Author: Geoff

Geoff Waugh is the founding editor of the Renewal Journal and an author of books on renewal and revival and Christian living.
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Valentine – preacher – healer – martyr

by Geoff 13 February 2016 No Comments

02 St Valentine

The Christian source of Valentine’s Day!

St Valentine – preacher – healer – martyr

Saint Valentine is a third century saint commemorated on February 14 (the date of his martyrdom) and associated with a tradition of courtly love.

A popular hagiography describes Saint Valentine as the former Bishop of Terni, a city in southern Umbria, in what is now central Italy.

While under house arrest of Judge Asterius, and discussing his faith with him, Valentinus (the Roman pronunciation of his name) was discussing the validity of Jesus. The judge put Valentinus to the test and brought to him the judge’s adopted blind daughter. If Valentinus succeeded in restoring the girl’s sight, Asterius would do anything he asked. Valentinus laid his hands on her eyes and the child’s vision was restored.

Immediately humbled, the judge asked Valentinus what he should do. Valentinus replied that all of the idols around the judge’s house should be broken, the judge should fast for three days, and then undergo baptism. The judge obeyed and as a result, freed all the Christian inmates under his authority. The judge, his family and forty others were baptized.

Valentinus was later arrested again for continuing to serve Jesus and was sent to the prefect of Rome, to the emperor Claudius himself. Claudius took a liking to him until Valentinus tried to lead Claudius to Jesus, whereupon Claudius refused and condemned Valentinus to death, commanding that Valentinus either renounce his faith or he would be beaten with clubs, and beheaded. Valentinus refused and Claudius’ command was executed outside the Flaminian Gate February 14, 269.

02 Valentine Jn 3-16

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Novak Djokovic – a Christian of deep faith

by Geoff 8 February 2016 1 Comment

novak-djokovic

By Michael Ashcraft and Mark Ellis

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Record 24 times Grand Slam winner and 2024 ‘Golden Slam’ at Olympics.

Grand Slams equal to Australian Margaret Court women’s 24 Grand Slam wins, now a pastor in Perth.
 

2016 article, after Novak Djokovic won the Australian Open:

Djokovic describes himself as “Orthodox Christian” but “less a religious person than a person of faith,” according to the UK’s Guardian. He frequently gestures thanks to God on the court.

Novak and his wife Jelena oversee a Novak Djokovic Foundation which provides for under-privileged children in Serbia. He is also the benefactor to a childcare facility in Melbourne, Australia. They have established a restaurant in Serbia which offers meals to those who can’t afford one. 

To win the Australian Open, a tennis player needs composure – something Novak Djokovic, 28 (in 2016), developed when his city was bombed by NATO for 78 consecutive nights in 1999.

A Christian of deep faith, Djokovic – also known as Super Novak – made use of his poise under pressure to take the Jan. 31, 2016 Australian Open by storm. He slammed contender Andy Murray 6-1, 7-5, 7-6 in a display of dominance becoming the #1 ranked player then.

Djokovic grew up playing tennis in Belgrade when NATO imposed an embargo and bombed the city during the Kosovo War in 1999, causing great shortages of food.

“We started the war living in fear, but somewhere during the course of the bombings, something changed in me, in my family, in my people,” Djokovic wrote in his memoir, Serve to Win. “We decided to stop being afraid. After so much death, after so much destruction, we simply stopped hiding. We decided to make fun of how ridiculous our situation was. One friend died his hair like a bulls-eye, a target.”

jelena-pregnant-z

Young Djokovic himself stumbled and fell while scrambling to a bomb shelter one night. He looked up and saw a fearsome F-117 bomber release its cargo upon a hospital, he said.

If you can play tennis while dodging bullets and standing in long lines for bread and milk, then nothing can unnerve you. After facing the hardships of war, the psychological games played by opponents on a tennis court are relatively tame to Djokovic. His inner resolve has resulted in many come-from-behind victories.

His opponents seem befuddled next to his highly-trained concentration level that screens out distractions of any form.

When Djokovic did the unimaginable and recovered from a breakdown in the fifth set to beat Rafael Nadal in the Australian Open of 2013, the Australian news.com.au proclaimed it an act akin to turning water into wine or opening up the Red Sea.

