| Curtis Sergeant used Disciple Making Movement principles to bring the gospel to an unreached people group. When he started in 1991 there were 100 known believers. By 2008 there were 500,000. Click here to learn more. In this 10 minute video Curtis tells a story that encapsulates the potential of prayer-walking. It is VERY encouraging. This story will make you want to go prayer-walking, to watch for what the Father is doing, and to courageously pray for strangers when it feels like the right thing to do. |
Monthly Archives: December 2019
Prodigal Son Story – the Awesome Version
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Imagine if the prodigal son story unfolded as the Father intended.
The younger son showers and puts on his new clothes.
The older brother is overjoyed that his family is back together.
After the feast, when all the musicians, friends, and relatives have finally gone home, the three of them sit on the porch together. There are three rocking chairs, with the Father in the middle and a son on each side.
Their sprawling ranch house is on the side of a mountain, right beside a bubbling creek. For as far as their eyes can see they overlook their barns, fields, and herds. The blossoms from an orange tree in the garden perfumes the air. A coyote slips through the trees like shadow. An owl glides whispering past them in the dusk. As the day turns to night the sense of well-being is palpable.
- The younger son doesn’t notice the cuts on his feet from his long walk home, or the smell of the pig farm that is slowly fading. He is overwhelmed with gratefulness to back home, in the presence of His Father and his brother.
- The older son has the satisfaction only comes after a hard season of impossibly difficult labor and deprivation, when he is starting to see the fruit of his labor. Entitlement is not even a thing. He loves working at expanding the Family domain. He was created for this. And now some things are starting to go right . . .
- The Father is resting from His work. His dreams are coming to fruition. “This is very good.”
Our Father waits for the porch times in the evening, . . .
. . . and for the garden times early in the morning.
I come to the garden alone
while the dew is still on the roses,
And the voice I hear falling on my ear,
The Son of God discloses
And He walks with me and He talks with me,
And He tells me I am his own;
And the joy we share as we tarry there,
None other has ever known
He speaks, and the sound of his voice
is so sweet the birds hush their singing,
And the melody that He give to me
Within my heart is to ringing.
I stay in the garden with Him,
Though the night around me is falling.
But He bids me go; through the voice of woe
His voice to me is calling.
Songwriters: WILLIAMS JUNE DENIECE / MILES C AUSTIN
Click here to hear this song.
Please pray for the people of the Amazon Region.
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Mão de Ouro
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Mão de Ouro came to visit me at lunch time this week.
Some of you have prayed for Mão de Ouro. He helped us develop the Mission Property for many years. Then he lost his job with the city, as their backhoe operator. He went through a long dark season. He had been drinking, and making back choices. His wife of twenty years left him. He lost power to his house, and he could not get work. His son will not talk to him, though his two daughters still come to visit. I started doing a Discovery Group study with him.He got a backhoe job again some weeks ago. This week he came to visit us, and he wanted a stack of Bibles to hand out to his friends. He is starting to be a missionary. Even though he has never come to church for as long as I have known him, he considers himself one of us. “I’m from Igreja da Vinha.” Please keep praying for Mão de Ouro. His real name is Edson.
8 I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go;
I will counsel you with my loving eye on you.
9 Do not be like the horse or the mule,
which have no understanding
but must be controlled by bit and bridle
or they will not come to you.
10 Many are the woes of the wicked,
but the Lord’s unfailing love
surrounds the one who trusts in him.Psalm 32:8-10
Favorite Photos
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Luke Huber strongly encouraged us to follow his lead in learning the Morse Code. “Then you can communicate for free to through short wave to Canada. You just have to join a ham radio club.” Phone calls cost US$1 per minute.
In 1995 a friend came to the mission prayer meeting in Santarem with a printout in his hand. “There is this thing now, called email. It is especially cool because you can Cc. This is when you get a copy of an email from someone to someone else, and you don’t have to answer it. “ This was the first I’d heard of it.
In 1996 we were one of the first three people in Altamira to get internet. We signed up together with a businessman and an Austrian padre. We had to dial a number in São Paulo, over 2,000 kms away. We wasted no time buying the US$1,000 phone number to get hooked up.
Sewing Clothes
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The first year Deanna and I were married we bought a sewing machine. A few weeks ago Deanna gave it to Samara, who lives at our house. Samara is a genius, and started sewing clothes for her daughters, and for others too.
Julia is tickled pink all day with her new dress. She was SO pleased.
Nothing warms a parent’s heart like when your children are happy.
Gurupá
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Immanuel Prayer – Connecting with God
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Immanuel Prayer helps many people connect directly to God. A beneficial side effect is often the healing of traumatic memories. Click here for more information. Deanna met with our neighbors for two Saturdays in a row. Before this she led workshops on Immanuel Prayer at leadership training events. There is so much unfairness in the world. Everywhere. As people get healed of traumatic memories they grow in their capacity to obey the two greatest commandments, loving God and loving their neighbors.
Immanuel Prayer works well with Disciple Making Movements as it empowers people to connect directly with Jesus.
Deanna meets with neighbors to experience Immanuel Prayer.
God’s Nature
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Mango Trees
The nature of God is demonstrated by mango trees. Year after year they produce two crops of mangos. Lavish Abundance. And any child can pick up sprouting mango pits and plant them. Clenildo says “You can count the mangos in a tree, but you cannot count the trees in a mango.” God’s nature. Demonstrated.
The Marabá Church continues to host a soccer training for young people as a neighborhood outreach. Thank you to all who help support this property and make this possible. Note that mangos are in season.
Gurupá Stories
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We are seeing a faint cloud on a far horizon and we are preparing for a deluge, and the start of a long rainy season after drought. We think this will look like an army of people who are winning their private battles with fear and pride. These people delight in time alone with their Father. From this place of life, rest, and deep joy they start disciple-making church-planting movements, sweeping across the Amazon basin.
This is by far the best way
to help the most people
have the best life possible.
There are rays of hope. The Muritão Church is leading the way. And the Gurupá Church is on fire, in a good way. They send us photos of baptisms because of new believers who are entering the Kingdom through Discovery Groups.
Other stories from Gurupá
We were at a remote location, learning about Discovery Groups. One man asked the leader, “I started reading my Bible. I realized I need to get right with God. I lay down on the floor, repented of my sins, and asked God to save me. Am I a Christian? Or do I need to do some process in church?”
The leader pointed out another man to me. “This man was saved in a Discovery Group. He owns two houses. Next week he will start renovations. He will live in one house, and use the other for a church.”
Our mentor Danny Meyer gave Clenildo and I some great advice in February. “Create a vacuum. Rather than trying to convince other leaders to do this model of church planting, get the model working. As healthy churches start to take root others will be attracted to come a learn about what is working.” The Gurupá and Mutirão churches are started to feel a bit like vacuums. Will others be interested? Will it work for them?