Building His Church in a Refugee Crisis

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John Stanmeyer

10,000 Refugees

On September 10, President Obama announced that he had decided to raise the number of Syrian refugees admitted into the United States during the next fiscal year to 10,000 — up from fewer than 2,000 last year. This decision was in response to the more than four million refugees who have left their country during the course of the Syrian Civil War (in addition to the 6.5 million internally displaced people within Syria). Just over a week later, Secretary of State John Kerry announced that the United States would significantly increase the number of total refugees it accepts each year, so that the total would be at least 100,000 by 2017.
In the wake of terror attacks in Paris and Beirut, the response from Americans — even among Christians — has been as strong as it is divided. While many have called for Americans to follow their nobler impulses and respond in compassion, courage, and love by welcoming refugees, many others (including now a majority of the country’s state governors) have voiced their strong disapproval for accepting any refugees, citing significant security concerns. Many are asking, What does the vetting process look like for incoming refugees? Can we accept only Christian refugees but turn away Muslims? How do we bring together a desire to show compassion with the responsibility to keep our country safe?
In other words, the key question seems to be this: In light of terror attacks worldwide, is bringing 10,000 refugees from the Middle East really a safe decision?

10,000 Reasons

While we shouldn’t downplay these concerns, I do wonder what would happen if Christians stood counter to American culture on this issue, by asking fundamentally different questions. What if, while America was asking questions about safety and risk management, Christians were asking, What is God doing? What if, through the senseless evil of civil war, God was bringing unreached people groups to our cities? What if, through great tragedy, God was bringing about the triumph of the gospel?
Syria has over twenty million Muslims in eighteen unreached people groups. Christian missionaries have spent years praying, strategizing, and risking everything to go to these people. Now, God is bringing them here. After raising tens of thousands of dollars, undergoing extensive training, leaving everything familiar, and going through the grueling process of learning a foreign language — only then, could a missionary experience the breakthrough of having the kind of conversation Stephanie and Fatimah had just casually at our local library in Minneapolis.
Do you see the enormity of the possibility here? We have spent years plotting and praying to get missionaries into some of the most difficult places in the world. Now, four million hurting and broken people from at least eighteen unreached people groups are coming to the West. “Is it safe?” sounds like a question a government would ask. And it should ask; a government should seek to protect its people. But Christians ask, “What is God up to?”
So, as Christians, we may disagree about what’s best for America to do in this situation. But as Christians, we also recognize that this is not ultimately as important as the gospel opportunity represented in the refugee crisis.
God cares about these refugees suffering, and so should we. This is an opportunity for us to “do justice and righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor him who has been robbed. And do no wrong or violence to the resident alien, the fatherless, and the widow” (Jeremiah 22:3). The heart of our Father towards refugees is evident throughout the Scripture: “Let the outcasts of Moab sojourn among you; be a shelter to them from the destroyer” (Isaiah 16:4). When we feed the hungry, give water to the thirsty, and clothe the naked, we do so as unto the Lord (Matthew 25:34–40).
While God cares about all suffering, he cares most particularly about eternal suffering, and so should we. God has blessed us so that his “way may be known on earth, [his] saving power among all nations” (Psalm 67:2). The refugee crisis is an opportunity for the nations — even Syrian, Sunni Muslims from eighteen unreached people groups — to sing for joy (Psalm 67:4).
In the faces of these refugees, we see 10,000 reasons for this tragedy. Men mean it for evil, but God means it for good.
So, how should a Christian think as a Christian about the refugee crisis?

1. Don’t react in fear, but with courage.

Let’s be bold for the sake of the advance of Jesus’s kingdom. Rather than thinking primarily of our own safety or comfort, let’s ask what gospel movements may be possible through our lives and churches if God allows it. Let’s pray and strategize and pray more. Let’s get behind good evangelical efforts to welcome refugees and minister to them the gospel of grace.

2. Think God’s thoughts after him.

One of the things that hinders Christian witness most is simply that the primary voice speaking in our heads, influencing our thoughts, and determining our behavior is not the Bible, but media pundits. We shut ourselves off so that we only hear voices from a narrow slice of the political spectrum, and then we listen to these voices day after day and week after week, so that they begin to shape our thinking in profound ways.
How would we view Muslims if we were steeped in God’s words so that we were thinking his thoughts after him? What would be our perspective on the refugee crisis if the Bible, and not our favorite news channel, was guiding our thoughts and directing our behavior?

