Burkina Update/ Confession…..

Hello From Burkina,

I first want to apologize for not updating the blog sooner.  The past 3 days I have been extremely busy teaching the first 2 chapters of the book of Hebrews, which has taken a lot longer than what I thought.   (SURPRISE SURPRISE)  I also have been unavailable in the evenings, as we have gone every night to the airport to look for my lost luggage that I still do not have.  I personally could care less about my clothes.  The pastors keep praying that my clothes will come, and I keep reminding them that when Paul went on mission he would end up stoned or in prison, so I think that a lost bag is pretty do-able!  That said, I am concerned about the luggage that had 2 computers, a printer, some books, reading glasses, all of which we were planning to give away while we were here.   So if you read this, please pray that they will come soon.  All that is to say, that things have been very busy on this side of the world and I pray that once again as we are on this mission here that you are on mission in Bend.

This morning was the first day that I wasn’t on to teach, so I had the opportunity to take in the word with my African brothers as Nicholas Jacques did a great job teaching Hebrews 3-4:11.  Nicholas reminded us of how Jesus was greater than Moses, and how much better His rest is!  After Nicholas taught, my good friend Brian Fowler from ACF was teaching from the book of Leviticus and He had the Quote of the day at least as conviction was concerned for me personally and the men in the room!  Brian was talking about the job of the priest, which was to point people to God and not to Himself. Then in reference to our role as pastors, he said,

“If people talk more about you than Jesus, you have an unhealthy ministry”

He then said if people are constantly telling a pastor Good job and complementing a sermon, rather than Glorifying God than as a pastor you are in error!!

The question isn’t how was my presentation, was it moving, was it funny, was it entertaining, or was it GOOD!!!!!  The Question is does this Glorify GOD!  Do people worship God because of what was spoken from His word!  Every man in there went ohhhhh, including myself.  Listen TFAB, I know this, I teach this, but in that moment in that room I confess that I have been guilty of this in my own heart, and I am thankful that Jesus is gracious and He has covered this sin!  Lord forgive us for so desiring to hear praise, or receive a pat on the back!  The only recognition I want to hear is WELL DONE GOOD AND FAITHFUL SERVANT, and that doesn’t need to come from any man but God!  This is one of the many reasons I so enjoy teaching these men.  I have absolutely nothing to gain in pride, or in possession by being here.  They give me nothing but the joy that I receive from serving them.  Even if they wanted to say GOOD JOB or great presentation I CAN’T UNDERSTAND THEM!!!!  I will be honest, back home there is always a pressure to do better, or as a church to keep growing, because that’s what “seems “ to be success back home!  Can’t be a tall gotta go Vente, Can’t be regular need to supersize, and in the midst of it all arrogance and pride creep in!  God Help us to Keep Jesus central!  God Save me from lifting up myself!  TFAB I would ask for your continual prayer, that God well keep me, and my heart in a right place before Him, and that my goal would always be that we as a body would see Jesus, and Jesus only!!!!

Well now that I have unpacked my junk to you, I have to tell you that I love these people!  I am constantly humbled by their passion, their quickness to pray, and their extreme love for Jesus.  We now have over a 100 guys that have made the journey to come and hear the word taught.  If you have followed me on facebook I am sure you have seen some of the pictures that I have placed online.  I want to add more, and we have taken some great video, but the Internet connection isn’t being very cooperative, so we may have to wait until we get home to give you a visual of everything.  On facebook I mentioned that we had about 50 guys on the first day and now on day 3 we are over a 100.  The reason this number has gone up is because of the travel it takes for some of the pastors to get here. Some of these men hopped on there scooters 2-3 days ago and started driving.  They had to stop and sleep off to the side of the road at night in fear that they might get robbed if they kept on going.  WHY?  They are craving Gods Word!  I am sincerely moved to tears right now, and for those of you that know me you know that is not easy to do.  They drive days for what we take for granted.  They risk being robbed for what many American Pastors have discarded!  God Help us! God Forgive us!  I am sure that they had to cut down a forest for the amount of notes these men have taken.  This morning I was asked by my genius of an interpreter who speaks French, English More’, and teaches Greek, if he could get our notes.  Later on another pastor stood up and asked if we could please, please, please, send them our notes and have someone translate them into (more’).  Once again I am humbled…. We are so overly spoiled with our ability to have teaching that glorifies Jesus at our fingertips, and podcasts that go into our ears any time we want it. There resources are so limited.   I mentioned the disagreement between the early Eastern Orthodox Church and the western Catholic Church and they didn’t understand.  I mentioned Martin Luther, and no one had ever heard of Him.  When we started Hebrews I asked how many had taught it, 0, then I asked how many had studied it only 2-3 had.  Marcel later told me that they only had an overview of it in their bible school.  All that is to say, they are so thankful for this kind of teaching.  They are seeing Jesus in His word.  They understand how these 2 books fit together, and they are loving it!  Thank you TFAB for allowing us, and supporting us in being here!

