Engage Magazine from The Nazarene Missions International of The Global Church of the Nazarene in Lenexa, Kansas, United States "A Global Mission Magazine" - Issue No. 114 for Wednesday, 10 August 2016

Engage Magazine from The Nazarene Missions International of The Global Church of the Nazarene in Lenexa, Kansas, United States "A Global Mission Magazine" - Issue No. 114 for Wednesday, 10 August 2016www.engagemagazine.com Wednesday, August 10, 2016 Issue #114
RECENT ARTICLES:

Side by side: How relationships can humanize the homeless by Merideth Spriggs

I met Dave when I was doing homeless outreach in downtown Las Vegas, Nevada. Dave was a heavy drinker. We had tried three times to get him sober, but each time he left detox and returned to drinking on the streets. One day, though, he reached out to me for help.
A friend who directs a sober living program and I created a plan to help Dave. We would take him with us to a one-day intervention being held by homeless outreach agencies in the area.
Even though he had asked for help, I still feared Dave might be drunk and miss the appointment, so I surprised him with a 4:30 a.m. wakeup call. I climbed over rocks and shimmied into a small gravel pit between a fence and a freeway on-ramp. I walked carefully so I wouldn’t step on any exposed needles, and I woke Dave that morning. After two heart attacks, he was feeble and needed a walker and some assistance to move. My husband and I helped him into the backseat of our car.

After getting him to his appointment, I was helping with crowd control at the event when my husband, who had been shadowing Dave, called me over. I walked up to the table and saw Dave shaking as he clung to his walker, tears running down his face. The case manager was refusing to take him. Dave had failed too many times before, he said.
“I don’t want to waste a bed on you, Dave. We have people that want help,” the man said, crossing his arms.
“Today is different!” I said. “He is going, and you are taking him! He said he wants our help. We are going to help him, and he won’t quit. He will be your biggest success story if you take him.”
“He is going to come back out and fail,” the man said.
“No! Today is different because he has me. He has us,” I said while motioning for the program director to walk over. Maybe he had failed in the past, but the difference that day was he had someone walking with him, both figuratively and literally.
Dave went to detox that day. For the next several days, I called or went in person to make sure he knew someone was cheering for him. I also called and sent a slew of emails reminding people up the chain that they had given me their word to keep Dave in their housing.
That next Monday I got the call I was waiting for. “We did it,” Dave said. “I’m in. Thank you.”
Two years later, God has completely transformed Dave. He is sober and reunited with his family after 10 years. He is also putting his two master’s degrees to good use by teaching at an education program. He has a love for the outdoors and no longer needs his walker. Now he enjoys going on hikes in the mountains.

Dave jokes that so many missed the mark trying to help before. “I was homeless,” he said, “not sandwich-less. You picked me up and walked with me.”
The loss of a job and the death of his mother had sent Dave into a deep depression, which spiraled into addiction and eventually homelessness. He needed more than a meal. He needed someone willing to walk with him while he did the hard work of recovery.
Dave’s story encourages me that anyone can be transformed—if we are truly willing to walk with individuals to understand their needs and help restore them back to community. [Formerly homeless herself, Merideth Spriggs is a graduate of Nazarene Theological Seminary, an elder in the Church of the Nazarene, and the founder and chief kindness officer of Caridad, a homeless-service provider based in downtown Las Vegas, Nevada.]Read More
-------

Missionary profile: Enoch Tee Enoch Tee is a graphic designer and photographer for World Mission Communication in the Asia-Pacific Region, based in Manila, in the Philippines. He began his assignment in 2014. As part of his service, he develops visual arts pieces such as logos and banners for the region, and also conducts usability testing and research for websites. With his camera he provides photojournalism, including at events.
He says: "These are the behind the scenes work of the Church, but these are also vital to the mission of spreading the Gospel -- telling what the Lord is doing through the Church and telling it in an informative, accurate, honest and compelling way to energize believers and reach non-believers."

