (Hebrews 9:27) “All have sinned,” and unless something takes place to remove one’s sin, he will face an eternal death (separation) from God in the lake of fire. (Romans 6:23; Rev 20:12-15; 21:8)

Now, the question is what removes our sin? (Please remember the ONLY thing keeping us from God is sin.) At first glance, the future of man might look hopeless. Why? We all have sin. Judgment is coming. The lake of fire is real! There is an eternal death! We are guilty before God.

The most prominent attribute of God in the Bible is His Holiness. The wages of sin are a result of God’s holiness and justice. God is a holy and just God. Because of this, there is a penalty of sin. He will NOT allow sin to go unpunished. If He did, that would go against His holiness and His justice. Now, another attribute of God is Love. Some have asked the question, if God loves everyone why does He not just save everyone? The answer is God’s love can not over ride His Holiness. Sin must be paid for.

So how does God solve the issue between His holiness and his love for His creation? Jesus Christ! God became a man. He was 100% man and 100% God. He lived a perfect life without sin. He was the only person ever born to accomplish this. He had no earthly father, thus no sin nature. He was PERFECT. He met the requirements for God’s holiness and His righteous standard (perfection).

So what does that have to do with our salvation? Everything! Let me explain.

In God’s infinite wisdom and love, he decided to sacrifice Himself. How so? God determined to pay the penalty of sin himself. What is the penalty? Death!

Because Jesus was without sin, and perfect, He was able to take our penalty. (Rom 5:8, Rom 6:23) Why? Because He was without sin. He was innocent. Had He been just another man, he would be facing the same judgment and not in a position to help anyone. It would be like two men drowning the ocean trying to save each other. Neither knows how to swim and neither is in a position to help the other because both are in the same danger. The two men would need someone who is NOT drowning to come and rescue/save them.

Remember the penalty of sin is death. He went to the cross and shed His blood as a sacrifice for sins. Rev 1:5 He truly took our place. Why did God do this? He died for us because He loves us. (John 3:16) Jesus paid the penalty, but three days later He defeated death and ROSE from the dead! He defeated the penalty of sin!! This sacrifice, Jesus made, satisfied the holiness and justice of God!!! (I John 2:2)

A great verse to show us what Jesus accomplished on the cross is II Cor 5:21: “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”

Jesus Christ was made sin, while we were made the righteousness of God! This means Jesus took ALL of your sin upon himself and fully gives you His righteousness. Now, did Jesus have sin? No! He was perfect. So if the Lord gives you His righteousness, it is a perfect righteousness meeting God’s standard for perfection. Thus, there is NO LONGER a barrier between you and God. You would have eternal life! Your sin is gone! It has been paid for, by the work of Jesus Christ on Calvary!

The big question is how does this work of Jesus Christ be applied to our life. How does this work become effectual to us?

If the death and resurrection of Jesus is applied to our life, our sin is removed and we receive the righteousness of God! (II Cor 5:21)

Now, if you are a Calvinist you need to ask yourself if you agree with the above statement. Do you think the statement agrees with Calvinistic theology as written? (In particular the “P” of the TULIP) .I realize I have not specifically mentioned anything about the “P” as of yet. I will tie it together in my next post, as well as how the work of Jesus is applied to our life. I just want you to think about it before the next post.

Please hold comments only to the matter of salvation on this post. I know many would like to begin to discuss the perseverance issue, but that needs to wait until my next post. Allow me to make my argument first, and then fell free to disagree and comment.

This post was needed so that I could establish a good foundation for my next post. I would think most would agree with what I have written so far.

Weekend Events

2006-10-09T20:47:00.000+10:00

During my soul winning time on Saturday, I spent time with three families. The first family belonged to an ex “catholic evangelist,” Stephen. This man made a profession of faith back on January 1st of this year. (I will write about his conversion in another blog.) Stephen is doing well, and growing in the Lord. He had spent a total of 46 years in the Catholic Church. He has a strong hunger for the Word of God and that is fueling his growth. Two weeks ago, during my Saturday visits, his wife made a profession of faith. Then, this Saturday, his oldest daughter made profession of faith! She is a young mother and has been attending services for several months now as well. Soon, I will be baptizing that family. I love to see families get baptized together!

I would love to show video, on this blog, of what it is like walking to Stephen’s house. He and his family live in a small bush house which is surrounded by their gardens. (The gardens are how the villagers survive here. There is no “jobs” in the village. The people live entirely off the land. ) Their house is on a small hill in the jungle. One of the nick names of Papua New Guinea is “The land that time forgot.” If you were to travel to his house you would understand why that is an appropriate nick name. Time may have forgotten them, but the Lord Jesus Christ did not! One day they will leave that simple village in the jungle “for a city whose builder and maker is God!”

Sunday proved to be pretty exciting as well. I just finished Sunday school and was starting the main service. As I began, a man came running up to the church. His one year old child had just become very sick. I asked the symptoms and I knew it was either cerebral malaria or meningitis. Both of which can prove fatal. I have personally seen malaria kill several infants in my three years here. I quickly had three men pray and I left to take them to the “haus sik,” (House Sick). The haus sik is in Namatanai, where our house is, so it is a one hour drive. I drove as a fast as I could. The front end of my truck starting making a horrible noise. It was metal grinding on metal. I thought a front bearing went out. However I could not stop, due to the sick baby. Keep in mind, there are no other vehicles on this “road.” This was a Sunday so the PMV trucks which transport people do not run. I thought my axle was just going to snap! The Lord blessed, though, and we made it all the way to the haus sik.

This morning I went back to check on the baby, and the workers there told me he had cerebral malaria. His name is Hosea, so please keep him in your prayer. He was doing much better this morning. He was awake, and responsive. Also pray the Lord will use this to provide an oppurtunity for me to talk the family.

Just another weekend in Papua New Guinea!

Calvinism

2006-10-03T20:51:00.000+10:00

From time to time, I will be posting on one of the biggest dangers I see to the gospel and missions, Calvinism. I will be posting on different aspects of the dangerous TULIP. It’s effects are just beginning to come into many Baptist churches today and are changing people’s thinking. I fear if the current trend is not curved, much damage will be done to world missions.

Major change usually takes time, so this change in thinking will not occur overnight, but over the process of time. Soon, we will hear the voices William Carey heard when he told a group of preachers he wanted to reach the world with gospel. Those Calvinistic voices told him something like this, “Sit down! When God wants to convert the heathen, He will do so Himself without the Help of you or I.” No, we are not seeing this yet in Baptist churches, but it is coming unless something is done. Today’s Calvinist is missions friendly, but over time that will change, just because of the nature of their theology.

The past several years has seen a rise in Calvinism throughout Baptist churches. I believe there are several factors as to why this has taken place. One reason would be a reaction against quick prayerism. Christians began to realize this, “123 pray after me”, was not working. Churches were seeing thousands of “decisions”, but there was no fruit. Pride seemed to become a motivation for our service instead of a love for God as well. Our “method” was simply focused on getting people to pray a prayer. Books were written, classes were taught, which showed us how to get someone to pray a prayer. Much of this information was based upon manipulation and psychology, instead of the convicting work of the Holy Spirit upon the heart. As Christians began realizing this was not right, nor was it working, the doctrine of Calvinism was there to provide answers.

Another reason for the increase in Calvinism was the rise of two prominent Calvinistic preachers within fundamentalism: John Macarthur and John Piper. Both men, through their preaching and writings, began to promote Calvinism. It appealed to an intellectual side of the house, at a time when many were tired of shallowness in some churches.

Calvinism of today began using several different means to get people to convert to their theological position. One of the means used is psychology. Let me give one example. A Calvinist boldly proclaims you are either Calvinist or Arminianist. Well, certainly no good Baptist wants to be identified with Armenianism! The fact is, though, many such as myself, are neither Calvinistic nor Armenianistic in our theology. Instead of following the TULIP, I choose to follow the BIBLE. Just because I may agree with some points of Arminianism or Calvinism in no way makes me an Arminianist or Calvinist. This would be like a person telling me, because I believe in the virgin birth of Jesus Christ, I am a Catholic. If I happen to agree with Arminianism or Calvinism in some area, it is because their teaching is following the Bible. The fact is both theological positions (Calvinsim/Arminianism) are not scriptural and contain error.

At the heart of this issue is a needed understanding of how salvation works. In my next post on this topic, I will discuss the “P” of the TULIP. It is here where it becomes clear Calvinist teachings lack an understanding of what Christ actually did for us on the Cross. They fail to realize why one who is truly saved can never lose their salvation.

Pastor John Norris

2006-09-29T19:25:00.000+10:00

My phone has been out AGAIN! That of course is nothing new, but it has prevented me from posting.
This past week I had an answer to prayer that thrilled me. I was saved at the age of 12 at the First Baptist Church of North Ridgeville, Ohio. The pastor who led me to the Lord was John Norris. I have not seen or heard from him since 1983/1984. While on deputation I desired to find him. I wanted to let him know that a 12 year old boy he led to the Lord was now a preacher. I wanted to thank him for his faithfulness and sharing the gospel with me. I know he would not even know who I was if I found him, but none the less, I had a strong desire to make contact with him.

I contacted people who were members of the church when he was pastor there. I asked them if they knew where he was. A few people gave me some leads, but none panned out. One person told me he was in south Florida, so I called all the John Norris’s in south Florida. There were plenty to call, but none of them turned out to be him. After that, I simply quit trying to find him. I was too busy with deputation and preparing for the field.

Last month during one of my prayer times, I began thinking about him again. I prayed and asked the Lord to allow me to find him. Then last Saturday (Friday U.S.) I received the following email:

Dear Brother Terry,
I was doing some research on my message over the internet when I came across your blog and website with all the pictures. It looks like you are doing a great work in Papua New Guinea.

I noticed in your testimony that you trusted the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior in 1982 in a Baptist Church in North Ridgeville, Ohio. And then in one of your blogs, you stated that the pastor was John Norris. If that was First Baptist Church of North Ridgeville, on Sugar Ridge Road, then I was that pastor. I am currently the pastor of Riverside Baptist Church in Decatur, Illinois. You can visit our church website at
www.riversidebaptist.us

May the Lord continue to use you and bless your work and your family.
Pastor John Norris

As I read the email, my heart filled with joy. The Lord had heard and answered my prayer! I was amazed at how he just “happened” to find my blog. This was all of the Lord’s providence! I emailed him back and told him how I had been praying the Lord will allow me to find him. I did not even know he was still a pastor. It had been over 20 years since I last talked with him.

It still amazes me how the Lord answers our prayers. Think about it: The God of the universe hears our prayers and delights to answer them! Amen!

Pastor John, if you read this, I just want to say thank you again!

Interesting Week

2006-09-21T12:49:00.000+10:00

Sorry it has been a few days, for those who are still around reading! We have had phone, power, and water problems. Praise the Lord we had rain yesterday, so our tanks now have some water. We do need more water though, so pray it will continue to rain.

Power and phone problems are relatively minor compared to water problems. When you have to go to a river for your water, it affects every aspect of your life. You even have to lug a bucket of water for the toilet. It can get pretty hectic when you have phone, power, and water problems all at the SAME time. I am just a spoiled American!

I have one generator broken down awaiting parts. I have been awaiting parts for it for one year now. I do have a backup though, and that generator broke down last week. However, I managed to rig it, so it is working now. The breaker fried!

