Baseball Camp Testimony

Niklas lost his father just before baseball camp in 2013. It was a tragedy that shook the whole community. During the darkest season of his life, Niklas came to know the saving power of Jesus at baseball camp that summer. Our leaders helped him connect with a local church, and I’ve (Jimmy) also spent time doing some long-distance mentoring with him over the last few years. Niklas has been growing deeply in his faith. Currently he is writing devotions to encourage other young people in their faith. He’s also an aspiring film producer who has hopes of making faith-based movies in the future. Similarly, his younger sister has had her faith shaped through baseball camps. She is getting baptized in two weeks. Praise God!

Outreach to Refugee Children

Our team organized a “Sport Week” for refugee children at a transitional living shelter that is currently housing around 700 migrants. We held an instructional baseball demo, played soccer and field hockey, offered age-appropriate activities for younger children, and ministered to many of the parents congregating during the activities. On the last camp evening, we held an international worship service where the gospel was clearly proclaimed in multiple languages and many prayed to Jesus for the first time. These internationals come from all different backgrounds and religious influences, so this was a BIG moment in sharing the Good News and making Christ known among the unreached. There is much follow-up work to be fleshed out by our Germany team over the next few weeks, and we covet your prayers as our international partners come alongside of these folks and continue to nurture them in the faith.

Beach Ball Makes Way For Muslim To Hear The Gospel

Madir (name changed for privacy) is one of the Muslim refugees I (Jimmy) had the opportunity to connect with more intimately. Our relationship began in an unseemly and unorthodox way—through a beach ball. After I gave his little boy a beach ball to take back to their makeshift living quarters, Madir was touched enough to come and talk with us. As he shared his story with me, I learned that just two months ago, his wife abandoned him and their two small children for another man during their journey to seek refuge in Germany. His heartbreak runs deep. During the week Madir and I had multiple conversations about suffering and brokenness, which ultimately led to Jesus, the Son of God who was “broken” for us and is a High Priest who knows our pain (Hebrews 4:15). This resonated affectionately with Madir and we prayed together. Please continue to intercede for Madir, as this man of Muslim background is now connected with our international community and has opportunities to receive counsel, learn more about Jesus, and respond to the gospel. Isn’t it amazing how our God can use something as simple as a beach ball to bring a person far from the faith into a more intimate knowledge of Christ?! To Him be the glory!

New Missions Partnerships Forming in Germany

We were blessed to spend time with a group of international missionaries and a pastoral team in Frankfurt to pray over a potential new sports camp among migrant and refugee children in their community. In addition, there is a new partnership for baseball camps emerging in the Ostalbkreis district of Baden-Württemberg, Germany. There is no greater poverty in the world than gospel deprivation, and God is opening doors for life-changing impact among gospel-destitute young people. The harvest is ripe! Contact us for more info about missions opportunities in Germany.

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Here are 4 simple ways you can respond:

1) Get informed and educated

Here are some posts that will get you informed on the refugee crisis:

Facts About Refugees and Risks Children Face

Refugee Crisis: Questions the Church and Leaders Should Be Asking

This free guide, Understanding the Syria Crisis and the Role of the Church by Rich Stearns is an incredibly helpful introduction into what many have called the greatest refugee crisis in history. With challenging stats and hopeful stories, Rich takes you behind the scenes on the humanitarian crisis and how you can get involved.

Here are some passages for study about God’s heartbeat for the refugee, the impoverished sojourner, and those alienated on the margins of society:

Deuteronomy 10:18-19, Leviticus 19:33-34, Leviticus 19:9-10, Ezekiel 16:49, Exodus 23:9, Malachi 3:5, 1 Kings 8:41-44, Job 31:32, Matthew 25:25-36, Luke 10:25-37.

2) Get engaged

Refugee Sunday is an interactive way for your church to respond to the current refugee crisis, the largest humanitarian crisis in the world today. Here are resources you can use to help your congregation understand the significance of this crisis, grow spiritually as they intercede for refugees and tangibly respond to the needs of children and families.

