Wayne's GOG Ramblings

HERE WAS MY STORY AS TOLD AT THE CONFERENCE; I WROTE THIS ABOUT FOUR YEARS AGO.

ASIA “Living Among the Dead”

A certain Central Asian republic³ is on the top ten list of countries where Christians are most persecuted; 44.4% of the population is under the age of 18, and 83% are Muslim. All evangelism among indigenous Muslim-born citizens is prohibited. Persecution of Christians is rampant. Police raid churches in search of worshipers, come to their houses, physically abuse them, and arrest pastors. Yet there’s revival, and most of the new Christians are youth. A recent visitor there was amazed at seeing 14 year old evangelists and teenage pastors. In some churches there are no adults at all. The only grown-up is the Holy Spirit. And these kids who are filling these churches are coming to Christ at youth camps. One camp director received a police warning strictly forbidding any children’s ministry, but that did not prevent them from conducting a camp. In order to hide better, they found a place that was both remote and cursed in the eyes of the locals: a forest between a cemetery and a leper colony. They hacked out a clearing for tents, and hired men from the village to keep the jackals away at night. Many children came to know the Lord in that place, finding Life between the dead and the dying.

THIS NEWS FEED JUST MADE IT TO MY DESK, AND INTERESTINGLY, IT WAS DISTRIBUTED ON THE VERY DAY I WAS TELLING MY STORY AT A CCCA SECTIONAL CONFERENCE!

Monday 15 March 2010
UZBEKISTAN: BAPTISTS FINED 100 TIMES MINIMUM MONTHLY SALARY

Uzbekistan has fined 13 members of an unregistered Baptist church 100 times the minimum monthly salary, Forum 18 News Service has learned. The church has protested against the fines, claiming that over 60 violations of Uzbek law were committed in the course of the arrests, detentions and interrogations which led up to the court proceedings. Amongst the Criminal Code articles said to be violated were those forbidding the use of violence by officials. There have been several other recent raids and fines on Protestants. In one incident after fining three Protestants, Judge Makset Berdimuratov in the north-western region of Karakalpakstan ordered the destruction of confiscated Christian books including the Bible. Asked by
Forum 18 why Christians believers cannot keep copies of Bibles in their homes, the Judge – in a very calm voice – stated that Bibles “must also be registered with the State Committee, and if they are not they will be destroyed once found.”

Exciting how God can work even in the midst of persecution!

With any fund raising effort, the best help for our support long term is the establishment of monthly givers: Those that are able to give consistently on a monthly basis.

When I was trying to figure out how I might best accomplish this,  I was in my car and the Christian station was sharing about their “small monthly pledge” that can accomplish the BIG goal of a fully functional station.

I started thinking through the numbers and how this can easily apply to my situation. So…  here is the Global Outreach Group Google Challenge!

I challenge all the Global Outreach Group page fans with pledging to my support  for $10.00… $15.00… $20.00 on a monthly basis!

This commitment out of your monthly budget may seem difficult to consider, but together with others my very large goal of working with GOG, full time, will begin to be more of a reality.

Contact me and I will get you the information you will need to start giving monthly in whatever way you want to best accomplish this.

Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Last week I was asked if I could put a power point presentation on the GOG website. The interest was to get a file to some leaders in Croatia that was too large to email to them. Global Outreach Group has been working with leaders of camp there in Croatia to redesign a camp. Stan Gillespie, on staff with GOG, has been working with a consultant out of Bellingham, WA on a site plan.

I was able to put the presentation on the website in a way that when they had a Skype call (the leaders in Croatia, Stan in Alaska, and the consultant in Washington. All for free!) and look at the plans and discuss them together.

After the meeting I got the following note from Stan:

“Wayne, your work helping us do the ministry is great! The work you put on the web helped yesterday as I was working with a ministry in Croatia . You truly are helping international ministries around the world.  Thanks for all that you are doing.