Answered prayer:
Of the 50 to 60 people attending regularly only about 8 youth come. I have witnesses to all of them, and they hear the preaching each week. However, none of them have trusted Christ for salvation. Well, Sunday that changed, when a teenage girl made a profession of faith after the service! I talked with her for sometime and she was ready. Hopefully/prayfully this is the first of many. The youth here, as in many places, have many temptations. Immorality is common, expected and rampant among the youth as well as the adults in the villages.

Who is First in Your Life?

2006-09-12T19:26:00.000+10:00

Colossians1:17,18 And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.

(Mat 6:33) But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

Who is first in your life? How do we determine the answer to this question? Most Christians would say God is first in their life, but is He?

Is He first in my life because I am a missionary or pastor? No! One’s position in life does not determine who is first in their life. Who is first is determined by more than priorities, as well. Now, of course, if one’s priorities are not correct, the Lord is not first. However, just because one’s priorities are correct does not mean God is first. For the Lord to be first, he must be preeminent in all areas of your life! He must be what you are seeking! My priorities can be in order and yet I am seeking things for self. Thus, God is not first.

Either self is first, or God is first in our life. This is subject to change on a daily basis, so to properly answer the question as to who is first; one must answer it daily or moment by moment. Christ can be first in your life today, but not tomorrow. It is a matter of who you allow to control your life. The Apostle Paul said, “I die daily.”

As we study the Word of God we learn of God and his attributes. We learn of His holiness, love, mercy, longsuffering, power, justice, etc… It is here the Lord gives us knowledge too see the wisdom of letting God be first/preeminent in all areas of our life. We learn He is able to manage our life better than us. He knows what is going to happen tomorrow. We see He is able to provide for all our needs; physical, spiritual, and emotional. To actually let God be first takes faith. It is not blind faith, because we have the Bible, and creation. Why faith? Because without faith it is impossible to please God. So God has chosen the avenue of faith for our benefit. You see, through faith we have the opportunity to please God. We do not please God by our righteousness. We do not please God by works. Some think they please God by inflicting pain on themselves, i.e. opus dei of the Catholic Church. We please God by faith. By trusting in Him and acting upon His Word as a result. Faith will produce actions. (James 2)

For the Lord to be first, we must learn of Him in His Word, and trust him on a daily basis, living by the principals of God’s Word regardless of circumstances.

Great Biblical examples of men who allowed God to be first: (notice how God used and changed their lives)
Joseph – From slave/prisoner to Prime Minister
Joshua – From slave to general/leader of the people of God
Daniel – From slave to Prime Minster through two world empires.
Elisha – From farmer to one of the greatest prophets of God
Paul – From religious hypocrite to Apostle of Jesus Christ
Peter – From fisherman to Apostle
Your Name – From ? to ?

How can the Lord use and change your life if you allow Him to be first/preeminent?

Five Miles

2006-09-03T20:50:00.000+10:00

For each service, Sunday and Wednesday, everyone walks to church, except for my family. No one in the church has a vehicle. Keep in mind, this village is in the bush. Most walk about 1 mile. However, one family has been walking quite a long distance to church. The family is from the village of Belai, and has now attended four services.

Saturdays I usually spend in the village, visiting. This past Saturday, I traveled to visit with this man from Belai. While driving there, I took notice of how far he lived from the church. It was farther then I thought it was. It was just about 5 miles, 4.6 miles to be exact. This man, his wife, and their five children were walking almost 5 miles, one way, to church!

When I arrived at his hut/house, he was thrilled to have me there. My son Daniel was with me, as always, and he sat down on their bamboo bench. I sat down on the ground with the family. Two neighbor ladies also came and sat down with us.

I must admit, even though I have been here now almost three years, it is almost surreal making some of these visits. Here I am, sitting down next to a bamboo hut with a grass roof, on a tiny little island in the South Pacific Ocean giving the gospel out! What a privilege! Pigs are running around, parrots flying overhead, no modern civilization is anywhere close.

Anyhow, I began to make conversation with the man and his family. His name is Stephen and his wife’s name is Limakum. I told him that I would make arrangements to pick him up for church at the end of Kudukudu. This way, he would only be walking about 2 miles. Now, my primary purpose of the visit was the gospel. He and his wife had now heard me preach several times from their visits to church. I knew the Word was sown in their hearts. I asked if he had any questions about what he had heard at church. He told me he had just one question. Stephen then said this thing about eternal life/heaven bothered him. He went on to say, he did not know what would happen to him when he would die. He wanted my help with this!!! Up to this point, I had not mentioned anything about the gospel, or asked him any questions regarding salvation. The Lord had been giving the increase already in his heart and his wife’s heart.

I then preached to them the gospel. They listened intently. I explained to them sin and the penalty for it. They both admitted, at that point, if they died they would go to Hell. Then we talked about Jesus Christ and why he came to this earth. When I explained II Corinthians 5:21 to them, you could almost see the Holy Spirit turn the lights on for them. They understood why Jesus had died on Calvary. They knew He took all of their “nogut pasin” sin, and made available to them His “stretpela pasin” righteousness. Both then told me they wanted to repent and put their faith in Christ, and a few seconds later they both did! Amen!
We rejoiced together at their decisions to receive Jesus Christ. The neighbor ladies also listened intently, but did not trust Christ as Savior. Hopefully, they will allow me to come back and talk with them more.

As I was preparing to leave, Stephen told me that I do not need to come to the edge of Kudukudu to pick him and his family up for church. He said they would continue to walk. I told him I did not mind. He said, “No, I will be there waiting when you arrive at church. He said, “We really want to come. You do not need to come get us!” Sure enough, as I pulled into the church grounds today Stephen and his family were already there. They walked the five miles. One of the men told me they had been at the church for quite some time, waiting for things to begin!!!

Stephen’s dedication, which led to his salvation, puts many Americans to shame. Most Christians are so caught up with the things of the world, that any excuse not to come to church will be used. Many, I do not believe, would walk a half mile to church. If the church can not make arrangements, then they simply will not come. How sad! We lack the knowledge of what life is all about! Life is about God and serving/loving Him. If we have to make some sacrifice in our service for God, it is a greater opportunity, not a greater burden! When sacrifices are made out of a love for God, this is a privilege!

You Know You Are A Missionary Kid When....

2006-08-30T15:34:00.000+10:00

My family and I really enjoyed this, so I thought I would post it. We found it to be very true.

Enjoy!

You Know You're a Missionary Kid When...

(Originally compiled and published by Andrew and Deborah Kerr)

You can't answer the question, "Where are you from?"

You speak two languages, but can't spell in either.

You flew before you could walk.

The U.S. is a foreign country.

You have a passport, but no driver's license.

You have a time zone map next to your telephone.

You would rather eat seaweed than cafeteria food.

Your life story uses the phrase "Then we went to..." five times.

You watch nature documentaries, and you think about how good that would be if it were fried.

You think in grams, meters, and liters.

You speak with authority on the quality of airline travel.

You go to the U.S., and get sick from a mosquito bite.

You send your family peanut butter and Kool-Aid for Christmas.

National Geographic makes you homesick.

You have strong opinions about how to cook bugs.

People simply don't understand.

You live at school, work in the tropics, and go home for vacation.

You don't know where home is.Strangers say they can remember you when you were "this tall."

You have friends from or in 29 different countries.

You do your devotions in another language.

You sort your friends by continent.You keep dreaming of a green Christmas.

You tell people where you're from, and their eyes get big.

"Where are you from?" has more than one reasonable answer.

The nationals say, "Oh, I knew an American once..." and then ask if you know him or her.

You are grateful for the speed and efficiency of the U.S. Postal Service.

You realize that furlough is not a vacation.

You've spoken in dozens of churches, but aren't a pastor.

Furlough means that you are stuffed every night... and have to eat it all to seem polite.

You realize that in Australia, the above statement would be very rude.

Your parents decline your cousin's offer to let them use his BMW, and stuff all six of you into an old VW Beetle instead.

You stockpile mangoes.

You know what REAL coffee tastes like.

The majority of your friends don't speak English as a first language.

Someone brings up the name of a team, and you get the sport wrong.

You believe vehemently that football is played with a round, spotted ball.

You know there is no such thing as an international language.

You know the difference between patriotism and nationalism.

You tell Americans that democracy isn't the only viable form of government.

You realize what a small world it is, after all.

You never take anything for granted.

You know how to pack.

All preaching sounds better under a corrugated tin roof.

You know raw fish tastes better than cooked.

When guests come to your house and bring a fish as a gift.

Going to the post office is the highlight of your day.

When you sing songs to yourself in a language other than English.

When you mother gets excited over finding Doritos at 7-11.

When on deputation you have memorized Dad's messages.

When after the church service you look for a slide projector to put away.

When wearing shoes in the house sounds disgusting.

You get excited to find cokes are on sale for only 99 cents.

You carry Bibles in two languages to church.

You watch an English language video and read the foreign language subtitles.

When you dream in a foreign language.

On your 18th birthday you still don't have a driver's license.

You send out birthday invitations in a foreign language.

When you carry a dictionary everywhere you go.

When your five foot tall mother is taller than most of your church members.

Your Dad scolds you in a foreign language.

When you don't know how to count American money.

When you go on furlough your Mom buys everything in the store.

When adults want to pay you to teach them English.

When you can't find shoes to fit your feet in any of the shoe stores.

When you would rather sleep on the floor than on the bed.

When the family gathers around the computer to check the E-mail.

When you enjoy getting together with other MK's and talking about old news.

When all your clothes have been worn by someone else.

When at your yard sale the 80 year old man next door buys your mother's culottes.

When your friends know more English grammar than you do but can't understand English conversation.

When you find a seven year old picture of yourself on someone's refrigerator.

When you know how to send a fax using an international call back service.

When you have carried the same dollar bill in your wallet for four years.

When you write in your diary in a foreign language.

When driving on the right side of the road gives you the willies.

When the traffic light turns from red to blue.

When eating with chop sticks seems natural.

When eating spaghetti with chop sticks is easier than using a fork and spoon.

When you have explained the difference between "The cow is on the field" and "The cow is in the field."

When you take a shower before taking a bath.

When you call senior missionaries grandma and grandpa.

When the message on your answering machine is in two languages.

When you move into a new house you take a gift to all your neighbors.W

hen earthquakes seem normal.

When your Mom sends you out to sweep the street in front of your house.

When you pull into a gas stand and expect people to come running out screaming welcome!

You consider parasites, dysentery, or tropical diseases to be appropriate dinner conversation.

You tell people what certain gestures mean in different parts of the world.

You have stopped in the middle of an argument to find the translation of a word you just used.

You calculate exchange rates by the price of Coke.

You would rather have a Land Rover Defender than a Lexus.

You enjoy textual criticism of customs forms.

--Copied from different sources and edited

Language: Uhhh? What did you say???????

2006-08-27T18:27:00.000+10:00

We have been without phone for some time, so I have not been able to post. The phone came back up a few days ago, but only lasted about a day. It has just come back up today.

One of the most mentally challenging things for the missionary is learning a new language. (At least in my opinion.) Especially, if you have only have known one language your whole life. There is a joke I read while studying language: What do you call someone who speaks two languages? Bilingual. What do you call someone who speaks three languages? Trilingual. What do you call someone who speaks one language? American.

Before coming here, I was one of those Americans who only knew one language. After all, in America, English is all you need. (Too be honest my English was pretty poor, as most of you can tell from reading my blog.) I have for the most part completed my language study for the Tok Pisin language. This language is a Melanesian pidgin. A pidgin is a language where there are less then 1 million people who speak it as a first language. Actually, the Tok Pisin should be reclassified. There are more than 1 million now who speak Tok Pisin as a first language. Over 5 million speak the language altogether, but not all of those speak it as a first language.

