Events leading up to the Refomation

Was there power? Were there signs and wonders? Were people filled with the Spirit?
These people were amazingly powerful. Bede was the first church historian from England, who lived in the 8th century- he changed the weather. Cuthbert, a little bit before him, healed paralytics and deaf people. And he had an amazing relationship with nature.
Francis of Assisi was someone who moved in incredible power, but all mixed up with things like holy water and things that we would find quite difficult to accept.
But God honoured them, because He honours faith just as He does today.
There were those at this time who wanted a New Testament type of church. They lived in the alpine regions of Europe, a little remote. They had the scriptures and emphasised scriptures like the Sermon on the Mount, saying this is the way to live. The Roman church persecuted them. They were people like the Bogomils,” Friends of God” from Bulgaria. The Waldensians, who were the followers of Peter Waldo.
Before you can study the radical church, it’s important to have a look at the Orthodox Church, otherwise you don’t understand what they are reacting about.

Relicts
People regarded some people, some places and some things as holy.
In 1231 Elisabeth of Hungary died and was lying in state. She had lived a very godly life. Her body was in the cathedral and the people could go in and pay their respects to her. By the time they had finished, there was nothing left of her. Her corpse has been ripped apart! She was regarded as holy and being of value to save the owners time in purgatory.


There was the belief, the superstition, that if you wanted to holy, you should possess something that was considered holy.
So we are dealing with faith, with mysticism, with corruption and with superstition. There were shrines, where people would go because they though it would help them to attain grace. God’s grace had to be earned and you had to persuade God to give it to you.
The medieval church was a ritualistic church:

Penance
People would go and confess to a priest, an intermediary, and he would give them a penance to do (not repentance). This was to persuade God to give them grace.

The intermediary, the priest
There were two persecutions, one in the first century under the Emperor Decius and in the fourth century under Diocletian.
For Decius, if things were going bad and the empire was suffering in anyway, it meant the gods were angry and that they needed in some way to be placated. As the emperor himself was deified, he wasn’t going to carry the blame. Up until the time of the burning of Rome, the Jews got blamed. After 64AD, the Christians got blamed. We don’t know why, but it is thought that it was because Nero’s wife was very sympathetic to the Jewish people.
Diocletian persecuted the church in the fourth century (303-312). He set out to destroy it, because he wanted unity in the empire, which was crumbling at this time, there were only 100 years left before Rome would be sacked. He ordered an empire-wide sacrifice to the gods. This meant that people went to the temple bought a meal offering and were given a document to prove that you had taken part in the sacrifice.
In the previous persecution in 250, many Christians apostatized. Over the next 50 years the church had a stricter discipleship and got ready in case another persecution came. When Diocletian’s persecution did come, the Christians were ready for it.
Many were put to death, many were put in prison and there were also those who apostatized. In the main they were the weak Christians who sacrificed.
After the persecution was over, a decision had to be made about what was to be done by those who had apostatized. There were two thoughts on it, one was forgive them and the other was, no we want a purer church and we do now have doubts whether God will forgive serious sins after baptism. Hence some people delayed baptism until their deathbed to ensure that they got in.
Those who had apostatized through the persecution felt that they needed absolution. Who do you go to, to get it? You go to those who had been in prison, those who had suffered and who are now regarded as special people. You would go to them and say, “I am so sorry that I betrayed you.” This wasn’t asking for forgiveness but it was the beginning of going to another and asking for absolution.
Some people went to other extremes and to possess something that had belonged to the people who had been martyred would keep them in good stead. People wore the bones of martyred Christians.
Out of that sort of practice people became saints, intermediaries between God and man. There were then the places where these people were martyred, which have holy significance.
Within 12 hundred years, we have things that started off in a harmless way becoming complete heresy.
The bread and wine
Where does the teaching come from that the bread becomes the flesh and the wine becomes the blood of Jesus? It comes from the second century.
In the 2nd century there was a Gnostic heresy. As the church battled against this heresy and it was a hard battle, they made entrance into the church much stricter. You weren’t going to get into the church until you have proved that you are a Christian.
In the Bible it looks like baptism is for sinners who have just got saved but in the 2nd century, it was for people who were living proven holy lives. So they went through two or three years of instruction, before they could be admitted to the church. That meant that they could not take the bread and the wine until they had been baptised. This meant that they had to be dismissed for the part of the service when the bread and the wine. As they were being dismissed there was a prayer for them that they might progress in the faith. But the emphasis shifted from them to the bread and the wine. In time the bread and the wine became the object of the prayer. In the end Thomas Aquinas said: This is Jesus.
So even today, sometimes in communion services, we ask someone to pray for the bread and the wine. Why? What do expect will happen to it? Pray for the people who are taking communion, not for the bread and wine.
Things that become heresies don’t grow up overnight. It takes time. When you depart from the scripture and start to rely on traditions and the decisions of councils, you are a long way from the teachings of Christ and the first apostles.
At the reformation it was Martin Luther who began to challenge these things. He did it in a time that was rife. Other people had said the same things before. People from inside the Roman church had said the same things, but the climate was not ready for change.
• Penance instead of Repentance
• The saints and Mary instead of Jesus as the intermediary between God and man
• The mass – a sacrifice again of Christ to obtain fresh grace
A lot the reformers, who came to Christ, came to Christ because they studied the doctrine of the mass.
The question is what actually happens when we eat bread and drink wine? Is this how we are justified? Is this a means of grace to us? Or is Christ alone enough?
Up to this point they didn’t have the Bible. The priests could hardly read. The monks never studied it. When Luther was made professor of New Testament theology, he had never read the New Testament. Church doctrine was mainly the study of the decisions of councils and popes, who regularly contradicted themselves. So theology was the study of traditions, decisions and canon law. It wasn’t until the Bible became to be studied from the original texts that the text of the Bible was studied.

Prevailing Conditions
What were the prevailing conditions at the time of Luther that caused such a reaction to his 95 thesis?
1. Anti-clericalism
The people at the time believed in God, but He was a God of wroth and anger, who could not be placated and who you could not know personally. The only way you could know God was by hearing the gospel and you didn’t hear he gospel.
The priests who were there to minister to you were so often absent.
One bishop called Anointine de Prat, the only time he was ever present in his diocese was when he was buried there. It was something he had bought.
The clergy collected titles as a means of making a living. They would buy the title of bishop etc.
The people were not ministered to. Even if you would attend a church or cathedral, everything was in Latin that the common person didn’t understand. It was up at the front and it was very mystical. You were denied participation. You were allowed the wafer but not the wine that was for the clergy. You were not holy enough to have the wine.
It was burdensome. There was a pecking order of sin that determined your penance. Compare this with the Pharisees in the New Testament. Legalism is deathly. The letter always kills.
In England, Cardinal Wolsey was the second most powerful man in the realm, but he lived openly with his concubine and had children. It wasn’t frowned up on, so the whole thing about celibacy was nonsense.
2. Power shift
Power was shifting from the papacy to the kings and princes. Cities were being raised up and fortified and they were even raising their own armies. There was a breaking away from papal dominance. Nationalism was rising.
Christendom was seen as the nations that were Christian and they were starting to react against it.
3. Unrest amongst the common people
This led to a peasants’ revolt in Germany. There had been a peasants’ revolt in England in the 14th century at the time of Wycliffe, who was a reformer in England.
Religious turmoil and revival stir up people who aren’t religiously minded. They don’t even get converted but it articulates something for them. It allows them to understand their grievances. Their reaction is not one of conversion, but is one of rebellion. Within a century of one another there was a peasants’ uprising in Germany and England.
4. The Black Death (1347)
Two thirds of the population died and infant mortality was high. This fed superstition and became ingrained in us.
5. The Printing Press
The printing press was a so radical invention like the internet today. Luther preached a sermon on grace at the same time as he wrote the 95 thesis. This was printed - 20 editions of it - and it went round Europe.
Luther becomes a hero overnight, because he is challenging the might of Rome. He is doing it because he believes he is living in the end times. The pope was the antichrist and this was the last battle. As far as he was concerned, the world wasn’t going to last much longer.
He was a national hero without people necessarily following his religion.