“No one does that,” the reporter wrote. “Djokovic wins a lot of matches he should lose.”

Djokovic, jubilant over a triumph that made the world stand up and notice, tore off his shirt to celebrate. The wooden cross around his neck bore visible testament to his faith.

us-open-2015

Other players choke. Djokovic brings out his best tennis when the heat is on. At the 2011 U.S. Open he played 16-time major winner Roger Federer and returned a mind-boggling ball on match point that seemed impossible to retrieve – now memorialized as “the shot” – that shocked Federer and the entire tennis world. Federer was reportedly upset about it for months.

Once upon a time, Djokovic was the upstart among tennis champions. He was the “third man” behind Federer and Nadal. Now, he stands alone. In 2016 he had won 11 Grand Slam singles titles – four of the last five. In 2015, he won 82 of 88 matches – a 93% win percentage.

“He doesn’t miss anymore,” said John Lloyd, once an Australian Open finalist, as quoted by the BBC.

Djokovic describes himself as “orthodox Christian” but “less a religious person than a person of faith,” according to the UK’s Guardian. He frequently gestures thanks to God on the court.

Off the court, Djokovic serves as a Unicef ambassador for his native Serbia and he also founded the Novak Djokovic Foundation, which fosters education for disadvantaged children. He attends the Eastern Orthodox Church. He speaks five languages fluently and is studying others.

If on the hardcourt he breaks down his opponents, off the court he impersonates them, earning himself the nickname “Djoker” (pronounced, similarly to his name, “joker”). He recently won the hearts of the public and the ball boys by hanging out with his ball boy during a spell of rain.

He married his long-time girlfriend, model Jelena Ristic, in 2014. The couple has a baby son, Stefan. Regarding God’s institution of marriage, he counselled his tennis compatriots: “I suggest that to every player: Get married, have kids, let’s enjoy this.”

Source: God Reports (edited)


Wimbledon, July 2022

See also: Honouring God at the Olympics 2024

Paris Olympics 2024


Golden Slam, Gold Medal at Paris Olympics 2024

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Filth & Fertile Ground

by Geoff 5 February 2016 1 Comment

Gospel for Asia Report GFA1

Prisha stepped out of the rickshaw only to be greeted by a crowd of dirty, half-naked children running around. One woman stood nearby barely clothed—much to Prisha’s embarrassment. Animal carcasses and burning waste littered the village, creating a stench so bad passersby would speed recklessly through the village to escape it.

GFA2

Prisha had heard about this village before. Punya Basti’s residents lived in squalor with no electricity, running water or toilets. Most of the villagers left for months at a time to find low-paying work and beg in other areas, but they still couldn’t afford to feed their children three meals a day—much less provide for them to go to school. Alcohol and drug abuse ran rampant, even among children, and fights commonly broke out. On top of all this, outsiders despised the villagers for their low caste and lack of hygiene and education.

Going Where Others Wouldn’t

Prisha had come to Punya Basti to serve as a Sister of Compassion, a woman missionary committed to sharing Christ’s love in practical ways, specifically among poor and marginalized people groups.

GFA pastor Hoob Kumar, who served in the village, was having difficulty ministering to the women.

“The ladies didn’t know how to wear clothes properly,” Pastor Hoob recalls, “and the mothers weren’t bothered that the vessels they cooked with and ate food from were not clean.”

Moreover, the women couldn’t open up to Pastor Hoob because he was a man. He knew they needed someone to come alongside them, educate them and listen to their struggles, so he asked his leaders to send Sisters of Compassion to Punya Basti.

Knowing she was called to go where others wouldn’t, Prisha agreed to go. Out of consideration for her safety, her leader said she could commute there each day from a nearby village that would have safer, more comfortable accommodations, but Prisha wanted to live with the villagers.

“I don’t want to stay in a different place,” she told him. “I want to stay in the midst of them, in the village, so I can understand their feelings . . . and they can understand the love that we want to show them.”

Now Entering Filth and Fertile Ground
Now Entering Filth and Fertile Ground

Sisters of Compassion choose to wear a uniform that has a special and easily recognized meaning in South Asia: servanthood. It’s a humble sari worn by the poorest women and the street sweepers of Asia.  Watch a video to learn more about Sisters of Compassion’s training, dress code and ministry. Learn more.

