Red Paint

Serving in missions is difficult. There are great sacrifices that one makes in order to serve. Sacrifices in time, sacrifices in distance from family, and sacrifices in earnings that could be made if the missionary pursued other work. There are also more significant sacrifices. In many cases, our missionaries are risking their very lives each day that they serve.

While we were in Africa, Tammy and I had the pleasure to meet a missionary couple from the USA and serving in Africa. We were also blessed to meet their two beautiful daughters. This family has been serving in Angola for several years. Angola is a difficult country to work in. It is just coming out of over 40 years of civil war and is facing the first free elections in its young history in a few months.

War for any country is a bad thing. In Angola, the war was particularly difficult due to its length and due to the fighting tactics that were used. One of the more sinister elements of modern war is the landmine. Angola is littered with landmines. On almost a daily basis, someone is injured or killed by a landmine that was left over from the war.

Our missionaries in Angola are tasked with planting churches in communities throughout the country. Their typical process is to go into a community, use movies and crusades to share the gospel message with the members of that community, introduce an Angolan pastor who is going to stay and become a part of that community, provide God's word in the form of the Book of Hope for the children and youth of that community, and then plant the church. At our meetings, we were able to equip them with copies of The GodMan in Portuguese. They will use The GodMan to begin an evangelistic outreach specifically geared to the children and youth of the communities where they are planting churches. With this process, they have been successful at planting churches all across the country.

A church planting process such as this requires lots of travel throughout Angola. Angola is not a big country. However, due to the years of war, there is little in the way of established infrastructure. Travel anywhere outside of the capital city of Luanda is very hard. As our missionary family travels throughout Angola, they must frequently stop wherever and whenever the needs arise and make life as comfortable as possible at that time. As they have traveled, they have coveted the prayers of their prayer partners back home. Prayers for effectiveness? Yes. But also prayers for safety.

As time has pass and the government has started to step up their efforts to rid the country of the risk of landmines, one of their first tasks was to work with the rebels to identify where landmines were planted. Together, these two previously opposing groups agreed to mark the area where they planted landmines by painting the side of the road red. Now, whenever travelers want to stop for a break, they know to look for places that do not have red paint on the side of the road. That is their sign that the location is a safe place to stop.

Our missionary family knew they had prayer warriors back home praying for them and specifically praying for safety. However, they never realized the impact of those prayers until recently. The reaction of the government and rebels to the call for identifying those landmine zones was swift. Almost overnight, red paint began to show up on roadsides everywhere. As our missionaries traveled, they began to see places where they had previously taken rest stops. Even places where they had made it their routine to stop for a break. At first they were horrified. Then they began to express praises to God for His divine protection. You see, many of those places that were once their stopping points were now painted red. They are places that are infused with landmines. Every step that these missionaries took off the road could have been their last.

In David's prayer recorded in Psalm 17, he says "My steps have held to your paths; my feet have not slipped." We are forever grateful that for this missionary family, their steps have held to His path, both in their spiritual walk and in their physical walk. Remember to lift these and all our missionaries up in prayer. As Psalms 119 says, "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path." Pray for the Lord to be that lamp unto their feet, that light unto their path. Pray for God's continued protection as they bring the gospel message to a war-torn country that is desperate to hear the good news.

And Africa Will Be Saved

If You Believe and I Believe

And Together We Will Stand.

The Holy Spirit Will Come Down

And Africa Will Be Saved.

And Africa Will Be Saved.

And Africa Will Be Saved.

The Holy Spirit Will Come Down

And Africa Will Be Saved.

That was a worship song that we sang one night during our week in Africa. It summed up our purpose. Together, men and women from across the continent joined with brothers and sisters from the USA and Brazil to answer God's awesome call to be his witness even to the remotest parts of the earth. Even to the remotest parts of Africa.

When I say we had representatives from all across Africa, we did. There were pastors and lay leaders from French-speaking parts of North Africa, from English-speaking parts of West and Southern Africa, from Portuguese-speaking parts of Southern Africa, and from areas dominated by the numerous tribal languages spoken within Africa.

All of these brothers and sisters came together for a single purpose -- that Africa would be saved. There are many in this world who say that Africa is a fully evangelized country. There are facts and logic to back up those statements. However, in reality, Africa is no more "fully evangelized" than the USA is. Yes, there is a church presence in nearly every country; perhaps in nearly every community. However, there are still many who do not know Christ. And there is a new generation of Africans who are growing up in a post-modern world. Just like their counterparts in the USA and Western Europe, they are going up without a knowledge of God's plan of salvation for their lives. They are growing up lost. They need to be saved.