When I first arrived, I thought, I could learn the Tok Pisin in about six months. I heard the stories of missionaries who did just that. (The Tok Pisin is not a difficult language to learn if one already knows English.) Well six months into my time here, I was far from fluent. As a matter of fact I was a horrible tok pisin speaker. I grew very frustrated. After the first year, I was still struggling with it, but it was improving. All together it took me a little over two years to become fluent in the language. I am able to think in the language without having to translate all the words in my head now. I can also understand/comprehend it well by someone who speaks it very fast. That took quite some time though. I fail to see how anyone, who previously only knew one language, could become fluent in six months. However, God gives each person different abilities, so for some perhaps it does not take as much work, or perhaps they just have better study habits than I.

I have now begun learning my third language, Patpatar. This is a village language, so it will be much more difficult to learn. However, already having learned another language, I know a lot of the do’s and don’ts of learning a language. (There are over 700 different languages here in PNG. On the little island where I live, there are over 20 different languages. This is not counting the different dialects of each language.) I have been pleased with the progress I am making already. I have only been studying it now for two weeks. The Lord is really helping with the pronunciation. They say things COMPLETELY different. My mouth and tongue have to learn a whole new way of talking. All the “r” sounds are rolled. It is not the “ur” sound that we make in English. I have never been able to roll my r’s, but the Lord is blessing and I am having success at it.

My lesson today was the phrase, “I want to preach the Word of God.” In Tok Pisin this would be, “ mi laik autim tok bilong God.” In Patpatar, “Iau warra tange ra nianga tane Kaloa.” (phonetically)

Please pray the Lord will enable me to learn the Patpatar language fluently and quickly. We have a furlough mid 2007, and I would like to be fairly fluent before then.

Preaching On The Mission Field

2006-08-15T21:19:00.000+10:00

Preaching and teaching are key elements for the missionary. These are two primary methods the Lord uses for proclaiming His truth. The preaching and teaching lead to converts and enable believers to grow in the Lord.

Many groups use different methods of producing “converts.” Examples of other methods of producing converts would be using money, making promises, building schools, using different forms of entertainment. Of course these different methods are not simply found here in PNG, but are also in America and throughout the world. One reason why there are so many lost people in churches today is because of what was used for the “conversion”. If it was not the gospel being preached, along with the Holy Spirit working on the heart, there was no true conversion to the Lord.

One thing I have to guard against, on the field, is producing my “own” converts. I desire for people to convert to the Lord, or become born again by a spiritual birth worked by the Holy Spirit. However, being a white American in a third world country such as PNG presents some difficulties. For one, because of who I am, many look at me with a certain amount of admiration. As if I am better then they are because I am a white American. Of course this simply is not true. Yes, I come from a different culture altogether. My life in America was nothing like village life here in PNG. I had many more “luxuries” than what the villagers have here. I had a better education, and the opportunity to make a better living.

However, these things do not make one a better person. I am still a man just as the men are here. I have the same temptations (I Cor 10:13). I have the same sin nature (Romans 5:12). I have the same trials. People go to hell just as easily in America as they do from PNG. The greatest need they have here is not better schools, better health care facilities, better government, better homes, and more jobs. The greatest need here is the same greatest need found in America and the rest of the world. That need is Jesus Christ.

Now back to the point of this blog, preaching on the mission field. As I mentioned earlier, because of who I am there is a certain amount of admiration. It is easy to get people to follow me based on who I am. This is where the danger lies. I can get almost anyone to pray a prayer, simply because I, as the white American, asked him to bow his head and pray. Very few here would refuse to do what I asked them, because of the high regard they have for me.

If I wanted to walk into a village with 500, preach a message, tell them to bow their heads and “pray to receive Jesus” all would follow. I could then write back to my supporting churches of the hundreds saved in the meeting. However, the reason for them praying would not be the Holy Spirit, but me. I can not save them, and a vain prayer saves no one!

The solution to this problem is found in the humility of John the Baptist. John the Baptist was not looking for a name or converts to himself, but to the Lord. He pointed men to Jesus not himself. As he said, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” The humble attitude along with the power of the Lord is the answer. However, if I began to be driven by ambition instead of the Lord, I would make a mess of things. I might have 300 on Sunday in each work instead of 60, but there would still only be 60 of the Lord’s converts present.

Oh, how we all need the wisdom and power of the Lord in our lives and service to Him!

Trials James 1:2-7

2006-08-07T21:48:00.000+10:00

"My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord."

Sunday, after I finished preaching, one of the members of the church came to me for council. He is in the midst of a trial in his life. He is having a land dispute. Land disputes here are very common and many times turn deadly for those involved. Part of my council was for him to go and read James chapter 1 several times, and then on Wednesday come back and tell me how it can help him through this. At that time we will discuss the chapter and how it applies to him.

The Bible instructs us to “count it all joy” when trials come into our lives. How is this possible? How can we have joy during the hard times? James 1 gives keys to answering this important question. I will discuss two things brought up in James one in helping us answer this question.

First, we need to consider the benefits of our trials. A Navy seal candidate goes through grueling training prior to becoming a Navy seal. He must endure incredible pain and hardship. I have heard only about 30% of all candidates actually finish the training and become Navy seals. Why does the Navy put them through such hardship during their training? Because they know what they will have to face in the future. They know the battles and the enemy that they will face. They know this training helps prepare them to be successful in their missions.

One reason the Lord allows trials in our life is to prepare us for our mission; serving and loving Him! James 1:3-4 tells us how trials build patience, which in turn helps us to become perfect in our faith. We come to a high level of maturity in our faith. We come to closeness to God. A place where God is enough! We are complete in Him. We are wanting nothing. How many of us desire to draw that close to God? The road to this level is paved with trials. Trials are the tool the Lord uses to mold us and shape us.

When trials come, remember they are a tool of the Lord used to draw us closer to Him! This is another reason why our trials are “more precious than gold.”

Secondly, we need to consider the help God has provided for our trials. There is a saying, “Trials will either make you better or make you bitter.” When trials do come, it is important how you handle them. The devil knows God uses trials to help us, so he does all he can to prevent that. He does all he can to try and discourage us. He wants you to become bitter, not better as a result of the trial. In verses five-seven, we have a key to allowing the trials to draw us closer to God. Allowing them to make us better not bitter.

One thing we truly need during times of trials is wisdom. Wisdom which comes from God. When the man came to me on Sunday he needed wisdom. When we have wisdom to handle our trials, we will also have peace in the midst of our trials. One thing I have said, and have heard over and over when trials arise is, “What am I going to do now?”, or “How can I make it through this?” The answer to those questions lies in the wisdom of God.

Notice how easy God makes it for us to obtain wisdom. We simply ask him for wisdom. That’s right! Prayer! Oh, how we need wisdom every day in our life!

We ask God for wisdom in faith. Trusting in God. Knowing God has the answer to our burdens and trials. The disciples were on a ship one day with the Lord, and a violent storm came up. Jesus was asleep. The disciples began to panic. They awoke Jesus in a state of fear, not faith. They did not even ask him to calm the storm, they simply stated, “Master we perish.” Jesus then calmed the seas and asked the disciples where their faith was. Many times we are like the disciples; we panic, not realizing the Lord is in control. There is nothing in your life that is out of His control. Come to him in faith and ask for wisdom. He knows exactly what needs to be done to help you with your trials.

Youth Rally/Truck/Levi and the Lizard

2006-08-02T22:00:00.000+10:00

I was gone for a few days to preach a youth rally at a high school in Kavieng. I preached for two nights at the school, and then Sunday at a village Baptist church outside of Kavieng. Missionary Terry Thrun organized the youth rally and the church where I preached was started by him.

The youth rally went good. There were a large number of teenagers present. Three youths made professions of faith, two boys and a girl. On Saturday morning Bro Thrun and I preached at the market with our youth groups. Here in PNG people will stop and listen when you do open air preaching. There were probably 50 to 100 people gathered around to listen. Afterwards, we went to the only prison on the island and preached. There was somewhere around 75 prisoners who came for the preaching, two of whom also made professions of faith.

The day before I left for the youth rally, I had some parts for my truck flown in. One of the parts was for the master clutch cylinder, and the other was a needle bearing for the front axle/wheel. The mechanic put the parts on and I then took him back to the village. I also picked up some of the youth for the next days trip to Kavieng. After I finished, my truck started giving me problems again. The clutch fluid started leaking like crazy. I had some spare fluid with me. (I have learned to keep a good number of things in my truck to be prepared for a breakdown.) I put the fluid in, but it would only last for a few minutes. My truck ran out again, but this time I made to the mechanics house. I made it right to the front of his house!!! I could have easily broke down anywhere on the road, leaving me to walk for a long distance, but the Lord blessed again! The mechanic was able to fix the problem in about one hour.

Another truck story

A few days prior to this, I was driving back home from church, and a bolt to my torsion bar snapped. I thought a tire exploded! The left front side of the truck just dropped. The tire was rubbing on the body of the truck. I was not far from the mechanics house and I was able to inch my way to his house. He jacked my truck up and took a block of wood and placed it somewhere in the front end and then lowered my truck back. This enabled me to drive my truck back home. He told me not to drive the truck again once I was home. Obviously, this too could have caused me to have to cancel the youth rally. The next day the mechanic borrowed a bike and rode for two to three hours to a broken down truck. This truck is similar to mine. He then removed the bolt from that truck and rode back to his house. The next day he came to Namatanai and repaired my torsion bar. (The mechanic’s name is Able. He is a good Christian man who loves the Lord. He is a member of the Baptist church in Sohun.)

Funny Story,

The other day my family and I were sitting in the house. My 10 month old son Levi was sitting on the floor. Daniel looked down and noticed something sticking out of Levi’s mouth. I looked down and saw it was a tail from a lizard! Levi was just chewing away! Mariann quickly reached down and pulled, but she only retrieved the tail itself. Levi was still chewing. She then stuck her finger in his mouth and pulled out the body of the lizard. It was pretty chewed up, and Levi had already swallowed the head! Levi was fine just upset that he could not finish his snack. After all he caught it!

Shark!!!

2006-07-25T18:32:00.000+10:00

Two weeks ago I held a national pastors meeting for the preachers on the island. There are four national pastors on the island, only one of whom is actually an ordained pastor. I wanted to assemble these men, as well as Bro. Terry Thrun, to try and encourage them. (Bro. Thrun is the Baptist missionary in Kavieng. Kavieng is the only town on the island and is about five hours away from Namatanai, where I live. He is the only other Baptist missionary on the island.)

On Tuesday afternoon of the meeting, I arranged for a dingy to take us all fishing. Now, fishing here is not done with poles. Obviously, the people in the villages do not use fishing poles. They simply use fishing line and a hook, which is readily available on the island. You can also purchase “spools” to put the line on for fishing. I purchased two spools for the trip. (I have a fishing pole, but did not bring it for the trip. My fishing pole does not have strong enough line on it for the tuna and other fish abundant in our waters.)

The “spools” do not at all assist one in pulling the fish in. They simply help you keep your fishing line somewhat organized. When you hook into a fish, you have to pull it in by hand. Yes, I said by hand. Yes, I have seen the line cut right into their hands! On many of the men’s hands, you can see the scars from fishing.

