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UK doctor treats Ebola patients in West Africa by Gina Grate Pottenger
“The moral imperative to try and help people less fortunate than us isn’t something I really question, it’s kind of a given. For me, the question is how do I do that effectively in the situation that I find myself in?”
Matt Jackson’s situation is a doctor finishing his training in anesthesia and intensive care in Manchester, UK. An attender at Longsight Church of the Nazarene for the past six years, Jackson recently returned from seven weeks assisting in a clinical trial for new Ebola treatment drugs in West Africa, working with patients who have contracted the virus and helping to train local nurses and doctors to participate in the trial.
Jackson has known he wanted to be a doctor for as long as he can remember. Having grown up in an expat family in Israel and attending an international school, early on he developed a desire to be involved in cross-cultural ministry in some form.
But after his family returned to the UK, and he married and started his own family, and began medical school – a years’-long endeavor – the idea of moving to another country to minister long-term seemed less of an option.
In the past few years, he began to explore the idea of using his medical training and expertise internationally in short-term settings. And opportunities began to arise for participating in training trips to Africa.
Last summer and fall when the Ebola outbreak in West Africa was dominating European news headlines, Jackson felt he wanted to do something to help. He learned of the clinical trial that would be taking place at the start of this year in Liberia, and asked to join. With permission and support from his workplace and his wife and family, Jackson embarked for the seven-week mission. (To read about the clinical trial, click here.)
Due to the security concerns, he was advised not to venture outside of the hotel or the treatment center. Every day, in the sweltering heat he and his colleagues dressed in the multi-layered, full-cover suits they were required to wear to protect them from contracting the highly contagious Ebola virus from their patients.
Together with the local nurses, the team Jackson was working with would invite patients to participate in the clinical trial and explain all the details of what it would mean for them to do so. Those who agreed to the parameters would receive the treatment.
After about five weeks in Monrovia, Liberia, the team moved to Sierra Leone, where there were more patients, and concluded their time after two and a half weeks there.
Working in intensive care centers in the U.K., Jackson is well acquainted with death.
“Most of the patients referred to me in the U.K. are because they’re dying and the question is can I offer something to prevent and reverse that,” he said.
He continued to see death while in Liberia.
He remembers three teenagers who were admitted at the same time to his treatment center. All three had been orphaned when their parents died from Ebola; while grieving the loss of their parents, each of them had at least one sibling contract the disease, enter the treatment center, and then pass away.
Now it was their turn.
“You could see the fear in their eyes, as well as that they were still grieving for their parents and their family,” he said. “They were so worried that would happen to them as well. Of the three I’m thinking about, one recovered and two died.”
Jackson learned that those who survive Ebola do not face a trouble-free future. First, they continue to have physical problems even after they’ve fully recovered, such as ongoing stomach pain, partial paralysis, and other problems.
Additionally, survivors have been stigmatized in the culture, as those around them are afraid they can still contract the disease from the survivor.
The 2014 outbreak of Ebola is just one of many of the disease’s outbreaks in Africa since it first became known in 1976, but it’s the first time that the disease moved to urban, highly populated areas, which not only raised the infection and death rate, but overwhelmed the region’s already thinly-stretched health care system.
Jackson compared his own hospital in the UK, which can have as many as 80 anesthetists alone for every 750,000 people residing in an area, and many more general practitioners and nurses, not to mention all the specialists and support personnel, to Liberia, where for the entire nation of 4.5 million there are only 50 trained doctors of any kind. And the West African health care systems also lack trained personnel who can manage the logistics of ordering the right quantities of medicine and accurately distribute them where they are needed, as well as high tech medical devices, technicians who are trained on how to use them, personnel who know how to maintain and repair them, and the many other roles that keep a complex national health system running smoothly.
“It’s difficult but possible to build a hospital, buy the equipment and buy the drugs, but what you really need is the infrastructure and training for the people who are going to work there to make it work,” he said.
That’s why he believes that many more health crises lie in the future, and why, having been involved in a short-term crisis situation this year, he is more committed to being involved in longer-term solutions for African health care, such as training and advising programs.
While he was separated from his family and culture for seven weeks, involved in an emotionally intense and demanding situation, Jackson said that the support not only of his workplace, but also the prayers of his local Nazarene church and family made him feel he could focus on the task at hand.
“That was quite a powerful emotion,” he said. “I think it helps you realize it’s not all about what you’re doing, the excitement you’re having, the egocentric way you can see aid work, but realizing there’ve got to be so many people in the background who may not be able to go themselves but can still provide that support to enable other people to go.”
Heart of God: Mission exists because worship doesn't by Howard Culbertson
"Like your name, O God,
your praise reaches to the ends of the earth”[Psalm 48:10]
“All over the earth people praise you” is the way The Expanded Bible renders the key phrase of Psalm 48:10. When the sons of Korah wrote those words, they were a vision about the future. Today, however, Psalm 48:10 has become a prophecy on its way to fulfillment. To the extent to which that statement reflects the reality of today’s global Church, we can rejoice that world evangelism efforts across the years have borne good fruit.