Please lift up Africa in your prayers. Ask God to prepare the hearts of the children and youth who will see The GodMan and who will received their own personal copy of God's word in the form of the Book of Hope. And pray for laborers who will come along side our national teams to reach the children and youth of their communities.

They Think They Are Predators

Chad and Jacques made the mistake of making some unusual moves while Tammy and José were around with a camera. Enjoy, as these two commentators attempt to track a strange new predator species in Africa.

New Photos on Flickr

I have added photos to our Flickr account from our trip to Africa. You can access the photos at http://www.flickr.com/photos/75786630@N00/. Enjoy!

Experiencing Worship

Tammy and I are currently in South Africa, participating in a regional distribution seminar for our national leadership from throughout Africa. These are mostly pastors and some lay leaders who are responsible for distribution of the Book of Hope and The GodMan across this diverse continent. One component of each day's activities is the evening time of worship and ministry in God's word. The following is a movie clip of one of our worship experiences. I hope you find the movie as uplifting as we have found the personal experience.

Meeting Jesus Anew

Tammy, Rebecca, and I were blessed to visit with Living Waters Community Church for services last night and twice this morning. During these services, Pastor Winn gave his congregation a challenge. He challenged them to use the remaining 16 days in October to read all of the four gospels -- Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Not to read them academically, but to read them as if they were getting to know Jesus for the first time. It was a powerful challenge and one that I am going to take up. I also felt the Holy Spirit's prompting to challenge all our blog readers to take up the same challenge. So, now the challenge is to you. No matter when you read this posting, make a promise to yourself to take the next 16 days to meet Jesus anew by reading all of the four gospels. You never know the impact that meeting one very special person, even someone you thought you already knew, will have on your life.

For an online Bible, check out Bible Gateway at http://www.biblegateway.com. They have multiple versions of God’s eternal word. One is sure to be a good fit for you.

Coup in Thailand

An interesting thing happened while I was in Thailand in September. The Thai military decided it was time to overthrow the government and stage a coup. I am a man of faith and I do believe that God is in all things. However, that Tuesday evening, while sitting in the cyber lounge of our hotel, catching up on email and talking to Tammy over Skype, it was a little unnerving to see a headline pop up on My Yahoo that said "Breaking News - Coup in Thailand." It was even more unnerving when all the broadcast TV stations suddenly switched to broadcasting old patriotic songs and showing pictures of the King. The final straw was when the live broadcast from CNN where the reporter was about to tell the viewers about the tanks and troops that were assembling downtown suddenly was replaced with a red screen and a message saying that there were unusual sunspots interfering with the broadcast. Yea...right...sunspots...at 11:30 at night. That was also about the same time that the Internet went down.

Nervous? Absolutely! Hopeless? Never! With God, there is always hope. I called my friend, Ruthie, who was staying just a few blocks from the government center. She confirmed the tanks and soldiers, but also confirmed that there was no shooting. That was good news. Then I turned to the one item of international communication that the military apparently forgot about. My cell phone. I was able to call Tammy, ask her to keep up with what was happening on CNN, and then to text me whenever anything new came on. Even in a so called "total blackout" of communications, God provided a loophole for us to stay informed.

We were blessed in that there was no violence associated with this coup. Church services on Wednesday night were canceled, and that did alter my plans a bit. However, since our meeting to plan the new version of The GodMan was taking place in our hotel, we were able to continue our work without disruption.

My thanks go out to our prayer partners around the world. Through Tammy's phone calling, and Victory Church's email prayer network, we were able to get word out to hundreds of prayer partners. I truly believe that it was the action of these faithful prayer warriors that helped us to complete our work with absolutely no disruption. Thank you to all who prayed.

September Travels

September was an adventurous month. It started with a trip to Moscow on the second. From there, I traveled to Manila on the ninth and then to Bangkok on the seventeenth. I finally arrived back home on the twenty-second, having successfully circumvented the globe.

In addition to being adventurous, it was also a very productive and rewarding month, with ministry training in Moscow and Manila, and planning a new version of The GodMan in Bangkok. There was lots of work involved in these activities. But it was very rewarding work. The next several posts will provide stories related to these travels. I hope you enjoy them, and I also hope that you will take away a heart of prayer for the needs expressed.

