Thank you.
Let's just pray again.
God, we just thank you for the privilege
of worship.
We ask now that you would help us
as we share and as we consider some
of the things that are happening, some of
the things that we are facing as we
go forward together.
We ask in the name of Jesus.
Amen.
Well, thank you for your prayers for us
as we were there in Singapore.
It was a very challenging time, very stretching
time.
I was making some comparisons of the meetings
we had in the 70s and 80s, comparison
to the meetings in the 90s.
Certainly the 90s, again, maybe 96 is an
exception.
I don't have that good of memory remembering
all the details, but certainly these meetings go
on in a far more peaceable way than
I can remember in past years.
Probably a number of reasons for that.
I won't get into it.
It doesn't mean that everything is smooth and
that we all just agree easily on everything
because we don't, but it does seem that
there's a momentum that's built up over the
years and maybe there's also maturity, maybe other
things, maybe even some negative things.
But we certainly got through a massive agenda.
These are the two main papers or agendas,
all kinds of other papers that I may
just refer to a little later on.
Before I do that, welcome back to some
other people.
Again, I don't have the credentials to welcome
you since you're probably already here last week
and I've been away, but it's great to
have Viv back and we'll certainly be hearing
from him sooner or later, hopefully sooner.
I look forward to the meeting next Tuesday
night.
I am around just for a while, two
weeks I guess, all told.
And then between now and June, I will
be here a lot more than I have
in the past couple of months.
It's good to see Yosef back and we're
excited about what God is doing in Algeria.
I guess if we really were able to
measure things the way they see things in
heaven, we would probably have to say that
the breakthroughs in prayer for Algeria have been
as significant as anything we've seen.
I'm almost hesitant to say that because we
know things can change again, but right now
it does look encouraging and if Yosef is
around on Tuesday, we'll have him and we'll
have a bigger crowd share on that.
It's just quite amazing.
It's good to have Jack Rendell back from
Latin America.
Big things are happening in connection with the
Rendells and so I think it would be
good if Jack, you came and shared that.
We discussed it on the phone and mentioned
that would be good.
So we can all be praying.
It'll come a bit as a surprise to
some people, but not to the Lord, right?
I hope not.
Well, good morning to everyone.
I think some of the rumors of us
going to the States for a while have
been going around and I thought maybe it
was good to say something very clearly or
as clearly as possible about it to everyone
so that it was more official.
The idea is to go to the States
for about a year and a half.
Last November, Susan started struggling a lot with
some physical problems that really started last spring,
I suppose.
She was getting problems with allergies, but it
got really intensive in November, December.
She actually has to carry a serum around
with her now because if she eats certain
things and she's not always sure what the
context of everything she's eating is, she can
get these terrible attacks.
Her skin breaks out and her throat tightens
up so she can't even breathe.
Just recently she had another one and they
had to give her something that she just
places on her thigh and pushes in.
She has a serum and it unrestricts her
throat and she can carry on living, but
it's death-threatening.
So she is in a serious situation in
that sense.
Along with this, I think her homesickness began
to grow.
That probably brought it out more than anything
else.
She wanted to go see what it was
like living in the States and we felt
it would be a good thing for her
to see something of that and what it
was like and the differences from what it
was like living here, at least some of
them.
I think she's just facing too much homesickness
to be able to carry on.
She called us several times and we kind
of held her off and encouraged her and
reminded her of all the positive side of
things.
But finally on the first of the year
she called and said she just couldn't handle
it anymore and was either coming home or
we had to go over there.
So we started thinking and praying about it
and wondering what was the best thing to
do.
Of all the things and challenges that she
faces, and they're not all negative, some of
them are just good straightforward things that she
has to face and work through, but of
all the situations that she faced in the
States, her spiritual situation was probably the best.
Because the youth group in my home church
is going very, very well.
There's a couple in my home church that
have just put months and years and hours
each week of work into the kids in
my church.
They have good Bible studies with them.
The kids have to go home and study
and pray over things and bring feedback back.
I mean it wasn't as good in my
time when I was in that church in
high school and she seems to be doing
very, very well and growing spiritually, praying.
We talk with her now about spiritual things
like we've never done before, which is quite
amazing.
We can hardly believe it.
And so we didn't want to take her
out of that situation.
