Lenexa, Kansas, United States - ENGAGE-A Global Mission Magazine of the Global Church of the Nazarene for Wednesday, 19 March 2014 Issue #75

Lenexa, Kansas, United States - ENGAGE-A Global Mission Magazine of the Global Church of the Nazarene for Wednesday, 19 March 2014 Issue #75
www.engagemagazine.com
Web Site Tip 
Share Engage with your Facebook friends. If you see a story we post on Facebook that your friends might be interested in, click "share" under the story in your Facebook news feed.
RECENT ARTICLES:
Paris churches feed the hungry by Donnie Miller
For the past six years, Pastor José Monteiro and volunteers from four Nazarene congregations in Paris have been reaching out to the many hungry people who populate one of Europe's most sophisticated cities.
As Monteiro told me, “this is the best way we’ve found to connect with people in Paris.”
In 2008, Monteiro started a service project with the teens of his church: distributing hot meals one day a week in their congregation’s neighborhood, the 18th arrondisement of Paris. The 18th has a high concentration of immigrants and poverty.  Since its inception in 2008, this ministry has grown to the point where food is given away six days a week, even utilizing two different buildings on Saturdays.  While Monteiro and church member Soeurette Villasson oversee the ministry, Monteiro commented that the 30 or so volunteers are so committed and organized that the ministry runs smoothly without much input from the two leaders. Volunteers come from Paris First Church, Paris Second Church, Paris Third Church and and the Church of the Nazarene in Paris 14ème.
A French grocery store chain, Carrefour, entered into a partnership with the food ministry in 2009, donating their food that has recently passed the sell-by date by a day or two.  Each morning, a volunteer drives a van around to six different Carrefour stores, picking up about two van loads of food.  The food is then sorted into crates and eventually taken home by recipients in grocery bags.  About 25 families are allowed to pick up food twice each week -- representing around 200 individuals in all.  The amount of food varies a bit from day to day.
The food is collected and distributed in an old Lutheran church building, which is home to an aging and shrinking congregation that is grateful to have non-Sunday activity within its walls. In 2008, the 10 members of the existing Lutheran congregation joined with a Lutheran congregation comprised of about 40 African immigrants, which has brought life and diversity to this congregation that meets in St. Paul’s Lutheran Church building. Monteiro’s congregation occasionally joins the Lutheran congregation for Sunday worship as well.  As inspiring and creative as those combined worship gatherings must be, I’m pretty sure the highest energy level in that beautiful old building occurs between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. each weekday.
I asked Monteiro how difficult it is for immigrants with very few resources to live in a city as expensive as Paris.  He informed me that the city offers some subsidies for housing and utilities, helping to ease the financial burden for the city’s impoverished, but that the city’s grocery stores are also expensive.  So where the government is unable to provide support in helping feed people, these four churches have stepped up to fill that gap. Monteiro said that since the government provides so much for the poorer people of society, there is often a sense that people don’t need God or the church, but with this food ministry, these Nazarenes have found their niche. 
Monteiro went on to say that “in a secular culture like France, it is necessary to first love people before being able to introduce them to the source of that love.”  People benefiting from the food ministry often participate in worship services, Bible studies or informal spiritual discussions. -- Donnie and Erin Miller are Mission Corps [1] missionaries serving in Versailles, France. Reprinted with permission from their ministry blog.
-------
Iglesias de París alimentan a los hambrientos by Donnie Miller
Durante los últimos seis años, el pastor Pastor José Monteiro, acompañado por voluntarios de cuatro congregaciones nazarenas en París, ha estado asistiendo a muchos habitantes hambrientos de una de las ciudades más sofisticadas de Europa.
Así como Monteiro me lo mencionó, "ésta es la mejor manera que hemos encontrado para conectarnos con la gente de París".
En 2008 Monteiro inició un proyecto de servicio con los adolescentes de su iglesia, distribuyendo alimentos calientes una vez por semana alrededor del vecindario de su congregación: el Distrito 18 de París. El 18 cuenta con una gran concentración de inmigrantes y en él existe mucha pobreza. Desde su incepción en 2008, este ministerio ha crecido hasta el punto en que las entregas de comida están siendo realizadas seis veces a la semana, incluso utilizando dos edificios diferentes durante los sábados. Si bien Monteiro y un miembro de la iglesia llamado Soeurette Villasson supervisan el ministerio, Monteiro cuenta que los 30 voluntarios que participan del ministerio se encuentran tan comprometidos y trabajan de una manera tan organizada que permiten que el mismo se desarrolle de manera dinámica, sin requerir mayor intervención por parte de los dos líderes. Los voluntarios provienen de la Primer Iglesia de París, la Segunda Iglesia de París, la Tercer Iglesia de París, y de la Iglesia del Nazareno del Distrito 14.