6. The Fall of Constantinople 1453
When Constantine moved the centre of the Empire from Rome to Constantinople he took with him the original documents of the early church. They were the scriptures and many of the writings of the church fathers, the Greek translation of the Old Testament (Septuagint) and many other things. They were copied and published but the originals never saw the light of day.
In 1453 the Turks invaded and the documents were taken out for safety reasons but they were also made available for study. What the people then realised was that the scriptures had been corrupted. The scriptures were very different than the decisions of church councils.
This is important because the big question at the reformation was what is the main authority of the church? Was it the head of the church, the pope who is by this time declared infallible? Is it the decisions of Church Councils? Or is it the scriptures? That became the issue and that was the issue for Luther.

When we see all these things developing and all the different groups springing up, we go to the Bible and look at what the Bible says. These groups didn’t. Some of them didn’t have the Bible. They were working things out as they went along.
It is difficult to judge them and to know where they really stood. We have the benefit of 2000 years development and really we should know better.

The Reformation

A number of things that the people at the time of the reformation were reacting against came from the early church. It takes quite a long time for bad habits to become traditions and traditions to become heresy.
We need to have a look back to the early church to understand the conditions in the church at the time of the reformation.
As we look at the period of the reformation, we are looking at the early 16th century. In the year 1517 something really quite insignificant happened.
A young monk by the name of Martin Luther got stirred about things that were happening in the neighbour district. He decided that it was time that academics get together to discuss the value of indulgences, which was really selling salvation.
He was quite fed-up with what was going on. He had already preached some sermons about this and he wasn’t the first person to do so. But he wrote out a kind of agenda. He put some statements down on paper. There were 95 of them in all. He nailed this agenda to the university notice board, which turned out to be the church door. It was a pubic notice that he had written by hand in Latin, so the common people couldn’t understand it.
Within two weeks though, it was translated into German and printed in many editions. It became a manifesto of what we then called “The Reformation”. The German people got hold of it and it became more than a manifesto for a religious reform, it was a manifesto for a social reform too. It articulated for common people what they were feeling, particularly about Roman and Papal domination.
We must ask the question about how this little insignificant act of an unknown monk in a town that was the back of beyond; change the course of (religious) history?

What were the circumstances that made it possible?

We have to go back in history to the 4th century, to 312ad to a place called Milvine Bridge. A Roman Emperor or one of a series of Roman Emperors (by this time the emperors were generals and most of them weren’t even Romans, they were Germans), they were doing battle for dominance of the Roman Empire. Constantine was facing a decisive battle against overwhelming odds. This is myth/legend/truth, we don’t really known and it is difficult to find out so many centuries later.
The night before the battle, he was praying to his deity and he says he saw in the sky a cross and heard the words, “in this sign conquer”. This is how the story goes, so the next day his soldiers go into battle each with the sign of a cross and he won this decisive battle. From that time onwards, he began to show favouritism to the church, which had just been persecuted for the last eight years. This was a horrible persecution.
He saw the church as a way of unifying the empire. From Constantine onwards it went from favouritism to making Christianity state religion.
Therefore, anyone who was within the Roman Empire became a Christian. Conquered nations then become Christian nations. What we see from the early 4th century is that people become Christian because they are part of the empire and not because they have been born again of God. So there is a watering down of the gospel.
Constantine’s successors in the main linked the church with the state. The Roman deities were or had been the objects of worship, so Christianity became the state religion. Constantine mixed everything up. So we have the sun-god and that’s were Sunday comes from.
Once we start talking about Christian nations or towns, we are moving into an unbiblical realm. You can’t have Christian nation. You can have a nation that has been greatly influenced by Christians and even where the majority of the population are Christian. There is no such thing as a Christian nation; we are one new man in Christ, made up of many nations.
The linking of church with the state watered down the Christian gospel.
When things like this are done, there is always a reaction. So you come across those who want a purer gospel, they want a biblical church. It is at this time that we meet some people called the Donatists. They were led by a man called Donata. As with every movement, this too wasn’t pure.
Whenever you study the breakaway movements or the radical movements, there are always elements that you won’t be easy with. They also get mixed up with politics. You can never say that these people were pure in doctrine because there was always a mixture. If you don’t understand this, you get a wrong idea and particularly from the early church.
So from the time of the Donatists onwards, you get this reaction. Up until the 4th century you find the Romans persecuting the church, now you have the church persecuting the church. Constantine raises an army against the Donatists and they fight. So now we have the beginning of religious wars, which goes right back to that time.
When you link the church together with the state and the church gets involved in politics as many of these leading Christians did. They occupied important positions in the state – this always leads to corruption.
As Christians get involved with politics, there is a lot of competition. Bishops vied against bishops. This corruption comes into the church and you have reactions to that.
During this time, we have the beginnings of the monastic movement. That is those wanting to get back to the more pure kind of Christianity. It started with people who wanted to separate themselves from the world. True Christianity of course is not separating yourself from the world but separating yourself for Christ to get back into the world. This was a separating from the world, less the world defiles me.
There are some weird people at this time, e.g. the “Pillar saints.” They lived on top of pillars; they thought that if they could be on the top of a pillar, they would not be contaminated by the world.
Some of the early bishops lived in caves, a bit like hermits. Others began to gather around them and out of that began what we call the monastic movement. Their motives were good. It was to take the gospel and serve poor people. They took vows, but they took them voluntary, there was no pressure put on them. But as these things developed, they developed differently than a local church.
At the end of the day, if you do not build on the right foundation, it goes wrong; it must go wrong because there will come stresses and pressures that the foundation can’t take.
So then you get the vows of poverty and chastity and the call to celibacy.
In the medieval period there are all kinds of reactions, but you haven’t got a reaction in the way that we would look at church.

Martin Luther and Justification by Faith

Much to the horror of his father, Luther had left his studies of law and entered a monastery as an Augustinian monk. He had had a life saving experience in a forest during a thunderstorm. He felt that God, whom he deeply feared, had spared his life. Luther wanted to serve Him in the only way he knew by becoming a monk.
He wanted to appease the angry God who was continually laying burdens on people, never satisfied with our performance.
Luther would study, pray, beat himself, perform rituals, have extensive and frequent times in the confessional, so that in end his spiritual father told him to go and do something that was worthy of confession. Luther lived in fear of God and couldn't find any peace.
It was suggested he apply for the post of professor of New Testament at the newly opened Wittenberg University. Luther agreed to this and thought it might be a good idea to read the New Testament.
During his studies Luther discovered the doctrine of Justification by Faith. This means that we cannot appease God by any means. God was appeased by the death of His perfect Son Jesus Christ. Now man's part is to believe this - accepted it by faith. Faith being a gift of God.
Luther doing this, was filled with peace. It was faith and not works that justified us with God.
This was Luther's message. He was a monk, a professor and now a simple church pastor. He was very happy in this role and had not aspirations to be the world changer he was to become.

The Reformation started 491 years ago tomorrow

October 31st, 1517:
An Augustinian monk, Dr. Martin Luther hurries across the courtyard to nail his latest notice on the church door. The door served as a notice board for the newly formed university of Wittenberg. Luther was inviting learned people to come to a discussion about the development of the church. To stimulate thought, he suggested a 95 point thesis. This triggered off a worldwide movement which we now call the Reformation.
Someone translated the thesis into German and it was duplicated using a piece of new technology called the printing press.
Waves went around the empire changing structure, government and everyday life.

Clip regarding religious tension in Sri Lanka

I have been travelling to Sri Lanka for a number of years. The country is truly wonderful and the people are very friendly. Unfortunatly, a civil war has been going on for nearly three decades causing the death of tens of thousands of people.
Religious tension is becoming more evident. Perhaps Christians are sometimes a little insensitive to people's feelings when they talk about their faith, but the violence that occurs is in no way justified.
Assertions that people are being converted by unethical means, that is by being given money is ludicrous. The Christians we know are extremly poor and can hardly make ends meet. They cannot possibly offer people financial gain if they convert.
Here's a documentary that features our friends and is quite balanced in its approach.
Protestant Christians, among which are a number of nominal Christians, are less than 1% of the population. Fear that the country could be taken over by Christian fundamentalists are gravely exaggerated!

