om bottomline 2nd quarter 2010

bottomline • second edition 2010 • 1

pioneering initiatives • ships • india • europe • muslim peoples • world faiths • relief & development • emerging mission movements • next generation • resourcing

transforming > lives and communities

missions for the rest of ussecond edition 2010

The only thing (needed) between him

Places where you can be among the first with the Gospel

Use your <head> to serve the <body>

IT specialists are needed in OM worldwide

and God…might be you.

2 • www.omcanada.org • transforming lives and communities • [email protected]

© 2010 by OM CanadaPublication Mail Agreement No. 40009991

Publisher: OM Canada84 West Street, Port Colborne, ON L3K 4C8Tel. (905) 835-2546Fax (905) [email protected]

Canadian Director: Harvey ThiessenBoard Chair: David HealeyEditor & Designer: Greg Kernaghan

Our PurposeOM’s role in the body of Christ is to motivate, develop and equip people for world evange-lization, and to strengthen and help plant churches, especially among the unreached.

Our Vision• Focusing on the unreached • Partnering with churches • Caring for our members • Training & equipping world Christians • Mobilizing the next generation • Globalizing our ministry • Strengthening our organization

Our Core Values• Knowing & glorifying God • Living in submission to God’s Word • Being people of grace & integrity • Serving sacrificially • Loving & valuing people • Evangelizing the world • Reflecting the diversity of the body of Christ • Global intercession • Esteeming the church

Stewardship PolicyThe spending of funds is confined to agency-approved programs and purchases. Each gift designated toward an approved program will be used for that program with the understand-ing that, when any given need has been met, designated gifts will be used where needed most. Gifts are acknowledged and, where appropriate, an official receipt for tax purposes is issued.

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Humans rights vs. human wrongsAcknowledging evil does not mean accepting it. We are accountable to God for how our faith leads to transformation in and around us. As Christians, we are still human, still world citizens—but are we credible?

Loving the least of theseIf you want to appreciate your own life and make it impact the world, start in a Philippine slum, where there are treasures we know not of.

Touch the world through…emailInstead of cursing spam, you can interact with people from every part of Earth—that will bless you. You can share the Good News of Christ—that will bless them.

Walk your talk in NepalGet up, gear up, show up: you can hike your way through Nepal and bring God’s Word to the remotest places while serving fellow believers—awesome! When the rubber hits the roadIt’s just driving a truck…that brings aid and literature and joy and comfort to thousands of the poor in Eastern Europe.

Jesus geeks, we love you!IT-savvy people are needed urgently all over the OM world and make a fundamental contribution to all the great ministry that it makes possible.

Project: Bible Correspondence CourseSoon 50 years in gear and going strong, this is an essential part of how God is connecting with the Turk-ish people.

Extreme Siberia/Ladies in blackTwo great examples of how God changes lives when we simply make ourselves available.Talk will only get you so farHarvey Thiessen thinks we need to talk about all our talking: it has a place but can never replace a faith that acts to intervene in peoples’ lives and demonstrates compassion.

Transform 2010/Canadian ChallengesIn over 20 countries around the Mediterranean, and in Toronto and Winnipeg, teams will be using every avail-able means to introduce people to Jesus Christ.

Invest the time to become aware of human rights issues; it IS our business because God is not indif-

ferent. Imagine if every believer in Canada wrote to their MP, insisting that Canada once again be known

for compassion and justice for the world’s weakest.

Pray for OM Philippines and other OM teams who work to alleviate suffering and injustice. Pray for

the Arancillos and other pastoral teams who live and work in slums to shine the light and hope of Christ.

What’s keeping you from joining a growing wave of

believers who want to redeem the internet for the Gospel? Pray that hundreds of seekers will encounter

Christ this week and be integrated into churches.

Pray for trekking teams as they traverse the hills of Nepal with the Gospel. Pray for the young Nepali

believers that they mentor , and for whole families and villages to be transformed.

Pray for safety as OM’s fleet of vehicles cross Europe and other regions, bringing needed aid and ministry supplies. Could you or someone you know drive vari-

ous vehicles, even for a few months? Let us know.

Pray that urgent positions in OM’s infrastructure will be quickly filled with the right people. How about you,

or someone you know—even shorter-term service can be a great help and promises to be an eye-opener

for IT people joining our teams.

Pray that thousands of Turks will respond to the BCC this year and will be discipled and joined into

churches. Pray for sufficient funding to have sufficient literature and technology to care properly for each

contact.

