March Madness–Surprises and Help for the Helpless

Every March, S.O.S. Ministries sends down a team to Central America to minister and to run some women’s conferences in the various locations, and it’s an amazing trip. For the men who ask about such trips, I always encourage them that it’s not a ladies trip but that the conferences are a backdrop that often involves some amazing meetings with their husbands who wouldn’t normally set foot on the property. (It’s amazing what serving a family and serving food will do…)

Even with that being the case, this trip was unique…

Lost in Translator

We were on our way to Hondruas and picked up a new translator, Francisco, who turned his life over to Jesus a few months ago after living a disordered life of drinking and drugs. Last December he seemed to be going through the motions, but this time, he seemed genuinely excited to go.

As a primary translator for the team, I was doubly excited, because it meant I wouldn’t have to carry the main burden of translating for the team, which would free me up to do other things… like breathe.

When we got to the border, Francisco took a long time to come back from the office, and when he finally returned, he told us that there was a crime committed in his name that he’d have to clear up, which meant he couldn’t come with us.

He was upset, saying, “I’ve come to serve the Lord and now this happens?”

Anyone who’s been in the same situation knows what it’s like to have a closed door – it’s frustrating, and I was bemused and slightly frustrated that after telling everyone how happy I was not to be a team translator, I’d just gotten another promotion. A friend of mine reminded me of God’s faithfulness and the feeling quickly passed. Yes, He can and does use even my Spanish, and He also even used being turned back at the border to grow Francisco in his faith.

The team gathered around him and prayed, assuring him that God had some kind of purpose for this, and that he would be joining us on the ministry soon enough…

Children’s Ministry and the Main Thing

“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven… so shall My word be that goes out from My mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.” – from Isaiah 55

In Honduras, we usually have a ministry team that takes care of the children while the women’s conference continues, which allows the women to relax and hear the word of God without distractions. This time, our ministry team was four men, and most of the children were pretty young. Our team did an admirable job of keeping them entertained but we were getting worn out and the kids were in danger of getting bored. We went to put on a movie when we felt we couldn’t do any more, but the projector wasn’t bright and the sound wasn’t working.

One of the team members told me he’d done kids ministry in the past and could give a lesson, but I was doubtful that we could keep their attention. Still, we gave it a shot, and the moment we began teaching them the word of God (the parable of the unmerciful servant), they became completely still and even asked some really good questions. We shared the gospel about how Jesus had completely forgiven us of our sins and that we should share that same forgiveness with others and several of the kids locked eyes with us the whole time.

This happened two days in a row and I realized, sheepishly, that the real purpose for the children’s programs should not be to distract the kids while their mothers hear the gospel; it is another venue to share the gospel. God worked through us the moment we were obedient to that calling and befuddled all our attempts to entertain outside that main thing – preaching the word to the least of these.

Hats off to the team… that was quite the adventure.

Someone to help us

You may remember this, but back last December, some of the young men from Honduras told us that their parents did not care for their spiritual growth and that no one would teach them the scriptures.

This trip, we played a game of soccer with them that went on for quite awhile and we invited the young men to join us for a Bible study. For a moment I thought that everyone left – something that does happen sometimes in the ministry – but two of the young men stayed behind.

One of the young men on the team and I went through parts of Matthew 5 with them – that murder and adultery are not only sins of action but sins of the heart. When we told them that even looking at a woman with lustful intent was the same in God’s eyes as committing the act itself, their eyes grew big. “No one can do this,” they confessed. We finished with Jesus saying that you must be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect and about how He had provided a way by living the perfect life for us. We gave them notebooks and a Bible and they told us that when we returned, the notebook would be full of questions. It was an awesome answer to prayer, and we’re hoping to continue that ministry in July.

Just so you know how difficult it will be for these young men, their cousin had been coming to the church, but according to our church leaders, his parents told him that if he continued to attend, he would be thrown out of the house. Pray for them – the road to salvation will not be an easy one.

Joining Together

Because we had a smaller team this time, we brought the entire group of Hondurans (the cooks and leaders and their families) to eat with us in Copan, and the next morning, we invited everyone, even the cooks, to join us for breakfast. Laughter and amazing conversation followed – even across language boundaries. How good and pleasing is it for brothers to dwell in unity!

At first the younger Honduran girls balked at the idea, thinking it wasn’t permitted to eat with the Americans – wow. No wonder they seemed a bit stand-offish. No one had ever told them this, but they assumed it was the case, and I’m glad the team corrected this.

How beautiful is team unity? When we got ready to depart, several of the Hondurans told us that their favorite part of the team being there was the times we ate together as a group. Is this not what Jesus prayed for in John 17 that all believers would be one even as He and the Father were one? I’m excited to see what the next trip brings.

Surprise

When we returned, we were looking forward to a baptism for our new translator (Francisco) and his familiy. But the day of, we found out that he and his girlfriend of ten years were living together but not married, even having kids together.

Baptism into Christ is a baptism of repentance – turning from your old sins, so what would you do? I’ll tell you what would have been the easy thing, to turn a blind eye to the whole thing and just baptise them and hope they made it right.

But that’s not the way of the Lord. He desires His people to be holy and pure, so we confronted them in this, and it was… really… awkard at first. But the Lord began to work in their hearts and they went from being taken aback to getting excited about obeying the Lord.

He agreed to move out and to stay with the team at La Esperanza for the sake of obeying God’s call to purity in their lives. Just to show how excited they were to get married, he woke up at 4 AM the next morning to go pick up his future wife and get the process started, and later that day, they brought their entire family out to minister alongside us.

Now normally, the process of getting the paperwork and everything lined up for a marriage takes a week, but they were so excited that they got the process done and we celebrated the wedding just two nights after we had confronted them. Praise the Lord when His children obey Him. Pray for our brother Francisco and his wife, that they would pursue the Lord with all their hearts, and that their marriage would be blessed. Lord willing, we will be baptizing them in July.

