I really enjoyed this story! The story below is about two girls who wanted to make a difference, so they went to Africa on a short-term missions trip. I don`t think I could do it.. living in a grass hut isn’t my idea of a good time but I`am so thankful for those who are willing to give up their comfort zones to reach the lost.
“Leaving all Behind”
Kelsi and Brittany walk on their hut`s sand floor and cook on their gas burner in West Africa. Their only source of light is a single bulb.
But these two missionaries knew conditions would be rough when they signed up for the Hand On program. It`s a program that challenges short-term missionaries to leave behind their American lifestyles and share the gospel in difficult places.
Kelsi and Brittany learned the Zerma language and immersed themselves in the villager`s daily activities. They give first-aid or search for a lost goat. And they tell people about Jesus Christ. Kelsi says, “I have been stretched more beyond measure than I have ever been in my life.”
Where is God Calling you to serve Him today?
I had finally had enough! My office area had so much stuff in it that I didn`t feel like I could function anymore. Slowly over the past couple of years I had accumulated a lot of stuff. As I started to organize it all, I couldn`t help but to think, how had I let this happen… where did all this stuff come from?
Like many people I`am somewhat of a “Pack Rat.” I always tell myself, I`ll use this one day, Iam just sure of it. But I usually don`t use it and end up wishing I had gotten rid of it a lot sooner.
That`s what sin is like it starts out small, you ignore it and push it to the side or hide it in a corner, but it eventually creeps back into your life again. You don`t think too much of it at first because it`s just one sin and you just know you`ll take care of it one day. Slowly though more and more sin seems to keep accumulating and next thing you know you have so much sin gathered up that you can`t function. You start to think, how had I let this happen?
This is where God comes in, because you know that you can`t do this on your own. Even when you store up your sin no matter what you`re dealing with He can clean you up and forgive you. He takes away all the messiness in your life, everything that was weighing you down, and everything that felt dirty and unorganized.
All you have to do is trust in Him.
If you look up the meaning of hunger in the dictionary you will find that it actually has three meanings. One says, “the uneasy or painful sensation caused by want of food; craving appetite. The exhausted condition caused by want of food.” Another says, “the want or scarcity of food in a country.” And then the last one says, “a strong desire or craving.”
It`s hard to imagine that 963 million people around the world are just that… hungry. I often wonder if I am doing enough to fight hunger. I `ve fed the homeless and given to organizations that feed the hungry but I wondered what more I could do with limited resources and time. Then I stumbled upon a website called www.Freerice.com. The site gives you questions to answer and for every answer you get right they will donate 10 grains of rice to the UN World Food Program. I know 10 grains of rice doesn`t seem like a lot but if you keep playing you keep earning rice and next thing you know, you have 500 grains of rice.
Honestly, this really is almost too easy. You don`t have to leave your home or even get out of your chair. Please take a few moments out of your day to look at the site!
I just returned from two weeks in South Africa. We started in Johannesburg, went south to the very bottom of Africa and ended up in Cape Town. We called it a “Vision Journey” as we took 27 friends of HCJB Global with us. The weather was terrific! The folks traveling with us were fun and anxious to learn about what we saw and felt.
We do Vision Journeys four times a year. Two of the trips always go to South America to where HCJB Global started and then two of the trips travel to other regions. This one was to the Sub-Sahara Africa region.
We visited several ministry projects and several partner ministries dealing with incredible needs.
We fed homeless people, applauded children doing tribal dances and held hands with people struggling with AIDS.
We walked through huge displacement/refugee townships and prayed for everything we saw, felt, and smelled.
We marveled at the faithfulness of our partners as they work in difficult situations with people of great need and few resources. These trips really challenge your comfort status. It rearranges your priorities. It makes you pray differently.
Why don`t you join us on one of these trips? Next fall our president, Wayne Pederson, we will be taking a group to Australia, New Zealand and the island of Fiji.