On this trip the Lord really blessed! We just pulled out and not five minutes later we came across hundreds of tuna. Now, fresh tuna is excellent eating, so we were all very happy. There really is not a lot of skill involved when there is hundreds of tuna in the water. Although, there was one funny incident. I was using two lures, which I had purchased on another island a month before. I spent about $20 on each lure. They were working, but not working great. The national pastors with me, two of whom were seasoned fisherman, explained to me buying a squid lure would be best. They then told me they could make one at no cost! They simply took a white plastic bag, which I had with me, and tore it up. They then put the bag on the hook and trolled. It worked great. The tuna were biting the bag like crazy! Here I spent $40 on lures and they made a squid lure out of a plastic bag and it was ten times better than my expensive lures!

On the fifth tuna we hooked into, we realized we were not the only ones who wanted to catch it! Bro. Naaman hooked into this tuna and was pulling the line in to bring it into the boat. We stopped the boat, while he was pulling the line in. Everything was going fine. I was standing next to him waiting to get a look at the tuna. (By the way, our dingy is not all that big.) Naaman just about had the tuna in the boat, and he was at the point of picking it up out of the water and putting in the boat. As he reached down a shark jumped out of the water from behind the tuna, trying to eat the tuna. Everyone on the boat jumped back and you heard one big oooohhhhhhh, from everyone on the boat. The shark thrashed around on the surface for several seconds. I was standing there in awe and disbelief over what I was looking at. It was just like some shark documentary you might see on TV. Namaan actually won the battle for the tuna and threw it on the boat. Then the shark disappeared as quickly as he appeared.

The shark was probably 7 to 10 feet in length, although at the time it seemed like 20 foot! It was the first encounter I have ever had with a shark of this size without being in an aquarium! After seeing the shark, I suddenly lost all desire to ever go swimming in the ocean again. We were not a quarter mile from the shore! It was a great experience though. It gave all of us awe over God’s creation, which is exactly why I think the Lord allowed us to see it. It also reminds us to be on guard at all times with our life and service to God. We are not the only ones trying to “catch men.” We need to be diligent in the work of the Lord, avoiding the snares of the devil!

Back Online

2006-07-19T22:00:00.000+10:00

I am back online if anyone is still out thereeeeeee!!!

Most of the electricity for my house is produced from a 5KVA generator that I have. This generator as been spiking the volts lately. The first time it spiked it took out my AC adapter for my laptop, my printer, and my fax machine. Oh, in case you are wondering, I was using a nice surge protector on the outlet. I thought this surge was a one time thing, so I plugged in another printer I had. This was an older ink jet printer, which I kept in the closet for a back up. I still had some battery power on my laptop and needed to print my Sunday school lesson and sermon out. Well, shortly after I hooked up the printer a surge hit again and fried the printer!!. Now it was two printers gone!

Llast Thursday the plane came in and my new AC adapter for my laptop was on it at a cost of $175! (It can be quite the logistical challenge getting things here. There is no FED EX, UPS, DHL etc… here in Namatanai.) By this time, I thought I solved the generator problem. WRONG. I hooked up my laptop and had my computer up and running. I was thrilled. Well, a few hours later, as I was writing an email, my screen blinked. Then my laptop switched to battery power! I looked at the surge protector and it had cut the power off, due to high voltage, just like it was supposed to do. However, it did not cut it off before it fried the brand new, just out of the box, AC adapter! Yes that’s right; the $175 adapter did not last one day! My wife was in my office at the time, and quickly reminded me how this is really no big deal. I am glad she was there to encourage me. It is amazing sometimes how little things can get us upset.

Well, my second AC adapter arrived yesterday on the plane and so far so good!!!

My next post I will tell you of my first encounter with a shark that happened lat week!!!

2006-07-04T17:11:00.000+10:00

Off Line.
My generator surged last week and took out my printer, fax machine, and AC adaptor for my laptop, so I am currently off line. Right now I have traveled to Kavieng for supplies and I am using a friend's computer. I hope to be back up and posting by next week. I am awaiting parts.

Ruth

2006-06-27T16:01:00.000+10:00

(It is best to read the post before this one, about Elimelech first. This post picks up where I left of with that one.)

After Elimelech traveled to Moab, he ended up dying. His two sons each married a Moabite woman. This is where Ruth comes in. She married Mahlon, who name means sickly. From his name we know Mahlon was a weak sickly person. We also know, from the context of the book, Ruth was a very beautiful woman. Have you ever wondered why Ruth, a beautiful woman, would marry this sickly weak foreign man? I personally believe it was because she knew this family that traveled into their land served the Lord God Jehovah! All of the surrounding nations knew about Israel and their God. They heard the stories of how they crossed the Jordan River. The heard how their God gave them victory at Jericho. They heard how, when Israel was obedient to their God, there was no stopping them. (The same is true in our life, btw.) I believe the Lord had been working on Ruth’s heart. Here was this girl, Ruth, living in an idolatrous land. A land where they had a god for almost everything. Yet, in the midst of this wicked land, she dwelt upon the God of Israel. The one true living God not made with hands!

Then one day, a new family moved into town, Israelites, Elimelech! Ruth ended up marrying Mahlon, Elimelech’s son, and sometime there after Mahlon died. Ruth was very close to her mother-in-law. (I did not know this was possible, until I read the book of Ruth. Just kidding! My mother in-law does read this blog from time to time and she is a wonderful person. :) ) I am sure Ruth desired Naomi to tell her all about her God. Maybe Ruth started from the begining with when God created the heaven and the earth. Perhaps, then she told her of the flood and Noah, and told her about Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Then told her of the faith of Joseph and the meekness of Moses. How Moses left the only life he knew in Egypt to serve the one true God. Ruth, by faith, believed what she heard.

The day came when Naomi announced to both her daughters-in-law that she is returning to Israel. At this time, not only her husband, but both her sons were dead. She tells them they needed to stay in Moab. She informs them that if they travel with her, they will never be able to marry again in Israel. (According to the Law, they would need a willing, able, near kinsman of Elimelech for them to ever marry again. Because of this law, Naomi, believed they would never be able to marry if they went to Israel with her. ) Naomi stressed that they needed to stay in Moab over and over. The daughter in-law, Orpah, kissed Naomi and stayed in Moab. Ruth, however, was not about to leave. One of the most important verses of the book is Ruth’s response to Naomi:

(Ruth 1:16, 17) And Ruth said, Entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God: Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried: the LORD do so to me, and more also, if aught but death part thee and me.

These two verses have a lot in them. Ruth was not simply following Naomi because she liked Naomi. She was following Naomi because of the God of Naomi! Ruth counted the cost. She realized the idolatry she was taught was wrong. By her going with Naomi, Ruth was putting her faith in God. It was Ruth deciding to follow the Lord. She put self out of the way and put the Lord first! She decided to leave Moab and follow the Lord!

Oh, how the Lord deserves every part of our life, regardless of the cost! I wonder how many in our day today would have been like Orpah and stayed in Moab, not willing to pay the price. Ruth, by faith, decided to follow the Lord.

Remember, Ruth thought, by going to Israel, she would never marry again. She thought she would never have the privilege of having children and grandchildren. Yet she knew none of this compared to following the Lord. Little did she know, though, the Lord had amazing blessings awaiting her, including a kinsman redeemer! Yes, that’s right, a husband! If we would stay faithfull and serve the Lord with our whole heart, amazing blessing awaits us as well.

Elimelech

2006-06-20T11:06:00.000+10:00

(We are currently having a lot of phone trouble here. As I write this post, the phones lines are out, so I am not even sure when I will be able to post it.)

The book of Ruth serves two primary purposes. The first I believe is to show us a beautiful picture of redemption. The second is the important genealogy that is given in the book. I am amazed at how the redemption of Ruth pictures our own redemption in Christ.

There are a lot of amazing people and lessons in the book of Ruth. The book primarily focuses on Ruth. Before we look at Ruth though, I would like us to look at the very first person we are introduced to in the book, Elimelech. Elimelech lived in Bethlehem with his wife and two sons. A famine had come to Israel and he decided to leave town. He did not seek the Lord before making this decision. Instead of trusting the Lord and seeking wisdom from God, he rushes off to a place where, he has heard there is food. What place has he heard there is food? Moab! A place he has no business going to. Israel was to have no dealing with the Moabites. They were to “not enter into the congregation of the Lord.” His decision would cost him his life and the life of both his sons. He thought the country of Moab would help his family, instead it destroyed his family. Many times, we too run to a “Moab” for help instead of trusting God. (By our “Moab” I mean anything or philosophy that is against scripture or the will of God.) The results are devastating. The devil likes to paint “Moab” as a place that has the answers. As a place that can help. How often do we get ourselves into trouble by taking matters into our own hands? Elimelech tried to protect his family, but because of a very bad decision he ended up destroying his family. Beware of the “Moab’s” in your life.

Based on his name, I believe Elimelech was a good man who did desire to follow the Lord. However, as we all know, even the best of men can fall if we are not constantly guarding. His name means “my God is King.” The day he lived in was much like our own. He lived during the time of the judges. A time when “every man did that which was right in his own eyes.” A time when people were running away from moral absolutes. A time when people did not want to submit to the authority of the Bible. Elimelech finds himself compromising when trouble hits and following the philosophy of his day. He followed a path that was right in his own eyes, but not right in God’s eyes. Oh, how we need to be careful and guard ourselves against sin.

No doubt, when Elimelech left Bethlehem, he reasoned in his mind why this was the right move. Why it was necessary to go to Moab? Just this last week I counseled with a newly married man who was getting ready to make a horrible decision that would have hurt his marriage. He had his reasoning of why this was the right move for him. However, his reasoning, just like Elimelech’s, was directly against scriptural principals.

We all need to look at the example that Elimelech provides for us, and see the danger of not trusting God. Even when we are in the midst of a “famine” in the will of God, we still need to follow the Lord. He will bring you through it! It is better to be in a famine in the will of God, then to be in the most abundant place on this earth outside of the will of God! Proverbs 3:6 is always true! “In all the ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy paths.” Elimelech should have acknowledged God and followed Him.

Interesting Week

2006-06-12T09:36:00.000+10:00

The past week has been pretty interesting here. The part of the island I live on is doing a “culture show.” (I tried to post pictures for this post, but blogger was having trouble.) There are no tourists here to look at such things. This is all for themselves. Perhaps the closest thing to it in the states would be a county fair. However, this is not like any fair you have been to. As I sat down looking at the tribal dances taking place, the Lord used this time to remind me why he has called me here: there are still so many people in total darkness. The tribal dancing was taking place walking distance from my house. As I arrived, I was quickly ushered to the very front by a group of men. They saw I had a camera, and I think that is why they took me to the front. (Everyone on the island knows I am the Baptist missionary. Had they not took me to the front I would not have seen anything. People were everywhere.) One of the dances they did was describing eating another human. Cannibalism is now over with, but just as few as 50 years ago, it was very much a part of the culture on this little island. The first missionaries on this island were chased out by cannibals. Some of their dances are for calling in “spirits” to give them strength and to help the men find women for their lust.

Another interesting event was with my truck, again! This time my battery started leaking battery acid all over. I did not know it until Sunday morning when my truck would not start. The road bounces the battery all around, so it was just a matter of time before this happened. My family and I push started my truck. The lights of my truck have also decided not to work now. When coming back from the village one night, every time I would hit a bump, the lights would go out. Now, there are no street lights to light the road here, so when your truck lights go out, it is just pitch black. The only way I could get them back on was to hit another bump, which was not all that hard considering the lights were not working! Soooo my family and I drove for over an hour hitting bump after bump as the lights went off and on. Pretty entertaining, actually!