Jesus was born into poverty; into oppression; into the margins. And soon after His birth, His family was threatened by violence, and He became a refugee. We believe Jesus is calling His Church to help with the millions of child refugees fleeing violence in Syria.

This Refugee Sunday kit has tools for your church’s weekend services to tell the stories of families fleeing, to understand God’s heart for the most vulnerable, and tangible ways to make a difference.

3) Pray for refugees in your community and worldwide

Hold a prayer breakfast to pray for refugees in your community and worldwide. Invite others from the community to join you. Teach your children how to pray for refugees. Have your Sunday School class or small group pray together over the refugee crisis.

4) Do a Fundraiser for Organizations Serving Refugees

Breakaway Outreach mobilizes teams to serve refugees here in the US and overseas by facilitating sports and recreation camps for refugee youth and children. Visit the Breakaway website for more info about getting involved or making a donation.

Most importantly, don’t miss the heart of Jesus by failing to pray for refugees during this critical time in history.

The post World Refugee Day: 4 Ways to Respond appeared first on Jimmy Larche.

Tredegarville Baptist Church, located in Cardiff city centre, baptized 40 young adults in the cold February sea at the resort of Barry Island – and most of them were refugees and asylum-seekers from Iran and Afghanistan.

Over the last thirteen years the church has become engaged with refugees and asylum seekers in addition to students and other internationals with a specific ministry seeking to reach Muslims with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is not unusual to hear the pastor’s message being translated into a number of languages as groups huddle around a translator. The largest language group is Farsi.

Two mid week Bible studies on Wednesday and Friday at the church have now divided into two sittings, with an average attendance of 70 people.

The first session is a rolling program to introduce people to the basic beliefs and behaviors of Christians, followed by specific preparation for baptism.

The second sitting is a Bible study for those who are endeavoring to live the disciplined Christian life. All baptismal candidates are interviewed by the deacons to determine the sincerity of their faith as church pastor, the Rev Phylip Henry Rees, has now relinquished this aspect of his ministry to the wider leadership while he concentrates on preaching and teaching.

The baptism of more than 40 young adults, primarily from Iran and Afghanistan, in the February seas off Barry Island was the second such baptism in less than a month. Pastor Phyl preached to the waiting candidates (pictured) reminding them of the vows they were taking to follow Jesus.

Each candidate made their personal baptismal vows on the beach before the whole group ventured into the waters. Trusted leaders of the church formed three pairs to baptize the candidates who had arrived.

As they were coming out of the water another group arrived and the pastor preached again to remind the new-comers of the vows they were making, before this group made their way into the sea and were baptized by two pairs of leaders.

As the group boiled kettles on a beach campfire and served hot drinks, they were joined by the curious bystanders who were asking what all this meant. The newly baptized and their friends were able to share their faith with a range of curious Brits who had watched this strange event from a distance.

Pastor Phyl said, “They love the Word of God and it is not uncommon for people who have been baptized to come to the next course of baptismal classes and of course everything is translated into Farsi.”

“Those who are in Christ are expected to evangelize in the city centre (of Cardiff) every week and this and personal witnessing brings a steady flow of new people to the church.”

Pastor Phyl said the church had “a big ministry in reaching Muslims with the unconditional love of Jesus Christ”.

“We do not compromise on the Gospel message, but the initial catalyst used by God was in my wife and I inviting a young Iranian couple to live in our family home. It started there, and I cannot emphasise enough how important the ministry of hospitaility is to the cause of Jesus Christ.”

The pastor also noted “We have lost more than what we have gained in building baptismal pools into our churches. In fact if I was building a new church, I would not have a baptismal pool in it as we have sanitised baptisms. What is more, I would not baptize anyone who has a problem with being baptised in cold water, and I told those who were being baptised that the baptismal service would take place even if there was a blizzard and if they wanted to be baptized then be there even if they had to walk to Barry from Cardiff!”

