“The work of the Spirit can be compared to mining. The Spirit’s work is to blast to pieces the sinner’s hardness of heart and his frivolous opposition to God. The period of the awakening can be likened to the time when the blasts are fired. The time between the awakenings corresponds, on the other hand, to the time when the deep holes are being bored with great effort into the hard rock.
To bore these holes is hard and difficult and a task which tries one’s patience. To light the fuse and fire the shot is not only easy but also very interesting work. One sees “results” from such work. It creates interest, too; shots resound, and pieces fly in every direction! It takes trained workmen to do the boring. Anybody can light a fuse.
…the Spirit calls us to do the quiet, difficult, trying work of boring holy explosive materials into the souls of people by daily and unceasing prayer. This is the real preparatory work for the next awakening. The reason why such a long period of time elapses between awakenings is simply that the Spirit cannot find believers who are willing to do the heavy part of the mining work. Everybody desires awakenings; but we prefer to let other do the boring into the hard rock.”
- O. Hallesby, Prayer (1931)
I came across this quote recently (and remembered that I have this book and haven’t read it yet…). It gives us a helpful image for understand the importance of prayer in relation to evangelistic or church planting work. Of course we all want to light the fuse and see the explosive results! But how many of us are willing to do the difficult part, the heavy part, the part that takes place long before the blast is fired? How many of us are willing to be the one working behind the scenes. Quiet, difficult, trying work. That’s what it is to faithfully and consistently intercede for an unreached people group. This is the real preparatory work for the next awakening.
In reading this and thinking about it, two things take place in my own heart. First, I am reminded of the importance of praying consistently for our focus people, and trusting that as I do we are drilling deeper and deeper into the very hard rock so that the blast can be fired at the right depth. Secondly, it makes me even more grateful for those who partner with us in prayer. I thank God for those who make the time to pray for us and our focus people, even in the midst of their own concerns and busy schedules. Most of the people who partner with us in prayer have never met and likely never will meet anyone from this ethnic group that they pray for. This makes it even more remarkable that they commit to pray for them and faithfully appeal to God for mercy for these people they’ve had no contact with. Many people pray for us as they think of it, and we are grateful. There is a small group of people who have committed to lift us up for a certain amount of time each week and we consider them a crucial part of our team. We know that some pray for us and our people daily and we struggle to communicate how necessary that is.
There are some who get to come on prayer journeys and see the people they pray for, even if only just for a week or two. They get to spend some time praying on location, in areas where His name is not yet known and in villages where he has never been proclaimed, interceding for people where there is currently no Gospel witness. They leave here having seen and experienced more of what life is like for them and better able to continue praying for them when they’re back in an environment and routine that is very different from those they are praying for. Even if on a very small scale, they have shared in a bit of their life.
Either way – whether from the other side of the world or while sitting on the floor and drinking tea in the home of our focus people—we recognize the power and importance of prayer and we are grateful for those who partner with us by doing the difficult and quiet task of drilling deep into the hard rock. May we all get to see the day when the blast is fired and the awakening comes!
We have been pleasantly surprised by reports that we’ve stumbled upon of some local outreach efforts that are focused on the people that we moved here to pursue. We knew that some things were happening, and even now it is still far less than what they need, but it is nice to know that we were wrong and that there are some local believers who see the need and are acting on it. Even as recently as the last few months we know of several hundred who have heard a clear presentation of the Good News, some of whom have put their faith in Christ.
We are thrilled that there are local Christians who are also reaching out to our focus people. One of our prayers is that that would happen more and more so that our role here would be unnecessary. At the same time, we also pray for a few things to change as these groups continue to reach out to them.
· Many local people seem convinced that there is no need to reach out to our focus people in their own language. We are praying for a work that presents the Gospel in a contextualized way and results in a truly indigenous church.
· One of the challenges to the Body of Christ in this place is the temptation to be possessive and protective. Of course people need to be careful, because some of the church networks are not sanctioned by the government and it is a risk to partner with anyone. This can be taken to extremes, though, that are not always helpful. It also can create a temptation to be very possessive and speak of people as being “mine” or “our believers” as opposed to someone else’s. This has sparked a lot of reflection in my own life, and a desire to be very careful with the terms I use that would ever indicate that some movement or some group of believers belongs to me. Any results belong to Jesus. Period. Any believers belong to Jesus. Period.
Anyway, back to the positive note on which this post started…
There is more to the story than we were aware of and for that we are thankful. May that continue to be the case as we become more established here. May we find that He has been at work in many hidden corners without our knowledge.
