mission:world | The Message in the Middle East

bma america

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BY: DR. JOHN DAVID SMITH | MISSIONS

f you have ever visited the Middle East, you have experienced its unmatched historical value and the incredible warmth of the people. We believe that you are going to be inspired by this issue of Mission:World magazine as you read about and connect with BMA missionaries throughout that region. The very cradle of our Christian faith today is a battleground for those who follow Christ and seek to make his name known.

Spending time with God’s messengers in the Middle East has left two indelible marks on my heart. One is the cost they are willing to pay in order to proclaim the

gospel of Christ in their respective fields. Did you know that the key leaders in the Middle East for BMA missions all have an American passport? Even though they are native to their fields of service, they could live in the U.S. if they so desired. They choose to be where they are in Kingdom work in spite of the demands. Another mark is how giving they are with their resources and themselves.

May their sacrificial service and tireless giving remind and motivate us of our purpose as the redeemed…

Mission:World!

Family of Ministries To help fulfill the Great Commission, the people of the BMA have created a family of ministries. Each has a unique directive, but all have the same Great Commission purpose.

BMA Missions seeks to facilitate churches in fulfilling the Great Commission through assessment, training, coaching, and missionary care.

Lifeword Media Ministries assists in taking the Gospel throughout the world through radio, television, the internet, and mobile devices.

DiscipleGuide Church Resources partners with BMA Churches by providing church resources, workshops, camps, and conferences.

BMA Seminary equips students to become pastors, missionaries, and church leaders.

Moral Action makes sure that the views of BMA Baptist are heard in the halls of Washington D.C. Minister’s Resources Services helps meet the financial planning needs of BMA pastors and staffs.

The BMA Foundation is the endowment instrument for all of the ministries of the Baptist Missionary Association.

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mission:world (USPS 575-320)

Volume 3 - Issue 5 September - October 2015 www.bmaamerica.org

Contents

Editor Donny Parrish Managing Editor Phillip Rice Design & Layout Jared Eakin Published bimonthly by the Baptist Missionary Association of America, 611 Locust Street Conway, AR 72034 Entered as Periodical Rate at Conway, Arkansas.

Periodical Postage paid at Conway, Arkansas and at additional mailing offices.

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SYRIAN REFUGEE MINISTRY

A new ministry field emerges as a result of the continued civil war in Syria

POSTMASTER Send address changes to: Mission:World P.O. Box 1188 Conway, Arkansas 72033 501.329.6891 Email missionworld@bmaamerica.org Website www.bmaamerica.org Subscription rate is $7.50 per year 65 and older, $1.00 per year Church Plan, 50 cents per month per family

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medical missions

BMMI’s expansion and future in the Middle East

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INTERFAITH CONFERENCE

Seminary students gather with followers of other religions

Lifeword.....................................................................30-33 DiscipleGuide............................................................38-40

Seminary...................................................................34-37 For contact info, websites, and more on the BMA family of ministries, visit BMALife.com

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BY: CHARLES COSTA | LEBANON

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eo Tolstoy’s quote is so true. You wonder how you can love those who slaughter people like sheep, desecrate holy places and bludgeon crosses as if they are the enemy. I guess the cross is the enemy. One recent ISIS video of a mass slaughter of Egyptian Christians was titled, “A message signed with blood to the people of the Cross.”

Yet in the cross, the greatest expression of love was shown. In the cross, God wanted to bury the hatchet with humanity, only if they would reciprocate and love him back. But in most cases that was not to be, and in many cases people are not aware of this wondrous love, and, therefore, have not reciprocated.

Enter BMA Middle East. Correction, BMA “Arabs around the world” thanks to the Internet. All of a sudden our field is the world.

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In the last three years, the intensity of our work has been on the up swing. The reason is simply that we have committed to the Lord to use every opportunity, and every tool available to share the good news of the Gospel.

No doubt, understanding the overall situation helps as we put together a strategy for our work.

Here is a snapshot to help you pray intelligently for the work here in this part of the world. Across the history of civilization, the Middle East has been a place of contention. It has been a land bridge between continents and a breadbasket for the vast armies that marched through in an attempt to control this strategic region.

y “

Middle east

ou wonder how you can love those who

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slaughter people like sheep, desecrate holy places

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and bludgeon crosses as if they are the enemy.

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I guess the cross is the enemy.�

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JORDAN

he Lord has blessed us with a great mission field in the country of Jordan, where people from different countries have settled. The country itself has 6.4 million people in addition to the three million people from different countries around us; some are refugees as a result of the conflicts in their countries, others are workers who came to work in Jordan and others. Our goal is to serve and to reach out to those people and people from different religious backgrounds.

I am Sam Jordan, BMA missionary in Jordan, and I was commissioned by the BMA as a full-time missionary in 2013 after I finished my Masters in Theology degree. I started my mission in Jordan in November 2013.

Right now, I serve as a pastor at Zarka Baptist Church located in Zarka City, which is the second largest city with a population of 1.2 million people in addition to the hundreds of thousands of people who come from many other Arab countries. Zarka Church became a BMA ministry center in 2005 when brother Charles Costa, our BMA missionary in Lebanon, came and started a partnership with the church.

The BMA became very active in the ministry through different projects, first in helping the church build and start the medical clinic, which was opened in March 2007. And the BMA helped in planting three new churches in different parts of the city. In 2005 three pastors were supported by the BMA, two of them still get support because of some financial challenges they are facing.

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BY: SAM JORDAN | JORDAN

Mercy Medical Clinic We serve around 10,000 people each year with diagnostic visits and medications. This clinic is a tool where we can share with people the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Our goals are: 1. To enable individuals and organizations to help those in need in our community.

2. To meet the urgent needs in our community (physically and spiritually).

3. To create heath awareness.

4. To show Jesus’ love in a practical way.

Eighty-five percent of the people who come to the clinic are from Muslim background. Christian satellite television is always running during the waiting time and Bibles and other Christian books and pamphlets are available for all.

Seminary Training We’re obligated to train new church planters and pastors. The BMA has supported many seminary students and some of them have already graduated and started churches in Jordan and Egypt. Right now we are supporting three new students who are studying at the seminary in Amman. Our goal is to train as many church planters as possible and send them to the field. We are dreaming of starting a branch of the BMA Theological

JORDAN Seminary here, so we can implement the different tracks of theological studies locally.

Leadership Training When you think of the ministry here, there is a huge need of trained and equipped people. Having different kinds of ministries helps the church to use every member in the ministry. We believe each believer is a minister and has at least one spiritual gift from God and he is obligated to use it to benefit the church. Our job is to help them realize their gifts and train them in how they should use those gifts inside and outside the church. Two months ago we started a special training for Bible teachers called “7 Laws of Teaching”.

Encouraging Pastors and Church Workers We praise God for the people who are serving Him everywhere, especially in the Middle East. Pastors in Jordan are doing a great work for the Lord. They always give sacrificially for the ministry. Many of them decide to stay here even though they have the chance to leave the country and live somewhere else. They believe that if they leave who is going to stay and do the work of God. They receive very limited income and they always live under great pressure. Pastors in Jordan do not have the chance to get special training during their ministry and for most of them; seminary is the only thing they have. Most of them are desperate to learn leadership skills. So we have to encourage and help them as much as we can. We are planning to do some pastors’ trainings and in December we are going to have an appreciation party for them.

Relief Ministry As a result of the conflict in the Middle East, more than 1.6 million Syrian refugees have fled to Jordan as well as half a million Iraqi refugees and others. Through BMA medical assistance and medications we help them get health care. Our clinic is open for them five days a week and our medical team is doing a great job. We give also other relief items (food boxes, blankets and clothes, etc.). We show them the practical love of our Lord and Savior. We have a team who serve among the refugees, visiting them on a daily basis and leading small groups.

Many have accepted Christ as their Savior and been baptized. Our goal is to help them, to share the gospel with them, to start a church movement among them and to train some of them to do ministry.

Cell Groups We do believe in small groups, so each believer can join one of those groups to be cared for. Many small groups meet each week in homes and some at the church.

We believe it’s a vital tool to disciple believers, especially from other backgrounds. Some of them cannot attend the church for their safety; so small groups are excellent for them.

Working among Egyptian Workers In Jordan there are more than 700 thousand Egyptian workers who come to work in Jordan. We decided to open the doors of the church for them to have their own meeting every Friday because Sunday is a working day for them. In the past, the BMA supported the pastor of that group so he could finish his seminary training in Amman. He is now planting a church in Alexandria, Egypt. So we are supporting the new pastor and have sent him to seminary with another Egyptian brother because we believe the church is a sending agency for mission work around the world.