Pray for OMers in Siberia and in the Middle East as they patiently seek to impact lives, one at a time.

Pray for wisdom, protection, boldness and the grace to keep on when ‘results’ are not so obvious.

Still need to work out this faith and deeds thing? No problem: let’s do it together. Pray for a greater

willingness among Canadian churches to participate in world mission both in word and deed.

Pray as hundreds of people travel to 25 nations around the Mediterranean this summer and share

the Gospel with thousands for the first time. Pray that small local churches will be able to integrate seekers

and new believers.Pray for hundreds of contacts to be followed up by

local churches in both Canadian cities, and that more churches will join in next year’s challenges!

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Greg Kernaghan

Human rights vs. human wrongs

he human rights struggle dates from the book of Genesis with

predictable swings of liberation and despair. It’s clearly an uphill, against the stream cause to which most Westerners effortlessly pay lip service, far more con-cerned about our own individual ‘rights’ than those of the masses elsewhere.

Besides, since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was issued in 1948—“Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have out-raged the conscience of mankind…” (Preamble)—few are ready to agree in action as to what such ‘rights’ are.

It’s time to address the root issue from another approach: let’s identify more easily what is simply wrong— and respond to that—than to focus prematurely on what is right. And let us look in the mirror before we look else-where. We really would like to care… but we’re so busy!

It’s time to care. We should think, speak and act as human beings first and citizens second. Paul had no problem with that: “To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law…I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel” 1.

True discipleship means to imitate as comprehensively as possible one’s

master. It’s simply not possible to exam-ine the life and teaching of Jesus without feeling the force of His commitment to righteousness, defending the helpless, helping the poor and exposing oppres-sion and injustice (not that we haven’t tried).

In humility, we must accept some of the criticism placed on Christendom: our inconsistencies and hypocrisy and the arrogant assumption that the world wants to be like us. Integrity demands that, if we enter another country to bring aid and development, we seek their welfare above any other motives.

Even so, it is our common duty to recognize basic human wrongs and do all we can as humans and citizens to force the eradication of those wrongs. Canadians may demand certain rights that other cultures would not esteem, but persecution based on religion or ethnic background crosses an essential line in any nation.

We could start hereA half-hour’s Googling on documented persecution of religion, gender, ethnic-ity and more is sufficient to start asking questions, raising awareness and engag-ing our public servants (MPs). Tyrants ruling oppressive regimes may ignore our protests, at least initially; our own government cannot.

This is not a specifically Christian problem—it’s a humanity problem. Article 18 of the Universal Declaration

of Human Rights states, “Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, con-science and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in commu-nity with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teach-ing, practice, worship and observance.”

For years, our own government has implicitly overlooked human wrongs in countries considered ‘strategic’ in the bigger chess game, to our own moral loss to say nothing of the millions of nameless victims, usually women and children. Child slavery, child soldiers, people used as sexual chattels by warlords, early child marriages, human trafficking, HIV as a weapon, bonded servitude, appalling health and educa-tion systems denied advancement—these are found in many areas of the world such as Africa, the Middle East, Afghanistan, Central Asia1. We cannot expect mere indignation to effect long-distance change, but it is our civic (and moral, and Christian) duty to demand accountability from our elected officials: the status quo in these places is incom-patible with Canadian values, period, and ignoring this is a human wrong.

Integrity demands that we speak out for the oppressed, whether Christian or not: “Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed.Rescue the weak and needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked.” 2

“He will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’” 3

If our nation still has a conscience, we are that conscience.

1. 1 Cor. 9:21–23 2. Psalm 82:3-4 3. Matt 25:45

“In Germany they came first for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew. Then

they came for the trade unionists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came

for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up” (Martin Niemoller, German pastor and theologian who spent the last seven years of Nazi rule in concentration camps, January 1946)

1. ‘AS IF HELL FELL ON ME’: THE HUMAN RIGHTS CRISIS IN NORTHWEST PAKISTAN. Download from www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/ASA33/004/2010/en


f you want to rediscover your emotions both as a human and a follower of Jesus, if you want to

wrestle with your mind and soul and yes, body, then take a walk through an Asian slum and realize just how foreign you are…and how at home God and his people can be there.

Virgie and her pastor husband, John, are church-planters who can see past everything that’s wrong with human-ity, choosing to be salt and light in the kind of place you wouldn’t expect to find either. Former OMers themselves, they invited OM Philippines to help trans-form lives and this community with the love of God. It’s no small task.