Before we started the sessions this morning Brian asked the guys how we could be praying for them.  He wanted to know what the needs were, and I want to list some of those for you as we at TFAB pray how God might lead us in assisting these men and the churches God has called them too.  I do have the video log on this, and I want you to hear it from them but I cannot upload it.  So I will share some of the requests that you can pray for.

1. A pastor who was a muslim, told a story of a man that was a muslim, he got really sick and the pastor shared Jesus with Him and prayed for Him and he was miraculously healed.  The man then came to the church and was baptized.  He then called the 14 members of His family together to share the amazing things that God had done in his Life.  After Hearing this His Islamic children said they would disown Him as there father and they would never help Him ever if he did not go back to Islam… and sadly the pastor said he went back…..  The pastor asked for prayer as his church is in a large Islamic community and this has happened many times… SO TFAB PRAY!!!!  I will update a name later as I wasn’t taking note but video.
2. They asked if we could pray that they as pastors could be freed up to study the bible more so they could teach it better.  It is not very common here to see men dedicated solely to the work of the ministry.  They have many other things in life that they need to do or else they will DIE.
3. Roofs….. As Jerry told us when he first came this is still there primary practical request.  After the first guy stood up, there was another, and another and another, so I said how many of you have the blocks built and are in need of a roof.  I think over 18 hands went up.
4. They asked for mics speakers for outreaches so the people can hear them.
5. They asked us to pray for there families, that the children of the pastors would walk with God.  Some things are cross-cultural!!!
6. Transportation needs to be able to get to the conference, as some don’t even have a bike….

These are all very important and if the leadership agrees I see us being involved in many of these areas…. But one of the things that I saw and was reaffirmed in when I talked with the interpreter Jewlz…. Was the importance of the retreat center….

He sees this place as being a massive outreach to Burkina.  If you were here you would see that although it is outside of town, the town will be there in 10 years.

There is a church there already so the place is always in use…

It is used for retreats but as Marcel told me it holds 60 best and is difficult with space for over that. (we are over that)

He does childrens camps in the summer for over 400 children…. Kind of like a vacation bible school and this is a huge outreach.

My hope would be to see more facilities built there to accomadate more men in training…. I think a bunk bed system rather than everyone on the floor would be good.  They have a new well that is cranked by hand, thanks to athey creek Christian fellowship, but it would be helpful to engineer some type of electrical or solar power to it.  They may also need another dorm (cost 4500 dollars)

I say all this to that there is huge opportunity for continued teaching, and provided an atmosphere to disciple so they can go out teach, baptize, and disciple which is our model for missions…..

Please Keep us in your prayers.  Everyone is Healthy.  Krista will be teaching over 100 woman this Saturday, we are teaching in churches on Sunday and then back to work at the retreat on Monday.

Keep your eyes out as I will be having Nicholas, Peter, and Krista giving their perspectives very soon!

Love you all !!!!

Burkina Bound/Mission Thoughts….

Hey TFAB!

The Jacques and I have arrived safely in Paris after being on a plane for about 13 hrs.  Seeing as how the in-flight movies were incredibly lame (the secret life of Bees just isn’t gonna move me to put on the head phones)  I had a lot of time to think back on this mornings study.  There was so much more that I wanted to talk about and address (SURPRISE SURPRISE) but making my flight was pretty much a top priority.  So perhaps another time I will be able to share with you a little more concerning how our lives can live out the mission of God in Bend, but there is one thing that I want to clarify.  At one point I said

This is the Heart of TFAB missions… Matt 28

We are To Go, To Teach, To Baptize, To make Disciples and Hit REPEAT….

