Reachout

SALT OF THE EARTH TO OUR GENERATION

(August 24, 2021) Martyn Iles, ACL Managing Director challenges Australian Christians to reach more people with God’s truths…

Never lose faith that God is still working, even in contemporary Australia.

I’ve seen it at The Truth of It – LIVE meetings. The electricity in the air, the enthusiasm in people’s hearts, the unity among churches, age groups, and ethnicities. The genuine love of Christ. I’ve never seen anything like it.

The challenge is not only to keep those fires burning – but to send sparks flying into more places – so others will hear God’s truth and come to know Christ. And those sparks fly through people like you.

Serve as ‘salt’ in this generation
God’s truth is made known through you as you stand up for Christ in your local community and resist unjust laws. That’s what it means to be ‘salt’, as the Bible says – to stop the rot and decay that’s all around us (Matthew 5:13).

Today, I’m asking for your help to raise up more men, women, and young people like you to be the salt our nation needs.

Your partnership makes a big difference – because now there are over 2,000 volunteers and over 200,000 people who invest and pray – but there is so much more we can do together. Your investment today will grow this movement by helping to:

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WALKING WITH CONFIDENCE – SATOU’S STORY

(August 11, 2021) Caloundra, Qld, Mercy Ships shares more good news…

‘Satou is actually a happy child. She doesn’t like being sad,’ her mother, Khady, shared. ‘She is also strong-willed and determined and would get very upset when she felt that she was not being respected.’

Satou’s family was very disheartened. With no access to medical care, Khady worried her daughter would never find the healing she’d need to stand tall.

Then someone told Khady about the arrival of the Mercy Ships hospital ship, the Africa Mercy.

‘Doors of heaven’ open
Khady rushed Satou to a patient screening, where she was given a date for the surgery that would straighten her legs. ‘I have not dared to even dream that it is possible that my daughter’s legs can be straightened,’ Khady said. ‘It feels as though the doors of heaven were being opened for her.’

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BENEFITTING OVER 2.8 MILLION PEOPLE

(July 27, 2021) Caloundra, Queensland. Diane Rickard
International Media Relations Manager, Mercy Ships shares Mercy Ships good news…

Global health charity, Mercy Ships, reports that after a completion and acceptance ceremony on June 16, followed by a handover celebration at the Tianjin Xingang shipyard this past week, the world’s largest civilian hospital ship, Global Mercy™, has successfully been delivered and the charity has taken possession of their brand-new vessel.

Dream come true
‘This day is a dream come true – not only for us, but for those we serve,’ stated Don Stephens, Mercy Ships founder who spoke via video to those attending. ‘African heads of states and ministers of health have often expressed a desire for more of their healthcare professionals to be trained in-country. This ship will do exactly that. Many who suffer from disability and disfigurement will have access to surgical treatment and whole-person care in healthcare systems that will enable them to reach their God-given potential. We hope that this new vessel and the volunteer crew who serve on her will bring hope, healing and transformation for the next 40-50 years,’ he added.

Per Westling, CEO of Stena RoRo, said ‘We are very proud to take delivery of this special ship. The activities to be carried out on board have placed special and high demands on the construction of this ship. For the yard, it was the first time this type of vessel was built – a challenge that they managed very well. For Mercy Ships, delivery means that their capacity to help more than doubles. And at Stena RoRo we are happy to be a part of their fantastic work through Global Mercy.’

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WHY MISSIONS IS PERSONAL TO ME

(July 23, 2021) Erica Grace, ex-missionary to South America, shares a personal reflection…

What comes to your mind when you hear the word ‘Missions’?

You’ll probably say: the ‘lost’ and that would be right.

A lost man
There was a young man who was totally lost.

He had lost his career, his home, his future, his dreams. He was so lost people had given up on him. He drank himself to oblivion every day and often had wild fits of violence. Friends would bring him to his desperate wife each night, where she would endure his frustrating beatings. She had resorted to hiding money so she would have enough to feed her son.

One night this wild he met a humble missionary. He was reading the story of the Prodigal Son with a very heavy accent.

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THE WIGGLESWORTH CHALLENGE

(July 17, 2021) Robert and Maureen McQuillan again encourage practical Christianity in one’s locale…

Firstly, many thanks to so many friends worldwide who congratulated us on our 60th wedding anniversary last Wednesday. One cheeky young girl immediately asked Maureen how she’d put up with me for so long to which Maureen gave her usual response that she was still working on me!

The reality is that our threescore ‘diamond anny’ journey with its typical marriage challenges (yes, even Christian have them!) owes its success to the Lord!

Good, sumptuous meals
So we celebrated at Hogan’s Hotel, Wallan and were treated as royalty, repeatedly congratulated by helpful friendly staff, expressing that 60 years married is a rarity.

And what meals we were served! Sumptuous, delicious… particularly the unexpected, excellent huge desserts! Our tastebuds were more than satisfied! Thank you, Darren and staff! As we left we again expressed our gratefulness, adding ‘You’ve really blessed us… so we’re believing that you and your staff will be blessed.’

Simple words… but such that get people thinking in these uncertain times, and to which one hears a thank you response, or sees a nod, and sometimes an ‘Amen. You too.’

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AVOIDING A BITTER HARVEST

Have you ever heard of the ‘Law of the Harvest’?