They began by simply going into the community and befriending the people they met. As I walked up and down several ‘streets’ in this slum, we were welcomed from shack to shack with smiles and hugs, conversations and a sparkle in eyes of people who know they are loved and cared for.

OM helps in leading and training in evange-lism, along with outreach to children and young people. A lot of founda-tional work had been done before the flood came which lasted for three months, forcing thousands of people to live on a single higher, narrow street; virtually all other homes were submerged. OM was there from the beginning with emergency relief supplies, and later began

to supply the church’s neighbours with building blocks, plywood and other materials to restore their simple dwellings. The process continues today.

There is no catchOften, in such situations, when recipi-ents of aid show interest in joining the church community, there is suspicion of their motives. However, these people had seen the church at work in the commu-nity before the flood, and many testified of God’s help through this disaster. Today, nearly 100 attend on Sundays, 30 are com-mitted to prayer meetings, and 35 women study the Bible together. Now the church has a new problem: inadequate space to meet!

The church—down the street, 24/7—is welcome here. God is working in the community.

Gambling, once rampant, has largely disappeared; many have broken free from alcohol. Virgie dreams of many more neighbours being transformed by Christ. It’s a costly, patient work that takes time. Together with OM, they hope to provide basic vocational training to elevate peoples’ lives: that youth can profit from basic literacy and school-ing, that their parents could be more than just junk collectors, that the many women largely confined to their houses with little to do would become produc-tive members of the community, living in dignity in the midst of so much depravity. “That would be heaven right here,” Virgie beamed. Can she be serious: heaven—here? Yes: here and in many similar communities throughout Manila and beyond.

OM is looking for people to come and help in this work of compassion and justice, and for those who will help financially to provide the absolute basics for a new life for many.

For further info, contact Cory Thiessen: [email protected]

by Greg Kernaghan

Loving the ‘least of these’OM Philippines helps slum church plant

Virgie Arrancillo and her pastor husband John, Doulos gradu-ates from the early ‘90s, are church-planters with the Christian & Missionary Alliance (CMA) in partnership with OM Philippines.

They work in Taytay, one of Metro Manila’s many slum ‘barangay’ (villages) devastated by flooding in September ’09.

“A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.” William James


esley Duewel wrote an inspiring book in 1986 called Touch the

World Through Prayer. Prayer is always the right place to begin, but

what do you do after you pray? God wants His people to then get busy and do something to speed the fulfillment of His Great Commission to evangelize and disciple the world. One creative way to do that today is computer technology.

Power to Change (formerly Campus Crusade for Christ in Canada) has devel-oped Truthmedia, an online mentoring ministry connecting believers in the West with seekers in mainly Muslim countries (visit www.dreamsaboutjesus.com). I first heard of this ministry from a friend I met on one of the Canadian Challenge summer teams that reach out to internationals (Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs and others) in our major cities. The ability to interact with Muslim seekers in other countries through e-mail intrigued and excited me.

An online mentor is simply a believer willing and able to provide spiritual counsel and direction to people visiting the above website often from countries closed or semi-closed to traditional outreach. One-third of the world’s nations today have high/very high restrictions on religion.

First, I completed the online training modules1 on how to respond to and direct inquirers to other helpful online Christian resources. I committed time each week for 1–3 emails; for the last several weeks, I have received three e-mail inquiries weekly—over forty emails from fourteen countries stretch-ing from Morocco to Indonesia. I have set up a world map in my office with a push pin to mark each country. A few inquirers have replied to my email with further questions and our dialogue continues (most do not).

Incoming emails tell me the person’s online name (usually an alias), gender (some foreign names are not obvious), country, whether they have had a dream about Jesus, and a comment line (some are empty or very short: “Hi”, “I’m a student” or “I just want to chat with a good person”). Others describe a dream they have had about Jesus and ask for help to understand it. Some are sincere spiritual questions from seekers; a few have a rude or angry tone. If a mentor feels inadequate to respond to an inquiry, it can be redirected to another more qualified believer.

Person to personEach response is unique, but I always try to express understanding of the person’s situation, share my personal salvation testimony, provide links to Bible study resources, and type out a prayer for them. At the end, I invite them to chat further if they desire. Each one takes about 10–20 minutes depending on how long or complicated the inquiry is. Truthmedia is careful to protect its mentors so that their identity or email address is not revealed. They are advised to give only their first name and country.