PRAISE GOD!!!

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Though our nation is much divided politically, global hostilities exist, godlessness permeates society, and many are paralyzed by fear, God is still on the move—transcending all of our wrangling and divisiveness, redeeming lives from despair, and restoring hope in hopeless places.

After his resurrection, Jesus commanded his followers, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation” (Mark 16:15). This was risky business for the disciples, but they did it anyway. They sacrificed their lives and gave themselves to one driving ambition—to make Christ known! What gave them this boldness? They witnessed their Messianic Hero rise from the dead. This gave them something to live for beyond the grave—the Great Commission! I’ve never found asterisks in the Bible where it says Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation… *unless it gets too dangerous… *unless evil becomes rampant… *unless it’s just too much of a risk… *unless you’re afraid… *unless it’s not politically correct… *unless they hate you. I’ve never found those asterisks in God’s Word. Our responsibility is to be about Christ’s mission, faithfully—until he returns.

I recently returned from a mission trip to Europe, preaching in Ireland and Germany, and coordinating with the leaders of our missional partnerships for youth sports camps and refugee outreach.

I saw God’s kingdom and this dominion breaking out in Europe when I preached in Gorey, Ireland. The pastor received an email from a woman who stayed up until 4:00 AM after one of our services, wrestling with God, reconciling her faith, and ultimately surrendering her life to Christ—that’s a picture of a God who never sleeps nor slumbers (Psalm 121:4)! I saw it in the German schools we visited for assemblies, and when we prayed with students and teachers. I saw it at the refugee camp, where we played soccer with the children and prayed with some desperate adults. The Holy Spirit was unmistakably present when we prayed for an ailing Serbian woman in the camp who opened her life up to Jesus and then came to the church on Sunday morning where I was preaching.

I saw God’s kingdom break out when I was invited to the apartment of a Yazidi migrant family for a dinner feast. The whole experience left me feeling like I was living in the pages of the New Testament Book of Acts. This family is a great example of the “Person of Peace” principle I often teach about when we do workshops on missional living. They had already been processed through the refugee camp where our outreach coordinator had cultivated a relationship with them, and had now been assigned residence in Emden, Germany. Though our coordinator knew the family, we didn’t know much about the other migrant guests that would be coming to the party. Shortly after we arrived, the apartment began filling up with young refugee men from Syria and Iraq. I was the lone American, alongside our German refugee outreach coordinator and the Egyptian Coptic Christian who came with us to translate in Arabic, English, and Deutsch.

We all introduced ourselves, and then I sat almost invisibly for ten minutes as the group dialogued in Arabic. Then all of a sudden, the Arabic chatter gave way to silence. The room got quiet and all eyes turned to me. I felt awkward and nervous.

Then the translator said to me, “They want you to share something about the gospel.”

It felt like my jaw dropped three feet. Not in a million years of concocting cleverly devised sermon starters would I have ever been prepared to start a gospel conversation with an apartment full of Arab refugees. But I have learned that when we simply follow the Holy Spirit into the unknown rather than cater to our human fears and inhibitions, God’s kingdom breaks out as naturally as the sun rises over the Smoky Mountains on a charming Tennessee morning.

They want you to share something about the gospel, I startled.

I remembered how everywhere the Apostle Paul went, he shared about what happened to him on the Damascus Road. So, I started with my testimony. I talked about my childhood pain of being abandoned by my father at an early age only to have him return as an abusive tyrant in my teenage years. I spoke of running away as a teenager and being homeless at times. I admitted to being suicidal, but testified to ultimately finding hope in a relationship with Jesus Christ while locked up in a Florida juvenile detention center at 16-years old (as told in my book 13-Foot Coffins). I assured this crowd that what I experienced paled in comparison to what many of them had left behind in the Middle East.

The man sitting next to me pulled out his mobile phone and showed me photos he took of his neighborhood just before fleeing his hometown of Aleppo (Syria). My heart broke at the images of destruction—burned out cars, homes reduced to rubble, buildings still in flames, and bodies lying in the debris. Nothing in all of my life can compare to their devastation.