La cadena francesa de supermercados Carrefour se asoció con el ministerio de alimentos en 2009, donando los alimentos cuya fecha de caducidad haya pasado por no más de uno o dos días. Cada mañana, un voluntario conduce una camioneta visitando seis diferentes tiendas de Carrefour y recolectando aproximadamente dos camionetas repletas de alimentos. El alimento pasa a ser organizado en cajones para luego ser llevado a los destinatarios en bolsas de supermercado. Unas 25 familias (lo cual representa unos 200 individuos en total) tienen permitido recolectar alimentos dos veces a la semana. La cantidad de alimentos varía de un día al otro.
Los alimentos son consolidados y distribuidos en un antiguo templo luterano, el cual es hogar de una antigua y decreciente congregación, la cual está agradecida al tener actvidad no tan sólo los domingos dentro de su edificio. En 2008 los 10 miembros de la congregación luterana se unieron a otra congregación luterana de aproximadamente 40 miembros que son inmigrantes africanos, lo cual trajo vida y diversidad a la congregación que se reúne en en Iglesia Luterana de St. Paul. La congregación de Monteiro ocasionalmente también se reúne con la congregación luterana para sus servicios de domingo. Si bien esas reuniones deben ser inspiradoras y creativas, estoy seguro que los más altos niveles de energía dentro de ese hermoso edificio antiguo ocurren entre las 11am y las 2pm, cada día de la semana.
Le pregunté a Monteiro qué tan dificultoso es para aquellos inmigrantes con pocos recursos el vivir en una ciudad tan cara como lo es París. Él me informó acerca de los subsidios de vivienda y servicios que la ciudad ofrece, lo cual aliviana la carga financiera de los habitantes carenciados, pero también dijo que los supermercados son costosos. Por lo tanto, mientras que al gobierno no le es posible proveer asistencia alimenticia a estas prsonas, las cuatro iglesias han acudido para suplir esa necesidad. Monteiro dijo que debido a que el gobierno provee de tanta asistencia para la gente pobre de la sociedad, existe un sentir común de que la gente no necesita de Dios o de la iglesia. Sin embargo, mediante este ministerio de alimentos, estos nazarenos han encontrado su nicho. 
Monteiro incluso dijo que "en una cultura secular como la de Francia, es necesario primeramente amar a la gente y luego uno puede presentarles la fuente de la cual ese amor proviene". Las personas que se benefician del ministerio de alimentos a menudo participan de los servicios de alabanza, estudios bíblicos y en discusiones espirituales informales. -- Donnie y Erin Miller son misioneros del Cuerpo Misionero [1] y se encuentran sirviendo en Versalles, Francia. Impreso con permiso de su blog ministerial.
________________________________________
Ask the missionary: What are the "don'ts" for missionaries? by Shelly Miller
Editor's note: Missionary Teanna Sunberg, one of two Ask the Missionary columnists for Engage, answered this question recently [6]. Now Shelly Miller, our second columnist, gives her own take on the following question.
Question: What are some things that we shouldn’t do as missionaries? -- Jimmy Claros
Answer: This question sort of makes me cringe. I must answer it very carefully as you do not want to offend past missionaries, but I think that anyone who does not learn from the mistakes of the past is, perhaps, committing one of the “don’ts”.
I was in a really great position for my first four years on the mission field. I was very young (fresh out of college) and I was a volunteer, which afforded me some freedoms that perhaps a contracted missionary family does not have. I have said this before and I will say it again: if you can, volunteer for a long-term project in a world area that pulls at your heart strings. Being a volunteer is wonderful, rewarding and so educational for you. But I digress… Being a volunteer for four years, I had the opportunity to observe a lot of missionaries. I have also been in Africa and around missionaries for over 13 years. I have seen a lot of missionaries come and go and have, thus, observed some things that may or may not contribute to longevity on the field as well as happiness on the field.
