ENGAGE: A Global Mission Magazine of the Global Church of the Nazarene for Wednesday, 12 November 2014 Issue #85

ENGAGE: A Global Mission Magazine of the Global Church of the Nazarene for Wednesday, 12 November 2014 Issue #85

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Video: Billy's story
Living a life enslaved to drugs and alcohol, Billy showed up at a baptism thinking he was going for a swim. The pastor called him to be baptized. When he came up from the water, he was a new person.
Nazarene Stories
"Resurrection: Billy's Story" is featured in Nazarene Stories -- the online continuation of the previous Global Mission DVD. Nazarene Stories is a production of Global Communications, a department of the General Church of the Nazarene.[To subscribe to future issues of this video storytelling magazine, visit www.nazarene.org /stories.]
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Former Ethiopia prime minister testifies to changed heart by Verna Stanton
Mr. Tamrat Layne, former prime minister of Ethiopia, gave a very moving testimony during Holiness Week at Africa Nazarene University. Currently attending Denver First Church of the Nazarene, Layne grew up in a non-religious home and considered himself an atheist. At 18 years old he became a communist. He was attending university when he and some friends began a political student movement in 1975. It was a very radical student movement in the world at that time, led by both university and high school students.
There was a communist movement throughout Africa then. Their student movement’s motive was justice, freedom and progress for all people. They thought that communism was the best way to get there. He was in a group of five young men who began to study Marxism. Karl Marx wrote 50 volumes of about 500 pages each; they studied them all. Then they went on to Lenin’s 48 volumes of around 400 pages each. They continued to read and study Mao Zedong’s writings. They became sold out completely to communism.
They believed, “This is the way; we have to die for it.”  Their purpose was to change Ethiopia and Africa; change society.
In 1977, after having this movement in Addis Ababa, the military began killing students, professors and others. So by this time their group of 20 students moved to the mountains, acquired guns and a new motto: “Freedom comes out of the belly of guns.” They stayed for 15 years in the mountains and trained over 100 others. In 1991 they took over the government. His best friend became president. Layne was the prime minister. They tried to make the society socialistic.
Soon Layne began to examine and question communism’s way of thinking. “Was this the cause I had fought for in the beginning,” he asked himself? He requested the president to change Ethiopia to be a market economy but his friend didn’t agree. After a few years, they ended up fighting and disagreeing. These two best friends had fought together for many years against ideologies, but now totally disagreed. Layne says his "best friend" came up with false charges and threw him in jail in ’96 because they didn’t want a free society.
Layne and his wife were both guerrillas and were married in the mountains. Now they were both in another fight. He went to jail while she and their children fled Ethiopia to Kenya and lived in a crowded refugee camp for three long years.
Now everything was gone: his leadership, his friends, his wife who was also a leader, his children. He was angry, betrayed by his best friend. So in solitary confinement with no visitors allowed, he planned revenge. He even tried to commit suicide but couldn’t. He decided to read again because they allowed books; that’s all they allowed. So he began studying philosophy, Islam, Buddhism, but not Christianity.  He decided later that religion couldn’t help him, that it only divides and kills.  
At the fifth year, he was taken to the hospital with an illness. While there, a nurse gave him a tract, tucking it quietly into his shirt pocket. It had only three sentences: 1) Jesus loves you.  2) I am the way, truth and life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. (John 14:6)  3) Jesus is the only one who can give a new life.
That was what Layne was searching for -- a new life. That was what he was trying to search for in religion and philosophical books.
All his life he had been an atheist, then he became a communist. He even converted many people to be communists. So he asked, “Who is Jesus?”
He wanted to live life with a purpose. For humans the most dreadful thing is not to die but be a vacuum without any purpose. He was in a hospital cell. Now he thought, “Who is Jesus?  How can He give new life?”
He found himself on his knees on the floor. This was a very humiliating position for a guerrilla fighter – except when shooting. He never knelt except to shoot. But now, kneeling on the floor with hands outstretched, he said, “If you are real, that’s what I am looking for. Come to me. Show me.” He didn’t know it was a prayer but he said it over and over again.
