December 29, 2011
When Mr. Tsai was in the last stages of lung cancer, Alliance workers in Taiwan visited him in the hospital and shared Jesus with him. They asked the Alliance family to pray for Mr. Tsai as he considered putting his trust in God. In answer to those prayers, the Lord used several Christians from different churches (including an Alliance congregation) to lead Mr. Tsai to Christ shortly before his death; the family conducted a Christian funeral, where an Alliance worker was able to speak. “For our community, so deeply entrenched in Taiwanese traditional folk religion, this was a very big deal!” the worker said. Pray that the extended family and all those who heard the gospel at the funeral will come to know Christ.
Learn More
Read more stories about Alliance Great Commission ministries around the world.
What You Can Do
Pray for Alliance workers around the world.
Partner with Alliance workers to share the light of Christ with those living in spiritual darkness. Be Light—give to the Great Commission Fund.
The following is an adapted excerpt by Mark Edwards, serving in Taiwan
In response to prayer requests written as far back as January 2009, many of you prayed for the proprietors of a local eatery in Four Lakes—Mr. and Mrs. Tsai—along with his mother and the couple’s three boys. A little over a year ago, Mr. Tsai was diagnosed with lung cancer. In mid-November 2011, Alliance international workers, who were visiting the couple in the hospital, asked the Alliance family to pray for Mr. Tsai, who was now in the last stages of cancer and considering putting his trust in God, along with the ramifications of that decision.
In answer to those prayers, the Lord used several Christians from different churches (including our local Alliance congregation) to lead Mr. Tsai to Christ a week or so before his death in November 2011. At the encouragement of Mr. Tsai’s former high school classmate (who had witnessed to him) and her pastor, the family chose to conduct a Christian funeral. For our community, so deeply entrenched in Taiwanese traditional folk religion, this was a very big deal!
The tent erected on the street for the funeral service was filled to capacity with family, friends, and acquaintances, the vast majority of whom were not Christians. Other mourners stood outside the tent, listening from a distance as the good news of our hope in Jesus was proclaimed.
Although our church played a minimal role in conducting the funeral, I was able to speak briefly about the Lord’s Prayer, which Mr. Tsai and his wife had asked me to teach them while he in the hospital, as well as the story of the Benevolent Father (an abbreviated version of the Prodigal Son), and Naomi’s story from the Book of Ruth. Prior to, during, and after the funeral, we have been able to spend many hours with the family and extended family. One Sunday night, two of the boys came over to our church location to join us for games.
Pray that the extended family and all those who heard the gospel at the funeral will come to know Christ. Also, pray for sustained enthusiasm for us as we visit people in their homes and businesses, even when the results are sometimes discouraging. Pray that by demonstrating Christ’s compassion, we will “love people into the Kingdom” and that many will decide to join our church home.
Learn More
Read more stories about Alliance Great Commission ministries around the world.
What You Can Do
Partner with Alliance workers to share the light of Christ with those living in spiritual darkness. Be Light—give to the Great Commission Fund.
Pray for Alliance workers in Taiwan and their colleagues around the world.
December 28, 2011
The Alliance is starting a ministry center in Ishinomaki, Japan—one of the hardest-hit areas by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami—where more than 3,000 lives were lost. Some people, even after hearing the tsunami sirens, went home to retrieve personal belongings, only to be washed out to sea. “Through this center, we have a unique opportunity to help the hurting,” write Jill and Alan Kropp. “Our plans are to start a ministry that will serve the needs of the whole person, body and soul, and eventually evolve into a sustainable, local church.”
What You Can Do
Pray for this new work in Ishinomaki; also, pray for Alliance workers around the world.
Partner with Alliance workers to share the light of Christ with those living in spiritual darkness. Be Light—give to the Great Commission Fund.
Learn More
Read more stories about Alliance Great Commission ministries around the world.
December 27, 2011
The following is an adapted excerpt from reports by Jill and Alan Kropp, who are partnering with Jane and Harry Landaw in reaching out to Japanese impacted by the March 2011 earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear reactor leak.
We have great news! Last month we asked you to pray that God would provide us with a strategically located building to launch a new ministry initiative in the tsunami-hit disaster area of northern Japan. Through your prayers and the tireless efforts of our field colleagues, Harry and Jane Landaw, God has provided such a place. With the financial backing of CAMA (Compassion and Mercy Associates), we purchased a house in the city of Ishinomaki, one of the hardest-hit areas, where 46 percent of the city was inundated with water.
