Lives Transformed

The following testimony is from a country that I can't name on the Internet. It is a country that I have traveled to many times. This was told to me by the ECC Country Coordinator.

One kind of ECC team that we have in this country are the “Jesus Film Teams”. These teams do abundant gospel sowing by taking the Jesus film to neighborhoods in cities and small towns and projecting it onto the wall of a building. They often run into a lot of trouble because local government authorities are not sure it is legal for the film to be shown. The teams often have to do some explaining and talking. Teams can get into a place where the local officials say “you can’t show that film here”, and then the team says, “why don’t we ask the people?” The people always want to see the film.

The Jesus film team was showing the film in the open air in a town. Many people had come to see the film. One of the men who came to see it was a “tough guy”, a guy that ruled the neighborhood by the force of his will, by his strong personality and by making demands and threats on people. He was a power factor in this community. He was called “El Charro” because he dressed like a Mexican, which is very unusual in this country. He didn’t care what people thought, because he was in charge of that neighborhood. He watched the film with the people and saw the invitation to receive Christ that was in the film. After the film, the ECC team asked interested people to come forward for counselors to answer questions. Several people went forward, including El Charro. The people knew his reputation and that he was a “tough guy”. He also had been drinking that night and so he walked, talked and smelled like someone who had been drinking. The counselors didn’t want to deal with him. Since he was a tough guy in the neighborhood, he said “Hey, what about me!?! How come nobody’s talking with me? Aren’t I good enough to talk to?” So the counselors went to talk to him. They shared the gospel with him and El Charro accepted Christ that night.

The next day, one of the pastors from the local church went to visit with El Charro in his home to explain more fully the way of salvation. El Charro begins to follow Christ. Because his life was changed, his wife and children also trusted Christ as Savior. It wasn’t long after that that a house church was started in his home. El Charro was asked to go to another area to start another house church, which he did. Thanks be to God for the Jesus film, for the Gospel of Christ, for the courage of the ECC team to deal with a man like El Charro whose testimony has impacted his community for Christ.

This and That

In the last five years as a missionary, some of my views have changed while others have been set more firmly in my mind.

Patriotism: I never would have guessed that I would become more patriotic. Not in the sense that I support our war efforts, but in the sense that we really do have freedoms that most people in the world only dream about. In one country I visited, they boasted that they have 99% voter turn out. Wow! Then you find out that there are consequences for not voting, but there is only one choice. I now make it a point to vote. I appreciate freedom of speech. In most places, they have no access to blogs and the internet and could not speak or write the things that we enter into blogs,read in our papers, hear on our news or what we speak in public.
See BBC article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/5194172.stm

Christianity: Jesus is the change agent. I have met men whom, after an experience with Jesus, treat their wives and children with repsect, not like slaves and animals. I have met business owners whom after an experience with Jesus, begin to treat everyone as their equal. In many places in this world, your lot in life is set. But I have been to churches where the status quo has been discarded and different social and economic classes come together. In most cases, people need to change their value system before they can be helped. For example, if you give a starving family a goat so that they will have milk, but the family believes in animal sacrifice, they will sacrifice that goat to appease the spirits.

Marriage: For Anita and I, opposites attracted. However, when we started working together, from our home, opposites conflicted. At times, we have had to seek counsel from family and friends. One good piece of advice we received from some friends was that we should wear signs that say "I am not the enemy!" Great advice. I found that I missed the office interactions, or politics. Office politics isn't nearly as frustrating as international politics.

Economic Change: This world is changing. India and China have huge populations, with growing middle classes. On one hand this is good news, people are living better and have more buying power to purchase American goods and services. On the other hand, their living better may cause others, like us here in the US to not live as well. Other Pacific rim countries are already complaining that these two huge countries are driving up the cost of living by sucking up resources. Some day soon, we in the US will complain too. We taught the world that there is power in wealth. Did we also teach them how to abuse it?

Nirmala and Husband
In October 2005, I visited India and witnessed God at work. Before the 2004 tsunami, many members of OMS International's partner organization in India, the Evangelical Church of India (ECI), had attempted to evangelize the people in the fishing villages along the coast, but they couldn't gain access. The village leaders would accept humanitarian aid, but not the Christians coming to evangelize them. The Christians would literally be run out if they tried to evangelize these villages. The tsunami served to wash away much of the resistance to the Gospel. Seven Every Community for Christ (ECC) teams entered the tsunami-stricken areas. In a very short time, they had planted nearly 40 churches.
One of the first persons the team met was a woman named Nirmala. Nirmala, with her husband and two middle school age sons, loved the Lord and has been blessed with the gift of evangelism, although she had known the Lord for less than a year. Near one of the newly planted churches was a neighborhood of 20-30 homes. Living here were many young women with small children whose husbands had left them for different reasons. This made them social outcasts. Nirmala befriended these women as well as other families. The church became their family. Through her actions, she demonstrated the love of Jesus. Many people from that neighborhood soon came to know Jesus through the witness of Nirmala. This incredible woman of God also started an after school program, providing snacks for the children and teaching them Bible stories to share the love of Jesus. In less than a year, this village church in India has about 50 members, many of whom came to know the Lord through Nirmala.

Prayer Concerns

Prayer Concerns:

July 6, 2006- Please pray for the safety of an African ECC Coordinator as he supervises church planters in several African countries. We received a message stating that he is happy that God saved his life.

July 3,2006-A message was received stating that four pastors in East Africa were arrested at a prayer meeting and jailed. Please pray for their safe release.
UPDATE: The President of the country intervened and had the men released. He stated that noboby in their country should be imprisoned for praying!!

Our Schedule:

July-August 2006-Please pray for our fund raising efforts.
August 11-25, 2006 -Carribbean, to visit ECC ministers.
September 19-28, 2006-African Coordinators Seminar, South Africa
October 13-27, 2006-Philippines, to visit ECC ministers.
October 28-November 2, 2006-All India ECC Leaders Seminar, Chennai, India

Rich and Anita serve in the ministry of Every Community for Christ, a ministry of OMS International, Greenwood, Indiana.

As ECC, Director of Operations, we oversee the budgeting process and adminstrate the budget.

As ECC Shepherd's to the countries of Cuba and the Philippines, we provide emotional and spiritual support as well as evangelism and church planting training.

View more information about OMS International, Every Community for Christ and Rich and Anita at www.omsinternational.org.