21August2009
Posted by hpshaiti under: Personal walk.
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Deficits, Deficits!
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Lately in my devotions I’ve been reading the book of Joshua. There are some amazing stories. God encourages Joshua over and over again to be strong and courageous. Then God acts on behalf of His people. Logistically there was no way this little band of marauders should have been able to conquer the people of the land of Canaan. But Joshua 1:9,10
“The LORD has driven out before you great and powerful nations; to this day no one has been able to withstand you. One of you routs a thousand, because the LORD your God fights for you, just as he promised.”
Many of our missionaries who are currently on Homeland Ministry Assignment need to be reminded of these odds. Several face large deficit ministry accounts and lots of new support to raise. Humanly speaking it’s impossible, especially in tough times. BUT GOD….!
As I may have told you Pat and I are among them. We start HMA next month with a mountain of $2500 a month to raise. We need reminded that 2 is 2000 in God’s army!
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21August2009
Posted by hpshaiti under: Personal walk.
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Prayer Makes a Difference
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I’m sure you remember the time Pat and I were the regional directors for Uganda, Africa. Thus we know first hand the great needs in that country. We even helped plan a strategic plan for WGM to meet some of those needs. It’s a plan of great vision with outreach into five of the central regions and across into neighboring countries. A plan, to be very honest, that looked very unrealistic in light of their small missionary staff.
Then a few months ago the Uganda team organized a 24 hour prayer chain. They called all their partners in the US to join with them in prayer for the urgent needs in Uganda. One of the requests every week was for 25-30 new missionaries in the next five years. I almost laughed. On most of our fields we’re lucky to get one or two a year.
Last week in the WGM Lifeline http://www.wgm.org/lifeline Uganda was praising the Lord because they have 14 new MD’s (Mission Disciples) under appointment. I’m not laughing any more. God is answering their prayers, and the prayers of their partners like you!
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30January2009
Posted by hpshaiti under: Personal walk.
Yesterday morning I was trying to get home from Kentucky after being away for six weeks. So I wasn’t very excited when a helpful Lexington resident rolled down his window at a stop light and informed us our rear passenger tire was very low. That was an understatement. Time we got to a service station it was flat.
But it stayed up after being pumped just long enough to get us to an SS Tire store that was coincidentally only a block away. And while they were installing two new tires, we sat in the waiting room watching the Today show. Imagine my astonishment when I saw a picture of George Beverly Shea and heard that he will celebrate his 100th birthday Sunday, Feb. 1!
What a trip down memory lane! I grew up listening to Bev Shea on my Dad’s 33 1/3 rpm records. He had a beautiful voice, and the spirit to go with it. How do you live to be 100? By loving and serving God. Putting him first. Living humbly before Him. Billy Graham said about him, “Bev was the very first person I asked to join me in evangelism. He was well known in the Midwest, but at the same time he was humble… It was God who brought us together. (His) rich, bass baritone voice has touched the hearts of millions in our Crusades… I don’t believe I’ve ever heard him utter an unkind or critical word about anyone.” Dr Gordon Moyes
At home last evening I listened again to one of His CD’s. He sings “Precious Memories”. One of the formative memories in my life includes George Beverly Shea on that little battery operated record player in my bedroom/home school class room in Burundi, Africa as an MK singing \”The Wonder of it All\”.
4August2008
Posted by hpshaiti under: Missiology.
Interesting side note in my devotional reading this morning. The apostle Paul in writing to the Colossians (4:11) mentions several men who are with him in Rome and then notes, “These are the only Jews amoung my fellow workers for the Kingdom of God, and they have proved a comfort to me”
This is the same Paul who says that in Christ there is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither free nor slave. But even for Paul there’s something comforting, comfortable, about being with those of his own background and culture!
Parenthetically, for me as an MK (missionary kid) the question is what is my culture? Who are my people? But I really do often find myself enjoying the fellowship of fellow MK’s! We understand one another. I also feel more ‘at home’ with people of African decent – Haitians, Caribbean Islanders, or Africans. We are marked, just as Paul was, by our culture.
28July2008
Posted by hpshaiti under: Missiology.
I’m reading a book entitled Making Disciples of ORAL Leaners put out by the LCWA. I knew story telling was the best way to reach most oral learners and that even here in the US 85% actually learn better orally. But last night I learned another interesting point. According to the author, stories are essential for changing a person’s worldview. “A third key element in discipling oral learners in order to limit syncretism is to recognize the importance of stories in transforming a person’s worldview.” He says that according to N.T. Wright, “Stories constitute the core of every culture’s worldview.”
“Those stories answer four fundamental worldview questions: Who am I? Where am I? What has gone wrong? What can be done about it? Every culture uses stories to tell us what it means to be human, what kind of world we live in, why there is suffering and pain, and what, if anything, we can do to deal with that suffering and pain.”
And he says, “Christianity has its own distinctive answers to those worldview questions.” (Italics mine.) He adds that, “The Bible answers these questions with special vividness and power in the opening chapters of Genesis.”
26June2008
Posted by hpshaiti under: Missiology.
Last night I picked up the latest EMQ (Evangelical Missions Quarterly July, 2008). When I read the article “A Lesson from Jose: Understanding the Patron/Client Relationship” it was like the lights came on. It explained so many of the things that happened in Haiti during our 23 year career there. We American missionaries think ‘democratically’ and try to impose our democratic ideas on our national collegues and churches. And whether we like it or not (and who’s to say our way is better) most of the majority world cultures adhere to a Patron/Client model. I’ll let you read the article. But to me this was an AHA moment.
6May2008
Posted by hpshaiti under: Personal News.
Pat and I are sitting at the Mid Town Motel in Tionesta, Pa. It’s good to have a day off after a week of HMA (Homeland Ministry Assignment). I guess this is actually the first real day off for several weeks.
Tionesta is a sleepy little touristy vaccation town on the Allegeheny river near Oil City , Pa. Spring has just sprung here. The sun is shining, the air is crisp, and the trees are full of flowers and buds. It’s a little town that could get in your blood! Maybe that’s why so many Pennsylvanians in the area spend their weekends here in the summer in camping trailers and little cabins. Not much to do unless you fish. But the woods and streams are enough to beckon one to come and relax.
6May2008
Posted by hpshaiti under: WGM Ministry.
Did you notice the new picture above? It’s of the Shiprock just outside of Shiprock, NM and in the middle of the Navajo reservation. This landmark has important religious and culutural significance to the Navajo tribe. In fact one legend is that it brought the Navajo people to the Four Corners land.
To Pat and me it reminds us of the Native Americans on all the reservations that God has called us to serve, and of our WGM missionaries who are faithfully living among these people, sharing their daily lives, and loving them to Jesus.
18April2008
Posted by hpshaiti under: Prayer Update.
04/18/08 Update
