Ministry

Entrusting others

November 30, 2013 by Keith Seabourn 2 Comments

I hugged Kay goodbye outside the Orlando airport and walked inside. This adventure I will have alone. I’m in JFK airport in New York on my way to Cameroon, West Africa via Paris.

Ahead are 65 Cru staff and local pastors from 16 French-speaking countries. Some countries have exotic names like Burkina Faso whose capital is Ouagadougou. Some countries are known by their initials like DRC and CAR (Democratic Republic of Congo and Central African Republic). Some have been broadcast into our living rooms through horrible events their populations have sustained like Burundi or Mali.

In spite of their different names and locations and governments and economies, these countries share in the plan Jesus announced 2,000 years ago when he said, “I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.”

We will be together for 10 days preparing and training in how to build His church. Participants will return to their countries and churches as trainers who will multiply themselves into the lives of others.

One of our goals is finding 2 Timothy 2:2 people: “And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others.” We are looking for leaders who will make a heart commitment to be a reliable person who determines to qualify himself this week to teach others. When we identify them, we entrust.

I think the key to this verse is the verb entrust.

What are you entrusting to others you are leading? In your ministry? In your family?

Feeding a Missionary Soul

April 29, 2013 by Keith Seabourn 2 Comments

Even missionaries do it. I did it last Monday.

We don’t take advantage of opportunities to talk about Jesus.

I have long said that the airline seat assignment system would be God’s appointment system for me. So last Monday, why didn’t I take more initiative to talk with the man from New Zealand about Christ? Flying to Dallas, he was talkative. We talked about the economy (he is deeply concerned). We talked about political instability in Nigeria (he has done business there).

But we didn’t talk about Jesus. And I didn’t even get his name. I was not very friendly or engaged!

After the flight, I talked with God about it. I told him I felt unable to turn the conversation to spiritual things. I haven’t felt that unable in a long time. Kay and I have been traveling together most of the time lately so I’m not engaging another seatmate. I must be out of practice.

So with a renewed dependence on God’s empowering, I took my seat on this morning’s flight home to Orlando.

And I had a wonderful conversation with A—. She grew up an active follower of Jesus and even thought of mission work but has become engrossed in her career since college. She no longer attends church. Her parents have split up. She told me she is drifting.

But in her story, I heard a heart for Jesus. Her eyes danced when she talked about a missionary friend’s emails from Ghana and a college friend’s job in Kenya.

I left her with a challenge—find an accountability partner who will ask her hard questions to help her stop the drift, someone who will hold her accountable to find a group that can feed her soul. I challenged her to save $3000 and join a mission trip to Ghana or Kenya and come back a changed person because she’s seen God at work in a place very different than she’s ever experienced.

To give her something tangible to feed her missionary soul, I showed her the Jesus Film app on my mobile phone with films in hundreds of languages. As we taxied to the terminal, she had already downloaded the app and eagerly showed me the app on HER phone.

A— is reconnecting to a seed God planted many years ago. The worries and cares of the world have been growing and choking it out. My prayer is that the garden tending of yesterday will help the seed to grow and bear fruit.

And once again, the airline seating system provided a divine appointment, as long as I’m willing to talk about Jesus!

Who can you talk about Jesus with today?

What’s happening in Ethiopia

March 11, 2012 by Keith Seabourn Leave a Comment

25 years ago Ethiopia was a closed, Communist nation. Christianity was illegal. Now Ethiopia is open to the gospel and it is spreading like an unquenchable fire. The harvest is plentiful and the laborers, well, not so much.

While we were in Ethiopia, Kay and I had dinner with a Campus Crusade for Christ short-term STINT team. I learned of this exciting video where Seth shared these opening remarks.

Watch and enjoy!

[iframe http://player.vimeo.com/video/38076449 400 225]

God has chosen now as the time for Ethiopia from Tim Casteel on Vimeo.

Thanks to Tim Casteel for publishing and to Karin Tome for alerting me.

Fighting jet-lag

March 10, 2012 by Keith Seabourn Leave a Comment

Mosquito netting It’s 2:30 in the morning. I’m looking at the drape of white gauze mosquito net illuminated by the security lights outside our building. The buzzing of mosquitos is a safe distance away.

As I’m laying in bed fighting jet-lag, I think of a childhood song “his banner over me is love”. This mosquito net is like a banner that I’m beneath. I think of the hedge God puts around us to protect us. This mosquito net is like his hedge.

This is what travel to a far part of the globe looks like for the first few nights. Sleeplessness during the night watches. Can’t stay away during the daytime. I’ve learned a lot about helping my body adjust, but jet-lag is a companion of travelers. God doesn’t seem to hedge jet-lag away from us.

I hear my roommate tossing and turning. He flew in from East Asia. He’s fighting jet-lag also. When I room alone, I can turn on the light and read. But I don’t want to disturb my roommate, so I spend this sleepless time looking at the white gauze and listening to the buzz in the room.

And I pray for Betsy.

Betsy was my seatmate for 7 hours flying from Amsterdam to Nairobi. Betsy loves Africa as I do. She lived in Kenya for a year and comes back frequently. She is married to a writer for National Geographic who is in Tanzania doing a story. She runs a wildlife conservation foundation. We talked of our experiences in different parts of Africa.

And we talked of spiritual things. Betsy grew up in a Christian home, but she’s explored most of the world’s major religions. She converted to buddhism a few years ago. She said she loves the beauty of all the religions. We talked of Christ’s claims which seemed to rule out other ways to God. We also talked of the exclusivity claims of Islam and Jewdaism. She was troubled by these but kept talking about how beautiful the religions are.

Betsy’s conservation group teaches monks in Mongolia to care about the earth. She is attending a conference in Kenya to help religious leaders care for the environment. She is very aware of the good that religious leaders can do.

We had a robust conversation, but I felt unable to help her think more critically. I especially wished I could have connected her with the God whose banner over me is love, who cares deeply about his creation, and who cared so much for Betsy that he sent his Son to pay for her sins.

I was not able to get that far with Betsy.

I was encouraged, though, that I was able to have a robust conversation without bruising the fruit of Betsy’s heart. She commented that she hadn’t had such a good conversation about spiritual things in a while. I am glad that I could be the evangelical Christian who could love things about Africa with Betsy and could talk about God without bruising her.

So I pray for Betsy during these night hours.