Community Center God has given us a vision to start a ministry center in Zarka that serves the community so we can build bridges and friendships with people. As Jesus said in John 9: “We must work the works of Him who sent Me as long as it is day; night is coming when no one can work.” I believe it is our time to take advantage of the situation in Jordan and do the work of God. The reasons for this center: • 60-65% of the people of Zarka live under the poverty line, which means they do not have the opportunities that the people in Amman have.

• 59% of the people in Jordan are under the age of twenty-nine, and there is no place where young people can go and spend time together. This center is a place for those young people.

• Outreach to women in general is non-existent.

Women are treated as second-class citizens and lack empowerment and skills.

• Pastors in the area lack the opportunity to upgrade their theological training, leadership, and ministry skills in addition to the lack of training for potential church planters.

Invitation: Finally, I would like to invite you to come and visit us so you can see the work, help us by encouraging us and to be encouraged by us.

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SYRIAN REFUGEES MINISTRY

“H

ad it not been for the war in Syria, I would not have come to know Christ!!” We’ve heard this sentence more than once from people who have fled their country and ended up visiting the relief center.

Yazidis, nominal Christians, Muslims, and Kurds who have been pushed out of their homes and towns

by ISIS ended up being in Lebanon and meeting the Savior through the relief ministry that we are doing in Beirut.

It’s been quite a few years since Lebanon has witnessed such a spiritual revival!

Many people have been baptized since December, one of whom is a lady from Muslim background.

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She fled with her family to Turkey for being persecuted here for her faith. The Lord is using her in a great way there as she is having Bible study for her neighbors and friends. She even met one lady who used to come to our Bible group here in Beirut.

A seventy-five year old man came to know Christ through the ministry. He had killed his daughter and son-in-law in previous years. When he met Christ, he insisted on going to apologize to his sonin-law’s family; they were mesmerized! Now his son has started attending the meetings with him.

Even one of the church neighbors who used to cause a lot of trouble for the people coming there has already attended two meetings.

lebanon Sometimes the church cannot contain the number of people who are coming. We are encouraging people to open their homes for Bible study groups.

People who have accepted Christ are the ones who are helping in the ministry here; few locals are helping but the major bulk of the work is done by these sweet sisters and brothers.

Initially they had all come to get help: mattresses, blankets, detergents, food portions, diapers, medicines. But they found much more than they needed. They found the love of Christ that they have never experienced before. Some Muslim women are making very difficult decisions, and some are being threatened because of their faith; yet they are adamant on sticking with Christ and living/dying for Him.

Praise the Lord for His work among us: • People are seeing Jesus and he is talking to them • Many are coming to Christ • Lives are being changed • Even some are thanking the Lord; because of the war they came to know him

Prayer Requests: • Safety for the new believers as some of them are threatened by their families • Spiritual growth for the new believers • For those who are travelling to find mentors and churches • Pray for us as it is sometimes risky and dangerous to proclaim the Gospel among these people.

lebanon

I AM A WOMAN CENTER changing the Arab world...one woman at a time

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BY: NADA HADDAD | LEBANON

orn out of a vision to see women empowered to be all that they can be, and to know and accept themselves in the image of the One who created them, I Am a Women (IAW) is an Arab ministry by Arab women and for Arab women, with the focus of reaching out to nonbelievers.

We align ourselves with God’s vision to be a means through which God communicates with the Arab woman to be reconciled with herself, God, family, and community‌and to know that she is unique: loved by God, and able to love and be loved.

I Am A Woman Ministries exists to care for the Arab woman holistically by helping her recognize her self-worth through teaching, empowering her through practical training, and encouraging her to positively impact her world.

The Lord has provided us with the opportunity to reach out to the women in our community. Our utmost goal is to share Christ with all the ladies that come to IAW. However, this cannot be done quickly; we need to build solid, trustworthy, and caring relationships, which take time. Therefore we use different means, teaching different life skills and various courses.

Opening up a new world of enjoying fellowship with other women as well as training in practical skills, the IAW Center can be found in the heart of Beirut, where 12 ::: September - October 2015 | mission:world

all Arab women of all ages and from all backgrounds are welcomed and loved.

We occupy an entire floor of the Ras Beirut Center in a busy section of the city, located on a bus line to make us easily accessible. During a usual week, you will find the IAW Center full with an average of seventy women who are here to learn various life skills. For us at IAW the highlight of the day is when all the classes take a coffee break together to hear a speaker share a presentation of a topic pertinent and applicable to women: some fun, some serious (health issues, marriage or family matters, spiritual issues, personal growth, etc.). We use these break times to share the gospel at least once with any woman who comes to the IAW Center.

Our staff consists of both national and foreign Christian women, as well as partnering with local existing

ministries, who together form the IAW Team who share their skills and their lives with the ladies. We encourage our staff to form personal relationships with the ladies, which has proven very effective. A trained, professional counselor is a part of our staff, available to help those women who are dealing with abuse, depression, or other serious issues. We believe that we have the answers to the questions women are asking, as we share the Great Hope that we ourselves at IAW have found.

I Am A Woman Ministry is a unique, first-of-its-kind ministry in the Middle East, a center exclusively for women where an environment of acceptance is fostered, and where women come to share their lives without fear, persecution, or threat. The challenges and obstacles we face reaching out to the non-believing population of women are huge; however, we believe in the One who

can do more than we can ask for. And he has!

What makes us happy is to see some of the women who come to the center proclaim Jesus Christ as their Savior and attend the weekly staff Bible study. Many say that this is the highlight of their week and that they are coming closer to God. Apart from that we have a prolonged seminar about the marital/sexual relationship and the women benefit a lot. One woman stayed afterwards and opened her heart to the speaker and they prayed together.

We ended the year with a trip. On the way up to the mountains I was thinking that we should stop having trips; they do no good to people and then I changed my mind when one woman came crying and saying that the only time that she ever goes out of Beirut and feels that she “is living� is when she goes with us in such trips.

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EGYPT I

n Egypt, we have three active church planters who have been doing ministry and churches that have become self-supporting.

Pastor Atef Labib (Minyah and Hurghada)

Pastor Atef Labib, has been part of our ministry team in Minyah since 2007. Ministry in this area has been on his heart for a very long time. Samalut is his hometown, and he knows the area very well. There are thousands of families in Samalut; their backgrounds are either Islam or Coptic Christians. Both practice their religion in an extremely defensive manner, trying to preserve their identity. When Atef started his ministry, he could reach up to ten families from the poor areas in the town. With the help of the children of those families who invited their friends to the meetings that were held in their homes, the groups got bigger and the message started reaching every neighbor and friend, rich or poor, doctors or farmers.

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In 2009, with financial support from the BMA, Atef and the group that was working with him were able to find a good piece of land to buy and build a church building there. All went well through that year, and twelve of the attendees of these groups were baptized.

When the church building was about to be finished, the revolution started in Egypt. Violence was everywhere; robberies, kidnapping and burning down of churches were daily occurrences. This reached the church building in Samalut. Extremists stopped the work there and asked Pastor Atef either to stop his ministry in the building by force or sell the building to them. The building was sold, but the ministry kept on growing, reaching many families. Today, Pastor Atef has services on Sundays in a rented building.

On the other hand, there are families that can’t come to church on Sunday because they live far from the location where the meeting is being held. Walking the extra mile, Atef and his wife visit those families on a weekly basis to have prayer meetings and study the Word of God in their homes.

egypt It is important to mention that Pastor Atef has different home Bible study meetings in addition to church services. He has a weekly meeting for young adults in his house and does counseling for couples and families in a community that is suffering from drug addiction and poverty. Moreover, there are future plans to create a center for counseling and treating drug addiction to help the community by showing the care and love of Christ.

New land has now been purchased to replace the land that was sold by force in the past. Now they are in the process of fundraising to help them get the necessary permits and start building to gather people in one place and unify services.

Pastor Atef has another ministry in Minyah, in the Bani Mazar area. In addition to that, an opportunity to start a new ministry in Hurghada on the Red Sea has opened up, and a place to do ministry has been offered for use by the church planting team. Atef has been meeting with the team to look at options and implement the strategy of moving among people there, because there is a great need for God’s Word among the community there.

