YO U T H M I S S I O N S M A G A Z I N E
>FREE
FRONTLINE
SE ASIA
MISSIONARY
MALDIVES
S H O RT T E R M R E P O RT
O LY M P I C G O L D - M E D A L L I S T
UNASHAMED
WASTED LIFE?
CHINA, BURMA
TOUR REVIEW
JIM ELLIOT
D I S A S T E R U P D AT E
INTRODUCTION Dear Friends, Passion for God is what counts. It’s that all-encompassing desire for His glory that drives missionaries to leave home and comfort in order to pursue the task of world missions. In missions, it’s not simply a case of setting people free from their sin and shame. There’s a bigger, broader goal. It’s ultimately all about making disciples of all peoples, making them into worshippers! As John Piper puts it, ‘worship is the goal of missions because in missions we simply aim to bring the nations into the white hot enjoyment of God’s glory’. Looking back through the Bible, we see one underlying theme from God’s faithful followers – passion for His glory. As radical as it may have seemed to the disciples at the time, it wasn’t a new thing for Jesus to command them to “go” to the nations (peoples). He was simply summarising and reminding us all of what exactly God had been doing throughout history. It was now their job to carry on that work. Jesus had opened their minds to understand that this was what it was all about... Abraham, Israel, the Psalms and the Prophets – it was all about Him! They finally got it! Their faith was no longer introspective. Their worldview began to dramatically shift. As they moved forward in missions, it wasn’t only compassion for the lost that drove them on through persecution, dangers and hardships. It was a bigger and greater world-changing perspective that propelled them to reach to the ends of the earth. God has to be glorified among all peoples.
CONTENTS JIM ELLIOT
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FRONTLINE NEWS
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O LY M P I C M I S S I O N A R Y
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L AO S S H O RT T E R M R E P O RT
05
NEWS
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S O W H AT O N E A R T H I S G O D D O I N G ? He is building His church, just as he promised. The good news is that tens of thousands come to Christ every day. Literally. The mandate that Christ gave us has been and is being carried out so that thousands of tribes and tongues are beginning to hear about Him! Now that’s something amazing! The job is still not done. There’s still loads to do and still more people need to go. Lots of them, too. There may be lots of missionaries but there are relatively few targeting their efforts on the places where currently there are no viable church. That’s important. There’s a huge imbalance in reaching the unreached. It gets worse too. Only 1% of financial support for missions goes towards work among unreached people groups. The big picture is this. It’s His Story and His glory that matters, not ours. Being truly consumed with passion for God’s glory will lead us into some serious action. Thanks for picking up this 4th issue of Historymakers. We’ll be featuring several Christians who have been consumed with that world-changing passion. Their lives have made a difference. What’s your passion today? IS GOD THE GOD OF JEWS ONLY? IS HE NOT THE GOD OF GENTILES TOO? YES, OF GENTILES TOO ROMANS 3:29
MARTYR
INSPIRE
JIM ELLIOT Many people thought it was a tragic waste of a life when Jim Elliot died trying to contact the Aucas. Yet, how many Christians would risk their life for an opportunity to share the gospel? Jim Elliot, a young modern martyr, gave what he could not keep and gained what he could not lose. A ‘missions’ statistic that profoundly challenged Jim was, “There is one Christian worker for every 50,000 people in foreign lands, while there is one to every 500 in the United States.” Early in 1952, Jim Elliot sailed for Ecuador. The plan was to locate in an old oil station that was abandoned because it was considered too dangerous for oil personnel. It was close to the Auca tribe and had a small airstrip. In February 1953, Jim and Elisabeth met in Quito and then on October 8, 1953 they were married. Their daughter, Valerie, was born two years later. Jim and Elisabeth worked together in translating the New Testament into the Quechua Indian language at the new mission station. The Aucas were a violent and murderous tribe and had never had any contact with the outside world. Jim wanted to bring the gospel there so he started a plan which was called Operation Auca. Besides him and his wife, his team consisted of five more missionary couples.