One of the greatest killers that I have seen of, particularly, younger missionaries is unmet expectations. When a missionary is asked to come to the field, they are likely asked to come out and do something in particular. However, often that thing they have been asked to do does not come to fruition and they must now do something else, or it is not quite what they thought it would be. At this stage, a missionary/missionary family has two choices: 1) they can be really upset about it, stew about it and waste valuable time in a new culture, or 2) they can roll with the punches and realize that sometimes things are not what we think they are going to be in ministry. We see this often with teams that come to Africa. They always want to have a schedule of events, times, etc., as to what is going to happen during their time. We always supply them with this, but on their very first night in the country, we stress to them that things WILL change because this is Africa. Expectations will likely not be met in one area, but could be exceeded in others. Be willing to roll with the punches, go with the flow and accept changes as they come.
Expectations can go further than the work one is expected to do. For example, when we first moved to Swaziland, we knew they had Internet/ADSL. We were moving from South Africa where they indeed had all of the modern conveniences one enjoys in the Western world. However, we quickly learned that ADSL Internet was just a dream. The place where I worked had it, sort of, but it was so slow that it would take me an entire morning to load my Gmail just to read my emails. My husband’s office “shared” a line with a nearby business, but it also did not always work. If we wanted to put a line in our home, the waiting list was well over six months, so we never got it in our home. What I am saying is this: just because a country says it has something, don’t expect it to work or work like you are used to. We have high speed Internet here in Madagascar, but during rainy season, like now, it goes out often with the heavy rains/typhoons. Our stores run out of things for months on end, prices go up, things are no longer available, etc. Expect nothing and be happy with anything—that’s my motto.
Another thing that can kill a missionary/missionary family is pride or a “know-it-all” attitude. I am going to speak from an American perspective here since I am American. As Americans, we are very confident in our abilities, particularly if we have graduated from college or have our master's degree, etc. This is not necessarily a bad thing…in America; but in the rest of the world, it generally comes across as off-putting arrogance and pride. Whether or not you are truly a prideful person, it is easy to come across that way. In Africa, this perceived pride can drive a wedge between the missionary and the local. In Africa, your credentials and degrees don’t mean nearly as much as your age and your life experience. Sure, you can be qualified, get a good job, etc., but you are always, always required to give respect to your elders, even if you really know more than they do. Approaching situations with a patient, teachable attitude, even if you know what you are doing, can go a long way in cultures that are relational, like African cultures, and, indeed, most cultures around the world except the West. The speed with which something is accomplished is not nearly as important as the relationships built along the way.
If I had to pick a third thing, I would also put conflict in there, too, as a “killer” of missionaries. This is always a rather funny one for me because we face conflicts at every turn. Conflict happens in Western settings as well as non-Western ones, but it can completely demoralize and deflate a new missionary/missionary family. Conflicts often arise out of a lack of cultural understanding of the other party or their leadership style. I can’t say to a new missionary to avoid conflict because that is simply not possible, unless you are dead. However, handling conflict with grace and not taking it personally are probably two keys to dealing with and moving on from it. It is my personality that I do not hold grudges, and I thank God for this. I don’t have a good enough memory to remember what you did to me two weeks ago, let alone two or 20 years ago. Thus, I don’t hold grudges. I feel that this is also a good skill for the mission field. Have a short memory when it comes to your conflict and your anger. Certainly learn from the conflict, but move on and become a better minister, not an embittered one.
These are my two cents on what a missionary should not do. I must put in a disclaimer and say this is only my opinion and not the opinion of the Church of the Nazarene or the leadership of the Church of the Nazarene in Africa or anywhere else in the world, for that matter. There are missionaries who have been out longer than I have and may have a completely different set of “don’ts” than I do—that is fine. This is what I have learned in my years of cross-cultural living and ministry in Africa. -- Rachelle (Shelly) Miller [7] is married to Ronald and is the mommy to Abigail, Malachi and Elijah. Shelly and Ronald have been Specialized Assignment Missionaries on the Africa Region since early 2010 and have served in both Swaziland and, currently, Madagascar, where they are the country’s mission coordinators and also overseeing the Madagascar Street Kids Center [8] and NCMI [9], church growth, leadership training and child sponsorship amongst other things. They love where God has placed them and love the people and the ministry in Madagascar. 
________________________________________
La historia de Raju by Gina Grate Pottenger 
Mientras que Raju* se apiñaba en la pequeña habitación que compartía en la casa de su hermano en Katmandú, él sabía que su vida se estaba desenmarañando con rapidez. Él había transicionado desde sacerdote religioso en servicio a ídolos, a construir bombas para un grupo político subterráneo, y ahora huía y se ocultaba en la ciudad.
