DMM: Spiritual Climate Change Among UPGs

DMM: A Strategic Vision-Spiritual Climate Change Among the UPGs

A dream. A realized promise of God’s kingdom reality, nearer at hand. There is a thin line between the not-yet-has-been and all-that-has-been-promised in God’s plans.

At the recent Women2Women DMM Level 1 Training, I found the norm of my experience of facilitating these trainings for field women among UPGs to be the case this particular week.

The Lord has instructed me to be tightly strapped into His command center, otherwise, this whole effort is a complete bust. Is this not the true posture, no matter what we are engaged in? As relates to my personal experience of walking out this kingdom reality during these trainings, I am awakened at usually crazy hours to worship Him, draw near to His heart, and listen.

After the first full day of the weeklong training, I awakened to greet the 2^nd day of five. The first day found there to be a bit of a needed bridging of the seeming gap between those who originate from M*sl*m background who now serve among the same or similar UPGs. They seemed a bit reserved. Understandably. We were a mix of 11 nationalities,  a few MBBs, 46 total field workers serving among some of the most intense UPGs in the world. Several have lost dear loved ones while serving among these UPGs, for the sake of God’s fame and renown. A few of them had been kicked out of the their initial UPG due to their efforts. Understood.

This morning of the 2^nd day found me in the back of the empty bathtub in my hotel room in worship in preparation for the day’s training times. Immediately, God brought to mind the dream I had chewed upon just prior to this moment.

A Dream:

A group of us, as glory bearers, drove to a hill country region in a 1960’s version Volkswagen Van. We encountered difficult twisting switchbacks in order to reach a remote village. In that village, we stopped at a designated house on a hill. In that house sat several followers of Christ. They sat isolated in their faith. They felt alone. They felt as though no one understood them. They had                                                              not been out and no one had come in.

We asked them to come with us. There seemed to be a palpable fear, disdain, and distrust toward us as outsiders. (I want to pause and say that perhaps the word here is how the West is hindered by these rarely corporately confessed feelings toward the intense M*sl*im UPGs.)

Further, as we searched for our van, for some reason, it was difficult to find.

After we were able to locate the van, we all hurriedly piled in. Once we drove away from that home, we could not find a road out to others. All of the roads had been washed away. Huge gaps now stood as chasms between those who bore the message and those who still needed to hear.

That is when I awoke. As I dialogued with the Lord in regard to this dream, the Lord simply impressed upon me to wait for Him to reveal the meaning of that dream.

During worship together in the first session of the 2^nd day, the meaning of the dream was revealed. As we worshiped together, a few of the MBBs in the room were standing together. At one point, as we were free to roam around the room for worship, as we felt led, I felt the Lord impress upon me to stand directly behind this group, to lift my hand in prayer over them.

At the same time, B*, the worship facilitator seemed to have been sensing the same thing. She moved us into a time of worship in a powerful Arabic song. I don’t speak Middle Earth, as most of us in that room could not. I happen to know the One who does, fluently. The God of the nations does. That is really all that matters.

As we sang, one by one, without any prompting except the leading of the Holy Spirit, everyone in that room gathered around the Middle Earth MBBs. Just then, I believe something broke in the heavenlies. From then on…we were one, for this moment in the fabric of time, for the purposes, which God wants to bring to fruition among the ethne, for His glory. Prophetic? Perhaps. Was this a word (of many words from those who have longed for this occur, and most importantly, for the many whom are serving with their very lives for many many many years) for the launch of anticipated, promised movements to Christ, for God’s glory? For sure, He reveals the needed glimpse.

DMM/CPM: New Way to Be Human

New Way to Be Human

He'll show us the way He works so we can live the way we're made."-Isaiah 2:3

Transformed Old

In our Mu*sli*m context, I follow the cultural norms and rarely talk directly to men. 

Angking, a man in his early twenties, poured my next cup of coffee as I sat overlooking the garden at a neighborhood restaurant that day. This interaction is one of those Holy Spirit led exception times.

After establishing that my husband is not able to join me for breakfast and that we are followers of Isa Al Masih, the straight and true way, the young man did not want to walk away.

We exchanged family information: he shared about his siblings, I described my precious grown children.

I asked him the question, "In what ways do you want to emulate your father and in what ways would you like to be different?”