Immediate Challenges Require Unswerving Faith

But living among the villagers wasn’t easy. They rarely bathed or washed their clothes. Drunken fights broke out frequently, with men and women shouting vulgar words.

When the landlord of the house Prisha stayed in offered her and her fellow Sister of Compassion water, Prisha looked at the glass in shock.

“The glass that she gave [us] really smelled very bad. We were not able to drink from that,” Prisha remembers. “Seeing this glass, we were really broken, and we didn’t have anything in our hand to give them. All we could do for them was just pray to God Almighty.”

Prisha and her co-worker knew adjusting to this culture would require more than one prayer, though. They dedicated their first week to fasting and praying; then they began finding ways to help the villagers. They started by sweeping out the village’s filthy drains.

GFA4

An Uncomfortable Yet Fruitful Lifestyle

At first, Punya Basti’s dirtiness made Prisha wonder if she would ever feel comfortable eating in the villagers’ homes. But she, and the seven Sisters of Compassion who eventually joined her, made a decision to embrace the villagers and share in their lives.

“Slowly we understood that if we don’t get to know them closely, we won’t be able to have relationships with them,” Prisha explains.

The Sisters of Compassion helped the local women with their chores, took care of their babies and ate the food they cooked—food most outsiders would have refused because it consisted of game like tortoise and mongoose.

By identifying with the villagers, the Sisters of Compassion eventually earned their trust, and the villagers began listening to their advice. People stopped drinking and fighting. Women started dressing modestly and cooking in a healthier, cleaner way. Children started going to school, and the Sisters of Compassion taught them how to bathe, brush their teeth, comb their hair and dress neatly. The villagers even began seeing the missionaries as their own family.

Now Entering Filth and Fertile Ground

“These eight sisters are like our daughters,” explains one villager. “We love them because they love us. They brought lots of changes in our family, in our home, in our society and in our children.”

Once Scorned, Village Shines

As the Sisters of Compassion reflected God’s love, many people decided to follow Him. Now Christ is transforming Punya Basti from the inside out.

Today, the vast majority of Punya Basti’s residents, numbering more than 1,000, proclaim faith in Jesus. Even when half of the village is away traveling for work, more than 200 people gather to worship Jesus each week, ready to learn more about the God who cared enough to send His daughters to live among them.

Now Entering Filth and Fertile Ground
Now Entering Filth and Fertile Ground
Gospel for Asia Report
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RISEN! 12 Resurrection Appearances

by Geoff 4 February 2016 4 Comments
 

A Risen!

A Risen! All

Risen!   12 Resurrection Appearances

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 A Mysterious Month:  A month that changed the world

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Part 1: A Mysterious Month, gives the full eye-witness accounts of 12 resurrection appearances.

Part 2: Our Month in Israel, gives my reflections on walking where Jesus walked, with photos of those locations.

 0 He is risen - sign

Angel quote on the door of the Garden Tomb in Jerusalem

A Mysterious Month

Most people who were involved at the beginning of that mysterious month thought the unbelievable rumours were impossible and said so. Loudly.

Only a few, very few at first, thought it may have happened. Even after a month some still doubted that it actually happened.

They saw the awful, brutal execution. Jesus had been severely flogged and tortured early that morning before his execution. The conquering Romans made sure their victims suffered maximum agony and humiliation on thousands of crosses, suffering publicly and slowly in excruciating pain to their last agonized breath. That’s how we got our English words excruciate (ex-crux – out of the cross) and agony from the Greek word agon (struggle or contest).

Romans crucified their victims along the main road just outside a town or village. They lopped trees and their victims carried the crossbar to the dreadful execution site where they were nailed to the crossbar and hoisted onto a tree trunk or stake. Peter later wrote that Jesus bore our sins in His own body on the tree (1 Peter 2:24). The execution place just outside Jerusalem’s city wall was called the place of the skull, with graves nearby. There are many graves just outside that city wall even today.

Eye-witnesses saw and heard the horrendous spectacle, a few like John from nearby. Spectators taunted the central victim: And the people stood by, watching; but the leaders scoffed at him, saying, ‘He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Messiah of God, his chosen one!’ The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine, and saying, ‘If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!’ (Luke 23:35-37)

The three struggling victims gasped out brief cries, one with angry accusations: One of the criminals hanged there kept deriding him and saying, ‘Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us!’ (Luke 23:39).

