It is my distinct pleasure to introduce you
this morning, our speaker.
If you want to know a lot more
of the details and background of his life,
there is an insert in our bulletin today
that gives some of the biographical background, and
I won't take time to rehearse that, and
you can take time to read that if
you'd like some more detail.
I just want to say that as a
Bible college student back in the mid-seventies,
we were required to choose a part of
the world to be involved in a prayer
group, and I had no particular leanings one
way or the other, but I was required
to pick one, so I just sort of
arbitrarily picked Eastern Europe, because it seemed like
an interesting and intriguing place in the world,
and I began and joined a prayer group
for Eastern Europe.
Figuring I ought to learn a little bit
more about that part of the world if
I was going to pray for it, I
picked up a copy of God's Smuggler and
read Brother Andrew's book.
And in my life, it really changed my
life.
It would be a few years after that
that God would call Ginger and me to
Europe, and we would work in that part
of the world for a number of years.
So the legacy of the ministry of Open
Doors and of Brother Andrew has a very
special place in my heart.
He's a man who has served the suffering
church throughout the world for almost 50 years
now, and he comes this morning to share
for us a number of the great things
that God has been doing and is doing
around the world.
Before he comes to speak, I want to
tell one very brief story.
There was probably 1960-1961, there was a
young Dutchman out hitchhiking, and Brother Andrew picked
him up and shared the gospel with him.
And that young Dutchman didn't hear the gospel
very well that time, but some years later,
through a series of other things, would come
to know Jesus Christ.
And when he heard that story, he would
remember back the gospel that was told to
him when Brother Andrew picked him up.
Many years later, in 2003, that man is
here to read the scriptures for us this
morning, Tinus Poppema.
Tinus, come on up.
As we're doing each week during this series
where we're looking at God's heart for the
world, Tinus is going to read the scriptures
for us in his native language, in Dutch.
The English copy is printed in your worship
folder on your song sheet.
So join with us now as Tinus reads
the scriptures to us.
Yeah, thank you very much.
And my heart, it's not hurting, but I'm
overjoyed.
So every time I think about it, I
have tears in my eyes.
So give me a second so I can
do normal again.
This is about Acts 11, 19-23, and
it is in Dutch, we know that a
handeling an elf.
The believers who had fled to the martyred
village of Stephanus for persecution came, among others,
to Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antiochia.
Everywhere they told Jews about Jesus, only to
the Jews and to no one else.
But some of those refugees were originally from
Cyprus and Cyrene.
When they came to Antiochia, they also spoke
to non-Jewish people and told them about
the Lord Jesus.
And the Lord worked mighty with them, so
that many of those people also believed in
him and turned to him.
The followers of Jesus in Jerusalem heard of
it and sent Barnabas to Antiochia.
When he arrived there and saw what great
things God was doing, he was very happy.
He spurred everyone to agree and to make
a good decision, to remain faithful to the
Lord, whatever the cost.
Amen.
That's the word of Jesus, of the Lord.
Thank you, Rines, that sounded very clear.
Any more Dutch speaking here?
Okay, welcome.
I better switch back to English then.
Sorry about that.
It's a nice language, Dutch.
But it struck me, Tinus, as you were
reading, that there was a persecution and there
was revival.
There were restrictions and the gospel spread.
And it was spread by people who involuntarily
were driven from their homes.
And yet they carried on.
And I remembered suddenly a couple of cartoons
I saw years ago in a Christian paper.
It was about this revival in Jerusalem before
they were scattered.
And you saw the big crowd on the
temple square, all shouting, Hallelujah, praise Jesus, raising
their hands, jumping for joy.
Terrific.
And then the next drawing was, you saw
a big plank come down from heaven and
fell right on top of them.
And they squeezed out from under and then
dispersed in all different directions.
And the caption was, God's first mission board.
Made me think.
Because we, we Westerners tend to complain about
persecution and restrictions and opposition.
But the Bible says there's nothing wrong with
it.
Russian believer recently asked me, Andrew, what is
worse than a persecuted Christian?
I said, well, you tell me.
He said, a non-persecuted Christian.
They got a good pointer.
And in some of the translations, not in
my New King James I have here, but
in some of the translations that you probably
have with you, the last word in Acts
of the Apostles is the word unhindered.
Yet they were killed and driven out and
tortured and imprisoned and unhindered.
Because the fate of the messenger has basically
nothing to do with the spread of the
gospel.
And in the measure in which we are
willing to pay the price, in that measure,
of course, the gospel will spread.
