July, 2008
visit the NEGST blogvisit us online at www.clafrica.com
Look at the Missionaries Coming Out of Africa
By Paul Heidebrecht
We’re starting to get used to the idea that Africa is no longer our mission field but instead is becoming a continent sending missionaries around the world. So what can we expect of these African missionaries? What unreached people groups will they evangelize and how will they do it? One way to glimpse this rising missionary force is to meet the students of Nairobi Evangelical Graduate School of Theology who are in the Missions department. These are men and women preparing to be career missionaries.
This past May I had a chance to sit and talk with some who are currently enrolled and several who have graduated and are on their mission fields. I was immediately impressed with their strong sense of call to obey the Great Commission and their willingness to go to very difficult places for the sake of the Gospel. They seemed particularly attracted to unreached tribes and communities in Africa which often are also primarily Muslim and therefore potentially hostile to Christian missionaries. I was pleased to discover indigenous African mission agencies ready to send out these men and women. Local churches are starting to challenge their people to consider the missionary call and to support these missionaries financially. Patrick and Violet have lived in several African countries among unreached people groups and trained believers to take over the missions they began. Some of their methods are familiar. Radio may be the most effective way to reach the populations of Africa. Only a small minority have access to television but everyone listens to the radio.
Refugee camps and slums are great places to meet people who have fled Muslim-dominated countries. A ministry of compassion paves the way for the Gospel. Likewise, prisons provide opportunities to speak with men and women who might otherwise be unapproachable.
The great challenge for African missionaries is to deal with both an increasingly aggressive Islam and the deeply entrenched animist religions of African cultures. The Missions faculty at NEGST specialize in Islamic Studies and try to help their students become wise and discerning missionaries among Muslim people groups.
As I listened to these men and women speak, I wondered if they are not exactly the kind of missionaries we need for the century ahead. They are moving into villages and neighborhoods of unbelievers with considerable cultural awareness. They don’t have any of the baggage Westerners carry when they enter Muslim contexts in most parts of the world. Harun and Judy have settled in a remote village of northern Kenya where theybear witness to Muslim neighbors and nurture a fledgling church. Furthermore, they enter their mission fields with strong relational commitments and skill. Hospitality and appreciation of local customs and a desire to serve the community characterize their mission strategy.
Perhaps most striking to me was the ways they are funding themselves as missionaries. The usual support-raising approach of Western missions doesn’t work well in African societies where most people live near or below the poverty line. Tentmaking is not only necessary but also very helpful because it allows these missionaries to enter a community without arousing suspicion and resistance. Far better to be a teacher or government worker than an outsider representing a different religion. Spouses are often the main breadwinners for a missionary family.
Esayas spends his time among immigrant and refugee groupsin Nairobi while he continues his studies. And, like many African pastors, African missionaries accept upfront that the missionary call is also a call to simple living, if not poverty itself. This means a missionary can expect protests from his or her own family. They will truly live by faith and with daily perseverance.
And for those entering Muslim communities, there is also the expectation that they will actually encounter some persecution. Muslim leaders will not tolerate their presence in many communities. Converts to Christ from Islam will be ostracized and even attacked by family members.
There are 247 Muslim people groups in the world (with populations over 100,000) that have no significant Christian presence in them. I suspect we will need these African missionaries to enter these communities and plant churches. I’m optimistic that some of these African missionaries will be supported by North American churches and that someday we will view them as our missionaries. That’s why I keep urging you and others to invest in the students at NEGST because it’s all about the next generation of African missionaries.
In Christ,
Paul Heidebrecht
Christian Leaders for Africa
P.O. Box 1642
Indianapolis, IN 46206
clafrica@sbcglobal.net
P.S. Contributions to the NEGST scholarship fund can be sent to the address above.
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Joe and Kim Cluff Prayer Letter
JoeFrom: Kim Cluff [mailto:kim.cluff@gmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, July 23, 2008 2:23 AM
To: Kim Cluff
Subject: Prayer Reminder
Greetings, family and friends!
We wanted to send out a quick email this morning to remind you to pray
for the team building retreat we will be having July 24-28. As you
pray, please lift up the following:
1. Safe travel to/from the retreat. We will have people traveling
from throughout Maasailand to Limuru (a town just outside of
Nairobi). It is raining here today. If it is doing so in Maasailand,
the trip will be slow going and adventurous.