A similar US-based ministry, also a part of Campus Crusade for Christ International, is Global Media Outreach (GMO), which estimates that 1.8 billion people use the Internet worldwide and that every day there are two million searches for spiritual needs. Michelle Diedrich of GMO says, “We are the first generation—ever—to hold in our hands the technology to give every person on Earth multiple chances to accept Jesus Christ. Last year 10 million Christ decisions were realized…It’s huge and it’s growing.” GMO now has about 4,400 online mentors.

Canadian-based Truthmedia is looking for more mentors to cope with the growing number of inquiries. Perhaps the Lord will lead you to be one of them. One mentor described her new on-line ministry experience this way: “I can go on a mission trip every day. I don’t have to leave home. I don’t have to pack my suitcase. It’s a great way to serve. I can go to India in my pyjamas, and I love that.”

More information can be found at truthmedia.com (Canada) or globalmediaoutreach.com (USA).

Rob Weatherby is the OM regional

rep in Northern Ontario.

Touch the world through…emailPen pals in the 21st century

1. http://truthmedia.com/training/mentoring/


mall teams of foreigners give out literature in the streets, and trek from village to village. The altitude,

the poverty, the completely-other culture and the pervasive spiritual dark-ness are not for the faint of heart. But the encounters with people, the unique-ness of the land called the Roof of the World, and the encouragement of and by Nepali believers is transformative.

One member writes, “I was chatting with Nepalis in the street. I had started by giving out literature, but the people weren’t interested in the story of Jesus. After 30 minutes a drinks seller took a booklet, and asked what he could get by reading such a small book! He questioned me closely about Christianity, church and Jesus. Then another Nepali came up, listened to our conversation and tried to explain Christianity, comparing it with Hinduism. I was so thankful!

“This was followed by another man who greeted me with a Nepali Christian greeting, said he was a believer, thanked me for sharing God’s love in Nepal and kissed my hand! As he left, yet another man came and helped me talk to the drinks seller!

“Thus I was able to have a good con-versation with him through four Nepali Christians’ help. Although Nepal is only

4% Christian, God used four believers to share with one Hindu! It is so good to experience His faithful desire to see people come to know Him!”

In a mountain village, a man bought a small package of books and began to read with such concentration that another man walking by began to read another of his books; later they exchanged books. A third man passing by asked what the books were about, and the first man explained very clearly that he was reading about Jesus. Soon this third man asked the team to sell him books too, and he started to read. More than 15 men joined the group to buy and read books about Jesus!

Are you ready to lace up your boots and hoist your pack? Let’s talk…

Walk your talk in Nepal

Should we live as rebels or revolutionaries?Rebels are against something. Revolutionaries are for something.Rebels curse the darkness. Revolutionaries shine the light.Rebels march against. Revolutionaries walk amongst.Rebels recruit. Revolutionaries reproduce.Rebels resist. Revolutionaries replace.

Fresh from the Logos Hope community: God stories from the Visitor Experience Deck and other ministry on and off the ship.

A new audio podcast called Stories of Hope is available through the www.omships.org website and also through iTunes.

Listen on the website:

http://www.omships.org/links/click.php?id=48 (requires flash)Subscribe via iTunes: http://www.omships.org/links/click.php?id=47

LOGOS HOPE

Schedules: omships.org

Freetown, Sierra Leone June14–28Tema, Ghana July 2–20Takoradi, Ghana July 21–August 2Monrovia, Liberia August 6–26Las Palmas, Spain September 2–15Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain Sept 15–21Valletta, Malta Sept 28–October 19


dwin grins and settles contentedly behind the wheel as he steers out of Austria towards Slovakia. “I love

travelling! For me, it’s a holiday.”That’s good news, because truck-

ing loads of aid and literature over tens of thousands of kilometres wouldn’t be everyone’s ideal getaway. Edwin has made himself at home in all sorts of vehicles since joining OM in ‘91 (he’s also become an expert at repairing them). He served a year and a half at the mission’s garage in Zaventem, Belgium, and took part in an overland trip to India and Nepal, spending a half-year servicing vehicles in Nepal.

When he and wife Hanna joined the Greater Europe team in Vienna (now OM EAST/Eurasia Support Team) Edwin joined the ranks of unsung heroes that have trucked tons of precious Christian literature and humanitarian aid into desperate areas of the former Communist Eastern Europe. Even when the Iron Curtain lifted in the ‘90s and borders opened, books and aid from the West were still very much in demand by countries struggling to rebuild.