"Once we serve God surely we must go the way of the cross, so I will not quarrel against the Lord for what has happened."
These are the words of a pastor who has suffered much at the hands of the authorities. His home and church headquarters were demolished, and he was knocked unconscious when he tried to step in to prevent some students from being arrested. This is the fate of some of those who counted worthy to suffer for the sake of His name. This pastor continued to say, "Once the government tries to use violence it means they are defeated already."
Pray for him and others who suffer in order to make Him known. Pray that the seeds of their lives, having fallen to the ground and been crushed, will not fail to bear much fruit.
Filed under: testimonies
During a time when preaching the Gospel meant automatic imprisonment, he continued to proclaim Christ. Knowing the risks he refused to back down. This is part of the way that grace transforms us. His boldness was his ticket into the fellowship of those who have suffered for their faith. Three and half years in prison. While there, he continued to preach Christ and God saved some of the other inmates. Today he has been released and he continues to serve God, and God continues to use him to bring others into a relationship with Jesus. Meeting with him recently I felt very humbled. Humbled by my lack of faith and my concern for my own comforts. Humbled by his willingness to suffer and the fact that so many of our friends and supporters think that we sacrifice so much to be here. Humbled because I was visiting with someone whose very life and story reveals that faithful obedience to God is more valuable than comforts and freedoms and even life itself. This has helped spark a lot of other thoughts related to suffering for the Gospel that I will try to come back to soon.
Filed under: prayer, testimonies, Uncategorized, worldview | Tags: Prayer, testimonies, worldview
N was excited when he found out we were believers, because he had questions. He had noticed that Christians seemed to have true happiness and treated each other better than most people. This had made him very curious, a genuine seeker. He had never been to church and didn’t speak any English, so his searching was limited to what he could find online in his own language, which wasn’t too much. He had found some websites, though, and had been reading and even listening to some sermons. Here’s how some of the conversation went.
“Where does someone have to go in order to believe in Jesus?” he asked.
“Nowhere,” I told him, “There are no sacred spots or buildings, no temples or places more holy than others.”
“What about church?” I thought he was ask this, and I was glad he did, so I could try to explain that you don’t have to be in a church to begin following Jesus, but that church is a gathering of people who follow Jesus to be together, encourage each other, worship him together, learn about him, etc.
“What does it mean to believe in Jesus? How can God help me?”
“Well, many ways, but most importantly by forgiving our sins. All of us have sin in our lives and we are unable to do anything about it. No amount of good deeds can take away or lessen our bad. That’s why Jesus came to die for us.”
“Jesus died for everyone?”
“Yes, everyone.”
“Not just the Jews?”
“No. Everyone.”
“Then who are the Jews?”
“That’s gonna take some time to explain…”
“How can I know more about Jesus?”
“Read the Bible.”
“The whole thing? It’s huge!”
“Well, start with the gospels – they are 4 books about Jesus’ life that were written soon after his death and resurrection. They are named Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.”
“You mean that’s what it means when the preacher says Matthew 22:37? What’s the 22 and the 37 mean? ” (I don’t actually remember what passage he asked about.)
I went on to explain chapters and verses, and remembered when I was confused about the chapter – colon – verse thing.
Before long we were out of time and I had to wrap up the conversation. We exchanged names for the first time in the conversation and exchanged contact info and that was it.
I was thankful for the opportunity to share with him, excited about the seeds that had already been planted in his heart, and saddened by the fact that I didn’t have much time that day and was leaving the country just a few days later. I connected him with friends and have prayed that he would remain open to the work that the Holy Spirit is doing in his life.
What is most exhilarating to me about this experience was that it was sparked by the witness of someone else, who will never know the power of their lived-out testimony before N and many others. It was a real example of John 13:35 and 1 Peter 3:15, two verses that we should pray will become a more consistent experience in our lives.
During our final week in our previous country there were several incidents that felt like they were gifts from God, blessings that he had reserved for our final week. Mostly they were ministry opportunities that he opened up for us–random meetings in unexpected places with people who were hungry for the Good News or opportunities to provide food and shelter to orphans or outcasts. None of them were things that we attempted to orchestrate ourselves, and it was clear to us that he had put these things together. We had experiences that would typically be a great source of frustration to us but didn’t affect us in this same way this time around, which felt like one of the signals to us to that we were in fact ready for the big challenge that was just around the corner for us. For months and months one of the questions on our hearts was whether or not we would be ready when the time came, and how we would know the answer to that question. It seemed like throughout our final week in country God was communicating in various ways that he had made us ready in his perfect timing. This feeling of “readiness” isn’t actually one of us being strong enough or anything like that, but a feeling of allowing him to be in control and to work through us instead of striving to accomplish things our own way. It’s freeing, too, because we need him to continue putting things like this together if we are going to remain here, engage this people group and see the vision fulfilled.
