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Both Old and New Testaments speak of God’s people being “light to the Gentiles.” Isaiah used that phrase twice (Isaiah 42:6 and 49:6). Those same words appear at the beginning of the New Testament when Mary and Joseph “presented” eight-day-old Jesus in the Temple. That day, an elderly priest named Simeon took the infant Messiah in his arms. As he did so, the Holy Spirit moved him to quote Isaiah’s “light to the Gentiles” phrase (Luke 2:28-32).
About 50 years later, Paul was on his first missionary journey hundreds of miles northeast of Jewish territory. In Psidian Antioch he and Barnabas said Isaiah’s “light to the Gentiles” phrase was why they were preaching about the Jewish Messiah to a Gentile audience far from Jerusalem. As Paul and Barnabas quoted Isaiah’s “light to the Gentiles,” they said, “The Lord commanded us.”
To be sure, today we almost never use the word “Gentile” in everyday speaking. So, would that mean “light to the Gentiles” has little relevance to us today? Hardly. To First Century Jews, “Gentiles” meant every other ethnic group on the planet. Furthermore, while some Gentiles lived in or at least close to Israel, most lived far, far away. Getting the light to those Gentiles meant crossing geographic as well as cultural and language barriers.
“Light to the Gentiles” thus clearly speaks about world evangelism. Indeed, to further emphasize that “light to the Gentiles” is something different from evangelizing people just like us who live near us, Paul and Barnabas added the “ends of the earth” phrase used by Jesus just before His ascension (Acts 1:8). “Light to the Gentiles” thus pushes us to make “ends of the earth” evangelism as equally important as near-neighbor evangelism.
Referring to the contrast between darkness and light signals that Christianity is more than just another religious option. The clear implication is that, no matter how “good” or “spiritual” people may seem, those without Jesus are in darkness.
A decade ago Chris Rice and Kathy Troccoli had us singing “Carry your candle; run to the darkness.” ( http://youtu.be/CVqR6kTu8lE and http://youtu.be/WsM5lt9tCFo ). Sadly, the Church has not always run toward the darkness carrying the light. Indeed, 2,000 years after the day of Pentecost there are still people groups to which the Church has not yet taken the gospel light. Sadly, one sometimes gets the impression that the Church is waiting for the darkness to come to it.
The “go” in Jesus’ Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20) exhorts us to take the light to today’s “Gentiles,” those who have yet to see the light. Will we do it? Will we be light to all the peoples of the world?
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Iniciativa Génesis trae transformación social a comunidad de República Dominicana by Gina Grate Pottenger
About 50 years later, Paul was on his first missionary journey hundreds of miles northeast of Jewish territory. In Psidian Antioch he and Barnabas said Isaiah’s “light to the Gentiles” phrase was why they were preaching about the Jewish Messiah to a Gentile audience far from Jerusalem. As Paul and Barnabas quoted Isaiah’s “light to the Gentiles,” they said, “The Lord commanded us.”
To be sure, today we almost never use the word “Gentile” in everyday speaking. So, would that mean “light to the Gentiles” has little relevance to us today? Hardly. To First Century Jews, “Gentiles” meant every other ethnic group on the planet. Furthermore, while some Gentiles lived in or at least close to Israel, most lived far, far away. Getting the light to those Gentiles meant crossing geographic as well as cultural and language barriers.
“Light to the Gentiles” thus clearly speaks about world evangelism. Indeed, to further emphasize that “light to the Gentiles” is something different from evangelizing people just like us who live near us, Paul and Barnabas added the “ends of the earth” phrase used by Jesus just before His ascension (Acts 1:8). “Light to the Gentiles” thus pushes us to make “ends of the earth” evangelism as equally important as near-neighbor evangelism.
Referring to the contrast between darkness and light signals that Christianity is more than just another religious option. The clear implication is that, no matter how “good” or “spiritual” people may seem, those without Jesus are in darkness.
A decade ago Chris Rice and Kathy Troccoli had us singing “Carry your candle; run to the darkness.” ( http://youtu.be/CVqR6kTu8lE and http://youtu.be/WsM5lt9tCFo ). Sadly, the Church has not always run toward the darkness carrying the light. Indeed, 2,000 years after the day of Pentecost there are still people groups to which the Church has not yet taken the gospel light. Sadly, one sometimes gets the impression that the Church is waiting for the darkness to come to it.
The “go” in Jesus’ Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20) exhorts us to take the light to today’s “Gentiles,” those who have yet to see the light. Will we do it? Will we be light to all the peoples of the world?
