College Student Mission Opportunity – DC

Doing people groups research on the ground in DC

• May 17 – May 21, 2013
• Team to travel by train
• Total Cost – $200 ($50 scholarship available)
• Led by Keelan Cook

Space is limited. Sign up now. For more information, contact Keelan (keelancook@gmail.com) or Dayna White (dwhite@sebts.edu). Stop by the CGCS to sign up, to put down your deposit, and to receive fundraising help and instructions. Get your application now [ Click here for editable .pdf ]

Reaching the nations, by reaching our nation’s capitol: The Center for Great Commission Studies is excited to offer an exclusive trip for students of the College at Southeastern. This trip is only for college students, and is the first of many to come geared specifically for the new Global Studies degree track. From May 17-21, a team of students will leave for Washington, DC to locate and engagement un-reached people groups in the DC area.

So, if you are a student with a heart for the nations, this trip is for you!

Washington, DC is one of the most culturally diverse places in the world. The District itself is a mere 61 square miles, and boasts an astounding 192 people groups. Of these countless international peoples, several groups number into the tens of thousands and have created large ethnic communities in the area. Peoples such as Ethiopians, West Africans, Pakistanis and many others have entire neighborhoods they have made home.

Our hope is to find these neighborhoods and engage them with the gospel. Many of these people groups are virtually impossible to reach in their home country, but God has brought them to us and placed them within our reach.

This trip is front edge of a massive work across America. Our strategy in DC is the beginning of a massive project to engage the people group populations in many of our urban centers. This team will help discover how to reach these people.

One part research and one part gospel engagement, this team will spread out across the city, using the public transit system to dive into these neighborhoods and discover where these populations live. From there, they will search for men and women of peace with which they can share the gospel.

We will take the train to DC and stay in a townhouse in the middle of downtown. However, the team is limited in size. If you are interested, then you need to sign up as soon as possible, before the seats fill. Oh, and here’s the best part: unlike most mission trips to reach international people, this one is really cheap! The trip will cost $200, unless it is your first mission trip with the seminary. Then, the trip is only $150.

If you are interested in being a part of this adventure in DC, then stop by the CGCS to sign up!

In conjunction with our Global Missions Week at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Gospel E-books and B&H Publishing have put together a special offer on four e-books:

10 Who Changed the World
Author(s): Daniel L. Akin
Publisher: B&H Publishing
Price: $2.99 (April 16-23)
 DOWNLOAD KINDLE E-BOOK
 DOWNLOAD KINDLE E-BOOK 

When Missions Shapes the Mission
Author(s): David Horner
Publisher: B&H Publishing
Price: $2.99 (April 16-23)
 DOWNLOAD KINDLE E-BOOK
 DOWNLOAD KINDLE E-BOOK 

Eternal Impact
Author(s): Ken Hemphill
Publisher: B&H Publishing
Price: $2.99 (April 16-23)
 DOWNLOAD KINDLE E-BOOK
 DOWNLOAD KINDLE E-BOOK 

A Challenge to Great Commission Obedience
Author(s): Jerry Rankin
Publisher: B&H Publishing
Price: $2.99 (April 16-23)
 DOWNLOAD KINDLE E-BOOK
 DOWNLOAD KINDLE E-BOOK

The week will be chock full of different events designed to help SEBTS students, faculty, and staff know more about the world and the work of missions. The following events are free and open to all:

Tuesday, April 16

• 10:00 Nik Ripken @Chapel
• 11:15 Missionary & Church Planter Meet and Greet with free pizza lunch in Jacumin-Simpson
• 5:30 International Missions Info Conference with free dinner in Jacumin-Simpson

Wednesday, April 17

• 10:00 Tom Eliff, IMB @ Chapel
• 11:30 Taste of the Nations with free lunch in Ledford
• Missionaries in various classes after lunch
• 6:30 College Night – Breakfast for Dinner in Ledford
• 7:30 Secret Church Experience  

Thursday, April 18

• 10:00 Nathan Lino, NE Houston Church, IMB Trustee @ Chapel
• 5:30 North American Church Planting Info Conference with CP leaders from Boston, Metro-New York City, Toronto and North Carolina. Free dinner in Jacumin-Simpson. RSVP requested.

Every Day

• Grab some coffee & a snack and hang out with missionaries in the CGCS
• Missionaries in classrooms

Bringing the North American perspective to Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary’s Global Missions Week, Dr. Mike Dodson and the North American Church Planting Network, in partnership with SEND North America and the Office of Great Commission Partnerships of the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina, is pleased to announce a super opportunity to have dinner, and learn about some of the most strategic church planting destinations on the planet.

Leaders from Boston, New York City, Toronto, Maine, Vermont, and North Carolina will be present. We encourage you to come. Bring a friend. And please use this opportunity to invite others to come hear what God is already doing in these areas.