Soldiers divided the victims’ clothes among themselves, gambling for some. Eventually, they smashed the legs of the two victims still alive so they died quickly, no longer able to push up from their spiked feet to gasp more breath. Religious leaders wanted them off the crosses before the Sabbath began at sunset.

But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs.  Instead, one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once blood and water came out. (He who saw this has testified so that you also may believe. His testimony is true, and he knows that he tells the truth.)

 And when all the crowds who had gathered there for this spectacle saw what had taken place, they returned home, beating their breasts. But all his acquaintances, including the women who had followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these things (John 19:33-35; Luke 23:48-49).

The mystery deepened rapidly. Matthew, the disciple who had been a despised tax collector for Rome, reported that the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split and the tombs broke open. The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. They came out of the tombs after Jesus’ resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared to many people (Matthew 27:51-52).

 0 0 J model

Model of Jerusalem in Jesus’ time, Temple Mount left (east), Pool of Bethesda (sheep pool) and Antonia Fortress alongside, Herod’s Palace right (west), Golgotha just outside.

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A Christian Passover All
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A Risen All Short
12 Resurrection Appearances
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The Shroud of TurinMedical-Forensic Explanation of the Shroud of Turin
English translation of Model of the wounded Shroud of Turin image
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BLOGS INDEX 4: DEVOTIONAL (INCLUDING TESTIMONIES)

BLOGS INDEX 5: CHURCH (CHRISTIANITY IN ACTION)

BLOGS INDEX 6: CHAPTERS (BLOGS FROM BOOKS)

BLOGS INDEX 7: IMAGES (PHOTOS AND ALBUMS)

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The extraordinary move of God in the Middle East

by Geoff 4 February 2016 2 Comments

The extraordinary move of God in the Middle East

October 28, 2014

By Mark Ellis

Iraqi-Chaldean-Christians-flee-to-Jordan

The nightly news may present disturbing images and a bleak outlook for the Middle East. Yet behind the horror of war, God is touching hearts in powerful ways, unleashing His Spirit among refugees, their families, and into surrounding communities and nations.

“There is something happening right now that is unprecedented,” says Brother Thomas*, a Middle East coordinator for All Nations. “The spiritual openness is incredible.”

On a recent trip into a refugee camp he met with a Muslim family inside their tent. The father – the patriarch of the family – started to tell him about his son Yusuf, who sat next to him. (Yusuf is the Arabic equivalent of the biblical name Joseph)

refugee-campB

“Do you know about the prophet Joseph?” Thomas inquired.

“Yes, he’s one of my favorites; he’s the dreamer,” the man replied.

“Have you had any dreams of significance?” Thomas asked the son.

“No, but my mother has…”

His mother excitedly broke in: “Ever since he was a child I’ve had dreams of a man in glowing white hugging my son. In the last dream he was crying, and his tears were coming down his beard and on to my son’s head.

“I have such a warmth for this prophet,” she continued. “I know he is a prophet.”

“I know who that person is in your dream,” Thomas said with assurance.

The woman’s eyes widened with intense interest. “Who is it?”

“It is Jesus.”

Then Brother Thomas told them the story of Jesus’ love for children, when He said, “Let the little children come to Me.”

The woman began to cry. “It was so moving for her to hear someone loves her family so much He would give her dreams demonstrating His love.”

As he toured the ramshackle refugee camp with structures composed of cardboard, wood slats, and plastic tarps, he found many who had similar encounters with God. “Almost every family we visited had some kind of experience, either through dreams or someone had given them a New Testament in the medical clinic or prayed for them,” he noted.

Brother Thomas observed a feeling of desperation that pervaded the camps. “There was a lot of fear and uncertainty about the future,” he discovered. “Every family has lost people through warfare or has a story of pain. Because the war is Muslim against Muslim they have a feeling there has to be something better. They are looking for answers.”

“Over and over we saw people who have questions, who want to know more about Jesus.”

Brother Thomas knows other Christian workers equally amazed. “I have friends who have been here 17-20 years and it’s mind boggling for them,” he says. “Previously they shared with someone for seven or eight years before they came to know Jesus. Now it happens in two or three months and they bring others with them.”