Read More
En la comunidad de Haina, en Santo Domingo, República Dominicana, la mayoría de las parejas adultas que cohabitan no están casadas. Muchas han estado juntas durante años y tienen hijos. A su vez, con la concurrencia regular de 21 de estas personas a una nueva iglesia nazarena, y al entregar sus vidas a Cristo, el Espíritu Santo ha estado hablándoles gentilmente acerca de la necesidad de casarse – una creencia doctrinal fundamental en la fe cristiana.
Ésta es la realidad que enfrenta el ministerio de Luz Jiménez y Zabdi Jessica Delgado (foto de abajo), dos misioneras que trabajan con la iniciativa Génesis en Mesoamérica, la cual las envió para plantar una iglesia en Haina este año pasado. Varios de quienes concurren a la iglesia se entregaron a Cristo en abril de 2014, cuando las misioneras en entrenamiento llevaron a cabo el evento de evangelismo Maximum Mission (misión máxima) en Haina.
Ésta es la realidad que enfrenta el ministerio de Luz Jiménez y Zabdi Jessica Delgado (foto de abajo), dos misioneras que trabajan con la iniciativa Génesis en Mesoamérica, la cual las envió para plantar una iglesia en Haina este año pasado. Varios de quienes concurren a la iglesia se entregaron a Cristo en abril de 2014, cuando las misioneras en entrenamiento llevaron a cabo el evento de evangelismo Maximum Mission (misión máxima) en Haina.
Luego de eso, tres nuevos creyentes (Félix y su compañera, Jacqueline, así como una mujer llamada Martiza) comenzaron a reunirse con Jiménez y Delgado para recibir discipulado y oración y, emocionados acerca de su nueva fe, comenzaron a traer amigos y miembros de sus familias junto a ellos a las reuniones. De este modo, la congregación creció.
El concepto de iglesia era algo tan nuevo para ellos, que al principio cuando era la hora de concurrir al servicio, Jiménez y Delgado tenían que ir a buscar a la gente para recordarles que era tiempo de reunirse.
“Pero ahora, luego de ocho meses, ya no tenemos que salir a buscarlos. Ellos vienen a la iglesia por su propia iniciativa”, dijo Jiménez. “Podemos ver que la vida ha cambiado en comparación a ocho meses atrás. Ellos no sabían cómo orar. Y ahora, cuando oramos por alguien que se encuentra enfermo, todos se acercan y ponen sus manos sobre la persona que se encuentra enferma, y oramos juntos”.
El grupo se reúne en un espacio vacío arriba de un pequeño supermercado. Los médicos le habían dicho al dueño del supermercado que a él sólo le quedaban unos pocos meses de vida. La nueva congregación y las misioneras oraron por el hombre para que fuese sanado. Y así fue. Como muestra de su gratitud, él les dio el espacio para que lo utilice la iglesia.
Mientras que continúan creciendo en su fe, los nuevo creyentes han sido guiados por el Espíritu Santo en cuanto a la necesidad de pararse delante de Dios y comprometerse con Él, así como con sus compañeros de vida, en matrimonio con Cristo como el centro de su relación.
“Había un hermano (Félix) que a penas había empezado a tomar los primeros pequeños pasos de fe con Dios, y él no quería casarse pero su esposa (Jacqueline) era cristiana y ella realmente quería casarse”, dijo Jiménez . “Pero en estos ocho meses hemos estado trabajando con él en el área del discipulado, él se ha dado cuenta de que necesita estar casado para poder vivir una vida más completa en Dios”.
El concepto de iglesia era algo tan nuevo para ellos, que al principio cuando era la hora de concurrir al servicio, Jiménez y Delgado tenían que ir a buscar a la gente para recordarles que era tiempo de reunirse.
“Pero ahora, luego de ocho meses, ya no tenemos que salir a buscarlos. Ellos vienen a la iglesia por su propia iniciativa”, dijo Jiménez. “Podemos ver que la vida ha cambiado en comparación a ocho meses atrás. Ellos no sabían cómo orar. Y ahora, cuando oramos por alguien que se encuentra enfermo, todos se acercan y ponen sus manos sobre la persona que se encuentra enferma, y oramos juntos”.
Mientras que continúan creciendo en su fe, los nuevo creyentes han sido guiados por el Espíritu Santo en cuanto a la necesidad de pararse delante de Dios y comprometerse con Él, así como con sus compañeros de vida, en matrimonio con Cristo como el centro de su relación.
“Había un hermano (Félix) que a penas había empezado a tomar los primeros pequeños pasos de fe con Dios, y él no quería casarse pero su esposa (Jacqueline) era cristiana y ella realmente quería casarse”, dijo Jiménez . “Pero en estos ocho meses hemos estado trabajando con él en el área del discipulado, él se ha dado cuenta de que necesita estar casado para poder vivir una vida más completa en Dios”.
