The Friday Fax

Some years ago, missiologists coined the term "The 10/40 Window", meaning the geographical area between the 10 and 40 degrees north of the equator. "Most of the people groups not yet reached by the Gospel live in this area," they said. "For us," says Campus Church Networks (CCN), a mostly student-led church-planting movement on universities, "the 13/30 Window is central. It is the 13- to 30-year-old age range, the largest spiritual harvest field in the world for the following reasons:

1. People in this age range are most open for the Gospel
2. This is a decisive group, because they are the future of both the Church and the world. If you can reach the youth (for example, in educational establishments such as universities), you influence the form of future Christianity - and the world. UN figures show that
   • 60% of the world population is under 24 years old
   • 30% (1.7 billion) are between 10 and 24 years old

Statistical research has shown that 90% of all Christians decided to follow Christ before they were 25 years old (source: Barna Research).

The following reports from CCN show how a church can be planted:

"Last week, we experienced a breakthrough on the UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles) Campus," writes Jaeson Ma, CCN Director. "One of our teams went to establish a beachhead on campus through 'prophetic worship and apostolic preaching'. One of our members reports:

Seeing with spiritual eyes
This past Wednesday at UCLA we experienced a taste of heaven on earth, but it came with a cost. As we walked up onto campus there were thousands of students walking up and down Bruin Walk. Normally, we would sit at the patch of grass where there were not many onlookers (free speech area), but on Wednesday the main steps at the top of Bruin Walk were open - we took it by faith. As we sat on the steps we began to pray. It was difficult to pray, the enemy immediately began to intimidate us with fear and self-consciousness. We could sense the spiritual darkness right there in the middle of campus opposing our prayers. It was almost like we could hear the Devil say, "Come on, what are you going to do? Worship in the middle of campus? With your little guitars and make a fool out of yourself? Don't you know I own this campus?" On the outside these UCLA students all have the status, the image, the self-confidence, the cool look cool. Then I heard the spirit of the Lord shout to my spirit, "Stop looking with your physical eyes. Look with your spiritual eyes! They are all lost, dying and headed towards eternal separation from God!"

Grace instead of routine preaching
Has not God made the wisdom of this world foolishness, and doesn't he use apparently foolish things to confound the wise? So we stood there worshipping God, not so that the students would hear us, but so that God would hear us. It was difficult. We were distracted by all sorts of thoughts, and one of us felt sick. Despite that, we sang for two hours, until we sensed that the time had come to preach. No matter how many times you have preached in front of masses of non-believers, you never get used to it. You can never preach from an inner confidence. It's not a routine Sunday sermon; it's for people who are prepared to lose their own reputation and rely completely on God. I almost wet myself when I looked at the number of students walking past. I would have liked to run away and hide. Instead, I shut my eyes, asked God for his grace, jumped into the middle of the steps and started preaching as loud as I could.

If there is...
My voice threatened to fail me, but I sensed that God was there. More and more students stopped to listen - a group here, a group of Asian students there, another group of African American students who had been listening to music from their boom boxes only moments before. They all listened as I preached the Gospel; at least 120 students, for almost half an hour. It was as though God miraculously amplified my voice. People told me later that they had heard me on the second floor (for US readers, the third floor), even though I was speaking without a microphone. When I called them to repent and turn to God, many prayed with me, and at least half a dozen raised their hands. We spoke one-on-one with the students who had shown interest. One Hindu told me "I am jealous of what you have! I want it, but I don't know how to get it!" One black student was really angry, and shouted at us, "You're just full of sh..!" He said that Christians cannot be trusted, and that he was now a servant of the Devil. I prayed "Holy Spirit, please give me the wisdom to answer this man." When I asked him for forgiveness, for myself and other Christians, he replied "I have no answer for that one," and almost started to cry. His countenance changed, and we prayed for him. Finally, he said "I don't know what's so different about you. I'm the only one in my family who is not a Christian, but if there is one church I'll go to, it's the one you go to!" The stories go on and on, but we know: the battle has just begun. Now we must press on!"

Source: Jaeson Ma and Campus Church Networks

The 30-mile coast between Thaimuang and Takuapa was devastated by the tsunami at the end of December 2004. Khao Lak, which everyone heard of in the weeks following the catastrophe, is in this region. Hundreds of volunteers assisted the locals and the Thai army with reconstruction. Many of these volunteers who invested their time and money were Christians, and their living witness caused many to think about Jesus; over 20 new churches have started in this area since the flood, mostly small house churches led by nationals who take good care of the people's needs. "Christians have never been so involved in any region in Thailand," commented one pastor. Of course, many people come to the churches because of their physical needs, but they are also brooding about the basic questions of life. There is hardly anyone who did not lose family, friends and neighbours to the tsunami. In one of the churches, a 27-year-old woman who lost her husband and both children how the book of Romans comforted her, enabling her to sleep again. In that church, 19 people have been baptised in the past month.

Source: DMG, Germany

In the space of only a few years, thousands of house churches have been planted in seven districts of the Indian State Himachal Pradesh, a core Hindu area in northern India on the slopes of the Himalayas. Hundreds of Christians work as full-time missionaries in Randeep Mathews' church planting movement. Only a few years ago, news like this would have been unthinkable.

