WEC Australia | reaching people - planting churches

HIV Care Project in The Gambia, West Africa gathering momentum

seanb — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 10:01:58 +1100

WECers are often pulled in different ways in the midst of so many needs. HIV/AIDS however is a huge need that is top priority for many WECers, including Robyn Pieper in The Gambia, West Africa.

Some extra funding has helped kick-start a new initiative.

"The funding has only just arrived so I've been busy sorting out how to spend it," Robyn reports.

They are not allowed to use it for buildings, which is unfortunate as the buildings they use are not great. But the money can be used for staff and medicine. The clinic has employed some new staff.

Now that staff and medicines are in place Robyn is looking to develop a community outreach program.

"This involves HIV education and then offering testing in the villages. We will involve the volunteers who have been trained and first go into villages to educate people about HIV."

The program will also include trips into remote areas.

"We pray that the people will see God’s love and compassion through this and think more about the Good News we bring."

What do you think - is HIV/Aids a huge need, and what should we do about it? Become a friend of WEC and comment on this story on our facebook here: (or if you want the big long address - http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/notes/wec/hiv-care-project-in-the-gambia-west-africa-is-gathering-momentum/352213395488)

ACTS10@Bulgaria knock up a ton on Christmas Day

seanb — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 14:33:56 +1100

New WECer Robert Benson reports from Bulgaria.

"Happy New Year everyone! "I know it's a bit late and I also didn't say Merry Christmas.

"I mentioned in my last update that we had another family joining our team here in Haskovo, Bulgaria. They are from Korea - Seokyu and Milan and their two young sons Jongin and Jongha. It has been good to have them join our team.

"We are just starting to work out how we will serve together. We have a team name - ACTS10@Bulgaria. Acts 10 is when Peter went to Cornelius's house so it fits well with what we are trying to do, which is to find people of peace. We are asking God for three indigenous persons of peace by Easter. A person of peace is someone who is seeking God, has an open family and is accepted by their community.

"My brother Tim came to visit me for Christmas. On Christmas day we went out to lunch with co-workers. I was surprised that many places were open on Christmas Day. After lunch we played cricket in the park. Christmas evening Tim and I went to a local church meeting. They did a few skits and it went really well. It went for about 4.5 hours which was probably a bit much for Tim."

Stories

ruth — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 08:56:55 +1100

There is a story about a university professor who came to a guru to ask him about his religion. Nan-in, the guru, served him tea. He poured his visitor’s cup full, and then kept pouring. The professor watched the overflow until he could no longer restrain himself. “It is over full. No more will go in!” “Like this cup,” Nan-in said, “You are full of your own opinions & speculations. How can I teach you unless you first empty your cup?”

This challenged me regarding how I approach people of other faiths. Do I go with my cup already full of my opinions and preconceptions?

How does this story challenge you? Share your thoughts on our facebook page http://tinyurl.com/wecfacebook

Mentoring towards cross cultural mission

liz.h — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 19:31:38 +1100

Can you think of anything more exciting than the following? Coming across a number of young people wanting to be mentored as they journey towards active involvement in cross cultural mission. Cool, eh?

What could have been?

seanb — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 11:17:53 +1100

A few weeks ago I was talking to a mate of mine whose house is real close to a significant building used by another faith. This place was built about 20 years ago, and when it was built he felt God calling him to pray with other Christians - that Jesus would reign instead of the beliefs of this other faith.

So my friend tried to gather believers to pray. Sadly their reaction was that they were too busy, or that they didn't believe this other faith would really impact the community. Today this other faith's building is dominant in the area (along with other buildings belonging to that faith), and 20 years later we've been holding prayer meetings asking God how we can share Christ's love with those who have been blinded to Him.

I wonder what it would be like today if Christians had prayed 20 years ago? What does this say to your ministry today and to the place of prayer in reaching people & planting churches? Who and what are you praying for today and what will this mean in their future? Many questions - I'd love to see your responses on our facebook page (http://tinyurl.com/wecfacebook).

Mission comes to life at Worldview

seanb — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 14:37:21 +1100

Worldview Centre For Intercultural Studies (www.worldview.edu.au) is a training centre of WEC International, based in St Leonard's, Tasmania. On-campus learning was put on hold recently as Worldview students experienced the realities of the mission field on mission trips to various locations around Australia.

“Missions week allows students to put into practice things learnt academically, and evaluate this learning in real-life contexts,” said Worldview’s Marylou Townsend.

