In the book of 1 Corinthians

Welcome on my blog. I believe that if you are on this site, this is not sheer coincidence so do explore and be ready to find maybe answers to your questions or find out radically astounding truth because whenever it is quoted, I believe that the Word of God is powerful and life-giving. 

Love is patient,

 love is kind.

 It does not envy,

 it does not boast,

 it is not proud.

 5 It does not dishonor others,

 it is not self-seeking,

 it is not easily angered,

 it keeps no record of wrongs.

 6 Love does not delight in evil

but rejoices with the truth.

 7 It always protects, 

                                                        always trusts,

                                                        always hopes, 

                                                              always perseveres.

1 Corinthians 13:4-7

The passage continues:

Everyone who prophesies
    will stop,
and unknown languages
will no longer
    be spoken.
All that we know
    will be forgotten.
9 We don’t know everything,
and our prophecies
    are not complete.
10 But what is perfect
    will someday appear,
and what isn’t perfect
    will then disappear.

11 When we were children,
we thought and reasoned
    as children do.
But when we grew up,
    we quit our childish ways.
12 Now all we can see of God
is like a cloudy picture
    in a mirror.
Later we will see him
    face to face.
We don’t know everything,
    but then we will,
just as God completely
    understands us.
13 For now there are faith,
    hope, and love.
But of these three,
    the greatest is love.

This passage is just awesome. I have just been reading a post about faith, hope and love written by a missionary called Nick Gambrell, and I'd like to share it with you. Click here. ...how faith played a part in the lives of those I met in Rwanda this past summer.I stayed in an Orphanage, as I showed you this morning, where 9 boys lived. Literally, one of the first things that I noticed was that in the kitchen, or even of the bathrooms that was supposedly storage, there was no food. I wondered, what did they eat? On top of that, I wondered, where do they cook this seemingly imaginary food that they eat?

I soon realized that there was no supply of food. They lived day to day. What food they did get each day came in the form of one meal often cooked by one of the older boys over a fire behind the orphanage. This is living by faith...

I invite you to join us in prayers for all our brothers and sisters in Christ who do not have enough food, water, a bed to sleep, clothes, basic material resources. 

Do let me know if the link does not work.

Have a blessed evening. N.

Gladys Aylward (1902 -1970)

Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards;not many were influential;not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 1 Corinthians 1:26-27

Being on holidays, I have indulged in my best hobby, catching up with some reading! So one evening, I had been reading 'Song of a stranger' (Keswick Ministries) and picked it up where I left it, chapter 6, The eternal presence, p 97, I quote: I don't know if you know much the growth of the church in China, but if you look at a graph of the growth of the church it is very level through the 20th c. and up until around 1970 and then graph takes off and goes through the roof. Over diner, I asked my hubby if he could guess why did this happen? In the conversation that followed, he mentioned the names of two Christian missionaries, Hudson Taylor and Gladys Aylward adding that they dressed like the people around her and this was a major factor in making their preaching effective. As I never heard of them, I read their biographies. Here is a short summary of Gladys' biography.

