Friend, Peon or Manager?

Friend, Peon or Manager?

Oct 24, 2019 | Stories

In the West, it is the general practice for a business owner to hire a manager if he or she doesn’t have the time or desire to manage it themselves. In India, however, this is not the custom. The owner is the manager. He or she trusts no one else with the business. The owner manages, and everyone else is a peon. Yes, peon is a commonly used word in India. 

Imagine the wonder, then, that people living in this rigid society of hierarchy feel when they hear Jesus say that He freely shares His authority with us (Matthew 10:1; 16:19; Luke 9:1; John 1:12; Acts 26:16). But He goes further than that! Jesus says, “You are my friends if you keep on doing what I command you. I do not call you servants any longer… but I have called you friends . . ..” (John 15:14-15). What?! The God for Whom there is no idol doesn’t consider me a peon? He calls me friend, and entrusts to ME the task to make other disciples? What a message!

Beyond’s South Asian field leaders, Ethan and Nicole, learned that the disciples in India were sharing Matthew 28:18-20 as part of the Gospel Message. “I love that they had eyes to see something about the Gospel that we with our western eyes and deeply rooted Christian traditions could not see,” Nicole says. “Have you ever included Matthew 28 in your Gospel presentation? I’m guessing not. But, for those coming out of slavery, for those who live in a culture where peon is still in common use, sharing in the Master’s authority and carrying responsibility IS Good News. They’re so excited about having a purpose for their lives that they can’t hold themselves back. They embrace the honor to be given the chance, and they quickly share the opportunity with their friends.”

Praise God for obedient friends of Jesus who diligently share His message!

Our field leaders ask for prayer as top Indian movement leaders travel to meet with local leaders to check on the wellness of the churches, gather reports of persecution, pray over needs, and pass on new trainings from God’s Word. The traveling is difficult; they can be harassed by the local police; they are away from their families. Your prayers for these trips are greatly appreciated.

Secondly, we can be praying for the disciple makers’ financial provision. God is giving them creativity to make money/work with their hands. Many are farmers. Some own small shops. Please pray that God would bless their labors so they can continue in the work of making followers of Jesus. Pray, too, that they would continue to be generous with one another like we see in the book of Acts.

*pseudonyms used

Alone, We are Just a Drop in the Vast Sea of Need …

Alone, We are Just a Drop in the Vast Sea of Need …

Oct 20, 2019 | Stories

We know the need: there are two billion unevangelized people in the world. Forty-seven thousand of them die every day, never once having heard the good news of the Gospel. We’ve heard how effective Disciple Making Movements (DMM) are, and we’re on board. But alone, we are just a drop in the vast sea of need. To address the situation, many goers are necessary – approximately 21,000 teams of two to three that can each reach 100,000 people! When you factor in the prayer and financial supporters for those who go, the need for many to catch the vision of Matthew 28 increases dramatically.

How will we ever mobilize that many? Many more people need to embrace Jesus’ calling as their own. We can help them do this through vision casting.

Chris Galanos is the lead and founding pastor of E-Life church in Lubbock, TX. Chris and his leadership team transitioned their megachurch from that of a “traditional” church into one laser-focused on disciple making through DMM practices. In his book From Megachurch to Multiplication, Chris says, “we cast vision to get more believers involved in disciple making and church planting.” He goes on to say, “The more vision we cast to others, the more people we’ll be able to train. The more people we train, the more teams that form. The more teams that form, the more people we have the potential to reach.”

Vision casting in a Disciple-Making Movement (DMM) context is simply passing on the passion and principles of DMM to believers who God might be calling to join in the work. There are many ways to do this. One might share stories of what God is doing, present facts and statistics, have a discovery Bible study or model DMM practices for others to emulate. Here are a couple of examples of some Beyond movement catalysts casting vision with potential local partners.