So I was thinking about that very significant
part from Acts 11.
And thank you for reading that, Dinesh, and
I hope you followed it on your sheet.
It's very significant.
And I want to share with you today
as much as I can about that great
subject.
Which now, of course, after all those many
years, has taken me and a large number
of our workers and open doors to the
Muslim world, an area and the religion and
the challenge and ultimately threat, it has already
become that in America, that we have not
come to grips with.
And we're only hesitatingly beginning to see some
analogies, some points where we can chip in
and make connections.
But be very careful, because we are afraid.
And the message of the New Testament was,
of course, do not fear.
Fear not.
Because fear and faith do not live in
the same heart.
And God wants to fill our hearts with
faith, but he has got to cast the
fear out.
And I remember a while ago, I was
back in Sarajevo.
Now, Sarajevo is a place where in the
late 50s, I was traveling in my old
little Volkswagen.
I was not old at that time.
I just started traveling in my first car.
And we were there with my translator from
Croatia.
And I'm still in touch with him.
He's mentioned in my book, God Smuggler.
And we were there establishing the first underground
evangelical church in Sarajevo.
Seems like ages ago, doesn't it?
So, not long ago, I decided to go
back.
But this time, my main contacts were not
the Baptists, but the Muslims.
Because they have taken over the area of
Bosnia, Kosovo.
And I found that the evangelicals in former
Yugoslavia were not reaching out to the Muslims.
So, I went to see the Muslim leader,
the Grand Mufti in Sarajevo.
I went to his palace and we drank
coffee and had a great time.
And in the course of my traveling in
the Muslim countries, a kind of a story
had developed that I very much wanted to
share with the churches here.
But I didn't want to because I thought
I must first share it with a Muslim.
If they object to my story, then I
won't ever tell it anymore.
So, as we were sitting and I observed
him, I thought, well, okay.
He's a good bloke.
I'm sure I can try it out on
him.
If I get away with it, I'll tell
it to you, which I will now do
because obviously I did get away with it.
But I might not have.
Listen, I asked him, I said, Grand Mufti,
which religion in your opinion is the closest
to God?
Well, that's of course a difficult question if
you don't know what way you want to
go with it.
So, he said, well, Andrew, tell me.
And I began to explain the Gospel.
I said, that's us Christians.
Because we have a relationship with God as
our Father.
Now, mind you, in Islam that is blasphemy.
If any Muslim in any country, even a
fairly open country like Pakistan would claim God
as his Father, they'd kill him.
Definitely.
So, he sat straight.
I said, yes, Father.
Because wherever we are, under any circumstance, happy
or sad, free or bound, we can always
call upon God and say, Father, the way
is open to Father's throne.
We have a relationship with God.
He is our Father.
We are His children.
We don't have to dress up.
We don't have to go to a specific
place anywhere in the world.
We can say, Father.
And He's there.
The man listened as I explained the Gospel
in that way.
Well, of course, all good stories come to
an end.
And I thought, I have to come to
my punchline.
Let's move on.
So, he said, well, what is the second?
I said, well, as it happens, that's the
Jews.
Because it's a lot more complicated for Jews
to pray.
For one, there have to be ten men
together.
Whenever you watch there on the Western Wall
in Jerusalem, you see them searching for ten
men.
They have to dress up with all those
paraphernalia, all those tassels and what have you.
And then they have to go to the
Wailing Wall to make a local call.
I mean, it's, you know, it's quite, it's
far more complicated than just anywhere, anytime saying,
Father.
Well, he liked that one and he laughed
because, of course, all Muslims hate the Jews
anyway.
So, he thought it was a good one.
But now he was sitting at the edge
of his chair.
He said, Andy, what is the third?
I said, that's you.
You need a loudspeaker.
You never guess his reaction.
He did not get out his gun.
He laughed.
He said, Andrew, I can't wait to hear
you preach in my mosque.
Now, you would not have expected that reaction,
would you?
Because deep in their heart, every Muslim is
a God-seeker.
And anyone who can tell them a little
more about how to get closer to God
is welcome to come and explain it.
But you have to take a few little
risks.
You never know how to finish it.
But they are God-seekers.
And even this morning, as I was having
my quiet time, I came across the word
God-seeker in reading the Old Testament, the
Message translation, which I enjoyed tremendously.
And I came across the word God-seeker
and then I thought, why are they God
-seekers?
And I wrote it down.
And then I...
By the way, did you write down anything
this morning?
What was your best thought this morning?
If you had one, write it down.
That's how you learn to know God.