3. Pray that Christ would build his church.

The last one hundred years have seen a sweeping movement of the gospel across the Global South. Christ’s kingdom is advancing despite the fiercest attempts to stop it, because the Spirit blows where he wishes (John 3:8). So let’s pray — pray that the knowledge of the gospel will come to many unreached people groups for the first time as a result of this refugee crisis. Let’s pray that many Muslims will come to Christ. Let’s pray that the church in Europe and in the United States would be revived as we pray and love and witness.
God is building his church — through this refugee crisis — and the very hellishness of ISIS will not prevail against it.

Reposted from DesiringGod.com
Article by David Crabb
http://www.desiringgod.org/articles/building-his-church-in-a-refugee-crisis

21 shocking facts about global poverty

Reposted from One.org: http://www.one.org/us/2015/10/30/21-shocking-facts-about-global-poverty

Check out our list of the most SHOCKING global poverty facts that we’re willing to bet you didn’t know. Read on, if you dare…
1. More people have access to a mobile phone than a toilet.
2. Americans spend more on Halloween than the entire world spends on malaria in a year.
3. 663 million people in the world—1 in 10—lack access to safe water.
4. 730 million people in sub-Saharan Africa heat their home and cook food using open fires. Which is really, really bad for your health.
5. Every year, consumers in rich countries waste almost as much food (222 million tons) as the entire net food production of sub-Saharan Africa (230 million tons).
6. There are 59 million children who don’t go to school. UNESCO have provided a map of the percentage of children not in school per country in the world:

7. 32.2 million – over 50% of children who are not in education are girls. (Further proof that #PovertyisSexist.) This is UNESCO’s map of the gender gap for literacy:

8. Similarly, 63% or 479 million of the world’s adult illiterate population are women.
You may have seen our billboard if you live in London.

9. Every year, developing countries are robbed of more than $1 trillion that could fight poverty, disease and hunger. A stack of a trillion one dollar bills would stand 67,866 miles high and reach roughly a third of the way to the moon!
10. The value of Africa’s oil and mining exports was more than seven times the value of international aid the continent received in 2011.
11. Only three African countries publish sufficient budget information for citizens to know what their governments are spending money on. This NEEDS to change. However, a data revolution is imminent.
12. Hunger and malnutrition are the number one risk to health in the world, greater than HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis combined.
13. Diarrhea and pneumonia together also claim more children’s lives than AIDS, malaria and TB combined. These are all preventable, treatable diseases that no one should have to die from.
14. Every day, approximately 800 women die from preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth. And 99% of these deaths occur in developing countries.
15. Today, 795 million people are suffering from hunger, and more than 2 billion people do not get the nutrition they need to thrive.
16. About 161 million children every year are stunted or permanently disadvantaged for life, simply from a lack of adequate nutrition.
17. If women farmers had the same access to resources as men, the number of hungry in the world could be reduced by up to 150 million.
Finally, some positive news as a treat!
18. A child born to a mother who can read is 50% more likely to survive past the age of 5.
19. The world achieved the first Millennium Development Goal—to halve the poverty rate among developing countries—five years ahead of schedule in 2010!
20. The share of people living in extreme poverty across the globe has declined from 37.1% in 1990 to 29.1% in 1999 to 12.7% in 2012.
21. The World Bank has predicted that the number of people living in extreme poverty will fall to 702 million people in 2015, or 9.6% of the global population–down from 12.7% in 2012.

At this rate of change, it is absolutely possible to pull the remaining people out of poverty!

But, we need help to turn those first 17 facts into fiction! Join ONE’s global movement of more than 7 million people working together to end extreme poverty NOW!

Article from the Wall Street Journal

This is encouraging. And convicting!

Just How Stressed are Missionaries (and what can we do about it)?

 

First term missionaries were found to have scores peaking at 900, while veterans maintain 600+ year after year. According to the research, people with a score above 200 will likely have serious long-term health problems within two-years.