‘NOT A LONG LIFE, BUT A FULL ONE’ The men discovered the first Auca huts with the help of a missionary jungle pilot, Nate Saint. The first attempt to contact them was by airplane. They would fly around the camp shouting friendship words in the Auca language through a loud speaker and dropping down gifts in a basket. Encouraged by this progress, after three to four months of gift dropping, they decided to make a base on the Curray River, ‘Palm Beach’. After they had set up shelter they eventually made contact with the Aucas. After a little persuasion, they were able to convince some to come into their camp. Encouraged by this visit, the men felt that it was time to go in and try to minister to them. One morning, after numerous songs of praise and considerable prayer, the men radioed their wives saying that they were going to go into the village and would radio them again later. ‘Operation Auca’ was under way. The next day, a group of twenty or thirty Aucas went to Palm Beach. “Guys, the Aucas are coming!” As soon as the others heard that, they flew into action straightening up their camp. Little did these five men know that this would be their last few hours of life. The last radio contact they made was Jim calling his wife saying, “We’ll call you back in three hours.” Jim Elliot’s body was found down stream with three others. Their bodies had been brutally pierced with spears and hacked by machetes.
The story of Jim Elliot and the other missionaries can be found in the book and film ‘BEYOND THE GATES OF SPLENDOUR’
After Jim’s death, Elisabeth and her daughter Valerie moved to work with the Auca Indians. The love of Christ shown through their forgiveness allowed them to have amazing success with the once murderous Indians. Jim’s life was not a waste, in fact, God used his death to bring life through salvation to many Aucas and encouragement and inspiration to thousands of believers worldwide.
“GOD, I PRAY, LIGHT THESE IDLE STICKS OF MY LIFE AND MAY I BURN FOR YOU. CONSUME MY LIFE, MY GOD, FOR IT IS YOURS. I SEEK NOT A LONG LIFE, BUT A FULL ONE, LIKE YOU, LORD JESUS.” JIM ELLIOT
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FRONTLINE MALDIVES The Maldives, 1200 islands off India’s southwest tip, have jumped up the list of most serious persecutors of Christians. Indeed the country is now among the top five most consistent opponents of the Gospel.
B I B L E T R A N S L AT I O N One of the most important current ministries in this Islamic nation is the translation of the Dhivehi Bible, Dhivehi being the language spoken by the majority of the three hundred thousand islanders. It is an intricate process. Written from right to left, this locally invented script requires the full attention of a native speaker in order to communicate the message well and to sound natural. It also makes the printing process much more complicated. Then there is the added problem that word choices of one translator may not communicate clearly to everyone in the intended audience or maybe even finding a word in a culture where no word exists in their language, such as the word snow! Draft versions have to be evaluated by other native speakers to verify that the translation is both understandable and accurate. Each translated draft is back-translated into English so that non-Maldivian experts can check for errors. In addition to the time and energy this takes, many Maldivians are afraid to read the Bible because, from a young age, they have been warned against it. A Maldivian Bible translator can expect persecution and rejection from the community as a reward for this work. With maybe just ten Maldivian Christians in the world today, completion of the Dhivehi Bible is taking time. Several books have already been translated, tested and printed… and placed in the hands of Maldivians. That’s amazing progress! You can be praying that others would be able to get a hold of the Scriptures, would be hungry to read it and that the Spirit would help them understand something so very far removed from the way they have been raised to think, believe, act and worship. The Bible, of course, is not available to buy in the islands. Meanwhile, you can be praying for a series of weekly radio broadcasts by our partners. We have made a commitment to help with the costs for this incredible new ministry. Dhivehi broadcasts into the islands will be starting soon and will be reviewed after three months with the possibility of doing more afterwards. Other ministries continue too. We are not always able to report these freely but you can be asking the Lord to oversee all that is happening, to guide the people involved and that many more Maldivians would be brought into a relationship with Him.
W H AT Y O U C A N D O There is a united and concerted prayer effort from concerned believers in many countries. You can be a part of this. We will send you what news we can. Sign up at islands@asialink.org.uk
INFORM
MISSIONARY G O L D M E DA L M I S S I O N A RY
INSPIRE
ERICLIDDELL
Most of us only think about Eric Liddell as ‘the man who wouldn’t run on Sunday’, about whom about the Oscar winning movie ‘Chariots of Fire’ was made. He was known as the ‘Flying Scotsman’ and was the first of his country to win Gold during the 1924 Paris Olympics. But Liddell achieved a greater prize than Olympic Gold later on in his life. After the Olympics, Liddell returned to China to work as a missionary. His family, originally from Scotland, worked in China during the time of the Boxer Rebellion. Liddell worked as a teacher at a school for Chinese boys at which he taught chemistry and organized sports. He married in 1934 and in 1936 China prepared for war as Communist and Nationalist tensions increased. Liddell was asked by the London Missionary Society to give up his work in Tientsin, and work as a village evangelist in Siao Chang. This was a dangerous area. Liddell could not take his wife and two daughters with him and he was forced to leave them behind when he went to work there. He was able to visit on occasion, but it was a long journey. Visits were not frequent.
