Long Term Missions

Lean into Chaos—It’s Often Where God Is Greatly at Work

Mar 30, 2023 | Longer Reads

by C. Anderson

We opened our email and read the notice. The American Consulate in India was advising all American citizens to leave the country. Threat levels were high, as the conflict between India and Pakistan escalated. In 1998, these two nations had both become nuclear powers. In 2017 and 2018, threats and border skirmishes increased between the two nations. The email came. American citizens were being advised to leave the nation. Our government could no longer be responsible for our safety.

Reading the notice, my husband and I quietly discussed it. We had three small children to consider. What about them? Tucking our sweet five-year-old, blond-headed boy into bed, I smoothed his hair back as he drifted off to sleep. Was it fair to put his little life at risk? How serious was the danger?

Ministry in the area was growing. We felt bonded with our Indian friends and colleagues. They didn’t have the option of leaving. Was it right for us to do so?

We consulted with our mission. They gave us the freedom to make our own choice about what to do; we were to follow God’s leading and our conscience. Being an agency that had a good number of national staff, it was handled differently than for fully foreign organizations. Talking to missionary friends, several reported they’d been told by their organizations to leave as soon as possible.

Going to God in prayer, peace filled our hearts. We were to stay. Within six months, the evacuation order was lifted and a cease-fire agreement between the two nations was signed. We breathed a sigh of relief, grateful that we had chosen to stay. Our doing so had bonded us in unique ways to those we had come to reach.

Fight or Flight
Fight or flight are two common physical and mental responses to stress. Fight. We face the threat head- on, ready to engage in battle. Flight. We run from the threat, escaping it and finding a place of safety.

Our world is a place of increasing turmoil. A war between Russia and Ukraine causes concern about nuclear threats around the world. While the COVID-19 pandemic is no longer as deadly as it was, it is far from gone. Floods, hurricanes, and other natural disasters bring loss of life and property, making headline news.

How should a disciple-maker and Jesus follower respond? Is it fight or flight? Perhaps neither. God is often amazingly at work in chaos and turmoil. God leans into chaos and so must we.

Five Ways to Lean into Crisis
Consider the following five choices in the midst of chaos and crisis. The decisions we make in troubled times can lead to significant kingdom advance. It can cause the multiplication of disciples and the launch of new movements.

1. Choose to Stay—Those Who Stay Present in Crisis Often See the Greatest Impact

Don’t read me wrong. I’m not saying you always have to stay when there is a serious threat to life and limb. It’s a decision every person and family must prayerfully make before the Lord. We see biblical examples of both staying (Acts 4:21-31) and leaving (2 Cor. 11:32-33). Our default, however, should not be to leave. Instead, we must train ourselves to lean in. We need to recognize the opportunities crisis provides for the light of the Gospel to shine brightly.

There is a cost involved in staying, in leaning in. I cannot minimize that. Trauma and a significant drain on mental and physical health are realities in a crisis. However, the glory of God shines brightly in these times, and many are drawn to Jesus as we offer that gift: the gift of presence to those we serve. And so we lean in.

2. Choose to advance—moving toward crisis rather than away from it.

The tsunami that struck Indonesia in 2004 is forever etched in my mind. As it struck so suddenly, many dear friends and colleagues fled to the top of a mountain, barely escaping with their lives. Over 200,000 people died that day. Following the tragedy, our colleagues worked with government and army staff to bag bodies for days on end. It was not easy. Not easy at all. In that time though, unprecedented doors flung open for the Gospel to spread.

I remembered this on a call with a mentor a few months back. “Do you know any DMM-minded people going into Ukraine?” he asked. What about YWAM? Who is there and how can we train them to start DMMs there? He recognized the opportunity within the crisis. My mentor wanted to spur me, and anyone else he could find, into responding.

A few hours later, we together made a call to someone I’m training in the United Kingdom. “Ian,” he asked, “What are you doing about Ukraine?”

Will we lean into these kinds of opportunities to minister the two hands of the Gospel? Not only to bring relief but to share the message of Christ? If we don’t, we may miss the chance to partner with God in what He is doing. And so we lean in.