We've talked with leadership in OM as well
as in our churches and our church here
in Britain as well and everybody seems to
think it might be a good time to
go and spend a little longer.
When I was speaking to my home, the
pastor of my home church, he says, well,
you know, if you do take in a
year and a half, call it a working
furlough and I will be working from over
there.
In other words, I'll be making my trips
from New Jersey rather than from here and
a lot of what I do can be
done from there anyway.
It's been 11 years since we've been in
the States for an extended period of time.
We've gone over a couple of summers, but
the visits to these places have been lightning.
One church that's very enthusiastic in supporting us,
maybe that's the reason, in Milan, Michigan, you
know, we were in and out one day
last time we were in the States in
the summer of 94.
Now I get to some of these places
when the family isn't there on some of
my trips, but again, it's just one day
in and out or one meeting in and
out.
And so maybe it's time to go spend
a bit more time, more like a year
or a bit more there than just one
summer moving around to 28 different places in
seven weeks.
Hopefully I can get some meetings in the
States while I'm there in the New Jersey
area and other places.
And then people have asked us about Carolee,
what about her and her schooling situation?
My church is actually running a very good
school, which goes through the eighth year.
It has a high reputation.
Lots of people want to put their kids
into the school and can't get in.
They kind of leave a few extra places
for special cases like ours that are closely
connected with the church.
So Carolee can probably go into that school
and she's doing very, very well in her
own grades.
She's in the top stream at school and
getting good grades.
So even with all the absence that she's
had recently, so that's encouraging.
And I think she'll come back early enough
to settle back into the system here in
order to be able to go into GCSEs
without too much problem.
I could go on and on, but I
think maybe I'll just stop there.
And if people have questions, you know, ask
us the questions, whatever they may be.
Thanks very much.
Thanks, Jack.
Let's just pray.
It's a big step to be renting out
their house.
They'll be making this move.
Let's pray for Carolee, the significant adjustment for
her.
Lord, we just thank you for Jack and
Kathy and Carolee and Susan.
We thank you for the way you're working
in their lives.
You know our hearts that we will miss
them for that year and a half, their
fellowship, their input in many different ways.
But this does seem to be your way.
We pray that our loss here will be
a great blessing to the people of New
Jersey and this church and throughout the United
States.
The challenge is just so great in that
country at this time.
We rejoice that even when we're separated, we
can be upholding one another.
We can be occasionally on the phone, email,
and be tied in together much more, much
more than in previous generations.
Thank you now in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Well, a lot of things to share.
I'm purposely putting this on tape.
I hope to make a better effort in
1996 on internal communication to ICT members who
are stretched out a bit in our two
different sections.
But I think most people are interested in
keeping up on what's happening and being able
to plan and pray intelligently because certainly the
way things are building up, 96 and 97
are going to be very, very major years.
I know we easily say that each year
and the devil later tries to intimidate us
and discourage us when the testings come and
the heartbreaks come.
And as we look back over 1995, we
see some things that, humanly speaking, are pretty
difficult.
One of the things that was presented at
Singapore was global action.
That's the prototype of the new leaflet that
now subject to, I think, a few changes
has acceptance and global action is now in
launch position, which will change the way we
do things in the future, especially for the
one and two year program.
In the future, starting in 97, people won't
join a one or two year program.
Ideally, they'll join global action.
I know some will still, of course, call
it a one year program, just like sometimes
I ask Vera to quickly send something to
New Jersey office, which finished quite a few
years ago.
But it's exciting.
And the hope is that instead of seeing
our normal, about four or five hundred come
for our midterm programs, that we will see
closer to a thousand.
This will happen not primarily through events.
The main part of global action is not
just events, but there will be two launch
congresses around the same time, one in India
and the other in the Netherlands.
It's been interesting to just see how all
this has evolved and how we ever got
united on this, because when it was first
launched a couple of years ago, there was
considerable disagreement and the people behind this have
really worked very, very hard.
Quite a few of the key people in
this global action are on this team, which
means we really will be involved and we
really want to be supportive of those people,
Howard Herrigan, Peter Conlon, Christiana, and of course
Peter Maiden and people in Carlisle, and then
other people right around the world, because it
is part of our global forward thrust.
