The broadcast has also been posted to YouTube in Arabic.  Continue to pray for Tunisia as the people form a new constitution that will shape the future of the country.

Related posts:

1. Tunisian Christians to Speak Out on Tunisian TV!
2. First Tunisian Evangelicals Ordained in 800 Years

Dr. Carl Moeller told The Christian Post at an event on rising religious intolerance abroad that Christians are “the most persecuted in the world” when the nonprofit examined religious groups suffering from increased persecution.

“In terms of sheer numbers, the large size of the Christian populations around the world, where they’re repressed or restricted… Whether you count martyrs, those killed, or you count those living in regimes, sizable Christian populations live under extreme restrictions in places like China, Indonesia, and of course the Middle East,” said Moeller.
He noted that “the methodology for determining this was not from Open Doors necessarily. It was through organizations like Pew Research.”

Moeller cited in his remarks a 2011 Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life study that concluded that about 70 percent of the world’s population lives in a religiously intolerant environment and 32 percent of the world’s population experienced a rise in religious hostility either at the social or government level.
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The journalists responsible explained that the purpose of the program is to present Christians in a favorable manner and show that there are minorities in Tunisia. However, several people have expressed their concerns, saying that this program is primarily intended to defame Christians and sow more trouble in Tunisia. Whatever the intention of the program, we think it could have huge repercussions.

Some of the local Christians are giving their testimonies. This has the potential to provoke strong, perhaps even violent reactions. At the same time, the program could also give courage to those who follow Christ in secret to come out to publicly identify with Him.

Just a reminder that the known number of national believers does not exceed 1,500 in this land of over 10 million people. This is up from 200 before the revolution.

On this Good Friday let’s take the time to thank the Lord Jesus for all that He has done for us. Please pray with our Tunisian brothers and sisters that Christ’s name will be glorified as many Muslims will see this TV program.

Also, pray for the Tunisian believers. This could be a time when persecution starts to grow. May our Lord give great strength. There are a few church buildings in the country from a number of different denominations, some are already expecting greater persecution.

Related posts:

1. Christian Testimonies Broadcast on Tunisian TV and YouTube!
2. First Tunisian Evangelicals Ordained in 800 Years
3. Christians ‘Most Persecuted’ Religious Group In World,’ says Expert

Tunisia was the home of some of the church fathers such as Cyprian and Tertullian. It was also the home of the Phonecian navy and a great center of worship of Baal and Ashteroth.
God has now opened the door in Tunisia for the spreading of the gospel and more are coming to Christ than ever. This brings many opportunities for discipleship training, more, I am told, than our Tunisian brothers and sisters can handle.

In spite of the open doors, Tunisia is still a dangerous place to live as an outspoken Christian who seeks to win others to Christ. Let’s pray for the safety of our brothers and sisters in Tunisia and pray about what we can do to strenghten the church in that dark land.

Related posts:

1. Tunisian Christians to Speak Out on Tunisian TV!
2. Christian Testimonies Broadcast on Tunisian TV and YouTube!

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Street Smarts: a must in Africa. Update: Security is a big issue here in South Africa, just as it is in other African countries, and it must become a regular part of your routine. I’ve heard about many sophisticated ATM machine scams, and so I am always on the alert when I need to use one. Most are merely cons, out to stealthily and non-confrontationally steal your card & PIN # in some form or another. Others involve brute force, like throwing you in the trunk of the car (sometimes your own) and driving from ATM to ATM, forcing you to enter your PIN # at each, until your card reaches its limit. Many places here will only take cash, so a visit to an ATM or two during your visit becomes inevitable. Yesterday was one of these such days.