The team that “gets it”

I needed to spend some time abiding in the Lord the last day of the trip, because things had been so chaotic and quite frankly, I had not prioritized my time with Him. The team had things under control with the last womens’ conference, so I decided I needed to go. On the way to the room, I saw the soldiers and some of the men outside and had a strong urge to evangelize them. Yet it was almost as though the Lord were urging me to spend time with Him instead – that He was able to do His work (John 15:5).

When I came back, all of the men from the team were sharing the gospel with the men on the property and the soldiers – one of them even using google translate to communicate the message. Some of the girls had befriended a local doctor and were making sure that the doctor and her sister left with Bibles.

It was incredible. The team just “got it”, and many people not only heard the gospel, they heard it compassionately from members of the team. God is good – it never ceases to amaze me what He is able to do when His people come together to serve Him. The same invitation I give to people in person I’ll give to you, come join us this summer. I would love to serve with you.

School funding

As one last thing, there are many in El Salvador who are seeking to get a higher education but who are unable to attend. One of them is a fine young man named Roberto who is constatly serving at the church and seeking to grow in the Lord. He’s brilliant – top of his class – but because his father abandoned him, he has no way of going ahead to the university and may not even be able to finish high school.

Please pray for those who are looking to further their education, and if you are interested in donating to the education fund for El Salvador, please contact me or go to www.soshope.org/donate and be sure that whatever you give is earmarked “El Salvador Education”. We will make sure that 100% of the funds go to that purpose, knowing that whatever we have done for the least of these, we have done for Jesus Himself. (Matthew 25)

In His strength,
the least of God’s servants,
- Paul

Christmas Joy

Ministry in Central America
Our Honduras team was the smallest it’s been for 7 years, but that didn’t mean it felt like that. Every member of the team contributed in an awesome way, making sure that the hundreds of children we ministered to in many different areas not only received Christmas gifts but also the good news of the Savior of the world, brought into humble circumstances 2,000 years ago.

Everywhere we went, we preached the gospel, and people were listening, even going out of their way in some cases to be sure they could overhear the conversation. Here are a few stories from the trip:

Dealing gently with others
One of the houses we visited was home to a family that is staunchly opposed to the gospel. A 17-year-old from El Salvador boldly engaged the man of the house while we spoke with a woman we’ve spoken with before. At one point in the conversation, she asked, exasperated and in an accusing tone, “How do YOU know you’re going to heaven?” to a young woman in the group.

How should we respond to people when they act like this?

The young woman answered her gently, and all of us were very gracious to her and she settled back and listened to the gospel, then went out of her way to introduce the rest of her family, even putting a smile on her face.

When we share the gospel and others oppose us, we must remember that it was in kindness that our Savior rescued us, and we should show that same mercy to others.

No one to help us
One of the last nights of the Honduras trip, we invited several of the local youths to an impromptu soccer match, which turned into a miniature tournament. One of the young men on the team volunteered to preach the gospel before we presented the prizes (prizes we put together on a whim because we didn’t know it was supposed to be a tournament), and many of the young men gave their full attention as we shared the gospel, even hushing those who weren’t paying attention.
In a conversation later on, one of the young men told us that there was no one to preach the word of God to them and no one to teach them right from wrong, and their parents didn’t take them to church or teach them the Bible because they only cared about whether they were living an outwardly quiet life.

There is a great need in Hacienda Grande for someone to teach the youth the scriptures. Please pray that God touches someone’s heart to do this.

Pastors’ Conference
While we were serving in Honduras, our local elders traveled to El Salvador to a pastors’ conference (thank you Lakeside Community Chapel!) and on their return, each of them spoke about what an incredible blessing it had been for them to learn how to preach the scriptures more effectively. The men are hoping to return to the conference in July. Please keep praying for these courageous men.
An incredible note about these men is that one of them was not even literate before he became an elder, and he learned to read for the sole purpose of studying the scripture. These men are unequipped by the standards of the world, but as Paul wrote, “the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable” (Romans 11:29).

If you should find yourself feeling discouraged and useless, remember this – God uses the foolish and weak things of the world to shame the strong (1 Cor 1:27-29). The race doesn’t belong to us – He does the work and He works in us.


New Frontier
In El Salvador, we have been visiting some of the same villages since the first year I came (2005), and it’s a huge privilege to see the Lord work in those places through our continual visits. But every year we also visit a new location with a special need recommended by one of our local contacts. This time, we found ourselves in the beautiful village of San Jose that sits on a hilltop opposite the local volcano (no worries folks, it’s probably extinct).

The people were extremely welcoming, and the program went off fairly well. Afterwards, my friend Casey and I went over to speak to some of the men of the village. Now usually the men won’t engage us in deep conversation, but Casey was very vulnerable with them, sharing his testimony and how the Lord had rescued him from the folly of his youth, and for some reason, the story resonated with the men. They told us at first that they believed that everyone was going to heaven, but that some of them had had struggles.

We dialogued on man’s brokenness and his inability to please a holy God – how every one of our good deeds is defiled and how only the sacrifice of Jesus can cover over the filth of our sin. By the end of the conversation, one of the men said, “We are trapped in the mire, and unless we grab God’s outstretched hand, there is no hope for us.”

The men thanked us repeatedly for coming to their village and for sharing the word of God with them, and we were amazed by their openness, especially considering that both of us were younger than most of them. When God opens a door for ministry, none can shut it.

Afterward, the medical worker briefed us on the sad conditions of the people in the village – teenage pregnancy, malnutrition, and family issues, and I felt a strange tug on my heart.

Could God be calling us to plant a church here?

Please pray for San Jose.

Personal
It amazes me that God can or would use me. I remember at one time thinking that I was invaluable to the kingdom, but now He is showing me more and more just how little I have to offer in my own strength. He really does use the foolish and weak things of the world to shame the strong. I’ve been in awe of how He uses even the smallest grain of faith to move mountains, and I’m looking forward (hopefully) to sending a part two with an update from our latest trips.