So that's one of the big things that
was united on there in Singapore.
I guess the thing I'm the most excited
about, forgive me for my mundane-ness, is
that we just had the largest single financial
breakthrough in several years into ICT.
It is so big that Peter Maiden, as
this came into Carlisle, and I have decided
not to release the amount of money.
It is way over 30,000, 40,000
pounds.
Why do we do that?
Well, I guess maybe just that people get
such a wrong idea and think that suddenly
there's a huge amount of money sitting around,
when in fact that's not the case.
The amount of money we need just to
keep ICT, Carlisle, and here going together with
things like the Global Impact Fund.
What used to be called the Development Fund,
one percent is the Global Impact Fund.
Don't confuse it with different national impact funds
which are being born.
USA just had a lot of funds, a
lot of money come into their National Impact
Fund.
And especially the move of Petra to Carlisle
and everything else connected with Petra is extremely
expensive.
We are going to freeze some of this
money and use it over the next six
months so that we can balance out this
time of the year with the summer.
We're just going to try to do this.
Because last year, also around this time, we
had some very significant giving.
On top of this giving, our transfer into
ICT, which is due any day, is bigger,
I think, than any month.
All of our bills will be paid.
All of our loans will be repaid.
Not a special project.
They have a ways to go yet.
So it is very, very encouraging and we
hope that by freezing some of this money
that we can have at least now six
months of relative, I don't know what term
to use.
I don't like to use the word easier.
I don't want to use the word sane.
Stability.
Six months of financial stability so that we
can work on other things, including finance.
But I thought it would be good, I'm
going to turn the recorder off for a
moment, just give thanks.
I might just say, just before we pray,
that in many ways, 1995 was the toughest
and especially when you consider the provision of
this place, the toughest and the best year
that I can remember in living memories.
Special projects alone income shot close to one
million American dollar equivalent from all over the
world.
You say, why are we hearing about this
in February?
Well, I've been away a lot and in
OM, December money comes in February.
Fortunately, this big gift came in direct.
So we had all this money coming in
from December and then this bigger gift direct.
Um, just really quite amazing.
So let's give thanks to that for that.
We often pray and ask and many have
worked very hard on this.
Let's give thanks to the Lord.
I just thank you and praise you for
this major financial breakthrough we've seen, not through
just these big gifts, but also this matching
fund for those who were short in their
own support.
What an encouragement this has been to so
many.
Uh, we know that actual cash hasn't, for
the matching part of it hasn't actually arrived
yet, so we can still look forward to
that.
We just thank you and we lift our
hearts in praise and adoration.
We never want to take these breakthroughs for
granted, even though again and again, for way
over 35 years, we have seen it happen.
We thank you Lord for the months that,
that it doesn't happen because that reminds us
that we can't presume.
That reminds us that it isn't just easy
going, but it's spiritual warfare.
It's a battle and there is suffering.
And our unity, Lord, we think of how
our unity was tested a number of times
along the way, especially right after the New
Era, uh, catastrophe.
And Lord, I just, more than the finance,
thank you for the oneness and the unity
in the body in the midst of all
of our diversity, in the midst of all
the things that do hit us and hit
us hard.
And we worship you together now in thanksgiving
for these breakthroughs in Jesus name.
Amen.
Thank you.
I'd love to spend a whole hour giving
thanks.
Um, just in a way of personal testimony,
it is impossible for me to describe how
much God has just poured his grace into
my own weak, needy, struggling heart in the
last weeks, as we've seen such an avalanche
of finance after times of deep, deep, uh,
despair, uh, never allowing it to, uh, last
too many hours, but still it was there.
Many disappointments, just the increased costs, uh, and
then the shortfall of support used to just
hammer me almost on a daily basis.
And somehow the Lord heard our cries, your
cries and, and rescued us.
This will make all the difference in the
world as to what we are attempting to
do.
You cannot launch all kinds of new things
and do what we are trying to do
with a massive financial cloud on your head
and all that goes with that.
And many, many things in 1995 were canceled
and postponed.
Some of those things are already being resurrected
and we are aware Satan of course will
be counterattacking.
What are some other big things that should
encourage and challenge our hearts?
One was a phone call last night.
It was like talking across the street on
the best telephone in the world, but it
was to log us to in the middle
of the Atlantic Ocean.
