Today you will be with me in Paradise

Almost half of 2013 is gone. I knew I wanted to start this year giving thanks to God and reflecting on what he has done for me. It's been 32 years since a high school classmate in Honolulu explained to me that Christ died for me because his love was great for me, and so that I may be rescued from the consequences of sin. When I surrendered my life and gave my heart to Jesus as savior and Lord, I received such a peace that I knew my life would never be the same.

For my birthday in February, I stayed at a friend's condo in Lihue, Kauai. It was a retreat from the normal activity and time set aside to reflect on God and appreciate the beauty of his handiwork. Hawaii seems like paradise. When I think of the word paradise, I sometimes think about one of the thieves on the cross who was crucified with Jesus. He obviously didn't lead a righteous life, but God was kind, gracious, and loving. Because that thief believed that Jesus was the Son of God, and an admitted sinner, Jesus assured him that he will be with him in paradise that day.

I don't know what paradise is like that Jesus was referring to, but I do know that peace with God is paradise to me; the peace of God comes with being friends with God. When trouble comes such as the death of a loved one, the promise of his presence in this life and the next life has given me hope and a peace beyond understanding. My sister and friend, Arceli, passed away at the end of March; a huge loss in my life. The omnipotent, omniscient, everlasting God is with me...and she is in his presence face to face. Her faith becomes sight.

Church Planting Movement in Kapoeta, South Sudan, among the Toposa

Kapoeta, South Sudan, is the land of the Toposa, a tribe of oral learners.This has been the challenge for my church planter colleagues, Patricia and Robert, since 2007. During this mission trip, from the end of October through the beginning of November, Patricia and I saw God's hand crumble that challenge to establish His church among the Toposa.

 

 

This expedition centered on training leaders with the T4T church planting movement material. Patricia and Robert have been working with Kenyan pastors who are able to speak the same language. Although they are from a tribe called Turkana in Kenya, they have the same roots (culture and language) as the Toposa of Sudan. Pastor John is the pastor of Kapoeta Baptist Church, and he has mentored many young men, some from nearby villages and others from boarding schools and are literate. These guys are less than 20 years old, and they reminded me of the passage in  1 Samuel 16:7 when God chose David instead of his older brothers as the anointed leader.."But the LORD said to Samuel, 'Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, ... for God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.'” These  young men surprised me with their enthusiasm for the Word, their passion for Christ, and to start small bible study groups at their schools. Some like David in the bible are shepherds who tend to goats and cattle. They are now leaders and shepherds of people, too. I saw the guy in the blue Samsung t-shirt in action as we traveled to his village of Natchukut. He lined up the people interested in baptism. I didn't think it was going to end. They kept coming until all 77 of them were baptized.

 

One scripture came alive to me during a trip to Kapoeta, South Sudan: Romans 10:17 - Faith comes by HEARING and hearing by the Word of God.

It has been wonderful to hear the Word of God in their heart language.Bible stories have been recorded in the Toposa language through devices such as Proclaimers, which were brought in the spring, and Megavoices, which Patricia brought with her on this trip. The pastors have selected individuals in several villages to lend and use these devices, and these individuals were to invite others in their village to listen to the stories together.

¹¹ For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed.” ¹² For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him; ¹³ for “Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

¹⁴ How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher? ¹⁵ How will they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who ^[i]bring good news of good things!”

Top left: Pastor Stephen in the blue jacket was interpreting for me as I shared the Creation to Christ story before explaining baptism. Top right: Who wants to get baptized? Many raised their hands.
Seventy-seven were baptized!

 

The Toposa boys gave us nicknames, and mine is Nasike; an example of one is pictured below. It is the place of shelter or shade for cattle and other animals. I told them I liked it, because I, too, look for shelter, and I find that in the God Most High. He gives me shelter wherever I go - a shelter in the storms of life and from arrows of the unseen enemy. (Psalm 91).





On the right are the typical homes of the Toposa. They build compounds, and this is the home of a chief and his wives. Two homes (tukels) belong to one wife and two others belong to another wife. They have many children - over ten for one wife alone.