Knowing that there is a high divorce rate among the SaSumBi, I ventured the above question. All to often, the men "kidnap" their complicit young brides to be, impregnate them, then abandon wife and child with an easily acquired letter of divorce. 

Angking responded that this was his experience.

I asked him if he knew of a new way to be SaSumBI? He shook his head with engaged curiosity as we discussed further the only way to be made new.

The next simple step seemed to be to ask him if he and his family and/or friends would like to get together with my husband and discuss a story from the books of Moses, the Psalms, and the gospels? I furthered, "It is only when we meet up with Allah’s heart for mankind that our broken patterns can be transformed and made new."

My husband has met with Angking and his friend since the above conversation. Ask the Holy Spirit to stir him and his household with the longings to know the only source of personal transformation and to give him a desire to form a Discovery Group with S.

DMM: Well Done?

Glory of God, His Timing

DMM/CPM: 

Well Done, Good and Faithful Sons and Daughters

Disciple Making Movements are not the End Game. The End Vision is the glory of God. The timing of the release of movements is a sovereignty of God reality. The faithfulness to be and do whatever it takes, for however long it takes to see the glory of God embraced among a UPG for the launch of cascading movements to Christ is a God thing from beginning to end. We are all only a small but God-chosen piece of the process. Now, think on that and try to walk away un-changed in that kingdom privilege which the power of the Holy Spirit promises to empower us to bring in experiential reality. 

The faithfulness to be and do whatever it takes, 
for however long it takes 
to see the glory of God 
embraced among a UPG 
for the launch of cascading movements to Christ 
is a God thing 
from beginning 
to end.

What if we faithfully walk in these biblical principles/patterns and have yet to see the launch of a DMM/CPM?

My husband and I have been in a season of increasing our capacity to hear more deeply from ABBA. We have felt levels of discouragement and yet, we know to just pay attention and to listen. We recently spent time with Lelia Lewis, a long time personal mentor. She and her husband Roger came to the mis*sion field of B*ali in 1953. They were contemporaries of Jim and Elisabeth Elliott and knew them well. Roger has been with the Lord since 1999, while Lelia continues serving here. 

I have attached some notes taken, which I will arrange in a book at a later time. Lelia’s comments are in black and mine are in blue below. This is a treasure trove of reminders of God’s eternal perspective and our vacuitous need to return back to His plumb line: no matter the cost, no matter the feel/and/or fact of the moments along the way. 

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Well Done, Good and Faithful Sons and Daughters

It is so different today than when we came to the field in 1953 in the area of dealing with loneliness. There are times we felt lonely because we were alone. Our kids had to go through the trauma of not having us there for their important events, when there were tough situations. I had to give that level of loneliness and longing over to the Lord, over and over again, and trust that He would care for our kids. We wanted to be there for our kids and their important life events while they lived apart from us. That was what was required of our generation.  I needed to resolve that before the Lord and choose to trust His best for our kids. 

Don’t get too down on yourselves. Why is the book of I John written? It is written to believers. In all things, let the love of Christ lead you. 

Missionary families that I saw who experienced some of the best cohesiveness in unity were the ones I saw in Tibet in my parents’ generation. 

What is the difference? They came out of mostly intact families, communities.  Churches had a role in life for a sense of rootedness and community in that generation. There was still a Judea-Christian ethic which laid a foundation of Biblical worldview which still mostly influenced the home culture of America, in particular. There were not nearly as many distractions for those coming on the mission field. The collective cultural value system of the home culture of America has changed dramatically. Values of faithfulness, integrity, honesty, fidelity in relationships, work ethic, not having a “always having to win” mentality, personal self worth was more stable on the whole. Who a person was and their value centered around who you were in the communal, family,  system. If there was stability in the home, a measure of healthiness in the family, then, the formation of a more solid foundation of self worth would have a more solid foundation. Who you were in the home and community helped give a sense of developmental help in terms of loving oneself and others. There was more of a communal sense that you had value because God was part of the equation in the formation, in more healthy ways in earlier generations. There was more of an understanding of your value and worth as beginning and ending with God. Not to say that every one was a believer or that every family walked out being a believer in healthy ways. But, just to say, the current of the culture was more readily in the encouragement of the pursuit of Christian ethic. 