This is in from Croatia today:

“I would like to say “Thank you to Ed, Stan and the team!” You all have given us so much of your time to serve our Lord in helping us envision future ministry!  I also want to say I really enjoyed today’s discussion as it caused us to do some excellent thinking about the property, potential ministry through this facility and brings up the kinds of questions we need to continue to ask.”

Looking at the whole phenomenon of Facebook and other social networks continues to blow my mind. I will show my age by thinking back to the “old days” (and I intentionally left out “good”).

A shortened history lesson: Bev and I spent most of the 1980’s in Peru and Bolivia as missionaries in the high Andes on Lake Titicaca. We lived in a beautiful village on the lake at 12,500 feet above sea level. Juli was about 45 minutes away from Puno, a larger more commercial town. We had to go there for supplies and the central telephone office with its half a dozen phones with an operator that made the call for you. (The 80s may seem the dark ages for you, but be thankful I didn’t start back with my parents and my childhood there)

Anyway, to the point. Communication to family and mission business was SLOW; mail took two weeks; teletype was used but not reliable and costly; phones took sometimes all day just to make a connection and then it cost $5 – 6 a minute per call, so you didn’t just chat. All these communication difficulties when we were a new family with three kids and the only English speaking Americans in the area at all.

By the end of the time we were there we had moved to La Paz, Bolivia. With the bigger city came “our own phones”, albeit still unreliable. We also were amazed that there was even the beginnings of the possibility to FAX a full letter to someone “IN MINUTES!!!”.

Jump a few years to 2000, Bev and I lead a YCEW team back to Bolivia. Now in preparation for the trip the internet allowed us to send emails to the missionaries and get answers to questions almost instantly. We even were able to let people know of missed flights and change of plans when things were happening not two weeks later. But the thing that blew our minds the most on the trip was that EVERYONE, even in the most remote areas, wanted our email address so that they could keep in contact with us!

Now 10 years later the next evolution, that is affecting even me here in McCall, is that I now have several Facebook friends with people that we worked with in Bolivia and Peru. When I was 10 years old in Bolivia we had a family that helped in our home. She would bring her two boys to work and I would play with them during the day. Now David is a strong leader in the Bolivian Friends church in Santa Cruz and we send notes back and forth fairly often. Mostly children of good friends that we worked with in Peru are now contacting us and asking if we remember them.

You can range widely on the question of the value of the internet. But to this theme of communication the world is a whole lot smaller and I can share the story of my small part in history because of the tool of the internet. Life just continues to ever change: now my pressing question is not whether a message can be shared but rather how, “iPhone or Droid?”

I come to this post not knowing how to put into words the quandary that I am wrestling with. I look at the devastation that has hit the Haitian island and listen to thousands of stories of people and their life altering circumstances. I hear of a missionary couple with Mennonite Central Committee from the Oregon area that was in their third floor apartment in Port-au-Prince. Their building was demolished and they rode the building to the ground. After a 12 hour ordeal they were able to climb their way out and are fine and heading back to their families in Portland.

The situation is mind blowing and how to think through a personal response has brought hours of contemplation. Are there ways that my church can become involved, my family, me personally; financial involvement, actual physical involvement; all these thoughts pull at my heart.

Now back to the quandary of this blog:  I am in the process of getting out the word that I am in need your help raising support to begin working full time with Global Outreach Group. Several different measures have been taken to announce this trust adventure that Bev and I have given to the Lord. The rest of the blog outlines this petition.

But how can I ask for your help in the face of such a great need of the Haitian people? It seems too self-promoting to continue to send out my appeal letters. I know that the needs demanded for this and the other Katrina situations will continually present themselves. I also know that the ministry of GOG is a useful and God ordained  tool in the Lord’s Kingdom and worthy any appeal for your support.

What thoughts might you have? I am just wondering if you can respond to the two sided coin of my internal debate.

Join Me (and Bev) in a new Direction,

a New Adventure:  GOG

I have been given the privilege to join the staff of Global Outreach Group. This blog is meant to share with you both what GOG is and to let you know why I want to be involved with their efforts world wide!