It will be good for you and good for the folks you visit.
Now, Barb and I are off to Singapore to train a group of 13 National leaaders in leadership. Talk about fun! It will be a great week.
Isn`t it a blast to serve Jesus!
Ron
I am so excited to share this amazing blog with you!
Recently a couple of the staff from WBFJ made the long trip over to Lesotho, South Africa to hand out SonSet solar powered radios. These radios are a light in a dark place and a needed resource for those living in poverty to be able listen to the gospel. We`re so thankful for WBFJ who partnered with us to raise the funds to send these ministry tools.
During the trip the team also worked along side HCJB Global`s partner station in Lesotho, Harvest FM, to make sure the radios were put into the right hands. The SonSet radios were handed out to four villages, Sehlaberg Masera, Teya-Tayaneng, Kolmyama and Mahuu Rothe Maseru. What a mouth full!
If you would like to read more about this life-changing trip please visit the Journey 2 Lesotho blog.
Do you want to make a huge difference in the life of somebody overseas? Partner with us and help us share the Good News of Jesus across the globe. Email me at sfinley@hcjb.org to learn more about the Turn the Radios On program.
“But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord” Joshua 24:15
As part of a new effort to engage and connect with people across the globe, HCJB Global recently launched an initiative called “Me and My Household”. Our hope with this new program is to encourage and bless households and then use this platform to partner with them in sharing the message of Jesus to households everywhere! So we`re challenging households of America to pray for their families, to reach out to their communities and to join us in reaching out to the world. Here`s how it works:
1. We have to be praying for our own households if we`re to reach others. So we created a website where anyone can send a free prayer e-card that Christians can use to send a prayer to their immediate and extended families. Check it out at: http://www.hcjbglobal.org/myprayer
2. As people pray for their households and serve in their communities, they will be ready to pray for households around the world. HCJB Global is broadcasting into households of the Arab world with a message of hope via satellite, shortwave and the Internet. What these families hear isn`t an outside message beamed in. Mush of the programming is from local voices with a passion to reach their own people. They can`t share openly about Christ, but through radio programs they can speak boldly about the hope God has given them. For only a $1 a year you can help an Arab household receive the Gospel. Visit the Onehousehold Website!
We`re already hearing from radio stations in the U.S. that are excited about helping listeners pray for their families, pray and reach out to households in their communities, and reach households of the world. Millions of households can be reached in the next five years through your help!
We all want to see our households serving the Lord! Will you take HCJB Global`s challenge to pray for your household and the households of the world? Send your prayer to your household and encourage their hearts today!
Let me start by saying that this blog I`am posting has nothing to do with “Going Beyond the Call”. No, this post would be better defined as “The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak!”
One of our families traditions developed while we lived in South America was to spend the week between Christmas and New Year`s on the warm beaches of Ecuador. Along with all the shrimp you can eat, during the sunshine and lazy days we had football games on the wide white sandy beach. This was the first year in several that Barb and I were there for the tradition and especially because my natural athletic 17 year old grandson was playing, so I played.
I have not walked since. My right leg will not work. And, it really hurts. They say I will heal but right now that seems really far off. It hurts to lie down, to sit, to walk on crutches… life is the pits right now.
So, was there a lesson? Yes! Stay in shape, keep fit and work out! The problem was not my grandsons, or even that I accepted the invitation to play. The problem was I am out of shape and have not done anything like this for years.
If God ever has special assignment for me to “Go Beyond the Call” it will come very sudden without a a lot of advance warning and no time for preparation. I need to be ready to respond to the opportunities. I need to be spiritually fit! Kind of like Mary and Joseph! I don`t like the idea of being a gimpy Christian!
What`s your resolution for this new year? Is it to get in better shape physically? Maybe we should consider trying to get in better shape spiritually as well, so when God does call you to go Beyond the Call you can be ready!
Ron
Barb and I left the states the end of November to spend December in Quito. Some have asked what will you be doing?