He went to bed and in the middle of the night woke up; there was a light. He sat on the edge of the bed and looked around and saw what looked like lots of bubbles with beautiful light of different colours. There were purple and yellow and other colours. Then on the wall another spot of light appeared, growing; in this second light a person stood there. He looked like He was made of light. A powerful thing came out of Him and Layne started sweating and shaking and found himself on the floor, once again. The man told him, “I am Jesus; follow me.” He didn’t know how long Jesus was there and then He left; the darkness returned. Layne was weeping and stayed a long time kneeling on the floor.
In the morning he wondered if he truly saw or heard anything. He wrote it all down but said, “No. I’ll do it again. I’m not sure. Will he come again?”
Thus, Layne repeated the words he’d said the day before over and over again. He walked up and down, then kneeling, then walking. He didn’t even eat. That night Jesus came again. “I am Jesus. Believe in me. Follow me. I can give you a new life. I’ll get you out of here and you go to the world and testify to people about what I did in your life. Don’t be afraid; I’ll be with you always.”
Layne replied, “OK. I think you are real.”
Everything was repeated all over again the third day: pacing, kneeling, repeating the same words, fasting. Jesus came back again the third night and finally Layne agreed.
Layne wrote a note to the nurse asking her to bring him something to read to know more. He didn’t even know about a Bible. In a few days she brought a pocket-sized Bible; it was a real risk to her (as Bibles were not allowed freely in Ethiopia at that time). She told him that she had prayed and fasted three days and nights – no food, no water, and God told her to give him the tract. True obedience!
Layne stayed seven more years in prison for a total of 12 years. He says, “Those seven years were the most beautiful years of my life in solitary confinement. Because I had joy, peace, hope. I had all the time to study Jesus!”
When he was finally freed, the release papers were signed by the prime minister himself. Layne went to this prime minister (no longer called president), his former friend. The minister hugged him and told him that he forgave him.  Then Layne asked the minister to forgive him.
The minister asked why in the world would he need to forgive Layne? His answer: “I was planning revenge; I wanted to kill you.”
When Layne came out of prison he came out only with Jesus and the Holy Spirit. He knew nothing about churches or denominations. He became so confused about denominations and asked, “Why?” He saw division but knew Jesus wanted unity.
Once while his wife, Mulu, was in Kenya in the refugee camp a converted police officer gave him a phone and a phone number to call his wife.  He told her his story about how he had prayed for salvation and had prayed for her to be saved. She asked him when this took place.  He gave her the dates of the three days and she said, “Jesus appeared to me also. I had a dream, a vision and He spoke to me!” She had also received Jesus as her Saviour at the very same time.
After three years Mulu went to the UNHCR to apply for refugee status to go to the US.  It was granted and she and their children were moved to Denver, Colorad.  She waited for her husband for the 12 long years he was in prison and finally they were reunited/  They now go, make disciples in small groups, teaching them to obey Jesus.
Layne concluded his personal testimony with these enlightening statements:
Jesus is life.
Jesus is not a religion. Religion can’t give life, only Jesus.
Jesus gives purpose throughout life. He came to preach good news to the poor, proclaim freedom to the prisoners, recovery of sight to the blind, bind up the broken hearts.
Jesus is about the Kingdom – bringing the Kingdom to earth.  He is not about attitude changes only and then living life the way we were.  The Kingdom is about going out to conquer.  Layne was a conqueror.  He likes conquering.  Now we should want to conquer with Jesus, not guns.
God saved a family: Yesenia's story
My name is Yesenia Balderramo, I’m 22 years old, and a year ago I accepted Christ as my Savior and since then my life and the lives of my family members have changed.
I can honestly tell you after my experience with God’s grace that blessings and curses really are generational. Growing up, I thought that immorality, throwing around insults, vanity, pride and other social family issues were normal things. I didn’t think much about it, and I had often defended and justified those kinds of actions within my family. When I encountered God (Sept 2013), I discovered that there was no university degree, psychological workshop, nor family therapy that could restore my idea of family. Yet, a radical decision and an encounter with God changed everything; not just my life but also those of my family.
