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The winner of the September 2008 Fool’s Gold Book Giveaway is:
Wink Rush
Wink operates a blog called “Rushes to Jesus“, where he posts observations about day-to-day life and how God is preparing he and his wife for a missions trip to Seoul, South Korea in October.
Here’s what Wink has to say about himself:
I am an analyst by day for a major wholesaler in Memphis, TN. I work with our church’s men’s ministry, and I teach discipleship classes, and sing in the choir. I also direct dramas as well as act in some of them. I keep busy :)
My wife and I love missions work. We work both locally and internationally. My wife is the senior and associate pastors’ secretary at our church, First Baptist Collierville, TN.
As far as the best or most unusual job he’s had, Wink has sold women’s and men’s shoes and has also worked as a surveyor.
Congratulations, Wink! Be sure to stay tuned, everyone, for next month’s giveaway. As always, feel free to suggest any books you would like to see on the auction block. The free auction block, that is.
Happy September, and Happy Labor Day! To encourage glad Septembral tidings and celebrate The Fool’s Gold’s five-month birthday, I will be giving away a free copy of “The Heavenly Man” by Brother Yun with Paul Hattaway.
Giveaway Details:
Between now and midnight on Tuesday, September 2 (Central Standard Time), send an e-mail to thefoolsgoldblog@gmail.com. In the e-mail, include your name, the name and address of your blog (if you have one), what you do during the day, a book you’ve read recently, and the best or most unusual job you have ever had. I will then randomly select an entry and e-mail the winner to ask for his or her mailing address. The winner will be announced sometime on Wednesday, September 3.
About the Book:
Brother Yun is a Chinese Christian who has had an influence, under God, in the growth of the Chinese house church movement. He has been imprisoned and tortured for the sake of the gospel in his life, and has seen God work in miraculous ways to advance the gospel in China. “The Heavenly Man” is an autobiographical recounting of God’s providence in Yun’s life and the life of the Chinese church.
Here’s an excerpt from the introduction of the book to whet your appetite:
Brother Yun is known throughout China as “the Heavenly Man”. This nickname stemmed from an incident in 1984 when he refused to tell his real name to the authorities. Divulging his true identity would have endangered local Christians. In reply to the threats and beatings of the Public Security Bureau to reveal his name and home address, Yun shouted, “I am a heavenly man! My home is in heaven!” The local believers, who were still gathered in a nearby house, heard his shouting and knew he was warning them of danger. They all fled and avoided arrest.
As a mark of respect for his courage and love for the body of Christ, house church believers in China have called Yun “the Heavenly Man” to this day.
Yun is the first to admit that there are parts of him that are not heavenly! Like all of us, he struggles against temptation and weakness, and deeply realizes that, apart from the grace of Jesus Christ in his life, he amounts to nothing. He once told his wife Deling, “We are absolutely nothing. We have nothing to be proud about. We have no abilities and nothing to offer God. The fact that he chooses to use us is only due to his grace. It has nothing to do with us. If God should choose to raise up others for his purpose and never use us again we would have nothing to complain about.” (pg. 13)
Currently Yun is involved in promoting the Back to Jerusalem movement, an effort of Chinese house churches to take the gospel from China through the hard places of Central Asia all the way back to Jerusalem.
I was really challenged by reading about Yun’s life and the suffering he has experienced for the gospel. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to revel in God’s passion to gather worshipers from all nations.
Did anybody catch the brief segment on NBC last night about those who are losing sleep because of the late (or early) viewing hours for the Olympics? I was fascinated by one of the men NBC interviewed who testified to the effect that his loss of sleep wasn’t a sacrifice because he was getting to watch the Olympics.
Sounds a lot like David Livingstone’s address to students at Cambridge University in 1857:
For my own part, I have never ceased to rejoice that God has appointed me to such an office. People talk of the sacrifice I have made in spending so much of my life in Africa. Can that be called a sacrifice which is simply paid back as a small part of a great debt owing to our God, which we can never repay? Is that a sacrifice which brings its own blest reward in healthful activity, the consciousness of doing good, peace of mind, and a bright hope of a glorious destiny hereafter? Away with the word in such a view, and with such a thought! It is emphatically no sacrifice. Say rather it is a privilege. Anxiety, sickness, suffering, or danger, now and then, with a foregoing of the common conveniences and charities of this life, may make us pause, and cause the spirit to waver, and the soul to sink; but let this only be for a moment. All these are nothing when compared with the glory which shall be revealed in and for us. I never made a sacrifice. (Quoted in John Piper, Desiring God, 243. Italics author’s.)