While this move of God seems to have originated in the refugee camps, it is not contained there. “It’s happening everywhere, but mostly around the refugees,” Thomas notes. “There is something happening in the spiritual atmosphere because these refugees are so open and so hungry.

“As they respond, the neighboring countries are responding in the same way. Something is being stirred up. People are coming into the kingdom practically without us – we get to be the midwives.”

Brother Thomas is struck by the contrast between the grim news portrayed on television and the reality of God’s work behind the scenes. “When I watch the news, it seems like things are getting worse,” he observes. “But when I talk to my friends in the area I see the Kingdom is coming – people are coming to the Lord. Whole families are coming to Christ, communities are changing, I can see the Kingdom expanding.”

*name changed for security reasons

All Nations is an international leadership training and church-planting network. All Nations partners with local churches to send short term and long-term church planting teams to more than 30 different countries. All Nations provides specialized leadership and discipleship schools located at Africa House, located in Cape Town, South Africa. 

Source: God Reports

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18,000 Muslim leaders led to Christ in West Africa

by Geoff 1 February 2016 No Comments

18,000 IMAN, MULLAHS AND EMIRS LED TO CHRIST IN WEST AFRICA

In the last 15 years Brother Thomas and his team have led 18,000 imams, mullahs, and emirs to Christ. “We have led several Al Qaeda commanders to Christ, some of whom penetrated our centre as spies.”

muslim-scholar-w-africa
Muslim scholar, West Africa

At 19, a leper first introduced him to Christ and a blind man led him to salvation. “His reading braille captivated me,” says Brother Thomas*. “I asked him where I will go when I die.” In response to the young man’s request, the blind man quoted Scripture from the Book of John. The power of God’s Word left a lasting imprint on his heart and propelled his future ministry. “I didn’t understand the cross or what my decision meant, but I went ahead and received Jesus as my personal Lord and Saviour.” Raised in a Muslim home and community in West Africa, he experienced hostility, but took it in stride. “Every true believer should experience opposition,” he maintains. “The important thing is the discovery of the life-given Spirit in Christ. I found a new life.”

Two years after his life-changing conversion, he felt an overwhelming desire to share the Good News. “I saw my people were living in darkness,” he says. Although he had little training, he began to travel from village to village for several weeks at a time. “Nobody told me to go. I didn’t know many of the Scriptures,” he admits, “but I wanted to tell people that Jesus can give you eternal life.” Through eventual contact with Sudan Inland Mission (SIM), he received further training. In 1990, he went on staff with Campus Crusade for Christ and served with them for a decade, utilizing the impactful JESUS Film. In 2000, he started his own organization, which targets Muslim leaders throughout West Africa. “They the leaders are sincerely deluded,” he observes. “Satan has blinded their eyes. They cannot see the light of the gospel.”

“They were born into it,” he continues. “Nobody told them anything different. Most people in West Africa are not Muslim by choice. They are born into a community that believes in Islam.” Brother Thomas decided he and his team would have to approach the “custodians” of the community of Islam, something very few are willing to do. “Christians never take the initiative to go to them,” he observes. “The Bible never tells us to wait for them to come to us. The Bible says to go. The lack of going to the Muslims is disobedience.” Brother Thomas and his team develop relational connections with Muslim scholars slowly and privately. It may take weeks or months of meetings before an Islamic scholar will discover the Truth.

“We met with a Shia leader in one country for a year,” he notes. After Islamic services on Friday, this Muslim leader would drive several hours to spend a weekend with Brother Thomas. “I went through the Word teaching him.

The turning point was when he realized that Jesus is God.” Remarkably, this imam actually stayed in the mosque, but his message changed dramatically as a follower of Jesus. The man’s changed perspective did not go unnoticed.

“They took him to a psychiatric hospital and took his wives away. They said he was mad,” Brother Thomas says. After his release from the psychiatric facility, Brother Thomas urged the man to escape. “We don’t know where he is today. Quite a few of these leaders who converted have died.”