Persecution in Iraq

At least seven Christians were murdered between October 4 and 8, 2008—killed execution-style by gunmen, according to Barnabas Fund. A Christian music storeowner was shot to death in Mosul, Iraq on October 13, 2008, the Associated Press reported.
Officials in Mosul have told the Assyrian International News Agency (AINA) that the number of Assyrians driven out of Mosul in the past two weeks has risen to 15,000, or about 2,500 families, Assist News Service (ANS) reported.
“We left everything behind us. We took only our souls,” Ni’ma Noail, 50, a civil servant who had to abandon his home in Mosul and is now living in a church, told Barnabas Fund.
An AINA spokesperson told ANS that “threats, intimidation and murder by unidentified groups have instilled fear and panic in the Christian Assyrian community, causing a massive exodus into the Assyrian villages in the Nineveh Plain. Thirteen Assyrians have been killed in the past four weeks. … Notes have been left instructing the Assyrians to leave the city immediately or face reprisal.
“It is not clear who is behind the campaign against Assyrians (also known as Chaldeans and Syriacs),” the AINA spokesperson added. “Some suspect Al-Qaeda and its affiliated groups, but a spokesman for Iraq’s Interior Ministry said there is no evidence to support this. An Iraqi member of parliament has accused the Kurds of orchestrating the campaign to shift the demographic balance of Mosul in their favor.”
The latest violence against Assyrians in Mosul continues a pattern that began on June 26, 2004 with the first bombings of Assyrian churches, ANS reported. Since then, Baghdad has been nearly emptied of Assyrians and it is estimated that 30-50% of Assyrians have fled to Jordan and Syria.
Northern Iraq is the historic center of Christianity in Iraq. Many Christians from Baghdad and Basra had fled to the north for safety in recent years. The estimated Christian population of Mosul is now 50,000, Barnabas Fund said. Five years ago, Mosul had almost 200,000 Christians, Open Doors said.

Indian persecution of Christians

Since Christianty came into existence the norm has been persecution. This is what God's Son, Jesus Christ experienced and it will continue until he returns.

More about Orrisa

Murders in Khamman

During our stay in India, we dedicated a church building in the city of Khamman. Our friends are working among the poorer part of the population, so the building wasn't anything grand. It will hold about 60-75 people, which means around 40 Westerners! It was very rudimental. Lots of people came to the dedication and we had a good time.
About the same time the Maoists (Naxalites) abducted 8 tribal people (India is a country with lots of different people groups. The Dalits or unscheduled castes (formally known as the Untouchables)are made up of a number of different tribes. Most of these tribes are not Hindu but rather animists. However they are very open to the gospel and you can find many Christians among them.
Eight of them were abducted because according to the Naxalites they were traitors and had given the security forces information about them. Today two of them were found dead just outside the cits.
Although the Christian persecution in Andhra Pradesh is at a minimun. The Christians and the rest of the population are faced with a terror group that causes hardship and spreds terror among the people.
Kife isn't easy for our friends out there.

India in Germany

(Photo out of Wikimedea)
I first came to Germany in 1971. In the very first year here, I met the girl who was to become my wife. I was a British soldier stationed in Lippstadt. She was living with her parents in a city called Bochum. To get to Bochum, I used to catch a train. Normally it took just over an hour to get from Lippstadt to Bochum.
About half way on the journey we came to a city called Hamm. Hamm was a strange place. The train pulled into the station and we waited there for 10-15 minutes. Then the train moved out the same way we came in. The locomotive had been moved from the front to the back.
For some reason Hamm always remained with me. Years later, I heard that one of my old Bible School friends had gone to live there. At some point a church was also planted.
These days Hamm is well known for something else.
The Sri Kamadchi Ampal Temple has been in Hamm since 1989. Originally, it was situated towards the west of the city. In 1997 together with its gods, it relocated to Hamm-Uentrop.
In 2002 a big new temple was opened, which is in fact, the biggest Hindu temple in Germany.
The temple's goddess looks from the central shrine to the east, towards the rising sun. Every year in May - June around 20.000 visitors come to th annual pu blic procession. The statue of the godess, Sri Kamadchi, circulates th temple through the nearby streets on a special chariot. As well as being seen by many people, Hindus believe she is blessing the town and its citizens.

So Christian Europe goes pagan, fasinated by the glimmer of Eastern religions.
it is time that Europe awakens and remembers it Christian heritage, not to despite people of a different culture, but to remember the message of the cross that brings life and not religion with all of its rules and regulations.

Unrest in Orissa directed against Christians

The media in India war reporting Christian persecution in the state of Orissa. It seems that violence erupted against Christians following the murder of a Hindu leader. The police believe that the Maoists (Naxalites) were responsible. Evenso it was Christians that were attacked, with many being forced to flee into the forest or refugee camps. The violence has since spread to Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Kerala.
During the weekend before we arrived in India special rallies were held up and down the country with special prayer for those suffering, especially in Orissa.
Passions have been running very high in Orissa, with complex local conflicts being used to whip up hatred and nationally this is part of a larger political struggle.
Ram Gidoomal explained in a statement from the South East Asian Development Partnership:
"This is the work of extremists who are destroying the fabric of India. The nation is locked in a struggle between the secularism established at Independence, and a double challenge from the Naxalities (wo now control 10% of India's districts according to Government figures), and from Hindutva forces who want to re-impose the unequal hold of traditional structures. The vast majority in India are peach loving people who respect life. We pray for an end to this violence."

Visit to India

During the last part of September and the first part of October I visited India. I have been to that country in the meanwhile maybe 10 or even 15 times. I've lost count.
There's a lot to say about India.
First of all we went to a small town called Chillakallu. One of the attractions is a children's home that we support.
I've made a small film and posted it in You Tube, so maybe you would like to have a look at it.

More photos

Jenny and Alfi's Removal

Our daughter, Jenny, moved in with her husband. Alfi, and their two children Jeremy and Amily. That photo though is of Susan!

Interesting Video

Book Recommendation

I picked up Driscoll's easy reading book during a recent visit to a conference in England. Driscoll had been one of the main speakers of the conference.
I have been keeping the theme of the emerging church at arm's length and had actually some doubts about the wisdom of attending this event. However I was pleasantly surprised. The speaker was easy to listen to although he had the afternoon sessions.
He gave some insights as to what make him and his church tick.
What I particularly liked about him was his commitment to God's word and his easy teaching of systematic theology.
A friend recently asked me, "Why doesn't church work?" There seems to be a lot of disappointment and discouragement. Some churches are growing and seem to be very successful but many are struggling and are shaken by crisis. So why isn't church working? I think that Driscoll tries to answer this question. It has to do with being missional-minded. Many church just circle around themselves and most of the events and things they organise are to support whatever is already in the church.
Driscoll uses Rick Warren's circles of bringing people who are completely distanced from the church and actually moving them step by step to the centre of the church.

About a year ago, we helped finance a farmer's cooperative in the Philippines. A group of around 15 families had got together, guided by a friend who is a community developer. They decided to pool their resources and share their gifts, work together and thus break the cycle of poverty.

Their monthly earning were around $30-40. Hardly enough to live on and not enough to send their children to school. We hoped that the cooperative would lift their income to around $140 - 150 per month. They only need a little capital (around $ 2000) to start this project. They would be able to buy seed instead of borrowing money that they would have to pay back together with horrendous interest rates. They would be able to buy larger amounts of seed and fertilizer at a lower price.

The cooperative started and looked very promising. It is really a success story. The captial wasn't given to them and they began to repay this loan (interest free) and it will be used for another cooperative.

The difficulty that our friends have is that although the cooperative is succeeding, the general economic situation in Asia is going from bad to worse. The rise of fuel and food prices makes life that was already difficult almost impossible.

They have managed to maintain their standard of living but not really been able to improve it. Without the cooperative their situation would have been even worse!

There is a big challenge to ministry in Asia and it is sometimes emotionally very draining but God is on the side of the poor and the blessings and joy of helping these people... there is hope!

