AFRICA
BOTSWANA: Sid &
Karen Halsband: "The [church] building has all but reached the roof
level . . . It has 12 pillars in it on which the steel roof trusses will be
mounted . . . The brethren in Canada tell me that the trusses are ready for
transport to us here in Botswana. They are presently checking on prices to have
a 40 ft container purchased and shipped out." [MSC]
D.R. CONGO: Pearl
Winterburn: "The Tchabi Women's Conference is July 20-23. Pray
for safety, as these women must walk many miles through the forest; Idohu area
is still insecure. Second, for God's provision in setting up this conference and
the opportunity of encouragement and much needed ministry . . . Above all, God's
blessing on His Word in their hearts." [MSC]
MOZAMBIQUE: Patrick and Grace
Mulenga (Zambia) request prayer for some of their contacts. Paul, a
Christian young man, broke his leg recently and was in great pain. Please pray
for Paul and for those treating him. Vanessa, a Sunday school child, is due to
have heart surgery soon. Several from the assembly were asked to donate blood
for this purpose. Pray that the surgery will go well for this young girl. Pray,
too, for 25 year-old Laura, who went to the Sunday service for the first time
recently and gave her heart to the Lord. Laura has surrendered all her witch
doctor paraphernalia and these have been burnt last Sunday. Pray that she will
stay close to the Lord and find support and encouragement in Christian
fellowship in the coming days. [EoS]
TANZANIA: Following the newsflash last
Friday, we have been advised that Maria Cunningham remains in the cardiac unit
in Addis Ababa under the care of an Ethiopian consultant who lives and works in
Sweden as a cardiac surgeon, and who visits Ethiopia for three months each year.
This consultant had brought with him from Sweden five combined pacemaker and
defibulator devices, so was able to diagnose an irregular heartbeat and will fit
a pacemaker on Tuesday 25th July. As soon as Maria is fit to travel, she and Ron
will return to the UK with their son Samuel. Praise God for His timely provision
of the consultant, and that Maria’s condition can be treated. Pray that she will
recover well from surgery. [EoS]
ZAMBIA: Alice White:
"[At the village ladies' meeting] we talked about the importance of prayer: not
only personal, but in a group. It used to be that the Christian women in each
village would gather once a week for prayer . . . With this group it has been
about four years since they gathered regularly for prayer." [MSC]
INDIA: Ron Penny advises that Mohan and
Janice Kumar, have decided to resign their positions at Kollegal Girls’ Home.
The 11 girls they were caring for will miss their intense and genuine love.
Please pray for committed staff to take their place. Thankfully, two volunteers,
Karen and Lynn, from Scotland, are at Kollegal at the moment, but for one month
only. Sylvia, the uperintendent, is carrying many of the
responsibilities.
Please pray for a speedy recovery for Angie Dodds, who has
had minor surgery. This is one of the busiest times at Hebron School, with new
staff arriving, and prayer is requested that they will settle in quickly.
[EoS]
JAPAN: Yukio & JoAnne Morikawa: "We feel the
Lord is specifying Lake Town in Koshigaya as our new frontier. It is an area
currently under development to be completed around 2008, and we have found an
office building with three adjoining rooms in the vicinity. We are asking the
Lord for His guidance. Your prayers will help open some impossibly heavy
doors." [MSC]
EUROPE
FRANCE: Dudley & Gill Ward: "There is great
demand for the services of Entrepierres, where the well-qualified team give help
to missionaries and national workers going through difficulties such as burnout,
or just needing a time of rest in one of the four delightful guest units. Please
contact MSC if you know anyone who can come to help with renovations."
[MSC]
REPUBLIC OF IRELAND: Noel and Liza McMeekin
request prayer for two weeks of Holiday Bible Club which have just begun in
Courtown, Co. Wexford. Pray that many children will attend and that they will
remember what they learn. [EoS]
REPUBLIC OF IRELAND: In recent weeks,
John and Linda Stanfield have been preparing for the summer outreach
team, members of which will be involved in children’s clubs, literature
distribution and special events from 29th July-12th August. Please pray that
children and adults will be impacted as the Word of God is proclaimed.
