Where we are: Prayerfully Prepared

Not long ago we heard a fire-y sermon about evangelism.  It would have made Billy Graham or Bill Bright stand up and hoot and holler I think.  And I think Jesus was happy..... but it does remind me of a quote from one of my hubby's favorite seminary professors:  "You can't say everything when you say anything."

The sermon was aimed at instigating boldness....  "preaching the Gospel without words is like trying to tell the evening news with no words."  and... "I would have trusted Christ a lot sooner if they guy who visited me weekly in more dorm room would have just told me about him way earlier than he did."  Good.... so true....  we do need words and we do want to be wisely bold.  And yet, our goal is to proclaim it clearly, penetratingly, more than just what we would call bold (on our parts).

Ahh... I'm well aware that even just trying to write this post, those professor's words are so true again.  There are years of prayers and heart yearning and ministry labors already poured out on this and I don't have the time to try to coney all of it here now.....  but I do want to tell you two things:

1-  I am beginning to see what I think my husband has known for years.... that our Muslim friends here are hearing, understanding more of Christ and, though we wish it wasn't the case, if they are coming... they are coming to Christ SLOWLY.

Our summer room mate just shared with me this past week some of the heartache of her life, her abuse as a child, her abandonment, her parents separation, her lies to others about it all.   Here I've been aiming at spelling out the whole story of forgiveness of sins, Christ on the cross, and I am so glad we've covered that with her.  But boldness- one loud, complete telling of the Gospel story- on our part doesn't "get us off the hook."

Later, we watched a bit of a Christian music video together as a family and she joined us too.  After that I talked with her about culture and how it changes and people change but God never changes.  She is seeing so many different cultural things in our home this summer...  bread, cakes, cookies.... a dad that helps in the kitchen.... a courteous disagreement between husband and wife... discipline that is firm and loving....  repentance and forgiveness when one of us looses our cool.

So... there seems to be a good, real heart work going on in her.  But it's not coming with instant openness to salvation in Jesus.  Perhaps the Lord has called us to this to teach us this lesson in falling His lead, going His pace.  And I sure do wish it was a speedier pace and I sure Don't know why it isn't... but we will keep trusting Him for that.

Another issue with Slowness is that the Lord is in charge of it.  In all the commands he's given us to preach and make disciples, he's never told us that we need to make it happen fast.  But there is lots of emphasis on that in missiological strategy today.  Even to the point of one direct imperative to go against scripture... where Paul wrote to Timothy about not appointing a new believer to leadership, some strategies say we must promote a new believer to Bible study leader in Two Weeks!!!

May the Lord give us firm faith and patience to trust him for his timing and to be willing to have slow, small "results" and not abandon faithfulness to His battle strategy/ commands in scripture because we think we must have masses of converts....

2-  For us, the "solution" that seems to fit into our hearts on this issue:   We want to see our Uyghur friends come to Christ!  So perhaps we need to be more bold?  Perhaps we need better strategies, resources to share with them?  Perhaps we need more people praying for the Red Seas in their hearts- indeed in their whole culture- to open wide???  And if we preach boldly on street corners and the first time we meet any new friend, we'll be sure to get kicked out of this country and what then?  We've done our duty?  But what of the millions that still don't understand the Gospel!?  We sure don't want to sit back and wait til they tell us they're ready, eager to hear about Jesus now that we've been friends for a dozen years....

For us the answer that seems to be fitting into our hearts for this complicated issue is this:
Be PRAYERFULLY PREPARED

We absolutely do want, need!, people praying with us and for us, and for these friends and for authorities not to notice our sharing.... Our own prayers most often focus on "Lord open their hearts to you!  Give them understanding!  Cause them to see the inconsistencies of Islam and give them courage to be willing to turn away from it.  Give them eyes to see and know your love which far surpasses the acceptance they have in their culture because of the name of Islam."

When we have fervently pursued the Father's heart in prayer, when the church is praying with us for the tilling of their hearts, we believe the Father will open doors to proclaim bits of his mystery or to tell the whole story of His love or to salt another conversation with the gourmet flavor of His goodness, thus preventing more decay from the dark deception of Islam.  