Taking on the responsibility to share the message of Christ with my family was really rough, but it’s the first ministry a new Christian takes on. The Lord taught me to be persistent, and looking back I realize I hadn’t obeyed Him in all that He asked of me. I didn’t honor my parents like I should’ve, I abused my brother (left in photo left) both physically and mentally, I didn’t respect the rules of the house, but after a few days after returning from the Encounter (a spiritual retreat), I saw what I had been doing and I asked them for forgiveness.
The thing is, it wasn’t a very credible apology because I had done this sort of thing before. My parents and my brother forgave me, but they start to freak out when they found out I had been baptized into a Christian church. That’s kind of a big deal for us. My family has always been Catholic, and that identity runs deep in their blood. So, their daughter tells them she’s part of “another religion.” My mother was not pleased, but she respected my decision and after she saw how God was changing me, she began to support me. My father (photo below), on the other hand, did not take it that well and his attitude toward me changed. He told me, “I like that you’ve changed in some ways, but don’t stop being you. You know that when we get together we drink, and you like it. You don’t have to take it that far.” That was the sort of thing he’d say to take a jab at me. He never missed the opportunity to attack me, literally, and tell me that I was still being disobedient and he’d make fun of me. He also would tell me that the person I was before could only be changed by a miracle.
I also went through some stuff with my brother. I became aware that I am an example to him and I saw that he was going down the same path that I had. Before I came to Christ I had a conversation with my brother and told him that I had been smoking weed. I told him that if he wanted to try some kind of drug, that he should tell me first. I then started to tell him it was okay to go clubbing and visit brothels and that I understood that was part of his “needs” as guy. I thought it was the right thing to say and that his eyes would be opened to the world. I was worried that he would become a wimp and that he’d never find a girlfriend. Really, I don’t know what was going on in my head.
But God is good and faithful and has used my life to bless my family. It was through prayer and grace that God brought my mother to an Encounter, where she received spiritual and physical healing. After that, there were two of us in our family that my father would attack. One day he called me and told me he was disappointed in me for taking my mother to the Encounter and that because of it he was worried their marriage wouldn’t be able to handle the weight of the change. That hurt to hear from him, but I knew that the truth was that my mother would be a better wife to him because of it all.
It was really hard on my mom to show them love when they were insulting her and criticizing her every move. It hurt her a lot and we couldn’t understand why something so good couldn’t be seen by them. Instead of seeing it for the good thing it was, they just rejected it.
A few months ago, my family began to have some financial issues. They had to sell their car and their motorcycle. Things weren’t going well for my dad at work and he began to lose control and fall further into debt. Everyone was being strained because of it. Eventually, it was agreed that my dad would have to move to another city to look for work, and that essentially meant our family would fall apart. My parents had never been separated and my mom has never done well alone, especially when she is away from my dad and us. Regardless, she felt an unexplainable strength that she later understood came from God. I know that it was God too, that He being welcomed into our home gave us the courage to persevere and intercede for the head of the house.
So, for about five months my dad was out of a job, away from home, just getting by financially, and struggling through feelings of loneliness where I’m sure the Lord was calling him. On top of all that my brother had tried to get into “la Marina,” a public military institution, to get some financial support, but had failed. I can’t describe how hard this time was for us because my brother and dad didn’t want to humble themselves before the Lord and recognize that they were just doing this alone and chasing after their own desires. We were separated from each other physically and then their pride distanced us from each other even more.
Everytime I think about all this, I admire the supernatural things God does for His children and all the things He did for my family. Three weeks ago, my brother and my dad came to an Encounter that our church held in Ambato. It wasn’t until the day before the event that they decided to go. They had gotten so struck down by their problems that this was kind of their last resort. The weekend was amazing. The Lord worked on their hearts and they received love from so many people. It was obvious that they were not going to be the same afterward. Five days after the Encounter, my dad received a call to work for an oil company to be a security guard. It wasn’t what he was expecting, but the Lord teaches us to surrender and trust what He has for us. My brother now has a different perspective on how he should live his youth. The Lord spoke into his doubts. Even though there are changes in my family, we all know God has control and we are happy that despite the testing and the consequences of our past, He raises us up every day. I often hear my brother say, “The Lord will take care of us and will give us what we need according to His will.”