September Moscow

September is an interesting month to be in Moscow. The summer has ended, but the cold of winter has not yet arrived. It rained some each day we were there, but there was also some beautiful periods of sunshine. Comming from hot and humid Florida, the weather was a refreshing break.

In Moscow, I had the privilege of participating in the Regional Distribution Seminar for Book of Hope the CIS region. The CIS region comprises those countries that made up the former Soviet Union and many of her aligned countries. While these countries were closely aligned during the soviet era, today there is fervent nationalism with strong feelings between many of the now independent countries and Russia. In one way, this is a positive. Each country feels fully empowered to engage in the work of evangelism in a way that best fits the needs of her people. However, there are also negatives to this attitude. This fervent nationalism can also result in resistance to direction and an attitude that says I will not do something, simply because they do it that way in Russia. This is an important issue to be in prayer about. As we work with ministry leaders from throughout the CIS region, we need each of them to think in terms of how to reach their children and youth, without regard to how some other country does it.

In many ways, this issue of pride is like when Naaman was told to wash in the Jordan River to be cured of his leprosy. The story, as told in Second Kings, chapter 5, tells how pride, nationalistic pride, could have prevented his healing. Pray that the nations of the CIS can put aside their nationalist pride and, like Naaman ultimately did, receive their healing.

The exciting aspect of the Moscow meeting was that many of the individuals who serve on our various ministry teams in the region were there. This was not just a meeting of leaders, but also of those who are daily putting their faith into action to reach their the children and youth in their country. It was wonderful to see the members of the Perm team whom I had ministered with back in May. It was great to be able to meet the members of the Izhevsk and Chita teams and to hear their ministry stories. Throughout Russia, we have team members who every day are traveling from village to village to bring the good news to a lost and dying world. Pray for their safety and effectiveness in their ministry.

September Manila

From Moscow to Manila, we spent almost 24 hour in airplanes or airports getting to our second destination. Manila is a fabulous city – especially so because there seems to be a Starbucks on every other corner. There is actually one place in Manila, near the Greenhills Mall, where you can stand in one spot and see a Starbucks, no matter what way you are facing. This week was filled with formal meetings during the day, and informal meetings in the evenings. My name became know as Wayne “Meet me at Starbucks” Brown. It was the perfect atmosphere to put the meeting participants at ease while we talked about the ministry opportunities within their countries.

The meeting in Manila was a gathering of ministry leaders from throughout the Asia-Pacific region. This included people from Southeast Asia and from the islands scattered between the Asian peninsular and Australia. It was a wonderful mix of people, all focused on taking the good news to every child and young person in their country or collection of island countries. Those many meetings at the local Starbucks were informative events. Many of these ministry leaders, such as those from the Philippines, Indonesia, and the Oceania area, are reaching into areas that include thousands of individual islands. The concept of jumping into your car or truck to go to the next village for ministry simply does not apply here. In many cases, movement from one place to another requires a boat or an airplane. This makes ministry slower and more costly in these areas. It also requires more people to effectively carry the gospel message forward.

People, laborers, harvesters, all are words used to describe the worker who takes the gospel message forward. Oceania needs laborers to partner with our leadership to effectively and aggressively take the gospel message forward. The books are ready, the students are there, and the access is available. But the laborers are few. The Philippines, a nation divided across many islands, a nation that has seen a Christian presence for hundreds of years, is a nation that has grown indifferent to the need to spread the gospel. However, that indifference is being faced down by a dedicated group of local evangelist; evangelist who are taking the gospel message into the schools and communities throughout the country. However, as hard as they work, they cannot work alone. They need partners. They need dedicated believers who will stand beside them to distribute books and to do The GodMan in every school and every community. There is the potential for four million children and youth people to receive the life-changing message presented in The GodMan in the Philippines in 2007. However, without the necessary laborers, only a small fraction will likely be impacted by this presentation of the gospel. Pray for the Lord of the harvest to call up laborers from Oceania and the Philippines to reach the children and youth of these island nations.

Almost every country represented at this meeting in Manila shared needs similar to Oceania and the Philippines. In almost every case, they need laborers to bring in a harvest that is ripe. One very exciting fulfillment of this cry is coming from Singapore and Taiwan. Churches and believers within both of these countries have recently begun to send missionary teams from their own lands into other countries. While they are aggressively taking the gospel message forward to their own people, they are not totally inward focus. They are truly living out an Acts 1:8 existence by being witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. Join us in prayer for God's blessings and anointing to be with these dedicated labors has they follow His call to the ends of the earth.