Pastor Gentleman Nabil (Sixth of October city and Mouassasah area, Cairo)

Pastor Gentleman lives in Cairo with his wife and daughter. He started his ministry in the Sixth of October city. This area is huge and has around three million citizens living there. Through some relations and contacts, Pastor Gentleman was able to start a ministry that had been on his heart for some time, and it aims to share the good news of the gospel with others and to start house churches. After a few visits to people he knows there and visiting friends of friends, he started having some doors open to start prayer and discipleship groups.

Through this movement, thirty families were reached.

As relationships were built, attendance grew. One couple is helping Pastor Gentleman in his visits and meetings through the music ministry and visitation.

The other area Pastor Gentleman is doing ministry in is the Mouassasah area, a suburb of Cairo. Gentleman was invited to start his visits there by another pastor from the Baptist convention because of the urgent spiritual needs. People there have social problems, witchcraft, problems between families, drugs and many issues that need the light of Christ. This area has ninety percent of traditional Christians. After a few visits to the families there, they opened their homes and hearts to the Word of God and started inviting other people to their meetings.

After a while, the group started asking if they could gather in one place to worship the Lord, and after they have seen that it is possible and that Pastor Gentleman is ready to lead them, they started collecting money to see what options they had. They discovered that buying a flat is not an option, so they opted to rent a place in the area. One of the attendees suggested giving the group the ground floor of the building he lives in after redecorating it for that purpose. That’s what happened, and today this place is where those groups and families meet twice a week. They have Sunday school classes, and home groups did not stop although they have a church service, because the need is huge, and meeting at the church will not be enough to help in personal issues and troubles.

The target for Gentleman is to maximize his work in the two areas, to have a unified place for each one that is owned by the church where they can hold meetings.

Pastor Assaad Mamdouh (Al Giza, Cairo)

Pastor Assaad is ministering with his wife in the Giza area in Cairo. They have reached twenty families in the last year. Pastor Assaad visits homes where people can gather and have some social time, pray together and study the Word of God. On the other hand, Assaad has a group of young adults that has been motivated to serve the Lord by ministering to children. It is important to note here that Assaad has the gift of singing and playing on different musical instruments that he uses effectively in his ministry.

Moreover, Pastor Assaad visits a rehab center for drug addicts weekly and does ministry with addicts there.

They love him and always look forward to his visit so they can sing hymns with him and share with him the challenges they are passing through.

Assaad and the people responsible for the rehab center are making sure that part of the treatment is through the Word of God. Pastor Assaad stays in touch with the families of addicts before and after they leave the center, which has been a key to entering homes of nonbelievers and delivering the Word of God. The challenge that Assaad is facing in the meantime is how to gather the people in one place; so he, his wife, and the group of young adults that minister with him are praying to the Lord for a place they can rent to hold services.

In a huge country with a population that exceeds eighty million and poverty that is over twenty-six percent with extremism fogging the mind of many, no doubt it is a great challenge to do ministry there. Lots of prayers are needed to support those humble servants who face many obstacles daily but lots of blessings at the same time.

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lebanon

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he prison ministry started during the Lebanese civil war on a small scale. Its aim was to share the gospel to more than 900 prisoners (in one prison building) who came from different religious and cultural backgrounds.

With the end of the civil war in the early 90’s, the Lebanese government opened other prisons in various Lebanese districts. This has allowed room for the ministry to experience rapid growth in spreading the Word of God from one prison to nineteen prisons for men and four for women with a total of seven thousand prisoners. As the ministry grew, so did the need for additional counselors to address not only the religious needs but also the psychosocial health of the prisoners. The BMA was an early and an avid sponsor and supporter of the work.

Despite the many challenges in working with the prisoners, they showed thirst to hear about God’s love and salvation. This has opened doors for the team of counselors to grow to thirty.

Ministry was provided in various forms: 1. Weekly Services: which focused on portraying how the Word of God can work in their life and change it from failure, bitterness and despair to experiencing hope in Christ.

2. Bible Distribution: where 75,000 copies of the New Testament, other spiritual materials, booklets and stories have been distributed so far.

3. Food & Clothing Distribution: regardless of the prisoners’ religious background or legal conviction…food, medication, clothing, cleaning material and other basic necessity items are distributed.

4. Foster Care: Kids whose parents are in prison are provided with foster care in a local Christian orphanage.

5. Legal Services: Legal and judicial support is provided to many prisoners that don’t have the means to legal assistance.

6. Training and Community Development Support: Training in literacy, languages and technical skill set (i.e. computer).

7. Home Visitations: Follow-up on prisoners who come out of prison and their families through home visitations.

Three years ago, we started organizing a yearly celebration in some of the prisons that includes songs, testimonies, preaching and distribution of Bibles and booklets. The local media covers the event.

God is working in the lives of many that have left the prison witnessing God’s work in their lives in Syria, Iraq, Sudan, Egypt, Lebanon and other countries where they are a blessing to their families and communities and some of them are servants of the gospel.

Please pray for the Lord to provide more means and people to serve His Kingdom.

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NEW HORIZONS

Yo u t h w o r k i n t h e M i d d l e E a s t

middle east

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lthough church planting is our main objective, it remains lacking without the supporting ministries that any new church plant needs. Our team in the Middle East has learned that first hand as new church planters encountered difficulties dealing with youth as a primary age group that is won to the Lord. Yet our church planters were not equipped to deal with youth and create a youth ministry that will accomplish two goals: a. To insure the long-term sustainability of the local congregation through a committed group of youth. b. To train a new generation of church planters and leaders.

With Beirut as a hub, our youth ministry missionary will start locally and expand the circle in keeping with the “Jerusalem…. to the ends of the earth” principle.

On the missiological level, we have discovered that time investment with youth brings manifold results. Primarily, we seek to reach out to them with the message of Christ and then, when saved, reciprocating by reaching out to others. Pursuant to evangelism comes discipleship and training.

The first focus will be on high schools. Unlike the United States, many schools will allow us to minister to their students. Of course there is no compulsion, yet many do come. In several events that we did in years past, we have had hundreds of kids attend.

We will seek to have chapel services, afterschool gatherings, special events, and Discovery Bible Study (DBS). These kids will be incorporated into Bible study groups on and off campus.

We have found that partnerships with other youth ministries are extremely helpful. Those ministries share our values and vision and biblical understanding. They extend our reach beyond what we physically can do alone. So, we will seek with our partners to get these kids into camps, sports ministry, and multiple training as they get involved further in reaching out to their friends.

Our roof has seen many barbecues for young people seeking to know more about Christ. How do you involve them in the church long term? You do

so by loving them and giving them the feeling that the church is their ultimate refuge and that Christ stands with open arms to receive them.

Over a period of time these young people will demonstrate their gifts and show promise. Here is where training for ministry comes in. Here is where allowing them to shoulder some responsibility comes in. You will be surprised how seriously they take matters and how well they will perform and deliver. Sometimes on-the-job training is needed, and we will do so gladly looking at the end result that God will perform in their lives.

One tool we think will be very valuable in the Middle East is a drop-in center. There are attractions galore for youth. We are competing against creative ideas that attract kids away from the church and spiritual things.

On another front, our youth ministry missionary will focus on training our church planters in areas relevant to youth work. Young people need to be handled with care due to their varying needs and interests. Unfortunately, sometimes church planters are ill-equipped to deal with the youth and their needs and end up losing them either to another church, denomination, or, God forbid, the world.

This, of course, is a pioneer vision in church planting. We have not paid enough attention to the different segments of our new church community.

We do that after the church is fully established but not before. Now we are taking the initiative to focus on these segments such as women, children and youth. We win them to Christ and then we disciple them within their age or gender group to make sure that we retain them long-term in the church.

All that being said, we want to implement it in all the fields where we have church planters. This means working in Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Southern Sudan, and Jordan, OK. Enough theory. Lets go into the practical.

We all need to pray. Would you pray that the person being considered for that ministry will be God’s man for the job and not ours? Would you pray about the role you can play in supporting this work?

We can dream of anything we want, but we realize that we cannot do it without God’s help and him working through his people.

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SAFE HAVEN HOME FOR GIRLS If one life is changed, if one child is saved, it makes everything worth it.

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he preschooler being abused by her father. The child who can’t remember the last time she ate. The one whose father passed away, leaving his wife struggling to care for their multiple children with no income. It was for girls like these that Safe Haven Home for Girls first opened its doors in 2007 in the heart of Beirut, Lebanon. Currently, there are twelve girls between the ages of six and fourteen years being cared for at Safe Haven. Some have experienced sexual abuse, many of them physical abuse, and they all know personally the pangs of hunger.

