I Am Second

The I Am Second ministry has gone world-wide as both an outreach and a training resource. It was originally begun as an evangelistic effort in the Dallas/Ft. Worth Texas area in 2008.

"Being able to turn to Jesus
after the shark attack kept me alive."

The visible face of the ministry is a website http://www.iamsecond.com/, which has striking and unusual filmed testimonies by people, some well–known, others more like your next-door neighbor. Bethany Hamilton, subject of the film Soul Surfer, shares her faith. St. Louis Rams quarterback Sam Bradford is on it, as is Texas Ranger Josh Hamilton talking about his recovery from addiction. Others discuss how God has rescued them from a myriad of conditions, from abuse to war. The site offers opportunities for seekers or strugglers to call, chat or email for help. People are attracted by the testimonies, and invited to consider giving their lives to the Lord. It is a great tool to use to lead seekers to Christ in urban areas that have Internet connections.

(extracted from William Smith, Can Short-Term Teams Foster Church-Planting Movements? Mission Frontiers, January-February 2012, U.S. Center for World Missions)

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Jesus loved me so much - that he sent me to prison

"A house church leader in China who has been arrested seven times and spent years in jails, prisons and labor camps In his particular "house group," which is composed of over 6 million believers, they use New Testament scriptures to teach that persecution can be a normal part of the Christian experience. Today he teaches in caves, factories, fields and apartments, mostly leading seven-week courses broken up one week at a time to avoid detection. House churches, which do not permit censorship of their sermons, are growing three times faster than the state TSPM church.

"I asked this house church leader how his imprisonments have affected his teaching sessions, and, as he ate a piece of melon with his chopsticks, he replied, "Jesus loved me so much that he sent me to prison."

(from Voice of the Martyrs newsletter, January 2012)

In August of 2011 another leader, Shi Enhao, deputy leader of the Chinese House Church Alliance (CHCA), was sentenced to two years of “re-education through labor” – a sentence that requires no trial or conviction, according to the China Aid Association (CAA).

Shi was officially charged with holding “illegal meetings and illegal organizing of venues for religious meetings,” due to his leadership of a house church movement of several thousand people meeting in several venues around Beijing,

(from House Church Alliance Leader in China Sentenced to Labor Camp, Compass Direct News, July 29, 2011)

In the West the church often struggles with shrinking membership rolls; not so in China. The house church movement in China is experiencing exponential growth. According to the communist government, Christianity would endanger national security by destroying the “present balance between religions” in China, since house churches resist government control and persist in “illegal Christian evangelism.”

(from China House Church Alliance Leader Sentenced to Labor Camp, Open Doors, August 4, 2011)

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Duckling Discipleship

"When you see a family of ducks crossing the road, only the first duckling is following the mother. The rest are following the duckling in front of them.” explains Curtis Sergent, a strategy coordinator for the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention.

“None of us has achieved the full measure of the stature of Christ. Every one is mature enough to be a leader of another duckling. Follow me as I follow Christ.” That’s a lot of responsibility on new believers, but they seem up for it. “Each of us, including a brand new follower, is ready and responsible to lead others to Christ. Everything we receive, we have an obligation to pass on to others.”

(extracted from William Smith, Can Short-Term Teams Foster Church-Planting Movements? Mission Frontiers, January-February 2012, U.S. Center for World Missions)

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New Constitution of Hungary safeguards Marriage, the Unborn

The new Constitution of Hungary went into effect on January 1st, 2012. In many ways it provides a model to other countries in safeguarding Christian values.

The protection of the right to life and human dignity from the moment of conception. "Human dignity shall be inviolable. Everyone shall have the right to life and human dignity; the life of the fetus shall be protected from the moment of conception." (Article II)

Protection of the family and the institution of heterosexual marriage. (1) Hungary shall protect the institution of marriage, understood to be the conjugal union of a man and a woman based on their independent consent; Hungary shall also protect the institution of the family, which it recognises as the basis for survival of the nation. (2) Hungary shall promote the commitment to have and raise children. (Article K)

The condemnation of practices aimed at eugenics. “Practices aimed at eugenics, the use of the human body or its parts for financial gain, or human cloning shall be prohibited.” (Article III)

The Reaffirmation of the Underlying Christian Values of the Hungarian State and Society. The Preamble declares Hungary is “proud that one thousand years ago its King, Saint Stephen, based the Hungarian State on solid foundations, and made the country a part of Christian Europe.” Moreover, Hungary explicitly “acknowledges the role that Christianity has played in preserving the nation”. (Preamble)

The Cooperation between Church and State. "In Hungary the State and the churches shall be separated. Churches shall be independent. For the attainment of community goals, the State shall cooperate with the churches." (Article VI)

The country's governing Fidesz party pushed the law through parliament in April 2011 after winning a two-thirds majority in parliamentary elections. On January 2, 2012, mainstream media reported "tens of thousands" of people protesting in Budapest over the new constitution. The EU and US had also asked for the constitution to be withdrawn. But the constitution is supported by the overwhelming majority of Hungarian citizenry, which few reports have noted.

This constitution is a symbol of a growing trend among new EU Member States to protect life and the family. As the Turtle Bay and Beyond blog noted when it was drafted in April:

It is amazing how quickly the condemnation of the new constitution has arisen. Comments regarding the lack of transparency in its drafting and the fact that it did not follow a referendum have come pouring out of leftist EU institutions. Funny how these institutions never condemn the lack of democratic fairness or lack of transparency when legislation is rushed promoting their issues. The fact is, the new Hungarian government enjoys a super majority because the people of Hungary so voted. The new constitution is a symbol of that vision.

(quotes from the new Hungarian Constitution taken from http://www.eclj.org/pdf/ECLJ_Memorendum-Hungarian-Constitution_20110519.pdf. For more detail see Constitution of Hungary on Wikipedia.)

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Why Mercy?

God's Word challenged us to "spend ourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed." (Isaiah 58:10).

He is delighted with life-saving medical care for a child in Honduras.

The three-year old girl lay listless and moaning in her mother's arms when they arrived at the weekly MTW medical clinic in Armenia Bonita, Honduras. The missionaries quickly diagnosed a serious case of pneumonia, but the weeping mother was too poor to afford to take her daughter to the hospital The team did what they could, giving the girl a breathing treatment and some antibiotics. Only a week later, the little girl ran into the clinic, jumped into the lap of the MTW missionary, kissed her, and said, "Gracias!"

He is delighted with food offered in His name to hungry gypsies.

The mother was in tears because she had nothing to feed her family. Like all Roma (disparagingly called gypsies) they live, despised by all, on the edge of society in Slovakia. But God heard her cry, sending a believing Roma neighbor with the last bag of potatoes purchased for distribution by an MTW missionary. The grateful mother could only sob, crying repeatedly "How did you know?" She like others in the village are seeing multiplied acts of sacrificial love by God's people-softening hearts to the gospel, redeeming their dignity, and opening doors for the building of God's Church.

Why do we do mercy?

Because we know God.
And love God.
And we are commanded to love others
(even more than ourselves).

from MTW (Mission to the World) newsletter, December 2011

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