Bon Voyage

Friends of the Gospel:

1) Discipleship is needed in the global church. I cannot find materials that are comprehensive, non-denominational, in a Bible study format, simple, and free. So I made materials. More languages are on the way. You can download and freely use the booklets by clicking on http://www.freechristiandiscipleship.com/

Please let others know about this free resource. If you have a webpage or blog, please add a link to my site. Your link will be read by Google and increase the priority in Google searches.

2) I am leaving on Monday for another missions trip. Dani will stay in the US and handle distribution of updates. I will travel to India for the hostel project, then to China for leadership training. I will return May 17th. I appreciate your prayers.

Easter Blessings Because of Our Risen Savior,

Free Discipleship Books

Babies left in the bushes die. We know that. We never leave newborns without care and nurture. So why do we birth new Christians then abandoned them? We need more of the organized follow up we call discipleship.

Were you discipled? I was not.

Let’s be used of God to address this huge need. I have a simple suggestion of what you and I can do together. Interested? Read on.

God is on the move. In the first century new Christians were born at the rate of one per hour. Today the rate is one every second. God is preparing a vast number to worship him through eternity. But first, the newborns must make it to the gates of heaven clinging to Jesus.

Many give up before they get there.

They were never taught how to survive the intense trials and temptations of this life. Jesus called these tests, "trouble, persecution, worries, and the deceitfulness of wealth." In his parable of the four soils he warned us of the ways a baby Christian can die (Matthew 13:3-23).

Do you know any struggling Christians? I sure do.

The solution is to ask them, “Would you like to go through discipleship booklets with me?”

Click on the title above to download the free booklets. Set a weekly time to meet with your friend or group, and share the answers you each filled-in during the week.

Listen, pray, laugh, cry, bond.

Discipleship is more about transferring your Christ-reformed heart than these materials.

The Tree of Life Discipleship Series was made for international Christians. The format is biblical, simple, non-denominational and easily translated. Feel free to copy, print, and share. Please let us know before you translate or edit the booklets. jamesdchristian@gmail.com.

Do you not say, ‘Four months more and then the harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. Even now the reaper draws his wages, even now he harvests the crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. John 4:35, 36

Report #6 India/Africa Nov/Dec 2009

I wish I could report how the big key caper ended, but two things prevent me. First, it is not yet over; the keys are still lost. Second, it involves personal information about others I cannot disclose. Suffice it to say that spiritual warfare is at hand.

May I take a moment to preach to my friends? DO NOT ALLOW ANY UNRESOLVED JUDGMENT OF OTHERS TO TAINT YOUR SOUL. It invites demons and decimates our faith. We must examine our hearts and if there are people or groups that cause us pain, we must repent of our attitude towards them.

Sorry for the sermon, but I love my friends and cannot bear to think that bitterness is eroding grace out of their lives. I will now step off my soapbox and let Jesus have the final word on the subject:

Mt 18:32 –Mt 18:35 NIV

“Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to.

Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.

“This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart.”

Moving on… Since the last report I gave on the ills of Dave’s Land Rover, the power steering and clutch have now also gone out. We finally jimmy-rigged the ignition to bypass the lost keys; however, the beast sits incapacitated with no money to resurrect it.

Life in Zimbabwe continues to challenge in many ways. Only ten percent of the farmland is in use, hostility between groups rages on, and electric power has been out in Doma for ten days and counting.

Last week our group of friends was sitting outside listening to the night sounds and watching fireflies when Dawn Aylward retired to the house next door for the night. A man sneaked behind her and into the doorway with a long iron bar raised.

In a burst of courage, Dawn grabbed the bar and prevented the intruder from striking. Then she screamed like the Israelites when they brought down the walls of Jericho.

We heard the yell and ran to the house to find the criminal gone and Dawn understandably shaken, but unharmed. We praised Jesus that he had given Dawn the wherewithal to yell the criminal right out of the house.

In a multiplicity of ways, I see this world without Jesus is a horrible scary place.

On to happier subjects, I am glad to say the 18 hours I spent with Dave’s staff in training seems to have been productive. When tested, most were able to repeat the major themes of the lessons and with evidence of personal integration.

Friends in ministry who struggle in the physical aspects of daily life, as well as facing spiritual battles, need others to come along and strengthen them once in a while. Months ago I asked Father if I should accept the invitation to return to Zimbabwe. I felt he said yes; but was not 100 percent sure. Now I am sure. I see clearly why he asked me to come.

What a joy to be in the service of Jesus Christ who directs our steps, empowers ministry, and delivers results. To him belongs all the glory. Paul said it much better:

1Co 3:7 –1Co 3:8 NIV

So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor.

Among the pictures I am posting with this entry, are some animal shots. As Dave and I traveled about visiting the black Africans he works with, we were privileged to see duiker, springbuck, a nine-foot black mamba, a troupe of baboons, a lake otter, a rare sighting of a bush baby, a stick bug, and a monitor that Dave nearly sat on (a funny moment).

This will be the last entry for this trip, so let me thank you again for your love and prayers. I do not take either for granted, but am deeply grateful for them both.

Hugs and prayers,

JDC--

Report #5 India/Africa Nov/Dec 2009

Dave’s Land Rover has a long history of breakdowns. As I arrived in Zimbabwe he got it back with a rebuilt engine. Then the battery and charging system went out and we had to borrow a battery and limp back to Chinhoyi for repairs.

