We are praying that a suitable vehicle will be made available so as to further the work of VCP. Many places in Liberia are not accessible by taxi or motorcycle, especially during the rainy seasons.

Toyota Landcruisers are the best vehicles for West Africa due to the ready availability of parts. Many of the NGO’s (like the UN, etc.) have been using these, but they are very expensive in Liberia.

We have a Christian organization, Service To Servants, that ships vehicles and supplies to Liberia for missionaries. Once we have obtained an appropriate vehicle, we will be able to ascertain what the cost of import duty would be.

Please pray with us that this need will become a reality for the honor and glory of God as the work spreads further and further into the interior. Such a vehicle would be an extreme blessing to the pastors of VCP, none of whom are able to afford a vehicle.

The above picture is the type of vehicle we are looking for, and if you can throw in some snow to send to Liberia, that would also be a benefit! LOL

Another picture of an older style. The longer wheel base is necessary as this will hold 6-7 people comfortably, but would probably accommodate 10+ by Liberian standards.

Village Church Planters is now on Facebook and we encourage you to check out the new FB page and become a fan so you can know how to pray when each new update and piece of information is uploaded.

Click on this link to go to the Facebook page for Village Church Planters – Liberia. Thank you for your prayers.

More recently on November 5, 2009, Major Nidal Hasan, an officer in the US Army walked into a military service center, jumped on a table, yelled “Allah is great!” (in Arabic), pulled out semi-automatic pistols and pumped out more than 100 rounds and sent 13 more Americans into eternity. In the six days since that event approximately 1.3 million have taken their last breath. This is a number 100,000 times more than the 13 who died in the service of their country.

Did any of those almost 3,000 people deserve to die on 9/11? Did the 13 people who were shot at Fort Hood, Texas deserve to die? Ask the majority of Americans and the general consensus will be, “Those terrorists deserved to die and face God!” They would continue, “Men like Adolf Hitler, Saddam Hussein, Nidal Hasan, and Osama bin Laden deserve to die. Let’s kill them all!”

However, there is a greater question we need to ask ourselves. Do men like Hitler, Hussein, Hasan, and bin Laden deserve to die more than those who perished at their hands? What made the people who died on 9/11/2001 or on 11/05/2009 in the terrorist attacks any less deserving than the 7,800 or the 256,200 or even the 1.3 million to go and face the eternal Son of God and be judged for their sins?

This is by no means to demean the sacrifice demanded of those who did not ask to be killed! Nor, is this a support of any terrorist group. Nor, is this intended in any way to demean the loss of life and the sorrow of those families who were left to pick up the pieces.

The purpose of my writing is because I have been doing some serious searching of my heart, and sadly I find I have not been meeting the criteria required of me as a true believer. Let me explain further.

As Americans, we are very patriotic, almost at times to an extreme. It is a trait that many nations of the world fail to understand about us. It is a large part of what binds us together in the face of a common enemy. In very short order, for example, after 9/11, the vast majority of Americans were ready to take on the enemies of our country by whatever means possible. Hatred and anger ran cold and deep in the veins of millions who were upset that our country had been assaulted. We were ready to hunt down the infidels and murder them all and make them pay for what they did to us! Even many who claim the name of Christ were standing side-by-side in the call to arms and had no issues with our government spending billions of dollars to bomb and attack two foreign countries.

However, I wonder how many of those same Christians were praying that God would bring sorrow and godly repentance to those who would inflict evil upon America. How many spent time agonizing over the true loss of life – 7,800 or the 256,200 or the 1.3 million? How many mourned the fact that the vast, overwhelming majority of those individuals perished with no hope of ever knowing or even hearing the name of Jesus Christ?

Do we stop to think that every year since 9/11, an unbelievable sum of approximately 95 million (the equivalent of almost 1/3rd of the US population) go into eternity? Who mourns their loss? Why are they any more deserving to face a God of wrath than those we know and love, or than those who live on our streets? In the eight years since 9/11, almost 1 billion have exited this world, a number equivalent to a little less than the entire population of India!

Yet, we actually rejoiced when we watched the evening news from the comfort of our sofas and armchairs, and we saw the countless thousands being swept into eternity for their part in attacking our country. Oh, we were happy! Justice was being meted out by our brave men and women, and the judgment that was pronounced and executed was in our minds – “FAIR!”

However, does this stack up with the commands of Scripture that we who claim the name of Christ are called to obey? We as Christians are commanded to love our enemies. We are to share the good news of the gospel with those who have never heard. The apostle Paul loved his fellow countrymen of Israel so greatly that if it were possible, he was willing to be eternally accursed from God if only all Israel would place their faith in the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ alone for their salvation!

During His earthly ministry, the Lord Jesus Christ was asked what the greatest commandments were. He replied, “The first is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind. And, the second is very much like it – LOVE your neighbor as yourself.”

Do we bother to realize that only God can hate the wicked with the demand for perfect justice that hatred requires? Who are we to think that we can stand in the place of the Almighty and condemn others to eternity where they will be in the lake of fire forever? What hypocrisy that our churches are willing to spend millions on new edifices and on entertaining the sheep while 3 people every second go to stand in judgment before the Holy, Righteous God of the Universe! What hypocrisy and lack of true Christian character that we can say equally with the lost of America that we hate our enemies and wish their deaths in whatever manner it comes upon them!

How are we ANY different from those of the Islamic faith? They are willing to kill for the ideals of their faith so that they might enjoy eternity in the bliss of earthly pleasures. Yet, we are willing to kill simply because we hate what others have done to us. We hate and kill indiscriminately because they made our lives uncomfortable. We hate and demand death as they make our trips through airport security highly annoying at best. We hate because we somehow believe what is coming from our pulpits – our sins are not as bad as those of the terrorists. Here in America, we are civilized. We do not deserve death like they do. They deserve justice. They deserve the wrath of God to fall upon them. They deserve hell!

