World Evangelism News and Helps

Trying to simplify

wagardner — Sun, 25 May 2008 08:14:25 +0000

I am trying to simplify my life and so I will no longer be adding to this blog. I plan to move it all over to the Vision News. I will still write things that I feel go here but will be putting them on the Church’s blog. I hope that I can invite you to subscribe there and follow all that is happening.

How to get more people involved in your Church’s Mission Conference

wagardner — Mon, 12 May 2008 02:39:26 +0000

One of the poorest attended meetings in the local church each year is the Church Mission’s Conference. This is a sad indictment upon our churches and our concern for lost souls around the world. However it also indicates poor planning and preparation on the part of the pastor and the church. Someone said; “Everything rises and falls on leadership!” That is certainly the truth! Here are a few ideas that you might consider that might help your next conference.

Begin preparations for the conference a year in advance. If you do it at the last minute obviously it isn’t important to you and so your church folks will feel the same about the conference that you do!

Get the people involved in the preparations. Have them think of it as the most important meeting in the year.

Express real interest in world evangelism, lost people, others, missionaries through out the year. You get what you honor. Your people will honor and love what you honor and love.

Get the people personally involved with the missionaries; have them write letters to the missionaries telling them that they look forward to meeting them. Have them send them personal emails. Have them call to arrange for their comfort when they arrive. Make the people know that what they are doing is of eternal value.

Help the people develop a personal relationship with the missionaries. Let them eat out together, converse together, pray together, play together, etc.

Advertise the meeting! Put posters around the church weeks or months in advance. Put it in the bulletin. Send out prayer requests and preparations to your church members via email.

Get more people involved in preparing for the conference. Have them help decorate. You will do much better if you involve the people and not just staff or secretary.

One church asks each missionary before they arrive what each missionary’s favorite drink, dessert, etc. is and then one of the church folks will be in charge of trying to take that special item to each missionary at the meals etc.

Have someone take each missionary’s car to fill it up with gas or get it washed.

Do not make it a money raising campaign as much as a blessing time for others. Help your people get their eyes off of themselves and onto others. If they think all you are going to do all week is try to get money out of them then they will not come.

Have the folks get information together about each missionary so that the folks can fill like they know them.

Find ways to honor the missionaries and what they have done for the Lord.

Let the people feel good about giving. It is better to give than to receive! People enjoy knowing that they are helping others.

Christian people will do what they should do and do it well when they know “why” they should do it and “how” they should do it.

Do your best!

wagardner — Mon, 12 May 2008 02:29:53 +0000

Dr. Ironside, when a boy, helped his widowed mother by working during vacation, Saturdays, and out of school for a Scottish shoe worker who was a Christian. He posted Bible verses all over the shop so that everywhere one looks, he would see the Word of God. No package went out to a customer without a tract or a word of testimony, and many came back for salvation.

Dr. Ironside’s Job was to pound leather for shoe soles. A piece of cowhide was cut to size, soaked in water, and pounded in until it was hard and dry. After endless poundings, he was weary. One day, he noticed that another godless cobbler was not pounding, but was nailing the soles while still wet. “So they come back quicker,” was the reply. The Christian owner explained to Ironside: “I do not cobble Just for $.50 or $,75 from customers. I do it for the glory of God. In heaven I expect every shoe returned to me in a pile, and I do not want the Lord to say, “Dan, that was a poor Job. You did not do your best.”

Survey Trip Check List

wagardner — Thu, 08 May 2008 20:42:22 +0000

Name __________________________________ Country ____________________________

Date of Trip _____________________________

Cities Visited: _________________________________________________________________

Living Expenses:

What is available to rent? ______________________________________________________

What is the cost of an apartment? _____________ a house? ___________________________

Other? ______________________________________________________________________

What is the cost for utilities? Electricity? _______________ Water? _____________________________ Is the current 220 or 110?

Telephone? ____________________ Gas for house? ____________ Propane, Natural, Gas

bottles? What will set up cost be for the bottles etc.? ____________________

Food? What is available and unavailable?

Clothing: What is available and unavailable?

Medical: Where can you get good medical treatment? Name of the suggested clinic or hospital

_____________________________________________________________________________

Name of good doctors? __________________________________________________________

Medicines What is available and unavailable?

Water purification? _____________

Transportation? ________________Public Trains etc ____________Taxis _________________

Bus ______________________

What will it cost to get a car, truck or van __________________________________________

What would be the most appropriate vehicle __________________________________ ____

Cost and availability of parts________

Education of Children. Home School, Christian School, cost etc

Language School for parents. Cost etc. Child care?

Laundry and dry cleaning?

Set up expenses?

Cost of furniture

Rent and guarantee to be paid up front?

Type of contract to sign?

Cost of hotel or where to stay until you find a house etc.?

What will I need to take with me to the field from the states?

What do I do to get a visa?

How safe is it?