Redeeming Communities Update – A Seed Finally Sprouts
I just got off the phone with a friend of ours from Rainbow Village (the neighborhood in our area where we’re ministering) and a young man from there just told me how much he needed the Lord and to stop doing things in his own strength. He attended church last Sunday along with his family and he’s planning on attending more. He had a court date March 19^th so please pray for him.
We preached the gospel to him almost two years ago and he’s continually rejected it, so may this finally be the wake up call that brings him from darkness to light.

Water for Life
Our regional director for Africa just gave us an urgent plea for us to support a new water well in a village that has no good source for water. Please pray for the Lord to provide, as it will affect an entire village and be a positive testimony of the gospel in a village that has an incredible thirst both physically and spiritually.

Prayer Requests
Thank you so much for your continued prayer and support. God is working more than I can say in a short letter and I ask for your continued prayers.

Pray that God will glorify His name in the ministry, that He will sanctify me and give me wisdom to know Him better and to reach the lost, and that He would cause the word of God to be honored and to grow rapidly wherever we go.

With much love, the least of the followers of Jesus Christ,
- Paul

Rescued from the Enemy’s Fortress

In one of our locations in Central America, to say that the situation is difficult would be an understatement. The people are afraid, the murder rate is up, and gangs have taken the nation in fear, but just like always, when things are at their darkest, the light of Christ shines most brightly. These are the stories of some who were rescued from darkness this past December:

Military Ministry

Our friend the governor always sends soldiers to come and protect our teams when we serve in El Salvador, and it has become a natural thing to speak the gospel to the soldiers who have come to protect us. It's a beautiful exchange: they watch over our bodies and we watch over their souls.

I must commend the team I served with – no one had to tell them what to do. As soon as the soldiers arrived, they were speaking truth to them so that within a few days almost all of them had come to faith. In total, of the 11 soldiers who came to guard us, 5 came to faith.

One of the soldiers seemed especially broken when we spoke to him, but he was quick to turn his life over to Christ. Later, he confided in us that he was in the gangs only seventeen months prior – doing “terrible things”. He escaped and returned to his family, joining the military some time later. He told us that, “I continued to do terrible things, but God brought you all here to preach the word of God to me.”

Many soldiers have come to faith over our trips, but this man was the first to obey the call to be baptized, giving his testimony in front of our group before entering the waters of the Pacific Ocean to publically declare his faith in Jesus. Please pray for him – his life is still dangerous from the gangs, and he doesn't have much in the way of encouragement right now.

Peace at Last

Our time in December always takes us to a local center of idolatry where people come and pour out their prayers and light candles to idols who can neither hear nor help them. This time, I was pacing the building looking for someone to speak to when I saw a group of our team members in deep conversation with a man who was pouring his heart out to them.

He had come into the building heartbroken and looking for hope, and we began to open the scriptures to him, telling him over and over that he needed to believe and be saved while he kept telling us the good works he needed to do to please God and be saved.

Yet he continued to show interest in the scriptures, so we continued expounding the truth to him until he said, “I feel that God is telling me to share this message with everyone.”

I was concerned for a moment that he was continuing to recite his need for good works for salvation but he continued to speak, “When I came in to this place, I was contemplating killing myself or doing something evil because I can’t find a job and I have no hope for my life. I was crying, but now I have peace. Now I know that all I must do is believe and be saved.”

We took him out of the place of idolatry, because our time was nearly over, and we prayed with him. Someone on the team gave him a Spanish Bible and he clutched it tight, saying, “This will be my most prized and priceless possession. I know that you did not give me this; God gave me this gift.”

This, my friends, is a changed life. We left him, mightily encouraged that it was not us or our superior wisdom but the word and the power of God that had ultimately convinced him. This is the power of opening up the scriptures with someone – the word of God never returns empty, not even in a center of idolatry.

I remember what may have been the day of my conversion – I too was reading the scriptures when an incredible peace came over me, and my life has never been the same since.

The Power of Belief

What–or more precisely whom you believe changes everything. If you truly believe that your eternity rests on the work of Jesus Christ and turn to Him for your salvation, He will not leave you the same person.

One who has not had their life transformed by the work of Jesus does not truly believe. If we truly saw His agonizing death on the cross as our only way to eternity and believed that He was our resurrected Lord, our entire life would look completely different.

But it is impossible for anyone to believe in their own strength. God is the one who grants repentance (2 Timothy 2:25), God is the one who saves (Titus 3:5, Mark 10:26-27, Ephesians 2:8), God is the one who calls us to a holy calling (2 Timothy 1:9), and I am so grateful that I was saved by His grace.

Once I hated people, now I desire to see them full of the joy of the Lord.
Once the men we spoke to in December were doing terrible things and thinking about terrible things, now they have begun their new life of hope.
Once we were lost – now we are found.

I pray that if you are reading this, you are either encouraged by the news here and glorifying God, or that you will be challenged to trust in Jesus yourself and experience the true salvation that does not depend on our ability to be good. Being good and religious is exhausting, and it will never satisfy you, nor the wrath of God due for our sins.

Only the perfect life of Jesus and His death on the cross were sufficient to cover over our wretchedness and give us true peace. Only He can rescue us from Satan’s fortress and place us into the kingdom of light. To Him be all the glory for what He has done.

Grace and peace to you,
- Paul

Ministry in a Dry and Weary Land–July 2015

Psalm 63:1
O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.

A Month Down South

This past July I served with about eighty other brothers and sisters in Christ as we preached the gospel, hosted a community soccer tournament, ran conferences for the youth, and ministered in some of the roughest areas of the country. God taught us all the amazing power of prayer as He worked amazing things and protected us time and time again.