Wake up Christians before it is too late! The world should know us by our love for one another and by the fact that we are willing to sacrifice our very lives so that others will know the love of God, and more importantly, so they will know it is possible to escape from the wrath to come!

We want to ask God to bless America, yet we refuse to obey His commands. May God forgive us for our hatred! The Lord Jesus Christ said that hatred is the same as murder. May the Lord forgive us for our lack of compassion! May He help us to see that we ALL deserve to die, but for the grace of God – His mercy endures forever!

HT: Defending Contending

HT: gerinteed

HT: Libertybird2006

HT: SemperMJB

Through almost 223 years of America’s history, boys (and in more recent years girls also) have said goodbye to parents and with heads held high have marched off to serve their country. Many of those years have actually been years of peace and a great number of those brave soldiers have never been required to potentially sacrifice their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honours for the sake of the freedoms we enjoy.

“When in the course of human events” was penned so long ago and the call to colours began to rally across the countryside, boys said, “We will give up all we have so that we might fight for a cause outside of ourselves. We will stand in the gap where others are not willing to do so. We will take up arms and fire at the enemy where necessary when some may condemn us for needlessly taking the life of a fellow human.”

Revolutionary War Dead & Wounded = 50,000

Almost one hundred years later, brothers and fathers fought each other in the battle for the right of states to be free from a government that was quickly becoming more and more oppressive and for a lesser degree the issue of slavery. One of the turning points of that very bloody war was the battle of Gettysburg which lasted for several days. At the end of that war, the stench of death hovered over the air still as President Lincoln stood and proclaimed, “But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate — we can not consecrate — we can not hallow — this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

Civil War Dead & Wounded = 646,392

The next century would see the rise of dictatorial governments desiring to conquer some part if not all of the world and again Americans rose to the challenge issued by their government. They placed their faith in the cause for freedom that was given forth in the papers and over the airwaves via radios and television sets. Hundreds of boys set aside their bats and balls for the weapons of war while hundreds of girls set aside their dolls to serve far from the comforts of a mother’s side.

World War I Dead & Wounded = 320,518

As each war passed and each country was visited, America never asked for one piece of ground in any of the countries ever served in. They never demanded that the citizenry speak English! They never demanded that the US Dollar be the new and only acceptable trading currency. Often, soldiers holding US Dollars were at a disadvantage because of the trading values!

World War II Dead & Wounded = 1,076,245

They stormed ashore at the beaches of Normandy and flew the skies over Nazi Germany knowing many would not come home. They said goodbye to parents and lovers hoping it would not be the last kiss or hug, but knowing it might be! Yet as one staff officer once stated, the only thing America ever ASKED for from each country was a place where she could bury her dead. She ONLY ASKED for a place where she could return with the moms and dads to place flowers on the cold graves of their boys and girls who would never again play with bat and balls or dolls and prams.

Korean War Dead & Wounded = 128,650

The wars took a decided turn when the evil of communism entered the picture. Many felt and still do that we entered wars that we could not win or were not permitted to win. Either way, we found ourselves in a quagmire and through all the muck and mire and grime of blood-splattered fields of war, our troops sought to hold their ground. They stayed the course in the face of adversity and many never returned alive.

Vietnam War Dead & Wounded = 211,454

Afghanistan Dead & Wounded = 3,056 & Counting

Iraq Dead & Wounded = 50,432 & Counting

Many today still do not know why we ventured into the wars we have seen in the last half century. Some claim it is because of oil, while others say it is because of terrorism. Others say it is purely for the cause of freedom around the world while others are not exactly sure why. Still the call comes ringing just as loudly as it has done through 223 years of history and each week men and women march with firm purpose down to recruiting stations across America and say, “I wish to serve my country!”

Today, there are many still wounded from the wars we have fought but they are still dying off. Each day, many more old troops pass off into eternity. We will never know their nightmares unless we have been in a trench, fought off an enemy at close quarters, screamed in agony as shrapnel pierced our body, wept uncontrollably while trying to staunch the blood of our buddy as their life flowed rapidly from them, and even sniffed that letter one more time trying to remember what life was like back home in America – the land of the free and the home of the brave!

“Thank you” is not really enough when I see an old vet with only one leg left wearing his US Navy baseball cap showing the ship he served on in Pearl Harbor.

“Noah’s message from the steps going up to the Ark was not “Something good is going to happen to you!”  Amos was not confronted by the high priest of Israel for proclaiming, “Confession is possession!”  Jeremiah was not put into the pit for preaching, “I’m O.K., you’re O.K.”  Daniel was not put into the lion’s den for telling people, “Possibility thinking will move mountains!”  John the Baptist was not forced to preach in the wilderness and eventually beheaded because he preached, “Smile, God loves you!”  The two prophets of the tribulation will not be killed for preaching, “God is in his heaven and all is right with the world!”

The message of the true God-sent missionary will be like the message of Noah – “Repent from your sins, for judgment is coming!”  It will be like that of Jonah – “Repent from your sins, for judgment is coming!”  It will be like that of John the Baptist – “Repent from your sins, for judgment is coming!”

The message of the true God-sent missionary will resemble none of the fluff found in many of today’s pulpits, but will be hard-hitting and will point out the truth that the gospel message is trans-cultural!

The message of the true God-sent missionary will not seek to provide health, wealth or prosperity.  It will not provide for the stomachs or well-being of the heathen with no concern for their eternal destiny!