Honest Christianity

Jeff and I just returned from visiting a supporting church and what an encouragement it was to us! We were received with open arms, showered with the love of Christ and fed from the Word.


We reminisced with the short-term team (pictured above) about their mission trip to Brazil last year and of how we saw God at work. In addition to all that, we were fed a wonderful meal that included great fellowship at the home of Paul and Nancy and their beautiful 5 children.

The pastor told a simple story of a small boy that encouraged me! Let me try to re-tell it as I remember it, in my words....

There once was a missionary who befriended a small, rather rambunctious little boy. He was often getting into a little mischief and causing accidents.

One day, the missionary repainted the steps and handrails on her back porch. While the paint was still wet, she saw the young boy running towards her house for a visit. Through the open windows she called, "Please come to the front door, I've just painted." "That's okay, the little boy replied, I'll be very careful!"

"Please come to the front,door, she called (a little louder), I just painted the back porch handrails." "Oh that's okay, I'll be very careful, he sang out!"

"Please come to the front door (even louder, yet), I've just painted the back porch steps, she yelled!" "Oh----that's okay, I'll be careful," the boy once again replied. "NOOOOOOO, STOP!!! the missionary yelled---I don't want your carefulness, I want your OBEDIENCE!"

At times we feel as though we are doing good things for the Lord, but what God really asks of us is our obedience.

Sunday afternoon, while enjoying a meal together at the table of our new friends, Paul and Nancy, Nancy told a similar story. A teenage son was asked to wash the dishes while his mother went out to run some errands. Upon her return, the dishes were still laying unwashed in the sink. The mother asked, "Why didn't you wash the dishes?" The son replied, smiling, "I vacuumed for you instead".

Do we sometimes do this with our Heavenly Father? We do something that we feel more comfortable doing, so we don't have to do the thing that He is really asking us to do? Maybe it's something we are uncomfortable with. Maybe we think it's too hard, or will take too much time. Or maybe we are keeping ourselves so busy that we aren't taking time in the Word to listen and obey? Are we like that teenage boy who wants to vacuum instead of wash dishes?

I was encouraged by the pastor's message from 1 John 5:1-5, entitled, "What is different in the life of one who truly believes in Christ? We were reminded that honest christians honestly believe....believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. That honest belief changes how a person lives. That believing means there is spiritual birth. That believing results in genuine love. That believing leads to doing (obeying) what God says to do.

It was such an awesome and encouraging day spent with the body-of-Christ! We're praising Him for this time stateside to spend time with so many wonderful brothers- and sisters-in-Christ and be refreshed by the Word and fellowship together!

Rejoicing in Him,
Diane

Strength will rise as we wait upon the Lord!

The words to this song kept coming to mind today, as I spent time in the Word....

Strength will rise as we wait upon the Lord,
wait upon the Lord, we will wait upon the Lord.
Strength will rise as we wait upon the Lord,
wait upon the Lord, we will wait upon the Lord.

Our God, You reign forever
Our hope, our strong deliverer.

You are the everlasting God,
The everlasting God.
You do not faint,
You won't grow weary.
You're the defender of the weak,
You comfort those in need,
You lift us up on wings like eagles.

You are the everlasting God,
The everlasting God,
The everlasting God,
The everlasting...

We continue to step forward in faith, day by day, knowing only that God is God. He is steadfast and faithful. He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow!

Since September, we have been blessed to:

• Join in the wedding celebration of our daughter, Jessica and new son-in-law, Steven.
  
• Be here when Jeff's father, Stan was diagnosed with prostate cancer and started treatment.
  
• Support Hannah as she learned to drive, got a job, selected a college and acclimated back from a small international school in Rio to a large high school.
  
• Meet so many wonderful people and hear how God is at work in their lives and share how we see God working in Brazil!

We continue to wait for news from the Brazilian consulate on whether or not our visa application has been approved. We stand at this crossroad with great expectations, knowing that His plan is always the best and wanting only to be in the center of His will. We will serve Him with joy wherever we live! We look forward for this next chapter to begin!

How wonderful to receive the following good news from Rio:

• The Lord's work that we are involved in at a public school is multiplying!
  
• The body of Christ in Caju is growing!
  
• Through our teammate Ale's connections, a viability study for fish farming has been approved for the farm at CENA! This could ultimately provide funds for Stage 2, the farm at CENA to become self-sustaining!

God is at work in wonderful ways in Brazil and we are anxious to once again join Him there---if that is His will.

At times the waiting seems never-ending, it seems to be a huge wall in front of us. We cling to the only One that can scale this wall!

Psalm 18:29, "With your help I can advance against a troop; with my God I can scale a wall."

Rejoicing in Him,

Diane

This excellent article below was written by T.J. Addington, Senior Vice President of the Evangelical Free Church of America.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
When money hurts mission efforts by T.J. Addington on Monday, February 7, 2011

It sounds so good! For a small amount of money you can support a pastor in the majority world where costs are low. Soon your church is supporting a dozen or so pastors and you receive wonderful reports of how God is working through them.

But, what we often do not consider are the unintended consequences. What is a pragmatic ministry decision for us is often a disaster for the church. Consider the fact that God designed the church to be the most flexible, missional and effective organization on the face of the earth and to survive and thrive in any economy or political system. The key to its success is its reproducibility and it is the reproducibility that is hurt when we pay pastors from the west.

