We have learned that suffering is not the worst thing in the world—disobedience to
God
is the worst.
A VIETNAMESE CHRISTIAN PASTOR IMPRISONED FOR HIS FAITH
I just received this “Extreme Devotion” from Voice of the Martyrs today. Thought it was a good (and unexpected) follow-up to yesterday’s post.
Brother Yun is a Chinese House Church Leader who has written two books. In Heavenly Man, he tells of his conversion in China, how he fasted for 100 days asking God for a Bible, how he was imprisoned and tortured for his faith, and how the Chinese church is on fire for Christ.
Below is a passage from his uncompromising and powerful new book, Living Water.
It’s time for us to stop playing religious games with God. It’s time to get serious. it’s no longer good enough just to “believe” in Jesus; we need to become His disciples….
The Holy Spirit should continually fill and overflow you. When this happens, you will start to see miracles and many people coming to salvation, just as in the Bible.
I want to share with you the key secret for how Christians can experience a continual flow of living water in their lives. In my opinion, this key is the one major thing missing in the Western church…
The answer is not to attend more Christian conferences or seek new ministers with new messages. Please listen carefully. The key for experiencing the flow of God’s living water in your life is…
Obedience.
Hosea 10:12 Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the LORD, until he comes and showers righteousness on you.
Brother Yun is a Chinese House Church Leader who has written two books. In Heavenly Man, he tells of his conversion in China, how he fasted for 100 days asking God for a Bible, how he was imprisoned and tortured for his faith, and how the Chinese church is on fire for Christ.
Below is a passage from his uncompromising and powerful new book, Living Water.
It’s time for us to stop playing religious games with God. It’s time to get serious. it’s no longer good enough just to “believe” in Jesus; we need to become His disciples….
The Holy Spirit should continually fill and overflow you. When this happens, you will start to see miracles and many people coming to salvation, just as in the Bible.
I want to share with you the key secret for how Christians can experience a continual flow of living water in their lives. In my opinion, this key is the one major thing missing in the Western church…
The answer is not to attend more Christian conferences or seek new ministers with new messages. Please listen carefully. The key for experiencing the flow of God’s living water in your life is…
Obedience.
Hosea 10:12 Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the LORD, until he comes and showers righteousness on you.
For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one. Hebrews 10:34
Update from Pastor John Mugabi:
Fruit of prison evangelism--Pastor Robert (former prisoner) with Pastor John Mugabi
Pastor Robert Katelaga is a former prisoner. He is now a believer in Jesus, and pastors a church called Faith in Action. It’s the one you see made of iron sheets.
Faith in Action Church
We recently had a meeting here with over 56 ex-prisoners.
On Christmas day, we went out to do ministry in a distant prison.
Christmas day, John and others ministered in Prison Nakasongola
On Christmas day, we also held meetings with former prisoners, teaching them the word of God and helping them learn how to live righteously before Him, so that they do not commit crime again.
Christmas day discipleship meetings with former prisoners
Public repentance & worship
The response of Jesus indicates that the way to think about self-denial is to deny yourself only a lesser good for a greater good.
John Piper
Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time,…and in the age to come… Mark 10:28-30
If you give up the sense of at-homeness you had in your house, you get back one hundred times the comfort and security of knowing that your Lord owns every house and land and stream and tree on earth…
What was Jesus’ attitude to Peter’s sacrificial” spirit? Peter said, “We have left everything and followed you.” Is this spirit of “self-denial” commended by Jesus? No…Jesus says, “No one ever sacrifices anything for me which I do not pay back a hundredfold…” Why does Jesus rebuke Peter for thinking in terms of sacrifice? Jesus himself had demanded “self-denial” (Mark 8:34). The reason seems to be that Peter did not yet think about sacrifice (correctly)…
How is that?
The response of Jesus indicates that the way to think about self-denial is to deny yourself only a lesser good for a greater good.
John Piper, author of Desiring God...and many other books!
If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.”…
Jesus…does not ask us to be indifferent…On the contrary, he assumes that the very longing for true life (I Peter 3:10) will move us to deny ourselves all the lesser pleasures and comforts of life.
The measure of your longing for life is the amount of comfort you are willing to give up to get it. The gift of eternal life in God’s presence is glorified if we are willing to “hate our lives in this world” in order to get it (John 12:25). Therein lies the God-centered value of self-denial.
Excerpts from Desiring God, pages 202, 203
Will you join us in the Rice & Beans Extravaganza?
It’s an extravaganza of LOVE!
Identification with someone in crisis or pain is heightened when we ourselves have experienced the same type of pain.
For those of us who have had cancer or who have had loved ones who have had cancer, we immediately empathize when we hear the “C” word. For those of us who have lost a parent, a spouse, a sibling or a child, we immediately identify with the grief someone else experiences when their loved one dies.
And until we have experienced a specific grief ourselves, we generally don’t understand it or identify with it in the same we do once we have experienced it.
Not many of us are hungry, uneducated, sick with no medical care, or orphaned. That type of grief is just incomprehensible for most of us.
So how do we experience poverty in the midst of a land of plenty? How do we identify? The truth is, identification increases our sympathy and our active, responsive love.