2. Good fellowship - a chance to get to know one another better,
encourage one another, and pray with one another.
3. Unity of vision - again, this is an opportunity for all those
involved with the Maasai-wide ministries of Community Christian Church
(the registered church CMF has planted in Maasailand and Turkana) to
hear what God is doing amongst them. As we do so, pray that God's
vision for the church would come fully into view for us all.
4. Joy and rest - it is so easy to get caught up in the busyness of
ministry and the cares of this world that we forget to follow our
Lord's desire to find rest and joy in him. Pray that he blesses us
with both.
Thank you once again for standing with us in this ministry.
Grace and peace,
Joe & Kim Cluff
Sent: Wednesday, July 23, 2008 2:23 AM
To: Kim Cluff
Subject: Prayer Reminder
Greetings, family and friends!
We wanted to send out a quick email this morning to remind you to pray
for the team building retreat we will be having July 24-28. As you
pray, please lift up the following:
1. Safe travel to/from the retreat. We will have people traveling
from throughout Maasailand to Limuru (a town just outside of
Nairobi). It is raining here today. If it is doing so in Maasailand,
the trip will be slow going and adventurous.
2. Good fellowship - a chance to get to know one another better,
encourage one another, and pray with one another.
3. Unity of vision - again, this is an opportunity for all those
involved with the Maasai-wide ministries of Community Christian Church
(the registered church CMF has planted in Maasailand and Turkana) to
hear what God is doing amongst them. As we do so, pray that God's
vision for the church would come fully into view for us all.
4. Joy and rest - it is so easy to get caught up in the busyness of
ministry and the cares of this world that we forget to follow our
Lord's desire to find rest and joy in him. Pray that he blesses us
with both.
Thank you once again for standing with us in this ministry.
Grace and peace,
Joe & Kim Cluff
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Dr. Chet and Dolores Wood's Prayer Letter
NAIROBI EVANGELICAL GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY
"A School in the Heart of Africa with Africa on Its Heart"
9441 Haddington Drive West, Indianapolis, IN 46256
Tel.: 317-595-9850 Email: Chester.wood@att.net, Dolores.wood@att.net
Dear Friend,
July, 2008
A WONDERFUL TRIP TO ITALY
We have been back now several weeks from our wonderful six week trip to Italy. You may recall that this trip was a gift to us from a friend to help us celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary, which was three years ago. In Rome we focused on the ancient Roman ruins i.e. the Forum, the Coliseum, the Palatine Hill and the Appian Way. We tried to figure out which parts would have been in existence when Paul came to Rome as a prisoner in the late 50’s AD. We saw Titus’s arch which commemorated the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD including the taking of Jewish slaves to Rome.
(Picture is Greek Theater at Syracuse, Sciliy.)
We spent a week at Ravello on the Amalfi Coast. From there we visited Contursi, a small mountain village southeast of Naples, where Dolores’ father grew up. We found the family house and family living there with the name of Garippa (Dolores’ maiden name). Although they could speak only a little English and we could speak only a little Italian, we had a wonderful visit with them over a noon-time meal. After Ravello, we spent nine days in Sicily including a visit to Castelbouno, a mountain village where Dolores’ mother grew up. Sicily is full of ancient Greek ruins. At Syracuse where Paul landed (Acts 28:12) we saw a huge Greek outdoor theater. We ended our trip with two weeks of walking in sunny Tuscany.
We returned home invigorated, ready for work but also with heavy hearts because in most of the churches we visited Mary, not Jesus, was at the center of the church. Yes, we have a million digital photos and would be glad to show all of them to you! We thank the Lord for this very special gift.
JESUS AND JUSTICE: A SIX WEEK SEMINAR
July 9th Chester finished a six week seminar on “Jesus and Justice” for a group of twelve or so very earnest people at Grace Community Church in Noblesville, Indiana. The participants had digital copies of the extensive notes on justice and read sections of these each week along with texts from Matthew in preparation for the class. All in the class are in some kind of outreach ministry to marginal peoples.