Born into a working class family in Edmonton, London on February 24, 1902, Gladys became a parlor maid at the age of only 14. Her call to missions came about when she attended a revival when she was 18 in which the preacher expounded on giving one's life over to the service of the Lord In her mid-twenties, she was given a probationary position with the China Inland Mission Center in London but  this endeavor didn't bear fruit. At the age of 26 her probation ended in failure. However, no one can frustrate the will of God."For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. (Rom 11:29) At the age of 30, Gladys begins her missionary career in Yangcheng working with veteran missionary Jeannie Lawson. She helped operate an inn for mule drivers and she learned Chinese. After Jeannie's death, Gladys was unable to financially sustain the Inn. The local officials approached her and asked if she would be willing to be a "foot inspector." The tradition of binding Chinese women's feet had  been outlawed, but it was still being practiced in many places. Gladys began traveling around inspecting the bones in women's feet. As she traveled she would tell stories from the Bible and many looked forward to the days they could hear these strange new stories. During the war between Japan and China, Gladys also adopted war orphans and eventually had over 100 children in her care. In 1940, the war had escalated and she was forced to leave Northern China and head south to Sian through the thickening battle, over mountains and across the Yellow River. When Gladys climbed over the mountains to Sian, she had 100 children with her, that she was taking to a refugee area.  On the twelfth day, they arrived at the Yellow River, with no way to cross it. All boat traffic had stopped, and all civilian boats had been seized to keep them out of the hands of the Japanese. The children wanted to know, "Why don't we cross?" She said, "There are no boats." They said, "God can do anything. Ask Him to get us across." They all knelt and prayed. Then they sang. A Chinese officer with a patrol heard the singing and rode up. He heard their story and said, "I think I can get you a boat." They crossed, and after a few more difficulties Ai-weh-deh delivered her charges into competent hands at Sian, and then promptly collapsed with typhus fever and sank into delirium for several days. After 20 years in China, Gladys returned to England. She was embarrassed to find that she quickly became a celebrity. A book, movie and TV documentary were all made about her life. To many Gladys became known by many as "The Small Women," the title of her biography. She continued to travel and speak about her beloved China, returning to Taiwan in 1957.

What an admirable woman and an incredible story! In one of the websites, some comments are made by people who either heard her speak or knew her so I do recommend you to visit them! Blessings. N.

Credits for these resources in those links:

www.tlogical.net 

http://www.historymakers.info/ 

http://justus.anglican.org/resources/bio/73.html

Tempted to buy a new mobile?

Think again! Is your phone fuelling the conflict in Eastern Congo? The film Blood in the Mobile released last October exposes how minerals used in mobile-phone manufacture are tainted with blood and conflict. This is a wake-up call to all mobile phone owners about how raw materials are sourced and the human cost of “conflict minerals”.

FACTS
“Blood in the Mobile” is the story about how our phones are connected to illegal mining in Congo (DRC). Every time we communicate through our cell phones we are associated with the crimes in Congo.
Congo is a country of many natural resources like gold, diamonds, rubber, coltan and cassiterite. But instead of causing Congo wealth, these resources have ended up fuelling the bloodiest war since WWII. 5 million people have died, estimated 300.000 women have been raped.
The film focuses on the mineral cassiterite - a mineral used for producing tin, which is used for the production of all kinds of electronic devices - including mobile phones.
Director Frank Piasecki Poulsen visits a mine in Bisie. Bisie is one of the largest and most notorious illegal mines in the region. It happens frequently that some of the mineshafts collapse and miners are being buried alive.
Child labor, prostitution of under age girls and lack of rights and protection of miners are some of the conditions around the mining operations of cassiterite. The money from the minerals is financing the war in the region.

Find out more, click on these links http://bloodinthemobile.org/the-film/video-blog/  or  http://www.raisehopeforcongo.org/ To know how your favorite tech company is ranking, click on this link http://www.raisehopeforcongo.org/content/conflict-minerals-company-rankings

Also, I recommend the following websites http://www.frontline.org.za/news.htm and  http://www.sendtheroths.com/  where you will find out more about mission in Congo. Will you join me in praying for all the Christian missionaries, in Congo, and Africa,  may the Lord protects them, guides them and strengthens them everyday as they seek to advance the Kingdom of God there, training other missionaries and giving hope to the orphans and victims of the war. In the name of Jesus, our Saviour. Amen.

Watchman Nee

The other day while reading Authentic Christianity I came across the name of Watchman Nee. I never heard of him before so I googled it and here is what I found about him. 