Sri Lanka

One of the nations I have been involved in for a number of years is Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka is an interesting country. The majority of the population are Singalese speaking Buddhists. There has been a civil war in progress since the mid-1980s which has taken the lives of nearly 100.000 people. The minority Tamils, who are in the main Hindus, are fighting for independance or at least autonomy. Looking at the discrimination that the Tamils have suffered this is a worthy cause. However their means are to be condemned.

The liberation group "Tamil Tigers" have been killing civilians indiscriminatly and have forced children into military service. The Buddhist government says that it is winning the war. Representatives of the Indian government have declared that this conflict cannot be won militrily.In the meanwhile, the Tamils have brought the war to the cities in the form of sucicide bombing.

The are Christians among the Singalese and the Tamils. They are though small in number 0,8% of the whole population are protestant and only the half of those are evangelical.Sri Lanka is the only non-islamic country in Asia in which the church is not growing.

The rising fuel and food prices have hit the poor in a devastating way. The denomination that I work with has 50 churches and they are paying their pastors less than US$ 2 per day. They live under the absolute poverty level. But much of the population does too.

If that were not enough, the Buddhist majority persecuted this protestant minority. During my stay a Methodist minister was put in hospital after being beat up by a horde of Buddhists. At a large gathering of Buddhist monks in the city of Galle, it was demanded that Christians leave the southern provinces. And thes mean business too. An Assembly of God Church in the Hambantota district was attacked on June 22nd. A JHU (a political party that supports the president) Buddhist monk gathered 5000 people who tried to enter the church. Fortunately in this case the police intervened and saved his life.

On July 6th the Talahena Calvary Church in Colombo was attacked. The pastor was hospitalized. There is normaly very little legal recourse available through the police as the government as the government is hesitant to challenge the Buddhist clergy.

Let's not forget to pray for these dear people who are suffering.

Once more: Kalimantan

For a number of years, I have been working into West Kalimantan, Indonesia. We have a team of people from a number of local churches in Germany and Australia, that ministers to a group of churches in West Kalimantan.

The people there live under very primitive conditions. We started out by encourging church workers and helping to train leaders. We normally go to a village which is central and hold seminars periodically for two years and then move on. We have been working in this area for four years and during this time 350 people have gone through the process of being trained. Also ten churches have been planted.

However there is a continual struggle to sustain the churches. Demonic activity is strong. Each village has a witchdoctor. This is a real challenge. Perhaps the bigger challenge is financial sustaining the churches. The people are very poor and despite teaching on the tithe, little is happening.

God gave us a good contact. We met a retired German businessman in Malaysia. He is a young Christian with a desire to serve the Lord. "But I can't preach." These were more or less his first comments on meeting him. Why people think you can only serve the Lord if you can preach I don't know. But to make a long story short, he is at present trying to form a cooperative with the pepper farmers in Kalimantan. If it works it will give the farmers a better deal for their work and also generate some funds for our mission there.

The first project that we want to support is a hostel for young people. We are working in a village that is kind of central (it only takes 8 hours by boat to access it form the nearest city). There are schools in the village. Parents send their children to the village to go to school. Unfortunately the children stay in the village until the school goes into recession. The children have no one to look after them and live in what look like larger dog kennels on stilts!

Of course as all young people are, the are mischievous and get into trouble without having parental guidance. But they also lack parental protection. A number of the girls have been raped. And the witchdoctor has a field day in putting spells on the children etc. Most of then, while having enough to eat, are undernourished because they ear mostly rice. They don't drink enough water and are not trained in hygiene.

In "our" village there are 350 such children. We are employing someone to do what he can to serve these children. Building a hostel would provide the protection and we could give guidance and help. We envisage doing training about hygiene, nutrition and discipleship. The cost of such a hostel is around 70 000, which we could raise through the cooperative.

We just hope and pray that this will happen!

The next step is a medical mission. People from the village need to travel the 8 hours by boat to get to see the doctor. Theoretically anyway. The boat trip costs them nearly a month's income. Then they have to pay the doctor.

So we would like to have temporary clinics in a number of villages in West Kalimantan. Around our network, we have made an appeal and asked medical personell to come forward - about 40 people have shown interest. We wanted to start in September but that is proving to be two short notice. We are postponing our start to March 2009. We have four doctors and a medical student who are kind of committed for that time.

Back from Sri Lanka

I've just spent the last two weeks in Sri Lanka. The situation on the island is very tense.
A civil war has been going on for the past 25 years and I guess somewhere between 80 - 100,000 people have lost their lives. Since the new president has been in power the war has intensified. The government say that they are winning the war by military power. However during my stay a high ranking government delegations from India visited Sri Lanka and tried to make the Lanka government understand, that this conflict cannot be solved by military might. In the meanwhile the Tamil freedom fighters have brought the fighting to Colombo in the form of terror attacks. Suicide bombers blow buses up. Claymore mine line the side of the road and are ignited through remote control. The unnecessary deaths of lots of people is the result.
The Buddhist majority continue to fear that the tiny protestant minority (14,000,000 against 80,000!) will somehow take over the country. Persecution, intimidation and the burning of church buildings is the result.
The rise of the fuel price has not left Sri Lanka unscathed. The poor people were hardly making it anyway, but now life has become unbearable. Fuel prices are linked to so many other commodities. In Asia there has been an increase in the price of food too. This is very difficult for so many who are living below the poverty level anyway.
The economy is at rock bottom and the way up is difficult. Initiatives are largely undermined by the rampant corruption.
We are looking to initiate some projects just to help a few to survive.

There are good things happening and I'll report about these in a few days.

Back from the Bush

I have just returned from Indonesia and Malaysia. I spent three weeks there. I taught the Bible in a number of places and preached in quite a number of churches. The most exciting thing to see is that people receive what is being taught and act upon it.
More than 100 people professed to being healed after we prayed for them. The gathering were very lively and moving.
I had a doctor with me and I hope that it will be possible to start doing some medical work in this part of the world very soon.

Travel was very tedious. We drove over very bad roads and used speed boats to take us eight hours up the never ending and winding rivers.
The villages we stayed in and ministered in were very very under developed. Water supply and hygiene was a challenge. But by God's grace and His help we have suvived to tell the story.

New Motivation To Blog

We took my daughter to the airport last Monday. She's going to spend a year in the USA. She has started a blog in the German language http://www.sarah-my-way.blogspot.com/ Its been good just to read her entries - two up until now. anyway, I got inspired to continue this blog!
I am flying to Malaysia on Friday and then on to Indonesia on Monday. My visa came this morning and now I am looking forward to going.

Hello again

I have written anything in my blog for a long time. I don't have anything to report at the moment, but just want to keep it open.

Rwanda again

I found another video about Rwanda.


Hillsong - Hope Rwanda

Lets stay with Africa

AIDS is omnipresent in Africa. You can't get away from it. Although we are not working directly with people suffering from AIDS, I think that every project is confronted with the disease.

We are looking into starting some project with AIDS children in India.


Saving Africa

Rwanda

In August I went to Rwanda in East Africa. During my journey there, I was reading Merideth's book about Africa's history. It was indeed a strange feeling to read about Rwanda and especially about the genocide that took place in 1994 and now actually be standing on the same spots as brutal atrocity took place.
I have seen "Hotel Rwanda" which moved me then.
The people told me that the genocide was not a theme that people moved people anymore. They want to get on with their lives. However it was a recurring theme as we talked about everyday life.

Although Rwanda is recovering slowly, not only from genocide but also from poor governance and corruption. There is a chance for the country that things could change.

Instead of complaining our friends are trying to change the situation. Its difficult and slow and painful, but they are trying. We are trying to help them. Friends from Germany have helped to built two building that can be used as a clinic. Now we are trying to raise the funding for the clinic's inventory.
We need about 30,000 € to start the clinic and run it for one year.

If you would like to help, you can let me know.

Watch this! This is a good reason to become a Christian!


mark driscoll-the gospel

Travels during the summer

I didn't get to write anything in my blog during the summer because I was on the road so much.

Time was very scarce and it wasn't possible to get to the internet.

