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I spent part of my childhood as a missionary’s kid in Lima, Peru. In the early years, my parents taught Bible school classes at a mission. It was a big blue building with a courtyard for parking vehicles. Near the front gate were some stairs that led up to a small room with a couch and a kitchen. Attached to that was a much smaller room that was barely large enough to fit a mattress. This is where Timoteo lived with his wife and two children.

Timoteo was a Bible student but also worked at the mission as a groundskeeper and night watchman. He had come from the jungle with not much more than his family and a passion to study the Bible. Hoping to make life easier, we gave them clothes. But as a kid, I thought our gift was lacking something, so I added a bright yellow fly eye kaleidoscope. It wasn’t much. I won it years earlier with skee-ball tickets at a pizza joint. And all it did was multiply whatever you looked at into “hundreds” of images just like a fly’s eye.

It was a novelty trinket, but Timoteo loved it. He kept walking around the mission looking through it. Some people might consider it to be an insignificant piece of junk, but to Timoteo and his family, it was a treasure.

THE MINISTRY LESSON:
What seems small to you can make a big difference to someone else.

The Intangible
To a non-Christian, an authentic smile from a church parking lot attendant will probably make a bigger impact than the style of the worship music. Your next door neighbor is more likely to attend your church because you are friendly than because the sermon series is “cool.” Sometimes something as small as listening with genuine interest after asking someone about their day is enough to make their day.

The Tangible
According to Kids Against Hunger, a child dies every 2 seconds from malnutrition, starvation, and hunger-related diseases. It only costs $0.23 to buy a child a meal. According to Living Water International, a child dies every 15 seconds because of a lack of clean water. It only costs $0.98 to provide clean, safe water to one person for one year.

A little bit can go a long way.

In case you are wondering what happened to Timoteo, he eventually sold the fly eye kaleidoscope to raise money for ministry. He is a phenomenal Christian example to me. As a pastor, terrorists came to his church and demanded support. He refused. At gun point, they threatened to shoot him, his wife, and children. He said, “It does not matter. We are already dead in Christ.” The terrorists assumed he was crazy and left without harming anyone.

For Discussion:
- What are some little things that you have found make big impacts?

The weakening value of the U.S. dollar and the rising global costs of food and oil are creating a money crisis for many on the mission field. Missionaries typically do not have big budgets. And as the dollar weakens, some are faced with the difficult decision of cutting something effective for survival’s sake.

If you had a 10% pay cut, that would be significant. Basically, that’s what those people are feeling right now.
George Salloum :: CFO :: Serving In Mission

Prayer and financial support for missionaries is always important but particularly so during times like these.

[via The Charlotte Observer]

I spent part of my childhood as a missionary’s kid in Lima, Peru. It wasn’t the mud huts and jungle you see on National Geographic. Lima is actually an urban metropolis with 8 million residents.

THE STORY:
Less than a block from our house was a large park with grassy fields that were perfect for soccer. My brother and I went to play a game with some other boys from the neighborhood. There were German boys, an Asian boy, and a few Peruvians, and they all spoke Spanish.

Being new to Peru, my brother and I hardly spoke any Spanish. But despite the language barrier, we somehow found a way to interact and start a game. As we kicked the ball around the field, we quickly learned that they did know some English.

“F@%$ you!” one boy said, quite pleased with himself. And after that, a slew of other surprising words followed. They had nothing against us. In fact, they liked us because we were Americans. They wanted to impress us with their English cussing.

But as a nine-year-old boy, I was not impressed. I was shocked. And I did not interact with them much after that. They knew English, but they did not know the right words.

THE MINISTRY LESSON:
We live in an age with many cultures and subcultures. And effectively reaching them often requires learning how speak a culture’s language. But just because you can speak a few words of a culture’s language, does not mean you know how to effectively reach and communicate with them. In fact, you could do more harm than good.

For example, it is common for youth ministers to try to “speak” the language of youth culture by dressing like the teens they are trying to reach. Many youth pastors can pull this off. But there are some who end up looking like they are in a mid-life crisis. Authenticity speaks volumes to teenagers, and without it, a youth pastor just looks like a poser.

Knowing a culture’s language is useless if you do not have the right “words” to say.

And vice versa:

Having the right “words” to say is useless if you do not know a culture’s language.

I struggled to learn Spanish, and consequently, I got little value out of attending Spanish Sunday School. I’m sure it was good, but it was useless since I did not speak the language. Likewise, a ministry can say all the right things but still be ineffective if people do not understand the cultural language being used.

I do believe there are exceptions to these rules. But in most cases, effectively reaching a culture requires:

1. Knowing how to speak the culture’s language.
2. Knowing the right words to say.

Children’s ministers and missionaries have been using clown ministry for years, but University of Sheffield researchers discovered that most children ages 4 to 16 dislike clown images. The research was an effort to find ways to improve healthcare environments for children and young people.