It simply says: You reap what you sow. This truth has hit home lately having observed it in the lives of a couple whom I’ll call Robert and Ruth.

Robert and Ruth have worked hard all their lives. They both enjoyed their careers and were considered by many to be good workers, having given all their time and energy to their jobs. Their five children, far from being an asset, were more or less considered a hindrance – an intrusion in their ambitious race.

Quite frankly, Robert and Ruth enjoyed their jobs and career challenges far more than raising children.

Children can be so easily hurt
At first it hurt the children that their parents were never around, not even for special days, or for school or sports events but they soon got over it. The children learned to look after themselves, much to their parents’ relief.

They became used to their parents many trips away and endless meetings and learned to cope with the scant attention they got from their parents. They found other meaningful people in their lives to fill the void left by the parents.

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NEVER TO BE FORGOTTEN ENCOUNTER

(June 14, 2021) Robert McQuillan reflects on this category’s title, Reachout! …

As readers know, this category usually centres on missionary activities overseas and the need to pray for and financially support missionaries, especially in these troubled and dangerous times.

Yet contributors often include a reminder that ‘missionary’ service begins at home, through local churches, and Christians who love their Lord and desire to serve him. That the Matthew 28:18-20 great commission starts in our local Jerusalem.

Interestingly recent American blogs are encouraging churches to reach out locally. Australia’s Wayne Swift, National Leader, Acts Global Churches also wrote: ‘An encounter with God, discipleship and planting pretty much sum up the task of the church and they have for two thousand years, the only change is the impact of the church on the communities in which they dwell.’

In this connection, reaching out locally to the unsaved, a friend phoned confessing he was a little tired hearing his minister preaching about many ‘things’ but never encouraging and teaching how to reach the unchurched.

Unexpected encounter
His call must have been on my mind for I woke up this morning recalling something that happened many years ago…

I’d received a phone call inviting me to meet a Chinese pastor visiting a church nearby the office I used in the days I was editing and publishing a denominational magazine.

Admitting that I’d never heard of this pastor, I agreed… It was to be an appointment I have never forgotten… and never will!

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THE CHOICE IS OURS

(June 9, 2021) Bonnie Spencer shares a most important challenge…

We make countless choices every day. We decide…

What to wear, what to eat, who to hang out with. What time to get up, unless we have a job that dictates that. Even then, we had the choice of taking that job, looking for a different one, or not working at all but instead backpacking around the country.

And so on… but the choice most often is ours.

Created to make choices
Although some countries severely limit freedoms, that is not how God created us to live. He is all about freedom and giving us the opportunity to make our own choices. Unlike the animals he created with instincts, he gave us the ability to think and decide for ourselves how to live our lives… even when it means making the wrong choices. That is clear from the beginning of history.

When God created Adam and Eve and placed them in the Garden of Eden, he instructed them, ‘You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die’(Genesis 2:16-17).

From the start God has laid out what is right and what is wrong, telling the consequences of making the wrong decisions. Adam and Eve made a bad choice in disobeying God, and humankind has experienced the consequence of death ever since. Death was never God’s plan for us, but he allows us to choose.

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WITNESSING WITH GOOGLE

(May 20, 2021) Timothy Cockes, reporter for Baptist Press brings this great testimony of up-to-date gospel witnessing…

A simple furniture purchase turned into a life-changing experience for two men visiting Pastor James Merritt this past weekend.

Pastor of Cross Pointe Church in the Atlanta suburb of Duluth, he was able to lead both men, who did not speak English, to make a decision for Christ communicating solely through the Google Translate app on his phone in what he described as ‘one of the greatest witnessing experiences I’ve ever had in my life.’

Bartolo and Osmani, brothers originally from Cuba, were picking up some furniture when Pastor Merritt began talking to them by using the voice option on the Google Translate app.

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MARIE MONSEN – LOOSE-CANNON UNSUNG, UNSUPPORTED HERO

(May 19, 2021) In keeping with our own Encouragement article this month, we rerun ex-missionary to South America, Erica Grace’s recent challenge to remember unsung Hebrews 11 type heroes such as this ‘loose-cannon’ unsupported missionary…

Born in Sandviken, Norway in 1878, Marie Monsen became a schoolteacher. She went to China in 1901 to help the missionary couple sent there by her Lutheran church needing a teacher for their children.

But shortly after she arrived those missionaries left due to the national unrest and turn of events in China The mission agency back in Norway didn’t have the funds to send for Marie as well, so she stayed back waiting for her ticket to arrive.

Following Bible examples
Meanwhile, people kept coming to the mission home looking for help but Marie was the only one there.  She would face squalid conditions of starving, sick children and not knowing what do, felt helpless and overwhelmed… the situations she faced each day seemed insurmountable. Marie’s only solution would be to pray.

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One emergency would be followed by another, then another in a nearby town. Everywhere she went Marie (left) would just open her Bible and read especially the gospels where Jesus performed miracles. Then she would pray for people with all sorts of problems, diseases and oppressions. She hadn’t seen this being done back home in her church, but she followed the examples in the Bible.

Not quite sure where she even was, she was woken one day by pleas for help by distraught parents. When she reached their home, she saw their only son, around nine years old, lying on a mat – dead. They begged her to pray to her God.

Miracles!
With childlike faith Marie opened her Bible, read where Jesus raised a young son from the dead and prayed: ‘Lord, you are the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. Please raise this son from the dead.’

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