This week I also attended a bride price ceremony. This is the wedding custom here in PNG. Here, the man must buy the woman from her family. The amount he has to pay is called the bride price. It can be very expensive in some parts of the country. The man also needs to buy anywhere from one to six pigs as well. A pig here is worth a lot of money. You do not mess with another man’s pig! The ceremony is very simple and it is also a sad occasion, not a happy one! There is some joy in it of course, because two are getting married. However, the people at the wedding cry and mourn because they are loosing the woman from the clan. Once she is married she goes to her husband’s clan. One thing I like about that idea is when I think of it terms of our Christian life. When one gets saved, he needs to leave his old “clan” for good, and only follow the Lord. He needs to leave the ways of this world behind and follow his new family, God’s family. No reason to look back! No reason to dwell on the past, just look to your future and follow the Savior!

Loyalty or Truth? Which do we follow?

2006-06-04T20:37:00.000+10:00

I have been sick for the past few days, so unable to post. I am doing better now. I am also having trouble accessing my own blog! My web filter that I use has blocked access to blogspot. I have emailed the company and it should be fixed in a few days.

On with the post…
This post was in a response I made to a thread on Sharper Iron. I edited it for this blog.
The thread was dealing with the arrest of Dr. Bob Gray.

It is scary to see, for the sake of "loyalty", how much sin is swept under the rug. Too often, we are more loyal to our heroes, institutions, and positions, than the Lord. If our heroes, institutions, and positions are not in agreement/submission to the Lord, then our loyalty needs to stay with God. To do otherwise reveals one’s true motivation for their service to God.

Ministry is not the end, God is. Our ministry should flow from our love for God. When our "ministries" are our purpose/ our life, and not God, our churches become more like machines. Yet, the churches should be "the pillar and ground for the TRUTH.”

From my own view point, I see two outcomes, in churches, when there are misplaced priorities/loyalties. (I am sure there are many more.) Which way one goes, would depend on their particular philosophy. Some churches become more like social clubs: church is about exercise class and choir practice on Wednesday instead of hearing truth. Ministry over rides truth! Compromise is common place. Decisions, in the church, are made based on what the people “want” instead of Biblical principals. The other road is more performance based. Numbers, numbers, numbers!!! Bigger, Bigger Bigger!!! “If you haven’t seen 273 saved this week you are not right with God!” The emphasis is all performance based for the sake of the “ministry.” Ministry is only seen as successful, if there is physical growth. When this takes place, truth will be compromised, because ministry is priority and not truth. Ministry over rides truth!

Both of these positions are equally dangerous. Both lead to a mentality of protecting the MINISTRY at all cost, instead of protecting truth.
Oh, how we truly need to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and might.”

Is That My Wheel?

2006-05-29T14:03:00.000+10:00

When we first moved into the house we are living in, I had to buy a fence to go around the house. (In Kavieng, I can buy the fencing and poles. You have to build your own gate and drill your own holes in the poles.) I traveled to Kavieng with two men from the mission work in Sohun to purchase everything I needed for the fence.

The trip there proved to be one of the most memorable trips to Kavieng I have had. The first three hours or so were pretty uneventful except for one flat tire. About two thirds of the way there, the road changes from dirt to sealed. It makes for a nice drive in. Especially after being bounced around on the rough road for the past 3 to 4 hours. Also, when you arrive to the sealed part of the road, you can increase your speed from 3 mph to 50 mph. On this particular day everything seemed as if it was going fine. I did notice, though, once we were on the sealed road that my hood was shaking much more than normal. I did not think much about it, but I should have.

The road is very narrow and very curvy. If you have ever been driving on those old West Virginia roads, this road is very similar. The road is right on the ocean, so it is scenic. Anyhow, as I was driving at a high rate of speed (50 to 60 mph), I kept noticing my hood. Then BOOM my hood flew up! I could see nothing! I quickly slammed the brakes hoping I was not going to smack into a coconut tree or go sailing into the ocean with a Ford truck! My truck came to a stop on the side of the road. We got out of the truck to inspect the damage. The hood was bent pretty good close to the windshield. The part on the hood that latches was just simply worn down from all the bouncing on the rough road. There was no way to use the latch with hood. I had some rope with me. (You never leave for a trip to Kavieng, without rope, tools, two tires, bush knife, duct tape, and Tylenol.) We managed to bend the hood back and tie it down with a rope. It looked very funny, but normal for here!

We then got back in my truck and headed for Kavieng again. Everything seemed to be going just fine. I was driving close to 60 mph, and the rope was holding the hood good. The men and I were just talking and fellowshipping. Then another loud BOOM and the front end of my car dropped. I could see sparks, and what looked like a wheel flying through the top of the coconut trees! It took a lot of my strength to hold the car straight. Had I not had both hands on the wheel at the time, there is no way I could have prevented the truck from turning sharply. I also think the truck would have flipped over as well. The truck came to a stop and I still had NO IDEA what had just happened. Then one of the men with me said my entire wheel fell off. He said it flew higher then the top of the coconut trees! I saw the tire in the air, but it never occurred to me that what I saw was ACTUALLY my front wheel! I got of my truck and sure enough my front passenger side wheel was gone! There was a huge gouge in the road from where the brake drum slammed into the pavement. It was at least 30 yards long. We had to go into the bush and find my tire.

You might be thinking, “Wow, Terry, you must have some gross sin your life, and the Lord is punishing you. First your hood flies off and now your wheel!” The Lord, however, was looking after me!

My truck came to a stop at a dirt driveway. Right in the middle of it! It was the driveway of a tire shop!!!!!!!!!!!! NO kidding! I am not evangaaaaalistically speaking. There are only two or three of these places between Namatanai and Kavieng! When I first realized what had happened, I was wondering, how in the world was I going to get my truck towed to Kavieng!? I still did not realize I was right at a tire shop. Then a man came over and told me my truck had stopped at his tire shop! He quickly examined the damage, and brought over two jacks to jack my truck up. He then took off one lug nut from each of the other wheels, and then put my wheel back on. He said my truck did not have any significant damage from my wheel flying off. He said the wheel fell off because the “starts”, the things you put the lug nuts on, were worn out. I was able to drive slowly the rest of the way into the Kavieng. Not only that, I had no other important parts fly off. :)

When I arrived in Kavieng, I found some used “starts” and then replaced the bad ones with them. I also had the hook for the latch rewelded, so I did not have to use rope to hold my hood down! All together it only cost me about $40! I lost no time with all that happened and was able to keep my schedule.

The Lord is good. When I think of how he looks after my family and I, it is incredible!

Earnestly Contend for the Faith

2006-05-22T19:08:00.000+10:00

On Wednesday evenings, I am preaching through the book of Jude. The primary theme of the book is found in verse 3:

“Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.”

Earnestly contending for the faith is the theme of the book. Why do we need to do so? Because of what we see happening in verse 4.
(Jud 1:4) “For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.”

There is a very real danger to churches today. Sometimes I think we are like Jonah; asleep in the bottom of the boat while the storm is raging all around us. Many of us need to “awake out of sleep” as the Bible directs us. This past weekend, I noticed on the internet The Davinci (sp) Code opened up in the movies. One article said it was the third best opening for a movie, in movie history. A movie which attacks our Lord Jesus Christ. People want the Bible to be discredited. People do not want to have to face a holy God in judgment one day. They want to live their life as they see fit. Although this movie does attack our Lord, I believe there is even a greater danger than this.

In verse 4 the Bible says, “Certain men crept in unawares…” These are people who become members of our churches. These are people we fellowship with on a daily basis. These are the people who work to destroy the church from the inside. The greater of the two threats, (Davinci Code/men who crept in unawares) is by far the men who crept in unawares. These men are marked by ungodliness, lasciviousness, and denying our Lord God. As we read down through the chapter, there are many more characteristics and comparisons made about these men.

How in the world do people like this manage to get inside our churches? What do we do to protect our churches? We earnestly contend for the faith!!! People in our churches need to know why they believe what they believe! They need to be willing and able to contend for the faith. Today, though, many churches have become social clubs. For many churches, it is not about contending for the faith. It is about being entertained. It is about hearing a nice religious teaching. Christians need to know they are in a battle. They are to “endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.”

Unless we contend for the faith, we will lose the next generation. The church is the pillar and ground for the truth. The church, of course, is not the building, but the people. Based on that, how are the pillars in our churches today? Are they willing and able to contend for the faith, or are they so filled with the world, they could not even contend for faith with a Jehovah Witness? Are they actual even shaken by a movie like The Davinci Code? If so, woe on us!

Cheese Burger Please!

2006-05-17T19:09:00.000+10:00

Cultural differences!

(Here is just a quick funny story that happened to me two months ago.)

Every month, we travel out to get supplies as many of you already know. The majority of the time we go in my truck to Kavieng. Sometimes we will go by boat to the island of New Britain. Every time we go to Kavieng for supplies we go to a restaurant for lunch. There are two restaurants in Kavieng and both are operated by the two hotels in Kavieng.

About two months ago my family and I arrived at one of the restaurants for lunch. We were the only ones in the restaurant, as is normally the case. Each member of my family ordered for themselves in English. (These small hotels are geared for tourist.) One of my children ordered a “fish burger”, and another ordered a “steak burger”. Then I ordered a “cheese burger”, and the rest of the family ordered as well. I could not wait for my cheese burger! I was very hungry. We had left very early in the morning, and none of us had eaten yet. It was just about 1:00pm. When the food arrived, Rachel received her steak burger, Heather received her fish burger, and I received my cheese burger. As I looked at my sandwich something did not look right. I took of the top piece of bread only to find a single piece of cold cheese! That was it! Nothing else, just a single slice of cheese. I called the waitress over and told her my order was wrong. She looked at my sandwich and said, “No it isn’t.” She then looked at my daughters two sandwiches, and said you have a “cheese burger!” We then realized, based on my daughter’s use of the word burger, it confused her. After all, they ordered a fish burger and steak burger and received fish and steak sandwiches. So when she heard my order of a cheese burger, she assumed I simply wanted cheese!

I then told her I wanted mince meat (hamburger meat) with my cheese. She then said, “Oh, okay you want mince meat with your cheese burger.” I just smiled and said, “yes please.”

My family and I laughed for several minutes. It was clear we were not at a restaurant in America!

Phone is Back up!

2006-05-15T14:15:00.000+10:00

I am back! We have had power problems, and phone troubles. Our phone is working much better now, but we still only have it for a few hours a day.

This past weekend went very well. Saturday, I headed out to the village to make visits, as I usually do. This time, I was meeting with a man named Jonah. He and his new bride have been coming to church since the beginning of the year. Right after they married, they decided to come to the Baptist church. (By the way, the weddings here are nothing like they are in the states. Some other time I will post on the wedding custom here in PNG.)

About two weeks ago, Jonah started raising his hand at the invitation time, asking prayer about his salvation. He wanted to know more. (I have found it pretty consistent here, that after four to six months of hearing the preaching, people begin to become concerned about their salvation.) When I arrived in the village, Jonah was waiting for me by the road. I picked him up and we went to the church building. I began to witness to him personally for the first time. He listened intently. As we talked about the day of judgment he would face, he realized he was on his way to hell. Then I explained exactly why Jesus came to the earth and died on the cross. I showed how Jesus defeated the wages of sin and rose again on the third day. After hearing this, Jonah repented and put his faith in Jesus Christ for salvation!

Jonah, of course, was in church on Sunday, and brought two friends with him. One had come before, but it was the first time for the other friend. His wife is currently on the other side of the island in her home village. Please pray that when she returns, she too will put her faith in Jesus Christ for salvation.