We have a local Christian lady attending the house church we have with others. She finally realized that we see our “house church” as a “real” and “full” church! We had a great discussion about what does God really want in a church. We challenged her to consider having a Chinese speaking church in her home. She was too afraid. She thought she was too shy . . . only special people do that. I asked her, “Do you remember the last words of Jesus on the earth?” She said yes . . ., ‘Go into all the world baptizing and teaching’. I asked, “Who was he talking to?” She paused and said, ‘His believers, followers”. “Then, was he talking to you?” I asked. Long, long pause … then she said, “Yes.”  -Neill

While vision-casting with a local friend about Disciple Making Movements, I got stuck in the middle of differing expectations as to whether or not to pay local believers to partner in disciple-making. With help from my coaching circle, I selected a passage from a list of scriptures dealing with God’s perspective on money and ministry and set a time to do a discovery study with my friend and her husband. As we read the passage, my friend, who usually has a lot to say when we read the Bible together, was barely talking.  Was she upset?  Did she believe what the passage said?  I couldn’t tell.  When I saw her a few days later, she explained, “I couldn’t say much that night because I was so distracted by the Holy Spirit. The Spirit was present and tangible, like a thick cloud.”  Clearly, God spoke deeper than I had realized.  -M.B.

 

“Does God Have a Hearing Problem?”

“Does God Have a Hearing Problem?”

Oct 10, 2019 | Stories

“Can I eat here?” Karly asked the cook of a small food stand near her new home. The young Muslim woman, Farah, eagerly responded, “You speak my language?! Please, sit, sit! What do you want to eat?” 

As Farah placed a plate of delicious food on the table and sat down next to her, Karly noticed the beautiful henna designs on Farah’s hands and was reminded of something she’d recently heard. A friend had said that Muslim people believe God cannot hear the prayers of a woman who wears nail polish. (Muslims are to wash before their ritual, five-times-daily prayers. This includes washing every part of their hands. A layer of nail polish is said to prevent “wudu,” or purification, from being complete as water cannot reach the actual nail.)

When Karly asked about the nail polish, Farah replied,  “Yeah, some people think like that.  But I feel God can hear fine. He is God, right?  Does He have a hearing problem? Also, people don’t care about henna.  It’s clean. It doesn’t block the water. Would you like me to put henna on your hands?” Karly accepted her offer in the spirit of Luke 10:7 (Stay in one place, eating and drinking what they provide. Don’t hesitate to accept hospitality.).

As the henna dried, a few customers came to the food stand, and Farah introduced Karly to them, pointing out that she could speak their language. In a moment of quiet, Karly asked how she could pray for Farah.  “Anything you think of about my business or life!” Farah replied. “I will pray for you too.”

Because of Farah’s introductions, Karly has been welcomed into the homes of two other families on the block!

  • Please pray for Karly as she extends the light of God to these new friends.
  • Pray that God will open Farah’s heart to seeing and accepting Isa al Masih (Jesus the Messiah) as her Lord and Savior.

Read another story about Karly here.

*pseudonyms

Going Out Among the Lost

Going Out Among the Lost

Sep 20, 2019 | Stories

Evan and Anna, BEYOND’s Austronesian field leaders, recently shared tips on how they purposely go out among the lost to share the love of Christ. One of the ways they do this is by praying for the felt needs of people they meet. Anna shared this recent example from her life.

Anna and Tess, another Beyond missions catalyst, were in a sunny Austronesian cafe looking for the person or people they felt the Lord would lead them to talk with. Earlier that morning, they had prayed, “God, give us the sensitivity to know the exact felt need of whomever You will lead us to.”

Before long, a couple at the cafe caught their attention. The women started a conversation, sharing upfront that they were followers of Isa (Jesus). They found the couple to be friendly and polite. In the course of talking, Anna and Tess both noticed that the topic of last year’s earthquake sparked something in the couple.

Anna mentioned that she and her husband, Evan, had been on the island during the earthquake, and they too had experienced some fear because of it. They stayed, however, because of their love for the SaSumBi people and, more importantly, God’s love for the SaSumBi people.

Right away, this couple teared up, and both of them began talking, expressing their thoughts and feelings on the earthquake in rapid-fire conversation. Anna and Tess looked back and forth between the husband and wife trying to keep up with what each of them was saying. “The flow was just uncorked,” Anna recalls. “Obviously, this was the felt need.”