In addition, he serves as a worship arts in informal settlement (slum) communities and creative access areas. In this role he "teaches art to children in these communities to identify and support their skills but also as therapy -- teaching them to identify who they are, what community context they are living in and how the church is important in it. The focus is on growing young leaders in the Church from these communities. Because of their struggles early on in life, God will build them up into strong leaders for the Church, so it is important for them to have peace and perspective that art can bring to them and their congregation."
Enoch tells more about how God prepared him to serve as a missionary and what he is doing.
Engage: How did you first recognize God’s call to be involved in missions?
Enoch: In 2012 my pastor and family, Grant Zweigle, in Vancouver First Church, British Columbia, Canada, had confirmed their calling to go on mission in the Philippines. In 2013 I was between jobs and was encouraged by Grant and Brent Cobb, [the former regional director for Asia-Pacific,] who visited my church. When I applied I was told that it could take years to find a suitable mission and that most likely it would be to teach English in Korea.
Within days of my application I was contacted by Todd Aebischer [communications coordinator for Asia-Pacific Region] for a position with World Mission Communications doing design, web, photography, which is exactly my training and vocation. Within a year I raised my funds and arrived in the Philippines before the Zweigles. Grant Zweigle has been my pastor and mentor for nine years, Aisling Zweigle encouraged me to work with children (which is now the heart of my ministry) and Graiden and Abram Zweigle were kids I taught in Sunday School. For them to be with me here is a miracle.

Engage: What is your favorite aspect of what you do in your present assignment?
Enoch: Working with children: They bring more life and joy to the church, I’ve also always had ease in working with them. In the church in the Rowenas Informal Settlement there is no shortage of kids to play/work with. I taught art there weekly and it became my adopted home church here. When I first arrived I would let them use my camera to take pictures and soon all the kids came to expect it. So when I walked into the community all the kids (maybe 20-30 of them) would rush to welcome me and to use my camera.
Working with my passion for the arts: Growing up I was always creatively minded, going through art school and design school I never would’ve thought that it was something that would take me on mission. I had always considered my skill as something separate from God and my faith. Now it is a daily encouragement that God can use anything for his glory. Creativity is a gift from God and it is what we use to give back to God.
Engage: What are some of the challenges that you face in carrying out your work?
Enoch: Small cultural differences that throw me off: Being Asian and growing up surrounded by Asian infuences I thought it would lessen my culture shock. Instead it just gave me a different type of culture shock. One example is when I speak English in public. When they see me they think I’m a Filipino, so when I only speak in English they think I’m showing off. Many times I have had to overcome this first impression when meeting new people.
Engage: Please share a story of a significant event or moment that has happened in your current assignment.

Enoch: While teaching art at a refugee school in a creative access area, I met a 5-year-old boy who was in his first week of school. This was traumatic for him because he had never had any formal education before. It was also traumatic because this was the same week that his father took a second wife, essentially leaving him and his mom. This boy would cry and disrupt class; he would even run out of the school. Because I was teaching art he clung to me because [art] was fun for him and he decided that I was OK. After two weeks of me teaching there, he had calmed down significantly, he wouldn’t cry and would actually laugh and enjoy class. Art can bring peace to children in difficult situations. Furthermore, in his culture they have a very negative and stereotypical view of Christians. At least for this boy he will grow up knowing that the stereotype is wrong because of the Christians running and teaching that school.
Engage: How do you maintain a close relationship with God in the midst of the demands of missionary service?
Enoch: The World Mission Communications office has daily devotional time in the morning and this really helps to keep my personal devotionals on track. Because we are a communications office we receive and share many uplifting stories and prayer needs from the region, plus all of the workers at WMC are leaders in their local church or even pastors.
Engage: What are the rewards of what you do?
Enoch: The purpose keeps my encouraged daily. Working with my creativity is always fun and challenging. Working with kids is always joyful.
Engage: What are some aspects of the culture where you live that you have come to love or embrace?
Enoch: They celebrate everything.
Engage: What do you like to do for fun?
Enoch: Biking, painting, photography, camping, hiking, kayaking
Engage: What advice would you have for others exploring a possible call to missions, or embarking on their first missionary assignment?
Enoch: Don’t be too strict about your job requirement. Be open to do whatever, whenever and however.
Learn more: web.nazarene.org/goto/Enoch_TeeRead More
-------

