Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Homeless in Paris, Christmas 2011

Many people struggle to step beyond what can feel like a formidable barrier to talk about Jesus or offer to pray for blessing or healing for strangers in public settings. Since my last update regarding my own struggles to stop, listen to and offer spiritual support to homeless people and others, much has changed.


This past month I’ve stepped over my invisible line, stopping and offering to pray for a number of people on the street. I’ve been surprised and sometimes delighted by people’s responses. Like when I offered to pray for a old hunched-over lady from Romania who begs in front of the Louvre, who kissed my hand and blessed me, and told me how her son is a Pentecostal pastor.


That same day I stopped beside a man from Bulgaria who bowed before those walking by near the Belleville metro, his forehead on the pavement, hands clutching a cup in front of his head in a gesture of extreme humility. When I gave him a two Euro coin he got up and warmly thanked me in broken Spanish. I learned that his name is Petrof and that he’s been in Paris about 3 months. “I don’t like to do this. I am used to working but cannot find a job,” he laments. “I’ve just come from Spain where I worked as a truck driver,” he says, pulling out his Spanish truck driver license. I offered to pray for him and he gladly accepted, telling me he is an Orthodox Christian. I prayed for his back pain and he said it went away. He too kissed my hand and thanked me profusely, giving me his cell phone number in case I hear of work or an address he can use to receive mail.


When we first moved to Paris I had a mental picture of individual French Christians inside big soap bubbles—only a thin, easily-broken barrier between a private and public faith. In fact the ideology of laicité came into being after the French Revolution, when a clear differentiation between the church and the secular state became part of the official French national posture. Many Protestants were glad to have some official limit to Roman Catholic influence, which dominated the nation for centuries. Laicité now functions to prohibit Muslim girls and women from wearing burqas to school or work, holding Muslims back from public expression. While this ideology has not silenced everyone, it is officially illegal for government workers or ministry or other non-profit workers who receive any public funds to talk about their faith unless they are specifically asked.


Many of the nations’ most effective ministries to the poor, immigrants, the homeless and others on the margins were started by Christians. Most of them now separate social service from any public witness regarding faith or anything spiritual. Most Christians I’ve talked with feel pressure to keep their faith private, and yet long to step out into greater freedom, which feels like almost a transgression.


In mid November I was asked to speak in a Reformed church near Valence (St-Laurent-du Pape) on getting beyond blocks/paralysis in evangelism. At the end of my talk an area pastor came to the front, deeply moved & began to really exhort people, at one point yelling out: "Ça suffit! Ça suffit! "That's enough! That’s enough! We mustn't be silent any more.” Many people came up for prayer, including a man who sobbed as he asked Jesus for greater confidence and boldness.


This past Friday night I finished my last night teaching an 11-week mission course at the Service Protestant de Mission Défap. The previous Friday, just after sessions on missional community and prophetic evangelism we had broken into five groups of four course participants and went out on the streets at 10:30pm to pray for homeless people and others. After a final dialogical Bible study on the Angel of the Lord’s seeking and finding Hagar in Genesis 16, sending her back to religious insiders Abraham and Sarah, we debriefed the previous week’s outreach.


Participants reported rich encounters and prayer times with homeless people, and experienced first hand the joy of seeking and finding God’s precious people like the angel must have-- and being evangelized in the process by these contemporary Hagars (whom the angel prophesied over and sent back to the “elect”, perhaps resulting in their change of heart). It seems that the bubbles are bursting and people are feeling called to reach out to people on the streets and beyond. Our next street outreach is set for Friday night, January 13, beginning with a time of corporate worship and prayer at the Eglise Reformée du Marais.


Please pray for the many homeless people this Christmas season. The weather’s getting colder and wetter. Pray also for those here in France who are feeling called to reach outside their comfort zone to share God’s love, for inspiration, determination and sensitivity to the Spirit.


Tonight is the official launch of Luke and my blog Homeless in Paris. Take and look and keep visiting at http://thehomelessinparis.blogspot.com

Saturday, September 24, 2011

Expecting and not (yet) seeing Jesus’ healing power

Continuing to expect Jesus’ healing here and now is often harder than writing it off as unrealistic or something to be awaited on the other side of death. Everywhere I travel lately I meet people and communities crippled by disappointment.

A man in Iceland prayed for days that his sister would come back to life after a drug overdose. A pastor of a church in the UK died of cancer in spite of massive prayer efforts. A close friend’s Pakistani Christian friend who advocated for minorities was gunned down in Islamabad in March. I myself have been discouraged by the slew of revenge killings in a Honduran community dear to my heart—and now by a close friend’s decline in a long prayer-bathed battle against cancer. What disappoints do you have, small or big?

“How many of you have been disappointed by God?” I asked a group of inmates back in July. Many were honest enough to admit frustrations at God not apparently answering prayers: their girl friends’ refusal to turn away from drug habits or the courts denials of their requests to be admitted into drug court rather than going straight to serve long prison sentences. Others were afraid to admit their disappointments—especially at a time when they really need God’s help. Many assume that being honest with God might get you on God’s bad side.