Drought and Strife

Unfortunately for El Salvador, not only is the country experiencing a severe drought. We spoke with many farmers who had their entire crops dry up and die, leaving them waiting and hoping that they could plant again before the dry season. Food prices are going up in the impoverished nation at the same time that the violence is spiking. People in the country are concerned for their lives and the prospect of violence. One man we met even wears a mask to work and sent his family away because of the threats he’s received from gang members.

It’s a tragedy what is happening there, and it’s the result of the idolatry of the people. Empty religion and tradition has done nothing to change the hearts of the people, and you can see and hear the emptiness. Yet through all of this there is hope, because in their desperation people are waking up to their need for the Lord. I have seldom seen such openness when we’ve gone to preach the gospel.

Open Doors

Near the beginning of the month, we were planning to minister outside a school after the students were let out. As we were trying to figure out how to accomplish this I started talking to two men who were standing in a pick up truck outside the school and explained what we wanted to do. “That will never work,” they said. “You have five minutes until the busses come and pick up all the students. Let’s go inside and talk to the teachers.”

They led us inside, and we explained what we desired to do. The teachers were initially hesitant, but somehow the Lord opened the door for us to actually go inside the school and present dramas and the gospel later on the same day. I was floored; God opened the door for us.

As we waited for our opportunity in the town square nearby, we spoke with a group of young men from an accounting school about the gospel and the hope in Christ. None of them had come into a relationship with Christ, but three of them expressed that they desired salvation by the end of our conversation. Right as we had to leave to minister inside the school, a leader from our church arrived and continued the conversation with the young men, answering their questions and leaving them his contact information. That’s God’s timing.

The ministry inside the school was so successful that the teachers asked us to come again later on in the trip. In fact, we were able to minister the gospel in 5 different schools from the mountains of Honduras to a massive public school in the nearest city that holds about 2,000 students.

The Next Generation

A few days before we arrived in Central America, a gang member – a youth from our area came to Christ. We immediately gave him a job helping with construction and members of the church came around him to begin discipling him and encouraging him in the faith. We got to speak to members of his family – all nonbelievers who were amazed by the change in him. They said, “We thought he would be dead because of what he is doing.” The testimony of this youth is showing his family the power of God for salvation.

By the end of the trip, another gang member attended our youth service and two members of our team were able to preach the gospel to him as well.

In Honduras, I had the pleasure of working alongside a young man named Alex. At 15 years old, he goes with us up into the mountains to preach the gospel in the villages, but he was very shy about it. During one of our presentations in a village, I pulled him aside and told him, “Hey, we’re going to share the gospel with someone as soon as we get done with the program here.” He looked at me with wide eyes, “Ok.”

He seemed hesitant when we walked over to speak to the first group, but he willingly shared his testimony of everything God had done for him. By the time we got ready for a massive soccer tournament, he asked me if he could share his testimony in front of the crowd of hundreds that had gathered. With the amount of time we had to prepare, he didn’t have the chance to do so, but it was amazing to watch him grow in boldness over just a few days. Pray that he will grow in his faith and continue to be bold.

Finishing Well

With so many pastors and leaders falling into sin around the world and ruining their testimony, I’ve realized now more than ever how hard it will be to be pure and holy until the day Jesus comes for me. I am not perfect–I am, like anyone a footstep away from falling into terrible sin. I would love to tell you that I am strong, but the truth is, I am weak–I am just a vessel of God made of clay, though I hold His treasure inside. The scriptures warn us with this: “Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall.”

May it be said of all of us that we fought the good fight, we finished the course, and we kept the faith. Pray that God would help me to finish my race well.

- Paul

Hope Across Generations

On our last trip to Africa, we ended up arriving an entire day late due to problems with the aircraft, already a great start for our journey, so we ended up already missing a day of ministry, something I wasn’t too happy about, but God’s plans are always higher than ours.

If you remember, earlier this year, we visited the chief of a village who subsequently came to faith as we preached the gospel. He died a month later, leaving the village without leadership. As providence would have it, the first of the only two places we were able to minister was the very village where this chief used to live.

When we arrived, it was strange being there knowing we wouldn’t see our friend there – I miss him. But we were encouraged that a sizeable crowd came out, among whom was a young man who had brought his Bible out. I figured that he was one of the church members, but after our Bible study and testimony time, he told us through a translator he was very happy in Islam and did not want to become a Christian.

Our translator also told me that he was the chief’s son. That probably explained why he stood out to me so much. Filled with compassion, we began speaking to him, but it wasn’t until the part where we mentioned Romans 6:23 that the wages of sin was death and the gift of God was eternal life that he opened the Bible to read that for himself.

He seemed moved by this word, and we told him about the faith and hope his father had that gave him eternal life, and from that point on he was riveted in the conversation. Near the end of our dialog, we asked him if a dead man could bring him back to life. 

We told him that no matter their message or lifestyle, every founder of every other religion is currently dead and in the ground, but even Muslims believe that Jesus Christ lives to this day and is at the right hand of God. “Who then is able to save?” we asked him.

Our local ministers continued the conversation from there, and at the end the man announced that he was ready to come to Christ. Praise God for the hope he now shares with his father.

Afterward, we told him that things about his life would need to change, and deep in thought, he asked us if he should quit his job as a hunter now that he was a Christian. That’s a man who is considering the cost.

We told him, no, he didn’t need to quit his job, but that God has called him to live a holy life, even at work. We prayed for him and left encouraged - if God just sent us there for that one man, then the whole trip was worth it. What price can you put on a single human soul?

Like father, like son – two generations have come from darkness to light. But this hope is not limited to them. Jesus is not just another dead religious figure, He is our living hope. If I would trust anyone with my life, it would be the One who beat death.

According to His great mercy, He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead
1 Peter 1:3

Can Jesus Set Me Free?

A Tale of Two Chiefs

Since my second trip to Africa, we have been following up with two chiefs of two distant villages, both very old, and both Muslim leaders in their separate communities. With both chiefs, we befriended them and shared the gospel with them, and both listened initially, inviting us to share more of the gospel with their village.