Edwin admits that sitting at borders was the downside. Particularly memorable was the long weekend he spent waiting for permission to cross into Moldova. “The guards didn’t treat you very well—and the female guards were worst,” he says. “There was no messing around with them!”

The chances of getting hijacked or beaten up by thieves were so real that he packed a baseball bat and pepper spray for protection. Adding to this hazard were icy hours on dark, rutted roads. “Nerve-ticklers,” he calls such conditions. “Once, in Bulgaria, we just couldn’t make it up a hill. The hydraulics weren’t working, the battery burnt out, and it was the middle of the night, freezing cold with snow on the ground. The police stopped and of course we didn’t speak Bulgarian and they had no English. When we finally got going we didn’t dare to stop again, taking turns driving until we were half asleep!”

When the rubber hits the roadAn OM EAST veteran proves that when the going gets tough, drivers have to be tougher still

Edwin has delivered everything from literature to food and blankets to school supplies, hospital beds and sewing machines. Most items go to churches or Christian partner agencies for distribution. Between trips, he makes sure that team vehicles are in prime condition.

In 28 years of driving, Edwin has never had an accident—a record that has less to do with his skill, he main-tains, than the mercy and protection of the Lord. Let’s give thanks for drivers and mechanics like Edwin, and remem-ber to pray as they ‘keep on trucking’ for the Lord.

by Debbie MeroffIf you’d like to put your own driving experience to good use, get in touch with Cory Thiessen: [email protected]

FIFA World Cup 2010

Sportslink South Africa is buzzing with excitement, ready for an influx of people from all over the world in June and July. OM has been training people and churches in sports ministry and organizing outreaches where we expect up to 500+ volunteers. Outreach teams will be sent out all across South Africa to reach into communities not only with sports ministry but also creative ministry, street evangelism, compassionate ministry and kids clubs. The focus will not simply be South Africans, but also the many athletes and tourists visiting from countries ‘closed’ to the gospel.

If you love God and love sports, there could be a ministry waiting for you anywhere in the world! Contact OM Canada for details.)


ITprofessionals

Check it out! www.om.org/mission-jobs/computer

impactingthenationsthrough

technology

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[email protected]

5,500 personnel working in over 110 countries and on an ocean-going ship are serving with Operation Mobilisation to bring Jesus’ love to the peoples of the world. That’s a lot of people to keep connected and many of them live in remote places with limited infrastructure and com-plex security needs. OM’s IT services provide internet access, voice communications, messaging services, secure email, data management, user support and training, event and personnel services, finance management and reporting, training systems and web services.

opportunities l IT opportunities in OM are world-wide and varied. Positions in our teams can utilize almost anyone’s unique skills and experience. Work-ing in teams, the complex opera-tional requirements stretch our IT professionals to their full potential. You will derive great satisfaction knowing that in your daily tasks you are participating in reaching the world with the gospel.

IT professionals are one of OM’s most critical needs today.

A number of specialists in different capacities are currently needed in worldwide OM offices.

• Web Programmers

• System Administrators

• Network Engineers

• Project Managers

• Business Analysts

• Software Developers

• Systems Engineers

• Database Developers

• Helpdesk…and more!

managing om ships’ IT systems l Colin Simons joined OM 15 years ago and manages Information and Communication Technology for OM Ships. He oversees the design and operations of a complex network of systems moving around the world, enabling the ministry and operations of over 800 people from 50 nations.

“I feel fulfilled in my role when I see stable IT

systems enabling other people to operate effec-tively in their ministry.”

IT professionals in mission support l


RAC* = Restricted Access Country, unidentified for security reasons

CANUCKS ON THE MOVEjointheteamuseyourskills

impacttheworld

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vital statsOM IT staff support:

>4500 PCs •150 servers•85 offices•serving in over 110 •countries

1 2 3 4 WAN

Those working with OM develop a team of financial partners to cover living expenses. Advice and training is available.

For further information on how to become an OM IT Professional, please contact OM Canada.