The first week we were involved with a ministry some people at HCJB started 10 years ago called Extreme Response (www.Extremeresponse.org). It started by targeting the poor in Quito, especially those who live at the dump. Now it has ministries in over a dozen countries and put on “Christmas parties in Jesus name” in 8 countries this month.
We started right away packing 10,000 bags with food, beanie babies, school supplies and toys to give to the children and young mothers at 9 events around the country that we put on. 70 volunteers came from the United States and Canada to help. The older women received bags of food.
The Parties consisted of games for kids, face and finger painting, crafts, food distribution and message of Christmas in song and drama.
Here is a sample of my face painting skills. I never knew I could do this. The kids loved it and gave me a chance to talk with the kids about Jesus while I painted hundreds of flags, hearts, butterflies, stars or rainbows on their beautiful faces.
Right after the parties Barb and I attended concerts that HCJB Global put on in the city to usher in the Christmas season and to celebrate Ecuador`s birthday (like our 4th of July). We put on concerts in high schools, the President`s Palace and the national theater with the National Symphonic band.
Each concert had a clear cut presentation of the story of Jesus and many people were deeply moved. Our Spanish radio people will do the follow-up.
The Choir of 70 people was made up of HCJB Global staff from the hospital and radio stations. Right after that HCJB Global opened it`s facilities to the city and had an open house for three days. People sat in on radio programs, toured the hospital and met their favorite announcers and pastors. Thousands of people visited. Many gave financial gifts to help pay for the radio ministry this coming year. It was wonderful!
So, that brings us to today… sunny and warm.. they call it a gift from God at this time of year, “The Summer of the Child” right in the middle of the rainy season. It should be this way until Christmas!
This is Ron in Quito, Ecuador saying, “Have a wonderful Christmas!”
As we all know, we`re living in tough economic times, and with Christmas coming, it`s so easy to get down on ourselves, turning a glorious season into a time of stress or worry. Many might ask, “How can I give my family a ‘good’ Christmas?” But what defines a Christmas as good or bad? Christmas first and foremost is about Christ`s birth. Scripture says, “Fear not for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. Foe unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you, ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.”
“Fear not.” It`s difficult not to fear with so much uncertainty, but we can count on God to see us through the toughest of times.
Christmas should be about sharing Christ`s love with others and not about how much stuff you can buy. This year, my family and I have decided to spend our money not on each other but on ministries. There are so many people, especially during the Christmas season, that need to know that they are cared about. Now is the time to take advantage of all the opportunities to serve.
That`s what makes it a ‘good’ Christmas!
I challenge you to make a difference in somebody`s life this Christmas; show them God`s love!
Sarah
Last week in a staff meeting, I reminded our staff about the ten lepers who were “cleansed” by Jesus in Luke 17. I told of visiting a leper`s village in Brazil with my oldest son on his 13th birthday. Boy, did these lepers ever need to be “cleansed”. They were living on the side of the Amazon River in rags. There were hundreds of them. They were so poor. Most had already lost fingers, noses and toes… with lots of dead skin remaining along with the odor of dirty skin. We walked with them to their church where we were to conduct a service. Between the heat, the smell and seeing the missing parts, it was a hard walk.
When they found out that my son was 13 that day, they decided they wanted to give him gifts. One by one they stood and hit the pages of their Bibles with fingerless hands in order to turn to the verse they wanted to share with him for his birthday. Then they would stand and read it out loud to him. Neither of us has forgotten that day.
The ten lepers in Luke`s story all left cleansed, but one came back to say “Thank you” and he was made well. I think he had his missing parts restored while the other nine just had their dead skin removed. What a difference that “Thank you” made.
God loves it when we say thank you to Him and to others. Can I encourage you to pick a person each day to thank for what they mean to you? Just one person that you can acknowledge to let them know you care. Maybe that daily process will make us all well.
Have some wonderful, thankful holidays!
Ron