I pulled into a fuel station that I knew had a fairly public ATM machine, with plenty of visibility & people around. I waited in line while one man finished up, and took my place in front of the machine. Before putting my card in, I did a quick scan of the machine–no obvious tampering with the card reader slot. (One scam adds a false face to the card reader that will scan & capture your card # while the scammer tries other means to obtain you PIN). But, all was good so far, so I inserted my card and tried to enter my PIN–no go, the key pad wasn’t even registering my keystrokes. I tried a couple more times to no avail, and the next thing I knew, the man who had been in line in front of me was standing beside me unbidden, attempting to help me by offering candid suggestions of what to try and what buttons to push–I was Immediately suspicious–why was he still here for one thing, he had already had his time at the machine. As these thoughts and others ran through my head, I looked more closely at the key pad and noticed that the enter key was depressed more than the other keys.

Upon even closer inspection, I saw that a small piece of wood (like a piece of toothpick) had been forced into the crack surrounding the enter key, forcing it down. My curiosity took over and I pulled out my Leatherman tool, using the knife blade to gently remove the wood. As I did this, the man who had been trying to help me moved back behind the privacy shield. After removing the wood, the enter key popped up, and I was immediately able to enter my PIN # and obtain the cash I requested. As the transaction ended, and the machine spit my card out, I was struggling with what to do next. I was fairly certain that this guy was running a scam at this ATM, where he cleverly disables the machine (with a toothpick in the enter key–brilliant!), and then offers to come help you enter your pin #. Once he has your PIN, it’s scarry to think what happens next in order to obtain the card that is in your possession.

I thought about going into the gas station and alerting security or a gas station attendant, but it was also possible that they could be in cahoots with him themselves, and that nothing would come of that effort. I thought about confronting the man directly, but wasn’t sure if there might be others lurking around that he was working together with. In the end, I opted for a quick and no-frills get away, so I hopped back in my Cruiser and sped away, soberly aware of just how close we come to these kinds of things, and thankful that we have a God who is watching over us, and orchestrating all of our daily encounters!

Let’s remember to pray for the Curtises and other missionaries serving around the world.

Please post your feedback and comments  to this post.

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Faith Global Ministries, LLC (FGM), a ministry of Faith Church, was organized in the State of Indiana August 5, 2005 for the primary purpose of recruiting, preparing, sending and supporting of missionaries to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ throughout the world.  Until 2011 FGM primarily provided administrative and planning services related to short-term missions trips.  In 2010 FGM took in a test case missionary.  The test case succeeded, so in August 2011 FGM opened its doors to assist evangelical churches in the ministry of missions around the world.

FGM is a local church ministry and does not desire to compete with the work being done and the services being rendered by local churches.  The leadership of FGM believes that missions is a ministry that belongs to the local church and should follow the pattern of Acts 13:1-4.  However, FGM also recognizes that in the 21^st century cross-cultural and international ministry can be complicated and confusing.

Therefore,

FGM functions to assist local churches in accomplishing the global missions ministries that they believe God is leading them to accomplish through their missionaries. We are currently accepting missionaries in good standing via direct transfer from EBM.

FGM assists churches by …

… providing accounting services to process donations and disbursements of missionary funds.

… issuing tax deductible receipts for qualified donations.

… assisting missionaries in establishing an accurate and reasonable support budget.

… assisting with missionary oversight.

… providing a network of professionals and consultants who can provide expert advice and services to missionaries. (e.g. communication, accounting, medical, IT, mechanical & financial professionals)

… making training resources available for missionaries and churches.

… providing training to enhance the missionaries’ ministry and increase efficiency and effectiveness.

… making group health insurance available that provides worldwide coverage.

… providing a network of biblical counselors available to missionaries.

… assisting churches with development of their missions ministries.

In addition FGM enables missionaries to focus on their ministry tasks by …

… providing back office operations and administrative support.

… researching and providing information to facilitate international ministry.

… utilizing the network of associates of FGM to provide a multitude of counsel and guidance.

… filling the gap that the commissioning church is unable to do.

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Carol & Wayne Mack

Dr. Wayne Mack is one of the most respected leaders and authors in the Biblical Counseling movement. In 2006, Dr. Mack and his wife Carol moved to South Africa to begin Grace School of Ministry, dedicated to providing a seminary level education in Biblical Counseling. This ministry is under the direction of Grace Fellowship Church of Pretoria, South Africa and the curriculum and teaching is led by Dr. Mack.