Shortly after we arrived in the States, some of our friends (both missionaries on their first term) started having somewhat mysterious major health issues that have brought them home to the US to get checked out. Doctors are mostly baffled by the ailments because there is no clear cause. It’s truly puzzling. Then I came across this post on another missionary’s blog which quantifies stress based on a modified version of the Holmes-Rahe Scale. After reading this, it’s no wonder missionaries are so weird!
Just for fun, I took the unmodified, original,  Holmes-Rahe test for Bailey and I and scored 532 points. My results were accompanied by this warning, “OVER 300 POINTS: This score indicates a major life crisis and is highly predictive (80%) of serious physical illness within the next 2 years.” 
The test I took didn’t include any of the bonus features we deal with like:

• “Almost crashing into someone or something in the truck several times every day on the way to work”
• “Cross-cultural living in a community where we don’t speak the language”
• “Flying small planes onto jungle airstrips while Bailey flight follows”
• “Knowing that every time I fly or work on the airplane I have the potential to make a bad and fatal decision”
• “Instructing kids what to do if a cobra wanders into the yard while they’re playing”

The following article is from this blog and I feel it is right on point. Our hearts are heavy as we see so many missionaries suffer from strange illnesses that are impossible to diagnose. Not all are stress related, but it makes you wonder. It isn’t just missionaries either. We see many of our friends, family and supporters who are struggling with unimaginable stresses in the US as well but are pushing forward and walking with the Lord through it all. In the end, we all lean on the same God who’s reputation inspires us to blaze on with the assurance we get from Jesus’ words as he sent out the first round of missionaries, “And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

Just how Stressed are Missionaries (and what can we do about it)?

by JIM on 7 MARCH 2012

I was just reading about stress levels in missionary life.  Now, you may have heard of the Holmes-Rahe Scale, which is one way health professionals measure stress in people’s lives.  The idea is that a certain number of life events can build up the level of stress until it gets dangerous.
Some of these might be the death of a family member, a child leaving home, trouble with the boss, change in social activities, a vacation, or marriage.
I’m not going to analyze the pros and cons of the scale, but it does say something about our lives and our ability to cope and react to change.
Back in 1999, Drs Lois and Larry Dodds (of Heartstream Resources) were studying the levels of stress on the mission field, using a modified version of the Holmes-Rahe Scale.
In Holmes and Rahe’s original study, they found that if you reached a level of 200 on the scale in a year, the cumulative stress would have consequences for some time to come.  In fact, they found that 50% of those who reached this level were hospitalized within two years.  The reasons included heart attack, diabetes, cancer, and other severe illness.
If ever the level reached 300, the person was almost certain to end up in the hospital within two years.
So frankly, you don’t want to have that much change and transition in your life.
So, the Dodds wanted to find out what the typical missionary went through.  As you might have guessed, the news wasn’t good.
The typical missionary had not just peaking levels above 300 – they hadsustained levels over 300 – – – year after year.
The typical missionary, in fact, had double that level – 600 on the scale!
Admittedly, the missionaries in the original study were Americans in Latin America, so we’re not in the category.  Well, not exactly.

The other bad news was that missionaries in their first term had levels that peaked at 900.
These numbers are truly mind-boggling.
The recommendations of the Dodds?  Here’s a summary.

• First, be very serious about selection, training, and placement of missionaries.
• Second, missions should think twice about sending first term missionaries into especially isolated situations.
• Third, they should think twice about sending missionaries with young children into isolated situations.
• Fourth, provide people trained in member care who can provide continuous support to missionaries.

What about those of us who are friends or supporters of missionaries?  (Yes, I know we’re missionaries ourselves – but we’re also friends of missionaries!)
Well, here are some ideas, just off the top of my head.

• Pray for them:  Pray that they would find support and friendship on the field (coworkers, national believers – and even unbelievers).  Pray for God’s grace in their lives, for times of rest and refreshment, for wisdom.
• Encourage them:  Letters, calls, surprises, financial support (not just normal support – but maybe a gift for the kids or a bit for a holiday/vacation), visits, help when they’re in your area…
• Be informed:  What does the mission do to ensure missionaries are being taken care of?  How do they decide how missionaries are placed?
• Show grace:  Missionaries need to be accountable to their supporters.  But this has to be done with grace.  Recognize that missionaries are not miracle workers who can transform the world on their own; they’re not super-humans (or Vulcans) who can never be disturbed by the realities of life.  When people say to us “I could never do what you do” we often reply,”neither can we”.  Missionaries will get frustrated, depressed, confused and they will fail.  Give them grace and support, and don’t be too shocked if they even take a week off now and then.
• Don’t Pretend to Completely Understand:  We never know, really, what someone else is going through.  This applies to a death in the family, an illness, a divorce, a problem at work – no matter what it is, we can only understand to a point.  The same goes for cross cultural work.  If you want to offer help, advice, criticism, ideas, whatever it is – do it with grace and humility.  Hopefully the missionary will take it the same way.
• Be a part of sending more missionaries:  Why in the world would I add this to the list?  Why would we want to send more people into such a stressful situation?  Because in the end, God has sent us into the world, and He has the grace to sustain us.  Suffering is a reality of life.  And Goduses it in our lives.  The work must continue.  If we can be excited about the work, support it, and encourage it, that will go a long way.  It’s wonderful to know that people believe in the Great Commission and that we’re working as a part of a worldwide team.
• Realize it’s not hopeless:  No, not all missionaries need to burn out or be completely depressed all the time.  While we recognize that suffering is a part of the missionary life, it is still possible for missionaries to serve long term with joy.  We just need to allow God to use us to help one another.