More than two hundred years ago, Adam Clarke, author of a classic Bible commentary, saw Psalm 48:10 not as a simple statement of fact, but rather as a declaration of God’s will. The words of that verse, wrote Clarke, “outline the duty of God’s people to praise and honor Him” and that would mean, according to the verse itself, doing that “to the ends of the earth.”
Together with the local nurses, the team Jackson was working with would invite patients to participate in the clinical trial and explain all the details of what it would mean for them to do so. Those who agreed to the parameters would receive the treatment.
After about five weeks in Monrovia, Liberia, the team moved to Sierra Leone, where there were more patients, and concluded their time after two and a half weeks there.
Working in intensive care centers in the U.K., Jackson is well acquainted with death.
“Most of the patients referred to me in the U.K. are because they’re dying and the question is can I offer something to prevent and reverse that,” he said.
He continued to see death while in Liberia.
He remembers three teenagers who were admitted at the same time to his treatment center. All three had been orphaned when their parents died from Ebola; while grieving the loss of their parents, each of them had at least one sibling contract the disease, enter the treatment center, and then pass away.
Now it was their turn.
“You could see the fear in their eyes, as well as that they were still grieving for their parents and their family,” he said. “They were so worried that would happen to them as well. Of the three I’m thinking about, one recovered and two died.”
Jackson learned that those who survive Ebola do not face a trouble-free future. First, they continue to have physical problems even after they’ve fully recovered, such as ongoing stomach pain, partial paralysis, and other problems.
Additionally, survivors have been stigmatized in the culture, as those around them are afraid they can still contract the disease from the survivor.
The 2014 outbreak of Ebola is just one of many of the disease’s outbreaks in Africa since it first became known in 1976, but it’s the first time that the disease moved to urban, highly populated areas, which not only raised the infection and death rate, but overwhelmed the region’s already thinly-stretched health care system.
Jackson compared his own hospital in the UK, which can have as many as 80 anesthetists alone for every 750,000 people residing in an area, and many more general practitioners and nurses, not to mention all the specialists and support personnel, to Liberia, where for the entire nation of 4.5 million there are only 50 trained doctors of any kind. And the West African health care systems also lack trained personnel who can manage the logistics of ordering the right quantities of medicine and accurately distribute them where they are needed, as well as high tech medical devices, technicians who are trained on how to use them, personnel who know how to maintain and repair them, and the many other roles that keep a complex national health system running smoothly.
“It’s difficult but possible to build a hospital, buy the equipment and buy the drugs, but what you really need is the infrastructure and training for the people who are going to work there to make it work,” he said.
That’s why he believes that many more health crises lie in the future, and why, having been involved in a short-term crisis situation this year, he is more committed to being involved in longer-term solutions for African health care, such as training and advising programs.
While he was separated from his family and culture for seven weeks, involved in an emotionally intense and demanding situation, Jackson said that the support not only of his workplace, but also the prayers of his local Nazarene church and family made him feel he could focus on the task at hand.
“That was quite a powerful emotion,” he said. “I think it helps you realize it’s not all about what you’re doing, the excitement you’re having, the egocentric way you can see aid work, but realizing there’ve got to be so many people in the background who may not be able to go themselves but can still provide that support to enable other people to go.”
Heart of God: Mission exists because worship doesn't by Howard Culbertson
"Like your name, O God,
your praise reaches to the ends of the earth”[Psalm 48:10]
“All over the earth people praise you” is the way The Expanded Bible renders the key phrase of Psalm 48:10. When the sons of Korah wrote those words, they were a vision about the future. Today, however, Psalm 48:10 has become a prophecy on its way to fulfillment. To the extent to which that statement reflects the reality of today’s global Church, we can rejoice that world evangelism efforts across the years have borne good fruit.
More than two hundred years ago, Adam Clarke, author of a classic Bible commentary, saw Psalm 48:10 not as a simple statement of fact, but rather as a declaration of God’s will. The words of that verse, wrote Clarke, “outline the duty of God’s people to praise and honor Him” and that would mean, according to the verse itself, doing that “to the ends of the earth.”
A decade ago Baptist pastor John Piper wrote a book called Let the Nations Be Glad. People immediately began quoting a sentence from that book: “Missions exist because worship doesn’t.” What Piper meant is that the divine plan was and is for God to be worshipped by people everywhere on the face of the earth. Sadly, that is not yet happening and therefore the Church is under an obligation to carry the Good News to wherever it is that Yahweh is not being worshipped.
While praise to God does resound today from locations around the world, there are still places totally devoid of praise to Him. Two-thirds of the world’s population still adhere to religions other than Christianity. More than five thousand distinct cultural groups have no church planting movement in their midst.