The earthquake literally shifted the city southeastward, and the ground sank as much as three feet in some places. More than 3,000 lives were lost. The previous owner of the home we purchased said that in the immediate neighborhood alone, 12 people had died. Some, even after hearing the tsunami sirens, went home to retrieve personal belongings, only to be washed out to sea.
Elderly people who had lived in the area all their lives underestimated the reach of the tsunami. They, too, perished. There are many more horror stories. To say that the needs are great is an understatement; but now, through this center, we have a unique opportunity to help the hurting. Our plans are to start a ministry that will serve the needs of the whole person, body and soul. Many in the region are still [emotionally traumatized by] the chaos, destruction, and death of the triple disaster. They are distraught, yearning for rest, hope, and peace. It is our desire to launch a ministry center that, by God’s grace, will eventually evolve into a sustainable, local church that will continue to serve this city.
“The people’s hearts are open!” said a Japanese pastor who is ministering inside the disaster zone. Please pray for continued receptivity to Jesus in the Tohoku region.
What You Can Do
Please join us in praying for this new work in Ishinomaki. Pray that God will give us favor with local contractors and community officials whom we seek to work alongside. Pray that we will be sensitive to the Holy Spirit so we will know how best to serve and encourage the people of Ishinomaki.
Pray, too, for Alliance workers around the world.
Learn More
Read about God’s miraculous provision for Jane and Harry Landaw, church-planting team coordinators in the disaster area.
December 22, 2011
By Alliance international workers
Our three children, ages 6 to 11, attend a gated national school in the country where we serve. We try to include our boys in ministry as much as possible, and they have opened doors to reach people with the message of Jesus. Two Christmases ago, we invited the teachers from their school to a Christmas party in our home. A few faculty members came, and among them was the assistant principal.
Our boys met them at the door and then took them around the house, pointing out the various decorations and explaining their meaning. They showed them the Nativity scene and told the story of Jesus’ birth; they explained how we use the Advent candles.
Having previously thought that Christmas was about Santa Claus, the assistant principal was enthralled. He came to us later that evening, saying, “Wow—I did not know Christmas had so much meaning. Our kids in school don’t know that this is what Christmas is all about. Would you put this presentation on a DVD for me?” After more dialogue, we discovered that he needed it in 36 hours and intended to show it to the entire student body and faculty on Christmas Day!
So our boys worked with their tutor to script this Christmas presentation for the entire school, narrating the DVD in the national language. It was played the following year as well. We can’t get into the gated school, but God made a way for the students to hear about Jesus through our children.
What You Can Do
Pray for Alliance workers around the world.
Partner with Alliance workers to share the light of Christ—Immanuel—with those living in spiritual darkness. Be Light—give to the Great Commission Christmas offering!
*Look for the upcoming January 15 issue of alife, which includes stories about the impact of children’s ministries.
December 20, 2011
By Dave Bill, serving in the Republic of the Congo
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: . . . the new is here! (2 Corinthians 5:17)
Marivia, 18, is a baby. That is, he’s a brand new Jesus follower. He’s also our neighbor here in Ollombo, Congo, whom we’ve been privileged to witness God transform.
“Before I received Christ,” he explains, “I used to steal money from my mother’s purse so I could go to the movies. If she didn’t give me the money, I’d fight with her. I also used to get into street fights easily.”
Our national colleague, Celestin, has the gift of evangelism, and soon after he joined us here in Ollombo, he began talking to Marivia (pronounced “Mar-e-vee-ah”) about the Lord.
“Celestin’s presentation to me of God’s Word helped me to realize that even if I die, my spirit will be with Christ,” Marivia recalls. “After I accepted Christ, I was really ashamed of how I used to act.”
Soon after his conversion, Marivia began taking discipleship classes from my wife, Teresa. “She helped me become firm in my faith and to resist the world and my old life,” says the 18-year-old, noting that the “weapons of our warfare” (Ephesians 6:10–18) assist him to avoid temptation.
New Beginnings
After his conversion, Marivia also began taking literacy classes from Teresa. (Talk about starting a new life—not only spiritually, but educationally as well!) “I never liked going to school,” he admits. “Even though I somehow made it to sixth grade, I never could read or write.”
It’s possible to stay in school here even if you can’t read or write, because a classroom sometimes holds more than 100 students—and just one teacher. This is the educational system in rural Congo, where a school room is a dirt shack!