The process that God took us through didn’t start at the Encounter, rather in the decision to accept Him and allow Him to be the captain of our ship. He guides our lives, and although opportunities will not always open up right away, He will always be with us:  preparing us, cleansing us, polishing us in order to be able to receive His blessing and it will not fall on infertile soil. Each day it is a challenge to learn His Word and to help each other through difficult times.
I thank the leaders and the pastors of my church with all my heart – brave men and women that listen to the voice of the Lord and obey it.  Thanks to their calling and service, they have not only helped to better my life but also to save my family and future generations to come.[Reprinted with permission from the Extreme Nazarene MIssions email newsletter. If you would like to sign up, click here.]
Doing mission well: Pioneering by Howard Culbertson
Needed: Missionaries to pioneer where the Church is minimally present or does not yet exist.
We need missionaries who dream about “the regions beyond” (Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 10:16) and who push the Church to go there. Nazarenes Earl and Gladys Mosteller were that type of frontier missionary.
In 1946 the Mostellers went from the U.S.A. to Cape Verde, a group of Portuguese-speaking Atlantic Ocean islands now officially called Cabo Verde. The Church of the Nazarene had been planted in Cabo Verde 45 years prior to the Mostellers’ arrival. Their role was that of strengthening and enlarging an existing group of national churches.
After a dozen years, the Mostellers’ transitioned to pioneering in brand-new areas.  Over the next 30 years, they helped the Church of the Nazarene enter Brazil, Portugal and the Azores.
Earl Mosteller was well suited for initiating work in new areas. He and Gladys seemed happy plowing new ground. A big man with a huge handshake, Earl flourished out on the growing edge. Future national leaders seemed attracted to him and he to them. Fortunately, Nazarene Global Mission leaders recognized the pioneering abilities of Earl Mosteller and they kept him and Gladys in frontier assignments for the last three decades of their missionary career.
Each place where the Mostellers pioneered posed unique challenges. The three world areas did have one thing in common: All three are Portuguese-speaking.
Brazil, where the Mostellers spent 15 years, is the world’s fifth largest country.  When the Mostellers moved to Portugal, they left behind Brazil’s huge rain forests and its tremendous ethnic diversity. Portugal was much, much smaller and far more monocultural. The pervasive spiritism of Brazil was replaced by Portugal’s European post-Christian atmosphere.
As the church sank roots into Portugal and began flowering there, the Mostellers were asked to pioneer Nazarene work in the Azores. Having spent their rookie missionary years in one Atlantic Ocean island group, they were to spend the last seven years of their missionary career in another archipelago.
In those three world areas which the Mostellers pioneered, there are today a total of more than 125,000 members of the Church of the Nazarene. That’s more members than there were in all Nazarene mission fields outside of North America in 1958 when the Mostellers went to Brazil.
Around the globe, a large portion of the expatriate missionary force is resourcing and enlarging established national church organizations. Such ministry is vital to carrying out the Great Commission. Indeed, those missionaries are helping national churches move to full partnership in global outreach so that Christian missionaries will be going from all continents to all continents.
Earl and Gladys Mosteller, on the other hand, represent the frontier missionaries who are planting the Church where it is not yet present. Six thousand distinct people groups, many of them very large, have no viable church planting movement within them. To reach those groups we need more missionary pioneers like the Mostellers.(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.)[Top photo courtesy Northwest Nazarene University. Bottom photo courtesy Canada Central District.]
Learning to let go by Scott Henselman
There I was, crying and kneeling before God, giving praise to Him Who still is working on me to become more than I am today.  I was on the grass in an open area where soon a church would be built in a town outside Buenos Aires, Argentina. And God had just taught me more of the lessons He knows I need.