• What - Church Planting dinner featuring church planters and church planting leaders from the North American Mission Board and the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina – representing Boston, NYC, Toronto, Maine, Vermont and North Carolina.
• When - Thursday, April 18, 5:30 p.m.-7:00 p.m.
• Where - Rotunda, downstairs in Jacumin Simpson
• Who - Anyone interested in church planting, and especially in these incredibly strategic areas
• Why - To have people consider planting their lives among the least-reached people groups and communities.

Register Now via EventBrite.

by ntbaker633 

Edia, the Malagasy man who led me to the ombiasa Mahalanza last time was suddenly called away for three weeks, leaving me to figure out how to get back to Mahalanza and if I should try. But at the same time I got the news that Edia couldn’t go, another friend and pastor of a Baptist church here, Mahafetsy, offered to take me to another woman. He had been visiting the woman and sharing the gospel with her already and thought I might like to tag along. Why? Because she is a tromba, or fondy, (medium) who plays host to ten different spirits.

I’ve got to say there is something that happens to the eyes with these people. It’s one of the first things I noticed about the woman who’s name is Hita. She was very nice and welcoming and immediately showed us into her house (she didn’t freak out when I came in with my sandals on). Her husband, Maurice, was also there with us. However, something about Hita’s doesn’t look right or normal. I swear it almost looks like there’s something over them, like a pair of really thick and smoky contacts or maybe they’re glass eyes. Anyway, Mahafetsy introduced me (this time I was introduced as a missionary from the get go) and we began talking about the spirits. There are ten of them that visit her. Four are from the northern area (Diego and near there), three are from Tandroy land, and three are from the mountain near St. Augustine. They each have distinct names and appearances. One is called the Aombylahikely (small male cow) and appears as such, another appears as a small child, one from down south as a young woman and one of those from St. Augustine looks like a vazaha (white man). When the spirits take possession of her she loses all consciousness and must be told later by someone else what has happened. The spirits all converse in the dialect of the region from which they come. The only exception is the vazaha spirit who, if it realizes no one who understands French is present, begins to speak in the dialect that those present understand. It was also interesting that when Mahafetsy asked her if they had a leader she said yes there was one above them all who lived somewhere down south and commanded them all. It was he who had sent them all to her. She has never met the leader but only knows about him from the other creatures. Hita described them all as spirits of the ancestors that had already died. This time I shared the story of how God created everything, even the Spirits, and how some of them had turned bad, rejected God and now only sought to oppose him and deceive and kill his creation.

Hita first began experiencing these things when she was twelve years old. Almost every day as she walked the road back from school she would see and man in white clothing standing in the road and watching her. Others could never see the man, only her. Later in her life as she began to try and have children she would always miscarry. After the fifth miscarriage her and her husband went to a ombiasa who read the lots and told them the ancestors had chosen Hita. They wanted to enter into her. Shortly after that she was ceased by a great disease and was unable to eat food or drink water for five years. The doctors didn’t know what to do. They would give her medicine but she was unable to swallow it. A ceremony was held, an animal killed and Hita was blessed by the blood. After that her suffering ceased. It was unclear to me if she was ever able to have children after that but she seems to think her life got better then. Shortly after that is when the ancestors (spirits) began leading her to places where other spirits would wait for her and then enter her.  We tried to explain to her the nature of these spirits, how they hate God as his creation and want only to kill and destroy us. But Hita explained that when the spirits do not need her, when they are not possessing her she is free to do what she wants. She has been able to go to church and to pray without any problem as she sees this as the freedom of the ancestors who use her.

Hita also explained to us that she was not an ombiasa and the ancestors only used her for good. She heals people but nothing more. However, she did tell us that she is learning how to read lots (which technically is something an ombiasa does). As she explained it, the ombiasa may have spirits stashed away in a cow horn (more on that) but the tromba or fondy is actually inhabited by the spirits and the spirits us the medium to communicate. They were confused when I asked them how the ombiasa used the lots if he had no power from somewhere else. At first they said it was only man himself that read the lots and no other presence or power was involved. According to them there is a time of training that each ombiasa must go through in which they learning (maybe by studying a notebook) the art of casting and reading lots. But after I asked how any common man could do that they agree that the spirits told him how, but that the spirits were in the cow horn speaking to him and were not actually possessing him. The manoah (possessed cow horn) is a hollowed out cow horn which is then filled with spirits. These manoah are then used for more intense ceremonies. Since none of the people I have visited so far have agreed that they are ombiasa I haven’t yet discovered any more about how they are made or what they are used for. All I learned about them today was that they can speak to people even though they have no mouth. Many people come to Hita to hear from these spirits or sometimes just for healing. Hita knows how to mix together certain herbs and such for healing. She told us that the knowledge to do so did not come from her. It was not from her thoughts. Somehow it came to her which plants to grab and mix together. She knows it is from the ancestors.

