Guatemala Church Plant

Once again, congratulations to the Rio Dulce church plant. It is exciting to see how God is moving.  Just a quick update, last weekend service again had over 70 kids and over 40 adults attend.  The church needs Bibles, a podium, some minor equipment but most of all, prayer!  Please pray for Pastor Francisco and the Elder teams that travel to Rio Dulce and pray for Mike and Karen. 

God is the Issue

I recently read a book by Brad Bright, the son of Bill Bright (founder of Campus Crusade for Christ) and it really impacted and reinforced my way of thinking and especially as it relates to missions.  Let me explain.  One thing that Pastor Danny makes very clear and as a result, has implanted into my Calvary DNA is his heart for the word of God and his love for seeing churches planted.  This book indirectly pushes me further in that direction. Brad Bright is obviously a thinking man, gifted in debating his faith but he also has a very clear vision that he passionately pursues singlemindedly.  "The basic premise is that we spend too much time emphasizing the battles and might end up losing the war because we are focused on the wrong issues.  "The question we must ask ourselves is whether or not we are content to merely suppress cultural symptoms such as abortion, with varying degreees of succes, or whether we really wish to cure the underlying disease. How we answer this question has major implications implications for how we expend our time, energies and resources".  In other words, when we fight against cultural moral issues such as abortion, homosexuality, AIDS, divorce, racism, crime, etc, we might win some of the battles but ultimately, we are not going to win the war.  The only way to win the war is to make God the issue and by extension of that thinking, establishing the word of God as our benchmark for life. 

How does that apply to missions? Thank God for the committed people working in Christian humanitarian work, fighting against the tragedy of abortion, and other injustices in this world. I am thankful for their calling, however, unless we make God the central issue, we may win one battle, only to lose in another area.  That is why it is absolutely imperative that we take every opportunity to put God into every issue and into every forum and into every home and one of the most effective ways of doing that is through YOU! With the objective of planting churches.  God is the answer to every dysfunction that we face as individuals and if there is one string on our guitars, it needs to be passion for application of the word of God in our lives to direct our choices, our morality and our view of God and only then are we going to change society. It will happen one person at a time but this is how we will regain America for God! And that is the prime objective of missions!  

Statistics on Water borne illnes/death

Did you know that each year more than five million people die from water-related disease? 30 percent of water-related deaths are due to diarrhea. 84 percent of water-related deaths are in children ages 0 – 14. 98 percent of water-related deaths occur in the developing world. Less than 1% of the world's fresh water (or about 0.007% of all water on earth) is readily accessible for direct human use. A person can live weeks without food, but only days without water. A person needs 4 to 5 gallons of water per day to survive. The average American individual uses 100 to 176 gallons of water at home each day. The average African family uses about 5 gallons of water each day.

Yesterday I had the opportunity to meet with some guys from Sawyer products who have recently introduced a very innovative biological water filter based on kidney dialysis filters. The system was to say the least, very efficient and inexpensive. I really has the potential of radically impacting water borne disease and death. Just think! What a great opportunity to give people the gift of water and at the same time, introduce them to the Living Water! Check out this filter on the link following. We are sending our first few down to the church in Cuba in December. http://www.sawyer.com/SP180.htm

Here is some more food for thought - In the time it took for you to read this, 2 children have died from a water related disease. 1.8 million children die each year from diarrhea – 4,900 deaths each day.

We are currently praying about how we can use this technology to not only further the kingdom of God but also to love on our brothers. If you want to give towards this project, please contact me at the church office.