One death leads many to life
Saritha was the only one who followed Jesus in one remote village in Himachal Pradesh. She had to fight a lot of resistance and had many opponents, but remained true to her faith, believing and regularly praying that other villagers would find Jesus. She suddenly fell ill and was taken to hospital, but none of the drugs had any effect. Discharged from hospital, she returned home and testified with her last breath that she would go to heaven. Moved, her parents became Christians. Over the following weeks, many others in the village also decided to follow Jesus; the village is now home to around 80 believers. One disciple's death led many to life, and God answered Saritha's prayer, even in her death.

A medium follows Jesus
Pummy is a 30-year-old single Sikh who worked as a medium, prophesying to others in the names of idols. Then she started to hear about miracles happening in Christian meetings in the area. Interested, she wanted to find out whether the rumours were true. After witnessing what was happening, she decided to follow Jesus herself. Her story has led over thirty others to Christ. As a child, she was adopted by a rich non-Christian family. Because she has become a Christian, her family has excluded her from their will, but Pummy will not deny Christ for any price.

Source: Agape Voice

Despite strict religious laws in Romania, a July 2005 outreach with David Hathaway was broadcast on national television. "That was the first time in Romanian history," says Hathaway, founder of the EuroVision movement. For the outreach in Bucharest's National Palace, Hathaway worked with pastor Daniel Matei and others. Matei used to be an evangelist, and is now pastor of a fast-growing church in Romania. Hundreds of people were saved, and many people were miraculously healed - all on national television. "That's a first!" says Hathaway.

Source: EuroVision, tel. (+44) 1924 453 693

Mam Manga from Guinea-Bissau in western Africa is studying in a Brazilian Bible school. After graduating, she wants to return to her nation to serve Jesus. "My parents were not Christians, quite the opposite, practising ancestor worship. We had many idols at home, and people came to sacrifice to them. My brother studied in the capital, where he became a Christian. That caused an argument. I can still hear my father telling him 'You are no longer my son!' The family decided to beat my brother until he recanted, but God prevented it. Not long afterwards, my father fell ill, and became lame. Witch doctors said that the spirits were angry with him. His suffering made him open for Jesus, and when my brother spoke about his faith, my father, mother, four sisters and I all believed. Jesus soon healed my father, who could walk again. That day, he burned all the idols and asked my brother to forgive him - it was a wonderful day. I will never forget my father's last words when he died years later: 'Children, follow Jesus, and we will meet again in eternity.'"

Source: Mam Manga in "DMG informiert", the newsletter of the German Missionary Fellowship

Something very special happened when house church coach John White and Kenny Moore, Southern Baptist Director of Church Planting for the State of Colorado, had breakfast together on October 2, 2002. Both have a passion to see Colorado covered with living expressions of the Body of Christ. While lingering over the last cup of coffee for the morning, their thoughts were turned to the ninth and tenth chapters of Luke. They observed that this was where the Lord was really shifting gears, where the foundation was laid for all that would follow till the end of the age. Up to this point, the Lord was doing the ministry. Now he was sending out the 12 (Luke 9:1-6) and then the 72 others (Luke 10:1). "Now there were 42 two-man teams to establish the presence of Christ — to plant churches — everywhere," writes Jim Montgomery, a respected missionary and publisher of The Great Commission Update. "I would have been ecstatic," says John White, "if I had 42 church-planting teams for the state of Colorado. But what Jesus was saying really astounded us. 'The fields are ripe but these 42 teams are so few.'" The harvest is not the problem. The critical missing component is an adequate number of harvest workers. How do we get enough apostolic church planters? Luke 10:2b says to do one thing: ask the Lord of the harvest for them. John and Kenny covenanted with each other to pray this "10:2b" prayer together every day possible from that moment on. So every day either John would call Kenny or Kenny would call John to pray. If they didn’t connect, they would leave their prayer on voice mail.

800 days later
In the following 30 months, they have followed through on this pledge about 700 or 800 times, saying "God, here we are again, John and Kenny, pleading for more harvest workers for Colorado, just like every day." "Regular prayer, like the poor widow in Luke 18," says White, "can and should become a healthy, regular and hence relentless intercession." Kenny and John started inviting others to do the same, regularly praying the 10:2b prayer in teams. There are now between 200 and 300 people praying 10:2b with a partner virtually every day. The 10:2b virus is spreading!

Amazing results
"And the results have been amazing," says White. "We're to the point where we get a phone call or e-mail almost every day from someone saying something like this: 'It’s in my heart to plant a (house or simple) church. How do I do that? Can you help me?'" Kenny Moore used to get six or eight people over the course of six months who would indicate a desire to start a new church. He now has a steady stream of inquiries, and there have been around 100 Southern Baptist Churches established in Colorado alone from the time he and White began praying 10:2b together.
Tim Pynes had been on the staff of a large, post-modern church in Denver. With so many programs in this mega-facility, Pynes found he had merely turned into a project manager. "This is not what I signed up for," he told White. "I want to invest in the lives of people." He left the megachurch and started meeting White. He now has a growing network of 8 house churches in Denver.
Guy Muse, a Southern Baptist missionary in Ecuador, has been encouraging all of his house church people to pray the10:2b prayer on a daily basis since May of 2004. "In that month of May alone, 30 new congregations were established," he reports.

"Cast out", not "send forth"
The Greek word for "send forth" in Luke 10:2b, ekballein, was a very forceful, almost violent, term. It is the word used when casting out a demon, for example. White and Moore realised that they should not pray for potential labourers who may be interested, but for highly-motivated people who God had taken and, as only he can, placed with gentle force in the harvest. It seems to work...

Source: Jim Montgomery and John White, DenverWH[at]aol.com