Pray

The motorcycle popped up three cars back in my rear view. I knew in seconds its driver would decide to go in between my rental car and the fiery sports coupe to my left. All six lanes of traffic were maintaining 75 mph and shifting through the slim margins of space between them like a school of Albacore Tuna. Like all other school settings, there are those who defend and those who offend. In our case, the offender wore black from helmet to toe and displayed his predator nature proudly across the side of his motorbike – TRIUMPH. He sifted through the school, 20 mph faster than all the others. I could see the frightened faces of the drivers behind me as they made room for him and slowed their speeds. The coupe saw the approach and pressed itself dangerously closer to the median, then decided it safer to come into my lane but never noticed my rental car in the way.

My break lights screamed danger! The school dispersed. The black shark of triumph blazed through towards feistier foe, and the remainder gathered ourselves back at 65mph and moved in a more focused  manner toward our final destinations.

Ever been to LA?

This moment in the 405 traffic between Irvine and Los Angeles stuck with me for days. I was spending those days teaching on prayer with good friends in Long Beach, meeting with the SEAPC network in San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose, San Diego, Riverside, and Los Angeles, and finally sharing stories about Jesus at Trinity Lutheran Church in San Pedro. I began the week fasting and praying for personal revival and fresh anointing as I knew this trip was the start of a season of travel and ministry that would take me through December.

That day on the highway raised a question in me. Am I speeding through at 75 mph, seemingly progressing toward a final destination? Am I one step or lane shift away from disaster? Am I texting my way there? When the predators and fears of life creep up behind me, am I caught unprepared?

Prayer is the lifeblood of missions. Prayer is the precursor to compassion. Prayer is what you do in May, June, and July as you trust God to keep the ministry functioning in August.

At SEAPC we are believing God for the miraculous on a daily basis. As our efforts of bringing life to a new generation around the globe produce new fruit, we must maintain our focus on the call to prayer and the stabilizing abundance of Christ. He has been faithful to us. When you see the potential danger approaching in the mirror, slow down, re-read the promises of God, focus to fast, and pray.

If you are believing God for revival in this generation, then please designate time in your day to pray for breakthrough! He is faithful and will hear our prayers.  He will keep us focused, moving safely toward the promises He has for us.

Matt

The Blessed State

Praise the Lord!

“Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name. For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting, and His truth endures to all generations.”
(Psalm 100:4-5).

“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”
(1 Thessalonians 5:16-18)

“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” (Romans 8:28)

The blessed state of the righteous starts with praising God. The more you praise Him, the more blessed you will be. The more things you praise Him for, the more things He will bless you in. Praise Him in everything and see Him bless you in everything. So praise Him more!

Lemuel

The Sling Stone

The intercessors are usually ahead of the times. Those who “stand in the gap” dedicate a place filled with pictures, and maps, and prayer letters, and a time; more often than not, in the early morning. They sit in their prayer chair and ask great things of God. As part of their time with Him, they dream dreams. They think thoughts of how the nations, or families, or their local church, or the United States or other lands would look if Christ was on the throne of the hearts of the people involved.

Jesus’ promise is, “He will do exceeding abundantly beyond all we can ask or think” Ephesians 3:20. The scripture goes on to say, “according to the power that works in us.”

How great is the power of faith when released through the function of prayer. When the anointing of the Holy Spirit ignites the fire of faith in our hearts, we see beyond the current situation and reach through the veil of the flesh to grasp the promise of God and draw it into our present reality. We call things that are not seen as though they were.

God sees the extension of our faith and says, “Here, my little child, let me reach that for you.”

For those of us who travel, we are the bead of whetting on the harvest blade. We travel behind curtains, iron and bamboo, and confess Christ until the curtain falls and the walls tumble. We walk in city and village. We travel by any means, eat any food, go to mountain height or valley deep to see the hand of God reach through governments and ideologies to bring freedom to the oppressed. We believe in the face of arrest and persecution, “that this present suffering is not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us.” From hungering and fasting, from persecution and financial need, from pressures among the heathen and compromised Christians, we emerge as more than conquerors, eager and hungry for the next battle.

What force of man or spirit can raise its banner against the Most High God? What force of man or spirit can long endure when a worshipping warrior picks up a stone made smooth by the currents endured and fitting it to a simple sling proven in battle and runs to the fracas declaring “I come to you in the Name of the Lord Almighty?”

Nothing shall stand before the armies of God.

Oh yes, I am excited.