How will I get my money?

What about my personal library?

A little extra support maybe!

wagardner — Thu, 08 May 2008 02:42:56 +0000

I just thought you might like to fly first class one time–what do you say

Singapore Airlines was the first airline in the world to provide flights with the brand-new Airbus A380 - the largest passenger jet in the world.

Singapore Airlines also has a reputation for having the finest passenger service of any airline.

So it is no surprise that when Singapore Airlines decided to launch a new ‘Beyond First Class‘ Luxury Suites for its Airbus A380 fleet, it pulled out all the stops.

Silverjet Business Class to London
30 Minute Check In. Private terminal in London.
Silver Class from $1099 One Way!

Watch the video for the new Luxury Suites - it is jaw-dropping.

Here are some of the highlights:

1. They are private suites - just you, in a space with closable windows and doors. Its like your own little apartment (and larger than some midtown studios).

2. A large stuffed reclining armchair - their largest ever. The storage forward of your seat seems ample.

3. The chair turns into a lie-flat bed A lie-flat bed with dedicated mattress is stowed in the wall, with sheets and a REAL pillow! The mile-high club has never been more appealing.

4. Instead of looking around the cabin to see which flip-down first-generation 9″ LCD has the least washed-out picture, you get your own personal 23″ Widescreen LCD television with personal DVD player.

5. Of course, the normal gourmet food Singapore Airlines is famous for, on Givenchy tableware with a glass of Dom Perignon (or Krug if you must).

As someone who has flown 6 hours in a United 747 lie-flat bed, I can tell you that the experience is NOT overrated. Its fantastic. However, the United 747 bed is an army cot compared to the Singapore Airlines Luxury Suite.

Unfortunately, Singapore Airbus A380 aircraft currently only fly 2 routes - Singapore-London and Singapore-Sydney. (Singapore-Tokyo starts May 20th).

Now the question you’re asking is ‘how much?’ Well, as usual for first class, only the insanely well-heeled or high-miled can afford this tiny ‘island paradise in a sea of tranquility’.

I priced a June London-Singapore round-trip at about $15,000 (or about 360,000 frequent flyer miles). Seeings that the flight is 13 hours, this works out to about $577/hour. That makes a stay in a Singapore Airlines Luxury Suitesignificantly more expensive than a 2-bedroom suite with 3 room service meals at the Burj Al Arab in Dubai.

By comparison, a Qantas first-class ticket would cost $8400, and a Qantas economy would be $1200 (just $46/hr!).

Please be praying for April Baker

wagardner — Tue, 06 May 2008 12:09:28 +0000

April Baker, one of our missionaries here at Vision Baptist Church, is going to the doctor today to get checked up. She has been having severe head aches and needs your prayers. God has greatly used her and her husband in Ireland and we want to see her feeling good and on her way back to the field soon.

I will try to inform you later of what God does today at the doctor’s office but wanted to take this time to remind you to pray.

Also pray for the Pastor’s Conference for World Evangelism that is going on right now at Vision Baptist Church here in Forsyth County, Georgia. Check out www.visionbaptist.com/blog to keep up with all is going on.

Help remembering.

wagardner — Sun, 04 May 2008 12:12:29 +0000

I do not know if you ever have the problem that I do but since the Lord has allowed me to preach in many different places over the years and to return to preach there I often forget what I have preached where. I know that I am supposed to write it down or keep it in a file and I have. Then somehow I lose the file. I was so excited with my first palm and later pocket pc but then I lost the information. I now have a different system and thought that I would share that with you.

I went to google and opened another blog. I am keeping it private for my own use. I called it ag’s preaching records. Each time I preach I enter where I preached, the pastor’s name, date, and even the entire outline by simply copying and pasting it into the blog.

As you know a blog is a great archive and is always on the Internet no matter where I am. It is easily searchable and so I think that this is going to be one of those things that I will be able to use for a long time.

Even what I am preaching each week at Vision is logged in there. That way I will have the date etc and maybe some notes as to what happened on that day. Good for future use to I think. I thought you might like to use that especially as a missionary wanting to remember what you preached where and maybe something about what happened there.

This week we will be having a Pastor’s Conference for World Evangelism and I will be giving more little ideas. I hope you can come and be with us.

Attempted robbery

wagardner — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 13:12:41 +0000

Again going through my hard drive files I am coming across some very interesting articles that I may have had on world-evangelism.com before. The following is from Jason and Amanda Hamby. They wrote it and it shows how God worked even in the difficult times. Read and enjoy. This is quite old but still a great testimony.

When Amanda and I arrived in Ivory Coast of October 2000, the country was in political turmoil. The political situation had caused a major rise in crime. As a result we had to hire guards to watch the house.