On the way back from church, I managed to loose my bumper. It fell off again and I did not realize it. However, another man found it and brought it to me today! I guess he knew right away who the bumper belonged to. Also, on the way home, I ran over a python that was just about the width of the road. I regretted not having my camera with me. As my truck was approaching the snake, I thought it was simply a large branch off a tree, or a small tree, but as I ran it over I realized it was a python.

Village Funeral

2006-05-07T19:01:00.000+10:00

Village Funeral

(Our phone went out again, and is now back up! It is still not working properly and I am having alot of trouble connecting to the internet. There is a very good possibility it will go out again for several days. Hopefully it will improve.)

The following took place on Friday, May 7, 2006

Today, I headed out to the village of Sohun to preach a funeral. The funeral was for an elderly lady who was saved and attending the mission work in the village of Sohun. (This work was already going before I arrived. This was the group of people praying for a missionary to come before I arrived. I teach there every Sunday before heading out to the church I started in the village of Kudukudu.) The lady who died was named Mama Ruby. She died from TB.

The funerals here can be quite the experience. I arrived about 9:00am with my family. Many of the villagers were already there, but several hundred more still would be coming. I was early. As the people arrived, preparations were being made for the burial. The hole was dug, and the coffin was decorated. They make their own coffins here. Much better then the outrageous prices we pay in America. At this time, as well, the pigs were brought in. They were still alive and tied to a piece of bamboo.

The men take care of the pigs while the ladies prepared yams, rice, and taro. The entire village will be fed after the burial takes place. The men killed the pigs and then bled them. The pig then had his guts removed and was placed into a hole in the ground. Now, in the hole are rocks that have had a fire underneath them for quite some time. The rocks are VERY hot. On top of the rocks was placed banana leaves, then the pig, which was also wrapped in banana leaves, was placed on top. Then more heated rocks were put on top of the pig, and the hole was filled up. The pig’s guts were placed in this hole; they are wrapped in banana leaves as well. One to two hours later the pig was ready to eat. The ladies get sea shells and use them to scrape the yams. After the yams had been scraped they were placed on an open fire to be cooked.

While all this was going on, the dead body was in the “haus boy”. (This takes places in all the “mat mats”/funerals here.) The ladies all took their turns entering the “haus boy”. Once inside they cried/wailed for several minutes and then left. Except for these funerals the ladies are never allowed to enter the “haus boy”. It is for men only.

After all the people had arrived, it was time for the preaching. We sang a few songs and then I stood to preach. This funeral was a great opportunity. There were 300 to 500 villagers present. I preached on being “ready to die.” Most of the people seemed to listen intently. I hope and pray that the seed that was sown will bear fruit.

Right after I finished preaching the body was moved to the burial site. This was only about 20 yards away. Once the body arrived there, I spoke briefly, read some scripture at the grave side, and then the body was buried. During this time the people began wailing. The wailing continued the entire time the grave was being filled in. Nobody leaves the grave side until it was filled in and then decorated. Once that was accomplished, we returned to the spot of the preaching and the eating began. (During the graveside part, Bethany was stung by a hornet on her arm. It was the first time she had ever been stung by a bee. She handled it bravely. She simply buried her head in my chest and cried for a few minutes. Most of the people simply thought she was crying with them.)

Eating in the village is very different then what one is used to in the western world. When the eating did begin there were no plates, forks, spoons, etc… Papaya leaves were placed in front of us. This was our plate along with three to four others. Then a man placed rice on the leaves with his hands. Next, parts of the cooked pig were placed on the leaves, followed by yam or kau kau. With our hands, we began eating along with the few others around the papaya leaves. (This really saves on the amount of dishes you have to wash!) At the funeral today the pig tasted excellent, and the yam was very good too. By the time we ate it was already 1:30pm.

I hope to be able to get good video footage of their “matmat”/funeral for furlough. It is a very unique experience.

Again, I thank the Lord for the opportunity he provided today to share the gospel with several hundred people! I am also thankful that Mama Ruby is now with the Lord!

2006-05-03T20:09:00.000+10:00

The phone is up!!!

It seems about once every six months the phones here in Namatanai go out for an extended period of time. (Anywhere from one week to six weeks.) When the phone is working properly, we usually have it for 8 hours a day on the week days, and four hours a day on the weekends. You might be thinking what if you have to call for an ambulance. No problem, since there is no ambulance to call for. For that matter there is no doctor to call for either. Well, what if I want to order pizza from Pizza Hut? No problem there either, no Pizza Hut. (No pizza place at all.) I wonder if we get a doctor here, if a Pizza Hut would follow? Wow, I am really suffering for my faith. :)

Now, there are advantages to our phone situation: I have never received one phone call from one telemarketer asking me to switch my long distance service or accept their credit card! I have never been woken up in the middle of the night by a wrong number. (Come to think about it, I don’t have to ever worry about being woken up in the middle of the night by the phone, wrong number or not.) Nor do I have to worry about annoying phone calls from people I do not even like. So as you can see, perhaps I am the one with the advantage.

I arrived back from Kavieng this afternoon. If you remember last month, on the trip back from Kavieng, the top spring of the back springs snapped. I also lost a signal light on that trip. It fell out due to the poor road conditions. This time I only lost one item off of my truck. The right half of my rear bumper fell off. After it fell off, I just removed the wire that was holding my passenger side mirror in place, and switched it to hold the bumper. The quick fix worked and I made it back with the bumper! Oh, how America is wasting money by paving roads. Just cut the trees down and call it a road!

Phone out!

2006-05-01T22:02:00.000+10:00

Phone Lines Are Out!

Sorry I have not been posting on here the last week.

If you remember a few post ago, I said how it is now uncommon for the all the phone lines to go out where I live. Well, that has happened again. The phone has been out for eight days now.

I have no idea when they will be back up. It could be a few more days, or several weeks. Pray the lines will be restored quickly. When we are without phone lines, we do not have a clue as to what is going on in the rest of the world. You can get island fever pretty quick. It removes our source of news, and email capability, which we use on a daily basis.

If you are wondering how I am able to post this, I have traveled to Kavieng for supplies. I will be here for one more day.

As soon as my phone line is restored, I will begin posting!

Where do you go Shopping?

2006-04-21T21:00:00.000+10:00

Where Do You Go Shopping?

Due to our location, getting supplies is no easy task. Usually I travel five fours by truck to a town called Kavieng once a month. It is the only true town on the island. This place is very small and supplies are limited, but for the most part we can get essentials. There are times when I travel by boat to the town of Kokopo, on the island of New Britain for supplies. The boat ride, at times, can be quite the adventure.

To make the trip to Kokopo, my day starts between 4:00am and 5:00am. I first drive to the west coast of the island, which takes one hour. The drive is less than 15 miles, but the road is horrible. I then have the task of finding a good boat heading to Kokopo that day.

The boats that make the trip to the other island are little dinghy boats with a 40 horse engine. I have learned over the last two and half years, which boat operators know what they are doing, and which ones do not. Every year, scores of people die taking these boats from our island to Kokopo or Lihir. Many times these deaths are the result of poor judgment by the boat operator.

When deciding on which boat to take, I also take into consideration how many people are in the boat. On one particular trip to Kokopo, I hired a boat operator named Herman, and his boat. He only had two or three other people going, so this was ideal. As we left, we were about 5 minutes down the coast when a truck from the shore started beeping at us. There were people who wanted to get on our boat. Herman turned the boat and went to pick them up. Before I knew it, the boat was packed. I mean PACKED.

There are no seats on these little dinghies. One simply sits on the floor of the boat. I had no cushion or pillow with me either. When all the people packed into the boat I was forced to the front of the boat sitting Indian style unable to move, because of all the people! So here I was sitting in a cramped position without any ability to change the way I am sitting. As we begin to head out to sea, the front of the boat is slamming every few seconds on the ocean. I am literal bouncing on my back side over and over. This continued for the duration of the boat ride, which was three hours! Remember now, I have no pillow or cushion with me. With all the people on board, I felt like I was a refugee leaving Cuba for Florida!

Half way through the trip, I thought it would b easier just to swim to the other island. I was trying everything I knew to avoid thinking about the pain I was in. I can not tell you how happy I was when we made to the other island. The first thing I bought when we arrived was a PILLOW for the trip back. My backside was sore for over a week. I could hardly sit down any where. Oh, and yes that was the last time I ever traveled on the boat with out a pillow or cushion.

On this day, the trip back would prove to contain one of the most frightening yet funny experiences I have ever had on one of these boat rides. When I make the return trip back to New Ireland I always hire the entire boat. This way I have enough room for my supplies, and I can leave when I want to leave. I had finished all my shopping in Kokopo and I was ready to go back with my pillow ready to go. Herman took off from shore and everything seemed to be going great. The ocean was much calmer then the morning run, but I was still very sore. An hour or so into the trip, Herman turns off the boat. I did not like that. I always imagine the operator unable to start it back up, and thus floating in the ocean while being cooked by the sun. If something like that happens there are no radios on these boats to call for help. There would be no help coming for days. Herman had turned off the boat so he could get some buai to chew. Buai is a nasty habit here in PNG. Buai has a small drug affect and it is very harmful to the body. Well, Herman got his buai and was ready to go now.

As he went to pull start the motor, his arm accidentally hit the key to the engine. The key went flying into the air and went right into the ocean. NO FLOATING device was on the key! I could not believe what I just witnessed. Right behind the key though, Herman went flying into the air diving after the key! This all happened in a matter of seconds. Now, here I am sitting in this boat, with the key and the operator under the water. Well, if you ever need a jump start to your prayer life, this is it!

I guess around 20 to 30 seconds went by and up pops Herman. He then lifts his hand to show me, he retrieved the key! I was thrilled, thankful, overjoyed, happy to see Herman, and ready to kill him at the same time. We made it back to New Ireland without further incident. I arrived home about 7:00pm. Again, just another day in Papua New Guinea!

2006-04-19T21:00:00.000+10:00

“…Be sure your sin will find you out.”

I have just returned from our mid week prayer meeting service. This night I had to work church discipline for the first time at the church. Any pastor who has done this, knows it is not any fun. It is a very difficult service, yet it is essential when unrepented sin is present.

I am amazed at how the Lord brought one of the men’s sin to light. The Bible is very true when it says, “…Be sure your sin will find you out.” Last Wednesday afternoon, my phone went out. This is nothing unusual though. Our phone lines here in Namatanai go out all the time. Thursday morning, the phone was still out. I began to check if other phones were out as well. I quickly found out my phone was the only one not working. Now, this was unusual.

We have a small phone company office here, where one man works. I went to the office, and informed him my phone was out. He was surprised and said he would call the main office to see if they could correct it. (The main office is on another island.) While there, the political member for our island, Byron Chan, saw me, and he came to talk to with me. He is the equivalent of a senator is the U.S.. He spends very little time on the island. He lives in Port Moresby, the PNG capitol. We talked for a few minutes and he then asked me if I received the money he sent to the church. I told him no, we had not received any offering from him. He told me he gave it last month. I asked him who he gave the money to. He told me the name, and I was stunned. The man was my song leader. I asked Bryon Chan again, just to make sure I understood him right.

I left the office knowing my song leader had stolen money from the church. When I returned home, my phone line was working! The Lord simply turned off my phone, so I would go to phone office and talk with Byron Chan. Thus finding out about the sin in the church. Again, “…be sure your sin will find you out.”

You might think you are getting away with your sin, but the Lord knows exactly what to do. “Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.” You might be able to fool the people in the church and your Pastor, but you will never hide your sin from God!