2013-Evacuation-manuscripts-Timbuktu-copyright-Prince-Claus-Fund-1
Muslim scholar

Another Muslim leader who met with Brother Thomas made regular appearances on national TV during Ramadan. “He came to Christ because we proved to him the Quran is not the inspired word of God and is not in the program of God for salvation,” he recounts. One Friday evening a mob of other scholars came to kill the recent convert, but were unsuccessful. “He was fearless,” Brother Thomas says. “They gave his wife to his best friend and took his daughter away because he rejected Islam. This year he was poisoned and died.” Brother Thomas believes that in the top ranks of Islamic scholars, many are atheists, because they no longer believe in the inspiration of the Quran.

In the last 15 years Brother Thomas and his team have led 18,000 imams, mullahs, and emirs to Christ. “We have led several Al Qaeda commanders to Christ, some of whom penetrated our centre as spies.” His team of 300 has dwindled to 65, due to the intensity of the fight. “Some have died, some left us, and some became afraid,” he says. He has developed a training program that is bearing fruit wherever it has been employed. Brother Thomas believes the church has been ineffective in reaching Muslims because they have concentrated on methods and strategies. “Christians want to bribe the Muslims to faith through relief and compassion, but those methods do not save. If you give relief to them it will not save them.” For salvation Muslims must discover Christ through His Word.

*name changed

Source: God Reports

There is an ongoing underground revival in the Muslim world. Over the past 20 years more Muslims have found Isa (Jesus) than in all the previous centuries together. See links:
Iran: where Christianity is growing fastest
Iran – fastest growing evangelical population
Iran: How two women brought hope in Tehran’s brutal Evin Prison
The Staggering Rise of the Church in Iran
Many Muslims are turning to Christ
Jesus and Muslims: Life in the desert
Jesus appears to Middle Eastern Muslim for a month
Iman hated Christians until Jesus raised him from the dead
Muslim woman returns from the dead to tell about Jesus
‘The Lord reached me right in the mosque’

If you want to know more about following Jesus, go here

 

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The church on the camel’s path

by Geoff 16 January 2016 No Comments

West Africa: The church on the camel’s path

And all this took place in the space of one year!

This spreading of the gospel is what Ahmed and his team call ‘the church on the camel’s path’.

Weat Africa

Maysa was an ordinary West African woman. She and her husband owned livestock and traveled about the countryside with groups of other nomads looking for grazing area for the animals. The couple were both Christians, alone in an area where everyone else was Muslim, and they had no church or Bible study to join.

Maysa realized that since none of the other people in her nomadic community could read, she had to be the one to bring the life-giving story of the gospel to her people. So she attended a training seminar offered by a missions organization, in which she learned how to tell stories from the Bible, beginning at creation and moving forward chronologically toward Christ.

As soon as she rejoined her family, Maysa began sharing these stories with other nomadic women. She told them how God repeatedly made himself known to men like Abraham and Moses, so that mankind could live according to His will. After every story, the women would discuss what the stories meant and, if they were true, how their lives would need to change to obey the God of truth. Within a few weeks, more then 40 women had accepted God’s gift of salvation and eternal life through his son Jesus.

Their husbands were quick to notice the change in their lives, and started asking Maysa‘s husband probing questions while they were out grazing their livestock. He was privileged to lead many of the men to Christ as well. After this, the men stopped their practice of raiding villages and instead began to take the good news of God’s Word to other nomadic groups of Muslims.

“Why did you leave them? You have space in your car.”

About one year later, two men named Ahmed and Mechela were driving through the desert, on their way to visit some Christ followers in a distant region. They belonged to the mission team that had trained Maysa how to make disciples by chronological Bible storytelling, and now they were travelling to an area 200 kilometers away.

As they bumped along the rutted dirt track, they came upon two elderly men walking with large burdens wrapped in blankets on their shoulders. The men had heard them coming and were waving them down, asking for a ride. Because the region was frequented by bandits, Ahmed was suspicious and didn’t slow down. He accelerated and roared past the elderly men.

But after a moment, the Holy Spirit pressed Ahmed. “Why did you leave them? You have space in your car.” Ahmed threw the car into reverse and picked up the hitchhikers who, relieved, clambered into the backseat. “We are taking a dowry gift to a young man in a distant village,” one of them explained. “We would have been walking all day if you had not come past.”

“Oh, we already know that story!”