In August I went to Africa. I went to Kenya and spoke at a conference in Meru. About 4000 leaders and pastors attended.

I was with Edward and Fridah Buria, who lead about 200 churches across East Africa. These are quality people and the churches they oversee are quality churches. Being with them and observing how they deal with people and situations was an eyeopener for me. I was greatly blessed by being with them.

I also met a leader from Ethiopia and one from Tanzania.

From there I took the long and uncomfortable bus ride to Kisumu where both Nehemia and Forum Leben has projects.

Nehemia has a farm and a programme for caring for needy children. Forum Leben has a Bible School there.

The journey to Kampala, Uganda was much less difficult. From there we travelled on to Rwanda. I will write about my time in Rwanda in a later post.

During my stay in Africa, I read a book by Martin Meridith, The State of Africa. This touched me. It is a history book of the last fifty or so years in Africa. It begins with the end of the colonial system and the struggle for self-determination. (By the way, nothing like I learned at school in England. Many of the nations were gaining their independence, while I was sitting behind a school desk).

Meridith goes on to modern times and shows the difficulties the continent is going through. Its difficult to suggest a solution! Corruption and band governance seem to be the main causes of poverty and hardship for the vast majority of people. However it seems that the West is supporting people who seem to be favourable to them, no matter what record they have of corruption or violation of human rights.

The West is still using Africa for eploitation as in the days of the empire.

That doesn't excuse Africans for not keeping their house in order though.

As I ponder what I have written, my thoughts go back to Meru and the confernce... Now there is a group of people who are making a real difference and are working to change the face of Africa (and the church in Africa).

THINK OF THE SUFFERING IN THE WORLD

THE WORLD'S NEEDS

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yz99g5Pv0GE


THERE MUST BE A REASON TO HOPE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0ij1Ik9XRU

The Battle of Blenheim

Last Saturday we attended a wedding. It was in Bavaria. It was a nice do.
We drove to the reception to a typical Bavarian establishment on a hill overlooking the Danube valley. After parking the car, we proceeded to go to have a glass of bubbly to wish the bride and groom God's blessings.
I noticed a rock - a memorial stone, commemorating the spot as being the place where the French commanders stood at a battle on 13th August, 1713. This was during the War of Spanish Succession.
I did wonder about that.
When I go home and was able to access the internet, I found out that it was the Battle of Blenheim. Actually the place in Blindheim and that was over the valley and was where the British and Dutch had their headquarters.
It was John Churchill of church, the Duke of Marlborough who was the commander of the British. Later he built Blenheim Palace in England and that's where one of his seed was born, Winston Churchill.

Normandy

Just after Pentecost, Elisabeth and I went to France for a few days.
Our first target was Paris. The weather wasn't too good though.
We found our Etap Hotel to the north of Paris and then went out to look at the sites - that we have seen many times in Paris.
The drizzle and the cold turned out to a bit much for us. We got back onto the metro and made our way back to the hotel.
We wanted to spend the morning in Paris and travel on to Normandy on Tuesday afternoon.
We decided to take the car instead of using the Metro.
Off we went to the Eiffel Tower. Although we found a parking spot, it wasn't easy finding out how to pay for it. The meter didn't accept money neither did it accept our credit card, so in the end, after viewing the tower for a short time, we decided to move on to Normandy.

On our way to towards the motorway, we saw signs to Versailles. But that wasn't in our plans. It was good not needing to be anywhere at any special time. We drove into Versailles and went into the palace gardens. It is really lovely there. We had a nice time just walking through the magnificent and very large palace gardens and most important of all - it didn't cost us anything!

Eventually we did move on and arrived in Normandy. We had booked into an Etap Hotel just outside the city of Caen.
Elisabeth needed some fresh air, some sea air. She had been having some trouble with a cough for a few months now and her doctor suggested a change of air would do her good.

We decided that we would go off to the coast. What did we discover? Of course Normandy is D-Day country. On nearly every street corner there was some commemorative plaque.
So we visited a few museums and walked on the beached, where the d-day landings had taken place. It was very interesting for me and Elisabeth beared up to it.

Sri Lanka

Link to photos

The last leg of my journey took me to Sri Lanka.
It was good to fly in from India, because I didn't have any jet lag.
The flight only took two hours and was uneventful, except that I had to wait for my luggage. I had two bags, a case and a rucksack. The rucksack was probably the first off the plane but I had to wait for my case. The plane was going to to somewhere else and everybody else had got their stuff, I was alone. I asked if everything was off and they asked me to wait a little longer. Then as a single piece of luggage my case came onto the conveyer belt and I could leave the airport!

It was about 1,30am by the time I got to bed - getting used to this of course.
The next morning I was awakened by the Buddhist chanting. They have illegally built a shrine just about 20 metres from the front door. Every morning at 6am and every evening at 6pm they begin their chanting. Not that people are chanting, its a recording. It blasts out over two big loudspeakers aimed at the church. It is loud! Sometimes no one is at the shrine. No one understand the chanting because it is in Sanskrit!

Later during my stay I had an even earlier start and heard chanting coming from another shrine at the back of the church! That was at 5am!

My first day started with me teaching at the Bible School, which was going to be my main job at this time round. My theme was Church History and I had to teach 64 hours. It was quite tedious but I enjoyed it.
Only when I started teaching it did I realise that 80% of Church History is European or American history.
The students and there were 18 of them who are nearly all in some kind of ministry, were very interested and asked lots of questions.
We also had an ordination and laid hands on five pastors.

Perhaps the climax of my stay this time was the dedication of the children's home.
We had bought some land and a house and built another house and have also built up a farm to provide the children's home with food and with a little bit of revenue.

After the dedication we spoke to a pastor who had come from the East and he told us about the great need there. In one district alone there were 17000 homeless children, that had lost one of both of their parents. He himself said that he was hiding a 14 years old boy in his house because the Tigers (the militant breakaway Tamils), were abducting boys in his age to force them to take up arms and fight.
Could we take more children? But how? We were now very full.

As we thought of ways and means, we did think of a way to house more children. We would build another house for the leader and his family who could then move out of the main house, thus making more room for the children.

More children though, mean more costs and now its up to us to raise some support.

Link to photos

India

Link to photos of India

After leaving Nepal, I flew into Dehli in India. From there I flew down to Hyderabad where I was met by two old friends. They drove me to Chillakallu. It took us longer than expected because something went wrong with the car.
I suppose it was about 3am by the time I got to bed!
It was good to meet Ruth and Prabhudas again and to catch up with them.
I was to spend my time doing pastors' conferences and teaching at the Bible School. I enjoyed both activities. God showed up and the pastors were very encouraged.
During my stay in Chillakallu, we also had Easter. What a celebration. The service on Easter Sunday started at 5am. I didn't get there until 6. By that time there were already about 1000 people gathered.
I felt that I wasn't prepared enough and that my message wouldn't be fitting for the occaision. However when I started to preach, the Holy Spirit took over and what a meeting. During the ministry time, people were healed, filled with the Spirit and others were delivered of evil spirits!
I preached 4 times on Easter Sunday!
I interupted my stay in Chillakallu by going to Rajahmundry. This city is about four hours away. The Nehemia-Team have a project there and I have been asked to give some oversight to it.
Raja and Ebbe lead the work. They have a children's home with sixty children. Raja also looks after a number of churches, some are church plants.
During my stay there we had a pastors' seminar and 150 pastors came to attend. That was a wonderful experience.
The ministry is just startind and lots of things need attending too.

Carri MacFarlane and Horst and Hannah Zimmerman were also there. Carri has written a letter to the children's sponsors (which are too few!), if you read it, you get an impression of how things are there:

NEWS - NEWS - NEWS - - - - FROM NEHEMIA CHILDREN'S HOME INDIA - - - - NEWS - NEWS - NEWS
Dear friends, pray-ers and sponsors,
When I was a child, I had a prayer of Francis of Assisi beside my bed. The words became embedded in my heart and it is my daily prayer that, by the power of the Holy Spirit, I will live accordingly. Here it is:
Teach me O Lord, to serve You as You deserve;
to give and not to count the cost,
to fight and not to heed the wounds,
to toil and not to seek for rest,
to labour and not to ask for any reward
save that of knowing that I do Your Will.