If we are to fulfill Psalm 48:10, we must work to see that God and His great grace and mighty deeds are proclaimed in all the cultural groups where that is not yet happening. We must help fellow believers understand that the world mission enterprise is necessary today so that God’s praise will reach to the ends of the earth.
If people praising God is a key goal of world evangelism efforts, then our task is not that of trying to convince people we’re right and they’re wrong. Although right belief is important (because it fosters healthy relationships with God), we believers are not simply promoting a belief system. We achieve very little if all we do is get people to change their stated religious affiliation to “Christian” from some other belief system.
We need to lift up the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob who came in Jesus Christ to reconcile the world to Himself. We must call people everywhere to fall on their faces in worship to Him. We must do that so that God will be praised and worshipped all over the earth.
Missionary profile: Tim and Karla Deuel
Tim and Karla Deuel are missionaries who have been serving at Kudjip Nazarene Hospital station in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea, on the Asia-Pacific Region for the past four years. Tim is the field properties manager, updating properties owned by the station; he also mentors Christian brothers during the course of his responsibilities.
Karla works part time in the field office, responsible for the church statistics for the Melanesia Field, which includes, 16 districts on five islands. Papua New Guinea has 12 districts and the other districts are the islands of Vanuatu, Fiji, Solomon and Samoa. Additionally, she serves part time in the hospital lab.
Their daughter Nicole Vogt and her husband, Andrew, are 29 and live in Tokyo, Japan, where Nicole teaches at Tokyo International Montessori School, and Andrew teaches English. Their daughter Patti Koole and her husband, Benjamin, live in Fresno, California, U.S., and are 26. Patti is an oncology nurse at a clinic at the Madera Children’s Hospital and Ben is the pastor for the college group at Northpoint Community.
Engage: How did you first recognize God’s call to be involved in missions?
Karla: As a little girl, I heard a missionary speak in my church. God touched my heart that day, and I never forgot it. As an adult I had many fears when I thought about living in another country, but with our involvement in youth missions and Work & Witness, all my fears were changed to compassion, and I only sought obedience to HIS leading.
Tim: Involvement with Work & Witness gave us the exposure to the concept of long-term service, which eventually led us to our current positions.
Engage: What is your favorite aspect of what you do in your present assignment?
Tim: Personal interaction with coworkers. On a recent business trip to Port Moresby while driving with a PNG friend and contractor, he made a statement with a smile. His statement was simple: “Brother Tim, I think Jesus is coming back before you or I die.” A few minutes passed as we drove, and I realized I had learned an important new concept. Compared to the return of our King, all things pale. As we teach we learn.
Karla: I am given the priviledge of praying with people in the hospital wards and working with the chaplains. Many times as we interview the patient we are made aware of their family standing near by, and the Lord starts talking to me of their needs. Just one week ago, this same experience happened, and I talked directly to the family, telling them that through our prayers, it was the Spirit from God that was working in this man and through his body that was half paralyzed from a stroke. Chaplain Moses and I said just a few more things to the family, and then moved on to another patient. Afterwards, outside, Moses and I started talking about the way we had been led in conversation to the family of the stroke patient. We looked up at the same time, recognizing the man’s brother we had been talking to. He looked at Chaplain Moses and said, “I would like to know more about God.” What an honor to be used by Him.
Since moving to Papua New Guinea, I have become acquainted with many of the district superintendants and their wives and district secretaries, working with them and also teaching, so that an accurate picture of God’s work on these island nations can be fully appreciated. I also help with child sponsorship and have gained a better understanding of all the work and perseverance involved with this ministry. More than ever before, seeing the compassion for children that the Nazarene church displays has been a joy! My other part-time job is in the lab of the hospital. My co-workers are fun people who have had much patience with me, as we laugh over mistakes and misunderstandings. These friends consider working at the hospital a ministry, not just a vocation.
Engage: What are some of the challenges that you face in carrying out your work?
Tim and Karla: Transportation and coordination of personnel and resources to remote places. One project required eight hours of driving over crazy roads to transport people and materials 39.34 miles.
Engage: Please share a story of a significant event or moment that has happened in your current assignment.
Tim and Karla: As part of a project in a remote location, we decided to show the JESUS film (a film about the life of Jesus). In an area with no roads, other than bush walk paths, and villages separated by miles and mountain valleys, people came to view the JESUS film. As darkness fell we watched as torches advanced towards our location. Over 400 people sat on the grass and in the dark sky and with the Southern Cross (a star formation) shining brightly behind us. In this way we shared the gospel of Christ’s powerful love.
Engage: How do you maintain a close relationship with God and your family in the midst of the demands of missionary service?