Félix quería sorprender a Jacqueline casándose con ella. Pero mientras que los misioneros y Félix se encargaban de realizar el proceso legal, ellos se dieron cuenta de que Jacqueline debía estar involucrada en el papeleo, de modo que le compartieron el plan.
Ocho de las parejas en la iglesia ya han dicho que quieren tener una ceremonia nupcial como el próximo paso en su fe. Pero ellos se han encontrado con algunos problemas.
Uno de los motivos principales por el cual tantas parejas en Haina no se casan es que el papeleo legal necesario para ello puede ser un proceso largo y costoso. Otra razón es que muchas personas pobres en Haina no fueron registradas con el gobierno al nacer, de modo que no tienen el certificado de nacimiento requerido para poder casarse legalmente.
Al día de hoy, dos de las ocho parejas tienen todo su papeleo hecho. La iglesia está planificando una ceremonia nupcial para ellos, y posiblemente para una tercer pareja.
Sin embargo, la ceremonia no sería posible sin el apoyo financiero de Bluffton Church of the Nazarene, de Indiana (en los Estados Unidos), la cual estará enviando a un equipo de Trabajo y Testimonio a Haina a principios de febrero, con fondos para comprar vestimenta de bodas, anillos y para cubrir los demás costos de la ceremonia grupal.
La ceremonia será un testimonio para toda la comunidad en cuanto a los planes de Dios para la familia y para el matrimonio.
“La gente aquí en la República Dominicana por lo general cree en Dios”, dijo Delgado. “Pero no están dispuestos a asumir ese compromiso. Creo que cuando vean esta ceremonia, ellos verán que a través del compromiso existe una transformación que ocurre en las vidas”.
Jiménez y Delgado dijeron que ellas continuarán ayudando a las otras parejas a completar el proceso legal, y esperan tener más ceremonias nupciales en el futuro cercano. ¿Qué mejor manera de demostrar que la iglesia es la esposa de Cristo, sino que siendo una iglesia que realiza casamientos?[Traducido por Ed Brussa.]
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Genesis initiative brings social transformation to DR community by Gina Grate Pottenger
Ocho de las parejas en la iglesia ya han dicho que quieren tener una ceremonia nupcial como el próximo paso en su fe. Pero ellos se han encontrado con algunos problemas.
Uno de los motivos principales por el cual tantas parejas en Haina no se casan es que el papeleo legal necesario para ello puede ser un proceso largo y costoso. Otra razón es que muchas personas pobres en Haina no fueron registradas con el gobierno al nacer, de modo que no tienen el certificado de nacimiento requerido para poder casarse legalmente.
Al día de hoy, dos de las ocho parejas tienen todo su papeleo hecho. La iglesia está planificando una ceremonia nupcial para ellos, y posiblemente para una tercer pareja.
Sin embargo, la ceremonia no sería posible sin el apoyo financiero de Bluffton Church of the Nazarene, de Indiana (en los Estados Unidos), la cual estará enviando a un equipo de Trabajo y Testimonio a Haina a principios de febrero, con fondos para comprar vestimenta de bodas, anillos y para cubrir los demás costos de la ceremonia grupal.
La ceremonia será un testimonio para toda la comunidad en cuanto a los planes de Dios para la familia y para el matrimonio.
“La gente aquí en la República Dominicana por lo general cree en Dios”, dijo Delgado. “Pero no están dispuestos a asumir ese compromiso. Creo que cuando vean esta ceremonia, ellos verán que a través del compromiso existe una transformación que ocurre en las vidas”.
Jiménez y Delgado dijeron que ellas continuarán ayudando a las otras parejas a completar el proceso legal, y esperan tener más ceremonias nupciales en el futuro cercano. ¿Qué mejor manera de demostrar que la iglesia es la esposa de Cristo, sino que siendo una iglesia que realiza casamientos?[Traducido por Ed Brussa.]
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Genesis initiative brings social transformation to DR community by Gina Grate Pottenger
In the community of Haina, in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, most cohabiting adult couples are not married. Many have been together for years and have children. Yet, as 21 of these individuals have begun to regularly attend a new Nazarene church plant and give their lives to Christ, the Holy Spirit has been gently speaking to them about their need to be married – an elementary doctrinal belief in the Christian faith.
This is the ministry reality faced by Luz Jiménez and Zabdi Jessica Delgado (photo below), two missionaries with the Mesoamerica Genesis initiative, which deployed them to plant a church in Haina earlier last year. Several attenders of the church plant came to Christ in April 2014, when the missionaries-in-training conducted a Maximum Mission evangelism event in Haina.
Afterward, three new believers—Félix and his partner Jacqueline, and a woman named Martiza—began meeting with Jiménez and Delgado for discipleship and prayer and, excited about their new faith, brought friends and family members with them to the gatherings. So the congregation grew.