The winner of the August 2008 Fool’s Gold Book Giveaway is:
Jen Owen
Here is what Jen had to say:
I don’t have a blog. I work at Howse & Thompson during the day…. except on Sun and Sat! I am reading too many books right now. The latest addition to my list: the The Decline of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon. Quite interesting and too long for me to finish before it’s due at the library, but we’ll see how far I get!
According to Stephanie Gilbert, Jen also intends to visit the Caribbean soon. Perhaps her new book will be good beach reading (or snorkling reading, if she has a really good Ziploc baggie).
Congratulations, Jen! Be on the lookout for next month’s giveaway, and as always, feel free to suggest any books you would like to see being offered.
To celebrate the dawn of August I’m giving away a free copy of “The Missionary Call: Find Your Place in God’s Plan for the World” by M. David Sills. Sills is a professor of Christian missions and cultural anthropology at Southern Seminary in Louisville, KY. The purpose of his book is to explore what it means for God to call a person into missions. As a former missionary to Ecuador, he is able to address the issue as one with experience.
Book Description:
Here are the chapter titles for the book to give you a feel for where Sills is going:
- Understanding the Missionary Call
- How Can I Know God’s Will?
- Is There a Biblical Basis for the Missionary Call?
- Historical Understandings of the Missionary Call
- How Specific Does the Call Have to Be?
- Timing and the Missionary Call
- What Should I Do If My Spouse Does Not Feel Called?
- Getting to the Field
- Hindrances to Getting to the Field
- Challenges on the Field
- Missionary Heroes and the Missionary Call
- Understanding and Answering the Missionary Call
As you can see, Sills aims to be pretty comprehensive in his approach. I would recommend this book to anyone who is planning on going into missions, supporting those who go, or anyone who is unsure about what they should do. I think you would find it to be a helpful resource.
Giveaway Details:
Between now and midnight on Sunday, August 3 (Central Standard Time), send an e-mail to thefoolsgoldblog@gmail.com. In the e-mail, include your name, the name and address of your blog (if you have one), what you do during the day, a book you’ve read recently, and a country you have either visited or would like to visit. I will then randomly select an entry and e-mail the winner to ask for his or her mailing address. The winner will be announced sometime on Monday, August 4.
Enjoy!
From Voice of the Martyrs:
The eyes of the world will soon be on the Olympics. But the eyes of God remain on His children and especially those who suffer for their faith.
Despite what you may hear in the news, Chinese Christians who refuse to register with the government controlled church are being persecuted. Many have undergone horrific suffering.
Recently a prominent representative of a group of house churches in China asked Christians throughout the free world to pray for China during the Olympics. The Voice of the Martyrs, in partnership with China Aid Associates, has accepted that call and has produced the Olympic Prayer Band. We would like to invite you to request one for free to wear during the Olympics. Similar prayer bands will also be distributed to house church Christians in China and they will be praying for you as well.
Use the form below to request your free Olympic Prayer Band. You may also order them in multiple quantities to share with your friends or even your entire church. Please also feel free to share this offer with others who will want to pray for our persecuted brothers and sisters in Communist China.
I originally found this through a pop-up ad at Christianity Today.
This month I’m giving away a free copy of “God’s Smuggler” by Brother Andrew. I was planning to give away another copy of “Do Hard Things” but they were out at the bookstore. Anyway, “God’s Smuggler” is the autobiographical account of Brother Andrew, founder of Open Doors International, who smuggled Bibles into Communist countries during the Cold War. I referenced another version of the book in the 12 Briquettes for the Barbecue of Missions series a couple weeks ago.
Here’s how it will work. Between now and midnight tomorrow (Tuesday, June 3 Central Standard Time), send an e-mail to thefoolsgoldblog@gmail.com. In the e-mail, include your name, the name and address of your blog (if you have one), what you do during the day, and the title of one of your favorite books. I will then randomly select an entry, and e-mail the winner to ask for his or her mailing address. The winner will be announced sometime on Wednesday, June 4.
From the back of the book:
“Told it was impossible to minister behind the Iron Curtain, Andrew knew that nothing was too hard for God. Crossing ‘closed’ borders, he prayed, ‘Lord, in my luggage I have Scripture I want to take to Your children. When you were on earth, You made blind eyes see. Now, I pray, make seeing eyes blind. Do not let the guards see those things You do not want them to see.’ And they never did.”
Cry Out is a movement to unite believers across the globe in prayer and fasting for the people and cities of Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and Iraq. You can go to their website to sign up for a bi-weekly newsletter and find out more information.