NOW What you may notice about missions in the early church in the book of Acts, is that they didn’t build a building and then expect everyone else to come to them because of there amazing kids programs..

There many offerings to the COMMMUNITY —

THEY WERE GOING- THEY WERE TEACHING THEY WERE BAPTIZING THEY WERE DISCIPLING—-

IT wasn’t just one of them or the elite apostles— BUT

All of them From The Apostles—To GUYS LIKE PHILLIP—

Who was a servant of Widows in Acts 6-

An Evangelist in Acts 8—

A Pastor of his family in RAISING for VIRGIN daughters that prophesy in Acts 21

Then I went on to say that

We can’t just expect people to show up here on Sunday—

We have to infuse ourselves… perhaps a better word is

Incarnate ourselves like God did in JESUS into this CULTURE-

He became Flesh and Blood as Heb 2:14, He ate and drank with us, Celebrated holydays with us, laughed with us, and cried for us.  He is the model of Missions

Therefore we need to be biblical in all we do- as He was

We need to teach repentance so people will recognize sin and turn to God

We need to go into culture- This is important we need to be like pal at mars hill went to Athens saw there idols and was able to talk about them…

We need to disciple- Keep on edifying and building up the saints once saved

We need to be spirit led- Without the Spirit we have no direction, we need to rely on the spirit leading continually…

What I want to Clarify is this, it isn’t a sin to have a building, or to have a place where you can hold meetings and gatherings and talk about Jesus and not have to worry if some day your going to get kicked out or that your rent will be raised.

A building can be a huge blessing.  It can be a place where the Saints/Body can come to be edified and strengthened in their walks.  As EPHESIANS 4:12-16 talks about how God has Given Gifted men to edify the body  (can be at a building, it has to happen somewhere) TO DO THE WORK OF THE MINISTRY….  You could have a building and you could use it to equip the saints through daily studying the word and communing together, but then the point of fulfilling mission would mean that you would then need to be ready to go!   You see, sometimes Christians are like the average American… They come to church they feed, and feed, and Feed some more and they keep getting bigger and bigger and bigger and then never WORK OUT what they have been feeding on!  We get fat, and we are edified but we miss out on the mission of God.  We are partakers of it, but we don’t help in fulfilling it!  This is our purpose, because its Gods Purpose!  This is Gods heart, This is His desire!   If we do not evangelize we will fossilize!  We will Die like a diabetic!

The last thing we should do is get lazy and think that we as a body can just sit back eat our meat weak after weak and think that either people will just somehow find us as they are dead in sin, or that we will win people to TFAB with dumb gimmicks, churchy tricks, or passionate promotions. My pastor use to always say you keep people with what you catch them with.  At TFAB we want people Caught by the Holy Spirit, and brought to the Father through the Son and the teaching of His Word which will cause them to crave Him, and be a witness for Him.  The only way they will be taught is if we embrace the mission of God to our schools, neighborhoods, parks, playdates, jobs etc…..

So I leave you with this reminder as we prepare to board the next flight…

You don’t have to go to Burkina to be involved in Gods mission this week! You get to go to bend this week.  Gods called you to this mission field- He has given you a mission, you get to be apart of His mission! Do you accept that or are you ashamed of IT? Some of you may say, Well if Gods going to make His mission happen then  wont it Happen, why worry why care?

Because Jesus cared! Jesus WEPT over Jerusalem—Paul cried over  lost Israel-

God Will make it happen I have no doubt about that Matt 24:14 BUT HE USES US—

Rembemer Without Him We CANT—Without us he wont

Can I encourage you once again to embrace the Mission of Reconciliation!

Burkina Faso 2/19/10

Hey TFAB,

We had a excellent night of prayer on Wednesday night for the body, for city of Bend, and for Burkina Faso.  I am so excited to see what God is going to continue to do in these 3 entities.  My prayer for you is that as a few of us get ready to head out to another continent to carry out our mission of training pastors that you would find yourself carrying out the mission of God  in your homes, in the body, and towards this city.  I do believe that as we are built up in His word and empowered by His spirit week after week that it is for the purpose of reaching those that are lost and reconciling people to our great God and King!