The idea of church was such a novel concept to the people that at first when it was time for the services, Jiménez and Delgado had to go find the people and remind them that it was time to gather.
“But now after eight months we don’t have to go and look for them. They come to the church on their own,” Jiménez said. “We can see life has changed from eight months ago. They didn’t know how to pray. And now when we’re praying together for somebody who’s sick, everybody comes up and places their hands on the person who’s sick and we pray together.”
The group meets in an empty space above a small supermarket. The owner of the supermarket had been told by doctors that he had only a few months to live. The new congregation and the missionaries prayed for the man to be healed. And he was. Out of gratefulness he gave them the space to use for the church.
As they continue growing in their faith, the new believers have been nudged by the Holy Spirit about their need to stand before God and commit to Him and to their partner to be together for life in marriage in which Christ is the center of the relationship.
“There was one brother (Félix) that had just started taking those small steps of faith with God and he didn’t really want to get married but his wife (Jacqueline) was a Christian and she really wanted to get married,” Jiménez said. “But in these eight months we’ve been working with him in discipleship, he has realized he needs to get married to be able to live a fuller life in God.”
This is the ministry reality faced by Luz Jiménez and Zabdi Jessica Delgado (photo below), two missionaries with the Mesoamerica Genesis initiative, which deployed them to plant a church in Haina earlier last year. Several attenders of the church plant came to Christ in April 2014, when the missionaries-in-training conducted a Maximum Mission evangelism event in Haina.
The idea of church was such a novel concept to the people that at first when it was time for the services, Jiménez and Delgado had to go find the people and remind them that it was time to gather.
“But now after eight months we don’t have to go and look for them. They come to the church on their own,” Jiménez said. “We can see life has changed from eight months ago. They didn’t know how to pray. And now when we’re praying together for somebody who’s sick, everybody comes up and places their hands on the person who’s sick and we pray together.”
As they continue growing in their faith, the new believers have been nudged by the Holy Spirit about their need to stand before God and commit to Him and to their partner to be together for life in marriage in which Christ is the center of the relationship.
“There was one brother (Félix) that had just started taking those small steps of faith with God and he didn’t really want to get married but his wife (Jacqueline) was a Christian and she really wanted to get married,” Jiménez said. “But in these eight months we’ve been working with him in discipleship, he has realized he needs to get married to be able to live a fuller life in God.”
Félix wanted to surprise Jacqueline by marrying her. But as the missionaries and Félix worked through the legal process, they realized Jacqueline needed to be involved in the paperwork, so they brought her in on the plan.
Eight of the couples in the church have now said they want to complete a marriage ceremony as the next step in their faith. But they have run into some problems.
One of the primary reasons so many couples in Haina do not marry is because obtaining the legal paperwork necessary to get married can be a long and expensive process. Another reason is that many of the impoverished people in Haina are not registered with the government when they are born, so they do not have the birth certificate required to be legally married.
At the moment, two of the eight couples have all their paperwork. The church is planning a wedding ceremony for them, and possibly for a third couple.
The ceremony would not be possible, however, without the financial backing of Blufton Church of the Nazarene, Indiana, in the United States that is sending a Work & Witness team to Haina in early February, with funds to purchase wedding clothes, rings and the other costs for the group wedding.
The wedding will be a testimony to the whole community about God’s plans for the family and for marriage.
“The people here in the Dominican Republic in general believe in God,” said Delgado. “But they don’t want to make that commitment. I think when they see this wedding, they see commitment and that there’s a transformation of life taking place.”
Jiménez and Delgado said that they will continue helping the other couples work through the legal processes and hopefully have more weddings in the near future. What better way to realize their church is the bride of Christ than to be a church that hosts weddings?
Talk about it
NCM develops anti-trafficking ministry in Africa by Holly Beech, Out of Africa
Almost one-fifth of the world's human trafficking victims live in Africa, according to theGlobal Slavery Index. Poverty, war and discrimination put many Africans at risk, and more than 6 million men, women and children are exploited through forced labor and sex trafficking.
In May, Nazarene Compassionate Ministries-Africa brought on Stephen Phillips as the office's first ever anti-human trafficking and gender-based violence coordinator.
"I really believe it is something that we need," Africa Regional Director Filimao Chambo said. "(Modern slavery) happens in many ways that people don't really understand to be human trafficking."
A group meets in Johannesburg for an anti-trafficking workshop.
In the nine months since he started, Phillips has built partnerships with anti-trafficking organizations and has spearheaded trainings across Africa for church leaders, at-risk women and vulnerable youth.
"Growing up, I've always been really strong into advocacy and speaking up for the rights of others," said Phillips, a 25-year-old from Johannesburg who recently earned a bachelor's degree in law.