The leadership in Nkumba (Uganda), all of the students, and everyone on the food program are now eating maize and beans at their two daily meals. Before food prices climbed so high, they had more variety and were able to do a little more supplementation. But because they don’t close their doors to those in need, and because of rising food costs, that is what they eat. Not because they love maize and beans…but because it’s cheap.
A basin of cooked maize (posho)
No juice, no milk, no soda, no starbucks. No bread, no peanut butter, no jelly, no meat, no fruit, no vegetables, no dessert, no eating out. Not even rice…it’s too expensive. Incomprehensible, right?
So here’s the Rice & Bean Extravaganza of Love: Eat rice and beans, and drink water only, at every meal for a full 7 days. Here’s the top 10 reasons to do so:
10. At the present time your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need. Then there will be equality.* 2 Corinthians 8:14
9. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. Philippians 4:12-13
20 pound bag of rice- $8
8. Giving is fun. It is more blessed to give than to receive. Acts 20:35
7. I (Jesus) have compassion on the crowd…and I am unwilling to send them away hungry… Matthew 15:32
6. And he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. 2 Corinthians 5:15
5. We will likely Remember The Poor every time we eat. Galatians 2:10
4. For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. Galatians 5:13
3. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 2 Corinthians 4:17
2. Whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord. Ephesians 6:8
1. A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love on another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”John 13:34-35
Identification = LOVE
Christ was the ultimate example of identification, who because of His great love for us, gave up the glory of Heaven and identified completely with us, becoming human. (Philippians 2:7-8)
5 pound bag of pinto beans- $6.50
In a book published by Voice of the Martyrs, Mrs. Nguyen wrote of her husband’s persecution in Vietnam. During his imprisonment, she was allowed to take food to him twice a month. She said, “The children and I saved the best food for him. We ate simple things.” That’s what Love does.
*If a family has a grocery budget of $400/mo, they could save about $85 eating rice and beans for a week. If a family eats out during a normal week, they might save even more! $85 is enough to feed 5 children for an entire month. Or if 120 families participate, it would be enough to put up a chicken coop and cow stable on the new farm.
The point is not that the money you save and give go to Uganda. You may support orphans in India or China or you may support indigenous pastors who take the gospel into nations yet unreached with the good news of Christ’s salvation. The point is that God is glorified as needs are met.
For the ministry of this service is not only supplying the needs of the saints but is also overflowing in many thanksgivings to God. By their approval of this service, they will glorify God… 2 Corinthians 9:12-13
Alex Kaggwa (at age 19) and Seggy- went to be with Jesus April 3, 2008
It’s not complicated and saves time (cook once and put the rice and beans in the frig for the week). It’s a great conversation starter at work or school or if you happen to have guests for dinner. It will reduce all of our future complaining (!) and will give us new appreciation for what we may take for granted.
And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. Luke 9:23
I have come that they may have life and have it to the full! John 10:10
Jesus made both of these statements, and they are not in conflict with one another. What if the key to unlocking this full life is found in denying ourselves–our selfishness? What if that is the very reason Christ said what He did? Not to make life miserable for us, but to give us joy unimaginable…deep, resonating satisfaction of the soul.
Will you do us the kindness of e-mailing us if you want to eat beans and rice with us during the week of January 25-31? (Or you can pick another week if that week doesn’t work for you.) We’d like to communicate with those who will be participating in “the extravaganza.”
Is there any reason this couldn’t be done once a month? Imagine…
Hilda, age 18- Rheumatic Heart Disease
Hello friends,
We were just notified today by a friend of ours, Miriam Bell, who lives in Uganda about 7 months out of the year, that this young woman Hilda is in urgent need of heart surgery. You can read the details on a web site created for her.
Hilda is a dear friend not only of Miriam’s, but also of another Ugandan pastor, Pastor Emma in Zanna, Uganda.
She has been evaluated by Dr. Lwabi, the same cardiologist who saw Cephas Mugabi in Uganda. Hilda will have her heart surgery in India. The total need is $10,000, and as of this writing, only $2500 remains.
Because the need is urgent, please contact us if you intend to give so we can let Miriam know. Thank you!
An e-mail from Brother John Mugabi, accompanied by photos from 2008. Enjoy!
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
This is a unique time in our world. I believe that God is taking our greed and materialism away from us. He is asking us to sacrifice.
Miro Jovan, sponsored in 2008
Sometimes we think that we have no say over the circumstances around us, but the good news is that we have the power to listen to the Word of God, and to use all opportunities to stand together with the hungry, the least of these, and those who have not yet known the Lord.
In this coming year, I remind all of us to become a light of God’s Love. Let it be a year of self denial and sacrifice.
I am personally happy when I look back on my childhood, I can now perhaps say, the reason I had to eat out of garbage dumpsters was because God was preparing me to become a caretaker of children who are doing so now. I completely cry when I see children going through this.
Rajab (sponsored 2008) and the widow with whom he lives
Today, I am happy to share with you that I do not eat from garbage dumpsters anymore, but at the same time I can’t bear to eat expensive food when there are many children who go hungry. I fight for the children eating from garbage dumpsters.
