hungry? thirsty?

The other morning I caught part of a TV show with James and Betty Robinson. I have a little history with James Robinson, he spent a week teaching at my alma-mater. Jim was much more full of vinegar back then. Apparently he and I have spent some time in the same rock-tumbler.

Coincidently I am currently reading a book by Brenan Manning “the Ragamuffin Gospel” (Brenan also shared residence in the tumbler. ) The night before I caught Jim and Barbra on TV and saw a vid clip from them about their water well projects I read from Brenan that 1 in 5 Americans go to bed hungry. What a sobering thought! While mainstream America stands in line to purchase the latest 4G gadget there are people, probably within walking distance, who don’t have enough food.

I did a very little research and found
http://feedingamerica.org/hunger-in-america/hunger-facts/hunger-and-poverty-statistics.aspx

Apparently Brenan’s numbers may be slightly off, BUT not by much.

Here are some of the numbers
• In 2009, 43.6 million people (14.3 percent) were in poverty.
• In 2009, 50.2 million Americans lived in food insecure households, 33 million adults and 17.2 million children
Before your defense systems go into overdrive to explain why this isn’t “my” problem please another look above. “ 17.2 million children” Just to put that number into perspective that is 2 time the entire population of the state of NJ or almost equal to the entire population of the State of New York. Just think about that for a moment. Enough children to populate the entire state of New York are without enough food. AND THIS IS IN AMERICA!

Right now in the land of plenty, (where over 20% of the population is obese *) 40 MILLION Americans are hungry and may go to bed that way. Worse still is that tomorrow looks no better.

That begs the question, What “shall” we do about it?
37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ Matt.25: 37-40
http://www.livestrong.com/article/348674-statistics-for-obesity-in-america/

Catch the Vision

We were blessed to share some time over the past few weeks with my dear friend and brother Andrew McMillan. Andrew, his wife Kathy and their two sons, Andrew and Christian serve as missionaries in Colombia. Andrew had agreed, with God, to go to Colombia for two years, that was 23 years ago.

Just before he arrived he send me a copy of the attached letter he had written to someone in Texas. The power and vision of this letter humbles me.

My prayer is that the Lord will light in me such a fire as burns in Andrew. Better still would be that He lights this fire in all of us.

Dear Paul

I like talking about Abraham in Gen. 13:14 where God told him to climb up a mountain and look, and everything he could see, God would give it to him. God only said this after he separated himself from Lot (in the Hebrew : veil). So once we separate ourselves from fear, sin, self-pity or old securities, the veil is removed and we can see clearly the future full of revival. So, this morning, I feel like I am going up a mountain. Here is our vision for the next 10 years

*We launched 3 new churches this month. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to plant each new church with sound equipment, chairs, and a video projector (about $7,000 per church).

*Our children center now takes care of 157 kids(children of prostitutes and drug addicts). Our church is giving about $8,500 per month. It has been hard for us to keep it up, but how do you say no to kids? We also have two other ladies in the church with smaller centers for kids. We have a couple who are housing 12 street men. We have a small medical clinic for the poor. We could easily administer an extra $10,000 a month now. This does not include the dream to transform the day centers into orphanages. We are dreaming about building a home for the elderly next to the kids home, and have a place for pets, noise, joy, living confusion.

*For 3 years I have dreamed of a Bank of opportunities to give short term loans for starting small businesses. It would have a loan officer who would also teach classes on how to start and manage businesses. We would not loan to individuals but to groups of 2-3 people. This raises the payback rate up to 95%. For example, someone who wants to start a bakery would have to find two other people who also want to start their business, maybe a wedding dress rental store, or a beauty parlour.

*We just had 3 meetings on a Sunday in the city’s convention center. The Mayor and the president of the city council came…and some other big shots. We saw over 1,400 people saved. It cost $15,000. I would love to be there every month, maybe every 2 weeks, or even every Sunday when it is not rented out. If we had $120,000 to buy our own sound, we could make a deal with the city and be there at least every month for $4,500. The city would be changed. Jesus would be the talk of the town. (We need much better sound in the warehouse where we meet now. For $50,000 we could have sound that would bless 2,500 people in each meeting.) Many new people dont return because they cannot hear well.