Phillips' focus throughout his first year has been on researching the problem and developing a strategy for NCM's ministry. The year 2015 will be more hands-on.
"This year we hope to do more practical things to help," NCM Africa Regional Coordinator Cosmas Mutowa said. "How can we really assist in a tangible way these people who are victims?"
NCM is preparing to turn an office in Johannesburg into a counseling and support center for trafficking victims, Mutowa said. There's no open date set, as NCM first needs to staff the center with trained personnel.
The Church's anti-trafficking and gender-based violence ministry reaches across the continent.
In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, some of the children at NCM's child development centers are former child soldiers, Mutowa said. The centers counsel and support the boys and try to help them find their families.
In South Africa and Swaziland, Phillips has helped coordinate anti-trafficking trainings for pastors, women and law enforcement. In Ghana, a local church hopes to start social justice clubs for youth. In Kenya, NCM teaches sustainable farming to at-risk women.
Phillips unites NCM's efforts with local partners, such as the National Freedom Network in South Africa and the International Justice Mission in Kenya.
Lasting partnerships are the most effective way to help churches and communities, he said. "So even when I leave, they'll continue to follow up with our local church."
Though NCM has not formerly engaged in the ministry of human trafficking in the past, Dr. Chambo said it's an important ministry. He hopes more churches began to catch the vision and create local anti-trafficking initiatives.
Sustainable agriculture is a key pillar in the fight against gender-based violence in communities. Women are seen here at a Nazarene Compassionate Ministries farming project in Kenya. The site is also working toward opening a counseling center for victims of gender-based violence. (Photos courtesy Stephen Phillips, NCM)Read More
NTC-South Africa principal shares testimony, dreams for NTC by Gina Grate Pottenger
When Catherine Lebese was 17, someone gave her a tract that was misprinted so that it was blank on the inside, and on the outside it had only a picture and the address for a Nazarene church. She was curious about the Christian faith, so she wrote to the address. The Mothotlung Church of the Nazarene, in an area of Johannesburg, South Africa, sent their new pastor to her home to speak to her about Christ, but Lebese was reluctant to make a commitment. She was familiar with the gospel, yet was skeptical about its truth.
“After he left, in the evening, [I thought] I’ve heard that so many times, I don’t even know if it’s true. Let’s try this and see if it works. I prayed, ‘Lord, if this is true what these people say about salvation, save me.’ Something changed immediately, I felt the change and I knew it was real and that’s when my walk with Christ started.”
The pastor had left her with the first lesson of the Basic Bible Studies and a Bible. Out of curiosity she decided to visit his church.
“The moment I stepped into the church, something deep inside told me this is home and I decided to stay, and I invited my friends and we started going. We became the first youth group in that church.”
After graduating high school, Lebese had no direction for what to do with her life. While reading the biography of a pastor, she began to feel troubled. She didn’t know what that meant. So she visited her local pastor and explained how she was feeling. He said it might mean God was calling her to something. He advised her to go home and pray, telling God that if He was calling her, she would say yes to whatever He asked her to do.
“If you have peace after that, you know God is calling you and if you still feel troubled, it’s something else,” her pastor said.
Lebese followed his advice, telling God that whatever He wanted her to do, she would do. Immediately she was filled with peace.
When it was time to apply to college, she felt led to attend the then Africa Nazarene Theological College in Port Elizabeth (now Nazarene Theological College-South Africa) in Muldersdrift, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in theology. Afterward she followed her call by spending a number of years assisting pastors or serving as a senior pastor in different churches. Lebese also earned a second bachelor’s degree in psychology and sociology, and then a master’s degree in sociology.
In 2003, she was asked to teach classes at NTC-South Africa, and in 2006 joined the staff as the registrar. In 2008, to her surprise she was made the academic dean. Then in March 2014, she was elected principal. When describing the sequence, Lebese acknowledges she was not expecting to lead and is seemingly still astounded to find herself in this role.
While leading the college, Lebese is also studying for a master’s degree in theology through NTC-South Africa’s partnership with Nazarene Theological College in Manchester, UK. For the past three years, she has been part of a cohort with nine of her school’s students, taking coursework in Johannesburg and making one visit to Manchester at the tail end of the program in January 2015.
Through being exposed to how a European college teaches and trains, Lebese is adding to her own vision and understanding of how NTC-South Africa can teach and train African students.
“It challenges not only me but every African that comes here to want to do theology for Africa, learn whatever you can and find ways of applying it back home. That is my dream: If I can see some of us writing from an African perspective and actually coming up with approaches to some of the things that we study, that would address some of the issues back home, that for me will be the greatest achievement ever.”
Africa is facing critical challenges in its theology, Lebese says.