In the end, it’s worth the stress.  This rescue-mission that we’re on is more important than personal comfort.
But that’s not to say that we should ignore the issue – instead, we should minimize the problem as much as we can, so that missionaries can be more effective in their ministries.
And we as missionaries – we should not be using some stress scale as an excuse.  But again, we should be aware of the challenges, and ask God for wisdom as we try to balance our lives.
As I look around at other people here, it’s hard to feel too hard done by.  Our friends have challenges that we can only imagine, and we are humbled by their faith (if they are believers).  Though there are challenges, and we must be careful to run the marathon with patience, we know that our sacrifice is really a small one when you look at the big picture.
Yes, the work must go on.

Posted by: Brian and Bailey Pruett

Reposted from the New Tribes Mission blog: http://blogs.ntm.org/brian-pruett/2012/03/23/just-how-stressed-are-missionaries-and-what-can-we-do-about-it/

400

 
"When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God."
~ Leviticus 19:33-34

Arizona will receive as many as 400 Syrian refugees in the next 12 months.

Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/immigration/2015/10/02/phoenix-more-syrian-refugees-coming/72429492/

Get involved over there: http://www.samaritanspurse.org/
Get involved right here: http://www.rescue.org/us-program/us-phoenix-az

What's Your Status, Gladys? Setting a Course for Global Engagement

Reposted from Missions Catalyst:
http://us8.campaign-archive2.com/?u=6519d46f2f69995da716ec542&id=dc9fffac2d&e=fd7c8e5710

What’s Your Status, Gladys?

Setting a Course for Global Engagement

By Shane Bennett

My wife and I have a text message shorthand question to ask how things are going when we’re apart: “What’s your status, Gladys?” Neither of us is named Gladys. I just like the rhyme. And I’m hoping it will stick in your mind as I ask you what your status is relative to God’s work throughout the world. You know: missions, the Great Commission, call it what you like.

What’s your status, Gladys?

What is your part and how well are you playing it?

If you’re the epicenter of your church’s cross-cultural efforts, if you’re confident and comfortable in the role God has you playing right now, or if you’re up to your ears with an unengaged people group, this article isn’t so much for you. It is, however, for people in your sphere of influence, so please consider passing it along.

If, on the other hand, you sense God asking you to engage in a more significant way, if there’s a niggling somewhere in your heart or mind, and you’re not sure what to do or how to get going, read on. This is going to help.

The process is simple:

A. Set a course.
B. Determine the very next step.
C. Kick down the obstacles.

Let’s take a closer look.

A: Set a course.

Maybe you’re thinking about the world for the first time. That God might be asking someone like you to join someone like him in amazing global work is a new concept. You’ve got to figure out how to get going.

Or maybe you’ve been following Jesus for a while and always thought missions was a cool idea, but never actually took the leap. Now God’s saying, “The water’s great. Get in here!”

Perhaps you’ve been logging hours for the world but have this crazy hunch that God wants to strap some rockets to your efforts and light the fuse!

The first thing to remember is that you can’t do everything. If you try, you’ll be lousy at the whole list. Paul was right about that body of Christ thing: God is smart enough to equip each of us so that together we can accomplish what he has in mind. The trick, of course, is determining if you’re a hand or a heart, an elbow or an epiglottis. (Is anyone that part of the body?)

You didn’t ask for advice, but here it is: Don’t let this decision paralyze you. Trust in the equipping (and when you goof, the redeeming) power of God and get moving.

Some people shake out the basic modes of involvement in missions into praying, sending, going, welcoming, and mobilizing. Consider simply picking from the list and moving in that general direction. Definitely seek God at this point (and every other). You’d also be wise to seek the input of people who are wiser or more experienced than you are.