It is once again time to pack up and go get the giants. A month in the United States has called me to a Daniel fast for 120 days. I cannot believe that the church has gone gay and the Moslems are going to put a training center in the midst of the globe’s biggest market place. Forget the one room that is a Mosque, it is the other 13 floors of training that poses the threat. I have been in Islamic Centers throughout Indonesia, and Malaysia, and on campuses in the United States. All Islam believes that this is the time for the world to become an Islamic Global Community.  And the Islamic Center is the place for training and preparation for this event.

I have been told this by Imams and businessmen, radicals and moderates, school children and senior citizens. Islam around the world is united in this quest. Women have a baby every year. Polygamy pushes the birth rates to levels that will tip populations  so that  democratic representation propor-tionate to population redefines fledgling democracies.

This is a spiritual battle, one to be won in the prayer closet and through strategic prayer journeys. Instead of running from the fracas, we must run toward it with the high praises of the Almighty God in our mouths and the Word of God on our lips. We must declare faith in the face of the creeping darkness.

The same way that Daniel and Nehemiah found the power to change nations, we must call upon the Lord with prayer and fasting. I tell you, something really has to touch my heart to get me to fast. But I am far enough into this to feel the conversion of my body to the will of God and I call you, as well, to join in a united effort to see the power of the living Christ manifest through the anointing of His Holy Spirit.

Although I pray for him every day, I do not expect President Obama to deliver us.  Although I enjoy her drama and theater, and her stories are very motivational to me, I do not expect Sister Sarah to deliver me. Although I do appreciate his testimony and can relate as a former addict, I do not look to Glen Beck as the One who will deliver us from this darkness.

Someone on a street corner, or prayer closet somewhere is going to get hold of a True and Living God — the One who has a Son ­— and that God is going to answer believing prayer and another Goliath is going to fall.

Pray as though your nation depended on it. Pray as though your children depended on it. Pray as though your life depends upon it; because it does.

One of the men who deeply impacted my life for prayer was Russ Bixler. He and his wife, Norma, are the founders of Cornerstone Television Network in Wall, Pa. They embraced me and taught me how to host a TV program, how to interview some of the great leaders of the Charismatic and Evangelical Church, and how to pray in faith for the healing of those who called in to the program. Russ and Norma would hear from the Lord and call out what God was doing and then pray. The phone center would burst into activity with people calling in to report their healing.

Russ has gone to be with the Lord, but Norma is still “on air” and seeing healings every program. We welcome, this month, their son, Paul, to be the new Chief of Operations at CTVN and encourage you to pray for this great ministry, as together we “Lift High the Signal.”

In the air, on the ground, and in the GAP, we will cry out, “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

Mark

中文 Vanity or Significant

Recently, I was at a small town in Malaysia called ‘Yong Peng’. I was en-route to Kuala Lumpur, but the coach I was in decided to pull over so that we could have lunch at this popular hawker centre. While I was ordering my lunch, a Singaporean woman near me collapsed and was unconscious. The people around her tried various methods to revive her but to no avail. A westerner who was there even tried using cardiopulmonary resuscitation but she was still unconscious. She was slowly turning black. The local police came and proclaimed her dead. I wish I’d had the faith to raise her from the dead and declare the testimony in this newsletter. What a wonderful testimony that would  make, but I had to admit, I did not have that faith. I could only watch helplessly as the police cordoned off the area of incident. I continued with my journey towards Kuala Lumpur. It was a long ride. A most thought-provoking, long ride.

James wrote, “What is life? Life is but a vapor. It is here today and gone tomorrow…” The preacher said in his book, Ecclesiastes, that “all is vanity.” Is everything truly vain? Are our lives in vain or could there be something more than this? Can our lives be worth the living? Is it possible that we can move from mundane and mediocre to being significant? My mind races back to different times during the history of the church where a single person or a group of individuals decided to put their lives in the hands of a living God and the Lord did, indeed, raise them up in their generation to be significant. The advance of Christianity is essentially the story of how God has used young men and women to make a difference in this dying world. As I thought through these things, the torch seems to be passing to us. Are we ready to run with the gospel?

In 1729, the Moravians would begin a prayer meeting for world missions that went non-stop for a hundred years!

In 1783, God raised William Carey, to challenge Christians of his generation to see a bigger world. It was this this young pastor that preached the thought provoking message, “attempt great things for God and expect great things from God!” Later this young pastor would become a missionary to the Indian subcontinent and become known as the father of modern missions.

Can this generation be significant? Yes they can in the hands of an almighty God. We can expect great things from God and we can attempt great things for God!

In 1806, The Haystack Prayer Meeting at Williams College was the spark that lit the mission movement in the U.S. This prayer meeting would eventually send out thousands of missionaries from the U.S. to the unreached. The American Bible Society was a result of this prayer meeting.