From the Cry Out website:
“Cry Out is a clarion call to the worldwide Body of Christ to join together in a three-year season of focused, intentional, collective prayer and fasting for people and cities in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and Iraq from Jan. 1, 2008 to Dec. 31, 2010.
- Groups of believers are asked to pray and fast, especially on Fridays, as part of Cry Out.
- Prayer walking teams are invited to visit one or more of the four lands to pray on site with Cry Out.
- Cry Out calls believers to join in night and day prayer and fasting especially during the Muslim holy seasons of Ramadan and Ashura.
To enable you and your friends to pray more specifically, a story from Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, or Iraq, along with several prayer requests is posted on the Cry Out website regularly. If you want these stories and prayer requests sent directly to you on a continuing basis, please sign up for our newsletter (below).
Cry Out is not sponsored by any one denomination, church or sending agency. It is a prayer movement shared by the Body of Christ across the earth, irrespective of church, denomination, or agency affiliations.
Followers of Christ from multiple countries currently work together to write stories and prayer requests, take pictures and create videos, design and oversee the website and database, write and produce prayer guides and special magazines, and travel globally to speak, calling others to Cry Out.”
Here’s a quick recap of the Missions Barbecue Series. Each point has a link to its respective post:
1. Pray through “Operation World.”
2. Get to know someone from another culture.
3. Buy a world map.
4. Take a Perspectives course.
5. Subscribe to National Geographic.
6. Go on a short-term missions trip.
7. Support and pray for missionaries.
8. Read missionary biographies.
9. Memorize Romans 15.
10. Send Bibles to other countries.
11. Study and pray for an unreached people group.
12. Borrow someone else’s charcoal.
Our hope is not in briquettes. After all, without a flame, charcoal is just carbon in a can. But if God would be pleased to breath his fire on these suggestions and others, the end result may just be a smorgasbord for the nations. Happy grilling!
Talk to other people you know about ideas they have for how to cultivate a deeper passion for missions. Gather a group of people and go out for coffee to brainstorm. You might be surprised what you discover together.
Here’s some neighborly advice from across the fence at Desiring God:
Ten Ways to Help Kids Love Missions
“There are things we can do to help our kids love the nations and the cause of Christ, even though a heart and calling for the Great Commission is ultimately something only God can grant. Here are a few ideas from Ryan and Anna, who are currently preparing to serve in Asia with their two young daughters.
1. Pray for missionaries as a family. We keep a stack of prayer cards on the dinner table and rotate through them during mealtime prayers.
2. Read missionary biographies to your children. The stories of Hudson Taylor, Adoniram Judson, William Carey, Gladys Aylward, and other missionary pioneers are captivating ways to orient a child’s heart on the most important things in life.
3. Draw the whole family into supporting missionaries financially. Teach your kids from a young age that being a good steward of their money involves channeling resources toward the the cause of Christ in missions. Older kids can donate some of their lawn mowing and babysitting money. Younger children can earn money doing chores around the house which can be set aside for missionaries.
4. Find your child a missionary kid pen pal. Many children of missionaries around the world would be delighted to get mail from a child their age in their parent’s culture. Your child (and the whole family) will learn valuable insights about living abroad through the eyes of a child. Additionally, when the missionaries visit your church, your child will already have a relationship with the MK and will be able to include them more easily.
5. Entertain missionaries in your home. Inviting missionaries over will be as much of a blessing to your family as to the missionaries. Host them for dinner or for a whole furlough. Build or buy your house with this in mind.
6. Take risks as a family. There are ways to live life which help children grasp the reality that discomfort and suffering are normal and rewarding parts of the Christian experience. Volunteer at a rescue mission; house a single mother; move to the inner-city.
7. Affirm and nurture qualities in your children which could serve them on the mission field. As your children grow in knowledge and skill, encourage them to think about how they could use their gifts in missions work. Then, if God says, “go,” release them to go!
8. Teach your children to be world Christians. Don’t expose them to only the American perspective on news and realities around the world. Go out of your way to make them more aware than the average American Christian about geography, world history, and the plights and perspectives of people across the globe.
9. Read missionary prayer letters to your children. Ask them questions about the content and look up facts about the missionaries’ location on the Internet.
10. Use missions fact books and resources such as Operation World, the Global Prayer Digest, the Joshua Project, and Voice of the Martyrs (VOM). Kids of Courage is the youth-oriented arm of VOM and offers activity books, spotlights on the persecuted world, and more.
Most of all, pray every day that your kids will develop hearts that mirror God’s compassion for the nations and love for his glory in them!”