3. Choose to believe God is working in the midst of tragedy.

Most of us can quote Romans 8:28. We’ve preached sermons on it. When lives are at risk, bridges are burning, or hospitals overflow with sick and dying, we are put to the test. Do we believe that all things work together for good? Faith is a gift from God. It is also a choice we make. In the midst of crisis, we choose to believe that God is sovereignly in control. We place our hope in a God who is able to bring about incredible good out of horrible events. It’s what He does. One of the good things He so often does is to draw people to Himself in these times. Hearts are soft and open. And so we lean in.

4. Choose to let go of old norms and wineskins.

Crisis times have a way of destroying the old and making way for the new. During the COVID-19 pandemic, church buildings across the globe had to close. We were forced to meet at home or online if we were to meet at all. It was an unwanted change of the primary wineskin we used to gather as a body. Today, we are mostly past that. What have we learned? How have we grown? Are any of those new wineskins to remain? So many have quickly reverted to the old, preferring to go backward instead of forward

Part of leaning in is letting go. It’s listening and discerning what God might be releasing in the midst of the difficulty. And so we lean in.

It may be hidden, but it is there. Receive it. Lean into God with open hands and open heart, ready to accept God’s somewhat mysterious gifts: the kind He gives in the darkest of times. Jesus compared the kingdom of God to a pearl of great price. Those priceless treasures are often given in times of difficulty and pain. Deep friendships, the revelation of new experientially understood truth from His Word, unusual miracles and supernatural encounters…these are a few of the hidden treasures that can be found. And with it, the joy of seeing many lost people swept into His kingdom. And so we lean in.

The 17th century in England was a time of great social upheaval, civil war, and political crisis. In this environment, revivalists George Whitefield and Charles Wesley emerged. Revival swept the nation. Between 1738 and 1791, 1.35 million people put their faith in Christ.1 These men leaned into crisis and partnered with what God was doing.

May we be courageous enough to do the same. Our willingness to lean in may result in hundreds, if not thousands, of new movements being catalyzed across the globe.

About the Author:C. Anderson is passionate about seeing hundreds of Disciple-Making movements take off among the world’s unreached peoples. She has served as a church planter, coach, and trainer. She has been a speaker about multiplying movements of disciples for the past twenty-five years. While most of her experience is in Asia, she was worked in other regions of the world as well. She writes a weekly blog at dmmsfrontiermissions.com

This article was first published in Mission Frontiers:Cascading Gospel: Movements Starting Movements, Jan/Feb 2023, pages 46-48. It was used here with permission.

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Where Two Kingdoms Collide

Mar 28, 2023 | South Asia, Stories

Persecution has been a common trial for many, if not most, of the movement churches in north India for the past ten years, but it has significantly increased these last three months. Ethan* and Nicole* receive almost daily messages from Sanjay* and John* about the persecution the disciples and house churches face. The hardest of these messages was that a lady was martyred. She and her husband (and their two young boys) were active disciple-makers. One day, while meeting with others for a prayer meeting in a home, a mob stormed the house and brutally beat all who were there. She was hospitalized for weeks due to her extensive injuries and passed away on January 11th. They believe this is the movement’s first female martyr.

Ethan and Nicole recently shared: “Jesus said the gates of hell wouldn’t be able to stand against God’s Kingdom. This is what we’re seeing.” As God’s children in India go to their neighbors, relatives, and even their enemies, the gates of hell are falling. Yes, the place where the two kingdoms collide is a battlefield, but we know that eventually, God’s Kingdom will prevail. God’s Kingdom will be established in every tribe, tongue, and every ethnic group on earth. Hallelujah! What a relief to know the outcome! In the interim, though, battles are fought. But, in the middle of what sometimes feels only like chaos and darkness, we receive voice messages like this one:

” ‘…It is true that we are very worried…’ But we all know it is very important to have all this [suffering]. It is necessary to fill up the work of the Lord. For the last few months, we have seen a lot of persecution. But [we’re] also seeing that the number of house churches is filling up every day because when the persecution is going on, many people who do not know the Lord Jesus Christ ask, “Why are these people being killed?” And when [the persecutors] tell those who do not know the Lord that these people are being persecuted because they believe in Jesus Christ, the ones who are [watching], who perhaps used to be neutral, begin to wonder at what they are seeing. They wonder that people can continue to love the Lord even after persecution, even after being badly beaten. They wonder why believing in Jesus should matter so much, and so they ask to know more. And so, in this way, the work is quickly being accomplished… And also, [in addition to this great fruit of growth, we must remember that] we are witnesses of these things. We who are strong should continue to help the weak in these days – during these events, as the Holy Scripture tells us.”

Ethan and Nicole continue, “Our friends in India have such amazing, enduring faith. They continue to press on. We recently received news of more than 500 baptisms! That’s only a sampling of all that God is doing.”

“Please pray with us, as the early church did — … now, Lord, consider their threats, and grant that Your slaves may speak Your message with complete boldness, while You stretch out Your hand for healing, signs, and wonders to be performed through the name of Your holy Servant Jesus.” When they had prayed, the place where they were assembled was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak God’s message with boldness. (Acts 4:29-31).

“There’s no revenge thinking in Acts 4. No hatred toward the persecutors. Only a request for God to move, and that His children would respond with obedient boldness. Amen and amen.”

*pseudonyms

GIVE TO HELP THE PERSECUTED AND THEIR FAMILIES

MISSIONS IN A DANGEROUS WORLD
Jesus tells us in Matthew 24 that life will get worse with all kinds of natural and human disasters. People will be handed over to be persecuted, …. read more

WHEN PERSECUTION BECOMES CELEBRATION
In the 2001 persecution, one group of believers received threats that they would be forced to reconvert to Hinduism … read more

LEARN ABOUT OUR WORK IN S.ASIA
South Asia is the most populous affinity bloc with nearly two billion people. While a majority of these …read more

Can Christians Mess Up the Plan?

Mar 22, 2023 | South Asia, Stories

After Bahar became a disciple, he, Samir*, and Frank* planned to do additional flood relief in Azville,* Bahar’s old village. Most people in Azville are Hindu, but some Muslims live there also. Before the plan was put into action, however, another group of Christians and church leaders arrived in Azville. They went door-to-door, passing out Bibles in foreign languages and offering free meals worth far more than what people in the village could afford. They didn’t know the local culture, local practices, or the local language. Although they most likely had good intentions, their visits caused much division. Eventually, this group was run out of town, and people became very antagonistic toward the Good News and other Christians.

Because of this, Bahar feared returning to his old village, and Samir and his team decided to wait and not go as they had planned. Instead, they committed to pray for Azville. After some time had passed, Frank became discouraged, fearing that the opportunity was lost. He became quite frustrated with the group of Christians who messed up “the plan.”

But God was still working in Azville. Unbeknownst to them, Gia*, a cousin of Bahar and the village chief, heard how Jesus had rescued Bahar from slavery, and she started to pray in the name of Jesus for her sick husband to be healed. Miraculously, he received healing! Gia and her family decided to follow Jesus. Immediately, the entire family felt the presence and love of the Father, and Gia knew that her entire village also needed Jesus.

Gia remembered the group of Christians who had come to her village, “They didn’t know us, our language, or our culture. They gave us expensive food, but not true spiritual food. They wanted to be the leaders and have us rely on them. They wanted to preach at us, not train us. And they caused disunity in our village.” So, without the influence of a Bible, a church, or other Christians, Gia decided through the Spirit’s leading that she should be the one to reach her village for Jesus.

Though she was filled with passion, Gia didn’t know where to start, what to say, or what to do. She had heard, however, about a young man named Samir who trained people on how to be a disciple who makes other disciples who multiply. So, knowing only the name of the city where Samir lives, Gia, along with two cousins and her young son, set out in search of him. Eventually, by the Holy Spirit’s leading and asking people along the way, they arrived at Samir’s house.

