Do you love the truth enough to live it?
Dear Team 25th July 2008
This is as exciting as it gets, so read on!
"The last two weeks in Burundi have witnessed amazing scenes. I've just received a report about what the twenty three groups of Harvest for Christ evangelists got up to. Ten in each team, they went to fourteen unreached areas, not knowing what they'd eat or where they'd sleep, and had a massive impact. I know some reports tend to be quite evangelastic(!) in terms of exaggerated numbers, but I assure you these guys are the real deal. I'll just translate Onesphore's summary:
'From our door-to-door visiting and outreach, 15,890 people believed and prayed to receive Christ, including 47 witchdoctors and 16 Muslims. We burnt talismans and objects of witchcraft in 49 families. There were 45 miraculous healings, including 4 mentally ill and 11 demon-possessed people. 8 couples on the verge of divorce repented and want to make their marriages work. 2 people about to commit suicide were talked out of it. 308 people were trained for follow-up in different churches.'
He goes on: 'A famous witchdoctor at Ijenda, Joselyne, gave her life to Christ. Her sister refused to believe, but brought over the demon-possessed neighbour. The latter hadn't eaten for three days, and Joselyne's sister challenged the believers: "If you heal this girl, I'll know that you are serving the one true God." God duly healed the girl, and 21 people (including the sister) promptly gave their lives to Christ. Elsewhere a group of evangelists were arrested and taken to prison. One lad whilst in his cell led two people to Christ! Another team were beaten up, but continued preaching. In Gisoro, a madman terrorized a whole village, wandering around for years with a machete. A team came and prayed for him, he was healed, and for the rest of the two weeks' outreach he went around with them testifying to the power of God at work in their lives.'
OK, the above was last year; and as I write and you read this, an even greater number are preparing to go out again to repeat and even surpass what happened then. This time there are 380 young evangelists, and we had to turn away another hundred or so. This outreach is challenging the Church in Burundi and elsewhere on many levels to rise up, to be and to do what the Bible says we can.
Last year Onesphore attributed the level of openness, protection and fruit they experienced to the tens of thousands of people across all continents covering their daily outreach in prayer. So let's do it again, over the coming two weeks, and then I'll report back with what happened. PLEASE PRAY FROM TODAY UNTIL THE 10TH AUGUST (for protection, health, safety, anointing, sensitivity, boldness, favour with authorities, etc) for the thirty one teams of evangelists, and indeed do pray on beyond those dates for lasting fruit and quality follow-up. From last year's efforts, several churches were planted, many struggling churches were revived, and amongst other things, eleven witch doctors went through discipleship classes and were subsequently baptised.
I love being a part of this movement of
fearless
passionate
sacrificial
bold
loving
Spirit-filled
followers of Christ
and they challenge me in my own journey with Jesus. It's worth taking some time to reflect and pray through the following searching questions. Do those same words describe me too?
* Fearless - am I liberated from or shackled by the fear
of rejection, the unknown, the future, or the tyranny of public approval?
* Passionate - do the gut-wrenching needs all around me
move me to action, or do they make me adopt a resigned and dulled acceptance of the world as it is?
* Sacrificial - am I embracing any cost in my walk with
Jesus, or have I rationalised a more respectable and convenient cross?
* Bold - am I a member of the fellowship of the
unashamed, speaking the truth lovingly yet uncompromisingly in Jesus' name?
* Loving - Christ's love compels the teams in Burundi.
As for me, do I really love people enough to share Christ with them in word and deed?
* Spirit-filled - of course we leak, so it's a daily,
on-going refilling that we need; but am I thirsty enough to take time to abide and drink deeply from the Fountain of Life, and then to leak all over the people I meet?!
* Follower of Jesus - am I? Or do I expect him to follow
me on my terms and rubber-stamp whatever I choose to do with my life?
It was said of Dorothy Day that 'she loved the truth enough to live it.'
That description has struck me so deeply of late, and is worth further meditating on. Do we love the truth enough to live it?
Let's go for it - here's to loving and living the truth, and thereby changing the world!
Simon Guillebaud
Great Lakes Outreach
www.greatlakesoutreach.org
|