Nee Shu-tsu, whose English name was Henry Nee, was born of second-generation Christian parents in Foochow, China in 1903. His paternal grandfather,Nga U-cheng, born in 1840, became the first Chinese pastor among the Congregationalists in northern Fukien province. Nee Shu-tsu had been consecrated to the Lord before his birth. Desiring a son, his mother had prayed to the Lord, "If I have a boy, I will present him to You." The Lord answered her prayer, and soon afterward Nee Shu-tsu was born. 

 Yet Nee Shu-tsu, acquainted with the gospel since childhood, had the deep realization that if he received Jesus as his Lord for salvation he must also serve Him. In 1920, after a considerable struggle, seventeen-year-old Nee Shu-tsu, still a high school student, was dynamically saved. At the moment of his salvation, all his previous planning became void and his future career was entirely abandoned. He testified, "From the evening I was saved, I began to have a new life, for the life of the eternal God had entered into me". Later, after being raised up by the Lord to carry out His commission, he adopted the new English name Watchman and the new Chinese name To-sheng, which means "watchman's rattle," for he considered himself a watchman raised up to sound a warning call in the dark night. Nee's method of church planting was to begin with a small group of people meeting in a house. From then on, they would hold both home meetings and meetings in the building. They would invariably train indigenous leadership for these groups. Nee also received a bachelor's degree during this period from Trinity college in Foochow. Later on he married Chaing Pin-Hwai, a family friend who had graduated in literature from the famous Yin King University. Her knowledge of literature would assist Nee in his writing and translation work. In 1947, Nee was restored to leadership in the Little Flock church in Shanghai, and again was active in church-planting and training of Christian workers. In 1952 he was imprisoned for his faith; he remained in prison for 20 years until his death in 1972. After Watchman Nee's death, when his niece came to collect his few possessions, she was given a scrap of paper that a guard had found by his bed. What was written on that scrap may serve as Watchman Nee's testament: Christ is the Son of God who died for the redemption of sinners and resurrected after three days. This is the greatest truth in the universe. I die because of my belief in Christ. His words remain an abundant source of spiritual revelation and supply to Christians throughout the world. 

• The Spiritual Man
• Spiritual Authority
• Mystery of Creation
• Gospel Dialogue
• The King and The Kingdom of Heaven
• Interpreting Matthew
• Come, Lord Jesus
• The Better Covenant
• Aids to Revelation
• The Overcoming Life
• The Normal Christian Life
• The Breaking of The Outer Man and The Release of The Spirit
• The Song of Songs
• Authority and Submission
• Christ the Sum of All Spiritual Things

What an amazing life serving the Lord! If you have you read any of his books do let me know! It's getting late and I am exhausted so I will say to you good night and God bless. Yours in Christ. N.

Sources : http://www.watchmannee.org and wikipedia.

Dependant on God alone!

Since moving to Mozambique in 1995, and giving away everything they had, Heidi and Rolland Baker have learned to depend on God for everything.

“If God does not show up, we are dead,” says Heidi.

Living among the poor has allowed Heidi to see firsthand how when they embrace the life of the Beatitudes, they are truly blessed.

“The Beatitudes are God’s recipe for revival. They are a portrait and description of Jesus. When we walk as Jesus walked, we will be blessed,” shares Heidi.

She believes God is calling a generation forward to be “laid-down lovers for Him, to walk in the ways He walked, and to follow His Sermon on the Mount as their instructions for their Christian walk.”

Heidi says there is something about the poor that delights the heart of God. The reason God breaks forth in Mozambique in great power is because the people are poor in spirit.

“I believe Jesus meant that poor in spirit is a posturing of the heart where one is wholly given, fully yielded, completely desperate, and totally dependent on God alone.”

Heidi shares one of many occasions in which God showed up right on time. It was a 110-degree Christmas Day. There were hundreds of children that were awaiting a Christmas party at their center. These children included girls who had sold their bodies, bandits, rascals, and children from the village. All had all been invited. The challenge was that there were so many children, but only a limited amount of toy bags available. So, Heidi began to give the presents out first to those children who had never received a present before. Finally, it came down to the older girls, but all that was left were bags with stuffed animals in them.

