GatheredTogether.org » missionaries

Live Blogging Interview with Missionary to Taiwan

seniorSOY — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 21:06:48 +0000

This interview took place on November 1st, 2009. Click here to see the entire interview.

The interview will be conducted live in the comment section of this post (scroll down this page). Jerry has 17 years of long-term missionary work experience.

Feel free to join in and ask any questions you would like to know about short and long-term missions programs and the state of the Christian church in Taiwan.

When asked about what he hopes people will come away from this interview with, Jerry said, ”The important thing is that they understand missions, pray for taiwan, and get involved in their church’s mission program.”

Note: Due to the openness of the internet, “Jerry” would rather not use his real name.

GatheredTogether Live Blogging Rules

Helping Flood Victims for the Long-Term

seniorSOY — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 01:19:06 +0000

CARROLLTON, Texas /Christian Newswire/ — Dinanath Rangan, 50, watched as the rain kept pouring down. He

The children in this photo are students in a Gospel for Asia Bridge of Hope Center. Flood waters still surround their home after more than a week.

was alone, working on a farm in a neighboring village while his wife and two children stayed at home. For two days, the waters wouldn’t stop. When he discovered that the river that flowed through his home village had breached an embankment, he rushed home, but by the time he reached his village, his house was underwater.

Frantically looking for help, he managed to find a small, hand-crafted boat. He climbed in and started rowing toward his house. But the strong current beat against his tiny boat until it capsized, and Dinanath lost his life in the flood waters.

When GFA relief workers arrived in the area with aid, they met Dinanath’s widow. Constant tears flowed down her cheeks as she received the relief materials. “Thank you,” was all she could say.

GFA relief teams had stepped in when government workers weren’t able to reach the area where Dinanath’s widow resided.

“It was one village where we could not supply any help yet,” a local government official said. “I appreciate [them] for coming forward to lend a hand of help and for supplying essential commodities to people who have lost everything.”

So far GFA relief teams have helped thousands of families in the flooded Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka by supplying items like blankets, bed sheets, cooking utensils and towels. As the water recedes, the workers will stay on to rehabilitate and rebuild damaged homes.

“Ministering to the survivors of these catastrophic floods is a privilege that God has given us. Right now they need food, water, clean clothing and basic household utensils, which we are already providing,” said GFA President, K.P. Yohannan. “We also know that when the water completely recedes they will need help rebuilding their lives. That’s why we will be in these affected areas for the long-term to help them clean up or, in some cases, completely rebuild, their homes. We want to replace the livestock that was killed in the flood. We want to help them restore their lives.”

In the meantime, GFA Compassion Services teams continue ministering to the immediate needs of the people caught in this unusual flooding situation.

Tanmay’s family was one of many that received aid. After the floods covered his four acres of land and swept away everything he had, including crops, buffalo, cows and chickens, he and his family took shelter in a relief center opened by the government.

GFA-supported missionaries visited the relief camp and gave Tanmay and the other refugees blankets and household utensils.

“They had come to the relief camp virtually empty handed, and they were so grateful for the help we gave them,” said a GFA field correspondent.

Fulfilling a Need

Besides food to eat and clean water to drink, victims of the floods were in desperate need of clothing and blankets to shield them from cold nights and ravenous mosquitoes. GFA relief teams have distributed clothing to about 2,475 people in Andhra Pradesh.

Santosh was a fisherman who lost his entire household and possessions in the rising flood waters. He was left with nothing until GFA relief workers helped him.

“Others gave us food and water, but you are the first person who helped us with clothes,” Santosh said.

In one village in Andhra Pradesh, waters rose to 15 feet, collapsing 15 houses. Villagers fled to a government-operated relief camp, leaving everything behind.

GFA relief teams gave clothing to 250 families in that village.

“We had many sleepless nights due to cold and mosquitoes, and we had nothing to cover our bodies,” one survivor said. “Now, God has sent you to provide our needs. You Christians are good and help all people without partiality.”

The waters in another village of Andhra Pradesh rose to six feet. When the waters entered GFA-supported missionary Kundir Rao’s church, he climbed on the roof and was stuck there for three days without any food or water.

When GFA relief workers arrived, Kundir received food and another 180 people received relief materials. The residents of Kundir’s village welcomed the workers and thanked them for their help.

“Many gave us food, but you came from a far distance and gave us clothes,” the villagers said. “This is the first time we received clothes. We are so thankful for your kind help in our time of need.”

“God Sent His People to Help Us”

People fled their villages completely empty handed. Now, as they slowly begin to return to what used to be their homes, they take with them the materials given them by GFA relief workers—and a new understanding of the love of Christ.

“It is God who sent you to us,” said a survivor. “Now, if we have to go back to our home, there is nothing except what you gave.”

GFA relief workers are working around the clock to care for these men, women and children.