I have been learning to bring my complaints to Jesus, and encouraging many to risk transparency with God through the clear articulation of disappointments. Martha and Mary have been helpful teachers, and I’ve discovered the fresh relevance of John 11—a chapter dedicated mostly to people’s complaints to Jesus—who doesn’t punish them (or us) for being real but goes with them and us to the depths of grief—through the darkness and towards the other side.

The story begins in John 11:1-3, where Mary and Martha are mentioned, and Mary is forefronted as the one who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair—a bold act of transparent worship in the house of a judging Pharisee (see Lk 7:36-50). Mary is a true devotee who represents those in relationship with Jesus who come to him expecting answers to prayers.

Mary and Martha send word to Jesus about their brother Lazarus: “Lord, he who you love is ill” (v. 3). Jesus deliberately stays where he is for two days, and Lazarus dies. By the time Jesus approaches Bethany Lazarus has already been dead four days.

Martha goes out to meet Jesus, while Mary stays back, grieving in the house. “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give whatever you ask him” (v. 21).

Martha’s complaint is strong and so is her faith. Yet in the ensuing conversation it is clear that she has no expectation that Jesus can or will resurrect her brother before the last day (v. 24). Jesus responds, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me shall never die,” and invites her to believe-- in him. Her affirmation of faith in the aftermath of premature death, that he is Christ, Son of God, the Coming One energizes her as she stands before him. She goes back and takes pastoral liberties, tricking her despondent sister into approaching Jesus with two well-intentioned lies.

“The teacher is here and is calling you” (v. 28). Intercessors affirm as real that which is not yet actual based on what they believe to be true. Jesus was not yet in the village, as the next verse clearly states. Nor had Jesus called for Mary. Martha’s faith jumpstarts Mary’s. She gets up quickly and goes to him.

When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at this feet and repeats Martha’s exact complaint but without Martha’s confession of faith: “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

Jesus is deeply impacted. He doesn’t correct her, explain himself or in any way justify his absence. A series of verbs shows Jesus’ increasing closeness to Mary, Martha, and their dead brother. He sees her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he is “greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved.”

Jesus shows God’s willingness to go with us fully into our pain. Rather than distancing himself through theological reflection Jesus asks: “Where have you laid him?” (v. 34). The people invite him deeper into the concrete details of their upset: “Come and see,”-- and Jesus weeps.

Jesus’ empathy leads some in the crowd to complain as I sometimes do: “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?” (v. 37). The crowd doesn’t complain directly to Jesus as Martha and Mary do, but talk about him in the third person.

Regardless of different people’s ways of addressing Jesus, the text says nothing to critique people or to justify Jesus. Rather Jesus shows a willingness to go even deeper into people’s root disappointments and loss, inviting them (and us) to intercession to the point of discomfort and even offense. How far will Jesus go? Much further than we will it seems.

Jesus is described as being “deeply disturbed” but not intimidated as he comes to the tomb, a cave with a stone lying against it. Jesus commands: “Take away the stone.”

Martha represents the realist. She’s the voice of those who accept the finality of death and impossibility of repair. “Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days.” Martha resists Jesus descent into the grave.

Jesus addresses her unbelief with a challenge: “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?”

They take away the stone and Jesus is there, face-to-face with the rotting corpse of his friend. He cries with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!”

The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, “unbind him, and let him go.”

Many of the Jews witnessing the event believed in Jesus, and I have been feeling compelled to put my faith more fully in the person of Jesus than ever before. Though opponents sought to kill Lazarus and did manage to kill Jesus, and John the Baptist while Jesus was still alive—his resurrection means he himself continues to be the resurrection and the life for us—before and after death.

I’ve spent untold hours these past months grieving the death of the men of Mal Paso and of my own and Tierra Nueva’s seeming powerlessness to stop the violence. I have felt freer to speak my laments and complaints directly to Jesus—and it seems my faith, my intercession and my longing for transformation are increasing. There is so much about prayer and God’s action in the world that I still do not understand. So much remains a mystery. I am glad right now that the violence in Mal Paso has actually stopped. A calm appears to be returning to the village and TN’s Honduran leader David is feeling encouraged.

Please continue to pray with us for the Kingdom of God to come more and more to this village and to Minas de Oro—and for wisdom and strength for our leader David. Please continue to pray for Tina’s healing.

May Jesus increase your faith to bring your uncensored disappointments, complaints and grief directly to him in prayer. May you experience first-hand God’s presence, goodness and power as you come into Jesus’ Presence and as he goes with you into your difficulties to bring resurrection and life.

Thursday, August 4, 2011

Mal Paso: Overcoming Evil with Good of Being Overcome

There's a village in Honduras called Mal Paso “Bad Step” that is dear to my heart. Four men were murdered in a string of vengeance killings from February to June. In response, Tierra Nueva’s (TN) Honduran leader David organized a prayer walk that brought together TN house-church participants with Pentecostals, Catholics and other villagers—a very beautiful and unusual sign of unity. I sent out a prayer update about this last month.