I look at this new land the Lord has given us as a Gold Mine… cabbages, potatoes, rice, beans, cows, chickens, ducks, bananas, and maize are all going to be grown on it. This will help us feed many more orphans, widows, street children, babies in prison and prisoners. I take this opportunity to thank each of you who have made it possible.
Dining Hall in August 2008
On behalf of Nkumba Ministries, I thank you for all your love, efforts and dedication you have showed this year serving the Master. Your giving has brought many into fellowship with Christ.
Have a wonderful Happy New Year.
On Sunday, I (Cindy) had a nice phone conversation with John. But part of it was heart-rending.
In the course of talking, he shared with me that yesterday after church, he went into Kampala to feed street kids. They fed 65 children.
Dining Hall December 2008- plastered to keep the sand-based bricks from dissolving in the rain.
These children tried to follow him back to Nkumba, but he doesn’t allow them to come until he has room and resources to care for them. I know it seems like there is always need, and the truth is, right now there is.
We live in a land of plenty; they live in a land of need.
But we’re both part of the same body of Christ. There is no difference, except in where we were born.
Our desire is not that others might be relieved while you are hard pressed, but that there might be equality. At the present time your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need. Then there will be equality. 2 Corinthians 8:13-14
(In Christ), the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. Ephesians 4:16
…we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ Acts 20:35
Eric--sponsored as of 12/24/2008
We have Eric Lukongwa born on the 25th of Nov 1993. He is the most recent that our Crime Prevention Ministry has landed on. He has been sleeping at a friends’ home after a terrible family dispute with his step mother. A student who attends our school told us about him, and he came up to our house. He is worthy of helping.
There has been incest in his home, and when he reported the matter to his father, his step-mother rose against him, so he had to flee the house. He is living with us and undergoing counseling.~ Brother John
For the needy shall not always be forgotten, and the hope of the poor shall not perish forever. Arise, O LORD! Psalm 9:18-19
Roy- Sponsored 4/26/09!
Roy Byenkya was born on August 26, 2002. Both of his parents are infected with AIDS, and he needs help.
Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out,
“Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns.” Revelation 19:6
As you read today’s letter of joy from John, you may enjoy listening to Michael W. Smith’s new song, “A New Hallelujah”, performed with the African Children’s Choir from Uganda. What a beautiful song of praise during the week we celebrate our Savior’s birth!
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Praise the Lord From Whom All Blessings Flow!!
This year, the Lord has done great things. We have seen the hand of the Lord almost on each and every thing we touched.
Prisons Ministry as usual has had the biggest number of those who have come to Christ. In 5 prisons alone, we had 234 men and women come to Christ. And, we have fed and nursed over 8 children that live with their mothers in prison.
Akim- one of the sponsored students who up until several years ago lived in prison with his mother.
By God’s grace, we started the food programme. There has been a huge need in this area, and I am particularly aware of it, having grown up on the streets, without food and a place to live. These were real issues that could even have caused my death, so we resolved to extend a hand to those who are really in need. Children who would have stolen no longer do so. They instead come and eat freely.
Also by God’s grace, we now have 113 children sponsored, with 6 new children (Sula, Bosco, Robert, Eva, Joan and Olivia) having been sponsored this past week. This is a great joy to us and we are discipling these children so that many servants of Christ will be produced.
Cephas and Quackers, the duck (Cephas is a bit afraid of ducks!, but this picture was taken especially for our sweet nephew Andrew)
It’s also been a joy to minister to nearly 1000 students in primary and High School. Out of these, 600 are regular attendants to the Bible clubs and Church Services. Isn’t this amazing!!
This year the Lord healed our son Cephas. We thank you all for your prayers.
Before the year could come to a close, the Lord gave us a 30 acre piece of land which we have termed as our “Gold Mine.” Why??? Because it is going to boost our food programme and help us feed our school children (50% orphaned and many very poor). We are going to grow more and more food. We are so happy for all your helping hands. We have not enough words to express our joy. It is inconceivable, unthinkable, inexpressible.
It’s at this point, that I wish all of you a Merry Christmas in the joy of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Brother John
Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. James 1:27
Will you bear with us for a moment in “thinking outside the child-sponsorship box”? Because there are 150,000,000 orphans in the world, and far more beyond that number who are abjectly poor, hungry, etc., we’ve “upgraded” our child sponsorship page allowing you the option to sponsor up to 20 orphans.
But don’t let us stand in your way…if you want to sponsor more than 20, just say the word!
Child sponsorship is generally packaged in such a way that we think of sponsoring one or two and writing to them several times a year. And that is good, and it’s how we’ve been operating and will continue to operate.
But we want you to know the opportunity doesn’t stop there. If you want to sponsor more than one or a few, you can. You don’t need to correspond with every child you sponsor. That doesn’t need to be a barrier that prevents you from sharing the gift of a Christ-centered education, food, shelter, medical care and clothing with more children. For more information on sponsoring children, please click the links below.
Joshua- unsponsored
Joshua was born on April 21, 2003. His father has lost his mind, and his mother has no job at all.
Remember the Poor 