We need to recognize that starting with those who came out as adults in the 70’s and 80’s onward and more clearly in this newer generation, people are coming out far more fragile. They are coming with deep issues, feelings of rejection, unredeemed areas devoid of the foundational healthy family units which helped to shape them. Newer missionaries to the field are mostly coming from broken  parental marriages, broken home fronts. They are coming from a culture which has valued acquisition of wealth, pursuit of material goods, desire for status, selfish ambition, hunger to be recognized in position, poor in conflict resolution skill levels, e.g. They have been raised in a culture, in the States, which is evidenced in the Bride of Christ in America as well, where narcissistic and self aggrandizement type behaviors are celebrated, celebrity of service is desired, servant hearts are not largely cultivated, death to self-life is a strange and distant thought to most. 

These things do not give you real sense of inner strength self worth and sadly, the unchecked nature of these pursuits do not match the needs of those whom God will use for His glory on the mission field. 

Nowadays we have people coming to the mission field who are from cultures taken over by more and more evil. Dependency upon other than God is now the norm. I also feel some of the newer mission agencies in the past 30 years which have arisen are not emphasizing adequate readiness for what challenges are faced on the mission field. A question to ask oneself as you are preparing for the mission field…….have I really been tested in my faith? Have I had a faithful pursuit in learning how to effectively share my faith, make disciples in my own home culture? As a missionary, do your realize that your first  priority is your time with the Lord daily, in His Word, in His presence, in worship daily? A lot of people come to the mission field without any acquaintance with what it is to embrace the process of brokenness, without an expectation of brokenness and the ways in which God transforms us in the process. “Here I am, Lord. In the dark and in the light, break me, use me, for your glory.” I Corinthians 4 is what God requires. To be found faithful is what is found here. 

So Send I You by Oswald Chambers    First call is to watch our relationship with Jesus. Watch that intimacy and things will spill out of this relationship as it grows daily. What does the Father say?  “Well done good and successful servant?!!!”  Absolutely not! First thing God is looking for is, “well done, good and faithful servant. Just be faithful. Be intentional in times with the Father first and foremost, and be deliberate in obeying Him because of this great love of the Father for you and you for Him, for His purposes and for His glory.

An author has said, know your faults well and don’t get down on yourself. Know our faults, surrender our faults to the Father and ask to be transformed in the midst of these flaws. Get back up and trust Him in all. Be faithful.  Be singular in focus. Lighten up and enjoy the journey. If you don’t learn to laugh and enjoy life along the way, then you have not cultivated one of the most significant gifts in this journey with the Lord. 

A word for this age is to understand commitment. The concept of commitment is lacking for this generation of missionaries. To make a real commitment to say, “Lord, whatever it takes to see these Unreached People Groups have access to the beauty of You”,  is one thing to pray. However, to say to the Lord, “God, no matter what it takes as well as however long it takes, make me faithful. “ 

We are trying to appeal to a generation which may be thinking about careers instead of commitment, new experiences, extreme adventures as part of coming to the mission field. Are we lowering the bar by doing so? I think, yes. Finally, it boils down to having real commitment to Christ, above all else. I don’t think an effective laborer on the mission field is recruited by telling them, “Just go try and see what happens, maybe you stay or not, and if this doesn’t work out then you can always go back to whatever you really want to do.” It is important to help them understand a call. The very process of understanding God’s call on each of our lives has been diluted and made more mysterious than it is in reality. How does one know that they are a child (follower of Christ) of  God?  Simply, through the abiding testimony of the Holy Spirit and the Word…You begin there. How shall they discern a call to God? It is a growing conviction where one intentionally chooses to be informed of the Father’s heart for the nations, what still remains to be engaged in for His glory and you surrender yourself to say, “here I am, send me, O God.” You seek godly counsel who is bent on these same Scriptural priorities, “to go, to send, or disobey” is the challenge to every believer, both now and in ages past, and for days to come. Pretty simple.  You just know God has called you. Moving down that road and trusting God to open doors and shut doors…have a sense of complete trust in God, he will lead…a sense of call. When there was a movement of this or that (Student Volunteer Movement, other movements for global missions through the ages, e.g.) then you have to rely upon the Lord and His leading. That simple process really does not change much through the ages. Cultivate that through prayer and time in the Word. Read missionary biographies. Cultivate a culture of seeking God’s heart and letting that germinate. One must fight the narcissism of this age. 

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