This week (July 29th to August 3) there is a conference in Yangon, Myanmar. The initial report for the first two days is that there are "about 50 - 60 hungry souls" at the meeting and we are seeing "a real work of the Spirit".
These two things will always go together; hunger for God's Word and a work of the Spirit. Notice the example in the Book of Acts: Acts 10:33, "Now therefore we are all here in the presence of God to hear all that you have been commanded by the Lord." There was a readiness to hear what God would say, which we receive primarily through His Word. This is followed a few verses later with Luke's record; "While Peter was still saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word" (verse 44). If you want to see God's Spirit work in our day, promote a hunger for His Word, not yourself. In all things, "He must increase, but I must decrease" (John 3:30).
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One of the key principles we see in the Book of Acts is that the life, fellowship and preaching; all forms of worship of the early church, was a strong reason why the church grew so rapidly (Acts 2:14-47; 6:7; 10:34-48; 13:48-49). Dr. Edmund Clowney has said, “When we worship God as we ought, that is when the nations will listen.”
Is our worship truly God-centered? If we mix in to our worship anything that exalts man, we will weaken out gospel voice to the nations; the unreached. Here is the testimony of someone from Myanmar who recently went through God’s Plan for His Church training. “By taking GPHC training in Chiang Mai, I learned your heart for His kingdom, your teaching style one by one, your desire for the family of Christian leaders, your perspective on the life of Paul and the methods of Paul for imparting to present day church planters.”
Tim and I are home and very thankful to see our wives and families. Picking up from our last letter, on May 14, we spent four days in Phnom Penh, Cambodia training a church planter among the Khmer people. He is unique as he seeks to following Paul's example of working to provide for his own needs. To accomplish this, several helped purchase a Tuk Tuk which he will use for income and transportation. His vision is to train other "Timothy's" with GPHC and help them start a business that will provide their income. He clearly has a heart for living and duplicating the Early Church model.
Tim and I left on the 19th; Tim to Laos to deliver Bibles which had been provided by Wake Christian Academy, Raleigh, NC and others here at home. I proceeded to Chiang Mai to start training a pastor from Pakistan. Tim arrived a few days later and we focused on one-on-one training him and then two other men from Myanmar for the next three weeks using God's Plan for His Church manual. We are convinced of the effectiveness of this method! The personal interaction, valuable discussion and fellowship over how the biblical principles work out in each culture brought inspiration and a fresh appreciation of Scripture in their setting. With a few, time was taken to complete the "pre-assigned" work, but these brothers were diligent and hard-working so that each one completed the final project, developing their own strategy for ministry in their setting with the principles they learned. These men represent the Karen, Chin, Katchin, Burmese, and Naga people groups of Myanmar and the Karen in Thailand. Translation work is already in progress for these languages. Let me summarize how the Lord has led us to this point in our ministry. Having taught the manual in conferences for many years and seen little multiplication from this venue, we felt that Paul's method of mentoring Timothy was more effective and would multiply much faster. After much prayer and searching for about a year, Tim found a Christian couple in Chiang Mai who would rent us a four bedroom house with a kitchen and sitting area for a very reasonable price. Paul said in I Corinthians 16:8 that he would “stay in Ephesus until Pentecost, for a wide door for effective work has opened for me.” God has opened many doors for us, but like Paul, we desired to enter this “effective” opened door. It allows us to train one-on-one, face-to-face, where persons are away from the responsibilities of ministry, culture and family in a quite neighborhood, yet within walking distance of village stores for food and necessities. The owners are convinced this is the purpose God has for this place and are fully behind us. While we were there, God opened another door through the owners. Here is a comment from them: "A new teaching team from the United States viz., Pastors Tim Bunn and Sherman Driver of Go-Reconcile, will train our evangelists in August; and our regular mentor Rev. Dr. Tan Wai Choon in November." This training will be with the Lahu people group in Thailand. We praise the Lord as we share this with you. Please continue to pray for us that we remain sensitive to the Holy Spirit for His "effective work", humble in spirit, and physically able to meet the demands. Also pray that God will raise up Timothy's who God will call to this work. Tim will be returning to Burma/Myanmar at the end of July for a conference in Yangon. From there, he will return to Chiang Mai, Thailand to train leaders from Africa and the Thailand Karen and Lahu. Pray that each of these open doors will turn out to be God's "effective work" for His glory! One of the most fruitful meetings we have ever experienced took place in Turkey a couple of years ago with key leaders from the Middle East, Egypt, Morocco and Algeria. I believe a couple of factors were in play here which greatly enhanced the results. One was isolating the leaders from their busyness, cell phones and ministries. Secondly, was their diligent pre-meeting work in the manual in preparation for the meeting, therefore we are going to try the same method in Asia and see what happens. Also, there are several other benefits: it costs less for the indigenous leaders to travel to a neutral location and for us to travel to a location that is easily accessible and many times less dangerous. It sounds like a win win situation, but we will wait and see. Actually, there is another aspect of this new training. We are training one or two key leaders instead of holding a conference. Many times, we train leaders but the “key” leader is never really on board with the teaching which sometimes can create problems. By training the key leader one on one, he will then be able to go back and do a conference on his own hopefully without our presence, which is also a cost saving factor. We would appreciate your prayers for discernment and wisdom, but most of all, that we be filled with the Spirit and focused on our Head, the Lord Jesus Christ.