I continued to share about how the Bible says that God is love. I confessed that there are many who talk much about God but don’t walk in love. Whether this discrepancy is rooted in radical ideologies in the East, or religious bigotry in the West, forms of hypocrisy can be found on any continent around the globe. Then I brought it home—“this is also true in the Middle East. Many people are doing hateful things in the name of God.” We agreed that there is no shortage of God-talk in the world today, yet there is a major deficiency in those who truly walk in God’s love.

I brought their attention to 1 John 4, where the Bible speaks of false prophets, to test the spirits, and that “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him” (vv9), and “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother” (vv20-21).

Just then, the food came from the kitchen. Everyone jumped into motion, setting the table and preparing the dishes for an amazing Kurdish-style cuisine. I thought I had lost them. Perhaps I offended them with all this Jesus talk. Then we began to feast! In their culture, it’s important for you to always have something on your plate—that tells them you are full and satisfied. But I am used to cleaning my plate. That’s what my Momma taught me. Something had to give. I didn’t learn this cultural snippet until after we left and I had instantly gained six pounds! Every time I cleaned my plate, the man next to me filled it back up and said, “Keep eating, you are speaking well, and they are listening.”

After the meal, we gave them each a New Testament in their language. One of the refugees said in a surprising fashion, “Back home, we were never given the Quran in our own language, but we come here and you have given us God’s Word in our own language.” He went on to describe the difference he now saw in Christianity—that the gospel is all about God’s love for us. He said that this love has given him a new image of God. He continued, “From now on, we will follow Christianity.” As he spoke, I was thinking about John 13:35 “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

LOVE changed the game for these refugees! And what happened next blew me away…

The man’s 14-year old son, Mohammed, was in the room. The dad said, “I can no longer call him Mohammed. I want to change his name.” They were skimming through their new Bibles and came across the biblical name for John (Johannes in German). He said, “From this day forward, my son will be called Johannes.” The whole room erupted in applause. The father subsequently registered Johannes for our baseball camp coming this summer. Then the Yazidi host of the dinner party exuberantly questioned, “What will be my new name?” He turned the pages to the gospel according to Luke and said, “There it is, Lukas!” Laughter and rejoicing filled the apartment. Our rejoicing turned into festive singing—a moment I recorded on my phone and will carry with me for the rest of my life!

Johannes (formerly Mohammed) and his sister with their new Bibles

If you’d like to join us in Germany this summer for our youth baseball camp and/or outreach to refugee children, feel free to contact us—we’d love to have you join our team in Germany!

This is the news behind the news—Kingdom news! God’s kingdom transcends what we are spoon-fed by cable or network television. Virtually everything we hear in the news today is politicized and typically plays on our fears. Yes, evil may be rampant today—BUT our GOD is GREATER. His kingdom is breaking out all around us and in places we wouldn’t expect. We just need to take the time to look for it. I find great refuge in this passage… Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this. (Isaiah 9:7 ESV)

This isn’t just a cozy Bible verse we find on a Christmas card; it’s a truth to live by. Let us continue to seek first His kingdom and his righteousness, and we will find peace in turbulent times. Most importantly, as we seek first His kingdom we will find ourselves agents of hope in the brokenness of our generation—we will see His kingdom breaking out all around us, and the gospel changing lives.

We sense the strength that comes from having partners like you praying for us. Next week we will be ministering in juvenile detention centers in Florida, sharing Christ’s hope with many kids in crisis. Please pray for the Holy Spirit to empower, for lives to be changed, and for stories to be redeemed.

We are grateful for your support as we continue to follow God’s lead into the margins.

Finding Refuge in Him,

Jimmy and Cindy Larche
Lead Missionaries

The post How God ‘Messed’ With Me in an Apartment Full of Syrian Refugees appeared first on Jimmy Larche.