Then the division happened. One of the chiefs, “Ramen”, who had initially invited us to build a church structure then closed off his village to our church, kicking us out from land he’d given us after we’d built a water well there. He still accepted our visits, but we heard darker and darker stories about him. First of all, he and the village elders kicked out the only believer in the village who was still attending church. Then, as he felt himself growing more and more sick, he turned increasingly to black magic and sorcery to keep himself alive, causing great harm to his family and those around him.

The other chief, “Elijah”, continued to welcome us to his village, repeatedly encouraging his people to attend the church services and listening intently as we preached the word of God. He seemed confused at first, stating that both Mohammad and Jesus could save him, but as we went along, he became more and more solid in his understanding until last January (2014) where we were certain he had trusted Jesus completely with his life. He too was sick, but the situation in his village was more peaceful. Yet the story wasn’t done…

Near the end of 2014, we received news that Ramen had died apart from Christ. He’d relied on his own powers to keep him alive, but there is no magic, no money, and no ransom that can keep you from the grave, and he ended up doing a great amount of damage in doing so, to the point where the people around him were afraid of him. We also received word that Elijah was ill and death was looming; he might not be alive the next time we visited. At the time I received that news, I was on a break from the ministry, but I purposed in my heart that if at all possible, I wanted to return to see Elijah one last time before he died.

So in January when we arrived, my first question to the ministers there was how Chief Elijah was and how he was doing in his faith. They looked at me and told me, “He is alive, but he is confused.”

“Confused?” I asked.

“He thinks he needs to hold on to the gods of Africa to protect him in addition to Jesus, and he is afraid.”

Crestfallen and saddened by the news, I asked further, wondering if they were mistaken. But as they explained his situation, I came to the sobering conclusion that the chief had only accepted the Lord as yet another protection on him, and he was concerned that if he left behind the religion of his fathers, the gods would come after him “like the mafia”, as our African brothers put it.

We set to work praying for him, and began urgently trying to get in contact with someone who could take us back to the chief’s house in the nearby city where he had taken up residence in his illness.

Visitation

Prayer pays off.

We were staying at the orphanage when we finally received word that we would get a chance to visit with him. I began to prepare what I would say to him, knowing that this would likely be the last time I would see him on this earth.

We passed through the city landscape on our way to the chief’s home, a strange, barren, and dusty part of the city without a single tree. We arrived underneath the canopy outside the chief’s house, and his wife bowed low to greet us, calling for her husband.

I got up to meet him as he walked down the hallway toward us. He didn’t smile – he looked like he was distracted.

I reached out to grab his extended hand in greeting, and the moment our hands touched, it seemed like all his life and strength were gone. At that point, I knew he didn’t have long. Short of a miracle, this was our last visit with him.

He sat down, clearly in pain, hardly able to keep himself upright. All of my plans to speak were suddenly gone – I was expecting a vibrant old man who sometimes complained of his bad health, but he was a shadow of his former self, barely present.

Knowing our time was short, we set to work, telling him of his need to come to Christ – of Christ’s sovereign rule over all and his power to protect over any African god or spirit that threatened. We encouraged him to trust in the Lord alone for his salvation. We also told him that we could not guarantee his physical protection, but promised that if he believed, Jesus would indeed raise him up from the dead.

The chief told us he wanted to get his family together to discuss the decision before he did anything, but we reminded him that this decision was between him and God alone, and that he didn’t have the promise of another day, encouraging him to turn to the Lord.

Free At Last

And at the end of the conversation, we sat in silence until he asked, “Can Jesus set me free from the oath my family made to the gods of Africa?”

This, my friends, is the question. Can Jesus set me free from my past? Does Jesus have the power to erase my past and to break the hold of every curse on me? All of us desperately need this hope, because all of us have black pages in our books.

I was overjoyed by his question. Yes – yes indeed Jesus can set you free, we told him. Whom the Son sets free is free indeed, free from every pact and bondage.

The chief thought for a moment, then said, “I have decided to become a Christian.”

Knowing that baptism is a sticking point, especially for those who are coming from a Muslim background, we pressed in, “Are you willing to be baptized then?”

He told us yes, he was willing to be baptized, and we were satisfied that he had truly crossed the line, so we closed out our conversation with joy. We brought out the pictures from our last visit with him, and his face broke into a smile for the first time since we’d arrived. It was as though dark clouds had broken, leaving a perfect day in their wake.

Knowing we only had a short time since we were leaving to minister in yet another dark place, we left him. We were almost back to the road when his wife came running after us as fast as her aging body would allow and told us to come back, because the chief wanted us to meet someone.

When we arrived back, another man stood by the place where the chief sat. He said, “I will translate for my father.”

The chief spoke again, and the man said, “My father would like you to know that he has decided to become a Christian.”

The chief really wanted us to know he’d become a Christian, apparently. I asked the chief’s son what he thought of this turn of events, wondering if he too was a Muslim.

The man smiled and said, “Praise the Lord! I too am a Christian.” He told us he was overjoyed by the news.

I would have liked to have stayed and spoken with him more, but as it seems far too often in missions, you don’t get a chance to enjoy the moment – we took our leave and departed quickly, leaving the chief and his son as we prepared to bring the gospel to a new village we had never visited before. My head was spinning with joy and apprehension as to what the new ministry would bring, and it wasn’t until later that I was able to fully appreciate what had happened.

Homecoming

A month later, we received word that Chief Elijah had gone home to be with the Lord. His body may be gone, but his spirit is more alive now than it will ever be. And just as Jesus promised, one day he will rise again – free from his tortured old body, free from any pact made with the powers of darkness, and free to praise his King.

Yet though we are joyful, please pray for his wife and the family he left behind.

I miss him already; he was like a grandfather to me. I will be in Africa soon, and I regret that I will not see his smiling face this time, but I look forward to the day when we meet again, and on that day, we won’t need a translator.