Humility Equals Growth
Just the other day, Marivia announced that he was going to use most of the meager funds he has collected doing odd jobs for us and enroll in a private school where he can better learn to read and write. Imagine—an 18-year-old entering primary school!
While I was writing this article, Marivia arrived back from his first day at school, excited to talk about what he had learned.
“I’m excited about learning again!” he exclaims. “I now realize that it’s not a very easy future without the ability to read and write.”
We know it takes being humble like a child to enter the Kingdom of God, but I’m reminded by Marivia’s journey that to progress in the Christian life, we need to remain humble. That’s how God gives us grace to grow not only spiritually, but in every way!
What You Can Do
Praise God for Marivia’s new life in Christ; pray for his continued spiritual and educational progress. Join in praying for Alliance workers around the world.
Donate to the Great Commission Fund—partner in Living the Call together with Alliance workers like the Bills.
Learn more about our work in Congo.
“We intentionally take Christ to people who are least likely to find Him on their own,” says Ken McKinney, the part-time, one-staff Alliance church planter in San Francisco, where less than 4 percent of the Golden Gate city’s population attends church. “Love is the context for all mission, and everything we do is based on relationship. We are trying to be incarnational in our community, so relevance to culture is not optional.”
In a city where churches and Christians are perceived negatively, Ken believes, “We need to do more than invite people to Christian events and hope they’ll come. We also have to call believers to intentionally exemplify Christ within the culture. That leads us into culture rather than away from it, joining people in existing activities in order to demonstrate His love in a tangible way.”
An Unexpected Call
Ken sensed God’s call to the U. S. mission field while working for Compassion International, another faith-based organization with which Alliance workers partner in several countries. “My wife, Leah, and I thought that we would work internationally, supporting international workers with leadership training and resources,” Ken says. “Planting a church in San Francisco was not the journey we were anticipating.”
While seeking God’s wisdom and direction, Ken attended a church-planting conference where he met C&MA Central District Church Planting Director Ray Van Gilst. “‘If you ever make it out to San Francisco, give me a call,’ Ray told me. Two years later, we moved to the city and immersed ourselves in the San Francisco culture. Then I called Ray.”
With no C&MA background but realizing a strong personal resonance with Alliance core values, Ken began to cultivate a relationship with The Alliance, pursuing credentials as an official worker. “O’B O’Brien became my church-planting coach; he and Ray worked with me through the licensing process, and I became a C&MA official worker.”
Since Ken’s background is with Independent Christian Churches under the banner of Stadia, a church-planting organization with which he was partnering, the venture became a collaborative effort between The Alliance and Stadia, modeling a unified Church to a skeptical, postmodern community. “The watching world views Christianity as a fractured religion that can’t work out its own unity and says, ‘Why should I be a part of that?’ says Ken. “Through this collaborative effort, we hope San Franciscans will see the Church come together in Jesus’ Name.”
Cultural Experience
As Alliance workers, Ken and Leah continued to serve, partnering through various faith-based and secular nonprofit organizations, as they had been doing since their arrival. “We felt like, as salt and light, it’s not about starting a faith-based nonprofit but rather sending faith-based people into San Francisco’s existing nonprofits,” Ken says. “This is a city where people are highly motivated, with a strong sense of volunteering and giving back. Community service allows us to build relationships and gives us opportunities to invite people into discovering Jesus. We want to be an inclusive community in which people feel they belong in the course of coming to a place of belief.”
For two years, the church-planting couple did not have a church building but established many relationships that garnered a core group of believers, who joined them in their efforts to reach San Francisco. As their network of acquaintances grew and learned more about following Jesus, Ken realized that, in the eyes of the city’s accomplished professionals who place high value on credibility, it was time for the church to go public.
“If we’ve succeeded relationally in preparing them to step into a Christian environment,” says Ken, “then we want to give them an authentic Christian experience with true worship and solid teaching.” With that principle in mind, Ken and Leah launched New Community San Francisco, located in the heart of Golden Gate Park.
“We spend a lot of time describing what will be experienced, who we worship and why, creating a safe and relational environment to explore the life of Jesus in a community that follows Him,” says Ken. “We tell people, ‘You are welcome, included; you can belong even while you explore.’ But it is clear that this is a community that follows Jesus.”