Mirna Hana, the 11-year-old Christian girl who is now an internet sensation after her spellbinding performance on “The Voice Kids”, has told her extraordinary story on how she ended up on the show because of the Islamic State (ISIS).

A Chaldean Christian and a talented schoolgirl, Hana sang an Iraqi classic followed by Disney’s “Let It Go” during her audition that wowed the judges in Beirut and the millions of viewers worldwide. A YouTube video of Hanna has been seen by over 15 million viewers, according to the Daily Mail.

But before her performance on the show, Hana told the judges that her life was in danger in Iraq because the ISIS had its eyes on her and her family.

“After we got to Lebanon, my dad told me that Daesh [ISIS] wanted to kidnap and kill me. From then I felt very scared at night, and I couldn’t sleep alone, or be by myself,” the young singer said.

“The Voice is a chance to sing for the world and to show that Iraq isn’t just about war and things like that—there are beautiful sounds, too,” she said.

Hana’s father said: “They threatened us with the kidnapping of our little girl, so we came here. We left everything behind us—even my job with the government.

“Everybody knows the difficulties of Iraq, from ISIS and how they slaughter the people and how they take their houses,” he said.

Hana walked on stage in a chiffon red dress to perform in front of the Arab world’s pop elite on audition day. She initially got a hug from her dad who told her not to be afraid.

Upon hearing the opening notes, 58-year-old Iraqi judge Kazem El Saher reportedly broke into a broad smile—immediately recognizing the rendition of his own love song. He then turned his chair to see who was singing. The judge is from Mosul, now an ISIS city in northern Iraq.

The other judges, Lebanese superstar Nancy Ajram and Egyptian actor and singer Tamer Hosny, also turned their chairs after Hana completed her rendition of the song, said the reports.

“How do you sing like that?” judge Nancy asked her in disbelief. She then offered her costumes from “Frozen” in an attempt to lure her to join the team. Tamer, on the other hand, offered the girl a chance to be in his film.

The young girl, however, picked her fellow Iraqi Kazem, known as the “Caesar of Arabic Singing” to mentor her.

Meanwhile, fans of the young singer opened a Facebook page to provide a venue to post messages, pictures or videos of Hana. Many Chaldean Christians have also posted messages of support for the young star.

The page also contained photos and videos of Hana, including family pictures taken during picnics, in the park, concerts, at church among others, the report said.

The post ISIS Vowed to Kidnap this Girl. Now She Roars! appeared first on Jimmy Larche.

According to Save the Children, this morning nearly two million children are waking up far away from their homes, having fled war and terror in Syria. They now live in shanty-towns, refugee camps or makeshift accommodation elsewhere in Syria or in surrounding countries.

Karim is one of these two million children. He is nine years old and now lives in Lebanon. There’s a sparkle in his eye as I talk with him about football. He wants to play for Real Madrid and score goals like Ronaldo. He doesn’t know the names of any Liverpool players, despite the fact he’s wearing some second-hand tracksuit bottoms sporting the logo for Liverpool Football Club and the poignant words “You’ll never walk alone.” Karim’s family do feel very alone. They are fast running out of savings, as strictly it is illegal for Syrians to work in Lebanon and yet they need to pay rent. They would like to return to their home in Syria, but it no longer exists.

God calls his followers to share his special concern for the needy. The Bible says: “Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.”

If only it was that simple for our politicians and community leaders! Mass population movement always brings with it complex and unpredictable change to any host community and we can all begin to suffer from ‘compassion fatigue’. Let us remember today to pray for everyone involved in trying to help the children caught up in this crisis.

Lord Jesus,
Once you welcomed children, that others thought a nuisance.
You said your kingdom belongs to such as these.
Give wisdom and compassion to all our leaders across Europe as they respond to this unprecedented refugee crisis.
Amen.