It will also be our joy to deliver approximately 2,500 Bible to believers in Laos, a country where the Word of God is only in the hands of a few. Also, through the gifts of many, 1,000 Bibles are being given to the Karen Refugee Camp that burned down on the border between Thailand and Myanmar. Please rejoice with us that God has provided these and pray that they will arrive safely without incident. For a long time we have encouraged ministers of the gospel to be self-sustaining so they do not need outside support. We have the joy of helping a brother in Christ purchase a Tuk Tuk so he can provide for himself and use the profit to help others do the same. Following this model of Paul will accelerate the spread of the gospel and give a living proof of its life changing message. Please pray that this brother will become a model to many in his country and beyond. To God be the Glory! ITINERARY May 5 – 12 Key Karen Leader from Thailand: Will work through the manual, God’s Plan for His Church, completing the projects and developing a church renewal and church planting strategy for Karen Baptist of Thailand. Training will be held in Chiang Mai, Thailand. May 12 – 19 Key Leader from Cambodia: Will work through the manual, God’s Plan for His Church, completing the projects and developing a church renewal and church planting strategy for the Khmer of Cambodia and purchase Tuk-Tuk to help key leaders become self-sustaining. Training will be held in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. May 19 -21 Distributing Bibles in Vientiane, Laos May 19 – 26 Key leader from Pakistan: Will work through the manual, God’s Plan for His Church, completing the projects and developing a church renewal and church planting strategy for Pakistan. Training will be held in Chiang Mai, Thailand. May 19 – 26 Distributing Bibles and encouragement to the Karen refugee camp on the Burma/Thailand border which was burned to the ground. May 26 – June 2 Key Burmese and Karen Leader from Burma: Will work through the manual, God’s Plan for His Church, completing the projects and developing a church renewal and church planting strategy. Training will be held in Chiang Mai, Thailand. June 2 – June 8 Key Chin Leader from Burma: Will work through the manual, God’s Plan for His Church, completing the projects and developing a church renewal and church planting strategy. Training will be held in Chiang Mai, Thailand. We are very excited to announce God’s Plan for His Church, (GPHC) a new manual for Church Planting and Church Renewal. This revised edition has new lessons not previously covered, illustrations for better visual understanding, and a format that makes it easy for anyone to follow.
Considering Christianity is growing at a 0.5% rate in the USA (Operation World p.862), we believe this revision is momentous and relevant for today’s church because GPHC: · Lays a foundation in the authority and sufficiency of Scripture in the Holy Spirit. · Provides an opportunity for a fresh work of the Holy Spirit in willing hearts and churches. · Reveals the value of marriage and family in the process of church planting and renewal. · Visually illustrates the principles of God’s plan for His Church from Pentecost forward · Helps churches and leaders become Christ centered and self-sustaining like Paul. · Uses powerful supra-cultural and timeless principles from Scripture. · Gives biblical solutions to many of the current issues facing today’s family and church. · Teaches a time-tested and proven model of church planting, growth and renewal that can actually thrive in financial deficiency, illiteracy, and persecution. We ask that you take a serious, prayerful look at this enclosed material for a way that God would begin a fresh work of the Holy Spirit in you, your family and your church. There are life changing testimonies on pages 3-5 from those who have worked through previous editions published in 30 languages so that you can read firsthand how God has used this tool around the world. We are so convinced of the importance of God’s Plan for His Church that we are willing to personally meet with you face to face. If you are interested, please feel free to contact us via information on the "contact" page for further details. A digital interactive CD or Internet copy is available upon request. All the materials and services are offered at no charge. We are praying for you as you consider this timely opportunity for a new beginning of power, oneness, freedom and joy in serving our wonderful Savior. As we look ahead to the next event the Lord has put on our calendar to spread the gospel and build the church on a biblical foundation we are amazed at how God plans our path in this endeavor. So we share below the itinerary and prayer requests for the next trip from February 16 to March 18th.
