Missionaries Needed to Serve in Prison Ministry in the Philippines.

Please pray for God to send missionaries to join us in prison. We need people (or a couple) who are sold out for God for such ministry. People with big hearts for “fringe people,” who see them as souls for whom Jesus suffered and died, like you and me. People not afraid to hug dirty people and pick bugs off their plate. They may feel burdened about humanity and want to do something significant to impact lives for the Lord. They’ll be risktakers willing to make big life changes, and give up material comforts (to gain what they cannot lose) so they can finish well here. Faith needs to be in God and not in self. They’ve got to know and trust God and not give up when people oppose them, when then they fail and all looks hopeless. Come and let God do His work in and through you! Thanks, Will & Joanie Feuerstein (Contact them here).

Why Does ACTION Work in Crisis Relief?

Someone asked us recently “Why is ACTION involved with crisis relief? Why not just let large NGOs like World Vision handle it?”

A brief answer is that we want to follow Jesus by loving our neighbors (Luke 10: 25-37). ACTION works with evangelical missions, workers, networks, churches and local ministries who are often near the place where crises occur. These believers have a desire to reach out in compassion to those in need in the name of Jesus Christ. They know our heart is the same as theirs so we are invited to serve with them.

ACTION is an evangelical mission committed to working in ministry (such as crisis relief) through local evangelical churches -- churches which minister compassionate care and the gospel. It is true that ACTION is not a relief agency and it is not easy taking on the added burdens of those in distress. However, Christ would have us do no less and we embrace His wish as our pleasure.

Often we observe that relief agencies do not integrate with local churches and ministries. We conduct our relief and mercy projects alongside our brothers and sisters in Christ as the Lord leads. It is our privilege to contribute resources and personnel toward local church initiatives and mutually envisioned relief efforts.

Jail Break in Bangalore, India

When I was serving with Operation Mobilization for two years from 1966-1968, I spent time in the city of Bangalore working with OM future Indian leaders while recovering from tuberculosis and hepatitis.

One afternoon after prayer, we targeted a radical Hindu area in Bangalore to preach the gospel from the back of a large truck.

It was my turn to preach, and while doing so, a man jumped up onto the truck and slugged me very hard in the nose and mouth. I fell backwards, but instinctively gave him a hard kick in the chest which threw him out into the crowd; some of whom were trying to get onto the truck to beat us and burn the truck.

Mercifully, a large group of police arrived just at that time, stopping the riot and arresting me and my ten Indian co-workers.

When the police escorted us to the station, about one hundred of the radical Hindus came with them. My co-workers were left in the truck and I was taken inside to face charges with the chief-of-police. About twenty leaders of the radicals circled around his desk basically screaming for my blood. I had no idea what they were talking about, what the charges were or what was going to happen to us.

  

As they continued to yell and scream, I backed away from the crowd to another desk where a police officer was sitting. I smiled and said, “Excuse me, sir, would you mind helping me? I have no idea what I am being accused of. We had a public meeting and I was sharing about the gospel of Christ. Is that what I am being charged for?”

He replied, “No, they can’t charge you for that so they are trying to make up something; most likely that you did not have a permit to use a loud speaker.”

I answered, “Oh, a permit. Where do I get a permit?”

The police officer explained, and I asked him to write the address on a piece of paper which he proceeded to do.

As he gave me the written directions, I said, “Another thing, sir, I am very thirsty. Do you have a drinking fountain here?”

He replied, “Yes, there is one right outside the door and around the corner in the hallway.”

So, as people continued to yell and scream, I slowly walked around the corner, out of sight, to the drinking fountain. I then noticed the hallway led outside to the truck which was still surrounded by police and about 100 fanatics.

  

An idea came to mind, so I walked boldly out the door, smiling and waving the piece of paper and told the team members that it was time to go. Everyone assumed that the paper was my release. I had not said a thing, but simply waved the paper, got in my truck and quickly drove away. As I picked up speed, I looked behind in the rear-view mirror and saw all the fanatics and police running out the door after me.

Needless to say, I did not drive slowly and drove all the way across town (2.5 million people at that time) to the safety of our OM headquarters.

  

I am not a brave person but was very concerned about the safety of my ten team workers who would have been treated very badly inside the jail cells.

I guess you can say this was a mass escape of God’s people to the glory of God!