Safe Haven began as a vision and calling of Mona, Bro. Charles Costa’s wife. It became a ministry of Ras Beirut Baptist Church under the Safe Haven Society with three main goals: 1) to provide the girls with the food, shelter, clothing, medical care and education that they had no

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access to before coming to Safe Haven, 2) to teach the girls biblical values and principles that will shape their character and guide them for the rest of their lives, 3) to be a blessing to the immediate families of the girls by sharing the love of Christ with them. Since coming to Safe Haven, there has been tremendous growth in each of the girls – physically, emotionally, academically and spiritually.

Meeting Basic Needs “For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink.... Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did it for me,” (Matthew 25:35, 40 NIV).

lebanon For some of the girls living at Safe Haven, having their basic needs met has truly been life saving. Full bellies, immunizations to protect against diseases common in Lebanon and a warm, clean place to sleep at night are basic rights that every child deserves to have. Unfortunately, due to poverty or neglect or a combination of both, these needs were not being met for the girls.

According to UNICEF and The Convention on the Rights of a Child, education of girls is the most effective way to combat poverty. It gives girls power to make choices as to the kind of life they choose to have and is beneficial to the society as a whole. Yet most of the Safe Haven girls had little to no educational opportunities previously.

Because of the years of malnourishment and neglect, several of the girls have severe learning disabilities. Had they not come to Safe Haven, the door would have been completely closed for them to go to school. Now, they are given the opportunity to reach their full potential, whatever that might be. One is described by her teacher as one of her “most joyful students, so excited to learn and always ready to help.” Others are incredibly gifted at school, making the honor roll and receiving awards for their academic achievements. An education will open so many doors for the girls in the future that it truly has the chance to change their lives for the better.

Biblical Values

Though the majority of the girls come from a nonChristian background, their families have all placed their children at Safe Haven knowing they will be raised in a Christian environment. The girls attend church, Sunday school and Bible clubs. They hear a Bible story every night, so they are well versed in the Scriptures. But beyond just Bible knowledge, the girls are taught how a relationship with Christ can change their lives.

For the staff of Safe Haven, caring for and teaching the girls is more than just a job. It is an opportunity to live the words of Jesus on a daily basis. The girls see how the love of Christ impacts their lives in the way they are loved, the way they are disciplined, the way they see forgiveness and grace shown to themselves and others.

They see examples of healthy relationships that are not present in their broken homes.

While changes may seem slow in coming, there is no doubt that the love and care they are receiving has had a major impact on the girls. When Esther* first came to Safe Haven, she was angry, defensive and mean. Through years of loving her unconditionally, setting expectations for right behaviour and showing her the grace and love of God, Esther has become a sweet, caring pre-teen. After being caught up in the gossiping and speaking unkindly with some of the other girls, Esther felt convicted and

approached one of the house moms to ask forgiveness.

Only the power of the Holy Spirit can explain such a change in the life of a little girl who at first seemed beyond help.

While character building is an important goal, ultimately the prayer is that each of the girls would embrace Jesus as her personal Saviour. One of the girls recently made the decision to put her trust in Christ. In her own words, “If I didn’t enter Safe Haven Home, I don’t know what would have happened to me. I would have stayed a Muslim and didn’t know Jesus and of course didn’t go to heaven (sic).

Truly from before, when I was a Muslim, I felt that there was something wrong, although I was happy most of the time. But in reality, there was the heart happiness that I didn’t have.”

Had she not come to Safe Haven, this child may have never heard the name of Jesus. And now she is a child of God.

Family Impact

The third goal of Safe Haven Home for Girls is to be a blessing on the immediate families of the girls by sharing the love of Christ with them. This goal is being met in an unexpected way: through the girls themselves! One child is forbidden to pray in Jesus’ name when she is visiting with her father, but boldly stands up to him and shares with him why she believes praying in the name of Jesus is a powerful thing. Another girl, when reprimanded for talking about Jesus, tells her mom that if she isn’t allowed to share about God in her home, “she will go to another country and witness about him there.”

There is no doubt that the families see the changes in their children. There is no question that they appreciate and value the education, safety and love their kids receive by living at Safe Haven. The prayer is that the changed lives and love will be a powerful testimony to these families of the power and grace that is found through relationship with Christ.

Making a Difference

There is a story about a man walking along the beach, throwing stranded starfish back into the water one by one.

He is approached by a stranger who questions the value of returning the starfish to the sea when the next wave will just wash more ashore. He wonders what kind of a difference it will make. The first man bends down, retrieves a starfish, tosses him into the sea and utters this now famous phrase, “It makes a difference to that one.”

In the sea of hurting children, it’s easy to be discouraged by the sheer volume of need. And yet, if one life is changed, if one child is saved, it makes everything worth it. That is the hope of those working at Safe Haven. Changed lives.

September - October 2015 | mission:world ::: 21

NEWSUDAN

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MA New Sudan (BMANS) has been fourteen years on the move with Christ being preached among the many communities in Sudan and South Sudan, largely within the Salia Musala region, causing many to commit their lives to Jesus. Among those, many have been called to serve God within South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda and the East African Region at large.

The BMANS was established in 2003 in Yei River County as a ministry of the Living Word Ministry (the official name of the ministries in Lebanon) and the sending church, Ras Beirut Evangelical Baptist Church – Lebanon. BMANS was meant to be an umbrella to cover the work in the then New Sudan liberated areas.

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It was the first Baptist missionary group in South Sudan and from 2004 to the present the mission has reached out to people as far away as Central and Western Equatoria, Democratic Republic of Congo and Northern Uganda in a region widely called Salia – Musala. Its presence by county is in the following areas: Yei, Juba, Lainya, Yambio, Morobo, Ombach and Koboko counties.

BMANS includes many churches named after their locations: Ronyi, Jombu, Abu Geli, Katigiri, Loka, Umbachi, Shuriako, Umgbokol, Lokora, Morobo, Gudele and Yambio. All of these churches run weekly Sunday services, Bible study and prayer meetings, baptisms, weddings and burial services.

new sudan

Challenges 1. Funding

Funding was and is the major challenge that the churches are facing. With the security situation in South Sudan coupled with underdevelopment, it has become difficult for locals to shoulder some of the expenses the BMANS badly needs.

2. Church buildings

While the BMANS endeavors to reach as far as Congo and Uganda most of the church buildings still remain poorly constructed using local building materials, compared with other denominations in the same areas.

3. Pastor’s sustainability

All pastors are tent makers and their commitment is divided between making a living and pastoring their churches. In some cases, some have had financial difficulties, especially those who are at the age of retirement. There is neither health insurance nor social security that they can benefit from.

4. School buildings

BMANS still maintains one nursery and primary school which is a project of Ronyi Baptist Church in Yei River County.

Future plans As BMANS struggles to overcome all the challenges enumerated above, it is still moving to expand the scope of its ministries locally, regionally and globally.

Strategically, solving a major challenge such as funding agriculture should be able to provide local funds that can help most other projects, such as activities and buildings. BMANS is building a school from scratch to take charge of the future of the church and its leadership.

We have come very far from the time we started in 2003 under a mango tree in Ronyi – Yei River County. BMANS is known by many in South Sudan and many more will know.

BMA New Sudan churches have local leadership structures. These structures make it possible for every church to conduct its business independently and sometimes with the support of a sister church at their request.

We have full trust in the prayers of the saints. All our beloved brothers and sisters in the Middle East, Africa, America and the rest of the world understand that South Sudan is the youngest nation in the world, and the BMANS community seeks your prayers and continued support.

September - October 2015 | mission:world ::: 23

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astor Mazen Hamati got to know Christ as Lord and Savior in 1992 when he found himself called to serve the Lord and show love for his people. He graduated in 2003 from the Arab Baptist Theological Seminary in Beirut, and he is married with three children.

The ministry was started in the local church and then set off to areas that do not have any evangelical services. The Lord opened the hearts and souls of people and they gave their lives to Christ. We held the first baptism in 2009. God was at work in our midst and we began additional services that gave us an opportunity for the edification of the church, continuing to build bridges with the community.

The church started to be persecuted by different groups and the devil was moving and trying to prevent our meetings. After praying and fasting, our vision was to press forward to advance the gospel. However, a month later, a decision was taken by the authorities to close all home churches.

We were salt and light in the middle of the 2011 war. An additional service started in Tartous as we were showing the love of Christ, visiting families of non-Christians, listening to their pain, helping them to overcome the difficulties they were facing, catering to their physical and psychological needs, and today they are attending the church.