So Anna transitioned the conversation towards spiritual matters by saying, “You clearly have some intense feelings about the earthquake still. And many people are struggling with trauma. Can I tell you a story that’s been really powerful in my own life?” Eagerly, the couple responded, “Yes!” and Anna shared the story of Jesus calming the storm.

The couple agreed that they had heard from the Koran that Isa has the power to heal the sick and raise the dead. When Anna offered to pray for the couple in the name of Isa, therefore, they agreed. With palms up and eyes open, Anna and Tess prayed for them in the matchless name of Jesus.

The couple expressed a desire to hear more. Since Tess had to return to her family on another island, Anna suggested they meet with Evan and herself. “We can come here and talk with your family. Gather them, and let’s talk further about how God understands our hearts and knows our needs. He’s committed to pursue us and meet us exactly where we are.”

Please be praying as Evan and Anna share more about Isa with this couple and their family.

*pseudonyms use

When Persecution Becomes Celebration

When Persecution Becomes Celebration

Sep 12, 2019 | South Asia, Stories

The Bhojpuri movement is an ongoing Church Planting Movement in North India. Persecution is a common component of becoming a follower of Jesus in India. The following excerpt illustrates the commitment of new believers in the midst of persecution and how God chose to intervene in one case. It comes to us from the book Bhojpuri Breakthrough: A Movement that Keeps Multiplying by Victor John, an Indian movement leader who Beyond has had the privilege of working with and learning from. It is co-authored by Dave Coles, an encourager and resourcer of Church Planting Movements serving with Beyond.

In the 2001 persecution, one group of believers received threats that they would be forced to reconvert to Hinduism in a ceremony called *Ghar Wapsi. The people threatening them said, “On a particular day, we will come and re-convert you to Hinduism.” So on that day, five Hindu priests came from Varanasi. Their team set up a tent, prepared food, and readied cow urine for purification of the Christians reconverting back to Hinduism. They arranged everything and forced everyone to come out of their houses and attend the gathering.

As the ceremony began, the priests used a public-address (PA) system to make abusive speeches against Christians. Suddenly five women in the crowd became demon possessed. They were very violent. The priests threw water on them to try to get rid of the demons. But the women became even more violent. So the five priests got scared. They packed up their things, got in their car and returned to Varanasi.

The stage was set up, people had gathered, they had the tent and PA system, and the food was prepared. Everything was ready for a celebration. So the believers cast out the demons and the five women were delivered. Then the believers went up on the stage and used the PA system to preach the good news and share their testimonies. They said, “We followed Jesus because of our own free choice; not because of any inducements or any other reasons.” Many people came to faith through this and many others became sympathizers of the good news. Meanwhile, the newspapers printed a picture of the tent that had been set up and falsely reported that 200 people had been reconverted back to Hinduism!

Pray for ongoing movements in India and around the world. Pray for new believers as they commit to obey Jesus as Lord knowing they must be ready to face persecution.

Want another story about the Bhojpuri?  Read about a girl raised from the dead! 

Excerpted from Bhojpuri Breakthrough: A Movement that Keeps Multiplying  by Victor John with Dave Coles (Monument, CO: WIGTake Resources, 2019)

 1. According to Wikipedia, “Ghar Wapsi (Hindi, meaning “Home Coming”) is a series of religious conversion activities…to facilitate conversion of non-Hindus to Hinduism.” The article “India: ‘Ghar Wapsi’ [a Return Home] and the Not-so-veiled Threat of the Sangh” reports: “I have had occasion to document Ghar Wapsi events in various villages of Orissa . . . where the process has involved shaving off the head of men and women, their purification through a mixture of cow dung and cow urine, the chanting of mantras around the fire and, wherever possible, the burning of “alien” books such as the Bible….My own observations after field studies are of Ghar Wapsi as a movement that uses armed force and violence, certainly the threat of violence, towards a conversion of neo-Christians to Hinduism.”