First Night of Work in Ecuador

We had a great (long) service at Dios Es Amor Church tonight, preparing for the week and meeting our pastor-partners. We are working with 23 different pastors this week from across this very large city. Here is some video of the evening's events.
It's late, and I'm going to bed now. Pray for us as we go out to witness tomorrow morning.

West Africans Baptized in the Ocean

I just returned from Togo, West Africa. It was my third trip to Togo with my home church, FBC Celina. We are working among the Lama-speaking people in the north. But, when we fly into Lome, we have many partners in Baptist churches there. This was the second time that Pastor Shalom Amegah invited me to baptize some new believers at his mission church. Here is a video of the baptism service. His members brought a drum and sang on the beach the whole time. What a privilege for me to be involved! Thanks to team member Jeff G. for shooting the video. Team member Randy C. led the closing prayer.

Update on Togo Mission Trip

We had a long day of work yesterday. 85 patients came through the eyeglass clinic, at least half of them being Muslim. All heard the Gospel personally and at least 40 prayed to receive Christ. This was in the yard of Pastor Nadjombe's house. So he was very excited.
We will work this plan again today. Some of the team will leave to go out into a village and present the Gospel. We are so blessed to have Samuel Avisse and Nike Ghoslain working as our interpreters. They are Africans who are full of the Spirit and who desire to see their countrymen saved.
We are sleeping under mosquito nets. That's a first for me. Lots of time in the van, back and forth. On Saturday, I will be baptizing five new believers at Pastor Shalom's church in Lome. They baptize in the ocean. That night, we will leave Togo to come home.
Thanks for your prayers!
Jonathan

First notice from Togo, West Africa. Five North Texas Cowboy's fans are unpacking tonight to begin a intense week of work here in Togo. Please pray for me, Randy, Dudley, Jeff and Jeff and for our Togolese brothers Samuel and Nyake. No difficulties in travel except for a de-icing delay in Paris. Worshipping with Africans tomorrow!

Choose Wisely

Choose Wisely

Every time you make a choice you are turning the control part of you, the part that chooses, into something a little different from what it was before. And taking your life as a whole, with all your innumerable choices, you are slowly turning this control thing into a heavenly creature or into a hellish one.
C. S. Lewis in Mere Christianity

It has long been my own personal observation that the "table" of ideas, leadership and civic authority in America has been reduced by one chair. Christians have been inexorably, deliberately excluded from their traditional seat at this table. Pervasive secularly-defined tolerance has elbowed aside meaningful contribution from moral voices.
Only recently, here in our small town, Christians discovered how small was their influence and how puny was their voice. Civic leaders made a decision with a moral undertone without expecting any backlash. When Christians arrived at a meeting, they were greeted with open skepticism and a deaf ear. The city's leaders seemed not to have considered that Christians would have anything to say regarding their decision.
Recent political developments have alarmed lots of pastors. It is not far from hate-crimes and hate-speech legislation to political censorship of spiritual thought. Already erosion of freedom in the pulpits of America has occurred as pastors have been legally threatened for preaching the Biblical view of homosexuality.
This far, but no further. We are facing anti-life, anti-marriage, anti-free speech political forces that are stepping into the moral sphere. We render to Caesar what is Caesar's but we reserve for God the spiritual, moral world that is His. Our denominational points of separation are of minimal importance in this stance. We must begin to stand together and elbow our way back up to the table of public debate.
Please read the Manhattan Declaration. I urge you to sign it. And to stick to it.

40 Years of God-Experience

I am getting older.
It's obvious by the scarcity of hair on my head and the gray in my beard.
It's obvious in the grown-up lives of my kids. They used to hunt Easter eggs and lose teeth and enjoy piggy-back rides. If I tried to give them a piggy-back ride now, I'd be riding. To the emergency room.
But, there is an illuminating side to this age. It is possible for me to know of something for 40 years. In my memory, there can be 40-year-old phenomena. Bicycles, birthday cakes, banana pudding and bb guns are things I've known of for 40 years. And lots of other things besides.
Last night, I was reminded of something I've probably known about for 40 years. It's the Bible story of the manna; the bread of heaven provided for the Hebrews during their sojourn from Egypt to Israel. It is described in Exodus 18 as small and round and fine as frost, tasting like honey and similar to coriander seed. (Don't know anything at all about coriander seed.) I suppose I first heard about manna in a children's Sunday School class or from the Bible Story books my dad read to us at home. The Hebrews would wake up in the morning and out on the ground, there would be manna. They didn't know what to call it. They looked at each other and said, "What is it?" In Hebrew, that's "manna?" So, they called it, 'what is it' bread, or manna.
"Manna, this tastes good!"
"Momma, what some manna?"
"Manna pudding anyone?"
The Hebrews were told they should gather the manna every morning, not storing any up for the next day. When they tried to store it, it rotted quickly. However, on the day before Sabbath, they were explicitly instructed to gather enough for two days. And on these occasions, the manna would keep. Curious.
I've known of this story for 40 years. The Hebrews Lived This Story for 40 years.
If there was one thing a middle-aged Hebrew man with gray arriving in his beard knew, it was that the manna was going to be there in the morning. I mean you could doubt it for awhile. But after 40 years straight, I'm prepared to believe that there was not much doubt left in the Hebrew camp. It was the regular, daily, necessary, tasty provision of God for His people. It was coming. Better than the mail service. More dependable than Moses' sermons. The manna was gonna be there.
It made me wonder as I thought of it last night, "What do I know about God with 40 years of proof?"
I can think of some things. One of them is just this: God can be known. Personally. Vitally. In the reality of life in 2009, there is a Truth that says, God can be known.
God provides. He has been in the providing business since Creation. And He's good at it.
Daily life in relationship with God through Jesus Christ is a life of love.
And, after I am able to say that I have 50 years experience with Him, there will still be more of Him to know!