Keep in mind: These categories can overlap. Choosing one as a focus doesn’t lock you in forever.

If you can honestly say “I feel that God wants me to play a bigger part in his globally expanding kingdom, but I don’t know what part,” let me offer you two options to consider:

1. The unengaged

Focus your copious skills and energy on an unengaged Muslim people group. Read this Practical Mobilization column from a couple of months ago. Check out this list from the International Mission Board. Then talk to someone like the kindly mavericks at Frontiers about how quickly you can dive into the deep end!

2. The overlooked

Let me invite you, as personally as I can in an article like this, to join me in a growing effort to respond to the heart-wrenching humanitarian crisis and amazing gospel opportunity unfolding in Sicily right now. I think there’s a place for you in what God is launching, and I’d love to explore that with you. Let’s do something epic together.

B: Determine the very next step.

Regardless of the general direction you choose, education might be your next step. Perspectives classes, which may be the best introduction to God’s global purposes, are starting up right now all across the U.S. and beyond. There are other classes and curricula that cover similar ground which may be in the works in your church or town. Ask around!

Signed up for Perspectives, now what? Generally, look to see what your tribe is doing. How does the direction you want to head in work at your church? How could you contribute there? Is God unfolding something cool at your church that he has in mind for you to contribute to? Moving forward with your tribe can be very powerful.

For specifics, this site has some great ideas for each main role. Also consider these:

Praying

Set an alarm on your phone for 10.02am and simply pray as Jesus said to in Luke 10.2, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”

Sending

Tell a fund-raising friend that you’re trying to learn to send, so you’ll support her $20 (or $200) a month for six months and then re-evaluate. Ask to get on her email newsletter list.

Going

Get a passport! You may not be able to go anywhere cool without one.

Welcoming

Call the closest university and ask if any international students have signed up to be paired with local friends. Agree to be one of those local friends.

Mobilizing

Forward this email to three friends who might walk with you as you move toward the world and God’s work in it.

C: Kick down the obstacles

It would be so cool if knowing your general direction and clearly understanding the very next step led seamlessly to action. Sadly, in the real world, things like fear, apathy, and busy-ness conspire to keep us where we are. Might as well be honest about it. What is most likely to keep you from taking your next step?

Thinking your friends will think you’ve lost it?

Wondering where the money will come from?

Mired in uncertainty?

Do this with me: Name it and un-claim it! Seek God’s power and a friend’s, pastor’s, or mom’s support—whatever is required. Take that very next step.

One caveat: If it’s all you can do right now to breathe and your next step is pretty much just trying to stay alive, please don’t let these words further burden you. My prayer for you is that God soon brings you out of the valley into refreshing green pastures and quiet waters.

Conclusion

So what’s your status, Gladys? What’s the main direction, what’s the very next step, and what do you need to kill to take it? God’s grace to you and to us! I’m hungry to see his purposes fulfilled on the earth. I want to see his blessing blossom in every family. And both the Bible and experience indicate it’s going to take a lot of us showing up with all the strength and smarts and persistence we can muster, coupled with the empowering of the Holy Spirit. We need you. Your contribution matters. If God is nudging you forward: engage!

» We welcome your comments on this article on our website or Facebook page. Please forward or share it freely.

What Is This Class?

Pathways to Global Understanding is starting in January! Pathways is our local Arizona knock-off of the internationally known (and rather expensive) Perspectives on the World Christian Movement.

It's a 16-week course, and it's for believers from all walks of life. Not just for prospective cross-cultural missionaries. It IS a class for people who already love world missions. It's a class for people who love urban missions. And it's especially a class for people who don't particularly care about missions or think that they aren't called to missions.

The purpose of Pathways is to help the church to clearly understand God's heart for the nations and how every follower of Jesus is called to participate in God’s Kingdom plan.

Over 14 weeks, Pathways delves into 5 aspects of global Christianity.

First, it starts with the Bible, illuminating God's unchanging purposes as they unfold from Genesis to Revelation.
Then, second, into post-Biblical History, tracing the advance of the kingdom and seeing what practical lessons from the past can instruct us for the future.

Then it goes into strategy, and culture and lastly, Partnership. Practical application, and options for involvement in the advancement of the kingdom WHEREVER you live and WHATEVER you do.

John Piper on the subject of missions has rather famously stated: "If you love the glory of God, and if you love people, you have three possibilities: go, send, or disobey."

Taking Pathways will help you avoid the last one, and give you a few more educated options for pursuing the former ones.