 

The structures on stilts are storage areas for food and whatever else they want to store awayy from animals that roam around.

 

Bonus training time with some of the Toposa boys who didn't have school because the governor was in town. I was able to go over the I Am Second follow-up and discipleship materials for small groups with them. The emphasis of obedience and accountability differentiate these studies from what most would get in Sunday School.

Turkana pastors (two from Kenya). Stephen who is pictured in the middle and his family are from Kenya. They plan to move to help Pastor John with the ministry next year. Robert on the right did most of the preparation of the people for baptism in Natchukut. Both Stephen and Robert have gentle spirits, and I really enjoyed my time with them.

 I knew this was going to be great trip when I got to ride "shotgun" on the way to Kapoeta from Loki airport in Kenya. It was only 30 minutes on this MAF flight, but it was fantastic! Mission Aviation Fellowship carries cargo and people to remote places. This was my first MAF flight, and we took their regularly scheduled flights to make it cheaper, and we rode mostly with cargo before getting to our destination. The pilot was nice - I liked that he prayed before we left the ground.

 My entourage or escort back to mango camp, where I was staying. These were the students I had for training for 2-3 days. They spoke Arabic and the Lord provided Ezra, one of the teachers in the African Inland Church schools, to translate for me. Some of these young folks speak English, but the way I speak and the way the speak is so different.

Some of the African Inland Church students. Some of older ones who came for training small group studies are leaders in Children In Christ Ministry. We had the breeziest place to gather under this tree.

My new friends who are ready to take the training they received back to their boarding school. They decided they will pair up and start the small groups. They also decided the girls will have to be taught as well, as most of the one who came to their training with Patricia were just boys. James, the guy at the far right in the picture, asked to have my bible. It was only Sunday, and I had the rest of the week to utilize my compact bible. These guys had such a hunger for God and the Word, that I had to give him my bible to him and made him promise to share it. They can read English and the material we provided them were also in English. Thank God for technology -the bible on iPhone was very handy the rest of the time.



I am called Nasiket. The Taposa students from far away villages who came for training in Kapoeta decided this. It means where animals gather for shade. I said l liked it. I, too, like to find shelter or shade, and I find my shelter in God. “He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High shall abide in the shadow of the Almighty,” Psalm 91.

Today we ended our two-day training at the First Baptist Church in Kapoeta. My colleague is beside herself. She has been working here for five years, and it is the first time she is seeing this church planting movement explode. There is finally group that would spread the Gospel among the Toposa, and they are the young men from far away villages.

Lord of Creation

Honoring the Lord of Creation in the work of His hands and honoring the memory of my son's friendship with the composer of the background song in the video.

I know that the Lord is great, that our Lord is greater than all gods. The Lord does whatever pleases him, in the heavens and on the earth, in the seas and all their depths.(click link to see video of Monterey Bay Aquarium) Psalm 135:5-6

“I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die..."

"...Do you believe this?" This was the question Jesus posed to Martha in John 11:25when her brother Lazarus died. It is Easter 2012. Two thousand years later the question remains.

Jesus, the Son of God, died to save the world from sin and death. If we think we can save ourselves from sin and earn our way to heaven, then Jesus died needlessly. If we believe in Jesus and that he suffered, died, was buried, and on the third day rose from the dead, then we shall be saved. Because He rose from the grave and conquered death, we too, have the hope of resurrection.

Followers of Christ not only have a future hope, but can be instruments of God's righteousness, "knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ. For He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you who through Him are believers in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God." (1 Peter 1:18-21)

"Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin.

Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.

What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be! Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness? But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness."Romans 6:4-18

Jesus Came; A Gift from the Heart of God

Sharing the love of God to people who have not heard about Jesus Christ before is nothing short of WONDERFUL because it's like celebrating Christmas each time, and that's like unwrapping the greatest present that has ever been given...and I got to see it unwrapped so many times a day. What a treat to have Christmas earlier than scheduled, AND to celebrate it in a foreign land like Andhra Pradesh, India. Harvesting in God's field is to witness and taste the wonders of His love.