*pseudonym

READ RELATED STORIES AND MORE ABOUT OUR WORK IN THIS AREA

THROWN INTO SLAVERY
Bahar and his paternal uncle, Navi, traveled to a faraway province in their South Asian country in search of work. read more …

ONCE FROM PRISON …
Not long after his miraculous escape from slavery, Bahar moved his family to a new town. But catastrophic flooding read more …

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Praying with Purpose During Ramadan

Mar 17, 2023 | Longer Reads

As a cross-cultural Christian in a 99.9% Muslim country, I find Ramadan to be filled with stark contrasts. On the one hand, multigenerational families gathering around tables each night eating homemade delicacies and food drives that collect pantry staples for poor families are almost universal. On the other hand, thievery due to pressure to buy gifts at the end of the month along with arguments, fist fights, traffic snarls, and shortened tempers due to nicotine and caffeine withdrawals all increase during the 30 days.

The sharp contrasts powerfully illustrate the ineffectiveness of outward religious practices to bring inward transformation. And yet, so few seem bothered with this reality and even fewer wrestle and search for a solution. Five times a day, the Muslim call to prayer continues to ring out. It echoes and clashes from the various mosques in my neighborhood that aren’t in sync with each other. Five times a day, the land is flooded with announcements from loudspeakers saying, “there is no God but Allah and Mohammed is his messenger.” Year after year, many abstain from food, water, and nicotine during the daylight hours in an effort to appease God and try to earn merit.

In the midst of this environment, I and a relatively small community of other Christians seek to bring the Good News of God’s kingdom and the life, death, burial, and resurrection of His Christ to people who have had virtually no access for 1400 years. Such circumstances cause me to cry out, Who is sufficient for these things? (2 Cor. 2:16b, NKJV).

And that desperation, that utter helplessness I can feel as I engage in Gospel conversations with neighbors, friends, and strangers, leaves me no choice but to pray. The longer I live in the Muslim world, the more convinced I am that only the power of prayer and God’s Spirit can bring transformation.

So, when I heard about the opportunity to champion 24/7 prayer for the entire 30 days of Ramadan last year for the Muslim country that I want to reach with the Gospel, I knew I needed to say, “Yes!”

The team at Pray4Movement.org built a free, simple tool that empowers anyone who wants to promote continuous prayer for a people group, city, country, or region. In just a few clicks and by answering a few questions, I received a web page of my own that I could customize and then send out to my friends, family, coworkers, etc. They could then sign-up for time slots to pray.

I only needed to find 96 people who would commit to pray for a different 15-minute time slot each day of Ramadan to cover the entire 30 days with prayer. Intercessors received an email each day before their committed time slot with a reminder and a link to go view that day’s biblical prayer fuel. The Pray4Movement team developed content that could be customized for my people group with just a few keystrokes. However, I had complete freedom to write my own custom prayer requests and prayer guides. By God’s grace, we filled the 30 days with nonstop prayer!

Only in eternity will we know the full impact of what happened as the Church prayed extraordinarily for the Muslims in the country where I live, but I believe God answered our prayers and is answering them in beautiful ways. Since Ramadan 2022, our team has witnessed a significant increase in groups of people interested in reading, discovering, and discussing the Bible with their friends.

Our country wasn’t the only one that tried to go for continuous prayer coverage during Ramadan 2022. It turns out that 84 different champions took on the challenge impacting 64 countries. At least 6,395 intercessors filled more than 170,000 15-minute prayer slots.

One prayer champion in a sub-Saharan Muslim nation said they saw God move in powerful ways during Ramadan as people prayed. A Muslim man who cut off relationship with his Christian children began calling them, bringing hope of restored relationship. An elderly woman who refused to submit her life to Christ for decades accepted Christ during Ramadan. Other Christians in the country were compelled to grow their prayer life for their Muslim neighbors and sought to be brighter lights among them. Evangelism efforts among this people group in the weeks that followed proved more fruitful.