Drops of Mercy by Beth Clayton Luthye

Water is life. It has become a cliché, but sometimes clichés are true. For people living in Sierra Leone, those three words are a daily reality that is never taken for granted. Each day’s schedule revolves around collecting water for drinking, cooking, bathing, and laundry. For most, the task also brings with it the worry that contaminants in the water may cause illness. In fact, thousands of children in the country die each year due to water-related diseases that are almost entirely preventable.
“Sometimes we got sick because of germs,” says Davida, a young mother of two boys, ages 4 and 2. “The children got very sick with diarrhea.”
Davida walked four to five times a day to collect that dirty water. The walk takes about 20 minutes each way, which equates to an average of three hours a day walking for water.
Amina, a young woman in her 20s from a different community, shares a similar story. “You spend all your time there at the stream,” she says. “I was sad every day.”
A 2012 survey of 28,000 water points in Sierra Leone, conducted by the government’s Ministry of Water Resources, showed that 52 percent of people in rural areas have no access to safe water, and as many as 40 percent of the water points provide water consistently only during the rainy season.
The Church of the Nazarene in Sierra Leone is determined to work toward changing those numbers.
“As a church, we cannot afford to turn a blind eye to the things that affect our people,” says Rev. Vidal Cole, who serves as the Nazarene district superintendent in Sierra Leone. “In as much as we won’t be able to meet all the needs, still we must do what we can. The church is the agent of change in the community. … We should not just seek to affect the spiritual needs of our people. When we meet community needs, we send a strong message to our communities that we care about them. I believe that’s the way Jesus ministered in His days, and we have been called to do nothing less.”

More water now
Davida is from a community called Monkey Bush, located about 30 kilometers from Freetown, Sierra Leone’s capital city. Until about 10 years ago, the area was little more than a thicket of trees occupied by small monkeys. Today, you’ll find a smattering of mango trees here and there, a carpet of fine red dust on the ground, and a development of cement block houses occupied by families who left the country’s interior, hoping to find more opportunities closer to the capital.
A few homes in Monkey Bush have hand-dug wells outside. These belong to families with money to buy cement and supplies and the strength to do the work. Despite their convenience, though, they are not the best solution for the country’s water problem. Once filled, a bucket of water has to sit for a while to allow the sediment to settle, and sometimes that isn’t enough. During certain times of the year, water is poured through a sieve to catch larger pieces of debris. Diarrheal disease is common.
Hand-dug wells reach only the first level of the water table, which is contaminated by ground water runoff. In Sierra Leone, the water is also contaminated by mineral content that is hazardous when consumed. What’s more, any contaminants on individual buckets that are lowered into the well are then introduced to the water supply.
The Nazarene church in Monkey Bush recently introduced a borehole well, which goes to the deeper, uncontaminated levels of the water table.
“I feel happy,” Davida says. “We have more water now.”
“We are also happy for the water,” says Zainabu, a mother of six children, ages 15, 10, 12, 5, 1, and 2 months. “The difference is so much. Now, water is constant. Before, the distance brought suffering to walk so far carrying water.”
Now that Zainabu and her children don’t have to spend hours each day to collect water, they are able to “spend more time as a family,” she says.

Women’s (and Girls’) Work
In Sierra Leone, as in most parts of the world, the responsibility for collecting water for the household falls on women and children, mostly girls. As a result, girls are often late to classes, or they have to miss school altogether on some days. With easy access to water, girls have equal access to the opportunities that come with education.
Sabi* is a young girl who attends a small primary school of about 90 students. Until very recently, she had to walk about 40 minutes round-trip for one bucket of water, a journey that requires hiking up and down a steep slope. The return trip meant making the hike with a 5-gallon bucket of water on her head—something Sabi did four to five times a day. Today, she simply has to walk on flat ground to the well on the school’s property, where she can pump all the water she needs to complete her chore.
“Now, we are not suffering like before,” she says. “Now, I can spend more time at home.”
Fatu,* 14, describes the process of walking for water before the well was installed. “It was hard,” she says. “The sun was very hot under our feet. The large buckets were heavy on our heads. … I feel so happy for the new hand pump.”
Fatmata is also glad she can spend more time in school now. “After school, I want to be an office worker—a book keeper,” she says.
The story is nearly identical in the nearby community of Fire Mambo.
Finda*, 11, wants to be a lawyer when she grows up. In even a short conversation, her fierce determination is obvious. Not only does the well enable her to get to school on time, but she no longer misses school due to stomach aches caused by drinking dirty water.
“I’m happy now that we have the well,” she says. “Before, I missed school, or I was late most of the time. The teacher flogs us when we are late. I am on time now.”

