Palu, Here We Come!

Tomorrow, together with our mission team from the Cranbourne Corps, we embark on an exciting adventure to serve our friends and colleagues Major Nyoman and Captain Suniati Timonuli at The Salvation Army school and Towua Corps in Palu, Central Sulawesi, Indonesia.  

We trained together with Nyoman in Melbourne 18 years ago and this will be our third mission trip serving him and his family in their ministry context - Denpasar in 2009 and Jakarta in 2011 with the Noarlunga Corps mission team and now Palu with our mission team from Cranbourne Corps.

We will be engaged in a variety of mission activities, including - preaching, teaching, pastoral visitation, prayer ministry, school ministry, youth ministry, painting and assisting with a building project.  Most of all we get to partner with other Salvationists in advancing the kingdom of God in their part of the world, building relationships and encouraging each other on our faith journeys.  

We are passionate about serving God through the international vehicle of The Salvation Army and are excited about joining in with what Holy Spirit is doing through Bala Keselamatan in Palu, Indonesia.  If you would like to follow our mission activities while we are away between the 9th and 23rd October, you can read my mission trip reflections at the following blogspot:

http://ephesiansfour12missions.blogspot.com.au

Tuhan Yesus memberkati anda!

Christmas Partnership

This morning I had the opportunity to speak at a school assembly while receiving a very large donation of food items for The Salvation Army Christmas Appeal.  Instead of citing the usual statistics of how many people we help and how many donations are received at Christmas in my thank you speech, I felt compelled in my spirit to offer a different vote of thanks:

Your generosity forms a partnership with The Salvation Army to share the Good News of Christmas by demonstrating the love of Jesus Christ through the assistance of struggling families at a vulnerable time of year.

Your partnership in the gospel helps people to see that hope, peace, joy and love can be found in every season of life.

Your expression of care reinforces the power of community and restores faith in our common humanity and Creator God.

Your giving changes lives!

This prompting by the Spirit in the moments leading up to the assembly gave me a brief platform in front of hundreds of students, parents and teachers to connect their community activity to our Christian mission.  It is too easy to stay in the security of our public image as a charity when receiving donations, but I feel strongly that we need to embrace every opportunity to expand the community's perception of our mission by stepping out of our comfort zone and declaring Christ as the source of our charity!

"In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership 

in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you 

will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." 

Philippians 1:4-6

We're Gonna Need A Team

Classic quote from Fast & Furious 5:

Brian O'Conner: You realize we're talking about going up against the most powerful guy in all of Rio?

Dominic Toretto: Yes, we are.

Brian O'Conner: Then we're gonna need a team.

When you are engaged in a commission issued by the Creator of the universe to participate in the discipleship of all humankind, which will place you in a full frontal spiritual assault against all the forces of darkness, you are going to need a team! 

At the creation of humankind God recognised that it was "not good for man to be alone" and created "a helper suitable for him" (Genesis 2:18).  At the commencement of Jesus earthly mission He "appointed twelve - designating them apostles - that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach and to have authority to drive out demons" (Mark 3:14-15).  At the commission of the disciples Jesus told them, "I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high" (Luke 24:49).  At the coming of the Holy Spirit the disciples were "all together in one place" when "all of them were filled with the Holy Spirit" (Acts 2:1-4).  At the conversion of thousands who responded to the preaching of the early church "all the believers were together and had everything in common" and "every day they continued to meet together...enjoying the favour of all the people" (Acts 2:44-47). 

It seems to me that we have been created to be in community, called to live in community and commissioned to engage with community to experience the fulness of the triune God and effectively fulfill His mission!  If anyone is under the illusion that they can live out their faith alone and do mission as a solo act, they have completely misunderstood God's intention for His church and have underestimated the tactics of Satan to isolate the sheep from the fold and to divide the body of Christ.  

The Apostle Paul emphasises the importance of unity and teamwork in his letters to the churches:   "As it is, there are many parts, yet one body" (1 Corinthians 12:20-25); "I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel" (Philippians 1:4-5); "The whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly" (Ephesians 4:16); "And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ" (Ephesians 4:11-12).

The writer to the Hebrew Christians also nailed it when he said, "Let us consider how we may spur one another on towards love and good deeds.  Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another" (Hebrews 10:24-25).

I am passionate about the body of Christ and fully embrace my leadership mandate to "equip the people of God for the work of the ministry to build up the body of Christ" so that we can utilise every spiritual gift and mobilise a Spirit filled army to effectively spread the gospel and advance the kingdom of God!  More than ever before we're gonna need a team "to proclaim good news to the poor...to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor" (Luke 4:18-19).