So I wrote it down and I have
it here.
Muslims are God-seekers because they do not
have a God who seeks them.
Isn't that tragic?
They do not have a God who seeks
them.
That's why they are God-seekers.
And that's why you can find always the
difference between a religion and Christianity.
Every religion, every one, is man-seeking God.
Christianity is God-seeking man.
Hallelujah!
That's why we are here today.
He sought us.
He gave His Son to live among us,
to be one of us and to die
on the cross to take our sin.
That's why we don't ever have to be
God-seekers.
We just have to open our heart to
Him who seeks us.
That's why Muslims are God-seekers.
What a blessed situation if God sends you
to become the answer to that prayer.
I wrote that down this morning and when
I get home later in the week I'm
going to write that in my diary.
That's why they are God-seekers.
They really are.
And I want to speak about that, what
we can then do about getting them into
a relationship.
Not deeply into a religion and certainly not
switching their religion for ours because then they
are still lost.
They need a relationship.
The father-child relationship and it is based
on forgiveness.
Now their book doesn't really speak about forgiveness.
I do bring that subject up and say
the Koran teaches us we can forgive or
we can take revenge but to forgive is
better but to revenge is easier.
Now I can see that.
But to forgive, how do you get there?
How do we get there even as a
married couple or as church members?
How do we get there to the point
of forgiving?
And I remember one day in Pakistan and
I know that this church and a number
of your elders and pastors have a deep
interest in Pakistan that's where I met them
actually that's how I got in touch and
how I got here actually today because your
folks go to Pakistan and minister with us.
But here, so before I met them there
was a town in Pakistan and in one
night an angry Muslim mob swept into the
town and destroyed everything that belonged to the
Christians and left 15,000 Christians without a
roof over their head without any possessions no
more tractor, bicycle, tree or cow or goats
they destroyed everything that belonged to the Christians
including Salvation Army Hall and the Christian Clinic
and the library, everything was destroyed.
Of course you will not have read it
in your papers all we read about is
about the police corruption in San Francisco but
I mean 15,000 Christians losing everything in
one night that's barely news, worth reading for
us we've got other problems anyhow we quickly
went there Azad who has been here and
a team of open doors and a couple
of ministers from the government and the leader
of the Muslim League and we called together
the local police and Muslim leaders and the
Christians we had to put up some makeshift
tent because there's no building where we could
gather anymore everything was destroyed and I was
there to preach now what would you read,
what would you preach on?
so I had quickly decided that my reading
would be from Matthew 5 about the beautiful
attitudes in the first 12 or 13 verses
about blessed are those who blessing is a
result of our attitude towards God our Father
blessed are the peacemakers but then it doesn't
mean you're a pacifist because peacemakers have to
go to where the war is otherwise you
cannot make peace it's so simple that you've
got to read on blessed are those who
are persecuted now they knew what I was
speaking about for righteousness sake for theirs is
the kingdom of heaven blessed are you when
they revile and persecute you and say all
kinds of evil against you falsely for my
sake rejoice and be exceedingly glad you'd probably
grumble and complain but the Bible says rejoice
and be exceedingly glad we still have a
long way to go folks for great is
your reward in heaven so they persecuted the
prophets who were before you rejoice so I
went on to read a few lines that
pray in the same chapter love your enemies
I'm speaking to both groups now bless those
who curse you do good to those who
hate you and pray for those who spitefully
use you and persecute you pray for the
Bible is so clear about praying for your
enemy and loving your enemy because it simply
means that he's not your enemy anymore and
especially in this age of confrontation that we've
only just entered actually 9-11 was only
small delude to something that I fear is
coming over us and we are not ready
for it but we should be we have
to eliminate our enemies by loving them and
I am teaching everywhere that we must learn
to spell Islam as I sincerely love all
Muslims otherwise we get nowhere but how do
we love and what is the effect of
our love one that we go to them
bless that peacemakers they could go to the
front line and then pray for your enemies
those who persecute you and then 6-14
forgive men their trespasses and then your heavenly
father will also forgive you but if you
do not forgive men the trespasses neither will
your father forgive your trespasses that is a
very unknown text actually in evangelicalism we think
that forgiveness comes automatic and yet now we
see suddenly there is a condition and you
may be forgiven before the throne of God
through the blood of the Lamb but why
don't we get on better with each other
it's because we hold a grudge against others
we have not forgiven and then on that
horizontal level father cannot forgive us he wants
us to go a step further and build
up that relationship with your friend and with
your enemy and I was explaining that I
said we are here to forgive we Christians
are here and the other half was Muslim
to forgive you for what you have done