My satellite, by the way, the kind of
satellite we have on the ship, which cost
a fortune, now you can have in your
own briefcase.
So if I go on the ship for
any long journeys, I'll bring my own.
Uh, they're about $2,000 coming down fast.
They may be a little more than that,
but, um, you can imagine what we paid
for our commercial satellite communication on the ship.
Some of you may not be aware of
all these interesting things.
You can now be on a jumbo jet
over Afghanistan and phone anywhere in the world
from the plane.
I've seldom ever done it.
I think I'm not accustomed to it yet,
especially the price, but I almost did flying
in from Singapore, but I couldn't think of
anything urgent enough to phone about.
So, so I didn't, I didn't call.
They've had some pretty rough weather on Logos
2.
They're looking forward to the Cliffords, uh, meeting
them on arrival.
They would like you to carry a tape
that I told them about on the, on
the, uh, on the phone.
Miles Taves talked on the phone.
Peter Nichols was out in Singapore.
They had two calm days so far.
All the rest, Force 7, Force 8.
But, um, Miles said that people seem to
be holding up quite well.
And, uh, I guess some that were expecting
to be ill were not ill, but others
were ill.
Toggy Benson sent his greetings.
Captain, please do continue to pray for Logos
2 when it's, all the time, but especially
a mid-Atlantic crossing is an extra serious
challenge for a ship that old.
So that's an item I thought you would
like to, uh, hear about.
Yes?
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
Thank you for that, uh, that report.
A little bit of an update on Operation,
uh, AX-13 or Breakthrough 2000.
Uh, this, uh, is scaring me right out
of my shoes at present because, uh, Louise
Bush has responded in a very, very big
way to this.
I sort of figured he would since he
responds in a big way to most things.
Uh, a number of you on the team
responded to this challenge in a very, very,
uh, encouraging way.
I shared this vision in a briefer way
with all the leaders at Singapore.
And the response has been very, very encouraging.
Mike Stracciura, by the way, was with us.
We commissioned him into his new ministry.
And of course, this new vision that, uh,
God has given is very much up his,
uh, up his street.
It's still on discussion, uh, stage because, uh,
but, but yesterday with his facts, big long
facts back from Louise Bush, it is, um,
almost moved into the cement stage, which is
making me rather, uh, nervous because of course
with it, Louise Bush is suddenly opening phenomenal
doors, uh, for us to be able to
promote this through the whole worldwide network.
Uh, the same time he's trying, he wanted
a decision yesterday, uh, to get me to
be the co-chairman of this Congress in
South Africa.
There's four or five Congresses all going on
at once.
And the one that I would be helping
to lead is, uh, Congress, especially for missionary
executives from all over the world.
This is 1997.
The South Africans, uh, it seems maybe trying
to match the Koreans.
They're putting together a mega mega event in
Pretoria around the 28th of June to the
5th of July, 1997.
And I, uh, his line was always busy
toward the end of the day yesterday.
And I eventually fell asleep due to the
jet lag.
So he didn't hear from me, but, uh,
I don't know.
I don't know what to say at this
stage, except, uh, we'll try to keep you
informed as to what's happening.
If you missed hearing that Acts 13 tape,
you can get a copy.
She might be in short supply right now,
but within the near future, you could get
a copy from, uh, Vera.
This will not primarily be an OM, uh,
vision.
It'll be an 82,000 mobilization network vision,
but the burden is that as many groups
as possible will, uh, tie into it.
It's a very simple thing to adopt.
You don't have to be an 82,000.
You don't, uh, probably similar to 82,000
different fields within OM will respond in different
ways.
Our policy on 82,000 is it's up
to each individual nation.
OM is linked in a general way.
And as far as active participation, that varies
from nation to nation.
And in some nations, 82,000 is major,
like for example, the Gulf with Kevin Penney.
Other nations, uh, it doesn't, uh, the, the
technical side of it and the structure side
is not happening very much.
That leads me to the next point that
I've just come from a strategic meeting with,
uh, John Ehrwicker and Stanley Davis, uh, Roger
Foster, David, uh, is it Sprint?
Spriggs.
Thank you.
As well as, uh, one or two others
sort of making the final decision about 82
,000 in the UK.