A moving & challenging video series from thelastletter.org.
Last Letter Documentary from Last Letter on Vimeo.
Protests have gone on in the capitol city for a month and a half now. On various occasions during the last few weeks they’ve resulted in violent clashes. Over 20 have been killed with more than 1,000 injured. This week could be a very big week for the nation as the government has given the protesters what appears to be their last chance to walk away. If they don’t take it, the result could be more violent force from the military, in the hopes of putting an end to the protests so the city & country can try to return to business as usual.
Some sections of the capitol have been taken over with protests, which means businesses are cut off and shut down. Beyond that, as the world sees images on the news and hears of the violence, other businesses that depend on income from tourists begin to suffer. This affects people outside the capitol too, even far away, as whatever is shown on the news is then associated with the entire country. Governments are issuing travel advisories and encouraging their citizens not to travel within the country if it’s not necessary.
The unhappiness with the government is not a new thing in this country. They’ve had their fair share of coup’s and instances of dissolving parliament and starting over, or redrafts of the country’s constitution. This time, though, it appears to be creating a real division between various grous of society. The one thing that typically unifies the people of the country is their love for and devotion to the “main family”. That doesn’t seem to be as strong as in the past. It’s dangerous to even write about it, but suffice it to say that perhaps the unifying focus of this people’s identity is being challenged (for the first time in a long time).
Being aware of the lack of receptivity to Jesus and His Kingdom by the people of this country, it’s hard not to think about the possibilities for the future if the identity of the people is shifting so drastically. There are instances of history that we can look at and see movements of people turning to Jesus when they lost whatever previously provided their hope and stability. It causes my ears to perk up when there are trends that result in a people’s identity being challenged (ethnically, religiously, politically, etc.). Of course, it would be foolish/arrogant/stupid to wish for the protests continue or get worse. But it wouldn’t be unwise to recognize the potential for good to come out of such a conflict and to pray for God to do whatever it takes to draw people to himself, to break idols in their lives, and to destroy strongholds, arguments and lofty opinions raised against the knowledge of God (2 Cor 10). So, that’s what I’m doing.
Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body. (Hebrews 13:3)
How do you remember a believer who is in prison as if you were there with them? For many of us it is difficult to imagine what they are going through. Even the image that comes to mind when we think of prison may be a far cry from what they are actually experiencing. What can you do, especially if you are on the other side of the world? Remember them. Pray for them on a regular basis.
As though in prison with them? At one point before moving out here I was particularly gripped by the plight of the persecuted. I established a routine of sleeping on the floor on certain appointed days so that I could remember those who are in prison as though in prison with them. I’m not advocating that for others but am suggesting that we come up with ways to remember them and help further our efforts to pray for them. It is so easy to be moved by a story of someone imprisoned for their faith, commit to pray, then find that days (or more) have gone by and you haven’t given it a thought. There’s too much else screaming for your attention.
Right now our focus people are under heavy persecution. Imprisonment is one form of persecution that they face. In other areas the authorities have come in and tried to force the house churches to stop meeting together. Some people are really struggling with fear and need for God to give them the grace to be bold. Will you pray for them? Is there something you can do to help you remember them as though you were with them?
Two people recently came to faith, which should be cause for both great rejoicing and great interceding. Along with the angels of God (Luke 15), we rejoice at the news of anyone who repents and turns to God in faith…and how much more so when they come from a people who are largely cut off from the Good News! Yet this is also the reason that our rejoicing should be coupled with fervent prayer for these new believers. Just around the corner from their door of faith, isolation and harassment are waiting to pounce on them. Many other challenges will join in the battle in an attempt pull them back through the door and leave them on the side of unbelief. They come from a people for whom group harmony and social identity is more important than individual freedoms, so there will be immense pressure (both spoken and unspoken) to conform to the rest of their society. So, rejoice with us at the news of these two who have turned to God…but don’t stop there. Pray for them, that their faith will be proved genuine and that they will come through the trials having learned how to depend on God and being witnesses for him. Read the following passage, from the parable of the four soils, and let it guide your prayers. Look for the specific obstacles that these two will face and pray for them to be good soil.
The farmer sows the word. Some people are like seed along the path, where the word is sown. As they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them. Others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy. But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful. Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop–thirty, sixty or even a hundred times what was sown. (Mark 4:14-20)