• Check out the video on the “About Us” page
• GOG has a new brochure with updated explanations.
• Read through all my “Ramblings” to date.
• Then read my epistle to you about how you can help Bev and Me.

When you decide you want to help, please go to the  “Giving” page on the GOG site at http://www.globaloutreachgroup.org and follow the steps for a secure donation.  You can also contact me by email at wchapman@globaloutreachgroup.org.   Help Me, Help Them!

Read the rest of this entry »

New Year activities are done (Except for Boise State’s appearance in the Fiesta Bowl this evening!!!) and I am ready to get back to the activities of Global Outreach Group!

Of course the priority right now is to get my ducks in a row on how best to raise the support needed to be able to work full time with GOG. This blog is a big first step and I would appreciate any input on the style, content or whatever comes to mind about the blog.

Prayer Concern

These past few days of  “thinking” have brought up the many negative points of raising support money in this day and age. It is hard to visualize what needs to be done in order to share with others how they can help in the ministry of Global Outreach Group and me specifically.

This Sunday, Dustin, a High School-er in our church here in McCall, shared about his trip to a conference in Oregon over the Christmas Holiday. The admonition of the conference was “Here Am I Send Me” and that first we must be willing and THEN we must trust that the Lord will provide everything needed for the calling!!!

Nothing new right? But very much a concept that has been hard for me even as a past missionary. I did trust the Lord (but maybe more the church’s budget) for the support during those years. Now that has to change into a total trust and seeking of what the Lord has in store.

I told him afterwards that what he shared was very good for what I was going through. Willingness is not a problem: I have been wanting to find a way to be used again in the Lord’s international ministry.  I have however been trying to accomplish this through my own efforts and not truly trusting that He is able to provide in His way and time.

Pray with me that this can change and that I will be blown away in seeing Him provide!

My wish is that you were able to enjoy a Merry Christmas with family!!!  Bev and I were able to get together with all of our family in Colorado Springs CO in our daughter’s home. Our oldest, Amy and her husband Tim have been living and working in CO since they were married. Our oldest son Nick and his wife Lindsay are living near Red Hook NY were Lindsay is getting her master’s degree and Nick is coaching among many other things. Our younger son, Michael and his wife Melisa have recently moved to Fresno, CA where he is working with Mennonite Central Committee. All of our schedules worked out to get together and enjoy hours of playing games and of course eating.

However the center of activities this year was our grand daughter Isabelle, Amy & Tim’s daughter. She just turned two and with all of us around for a few days she was spoiled and Mom and Dad will have to deal with her after we had to leave. We were even able to try out the fun of togetherness with our own version of Rock Band.

Bev and I drove from Idaho and we had very good road conditions both directions. We praise the Lord because that is not always the case on that trip through Wyoming.

Now I am in the transition from these great days of relaxed schedule to get back to the daily activities of life here in McCall, Idaho. Snow brings getting up and clearing it with blowers both at home and Quaker Hill Camp where Bev is working. LOTS OF FUN!!!

Then I am continuing the journey of learning what is the ministry of GOG and how I might best fit into their plans and goals.  Come back and follow the next steps.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

I want to direct you to the GOG home site to gather more information about the organization I will be working with:(http://www.globaloutreachgroup.org ). However the site  is currently undergoing a major refacing. We have someone that is working on this for us. Check back over the next few weeks and see how the site is developed. New faces are always fun to check out!

So starts the adventure of working with those of Global Outreach Group.

GLOBAL – From and early age I have had a positive experience with being part of a GLOBAL life.

OUTREACH – Then from the time of a missions rally when I was in middle school I have known that I wanted to be part of Christ’s OUTREACH into the dark world around me.

GROUP – I have known that this could not be done by myself and that the best way to accomplish anything for the Lord would be through the efforts of a GROUP.

So to possibly be part of the GOG efforts around the world is exciting. The next few posts will mark the steps that Bev and I will be taking to see where the Lord is about to take us.