Cuando él era pequeño, su padre era sacerdote de una religión en la cual servía a varios dioses. Raju estaba en entrenamiento para convertirse en sacerdote de la misma manera, pero desde joven su interés era la política. Él se involucró en ese campo a la edad de 11 años, luego de que un pariente cercano fuera asesinado por el gobierno.
“Me afectó mucho, así que comencé a pensar en por qué él había sido asesinado.”
Como niño, él comenzó a reclutar a individuos para unirse al partido de oposición. Al crecer, entrenó a los nuevos miembros del partido. Eventualmente, él comenzó a construir bombas y a enseñarle a otros cómo hacerlo. A pesar de que él jamás utilizó ninguna de sus bombas, la gente a la que entrenó sí las usó en varios lugares. Él se involucraba en protestas y en una ocasión pasó un mes en la cárcel.
Sus 35 años de involucramiento en la política de oposición llegaron a un alto cuando las fuerzas militares comenzaron a buscarlo. A pesar de tener esposa y cuatro hijas, él se vio forzado a dejarlos para escapar rumbo a la ciudad capital, donde podría ocultarse en una habitación dentro de la casa de su hermano.
Encerrado en la casa día tras día, con miedo de ser reconocido y capturado, él tuvo mucho tiempo para reflexionar acerca de su situación y de cuánto extrañaba a su familia. No parecía existir un fin para su predicamento.
El único lugar donde él se sentía a salvo era un pequeño puesto de té donde bebía té Nepalés con leche y especias. La dueña del local se percató de su aspecto pálido y ansioso, y le dio un Nuevo Testamento, diciéndole, "Lea esto y verá que le dará paz.”
Él se llevó el Nuevo Testamento a su casa pero no lo leyó. No estaba interesado en explorar otra religión.
Un día, alguien golpeó a su puerta. Al abrirla, se encontró con soldados del ejército. Ellos estaban inspeccionando documentos de identidad. Él se había despojado de su documento de identidad, así que al sentirse intimidado por los hombres, tomó su Nuevo Testamento y dijo, "Soy Cristiano. Ésta es mi Biblia.”
Cuando los soldados vieron el libro se volvieron más amistosos. Ellos le sugirieron obtener un documento de identidad mediante su iglesia local, le agradecieron por su tiempo y partieron.
"Cuando me encontré en esa situación pensé acerca de mi tarea anterior construyendo bombas, y cuando hacía tareas de sacerdote, pero todo mi trabajo jamás me salvaría al encontrarme en peligro. Pero la Biblia me salvó en una hora crítica. El libro me salvó la vida. ¿Qué había dentro de la Biblia? Debía haber algo muy bueno dentro de ella."
A partir de entonces, Raju sintió curiosidad acerca de esta religión, y el día sábado él tomó su Biblia y marchó valientemente a través de la ciudad. Pero él no tenía idea de dónde encontraría una iglesia. Se acercó a un hombre y le preguntó si conocía alguna iglesia en el área. El hombre resultó ser un pastor, y Raju fue junto a él a su iglesia.
"Entré a la iglesia y el servicio comenzó mientras que yo me sentaba en uno de los asientos de más atrás; yo sólo observaba lo que ocurría. En esa ocasión, el predicador estaba predicando acerca del amor de Dios. Llegué a darme cuenta de que sólo Dios podía ayudarme a vivir, y decidí aceptar a Cristo ese mismo día."
Cuando su hermano se enteró de que Raju había decidido seguir a Jesús, él lo echó de su casa. Ahora Raju se encontraba sin hogar, sin trabajo, sin dinero, y sin un lugar donde vivir. La mujer del puesto de té y el pastor lo ayudaron a conseguir ropa y un lugar donde vivir, y lo ayudaron a integrarse a la vida de la iglesia.
Durante meses, otras personas pagaron su alquiler y le trajeron arroz para comer. Al ver suplidas sus necesidades básicas, en ocasiones a través de medios milagrosos, su nueva fe comenzó a crecer.
Él también pasó varios años recibiendo educación teológica.