The most difficult challenge is teaching and articulating a doctrine of entire sanctification – the denomination’s distinctive, core belief – in the African context.
“We are finding more and more people are struggling to understand or explain. Is it a crisis? Is it a process? So that becomes a bit of a problem. A lot of our pastors, even if they go through classes, cannot explain it in their churches.”
In South Africa, the way that the doctrine of entire sanctification has been taught and understood causes difficulty and confusion. Entire sanctification is popularly understood to remove the "root of sin once and for all," she explained. This has led to a widespread, mistaken thinking that a sanctified person is no longer able to sin. Yet people do continue to sin. A person who sins subsequent to testifying to sanctification can find themselves in a spiritual crisis, with people asking whether or not the person truly experienced sanctification. This understanding of entire sanctification as “sinless perfection” was denied by John Wesley, but has crept in to the spirituality of some holiness groups around the world. The Nazarene Church is currently reconsidering its articulation of the doctrine to prevent such misunderstandings. In Wesley’s theology, holiness is not the inability to sin, but a heart filled with love for God and neighbor. At its pinnacle, this love for God outweighs all other desires a person may have. Lebese’s work involves finding clear and creative ways to communicate this doctrine of Christian holiness.
“I think up until now we haven’t really reached the point where we can explain it in understandable terms to our people,” she said.
Currently, NTC-South Africa offers a certificate in ministry, a diploma in theology, and a bachelor of theology. Lebese’s goal is to introduce a master’s degree program in the next five years, and in the long-term to implement a PhD program.
“My dream is that [the students] would … continue to their bachelor’s and master’s and come and take over. I would be happy if one of my students would replace me as principal.”
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Mission lesson prompts church to reach out to neighbors by Dirk Young
So every third Saturday of each month church members go and show the love of Jesus to the children there. We play games, have conversation, feed and minister to the families of this community. Our church has truly embraced this ministry and we have great participation. The result has been incredible and God has blessed us and allowed us to be his hands and feet to those who need him. We have partnered with another church nearby and supplied book bags and school supplies, given Thanksgiving meals and Christmas meals to needy families who live here. We have seen lives change and one young man in particular has come to be a vital part of our youth group.
James (right in photo below) comes from a broken home and as the older sibling has been given a lot of responsibility of caring for his younger brothers. James has a big, beautiful smile and always has hugs for everyone. He will testify to now having a place where h
feels love and acceptance and knows people care about him, pray for him and encourage him. We have watched him grow in faith and become an involved, helpful and respected teen. He will be attendingNazarene Youth Conference (NYC) this summer through the selfless giving of church members who see the great potential and opportunity for this young man to be a part of this national event which draws together Nazarene youth from across the country every four years. He will be among thousands of other young people as they share in community projects, hear challenging messages and worship our Lord together. We are excited about James’ future -- and what God has for us, as well!
In Matthew 19:14 Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” Our prayer is to see the children, and their parents, come to know Him. So we go and strive to be Jesus to them and pray that they see Him in us and want to know Him for themselves.[Dirk Young is a lay leader in Mobile First Church of the Nazarene and his wife Amanda is the NMI president.]
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____________________________
Eight of the couples in the church have now said they want to complete a marriage ceremony as the next step in their faith. But they have run into some problems.
One of the primary reasons so many couples in Haina do not marry is because obtaining the legal paperwork necessary to get married can be a long and expensive process. Another reason is that many of the impoverished people in Haina are not registered with the government when they are born, so they do not have the birth certificate required to be legally married.
At the moment, two of the eight couples have all their paperwork. The church is planning a wedding ceremony for them, and possibly for a third couple.
The ceremony would not be possible, however, without the financial backing of Blufton Church of the Nazarene, Indiana, in the United States that is sending a Work & Witness team to Haina in early February, with funds to purchase wedding clothes, rings and the other costs for the group wedding.
The wedding will be a testimony to the whole community about God’s plans for the family and for marriage.
“The people here in the Dominican Republic in general believe in God,” said Delgado. “But they don’t want to make that commitment. I think when they see this wedding, they see commitment and that there’s a transformation of life taking place.”
Jiménez and Delgado said that they will continue helping the other couples work through the legal processes and hopefully have more weddings in the near future. What better way to realize their church is the bride of Christ than to be a church that hosts weddings?
Talk about it
- What do you think is the role of the church and the role of the Holy Spirit in convicting people of their sin?
- In Haina, people who were cohabiting but not married became believers and began attending the new church. Why do you think the missionaries allowed them to start attending church even though they were living together unmarried?
- Why do you think it took some time for the couples to realize their need to be married?
- What obstacles stand in the way of these new believers in bringing their relationship into rightness before God?