In 1840, Dr David Livingstone heard missionary to Africa, Robert Moffat, say that at dusk he could look inland and “see the smoke of a thousand villages” without the gospel. And in 1841, Livingstone changed his life’s focus and went to Africa.

In 1850, teenager Hudson Taylor committed his life to serve Christ in China and four years later, Taylor left England and would later found the China Inland Mission. The influence of Taylor’s life continues to be felt throughout China today.

In 1882, D.L. Moody preached in Cambridge and a revival for missions swept through the place. Among those who committed their lives to Christ at Moody’s meetings was a young athlete named C.T. Studd. He gave up his huge inherited fortune to finance his missions work and later began the World Evangelization Crusade.

In 1933, Dawson Trotman founded the Navigators.

In 1944, Billy Graham and Torrey Johnson, a young evangelist and a young pastor, formed Youth for Christ.

In 1951, a young seminary student, Bill Bright, started Campus Crusade for Christ.

The list just goes on and on of ordinary people in the hands of an extraordinary God. We are living in perilous times. The world is crying out for a savior. We have been passed the torch. Can our lives be significant? Yes, we can, but only in the hands of an almighty God. My friends, today, we are living in unprecedented times. The Lord is opening tremendous doors. We need to pray like never before. We cannot do it alone and the Lord is asking you to be that person that He can use. It is truly our honor that we can stand with all of you to reach this generation for Christ. Keep being significant.

Hubert

未開發國家

前陣子我在馬來西亞往檳城的途中，巴士在一個叫Yong Peng的小城稍停留，讓大家下來在當地有名的小吃區用午餐。就在我點餐之時，身旁有位新加坡籍婦女突然昏倒，隨後失去知覺。她身邊許多試了各種方法急救，想使她恢復知覺，但是都白費力氣。甚至還有西方人士以心肺復甦術急救，亦未見效。該婦女臉色逐漸發黑，等到警方到來時，逕行宣佈死亡。我希望自己當時有足夠信心，跳出來行死裡復生的奇蹟。這樣，我現在可以分享的就是榮神的神蹟見證。但老實說，我當時信心實在不夠。只能在旁默不出聲，呆看警方圍上這起意外事件的 封鎖線。後來我繼續搭巴士前往檳城。途中的我感慨萬千，更加深旅途漫長難熬。

雅各書四章14節說：「你們的生命是甚麼呢？你們原來是一片雲霧，出現少時就不見了。」傳道書裡的先知也說：「一切都是虛空。」真的是這樣嗎？ 我們的年歲真的是虛空的虛空？還是有更上層的意義呢？生命值得努力活出意義嗎？有可能將平凡的世俗提昇得有意義嗎？一連串的問題，不禁將我的思緒拉回教會歷史裡各個世代。想起不同時期中，不論是單獨一人或一羣人決心將自己交在大能的神手中。賜生命的主也的確讓他們活出不同於該世代的意義與氣度。基督教世界得以擴展，就是靠這些年輕男女願為主所用，為必死的世界注入活水泉源。想到別人，看看自己。現在，宣揚的使命火炬已交在我們的手裡，我們準備好為福音開跑了嗎？

1729年，Moravians教派舉辦了場禱告會，開啓後來綿延一百餘年的世界宣道風潮。

1783年，神感動William Carey，鼓勵當時的基督徒定睛在更寬廣的世界。這位年輕牧師傳講發人深省的信息“為主做不凡的工，主便會賜下不凡的果效”。他後來前往印度地區宣教，成為現代宣教運動之父。

當今世代的我們，也能效法十八世紀的基督徒嗎？當然可以，在神沒有不能成就的事。我們立志為主做大工，祂便會成就不凡的大事。

1806年在美國Williams College舉行的Haystack禱告會，點燃了美國宣教運動的火花。之後數以千計的宣教士前往世界各福音未竟之地。美國聖經學會就是該次禱告會後成立的。

1840年，李文斯敦聽到宣教士Robert Moffat分享的非洲事工。Moffat 提及在傍晚時分放眼望去，上千個村落炊烟繚繞的景色，提醒他福音未到之地之廣大。次年，李文斯敦便決定以非洲宣教為一生之職志。

1850年，當時還未成年的戴德生已決志到中國為主作工。四年後他如願離開英國前往中國。隨即創辦內地會。戴德生一生對中國奉獻的影響力，仍延續至今日。

1882年，慕迪向劍橋學生傳講宣道概念，後來宣教運動便在當地復興。當時受感動的一羣年輕人中有位C.T. Studd，他自願放棄大筆遺產財富，轉而用在他參與的宣教事工。就是後來的“世界宣教運動”。

