The Seabourns

Ministry

From Singapore

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Orlando to Detroit to Tokyo to Singapore. If this were a trivia travel question, it would be over in a few minutes. In reality, this is a journey of 30+ hours. I definitely think it would be more fun to have been an explorer traveling the northwest passage rather than sitting in a seat on Northwest Airlines.

I’m in Singapore without my favorite traveling buddy, Kay. She’s staying in Orlando for this trip. And when I get back, Abby and Lucy will have brought their parents to Orlando for a few weeks! Our children, Daniel and Michelle, have a break in their training and preparations for Central Asia. They are spending their break with us in Orlando.

We’re meeting in Singapore to continue planning and implementing the global measurements solution. The system is providing tremendous information to leaders allowing them to make wise decisions based on real-time information.

Recording the amazing results of ministry is very encouraging. Remember the feeding of the 5,000? The feeding of the 4,000? The appearances of Jesus to Peter, then the twelve, then to more than five hundred as Paul recorded in 1 Corinthians 15:5?

God cares that his activities are recorded accurately. We can exalt and celebrate God’s activities in our world.

There is another use for accurate information. We can empower leaders to decide wisely. Where is God most at work? Which strategies are most effective? What locations are more responsive? How can we best deploy our personnel and our funding to help fulfill the Great Commission?

That’s what we’re working on in Singapore.

Helping followers of Jesus in the Middle East

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This picture is an email message called Loving Life, written in Arabic. It was sent to 41,605 followers of Jesus in a Middle Eastern country today.
Loving Life
I traveled to this area a few weeks ago and participated in a conference about becoming more effective in communicating the gospel and helping believers grow. As part of the conference, each communication team was asked to identify two or three specific things they would return home to implement.

One of the teams indicated that they wanted to improve their electronic mailings to followers of Jesus. I contacted N_____ and offered to help him learn to use our sophisticated Lyris mailing list manager system. He wrote me back:

I don’t know what to say! This was our prayer request for more than 1 year. Glory to our Father, He never ignores our requests. When we have the opportunity to check Lyris system we almost thought it is impossible for us to get it. It was out of our dreams! (budget wize I mean).

I am humbled at the thought that I might be a part of the answer to someone’s prayer.

Then today, I received this Arabic message. I knew that N_____ had succeeded in accomplishing his prayer. 41,605 people received information about how to love life through their relationship with Jesus.

Much of my leadership now involves casting vision, speaking at events, holding conferences, and planning global strategies. But every now and then, I get to personally help people like N_____ implement his heart’s desire to help 41,605 people know how to grow in their love relationship with Jesus.

And now I’ve offered to help M_____ do the same thing in another country in the region!

Whether it’s sharing Christ with the person in the seat next to me on an airline flight, or teaching N_____ to use an email list to disciple 41,605, or recording a Jesus film in a language spoken by 10 million, it’s so satisfying to be available and engaged in helping people come to know Jesus, to grow in their faith, and to engage in reaching out to others.

Living the life

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I was in the town of Maiduguri in northern Nigeria many years ago when I met Mustafa. Mustafa was a young Kanuri believer, recently coming out of a Muslim background. We were together for many hours driving across almost trackless bush areas in northern Nigeria. The main road between Maiduguri and my home in Jos was blocked by militants shooting at vehicles as they passed by. I thought it best to find another way home! The mission family I was staying with asked Mustafa to guide me through the back roads used by smugglers. Calling these faint tracks in the sand by the name “road” was a real stretch, but Mustafa was able to ask directions over and over in his Kanuri language. We did arrive in Jos without a shot fired!

Along the way, I asked Mustafa how he came to know Christ. His short answer was, “Prayer.” He went on to explain that Muslims say God is everywhere but to pray, you must face a certain direction toward Mecca. Christians say that God is everywhere, and pray facing any direction. Mustafa said that the Christian teaching of “God is everywhere” was demonstrated in their prayer life by not focusing prayers in a certain direction. It attracted him to watch Christians more closely and listen to what he heard.

Isn’t it interesting to think about the little things that God uses as a testimony to those seeking to know him?

I was reminded of Mustafa today when I read an exciting article by Chuck Colson, Why Muslims Convert to Christianity. Colson refers to a 16 year study of 750 Muslims who have become true followers of Jesus, the Son of God. Colson writes, “The number one reason Muslim converts listed for their decision to follow Christ was the lifestyle of the Christians among them.”