Dr. Mack invited Faith Baptist Church, Lafayette, IN to assist him this year by providing teachers for the Theological Basis of Counseling course in Pretoria or Cape Town, South Africa. Our leadership considered it a privilege to be invited to participate in such a ministry with our friend, Wayne Mack. We naturally jumped on the opportunity in Cape Town because that would allow us to visit our missionaries there. Faith Baptist Church is the sending church for Marc and Judie Blackwell and their son and daughter in law, Marc, Jr. and his wife, Nancy and their two children, Nicole and Matthew. Pastor Andy Woodall and David Selvey were sent in response to this request and this is our story.

Visiting the Blackwells

Andy Woodall & David Selvey

Missionary Marc Blackwell, Sr. met us in the Cape Town airport where we arrived about 9pm Friday night after travelling 28 hours. We enjoyed good fellowship with Marc as he drove us to the airport. It seemed a bit strange for the driver to be on the right and for us to drive on the left side of the road, but the roadways are modern and in good condition.

Saturday we enjoyed a delicious breakfast in the clean hotel followed by a walk around the area … lots of sunshine and pretty warm. Marc picked us up at the hotel around noon and took us to lunch and tried to fill us in on 36 years of ministry in a few hours. In the afternoon, we had the privilege of attending the ordination counsel and service of two South African Nationals for service in the gospel ministry. It was a tremendous privilege and blessing to see Llewellyn and Dean, two dedicated South African men, ordained into the Gospel ministry. One of the men is a very successful insurance executive who is now dedicating his life to serving as a pastor of the English speaking church in Blue Downs, a Cape Town suburb.

After the ordination council we drove out to the camp facilities that God has provided. We praise God for providing facilities where young people can go for a concentrated time of biblical teaching and discipleship.

Blue Downs Baptist Church

On Sunday morning Marc, Sr. picked up Andy and took him to preach in one of his church plants. Marc, Jr. and his family picked me up a few minutes later to take me to preach in his church plant in Blue Downs. The last time I was here was in 2005 when I preached Marc, Jr’s ordination service and the dedication of the new building that Victor Pereira and I helped complete with a CWE team. The building is shared by two churches. Marc’s Afrikaans church meets first and then the English speaking church meets after them. The people were warm and accepting, listening attentively to the message from God’s Word. After that service, we stayed for the English speaking church which was installing their new pastor that had been ordained the day before. What a marvelous privilege to see a local church install a national pastor.

On Sunday evening Pastor Woodall and I each taught in the Church Ministry Institute (CMI) that they have in each of their churches for training national church leadership. We enjoyed the teaching and fellowship time together. After our time with the Blackwells, Marc Jr. drove us an hour or so across Cape Town to the place where we would meet with Dr. Wayne and Carol Mack.

Andy, Wayne, Carol, David, Ian

The ministry in which we were to participate is Grace School of Ministry, which provides a two year seminary education in the area of Biblical Counseling. The program is offered in Pretoria and Cape Town. The course of study includes 4 classes per year for a period of 2 years. Classes are all taught in the form of 5 ½ day modular classes in each of the two locations. These modular courses are not for the faint of heart. Students have extensive pre-course assignments and post course work to do, as well.



Theology class

Dr. Mack taught all the sessions on Monday so Pastor Woodall and I could see how he taught and how the class functioned. Pastor Woodall picked up the teaching Tuesday afternoon. For the remainder of the week, Pastor Woodall taught 3 hours before lunch and I taught 3 hours after lunch. Andy also prepared and taught 90 minutes each evening on counseling youth. Saturday was a half day with Andy teaching the first half of the morning and Dr. Mack teaching the second half.

We had a regular attendance of around 35. Pastor Doug and his wife, Ann had travelled 900 miles from Pretoria to attend the class. A single woman, Anna travelled all the way from Sweden … I think she said it was 14-16 hours by plane! The people were so incredibly hungry for the practical theology of God’s Word that we were a bit overwhelmed by their thankfulness for the Word and the teaching of it.