E VA N G E L I S T The villages Liddell worked in suffered many hardships as a result of the warring between Communists and Nationalists. On one day, the Communists would pillage and destroy a village and then leave. Later, on another day, the Nationalists would come and do the same thing. His job in the area was evangelism and to encourage the Christians already there. The work was dangerous. Travelling in the countryside with Communist and Nationalist forces equally hostile to missionary work put Liddell in harm’s way on a regular basis. The Japanese invaded China and in 1940 Liddell told his wife to take their children to Canada where she could live with her parents. He stayed behind in Tientsin to continue his work. Liddell was sent by the Japanese to an Internment Camp where 1800 other internees were confined. He was not dissuaded by his circumstances. He worked tirelessly in the camp, doing just about anything that needed to be done, whether it was bible study, teaching children who were trying to keep up their studies, or organizing sports. In a prisoner exchange bargain, his freedom was arranged by Winston Churchill, but he gave it up and let a pregnant woman leave instead.
I H AV E F I N I S H E D T H E R A C E In 1944, Liddell was not well. The doctors did not have the resources to diagnose the real nature of the problem. On February 21, 1945, he began coughing uncontrollably, and as friends came to his aid, he lay back and uttered the words “It is surrender”. An autopsy later revealed that Liddell had a large tumour on the left side of his brain. He died never having seen his third child, Maureen Liddell. This man was truly committed to the cause of Christ. He had the opportunity to leave China but he chose to stay. He poured his life into the work of reaching the lost in China. He worked for a prize far greater than gold, even Olympic gold.
I HAVE FOUGHT THE GOOD FIGHT, I HAVE FINISHED THE RACE, I HAVE KEPT THE FAITH. 2 T I M O T H Y 4 : 7 “GOD MADE ME FAST. AND WHEN I RUN, I FEEL HIS PLEASURE” ERIC LIDDELL
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EYE WITNESS
In July, a Historymakers team delivered Bibles and teaching materials to underground believers in the Communist nation of Laos in SE Asia. This is their eye-witness report: On our first night in Laos, we were cautiously able to share our faith with a man who was sitting playing his guitar in a shop front. ‘N’ spoke good english and had already heard of ‘Yesu’ (Jesus) from the work of missionaries and was very close to becoming a Christian. We plan to keep in touch with him via email. Soon after, we spent 10 hours travelling by mini-van to meet members of the underground church. We were able to safely deliver materials to the believers and as a real bonus we also managed to spend a few hours with one of the housechurch leaders. ‘S’ told us how the Church in Laos is growing, particularly among some of the tribal people groups. He also gave us a few prayer needs, especially for imprisoned Chrisitans like Article too sensitive for the retired government official who has served 10 years of a 15 years sentence for evangelizing other officials. He also told us about a government-granted licence that Christians need in order to share the Gospel with others – a card that only a handful of people have been given! ‘S’ mentioned that in each housechurch, only two out of three people have a Bible of their own... a sobering reminder that even though we have been taking teams into Laos for a number of years now, we are only scratching the surface of the need of the Christians in Laos. Needless to say, ‘S’ was extremely grateful to the whole team for carrying rucksacks full of God’s Word to be distributed among the tribal house churches. Each day the team was blessed with opportunities to share about Jesus with Buddhist monks, Lao people and English speaking minority tribal people. One such instance led one team member to make friends with a new believer. ‘T’ who was only 17 years old, invited us to join with a small gathering of believers who were studying God’s Word together every week. The topic for that day – Persecution! We were all humbled as we spoke with ‘T’ and with others about persecution they were already experiencing from their families and authorities.
