TOWARDS THE NEXT LEVEL - IN MISSIONS.         

Rev Lawrence Yap.

Senior Pastor.

Charis Christian Centre.

AOM board member.

Allow me to say this, from the heart of a pastor to the heart of another – that if our church is not involved in any missions at all – then we are missing the heartbeat of God!

I used to think that a church has to come to a certain size, then only will we be financially capable to be involved in “missions”.  This is a myth and all of us can be involved one way or another if we learn to ‘think outside the box.’

Let me just share some insight.

The last 5 to 10 years have been a time of rapid changes and this has brought about many opportunities for the gospel work.

·        Political and economic maps were redrawn thus enabling new opportunities for Kingdom works. Just consider Libya and Myanmar as examples of how windows of opportunities are opening.

·        Technological advances like smart phones; social networks etc., literally connecting people and the world in an instance. This is part of “Globalization” but this also means ‘opportunities’.

·        The ‘center of gravity’ of the gospel has shifted to the southern hemisphere.

-This means that much of the spiritual activities of the church is no longer focused on Europe or North America but instead has come to Asia and the Pacific realm where mega congregations; church planting and community transformation programs are taking place. We in Malaysia are part of this shift!

·        A “diaspora” (dispersion) of nationalities.

-Just in Malaysia alone, we are surrounded by people from Myanmar, Nepal, Iran, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Africa and other Middle Eastern nations. In a way, we do not ‘go to the nations.’ The ‘nations have come to us!’

What do these things mean to you? Which of the above factors capture your attention and that you see is a ‘possibility’ in your church setting?

Perhaps you can spend some time - praying and thinking through these factors of what you can do for God in terms of spreading the gospel. It need not be just going out ‘to preach’ per se.

We need to take missions to the next level. We need not be locked in to the old fashion way of sending missionaries abroad – though it should still be done. God can give us wisdom and creative ways, for example, of how a businessman sponsored thousands of gospel radios that were assembled in a factory and brought into the interiors. Another businessman allowed his restaurant to be utilized as a worship place at 12 midnight for his foreign workers. Yet, there are many who have become ‘cyber world evangelists’.

The challenges of the gospel work are as real but God is sovereign. New doors and new frontiers have been opened up for us. We must seize the moment. As our members get involved, they grow spiritually too.

Remember that in missions, not everyone may GO, but we can certainly GIVE and PRAY and to DO what we can for God - right at our doorsteps!

Yours Together for His Kingdom.

Here I am Lord , send me!

By Pastor Lau Tak Siong

AO Associate Trainer

I CRIED out to the Lord for direction. Should I or shouldn’t I go to what appeared to be the ends of the earth to train believers?

Bihar. The poorest state in India. That’s where I was asked to go.

I was wrestling with God because the assignment seemed doom from the start --- I could not find anyone who was willing to accompany me as my co teacher and assistant. Worse yet, I was told that even pastors in India avoided Bihar. Was life that bad in Bihar?

But I, like Isaiah, agreed to go. And to my utter relief, an Indian pastor named Paul was willing to come with me to Bihar.

To get to Bihar, I had to take a seven-hour flight from Melbourne (where I currently live) to Singapore and then another four-hour flight from Singapore to Chennai. Another full day of travelling by plane and train to the north of India got me to my destination at 7am, Bihar time.

After this mammoth, marathon travel, I was bone-tired and was glad for a bed to sleep in --- never mind if there was no attached toilet or WiFi, and that sleep was a mosquito-riddled sleepless night in the best hotel in town.

In Bihar, I saw grinding poverty as I travelled the muddy, rough and dusty roads to the two villagers (Khagaria and Paray).

Was it worth it? Definitely!

At Khagaria, about 40 leaders, both men and women who were hungry for the Word and passionate to serve their Lord, attended the training. They came from different but similarly simple backgrounds, and had gathered together with one common desire --- their love for the Lord and to be trained for His use.

This is a place where less than one per cent of the people are believers.

At Paray, about 35 adults and children gathered to hear the good news. I preached to them about the one and only God that can cleanse them from their sins, Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Thus was the seed of the kingdom of God sown in the village.

Praise God that we can be used by Him to bring the good news of Jesus Christ to the poor. I am so thankful and privileged that the Lord brought here and used me. Despite the discomforts of long travel and poor facilities of putting up in poor villages, I considered it a joy to serve the Master in the poorest area of Bihar.

A big thank you to those who had been faithful in funding our Foot Soldiers and training ministries

Finally, I want to end with a testimony from Pastor Sushil, who was one of my participants.

Sushil was a Hindu and member of an extreme fundamentalist anti-Christian group. Prior to becoming a Christian, he needed more than RM20, 000 for his sister's wedding. The dowry system to have a woman married off is still practiced in India. He heard about Jesus and in desperation turned to this “Jesus” whom people told him was a loving God. So Sushil prayed, “Jesus Christ, if you are the true and living God, listen to my prayer and help me in this financial problem”. Miraculously a few days before his sister’s wedding, Jesus answered his prayer.