Karla: Keeping in contact with family and friends takes perseverance. Maintaining my relationship with God, has always meant keeping the relationship fresh, trying to hear His spirit, and be obedient, but also living in the moment and relishing every real thing that comes my way, like a butterfly, or child that is joyful to see me or his parents.
Engage: What are the rewards of what you do?
Karla: The Highlands of Papua New Guinea have known of the outside world for only 80 years. We meet with people who tell of the first missionaries. Meeting with people who love God, and have a passion to see Him working. Experiencing a culture other than my own, and finding His people in every calling. Sharing God and having others do the same for me.
Engage: What are some aspects of the culture where you live that you have come to love or embrace?
Karla: We have enjoyed the aspect of the Melanasian culture that binds families together over the generations.
Engage: What do you like to do for fun?
Karla: Swim, read, visit with friends, meet new people, pray with people.
Tim: Visiting bush churches, hiking, swimming, and meeting multitudes of new volunteers. Cookouts with station families. Interaction with other missions.
Engage: What is something people would be surprised to learn about you?
Karla: I traveled to Europe the first time when I was 16, a People to People Student Ambassador program; 12 countries in six weeks. Loved it.
Tim: I have a U.S. Merchant Marines Captain’s License.
Engage: What advice would you have for others exploring a possible call to missions, or embarking on their first missionary assignment?
Karla: Before my son-in-laws were given permission to marry my daughters, they were each asked to ennumerate the reasons for their love of those daughters. I then asked each one to hold the list until difficult times came. In the same way it might be important to make a list of reasons why God has gifted you with this opportunity of service. In the words of James, all good gifts come down from the Father, and most certainly the gift of service is from Him as well.
Video: Healing prayer
Why WEF? Discipling by Gina Grate Pottenger
The Church of the Nazarene worldwide has embraced one unifying vision from the words of Jesus: to make Christlike disciples in the nations. Local churches large and small are making disciples in ways as diverse as their cultures, customs, and traditions.
By giving to the World Evangelism Fund, each of us and all of us together support disciple-making across 159 world areas.
At the Cali Church of the Nazarene, in Colombia, disciple-making is a way of life. At least 100 people become new followers of Christ at the church every Sunday.
Leaders shepherd every new believer through a four-stage discipleship journey called the Master’s Plan, which begins with joining a weekly house church for support and accountability. Then, the new believers attend a retreat where they learn how to sustain and deepen relationship with Jesus and other basic biblical principles.
In the third stage, these new believers participate in a three-level discipleship group, which meets weekly for nine months.
Next, each believer is asked to disciple 12 more people, meeting with them once each week.
Cali Church of the Nazarene’s disciple-making plan is a multiplication network. Every believer who is being discipled also disciples another twelve. Each of those 12, in turn, disciple another 12. And on and on they advance together. Today in Cali, more than 14,000 people gather in seven worship celebrations.
José Luis Montenegro is one of those who has been through the entire process after he became a believer. Today he is part of the pastor’s group of 12 disciples, and he leads his own group of 12 disciples. Engage magazine interviewed him through a missionary facilitator and translator. Here is what Montenegro had to say about the Master’s Plan.
Engage: How did the Master’s Plan contribute to the process of taking you through discipleship and to mature and grow as a believer?
Montenegro: It influenced me in three important aspects:
Montenegro: The relationship with my leader was key -- his example, his commitment, and disposition for the work of the Lord all inspired me to do the same; to be involved in the opportunities and activities of service within the church helped me to feel like a useful instrument in the hands of the Lord to help others; to become conscious about the Great Commision.
Engage: Would you explain the steps in your transition in leadership from being a new believer to becoming one of the group of 12 of the pastor? Why did you want to become involved?
Montenegro: I was first invited by a disciple of the pastor to a house of prayer; later I participated in an encounter with God. I went through my biblical discipleship while participating in a group of 12; during that time I was challenged to work and to form my own team of disciples. With the passing of time, the pastor considered my faithfulness and efforts in the work of the Lord and he invited me to become part of his 12.
Engage: Why do you believe in the Master's Plan as an efective tool to disciple new and mature believers?
Montenegro: It is because the Master's Plan brings together basic and essential principles of Christ's discipleship, what Jesus himself used, that is, it is relational and based in the teaching of the Scriptures but also in the transformation of character. The best thing is that these qualities transend the scope of everyday practice, that is, it not only trains me but it challenges me to act to win others and fulfill the Great Commision.
Disciple-making is not about formulas, programs, or strategies. It’s about relationships that develop spiritual vitality, more fervent commitment, and deeper intimacy with our Savior, Jesus Christ.
Through your giving to World Evangelism Fund, local churches like this one are discipling believers who disciple still others in the nations.Bo
Five practical ways to grow your church by Teanna Sunberg
In the Dohanyi Synagogue Museum, Budapest, Hungary, there is a photo of a Jewish man and boy behind a fence in the ghetto. A sign reads, "No Christians beyond this point." The irony of that sign punched me in the stomach, because, if there is anywhere the Body of Christ should be, it is beyond that point, right there with the hurting, the hated and the walking dead.