Then in early July three more men were brutally murdered within a week. One of these men was Teodoro, a friend who first hosted TN’s agricultural meetings and eventual Bible studies in the corridor of his house in Mal Paso in 1984. Teodoro, David’s cousin and next-door neighbor, was shot to death right there in the corridor where TN first began.

David has been right at the scene of all these killings, attending to the massacred bodies of men he’s grown up with. He has accompanied the families to bury and mourn their dead and has been deeply shaken. All of these men were people he and our ministry has sought to draw into friendship with Jesus, friend of sinners. But it looks like’s the ruler of this world is winning on this beloved front—and this deeply troubles David and me.

There are no police investigations or effective law-enforcement in the region. The closest police post has young officers without transportation. They themselves fear for their lives in this wild-west-like region that is increasingly home to bands of heavily-armed young gangsters often composed of deportees fresh from prison sentences in the US.

The very people who are doing the killings are men who we at Tierra Nueva refuse to give up on! And yet we feel quite impotent with our naked gospel and prayers. We long for miracles, for Jesus’ way to be more attractive than the dominant approach, the “realistic” killing of enemies that alleges to bring security.

These recent deaths have been especially hard for David. David sees his neighbors arming themselves and living in the terror of the ambush, which involves incessant rehearsing shooting to kill first or be killed.

“I refuse to do this Roberto,” says David—who continues to be won over by Jesus’ call to love and bless enemies.

In all of my years of ministry I have never met such a grace-filled man of peace as David. He has poured himself out for his community, and together we have sought after these very men on the margins who now are dying. Last week another young man was shot to death on the road out of town to the fields that I’ve visited hundreds of times, and rumors are flying that others we know are on the list.

“Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Rom 12:21) is a beloved Scripture that we read and seek to practice. But how do we overcome evil with good?

David has given his life in love for this village and we’ve backed him up for over 27 years. We’ve helped the village install gravity-flow potable water and irrigation systems, establish agricultural committees, purchase land for landless farmers, implement re-forestation projects, begin an adult education program “Educatodos” (Educate Everyone) that is helping many who have only completed third grade continue their education.

TN has conducted group Bible studies in Mal Paso for years, drawing growing numbers of people. We have continued a more personal house-to-house visitation and prayer ministry for individuals and families. We’ve organized village fiestas and healing services where we’ve seen many people healed in Jesus’ name and filled with the Holy Spirit. I’ve brought teachers and spiritual leaders to Mal Paso from all over the world. David has organized a weekly worshiping community, and we established a number of house churches in this town.

We seek to overcome evil with good in every way we know how—but it seems we are not succeeding. I have even made contact with a Honduran General who is a Christian, asking him to help get a police post in this village at the request of the villagers. After an initial phone conversation and a number of emails, I'm not hearing anything back.

A number of families most affected by the violence have now moved away, including David, who has moved to the nearby municipal capital where TN is officially based. Others who are hearing of alleged threats via rumor are trying to move. The woman in charge of TN’s Educatodos has just told us her family is likely to move soon, taking another one of TN's key leaders out of the area.

I'm in conversation with our Honduran leader, David on an every-other-day basis by phone. We’ve been grieving together, praying for each other and trying to move forward. We see that we are at risk of losing hope, of adjusting our expectations of Jesus’ reign to the reality of Mal Paso’s violence.

Jesus’ warnings to his disciples in Jerusalem just before his arrest and crucifixion are both sobering and encouraging. They describe what we are now seeing.

At that time many will fall away and will betray one another and hate one another. Many false prophets will arise and will mislead many. Because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end, he will be saved. This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come. (Matt 24:9-14)

Please pray for David, for Gracie and me, and for TN’s Honduran faith community members:

  • that Jesus would keep our hearts soft and that we would endure to the end in our announcing of the gospel of the kingdom.
  • for wisdom for David and for me as I advise him.
  • for protection for David and his family, and also for Jorge, Arturo, Beto and others who remain in the village.
  • for those who are plotting more violence—that they would have encounters with Jesus, the Prince of Peace.
  • for an end to the violence in Mal Paso and a growing movement of forgiveness and reconciliation.
  • for Mal Paso's leaders and members of "hogares en tranformacion" (households in transformation)-- that they would experience Christ's peace and protection and be bright shining lights and agents of peace.
Please pray for Jesus kingdom of peace to grow stronger and the message of Christ’s victory over death to flourish and make a visible difference in this time of crisis.

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Lamentation makes room for breakthrough

In my travels I often minister in places where people’s expectations of God’s intervention to bring healing or any kind of transformation are low. This is usually because they’ve suffered big disappointments: praying for friends and family who haven’t been healed but remain ill or in pain, or have died and not been resurrected.

Disappointment naturally leads people to accommodate to the status quo. We too often adjust our theology and practice to make room for prayers not being answered. On a recent trip to England Gracie and I ministered in a church that had been through some major trials and big losses, including the death of their beloved pastor from cancer five years before.

I was speaking on Acts 6-8, one of my favorite sections of Scripture these days—and was struck in a whole new way by the realism and idealism in this story. Acts 6 begins with the apostles’ selection of seven people “of good reputation, full of the Spirit and of wisdom” to serve widows at an early church version of a soup kitchen. The apostles feel called to prayer and ministry of the word, and lay hands on these seven to serve in keeping with Jesus’ way of indiscriminate love.