We had a team of eight that went to Andhra Pradesh. We were doing our morning devotions and prepping to do a little training, when two young men wanted prayer, so what to do?, except share the Gospel with them, and then pray for them. One made a profession of faith and other didn't. We didn't get to our first village yet when a teammate shared the Gospel with our driver. There was no question the Holy Spirit was at work and has prepared the hearts to receive the rightful ruler. Many people prayed God's will be done, so the battle for the 300 souls that made professions of faith in Christ was already underway when we showed up. One of those who believed was our driver and he said, "If you risk your lives to come all the way here, then your God must be a great God!" No argument in how great our God is! Our other driver also received Christ as his savior and Lord. We had eight people in a village closest to the lake get baptized. See the faces of people whose lives were touched with the power of God's love. The background song is "Center of the Mark" by 4Him. Glory to God in the Highest!

Jerusalem

2 Chronicles 6:5-7 - 'Since the day I brought my people out of Egypt, I have not chosen a city in any tribe of Israel to have a temple built so that my Name might be there, nor have I chosen anyone to be ruler over my people Israel. But now I have chosen Jerusalem for my Name to be there, and I have chosen David to rule my people Israel.’ “My father David had it in his heart to build a temple for the Name of the LORD, the God of Israel..."

The Temple Mount

In Abraham's time, this was Mount Moriah where Abraham went to sacrifice his son, Isaac. God provided a substitute for Isaac. This is also the same mountain that King David purchased to build the Temple, where people would make sacrifices for the remission of sins. King David's son,Solomon, built the Temple and the ark of the covenant was placed there. Only the High Priest could enter this place called the Holy of Holies, where the presence of God resided. The temple was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzer in 586 BC and it was rebuilt by Herod and then destroyed by the Romans. I've heard it said that this place has been destroyed and rebuilt 17 times. The Dome of the Rock is currently on its summit, a Muslim shrine.

God's provision for a substitute to Isaac for Abraham is like a foreshadowing of God's provision of Jesus to die a substitutionary death for us who are followers of Christ. God provided his own Son, Jesus, for the remission of our sin, and the sins of the whole world. Jesus was the sacrificial Lamb of God and when He died on the cross, the veil to the Holy of Holies was ripped from top to bottom, signifying the believers' full access to the Most High God was made possible. Jesus said that He was the way, the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father but by Him. After Jesus suffered, died, and was buried, He rose from the dead. He conquered death and sin once and for all and gives everyone hope of eternal life for those who believe. Before Jesus ascended to heaven, He gave his disciples the gift of the Holy Spirit. Anyone who believes that Jesus is the Son of God and that He died to take away their sin may be forgiven and be given a new life. The Spirit of the Living God indwells the believer, and the believer then becomes the temple of the Holy Spirit. A follower of Christ no longer needs to take an unblemished lamb to the Temple and sacrifice it for the remission of sin because the wonderful grace of God made His only Son to be sin for them and take the punishment of sin away forever. Salvation then, is a precious gift, offered by the Most High God; one cannot earn it. Jesus made access to God possible and a relaionship may grow through the indwelling gift of the Holy Spirit.

The Garden Tomb, which lies outside of the walls of the Old City is close to the Damascus Gate. It is the one of two locations where the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus may have occurred. The other location option is at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The sign at the Garden Tomb's door, says it all: "He is not here. He is risen."






Gethsemane - the Garden of Olives, where Jesus prayed to the Father, "Not my will, but yours be done."














Golgotha - the Place of Skulls
















The Western Wall

If walls could speak, the Western Wall would reveal how it survived the Roman destruction. It is the only fragment of the Great Temple. It would reveal the verbal and written prayers and longings of its visitors from all over the world, and would tell of the war, peace and revival of the Jewish people. Only 180 feet of the 1,600 feet of the Western Wall can be seen on the plaza. The Western Wall tunnels lie to the left of the prayer wall.

As Psalm 122:6 says, "Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. May those who love her prosper!"