Come to the well
“This is the help of our church,” says Pastor Joseph Bangura, who leads the Monkey Bush Church of the Nazarene and also teaches at the school there. He emphasizes the fact that anyone can come to the church to pump water, not just those who are members. “I have a church that makes me biggo (proud),” he adds. “Holiness shows love. Anyone can get water here. People in the community say, ‘You extended love without even knowing us.’ Jesus extended His love through us. ... It’s like the [Casting Crowns] song says: ‘Come to the well.’”
Fatmata, 23, is a member of the Nazarene church in Monkey Bush. The mother of a toddler son, she says, “I am happy and tell God thanks. Our neighbors say the church has done well for the community. I believe some will come and be a part [of the church].”
In Fire Mambo, Theresa, says, “What the [Nazarene] church has done, we cannot repay—only God can.”
According to the mother of a 5-year-old daughter, the water they were able to access prior to the borehole was not pure. “Children got sick because people use the stream as a toilet and for laundry,” she says.
After ebola
The wells in Monkey Bush and Fire Mambo are the result of a partnership between the Church of the Nazarene through Nazarene Compassionate Ministries and World Hope International, a relief and development organization associated with the Wesleyan Church. Through the partnership, the Church of the Nazarene is working with six communities in Sierra Leone to create integrated projects that combine safe water through wells, improved sanitation through pit latrines, and hygiene education. Each community selects a water committee, which maintains and sustains the well. Anyone who comes for water is asked to contribute 200 Leones per bucket, which amounts to about 5 cents (USD), for a maintenance fund.
The project targets communities that were most affected by the recent Ebola crisis. Monkey Bush was considered an Ebola hot spot. As just one example of the devastation the virus caused, Pastor Joseph says he lost four of the 18 members of his church, two adults and two teenagers.
Pastor Sia, who leads the Nazarene church in Fire Mambo notes that many people in her community died during the Ebola outbreak, including children.
Between May 2014 and March 2016, there were more than 14,000 cases of Ebola in Sierra Leone, and more than 3,900 people died as a result. The virus spread quickly in part because of the lack of water, sanitation facilities, and hygiene practices. The virus spread through bodily fluids and waste, making water for washing and sufficient sanitation facilities critical. The hope is to help prevent future outbreaks of Ebola as well as other diseases.
Another area where the church is implementing a WASH project is Ogoo Farm, a rural community past the outer edges of Freetown. There, Pastor James Fullah experienced the grief brought by Ebola personally when he lost his wife, Isatu, to the disease.
Even in the midst of loss, Pastor Fullah is thankful for the gift of clean water through a new well. “We praise God, and we are very glad about this well,” he says. “We thank God for it because people are suffering for water in this community. We didn’t have pure water. We only got water from streams and very dangerous places where children can fall and get wounded. This is a safe place. A lot of families will benefit from this well.”
Kariatou, a mother of five, says, “I have peace of mind now. Before, children had to go a long distance to the stream. It was not safe. The road is bad and narrow, and there is a steep slope where they can fall. There are also snakes, and they had to cross a rushing river that can carry them away.”

Musu Allieu, a member of the community’s new water committee, expresses her gratitude, too. “God is in this kind of church [that meets needs]. It’s like when Jesus said, ‘When someone is hungry, give food. When someone is thirsty, give water.’ The people have God in their hearts.”
According to Musu, before the well was installed, they had to collect water from a stream that caused much sickness. “It was only good for cooking [if boiled] and laundry,” she says.
The only option for drinking water was to purchase water sachets—small plastic bags containing about half a liter of purified water. Each bag costs only about 250 to 500 Leones (6 to 12 cents, USD), but someone would have to purchase several bags each day just to drink the 2.5 liters of water that experts recommend for maintaining basic health. In a country where 70 percent of people live on less than $1 a day, paying for water sachets is no small consideration.
The day the well in Ogoo Farm was first available for use brought celebration among children and adults alike. Idrissa, 29, was among those gathered for a prayer and dedication. “The [Nazarene] church is blessed,” he says. “The Bible says to help those who are weak, and people were suffering here.”
He ends with three simple words: “Water is life.”
* Children’s names are changed for their protection.Read More
-------

Peace and love amid tribal fighting in Papua New Guinea by Kaitlyn WilliamsThe scent of burnt wood, grass, flesh, and various debris filled the air in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea in September 2015. It was Independence weekend, but tribal war in this Pacific Island nation is still a reality. A death the day before tragically had triggered tribal rivals’ revenge, burning many homesteads, animals, and destroying other property. It left nothing but ashes and brokenness behind.