Cuando la tensión política se redujo, Raju quiso plantar una iglesia en su aldea de origen. Durante este tiempo él se puso en contacto con Dilli Ijam, el superintendente de distrito de la Iglesia del Nazareno en Nepal. Cuando Ijam pudo pasar tiempo con Raju y observarlo en su ministerio, él se dio cuenta de que Raju sería un candidato perfecto para liderar un proyecto semilla del ministerio de compasión en su distrito, debido a su trasfondo en agricultura. Raju aceptó el proyecto y se familiarizó más con la denominación y sus doctrinas. Rápidamente decidió unirse a la Iglesia del Nazareno.
Mientras que supervisaba el proyecto semilla, Raju plantó una iglesia nazarena en su aldea.
Pero hubo desafíos al reunirse con su familia. Su esposa, quien se encontraba involucrada en manera activa dentro de la religión anterior de su esposo, se había molestado al enterarse de que él se había convertido en ministro cristiano. Ella ni siquiera bebía un vaso de agua que él le diera.
A pesar de que su esposa se resistía a su nueva fe, sus hijas llegaron a conocer a Jesús, una a la vez. Pronto, todas oraban por su madre. Ellas también se involucraron en la iglesia, una de ellas sirviendo como líder de oración, otra cantando en el coro y enseñándole a los niños, y otra se encuentra activa dentro de Juventud Nazarena Internacional.
Luego de cinco años, la esposa de Raju finalmente se enamoró de Jesús y se convirtió en seguidora. Hoy en día, cuando él se ausenta de la iglesia, ella dirige los servicios en su lugar.
"Estoy tan agradecido de que todos en mi familia se hayan convertido en cristianos. Todos estamos creciendo en Cristo y creo que esto es una gran ganancia en mi vida", dijo él.
Ellos han plantado una segunda iglesia que ya cuenta con más de 50 miembros. Los sábados, Raju trabaja en la primer iglesia, y los domingos lidera la segunda.
"Personalmente puedo decir que este hombre tiene la fuerza requerida para liderar este ministerio", dijo Ijam. "Él no piensa dos veces antes de compartir a Jesucristo, ya sea junto a sus vecinos en el autobús o donde sea. Él tiene la capacidad para predicar y además tiene una gran capacidad para enseñar. Sus prédicas están influenciando a mucha gente."
*Su nombre ha sido cambiado por motivos de seguridad. -- Traducido por Ed Brussa.
-------
Raju's story by Gina Grate Pottenger 
As Raju* huddled in the small room he was sharing in his brother’s house in Kathmandu, he knew his life was rapidly unraveling. He had gone from being a religious priest serving idols, to building bombs for an underground political party, to fleeing into hiding in the city.
When he was growing up, his father was a priest in a religion serving many gods. Raju was training to be a priest, too, but from his earliest years he was more interested in politics. He got involved at age 11 when a close relative was killed by the government.
“It affected me and I started to think about why he was killed.”
As a child, he started recruiting people to join the opposition party. As he grew older, he trained new party members. Eventually he began building bombs and teaching others how to make them. Although he never actually used one of his bombs, the people he taught did use in different places. He was involved in protests and once spent a month in jail.
His 35 years of involvement in opposition politics came to a halt when the military began looking for him. Although he had a wife and four children, he was forced to leave them behind for the anonymity of the capital city where he could hide out in a room of his brother’s house.
Stuck in the house day after day, afraid to go out for fear of being recognized and captured, he had lots of time to dwell on his situation and how much he missed his family. There didn’t seem to be an end in sight to his predicament.
The only place he felt safe was a small tea stall where he would drink spiced, milky Nepali tea. The woman who owned the shop noticed he looked pale and anxious. She handed him a New Testament Bible and said, “Read this and you will get peace.”
He took the Bible home but he didn’t read it. He was not interested in exploring another religion.
One day, there was a knock on his door. When he opened it, soldiers from the army stood there. They were checking identity cards. He had gotten rid of his identity card, and so, afraid of the men, he grabbed the Bible and said, “I am a Christian? See, here is my Bible.”
When the soldiers saw the Bible, they became friendly. They advised him to get an identity card through his local church, thanked him for his time and left.
“When I thought about that situation I thought [about] my previous work in making a bomb, [and] I was doing the priestly work and all my work could not save me when I’m in danger. But the Bible saved me in such a critical hour. The Bible book itself saved my life, then what is inside the Bible? There must be a very, very good thing inside of it.”
Now Raju was curious about this religion, and on Saturday he took the Bible and marched boldly through the city. But he didn’t know where the church was. He saw another person and approached him, asking if the man knew a church in the area. The man turned out to be a pastor. Raju went with him to his church.