Mechela asked: “Do you know God?” Throwing their heads back in laughter, the passengers replied: “Of course we know God! Who do you think made you stop and give us a lift?” Surprised, Mechela asked: “Would you like to hear a story?” The men readily agreed. “Do you know where the whole world came from? It was like this: in the beginning…” Mechela was abruptly interrupted. “Oh, we already know that story!” cried the hitchhikers in unison.

They quickly discovered that the men knew all the stories the missions team would teach new believers! Ahmed asked: “Where did you learn these stories?” The men answered: “Last rainy season a man moved to our village and taught us these stories and many others.”

During the remainder of the trip Ahmed and Mechela were able to piece things together. They traced the source of the Bible stories that the men had learned all the way back to Maysa and her husband, who had led others to become disciples of Christ, who in turn had gone to distant villages and shared the gospel with more nomads. These two elderly men, hitchhiking their way through the desert, were the fifth generation of Christ followers growing out of Maysa’s efforts, and they were on their way to share the gospel with a young couple who would soon be married and would carry it on to others. And all this took place in the space of one year!

This spreading of the gospel is what Ahmed and his team call ‘the church on the camel’s path’.

Source: Maysa, Ahmed and Mechela, interviewed by Jerry Trousdale for his book ‘Miraculous Movements’

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Annual Report – Renewal Journal

by Geoff 30 December 2015 No Comments

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https://renewaljournal.com/2015/annual-report/

Renewal Journal had around 43,000 views this year – including yours

Annual Report for Renewal Journal

Time for end-of-year reviews!
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Helping in Myanmar/Burma

by Geoff 11 November 2015 No Comments
1412 JMemD speak guitar
Son Jonathan with his children Dante and Jemimah in Yangon

“My involvement in the country has been to help facilitate the care of orphans and abandoned children.”

Jonathan with orphans and needy kids
Jonathan with orphans and needy kids

“So, with others, we have built homes, installed pumps and water purifiers, paid for food, clothing, medical care and education.”

Jonathan and Jemimah & Dante with Zo Min, a teacher in Yangon
Jonathan and Jemimah & Dante with Zo Min, a teacher in Yangon

This year my 3 adult children and most of my grandchildren will have served and helped in Myanmar/Burma and 5 of them go this December. Click link for more details and email me (geoffwaugh2@gmail.com) if you’d like to help. Australian ANZ bank details: Geoffrey Waugh Mission Account, BSB 014249, Ac. 5647 11123 (Swift code: ANZBAU3M).

Orphans & needy kids' first visit to a restaurant - $2 each!
Orphans & needy kids’ first visit to a restaurant – $2 each!

Jonathan’s post

See my Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/geoff.waugh1

In the 1990 sham election run by the junta, Aung San Suu Kyi won almost 80% of the seats. The election was annulled and Aung San Suu Kyi put under house arrest for 20 years. Twenty five years later, the move towards democracy has seen a new election take place this past weekend. The military gave themselves 25% of the seats, opened the rest for public vote, and created a rule that would disqualify Aung San Suu Kyi from being elected. Despite these obstacles, it looks like her party is even more popular than in 1990 and able to accept office.

I’ve been in Myanmar every Christmas for the past 7 years and seen extensive social changes over that time. Improvements in the roads, vehicles, buildings and society. SIM cards went from costing over $2000 to under $2. I remember looking at my interpreter in disbelief when told a SIM card was more than $1000. What? I was sure they got the conversion from Kyats to dollars wrong.

My involvement in the country has been to help facilitate the care of orphans and abandoned children. Children so easily become helpless victims of poverty. Simply because of where I was born, I have resources that can help. So, with others, we have built homes, installed pumps and water purifiers, paid for food, clothing, medical care and education.

As I return this year, I am looking forward to visiting the kids I know in seven different orphanages. Playing games and having a laugh while concentrating on developing their education. Not only can a well-educated person escape poverty, they can help many other people reach the same heights. So I’d love to start some schools. It’s not something I can do on my own. If you would like to help, I’d like to hear from you.

In her speech, Aung San Suu Kyi noted the often overlooked and misunderstood concept of the servant leader. So often, we want to be in charge and run things our way. I was reminded of the most amazing person in history, the servant-King. See link on my Facebook page.

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