- What is the role of God's grace in these believers' lives as they journey toward marriage?
- Sometimes, we who have been Christians for a time expect new believers to be transformed completely in an instant. What does it mean when this is a slower process for new believers than we might have expected? How can we adjust to the pace of the Holy Spirit's work?
- How can you pray for these couples and the missionaries as they continue to work out their faith in Christ through God's grace?
Almost one-fifth of the world's human trafficking victims live in Africa, according to theGlobal Slavery Index. Poverty, war and discrimination put many Africans at risk, and more than 6 million men, women and children are exploited through forced labor and sex trafficking.
In May, Nazarene Compassionate Ministries-Africa brought on Stephen Phillips as the office's first ever anti-human trafficking and gender-based violence coordinator.
"I really believe it is something that we need," Africa Regional Director Filimao Chambo said. "(Modern slavery) happens in many ways that people don't really understand to be human trafficking."
In the nine months since he started, Phillips has built partnerships with anti-trafficking organizations and has spearheaded trainings across Africa for church leaders, at-risk women and vulnerable youth.
"Growing up, I've always been really strong into advocacy and speaking up for the rights of others," said Phillips, a 25-year-old from Johannesburg who recently earned a bachelor's degree in law.
Phillips' focus throughout his first year has been on researching the problem and developing a strategy for NCM's ministry. The year 2015 will be more hands-on.
"This year we hope to do more practical things to help," NCM Africa Regional Coordinator Cosmas Mutowa said. "How can we really assist in a tangible way these people who are victims?"
NCM is preparing to turn an office in Johannesburg into a counseling and support center for trafficking victims, Mutowa said. There's no open date set, as NCM first needs to staff the center with trained personnel.
The Church's anti-trafficking and gender-based violence ministry reaches across the continent.
In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, some of the children at NCM's child development centers are former child soldiers, Mutowa said. The centers counsel and support the boys and try to help them find their families.
In South Africa and Swaziland, Phillips has helped coordinate anti-trafficking trainings for pastors, women and law enforcement. In Ghana, a local church hopes to start social justice clubs for youth. In Kenya, NCM teaches sustainable farming to at-risk women.
Phillips unites NCM's efforts with local partners, such as the National Freedom Network in South Africa and the International Justice Mission in Kenya.
Lasting partnerships are the most effective way to help churches and communities, he said. "So even when I leave, they'll continue to follow up with our local church."
Though NCM has not formerly engaged in the ministry of human trafficking in the past, Dr. Chambo said it's an important ministry. He hopes more churches began to catch the vision and create local anti-trafficking initiatives.
When Catherine Lebese was 17, someone gave her a tract that was misprinted so that it was blank on the inside, and on the outside it had only a picture and the address for a Nazarene church. She was curious about the Christian faith, so she wrote to the address. The Mothotlung Church of the Nazarene, in an area of Johannesburg, South Africa, sent their new pastor to her home to speak to her about Christ, but Lebese was reluctant to make a commitment. She was familiar with the gospel, yet was skeptical about its truth.
“After he left, in the evening, [I thought] I’ve heard that so many times, I don’t even know if it’s true. Let’s try this and see if it works. I prayed, ‘Lord, if this is true what these people say about salvation, save me.’ Something changed immediately, I felt the change and I knew it was real and that’s when my walk with Christ started.”
The pastor had left her with the first lesson of the Basic Bible Studies and a Bible. Out of curiosity she decided to visit his church.
“The moment I stepped into the church, something deep inside told me this is home and I decided to stay, and I invited my friends and we started going. We became the first youth group in that church.”
After graduating high school, Lebese had no direction for what to do with her life. While reading the biography of a pastor, she began to feel troubled. She didn’t know what that meant. So she visited her local pastor and explained how she was feeling. He said it might mean God was calling her to something. He advised her to go home and pray, telling God that if He was calling her, she would say yes to whatever He asked her to do.
“If you have peace after that, you know God is calling you and if you still feel troubled, it’s something else,” her pastor said.
Lebese followed his advice, telling God that whatever He wanted her to do, she would do. Immediately she was filled with peace.
When it was time to apply to college, she felt led to attend the then Africa Nazarene Theological College in Port Elizabeth (now Nazarene Theological College-South Africa) in Muldersdrift, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in theology. Afterward she followed her call by spending a number of years assisting pastors or serving as a senior pastor in different churches. Lebese also earned a second bachelor’s degree in psychology and sociology, and then a master’s degree in sociology.
In 2003, she was asked to teach classes at NTC-South Africa, and in 2006 joined the staff as the registrar. In 2008, to her surprise she was made the academic dean. Then in March 2014, she was elected principal. When describing the sequence, Lebese acknowledges she was not expecting to lead and is seemingly still astounded to find herself in this role.