I continue to be amazed to read how the first of the seven, Steven is consequently “full of grace and power, performing great wonders and signs among the people” (v. 8). Then right away in Acts 7 he preaches a mega sermon that enrages his audience to such an extent that they stone him to death and widespread persecution of Jesus’ followers results.

Such a big blow to these first Christians, who’d already been through so many devastating disappointments. Jesus’ betrayal by one of their own and his arrest and execution were fresh in their memories. His resurrection certainly brought radical hope, but Jesus then left them in his ascension.

Gathering and waiting was not in vain. The Holy Spirit was poured out at Pentecost, and frightened, timid apostles were transformed overnight into bold witnesses. But persecution followed swiftly: arrests, threats, beatings, orders to not speak in Jesus’ name again. Acts 5 ends with the apostles going away from their flogging “rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for his name” (v. 41).

The apostles laying on of hands leads to empowerment for healing and preaching, which leads once again to martyrdom and unprecedented persecution that scatters the remaining six table servers throughout Judea and Samaria, leading to house-to-house searches, arrests and imprisonment (8:1-3). As I was preaching a verse I have mostly overlooked struck me as critical for my English audience:

“Some devout people buried Stephen, and made loud lamentation over him” (8:2).

Loud lamentation over Stephen shows how seriously these early Christians took their disappointment and pain. Lamentation, the public and private expressions of grief, of disillusionment is essential. I wondered whether this community needed to give louder voice to pain, to complaint, risking the loss of faith to receive faith anew.

I invited people suffering from deep disappointment and despondency to come forward for prayer and was surprised by how many came to the front, some of them weeping. As Gracie and I began to pray the Holy Spirit came strong and people were being visibly touched. People were comforting and praying for each other and the love of God was so tangible and deeply moving. The presence of God was so strong that many people where not able to remain standing.

After a while Gracie and I both received some words of knowledge for healing and we invited people with various conditions to come for prayer. Person after person was being healed as we had people praying for each other and Gracie and I ministered to many.

I’ve been recalling many examples in the Gospels where people who come to Jesus expressing their grief or honest assessment of their lack of relief are met with Jesus’ apt response. I feel inspired anew to bring my uncensored laments, complaints and needs before Jesus, and am finding my expectations for his saving touch increasing together with an intense longing for God’s realm to come here and now.

It’s important to note that lamentation is not a technique that guarantees immediate breakthrough. After loudly lamenting Stephen’s death, things don’t get immediately better. Saul does house-to-house searches and drags people off to prison (8:3). But in the next story Philip, the second person ordained to care for widows, flees to Samaria where crowds hear his preaching and see miraculous signs.

“For in the case of many who had unclean spirits, they were coming out of them shouting with a loud voice; and many who had been paralyzed and lame were healed. So there was much rejoicing in that city” (Acts 8:7-8).

Persecution leads to scattering, which brings God’s strong presence to the excluded Samaritans and soon to the African continent through Philip’s next encounter (8:25ff). Philip's dramatic faith adventure continues as the Spirit transports him to his next assignment, inviting us into ours.

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Waiting for Miracles

Last Saturday my 16-year-old daughter Anna and I attended Bruce Cockburn’s concert in Seattle. Bruce’s music inspired and sustained Gracie and I during our years in Central America in the 1980s—when poverty, death squads and wars weighed heavy... and has continued to greatly bless us. Bruce’s song “Waiting for a miracle” inspires hope and active waiting for God’s intervention, which we often get to witness and continue to long for in greater and greater measure.

“…You rub your palm
On the grimy pane
In the hope that you can see
You stand up proud
You pretend you're strong
In the hope that you can be
Like the ones who've cried
Like the ones who've died
Trying to set the angel in us free
While they're waiting for a miracle

Struggle for a dollar, scuffle for a dime
Step out from the past and try to hold the line
So how come history takes such a long, long time
When you're waiting for a miracle…”
View here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgdIjvBMwoA

The other night as Bruce sang and played this song, my thoughts hovered over two immediate situations, one already being accomplished, another awaiting resolution.

Three weeks ago I came into the jail on a Thursday night to lead four back-to-back Bible studies. John, a guy in his late forties bounded into the multipurpose room, eager to attend the first gathering, scraggly goatee surrounding his crooked smile. He had good news to tell.

“Hey, remember when you prayed for my back two weeks ago?” he asked excitedly. “Well, I woke up that next morning and pain was gone, and it hasn’t come back.”

“Wow, really? That’s great news! Tell me more,” I said. “So how did you hurt your back and how long has it hurt?” I asked.

John told how when he was twelve years old (he’s now almost 50) he and a buddy were pushing a mini-bike along a road at night when suddenly they were hit head on by a man on a motorcycle. His friend was instantly killed, and he was thrown critically injured into someone’s front yard. 42 bones were broken, including a disk in his back. After four years of hospitalization where he was regularly put on morphine and meth, an addiction started that led to a life-long drug problem and four prison terms.