At 1:30 a.m., as one team traveled to the home of a local pastor, they spotted people sleeping on the roadside without blankets. The group stopped their journey and handed out blankets, clothing and towels. The distribution lasted until 3:30 a.m.

“At this midnight [in our lives], God sent His people to help us,” said one recipient.

Gospel for Asia continues to provide relief to those suffering from the devastation of the floods that hit Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, India. It is estimated that a total of 10,000 families have been given aid through GFA, and the number is growing each day.

GFA relief teams stand ready to extend physical help and also share the Good News found in Jesus Christ to the ones in need. One GFA worker summed it up as he helped a survivor.

“We are here to help you,” he said.

What is Live Blogging?

Bill — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 01:13:13 +0000

Typical blogging is pretty much an off-line type of activity. What I mean by that is the author/blogger writes a page or post, publishes it and then walks away to have a coffee or sometimes tea. Then if people do leave comments they are checked every so often by the post’s author and the author replies and so on.

Live blogging is where the author agrees, for a set period of time, to be online and to reply directly to comments as they come in. It has a kind of live chat feel to it but everything that is asked and answered is kept on the website in comments attached to the post.

What we are doing here on GatheredTogether.org is a sort of live interview with you as the interviewer. The guest will be online for 30 minutes talking about life, faith, service and everything else that you care to ask.

Who will be the Live Blogging guests?

We are going to to be doing live blogging events with, what we consider, outstanding servants of the Christian faith. That would be Christian authors, missionaries, evangelists, and ministry leaders. If you have someone in mind you would like to see interviewed here leave a comment at the bottom of the post.

When are live blogging events scheduled for?

We are striving to do one live blogging event a week usually on Friday evening but it will ultimately depend on the availability of the guest who may be currently living anywhere in the world with varied time zones. To stay up to date on the next scheduled Live Blogging guest, you can follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and by Email.

What do I need to do to participate?

For now, comment posting is open to the public without registration being required. If the rules are abused (foul language,

The New Media Frontier: Blogging, Vlogging, and Podcasting for Christ

inappropriate language, etc) then registration will be required as will be moderation (comments needing approval before posting) which will just slow down the question asking and answering so please see to it that you follow the rules while participating in Live Blogging. To stay up to date on the rules for Live Blogging participation, click here:

Live Blogging Rules

For now all you have to do to participate is show up during a Live Blog event and shout out your questions.

The Biblical Basis of Missions

seniorSOY — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 00:25:52 +0000

What verses come to mind when you think of the word, “missions”? Most of us can only think of the Great Commission. Foryears our church culture has singled out this passage to be the theme of our missions conferences and the motivation for those who go. However, the Bible has a lot more to say on this subject then just Mt. 28:18-20. We need to understand the concept of the Biblical basis for missions, because if this isn’t something that God is passionate about in His Word, than neither should we be. Since creation, God has been interested in redeeming all peoples to Himself. As Christians, it is vital that we see the world as He sees it.

Let’s look at the Bible in light of God’s heart for the world, and we will see that from Genesis to the Revelation He is beckoning you and I and all of His people to join Him in bringing every people group to His throne. The Bible is not a collection of separate books with no common theme or story. It is one book expressing God’s heart to have relationship with everyone on earth.
Genesis 1:28 “God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth …”

Wow, the very first words God ever spoke to mankind: be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. Now why would he say the whole earth? Because God had this perfect relationship with Adam and Eve walking and talking the garden. God desired that type of relationship with more people and wanted them spread out through the whole earth. However, we know that by Genesis 3 sin had crept in and by chapter 8 the world was not looking good. So, as God floods the earth and starts over, listen to the command He gives Noah, just after he steps off the ark.
Genesis 9:1 “Then God blessed Noah and his sons saying to them, ” Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. ”

Sound familiar? “Hey Noah, don’t just populate a city, fill the earth.” There it is again, the command to multiply. So as we come to chapter 11 there should be one simple question on all of our minds: Does God get the earth filled? Lets keep reading,
Genesis 11: 1-4 “Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. As men moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there …Then they said, ‘Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth .’”

Can’t you hear the talk of the town? “You know, we all look the same, act the same, talk the same, eat the same, and dress the same. Let’s just stay right here and make a name for ourselves. Do we really want to be scattered? We’re comfortable here! ” This does not exactly sound like they are excited about obeying God’s command. Because of man’s urge to settle, God is forced to step in and scatter, filling the earth just as He desired.
Genesis 11:7-8 “‘Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.’ So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth , and they stopped building the city.”

So, as we end the introduction we see that God has a problem: people scattered all over the earth speaking many different languages. How is He going to reach all of them? What will He do? Who will He use? The plot begins.
Genesis 12:1-3 “The Lord had said to Abram, ‘ Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you…I will bless you… and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you .’”