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Syria Our ministry functions in the following areas:

1. - Public Parks: Part of our call is to visit the public parks at 9 pm to minister to dozens of refugee families, pray with them, share God’s Word, and provide them with reliefs depending on the need.

2. - Service Shelters: having daily contact with families (specifically non-Christians living in tents) who are experiencing for the first time real, practical love, care and respect as a result of our faith and our pursuit of the teachings of Christ.

3. - Hospitals and Medical Clinics: We have several doctors and centers that offer free services and contribute to other expenses as well (drugs, medical tests, part of the surgery). The Lord is giving us grace in the eyes of the people in difficult situations, building relationships with them, praying for them and loving on them in their painful times.

4. - Church Growth: God has used the period of persecution and war over the past three years to grow us to seven hundred families. All glory goes to him who led us to focus on training, equipping and adapting to the major changes, not realizing that the grace of God brought us to this great day.

5. - The Lord Provides: In September 2012, we shared the work of the Lord in our midst and the challenges we face with the Baptist Society that supported us in a way that

syria expanded our services to reach 2,200 families in 2015 as well as spread over twelve centers between counties, cities and regions through our team of twenty-five brothers and sisters.

6. - Abused Women: Our periodic visits to the refugee families give them the peace and courage to trust us in sharing several stories of violence, rape and abuse. We have a team following up with these cases, encouraging and meeting the ladies, following their health status, helping them restore confidence in themselves and being a source of income. We’re seeing a great response with these ladies and a strong desire to have a second chance to a new life with Christ.

7. - Abused Children: We have met children who have lost their parents and witnessed them being killed in front of their eyes and suffering from direct physical violence.

Through our organization called “Jesus Loves the Children” we provide them with their own food baskets, offer medical care for anyone who is in need, set up a variety of activities (such as a long day peppered with a meal and games and the story of the Bible), and provide skills at school and summer camps. We can attest to an improvement in these children.

8. - Widows and Orphans: We are trying to reach kids who have lost their parents in the war and are living in shelters or with relatives, as well as the nearly four thousand people from the army, security and civilians who were killed in the war or have been kidnapped. We provide them with food, detergents and medicines that are available from outside our relief program, and we are always thankful for God’s providence.

9. - Intellectual Development and Awareness: Each month we hold a seminar (medical, psychological, social) addressing topics facing these families and we challenge them in a scientific manner that touches reality, provided by specialists, offering physical or psychological help. The aim is to attract souls to experience the love of God and break through the reservations and misconceptions among people about church.

10. - The Future: a. Psychological Support Service: helping people affected by the war that have been exposed to difficult, destructive scenes and violence. To help them overcome and help them adopt new ways of Christian thinking and get out of this vicious cycle of violence, hatred and the desire for revenge. b. Small Projects: help families who have lost their jobs and their savings and are currently living on aid, to start all over again in the workplace. We have seen the joy and blessing through this step and pray for more. c. Healing and Rehabilitation: including abused children and women, embracing them in a center for a full year or two that will help them behaviorally, intellectually

and psychologically, giving them education for a profession, helping them start a new life to keep them from being lost in the trap of addiction and abuse.

Our blessings:

We were able, by God’s grace, to stop the devil’s attacks to the extension of the church and the kingdom of God. God is using our brothers and sisters in the Tartous and Safita churches that adopted our vision, “A church without walls,” to cause a revival in the church, reaching out to a large number of people from all over Syria and from all backgrounds to correct the negative image of Christ and the Christian faith especially with non-Christians through mercy and compassion. Seeing souls changed from darkness to light, being obedient in baptism and committing to a local church as a result of prayer and fasting. We are witnessing miracles.

Some of our challenges: To reach the largest number of people. We are forced to reduce the size of relief to be able to respond to the needs of a larger number of families. There is a very real danger to my life and to all the members of the Working Group with us. Christian families are emigrating because of the length of the crisis and the absence of the solution, causing us to lose many servants and their families that are a spiritual support for us and to lose a church building in Tartous and Safita.

Pray for the Lord to stop the war that has been going on for over five years now; to give the church confidence to speak and see souls liberated from sin, believing in the one that died for them on the cross, to use us to console the souls in need and the broken hearted. For the Lord to send additional support to be able to buy a piece of land and build a rehabilitation center for abused children and women affected by the war and help displaced families. Pray for safety for all our brothers and sisters from all sides.

As for Pastor Elie Hanna’s church in Ladikiyya: Despite all the challenges they faced after the doors of the church (the place where they used to meet to pray, preach the gospel and reach out to over fifty thousand students) were sealed shut five years ago by government agents, the Lord gave them the strength and endurance to go through this furnace of fire.

With the grace of God, they were able to minister to people and bring the gospel to many, meeting in their own homes.

As a church, they were ministering to poor, and then God opened a new door where they started helping the refugees reaching out to them to experience life in all its fullness in spite of their daily struggles. Through visits, Bible studies and donations within the limited resources and not enough funds to support the countless needs, they seek to assist the refugees to experience the presence, love and peace of God. Pray for the Lord to provide land to build a church that serves His kingdom, more resources to serve His people and strength to endure all obstacles.

September - October 2015 | mission:world ::: 25

BMMI

Medical Missions A sign of the Lord’s favor BY: RANA MARIE EL-HAGE | LEBANON

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t’s 10:35 am. There are seven patients waiting outside the clinic: a pregnant teenager, a couple of mothers with their toddlers, an elderly man with diabetes. Not one of them can afford a physician’s fee, let alone that of a specialist. Not one of them can buy anything more than a small fifty-cent bag of Tylenol pills or an antibiotic suspension for their child’s nasty ear infection. Most likely, none of them know if they will have enough money in their households to put dinner on the table that same evening.

This is a sample of a recurring scene at many of the local medical dispensaries here in Beirut, Lebanon. When news spreads of free medicine or a nominal fee to see a doctor, those in need flock from near and far seeking some medical attention. Looking around the waiting room, one cannot help but be moved by the visible needs of these people. That snapshot never fails to take me back to the passage that Christ read from Isaiah (Luke 4:18-20):

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because He has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

The people in that waiting room are the poor, the prisoners, the blind, the oppressed, the sick, the tired, the handicapped, and the hungry. They are right here, too close to where we eat our lavish meals and get our annual routine medical checkups. And they need our help. And... they need Jesus.

On a practical level, we are hoping to see a permanent Baptist Medical Missions International (BMMI) presence in Lebanon and throughout the Middle East. The BMMI team will seek to establish more such dispensaries in areas that are underserved and to collaborate with those already present by pooling resources and offering support as needed. We are hoping and praying that a specialized cardiologist will be available on the team, and cardiac care will be provided as an auxiliary service to partner dispensaries. Basic electrocardiograms and echocardiograms will grant the local physicians more information essential for prescribing the correct therapies.

So far, Lebanon remains one of the more stable countries of the area, but in the Middle East, we are faced with the harsh reality that our region is in persistent turmoil.

Logically, this causes displacement of families with loss of belongings and security, as well as medical coverage.

More than two million refugees from Iraq and Syria have flooded Lebanese cities. The BMMI team will be faced with providing medical care for an even larger, more diverse population. And the need for medication, funding and prayer warriors has reached new heights.

As for countries other than Lebanon, a lot of effort will be placed into recruiting Christian physicians willing to serve those who are marginalized. In certain Syrian cities, there is a great need for affordable outpatient medical care. In Jordan, our clinic in Zarka will be given more support with the hope of establishing other clinics in other needy areas. In Egypt, we are hoping to establish a clinic in Upper Egypt where poverty and persecution are the signs of the times.

Many people in the non-medical field envy doctors because they will “always be needed” even in a time of war.

They will always “have a job.” This, however, only brings forth the sad truth that sickness, pain and suffering are ubiquitous and that the need for physical, emotional and spiritual healing is tremendous. That is where the role of a permanent BMMI team to the Middle East comes into play.

When it comes to applying Christ in the medical mission field, we may not have the ability to heal as he does, but we can treat and point to him for healing. We do not have the ability to save, but we can love and point to him for salvation. We may not even reap the fruit of our labor, but we can and will most definitely continue to sow.

September - October 2015 | mission:world ::: 29

25 years of broadcasting the gospel to the middle east BY: RICK RUSSELL | LIFEWORD

Ministering to the Arab World When Lifeword began its ministry nearly fifty years ago as the Harvest Gleaner Hour, founder Harold Morris’s intent was that it become a voice that would share the gospel with the entire world.