I understand the cultural context, how that sign made sense to the ones who posted it, and perhaps that is what makes it all the more frightening. It made sense to the Nazis. It made sense because anytime we use "us and them" as language, we enter into dangerous, self-serving waters.
When we talk about people who never enter the church.
Or people who have a different passport, language, color scheme.
Or people who have a different religion or sexual identity.
And, if that list makes sense to us, we have reason to fear.
Anytime the arms and the legs that we wear are used to segregate and separate, we cease to be the Christ Image in this bleeding, wounded world.
And if you are reading this post, maybe you should stop reading right here because where I am going, you may not like to follow.
I am going right into our neighborhoods – our quiet, comfortable, lawn-mowed, gated, safe communities. Right there, where our kids walk to school and the trash truck picks up garbage every Tuesday. And there, I am turning a corner that will not be popular, to say a thing that will not be liked.
If one more Christian talks to me about church growth methods, I am going to throw-up yesterday’s hummus right on their shoes.
Church growth?
We do not want church growth.
We should and could discuss what the word and the concept "church" really means in our 21st century context. But, not in this post, not this time.
For today, I mean the active, intentional invitation of people into our worship environment. Evangelism, if you will.
So, let us be honest.
What we really want is to create inviting environments that welcome folks like us: safe, showered, employed, respectable.
The pre-packaged Christians that window shop churches are quite nice, but we will take the newly-converted or one with minimal tattoos who is on the verge of kicking that nasty nicotine habit, with language that is improving and correct sexual orientation, if, and this is a big IF, there is a high probability that they will accept Jesus and begin carrying a Bible.
We do not want the others – not really.
While praise to God does resound today from locations around the world, there are still places totally devoid of praise to Him. Two-thirds of the world’s population still adhere to religions other than Christianity. More than five thousand distinct cultural groups have no church planting movement in their midst.
If we are to fulfill Psalm 48:10, we must work to see that God and His great grace and mighty deeds are proclaimed in all the cultural groups where that is not yet happening. We must help fellow believers understand that the world mission enterprise is necessary today so that God’s praise will reach to the ends of the earth.
If people praising God is a key goal of world evangelism efforts, then our task is not that of trying to convince people we’re right and they’re wrong. Although right belief is important (because it fosters healthy relationships with God), we believers are not simply promoting a belief system. We achieve very little if all we do is get people to change their stated religious affiliation to “Christian” from some other belief system.
We need to lift up the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob who came in Jesus Christ to reconcile the world to Himself. We must call people everywhere to fall on their faces in worship to Him. We must do that so that God will be praised and worshipped all over the earth.
Missionary profile: Tim and Karla Deuel
Tim and Karla Deuel are missionaries who have been serving at Kudjip Nazarene Hospital station in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea, on the Asia-Pacific Region for the past four years. Tim is the field properties manager, updating properties owned by the station; he also mentors Christian brothers during the course of his responsibilities.
Karla works part time in the field office, responsible for the church statistics for the Melanesia Field, which includes, 16 districts on five islands. Papua New Guinea has 12 districts and the other districts are the islands of Vanuatu, Fiji, Solomon and Samoa. Additionally, she serves part time in the hospital lab.
Their daughter Nicole Vogt and her husband, Andrew, are 29 and live in Tokyo, Japan, where Nicole teaches at Tokyo International Montessori School, and Andrew teaches English. Their daughter Patti Koole and her husband, Benjamin, live in Fresno, California, U.S., and are 26. Patti is an oncology nurse at a clinic at the Madera Children’s Hospital and Ben is the pastor for the college group at Northpoint Community.
Engage: How did you first recognize God’s call to be involved in missions?
Karla: As a little girl, I heard a missionary speak in my church. God touched my heart that day, and I never forgot it. As an adult I had many fears when I thought about living in another country, but with our involvement in youth missions and Work & Witness, all my fears were changed to compassion, and I only sought obedience to HIS leading.
Tim: Involvement with Work & Witness gave us the exposure to the concept of long-term service, which eventually led us to our current positions.
Engage: What is your favorite aspect of what you do in your present assignment?
Tim: Personal interaction with coworkers. On a recent business trip to Port Moresby while driving with a PNG friend and contractor, he made a statement with a smile. His statement was simple: “Brother Tim, I think Jesus is coming back before you or I die.” A few minutes passed as we drove, and I realized I had learned an important new concept. Compared to the return of our King, all things pale. As we teach we learn.