Hey Abram, leave. Leave your country, your people, your family, your life, your dreams, your ambitions, your future as well as all that you know and are familiar with and go to the land I will show you. Now if you keep reading, something really weird happens…
Genesis 12:4 ” So Abram left , as the Lord had told him.”

He leaves. Man obeys God. This is a pretty weird concept especially in today’s world. So Abram is off to establish a nation that will bless all peoples. Interestingly, this command was not for Abram alone. Watch God continue to call succeeding generations to reach all nations. Next in line is Abraham’s son, Isaac.
Genesis 26:4 “I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and will give them all these lands, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed .”

And to Isaac’s son, Jacob:
Genesis 28:14 “Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring ”

The rest of the Old Testament is filled with God using Israel to make His name great among the nations. Here are just a few examples:

The 10 Commandments
Deuteronomy 4:5-6 “Observe them carefully, for this will show your wisdom and understanding to the nations , who will hear about all these decrees and say, ‘ Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people .’”

His reputation spread after parting the Red Sea
Joshua 2:9-10 “I (Rahab) know that the Lord has given this land to you and that a great fear of you has fallen on us… we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt…”

Solomon and his wisdom
1 Kings 4:34 ” Men of all nations came to listen to Solomon’s wisdom, sent by all the kings of the world, who had heard of his wisdom.”

Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in the fiery furnace
Daniel 3:29 “Therefore, I (Nebuchadnezzar) decree that the people of any nation or language who say anything against the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego be cut into pieces… for no other God can save in this way.”

Daniel in the lions’ den
Daniel 6:26 ” I (Darius) issue a decree that in every part of my kingdom people must fear and reverence the God of Daniel…”

For further study see Psalm 33:13-14, 67:1-7, 86:9-10, 96:3; Isaiah 11:9-10, 49:6, 52:10, 61:11; Jonah 4:11, Habakkuk 1:5, Zephaniah 2:11, Haggai 2:7, Zechariah 8:20-23, Malachi 1:11

The fulfillment of the promise that God would bless all nations through Abraham as well as many OT prophecies was of course, Jesus. When he died on the cross, he did so to redeem people from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation. He died for the sins of all, but only those that call on the name of the Lord can be saved from those sins because there is salvation in no other name.

As we transition to the New Testament the plot only thickens. Now Christ, God in flesh, enters the scene and what do we see in the pattern of His life and ministry? Nothing different. Whether it is taking a longer route to reach a Samaritan women (John 4:1-42) or healing various Gentiles to teach His followers (Mark 5:1-20, 7:24-30). Christ in the New Testament maintained the pattern established in the Old Testament. He had a heart that people from all nations come in to relationship with him.

It is important to note here that the word “nation” in the Bible comes from the Greek word ethne meaning ethnic groups. When we think of a nation, we usually think of a country like Mexico. However, the Bible is talking about people groups when it uses the word nation. There are 24,000 people groups on the earth and almost 7,000 of them are still considered unreached with the gospel.

Mark 11:15-17 On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple area designated for the Gentiles to worship and he found people buying and selling there. As He drove them out saying “Is it not written; ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations ‘?”

Why did Jesus get so angry in the temple? Because people were using it as a market rather than a place of prayer for all nations.
Matthew 24:14 “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations , and then the end will come.”

Jesus said this His gospel would be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all ethnic groups and then the end would come. We are supposed to live each day as if it could be the last, but Jesus himself said that His Word had to be preached to all nations before He would come back. Let’s reach the remaining people groups in our lifetime!
Matthew 28:18-20 “Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”

Jesus’ very last commandment before leaving this earth was to take His gospel to all nations/people groups. We should dedicate ourselves to that task until he returns.
Acts 1:8 “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth .”

The main reason that the Lord has given us his Holy Spirit to dwell inside of us is so that we can be witnesses to the ends of the earth.
Revelation 7:9 “After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people, and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb …”

It is important to connect what is happening in Revelation with what God started in Genesis 12 in the life of Abraham. God will do it. There will be a representative from every nation, tribe, people, and language bowing and worshipping at His feet. Heaven is multicultural. God is a missionary God, and from cover to cover He is showing us His mission. God doesn’t want any to perish, but all to come to repentance. Will you join Him in bringing a representative from every people group to His throne? It will happen, the only question is will you be a part? The question remains:
How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?
And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!’
Rom: 10:15,16

by William Hannaford
http://crossfaithministry.org

Native American Kids ‘Eat the Word’ at Summer Camps

seniorSOY — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 10:39:36 +0000

/Christian Newswire/ — This summer, 37 Native American children and teens received Jesus Christ as their personal Savior or recommitted their lives to Him at four week-long camps at Southwest Indian Ministries Center (SIMC) in Phoenix, Arizona.

Out of the 73 children who attended the four camps, 32 received Jesus Christ, and five recommitted their lives. More than 50 counselors and workers, including missionaries, college students, and other volunteers helped to make the camps a success.