On the grassy hillsides of the Wahgi Valley are the communities of Kudjip and Banz. Nearby, live people who for centuries have worked the ground, and built their lives there. Out of vengeance for a man’s death in a fight, one tribe burned about 200 homes in the other area. In a setting where legal systems struggle to effectively solve conflict, many people still resort to tribal violence, often destroying all that people have built.
With so much hurt on both sides of the conflict, there needed to be some sort of relief and help. During the next several months, Nazarenes came alongside both the families and communities, and even the men in prison, trying to build bridges of peace.
The Dooley family -- Dr. Scott Dooley, Gail Dooley, and their three daughters -- live at the Nazarene Hospital at Kudjip (and the Kuma tribe). The Dooleys are just 10 kilometers from the Banz tribe. Dr. Dooley is the Nazarene Hospital administrator. Along with many from churches and Nazarene Health Ministries, he was involved with relief efforts in areas affected by the tribal fighting.

Dr. Dooley said there are four branches of Nazarene Health Ministries in Papua New Guinea: The first is the hospital in Kudjip. Many doctors there are missionary doctors, and many on staff live near where the devastation took place. Second, is the Nazarene College of Nursing, which offers a three-year diploma program. Graduates not only receive degrees, but they also receive a certificate of lay ministry from the Nazarene Bible college. Third is Primary and Rural Health, which runs several clinics, specifically in remote areas. Fourth is Community-Based Health Care. It is community holistic training, which disciples people while influencing and teaching them to work together and learn how to better take care of themselves.
It has been a priority of these Nazarene institutions to spread the love of God to the people impacted by these recent events. It has especially been an emphasis of the hospital because it is so close to the areas impacted. The town of Banz and the men who fought are some of the hospital employees' nearest neighbors.
Funds from a variety of places have been raised to help with rebuilding. Some hospital staff contributed, along with people involved with the National Women’s Meeting. Missionaries have followed up in the places affected, and a local Nazarene church, Cornerstone Church of the Nazarene, had a particularly large impact on the relief and rebuilding efforts.
Baru Dirye, the Nazarene National Health Secretary, and his wife, Christina, felt the Lord asking them to start a church about five years ago. They lived in a house on stilts, so the church met in the open space beneath the house. Over time, it has grown to almost 300 people, has a new building, and is still growing. Meanwhile, because it is so close to the devastation, Cornerstone has partnered with families and has been reaching out to help. They were even invited by that community to plant another church nearby.
Nazarenes recognized that people on both sides of the conflict needed help and ministry, so Dr. Dooley, other doctors on staff (photo right), and the hospital chaplain began meeting with the men in prison. The chaplain even had the opportunity to preach to all prisoners. The inmates began Bible studies twice a day; it was evident Christ was working.

“Many said they’d given their lives to Christ while in prison,” Dooley said. “They are now being followed up with for encouragement.”
The men were imprisoned about four months, then were released because no charges had been made officially, and no trial was scheduled. Since their release, however, more peace and change has occurred. The missionaries and hospital staff remain involved in Bible studies and spiritual growth for those who gave their lives to Christ.
Many on both sides of the conflict have been amazed that people would be so willing to help after so much violence, while sometimes even close family members would not. This has helped relationships between the hospital and the Kuma tribe grow, as well as the people of Banz.
As tension lessens and the love of Christ and a tentative peace rise up to take their place, prayers still are needed for rebuilding and renewing the town of Banz. Many of the people have gone through, and continue to go through, hard times, simply trying to survive day to day. They need prayers for endurance in their faith.
“We just pray that we’ll continue to be able to follow up with people and show them how Christ can really change who we are and how we react to situations,” Dr. Dooley said, “and when situations come up like this, people will truly learn something and really learn to turn to God for the life that only He can give us.”Read More
-------

