Wednesday, May 02, 2007

Prayer Revival

A challenging article...

In 1952 Albert Einstein was asked by a Princeton doctoral student what was left in the world for original dissertation research Einstein replied, "Find out about prayer". English preacher Sidlow Baxter, when he was eighty-five years of age, said, "I have pastored only three churches in my more than sixty years of ministry. We had revival in every one. And not one of them came as a result of my preaching. They came as a result of the membership entering into a covenant to pray until revival came. And it did come, every time (Willhite 1988:111).

Chaplain of the United States Senate, Richard HaIverson, advised that we really don"t have any alternatives to prayer. He says, You can organise until you are exhausted. You can plan, program and subsidise aIl your plans. But if you fail to pray it is a waste of time. Prayer is not optional. It is mandatory. Not to pray is to disobey God" (Bryant 1984:39).

Roy Pointer, after extensive research in Baptist churches in the United Kingdom, anived at the conclusion that wherever there was positive growth, there was onerecurring factor: they were all praying churches.

In the United States of America, at Larry Leas Church on the Rock in Rockwall, Texas, numerical growth was from 13 people in 1980 to 1 l,000 people by 1988. When he was asked about such amazing growth, he said "I didnt start a church - I started a prayer meeting". When David Shibley, the minister responsible for prayer in that church was asked the secret of the church, he said, "The evangelistic program of the church is the daily prayer meeting. Every morning, Monday through Friday, we meet at 5:00 a.m. to pray. If we see the harvest of conversions fall off for more than a week, we see that as a spiritual red alert and seek the Lord" (ShibIey 1985:7).

In Korea, where the church has grown from almost zero to a projected 50% of the population in this century alone, Pastor Paul Yonggi Cho attributes his churchs conversion rate of 12,000 people per month as primarily due to ceaseless prayer. In Korea it is normal for church members to go to bed early so they can arise at 4 a.m. to participate in united prayer. lt is normal for them to pray all through Friday nights. lt is normal to go out to prayer retreats.

Cho says that any church might see this sort of phenomenal growth if they were prepared to "pray the price; to "pray and obey." Cho was once asked by a local pastor why was it that Cho s church membership was 750,000 and his was only 3,000 when he was better educated, preached better sermons and even had a foreign wife ? Cho enquired, "How much do you pray? The pastor said "Thirty minutes a day." To which Cho replied, "There is your answer. I pray three to five hours per day."

In America one survey has shown that pastors on average pray 22 minutes per day. In mainline churches, it is less than that. In Japan they pray 44 minutes a day, and China 120 minutes a day. It"s not surprising that the growth rate of churches in those countries is directly proportional to the amount of time pastors are spending in prayer.

Thursday, March 29, 2007

Aw... so cute!

Three of our kittens - we have 13 (ish) cats at the moment! And they get on really well with our dog which is quite entertaining.... lots of love.

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Green!!!!!

Trapia has once again been transformed by rain - i love it!!! Means theres loads more bugs and spiders etc but i can cope with that as it also means thereĀ“s loads of fruit on trees - my english cold is dissapearing fast! Mum has become a full on hippy - we no longer have shampoo and conditioner in the house, and so instead have to wash our hair first by massaging bicarbonate of soda into our scalps and then after washing that out rinsing with a tub of water, vinegar (yes vinegar!) and a bit of some natural oil stuff so you dont stink of vinegar.... works surprisingly well!
Above is something for Lydie to worry about - some competition i feel.... hehehe - the wife of a blind man thats recently joined the church.... at the farewell dance for the Collinsons.

Hope your all well, love to you all.

Saturday, February 17, 2007

Ain't me mam luvly?!


Just thought id share a pic of the lovely flowers i walked into my room to find on valentines day from my dear mummy!
Spent this afternoon in a bear costume... including 4 paws and a head = very limited vision and rather hot and itchy! Great fun though, giving out doughnuts - dont ask - was an outreach thing for church - all very random - good... although two kids started crying when they saw the bear and ran behind their mums! Was very touched when an older guy called Stephan that goes to my church gave me a hat and huge hug today - he's brilliant! Used to be a homeless guy in Leeds and then became a christian when he met some guys from Mosaic (my church) - he cant read or write and is quite simple in that sense but is the most enthusiastic guy at church, helps with everything and knows everyone! He reminds me a bit of some of the folk in Trapia - especially the way he shouts out during the sermon giving his point of view on what the preacher's saying!
Off to play poker (not for money...) now with block mates - which i love but, bc i refuse ever to give up and sit out for a round if i have a bad hand, im not very good at it!

Thursday, February 08, 2007

Another poem...

To be honest a lot of this has no relevance to me what-so-ever as i could not call my life particularly stressful or my workload very heavy, but none-the-less it made me chuckle when i found it in amongst the posters and stuff iv collected over the years for putting up on my wall...

Resignation

I am hereby officially tendering my resignation as an adult. I have decided I would like to accept the responsibilities of an 8 year old again.

I want to go to McDonald's and think that it is a four star restaurant.

I want to sail sticks across a fresh mud puddle and make a sidewalk with rocks.

I want to think M&Ms are better than money because you can eat them.

I want to lie under a big oak tree and run a lemonade stand with my friends on a hot summer's day.

I want to return to a time when life was simple.
When all you knew were colors, multiplication tables, and nursery rhymes, but that didn't bother you, because you didn't know what you didn't know, and you didn't care.

All you knew was to be happy because you were blissfully unaware of all the things that should make you worried or upset.

I want to think the world is fair.

That everyone is honest and good.

I want to believe anything is possible.

I want to be oblivious to the complexities of life and be overly excited by the little things again.

I want to live simple again.

I don't want my day to consist of computer crashes, mountains of paperwork, depressing news, how to survive more days in the month than there is money in the bank, doctor's bills, gossip, illness, and loss of loved ones.

I want to believe in the power of smiles, hugs, a kind word, truth, justice, peace, dreams, the imagination, mankind, and making angels in the snow.

So here is my check book and my car keys, my credit card bills and all my statements. I am officially resigning from adulthood.

And if you want to discuss this further, you'll have to catch me first, cause...

"TAG! YOU'RE IT!"

Sunday, February 04, 2007

A Poem

Speaker at church today read a poem which i found quite helpful, stuff i know but hadn't really thought about for some reason. It was written by a friend of his who he shared a house with when he was in his teens. This friend went on to work in the post-apartheid South Africa, he faced many risks and was eventually killed in an accident whilst bringing the gospel to a township when he was just 21. His parents found this in his stuff afterwards (the quote at the end is from something Jim Elliot said):

Risk

To laugh is to risk looking a fool

To weep is to risk appearing sentimental

To reach out for another is to risk involvement

To show feelings is to risk revealing your true self

To place your ideas and dreams before a crowd is to risk their loss

To love is to risk rejection

To live is to risk dying

To hope is to risk despair

To try is to risk failure

But risks must be taken because one of the greatest

dangers in life is to risk nothing

Those who risk nothing, do nothing, achieve nothing,

and become nothing

They may avoid suffering and sorrow

But they cannot learn, feel, change, grow, love or even live

Chained by their certainties, they are slaves

They have forfeited their freedom

"Only a person who risks all that he cannot keep,

to gain that which he can never lose..."

....is truly free.

- Simon Reynolds

Monday, January 29, 2007

Office 2007