The Joshua Project website is a tremendous resource for this. They provide as much information as they know about practically any people group in the world. If you don’t know what people to pick, Joshua Project allows you to choose a country and then lists all of the peoples of that country.
Make this an individual or a family project. This would be a wonderful opportunity to teach your children (and yourself!) about the peoples of the world and their need for the gospel.
The possibilities are endless for how you could go about this. You could take five minutes to read about a people on your own and pray. If have young children, consider a special night where you try to dress like the people you are studying and fix a meal that would resemble a dish they might eat. If you are single (or married!), sponsor a night of prayer for your people and invite as many over to your house or apartment as you can. Go all out to try to inspire a whole herd of nation-lovers.
Voice of the Martyrs (VOM) has a ministry they call “Bibles Unbound.” The idea is that believers in restricted nations gather names and addresses of unbelievers they know and submit this information to VOM. VOM, in turn, sends five of these names along with five New Testaments to those who have signed up to be a part of the program.
The package arrives in the mail, where the recipients take the New Testaments, seal them in individual envelopes with address labels, and send the package back to VOM. From there, the New Testaments are mailed to their respective destinations. The purpose is that believers in these countries will be able to follow up with those receiving the New Testaments and talk to them about what they are reading.
Bibles Unbound requires very little time and is a great way to be one of the links in the chain of spreading the good news about Jesus.
Here is a description of the program from the Bibles Unbound website:
“Even as you read this, persecuted Christians from around the world are gathering names and addresses from their local communities. These names are then submitted to Bibles Unbound where members have the opportunity to mail New Testaments in the appropriate language directly to the field. This unique program gives you the ability to stand alongside our persecuted brothers and sisters and help create a witness for Jesus Christ in hostile lands right from your own home.
We invite you to read about current ministry operations to the right and consider joining today. For a donation of only $30.00 per month you will receive everything you need to mail 5 New Testaments to individuals in a Restricted Nation.”
This may sound like a tall order, but if you break it down into manageable chunks over a long period of time, you’ll be surprised how much you can remember.
Romans 15 is a gold mine of missions texts. One of my favorites is Paul’s quotation of Isaiah 52:15 - “Those who have never been told of him will see, and those who have never heard will understand” (Romans 15:21). That’s a promise to stake your life on.
Dr. Andrew Davis, senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Durham, NC, wrote a very helpful article on how to go about memorizing longer portions of Scripture. It’s title, fitly, is “An Approach to the Extended Memorization of Scripture.” In his article, he explains why Bible memory, particularly of longer passages, is important. He then gives a step-by-step explanation of how to do it. If you’re up for a very joy-inducing challenge, I would encourage you to give it a try. Start out with a paragraph from Romans 15 and see how you do. If it goes well, keep building on that. There is no telling what God could do with a mind filled with Romans 15 (ask Paul!).
Missionary biographies are uniquely able to bring us into the world of saints who have gone to the hard places. They show us what life among a foreign people is like, with all of its frustrations and victories. A good biography will both sober you and fill you with hope that God will do what he has promised: give the nations to Jesus as an inheritance (Psalm 2:8).
Here are three good reads:
From Jerusalem to Irian Jaya by Ruth Tucker - A history of Christian missions given in short biographies of missionaries from the different eras. Very well written. This would be a good place to go for suggestions for further reading.
John G. Paton: Missionary to the New Hebrides by John Paton - This is Paton’s autobiography detailing his life and his work among the people of modern-day Vanuatu. I read a very old copy of this that I checked out from a library. I’m assuming it’s the same material. This one’ll put fire in your belly.
The Narrow Road: Stories of Those Who Walk This Road Together by Brother Andrew with John & Elizabeth Sherril - This contains an autobiographical account of the life of Brother Andrew, founder of Open Doors International who smuggled Bibles into communist countries during the Cold War. Very accessible and engaging.
Jesus said, “Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:20-21).
One of the ways to increase your desire to see the nations worship Jesus is by funneling your money toward laborers who are in the fields or preparing to go. Though it is good to support mission agencies, it would be better in many cases to support individual missionaries. Consider this above and beyond the money you give to your church. This will be a blessing both to missionaries and to you as you join together in spreading the gospel of the Kingdom.
Another suggestion is to pray for missionaries individually and as a family. Our church produces a yearly prayer calendar which lists each of our missionaries, their general location, and the work they do. Each week highlights one or two families/individuals. If your church doesn’t have a resource like this, consider the possibility of developing one. If your church doesn’t sponsor enough missionaries to fill a calendar, you can use the extra space to focus on unreached people groups or areas of concern such as HIV/AIDS or human trafficking.