Relational Living
Today, about 50 people are included in the New Community family, including Chris, a young man who felt rejected culturally and spiritually in his home state and made his way to San Francisco. Chris had been living in a homeless shelter and had lived on the streets for some time before Ken met him. “About three years ago, we happened to be visiting a church at the same time,” Ken recalls. “It was Chris’ first step back toward God. Besides Chris and me, the church service included 11 other people who were all seniors. I introduced myself, and Chris opened up to me.”
Chris agreed to meet with Ken, who began discipling him on a regular basis. It wasn’t long before Chris shared his struggle with his sense of self-worth and how in his pursuit of love and acceptance, he had been living a lifestyle he no longer wanted to live. “Chris said that lifestyle did not have the reward he was seeking and didn’t fulfill the longing he had,” Ken says. “We helped him find a safe place to live with safe relationships to recover his sense of self and discover his identity in Christ.”
Chris walked away from his old lifestyle and little by little, is discovering life and love and acceptance in Jesus and the community of His followers. His desire is for God; he was part of the church launch, attends Bible study, works part time, and recently received his associate’s degree.
“Ezekiel 34 has really influenced our sense of calling,” explains Ken, “where God says to the religious leaders, ‘You have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost’ (Ezekiel 34:4). Then He says, ‘I myself will search for my sheep . . . I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness’ (Ezekiel 34:12). Jesus calls Himself the Good Shepherd and the Light of the world. He says He has come ‘to seek and to save that which was lost’ (Luke 19:10) As His Body in San Francisco, we make that our mission.
“Whether we get to introduce someone to Jesus or seek out those who have gone missing, we ask, ‘Are we presenting people fully mature in Christ?’ It is a process and the fruit of a very relational and personal path that we have taken. The Gospel of John says of Jesus, ‘In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind’ (John 1:4). Life attracts people who are desperately seeking life. It’s our hope that people will see that life in us, and that life will be the light that helps bring them back from ‘all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness,’ drawing them to the light of Christ.”
Learn More
Read more stories about U.S. Alliance churches impacting their communities. www.cmalliance.org/news/topics/gochurch/
Read additional stories of the worldwide work of Alliance ministries supported by the Great Commission Fund. www.cmalliance.org/news/2011/10/24/gcf-celebration-stories/
What You Can Do
Give to the Great Commission Fund. In doing so, you partner with Alliance workers who are lighting the way for people trapped in spiritual darkness.
Pray for Alliance workers around the world.
Check out how your church can begin a Ministry Partnership with overseas Alliance workers.
December 16, 2011
By Jeremy Fields, serving with Compassion and Mercy Associates in Mongolia
The following is an adapted excerpt from the Fieldses’ December update.
I visited my son’s sixth grade Bible class the other day to give a symposium on the relative similarity between stable conditions in the ancient Middle East and modern day Central Asia. We concluded that stables are, in fact, quite dark, cramped, cold, and filthy.
If we were to design our own nativity set today, we decided that Joseph would be frantically wrestling cows away from the manger (a contraption made up of 2x4s and old tires). The shepherd would be busy scooping up after his cute sheep, the fancy wise man would be rubbing his head after bumping it on the low ceiling, and Mary would be calming the baby Jesus with one hand—holding her nose with the other.
Jesus’ List
I couldn’t help but contrast that scene with the glorious throne room of God. And I began to imagine what Jesus’ Christmas List must have looked like—not a list of things he wanted, but things He would give up to enter this world: angelic surround-sound, a 3-D panorama vision of the Universe, premium preventative health care, omniscience . . .
These thoughts inspired our family to start a new “Christmas List.” We chose things that we might have to give up if we were to follow the example of the One who “made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men” (Philippians 2:7). The kids pretty much put down everything they enjoy that they’d have to give up in order for the world to share in Christmas, including:
- Our house (and most, if not all, of its plumbing )
- Toys
- Pets (we can get bigger, smellier ones!)
- Books, music, and even our language
- Friends and family
- Comfort and security
We have spent a great deal of thought as a family about what would be on our Christmas list, and it will probably be our “best” Christmas ever. Strangely, giving up most of the things on this list for Jesus has actually magnified our joy! Could it be that this is the essence of Christmas?
So what could you give up this next year in order to share Christmas with an unreached people group that has NEVER heard of Christmas or celebrated it before?
As you gather under the star (which points to the King) or the angel (which proclaims the Savior) on your Christmas tree, would you take a moment with your family to reflect on what Jesus gave up in order to share Christmas with us? Then simply ask Him what He would have you put on His Christmas list so that others can join us in celebrating Him in the coming year.