Although you have had little feedback, you have faithfully supported these needy children, in whatever way you have been able. Some of you have had to say 'good-bye' to children you have supported. Some have wept tears of sadness. Some can say 'good-bye' with gratitude and satisfaction as boys leave to do a mechanics apprenticeship, and some have continued to support another child.
This is giving and not counting the cost. Thank you, and may God bless you for your tender hearts and commitment. Your prayers and support are more than worthwhile!

I have just returned from India and my heart is full. Horst and his 9 yr old daughter, Hannah, were with me. They are praying about whether to go and serve as a family.
We were impressed by Raja and Ebba's diligence and by how well the children are developing. At the same time we were sorry about the living conditions. The children used to be in two separate houses, one a 10 minute walk away.
Raja, in time, was able to rent three houses next door to each other and move the children. They were then together and could separate boys and girls. He had a house for his own family and guests. The problem - Two houseowners complained that the children were ruining the houses and ordered them out.
Consequently, 60 children are now living in one small house, with two toilets and one shower. This house owner is more lenient and has built two more stories.
The boys are however upstairs under a makshift roof - rather hot at night. The sanitation is overlaoded and Raja had fixed an overflow pipe which rerouted the sewage onto the field behind the house. The stench was unbearable and children were beginning to get infections.
We asked him to have the sewage buried.
Horst gave him money towards the enlargement of the underground tank. This should sort out the problem for a time. Another issue is that boys and girls need to be separated. Raja has searched in vein for larger houses but no one wants children.
He must build.
The good news - Despite land prices rocketing ( we looked at several plots all out of our range) the Indian government has returned the 2 acres land at the original price, which they had bought off us in order to build a canal. The canal did not go through the land as anticipated, but behind it. A huge pile of earth from the dig out, heaped across one corner of the land can be removed at a price. The government will allow Raja to use the strip of land along the canal for planting vegetables, until further notice. The 2 acres are enough to build the children's home, a guest house, the 'John Mac Farlane Memorial School' and a church. An Indian architekt has drawn up simple plans and has suggested buying the small piece of adjoining land as a playground for the children.
This is all progress! Now patience is required once again, as we pray and seek the Lord for funding. Bob Hatton, our new Indian Team leader, is attending seminars in order to be able to apply for German government funding! This is a long and tedious process.
Raja is champing at the bit because the situation with the sanitation and the 'too little space' will not improve til he moves. He is not allowed to build before permission is given, but has errected a protective fence, two sturdy gates and a small hut for a watchman to keep squatters at bay. Next the long awaited well will be dug and electric cables laid. Then we must wait! This is the lesson God has been teaching me over the last 4 years. It's not easy, but those who do wait on the Lord will rise up as Eagles... Hallelujah!
Please join us in praying that this will all happen faster than estimated. Several boys have left to train as mechanics and girls have left for various reasons. Relatives move and wish to take the children with them. Two children have been adopted by relatives. One teenage girl had to leave in order to look after her parents buffalo. Please pray that Raja will be given official permission to keep the children until they leave school. Until then, he cannot override the wishes of family and relatives. It is tradition in the villages to intermarry. Our hope is that these children will finish school and be able to train on site. The longer the children are in Raja's care, the more likely it will be for them to enter Christian marriages. Already some girls are hoping to marry pastors. Please pray for this too. When children leave, their places are filled immediately.
The need is great.
We witnessed Mothers bringing their children to Raja asking him to take them in. They are unable to cope. One elderly widow begged Raja to take her in. She had lost not only her husband but all her children. She was lonely, and saw no way forward. She turned from Raja to Horst and cried pitifully on his shoulder as he held her frail frame in his strong arms. Compassion takes over and one can understand Raja's heart.
It is easy for us to criticise the unconventional, even chaotic way of going about things, but for Indians it is nothing out of the ordinary. They are grateful to have food, a roof over their heads and to be given hope and a future. Raja longs to be able to help more families but his hands are tied.
Please bear with us as we venture forward, often not knowing how best to help. Our team is small and we contend not only with lack of funds but also lack of knowledge about this extremely different culture. It is a daily struggle learning to communicate so that each party understands the other. Both sides have made mistakes leading to frayed nerves and tension but with prayer and by the power of the Holy Spirit, guiding and teaching us, we have made steps in the right direction. We still have a long way to go and so please know how thankful we are for each one of you who have taken an interest.
We need you! Don't hesitate to call or email us if you wish for more information. We will do our best to answer your questions.

Carri Mac Farlane (for the Nehemia India Team)

Link to photos of India

Nepal - India - Sri Lanka

I was away for six weeks in all. This was quite a long time. The time past for me very fast and I seemed nearly always to be busy.
The first two weeks I spent in Nepal and I have written quite a long report of my time in the mountains down below.
From there I went back to Kathmandu, the captial.
I was to stay in a hotel which was on the other side of the city from where we had to go to pick up my luggage. That shouldn't be a problem.
But it was. Some people group were protesting because they thought they would not be properly represented in the political talks that are going on. Therefore they closed the border with India. That's were the fuel enters the country.
We couldn't find a taxi to take us because of the shortage of petrol. In the end we offered to pay a taxi driver double and he was willing to take us.
So the second round of seminars started.
Just as in the village the people are hungry and open to God's word in Kathmandu. It was thrilling to see about 150 people gather and listen to my preaching and teaching.
As we have now experienced many times God baptised them in the Spirit.
That was very encouraging for me.
The two day seminar with the Eternal Life Church went by very quickly. I preached on Saturday (the day when the churches have their regular gatherings) in a small church outside of Kathmandu. The church met in a home that had been converted into a meeting place. There was no sign for the church and we had to walk quite away after getting of the motor bike (I haven't been on a motor bike for ages!). This just reminds us that Nepal is by now means an Christian country and sometimes the Christians are treated with hostility.
Sunday was a free day. I used that day to do some more preparation for my teaching in Sri Lanka.
My friend Satya came to see me on Monday and introduced his wife to me. Satya had travelled with me the last time I was in Nepal. He is a good friend. He had been a fervourent anti-charismatic until Jesus baptised him in the Spirit. Now he is an ardent charismatic! Because he has a job, he couldn't come with us this time.
We spent the morning together and then they accompanied me to the airport.
I was so encouraged by seeing them.
They encourged me to write down the teaching so that they could translate it into Nepali and circulate it around the country. I really should do that.

Links

Have a look at my photos from Nepal:

http://bobhatton.typepad.com/photos/trip_to_nepal_2007/2007_nepal_indien_sri_lanka_209.html

Links

Here's a link to some photos of the Children's Home in Sri Lanka

http://bobhatton.typepad.com/photos/sri_lanka_daniels_childre/

Nepal 2007

Jiri, Thursday, 15.03.07
I left home at 6.30am on Tuesday morning. At the airport I had lots of time before my plane left. The flight was uneventful. I arrived in Qatar on time and had an eight hour wait for my next aeroplane.
That time past, even if it was so very slowly. It was 11am on Wednesday, when I had finally got my luggage and left the airport.
Beki was waiting to pick me up.
We spent the day visiting a few places and people.
I stayed the night in the Marco Polo Guest House, which is alright, although it was quite noisy.

We left this morning at 6.30am to get a bus that left at 7.30. Beki introduced me to his friend, who, he informed me, was going to be with us. As the time came for us to leave came - we couldn’t find Beki´s friend anywhere. He had disappeared! We had to leave without him.
The journey was long and tiring and we did suffer a number of delays. But we did drive through some roads, where the scenery was no less than spectacular. The valleys and gorges were very steep. At one point we could see the majestic Himalayas, with there majestic snow-clad peaks.
In one small town, they told me that we were less than 2 1/2 hours from the Tibetan border. However, we turned off the main road to travel in direction of Mt Everest. We encountered snow on the road and I must admit I had a funny feeling seeing the very steep drop at one side of the road.
We arrived safely though, in the small town of Jiri.
Jiri is located in a valley and had used to have been the starting point for the Everest expeditions. Mt Everest base camp only being 14 days walking away.
Since the Maoist insurgency, tourists had stopped coming there. Jiri was controlled by Maoists, however now the place was safe.
We spent the night in a travellers´ lodge. The advert declaring there to be a hot shower waiting for the guests, turned out to be a myth. There was though, a clean western toilet, which is always a joy to me.
As the sun went down, it got cold. Although my room was also the place where the blankets were kept, still with three thick blankets, I froze! It took quite a while for me to get warm and I slept with my cap on.