1933年， 道生卓門創立福音機構“基督教導航會”。

1944年，年輕佈道家葛理翰與牧師強生，共同創立“青年歸主”。

1951年， 當時還是神學生的白利得，創辦了“學園傳道會”。

舉凡類似的例子，不勝枚舉，平凡的人將自己交在超凡的神手中。在此危急的世代，這世界在迫切呼求一位救主。傳承的火炬已經交棒到我們手上，我們可以活出有意義、有影響力的生命嗎？可以的，只要把自己交在全能神的手中。我的朋友們，今天我們活在一個前所未有的時代，主正為我們開出許多我們意想不到的門，我們更要熱切極力的禱告。我們沒有人能夠獨力承當，主正呼召你成為他所能使用的那個人。我們何等榮幸與你們並肩同工，向這世代傳講耶穌。讓我們不間斷，努力活出有意義的人生。

Hubert

中文 IT and Sponsors!

Cambodia Christian School

Network (CCSN)

IT is happening. Mark was in Cambodia in mid-July to tell the parents of Rongko’s 12th grade class about IT. He brought back copies of the booklets describing IT – one of which is now in my hands. IT has been in planning and preparation since 2006. IT is bringing many changes to a rural community. IT is leading people to Jesus.

What is IT?

IT is the Institute of Technology at Rongko. Classes begin on October 4. Students who would not have been able to obtain advanced education in the past will now be able to get a Bachelor’s Degree in several areas – English, Information Technology, Business Administration, Agricultural Technology, and Agricultural Economics. Students are anxiously waiting.

Pray with us as the final details come together and as IT opens the doors of hope to Cambodia

Children’s Homes

(Partnership with  NHO)

God is good!

In May, Mark was at GA611 church in Hong Kong. While there, he felt led to speak to the people about Cambodia. As a result, 19 people/couples (so far) have decided to sponsor 29 Cambodian children within NHO. Praise God and thank you GA611! Welcome to the Raising Kids sponsorship family!

I am so joyful in knowing that 29 more children have people who are praying for them and providing for their needs. Before this happened only four children at the Battambang home were sponsored. Now, every child currently at the home (actually every child currently within NHO) has a sponsor. This is an answer to prayer!

Children are always arriving at the children’s homes of our partner ministries in Myanmar, India and Cambodia. Actually, at the moment, there are approximately 90 children in Myanmar and one in India who are waiting for their sponsors. In India, we also need approximately 14 educational supporters for the children.  Please continually pray with me for more sponsors to join Raising Kids so that these 91 children (and any child arriving in any of the three countries) will have someone who is specifically praying and providing for them and their needs. I know that God will answer those prayers.

Tina Tomes

東南亞禱告中心／柬埔寨

柬埔寨基督教學校聯網（CCSN）

IT正在進行！七月中, Mark來到柬埔寨，向Rongko 十二年級學生的家長介紹IT。他帶來許多份說明IT的小冊子－－現在我手上正好有一本。IT的規劃與籌備是從2006年開始的，目前已在 鄉村社區帶來許多的改變。 IT正帶領人們走向耶穌。

甚麼是IT？IT是位於Rongko的科技專科學校，十月四日即將開課。學生以往無法取得高等學歷，但從現在開始，他們可以取得英文、資訊科技、商業管理、農業科技、及農業經濟的大學學位。學生殷切期待進入IT就讀。

現在最後細節已進入整合之際，IT的創立正為柬埔寨開啟希望之門，請與我們一同禱告。

兒童之家 （與 NHO 合作）

神真美好

五月時,，Mark在香港GA611教會分享，覺得神要他告訴會眾關於柬埔寨的事工與需要，結果，截至目前為止，已有十九人／夫婦決定贊助二十九名住在HNO新盼望兒童之家的柬埔寨兒童。讚美主！也感謝GA611教會。 歡迎加入贊助“栽培兒童”(Raising Kids)的行列！

得知二十九名兒童都有了贊助者，為他們禱告並提供生活所需，我心中感到無比喜悅。在此之前，只有在Battambang 的四名兒童得到贊助。如今，NHO所有的兒童都有了贊助人。這是禱告蒙了應允。

兒童都是先抵達位於Myanmar、印度和柬埔寨我們合作機構所辦的兒童之家。目前Myanmar約有九十名兒童、印度有一位兒童正等待贊助人。在印度，我們還需要大約十四位教育贊助者。請繼續和我一起禱告，有更多贊助人加入“栽培兒童”，使這九十一名兒童（還有日後來到這三個國家的兒童之家的孩子們）都有贊助人，專門為他們禱告和提供生活所需。我相信主會應允這些禱告。

Tina Tomes

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