(As a side note, I will be gone for a day or two preaching on the southern part of the island.)

2006-04-17T19:22:00.000+10:00

Resurrection Sunday went great!

It did not start out quite so well though. As we woke up on Sunday morning, it was raining heavily. We knew this Sunday would be very busy, and we had many outdoor things scheduled. I began praying the rain would let up. We left our house about 9:00am and headed out for church. There is one part of the road that is impassable, and has been for one week. It is difficult to describe this part of the road, and if I tried, I do not think you would believe me. It is a huge mud pit about 30 yards long and four feet deep. One would have to see it, to appreciate it. :) The village, by this part of the road, cut a path out to drive through, so a vehicle can still get by. They also are charging money to use their “road”. On Saturday, I went and paid to use this road on Sunday. (This “road” is just a path in the jungle.) Well, the owner of the ground where they cut the “road” came running to my truck as I was driving on his land. He had also blocked the road with bamboo. Apparently, word never got to him that I paid to use his road already. He came yelling at me, demanding money. He was convinced I was trying to use his “road” without paying for it. After he finished yelling, I informed I already paid the day before. It was clear this was news to him, and I could see he felt very awkward after just accusing me with such grace. He thought for sure he caught the missionary trying to deceive. After I told him about me paying the day before, he let me pass. How many times we jump to conclusions without first finding out all the facts. James 1:19 gives us all good advice, “Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath:”

After teaching Sunday school class in Sohun, I headed out to church in Kudukudu. I was thrilled to see many visitors for the service. All together there were 87 people there! After Sunday school, I preached on the “what if’s” I posted about prior to this. Four people raised their hand, saying the Lord was dealing with them about their need of salvation. The altar was also full of people praying at the invitation time. After services, I baptized 5 adults. Two of whom were Joel and Rose. I wrote about them in a previous post. Here is the link if you did not read it yet: http://missionary-insights.blogspot.com/2006/02/is-that-pot-hole-or-canyon-this-story.html Joel and Rose are doing great and attending every service.

By this time the rain had let up. It was still cloudy but no rain. This enabled all the ladies to prepare food for a meal. My meal for that day consisted of “kaukau” and greens from their gardens. I also brought rice for everyone as well. Now kaukau is a required taste! Your first time biting into it can be an adventure in itself. It is a root that is commonly eaten here. It is a type of sweet potato. Needless to say my meal was not quite like a Perkins, or Golden Coral meal. WOW, I am really hungry now! After this, we set up a volleyball net, and the people played volleyball. They really enjoy that sport.

Afterwards, my family and I headed back to the house. I think we arrived home about 4:30pm.

I thank the Lord for how he is working on hearts in the village.

2006-04-14T21:16:00.000+10:00

"What If"
Part II

“But now is Christ Risen from the dead...”!

(In the last post I focused on the “what if” Paul gave us by saying, “But if Christ be not risen.” Now we will focus on “But now is Christ risen from the dead.”)

The fact is we will never have to worry about the “what if” of Christ not being risen! Therefore all the former things mentioned in my previous post do have meaning. Our preaching is not in vain! Our Faith is not in vain! We are no longer in our sins!

Our preaching is not vain!
This Sunday when I stand up and preach, I can preach with confidence knowing I am preaching truth. Not only this Sunday, but every time I preach the Word of God. Every time I witness for the Lord, I can know I am giving truth. Every time I hear a Biblical sermon, I can truly say, “Amen!”

Neither is my faith vain!
I have not put my faith and thus my life in something that is a lie. Buddah is still dead. Muhammed is still dead. I am so glad my faith is not in a “dead” religion. The fact that I am sitting in Papua New Guinea is not in vain! My work here on this island is not in vain! Every moment in prayer is worth it! Christian, every stand you make for Christ is not in vain. Every battle you face because of your faith is not in vain. All of the Biblical convictions you have, truly, do serve a purpose! Our FAITH is not in vain!

We are no longer in our sins!
The very thing that separates us from God almighty has been removed, sin. Salvation is available to all! Heaven truly is the home of every Christian! I am so glad to know this earth is not my home.

None of this would be possible, if Christ be not Risen! Oh, the importance of the resurrection! However the chapter is not finished yet. There is still more to consider as a result of the resurrection.

Lets look at verse 57, “But thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

What is this victory that comes as a result of Jesus and His resurrection? We have the answer to this from verse 20 through verse 56. The victory is over sin, death, the law, and the grave! Man-kind’s biggest enemies! Think of all that man-kind is doing and has done in history to try and defeat those enemies. All they need to do is turn to Jesus Christ and they can have victory!

In closing, we have heard how with great truth comes great responsibility. We see this fact in verse 58. We have been given a great truth with the resurrection, and verse 58 gives us a responsibility.

I Corinthians 15:58 “Therefore my beloved brethren be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as you know your labor is not in vain in the Lord.”

Knowing this truth of the Resurrection, ought to be enough to persuade us to be faithful in our service to God. It ought to convince us to remove the sin that “doth so easily beset us.” May each of our lives, whether we are missionaries, clerks, salesman, technicians, pastors, doctors, mechanics, housewives, managers etc… be characterized by this verse; steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord!

I hope, after reading this, you have a taste of the importance of the resurrection of our Lord and Savior!!!

2006-04-13T18:54:00.000+10:00

"What if?"
Part I

(I have not posted more this past week, because I have been sick. My phone line was also out for a short time. I hope to get back up to speed with the blog.)

I am looking forward to this Sunday. The importance of the resurrection can never be overstated. I Corinthians 15 emphasizes this. This Sunday, I will be taking a break from preaching through John, and I will be preaching from I Corinthians 15.

The three aspects I will be primarily looking at are found throughout the chapter. The first one being found in vs 13, where Paul states, “But if there be no resurrection….” Think of the implications of that statement. There are many times when I have thought about “what ifs” in my life. For instance, what if America had lost the Revolution, or what if I had not entered the US Air Force when I was 19? There is not, however, a “what if” compared to the one the Apostle Paul makes in I Corinthians 15, by stating, “But if there be no resurrection”

The Apostle Paul goes on to list the consequences of this “what if.”

For one our preaching is in vain. All of the great preaching is for nothing. All of the great truths that have been dug out of the scripture are all for nothing. The sermons by Peter and Paul are all for nothing. The Bible itself would be for nothing!

Not only is our preaching vain, but Paul goes on to say, “Our faith is vain;” Our very life is a complete waste of time. The fact that I am sitting in a jungle in Papua New Guinea as a missionary is all for nothing. Every moment I have spent in prayer has been for nothing. The very core of my life is for nothing. And because my faith is in vain, that leads to the next outcome if there be no resurrection.

We “are yet in our sins.” We have no hope. The Lake of Fire is to be our home forever. There is no hope of salvation. We could not be offered grace from God Almighty! The peace that comes with knowing we are eternally secure is gone. The joy of serving God is not possible.

This would then make us “of all men most miserable.” (vs 19)

But the fact is, Christ DID rise from the dead. I like how God had Paul state it. You can see Paul’s excitement to pen in verse 20, where he states “But now is Christ risen from the dead,”!

My next post we will turn are attention from "But if Christ be not risen" to “But now is Christ risen from the dead.”

2006-04-08T18:52:00.000+10:00

I wanted to write a post today, but I have not been feeling well this afternoon. As a result, I decided to post a story my son wrote for English class, back in February. He had the same assingment as Rachel did, for those who read her post.

English
Daniel McGovern

Our Life In Papua New Guinea

We came to New Guinea because we wanted to follow God’s will. We were attending a Bible believing church which taught us from, God’s Word, that God’s will should be the most important thing in our lives, and it was. Since we believed that, we were willing to go anywhere for God.

God’s calling for us was to do His work on the island of New Ireland. We were called here to witness to the people, to pray for the people, to give God’s word to the people, to plant churches, to train the Christians, and to encourage the Christians.

There are many people who we met here on New Ireland. First the believers, who were probably the most helpful people we met here. We have met many national pastors, including Pastor James Abel, who has been our biggest help here with everything from language study, to helping us build a church. There are many Christian villagers that attend church here who we have met. A couple have jobs in Namatanai, the small town where we live, but most live just off their gardens. Pastor James Abel, who was mentioned above, is the pastor of a small church in the village of Sohun, where about sixty people attend. There is also a group of Christians in a village called Kudukudu. They were all saved after we started a church there. There are also Christians who live in places with no church. We are very glad to meet these people, and are currently trying to help a group of Christians in a village called Wilo. Finally, there are many unbelievers, who we were called to reach, on this island. We have become good friends with many of these people, and we hope to reach them with God’s Word soon. Among the people we are trying to reach are the store and plantation owners, a few government workers, and, of course, many villagers.

A week on New Ireland is full of many things, including many surprises. Sunday is the most important day of the week, and it is also my favorite day. It’s the most important day because it is the day we go to church in Sohun and Kudukudu. We teach a Sunday school class in Sohun and do two services in Kudukudu. There are usually visitors that come Sunday morning in Kudukudu, so this is an important opportunity to share God’s Word with the people. We have also started a reading class, after services in Kudukudu, for the Christians who can’t read.

The rest of the week is taken up mainly by school and chores. School takes up about five hours of the day for me, and I enjoy it. The Kids’ chores include keeping the yard clean, laundry, cutting and raking the grass, and cleaning the house. The most important part of the day is our devotion time. We all have our own private devotions daily, and every few days we have a family devotion. Shopping, of course, at the market and the little stores in town, takes up part of the week. Plus, once a month we go to a larger town on the island, called Kavieng, for extra supplies. On Wednesday evenings, we go to Sohun for a prayer meeting. I also get a little guitar lesson from Pastor Abel at this time. Friday is a workday in Kudukudu, and we do discipleship on this day as well.

God has enabled us to accomplish many things here. We have helped and strengthened a church; started a church in the village of Kudukudu; and we are attempting to start a church in Wilo.

In conclusion we came here to follow God’s will, and we intend to stay here until he calls us otherwise.

2006-04-07T10:11:00.000+10:00

Trip to Kavieng

I apologize for not posting a blog earlier, but there is a good reason. On Monday morning my family and I traveled to Kavieng to get supplies. We usually travel there once a month for a supply run. It is a five hour drive on rough road, but it is incredibly scenic.

The drive to Kavieng was fairly uneventful. However, when we arrived I ended up with two flat tires. This is par for the course. While there, I had to purchase four new tires for my truck. The past several weeks, I have been driving with a different style tire on each wheel, and three different sizes of tires. We were able to get most of the supplies we needed, and thought we would be back quickly to Namatanai.

The country slogan for PNG is “The Land of the Unexpected.” It is a very fitting slogan. The morning we left for Namatanai started off pretty good. It was nice to be driving my truck with four tires that were all identical. My steering wheel was no longer shaking and my truck was no longer wanting to keep veering to the left! About half way to Namatanai, we came upon some really rough parts in the road. All of the sudden, I heard a weird noise from my side of the truck. I quickly stopped to investigate. Daniel, my son, noticed my back tire was rubbing against the fender. As I looked at it, it looked as though my entire rear axle had shifted down and back. When I went to compare on the other side of the truck, it looked just fine. Daniel and I then removed the back tire, and discovered the true problem; the top spring had broken in half! Now if any of the other springs underneath it had broken, not a big deal. But if the top, primary, spring breaks you have a major problem. Thus, I had a major problem. I could not drive my truck. My family is with me, and I am now thinking about how the bamboo bed is going to feel tonight.