“I entered the church and the service started and I was sitting in the back and I was just looking at the things going on.  That time the preacher was preaching on the sermon about [the] love of God. I came to realize only God can help me to live and I decided to accept Christ the same day.”
When his brother learned Raju had decided to follow Jesus, he kicked Raju out of his house. Now he was homeless – he had no job, no money and nowhere to stay. The woman from the tea stall and the pastor helped him to find some clothes and another place to stay, and they helped to integrate him into the life of the church.
For months, other people paid his rent, and brought him handfuls of their leftover rice to eat. Having his basic needs met, sometimes through miraculous means, built his fledgling faith.
He also spent several years pursuing theological education.
When the political situation eased, Raju wanted to plant a church in his home village. About this time, he became acquainted with Dilli Ijam, the district superintendent of the Church of the Nazarene in Nepal. When Ijam spent time with Raju and watched him in ministry, he realized Raju would be perfect for leading a compassionate ministry seed project in his home district because of his background in agriculture. Raju agreed to take on the project and became more familiar with the denomination and its doctrines. He quickly decided to join the Church of the Nazarene.
While overseeing the seed project, Raju planted a Nazarene church in his home village.
But in reuniting with his family there were challenges. His wife, who was actively involved in Raju’s former religion, was upset that he had become a Christian minister. She would not even drink a cup of water that he handed to her.
While his wife resisted his new faith, one at a time their daughters came to know Jesus personally. Soon they were all praying for their mother. They also became involved in the church, one of them serving as the worship leader, another singing in the choir and teaching the children; and a third daughter is active in Nazarene Youth International.
After five years, Raju’s wife finally fell in love with Jesus, herself, and became a follower. Today, when he is absent from the church, she leads the services in his place.
“I am so much thankful that my whole family become Christian. We all are coming to Christ and I’m thinking it is … a big gain in my life,” he said.
They have planted a second church that now has more than 50 members. On Saturdays, Raju works in the first church, and on Sundays he leads the second one.
“I personally can tell you this man has a very great strength to lead the ministry,” Ijam said. “He doesn’t hesitate telling Jesus Christ, just sitting by his neighbors sitting on the bus or wherever. He has a capacity of preaching and he also has a capacity of teaching. His preaching I tell you it’s very much influencing people.”
*Name changed for security reasons.
________________________________________
Doing Mission Well: Humility by Howard Culbertson 
Question: What one factor should be common to effective missionaries? I vote for “humility.” That may seem obvious, but sadly, because of cultural maladjustment or other issues, missionaries sometimes project aloofness, or they come off as self-centered and even demanding. Fortunately, in missionaries like Gladys Aylward we can see excellent examples of humility.  
In 1957, Alan Burgess wrote a book titled The Small Woman. That book recounted the life of Gladys Aylward, who had just retired from missionary service in China. At only 4 feet, 10 inches tall (1.4 meters), Gladys was indeed small, but she did become one of the 20th century’s most well-known female missionaries.
After becoming a Christian in her 20s, Gladys felt called to China.  She had little education and, at that point, the only apparent skill she had was being a household servant. She went through one mission board’s training for prospective missionaries, but was then rejected for overseas service.
Gladys felt so strongly called to China that she decided to go on her own.  She began saving money from her job as a maid, and by age 30 had enough to book passage to China.
Through one extreme circumstance after another, Gladys’ missionary service was characterized by humble dependence on God. For instance, on her trip to China she was almost abducted and sent to a Siberian labor camp.  Then, the veteran missionary lady she had gone to China to assist died within a year after Gladys arrived.  On one occasion Gladys was asked to go into a prison to put down a riot (which she did). She survived bombing and strafing attacks by Japanese war planes.  She battled the cruel practice of crippling baby girls by tightly binding their feet.
In her humility Gladys often said:  "I wasn't God's first choice for what I've done for China.  I don't know who it was. It must have been a man, a well-educated man. I don't know what happened. Perhaps he died. Perhaps he wasn't willing.”
By the time the Japanese military invaded China in the late 1930s, Gladys was running an orphanage for 100 orphans. With the battlefront approaching, Gladys single-handedly walked those orphans, many of them toddlers, across nearly 100 miles of mountainous terrain.  