"I've been in nearly every prison in Washington State," he said. On top of that he saw his dad lose his leg in a boating accident and his uncle die of a heart attack as he witnessed the horrific loss.

“I’ve seen lots of terrible things,” he recounted, “including my brother die beside me on a couch after a 13-year-old shot him in the back of the head with a 22.”

“All these memories replay in my head all the time” he continued, “and I’ve been mentally tormented as a result. My back has hurt continuously all these years… until two weeks ago when you prayed,” he recounted, with joy on his face.

We give thanks to Jesus for this miracle, and pray for God to lift off trauma and cleanse his memories. I look forward to seeing him again tomorrow night to find out how he's doing, and if he's experiencing any relief from his tormenting memories.

In contrast to the “already” of this long-awaited breakthrough, conflict brews in a dusty village in central Honduras. I’m told the story of a man who migrated to the USA over ten years ago, putting his brother in charge of his land. He sent money down and his brother managed it with great care, avoided common pitfalls of drinking and trouble, and flourished. Siblings became jealous of his success, and spread lies against their brother that stirred up a bitter family feud, including conflict between the brothers. The brother who managed the farm was brutally murdered in February, and a cycle of vengeance is now underway that has led to the recent murder of the brother recently deported from the US, followed by the assassination of his nephew. More killings are expected, and law-enforcement are absent from the scene in Honduras’ current governmental chaos and resulting power vacuum.

Tierra Nueva’s main Honduran leader is deeply involved in peacemaking efforts and is in need of our prayers at this time. This coming Saturday at 2:00pm he and Tierra Nueva’s house church members are conducting a prayer walk around the village, interceding for an end to the violence. He has succeeded in engaging the participation of the Catholic and Pentecostal leaders, who will be joining the procession. Please pray for God to protect our leader, giving him great wisdom and success in his peacemaking efforts. We are praying and waiting for miracles— conversion and true repentance of those now caught up in the cycle of retributive violence, and an end to the death campaign and resulting terror in the region. Pray too for TNs growing house church movement, 'hogares en transformacion' (households in transformation). I’ll keep you posted.

Monday, May 16, 2011

New Ministry Assignment in France & Highlights from Integral Missions leaders gathering in the UK

There’s a growing spiritual openness among French people both inside and outside the church that was clearly visible during a short visit in late April, 2011.

I sat beside a French woman on a train from London to Paris who ended up sharing her life story and faith journey with me. It turned out that like me she'd been a serious rock climber. But she'd had to stop climbing 4-5 years back due to restless leg syndrome. After telling her about an inmate who God healed of this condition last month during a Bible study, she wanted me to pray for her, and expressed true openness to Jesus. Spiritual hunger among ordinary secular French people is spurring French Christians to seek more training and empowerment for ministry.

I arrived in Paris to attend a two-day course on deliverance that drew a crowd of people from across the city, eager to experience breakthrough. The course was excellent, and I was also able to check out an apartment for our family and schools for Anna (16) and Luke (18). Gracie and I are now preparing for a special ministry assignment in France through Tierra Nueva beginning September 1, 2011. For one year we will be based in Paris with two of our children. Our Tierra Nueva leadership team will run the ministry here in our absence.

Gracie and I attended seminary in France from 1989-1991, completing our MDivs there. Our oldest son Isaac was born at the end of our stay and Bob completed a doctorate in theology from Institut Protestant de Théologie in Montpellier in 1997. For the past 20 years we have maintained our relationships with friends and faith communities and with Eglise Reformée de France pastors and seminary professors. French versions of Bob’s two books have been published and he has been doing regular speaking in churches and training of jail chaplains in France for the past 7 years.

We have been invited to minister and teach with a church in Paris that is experiencing rapid growth and is serving as a theological and ministry training center to equip and empower French Christians. Our desire is to deepen our knowledge and experience of inner healing, deliverance and discipleship so we can bring these desperately-needed skills and knowledge back to Tierra Nueva and beyond. Because of our years of involvement we are uniquely prepared to bridge divergent streams in the body of Christ through a growing ministry of reconciliation.

We appreciate your prayers as we prepare to leave and work with our Tierra Nueva leadership to arrange for our specific tasks here to be covered in our absence.

Integral Mission Roundtable Highlights

Just before the train ride to France I spent four days in the England with 25 Christian leaders from around the world at a roundtable on Integral Mission organized by Tearfund-- a Christian charity in the UK.

The leaders had been called together by Jenny Flannagan, a previous WTC mission student of mine who now works with Tearfund. The hope was that like-minded leaders could clearly identify global mission challenges and priorities, signs of God’s advancing Kingdom and hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches. And this certainly happened.

It’s hard to summarize the many rich discussions, presentations and times of worship. I return home more convinced than ever that followers of Jesus must humbly learn from each other, seeking unity and collaboration rather than each building their own organization & name. Jesus’ prayer in John 17 shows his conviction that oneness brings the world to faith in Jesus’ being the Father’s sent one

“That they may all be one; even as you, Father are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you sent me” (John 17:21)

Here are some highlights for me from the roundtable.