One evening while working in the yard, I noticed my guard was late for work. The guard I am speaking of is a former Muslim and fetishist called a “Dozo”. These Muslim “Dozo” men are the traditional African hunter-warriors who believe the fetishes they wear give them power to withstand bullets. Four months prior to this night, this guard named Traoré had given his heart to Jesus and had left his fetishes. Traoré was supposed to be at work at 6:30 pm that evening, but he had been at the Bible Institute all day, and after having a chance to rest, he had overslept. As I was working, I noticed a couple of well-dressed young men walking around the five-foot wall of our house. About that time, Traoré came in with a worried look on his face. He asked me if we were okay. I told him that we were fine. He then said that he had overslept and something woke him up and told him to get to our house quickly. At this time, two more young men, also fairly well dressed, walked by, scoping at the inside of the house. Traoré and I were then suspicious, so he followed them back up the road where he saw them meet up with the first two men. They then proceeded to circle around behind our house again.

Traoré came back and told me to lock up the house while he went to our neighbor’s house who was the police commissioner for our town. Meanwhile one of the young men stepped out of the shadows and followed Traoré down the road. I saw others duck down behind the outside of my wall. The police officers who lived next door called out for the one young man who had followed Traoré. The young man began to run from them, and they shot their guns into the brush behind him. The other two who were hidden, jumped out from behind the wall and began to walk quickly past were I was positioned, so Traoré ran to catch them.

Once they were caught, the police officers and the commissioner began to question them right in front of our house. There were also about ten other guards from the neighborhood surrounding them. There I was, right in the middle, preaching at them about how they were choosing the wrong path.

My guard Traoré turned and headed out to find the fourth man. When he turned around he saw a black plastic bag beside the wall where the young men had crouched. He brought the bag to me and inside was a hand grenade and masking tape. My knees began to knock as I handed the grenade to the police officer. They then ordered the robbers to strip down to their underclothes. One young man began rapidly removing his clothes, and ran off into the brush while the other one was removing his clothes slowly. The police officers began shooting and chasing at the one who ran away.

While they gave chase to the one, we had the other man surrounded; he soon noticed that we were unarmed, so he pulled a 45 cal. military issue pistol out of his shorts. He pointed the gun at us, and then turned it directly to the commissioner, also unarmed, and fired it on him. The gun just clicked. He pulled the trigger three other times as he and the police commissioner fought. I jumped over the wall and yelled at Amanda, who was 8 months pregnant, to get herself and our son Joshua to the back of the house.

The first robber was caught, but the other three got away. As the shooter was running towards the highway he ran into Traoré, who had been looking for the other two men. Again he pulled the trigger, and nothing happened. Twenty minutes later we heard a gunshot coming from near the highway. We later found out that he had robbed a man of his money and clothes and hopped on a bus headed for Abidjan.

We tied up the one robber that we caught and the police took him in for questioning. He told the police that there were seven members of this gang that came from Abidjan on a word from one member, who was from our town of Divo, that there was an American living there. Two of the gang members were sons of a military man and that is how they had obtained the grenade and pistol.

Back at the house, Traoré who was still excited about the events of the evening proceeded to tell me that God had truly protected his life as well as ours. He said, “Pastor, when I was a dozo that gun would have fired; the bullet may not have pierced me, but it would have fired. But God is so powerful that He didn’t even allow the gun to fire.” I say, “Praise His Name!!!” Not only for the protection against intruders, but also for showing His mighty hand to a new convert. Psalms 91 is so true!

Since that time, Traoré has surrendered to preach, has almost completed two years of Bible Institute and has helped us start a work in his home village were he helps preach on Sundays. He has also led his Muslim wife to the Lord as well as his Muslim brother. He is now working on evangelizing his father. Please pray for this family.

Suggestion to help with language learning!

wagardner — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 01:12:43 +0000

I really like the materials that are produced by the Brewsters. Here is a link to their Order Form!

I strongly suggest the following materials:

LAMP (Language Acquisition Made Practical)

Bonding and the Missionary Task

Community is my Language Classroom

Internet Resources for Ladies

wagardner — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 21:47:13 +0000

I am going through old files on my computer and came across something that the ladies had put together before on one of the web pages. I thought I would post it so that it might be a blessing to the ladies that read this blog.

Ladies Materials

Mom of 9’s place- www.momof9’splace.com

Creative Ladies Ministry- www.creativeladiesministry.com

www.Pastorswife.net

Biblical Femininity- www.angelfire.com/nm/biblicalfemininity

The Helpmeet’s Helper- www.lovekjb.com/helpmeet

Home Sweet Home- www.angelfire.com/on2/ourHomeSweetHome/

Frugal Homemaker- www.frugalhomemaker.com

Women´s Bible Study Ministries and links to Women´s ministries- http://www.christmas-intl.org/page23.html

Ladies of Faith- http://uk.geocities.com/christiankccottage/

Lilacs and Butterflies- www.earnestlycontending.com/lilacsandbutterflies

Maranatha- www.lovekjb.com