INFORM
Later that week we went to visit a local housechurch Sunday gathering. ‘S’ had assured us it wouldn’t cause any problems for the local believers. What a tremendous privilege to join in worshipping Yesu and listen to God’s Word in a tiny building which over 70 Christians squeezed into each week. The team even had the opportunity to sing Amazing Grace to the congregation–a melody which some of the older believers knew already and brought tears to their eyes and to ours too! We travelled on to another part of the country to distribute in villages. One of our drivers spoke good English so a team member shared about Jesus. He had owned an English Bible years before in the capital city but could not remember any of it. Amazingly enough, we had kept back one copy of the Bible to bring home to the UK to use in meetings about Laos. Later that night we met again. He was overjoyed to receive the Bible in his own language, even though he was Buddhist. We instructed him to read the Gospel of John and told him we would pray that he would give his life to Christ. He said he would like to but that his grandparents, who internet viewing. were Buddhist, would be offended if he did. Please pray that God would continue to bless the Church in Laos. Pray that those who have been imprisoned for their faith would continue to stand firm and that the Holy Spirit would bring comfort to them in their time of need. Pray that minority tribal groups would be reached with the Good News. Here’s a testimony from one of the team members: “The trip to Laos with AsiaLink’s youth department, ‘HistoryMakers’, was something I’ll never forget. God showed me that, although the people are being persecuted for their faith, He hasn’t forgotten them and that He is blessing them as they serve and obey Him, despite the consequences they could face in doing so. We in Ireland and the UK need to learn from them and start obeying God when it comes to sharing our faith, or we’ll never experience the blessings and growth that they see. Attending the underground church was a highlight for me and I left Laos feeling encouraged in my faith and challenged at the same time.” Suzie, Ireland FOR MORE INFORMATION ON SHORT TERM OPPORTUNITIES WITH HISTORYMAKERS, EMAIL: historymakers@asialink.org.uk or PHONE: 0161 442 3349 (Replace ‘0’ with +44 from outside the UK)
INFORM
NEWS CHINA : HOPE IN SICHUAN A primary school destroyedby the earthquake.
The aftermath of the horrible disasters in Asia has seen God bring some beauty out of the ashes of people’s lives. Many Chinese (and some foreign) Christians have been at the forefront of aid efforts in Sichuan Province, motivated by a love for God and compassion for the victims of the earthquake, which has left in excess of five million people homeless. The Chinese house church believers in particular have boldly proclaimed the
Good News of Jesus Christ at the same time as they have been helping people and this combination of great love and great boldness has proven irresistible. One report we have received says that more than 3,000 people in Sichuan have repented of their sin and given their lives to Jesus Christ. Our partner Asia Harvest has so far sent enough funds to China to buy 1,000 emergency aid kits. Please continue to pray, as the relief work moves to the rebuilding stage.
BURMA: RELIEF WORK Vunga is in charge of our relief efforts and reports, “The Lord really used our relief effort to bring many people to Christ and to the Church and many more express sincere interest in the Gospel.
We baptised 18 new believers last Saturday. This Sunday, Lord willing, we will baptise another four. Our childrens ministries have increased in attendance to more than 400 children weekly in five locations. All of these were taught by our Bible students.”
A primary school destroyedby the earthquake.
In Burma too we are seeing the Lord at work in people’s hearts. As food, clothing and medical aid were taken down the Irrawaddy river to villages still to be reached by relief workers, there was opportunity not only to show, but also to tell openly, of God’s love.
Praise God that we can see His hand at work even in these awful disasters.
UNASHAMED: YOUTH CONCERT Paul wasn’t ashamed. He says “For I am not ashamed of the Gospel, because it is the power of God for everyone who believes…” (Rom 1:16). While we say “I am not ashamed”, our lives don’t always speak it. Too often we are caught up in the the things of this world, too easily satisfied
with its enjoyments, too quickly forgetting God Himself.
To read more about the Unashamed ministry, go to:
HistoryMakers hosted the Manchester leg of the UK tour. It gave us the chance to give a missions challenge to the audience and to share the vision behind HistoryMakers and the work of AsiaLink to the 116 Clique.
www.desiringgod.org/Blog/1265_living_unashamed/
Altogether, it was a fantastic day, topped off with an excellent concert, powerful ministry from the artists and ten people even made commitments to Christ!
By now you should be receiving our e-update. Every month we send out up to date information on the HistoryMakers ministry and AsiaLink projects, including cool videos,
inspiring sermons, missions quotes, Scriptures and prayer points. If you signed up at a HistoryMakers meeting and you haven’t received emails yet, then there’s a good chance your email wasn’t legible! Please contact isabel@asialink.org.uk with your correct email address and we’ll make sure you’re added to the database.
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This summer, the 116 Clique toured the USA and the UK. These weren’t just concerts. They were a call to believers to live UNASHAMED of the GOSPEL!
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Y WILLIAM CARE
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Illustration taken from ‘Conventional Wisdom’ by A. Auderset Used with the kind permission of Monarch Books.
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