Friday, 16.03.2007
We had a very good breakfast. I took porridge and vegetable soup with noodles. Both were hot and helped to warm me up after the cold night.
We took a bus at 7.30 hrs to take to the top of the hill. I guess saved us an hour’s waking.
We arrived in a village and were told that we would get lunch before we could proceed.
I would have rather liked to have started to get it behind us.
We started at 11.25am with the very steep descent. I did wonder how we were - how I was going to get back up that hill. The descent took about 45 minutes. On the way down, we had a wonderful view of the valleys and hills, with there terraces. I took a lot of photos, but am sure they will be a disappointment after seeing the real thing.
At the bottom of our fist hill, we crossed over a bridge and went through a village. I was attacked here by a horde of geese. They snapped at me and bit me a couple of times. Although I laughed, it did hurt quite a bit!
Our hard work was well rewarded in with the beautiful scenery and the friendly greetings of the villagers, whose villages we past through.
I had got in mind that we needed seven hours to get to our destination. However it took us five. We arrived at 4.30 pm at our destination. We had taken a hours´ rest too. I was so glad to have arrived. The last kilometre or more had really taken me to the brink of my strength.
Within minutes of us arriving and being served with tea, the porters arrived too one after another. They hadn’t left until 2pm! Some of them carried 40kg rice.
We have a nice clean room, with a wonderful view. I can’t describe how magnificent and picturesque it is. During the daytime we were very warm. I guess the temperatures were in the 20´s. My vest, t-shirt, shirt and even pullover were wet though with my sweat. They haven’t dried either although I needed my pullover tomorrow.
Its night as I write this and the temperatures have plummeted. I am using a very thin sleeping bag, which guarantees to keep you warm by-30*. I guess its about 0 and the sleeping bag is doing a good job.

Saturday, 17.03.2007
During the night, I got used to the hard bed. I wasn’t cold either. The view is once more magnificent. The sun is shining, but there’s a cold wind blowing.
Church starts at about 10am, its closer to 10.30 though. They tell me that some have walked around 3 hours to be here. Considering that the ground is not level here, that is remarkable.
Church goes on for about 3 hours. I preached about the 10 lepers in Lk 17. We had communion with coke. That was a first-timer.
Just before lunch, I found a vantage point in the village from where I could see some snow-capped mountains. After lunch, I went back to take a photo, but evening mist had already started coming down and it wasn’t possible to see anything.
In the afternoon, I met with the pastor and others members of the leadership. He told me the story of his church. It started in 1996. The church has grown to about 500 members, but they have also planted 13 other churches, with a membership of 1500.There are many needs here. The Maoist insurgency was especially bad here many were kidnapped and killed. There are many widows and orphans to be looked after.

Sunday, 18th March 2007
It doesn’t feel like Sunday!
We got t
E schedule at about 6, 40 this morning - I was still in bed - apparently, the programme started at 7am!
As I hurried over to the public wash place, I was once more overwhelmed by the beauty of the valley. It is majestic, huge, and so beautiful - but the people are so poor. Everything has to be carried to the place.
Tithe start at 7am - well is 7.20 by the time I am ready, is a welcome session. Towards the end of the session, I am greeted and get a rosette pinned on by pullover, declaring that I am the CHEEPA Guest!
By this time about 60 people are present for the leaders´ and pastors´ conference. Beki and I unveil the well used banner, declaring the conference open and then its time for breakfast and after the first point on the agenda, we are already 45 minutes behind schedule!
My session started only 15 minutes late, so we made up time.
I speak about "Who we are" Who we were" and where we are going.
I try to explain to them the concept of our SHAPE
S - Spiritual gifts
H - Heart (passion)
A - Ability
P - Personality
E - Experience
During the lunch break I have the opportunity of speaking to two senior pastors.
They tell me how they became Christians. It was a very moving story. Ps Gan told me that he was really in slavery in Hinduism. They had many wild feasts at the place where the church now stands. Being a Hindu didn’t bring him any peace though. Many times he thought about committing suicide. In Kathmandu, he was given a tract. This pointed him to Jesus. He did become a Christian and started a small fellowship at his home. After they killed a cow, he was arrested and charged with this "crime". However the charge wouldn’t stick, so they decided to charge him with changing his religion, which was illegal in the Hindu Kingdom of Nepal. He spent 11 months in jail before he was finally released. Now his small fellowship has 500 members and they have planted 13 other churches.
Ps Lok had also a very moving testimony. The thing that sticks out in my mind is that he started a church and they locked him and the other believers in the church for 3 days without food or water. They finally let them out, giving the pastor a beating and throwing him in a river.
That didn’t deter him. He is now responsible of more than 100 (newly planted) churches.
In the afternoon session, I had planned just to say a few words about being a son of God, but went on to speak about rejection. I then taught about the baptism in the spirit. The people were very open and we had a good time of ministry at the end of the session.

Tuesday, 20th March 2007
The seminar yesterday went well. People were filled with the Spirit and there was a general sense of encouragement.
Besides talking about the baptism in the spirit - which they all seemed to understand - I spoke about the need of having fathers and mothers in the church.
I finished off with a word about stirring up the gift of God that is within you.
At the moment I am writing this, we are preparing to leave (walking). However it seems we won’t be leaving for another couple of hours, as they want to give us something substantial to eat for the journey.

We left at 10.30am and were back at our night accommodation at 2.30pm. I did it in just under 4 hours!
The views were magnificent on the way. As we proceeded down the first mountain, my legs were very shaky, but as we continued, they got used to the hard work. We went up and down. Coming back there seemed to be much more up than down!
Actually, I am sure it was doing me good. After resting a little while at our destination, my legs would hardly move, so I went to have a lie down. After that, I went to wash my feet! That was something I hadn’t been able to do for the past four days.

KENYAN DROUGHT / FAMINE

In October we were in Kenya and visited Edward and Fridah Buria. Just before Christmas they sent us and other friends a report of what had happened in the area of famine relief:

The last one year or so has been a year in which we were so overstretched by a prolonged and a wide spread drought that brought about serious famine that affected well over 4 million Kenyans, our own people were not spared. All this forced us to step out in faith and stand with our people fully - this forced me to put together an initiative coded Together Against Famine (TAF)

Together against famine has therefore been an amazing vehicle that has helped us sustain well over 11,000 souls amongst the worst hit areas and where we have churches for the last 11 months or so. We have supplied close to 2 million kgs of cereals, and almost 100 tons of children food supplies throughout the year, that atleast provided a meal each day to the targeted families for a whole year. Our greatest joy has been getting to know that not one in the areas of our concentration died as a result of famine. Where death occurred, it was due to other causes.

As we celebrated the arrival of the much awaited rains after much prayer before rains, we distributed tens of thousands kgs of planting seeds to our people. Little did we know that it was a matter of time for the same rains to become another major national crisis. As I write this letter, hundreds of thousands of people have been misplaced by floods that have affected over 3/4 of the country killing so many lives, causing major destruction to our infrastructure hampering rescue emergency operations.

Looking back to the said period, I also noticed that God's kingdom advanced to amazing proportions in so many ways. Just to mention but a few:-

(1) Reports received from the various relief centres show that close to 2,000 have responded to the gospel and added to the local churches
(2) Over 20,000 have been touched by His love and compassion, opening their minds to the existence of God who loves and cares
(3) An amazing fund was created attracting millions and millions of shillings from God's family worldwide. Still the most exciting part has been seeing corporate companies and the government recognizing our God-given mandate and entrusting us with huge resources for distribution to the affected.
(4) The general high recognition of the church by the authorities

All these considerations and happenings have greatly encouraged us despite the magnititude of our challenges. It is amazing to see how God has used our challenges and difficulties to advance His kingdom. I am also so encouraged and impressed by the effectiveness of all our teams that are involved in the responses. To all these, a very special thank you! Without you, thousands of people would not have been sustained so far.