Chester has again begun to write on “Israel and Justice”. This summer the focus is on the Law and the Tabernacle. The writing is interesting, stretching (recently Chester tried to figure out the precise relation of justice to holiness in terms of the Law), overwhelming at times and moving along slowly but surely. Pray that Chester will stay healthy, focused and be enabled by God as he writes.
Later in the early autumn Chester will probably restart his Saturday morning sessions on “Teaching Dad’s how to teach their children the Bible as a whole.”
LEAVING FOR KENYA ON NEW YEAR’S DAY
We hope to leave for Kenya New Year’s Day 2009 so as to help out in teaching Bible at NEGST. Chester will probably be teaching OT and NT Introduction (survey) for a group of students working for a degree in theology. If the MTh, i.e. advanced level degree, gets off the ground, Chester will offer a course in that program as well. Our trip back will be a bit different this time because we no longer have an apartment of our own to which we can return and we no longer have a car in Kenya. We plan to stay through graduation, July 4th, and then return home for another period of writing. School year 2008-2009 is the 25th anniversary of NEGST. Since 1983-1984 God has blessed and kept NEGST through many ups and downs. Chester began to teach at NEGST in May 1984. It is thrilling to think about the hundreds of graduates of NEGST who are now in ministry throughout the whole of Africa and beyond. We hope to say more about what God has done at NEGST at the 25th anniversary celebration in the autumn of 2009 in Indianapolis.
PhD STUDENTS STUDYING ABROAD
When we return to NEGST in January, 2009, we look forward to seeing just how each of the PhD students is doing. They are now well into the dissertation writing stage which should reach its culmination by the end of 2009. All of the students are expected to spend two or three months abroad doing research at a major library. Hopefully they will also be able to meet with their external supervisor and maybe even attend an international conference in their field of research. Students in translation studies have mostly studied at Amsterdam where the university has a translation center and most of the biblical students are going to Cambridge to work at the Tyndale House library. Pray that
· Their health will be good,
· Their family will not suffer from this period of separation,
· Their time will be profitable in terms of discovering helpful materials and
· Their scope of contacts with scholars who might assist them will broaden.
The entire student cohort except two students has sufficient funds for this trip. We are asking the Lord to send us, LOWM, $5,000 so that we can help that last student to leave for Cambridge by the end of July. If you would like to help with this project, add a note saying your gift is for the PhD at NEGST. Thanks!
AN INVITATION TO VISIT US AT NEGST IN KENYA IN 2009
We would like to invite you to come visit us at NEGST and see for yourselves what God is doing in Kenya and to enjoy the beauty of Kenya. In 2009 NEGST will be celebrating its 25th Anniversary. Trips guided by Paul Heidebrecht of Christian Leaders for Africa are in the works for late January and early July 2009. Paul can be reached at his phone is 630 562-1640.
With deep gratitude we are your fellow servants in Christ,
Chester & Dolores
Gifts toward this ministry are tax-deductible. Please make your check payable to “Light of the World Ministries.” Mail to Light of the World Ministries, 825 S. Meridian, Indianapolis, IN 46225.
LIGHT OF THE WORLD MINISTRIES, INC
"A School in the Heart of Africa with Africa on Its Heart"
9441 Haddington Drive West, Indianapolis, IN 46256
Tel.: 317-595-9850 Email: Chester.wood@att.net, Dolores.wood@att.net
Dear Friend,
July, 2008
A WONDERFUL TRIP TO ITALY
We have been back now several weeks from our wonderful six week trip to Italy. You may recall that this trip was a gift to us from a friend to help us celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary, which was three years ago. In Rome we focused on the ancient Roman ruins i.e. the Forum, the Coliseum, the Palatine Hill and the Appian Way. We tried to figure out which parts would have been in existence when Paul came to Rome as a prisoner in the late 50’s AD. We saw Titus’s arch which commemorated the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD including the taking of Jewish slaves to Rome.
(Picture is Greek Theater at Syracuse, Sciliy.)