And when he does, we want to be ready!  Ready with verses memorized in Uyghur, ready to share a praise song, ready to tell the websites where they can read God's word or share a video or radio Bible teaching in Uyghur....

The hurdles to their salvation are so many-  cultural biases and slanderous stereotypes against Christianity and Christians, coercion and forceful acceptance of Islam for the sake of family and jobs, legality issues (the Uyghur Bible is illegal to have in your possession, evangelism is illegal, web sites are often blocked), the eagerness of China to control the Uyghur territory and "protect" XinJiang from foreign involvement.....

So friends, would you ask with us that the Lord would continue His true work of drawing hearts to Him.  Ask that there would be many who would come to Him (His word promises that in the end there will be many around his throne) and that until harvest time, the workers in His field would be faithful to His commands, to His word.  Ask that we would be well prepared... that our language study woudl be fruitful and graced so that words stick in our brains and are useable to proclaim.  Ask that we would have wisdom to proclaim the right pieces of His word, His story, at the right time in friends' lives.

Ask that His glory would cover Xin Jiang as the waters cover the earth!  And ask that the Uyghur people would be made glad because of hte salvation of our great God, given to us in the Savior Jesus!

We are so grateful for you praying with us.  Would you consider sharing our need for prayer with others?  I think there are just a dozen or so who read here sometimes....

Thank you dear friends!

May Christ be praised!

insider movement

There is a great amount of confusion among U believers and a significant disunity between the missionaries in that area over the issue of what some call "The Insider Movement."

The Insider Movement is a group that wants to turn lots of people to Jesus smoothly and easily...  the idea is that Muslims can come slowly to Christ but somewhere in their turning/ coming process (usually, seemingly very early in that process) these Muslims can be pronounced as followers or believers in Christ even before they acknowledge that Jesus is the Son of God, and while they still call themselves Muslims and revere the Koran as a Holy Book of God.  The idea is that they should be able to reach other Muslims from within Islam more easily that way....   Those who dislike the movement often refer to it as "Chrislam" for it's obvious closeness to heretical syncretistism.

The disunity is painful and divisive and breeding doctrinal error in this precious young church.

Would you please ask with us for the Lord to make His way clear.... that His Gospel would be preached with faithfulness to His Word and with fearlessness towards the things of this world and with courage to proclaim what we cannot open eyes to see......  May the Lord open blind eyes and give hearing to deaf ears when His true Word is preached for the Uyghur people!

Ask the Lord to bless the resources that He is providing for Uyghurs.... radio teaching, web sites, books and Scripture in the Uyhgur language.  May it be distributed and well received.  May the Lamb of God be seen for Who He truly is and may He be followed and loved by the Uyghur people.  

with us

This cute young couple that is staying with us (the girl is with us, the guy is staying very nearby and is with us for usually two meals a day) are just delightful.  Probably the easiest, most helpful house guests we've ever had in China!

Would you ask that the Lord would give us wisdom for how to advance the cause of Christ in our conversations with them?  We are cautious and want to be very wise in promoting this while they are living with us as guests because we want the situation to be very clear that we are not bribing them with free rent or that are not obligated to listen and smile to us, their landlords.  May communication be clear and my the Gospel penetrate their hearts and minds.

There is typically dark and heavy baggage from home and family life as so many Uyghur families we know of are wretched with anger, lying, adultery, stealing, abuse.  Pray that our family would demonstrate the love and comforts and truth of Christ in a way that makes them eager to learn more about who He is!  Ask the Father to show us open doors and ways to direct conversation to the Truth of who He is.

We are so thankful for your prayers with us.

unrest

There's very little in the news about this, but we've heard in text messages and quick posts from friends in the Uyghur province that there has been increased tension,  night markets have been closed for a month, and increased military presence on the ground.  It probably has to do with the anniversary of the riots in the capital city in 2009.  

Would you pray for the workers that are still there.... that they would be bold and that the Lord would open doors in their friends' and neighbors' lives to hear the Gospel and receive the seed into good soil in their minds during this time of less available activity.    Pray for peace in hearts and on the streets and wisdom to deal honorably with authorities.

Thanks friends...