Heidi asked the girls, “What would you like, sweetheart?”
And the girl replied, “Beads.”
Heidi’s friend and co-worker said “There is nothing in the bags but old stuffed dogs.”
Heidi asked her friend to check the bags again. When the lady reached her hand into the bag of stuffed animals she started screaming, “Beads! There are beads in the bag!”
All of the girls got beautiful, bright beads for Christmas.

OPEN MY EYES

Heidi received a prophetic word by a man named Randy Clark.

She was told “the blind will see, the crippled will walk, the dead will be raised from the dead and the poor would hear the good news of Jesus Christ.”

After she returned to the mission field in Mozambique she began praying for the blind but not getting good results. Until about a year later, when a blind beggar lady came to church. Heidi was thrilled to pray for her because she wasn’t going to give up on the word that she had received from the Lord. As she prayed for the lady, her eyes began to turn from white to gray and then to brown. The next day she prayed for another woman who was blind since the age of eight. This lady received her sight too. On the third day, Heidi prayed for yet another woman who was blind from birth and she received her sight. All three of these women were named Mama Aida. In Mozambique, Heidi’s name is also Mama Aida. Through these healings God opened Heidi’s eyes to see how the Bride in the West is blind, poor, and thirsty for God’s Word.

Although she had worked with the poorest of the poor she says,” I could not understand and I could not see that people in the Western world were poor and starving too, that they were starving for the things of God. And then God opened my eyes.”

FOOD MIRACULOUSLY MULTIPLIED

In 1995, Heidi arrived in Mozambique, the poorest country in the world, with her family. The government offered them a horribly dilapidated and neglected "orphanage." After many years of brutal civil war, thousands of children had been left as orphans, displaced and abandoned.

There were 80 children and God poured down His love and provided food day by day. A church was planted and hundreds began to turn to the Lord. The former communist directors of the government orphanage were furious ever since Heidi and her husband took over since their extreme corruption and thievery had been stopped. Scheming together with an equally corrupt faction of the government, they concocted accusations and issued a legal decree against Iris Ministries that forbade prayer and worship, Christian singing, and all forms of "unapproved" food and clothes distribution and medical assistance.

Since Heidi and the children did not obey the new rules, they had 48 hours to leave the property. Heidi was told there was a contract out on her life. So, they evacuated to their office in the capital city of Maputo. The children gathered in the dining room/church began to sing praise and worship songs at the tops of their lungs. They were beaten and told they could not worship God. One by one, they began to walk the 20 miles to the city office. Reunited, Heidi, Rolland and the orphans called out to God in total desperation.

They had lost everything and there was no place for them to go and no food to eat. A friend from the American Embassy came with chili and rice for the Bakers and their 2 children. They prayed over the pots of food and told the 80+ children to sit down. Everyone ate and was full! God has rewarded their faith, and now their property in Pemba is over seven times what was lost in 1997.

“Government officials who once persecuted us and beat our children are now thankful for us staying in the country,” says Heidi.

MISSIONS IN HER BLOOD

Heidi was called to the mission field when she was 16 and living on an Indian Reservation as an American Field student where she was led to the Lord by a Navajo preacher. Several months later she was taken up in a vision for several hours and heard the Lord tell her to be a minister and missionary to Africa, Asia and England. Heidi met her husband Rolland at a small charismatic church in Southern California and married six months later. They left for the mission field two weeks after they were married, with simple instructions from the Lord, one way tickets and thirty dollars in their pockets. They spent 12 years in Asia and saw thousands come to Jesus.

After meeting Jackie Pullinger-To and working with her ministry to drug addicts in Hong Kong, their hearts were increasingly broken for the poor and unwanted. In 1992 they left to do their PhDs at Kings' College, University of London.

Want to find out more, follow this link, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgGu782dNX0&feature=related

Blessings.

Meet Heidi Baker!