then I turned the pages a few of
them to gospel of Luke where I then
began to speak about the cross and of
course in our theological training we are usually
taught that when speaking to Jews and to
Muslims you don't mention the cross because that's
an offense to them wait a minute you
don't speak about the cross you mean let
them go to hell because without the preaching
of the cross and preaching of the crucified
one there is no salvation there only is
one name given on heaven whereby we must
be saved and that is the name of
Jesus but through the cross we must never
eliminate the cross in our preaching and teaching
but very often we have to earn the
right to the retention to do so so
here at this point I introduced the cross
and I went to the cross and Jesus
said father forgive them for they do not
know what they do and they jolly well
understood what I was saying to that crowd
then I said who in that bloodthirsty crowd
that angry mob that crucified Jesus who was
asking for forgiveness not one so it is
not necessary to ask forgiveness before you in
Jesus Christ can offer forgiveness that even in
evangelical world is a new concept I have
noticed that in my own country when I
speak and write about it I get very
angry letters from evangelical pastors saying Andrew there
is no forgiveness if they do not ask
you forgiveness gee hell will be crowded soon
we get nowhere in that attitude Jesus teaches
us to offer forgiveness so they can then
find a way to God that sets them
free if we forgive even if they would
never ask forgiveness why don't we go a
step further than the church a thousand steps
further than the Muslims to somehow show them
the life of Jesus Christ well that was
the content briefly of my preaching in Shantinagar
and after the service the minister of justice
came to see Azad he said can I
have a copy of brother Andrew's sermon I
have never heard this concept totally new to
us Azad said well sorry he probably doesn't
have a sermon it comes straight from the
book and from his heart but he has
never forgotten the forgiveness that we offer before
they ask and that demands the love we
need for sinners because we face an angry
a very angry world today increasingly so we
talk more about war and revenge and increasingly
so as this world is filled with fear
of terrorism there is a tremendous hunger for
the life of Jesus where is it if
it is not in us I sincerely love
all Muslims is it easy to forgive in
our travels to Eastern Europe in the good
old days of communism these were good days
we knew where the enemy was but now
it is so complicated it is so subtle
especially in this time of ecumenical movements you
are not allowed to say who is wrong
can we really forgive and there were two
evangelical pastors in East Germany at that time
and we were travelling through with our vehicles
loads of Russian Bibles through the Soviet Union
the first stop was then in East Germany
to talk to the East German pastors and
have the fellowship and they would pray with
us and then we would continue and we
would share the Russian Bibles so that they
could accept the responsibility and take the Russian
Bibles across the border so that we wouldn't
have to be the evangelical stuntmen all the
time we would share that burden and teach
them how to get scriptures into forbidden territory
there were two evangelical pastors who betrayed us
they prayed with us accepted our Bibles, accepted
our money to buy vehicles and took the
Bibles straight to the KGB for destruction we
only discovered that after the Cold War was
over when the papers were released from the
secret police and when I don't laugh, I
got 142 pages about my activities I have
them at home I greatly treasure them it's
amazing what they knew, they knew everything one
thing they didn't know they did not know
how to stop me because people prayed and
they do not know the power of prayer
they do not know the power of love
and through those papers we discovered our traitors
and then my colleague who was arrested and
interrogated and threatened he and his family and
children we decided we must go to these
pastors and offer forgiveness they probably never asked
but we must offer forgiveness so they can
then reestablish the direct line with God well
they got word of it that we were
on the way so they disappeared into Italy
and a year later we came back to
Berlin and we thought we do some gate
crashing and we did and indeed they were
in the house and they couldn't stop us,
we went inside had coffee with them and
we said we come to forgive you you
have made our life very difficult very dangerous,
very costly and they said yeah but we
also worked for the CIA well, big deal
I wanted the Bible to go to the
Soviet Union I wanted to build up the
church there in their resistance against evil so
we said we forgive you it's not
easy it hurts it hurts when you are
betrayed, it hurts even when you forgive because
the basis is that cross of Christ what
he did for us no other basis for
doing that and as we parted they repeated
their beliefs communism is still better they still
have not repented from communism maybe there are
some people that you you cannot win but
at least we must enable them to go
to find a way to Jesus by not
blocking their way because we are not forgiving
them there is a way where we can
forgive and where we can reach out to
them and where we can go on in
spite of our fear please don't ever think
that brother Andrew is a courageous man, he
is not, he is scared stiff he doesn't
like danger but I've got to press on
in spite of it and if I dare
not cross the border I've had those experiences
in my car I would just pull back