It’s fascinating to read Morris’s reports to the churches of the Baptist Missionary Association from those early days. Really, “reports” may be the wrong word—“dreams” would more accurately describe them. While he certainly reported on the reality of the present outreach, he was always challenging BMA Baptists to reach out by faith and take advantage of the newest technology that was available. Since satellite technology was in its infancy in the mid 1960s, Morris dreamed vividly of using that technology in his reports to the association.

After English and Spanish, the third broadcast begun by the BMA’s new broadcast department 30 ::: September - October 2015 | mission:world

was Arabic. The broadcast speaker for the Arabic language Hour of the Harvest was Joseph (Yusef) Costa, then a missionary from First Baptist Church in Blackwood, New Jersey, to the Arab community in Philadelphia.

Speaking about that early Arabic broadcast, former Lifeword Executive Director George Reddin says, “One of the things that set the Hour of the Harvest apart from most of the other Arabic programs of that day was Bro. Costa’s very polished delivery. Few people could handle the Word as well as Bro. Costa to begin with, and I doubt that there was anyone in the entire Arabic broadcast world at that time who delivered the gospel message as effectively as he did.”

Starting as a weekly fifteen-minute radio broadcast on Radio Monte Carlo, the creative

lifeword teaching style of Yusef Costa began to boom out across the Middle East from the superpower Trans World Radio (TWR) signal of Radio Monte Carlo in 1980. Rick Russell, Lifeword’s chief programmer for the past twenty-seven years, remembers, “Many years ago, an Arabic pastor not connected to the BMA told me, ‘Throughout the entire Arab Christian world, the teaching of Yusef Costa is as highly regarded as the teachings of Billy Graham are to you in the English-speaking world.’” I never forgot that statement; and even as we have branched out to try other formats and methodologies to reach unbelieving Arabs, to this day Lifeword still broadcasts Yusef Costa’s wonderful teaching ministry as an active format we call From the Harvest of Bygone Days. Those classic programs are still heard regularly in much of Arabia and high Arab population centers in the northeastern USA, Canada and Australia.” At the death of Yusef Costa in 1989, his son Charles Costa took over the Hour of the Harvest microphone and continues his father’s work to this day.

In 2000, realizing that the Arabic world now had more than forty hours per week of quality gospel teaching programming aimed at Arab believers, Lifeword shortened its broadcast from a fifteen-minute Bible teaching format to a more contemporary one-minute dialog format that took direct aim at Arabia’s lost population of about 200 million. Listener comments quickly reassured us that we had made the right decision.

By late 2009, the BMA’s Arabic ministry in the Middle East had expanded and strengthened to the point that the Arabic media ministry could be sustained entirely by the BMA churches of the Middle East, allowing Lifeword to re-allocate much needed funds to open broadcasts to people groups that had never heard the gospel message.

BMA Missions Director Dr. John David Smith says, “That decision by Lifeword follows a fundamental principle in today’s BMA missions philosophy. Just as quickly as indigenous ministries are capable of standing on their own, we want to remove our ‘temporary scaffolding’ and let them take complete charge of reaching their own culture with the gospel.” Smith says that by doing this, indigenous ministries can become more effective, and U.S. funds can be redirected to new fields where that temporary scaffolding can be used again to help the new field’s indigenous workers get their ministry operational and functioning on its own.

Costa adds, “Creative new Arabic media ministries on the very popular Sat 7 satellite channel, the internet and even low power FM Community Radio are proving the wisdom of this approach. Financial necessity made us work to invent less expensive and more effective methods of reaching out to our own people here in the Middle East--but we have been able to challenge our people to work to come up with those new program ideas and it’s something that we are in charge of--and our people take a great deal of pride in ‘owning’ those new media ministries.”

“Your program is a first in its format and content style. I love the way you present it. Although it is very short, yet it is worth listening to. Could you please write me with more information about the topic ‘Jesus Forgiveness of Sin’... --Vivian, Iraq

September - October 2015 | mission:world ::: 31

lifeword

“I am 24 years old and live in Tehran. I want to encourage you to continue to share the Word of God. Please tell me more about Christianity.” --Mehrdad, Tehran, Iran

Reaching out to Persians One of the fastest ways to alienate an Iranian or Afghani is to make the mistake of calling him or her an Arab. Iranians and Afghanis take a great and justifiable pride in their people’s unique place in history and the fact that they speak Persian-also called Farsi-not Arabic. (About ninety percent of Afghanis are of Persian descent) Realizing that-and the fact that Christianity is forbidden for anyone in Iran who was not born into a Christian family-Lifeword started its first Persian programming in September of 1996. Kalamate Hyat-Bakhsh (“Words that Give Life”) is a simple, Bible reading program with a culturally appropriate musical element, a critically important evangelistic tool in a society where literacy rates have fallen to very low levels, especially among women, and most people had never even seen a Bible. (It is a capital offense just to hand a Muslim a copy of the Christian Scriptures.) Again, the program was broadcast on Radio Monte Carlo.

Early in 2001, our ministry partners at Trans World Radio asked us to develop a program to disciple new believers in Iran. Revival was breaking out there, but since the government was (and still is) adamantly opposed to Christianity, new believers were shunned by Christian churches due to harsh penalties and the fact that Iran’s government regularly placed spies in Christian congregations to insure that new converts were not made.

So Iraj, our Persian Bible reader, with the help of our engineers and his dramatically creative friend 32 ::: September - October 2015 | mission:world

Hassan created a unique dialogue discipleship program called In the Master’s Workshop. Barely six months following that decision, 9/11 seared nearby Afghanistan into our consciousness. We came to the realization that thirty-five percent of Afghanis speak Dari, a language so closely related to Persian that they also understand our Bible reading programs and the new discipleship program that would go on the air in early 2002.

The following summer, Lifeword and Missions co-sponsored a listener conference in a nearby country. A couple dozen Iranian Lifeword listeners were invited to “visit relatives” in a bordering country and attend a clandestine Bible conference at the same time. What a time everyone had! For a full week, Jerry Kidd, Jeff Franks, Charles Costa, Rick Russell and Tony, our Persian translator, shared God’s Word, taught church planting and discipleship principles, answered a myriad of questions and established some wonderful personal relationships.

Eleven years later we learned that the two dozen CD sets of the first twenty-six programs of In The Master’s Workshop that we gave as gifts to those conference participants have been duplicated time and again and are still being used to disciple thousands of new believers and start maybe hundreds of new churches--only God really knows how many. But he does know! And you can be sure that those new believers and churches are part of your heavenly reward as a faithful supporter of Lifeword down through the years!

“Your short program attracted me for its valuable content.

It points us to issues that are important but we often forget.

I listened to the broadcast addressing the ‘Wages of Sin’.

Could you please write back and elaborate on this topic.

I want to know more…”

--Majd, Syria

Seminary

INTERFAITH CONFERENCE Learning to minister in a religiously pluralistic world BY: DR. CHARLEY HOLMES | SEMINARY

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uslims and Jews do not live solely in the Middle East. Many of them live in the United States, in our cities and in our neighborhoods.

The many religions of the world are near the doorstep of every BMA church. We now live in a world of tremendous cultural and religious diversity. This provides both challenges and opportunities as churches minister to the people around them and reach them with the gospel.

The mission of BMA Seminary is to prepare individuals to serve in our churches. In today’s world, part of that mission is preparing them to minister in the midst of the followers of many religions. Learning the beliefs and practices of other religions is an important component of this.

The religions of the world are studied, not merely for the sake of knowledge, but so that the gospel can be more effectively shared with the followers of other religions.

The Seminary does much more than classroom study of other religions. Through a unique program students become acquainted with other religions directly. Each January the seminary has the opportunity to send students to

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an interfaith conference designed for seminary students. This past year BMA Seminary students joined students from other seminaries in Texas, Jewish rabbinical students from California, and Muslim Quran students from Maryland. Over four days, the gathered students explained to each other the meaning of their beliefs and how each one practiced his or her religion. Through intense small group sessions and many personal conversations, students explored the differences between biblical beliefs and other religions.

They also discovered their common humanity.

As one student described conversations with his

Rabbinical student Nathan Roller (right) with Quranic scholar Shaykh Yaseen Shaikh (left)

“The mission of BMA Seminary is to prepare

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individuals to serve in our churches. In today’s

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world, part of that mission is preparing them to ......................................................................................................................................................

minister in the midst ... of many religions.”

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September - October 2015 | mission:world ::: 35

Seminary

Muslim roommate, “Even though there could be no spiritual fellowship, there could still be friendship.”