Leaving or changing fieldsKaren Benrot OM Canada Christian Fellowship Ass’y ABSiang Chiang Singapore Coquitlam Mandarin Church, BCEnoch Chum South Africa Beulah Alliance Church, ABDavid Fink Logos Hope Port Colborne BIC, ONMelissa Gengler South Africa Ebenezer Christian Reformed Church, ABSiegfried & Yvonne Klassen Uruguay-Canada Scott St Mennonite Brethren, ONKyle Maio Doulos Sherwood Park Alliance Church, ABTrevor Robinson South Africa Balmoral Bible Chapel, ABJennifer Sutherland Doulos First Baptist Church, ONEmily Titterington Vegreville Alliance Church, AB Doulos-Logos HopeSara Wiens Zion Mennonite Church, MB ICT-LondonHenk & Irene Wolthaus Germany-OM CanadaMarc Zerbin Logos Hope Calvary Community Church, AB

JoiningKayla Adair Immanuel Fellowship Baptist Church, BC ACTMatt & Kristen Fraser Emmanuel Baptist Church, ON ZambiaChristina Fehr Faith River Christian Fellowship, SK BalkansTiffany Goodkey Grace Bible Chapel, ON *RACJonathan Ganesh OM CanadaErv & Anna Gonske OM CanadaAnna Stanton First Baptist Church, ON IrelandHarold & Sharon Taylor OM CanadaCynthia Wheaton Metropolitan Bible Church, ON *RACJoanne Ynema First Baptist Church, ON Belgium


Bible Correspondence Course: Turkey Help connect people with God’s Word to bring transformationPicture yourself in a room of 1,000 people, where you are the only follower of Jesus. Welcome to Turkey: among 76 million people, 99.9% of whom are Muslim and ignorant of the truth of Jesus, are less than 4,000 Muslim- background believers. How can we offer the Gospel to more Turks?

www.bccturkey.org (English) • www.kutsalkitap.org (Turkish)

“I came to faith through the BCC. In my church planting work, I’m still using the BCC to come in contact with people. In my opinion, the BCC is the best non-denomina-tional ministry serving the Turkish churches. I thank all those who support and serve this ministry.”

Pastor Salih leads a church in his city

he Bible Correspondence Course (BCC) has creatively and coura-

geously brought the Gospel to Turks since 1962. The course is advertised through newspapers and the internet, giving access to provinces, towns and villages with no resident witness. The BCC provides opportunity for seekers to privately consider the claims of the Gospel and, through our chat and telephone networks, see people who were even initially hostile move towards a sincere interest in the Gospel.

All materials are given at no cost. Contacts receive an introductory course on the life of Christ, a New Testament, course coupons to distribute to friends and information about the nearest church. They also enter a follow-up system where local churches and church planting teams disciple respondents to faith and becoming part of a believing community.

Almost half the believers in Turkey trace their spiritual journey through the Bible Correspondence Course. Many provincial churches outside major cities were planted as a result of BCC contacts.

We support the vision of the Turkish Evangelical Alliance to see a church in each of the 81 provinces and the gospel reach every household.

The BCC combines a proven strat-egy and track record along with the latest technology to connect Turks with God’s Word and with Turkish churches. This amazing open door needs sustained and generous financial support to maximize present opportuni-ties in a country where that openness could suddenly be gone. A great strength of the BCC is its indigenous nature and its symbiosis with the national church. Here are some of the possiblities that your support will make possible:

AdvertisingAs funding allows, we would like to increase our newspaper ads from one to two weekly and increase internet adver-tising from $2000 to $3000/month. We will also begin ad campaigns for More Than Dreams (morethandreams.org), a provocative DVD of five testimonies of Muslims who have come to Christ through a dream or vision. Our goal is to see an average of 500–600 first contacts for the BCC every week.

Street evangelismWe have weekly street outreaches that use the creative arts who share openly and also promote the Bible Correspon-dence Course. In 2010, our goal is to dis-tribute 20,000 More Than Dreams DVDs and at least 5,000 offers for the BCC. A Transform 2010 team aims to distribute the DVD to 3,000 families. Our team visits churches in various cities to train Turkish believers in street evangelism.

A small gift can have big potential• It costs $76 to send 10 packets of

materials to 10 students ($7.60/pp).• It will cost between $1,750 and $2,300

each for the second and third courses in the five-course The Other Side of Religion series. Having all five courses attractively printed with an accompa-nying completion certificate will help motivate at least 10% of students to continue with additional courses.

“The BCC’s free NT campaign was how I, in 1996, became acquainted with Christianity, and now am serving as a pastor of a church. In fact, half of our church’s membership (20 of 40) has joined our church through the BCC. We have also come in contact with BCC students who are believers in neighboring provinces where there have not been any churches in recent decades. May God greatly use and bless the BCC.”