It sounds so good – and it makes us feel good. After all we have funds and those we are helping do not. Of course it is the American way of getting results – money. Experience shows, however, that once we start paying pastors in a region of the world, new churches don’t start until someone picks up the bill for the next pastor, and the next, and the next. Our good intentions have compromised the reproducible nature of the church. Our money has become a barrier.

Furthermore, our money has robbed the congregation of the joy and responsibility of supporting their own ministry. Why give when there is money coming from somewhere else? Because we rely on money for all we do, we assume that others do as well. Sometimes it is not money that is given but chickens, eggs or other foodstuffs. Everyone can give something but when we take away the responsibility to give to their own ministry we hurt the church and those who make up the church.

I have never seen a situation where paying pastors ended up helping the church rather than hurting the church – in the long run. It is a short term pragmatic solution that actually slows down the reproduction of the church. That is why we are committed in ReachGlobal to churches that have five qualities: Healthy, reproducing, interdependent, indigenous and self-supporting. Paying pastors compromises church health, reproducibility, and even the indigenous nature of the church since the church is now indebted to those who support it. They now suffer from the disease of dependence and paternalism. Dependence and paternalism are unhealthy but we foster that in many parts of the world, taking away the dignity of local congregations to provide for the needs of the ministry and determine their destiny. We are often blind to the resources that God has actually given His people because we are so driven by budgets and finances in our own ministries.

There are many ways that we can use our financial resources to expand the church and I am a huge advocate of generous giving. How we use those monies, however is critically important. Some uses hurt the church while other uses expand the church. Paying pastors in the majority world is a pragmatic solution on our part that hurts the long term viability and reproducibility of the church. And, it creates unhealthy dependencies!

In the news this morning was an article I've pasted below about a fire in a warehouse that houses floats and costumes for this year's upcoming Carnival in Rio in March. As I read the article, I couldn't help but think about the many references in the Word about fire and the end times.

I wondered if we forget the urgency that we have as the body of Christ to be sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ! It is our Father's desire that NONE may perish but have eternal life! John 6:39 & 40 says, "And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.”

Matthew 13:37-43 says, "He answered, "The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels. "As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.

When I think about the suffering and weeping and gnashing of teeth that is to come for non-believers, I want to stop wasting precious time! We have such a beautiful gift and everyone needs to hear about it!

When I think of the unreached people groups we are encountering in the favelas in Rio, the people that are moving in from the north because of drought, I have a greater urgency to return to Rio, the city that God has called us to, to work with our christian brothers- and sisters-in-Christ so that all may hear and receive the greatest gift of all!

Where is God calling you? What is He calling you to do today? What country, city, neighborhood, workplace? Are we prepared to use every opportunity to share about the hope that we have in His son, Jesus Christ? Are we listening to His still small voice? God works through the ordinary, willing person. The one that responds, "Here I am. Send me."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

RIO DE JANEIRO — Rio de Janeiro's world-famed Carnival went up in flames Monday for thousands of people who spent nearly a year preparing for the spectacular event.

Seamstresses, set designers and musicians watched in tears as firefighters struggled to control a blaze that raged through warehouses holding many of the elaborate costumes and floats they had assembled for this year's samba parade.

With just a month left before the March 6 start of the competition, there is no way to fully replace them.

"Do you know what it feels like to work all day, into the night, to make this happen, and then this?" asked Graziela Goncalves Carvalho, a seamstress with Uniao da Ilha do Governador, one of the groups that appeared to have suffered heavy losses. "It's over. There's nothing. This Carnival is over for us."

Three hours after the fire, 120 firefighters had controlled the flames that appeared to have severely damaged warehouses belonging to three of the samba organizations that compete in the two-day parade, as well as Independent League of Samba Groups that organizes the event, according to Dimas de Almeida Neto, spokesman for Rio's fire department.
The cause was being investigated, he said.

There were no initial reports of serious injuries or deaths, although some workers were in the warehouses when the fire started just before 7 a.m. The municipal health department confirmed one 30-year-old man was admitted to a downtown hospital after inhaling smoke, but is recovering.

Even before the flames were out, it was clear that four of the four-story warehouses were extensively damaged, with two of them collapsing internally, according to firefighters. Ten warehouses were not affected by the flames.

Rio Mayor Eduardo Paes, who plays in one samba group's percussion section, promised the city would help the groups recover and vowed that the Carnival parades would go on.
"These people will put on a great Carnival, and will show the energy and the optimism that Rio has," he said.

Paes has no control over the independent samba competition, but he said he hoped that groups hit by the fire would not risk being demoted. Under a football-style league system, low-scoring samba groups can be dropped into a lesser league for the coming year.
Even with help, rebuilding an entire year's worth of work is not possible in a month, he said.
"They won't be in any condition to compete," Paes said.

Still, many were already trying to bounce back.

"I've cried a lot over this, and now it's time to think about what can be saved," said Roberto Szaniecki, the theme developer for Portela group as he hugged friends. "But I want to make this clear: we're going to get out there. We've got a Carnival to put on."
The most heavily affected group appeared to be Grande Rio. It apparently lost the entire contents of its parade: eight complicated floats and 3,000 elaborately embroidered costumes, said their spokesman, Avelino Ribeiro.

This year's show was a $5.5 million investment, he said. About 7,000 people worked for about eight months to pull it all together, and the parade was ready to go, he said.

Grande Rio also lost much of its infrastructure: workshop machinery, the metal structure of the floats and computers. But the group will make an appearance, in spite of the blow, he said.
"There are a lot of people who spend the year dreaming and working for this, for their moment to go out there and shine," he said. "You can't take that away from them. The material things are gone, but we still have a samba to sing."