[EoS]
ITALY: Next month, Robert and Muriel
Hamilton plan to take a group of 13 Neopolitans to Northern Ireland to
help in their home church’s community week. This is part of an ongoing twinning
project that has been in operation for a year or so. Please pray for this
venture, and particularly for three non-Christian friends – Giovanni, Pina and
Renata - who are travelling with them.
[EoS]
SERBIA: Steve & Jenny Luibrand: "Steve is
meeting once a week with the three other young men in the church for Bible
study. He hopes through this time to quicken in their hearts a thirst for the
Word and greater capacity for spiritually feeding themselves."
[MSC]
SPAIN: Ray Cawston is due to have cataract
operations in the UK on 25th July and 24th August. Please pray that these will
be successful and for an effective recovery.
[EoS]
SPAIN: Jesús and Helen Ortiz request prayer
for a gospel campaign to be held in Soria and surrounding villages. Please pray
that the Lord will speak to many hearts.
[EoS]
MIDDLE EAST
ISRAEL: Short-termer Carrie
Hollands, who is working in Israel, says they have been through some
scary times during the recent bomb attacks, and they have to stay within reach
of the bomb shelters. She feels particularly vulnerable as she is living in a
top floor flat. Please pray for safety and protection for her, and that the
conflict will not spread to Syria and other countries. [EoS]
LEBANON: Nigel and Annette
White report on the current situation. The city of Tyre has seen no
bombardment apart from the initial missile attack, when 25 died, two of whom
were fellow principals of local schools. The bombing in the suburbs and
surrounding countryside is fairly constant – many of the teachers and students
are in these areas. People around the city are gripped with fear and mornings
are spent visiting teachers, students, friends and others to give help and
encouragement. The bombing of roads is Indiscriminate, with children accounting
for a third of the dead. In Beirut, Annette is very careful about travelling
around, but the areas in which she drives are not considered dangerous. They
write, ‘God is good, and is giving us many opportunities to stand with our
Lebanese friends in this present trouble they are facing’. Pray for continued
strength and safety for Nigel, Annette and the children, for the staff who
continue on at the school, and for the many people being contacted.
[EoS]
SPECIAL
AREAS
Benji and Gill Daniel
report that special meetings held recently in Himachal Province, India, went
well. On the first night, 14 members of an extremist group attended and they
seemed to appreciate the fact that the message was presented in a culturally
sensitive way. On the second night, a number of people promised to seriously
consider the claims of Christ.
[EoS]
Please remember the following GLO Teams
which are involved in evangelistic outreach activities this coming
week: Tanzania (Moshi,); Denmark (Copenhagen); Republic of Ireland
(Enniscorthy); UK (Johnstone & Bellshill/Viewpark, Scotland). Please pray
that the team members will enjoy safety of travel and good health during this
time. In addition, please pray for a good working relationship within the team,
that meaningful contacts will be made, and for lives to be touched by the
gospel.
[EoS]
Neale & Barbara
Goetsch: "Attendance is more consistent [in the English language Bible
class] and there is good discussion during the study in John's Gospel. One of
the women, burdened by family concerns, seems very moved by the compassion and
power of Christ. We are glad she will be with us until December."
[MSC]
The Living God is a Missionary God (Part
2)
The Call of
Abraham
John R.W.
Stott
Our story begins about four thousand
years ago with a man called Abraham, or more accurately, Abram, as he was called
at that time. Here is the account of God’s call to Abraham.
Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from
your country and kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show
you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your
name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you,
and him who curses you I will curse; and by you all the families of the earth
shall bless themselves.” So Abram went, as the LORD had told him; and Lot went
with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran (Gen
12:1-4).
God made a promise (a composite
promise, as we shall see) to Abraham. And an understanding of that promise is
indispensable to an understanding of the Bible and of the Christian mission.
These are perhaps the most unifying verses in the Bible; the whole of God’s
purpose is encapsulated here.
By way of introduction we shall need
to consider the setting of God’s promise, the context in which it came to be
study into two. First, the promise (exactly what it was that God said he would
do) and second—at greater length—its fulfillment (how God has kept and will keep
his promise).
We start, however, with the setting.
Genesis 12 begins:
“Now the LORD said to Abram.” It sounds
abrupt for an opening of a new chapter. We are prompted to ask: “Who is
this ‘Lord’ who spoke to Abraham?” and “Who is this ‘Abraham’ to whom he
spoke?” They are not introduced into the text out of the blue. A great deal lies
behind these words. They are a key which opens up the whole of Scripture. The
previous eleven chapters lead up to them; the rest of the Bible follows and
fulfills them.