Pastor Orhan leads a small church in his city


Harvey Thiessen

Talk will only get you so far

Why is it when we point a finger at others, three

fingers point back at us?

espite my aversion to boxing, tagging and shelving, I declare

that I am an evangelical and glad to be so. The clarity of the presentation of the Gospel and its compelling impetus to include others, with a zeal that envi-sions the entire world being invited to worship God in spirit and in truth, are trademarks with which I gladly iden-tify. The four pillars of evangelicalism’s discipleship process are summed up in four steps:

1. Let God talk to you (read the Scriptures)

2. Talk with God (pray) 3. Talk with other Christians

(fellowship) 4. Talk with non-Christians

(witness).

Did you detect a common word? This reveals a missing foundational pillar in many churches today which

makes the discipleship process incom-plete and even a failure. We have unin-tentionally turned “Anyone who listens to the word, but does not do what it says, is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror” (James 1:23) into “Anyone who listens to the word, but does not talk about what it says, is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror.”

We read the word observe as in “teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:20) with the modern understanding of the word—look and be entertained, or provide your judg-ment—not in the old English version which meant look in order to learn and do. Our twisted version of this reads, “teach them not to do everything I have commanded you not to do and if in doubt, don’t do it”.

That was then, this is nowSome evangelicals get nervous around such talk and pull the pin from the ‘social gospel’ hand grenade, ready to lob it to protect the ‘purity’ of the (non-social?) Gospel. True, some mis-sion organizations tackling relief and development and justice have ignored the fundamental necessity of the other pillars, but it need not be so. Let us pray that these groups put a greater emphasis on the need for salvation. But as for me and my house, we need a discipleship beyond lofty ideas and eloquent expres-sion: it needs teeth, traction, impact in the world around us.

A decade ago, OM India added this fifth pillar to their evangelistic strategy. At that time, they did not have any churches; after adding that pillar—and it is directly related—there are 2800 churches (along with thousands of churches in the making) and a new church being planted every second day.

From what I take in from youth today, this is the true discipleship for which they hunger. This will inspire them to walk with God (read and pray), walk with fellow believers, and walk with non-believers (talk and engage). I hope you find that theme echoed throughout this magazine. I hope I find it echoed through my life.

www.bccturkey.org (English) • www.kutsalkitap.org (Turkish)

Bron (OM) met Vitali, 40, while handing out tea and sandwiches. “Vitali was proud that he had studied medicine in Poland,” remembers Bron. Educated, intelligent and once with a family and children, he now slept on the floor with no prospect of a job. “With tears,” contin-ues Bron, “he told how he had gradually lost his wife, his job and his children, and how he had ended up living on the streets. He had recently had serious thoughts of hanging himself.” Vitali had lost the will to live and make decisions for himself. How do you share the love of God with people like him? How do we help them re-gain their lives? How do we integrate them into the church? How do we make a difference in a city like Novosibirsk?

If you would like to help the OM Russia team find answers, visit www.om.org/en/job/s2409 to learn about the Extreme Siberia programme and how you can get involved.

LADIES IN BLACK(Middle East) A group of women went to a mall, where they met four sisters dressed in black. One, 17, sat down next to Sarah*. Suddenly the sister asked, “Are you a Muslim?” Sarah answered that she was a Christian. The sister said they had a Filipina driver who is also a Christian. “She has a book she reads every night. What book is that?” she asked. Sarah answered that it is probably the Bible. “We read and study this book, because we believe it is the Word of God.” The sister looked at Sarah for a long moment and then told her she should become a Muslim. Sarah smiled and said, “Christ and the Bible are the only thing for me.” The sister quickly looked around to see if anyone was listening and then asked Sarah for her mobile number. Please pray that during this conversation God planted a seed in this woman’s heart to learn more about Christ— that she, and other women like her, can find freedom to seek Christ.* name changed


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Discover what God is doing around the world and consider your part in His purpose. Give Him a chance to grip your heart with the things so close to His. Perspectives Study Program will help you understand God’s plan for our world—and possibly for your life— as you explore the following topics:

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The Perspectives Study Program on the World Christian Movement “Absolutely essential for anyone interested in missions!” George Verwer

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Historical Learn about the unlikely people and surprising events God has used throughout history in the unstoppable spread of the Gospel.

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