Know that no matter what you have done, no matter what you face, no matter what pact you have made with yourself, anyone, or anything – there is nothing that can prevent you from being set free, because as Jesus says in John 10:18, “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.”

Look to the Son; believe and be saved.

Grace to you,
- Paul

Africa January 2015 –The Poorest

For the needy shall not always be forgotten,
and the hope of the poor shall not perish forever.
Psalm 20:18

Imagine you live in a place so terrible that a few hours stay gives your clothes a stench that won’t leave.

Imagine your expected life span is hovering somewhere around thirty because you drink sewage and breathe in the lingering smoke from a thousand fires every day.

Imagine that your only school has dirt floors, almost no books, and you can’t get in because hundreds of others are waiting for a place in that same school.

Welcome to life in the water town.

You enter this place from the main road, walking through a narrow side alley for several minutes until you reach the shores of the standing water. You immediately notice the number of people who live here as they get in and out boats at the makeshift docks.

You gingerly crawl into one of the boats, hoping it doesn’t send you on an unexpected trip into the black water. The boat takes you slowly through narrow roads of water onto the main highway where the missionary tells a story about a previous trip where a passing motor boat almost sent them all for unexpected swim.

Comforting, right?

Finally, you arrive at the only school, a building that is slowly collapsing under its own weight, looking forward to the swarm of children that will soon surround you.

This is where God has called us, because He loves the poor and the needy, and if we are His hands and feet, we must love them just as He loves them.

Without Help

The director of the school, a man named Noah, told me that the only way the school gets funded is by locals or foreign organizations. The government refuses to send any help of any kind, whether supplies or funds.

We spent some time talking and praying with him. Pray that God provides the funds for us to upgrade the structure for the school. After looking at the school’s structure, which is bending under the weight of the upper story, we’re confident that if we don’t do anything, there could be a disaster.

Pray for Noah and pray that God provides the funds and supplies for this school to keep operating. Noah gives a lot of his own time and money to make sure the school runs, even to the point where he’s chosen to live among his own people so that he can do everything he can for them.

A Bible for Every Student

With the help of someone from my church who works for the Gideon society, we were able to provide Bibles for every student in the school as the teachers had asked us. The Bibles will be a powerful tool for them to practice their English (which is a second language for them) while learning the scriptures.

Since we started coming and teaching the scriptures, there has been a massive difference in the attitude of both the teachers and the students. The students are now intensely alert during classes, asking good questions, and even quoting scripture that they’ve learned back to us.

Thanks to the education they’re receiving, some of these precious ones will be able to further their education on the mainland. Pray for their physical and spiritual condition - that they would come to know our Savior, and that God would provide for them so that they can escape the cycle of poverty and bring others out with them.

Intercepted by Hope

After we’d given out the Bibles, I was walking to go photograph the students in their lessons when I saw two young men reading John 3:16 aloud to themselves. If God had ever provided a clearer opportunity to hear the message, I don’t know what it was.

“Do you understand what you’re reading?” I asked as I sat down. They shook their heads. “No.”

For the next forty minutes, my brother Gabriel and I sat, reading scripture with them, asking them questions, and explaining things they didn’t understand. When we finally asked if they had any questions, one of the young men asked, “If there is a man who is an idolater his whole life, yet comes to Christ three days before his death, what will happen to this man? Will he go to heaven?”

Rather than answer his question directly, we took him to the story of the thief on the cross, who asked Jesus to remember him just hours before his death.

When he was finished reading, he told us, “It’s clear that the idolater who comes to Christ will go to heaven.”

I pointed at Gabriel, “Did you know he was an idol worshipper for many years?”

The young men sat back, surprised to find such a man sitting among them. Gabriel then shared his testimony, about how much God hated his idolatry and sin, yet how God still had mercy on him through Christ.

When he was done, the men said that they were ready to come to Christ. We prayed with them, and as the conversation was winding down, I found out that John normally worked at a factory on weekdays, and didn’t even live in the water village any more. Yet because he was sick on this particular day, he decided to visit his brother at the school.

In other words, God used his sickness to bring him to hear the gospel.

I don’t know the end result, but please pray for the three young men who listened – that the seeds we planted will sprout and grow into the hope that only Christ can give.

Praise God for being a God who orders the steps of His children, that they would come to know Him.

Psalm 16:9
The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps.

Acts 17:26-27
And He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us

Grace and peace,
- Paul

What Man Intended for Evil…

Two months ago I was praying and considering whether or not I should return to Central America this December. Everything is on the table, and I’ve been considering what my ministry is and what the Lord is calling me to, because I have no idea what the Lord has for me in the years to come.

The Lord made two things clear though – 1. I should return to Central America at least in December, and 2. I should return to Africa in January.

That’s all I have to run off of at the moment. Sometimes I think it would be nice to know, but I trust God.

A week or two before the trip, I got a call from one of our translators in Central America – a man God saved out of a murderous lifestyle in the gangs. I was walking up to my workplace and almost considered ignoring the call because I’d be seeing him soon enough, but I took it anyway.

I picked up – he sounded shaken. Through the conversation I quickly learned that men from one of the gangs near his village had raped his daughter and that she was now pregnant. He continued, telling me that his family was shaken up – his wife and daughter were losing faith, and he was at least a little tempted to pick up his old ways and get revenge.

“Pray for me Paul. I know what I once was and I don’t want to go back.”

At a loss for words, I struggled through the conversation. After I hung up, my next phone calls and texts were to tell members of the team who loved him to be praying, and plans were set in motion to visit him and his family in his village.

This man, this former gang member used to murder people to make a living. Now he’s praying and begging God not to let him take any revenge, but to help him forgive. There is no doubt in my mind that he is a new creation. He used to bring death everywhere he went, now he goes into gang territories and preaches the gospel of life even at great risk to himself.

