Well, I just got an Amazon giftcard and I was browsing on Amazon.com looking for interesting books, and as I was browsing, I found some things that really upset me. I found entire books written criticizing God's movements around the world, written by people who are supposedly Christian. I am upset because some people are devoting their entire lives to tearing down others, instead of building their brothers and sisters in Christ up in love. I also found reviews of some of the books that I have to read for Mozambique, and some were rather inflammatory. I laugh because there were no bad reviews of Heidi's books, -- how can anyone criticize someone who has given up their life for thousands of poor orphans in Africa? if you criticize that, you might have some compassion problems.
Anyhow, one guy has this whole huge website devoted to his version of Christianity and makes statements on there that various leaders in churches are in fact NOT Christians. WOW!! Judge not. God have mercy on us, if this is what the church is coming to. I guess I knew this stuff was out there somewhere, but I didn't see it before.
Where is God moving? God moves where people are open to it. And sometimes, like in Mel Tari's "Like a Mighty Wind" God came and invaded a rigid Presbyterian church in Indonesia!! That's amazing!
So, anyhow... I guess some people are hardened to the things of God. They preach and talk against miracles and say that people are "falsely healed." Hmm... if someone was dead and comes back to life, that isn't falsely healed! They weren't breathing, now they are, what more evidence do you want? God still works in crazy ways and makes blind people see, lame walk, and hungry get fed, especially when there is no physical way to help them!
Friday, September 19, 2008
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Counting Down...
Counting down... 3 more days in GA. Then a week and a half with family in CT...
And I'm also getting those books read that I need to get read for the school. I've got 4 books left to read! That's it!! (out of 11...)
I think my favorite ones would be "The Hungry Always Get Fed" by Heidi and Rolland Baker. They run Iris in Mozambique. Their stories are absolutely amazing! I liked reading about how all the street kids would end up at Iris and then they would get healed and start worshiping God and now they are reaching out to others. That is so amazing because, from my experience in Brazil, the street kids usually take a long time to get adjusted to a home and they often run away (mulitple times) and I only knew of a very few success stories in rehabilitating street kids. Though Iris does have some kids leave, I think they see more success stories than I saw in Brazil.
I also really loved "Peace Child" by Don Richardson. I thought it was going to be a typical story about a missionary who went to some "heathen" tribe and tried to change their culture without giving them the gospel in its power. But! This was not! Don went there and learned how to interact with the people, learned the language, raised his little kids there, and was like "Ok, God, since you brought us here, I'm trusting you'll keep them safe". And they were! Their canoe capsized at one point with his infant and toddler sons and his wife, and somehow they were all saved! The people in the tribe saw that and some of them believed God because of that. I really liked how he had tried to explain the Bible to them, and when he told about Judas, the people thought Judas was the hero, not Jesus, because their society was based upon treachery and betrayal of "friends". He later found out that an analogy of God sending his son had been built into the culture from the beginning.
He wanted the few villages that had set up camp around him to see the white man to make peace once and for all. This required an exchange of a "peace child" in which one father would give up his baby to the other tribe, and vice versa, and then as long as that peace child lived, there would be peace. But if the peace child died, the tribe who had given up the child that died would be able to attack.
Don used this as an analogy to show how God sent his own son, his only son, as the Perfect Peace Child to the earth, to the people who had made war against God. The people on earth killed the Peace Child, and God, rather than fighting back with them, still made peace with them, and then Jesus was brought back to life, as the everlasting Peace Child! It was just this amazing story and completely blew my mind away how perfectly that analogy is to scripture!
I'm excited to find what analogies like that I will find in other culture I will work in! Who knows what might be out there!
And I'm also getting those books read that I need to get read for the school. I've got 4 books left to read! That's it!! (out of 11...)
I think my favorite ones would be "The Hungry Always Get Fed" by Heidi and Rolland Baker. They run Iris in Mozambique. Their stories are absolutely amazing! I liked reading about how all the street kids would end up at Iris and then they would get healed and start worshiping God and now they are reaching out to others. That is so amazing because, from my experience in Brazil, the street kids usually take a long time to get adjusted to a home and they often run away (mulitple times) and I only knew of a very few success stories in rehabilitating street kids. Though Iris does have some kids leave, I think they see more success stories than I saw in Brazil.
I also really loved "Peace Child" by Don Richardson. I thought it was going to be a typical story about a missionary who went to some "heathen" tribe and tried to change their culture without giving them the gospel in its power. But! This was not! Don went there and learned how to interact with the people, learned the language, raised his little kids there, and was like "Ok, God, since you brought us here, I'm trusting you'll keep them safe". And they were! Their canoe capsized at one point with his infant and toddler sons and his wife, and somehow they were all saved! The people in the tribe saw that and some of them believed God because of that. I really liked how he had tried to explain the Bible to them, and when he told about Judas, the people thought Judas was the hero, not Jesus, because their society was based upon treachery and betrayal of "friends". He later found out that an analogy of God sending his son had been built into the culture from the beginning.
He wanted the few villages that had set up camp around him to see the white man to make peace once and for all. This required an exchange of a "peace child" in which one father would give up his baby to the other tribe, and vice versa, and then as long as that peace child lived, there would be peace. But if the peace child died, the tribe who had given up the child that died would be able to attack.
Don used this as an analogy to show how God sent his own son, his only son, as the Perfect Peace Child to the earth, to the people who had made war against God. The people on earth killed the Peace Child, and God, rather than fighting back with them, still made peace with them, and then Jesus was brought back to life, as the everlasting Peace Child! It was just this amazing story and completely blew my mind away how perfectly that analogy is to scripture!
I'm excited to find what analogies like that I will find in other culture I will work in! Who knows what might be out there!
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Africa- Get Ready!
Well, its official. I'm going to Africa in 3 weeks! I've got about 10 days left in the lovely south, the red hills of Georgia, and the mess of kudzu vines where you never know what you will find. I'll miss the area, and if I ever get a chance to live in the US again wherever I want, I'd pick Georgia.
I'll miss the kids, but I'm also gonna meet alot of neat people, including lots of kids! I'm excited! My portuguese is gonna be completely in God's hands, though, since I haven't really practised it in well over a year.
I'm working on reading 8 books in 3 weeks. I've got 1 1/2 down... The first one was really good, and the second is a bit drier, but still really good.
I've changed the lyrics to the Caedmon's Call song "Two Weeks in Africa" to "Two months in Africa" and am listening to that now. Along with Portuguese worship songs, so much that I have trouble singing the songs in English. "Deus pode salvar, meu Deus pode salvar!"
And in addition to getting stuff ready for Africa, I'm also packing up my life again and schlepping all my stuff back to CT to be stored for a few months until I get back and figure out where I'm going after Africa.
I'll miss the kids, but I'm also gonna meet alot of neat people, including lots of kids! I'm excited! My portuguese is gonna be completely in God's hands, though, since I haven't really practised it in well over a year.
I'm working on reading 8 books in 3 weeks. I've got 1 1/2 down... The first one was really good, and the second is a bit drier, but still really good.
I've changed the lyrics to the Caedmon's Call song "Two Weeks in Africa" to "Two months in Africa" and am listening to that now. Along with Portuguese worship songs, so much that I have trouble singing the songs in English. "Deus pode salvar, meu Deus pode salvar!"
And in addition to getting stuff ready for Africa, I'm also packing up my life again and schlepping all my stuff back to CT to be stored for a few months until I get back and figure out where I'm going after Africa.
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