Melba Maggay from the Philippines shared how loan officers are trained to naturally share their faith, bringing microfinance and evangelism together in a dynamic approach. Women on the margins are being empowered by economic opportunity and over 30,000 people are coming to faith every year.

Claudio Oliver from Curitiba, Brazil critiqued notions of progress that applaud Brazil’s economic growth as one of the Big Four, or BRIC nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China) as idolatrous. He emphasized how critical it is for integral development groups to remember that Jesus’ kingdom radically differs from dominant notions of economic and material progress that make the Western lifestyle the destination.

Ash Barker of Urban Neighbors of Hope shared about his ten years living with his wife and children in the heart of a Bangkok slum, where 80,000 people live in a 2 sq. km area. He pointed out that 1.2 billion people live in slums, and that 2 out of 3 slum dwellers live in the 10/40 window where there are the least number of Jesus followers. He referred to a recent survey where 80% of Christian respondents answered “yes” to the question “did Jesus spent time with the poor,” but only 2% answered “yes” to the question “do you spend time with the poor?” His call for Christians to relocate into places of darkness and need echoes the witness of Servant of Asia’s Urban Poor, Servant Partners, Word Made Flesh, InnerChange as well as Iris Ministries, Tierra Nueva and many others.

Jenny Flannagan talked about more and more Christians in the UK are discovering the imagination to live differently, go against the culture in some way, not getting on the ladder. Sign of something else being visible. Network of people trying to live in estates, building relationships with neighbors, rooting ourselves somewhere. Going against what parents expect. Another compelling logic.

Here are some highlights about what people heard the Spirit saying to the churches:

* Our responses to disasters bring people to faith—little churches working alongside people, with compassion over the long time—this leads people to believe. Need concrete things: signs of the kingdom, acts of compassion, otherwise we’re pie in the sky. But also we need a vision.
* The destination is outside of our control--- in Christ. Our destination is Jesus, who takes us to the Father.
* Need to repent of our confusion between the kingdom of God and development. Need to redefine success.
* Sign of the kingdom: putting the name of Jesus, rather than our own names in the highest place. Losing our name & perhaps our funding… to find our true identities.
* Must be ready to bear witness to the hope that lies within us.
* Call to discern what God is doing in a place, who God is doing it through, how can I support them.
* How do we trust God rather than in methods, knowing what’s God’s role and what is ours. Need to create the space, and trust God to do the supernatural part.
* Feeling the challenge to let go of competing, and presenting our ministry as robust. Let’s live instead in the vulnerability… fragility. Need for demolition sometimes. In Jeremiah 1:10 there are four verbs of demolition followed by “build” and “plant.” We’re good at saying: come do this. But not good at “stop that.” We need to learn how to agree with what needs to be broken down, demolished.
* Importance of bridge building. Reminding ourselves of “inside influence.” We all have networks. Need to expand those networks. Especially in media, business, church. At the end of the day: who gets the credit? We have models that says “we do.” But in the kingdom if poverty is being alleviated, if Good News is being preached to the poor… that’s what’s important.
* Two individuals from two separate small groups both received the words: “Shut up,” “listen,” [let’s not be] “lukewarm,” “stop” [doing what Spirit isn’t calling us to do].
* The term “Visitor” on our Tearfund badges was underlined as a reminder that Jesus Kingdom is not of this world and we are “strangers and aliens” even though we anticipate “on earth as in heaven.”
* Season of networking and journeying together. Building each other up.
* Need to avoid standardization at all costs. Need to keep the diversity. All the fruits are different. Fruit salad.

Just two nights before the big royal wedding in London, Andy Flannagan took four of us into the British Parliament where he works in an outreach to MPs (Ministers of Parliament) who are Christians. We were able to pray for God’s Kingdom to break in our own intercessor lobbying efforts right in the lobby between the House of Lords and the House of Commons, (where the very term “lobbyist” began).

I return home excited to see Tierra Nueva moving forward in our corner of the globe, pursuing God's kingdom of mercy and love among prisoners, gang members, immigrant and people in recovery. At the same time I can see God's call on Gracie and I to carry the riches we've gained in the trenches of ministry across lines to other camps, leveraging what God has taught us to raise up leaders across the body of Christ who eager to learn from Jesus, the poor and from each other for the advancement of God's reign.

Sunday, March 20, 2011

Finding God's Treasure: John

Last month in Cheltenham, England I decided to end a five-day course on missions at Westminster Theological Centre’s Residential by sending students out on a mission. My teaching covered diverse dimensions of mission: Biblical overview, advocacy & human rights, reading the Bible with people on the margins, healing and deliverance, liberation theology, sustainable development… For our last hour most everyone excitedly agreed to divide up into small groups to go out on the streets on a “treasure hunt.”

The notion of “treasure hunt” comes from Jesus’ parable in Luke 15 of the woman who loses a precious coin, sweeping her house clean until she finds it. Jesus’ second parable is about a shepherd who leaves the 99 in search of the one lost sheep “until he finds it.” More recently “treasure hunt” strategies have been developed in books like Kevin Dedmon, The Ultimate Treasure Hunt: A guide to supernatural evangelism through supernatural encounters and Mark Stibbe’s Prophetic Evangelism.