We spent a week at Ravello on the Amalfi Coast. From there we visited Contursi, a small mountain village southeast of Naples, where Dolores’ father grew up. We found the family house and family living there with the name of Garippa (Dolores’ maiden name). Although they could speak only a little English and we could speak only a little Italian, we had a wonderful visit with them over a noon-time meal. After Ravello, we spent nine days in Sicily including a visit to Castelbouno, a mountain village where Dolores’ mother grew up. Sicily is full of ancient Greek ruins. At Syracuse where Paul landed (Acts 28:12) we saw a huge Greek outdoor theater. We ended our trip with two weeks of walking in sunny Tuscany.
We returned home invigorated, ready for work but also with heavy hearts because in most of the churches we visited Mary, not Jesus, was at the center of the church. Yes, we have a million digital photos and would be glad to show all of them to you! We thank the Lord for this very special gift.
JESUS AND JUSTICE: A SIX WEEK SEMINAR
July 9th Chester finished a six week seminar on “Jesus and Justice” for a group of twelve or so very earnest people at Grace Community Church in Noblesville, Indiana. The participants had digital copies of the extensive notes on justice and read sections of these each week along with texts from Matthew in preparation for the class. All in the class are in some kind of outreach ministry to marginal peoples.
Chester has again begun to write on “Israel and Justice”. This summer the focus is on the Law and the Tabernacle. The writing is interesting, stretching (recently Chester tried to figure out the precise relation of justice to holiness in terms of the Law), overwhelming at times and moving along slowly but surely. Pray that Chester will stay healthy, focused and be enabled by God as he writes.
Later in the early autumn Chester will probably restart his Saturday morning sessions on “Teaching Dad’s how to teach their children the Bible as a whole.”
LEAVING FOR KENYA ON NEW YEAR’S DAY
We hope to leave for Kenya New Year’s Day 2009 so as to help out in teaching Bible at NEGST. Chester will probably be teaching OT and NT Introduction (survey) for a group of students working for a degree in theology. If the MTh, i.e. advanced level degree, gets off the ground, Chester will offer a course in that program as well. Our trip back will be a bit different this time because we no longer have an apartment of our own to which we can return and we no longer have a car in Kenya. We plan to stay through graduation, July 4th, and then return home for another period of writing. School year 2008-2009 is the 25th anniversary of NEGST. Since 1983-1984 God has blessed and kept NEGST through many ups and downs. Chester began to teach at NEGST in May 1984. It is thrilling to think about the hundreds of graduates of NEGST who are now in ministry throughout the whole of Africa and beyond. We hope to say more about what God has done at NEGST at the 25th anniversary celebration in the autumn of 2009 in Indianapolis.
PhD STUDENTS STUDYING ABROAD
When we return to NEGST in January, 2009, we look forward to seeing just how each of the PhD students is doing. They are now well into the dissertation writing stage which should reach its culmination by the end of 2009. All of the students are expected to spend two or three months abroad doing research at a major library. Hopefully they will also be able to meet with their external supervisor and maybe even attend an international conference in their field of research. Students in translation studies have mostly studied at Amsterdam where the university has a translation center and most of the biblical students are going to Cambridge to work at the Tyndale House library. Pray that
· Their health will be good,
· Their family will not suffer from this period of separation,
· Their time will be profitable in terms of discovering helpful materials and
· Their scope of contacts with scholars who might assist them will broaden.
The entire student cohort except two students has sufficient funds for this trip. We are asking the Lord to send us, LOWM, $5,000 so that we can help that last student to leave for Cambridge by the end of July. If you would like to help with this project, add a note saying your gift is for the PhD at NEGST. Thanks!
AN INVITATION TO VISIT US AT NEGST IN KENYA IN 2009
We would like to invite you to come visit us at NEGST and see for yourselves what God is doing in Kenya and to enjoy the beauty of Kenya. In 2009 NEGST will be celebrating its 25th Anniversary. Trips guided by Paul Heidebrecht of Christian Leaders for Africa are in the works for late January and early July 2009. Paul can be reached at his phone is 630 562-1640.
With deep gratitude we are your fellow servants in Christ,
Chester & Dolores
Gifts toward this ministry are tax-deductible. Please make your check payable to “Light of the World Ministries.” Mail to Light of the World Ministries, 825 S. Meridian, Indianapolis, IN 46225.
LIGHT OF THE WORLD MINISTRIES, INC
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