Poem From Bill Hybels' Second Grade Teacher

Oh! Give me Samuel's ear, an open ear, O Lord! Alive and quick to hear each whisper of thy word. Like him to answer to thy call and to obey thee first of all!


“If you pay attention to God’s Whispers; the anointing of God will be on your life.” Bill Hybels

Urgent Prayer

This is a request for prayer for YWAM (Youth With a Mission) missionaries and their churches in Orissa, India.
The request came from Mabel Hurst, an associate of HCJB Global. Please read and make this a matter of urgent prayer.
Dear beloved sponsors and friends of Good News India. We have never seen anything like this. We knew that Orissa was the most resistant and hostile State in India as far as the Gospel is concerned. And we brushed off the continuous threats and harassment we faced as we went about His work. But none of our staff imagined that they would see this kind of carnage…. And it seems to be totally under the radar of the Western Media.
Let me explain: A militant Hindu priest (Swami Laxmananda Saraswati) and 4 of his attendants, who were zealously going around the villages of Orissa and ‘reconverting’ people back to Hinduism, were gunned down by unknown assailants in Central Orissa last weekend.
Immediately the Christians were blamed. The cry rose up, “Kill the Christians!” And the horror began…In the past 4 days, we have first hand witness to hundreds of churches being blown up or burned and many, many dozens of Christian tribals have been slaughtered. For no other reason than they bear the name of Christ.
Night and day I have been in touch with our Good News India Directors spread across 14 Dream Centers in Orissa—they are right in the middle of all this chaos. In Tihidi, just after the police came to offer protection, a group of 70 blood-thirsty militants came to kill our staff and destroy the home. They were not allowed to get in, but they did a lot of damage to our Dream Center by throwing rocks and bricks and smashing our gate, etc. They have promised to come back and ‘finish the job.’ Our kids and staff are locked inside and have stayed that way with doors and windows shut for the past 3 days. It has been a time of desperately calling on the Lord in prayer. More police have come to offer protection. In Kalahandi, the police and some local sympathizers got to our dream center and gave our staff and kids about 3 minutes notice to vacate. No one had time to even grab a change of clothes or any personal belongings. As they fled, the blood thirsty mob came to kill everyone in the building. We would have had a mass funeral there, but for His grace.
In Phulbani, the mob came looking for Christian homes and missions. The local Hindu people, our neighbors, turned them away by saying that there were no Christians in this area. So they left. We had favor. The same thing happened in Balasore.
All our dream centers are under lock down with the kids and staff huddled inside and police outside. The fanatics are circling outside waiting for a chance to kill. Others were not so fortunate. In a nearby Catholic orphanage, the mob allowed the kids to leave and locked up a Priest and a computer teacher in house and burned them to death. Manybelievers have been killed and hacked into pieces and left on the road—even women and children. At another orphanage run by another organization, when this began, the Director and his wife jumped on their motorbike and simply fled, leaving all the children and staff behind.
Every one of our GNI directors that I have spoken to said: ‘We stay with our kids…. we live together or die together, but we will never abandon what God has called us to do.’ More than 5000 Christian families have had their homes burned or destroyed. They have fled into the jungles and are living in great fear waiting for the authorities to bring about peace.
But so far, no peace is foreseen. This will continue for another 10 days, supposedly the 14-day mourning period for the slain Hindu priest. Many more Christians will die and their houses destroyed. Many more churches will be smashed down. The Federal government is trying to restore order and perhaps things will calm down. We ask for your prayers. Only the hand of God can calm this storm.
None of us know the meaning of persecution. But now our kids and staff know what that means. So many of our kids coming from Hindu backgrounds are confused and totally bewildered at what is happening around them. So many of their guardians have fled into the jungles and are unable to come and get them during these trying times.
Through all this, I am more determined than ever to continue with our goal: the transformation of a community by transforming its children.Orissa will be saved—that is our heart’s cry. If we can take these thousands of throw-away children and help them to become disciples of Jesus, they will transform an entire region. It is a long term goal, but it is strategic thinking in terms of the Great Commission.
Please uphold all this in fervent prayer. Also, please pass this news on to as many friends as you can. We must getthe word out and increase our prayer base for this isspiritual warfare at its most basic meaning. We are literally fighting the devil in order to live for His Kingdom. The next 10 days are crucial. We pray for peace and calm to pervade across Orissa.
Thank you for taking the time to read this. Please pass it on and help us to get as many people to partner with us on this cutting edge effort to fulfill His mandate: Go and make disciples of all nations…
Prayer works!Blessings,Chip & Sandy Wanner (Col 2:2 MBI)Team Facilitators to YWAM Frontlines