Let’s pray that our hearts don’t become jaded to those on the margins of society. Too many Christians today are suffering from this ‘compassion fatigue’ because they are allowing the evil of the hour to erode that compassion. But once we lose our compassion, we have not much left to be salt and light in a hurting and dark world. Christians must remember that our light does no good if it doesn’t penetrate the darkness. If we lose our compassion, what do we have left?

Also, pray for me as I will be in Germany in a couple of weeks visiting a refugee camp and learning more from our ministry partners on the ground about how the Americans can help to serve children and families swept up in the greatest humanitarian crisis of our generation.

The post Have You Prayed for Refugee Children Today? appeared first on Jimmy Larche.

Since the beginning of the Syrian conflict, children have been the forgotten victims of the horrific war. They drink from polluted wells, wash in sewage, eat leaves and rotten rice, and lack basic sterile conditions for medical and humanitarian aid. An estimated 5.6 million children inside the country are facing dire situations—caught in the crossfire, displaced from their homes, or facing extreme poverty.

50% of the 7.6 million people displaced within Syria are children.

Many of these children may spend their entire life away from home. And these children are far more vulnerable to abuse, neglect, or other types of violence. Most have been out of school for months, if not years. Children affected by the Syrian conflict are at risk of becoming ill, malnourished, abused, or exploited.

Innocent children have been victims of kidnapping and torture. Over 10,000 children have lost their lives (just this week: Syrian refugee’s wife and 7 children drown off Turkish coast: ‘I’ve lost my family, my world’), more than 8,000 children have crossed Syria’s borders without parents, and five million children presently need emergency help. One third of all children in Za’atari refugee camp in Jordan displayed aggressive behavior and self-harm. One in ten refugee children are working as cheap labor on farms, shops, or as beggars on city streets. There are 83,000 pregnant women living as refugees in Lebanon and Jordan, and 37,000 babies have been born as refugees.

For these children, what’s at stake isn’t politics. It’s their future. Having already lost their homes, schools and communities, their chances of building any kind of future are severely crippled.

Four risks these children face:

1. Children are susceptible to malnutrition and diseases brought on by poor sanitation, including diarrheal diseases like cholera.
2. Many refugee children have to work to support their families. Often they labor in dangerous or demeaning circumstances for little pay.
3. Children are more vulnerable to sexual abuse and exploitation in unfamiliar and overcrowded conditions. Without adequate income to support their families and fearful of their daughters being molested, parents — especially single mothers — may opt to arrange marriage for girls, some as young as 13.
4. Between 2 million and 3 million Syrian children are not attending school. The U.N. children’s agency says the war reversed 10 years of progress in education for Syrian children.

From my humble and personal observation, it seems that human decency, biblical compassion, and moral responsibility are getting trumped by political expediency. These are facts about the Syrian refugee crisis that too many Christians tend to overlook.

“When I talk to conservative Christians about their stance on a hot button issue like abortion or gay marriage, they usually quote the Bible. But when I’ve spoken to them about admitting Syrian refugees, almost none of them do.”

Jonathan Merritt

The purpose of this post isn’t to get political, but the opposite.

Perhaps we can lay politics aside long enough to read our Bibles and listen to God’s heartbeat for the impoverished sojourner and those alienated on the margins of society (Deuteronomy 10:18-19, Leviticus 19:33-34, Leviticus 19:9-10, Ezekiel 16:49, Exodus 23:9, Malachi 3:5, 1 Kings 8:41-44, Job 31:32, Matthew 25:25-36, Luke 10:25-37).

Most political campaigns today are engineered to breed fear in order to get a vote. My aim isn’t to inject any politics here. Frankly, I’m still not sure what the right policy is in dealing with the refugee crisis. But I do have a ministerial calling to point people to the Word of God. And what I am most concerned about momentarily is the rhetoric of so many Christians who fail to bring God’s Word into the refugee discussion.

In a heated election season, it’s too easy for Christians to become political pawns rather than compassionate followers of Jesus who flesh out into being His hands and feet for innocent families and children who have had their world shattered and everything taken away from them because of the senseless ideology of others.