And, uh, a survey was taken nationwide among
the Evangelical Alliance constituency.
And the survey shows that there is not
unity about going forward in the UK with
an 82,000 structure.
So it looks like what's going to happen
is that the Evangelical Missionary Alliance is going
to, uh, adopt certain major concepts in the
Evangelical Alliance, other concepts, and run with these
goals and concepts within existing structures.
For example, there's already a task force or
whatever they call it for unreached people in
this country.
In fact, Les Wade is part of that.
And hopefully that, Ben Samuel is the leader
of it, also one of the leaders in
82,000.
That will, uh, take ownership of the unreached
people aspect of, uh, of the challenge without
necessarily using, uh, the name.
And this was a disappointment to some people.
Others knew it, it was, it was what
was going to happen.
Um, through this, there's a definite groundswell in
Britain that is saying something much more must
be done in this country for world missions
and the unreached people.
And now exactly how that's going to move,
I don't know.
Um, Stanley Davis of Evangelical Missionary Alliance has
shared that they're adding one or two staff.
I think a key staff person already added.
That is going to enable them to do
much more.
The relationship with EA and ENA, a very
crucial relationship, is, is, um, perhaps much better
than it's been in the past.
There's certainly a desire amongst some very key
people to get a greater unreached people's focus
at, uh, spring harvest in the future.
There's thought of launching some kind of major
British missions, Congress, um, all kinds of things
being discussed.
And it's, it's quite encouraging.
It's always easy to see the negative side.
We seem to have so long, so far
to go, but, um, there's also considerable encouragement
and all those things will impact us in
OM, I can assure you, because we are
in the middle of many things here in
the UK.
So that, I wanted you to know about
that and don't hesitate to give me, uh,
feedback as I receive feedback from many parts
of the world, especially concerning some of these
new things we're launching into.
It's especially helpful to get some from people
on our own team as we're so, so
much in the heart of, of some of
this.
I wanted to just mention, uh, just a
word of thanks about this Korean event that's
just taken place here.
I've heard some good feedback.
I know a lot of people had to
work very hard.
It's somewhat of an experiment to do that
kind of thing.
And I'm not saying how much we're going
to be doing it in the future or
doing it in that particular way, but, uh,
experiments are good.
And I just want to thank all of
you.
Um, I, I can take no credit for
it actually, because I tried to stop it,
but the consensus moved against me and I
said, fine, you, you know, do it.
And I always love to see things happen
in which I'm not that very much involved,
though in connection with things from Korea, I
tend to get overly, uh, involved.
So thank you.
And, um, all those that, that put time
and effort into that, and I, there will
be long-term results from that kind of
thing.
Whatever effort and tears or hard work you
put into it, knowing the way these things
go, the benefits will be greater.
And believe me, Korea is blessing OM big
time.
Um, and we're blessing them and that's global
synergy for the kingdom.
I wanted to say that we have another
sort of experimental event coming spearheaded by the,
uh, Brooks Chacko Duet and others.
Um, Serpa probably doing most of the work.
No.
And that's, uh, this pastor's event coming up
here on, is it 6th or 7th of
February?
6th of February, about 40, 45 pastors will
be here.
In many ways, this is a seven or
eight years overdue.
It's a fantastic idea.
So, uh, it's just, it's just a day
event.
Nobody will be staying here overnight or anything
like that.
So again, I wanted to mention that for,
for prayer and that kind of event is
so much in line with the new thrust
of Acts 13.
When I was in Singapore, I spoke at
the Church of the Savior, one of the
fastest growing churches in Singapore.
Um, their missions, the commission leader or associate
mission leader in that church is Frank Tale
from, uh, used to work in Pakistan and
they are sending 500 people out on mission
trips.
That's the new in turn, by the way,
for missions now.
Mission trips seems to be getting, everything seems
to be getting shorter and shorter and shorter.
And some people in very non-grace awakened
ways react to these things.
I think that's a great mistake.
This is the world we live in.
A lot of those people, they didn't go
on a mission trip, they go on a
holiday and they spend the same amount of
money, maybe a little more, maybe less, who
knows.
The church up the road, which, uh, again,
like most churches in Singapore do their own
thing in missions.
They don't work through agencies.