Though a very extraordinary woman, Gladys referred to herself as “insignificant, uneducated, and ordinary in every way.” Indeed, when she returned home to Britain, the attention she received embarrased her. It further upset her that a movie inspired by her life story portrayed a female missionary in ways Gladys felt were far larger-than-life.  
"I doubt people would think I've done anything interesting," she exclaimed to a BBC journalist.
Gladys Aylward’s humility endeared her to the Chinese and enabled the Lord to use her to transform the lives of slaves, murderers, children, Mandarins, bandit generals, lepers, students and ordinary villagers. Initially called a “foreign devil,” Gladys’ humble demeanor won over the Chinese people, and rather than stumbling over her British name, they began calling her “Virtuous One.” -- Howard Culbertson served as a missionary in Haiti and Italy for 15 years, and spent the past 25 years as a professor of mission at Southern Nazarene University [7].
Talk about it:
How would you describe the virtue of humility?
How did Jesus embody humility?
Why does humility attract and disarm people?
Why is humility a critical character trait for a missionary? For any Christ-follower?
How does someone become more humble?
How can we pray for God to grow the virtue of humility in us?
________________________________________ 
Video: Why WEF? Reaching new places by Gina Grate Pottenger
Your giving to World Evangelism Fund (WEF) helps the Church of the Nazarene to enter new world areas with the transforming power of Jesus Christ.
The nation of Moldova is one example. Prior to 2010, the denomination had no presence in this former Soviet nation.
In Moldova, alcoholism and addiction are widespread problems. Nazarene leaders wanted to send missionaries to begin a new work in Moldova. They sent Sergei and Irina Talalay, Russian Nazarenes who had received a call to ministry. Sergei was a former alcoholic who had found freedom through Nazarene addiction rehabilitation ministry in Russia. They decided to launch addiction rehabilitation work in conjunction with church planting.
World Evangelism Fund provided the operational budget to send the Talalays to Moldova. Nazarenes' giving to WEF funded an apartment where the couple could live while starting Nazarene ministry through Bible studies and church services. Nazarenes' generosity also provided resources for hosting kids’ camps and an adult family retreat.
Three years later, they have a worship service on Sunday mornings, and a regular Bible study with a core group of about 40 to 50 people. The children’s ministry is thriving.
One of the new believers is Nikolay Colesnichenko. Nikolay had been an alcoholic for 20 years. As is traditional in Moldova, he began drinking wine at the age of 2 or 3. After returning from a tour in the army at age 20, he began drinking heavily.
“At the age of 40 I was a walking corpse,” he says.
He drank three bottles of vodka a day just to feel normal; his body trembled constantly and he lost coordination.  Nikolay repeatedly promised his wife, Tatiana, and their children that he would quit, but he failed over and over again.
On his way to work one day, he saw an ad for addiction rehabilitation. When he answered the ad, he met Sergei and Irina.
“I came to the office of Open Hearts and there I heard about Jesus, the Good News, the Word of God. After the third meeting, I repented of my sins. God miraculously touched me, put His arm around me and gave me freedom.”
He began attending the worship services held at the Talalays’ home. His wife was afraid he had gotten involved with a cult, so she came with him to see what was happening at these meetings. Soon his wife committed her life to Christ as well. Both of their adult children have attended the church.
Nikolay has now been sober for 3 years. He is working a steady job now and is trying to pay back the financial debt he accumulated during 20 years of alcoholism.
“God is putting things in order in my life. He is restoring family relationships, healing the wounds of my loved ones. Since the day I repented and accepted Jesus Christ, God has answered me and my prayers and supplied all my needs according to His will.”
Through your giving to World Evangelism Fund, the Church of the Nazarene entered Moldova, where a fledgling church is growing, and where the Holy Spirit rescued Nikolay and his family from the ravages of alcoholism.
World Evangelism Fund: Be part of something larger.
Talk about it
Should the Nazarene denomination continue seeking to enter parts of the world where there is little to no Christian witness?
Should we enter new areas where other churches are already at work?
How do you feel about knowing there is a fund you can contribute to which sends Nazarene missionaries to places like Moldova?
Many people think to plant a new church, it is best to do overt evangelistic activities, such as knocking on doors, performing street evangelism and hosting revival services. What kind of ministry did the Talalays start with? What do you think about that?
Why do you think Nikolay, who was seeking relief from alcoholism, was open to receiving Jesus Christ?
Did this addiction rehabilitation affect just Nikolay, or extend to others?
How can you participate in WEF giving, and pray for this new work in Moldova?
________________________________________