We even managed to squeeze in a little bit of fun with a visit to the harbor Saturday afternoon and a quick trip to the beach early Sunday morning before leaving for the airport. After our quick swim we heard they closed the beach due to great white sharks in the area!  The flight out of Cape Town was delayed an hour, but we had plenty of time between flights in Johannesburg. God was so kind as to have the 16 hour flight only partially filled so we had room to work and move around a bit. Total travel time from our hotel in Cape Town to Lafayette, IN was 35-36 hours. It was a long trip, but well worth it.

We want to thank our wonderful church family, Faith Baptist Church in Lafayette, IN, for making it possible for us to partner with the folks in South Africa and to begin building a relationship with the church there. Teaching with and for Dr. Wayne Mack all last week was a humbling, but wonderful experience for Pastor Andy Woodall and me (David Selvey). He and his wife Carol and his assistant, Ian were greatly encouraging to both of us.

Please pray …

• For our missionaries in South Africa, Marc and Judie Blackwell, Sr. and Marc and Nancy Blackwell, Jr. along with their children Nicole and Matthew.
• For Marc and Judie Blackwell, who are now in the US reporting to some of their supporting churches through the end of April.
• For the new South African pastors installed last week, Llewelyn De Kock and Dean Kramer.
• For all the Blackwells’ church plants that God will raise up national pastors to take over those works.
• For the students who were in the Theology of Counseling class that the Word of God will take root in their hearts and lives and make long lasting change.
• For Ian Murray as he faithfully serves Grace Fellowship and the Macks.
• For Wayne and Carol Mack as, after more than 50 years of ministry, they continue to serve God faithfully in spite of their physical challenges.
• For the ministry of Grace School of Ministry in South Africa.
• For Andy and David as they attempt to catch up and get back into busy schedules and recover from jet lag over the next week or two.

Related posts:

1. Andy Woodall and David Selvey arrive in Cape Town

After a good night’s sleep, we ate a delicious breakfast, went for a walk in the warm sunshine and then went back to our rooms to study. Missionary Marc Blackwell picked us up just before noon and took us to lunch. Then the highlight of our day was attending the ordination council of two men for the gospel ministry. Upon arrival at Blue Downs Baptist Church, where Marc Blackwell, Jr. serves, a flood of memories came to me. Memories of a week in 2004 when Victor Pereira and I worked with a CWE team to complete the final phase of their church building. The building was filled with people from various churches who had come to observe the ordination council. The two men had prepared thorough doctrinal statements and presented themselves well.

There was just enough daylight left to go and see the camp that the Blackwells have developed over the years. They have a beautiful location and facilities that serve their campers well. Andy and I then enjoyed taking Marc, Jr. and Marc, Sr. out to dinner returning to the hotel about 10:30pm.

Sunday morning Andy will preach in one of Marc, Sr’s churches and I will preach in Marc, Jr’s church at Blue Downs. The last time I preached there was for the dedication of the building and the ordination of Marc, Jr. I am looking forward to fellowshipping with their congregation again. The know me as the man who installed the lights in the church building.

My wonderful wife is celebrating her birthday without me today. I thank God for friends who will make her day special.

Related posts:

1. FGM Goes to South Africa

• “You have made the Word of God so practical for us…”
• “The teaching you have shared with us has helped us personally prepare to be parents…”
• “We have been nourished by the Word of God this week.”
• “I understand now that I must apply this to my life and then use it to help others.”
• “Will you please come back and help us more with your teaching?”
• “Never before have I heard the Bible taught in such a practical way.” (Regarding biblical principles of sex)
• “It has been good to hear from God this week.”
• “Missionaries came and taught us over a period of years how to evangelize. Now we are good at evangelizing and we need more help to be good biblical counselors. Please come back in future years to help us learn to be good biblical counselors until we can do it on our own.”

Related posts:

1. Moldova Update Mar 12, 2011
2. Moldova Update Mar 11, 2011
3. Moldova Pre-Marriage Counseling Conference