Uh, they are sending 1000 church founded by
a man named neighbor, whole church built on
the small church, a small cell group concept,
fastest growing church in Singapore.
They have a thousand going on mission trips
and they've only launched this concept in the
last couple of years.
And one of the beautiful things about, um,
many of the ministries of OM, I think,
especially of the ships, but many other aspects
of OM is the phenomenal network we have
with churches.
And this past weekend we took meetings in
70 churches in Singapore and we've already had
a phenomenal feedback from my church, uh, that
I, where I took the meeting about two
and a half thousand people in the meetings,
uh, free services, they finally acknowledged that OM
may have spirit filled people.
It's always an accomplishment, isn't it?
But it is amazing because we're not sort
of fully, uh, in the charismatic movement.
Uh, there are those rumors that go around
that, you know, really OMers are not, uh,
spirit filled.
I mean, maybe even this George Gerber guy,
he's not spirit filled.
And though we may smile, those rumors are
not exactly helpful when you're trying to build
relationships with local, uh, churches.
So it's just interesting how some of this
is tying, uh, together, including, uh, things like
this, um, meeting with these pastors that's coming
up very, very, uh, soon.
I wanted to just bring an update on
the building.
Um, this is certainly a huge, a huge
challenge facing us.
I had an important meeting with Mr. Gui,
presented him with all the photos and all
the plans, and he is definitely committed to,
uh, help in a very, very big way
for the repairs and refurbishing of the building,
which will take a considerable amount of time.
There will be inconveniences coming upon us while
this is done, rewiring the building, repairing roofs.
Um, we could opt out and move out
for a year, uh, into some other facility,
all temporary, and then move back.
I think that would be maybe even more
inconvenient, uh, to say the least.
So I think we have to face facts.
Probably 1996 will be a year of, uh,
considerable disruption in this building.
And I hope we can somehow roll with
the punches and do what we have to
do.
Of course, a number of people work at
home, some work at home and here.
Uh, we are not starting anything immediately.
We still have a number of things to
get in place.
We have quotes to get.
So I hope that we can, uh, really,
really make this a serious matter of prayer
that we can see the breakthroughs, um, along
many, many different lines.
We have to make some important decisions, very
important decisions about the use of the building
at the latest by the end of March.
So that's going to take grace and that's
going to take, um, wisdom.
Let's just pray about this building thing for
a moment.
That's just, uh, Ron Goodenough's coming here even
today to, uh, work on some things in
connection with that.
Lord, we just commit to you the building.
Again, we are stunned that you've given us
this huge place with all this land, but
it's also the responsibility.
We think of what people pay just to
buy one little flat just down the road
here.
It's incredible.
And we think of the report on the
radio this morning and housing prices continuing to
climb, maybe only in a small way.
I don't know.
But Lord, we commit all this to you
and especially that our unity may remain intact
through the changes and that we would guard
our tongues and not speak when in some
cases we don't know what we're even saying
because of the complexities and the challenge and
the fast changes that are coming upon us.
And again, we lift up the church, our
relationship with the church.
We lift up Heather and John as they
live here and face many more complexities than
the rest of us.
And we're trusting you to give us the
right contractors and the right architect and your
mind as to how the building can be
used.
In Jesus' name, amen.
I want to apologize for a mistake I
made.
I think it may be on that Acts
13 tape.
I referred in some cases to the Jericho
Project.
Please forgive me.
It's the Joshua Project.
There is a Jericho Project.
David Conkle works for Jericho Project in Minneapolis,
in Madison, Wisconsin.
Joshua and Jericho do have some connection.
I had already caught this mistake, but then
Louise Bush reminded me of it as well.
The Joshua Project is the latest huge development
in 82,000 and you can read about
it in Ralph Winter's magazine, Frontiers Magazine.
There's not time to go into detail, but
basically everything happening in 82,000, not everything,
but a lot of the various things are
tied now in to the Joshua Project with
all of its various aspects.
So that's one other thing that I wanted
to mention.
Well, I hope that you find this information
helpful as we work as a team.
What one person does certainly affects others.
I wanted to just show you a few
of the things I brought back from Singapore
that you might be interested in seeing.
There's the LM Core Study Manual edited by
Richard Briggs.
This of course was received with great delight
and seems to now be on target to
become a reality and certainly a major part
of global action.