Everyone was nervous and excited as we numbered off so as to have five groups of three. One of the students, John seemed uncomfortable and asked to be excused from the mission. Another student, Rowena, asked if she could stay back and pray because she didn’t feel up to walking around town.

Once everyone else knew their group number & before breaking up we prayed for divine “intelligence” or clues regarding the “treasure” God had for us to find out on the streets: places, names, physical characteristics, conditions God wanted to heal, clothing color, etc. We took five minutes for each of us to write down thoughts and impressions that came to mind before breaking up into groups, praying for each other and then sharing our thoughts/impressions in our small missional groups. Our plan was to offer to pray prayers of blessing or healing for people we found who fit descriptions we received in prayer. We agreed to return 30 minutes later to debrief.

In my group Jan’s list of impressions included a man with beige overcoat holding umbrella, lower back pain. Rob had written down “black and white,” “Z,” confetti and arthritis. I envisioned a big parking lot, a bright blue car, a man with grey pants and black shoes and knee pain.

Since there were acres of big parking lots adjacent to the Church of England complex where we were meeting, we headed into the parking lot looking for blue cars and men with grey pants, black shoes, beige overcoats with umbrellas, “black & white,” & confetti. We searched through parking lot after parking lot, finding blue cars, but nobody anywhere on the streets matching any of the other clues! I was feeling some embarrassment, thinking: “Oh no, I’ve set up our groups for disappointment” and “did we hear wrong—all of us?” Praying for breakthrough, we headed back towards the church with only 5 minutes left before we needed to meet up with everyone else in the classroom.

We were heading back across the last parking lot, no treasure yet found when suddenly from a distance we spotted a man with a beige overcoat approaching a blue car. We picked up our pace. Were his pants in fact grey? (I later learned that in the UK pants=underpants & “trousers” is proper English). The closer we got the more the clues matched. Yes, his trousers were grey. Yes he had black shoes. He even was carrying an umbrella!

Then he spotted us and walked towards us, arms outstretched. It was John—the student who had opted out. John was the treasure we’d been sent to find! While his lower back and knee were pain free—his hip was hurting. We prayed for him and were all very moved and delighted by God’s seeking and finding of John, the reluctant one, one of our very own sheep, through us.

We then spotted a white Z pattern on the bottom of a young man’s shoe that faced us as he sat on a concrete planter with one leg crossed over the other. He had a black coat with a white collar, matching Rob’s “black & white.” We approached him and learned he and his girlfriend were homeless. While they didn’t have knee or back pain they were glad to receive our prayers and blessing.

We returned excitedly together with John to our classmates and heard some beautiful testimonies from other groups who had had found treasures of their own. I include John’s testimony and photos below.

Trying to run away from God

My name is John. Last week I was on a Residential Study Week in Cheltenham with Westminster Theological Centre. The pace of the teaching was extremely intense, with lectures from 9.0 am till 9.0 pm. By the end of the week I was exhausted, and longing to go home. Our final lecture commenced at 5.30 pm on the Friday, and you can imagine my dismay when our lecturer, Bob Ekblad, announced, "we're going on a Treasure Hunt in Cheltenham at the end of this lecture." I thought to myself, "Oh, no, we're not."

When it was time for the Treasure Hunt to start, I told Bob I would not be taking part. He was disappointed, as he wanted us to bless the people of Cheltenham, but he agreed to my request to stay behind in the classroom and pray for the others. At this other point, another student named Rowena said she would also stay behind and pray. The remainder of the class, including Bob himself, split into groups of three, and went to different corners of the room to pray, and to ask God for pictures of the people He wanted them to bless. Bob was in a group with my fellow students Jan and Rob.

All the students dispersed around Cheltenham, while Rowena and I stayed behind and prayed. After 5 minutes, I told Rowena, "I'm sorry, I can't stay any longer. I'm anxious about the journey home, and I need to find the three first-year students I'm giving a lift to." I left the building and went across the road to Trinity Church to find my passengers. I found two of them, Sarah and Tim, but Lee had gone missing. Sarah surprised me by presenting me with a beautiful bunch of spring daffodils.

As we needed to wait for Lee, I decided to use the time by walking across to the car park in Portland Street to put Sarah's daffodils in the boot of my car, which is a blue Peugeot. I put on my beige raincoat, on top of my grey suit, and carrying my umbrella, went to my car. As I was closing the boot, I was conscious of Bob Ekblad, Jan and Rob walking across the car park towards me. Jan was laughing, and the closer they got to me, the louder Jan's laughter became. I could hear her saying, "It's John!! Would you believe it? It's John!! Ha, ha, ha!!" I was puzzled as to why she should be so surprised to see me, as we had spent the whole week together in lectures.

When the three of them came face-to-face with me, I asked them, "Did you find any of the people on your list?" Jan, still laughing, said "We have now." I looked around, but could not see anyone else nearby. I asked, "Who did you find?" She replied, "We found you!!" When they had been praying in the classroom, God had given Jan a picture of a man in a beige raincoat carrying an umbrella; and He had given Bob a picture of a man in grey "pants" (meaning trousers) getting out of a blue car.