Dr. David Erickson first attended the multifaith conference as a student. “Going to the interfaith seminarian retreat was a profoundly formative event in my life,” he said. “Encountering so many different beliefs about God gave me a passion to teach people true, biblically-grounded theology.” Today Dr. Erickson leads students to attend the interfaith retreat, “This is an opportunity for my students to see a variety of different worldviews and understand the impact they have on people’s lives. This is a learning experience that cannot be replicated in a classroom.”

These interfaith experiences not only help seminary students learn how to live in a religiously pluralistic world, they also help them minister in it. As recent participant Herman Johnson described his experience, “Those four days reaffirmed my own faith, gave me more compassion for other faith groups, and was a tremendous learning experience.”

Compassionately ministering the gospel to all men, regardless of their faith or background, is the heart of Christianity. BMA Seminary is glad to do its part to prepare individuals to do exactly that.

BMA Seminary student Herman Johnson converses at the interfaith conference 36 ::: September - October 2015 | mission:world

DiscipleGuide Wants To Help Train Your Teachers .................................................................................................

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BY: DR. MARK LIVINGSTON | DISCIPLEGUIDE

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wenty years ago I attended a Sunday school class that still sticks with me to this day. The teacher entered the room, looked at the youth boys, and said, “Who wants to read the lesson?� Of course, all the youth boys jumped at the chance! After a good three awkward minutes of silence I volunteered.

After all, I was a youth helper so I felt a bit obliged to help a brother out. It took me five minutes to read

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the lesson. It took us the remaining 25 minutes to discuss our week. What I learned most from the class was that Luke had a new four-wheeler, Wesley was taking a harder math class next year, and Joe was not happy about prom.

Do you think this is an abnormal class? What I hear most often are stories similar to this one: very little teaching, and lots of talking. Little time spent in

discipleguide

To be fair, most Christian small groups and Sunday school classes never intend to veer off in such a direction. Why do they do it? A few good answers can be offered.

The Teacher Has Lesson Constraints

First, the teacher often feels stressed, rushed, and not ready to teach. While there is a lesson available, the teacher still has to come up with more resources if he or she is going to actually have information different from the student. That matters when you have students who admit, “I can just stay home and read the same lesson if that’s all you have.” They do not really say that though, do they? Just look at the church statistics. More people today would rather stay home then come to the congregational church service. It may be that classes are not challenging.

The Teacher Has Time Constraints

Scripture, and lots of socializing. To be clear, socializing and fellowshipping in any small group is not wrong. In fact, it is biblically necessary and required (Acts 2:42)!

The problem with most small groups is that the content and focus of the fellowship is often unbiblical and unproductive. While talking about the weekend and social habits are fun, that does not necessarily bring life transformation and God the most glory.

Second, most teachers will not have the time to gain additional resources, so they will revert to the fallback position of: “So what does this mean to you?” Truth be told, the teacher is punting, and we need a first down! The hope in using this play is that the most talkative person fills forty-five minutes, while the rest just sit there nodding or napping.

After all, we all want to hear ourselves talk, so this one always delights.

This punting strategy is not entirely wrong because there does need to be some good interaction in a class. The danger is that a class can veer off into some interpretation potholes using this method. If the teacher cannot clearly communicate weekly that the Biblical text has one meaning (not many meanings), then the student can walk away thinking Scripture ultimately has NO meaning! If we are tempted at this point to think that our opinions are good enough for biblical interpretation, then stick around. We will be hearing that argument from the highest courts in the land very soon! “That’s not what it means to me…to us…that’s your opinion.” I am thankful that the Bible has a clear meaning in each text, and that meaning stands regardless of my opinion!

September - October 2015 | mission:world ::: 39

discipleguide

What Can Be Done to Help?

Identifying the problem is always the first step, but certainly not the last step! These scenarios are real, so they need real answers if change is going to happen. DiscipleGuide wants to come along side those classes, groups and teachers who feel both the pressure and the anxiety of doing a good job for both the Lord and His church.

Effective investment in teachers.

I began teaching Sunday school over 20 years ago, and one thing I say definitively is that the class rises and falls on the teacher. If I am not prepared, then the class will flounder along until the clock strikes.

If the teacher likes the literature, then the class will like the literature. If I am in a good mood, then the class will be positive and profitable. If I am in prayer and Scripture, then the focus will be in prayer and Scripture. A lot hinges on a teacher leading.

For that reason, DiscipleGuide wants to offer some training online for teachers in the near future.

Our ministry will be investing in quality video and web productions that will help motivate, inspire, and guide teachers who may feel they have been working upstream.

Effective Investment in Classroom Management

Many Sunday School and small groups lack clear goals and organization to make them effective.

Discipleguide wants to tailor material, resources and training to better maximize your fellowship potential.

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Often socializing dominates Sunday Schools and small groups. Socializing in Sunday school is not wrong, as long as it is done correctly. There is a right way and a wrong way to fellowship. To be clear, Christians have to have fellowship. As much as I love preaching (my primary calling) I know that the sermon is not enough for healthy church life. While we cannot ever dispense with preaching, if that is all we have then we are lacking. This is most clearly demonstrated in Acts 2:42. The early church was indeed for preaching and teaching of “the apostle’s doctrine”, but that was not all they were devoted to. Three other elements flowed from a right teaching of the Word: fellowship, communion, and prayer. We need fellowship. We just need it in the right order of things.

Notice the order in Acts 2:42! When Scripture gives us a clear order of things such as this in the Bible you can be assured it is not given randomly.

The apostle’s doctrine must always come first, and then fellowship is supposed to follow. True and lasting fellowship that bonds believers together always spring from a commitment to read, pray, hear, preach and teach the apostle’s doctrine. That is how fellowship can flourish and grow properly.

Too often small groups, Sunday schools, and bible studies become imbalanced.

These are just some of the helpful ways DiscipleGuide will be moving toward in the near future. Join us and help make fellowship as deep and beneficial as God intends it to be.

SEPTEMBER CALENDAR 1. Michael & Josie Barton** Canada Rebekah Jones* Missouri 2. New Church Plants 3. Brandon Cox* Arkansas Angie Cox* Arkansas Doug Lee* Philippines Angela Rice* Arkansas 4. Lisa Ortega* Arkansas Elyse Ortega* Arkansas 5. Shoebox ministry 6. Jenni Johnson* Creative Access Nation 7. Eli & Ana Brito-Semedo** Thailand 8. Judy Izard* Arkansas Hal Sellers* Arkansas 9. Anthony Pennington* New Mexico 10. Pastor’s Oasis 11. Jamie & Rebekah Jones** Missouri 12. Missionaries entering a new field 13. Peruvian Nationals 14. Creative Access Nations 15. Natioanl Senior Adult Conference 16. Doug Siler* Arkansas 17. Mary Pennington* New Mexico Callie Malone* Arkansas 18. Jonathan Cummins* Arkansas 19. Elijah Burdick* Mississippi 20. Taiwanese Nationals 21. Don Newsome* Philippines Dar Lee* Creative Access Nation 22. John Bienlein* Michigan 23. Lebanese Nationals 24. BMA America Directors 25. Leaders of the US 26. Rob Hager* Illinois Cassie Hager* Illinois 27. Tommy Rose* Mexico Caleb Cross* France 28. BMA Churches & Pastors 29. Jonathan Poulin* Peru 30. Bible Institutes in various countries

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Audrey Faulk* Washington Myli Hambrice Papua New Guinea Steve Crawley* Lifeword - Arkansas Missionary families in Europe Lifeword staff Missionaries in language school Brittney Lingle* Thailand Chris Hamilton* Texas Missionaries Health & Wellness Amanda Johnson* Mexico Phillip Rice* Lifeword - Arkansas Christy Hager* Illinois LPFM radio stations (helps spread the gospel) Hispanic Ministries Missionaries home on Furlough Mark Sara* Texas Vera Lebedev* Florida Shirley Ladd* Texas Taffy Johnson* Texas Puerto Rican Nationals Missionaries in Papua New Guinea Mona Costa* Lebanon Missionary Children Denise Johnson* Mexico John Page* Cambodia Mike Jones* Lifeword - Arkansas Rick Russell* Lifeword - Arkansas African Nationals Dominican Nationals Madelyn Crawley* - Arkansas Seth Smith* - Arkansas Missionaries in France Donny & Datha Parrish** Lifeword - Arkansas Prashant Prakash* India Ukrainian Nationals BMMI

* Birthday ** Anniversary

September - October 2015 | mission:world ::: 43

A review and preview of missionary news from around the world people who either have never been part of a church or it has been a very long time since they were attached to a church.