Scriptural Prayers for Revival

1.Lord, convict me of my specific sins that need cleansed in the blood.
“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9, nasb).

2.Lord, give me the Spirit of prevailing prayer.
“In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for word” Romans 8:26 (nasb).

3.Lord, burden me deeply over the headlong rush to destruction many engage in.
“I am telling the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience testifies with me in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh.” (Romans 9:1-3, nasb).

4.Lord, pour out your Holy Spirit mightily upon us.
“And when they had prayed, the place where they had gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak the word of God with boldness” (Acts 4:31, nasb).

5.Lord, revive your work in the midst of years.
“Lord, I have heard the report about Thee and I fear O Lord, revive Your work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make it known; in wrath remember mercy” (Habakkuk 3:2, nasb)

Women as Elders?

1 Timothy 3: 1-2 (nasb), “If any man aspires to the office of overseer, it is a fine work he desires to do. An overseer, then, must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, prudent, respectable, hospitable, able to teach.”

Recently Margaret and I spoke in a thriving, growing church in the Seattle area. It was interesting that the young pastor (first pastorate) trained in a liberal seminary.  He did have one professor that emphasized the importance of actually teaching the Word, and if possible to give Bible exposition and to preach through the Word of God consecutively so people can understand it in its context.

Since this was his first pastorate, this pastor thought he would begin preaching, in the book of 1 Timothy since Paul wrote it to Timothy to give guidelines in the overall conduct of the church.

As this pastor began to preach through 1 Timothy, especially the first and second chapter, the church began to grow, people brought their Bibles, and were excited about God’s Word.  

Then the pastor came to the end of the chapter 2 and the first part of chapter 3. He became quite concerned because all the elders of the church were women, and he saw that the Bible taught that only men were to be elders, not women.  Not knowing what to do and not wanting to offend, he called an elders’ meeting and shared his dilemma. He read 1 Timothy, chapters 2 and 3 with the women elders.  He told them that he didn’t want to pick on or offend them, and he wanted their advice as what to do.  

The Board decided to pray about it for a week with each studying the Scripture to see what they as elders and women should do for the church.

That week each of the women elders resigned realizing that they as women, according to Scripture, should not hold the position of an elder in the church.

Past, Present, and Future!

ACTION began in the Philippines in 1975 and is an international, evangelical fellowship of missionaries with main sending offices in Canada, United Kingdom, and the USA. 265 missionaries minister in over 20 countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, and Latin America. We presently need an additional 100 missionaries (age 40 to 80) to work among the 3.2 million untrained pastors worldwide. We are also trusting God for 120 additional missionaries (age 21 to 81) to minister the Gospel and compassionate care to 100 million street children and an estimated143 million orphans throughout the world. “Seeing the people, He (Jesus) felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest’" (Matthew 9:36-38, nasb).

Feed a Child in Jesus’ Name for only 70¢

"Pure and lasting religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit [care for] orphans . . . in their distress . . . " (James 1:27 nasb).

One of the major ministries of ACTION is evangelism, discipleship, and compassionate care among the 100 million street children and estimated 143 million orphans and other needy children worldwide.

To show compassion, we feed them in our various outreaches of street evangelism, drop-in centers, homes for orphans, relief ministry, and camps.

An average meal is only 70 cents! To provide a meal for 10 children is $7, for a meal for 100 children it is only $70.

Statistics About the Unfinished Task of World Evangelism

The following statistics represent some of the challenges facing the church in the unfinished task of world evangelism:

• As of April 2012, there were approximately 7 billion people on Earth.
• Approximately 750 million (or about 11 percent) of those are willing to claim Jesus as personal Lord and Savior.
• At present, just over 50 percent of the world's population (or 3.5 billion people) have not heard the gospel and most of them do not have a realistic opportunity to hear the gospel. Here's another way to look at the challenge of world evangelism:  

 Of the 11,646 distinct people groups on the planet, 6,734 people groups (roughly 60 percent) contain between zero and two percent evangelical Christians. Many of these 6,734 people groups have no churches, no Bibles, no Christian literature, and no mission agencies who are seeking to share the gospel with them.  
(Ronnie Floyd, Our Last Great Hope (Thomas Nelson, 2011) 

If ACTION and other evangelical missions worldwide were able to send one missionary to each group of 5000 people (of the 3.5 billion) we would need 700,000 additional missionaries!