Jan announced, "You are our treasure, John, and God has told us to pray for your back pain." I replied, "Praise God, I don't suffer from back pain, but I have got a sore right hip as a result of sitting on those small metal-framed chairs in the classroom for twelve hours a day." Bob, Jan and Rob gathered round me and prayed for my hip. I felt a warm sensation immediately, and have not had any pain since.

I know that God was smiling, as He saw me trying to run away from His plans for a Treasure Hunt, when I fact I was running headlong into Him.

John Auton
Servant of God and Disciple of Jesus

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Jesus' relentless pursuit of inmates inspires others to follow

These days I’m more aware than ever of the extreme need for effective ministry in jails, prisons and juvenile facilities around the world. Two weeks agao I returned from 15 days of speaking in France and the UK. I’m seeing tremendous hunger for God and desire to step into direct ministry there and here. Everywhere I go I find people longing to step more closely alongside Jesus in his ministry of announcing Good News with concrete signs confirming the words.

A highlight in France was a visit to a French jail in the heart of Clermont-Ferrand in the Massive Central mountain range three hours south of Paris. Jean-Paul, a young Pentecostal pastor who does one-on-one visits with inmates invited me. He has also started a house church for people on the margins. He had never led a group Bible study in the jail and wanted me to help him get one going. Guards escorted us down narrow stone corridors through thick wooden doors with huge medieval-like key holes and giant black iron hinges. Men who’d signed up were led into a small multipurpose room one at a time by burly guards. We ended up with 8-9 men from France, N. Africa and sub-Sahara Africa.

Jean-Paul opened in prayer and I talked about our ministry to inmates in Skagit County. Soon we were reading the story of Jesus’ call of Matthew the tax-collector and the men engaged well, surprised by Jesus’ following of Matthew to his house, eating with his tax-collector/sinner friends and sending the law-enforcers away to learn what it means to have compassion. These men didn’t seem to have ever heard that Jesus is a friend of sinners. They were especially moved when we got some words of knowledge about conditions Jesus wanted to heal then and there: a heart condition, depression, night mares, back and knee pain.

“Is there someone here who was stabbed in the back and you’re still feeling pain?” I asked, launching out on a faint impression. “Yeah, I am,” said a N. African guy. He was open to receiving prayer and said the pain went away immediately. Jean-Paul and I prayed for several others who claimed immediate relief from back and knee problems. I was deeply moved to see these men touched by Jesus’ real Presence to heal. Jean-Paul just wrote me to say his first Bible study after I left went really well, and that Muslim man was healed of a back problem.

Upon returning to work with Tierra Nueva last week I went with Ryan to the jail for our Sunday Bible studies for inmates in B-Pod. In the midst of short reflections on Scripture we prayed for a man with restless-leg syndrome and another man with a broken hand. On Thursday night Chris and I did our four back-to-back Bible studies where I was surprised by one of the groups who declared proudly that they were “the God pod,” and had been meeting regularly for prayer and Bible study.

“So when did that start?” I asked. An older Caucasian guy answered confidently: “It was after two of us who suffered from back problems found that our backs weren’t hurting anymore, even with these uncomfortable beds, after you guys prayed for us a few weeks back. That kind of starting things off for us I guess,” he said happily.

Today Chris and I met with last week’s Sunday groups in B-Pod. I invited the men to put out their hands to receive God’s love, the Spirit’s Presence and we prayed for Jesus to pour out his Spirit on us all. I then invited the men to put their hands where they needed prayer, and most of the guys put their hands on their hearts.

Then I got an impression of one of the men’s foreheads hitting and shattering the windshield of his car, leaving him mentally confused, and decided to ask if anyone had been in a head-on collision and gone through the windshield. The guy I was looking at said:

“Yeah, I have. I went through the windshield and was thrown from my truck going 85 mph, was all covered with blood. I prayed for this guy, lifting off shock and trauma and praying for freedom from confusion he’s felt since the accident. After I sat down one of the inmates told me that this was the guys we’d prayed for who had the broken hand, and that two days later it was completely healed. This guy looked like Jesus’ special care and pursuit was really starting to sink in. The guy with the restless leg syndrome then told everyone that since receiving prayer the week before his legs were almost completely better.

While I am fully aware that healing is only one dimension of Jesus’ ministry, I am deeply moved to see how impactful it is for these beat-up men to experience God’s love in such tangible ways.

I was also moved by the growing interest among French Christians in reaching out to people in their prison system. The publisher of the French version of Reading the Bible with the Damned (Lire la bible avec les exclus) just published the French version of A New Christian Manifesto. I had two radio interviews with national catholic stations and will be featured in the French Catholic weekly Temoignage Chretien (Christian Witness), regarding ministry to inmates and others on the margins. In the UK, too, I have received invitations to train chaplains and to visit prisons in London and Manchester.

The harvest is plentiful and the workers are increasing and wanting training. Please pray for even more hunger and fruitfulness as our Tierra Nueva teams reach out to women, men and juvenile offenders here in Mount Vernon.