Karla: I am given the priviledge of praying with people in the hospital wards and working with the chaplains. Many times as we interview the patient we are made aware of their family standing near by, and the Lord starts talking to me of their needs. Just one week ago, this same experience happened, and I talked directly to the family, telling them that through our prayers, it was the Spirit from God that was working in this man and through his body that was half paralyzed from a stroke. Chaplain Moses and I said just a few more things to the family, and then moved on to another patient. Afterwards, outside, Moses and I started talking about the way we had been led in conversation to the family of the stroke patient. We looked up at the same time, recognizing the man’s brother we had been talking to. He looked at Chaplain Moses and said, “I would like to know more about God.” What an honor to be used by Him.
Since moving to Papua New Guinea, I have become acquainted with many of the district superintendants and their wives and district secretaries, working with them and also teaching, so that an accurate picture of God’s work on these island nations can be fully appreciated. I also help with child sponsorship and have gained a better understanding of all the work and perseverance involved with this ministry. More than ever before, seeing the compassion for children that the Nazarene church displays has been a joy! My other part-time job is in the lab of the hospital. My co-workers are fun people who have had much patience with me, as we laugh over mistakes and misunderstandings. These friends consider working at the hospital a ministry, not just a vocation.
Engage: What are some of the challenges that you face in carrying out your work?
Tim and Karla: Transportation and coordination of personnel and resources to remote places. One project required eight hours of driving over crazy roads to transport people and materials 39.34 miles.
Engage: Please share a story of a significant event or moment that has happened in your current assignment.
Tim and Karla: As part of a project in a remote location, we decided to show the JESUS film (a film about the life of Jesus). In an area with no roads, other than bush walk paths, and villages separated by miles and mountain valleys, people came to view the JESUS film. As darkness fell we watched as torches advanced towards our location. Over 400 people sat on the grass and in the dark sky and with the Southern Cross (a star formation) shining brightly behind us. In this way we shared the gospel of Christ’s powerful love.
Engage: How do you maintain a close relationship with God and your family in the midst of the demands of missionary service?
Karla: Keeping in contact with family and friends takes perseverance. Maintaining my relationship with God, has always meant keeping the relationship fresh, trying to hear His spirit, and be obedient, but also living in the moment and relishing every real thing that comes my way, like a butterfly, or child that is joyful to see me or his parents.
Engage: What are the rewards of what you do?
Karla: The Highlands of Papua New Guinea have known of the outside world for only 80 years. We meet with people who tell of the first missionaries. Meeting with people who love God, and have a passion to see Him working. Experiencing a culture other than my own, and finding His people in every calling. Sharing God and having others do the same for me.
Engage: What are some aspects of the culture where you live that you have come to love or embrace?
Karla: We have enjoyed the aspect of the Melanasian culture that binds families together over the generations.
Engage: What do you like to do for fun?
Karla: Swim, read, visit with friends, meet new people, pray with people.
Tim: Visiting bush churches, hiking, swimming, and meeting multitudes of new volunteers. Cookouts with station families. Interaction with other missions.
Engage: What is something people would be surprised to learn about you?
Karla: I traveled to Europe the first time when I was 16, a People to People Student Ambassador program; 12 countries in six weeks. Loved it.
Tim: I have a U.S. Merchant Marines Captain’s License.
Engage: What advice would you have for others exploring a possible call to missions, or embarking on their first missionary assignment?
Karla: Before my son-in-laws were given permission to marry my daughters, they were each asked to ennumerate the reasons for their love of those daughters. I then asked each one to hold the list until difficult times came. In the same way it might be important to make a list of reasons why God has gifted you with this opportunity of service. In the words of James, all good gifts come down from the Father, and most certainly the gift of service is from Him as well.
Video: Healing prayer
Joana Schubert, a young missionary in South Korea, is faced with a great crisis. Learn how a global church united inprayer for healing.
Nazarene Stories
"Healing Prayer" 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.
Nazarene Stories
"Healing Prayer" 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.
The Church of the Nazarene worldwide has embraced one unifying vision from the words of Jesus: to make Christlike disciples in the nations. Local churches large and small are making disciples in ways as diverse as their cultures, customs, and traditions.
By giving to the World Evangelism Fund, each of us and all of us together support disciple-making across 159 world areas.
At the Cali Church of the Nazarene, in Colombia, disciple-making is a way of life. At least 100 people become new followers of Christ at the church every Sunday.
Leaders shepherd every new believer through a four-stage discipleship journey called the Master’s Plan, which begins with joining a weekly house church for support and accountability. Then, the new believers attend a retreat where they learn how to sustain and deepen relationship with Jesus and other basic biblical principles.
In the third stage, these new believers participate in a three-level discipleship group, which meets weekly for nine months.
Next, each believer is asked to disciple 12 more people, meeting with them once each week.
Cali Church of the Nazarene’s disciple-making plan is a multiplication network. Every believer who is being discipled also disciples another twelve. Each of those 12, in turn, disciple another 12. And on and on they advance together. Today in Cali, more than 14,000 people gather in seven worship celebrations.