What You Can Do
For your list, consider praying for Alliance workers worldwide to experience God’s peace, comfort, and joy—the spirit of Christmas all year round.
December 15, 2011
By Jessica Schaeffer, RN, serving at Koutiala Hospital for Women and Children, Mali, West Africa
The following is an adapted excerpt from Jessica’s recent update.
“The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”(which means “God with us”) [Matthew 1:23].
In the challenges of these past months, I’ve often reminded myself, “Jesus is with me right now.” What a gift to know that He will never leave me or forsake me. I am not alone because of Immanuel, God with us. And what a joy it is to see others come to know the Gift, to enjoy the presence of Jesus in their lives.
God with Salif
Salif came to our hospital a year ago looking for help. The teenager had been in a moped accident two years previously and broken the bone in his thigh (femur). He hadn’t received proper care, so a piece of bone was sticking through his skin and chronically infected. Salif spent a lot of time watching Christian films during his hospital stay.
Ever since his discharge from the hospital last spring, he has come to church with me. Just recently, God answered our prayers: Salif decided to follow Christ!
A few days ago he visited me, discouraged because his father continues to verbally persecute him for having become a Christian and has threatened to kick him out. After missing school since his accident, Salif was finally back in school, until a few weeks ago when his father pulled him out . . . apparently a consequence of his profession of faith in Jesus.
As I talked with Salif, I kept reminding him that even in the difficult things he is facing, he is never alone—God is with him, and at any moment, we can cry out to Him for help.
Pray for Salif, that he will grow in his faith, and that He will know God’s presence with him, even in the midst of rejection and persecution from his family.
It is a joy to see others find Jesus and experience God’s presence with them always. Thanks for your important part in helping people to know and experience Immanuel. May you know His love and presence today—and every day.
What You Can Do
Pray for Alliance workers the world over. “Although life has been rich and full over these past months,” Jessica wrote this fall, “I’ve also been fairly overwhelmed with my workload. Sometimes the pressure is great, and I feel ready to despair. But my hope is set on Jesus, who I know will continue to help me through your prayers.”
Partner with Alliance workers like Jessica to share the light of Christ—Immanuel—with those living in spiritual darkness. Be Light—give to the Great Commission Christmas offering!
December 14, 2011
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PITTSBURGH, Pa. – Allegheny Center Alliance Church (ACAC) is confronting “one of the biggest justice issues of our day, and one that the Church, as the leading defender of the poor and the vulnerable, needs to take seriously,” Chuck Colson reported in his November 11, 2011, BreakPoint broadcast.
With the help of ACAC, Dan Krebs and Tony Wiles founded Grace Period, Inc., an alternative to payday lending companies that offers financial assistance and education to people trapped in a cycle of poverty. According to Christianity Today, the two “learned about the dubious practices of payday lenders . . . through a sermon preached by their pastor at [the church].”
“Most payday lenders set outrageous interest rates, some starting at 390 percent APR,” Colson said. The Center for Responsible Lending states that the average customer ends up paying $800 for a $300 loan, he adds.
Working in partnership with a local credit union, Grace Period “aims to turn its clients into savers rather than borrowers, by implementing a system in which they contribute to a credit account while paying off their loan,” said Colson. The nonprofit offers $300 loans for emergencies, with the requirement that the client enroll in a 12-month educational program. “To date, more than 3,600 people have accessed free loans through the company,” said Colson. “It’s a brilliant idea, and one that seems to work.”
Colson concluded, “Just because the victims of predatory lending don’t wear visible shackles doesn’t mean that they are any less enslaved. Isn’t it time for the Church to get serious about putting predatory lending out of business?”
Grace Point was also featured in Christianity Today online, December 6, 2011 and in the October 2009 issue of Alliance Life .
The Christian and Missionary Alliance is a worldwide family of Christians mobilized to fulfill the Great Commission by living out the fullness of Jesus Christ in personal experience and building His Church worldwide. Today, there are more than 2,000 Alliance churches in the United States and more than 20,000 fellowships in 81 countries around the world, where nearly 5 million Christians call themselves “Alliance,” united by an unquenchable passion to reach our communities for Christ and provide access to the gospel where no access yet exists.
CONTACT:
Tony Wiles
Grace Period
Phone: 412-552-8798
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