Well I am finally packed, teachings are almost complete, and I am a day a way from saying goodbye to my family and the tfab family for 2 weeks.  Please Keep Nicholas and Krista Jacques, Peter Barnes, and Myself in your prayers.  We will miss you TFAB!  Be sure to check the blog over the next couple weeks as we will be blogging and hopefully posting videos from Burkina as internet access is available.

Grace,

Loren

Aiding Haiti

Many of us have watched in horror over the last week and half as body after body continues to be pulled from the ruins of what use to be Haiti. I know that in our fellowship many of you have been in prayer and have shown a desire to help. Earlier today I was made aware of 2 men (James Macdonald and Mark Driscoll) who come from different spectrums in the Christian community that are partnering together to come to the aide of as many saints as possible in Haiti.
We need to remember that these are our brothers and sisters in Christ and they need our help.

Galatians 6:10 says “as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith”.

We at TFAB may be a small fellowship in the greatness of the Body of Christ, but we are a part of that body, so perhaps God would spur us along with the rest of the body to reveal the goodness and glory of God by helping and aiding them.

We as a church body will continue to pray, and have designated funds to aide our brothers and sisters in Christ. If you desire to help, I would ask you to continue to pray that God will save many through this, that they will see His goodness and His glory, and I would ask you to pray about helping by donating to Churches helping Churches.

http://www.churcheshelpingchurches.com/

Much Grace,

Loren

10/22/09 Thought for the day

James 4:14 You do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.

Anytime you go to a memorial service or a funeral, it causes you to be reminded that life is short.  I was reminded of that once again at Ellie Jauregui’s memorials service.  For those of you that did not have the blessing of knowing Ellie, she was a beautiful 8 year old girl that touched many lives in the midst of her struggle with retts syndrome. This past week she went home to be with the Lord and since that time, this verse has been thrust to the forefront of my mind.

You see, none of us has any idea of how tomorrow will unfold. We make our plans; as Proverb says, “a man plans His course but the Lord determines his steps.”  The truth is our lives, whether we like it or not, are in the sovereign hands of God. For some that is fearful; and it should be if they do not know God and if they have not received the atonement for their sin by the blood of Jesus Christ. Yet for us who have this hope and have placed our trust and faith in Him, we can rest knowing that our Loving, Gracious, and Merciful Father knows absolutely what is best and needed for us!

I talked with a man earlier this month, and He said “Loren this last year has been a tremendous year of growth in my walk with God. I love God and I desire to be passionate about God. I have grown more in this past year than any other time in my walk.” Then later as he was talking about various financial difficulties that he was in he said “I just do not understand why this is happening?” I looked at Him and simply said remember what you had just told me, that you were growing, that you are now passionate about the things of God, don’t you understand that God is more concerned about us personally than our present comfortability! This last year you grew in your walk God because you finally started spending time with Him! You took your eyes off of what you deemed as success and put them on the perfect picture of success!

Listen – wherever you are at, in whatever state you may be in, life is too short to fret and worry about tomorrow! Tomorrow is something that we do not know about nor do we have control over! Tomorrow could bring joy, tomorrow could bring sorrow, or tomorrow may be the day that you are taken home to be with the Lord for this life is so short!

Can I encourage you TODAY, to pause and take some time from what may or may not even matter in light of eternity, to first and foremost THANK GOD! Glorify Him! Worship Him! Love Him! You may even need to wrestle through some questions in your mind or some issues in your heart! Thats O.K. Read the Psalms and see that David wrestled out loud often with GOD!

Once you have spent time with God, tell your wife you love her and mean it! Get her a card, or write a note on a piece of paper and leave it on the bathroom mirror, computer, or counter. Keep it simple, Keep it sweet!
Tell your husband “you know what babe, you’re the man, and I just love being your wife!”  Trust me he will eat that up!
Tell your kids how much they have impacted your understanding of what real love is! Email a friend a note that says you’re thinking about them or praying for them. Tell your enemy that they are forgiven! Can I encourage you to do something that matters in this mistiness Called LIFE!

Life is too short to plan ahead and miss out on those things that matter today!

Grace,

LOREN