By this time, a small crowd had gathered at my truck. I had no idea which village I was currently in. The Lord was watching over us though! Two men informed me that my truck had stopped about 500 meters from a “bush mechanic”! I was able to inch my truck over to him, in less than 3 minutes. To appreciate this, you need to understand that there are not many bush mechanics on the island, and yet my truck broke down right in front of one!

Now, since he was a bush mechanic, he did not have the means to replace my broken spring. He did, however, find some fencing wire lying around, and wired the spring back together. This enabled me to be able to drive my truck temporarily. I was able to head back to Kavieng, in the hopes I could find a replacement spring. The break down also enabled me to make some new contacts in this village, and Daniel was able to give out a lot of gospel tracts.

The Lord blessed and the truck made it back to Kavieng. I headed to the workshop and praise the Lord, they had a second hand spring there that would fit my truck!!! They replaced the spring and I had my truck back Thursday morning. We were back home in Namtanai, by 2:00pm Thursday afternoon.

I am amazed at how the Lord looks after my family and I!

2006-04-02T20:02:00.000+10:00

The First Week
Part II

(You will need to read the previous post for this to make sense.)

So, here I was driving 65mph down the road in a 29ft motor home and my son had just cut his thumb almost completely off. I quickly called the pastor of the church in Winnipeg, where I had a meeting scheduled. I told him, I was about an hour from Winnipeg and needed to find a hospital. The closest one was in Winnipeg itself. I followed his directions to the hospital and found it without much problem. However, pulling into this hospital with my motor home was not easy. I manage to pull up to the front of the emergency room door and let my son and wife out.

I now have the problem of trying to park my 29ft motor home. The streets of Winnipeg are not conducive to motor homes. I saw in the hospital parking lot that there are some empty slots were I could parallel park. I pulled into the parking lot and then I had to take a ticket from a machine, which would allow the cross arm to rise. As I drove through, I heard a crunching noise and I cringed. I thought the arm came down on my motor home. I went and parked still not thinking that anything major was wrong. I stepped out of the motor home to go look at the damage. When I saw what happened I felt miserable. The back seam was torn open. I could crawl into my motor home through the hole. There was no way I could drive on a highway like this, let alone sleep in it.

I had just driven through a blizzard, my son cut his thumb almost completely off, and now my motor home had the back end ripped open, which rendered it useless. The first week of deputation was just GREAT!

My oldest daughter just looked at me and could tell by my expression that I was troubled. I had several very important meeting coming up, ten in a two week time period, and it looked as though I was going to have to cancel all of them. While standing looking at the damage, I decided to call my pastor. When I told him what had just happened, he laughed. I was not laughing and failed to see the humor in it. He then said, “Sounds like the Lord is getting you ready for Papua New Guinea!” I agreed and then wondered, if that is true, what would Papua New Guinea be like!

I then walked over to see what damage happened to the arm I had hit. At this time, I was really mad at the hospital, thinking they would be paying for this damage to my motor home. However, as I walked up to the arm, there is no damage to it at all, but the machine that I had taken the ticket from was smashed. The accident was entirely my fault, not the hospitals! My moter home had clipped the ticket machine, when I turned, causing the damage.

I then walked into the hospital to check on my son and tell my wife what had happened. My wife was very encouraging, as she always is in situations like this. I then told a hospital official about the accident in the parking lot. He made some calls and we walked outside to look at the damage to the ticket machine. I told him about my week, and he then looked at the damage my motor home took and he was amazed. He told me not worry about the ticket machine, that the hospital would replace it. I was relieved. The Lord was working.

I went back in to the hospital to check on Daniel. The doctor had looked at his hand and said he needed surgery. He said, the knife cut through the joint capsule and severed his tendon. He then said, they did not have a surgeon who could perform this surgery. He said he would have the hospital call to other hospitals, in the area, to find one that could help us.

Meanwhile, it was now about 9:00pm and the pastor, from the church I was supposed to be at, showed up to check on us. He told me he saw my motor home in the parking lot and noticed the damage. He then told me there is a man in their church that owns a RV body repair shop! I never knew such a place even existed! The Lord was working. Keep in mind too, this church only has about 30 people. It is a mission work itself. Yet, one of their members just happened to own a RV body repair shop! The doctor then comes out and told me they found a hospital that could help us.

We headed over there, arriving about 10:00pm at the hospital. The surgeon just happened to still be there! He should have been home by this time. We talked for a short time and he said, he will do the surgery the next day. He then said, “Wait, I will try and do the surgery now.” He said if could easily find the tendon, the surgery would only take about 20 minutes or so. He said if he can not easily find the tendon, then he would finish the surgery in the morning. (He explained that when a tendon is severed, it springs back like a rubber band, many times making the tendon difficult to find.) We prayed the Lord would give him wisdom and help him to find the tendon quickly. He did, and the surgery was over in 20 minutes. They then put a cast on him and we were out the door. It was around midnight now. The Lord was still working!

That night we slept at the pastor’s house. Early in the morning, we took my motor home to the workshop of the RV repair shop. The men immediately went to work on it. They wasted no time. Within one hour, they had rejoined the seam with sheet metal, and it was ready to go!!!!! The owner did not charge me one penny for the work or materials used!

Not even 12 hours earlier, I was wondering what in the world was going on. Why was God allowing this to happen? I was thinking I would be in Winnipeg for several weeks, awaiting insurance adjusters, trying to find a place to repair my motor home, etc. Now 12 hours later, I was back on the road heading to my next meeting. I never had to cancel one meeting! The Lord worked in a great way, as he did throughout deputation! My pastor was right: The Lord was simply getting me ready for Papua New Guinea.

2006-03-31T18:51:00.000+10:00

Stories from deputation.

I will, from time to time, post stories from deputation as well. I would like to write them down here, so I will not forget them.

When we left for deputation, my children were 10,9,7, and 5. We spent 18 months traveling to churches throughout the country. During that time we saw the Lord work in many amazing ways!!

The First Week

Our first week out on deputation proved to be very eventful. My family and I sold our home and moved full-time into a motor home. I really did not have much of a choice in the matter. Living in Alaska, a place so far removed from the lower 48, a motor home was the best option for us. I purchased a 1993 Class C motor home. When I bought it, it only had 18,000 miles. The six of us learned to adjust to life in a small space. We went from 1900 square foot of living space to less then 200!

On our last day in Anchorage Alaska, the snow started falling. It was the first snow fall of the winter, and I knew I needed to get on the road and through the AL-CAN highway as quick as possible. It was October 11, 2001. After two meetings, one in Haynes Alaska and another in White horse Yukon, we headed out for the long drive through Canada. We had already driven through a lot of snow, but I was not ready for the blizzard that was coming. I left White horse very early in the morning. The snow was falling but not heavy. As the day went on, the snow was getting heavier and the road was hard to see. I was trying to go a fast as I could day as I knew I had a mountain pass to go through, and I wanted to get there before this storm closed it off.

As the daylight faded, it was almost impossible to make out the road. I simply followed faint tire tracks in front of me. Outside of those faint tracts there was no sign of any other vehicle. As we were getting closer to the pass, the snow was really falling. I would literally stop in the middle of the road, and wipe the snow off of the window, because the wipers could not keep up with it. No one was talking in the motor home. All eyes were watching outside. Keep in mind too, I am in the Yukon Territory at this time and there is no civilization around at all. As I got closer to the pass, I came upon another motor home which is stopped in the road. He is towing a vehicle behind him. I stopped and talked with the driver. He told me not to go up to the pass with out chains on my tires. He said he tried to go through the pass, but did not make it. He said he had to back down the pass!!!! I, however, really needed to get through. In spite of his council I decided to try and make it through the pass this night. I thought if I wait I will be stuck on this side for days, missing many meetings as a result. He also had summer tires on his motor home and was towing a vehicle. I had just put on brand new all-weather tires a few days before leaving Alaska, and I was not towing anything. As I started up, I was very worried the tires would start slipping. The snow was blinding. The higher we got, the fiercer the wind became. Visibility was just a few feet. I was driving around 10 miles an hour. My hands were gripping the steering wheel. I just started deputation and already my prayer life was improving. :) I was relieved when I started on a downhill stretch. I knew I had made it through the top of the pass. However, then my concern was loosing control of the motor home going down hill, on these very snowy, icy roads. About three quarters of the way down we came across a lodge, and we stopped there. I knew the worst was over and I would be able to continue on in the morning. The Lord had protected us and we made it through.

The next day was much easier driving, and after a few days of driving there was no more snow in sight. I had a meeting to get to in Winnipeg. It was a Thursday meeting, and it was looking like we would just make it in time for services, or so I thought.

About one hour out of Winnipeg, things were seemingly going well. My wife had just woken up from a nap, and my kids were quietly playing. Then I hear my oldest daughter shriek with fear. She screamed and screamed. As we were trying to ascertain what had happened, I notice my sons face is white. He had gotten into my tool box and took out the utility knife to remove something from one of my daughter’s toys. While trying to remove this, the razor slipped and cut his thumb. It severed his thumb almost completely off!!!

(I will continue this story tomorrow. Things will get worse before they get better, and then the Lord begins to work!)

2006-03-28T16:59:00.000+10:00

Life or No life?

When Lazarus was raised from the dead, how did the people at the grave know he was alive? (I know, I know, tough question!) They saw he had life! The resurrection of Lazarus pictures salvation, as well. It pictures what God does when he gives “spiritual/eternal” life to someone who was dead in trespasses and sins.

Have you ever noticed in some churches, where the church proclaims they have seen 7500 saved, or some other amazing number, that their attendance has not changed one bit? Where are the 7500!? If the resurrection of Lazarus pictures salvation, which it does, what would the people have thought of Jesus if he was like many “soul winners” today? Suppose, after Jesus said, “Lazarus come forth!”, nothing happened. Then Jesus turned to the crowd and proclaimed that Lazarus was alive! They would have said, “I don’t see him!” or, “No one is moving, as far as I can tell, in that grave.” What would Mary and Martha have thought?

The FACT is when Jesus gives life, when God saves a soul, there is LIFE!!!!!! I remember taking a soul winning course as a young Christian. I became very confused during one of the sessions. The session was about how to get your “convert”, (that is all many of these people were: “MY” converts), to church. They stressed going back to the person’s house every week until they finally come. This made no sense to me at all. I did not know much Bible at that time, but I did know when God saved me, no one ever had to beg me to go to church. I had a desire to go. I had a desire to hear preaching. I had a desire to read God’s Word. I truly did not understand why a newly saved person would have to be begged to come to church. Well, the fact is, they don’t. Jesus did not stand outside the grave, begging Lazarus to come out. Nor did Lazarus tell the people, “No, No, please leave my grave clothes on! I like them!”

When a person is saved, God moves in. (Romans 8:9) When a person is saved, God gives life. (Ephesians 2:1) When a person is saved, he is a new creature. (II Cor 5:17) When a person is saved, he desires the Word of God. (I Peter 2:1,2) You can not tell me, based on these scriptures, after a person is saved, his life simply remains the same. I am not saying he will jump out of bed the next day running for the church house. What I am saying, is the scripture clearly teaches us a saved man will begin to desire God. Yes, he might need encouraged, but not begged. Yes, he still has a sin nature, but praise God, he now has a divine nature too.

We do not need to not stop soul winning, but we need to proclaim the gospel in truth. Not allowing numbers to be the emphasis, but truth. Oh, how we need the wisdom and power of God in proclaiming the gospel. Oh, how we need to preach with power (I Cor 2:4,5). How we need to preach “repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.”