Short-term trips can be a very valuable experience. There is nothing quite like being able to experience another culture first-hand. If you have never been on a trip before, consider taking the plunge and traveling with a group from your church or joining a trip with a mission agency.
The Desiring God blog posted an article back in March called “Short-Term Mission Ideas.” Here is what the article said:
“Making plans for summer? If you’re interested in being completely stretched, battling discouragement, experiencing new kinds of joy, and significantly widening your perspective of God’s heart for the nations, check out some of these short-term opportunities.”
It then lists several mission agencies that offer short-term trips. This article would be a good resource to get you started in dreaming about where God might have you go.
Another idea would be to contact missionaries that your church supports and ask them if they could use a group for a week or two. This would be a great way to be exposed to a foreign culture and to encourage missionaries who are on the field.
I feel like National Geographic is the secular companion to “Operation World”: lots of pictures, but no prayer requests. It’s a great resource for putting a face with a place. For example, the March edition featured an article on the modernization of Bhutan, complete with photos of Bhuddist monks and rice farmers. For those with an appetite for missions, National Geographic is an international buffet.
The brainchild of the U.S. Center for World Mission, Perspectives on the World Christian Movement is a class that seeks to teach issues surrounding God’s global purpose. The course does this from four different “perspectives” - biblical, historical, cultural, and strategic. Here is a brief explanation of the class from the Study Guide:
“The point of this course is not to persuade you to become a missionary. Neither is it to train you in skills you need to serve as a missionary. We simply want to show you practical examples of how missions can be done wisely and well.” (pg. v)
There are over 200 locations in the U.S. that offer a Perspectives course. You can check their website to see if one is being offered near you.
If there is no class nearby, consider enrolling in Perspectives Online or working with your pastor to begin a Perspectives course at your church.
I’ve been taking the Perspectives class this current semester, and it has opened my eyes to how much I don’t know about the complexities and opportunities that surround world missions. I would highly encourage enrolling if you can.
I’ll finish with John Piper’s endorsement of the class:
“I’m enthusiastic about Perspectives because my life and our church are devoted to spreading a passion for the supremacy of God in all things for the joy of all peoples through Jesus Christ. God means to be known and enjoyed by every tribe tongue and nation (Rev. 5:9). Perspectives has been essential in mobilizing hundreds of lay people in our church to be World Christians.”
Invest some money in a nice, big map to hang somewhere where you and your family can see it regularly. Crystal and I have one perched on our dining room wall. It helps us locate a countries when we blank out on geography during dinner conversations. It also serves as a reminder to us and our guests that the nations are a priority. One family we know has a gigantic map plastered along an entire hallway. Feel free to choose the size that best fits your taste, but consider this as an addition to your international arsenal.
Here are some websites for map ideas:
This may be difficult if you live in a neighborhood or attend a church that is largely monocultural, but try your best. Think of things you could do expose yourself to people that are different than you. They’re out there, maybe closer than you think. God has been doing an amazing work in recent years by bringing the nations to our front doorstep.
Written by Patrick Johnstone and Jason Mandryk, “Operation World” provides pertinent prayer requests for each country on the globe. The book even divides the countries up into days of the year so you can pray through the book at a manageable pace. If the daily chunks are to large, you can go at a slower pace. Or, you can pick particular countries that you are burdened for and pray for them more thoroughly. I’ve found it to be a very helpful resource.
Another suggestion is “Window on the Wold” by Daphne Spragget with Jill Johnstone. Patterned after “Operation World,” “Window on the World” is geared more towards children. That’s just perfect for Crystal and me. It is stuffed with colorful pictures and stories and highlights a number of nations and people groups. We try to work our way through a little bit of it at night before going to bed. Right now we’re praying for the Gypsies.
“Operation World” also has a website that provides daily prayer requests that follow along with the book.
This evening Crystal and I will be leaving with a team from Bethlehem to go to the Middle East for two weeks. We are very excited….and nervous, too! For the time we will be gone, I’ve decided to future-post a two-week series on suggestions for how to cultivate a deeper desire to see Jesus worshiped by all nations. I shared these ideas yesterday with the Sunday School class I teach, and wanted to make them available to you to encourage great dreams for King Jesus.
Being that summer is quickly upon us and grills are cluttering backyards like G.I. Joe’s in a messy kid’s bedroom, I figured I’d give the series a charcoal flavor. The title is “12 Briquettes for the Barbecue of Missions.” Feel free to share your own ideas as we go along. May God give us all a greater zeal to see his will be done on earth as it is done in heaven.
Pray for us!