Obviously, Satan hates this and would do anything to stop it, and our friend and his family have already paid a terrible cost for living in the place God has called them to live. Pray for them.

Meeting with Death’s Messenger

Two weeks later when we arrived in our friend’s village, our entire group was marching toward his humble house when I saw them – six men standing out in front of his house to greet us. Our friend ran up to me and said, “Paul, they’re from the gangs. Don’t be afraid, they’re here to hear the gospel!”

At their center stood the leader – “Juan”. His ball cap and tattoos covered his entire head, surrounding his care-lined face. He looked tired and worn out; I’ve seldom seen a man look so weary. Yet we knew he was a murderer – a cold-blooded killer.

Men from the team went behind our friend’s house to meet with Juan and his men – to preach the gospel to them while the rest of us set about putting together a Christmas program for the children and people of the village. Several of the women spent the entire time ministering to our friend’s wife and daughter.

Around the same time that the program started, Juan and his crew came out from the meeting and watched the gospel vividly presented through a drama, and the preaching of the Gospel from the Bible.

As we dispersed afterwards, I was with several of the young men from the team speaking to Juan – most of whom grew up in Christian households, like some bizarre contrast between light and darkness. Yet we are all the same as Juan – we all face the same plight.

Juan acted on the thoughts we only had, and God graciously kept us from carrying them out or from growing up in the same violent environment. Juan has the same problem we have – our sins have separated us from a holy God and without salvation, we are destined for the place of our own choosing – the wrath of God and eternal separation from Him.

Yet that day we offered him the hope that yes, Christ died so that he too could have life. Yes, even Juan’s horrific crimes against God can be forgiven, and even better still, like our friend the translator, he who once brought death could become a messenger of life.

We gave Juan a Bible and prayed over him, and tears shone in his eyes as he reverently held the scriptures. Before we prayed, he asked us to pray for his son – that he would grow up differently than he did.

Our friend the translator said that after we left, Juan and his men were standing around the open Bible in reverent awe. We have not heard from him in the short weeks since that day, but I pray that the Lord saves him.

God called us to go preach the gospel to the lost, simply to invite them to the banquet of God’s grace and mercy freely offered through Christ’s death on the cross to ALL, with no concern as to their former lives. Matthew 22:10 says that the servants of the king “went out into the roads and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good. So the wedding hall was filled with guests.”

Christ is able to transform all kinds of people, both the “good” and the bad, realizing this, that only God is truly good, and He has provided a Way for us to be like Him through Jesus His Son.

Please pray for Juan and his men.

The Frowning Hand of Providence

Providentially, I just read the story of Joseph. His brothers sold him into slavery in Egypt, he was thrown into prison because he’d been falsely accused of rape, and he spent years forgotten as he waited for release.

But because Joseph was stuck in prison, he was right where he needed to be when Pharaoh wanted his dream interpreted, an act of providence that saved the lives of countless people in the end.

Everything that happened to Joseph--everything man intended for evil, God used for good.

Wicked men raped our friend’s daughter, and that is something she will have to live with for the rest of her life, but our friend told us that since the trip, God has used this as an opportunity for her to know Christ in a more real way. Furthermore, God turned the situation into a chance for us to minister the gospel to a small crowd in our friend’s village, including several gang members who heard the gospel in many different ways. Perhaps God will use this to save their souls as well.

God works out everything for good for those who love Him, and one day, He will wipe away every tear from our eyes. It is from this hope that we operate – we base all our confidence on the fact that this life is not all we have. Our reward – our home is not here but in heaven, where the former things, no matter how great or terrible, will never be remembered again. All of this life will fade except the Lord – yes, even this horror.

Please take some time right now to pray for our friend, his wife, and most importantly, his daughter. Pray that they find comfort and healing in the Lord, pray that they are able to forgive the wicked men who did this, and pray that God will continue to use this for good in their lives.

Transformations

Our Lord Jesus is the master of transformations. He turned Zacchaeus from swindler to philanthropist, Peter from impulsive coward to pillar of the church, Paul from murderous zealot to passionate follower, and on and on the list goes.

Jesus is still transforming lives to this day in the same ways. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8). I once was an angry, bitter man who loved nothing but computer games and his own interests, but now Christ is transforming me into a compassionate man who ministers to orphans and desires the salvation for the lost.

I’m not there yet. There’s still so much lacking in me, yet since I am in Christ, I am a new creation. This promise doesn’t just extend to me; I’m not anyone special, but my God can do anything.

If you read this, know that God can use you for the same things, and His transforming power only begins to work when you trust Jesus for salvation. He will not stop until you are perfect – until you resemble His Son.

These are just a few stories of the Lord’s transforming power that I have seen over the past six months.

The First Convert

Several years ago we visited a village where the Muslim chief welcomed us and the gospel message. He gladly heard us and made provisions for us to have a structure where we could exposit the scriptures for them.

Yet even after several years, nobody in the village had come to Christ, and only two people – a man named Solomon and the chief himself – seemed interested at all in the gospel. There were a few exciting moments where people seemed to make professions of faith, but the passion and fire quickly died away.

Finally, last year, Solomon came to faith, renouncing his Islamic roots during the month of Ramadan. Imagine suddenly deciding you weren’t going to celebrate Christmas ever again on Christmas Eve. All of his friends, some of his family, and his neighbors all continued the month-long celebration, but he abstained for the first time, because his allegiance is now to Christ alone.

Fast forward to January: we visited the village and found that Solomon’s seventeen year old son had also come to faith and was making some incredible statements. When we asked him how he came to faith, he said, “When I saw the futility of Islam and the gods of Africa and compared them to the new faith of my father, I knew I had to come to Christ.”

It is unbelievably important for a father to live out his faith in such a radical way that his children know that Jesus is real by his example. Solomon’s witness and faithfulness, even over a short few months, has already won his son over to Christ.