This email was circulating back in August of this year and although we need to keep them in our prayer, the reason I am posting it on my blog is that, it really had an impact on me about how I view my "persecution" I have heard of things like that before, but for some reason, this post on http://benandjacq.tumblr.com/ blog painted a vivid picture of real persecution and mine became pretty much insignificant! Let's just say, it out things back into perspective. Hope you were blessed by it and make sure to check Ben's blog at the address above!

Help Wanted!

Anyone interested to come and participate in the beta test of the new LifeChurch.tv internet campus tool, join us this coming Sunday (November 16th) at 2pm Easten Time.

Follow this link http://icampus3.lifechurch.tv

(all feedback can be sent to http://getsatisfaction.com/lifechurchtv Sam Duregger, who is the Digerati Drago (Project Manager)

Hope to see you there!!

God is good...All the time!

Matthew 9:18-26; What God has been teaching me.

Only 8 verses and yet so many different things are taught in those verses.

1-First, there is great Trust from the leader of a synagogue in verse 18: “My daughter has just died. But come and put your hand on her, and she will live.” (Matthew 9:18) He trusted Jesus to bring his daughter back to life.

2-Jesus was already busy teaching, but in verse 19 it says: Jesus got up and went with him (Matthew 9:19) Jesus showed Selflessness; he left what he was doing to help someone else.

3-In the same verse 19, we see Devotion from Jesus’ disciples; Jesus got up and went with him, and s so did his disciples (Matthew 9:19)They were devoted to Jesus and went with him wherever he went, learning along the way how to be more like Him.

4-In verse 20, we see Endurance; Just then a woman who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak. (Matthew 9:20) I can only imagine what it must have been for her to have to live that way for so long without giving up hope!

5-And then a great example of Faith in verse 21: For she thought; “If I can just touch his robe, I will be healed.”(Matthew 9:21) Notice how she didn’t say “I might be healed” but “I will be healed”

6-Love: Even though Jesus was answering to a pretty urgent matter, He took the time to acknowledge the woman; Jesus turned and saw her. “Take heart, daughter,” he said, “your faith has healed you.” And the woman was healed from that moment. (Matthew 9:22) Never think that God is too busy to answer your prayer, He Loves’ you! Jesus gives a great example here, but notice that she also played a part in it; “your faith has healed you.”

7-In the next two verses, we see Jesus’ Authority and Boldness; when Jesus arrived at the official’s home, he saw the noisy crowd and heard the funeral music. “Get Out!” he told them. “The girl isn’t dead; she is only asleep.” But the crowd laugh at him. (Matthew 9:23-24)Notice how he is not asking them to leave? He is ordering them to! Does that mean we should go around bossing people? No, it simply means that you were given the authority to cast down what is negative in our lives. They were being noisy and were playing funeral music; basically they were disturbing and depressing so Jesus ordered them out! Next, he tells them she is only asleep, he already knew they were going to laugh at him, but he said it anyway, he didn’t have to, he could’ve just go in the house and raise her to life, but I believe he said it to show them the wickedness and unbelief they had in their hearts.

8-The last two verses shows both, the result and the impact all the previous actions had; After the crowd was put outside, however, Jesus went in and took the girl by the hand, and she stood up! The report of this miracle swept through the entire country side. (Matthew 9:25-26) Victory! The name of Jesus and his power is being proclaimed throughout the entire country side! But it wasn’t a straight, none stop, shot, the road that was traveled, had a few stops, afew diversion, other very important actions taken along the way, but Jesus never lost the focus of his ultimat mission . So whenever we are on a journey, we should be careful not to only focus on the destiny, but to acknowledge every opportunity God put in our path and act on it, we never know how it can impact others or even our destiny.

Please leave comments, thoughts, ideas below. You can share what God has been teaching you.