I remember hearing stories from the horrible tsunami that killed so many in Phuket and other parts of Thailand. Our ministry and others rushed aid, people, and rebuilding efforts into the area. Muslims did not. Buddhists did not. Their perspective was that God was punishing the villagers in these areas for their misdeeds, so they deserved what they got. Christians’ worldview is fundamentally different. We see the disaster and misfortune in the world as a result of the fall of mankind in the garden, with its disastrous consequences. Our lifestyle demonstrates God’s love for the orphans and widows, his compassion in the face of disaster, and his grace with mankind. Or at least it should.

Colson ends his excellent and inspiring article with

Woodberry’s research shows that when the Church is being the Church—witnessing to the love of Christ and of His transforming power—Muslims are drawn both to us and to Him.

When is the last time you welcomed a Muslim family to the neighborhood, or invited a Muslim co-worker for a cup of coffee?

And my memory of a hot, dusty, sometimes scary day with Mustafa in northern Nigeria reminded me today that sometimes it can be something as little as what direction we don’t face when we pray.

Eastern Europe. There are no wrong numbers…

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The phone rings. “Hello. Who’s there? Who is this? I hear you, why won’t you answer me? If you don’t speak, I’ll hang up the phone.”

No one will speak when our staff member answers. He hears breathing. But since the other person will not say anything, he hangs up the phone.

Later, the phone rings again. “Hello. Who is this? Are you calling me or ringing a wrong number?” No answer. So he hangs up again.

The third time, someone finally speaks. In a timid voice, the caller says, “This is Helena. I’m 17 years old. I’ve been asking God to help me. I want to know more about God. I decided to call the number that was in my mind and see if God will answer me and help me.”

What is the likelihood that a seeker could dial a random number and be connected to one of our staff who is attending a training to learn how to share his faith with others? When the God who created the universe (and who created telephone systems) is sovereign, it is a certainty that he will connect someone seeking him with someone who knows how to lead the seeker to him.

So, the staff did what he had been trained to do. He said, “Have you heard of the Four Spiritual Laws? Law One says that God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life…”

And Helena invites Christ into her life.

The next day, the phone rings again. “Hello. This is Alex. I’m a friend of Helena’s. Can you tell me what you told her?” After hearing “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life…”, Alex says “This is something I must think about and we will talk more.”

Days later, the phone rings again. “Hello. This is Andrey. I’m a friend of Alex’s. Can you tell me what you told Alex?”

A few weeks later, the phone rings again. “Hello. I am the father of Helena. Please tell me what you told her. Can you tell me some churches in my city?” After hearing the Four Spiritual Laws, Helena’s father received Christ into his life.

Remember the story I wrote recently about our expatriate staff having to leave a country? Well, this story is happening in the same country! Amazing to see what our God can do.

This story reminds me of Chris Tomlin’s How Great is Our God:

How great is our God,
sing with me
How great is our God,
and all who sing
How great, How great
Is our God.

Eastern Europe. The hard times.

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Imagine this scenario. Dad goes to the airport to leave on a ministry trip. Officials look at his passport and say his visa is no longer valid. He must leave the country immediately. He cannot go home. He must get on the plane and leave the country. His family is at home and doesn’t know this is happening. He is able to telephone them and explain the situation. He has to get on a plane and fly away from his family in the midst of tremendous ambiguity and confusion. It’s two weeks before the family can pack up their belongings and leave the country also.

Over the next days, other expatriate staff (Americans, in this case) are told their visas are no longer valid. They can no longer reside in the country. Family by family, they pack up and depart.

Young national staff are now thrust into positions of leadership earlier than expected. Dealing with ministry strategies, finances, communications, and relationships with churches and other organizations now become the responsibility of those who are just learning how to run a local ministry on a campus.

Stress is high for everyone. God is sovereign and he is never surprised. But this turn of events is difficult for all involved.

This happened recently in a country in this area.

2007 has been a year of trial around the world. Just in our organization:

  • 5 staff couples were evacuated out of a Central Asia country, leaving behind their homes, friends, and possessions — essentially everything. They were under the threat of death by religious leaders in their country.
  • 7 staff members in a communist nation are currently in prison.
  • 2 staff members were martyred in a closed nation earlier this year, targeted by radicals due to their faith in Christ.
  • 5 staff serving in Gaza, along with their families, were recently evacuated from the area after a Bible bookstore manager — with whom they shared a building — was martyred. That manager had come to Christ through the ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ.
  • In another nation too sensitive to name, 6 staff are in prison for sharing their faith.
  • More than 40 staff are imprisoned in a closed nation, sentenced to five years, for insulting the dominant religion of the country. They include several mothers of young children.

How do we think about these difficulties? How to we continue on when facing such persecutions and trials? Some thoughts come to mind:

  • I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)
  • And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)
  • Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:35-39).

As one speaker here at the Eastern Europe conference reminded, “We’ve read the book! We know the ending! The good news is that God wins!”