Although it was encouraging to see that Solomon was being faithful, the chief of the village was nowhere to be found. We learned that he was sick and receiving care in a city about an hour and a half away – a city we just so happened to be visiting.

From Victims to Missionaries

The nearby city where the chief was staying is home to a massive orphanage with over four-hundred children who have had one or both parents murdered for their faith in Christ. We have the amazing opportunity to show the love of Christ to these kids, ranging from age 6 to 18, and the opportunity to disciple them as Jesus commanded in Matthew 28, “Teaching them to obey all I have commanded you.”

The best way to train someone up is to bring them along with you and share your very life with them. As the apostle Paul said, “We were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us.” These youth and kids are so dear to us that we go to Africa to share our very lives; so for several days, we stayed at this orphanage and brought several young men with us to minister wherever we went.

So those who were once victimized by religious persecution are now boldly going with us to share before the leaders of villages. The Holy Spirit of God can turn any victim into a mighty warrior who backs down before nothing. Make no mistake; these young men will be used for amazing things in the Kingdom of God. Pray for them!
 

Visiting a Chief

On one of these days, we were determined to track down and visit the chief using the contact information we were given. Our local contacts managed to call someone he was staying with, and we received directions. Taking two young men with us from the orphanage, we passed through a labyrinth of tight streets and marketplaces until we finally arrived at our destination – a quiet part of the city that would have looked right at home in a post-apocalyptic film.

I briefly wondered if we’d made a terrible mistake as the man led us through this desolate place, but soon, we arrived at a covered entryway where the chief awaited us. As fast as his feeble legs could carry him, he raced out to us, greeting us warmly and expressing his disbelief that we’d actually traveled all this way to visit him.

He welcomed us and we exchanged pleasantries, eventually opening up the scriptures with him and sharing the gospel with him. The young men with us shared their testimonies and what Jesus meant to them and the chief and those sitting with us all listened intently.

Then we told him the situation in his village – not many were coming to the church, and many had turned back to offering sacrifices to the gods of Africa. And as we spoke, the chief interrupted us, “This must not be! I will go back and tell the people to stop sacrificing to the gods and to begin attending church!”

“Wow,” I thought. Then we asked, “What about you? Are you going back and celebrating Ramadan? Are you once again sacrificing to the gods of Africa?”

The chief responded clearly, “Only Jesus can save me. Mohammad cannot save me, the gods of Africa have no power – I follow Jesus.”

God is saving even Muslim chiefs steeped in idolatry. If that is what He is doing now, imagine what He will continue to do in our lives. Pray for this man, that he will walk boldly in his confession and that many in his village will come to Christ.

Stories of the Redeemed

Here are some of the young men the Lord has put in my life at the orphanage, whom I have the privilege of encouraging and being encouraged by:

Ibriham
He has one more year left of schooling before he seeks to get a degree in music. His village was attacked and his family managed to escape right before a massacre, but his father returned to help others escape and never returned. They found his body by the riverside. Ibriham said, “When my father was murdered, I thought I would never stop crying,” but when he came to the orphanage, God comforted him so that he was able to write a song about how Jesus had dried up all his tears. He has a passion for missions work, and seeks to be a missionary when he finishes school. He is extremely strong in his faith, and it’s a privilege to serve the Lord alongside him.

Isaac
This is my 12 year old buddy who has a passion for photography and drawing, and he is quite the artist. He follows us wherever we go, and although he doesn’t say much, I pray the Lord is using our example to minister to him. His father was a pastor who was murdered by extremists, and he has a sister at the orphanage I finally had the privilege of meeting. Please pray for him, that God would open his eyes and that he would fully commit himself to the Lord.

And by the way, all of these young men have a terrific sense of humor. Fellowship with them is about as warm as you can get, and I rejoice that I know each of them.

In the United States, if we live as Christians, at most we will be inconvenienced. Yet around the world, our brothers and sisters are imprisoned, raped, and murdered just because they choose to love Jesus more than any false way. Pray that God will give us the strength to live up to the example our persecuted family has set!
 
Fired at his job – Literally
This past April, I had the privilege of being reunited with my friend Edwin once again in Central America. Shot by his boss in anger and forced to return to his home-town, he met Jesus on the back porch of our church building last February. He was baptized last July and has been faithfully serving the Lord, even inviting others to come to the church, I recently wrote a blog about his story here: http://adexios.blogspot.com/2014/05/edwins-story-1-year-later.html

Please pray for him and the many others whose stories I have not even begun to cover here.
 

The Power of the Gospel

So you have seen the stories here. Now I will tell you what the Lord has put on my heart- the power of the gospel. I once preached in such a way to encourage believers using the scriptures, but something was missing— I was not proclaiming the gospel in every message.

Think about it, if the gospel has the power to turn a chief away from Islam and make him suddenly care about the spiritual state of his people, if the gospel has the power to dry up our tears, make us renounce our former ways, and endure imprisonments and beatings because of what our Lord Jesus Christ did for us, then imagine what effect it can have on the life of a believer!

I believe that the weakness we see in ourselves and in the local church is because we do not prioritize the preaching of the gospel. The apostle Paul once wrote that he was eager to preach the gospel to the church in Rome. Paul was ecstatic to preach the gospel to believers and to non-believers, that there would be a harvest – a harvest, I believe, of righteous living and of power.

If Jesus’s death on the cross has the power to transform a sinner, it also has the power to transform us and to remind us once again of God’s great love and the mighty power He demonstrated when he atoned for our sin and raised up Christ on the third day.

I believe that God will begin an incredible revival in our nation when the gospel is prioritized and preached once again in every message from every pulpit and from the lips of every believer. God is doing incredible things around the world when we preach Christ and His incredible sacrifice, so why not preach the same way here!

Therefore, please pray for me, that God will give me the words to say in preaching the gospel – that I will do it boldly and unashamed, and that He will continue to give me holiness and that He will continue to lead me in His ways.

I love you all in the Lord. Grace and peace to you,
- Paul