What, then, is the background to this text?
It is this. “The Lord” who chose and called Abraham is the same Lord who, in the
beginning, created the heavens and the earth and who climaxed his creative work
by making man and woman unique creatures in his own likeness. In other words, we
should never allow ourselves to forget that the Bible begins with the
universe, not with the planet earth; then with the earth, not with Palestine;
then with Adam the father of the human race, not with Abraham the father of the
chosen race. Since, then, God is the Creator of the universe, the earth and all
mankind, we must never demote him to the status of a tribal deity or petty
godling like Chemosh the god of the Moabites, or Milcom (or Molech) the god of
the Ammonites, or Baal the male deity, or Ashtoreth the female deity, of the
Canaanites. Nor must we suppose that God chose Abraham and his descendants
because he had lost interest in other peoples or given them up.
Election is not a synonym for elitism. On
the contrary, as we shall soon see, God chose one man and his family in order,
through them, to bless all the families of the earth. We are bound,
therefore, to be deeply offended when Christianity is relegated to one chapter
in a book on the world’s religions as if it were one option among many, or when
people speak of “the Christian God” as if there were others! No, there is only
one living and true God, who has revealed himself fully and finally in his only
Son Jesus Christ.
Monotheism lies at the basis of mission. As
Paul wrote to Timothy, “There is one God, and there is one mediator between God
and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Tim 2:5).
The Genesis record moves on from the
creation of all things by the one God and of human beings in his likeness,
to our rebellion against our own Creator and to God’s judgment upon his rebel
creatures—a judgment which is relieved, however, by his first gospel promise
that one day the woman’s seed would “bruise,” indeed “crush,” the serpent’s head
(3:15).
The following eight chapters (Genesis 4-11)
describe the devastating results of the Fall in terms of the progressive
alienation of human beings from God and from our fellow human beings. This was
the setting in which God’s call and promise came to Abraham. All around was
moral deterioration, darkness and dispersal. Society was steadily
disintegrating.
Yet God the Creator did not abandon the
human beings he had made in his own likeness (Gen 9:6). Out of the prevailing
godlessness he called one man and his family, and promised to bless not only
them but through them the whole world. The scattering would not proceed
unchecked; a grand process of ingathering would now begin.
--
M. John R.W. Stott is Rector
Emeritus o f All S o u l s Church in London, President of the London Institute
for Contemporary Christianity, and an Extra Chaplain to the Queen. For 25 years
(1952-1977) he led university missions on five continents. He has addressed five
Urbana Student Missions Conventions. This article was first presented as the
opening Bible lecture at Urbana 1976. Taken from You Can Tell the World, edited
by James E. Berney. Copyright 1979 by InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA.
Used by permission of InterVarsity Press, P.O. Box 1400, Downers Grove, IL
60515.
Missionary Support Partnership
["GO" (Mk 16:15) or "SEND" (Rom
10:15)]
New Website
launched
Missionary Support Partnership [MSP] is
pleased to announce the launching of its new web site www.missionarysupportpartnership.org or
www.missionaryvoice.org where
information regarding [MSP], its Support Partners and the Supported Missionaries
are given. The web site will be kept updated from time to time.
We seek your valued suggestions, support and continued prayer for our
ministry so that we would be one of the channels of blessing for the work
of the LORD in North and North-East India where a number of our local
brethren are striving to preach the "Good News" against many odds.
As announced earlier, effective July 2006,
God has moved His people (Support Partners) to come forward and extend financial
support to 33 missionaries/evangelists (20 from W/Bengal, 7 from Jharkhand, 5
from Bihar and 1 from Tripura) identified for the purpose. Details of
these missionaries/evangelists are available at our web site [http://www.missionaryvoice.org/CurProjects.html]
for you to bear them in your prayer. We are overwhelmed by the offers of
support from prospective Support Partners from various countries. We would
be contacting them as soon as deserving missionaries are identified by
our brethren in Bihar and Orissa.
We are especially grateful to Bros. JCP and
RTD for their burden shared through Insight India for the work in
India. May the Lord richly bless them and their ministries.