a few miles and check into a little
pension and pray and fast until fear had
left me and I could go in the
strength of the Lord it's a battle and
in the battle even on the side of
the victors there are casualties we've lost people
in Pakistan alone three of my personal friends
have been killed during torture in other countries
my friends have been killed in Africa in
Burma taking Chinese scriptures in, it's
a strange world, it will only get better
when the kingdom of God becomes visible but
it will be in the lives of people
who together will make an impact on the
world the question then remains, can we make
an impact, will people listen of course they
will listen you'll be surprised, one day I
was having a house meeting in the home
of Hamas and Islamic Jihad people in the
West Bank and we were having a great
time, I was explaining from the scripture about
Jesus and his way and there was one
young man who was so fanatically wanted to
convert to Islam and he was so eloquent,
he knew all the arguments, the Bible arguments
and the Quranic arguments he was so bright
and he didn't get very far with us
needless to say I think he was agitated
he jumped up from his chair he went
straight up somewhere in the building and my
colleague American director for Open Doors he got
scared, he thought this guy is going to
gun and kill us it was that tense
situation so he came back after a few
minutes with a stack of papers study on
the life of Jesus Christ that he had
followed through transworld radio at night they listened
to the gospel and they asked for the
papers, they fill them out and they study
the life of Jesus they are still God
seekers even if in one hand they have
the study of life on the life of
Jesus, on the other hand a gun, they
are God seekers but will we venture into
their territory and confront them with the gospel
of Jesus Christ, that is the whole issue
and I want to say so much more
about that because we are so rich with
that one book that we have their book
doesn't speak about forgiveness it speaks about revenge
and war it speaks about Jihad but then
of course for your comfort or discomfort this
book also speaks about Jihad because in the
Arab Arabic Bible it says in 2nd Timothy
4 verse 7, I have fought the Jihad
that is what Paul did, he was fighting
the Jihad we must fight the Jihad but
the other Jihad but they are preparing just
to do that one thing and they are
waiting for us and they want to know
later I will speak more about my initial
contact with the Hamas which was so revealing
it was exactly 10 years ago a few
weeks passed when Israel deported over 400 of
the top leaders of the Hamas to southern
Lebanon in the midst of a very cold
severe winter dumped among us by God and
Allah forsaken mountains and it looked that they
were there to die so who turns up
with two bags of Bibles brother Andrew and
the first word the first word we knew
that Christ would come to us who told
them suppose we had not come we would
have let down Jesus Christ they would never
have gotten a chance to believe in him
we knew that Christ would come to us
because this is what they are waiting for,
they are God seekers but who will take
Christ it will not be only or barely
through radio although it is a good instrument
it will be by personal contact because if
we do not take the Gospel physically to
a place where it costs us a little
bit how can they ever embrace the religion
that is going to cost them everything their
lives we knew that Christ would come to
us so I began to hand out Bibles
and I had Corrie ten Boom books with
me I said here read this and then
you can see how you can even become
famous when you save Jewish lives instead of
destroying them and they did not kill me
because they want the reality of life how
can anyone live like Corrie under torture and
concentration camp and come out and love her
tormentors they want to know more about that
so a tremendous friendship developed with Hamas with
the Hezbollah more about that later with the
Islamic Jihad of course with the PLO but
that was easy they are not so fanatical
can we go in and do something will
we accept the challenge few years ago when
a couple of terrorists blew up the most
modern warship the US Navy had the coal
I had just been to the city that
is where we worked from and some other
place I am not going to mention but
then I read I think it was in
Time magazine or Newsweek an article about the
coal you remember that big hole that was
blown and I think 17 sailors killed and
the two suicide bombers and it said in
the article I will never forget no one
on that warship called that day expected to
die but these two men in a rubber
boat sailing toward the coal came to die
that is the difference you we cannot beat
an enemy who comes to us to die
we can only win that battle by loving
them into the king there is no other
way and I had just been in the
same country in Yemen with the minister of
justice whom I had befriended on the airplane
I usually do that because on the airplane
you have a captive audience nowhere they can
go and I always have my books with
me I work on these guys I challenge
you have you ever been on an airplane
even a western airplane during the time of
prayer for the Muslims they go to that
empty space next to the cockpit and they
pray they kneel down on the airplane and
they pray with their face toward Mecca they
do that their dedication is absolutely unmatched by
us that is why we are so weak
unless we live a more dedicated and revolutionary
life then they will get nowhere ever and
I was with then I visited the minister
in the ministry buildings in Sanaa capital city