Hita apparently also makes house calls. Many people know who she is and what she does and so she receives a lot of calls from people asking her to come. Hita said the strange things about this is that people who she has never met or seen before and who have never met or seen her know who she is. They are able to pick her out of a crowd as if they know exactly what she looks like. She believes it is because the spirits have told them or are helping them.

Toward the end we Hita pointed out the relics she had in her house. There was a statue from Tandroy land with beads wrapped around it. As she described it the spirits like the statue and she can use it to call them. There was also a bottle full of ocean water which was used to call the spirits from the sea. We explained again to Hita that Jesus doesn’t ask anything from us other than our whole selves. He wants us to love him as he loves us. But the dark spirits want only to take, take, take until we are left with nothing and our destroyed. We asked Hita if she was tired of serving these spirits. She said no. They have already been with her for so long and she is not afraid of them anymore, she said. Again, I intend to return.

The name Hita means, “to see”. We joked that she has indeed already seen many things. However, I told her before we left that I hoped she is beginning to see the truth about Jesus and the spirits using her. So far I have been confronted and overwhelmed with the strength of the lies binding these people. They think these spirits are good even though they take everything (health, possession, children, our very consciousness) away. They have been told a lie and until they can let go of it the truth will be a hard thing to believe. I realized today that these are the strongholds of Satan. His power is great, no doubt. But it is his lies and the strength of belief in them that are his greatest weapon. We know we are not helpless. We have our own weapons and we must wield them. They’re called strongholds for a reason, they’re not coming down easily. But praise God when we see we are weak, we are strong. 

ntbaker633 is a JMan serving in Madagascar. You can read his blog here - redislandlight.wordpress.com

Come by the CGCS during Global Missions week and discover church planting in two of the most rural states in the U.S.: Vermont and Maine.

• Thursday, April 18, 2013, right after chapel
• 11:15 a.m. to 12:30
• Upstairs in room 209
• Free lunch
• Great conversation with Lyndon Warren and Barry Murry, representing the North American Mission Board in Vermont and Maine respectively.

Register here via EventBrite   

You are invited to “College Night” hosted by the Center for Great Commission Studies during Global Missions Week.

The event will be next Wednesday, April 17 at 6:30 pm in Ledford.

The evening will consist of dinner (breakfast for dinner!), a game outdoors, and a time of prayer and worship for the nations.

The purpose of the night is to unveil a new degree program that The College at Southeastern will begin offering in the Fall- Bachelor of Arts in Global Studies, as well as to provide opportunities for students to learn how they can be a part of fulfilling the Great Commission. During dinner, students will get to talk with IMB missionaries and journeymen to answer questions such as:  

Most Torontonians are a people who are seeking their own fate as well as communal relationships. For many Torontonians, they want to be the “master of their own fates,” especially their own religions. This, the team found, makes for a very personal religion/spirituality lacking authority and guidance.

Because of these characteristics, church planters through the North American Mission Board (NAMB) are trying to reach them, and the primary model utilized is relational evangelism. In larger cities like Toronto, pamphlets, brochures and papers are passed out on nearly every corner. Hence, deep and lasting relationships with people will not happen when someone hands them a gospel tract or invitation to a church. The common response to such hospitable acts is to receive it with a smile and quickly discard it.

To reiterate, many Toronto citizens are searching for a community to accept them. So the desire to be “masters of their own fate” and the hope for communal relationships together cause a few tensions. The first is an individualism that is self-seeking. In talking to many Torontonians, the Southeastern team noticed that people were not attracted to a “public faith,” one that is beyond personal experiences and feelings. On the flip side, these individuals want communal relationships – they desire friendships and community. But most of the people conversed with want relationships that lack accountability. The equation could possibly equal a form of tolerance – relationships without responsibility.

So what would Paul say to such citizens of Toronto? First, he would possibly re-emphasize his introduction to Colossians and Christ’s preeminence over all things. If Christ is Lord, then a public profession of this true Lord is necessary. The self is not Lord, Christ is. He has authority over the individual and the entire cosmic order as Creator and Redeemer.

Also, with public testimony comes public accountability. Paul would uphold the necessity of community that “builds up one another” (1 Thess. 5:11) without overlooking sin. With much of Torontonian culture choosing to ignore and accept people’s sin as “normal” or “okay,” Christ’s death and resurrection confronts such a misunderstanding of sin, and Jesus invites such people to repentance and transformation.