*We are renting now,but we dream daily of a lot across the street that God has kept empty. The price is very high: 20,000 meters(215,000 sq. Feet) for 7 millon dollars. We dream of a place for 14,000 worshippers, a children’s church for 2,000 and 1,000, offices and schools and a university.

We are starting South American Christ for the Nations this coming August. I graduated from Yale Divinity School and for some time, did not have much faith is advanced education. But Yale was originally founded to train men to proprogate the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. We need higher Holy Spirit education here….like an extention of Regent University. The buildings would have to have 2-3 levels of underground parking. So, we are talking millions. We are dreaming.

*Our boys, Andrew 18 and Christian 17, want to go to Regent Unversity and study Cinema & Television. They run our weekly TV program that aires on local secular stations. They have an anointing for it. I want this year to have a 3 minute program that gives a zinger to the heart. When we get the program on the daily news show, it would touch the city of 3 million people. We do not want to have a Christian TV channel. We think it is better to produce quality programs on the major secular channels on prime time. That is our dream. Christian TV channels seem to reduce the impact of the Gospel to a sub-culture, instead of being salt and light throughout the culture. So, my boys are dreaming of a huge studio for Christian soap operas, movies, reality shows, etc. For example, imagine a reality show where a group of Christians pick a poor house with problems and give them a soul lift, fixing up their house, helping them start a business, bring them to Jesus, heal their marriage and relationship with their kids, and bring them the Father’s love. Wow.

*Our marriage pastor, Lucho, dreams about a retreat center in town to have retreats ever weekend (We presently have retreats every weekend for the new believers outsider of the city). Pastor Lucho said to me, “Pastor, just think how it would be to have a building where everyone in the city would know where to go to recieve healing for their home. Imagine, 24 hour counselling, a room to show films like Fire Proof, etc.”

*Our evangelism pastor, Juan David, dreams of having a truck with sound, light and projection. My son, Andrew, dreamed about this when he was a little boy. We could have up to 5 cruzades every weekend.

*Our children pastor, Rafa, dreams of bringing the fire of revival to children churches. He and his wife have already touched about 800 church through conferences.

*Kathy and I will host the annual conference for pastors who are forgotten, struggling and tired. We bring them to Medellin and pay for their food, put them up in homes and in our retreat center. Last year we had 300. This year we hope to have over 500. We do all this for about $6,000. Imagine if we could put them up in nice hotels and send them homes like kings. Id like to do it twice a year.

*Our praise pastor, Manual, could take a few hours talking about instruments and lighting.

*Our pastor, Adolfo, over the new converts, dreams of having a call center with 200 volunteers.

So these are just some of our burning dreams. They keep us up at night. Sometimes they make us feel wonderful and alive and sometimes they make us feel foolish and idiotic. But we are fools for Christ.

Thank you for the opportunity to write my dreams.
Bless you brother.
Long live Paul for the Glory of Jesus.
Andrew

See see our latest video the boys produced and narrated, go on line:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsRkKjdqMX8or just search Miracle in Medellin in youtube

Pastor Andrew & Kathy McMillan
Comunidad Cristiana de FeA A 58000Medellin, Colombia

www.fepaisa.com
Sowing Seed into Revival
Andrew & Kathy
Mission South America
P.O. Box 12523 Norfolk, VA 23541

How powerful is your God? vs. How powerful is God?

I sent an internet link http://tinyurl.com/nc6qff to a friend other day about a ministry in Mozambique Africa. God is moving in a mighty way through that ministry and some of the claims made by the ministry, and those reporting on it, are admittedly a bit hard to fathom.

The friend responded with an almost expected bit of skepticism. They underlying, but unstated, question in his response was. “How can this be true?”

My response to his skepticism is printed below with a couple small changes to de-personalize it.

….” A month ago I would have been saying much the same.