While leading the college, Lebese is also studying for a master’s degree in theology through NTC-South Africa’s partnership with Nazarene Theological College in Manchester, UK. For the past three years, she has been part of a cohort with nine of her school’s students, taking coursework in Johannesburg and making one visit to Manchester at the tail end of the program in January 2015.
Through being exposed to how a European college teaches and trains, Lebese is adding to her own vision and understanding of how NTC-South Africa can teach and train African students.
“It challenges not only me but every African that comes here to want to do theology for Africa, learn whatever you can and find ways of applying it back home. That is my dream: If I can see some of us writing from an African perspective and actually coming up with approaches to some of the things that we study, that would address some of the issues back home, that for me will be the greatest achievement ever.”
Africa is facing critical challenges in its theology, Lebese says.
The most difficult challenge is teaching and articulating a doctrine of entire sanctification – the denomination’s distinctive, core belief – in the African context.
“We are finding more and more people are struggling to understand or explain. Is it a crisis? Is it a process? So that becomes a bit of a problem. A lot of our pastors, even if they go through classes, cannot explain it in their churches.”
In South Africa, the way that the doctrine of entire sanctification has been taught and understood causes difficulty and confusion. Entire sanctification is popularly understood to remove the "root of sin once and for all," she explained. This has led to a widespread, mistaken thinking that a sanctified person is no longer able to sin. Yet people do continue to sin. A person who sins subsequent to testifying to sanctification can find themselves in a spiritual crisis, with people asking whether or not the person truly experienced sanctification. This understanding of entire sanctification as “sinless perfection” was denied by John Wesley, but has crept in to the spirituality of some holiness groups around the world. The Nazarene Church is currently reconsidering its articulation of the doctrine to prevent such misunderstandings. In Wesley’s theology, holiness is not the inability to sin, but a heart filled with love for God and neighbor. At its pinnacle, this love for God outweighs all other desires a person may have. Lebese’s work involves finding clear and creative ways to communicate this doctrine of Christian holiness.
“I think up until now we haven’t really reached the point where we can explain it in understandable terms to our people,” she said.
Currently, NTC-South Africa offers a certificate in ministry, a diploma in theology, and a bachelor of theology. Lebese’s goal is to introduce a master’s degree program in the next five years, and in the long-term to implement a PhD program.
“My dream is that [the students] would … continue to their bachelor’s and master’s and come and take over. I would be happy if one of my students would replace me as principal.”
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It’s the third Saturday of January 2015 and I pull into the French Quarter Apartment community and what meets my ears makes me smile…even laugh a little. What I hear is laughter, squeals, and boys yelling “throw it to me!” When I round the corner I see a football game, kickball, jump rope, sidewalk artists at work and bubbles rising into the air. This is Mobile First Church of the Nazarene's Saturday to reach out to the French Quarter apartments near our church in Mobile, Alabama. The French Quarter Apartments is a Section 8 housing complex where many live on fixed incomes and sometimes with no income at all.
Almost three years ago Kim, one of the tenants from the apartments, came to one of our Sunday night services. It just happened to be our monthly mission service, in which we were going through a mission education curriculum from Nazarene Missions International (NMI) called Living Mission. That particular night the lesson was about reaching and ministering to children in an urban area of one of the major cities in the U.S. It is clear to us now that God orchestrated this encounter as our congregation had been seeking opportunities to serve our community. Immediately after the service Kim came to my wife, Amanda, who is the NMI president, and asked, “Do you want to go see my children? They are hurting, dying and are lost.” Without hesitation we said yes and the French Quarter Apartment Outreach began. We would later learn that Kim is the person that all the children go to for help, food and clothing, somewhere to stay when an adult is not at home or just to see a smile. She truly cares for these children and carries a burden for their souls. So every third Saturday of each month church members go and show the love of Jesus to the children there. We play games, have conversation, feed and minister to the families of this community. Our church has truly embraced this ministry and we have great participation. The result has been incredible and God has blessed us and allowed us to be his hands and feet to those who need him. We have partnered with another church nearby and supplied book bags and school supplies, given Thanksgiving meals and Christmas meals to needy families who live here. We have seen lives change and one young man in particular has come to be a vital part of our youth group.
James (right in photo below) comes from a broken home and as the older sibling has been given a lot of responsibility of caring for his younger brothers. James has a big, beautiful smile and always has hugs for everyone. He will testify to now having a place where h
In Matthew 19:14 Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” Our prayer is to see the children, and their parents, come to know Him. So we go and strive to be Jesus to them and pray that they see Him in us and want to know Him for themselves.[Dirk Young is a lay leader in Mobile First Church of the Nazarene and his wife Amanda is the NMI president.]
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