As adults we make assumptions about what works for children. We found that clowns are universally disliked by children. Some found them quite frightening and unknowable.
- Dr. Penny Curtis :: Researcher :: Centre for the Study of Childhood and Youth

Very few children like clowns. They are unfamiliar and come from a different era. They don’t look funny, they just look odd. Children are much more happy with things stuck on the wall that have some sort of personal relevance for them, not some images that are foisted upon them by adults.
- Patricia Doorbar :: Child Psychologist

I find Patricia Doorbar’s remarks particularly fascinating because she suggests that clowns are from an era that is no longer relevant to today’s children. Despite this, I am aware of some clown ministries that children do enjoy, but I wonder if they would be even more effective if they repackaged their look but kept the same techniques.

[via BBC News]

According to research by Oxfam International, natural disasters have quadrupled over the past two decades. They blame global warming. The world now encounters about 500 natural disasters each year.

Jeremy Hobbs of Oxfam International believes that humanitarian assistance will be overwhelmed in the future if organizations do not begin preparing now. Disaster relief is a great opportunity for churches to help the hurting world. There will always be natural disasters, and setting aside funds to aid such crisises is something worth considering.

[via Physorg]

Gary Haugen of the International Justice Mission was recently interviewed on episode 2 of the Fermi Podcast. He spoke of the injustice in the world, and how it tests the authenticity of the Christian faith. As he puts it, the world is watching Christians to see:

1. Do they do what they say?
2. Are they willing to take it to the place in the world where it is hard?

The world is watching to see if we are reaching out to those in need. It is easy to talk the talk in middle class suburbia, but the world is watching to see how we actually respond to the numerous crises our world is facing. Gary sums up Christians’ responsibility against injustice as:

We can point [hurting people] to God through the way we live because the way we live - what it is we believe - is going to be manifested by the way we actually act.

The Center for Missional Research conducted a study led by Ed Stetzer and Phillip Connor to research what characteristics were shared by growing churches plants. They discovered 10 factors associated high attendance.

1. Location
   >> Church plants that begin in school facilities have some obvious benefits, such as visibility, access, parking, classroom/worship space, and usually low costs.
   >> Longer-term—after the first year—church plants meeting in both schools and movie theaters exhibit higher attendance. They find these locations conducive to reaching people and accommodating continued growth.
2. Ministry
   >> High attendance church plants know that reaching children is one effective way to reach families. Special children’s events such as a fall festival or Easter egg hunt help church plants gain and sustain attendance.
   >> High attendance church plants also conduct block parties as an evangelistic outreach.
   >> High attendance church plants use holidays or other opportunities to attract people and to be attractive to those who are already attending.
3. Promotion
   >> High attendance church plants mail invitations to services, programs, and events. They keep community awareness high, which keeps their visitors, attendees, and members involved and informed.
4. Training
   >> High attendance church plants provide training for new members and communicate clearly the expectation that they participate.
5. Expectations
   >> High attendance church plants require new members to sign a church covenant. They know that it’s imperative for new members to take their commitment to the church seriously as soon as they’ve committed their lives to Christ.
6. Financial
   >> High attendance church plants are very intentional about financial stewardship.
   >> High attendance church planters receive financial compensation and health insurance, allowing them to focus on the church’s growth, not their own basic needs.
7. Staff
   >> High attendance church planters are assessed for their suitability and are full-time, not part- or half-time.
   >> High attendance church plants have multiple staff from the beginning, facilitating steady and more sustainable growth.
8. Missions
   >> High attendance church plants look for missional opportunities and start at least one church within three years of their own plant.
9. Leadership
   >> High attendance church plants conduct leadership training, build their leadership base, and delegate leadership roles to church members.
10. Achievement
    >> High attendance church planters have a vision of what God wants to do, and they don’t get distracted from the accomplishment of that vision.

[via The Christian Post]

Open Doors has compiled a list of 2007’s 50 worst countries for Christian persecution. Those considered to have severe limitations or worse are:

1. North Korea :: severe persecution
2. Saudi Arabia :: oppression
3. Iran :: oppression
4. Somalia :: oppression
5. Maldives :: oppression
6. Yemen :: oppression
7. Bhutan :: oppression
8. Vietnam :: oppression
9. Laos :: severe limitations
10. Afghanistan :: severe limitations
11. Uzbekistan :: severe limitations
12. China :: severe limitations
13. Eritrea :: severe limitations
14. Turkmenistan :: severe limitations
15. Comoros :: severe limitations
16. Chechnya :: severe limitations
17. Pakistan :: severe limitations
18. Egypt :: severe limitations
19. Myanmar (Burma) :: severe limitations
20. Sudan (North) :: severe limitations
21. Iraq :: severe limitations
22. Azerbaijan :: severe limitations
23. Brunei :: severe limitations
24. Cuba :: severe limitations

These countries need our prayers, but they also need the gospel. Being able to support missions and projects that will reach these countries is one of the greatest responsibilities of the church today.

[Also see: Open Doors article] 
[via DallasNews Religion]