Next, while we were out visiting rural villages, the front shock broke and we had a man temporarily weld it together. Then Cynthia was driving the Rover and the drive shaft U-joint broke. Rory and Gordon towed it back to Mhangura but in the confusion, the keys were misplaced. We searched high and low for three days—no keys.

Transportation problems are only a small part of the challenges these good people face daily. Everything is a challenge. The sarcastic phrase TIF (This is Africa) looses its humor from overuse.

I feel for Dave and so began to pray for direction. I sought God several times about the keys and had only the slightest feeling that the keys were tucked under something dark, perhaps something round. So launching on faith I told Dave yesterday that I would catch a ride from Doma to Mhangura and pray to find the keys or hotwire the Land Rover and drive it with the front driveshaft disconnected.

“We are cooking a chicken and will expect you for dinner,” were the last words Dave said to me.

In Mhangura the African workers helped me roll the vehicle a foot or two so I could look for the keys underneath. Nothing.

Next, I unbolted the steering lock then ran a hotwire to the glow plugs. The fuel pump proved to be mechanical, not electrical, so that was not a problem. However, when we jumped the Rover by towing it for about one kilometer, nothing happened except the towline broke four times.

I know very little about diesel engines so it remains a mystery why the Rover would not start. But my real question is why God did not reveal the location of the keys. For two weeks I have been teaching the staff lessons about listening to the Lord in ministry rather than using our own wisdom. Now I question my own teaching.

In fact, I question many things about my ministry, including why I am trying to start an orphanage in India. All this is making me step back and re-evaluate.

After much prayer and reading my Bible I conclude that God is much bigger than my concept of how he should help us. It is a fine thing to be bold and ask him for lost keys or to supernaturally cause orphanages to develop. However, life is in his hands, not mine and I simply need to humble myself and let his answer be his answer.

I often teach that there is no such thing as a great man of God; there are only humble men that God chooses to use greatly. Now I am learning to heed my own teaching and give God the room to use me or not as he chooses. My assignment is only to wait humbly.

I am now in Mhangura with no way to Doma where I am supposed to be helping Dave build on his house. So be it. I do not know what I will do with this day except I will wait on the Lord to see how all this comes out.

Trusting and Learning,

JDC

Report #4

I am now writing you from Rory and Judy Ervine’s patio overlooking the lake in Doma where Dani and I stayed three years ago. The rains have begun in earnest and all is green and mild. There is an electric sunset igniting the belly of the clouds. The crickets and birds are shouting their hallelujahs. They are oblivious to the brokenness of the Zimbabwean humans.

Dave and I have been bouncing down the roads in his muddy Land Rover to visit some of the villages we ministered to back in 2006. It is wonderful to make connections with so many old friends. We sit in thatched huts and drink tea whitened with goat’s milk. Our poor African hosts give all they can, but there is a look of pent up sadness as they discuss the sufferings of the last three years.

Coming directly from India as I have, I generally keep it to myself that life can become much more impoverished. Africans do not need to hear discouragement. What they need is for the country to repent in mass before Jesus. If they were to call on God, he has promised to heal their country. It worked fabulously for South Korea.

The more likely scenario is that only a minority of Zimbabweans will turn to God. In that case, those who trust Jesus will suffer along with their countrymen, but after death they will enjoy the blessing they always dreamed of. We are meeting some precious souls who are in fact headed for God’s reward. An example is Nhamo.

I took a long walk-about around the lake near where I am staying in Mhangura. This is more than twenty kilometers from where we worked in 2006. As the lake narrowed at the feed river, a stringy black man spotted me from the other side. He watched intently, which bothered me because I wanted to pass by his side and knew nothing of these people.

“Are you wanting a way across,” he shouted.

“Yes,” I returned.

“About one hundred meters more,” the man pointed and sent his skipping son to show me the way.

When I approached, we greeted in Shona, then he asked in a bass voice, “Don’t you know me? You baptized me in Doma three years back. My name is Nhamo.”

He took me to his property with its thatched roundovals enclosed by a grass-reed fence. There I met his wife who beamed a white smile as her husband explained who I was.

This has happened a couple of times. I am meeting people changed by the work Dave and I did when we labored together. Yesterday we spent the afternoon with Richard and his two wives and their 66 goats. They were converted from a polygamist cult during our prior outreaches (I mean Richard and his wives were converted, not the goats).

“Our husband has changed so much since he met Christ,” the younger wife told us through translation.

When we left, we took six of the goats in the back of the Land Rover. What a hoot to see those curious heads watching the landscape wiz by and hear them bleat. Although, I was not so happy when they peed on my knapsack.

I do not think I could normally wander through towns or around rural lakes, 20 kilometers from our previous ministry center, and stumble into people we led to Jesus. I believe these encounters were God’s way of saying, “By my power I have blessed your past work.”

The Lord wants me to see that ministry is still supernaturally fruitful and the greatest opportunity for any believer. What a joy to glimpse a fraction of what the Lord is doing. The blessings so far outweigh the sacrifices that I am not even mindful of anything lost.

Thank you Jesus for the privilege of being your servant. And thank you friends for praying for ministry success. We share together in the spoils.

JDC