_We have just received news from the country of Zambia that God is confirming the principles set out
in His Word regarding church planting. A brother who has gone through God's Plan for Church Planting (GPCP) says, "I am really looking forward to meeting you and make plans for the training and conferences. I am so excited to see the results coming out of this new way of planting churches. We have one church planted using the GPCP and it is really different from the rest." What a powerful proof to the words of Isaiah 55:11; "...My word...shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it." _We want to bring you an update on Tim’s recent trip to Myanmar, Cambodia and Turkey. First, we are still rejoicing that our awesome Lord supplied all our needs including the printing of 1,000 Church Planting Manuals in Burmese and 3,000 in Khmer. He also provided FULLY for the leaders' travel from Egypt, Morocco, Algeria, Lebanon and their room and board for our meetings in Turkey. This brings to mind what Paul said to the Philippians in 4:16-21: "Even in Thessalonica you sent me help for my needs once and again. Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that increases to your credit. I have received full payment, and more. I am well supplied, having received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent, a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God. And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. To our God and Father be glory forever and ever. Amen." Cambodia: For two days, a new group of church leaders launched into a study of God’s Plan for Church Planting. We have been praying for God to raise up indigenous “Timothys” who will catch the vision for laying this biblical foundation throughout Cambodia. Please pray with us regarding this. Tim commented that “I just sense the same spirit of dependency on the “West” except one lady and her husband, who have planted 11 churches with no support. She seems so free, whereas others are so bound by our “western system”.” Pray that the Spirit will do a fresh, powerful work in this land. Myanmar: A very important contact was made with the head office of a denomination which may open a very exciting door for us. What really brings joy to the heart is that a local brother is teaching the CPM on his own and reaping the fruit of planting God’s truth and principles of church planting and renewal. Pray that this will multiply. Turkey: Tim writes: “This is the most awesome work of God, particularly as it relates to GPCP, that I have EVER seen in my life or could have ever dreamed. They completed their final projects; unreal and just unbelievable. I believe we are going to see a great movement of God in these countries in addition to what our Lord is already doing. I just do not know how to express it to you, even in a very remote way. It can happen, it has happened; they have completed their manuals and things are moving in the Spirit. I have never ever experienced a meeting like this. I am encouraged beyond words.” They return home to their own countries with a “complete picture” from God’s Word of His plan for the church. They will not need follow-up from us, except to encourage them. We in the West have a misconception that these places are very difficult to plant churches. Much like China where persecution is on the loose, the church is growing rapidly and God is doing a might work! We hope this report will ignite a spiritual revival in your heart! Are there any “Timothys” out there willing to re-examine Scripture and see with Spirit-filled eyes God’s plan, purpose and power to fulfill Mt. 24:14? If you are interested in learning more, please contact us.
Opportunity: The best way to describe the upcoming God's Plan for Church Planting (GPCP) meeting in Turkey is like flinging Brer Rabbit into "dat brier-patch." As you know, the manual thrives in a persecuted environment because it teaches a biblical model that enables the church to grow and expand in the midst of persecution, opposition and poverty. What does Palestine, Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco and Algeria have in common? The church in these countries is faced with Islamic persecution and opposition. Therefore, this meeting provides a very strategic opportunity. Praise: Praise our Lord for my dear brother and friend Hanna for completing the publishing of the Arabic GPCP, fully funded, and for organizing this meeting, not yet fully funded. I am also thankful for his leadership in encouraging these key leaders from Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco, and Algeria to read and complete the manual. Lord willing, these leaders who have worked diligently for many hours will be ready for the workshop in Istanbul, Turkey, December 5 - 10, 2011 (See Hanna's Email Below). This is one of the GREATEST opportunities we have ever had. Prayer: Please pray for the Holy Spirit to work powerfully and for our Savior and Head to be honored and glorified in His Bride in the Middle East and North Africa through these indigenous leaders. Concerning the Arabic GPCP meeting in Turkey, Hanna and I are looking to the Lord to supply the necessary funds for their room, board and travel. While this is quite costly, it is still much more economical and practical than me personally traveling into these countries. Please pray for this provision. Manual Need: Also pray for our Lord to replenish the Burmese and Khmer manuals, #1000 Burmese (Myanmar) and #3000 Khmer (Cambodia). The cost is $1300 and $3000 respectively. In both of these countries, God is using this tool to grow and expand His Church (see attached pictures from Burma). Incidentally, I could almost daily send out reports of God using this tool (GPCP) to grow and expand His Church throughout the world through indigenous leaders, without our presence. As I ponder these needs, the Turkey workshop and manuals, I am reminded of Paul's words in Philippians: "Not that I seek the gift but I seek the fruit that increase to your credit." Hanna's Email: The venue is at a hotel about 50 klm from Istanbul. I will send further details in the next few days once we have the final tally. The countries represented will be Egypt, Palestine, Lebanon, Morocco and Algeria. We will meet from 9 AM every morning till about 1 PM, break for lunch then meet again at 3 Pm until 6 or 7 PM and break for the evening. We will do that Monday through Friday. Because we will be far from the city, we will not leave time for shopping. I look to you to lead our sessions. I will co-chair it with you and help with translation etc. By the way, I just learned that we have another 35 ministers and our volunteer staff in Egypt who have either completed the study of the CPM or are completing it. But we will not invite this huge number to Turkey. We will conduct a separate seminar for them in Egypt sometime next year, Lord willing. God is at work and will be glorified in His church even in the Middle East Hanna "And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. To our God and Father be glory forever and ever Amen" Tim |
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