Reflecting Christ: Empowering by Howard CulbertsonWhen Jesus gave His Great Commission, He wasn’t simply assigning a task to people. He was empowering them. Indeed, the verb “to commission” carries some of the same nuances as the verb “to empower.”
Empowerment means giving people authority and power. Jesus did not hesitate to do that. He did not try to keep followers on a “short leash.” Though His earthly ministry lasted only three years, the Gospels mention instances of Jesus sending followers out on short-term preaching/healing/deliverance missions. More importantly, Jesus empowered others for the future when He would not be there. For example, the night before His crucifixion, Jesus said to His closest disciples: “You will do greater things than this” (John 14:12). Because those words exuded trust and gave people permission to dream, they were empowering.
Jesus certainly knew how fallible human beings can be. Even so, He expressed confidence in His followers. Why? Was it because empowerment tends to result in growth and maturation? Perhaps. Empowerment does open up new vistas for people. It turns people into decision-makers. It fosters the development of previously-dormant leadership gifts. Empowered people gain confidence because someone believes in them.
Empowerment does not mean shoving people out the door and leaving them to flounder with no mentoring or accountability structures. Jesus debriefed those he sent out two-by-two. His Great Commission includes the words, “I will be with you.”
The Apostle Paul followed Jesus’ example of empowering leadership. As Paul made his missionary journeys, he appointed “elders” or leaders for the churches he planted. Then, he kept in touch with these churches, writing letters to them and visiting them. When a pastor/evangelist needed some training, Paul turned to a couple from Rome: Aquila and Priscilla. Paul also empowered people like Titus and Timothy by making them “overseers” or superintendents of groups of churches.
Global missionaries dream about reaching lost people (or at least they should). One potent way of turning such dreams into reality is to empower newly-developing churches and their leaders. Among other things, empowering others multiplies the reach and effectiveness of evangelistic and discipleship ministries.
Once in a while, missionaries fall into the trap of staying in charge as they wait and wait for the perfect successor to emerge. Others think they have empowered people when all they have really done is give out a checklist of tasks to be completed. Jesus did not approach His earthly ministry in either of these ways. Missionaries who follow Christ’s model of leadership will empower people in the same way Jesus did.Read More
-------

Kosovar Nazarenes remember their past as they visit refugees by Gina Grate Pottenger
In 1998 and 1999, a brutal civil war in the Balkan Peninsula led to an expulsion of Kosovar Albanians who found themselves as refugees, their homes destroyed.
Imir Gashi is one of those former refugees. As a teenager, he found safety in Albania before being able to return home a few months later.

It’s because he remembers what it was like to be a refugee that he is now one of the Nazarenes from Kosova who regularly visits refugee camps in neighboring Serbia and Macedonia. These Kosovars are serving as volunteers with the Nazarene Central European Refugee Response team.
On his first visit, he met a young man from Afghanistan who had lost his entire family to violence. The man was reading a Bible on his phone -- a gift from a Christian missionary he'd met. He fell in love with what Jesus had to say.
“As I was talking to him, he said, ‘I have a secret,'" Gashi said. "And he told me that he had given his life [to Christ] just the other day. I told him his story had a parallel with mine: When I was a refugee in Albania, I gave my life to Christ.”
Gashi told him that he is a pastor in Kosova. The young man was excited at this news, because he had so many questions. Every week, Gashi returned to disciple him, pray with him, and answer his questions.
Gashi and the other Kosovar Nazarenes have built relationships with some of the refugee families over the past four months, playing with their children, and bringing food, toys and other things they need.
Now the number of people in the camp has reduced from more than 1,000 to just about 125 people.
“But still we go to keep those relationships,” he said.
A few weeks ago, Gashi wrote to his Afghani friend, who responded that now he is in Germany.
“It’s been a good experience for all of us who have gone there on a week to week basis,” Gashi said. “It’s just been a way to be there for them. These people are desperate, they’ve lost everything. [We go] to show them somebody cares, and God loves them, and we’re there just to be with them more than anything and try to reflect the love of Christ to them.”
For those who have gone with Gashi, the Middle East refugees’ plight is no longer something they simply watch from a distance on the news. They’ve now met people from Damascus and Aleppo in Syria, and from Iraq and Afganistan.
“It’s a personal thing for them now.”Read More
-------
Nazarene Home
-------