Listen as Graham and Joanne share some of the blessings and challenges of being missionaries in the African country of Botswana. God is changing lives through these committed Christians.

Peacocke March 6 seg 1

Peacocke March 6 seg 2

Peacocke March 6 seg 3

This week, on A Place Missionaries Call Home, we will be talking to Joe, the plumber, Andy the real estate developer, and Scott the mad scientist. These three families are part of “the journey,” the reality radio program that we are doing on families. These folks are not only seeking God’s direction, but moving forward in the area of full time missions. The common thread you will see is that they run into troubles, too. Just because we are doing God’s will doesn’t keep us from being human.

The Journey Continues Feb 27 – Hunters

The Journey Continues Feb 27 – Readlings

The Journey Continues Feb 27 – Bowersox

This is the second in a series of articles to convince you or help you convince others of our need as Christians to “mind our own business.” First, we determined that our business is obeying the command of Jesus found in the four Gospels and the Book of Acts to take His message of salvation to the world. Since the world then, is our place of business, we need to remember some simple facts about our territory.

• This Is A Changing World. The church is often the last to recognize this fact, and continues to function in the same way it has for generations. Jesus Christ is the same today, yesterday and tomor­row. The Gospel will never change, but the world to which He has sent us changes continually. September 11, 2001 radically changed our country and world. Racial and language factors, cultures and customs, concepts of morali­ty, political situations go through rapid transitions. Borders and names of countries change so frequently that maps are quickly out of date. Think of the centrality of the computer, email, instant messaging and instant news from around the world. More than 39 million Americans, slightly more than 14% of the population, changed their addresses last year. Look at the changes in our own communities; farmland turned into housing developments, lifestyles that make former methods of reaching people ineffective. The church is not a center of community life as it once was. We cannot ignore these factors and we need constantly to rethink how we can change to reach the broader world as well as the world around us with the Gospel of Christ. “We’ve never done it that way before” are words of a stagnant and dying church.
• This Is A Growing World. The International Data Base of the U.S. Census Bureau’s website projects births in 2010 to be 131,940,516, about the same number born every year. On March 1, 2010, the estimated world population was 6,819,416,692; that is 25,823,006 more than on January 1, 2010. With population increase, there are growing problems of health, standards of living, tensions, wars, racial hatred, refugees, and spiritual emptiness. The church’s business is to reach these multiplying millions to meet their needs and problems, because not only is this a growing world –
• This Is Also A Dying World. At least 56,545,138 will die this year, about two per second, millions of them entering eternity without Jesus Christ. We can’t keep them from dying, but we can work to reach them for Christ to prepare them. (Note: The number of deaths stated does not include the 40-50 million babies who are killed by abortion each year, approximately 125,000 per day. See http://www.worldometers.info/.) About 33% of the world’s population is Christian, including all who claim to be Christian. About 7% are evangelical Christians, meaning those who “emphasize commitment to per­sonal faith, conversion and evangelism” (Johnston & Mandryk, Operation World). If Jesus Christ is the answer to life and death (and He is) and promises abundant and eternal life through a personal relationship with Him (and He does), then it follows that we must take the message of His love, forgiveness and salvation to the entire world just as He has told us to do.

H. Milton Wilder
Missionary Pastoral Care

I love mornings. To me the best part of the day is just before the sun comes up.  In the quietness of the day, the Lord speaks through His Word. This morning as I look out the window, the snow is falling. Read the rest of this entry »

Drugs, alcohol, prison…and a praying Mom! Danny Fearnside shares the story about his addictions and how God finally broke through to save him. Now, God is using Danny to reach out to others who are caught in the same lies, showing them that the answer is Christ. Listen to the interview, rejoice with answered prayer in this life, and remember, never give up praying for your loved ones.

You can find out more at www.jesussavesmen.com, click onto Dano’s Spot or you can e-mail Danny at d_fearnside@yahoo.com

Never Give Up! Feb 20 Seg 1

Never Give Up! Feb 20 Seg 2

Never Give Up! Feb 20 Seg 3

Sometimes it can takes years of praying, witnessing and outreach to see people come to understand and embrace the Gospel. Listen to this week’s interview with the Cullers as they share how God has worked and is continuing to work on the mission field of Taiwan. You will be blessed.

Cullers Feb 13 seg 1

Cullers Feb 13 seg 2

Cullers Feb 13 seg 3

This morning while reading my Bible I came across a familiar scripture in 1 Thessalonians 5:17, 18 “Pray without ceasing. In everything, give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.” I was flabbergasted!  I thought to myself,  “Lord, how I can have joy and thanksgiving all the time?” I looked this passage up in the Book of Knowledge Commentary and it was such an encouragement to me that I wanted to share it with you. It says “God’s will means joy, prayer and thanksgiving for those who are in Christ. Continual prayer is not prayer that prevails without any interruptions, but prayer that continues whenever possible. The adverb for continually was used in the Greek of a hacking cough. Paul was speaking of maintaining continuous fellowship with God as much as possible in the midst of daily living in which concentration is frequently broken.” Read the rest of this entry »

Some church members have never received Christ as Savior. We would not expect them to believe in missions outreach or even in evangelism. However, though it seems to be in the category of an oxymoron, some Christians do not believe in missions. I won’t discuss possible reasons for this phenomenon. Instead, I will offer, in the course of a few articles, some thoughts to help such Christians change their hearts and minds and/or help missions-minded Christians in presenting a convincing “argument” for what our Lord has called us to do.

Pastor W. T. Holland said that while he was a seminary student he taught a Sunday School Class. One Sunday he was presenting the lesson on missions when a member of the class made a remark that shocked and upset him. The member said, “People in those other countries have their own religions, their own way of life, their own cultures. We have no business going to other countries trying to force our religion on them. Why don’t we just run our church af­fairs here and mind our own business?” Few church members would openly say that, but too many feel that way. The man did have a point, at least in part of what he said. We really ought to mind our own business as a church and as individual Christians, but first we had better know what that business is.

It is not very difficult to discover the business we ought to mind. Jesus stated clearly in all four gospels and the book of Acts what our business is as His followers:

• Matthew 28:19-20: “‘Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.’”
• Mark 16:15: “‘Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.’”
• Luke 24:46-48: “‘Thus it is written, that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day, and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.’”
• John 17:18: Jesus prayed to His Father, “‘As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world….’”
• John 20:21: Jesus said to His disciples, “‘Peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you.’”
• Acts 1:8: “‘… you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”

Jesus made it plain that as His Church, our place of business is the world. Our business is to take to the world the gospel truth that Jesus Christ through His life, death, burial and resurrection provides salvation and eternal life for all who believe. As His Father sent Him into the world, even so He has sent us into the world. You may refuse to obey what He said, but you cannot deny that His word tells us what our business is. As Oswald J. Smith (1889-1986), founder and pastor of The People’s Church in Toronto, Canada put it, “The supreme task of the Church is the evangelization of the world.”

Imagine having two special needs kids, three open heart surgeries, lupus and yet a deep desire for ministry. What would you do if you were in their shoes? Listen to this week’s show as Iva & Russell Catron tell how God has worked in their lives, their struggles and their solid belief that God knows what He is doing in their lives. You will be blessed.

Catron Feb 6 Seg 1

Catron Feb 6 Seg 2

Catron Feb 6 Seg 3

You will be blessed as you listen to Chris and Katie share their hearts’ desire to go to Utah to plant a church.

Dodson Jan 30 segment 1

Dodson Jan 30 segment 2

Dodson Jan 30 segment 3