José Luis Montenegro is one of those who has been through the entire process after he became a believer. Today he is part of the pastor’s group of 12 disciples, and he leads his own group of 12 disciples. Engage magazine interviewed him through a missionary facilitator and translator. Here is what Montenegro had to say about the Master’s Plan.
Engage: How did the Master’s Plan contribute to the process of taking you through discipleship and to mature and grow as a believer?
Montenegro: It influenced me in three important aspects:
- The responsibility and commitment of the leader for my spiritual growth was an inspirational reason.
- Growth in the knowledge of God. The Master’s Plan gave me the opportunity to know the basic doctrines about God.
- Once I finished my discipleship, it gave me the space (opportunity) to exercise my leadership where I discovered and put into practice the gifts that God has given to me.
Montenegro: The relationship with my leader was key -- his example, his commitment, and disposition for the work of the Lord all inspired me to do the same; to be involved in the opportunities and activities of service within the church helped me to feel like a useful instrument in the hands of the Lord to help others; to become conscious about the Great Commision.
Engage: Would you explain the steps in your transition in leadership from being a new believer to becoming one of the group of 12 of the pastor? Why did you want to become involved?
Montenegro: I was first invited by a disciple of the pastor to a house of prayer; later I participated in an encounter with God. I went through my biblical discipleship while participating in a group of 12; during that time I was challenged to work and to form my own team of disciples. With the passing of time, the pastor considered my faithfulness and efforts in the work of the Lord and he invited me to become part of his 12.
Engage: Why do you believe in the Master's Plan as an efective tool to disciple new and mature believers?
Montenegro: It is because the Master's Plan brings together basic and essential principles of Christ's discipleship, what Jesus himself used, that is, it is relational and based in the teaching of the Scriptures but also in the transformation of character. The best thing is that these qualities transend the scope of everyday practice, that is, it not only trains me but it challenges me to act to win others and fulfill the Great Commision.
Disciple-making is not about formulas, programs, or strategies. It’s about relationships that develop spiritual vitality, more fervent commitment, and deeper intimacy with our Savior, Jesus Christ.
Through your giving to World Evangelism Fund, local churches like this one are discipling believers who disciple still others in the nations.Bo
Five practical ways to grow your church by Teanna Sunberg
In the Dohanyi Synagogue Museum, Budapest, Hungary, there is a photo of a Jewish man and boy behind a fence in the ghetto. A sign reads, "No Christians beyond this point." The irony of that sign punched me in the stomach, because, if there is anywhere the Body of Christ should be, it is beyond that point, right there with the hurting, the hated and the walking dead.
I understand the cultural context, how that sign made sense to the ones who posted it, and perhaps that is what makes it all the more frightening. It made sense to the Nazis. It made sense because anytime we use "us and them" as language, we enter into dangerous, self-serving waters.
When we talk about people who never enter the church.
Or people who have a different passport, language, color scheme.
Or people who have a different religion or sexual identity.
And, if that list makes sense to us, we have reason to fear.
Anytime the arms and the legs that we wear are used to segregate and separate, we cease to be the Christ Image in this bleeding, wounded world.
And if you are reading this post, maybe you should stop reading right here because where I am going, you may not like to follow.
I am going right into our neighborhoods – our quiet, comfortable, lawn-mowed, gated, safe communities. Right there, where our kids walk to school and the trash truck picks up garbage every Tuesday. And there, I am turning a corner that will not be popular, to say a thing that will not be liked.
If one more Christian talks to me about church growth methods, I am going to throw-up yesterday’s hummus right on their shoes.
Church growth?
We do not want church growth.
We should and could discuss what the word and the concept "church" really means in our 21st century context. But, not in this post, not this time.
For today, I mean the active, intentional invitation of people into our worship environment. Evangelism, if you will.
So, let us be honest.
What we really want is to create inviting environments that welcome folks like us: safe, showered, employed, respectable.
The pre-packaged Christians that window shop churches are quite nice, but we will take the newly-converted or one with minimal tattoos who is on the verge of kicking that nasty nicotine habit, with language that is improving and correct sexual orientation, if, and this is a big IF, there is a high probability that they will accept Jesus and begin carrying a Bible.
We do not want the others – not really.
Because, if we did, we would smash those barriers and move into the ghetto wearing our arms and our legs like mobile medical units.
We could do that.
And, until we do, I do not want to hear another seminar, have another conversation, or read another book moaning over, prescribing, or presenting church growth methods.
If we really need a church growth method, here it is:
1. Find a person. ONE person that does not look, smell, talk, or live like you do. Maybe it is the neighbor who leads an alternative lifestyle or the girl at the grocery store with the purple hair and the snake tattoo. Or, maybe it is one person in the homeless shelter, or the rescue house for trafficked women, or that vulnerable kid from a broken home who graffitied the wall with dirty words, or maybe it is the guy who owns the porn shop in your city.
