excuse #14

i figure i probably oughtta finish up the 15 reasons people give for NOT going to the mission field that i was going thru from keith green's essay, "Why YOU Should Go To The Mission Field." i got thru #13 i believe. here's #14:

ok, really - this one's pretty preposterous. i've actually met people who might never have said it in so many words, but it is exactly how they feel. here it is:

"But God wants me to stay in this country and prosper. The reason the rest of the world is so poor and unconverted is because their heathen religions and idolatry have caused them to live in ignorance and poverty, without God's blessing."

this has to be the most selfish reasoning I've ever heard for not going - and i've actually heard it! of course some people overseas live in ignorance and poverty, that's exactly the reason you should go - to bring the enlightenment that comes from knowing the truth about Jesus, and to bring them the true riches of knowing Christ. if you don't believe that the reason God has blessed you with abundance in this country is so you can be a blessing to others - then you have never understood the Gospel of Jesus Christ! "Freely you received, freely give." (Matt. 10:8)

God help us if we ever think we earned this blessing or that He gave it to us to hoard or to just chill out with. we are blessed to be a blessing. that's the whole point of living.

ok - just one more excuse still to come.

carepoint kids go on a missions trip

how cool is this? something dad wrote for the children's cup newsletter a couple weeks ago. ben just sent me some pics to go with it.

GARBAGE DUMP KIDS BECOME MISSIONARIES
Maybe you remember our newsletter article titled “None.” It was about a slum by a garbage dump where children from age two to sixteen were forced into prostitution so they could have food to eat. Mothers would have the babies and without even naming them, hand them off to the neighborhood to be raised as sex slaves.

A compassionate believer named Gugu Dlamini saw the children trying to find food in the dump. They would taste it to see if it was poison. Gugu started using her own meager resources to feed and educate 62 of the neediest orphans.

We learned about her work and decided this is the kind of person we want to help. ‘Cup started by providing her food for the orphans. Then medical visits and school classes up to grade three were started. As we saw her great compassion and communication skills we asked her to serve as evangelism director and Bible Club coordinator for all our CarePoints.

“I would love to but I cannot leave my children here without help.” ‘Cup’s answer was to build and staff a fully operating CarePoint for her children. It immediately grew to over 200 kids coming daily for food, medical care, education and Gospel.

Gugu has captured the hearts and imagination of all 3,200 of our CarePoint kids, teaching them the Bible and introducing them to a personal relationship with Jesus. They know whole chapters of the Bible. They write and perform Bible dramas. When the children first came to us their whole thought for the future was, “Where can I get my next meal?” Now the kids dream of productive lives.

And recently—this is awesome—last month we told you about a group of CarePoint kids going on a missions trip. This was Gugu’s kids - she took a busload of her former garbage dump kids on a ministry trip to a town in southern Swaziland. Her children—once they were all brutally exploited sex slaves—went into the schools of Nhlangano and witnessed to the classes about what Jesus had done for them.

How right and wonderful is that?

Here's a few more pics from their missions trip:

new blog you need to track

isaac and carol williams sitting in my office this morning talking thru plans for their move to mozambique

isaac and carol williams are heading out to mozambique to pastor the new campus of healing place church in maputo and to run the children's cup carepoint there. they're heading out in january, and they've just started their new blog a couple weeks ago. (isaac was formerly on my sidebar as isaacinbrazil.blogspot.com)

they're sharp - you'll be hearing plenty more from me about them over the coming months. pray for them as they work to raise their support base over the next few weeks here in the usa. if you want to help send them, you can email them at isaac356@hotmail.com.

they're about to embark on an amazing journey. be sure to keep in touch with them at their blog at isaacandcarol.blogspot.com.

children's cup staff day in africa

here's a few pics from the children's cup staff day we held in swaziland during my recent trip there. (don't even start with me on why it's taken so long to give any kind of blog post on the trip.)







the day was sponsored by healing place church and river valley church (thanks dino and rob) and was everything we had hoped it would be - plus some. we started off with some time just having some r&r with the 'cup missionaries at this little park-hotel place up in the hills just outside mbabane. after introductions of all the staff and teachers and office workers and everyone, we ate lunch and then had a small gathering where God really moved. kristen and roger led some worship, ben led a time of prayer and then ben and dad and i each shared some vision. the wrap-up was just a time of prayer for each other - ben had the missionaries pray one-on-one for the african staff and then all of us prayed for dad and mom.

the pics (thanks ty) as good as they are - only show a part of what we exerienced together that day. the bond of unity and the passionate determination to surrender our lives to God's plan and to serve His call - it hit us like a ton of bricks - no, more like a strong bear hug from God.

thanks for praying for 'cup and the kids at the carepoints.

dino rizzo on the cover of church executive magazine

ron keener interviewed dino rizzo (my pastor here at healing place church) for the cover story of the november 2006 issue of church executive magazine.

ron did a great job with the story, and they've got it up on their website at www.churchexecutive.com.

[hint: if you read far enough into the story, i actually get named in it - something to do with dino putting up with me for a long time... :-) haha]

invasion '06

ok - y'all need to see this. rob gros (designer for healing place church) designed this poster for the children's cup youth event charles young and patrick conti are putting together for the young people in swaziland.


nice job on the poster, are owe bee

the event is november 18 - do me a favor and mark your calendar to pray for this event - that God will use it to reach deep inside a lot of kids over there and make a huge difference in their worlds. pray for charles and patrick even now - that they'll have wisdom, energy, resources and plenty of Kingdom-minded volunteers to do this event the way God wants it done.

that's my girrl

oh yeah... my daughter tori is on the cover of the healing place church website in the holiday outreaches ad (on the right side of it).

thank God she looks like her momma.

how to preach on the mission field

i got this from a missionary friend of mine i've quoted before in here - brian burnham (in papua new guinea). they shared this in their e-newsletter the other day:

We wish each one of you could be here to experience everything that we are during the teaching. We were thinking if you could just create the same environment that we have here for the teaching it might help you experience it with us.
Here is a step by step process on creating your very own mock teaching setting!

1. First thing you need to do is go find a large dirt area. Flood it with water, make sure there are lots of holes so you have puddles everywhere.


2. For seating, just go find some pieces of firewood. Make sure they aren't round, sanded, or smooth in any way and have lots of splinters.


3. Get 3 pigs. Set them in the middle right where Jason is standing.


4. Get 3 dogs. Set them in the middle right where Jason is standing.


5. Get 3 chickens. Set them in the middle right where Jason is standing


6. Get 3 toddlers. Set them in the middle right where Jason is standing.


7. Get 25 sheets of newspaper and 25 leaves of tobacco. Roll up cigarettes and hand them to all the men in the crowd.


8. Get buai (the local chewing tobacco, it is bright red in color) Hand that out to any other guy that doesn't have a cigarette.


9. Make sure the pigs, chickens, dogs, and children use the dirt floor as a bathroom right by Jason.


10. Get one crazy lady, make sure she dances and swears in the back.


11. Make sure everyone has a lice partner to pick out the lice as they listen.


12. Now, go get 200 lost people and be prepared for what God is about to do!!!!

Because God created laughter..and if I didn't laugh about this I think it just might get to me after awhile!:-)
Jason, Kellie, Micah, Sophia, and Malachi Knapp

another good lesson for you on being a missionary... sometimes you just gotta have a sense of humor.

cool pics from fall fest sunday night

check out the gallery on the healing place church website from sunday night.

http://www.healingplacechurch.org/fallfest

it was cool being there with my family and my little brother and his family. and about 4000 other people. i've got some of my own pics i may upload, but the gallery of pics they put on the church's site are really slammin'.