Franklin Graham (Wikipedia) preached to more than 231,000 Ukrainians at a recent event in Ukraine. His preaching was accompanied by a 4000-member choir. Nearly 6,700 responded publicly to the gospel call.
Over three days, the Graham fest drew 124,586 to the Olympic Stadium in the country’s capital Kiev, and another 107,000 people via live satellite broadcast in 104 additional venues across Ukraine.
On the festival’s second night, more than 40,000 people stood in the rain and 6,694 people responded to the invitation to follow Jesus Christ by the end of the weekend, according to the festival’s report.
“For years, Samaritan’s Purse has used the Ukrainian Antonov airplane to transport hundreds of thousands of our Operation Christmas Child shoe box gifts,” said Franklin Graham, president and CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.
“Now I am here in your country, not because of the Antonov, but because of the Gospel—the good news that you can have spiritual freedom found in Jesus Christ,” Graham said.
I think we must redefine furloughs based on their purpose. Once we define why we need them, then we can discuss their frequency and duration. Instead of deciding on a length of time we should be in the USA and then filling that time with activity (or non-activity), we should first decide what stateside activities are necessary for us to fulfill our calling overseas and then plan the furlough’s length accordingly. In my opinion, there are many valid reasons for trips to the USA, including family and financial needs, health issues (curative and preventative), personal vacations, and ministry opportunities to promote or teach missions. These trips should be efficient like pit stops in the race for souls.
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Admittedly, we do need furloughs. Real ones, that is. Times of renewal for our battered bodies, weary souls, and culture-stressed families, something so-called “furlough” is usually not. Although everyone tends to think the grass is browner on his own side, foreign missionaries arguably have more demanding circumstances than stateside church planters, producing a greater need for seasons of rest.
“The first million was hard,” said Elder Dieter Uchtdorf, a member of the church’s Quorum of Twelve Apostles who sits on the church’s missionary executive committee. “The second million will be easy. [The number of missionaries] will grow and it will grow fast.”
Mormon founder Joseph Smith believed he had a mandate to “proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people.” Shortly after establishing the church with six people, Smith sent his younger brother, Samuel Smith, to neighboring towns with a knapsack full of copies of the Book of Mormon, the faith’s unique scripture.
Now scores of young men and women, older single women and retired couples serve the church as full-time missionaries for 18 months to two years. They are assigned in pairs to proselytize, perform humanitarian service, help people trace their genealogy or anything else church leaders ask them to do. They pay about $400 per month for the privilege; those who cannot afford it can be subsidized by the church.
“They face rejection and sometimes verbal abuse, but they soldier on,” Ballard said. “It’s a marvelous thing what these young men and women and couples do.”
Someone pointed me to a neat story about how God used a missionary couple to reach hundreds of people who lived in a garbage dump in a Muslim country.
A missionary couple had been laboring in a certain Muslim country that I will not name for purposes of protection. They had become terribly discouraged in their attempts to share the gospel with the Muslims there, and they were about to quit and go home. However, they first decided to take a few days to fast and pray, asking the Lord for direction and guidance.
To their surprise, during this period of seeking, the Lord gave them this simple instruction, “Go to the garbage dump people.” The garbage dump people lived on the outskirts of this large Muslim city, the last people group anyone would normally ever want to visit. There are thousands of people there who literally live in the garbage dump.
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They soon began an outreach to the garbage dump people. God’s anointing was obviously on the effort because after only a short time they had 30-40 people gathering around them for a Bible study in the garbage dump. In less than a year, 800-900 people were gathering every time the missionaries went in to preach and teach, which was three times a week.
First, the convicting words of James 2:1–5 come to mind:
2:1 My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. 2 For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, 3 and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, “You sit here in a good place,” while you say to the poor man, “You stand over there,” or, “Sit down at my feet,” 4 have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? 5 Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him? 6 But you have dishonored the poor man. Are not the rich the ones who oppress you, and the ones who drag you into court? 7 Are they not the ones who blaspheme the honorable name by which you were called?
Second, what a beautiful picture of the condescension of Jesus, who, “though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.” —2 Corinthians 8:9 (cf. Phil 2:6ff)
Mission Network News reports that in just ten days 14,000 from the Idoma people group in Nigeria turned to Christ in response to the JESUS film.
A large people group in Nigeria now has a Christian leader. Brett, from JESUS Film Project, traveled to Nigeria in April where they showed the Idoma people group the JESUS Film. There are approximately 1-million Idoma people.
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And after I shared Christ with him, the chief asked for me to write down the prayer, how to pray to receive Christ. The pastors we were working with were very ecstatic. They had told me that meant that he wanted to go pray to receive Christ, kind of in private,” said Brett. They later got word that he has accepted Christ.
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Besides the chief, 14,000 people accepted Christ in just ten days.
iTunes U has a growing number of free online courses that would make excellent supplementary material for pastors wanting to further their education or for those preparing for pastoral ministry. Here’s some of what’s available currently:
Do you have an old laptop that you never use any more or no longer need? Consider donating it so that others can have the opportunity to train for the ministry.
Request from Dr. Sam Larsen, RTS Missions Department:
Six used laptops in good working condition, primarily to be used for word processing and CD ROM course lesson playback, are needed for African Bible College alumni now enrolled in the RTS (Reformed Theological Seminary) Virtual Campus M.A.R. degree program in Malawi. If you have a laptop you would be willing to donate, or know of someone who does, please contact Ed Williford or Mary Courtney in the African Bible College office on the RTS campus (phone# 601-922-1962).
At 1:42 am on May 8, Doug Sutphen, who was better-known and loved around the world as “Brother David,” passed away in a hospital near his home in North Bend, Washington. He was 70 years old.
Doug Sutphen is best remembered for leading the audacious “Project Pearl” in 1981—when one million Chinese Bibles, weighing 232 tons, were delivered by barge to thousands of waiting Christians on a beach in southern China. Time magazine described it as “A remarkable mission . . . the largest operation of its kind in the history of China.” Many Chinese church leaders today say that Project Pearl was a pivotal moment in their history. The Church had only started to re-emerge after decades of brutal oppression, and the desperate need of believers everywhere was for Bibles. A quarter of a century later reports are still being received of the tremendous impact those Bibles had on whole communities. Chinese Christians consider Project Pearl a key event which contributed greatly to the mighty revival presently sweeping the world’s most populous nation.
Franklin Graham (Wikipedia) preached to more than 231,000 Ukrainians at a recent event in Ukraine. His preaching was accompanied by a 4000-member choir. Nearly 6,700 responded publicly to the gospel call.
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The Salt Lake Tribune reports that 
Someone pointed me to 
Mission Network News 
iTunes U
Do you have an old laptop that you never use any more or no longer need? Consider donating it so that others can have the opportunity to train for the ministry.
Paul Hattaway at 