It was our first Work & Witness trip. My amazing wife, Leesa, and I joined our church, First Church of the Nazarene, Medford, Oregon, U.S. in its trip to Argentina.  We have a great group of people under the leadership of seasoned team leaders, Terry and Andrea Phillips.
Terry and Andrea have been on many trips and had planned this very well.  We started to form the group 10 months earlier and a key element to a successful team were monthly meetings in the homes of members to plan and get to know each other.
By the time our March trip finally arrived, we knew each other, our abilities, our interests, our walk with Jesus, and the personalities of each team member. When we left we were not just a collection of souls who wanted to serve, but a team that could work together to make our trip a success.
When we arrived, we were met by Carlos and Robin Radi. They live in Moreno, a smaller city in the outskirts of Buenos Aires.  He is the pastor of a church there and also serves as the South America missionary coordinator.  While Carlos may be the lead pastor and they have a real love and passion for our Lord, Robin displays a real love for children. 
We were guided well by Terry and Andrea in preparing us that the best laid plans for missions may be changed by the will of God.  We have to be prepared to change, and this trip was no exception.
We had planned to be working on a new building site for a church in Rosario. But that project changed at the last minute. Carlos changed our project to a steel beam construction job of his new church building plus building storage cabinets.
And while those were our physical jobs, we were also to help in our witness side of the trip with showing the JESUS film and praying with the members of the church in Rosario.  We showed the film in another church being built and in the dirt street of another town not far from our campus where we stayed.
I cannot stress enough that both works and witness are needed for a truly successful trip. The joy of bringing people closer to Jesus brings even more joy to our mission trip than the project we work on.
But back to the setting of my lesson.  I came to know Jesus just the year before and I am still learning lessons from Him. As most of you know, it is a journey -- one that takes the rest of our lives.  We learn what He shares with us. We get to experience His love and guidance as we travel the path He has laid out for us.
And sometimes He just needs to slap us upside the head to get our attention.
I have always been a person who likes to control.  I control people and myself. I have always been that way and now I have to learn to let that go and let Him have that role. But in my journey, I still try to control.  That is what I was doing that day. 
I had been given this job of sitting on steel beams 30 feet in the air, bolting roof trusses together. The night before, after a full day of work on the beams, my wife saw that the insides of my legs were bruised and sore.  She encouraged me to let another person take over the job. I resisted. It was my job and I was going to finish it! No control issues there.
As the day wore on, my legs got worse and the pain was pretty strong. A local youth who was helping asked if he could take over for me to give me rest, but I was not finished.  I only had to give it another hour or so and I would be done. I had thanked the young man for offering to help me; he was turned down by my controlling and prideful self.
Then it happened.
I shifted my position on a beam and found myself off balance. In a split second I imagined myself on the ground, maybe dead. I caught myself just in time and knew I needed to take a break.  I asked that same young man to take over while I took a rest.
The job was almost finished and I felt angry with myself for allowing another to finish my job.  Later, as the rest of the team cleaned up and packed into our van, I found myself alone in the grass looking over the days’ work.  I was staring up at that beam above my head pondering my failure and disappointment in myself.
It was then that the Spirit spoke to me. I was being reminded that it was not my job; I was just a part of the project.  It was not even my project. It was His project and I needed to just be happy that I had been blessed with being a small part.
He almost had to kick me off the beam; I had to lose my balance and nearly die to hear Him. It was not mine! I did not own it and I did not own anything except my love for Him.  He was due my respect and life. I needed to be reminded that day He saved me before and now from falling so I can lead others to salvation.
I broke down, knelt down on the grass and felt His presence in me again. It overwhelmed me as it had done the day I came to know Him on the carpet in my pastors' office a year earlier. I cried and thanked Him for what He was telling me.
That day I learned to love Him, show the respect due Him and be thankful He was with me.  I will have to keep learning over the course of my journey. But I now knew why I was on this trip. It was not just to build a church building. It was to help others, not think of myself; and be reminded that I am here to serve, not to lead and control.  That was one day I grew in my walk of faith in Jesus. I pray every day for that day to be my guide and my new purpose in life; to serve Him by serving others and not my own pride, arrogance and selfishness.

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