Fantastic things are happening elsewhere in the world but in safe - secure- well fed- healthy USA, we sift what we hear to a consistency we have come to expect here. We have dined on well fed lamb so long we can no longer tolerate to eat an old goat.

Why is it that ( here in this time in the USA) we don’t see blind healed in our churches? We were commanded to heal the sick, ( Matt 10:7) we were told we would be given power (Acts 1:8). You and I have both seen this, have been part of this, we know it to be true. But here we go to church and “hear about” IT. We read about it, we talk about it, we sing about it,,,, BUT we don’t DO it. Why do demons cry out in the presence of Godly men in poor uneducated countries and not here? Surly we don’t believe they (the demons) are not among us. So if the unclean spirits are here, and they do not cry out--- then something is missing here that is present where they do cry out.

I know how to sail and I own a sail boat. Unless I get on it and cast off the lines and SAIL IT, it will just sit floating at the dock. I can read and talk all I want to about sailing but never go anywhere unless I go DO IT.

Now if I read some fantastic story about sailing in the Southern Ocean in 50+ knot winds and 50+’ seas I may choose to qualify (sift) the story because, after all, I have never done or seen such a thing, therefore it is highly unlikely that it is true (?)

Because you haven’t heard about Heidi Baker ( the person in the interview) http://www.irismin.org/ and the work there does that make it not true or not done? We, as a nation, people time, have a problem, we spend more time learning about sport stars then we do about God Stars. We spend more time promoting the natural world then we do the Spiritual world. We have become so wise and knowing that we discount or ignore what does not fit in our box.

If we believe we are living in the end times, and we must be because the writers of the NT thought so, therefore the end times must still be going on. Then we must believe that great works are still going on and will continue to grow. Nothing else can be true or we, in the words of Paul, are to be pitied above all men because our faith is a sham. (BC paraphrase)"

Here is another link with more interview ans vids about Heidi Baker and Iris Ministries http://www.fathersglory.com/insp/Roland_&_Heidi_Baker.htm

Beating the Recession

I had the great pleasure of talking to my friend Andrew late yesterday afternoon. Just in case you haven't heard about Andrew I’ll do a quick recap.

Andrew McMillan and his, then new, wife Kathy left for the mission fields in Columbia 21 years ago. Andrew knew God was calling him to a better work but the idea of leaving the comfort of a well established church in NJ was not on his “A” list. Nevertheless, Andrew recognized God’s prompting and “agreed” to go to Columbia for two years. God obviously had other plans.

Starting from some very humble beginnings this ministry has literally brought thousands to the Lord and planted dozens if not hundreds of Churches.

I am in the process of building a web site/blog to keep the world informed of the wonders God keeps on doing in Columbia. When it’s ready I’ll let you know and post links and updates to it here.

In the meantime Andrew and his fellow workers have posted a new video to YouTube.

You can view it here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsRkKjdqMX8 Please take a few minutes and check it out. Here is another worth watching http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yux5uJcdWtw&feature=related

There are few opportunities to receive as great a blessing as we can from supporting missions. The real estate market is in the toilet, the stock market continues to drain retirement accounts, and the banks- well maybe I shouldn’t talk about the banks. The fact is you just cant out-give God.

Jesus admonished us to invest in eternity “…..store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.” (Mat 6:20 NIV) Please take a moment and give it some prayerful thought. Then, if you’re your heart leads you so, go to https://www.paypal.com/us/ and select “send money” enter the email address yodude777@gmail.com where it says “send to” and invest a few dollars in bringing thousands to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. And please, don’t think you need to send a lot (although big donations are joyfully received) You’ll be surprised at how much your contribution of 5, 10, or $20 will accomplish.

Not only will you be supporting a great work but God has promised to bless us by the measure we bless others. “Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you." (Luke 6:38 NIV)

You can also send them a check to
MSA / Pastor Andrew & Kathy McMillan

P.O. Box 12523

Norfolk. VA 23541

To speak to them directly, call 561 427 7466 (Vonage) or write: revival@une.net.co