We appreciate any and all prayers that go forth to make our King Jesus famous in northeast Denver. We need the heart regenerating power of the Holy Spirit and we also need laborers for the harvest.

Colorado:Brian Cleary

My name is Brian Cleary and I am pastor of a new church plant in Thornton, CO. Thornton is a northeast suburb of Denver with about 120,000 people of which 4-6% are in an evangelical church any given week. This means you can swing a dead cat and be assured you are going to hit someone who doesn’t follow Jesus.

This makes it both fun and difficult all at the same time. We have the privilege of telling and demonstrating what a life devoted to following Jesus is to people who have no clue what that is or looks like. We have adopted a 1 square mile area to saturate with the gospel.

We throw block parties, invite people to our home for meals, serve our local school, coach our kids’ sports teams and become “chaplains” at our places of work, as we are bivocational.

We try to take Jesus everywhere we go and be ready to share the hope that is within us wherever we are at.

We have a small group meeting in our home currently whom we are discipling and equipping to impact lives outside our church.

Our congregation is made up of

California:Jesse Garrido

initial 2 churches and the ministry is functioning well. The local leaders have grown into their roles quite well and we have moved into more of a Consultant and Resource role with them. We are currently beginning a new work in San Pedro Sula and by the time of this printing we should also be helping another work. We just had a wonderful time with BMMI and New Harmony Baptist Church. Many lives were touched with the Gospel and the medicine. Continue to pray for us as we have an ongoing relationship with a church in Costa Rica and are developing a relationship with a church in Panama. Our goal was to help establish Recovery Ministry in Churches throughout Central America so that they could reach a large and unreached segment of the population. Thank You for your Prayers and Support!

Our ministry here in Ceres is doing well as we minister to the needs of the families who continue to be faithful in church attendance and Bible studies. We have started having in home Bible studies in an effort to reach out to the neighbors.

We praise God for sending us people to minister to that have a willing heart to serve as we join efforts to help enlarge the kingdom of God. Thank you for your prayers.

Honduras:Brad Gathright It has been a busy and exciting two years here in Honduras. Can it really already be 2 years? But as we look at the things God has made happen we are grateful. We have completed the work with our

Dominican:Jesse Hales This edition of Mission:World marks one year that we have been discipling children’s workers and youth workers in the Dominican.

This year has brought on many changes. Our family has grown again with our Elisha, and we have

mission:news 44 ::: September - October 2015 | mission:world

adapted to a new way of life and ministry (as much as possible in one year). We have gotten to know the pastors and teachers we’re working with a lot better, as well as seen encouraging growth in their ministries and people getting saved.

We’re excited about what God has done, but even more excited about what He has in store for the future as more changes come. We have been living in the northern part of the country getting to know and focus on the 2 churches in this part while traveling to the capital in the south to visit the 4 churches there at least once a month. We’re very glad we started out living and ministering where we did, but as time passed we came to the realization that we needed to switch locations to minister more effectively. Please pray for us as we make this big transition. As always, thank you for your prayers, support and encouragement.

putting into practice the training you allowed us to receive. Please pray for our family to continue to show what Jesus is like without words and that he would give us an ability beyond ourselves to learn this language with accuracy and speed.

Thanks so much for your support and prayers.

Hispanic Missions: Buddy Johnson

Missouri:John Herring

PNG:Jeremy Hambrice We are settling into our new home here among the Wantakian people of Papua New Guinea. We have been living here for about six months now, and are in the full swing of language learning. This is our full time job now. The Wantakians language is unwritten and has never been learned by an outsider! There is no school or class to take, simply living life with the people and

Thank you for your continued prayers and support for all that God desires to do through the work here in Nixa, MO. We continue to have new opportunities to share the lifechanging message of the gospel throughout the community. As we moved through the summer and into the fall, we hosted several mission teams and asked God to move beyond our expectations. It’s exciting to see all that God is doing to bring about His plans and purpose for this region of our country.

God is doing some really good things around the world as we train men to plant churches. It was a great joy to be in India with Bro. Jeremiah Shetti and train about a dozen men in the DCPI Principles of planting new churches. In the same trip, Bro. Phil Knott and I were asked to aid in the ordination of five Indian Pastors who will lead others to plant new churches. We went from there to the country of Bangladesh where we were involved in a leadership-training program. This is a country where new churches need to be planted but church planters are very few.

Please pray for these two countries where our Lord wants to be made known. I have also had training events in Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Chile where over a hundred good men have been given the sufficient training to plant new churches in their countries. Today, I will be leaving for Bolivia where the Vocational River Bible Institute will be dedicated and the first of five Modules will be taught. I’m thankful that Eric Johnson, our son, will be helping me do some of these trainings. Thank you for your prayers as we train people to lead others (2 Timothy 2:2) and to plant new churches for the Glory of our Master.

September - October 2015 | mission:world ::: 45

and severe throat and ear infections receive medicines that will bring relief and healing in a short time makes it worth all the miles traveled and your money spent. In addition, this child and his parent(s) will hear the Gospel explained in such as way that they can make a life-changing decision. Please continue to pray for protection and direction as you respond to this ministry’s needs.

God bless.

are excited. We are praying for them as they raise the funds for these much needed projects. If anyone has undesignated funds and would like to help them, money can be sent to National WMA 2015-16 project.

Philippines:Fil Kakilala

“Faa’fetai!” Through their song and dance, the Samoan church ladies presented us with beautiful gifts to express deep gratitude for the medical mission on the island of Savaii. The matai (island chiefs) gave their ceremonial speeches, while the pastor of Manumalo Baptist Church praised God at how the Gospel has been fleshed through the ministry of BMMI. What’s more thrilling than hearing our Samoan translators give their own life changing testimonies of their experience with BMMI! From the South Pacific the medical outreach moves to Pohnpei, the capital of the vast Micronesian waters. Thank you Dr. Izard and your tireless team for helping me in my mission fields. Their itinerary will include for the first time, the northern region of the Philippines.

I took a break from my furlough to preach to the assembly of police officers in this new area and saw several of them pray to receive Christ. Glory to Him!

BMMI:John Ladd The Lord continues to bless the ministry of medicine and evangelism through BMMI and the Good Samaritan Clinic in Mexico.

We have enjoyed trips to Mexico, Dominican Republic, Cambodia, Laos, Samoa and Armenia so far this year. To see a child with high fever

Canada:Michael Poirier

Philippines:Doug Lee

God is doing great things in the Philippines! We are well underway for this school year with an exceptional group of students at BMABC from all over the Philippine Islands, China, Thailand, and Vietnam. They are eager to be trained and mentored so they can go out and fulfill the Great Commission here in Asia.

The National WMA has adopted the Remodeling and Renovation of the BMA Bible College as their 2015-16 project. To say the least, we

46 ::: September - October 2015 | mission:world

In Quebec, we have a lot of people on Sunday morning, visitors are coming for the first time and others are faithful attenders to the services.

Maximum Impact at Missionary Baptist Church of Levis was great.

We had over 50 people going out everyday for the 6 days of evangelism. In Kuujjuarapik the people have a love for the Lord and are faithful to the services. Pastor Leclerc is busy with more baptisms on the way.

In Haiti, the Missionary Baptist Church of Ségur was organized just after 2 years of planting. We fed over 300 people during the celebration of August and we had many candidates for baptism. We are now planting a new Baptist Church, 1/2 hour from Segur with the gospel message for the people.

We dug a well and we laid cement block for a wall of protection around the church building. Ruth and I covet your prayers as we teach our Haitian brothers and sisters to serve the Lord in many ways. Our spiritual need in Quebec and Haiti is your prayers.

Our physical needs in Haiti: gas stove, gas fridge, a diesel generator.

Thank you for all you do for us.

Mexico:Ricky Williams The week in Bolivia was long but rewarding. Dr. Ronnie Johnson taught Pastoral Counseling and I translated. The seventeen students who attended received with

enthusiasm the class. I could tell from their class participation that the teaching was filling a need in their ministries. It was a good week of sharing and eating. I even made a goal in a soccer game (auto-goal for those who understand it). Ronnie also spoke at the Pastor麓s retreat.

About 37 pastors attended and eagerly heard how to sharpen tools, shovel manure, and other needed ministry topics! The highlight of the last day was when a pastor/ lawyer offered a cut-rate discount to marry any Christians anywhere in our churches of Bolivia. That may not sound like much, but there, it was a great blessing. Even though I enjoyed my time in Bolivia, it was good to get back home to Aquism贸n and our virtual Institute program.

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