A man to whom he tried to sell a piece of land suddenly decided to buy his property, although he previously repeatedly refused to do so. The selling price was slightly more than what he needed. So he had some money left over. This answered prayer led him to turn to Jesus Christ and later give his life to serve Him as a pastor.

1 Cor 15:58: “Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.”

Prayer Points

1. We pray for the Lord of the harvest to raise up more workers for the Bihar mission fields.

2.  We pray for the local pastors, evangelist and leaders to be always obedient to the call of God to serve

     willingly where He sends them.

3. We ask the Lord to pour out his spirit upon Bihar and touch and change the lives of the people there.

    That it will no longer be known as the poorest state but as a place of sign and wonders where Jesus 

    Christ reigns supreme.

Touching the Untouchables of India

By Pastor Paul Silvanus

Dalit Ministry in Chennai

(A partner ministry of AOM)

Who are the Dalits?

IMAGINE not being allowed to go to school or college until you get a decent education. Imagine being sick but not being allowed to get treatment from a hospital or clinic. Imagine not being allowed to live where you want or work in a job you like. Imagine (especially if you are a woman or child) being trafficked into prostitution, bonded labour and begging in the streets. Imagine having no rights so that anyone can abuse you, attack you, humiliate you --- and nobody would care.

And most astonishingly of all, imagine Indian churches shunning you as well, treating you like pariah. Unless, of course, if the church is a Dalit one.

For the Dalits of India, this dehumanization is a reality and not make believe. They are the considered the scum of Indian society, a result of the caste system and being at the bottom of the social ladder, the Dalits (also known as the Untouchables) faces such discrimination and degradation every day. The term “Dalit” means “those who have been broken down by those above them” Dalits are the major victims of trafficking in India. Culturally subjugated and politically marginalized, millions of Dalits are exploited and treated inhumanely.

There are 167 million Dalits in India, constituting over 16 percent of the total population.

Every hour, two Dalits are assaulted. Every day, three Dalit women are raped, and two killed. Dalits are street sweepers, cobblers, agricultural workers, grave diggers and those who dispose of human waste.

Some three-quarters of the Dalit workforce are in the agricultural sector. And are bonded labourers.  These jobs rarely provide enough income and many Dalits are impoverished, uneducated and illiterate.

Ministry to the Dalits

Our ministry was started in 1997 to train Dalits to become pastors and church planters. To date, we have trained 107 pastors who went on to plant 100 churches in 10 States in India.

Day Care Centre’s for Dalit Children

The Lord moved us to minister to the Dalits via day care centers. We felt education is a key tool to help these oppressed people, just as the early missionaries did as well. So we have started two day care centers by faith, one in a village and another in a city slum. There are 75 children at the village day care center and 45 at the center in the city slum.

Children between the ages of 4 and 16 come to the centers after school. Specialized coaching is given by trained teachers (Each center has four trained teachers and a cook).They are encouraged to continue their studies as many are forced to leave school to become child labourers.

We feed the children one meal a day. We hope that with sufficient funds, we will be able to give them two meals daily and two sets of uniforms. Every day a scripture from proverbs is taught, with the children having to memorize the Word of God.

There are monthly parents’ meetings to monitor the children’s progress and to encourage the parents to send the children to the center regularly.

Local church pastors and their wives work as social workers. The pastors visit slums and villages to seek out Dalit children.

Reaching the Dalit Community

Our goal is not to preach Christ directly through the day care centers. We do not invite any Dalits to come to our church via the centers. Christian workers have been accused of converting the Dalits by providing them money and goods. We do not want to give room for such suspicions. We only teach scriptures from proverbs to the children as life lessons. Parents sometimes observe what we do. And praise God that even without invitation, parents have started coming to church and accepting Christ by seeing the character changes in their children’s lives. The local churches are full of testimonies from parents.

Upcoming projects

Our two day care centers have been running successfully .So we are planning to start another one in a place called Theni, which borders Kerala state, where we managed to find some 100 girls who were not attending school.

Since we have established 100 churches in 10 states, it is our desire to see a day care center for each of these churches.

Needs

• RM80 per month to feed one Dalit child.

• Three motorbikes (one each for our three centers) for pastors/social workers to reach the Dalits. (RM3000/bike).

• Three 15-seat Tata vans to shuttle the children from the villages and slums to the centers (RM33,000 per van).

Luke 4: 18-19 (“The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind; to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.”)

. PRAYER POINTS

1.  We pray for the nation of India to see all men, regardless of race, colour or breed, as

     equal citizens with equal rights and to be treated with dignity and respect.

2..  We pray against the atrocities that have been waged against the Dalits in the form of

     physical abuse , human trafficking and dehumanization.

3.. May the love of God made tangible through Ps Paul and the Dalit Slum Ministry team

    bring about a change in the lives of the Dalits.