I feel terribly sorry for the Christians who do nothing more than bank all their hope for the world, our country, and the future, on the next voting cycle. They will get all charged up in political arguments over the next 47 weeks, go to church each week and sing songs about compassion, maybe attend a midweek Bible study or small group here and there, then do it all over again repeatedly until next year’s election. Then they will punch a ballot and hope to change the world.

Friends, I don’t have the political answer, but I do know this: The world’s hope isn’t found in elections; THE HOPE OF THE WORLD is found in the PEOPLE of GOD, fleshing out as the hands and feet of JESUS and living missionally beyond the walls of our attractional church buildings, air-conditioned fellowship halls, and padded pews. We must go to where the ruins of society exist, namely where broken people have been displaced, and minister to their wounds in a way that reflects what Jesus taught his disciples about serving others–especially those who are different from us (Luke 10:25-37).

We won’t look like Jesus sitting in our recliners, engrossed in CNN, NBC, FOX News, being engaged in partisan political rants over the next 11 months. Yet we will look more like Jesus when we turn down the political jargon, get back to reading our Bibles, listen for God’s heartbeat over the brokenness in our world, pray desperately (II Chronicles 7:14), and then live out God’s mission with Him and others in the margins of society.

This is what the world in our day desperately needs from the church. Not just another election campaign, but compassion–care in action!

So instead of just praying for God to bless America, which I do pray, maybe we should spend more time praying that Christians would let God stir their hearts and mobilize them to flesh out into the world and serve hurting people the way His Word compels us to.

Maybe.

Sources: UN, US GOV, UNICEF, WORLD VISION

Previous posts:

The post Facts About Refugees, Children, Politics, Church appeared first on Jimmy Larche.

In the wake of terror attacks in Paris and Beirut, the response from Americans — even among Christians — has been as strong as it is divided. While many have called for Americans to follow their nobler impulses and respond in compassion, courage, and love by welcoming refugees, many others (including now a majority of the country’s state governors) have voiced their strong disapproval for accepting any refugees, citing significant security concerns.

Many are asking, What does the vetting process look like for incoming refugees? Can we accept only Christian refugees but turn away Muslims? How do we bring together a desire to show compassion with the responsibility to keep our country safe?

In other words, the key question seems to be this: In light of terror attacks worldwide, is bringing 10,000 refugees from the Middle East really a safe decision?

What is the church to do? I wrote about this in a previous post asking, “How will the church respond to the world’s biggest refugee crisis since World War II?”

We certainly cannot turn our backs on drowning children. But there isn’t an easy fix to this crisis by any means. I’ve heard some leaders cry “Let them all in… every last one of them,” while others hail, “Don’t let one in… keep them far, far away from us.” I don’t know if either of these extremes is the answer, but one thing I do know is: I don’t hear many Christians asking the RIGHT questions. We don’t have all the answers, but we can at least be asking the right kind of questions. Great leadership asks great questions. Namely, what does the Bible say about this issue and what would Jesus do?

One of the striking differences between the New Testament church and the church in our western culture today is this: That early church was ready to DIE any moment if they knew it meant Christ’s glory. The church of our day is willing to LIVE for Jesus if it means their personal safety. One had Christ’s glory as it’s chief aim, the latter has personal comforts as it’s chief aim. We cling too tightly to our own comforts of security rather than living the missional adventure with Jesus in all of His glory. We are missing something—forfeiting something that is of much greater worth when our aim is merely to be safe from the world’s troubles. Then we wonder why our children grow up and leave the church altogether because they find nothing substantive about our faith. They only see a voting block! But that’s for another sermon.

Christian: The worst thing that can happen in your life is not that you would die a martyr’s death, but that you would forfeit God’s glory in your lifetime by clinging to this world. Please let that sink in for a moment. Take a deep breath. And you will find yourself fearing less.

