Articles on:
- Witnessing
- Hardships
- Child Education
- Danger
Witnessing
As a missionary you must be witnessing. You respond with 'of course', great. I know of a Baptist missionary to Ireland. When we spent time together, he told me he had been in Ireland for over seven years and had never led someone to Jesus!
Why should you witness?
Mark 16:16-20
"He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. [17] And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; [18] They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. [19] So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God. [20] And they went forth, and preached every where, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following. Amen."
Acts 1:8
"But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth."
Matthew 28:19-20
"Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: [20] Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen."
2 Corinthians 5:19-20
"To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. [20] Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God."
Hardships
You may wish to remember the location of the following verses. In the USA, normal everyday life is easy. In China life was not easy. Our apartment was cold in the winter. We could not control the heat in our apartment. The heated water came from a central unit somewhere? The water would not be heated until the end of October. There would be snow on the ground, and we would not have water heat. As wimpy Americans, I bought a space heater. Could only get a little heat from it. If I turned it too high, it would blow a fuse, and then we would have no electricity in our apartment. Changing the fuse is a big issue. You must turn off the electricity to three other apartments. Pull out the fuse. Then remove the wire from the unit, and replace it with another special fuse wire. If your fingers are cold, well you must endure.
Kitchens in our area of China only have a two burner gas hot plate to cook on. Ovens like our stoves are non-existent. You would have to hunt for a flat frying pan. In over three years, we never found a salt shaker. Mustard does not exist. Coffee is more expensive then here in the USA. Freeze dried coffee is your only choice for home. Outside temperatures can get down to 40 degrees below 0. Our kitchen was not heated. One must keep the kitchen door open or the pipes would freeze, and they still did, flooding our dining room!
Washing clothes, well we never saw a dryer. Everyone hangs up their clothes to dry.
Transportation, well the new buses are very cold in the winter. The short buses are warmer, because they have routed the exhaust pipes through the bus. The bad news is many of these pipes have cracks allowing exhaust fumes into the bus. Prayer is a must when getting on a bus. If the bus driver is busy pumping away at the brakes, constantly, well you hope they have strong legs. They are pumping to keep the air pressure up, because the compressor isn't working or isn't working enough. Bus accidents happens. You get off one bus and get on another. Normally a bus ride would cost 1 RMB (8 cents, US). A normal taxi ride would cost 10 RMB (80 cents, US). Most of the time we would take a bus.
1 Corinthians 13:7
"Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things."
2 Thessalonians 1:4
"So that we ourselves glory in you in the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure:"
2 Timothy 2:3
"Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ."
2 Timothy 2:10
"Therefore I endure all things for the elect's sakes, that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory."
2 Timothy 3:11
"Persecutions, afflictions, which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra; what persecutions I endured: but out of them all the Lord delivered me."
2 Timothy 4:5
"But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry."
Hebrews 6:15
"And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise."
James 1:12
"Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him."
James 5:11
"Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy."
Child Education
There are many programs for homeschooling. Such as:
Alpha and Omega 2 programs - one using books (all grades), the other for 3rd grade up using CDRom
http://www.aop.com/aopc/academies/aoa/
http://www.aop.com/homeschool/index.php?utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=cj
http://polyweb2.com/shop/alphaomega/
Accelerated Christian Education
http://www.aceministries.com/
http://www.curriculumexpress.com/shop/sot/
Misc. Homeschool programs
http://www.homeschools.org/
http://www.internethomeschool.com/
http://www.k12.com
In China on campus almost next door to our home was a small daycare school. They would start at about 8 am and stop about 7 pm. The teachers were very nice. The children are very nice. They did not teach communism. They taught Chinese speaking and writing, math, etc. Luke attended for 3 years. Joseph attended for 2 years. Their Chinese was much better than their English when we returned to the USA!
Danger
As a Christian, our enemy is the devil and the demons who would like to kill you, steal from you, and destroy what he can of your material goods and ministry. He will try to do this in whatever country you are in!
Is the USA the safest country in the world? When we lived in Minneapolis, Minnisota, we took on the wicca. We recieved death threats. They tried to kill me by running a truck into my car. Jesus is our protector! I was a pastor at the time, but without the Biblical water baptism.
In China, we lived in a large city, Urumqi, a city of 2,000,000 people. It is a dangerous city. People get shot, mugged, etc. Pick-pockets are everywhere. Jesus protected us!
We ministered in Israel. I was walking outside the Damacus Gate of Old Jerusalem at night. A group of maybe 12 Palestinian men quickly gathered around to do me harm. I kept right on walking through them just like Jesus did when a religious group wanted to throw Him over a cliff. The next night in almost the same place the same thing happened. In Tel Aviv, I was walking in the dark when two Palestinians came upon me with two huge dogs. One threatened me by saying 'my dog is going to eat you'. Jesus protected me!
In Uganda, East Africa, a ministry team and I were headed for Mbale. On the way Apostle David is telling us about his experiences in starting the church we were going to. During the first week of meetings the Muslims came in after a meeting was over and most of the people were gone. They beat him left him to chase some girls came back to make sure he was dead but couldn't find him. He recovered in a hospital. He hadn't told me the story before he invited me to Uganda. He was not Apostolic. I started praying asking Jesus to protect us. The house we were staying in was surrounded by Muslims. We didn't have any problems. Thank you Jesus!
Claim Psalm 91!
Sure Peter and Paul suffered. But, I am not going to suffer unless it is Jesus' will! The devil or his demons will not decide if or when I suffer!
In Jesus,
Dr. Bruce Klein, President