“It also gives them the opportunity to explore gifting, experience a team environment and prove God in new situations.”

While the organised evangelistic activities proved valuable learning experiences, students gained equally as much from the everyday aspects of living among the unreached and working in multicultural teams.

Exploring Culture

Members of the Sydney team learnt what it was like to live among cultures where hospitality is an important value, when they were hosted in local homes.

Exploring Church

Students were challenged by their varied experiences of ‘church’ during missions week.

In Sydney, a Worldview team experienced a church where people "belong before they believe".

In St Leonards, Tasmania, a team teaching scripture faced the task of explaining church to children who had never attended.

Exploring Evangelism

Students tried their hand at a variety of different evangelistic activities, often surprised at the results.

For example, working with a large church in Melbourne, students trained others in a new evangelism technique, which involved approaching people with photographs and asking questions in order to generate a spiritual dialogue.

We Are Not Alone

Richard — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 17:45:20 +1100

Just been out knocking on doors and giving out DVDs about Jesus with a keen group of youth. We all had stories to tell when we came back together. We came across some Christians even though our main purpose was to distribute DVDs to peoples of other faiths. Some of these Christians were keen to witness about Christ as well and were doing so in the suburb we were in. It was a good reminder to me that we are not alone in our work. God has many people doing his work and we are just a small part of this.

1 Thessalonians 5: 11 says "Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing."

Avatar and St John

Richard — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 15:58:33 +1100

What a cool movie. 3D, aliens, environmental and colonial themes. What is an avatar anyway? In Hinduism, Avatar refers to a deliberate descent of a deity from heaven to earth, it could be translated appearance. The term is most often associated with Vishnu, though it is also associated with other deities such as Krishna and Ganesh. The Hindus (and other faiths) create such personifications of God to somehow enable them to interact with the most high God.

The Apostle John was a cross cultural thinker and dealt with a similar concept, of logos (word). Inspired by the Spirit he wrote his Gospel for people who understood, and believed in, a Greek philosophical way of understanding the world.To them God was unattainable, a far off impersonal deity, unknowable and completely different to any of his creation. To solve this problem the Greeks created this concept of a logos, the Word, a demi-God, a rationality or a knowable person between God and people. Now John knew this so he used their language to explain who Jesus was and is.

In the beginning was the Word ( just as in Genesis only God was in the begining, Jesus was God)
and the Word was with God ( different to what the Greeks thought, so now he is not just in-between, he is with God the Father)
and the Word was God(so the logos-Word-Jesus is not just a demi-God but God himself).

And so flows the rest of the Gospel with allusions to the pagan language of the time. Now I don't think the parallel is enough to translate John 1:1 to "In the beginning was the Avatar" but it may help in explaining the gospel to a person of the Hindu faith.

1 Timothy 2:5 For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus

Finally home: judge releases Australian CPer

seanb — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 09:45:59 +1100

WEC church planter Richard Shawyer has finally been allowed to leave Senegal and return to Australia, after being arrested on false charges almost two years ago.

With influence from the Canadian Embassy (which acts for Australians in Senegal) and the Senegalese Minister for Justice, Richard’s passport was returned to him in August and he was able to join his family in Australia after a long period of separation.

“It’s great to be home,” said Richard.

“I missed my family greatly, but we believe that God is behind all that happened, he is sovereign, and his plans are good.”

Richard and his wife Roxanne, along with their three children, are working with WEC and their sending church as they seek God’s direction for their future.

Weighing heavily is a concern is for the situation of the church in Senegal and the small number of church planters in the country.

“Despite being 95 percent Muslim, Senegal is a country that still welcomes missionaries and provides missionary visas,” said Richard.

“But the doors won’t stay open forever.”

“Now is the time to send people to establish the church among the main people groups, so that the church can continue on its own.”

There are more than five million Wolof in Senegal, with less than 100 known believers among the people group.

Many of these believers follow Jesus in secret, afraid of being ostracised from family and community.

“A large barrier to the Wolof believers is the absence of a visible community of faith,” said Richard.

“Once there’s a visible church and people openly expressing faith in Senegalese ways, then they’ll come in their thousands; but at the moment they don’t see anything they can come into.”

Richard hopes to continue his work creating Bible teaching resources in the Wolof language; a task he can continue in Australia.

He says his arrest was not connected to his faith or his church planting work.

Haiti

liz.h — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 13:49:54 +1100

How would you respond to this Facebook entry I read just now? "It is said that Haitians are made up of 80% catholic, 15% protestant and 100% followers of voodoo."