“On the last night of camp, the Holy Spirit came down within our midst, and we had our own mini-revival that lasted into the night,” related SIMC’s camp director. “Several kids got saved that night, and everyone was praying. Our hearts were forever changed!”

Two of the camps were for elementary-aged kids, the theme was “Eat the Word,” and they learned ways to grow physically and spiritually, combined with the usual fun camp activities. The remaining two weeks of camp were for teens and included a service emphasis, volunteering as a group at an inner-city ministry in downtown Phoenix.

Other highlights included Chad Johnson, the chaplain for NFL team Arizona Cardinals, as the main speaker at the high school camp.

SIMC plans to host day camps on reservations, where half the population is under the age of 18 in some places. According to missionary Sandy Anderson, “There’s a huge need in Native communities and villages; there’s just not much for the kids to do.”

Kids Camps are held every year during the summer. Other children’s and youth ministries are held throughout the year, and volunteers are always needed. To see a list of current ministry positions, visit the WGM website.

Originally a boarding school, SIMC is now a ministries center that focuses on sharing the light of Christ with Native Americans from all over Arizona. SIMC is a ministry of World Gospel Mission, a non- denominational missionary-sending agency.

Missions, Orality, and the Bible

seniorSOY — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 15:34:04 +0000

Thoughts on Pre-, Less-, and Post-literate Cultures

There is significant discussion today about oral cultures and how they learn and how they should be evangelized and built up in faith. The discussion ranges from pre-literate to post-literate—from cultures that have never had their languages written down to Western groups that no longer read but only watch images and listen to iPods. Of course, awareness of orality is not new, since virtually all cultures before the modern period and its printing press learned orally. Everywhere the church has gone in the history of missions, its initial task has mainly been oral, even where missionaries prized literacy and sought to translate the Bible as part of their church planting.

What’s new is 1) the development of more self-conscious strategies of adapting to the kinds of oral traditions in various cultures, and 2) the more rigorous application of the biblical history of redemption as oral story, and 3) the intention and attempt to develop means of communicating biblical truth to so-called post-literate Westerners who spend little time reading.

None of these developments is in itself bad and may be very good. 1) Orality will always be a huge and precious and inevitable part of human life, even in the most literate cultures, and it is wise to make the best use of this reality for Christ and his kingdom. 2) The Bible is history and interpretation—it is a story along with the inspired, authoritative explanation. It should be heralded in oral and written form for what it is. 3) Post-literate Westerners (and people who in every age have had difficulty with reading, or dislike for reading) should be both met where they are and encouraged and helped to advance in the benefits of Bible reading and meditation. So, it seems to me that these developments are expressions of love and common sense.

But I am not sure what convictions about the Bible lie beneath some of these developments. So I want to ask a few questions that I hope will help us make explicit the underlying assumptions about the function of the written word of God in these developments. My hope and expectation is that all who identify themselves as evangelicals will say a hearty No to question #1 below and a hearty Yes to the rest. Then let us do the mission with the wisest use of our voice and our Book.

Will we Westerners who have had the Bible in our languages for five centuries and who have access to Greek and Hebrew in which the Bible was verbally inspired keep this privileged position for ourselves?
Or will we humble ourselves and labor with all our might to help other peoples and cultures have the same access we have to a full and right understanding of the scriptures so that they do not have to depend on cultural outsiders telling them what God’s words say and what they mean and how they should be applied culturally and religiously and missiologically?
Will we tell pre-literate and less-literate peoples and cultures that all authoritative religious truth comes from God through a single inspired book, and that all oral communication about God and his ways, no matter where it happens anywhere in the world, depends for its final reliability on this book, the Bible?
Will we clarify for them that, although all other holy books may have some helpful religious insights, nevertheless they do not have any final authority from God, but only the Bible does?
Will we tell them that this Bible was first written in Greek and Hebrew, the languages that God used when centuries ago “men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:21)?
Will we make sure they understand that if they remain only oral and do not someday raise up a generation who can read this book and study it in the original languages, they will remain dependent on outsiders for the divine truth God has given only through the Book?
Will we joyfully concur that access to the words of God in the Bible in one’s own language is a blessing greater than health and life, and that the golden rule gives us the privilege and duty to give other people and peoples the blessing that has come to us without our deserving it or planning it?
Will we labor for the long-term strength of the church among all unreached and less-reached peoples, by empowering them with the ability to read and study the Bible in the original languages, in the desire that the Lord may come very soon, but in the sober possibility that he may delay his return for centuries?
Will we labor to reverse the Western cultural trend away from reading, in the conviction that, when one moves away from reading, one moves away from a precious, God-given, edifying, stabilizing connection with God’s written word?

For the Word and for the Mission,

William Hannaford
http://crossfaithministry.org