One of the most persecuted countries in the world rallied more than 100% prayer coverage during the 30 days. The prayer champion for that Muslim nation said, “I don’t think that we know even a small percentage of the impact that was made by praying 24/7 during Ramadan this year. Consistently, we heard how many people felt a heavy spiritual oppression. I think that signifies that we are pushing against the enemy in an effective way. We had several people around the globe that communicated just how impactful it was to have the prayer fuel and were encouraged by the unity of praying together with others. We are expecting that fruit will come from this initiative and some evidence of that is already coming.”

Another prayer champion working in a Muslim country in South Asia said, “We had over 100 people praying daily for the work, and we know of at least three Muslims that came to faith during this time. Normally, Ramadan is very slow, with few responses or new believers. So this year was different! Five more have followed Jesus in the month after Ramadan!”

As if these stories aren’t glorious enough, something important happens in the intercessors, themselves, as they devote 15-minutes a day to pray for a Muslim people group, city, country, or region. Yes, their prayers make eternal impact in the spiritually dark places they pray on behalf of. But their prayers also make an impact in their own lives. They begin to be changed and God softens their hearts for the people for whom they are praying. If you pray for the nations consistently, you’ll find that at some level you will have to go into action for the nations through giving, going, mobilizing, or serving.

During Ramadan 2022 (April 1-May 1), when all of the time committed to pray for Muslims across all of the 84 different initiatives was added up, it totaled 4 years, 359 days of prayer or 43,660 hours! The team at Pray4Movement is asking God for even more prayer initiatives and multiples of prayer hours totaled for the Muslim world in Ramadan 2023.

My heart aches for the millions in the land that I live in to know the Christ that came to save them not just from their evil deeds, but also from their good deeds done from wrong motives-from selfishness and self-righteousness, from outward religion to inward transformation. This Ramadan (Mar 22-April 21, 2023), technology has given our generation unprecedented opportunity to pray with insight and specificity for Muslim people groups, cities, and countries. Would you champion prayer for one of them among your family, friends, congregations, and partners?

This article was first published in Mission Frontiers: Women in Mission, Mar/April 2023 , pages 11-13. It was used here with permission.

BEGINNING MARCH 22, 2023, YOU CAN PRAY WITH US HERE

Journey to Discipleship

Mar 15, 2023 | Stories

Two of Jane’s* young children were watching and hearing about Sasa’s* openness to Isa (Jesus). They also wanted to tell Sasa how God had made a difference in their lives. So that evening, they each sweetly shared the gospel with her. Sasa was amazed at what God had done in their young hearts and lives and saw it as evidence of Jesus.

Jane suggested a way that she and Sasa could begin to study God’s word. Before they read stories about the events of Jesus’ life, Jane would start with a quick summary of the people in the Old Testament who offered sacrifices – people like Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, etc. They talked about how “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins” (Hebrews 9:22).

Sasa was interested in each of the Old Testament stories and asked, “Are these stories talking about the blood of Jesus?”

“No, these events were before Jesus came,” Jane explained. “We’ll talk more about Jesus when we get into stories of His life.”

“So Jesus was the final sacrifice, then?” Sasa asked. “There is no more need for sacrifices now?”

Jane was amazed. They talked for a while about the hope and peace we can have in Jesus because he was the final sacrifice that provided for the forgiveness of our sins and our entrance into heaven.

“I’m sorry,” Sasa said, “but can I ask… Is Jesus…God?”

In response, Jane led Sasa through some Scripture verses. In fact, throughout the evening, and for each of Sasa’s questions, the Holy Spirit led the women — Jane into Scriptures and personal testimonies as answers to Sasa’s questions, and Sasa into ever-deeper truth.

“I’m afraid, because I know I have sinned. I’m afraid of hell,” Sasa confessed.

“You know, this is a big deal, Sasa,” Jane encouraged. “You are looking for truth and answers. Keep wrestling until you find the Truth. I am glad to be on this journey with you. Can I pray for you?”

Ask God to ready Sasa’s heart for salvation and baptism soon. Pray for protection for Sasa and Jane’s family as they walk this road to freedom.

Missed last week’s story about Sasa? Read it here.

*pseudonym