At the moment the following measures are under way that are aimed at bringing hope and a more lasting solutions - We already have purchased around 162 cows, several hundreds of goats that will be distributed from the 18th December. We will also at some point distribute thousands of chickens. Also planned is kick off of several small businesses through revolving small loans

Borneo: Island of Contrasts

by Wesley Kawato
Borneo, the world's third largest island, is a land of darkness and light-a place of stark contrasts. Some of the most Christianized people groups live on this tropical island next to some of the most unreached people groups in the world. Three sovereign nations have holdings on this island: Indonesia, Malaysia, and Brunei. The island has deposits of oil, coal, natural gas, and possibly uranium, yet many people groups live in stark poverty.
Borneo's HistoryBorneo's first settlers were the various Kutei people groups who migrated from the neighboring island of Sulawesi around AD 400. At that time the Kutei were Hindus. Chinese traders later brought Buddhism to the Kutei. There were many conversions to the new religion, but the majority remained Hindu. The Kutei people groups lived in the southern half of the island.
Around AD 1200 events in China sparked a second migration to Borneo. As the Mongols, led by Kublai Khan, invaded China, many people groups fled before them. The Dayaks were one such group. They took to the sea and migrated en masse to the north coast of Borneo. As their population grew, the Dayaks migrated south and contacted the various Kutei people groups migrating north because of population pressure. The two groups intermarried between AD 1200 and 1600. During that time languages evolved, and the Dayaks fragmented into over a dozen people groups, each speaking a related language.
But the Dayak conquest of Borneo was never completed. In 1600 there was still an independent Kingdom of the Kuteis on the south coast of the island, barely hanging onto life. Kutei was under attack from the various Dayak tribes, who by this time had lost all traces of Chinese civilization. Head hunting and cannibalism had become common Dayak practices.
Around this time Indian merchants brought Islam to Kutei and mass conversions took place. By the time Dutch explorers contacted Kutei in 1655 the country was completely Muslim. There were no Hindus or Buddhists left among them.
Some time after 1655, the Malays, a people group from the Malay Peninsula, invaded Borneo. The interior Dayak tribes proved too strong for them, so the Malays only managed to conquer and settle the coastal areas. Kutei collapsed as a result of Malay attacks.
After 1700 the Dutch came in force to Borneo looking for spices they could sell in Europe. They conquered the Malay city-states on the south coast of Borneo. The Dutch called their new colony Kalimantan, from a native word that means "River of Diamonds." While the Dutch were conquering Southern Borneo, the city of Brunei on the north coast conquered one neighbor after another. But the fierce Dayak tribes who controlled the interior slowed Brunei's expansion.
Over the years the various sultans of Brunei did conquer some Dayak territory in what is now the Malaysian states of Sarawak and Sabah. This led to frequent revolts. During the 1830s Sultan Hassim, a brutal Malay dictator who understood little about diplomacy, exacerbated the problem. His policies sparked a civil war in Sarawak in 1838. By 1840 the Dayak rebels were at the gates of the capital city of Brunei. Hassim felt he had no choice but to accept British military aid. Britain felt it was in their best interest to prop up Brunei. A military expedition, led by James Brooke, landed in Sarawak. Brooke used a combination of force and diplomacy to crush the Dayak rebellion.
Christian Missionaries Arrive in BorneoOut of gratitude Sultan Hassim made James Brooke the governor of Sarawak. Brooke wanted to "civilize" the Dayak tribes so he opened Sarawak to Christian missionaries. This action angered Sultan Hassim, a Muslim, so he negotiated a compromise: Missionaries could work with the Dayaks, but would be forbidden to witness to Malays or other Muslim people groups.
Brooke, an Anglican, invited his denomination to evangelize Sarawak. They sent their first missionary in 1848. In 1855 the Roman Catholics sent their first long-term missionary to Sarawak. During the previous two hundred years Catholic missionaries had stopped in Borneo on their way to the Philippines. Some of them had secretly won converts, but no follow-up had ever been done.
The Methodists began a work in Sarawak in 1901. Governor Charles Brooke, who'd succeeded his uncle James, gave a group of Chinese Methodists permission to settle in Sarawak. They were looking for a safe haven after China's bloody Boxer Rebellion.
The Chinese settled in the territory of the Iban, a subgroup of the Dayaks, but they ran into problems when they tried to evangelize these tribesmen. The outreach methods that had won them many Chinese converts didn't work. The Methodists failed to understand the communal mindset of the Iban. Few Ibans would think of changing religion without the approval of the tribal elders.
During the 1920s a group of Australian seminary students saw that the various church mission boards weren't winning many genuine converts among the Dayak tribes. Most fell away from God after a few years. In 1928 Hudson Southwell, Carey Tolley and Frank Davidson formed the Borneo Evangelical Mission (BEM). Governor Charles Brooke assigned the BEM a territory on the Limbang River near villages inhabited by the Bisaya, the Kelabit and the Iban, all Dayak subgroups. They won only a few converts between 1928 and 1936. Some of those converts took the gospel to the Lun Bawang, outside the territory assigned to the BEM. These local missionaries won few converts, but did create curiosity among the Lun Bawang people, thus planting the seeds for a future harvest.
The Lun Bawang were a Dayak people group who lived on both sides of the Sarawak/Kalimantan border. It was common for this people group to be drunk before dawn 100 days out of the year. Disease, crop failure and drunkenness were gradually reducing the Lun Bawang population, which is what Governor Charles Brooke desired. He wanted this people group to die off so their land could be given to other tribes.
But God had other plans. In 1936 Christian and Missionary Alliance (CMA) missionaries won converts among the Lun Bawangs in Kalimantan. The Lun Bawang people in Sarawak heard stories of changed lives among their countrymen across the border and remembered that the BEM preached a similar message in the nearby Limbang Valley. They invited BEM missionaries to preach among them.
Governor Brooke, blinded by his hatred of the Lun Bawangs, refused to extend the territory assigned to the BEM. For four years the BEM could do nothing except pray for that people group. During those years, local missionaries from across the border reached out to the Lun Bawang in Sarawak. In 1940 Brooke changed his mind and a team of BEM missionaries began working among this people group. By 1941 the Lun Bawang were completely evangelized.
Japan invaded Borneo in December of 1941, disrupting that work. Japan coveted the newly discovered oil fields in Dutch-controlled Kalimantan. All Christian missionaries were herded into prison camps. Between 1941-45 Dayak guerillas tied down thousands of Japanese troops with guerilla attacks. British agents encouraged the Dayaks to eat the Japanese soldiers they killed. The imprisoned missionaries could do nothing to stop this. By 1900 an earlier generation of missionaries had almost ended cannibalism on Borneo. In four years British spies undid that work. After the war missionaries began the process of ending cannibalism once again.
Aft1er Japan surrendered in 1945, missionaries continued their work in British controlled North Borneo and in Kalimantan, which became part of the new country of Indonesia. In the north, the Chinese and Dayak churches merged to form the Evangelical Church of Borneo (SIB) in 1959. More and more the SIB has taken over the job of taking the gospel to unreached people groups, but missionaries still serve among them, mainly in leadership development roles.
Progress has been slower in Kalimantan. Nominalism has almost undone the work of various mission agencies such as the CMA. Indonesia requires all citizens to join one of its five authorized religions. Protestant and Catholic Christianity are two of the choices. That law wasn't enforced until after the abortive communist revolution of 1964. After that the army executed people who refused to register with a religion, fearing they were communists. Many from the Dayak tribes registered as either Protestants or Catholics, flooding churches with nominal believers. They chose Christianity because they hated the coastal Muslim peoples who'd oppressed them for centuries. When Indonesia settled coastal peoples in the interior, many Dayak tribesmen went on a head-hunting rampage in 2001. People claiming to be Christians committed some of the atrocities.