2. Invite him to coffee this week and pray every day for him.
3. Invite him to coffee next week and pray every day for him.
4. Repeat step 3.
5. That is it.
6. No, really, that is it.
We do not need to discuss worship style or clean bathrooms or welcome packets, or dress code. We vomit how to’s for attracting people, but all of this conversation boils down to one honest question: Why are you growing your church?
If church growth is about people in seats on a Sunday morning that populate statistics and funnel into Sunday School teachers and worship leaders, and trendy youth programs, you definitely need a seminar for church growth.
But, if you have the courage to believe that a gasping, oozing, aching Jesus chose a tree because God is intentionally present in our brokenness, then our discussion is over and we can move. Move into the ghetto. Literally. Figuratively.
We could do that.
And, until we do, I do not want to hear another seminar, have another conversation, or read another book moaning over, prescribing, or presenting church growth methods.
If we really need a church growth method, here it is:
1. Find a person. ONE person that does not look, smell, talk, or live like you do. Maybe it is the neighbor who leads an alternative lifestyle or the girl at the grocery store with the purple hair and the snake tattoo. Or, maybe it is one person in the homeless shelter, or the rescue house for trafficked women, or that vulnerable kid from a broken home who graffitied the wall with dirty words, or maybe it is the guy who owns the porn shop in your city.
2. Invite him to coffee this week and pray every day for him.
3. Invite him to coffee next week and pray every day for him.
4. Repeat step 3.
5. That is it.
6. No, really, that is it.
We do not need to discuss worship style or clean bathrooms or welcome packets, or dress code. We vomit how to’s for attracting people, but all of this conversation boils down to one honest question: Why are you growing your church?
If church growth is about people in seats on a Sunday morning that populate statistics and funnel into Sunday School teachers and worship leaders, and trendy youth programs, you definitely need a seminar for church growth.
But, if you have the courage to believe that a gasping, oozing, aching Jesus chose a tree because God is intentionally present in our brokenness, then our discussion is over and we can move. Move into the ghetto. Literally. Figuratively.
Because God intended His body to be broken by the pain of His humanity. He intended His image to cry out the song of lament in the courtyard. He intended His arms to bar the passages into brothels and His legs to beat down the doors that trap.
You want church growth? Put on your arms and legs.
Find the teenager who aches so much for money that he is prime pimp material. Invest in his life: your time, your attention, your expertise over the course of the next five years, with no guarantee that he ever comes to church.
Get to know the small business man whose shop is struggling enough that he is tempted to pay unfairly low salaries to make a profit. Play golf with him. Get to know his kids. Shop at his store. Bring your friends in to shop at his store.
Invite the girl from the broken home that will look for love in every boy by prostituting her heart and her body. Invite her to play with your kids, to stay for supper. Invite her mom, too.
Find the cutter, and the hater, and the addict, and the atheist, and the extremist. And ask God to help you have an authentic conversation without vomiting Christian-eeze or strategizing how long before you have the right to bring them to church.
I am not sure if your people numbers will rise. Frankly, I do not care. But this I do know, when the image bearers move into a neighborhood where pain lives, when we cry with and fight for and sing the laments of a broken song, THEN WE ARE the CHURCH … and against that Church, the gates of Hell will not prevail.
You want church growth? Put on your arms and legs.
Find the teenager who aches so much for money that he is prime pimp material. Invest in his life: your time, your attention, your expertise over the course of the next five years, with no guarantee that he ever comes to church.
Get to know the small business man whose shop is struggling enough that he is tempted to pay unfairly low salaries to make a profit. Play golf with him. Get to know his kids. Shop at his store. Bring your friends in to shop at his store.
Invite the girl from the broken home that will look for love in every boy by prostituting her heart and her body. Invite her to play with your kids, to stay for supper. Invite her mom, too.
Find the cutter, and the hater, and the addict, and the atheist, and the extremist. And ask God to help you have an authentic conversation without vomiting Christian-eeze or strategizing how long before you have the right to bring them to church.
I am not sure if your people numbers will rise. Frankly, I do not care. But this I do know, when the image bearers move into a neighborhood where pain lives, when we cry with and fight for and sing the laments of a broken song, THEN WE ARE the CHURCH … and against that Church, the gates of Hell will not prevail.
[Teanna Sunberg is a missionary, a mom and a writer who enjoys studyingabout, writing about and lecturing in the area of Missiology. Together with her husband, Jay, they have the joy and privilege of serving the people of the Central Europe Field of the Eurasia Region. Currently, her family lives in Budapest, Hungary, but they have also called Bulgaria and Russia home over the past 17 years. She has authored various articles and chapters in mission-related publications including the Nazarene Missions International missions book, Cold Winds, Warm Hearts. Reprinted with permission from the Central Europe Field website.___________________________________
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