Toronto church planters are building relationships with Torontonians and inviting them to the true life of Jesus. With a number of worldviews, cultures and religions prevalent in Toronto, much labor is expected from these servants and echoing Paul, they believe this is the fight worth fighting.

(These church planters are asking for fellow laborers to help in the harvest.
For more information about how you can help, please contact Mike Dodson for more information at mdodson@sebts.edu)

The Southeastern team, being foreigners of Parkdale, noticed that each neighborhood seems connected to the next, at least geographically, but socio-economic boundaries demarcate each neighborhood. Mansions were nestled against two bedroom, cramped apartments that house up to ten people. Or it could be the case that one’s ethnicity is related to his/her economic status.

The team took time to hear from people in the community. Listening to a person’s needs greatly helped the team understand the hope of the larger community. Being extremely diverse, the team noticed several different people groups in the small area of Parkdale, from Ethiopian to Indian to Russian to Polish and dozens of others. Categorizing the population of Toronto into neat categories is much too simplistic, the team found. As a place of hundreds of cultures, church planting in the area must be flexible to an individual’s and/or neighborhood’s attributes. There is no “one-size-fits-all” strategy or template here.

Most of the team had effective gospel conversations. The most common situation was a serious misunderstanding of the gospel. A multitude of cultures comes with it baggage and presuppositions of Christianity. With this reality before them, the team spent much of their conversations clarifying the Christian story and in other cases, presenting it to their new friends for the first time.

These conversations carried over into Tuesday where Tim Heerebout, another local church planter, sent the team out to engage more citizens of Toronto. Heerebout’s mission was twofold: (1) to engage people with the gospel and (2) invite them to the Easter service at his church plant, Mosaic Church.

On Sunday, Heerebout will challenge those who attend with the most prevalent question he encounters in Toronto: “Aren’t all religions the same?” Heerebout said that his desire is to create a hospitable space where God can change hearts and minds by reflecting on this sensitive question. A foundational statement to Torontonians is “strength in diversity.” Thus, diversity that does not cause conflict is the life to be lived and the zealous belief to be believed. But with this motto comes the exaltation of tolerance, where relative truths triumph and morality is relegated to the individual’s choice(s). No room is then left for a God who is absolute, holy and worthy of worship.

Great gospel presence is needed in Toronto and this is why Scott Rourk and Tim Heerebout have taken up residence amongst the diverse population of Toronto. They take seriously the command from Jesus to go and make disciples of all the nations of Toronto, and to proclaim the transformation of Christ’s gospel despite social, economic, political, religious and cultural boundaries.

After a couple of hours and thousands of steps later, the team took a rest in front of the Church of the Holy Trinity. Noticing a few advertisement signs in the front entrance, a few team members decided to take a look inside the sanctuary. Upon entering through the front doors, the members noticed a band just behind the altar as well as a few cameras filming the band. After finishing the song, the lead singer, showing unease in her mannerisms and facial expressions, said, “Uh, I kind of feel awkward playing this song in a church but here it goes.”

This event captures a snapshot of the culture of this great North American city. The picture is one that portrays a city where secular culture has transgressed onto the sacred, slowly suffocating the gospel and Christ’s church. A small tour of the city of Toronto would testify to a culture appraising progressive culture via various forms such as the arts and architecture.

On the Toronto Church Planting website (see link below), it states that Toronto is extremely unchurched and the population itself is incredibly diverse. Church planters are coveted for the spread of the gospel to penetrate this prominent, modern city.

On Sunday, the team traveled to East Dundas Street in Toronto to help Trinity Life Church set up for the Sunday evening service. Pastors Mike Seaman and Daniel Yang continue to make new connections and build relationships with the surrounding community in order to build this young church plant. The evening consisted of a time of gathering and a discussion of the values of Trinity Life Church. During this gathering, Seaman discussed the third value of their church: truth. In this open conversation setting, Seaman said that he wanted everyone to assume something before he began the lesson and it was this: “All truth is God’s truth.” As a church, he noted, “We’re truth seekers who value clarity and the communication of truth in all forms, whether its truth in the science world, the business world, the sports world, etc.”

Like most, if not all, North American cities, Toronto falls into the category where truth is seen as merely relative and not absolute. With the gospel and truth being mutually exclusive, said Seaman, Toronto must hear the gospel that is truth. Rather than bashing people over the heads with the gospel, Seaman proposed, “If we are thinking about truth properly, we are going to embody it properly. And the community around us will be witnesses to the true life we are embodying.”

Even though the city of Toronto is greatly secular, the hope of the gospel is marching forth. One of the desires for Yang and Seaman is to see the city of Toronto transformed by the gospel so that it can exalt Christ through its many evident cultures – a reality envisioned in Revelation 5 where a multitude of tribes and languages and peoples and nations singing praises to Christ, the sacrificed Lamb.