and we talked and he had read my
books by then in Arabic five of my
books are in Arabic absolute best sellers there
and he said Andrew could you please come
to my country to open schools and clinics
and literacy centers I couldn't
because we have no personnel we got no
big funds to do that they ask for
us and we say no why do we
wonder that they come to us as terrorists
they seek God in us we say no
we do not love enough to give like
Jesus did and we do not love enough
to forgive as Jesus taught us and only
a few weeks ago I hope you read
it when those three American doctors were killed
in Jiblanet hospital and I was way in
the past partly responsible even for getting that
hospital there and every year I visited them
and I knew these people now they are
killed the hospital is no longer a Baptist
hospital because we did not aggressively
do what Jesus told us and shown us
what to do and how to do it
so as we face the world today you
tend to be pessimistic but is there reason
for that you probably wonder why I have
this I wonder too I better get this
out before I quit there is a tremendous
persecution going on and it is spreading and
is threatening the very life of the church
there from Indonesia to Morocco and launching out
north and west into Africa and Europe already
you in America have as many Muslims as
you have Jews 6 million of each London
has 600 mosques Paris has 300 mosques my
little town has 3 mosques but we were
again take you back to Pakistan not long
ago actually on 28th of October 2001 in
one church service half the congregation was killed
by hand grenades that Muslim terrorists threw into
the congregation it was a small congregation most
congregations are small in Pakistan Babapur the Paris
Anglican Church whole family young people all killed
and this was exactly half of the congregation
there is persecution there is a body of
Christ that is paying the price and we
can still reach them but for how long
how much more is it going to cost
us in the face of a war that
I pray to God will be averted but
then these people had the guts to make
a calendar out of the pictures of the
victims so that the whole year every day
they will be able to look and I
would never have done that but that's what
they did so Azad and I went over
there we had the memorial service and the
survivors they were sitting here big church crowded
with Christians and Muslims of course Muslims Muslims
always come to the meetings sometimes I have
mixed meeting half half sometimes I have only
Muslims to which I can preach, who said
you cannot do it you can my biggest
meeting with Hamas was when I had 400
Hamas men in one meeting and giving my
testimony speaking about the cross and reading from
the new testament I spoke here and then
I it was one of the hardest sermons
I ever preached what do you say the
group that has just lost half of the
congregation including the pastor and then they all
stood up I mean the surviving group and
they sang a song to us what strength
then we went to the directory and Opendoor
was able to give them money, every one
of them for them much money for us
not that much they have to restart their
life again without father, without children without grandmother
but it is the body of Christ and
the bible says if one member suffers the
whole body suffers with it and I will
close with that one question how much pain
do we feel when they suffer how much
do we want to suffer by identification by
being with them by visiting them by adopting
them by so many things so that somehow
they can make it they have to there
is no survival for us if we don't
help the other half of the body survive
because the church is a body it is
not half a body how would you cut
up a body and how can one half
survive and not the other half both cannot
they must reach out in love and that's
all I wanted to share in this service
I'll just go on with the other stuff
in an hour or so meantime God bless
you I love you ok as
father Andrew has challenged us there are needs
around the world in the body of Christ
and we are going to give you an
opportunity to share in a particular project of
that nature why don't you tell us a
little bit about the project you mentioned to
us the big project that we are working
on now is to help people in the
physical suffering my base there is the Bethlehem
Bible College I was there until just Christmas
last December there is so much need and
poverty actual hunger those areas 30 to 50
percent of the children are malnourished, undernourished they
are so poor they have no work, no
money, no future they cannot go to school
and even going to church is dangerous there
is often total curfew they cannot go out
shopping not anything and together with the Shepherd
Society and the Bible Society and the Bethlehem
Bible College Open Doors is supporting 1000 families
just to get by with food and clothing
we cannot send clothing to that area that
is forbidden all we can do is bring
in money so that they can buy something
if the shops are open if the curfew
is lifted it is an absolutely desperate situation
and in the desperation the only hope to
have is the Christians from abroad to reach
out and help them that is what we
are doing on quite a big scale and
we need a lot of help to make
it effective I am going to ask the
ushers to grab the offering plates and come
forward Jake and the band are going to
lead us in some songs as we sing
and as the ushers come this is specifically
to donate money for Open Doors and their
assistance of Palestinian Christians who are impoverished and
suffering so Jake you can lead us now
and the ushers will come and take this
offering