There's the OASIS Administrative Instructions and Overview of
Ministry.
There was a great affirmation of Alan Adams'
ministry in this area of counseling and pastoral
care.
Just look at all the things that are
in this one paper.
Physician paper, The Vision of OASIS, Code of
Ethics, Practice for Counselors, Counselors Confidentiality and O
.M. Statement of Faith, Requirements for OASIS Counselors
Interview Forms for Counselors with O.M. Notes
for Love Europe Counselors, Briefing Session, Admin Instructions,
Completion of Requests for Help Forms, Sample Memorandum
for Home Offices, Referral Forms, Requests for Help
Form.
It does seem that the whole pastoral care
challenge and counseling challenge, they are two distinct
areas of ministry, is going forward in quite
an encouraging way.
There's a little form that quite a few
of us had in connection with global action.
One of the toughest challenges, and we're out
of time, that we face, those of us
who come from Singapore, and I challenged people
about it just before they left now, is
to communicate as much as possible from Singapore
down right through the grassroots of O.M.
If you think that's easy, then your knowledge
of O.M. is fairly weak.
It is incredibly difficult.
It is also expensive, though email can greatly
cut the price.
Peter Mayne will do the official report.
That will go out to leaders.
Those leaders then have to discern in the
light of their time how much of this
they can pass on to their team members.
Some of it isn't that relevant for the
average team member.
At the same time, we have many different
kinds of team members.
We have team members very interested in these
things.
We have other team members who, if they're
honest, are not that interested in these things.
So how do you know what to communicate
and what not to communicate?
And since Satan is also a master at
intimidation, some of our leaders do find it
very hard, and therefore the information doesn't get
out.
One of the biggest events coming at us
in 1996, and there are many, is the
General Council.
We affirmed there in Singapore that for every
one major leader we had there, five key
people were not there who are equal to
these people.
Do not think hierarchically.
That is going.
And this was a specific meeting with a
specific job that does not make them any
more significant than someone who wasn't there.
Quite a few, by the way, of people
with those jobs, like field leaders, were not
there because they could not afford to be
there, especially many from Europe.
But this was sort of known when we
went that way, and the representation from Asia
was phenomenal because it's right in their heartland.
They knew it probably wouldn't be coming back
again.
And so, I'm not saying that's why they
were there, but they were there, and I
think that was very encouraging.
It looks like next year's leaders conference, international
leaders conference, will be in Sweden.
It's amazing how quickly this group can make
a decision at times.
This one seemed to take only five or
six minutes.
Various other places were suggested.
St. Petersburg was second.
Germany was still in the running, but somehow
they then gave a price for Sweden, which
seemed to be incredibly reasonable.
And it looks like, anything subject to change,
that next January or so we will be
in Sweden, where the weather is so lovely
in January.
Thank you very much.
Let's pray.
Lord, we believe that we live in the
information age.
We are told that, even though some of
us don't fully grasp it.
We're still hoping we're in the age of
action.
But we know information leads to action, and
when it doesn't, then help us, Lord, to
take our own spiritual temperature to see where
we really are.
Lord, these things that we have been able
to share about have come as a result
of many years of prayer and work on
the part of a large number of people
in and out of OM.
And by your grace, we're going to somehow
put these things together.
We're going to somehow contextualize it into our
own field, our own department, our own personal
ministry, into our homes.
And by your grace, we are going to
go forward.
Father, you know my knees are shaking.
And part of me wants to run away
and feel so overwhelmed, especially by the continued
challenges that come on a global scale.
Lord, our hearts are shaken as we see
the need across the world and we read
about things like Burundi and wonder how is
this all relevant to that.
And Father, we ask you for grace as
we attempt to minister right across the world
to our own people.
Help our leaders to be able to share
something of what's happening at OM and through
this leaders meeting and to see it go
down right to the grassroots of the movement.
Give us greater wisdom and grace in building
up the ministry of each individual OMer.
To use that modern term of being able
to empower them in their particular ministry.
At the same time, may they know the
crucified life and not overly focus on their
own ministry and their own empowerment, but their
ability to encourage and empower and help others.
And somehow we may function as one body
for your glory.
In Jesus name.
Amen.
Thank you very much.