What I find very refreshing about David Crabb’s post is that finally, it seems, some Christians are beginning to ask the RIGHT questions. Not questions that emanate out of personal comforts, but that which flows from lives seeking His glory. I want to point out three of them that Crabb asked and I think every single Bible believing Christian in the west should ask themselves these questions:

1. What if, while America was asking questions about safety and risk management, Christians were asking, What is God doing? “Is it safe?” sounds like a question a government would ask. And it should ask; a government should seek to protect its people. But Christians ask, “What is God up to?” Imagine what might happen if every Christian starting focusing more on what God was up to rather than spending the bulk of their thoughts on what will make them “feel” more safe.
   
   
2. How would we view Muslims if we were steeped in God’s words so that we were thinking his thoughts after him? My 14-year old daughter and I had to put this into practice in Berlin last summer when we were inadvertently introduced to a community of Muslims and spent a couple of days with them during our mission trip to Germany. (And by the way, they didn’t try to kill us!)
   
   
3. What would be our perspective on the refugee crisis if the Bible, and not our favorite news channel, was guiding our thoughts and directing our behavior? “One of the things that hinders Christian witness most is simply that the primary voice speaking in our heads, influencing our thoughts, and determining our behavior is not the Bible, but media pundits.” Imagine a church world where believers got their direction, boldness, spiritual enlightenment, anointing, power, and marching orders from the Bible (Holy Spirit) instead of culture, politics, or media pundits. I got a feeling we’d be making more progress in gospel transformation if that were the case.

Crabb gives us three great thoughts to apply to our daily lives: 1) Don’t react in fear, but with courage. 2) Think God’s thoughts after him. 3) Pray that Christ would build his church. This is our business as Christians. The Bible is not a book about safety and risk management!

God is building his church — through this refugee crisis — and the very hellishness of ISIS will not prevail against it.

Thank you David Crabb for reminding Christians that the Bible is our ultimate authority! We would do well to get back to asking questions that emanate from the Holy Scriptures. Let governments continue to scrap it out over what is “safe,” but let the church take on the issue of Christ’s glory. This is evident in Paul’s missional resolve: “However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me–the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace” (Acts 20:24 NIV). Notice Paul’s aim wasn’t a long and safe life, but an eternally significant life full of God’s purpose: Finishing what God put Him here to do.

What if that became the aim of every believer in the west? The world?

Related article: What Will The Church Do With the Refugee Crisis?

Shapers: Leadership That Restores Hope, Rebuilds Lives (leadership lessons from Nehemiah with great parallels to the refugee crisis of our times).

The post Great Leadership Questions About Refugees appeared first on Jimmy Larche.

The migration crisis has been described as the defining humanitarian issue of our times. How will the church respond to the world’s biggest refugee crisis since World War II? You might want to read my earlier post here to understand the historical implications of this question.

Many of us are feeling an urgency to act knowing that turning a blind eye to global human suffering is not an option. Perhaps you’ve been heartsickened by the horrifying picture of young Aylan Kurdi, whose lifeless body washed up on a Turkish beach. If you want to have your feathers ruffled, read Mark Wood’s “Refugee crisis: Why the Bible doesn’t allow us to turn our backs on drowning children.”

There are many ways that you can help refugees, whether they are halfway around the world or right in your own community.

1. PRAY

For some that might undervalue the power of prayer, go back and read the Old Testament book of Nehemiah. I’ve just written a new book based on the leadership of Nehemiah. This story has so many parallels to the plight of refugees in our day. Christians would do well to study Nehemiah’s actions, beginning with a four-month prayer crusade, which launched a revitalization project that was completed in unbelievable time. If you’re feeling overwhelmed and uncertain about what to do, begin here. Nehemiah’s heart was broken for the things that break God’s heart, and because he had a deeply intimate prayer life, he received God’s clear blueprints for how to make a difference. Just remember that the prayer campaign itself lasted longer than the reconstruction efforts; a reminder that we can do much more in God’s sufficiency than on human dependency.

2. DONATE

There are many organizations you can give to that will help refugees in crisis. Our ministry is in direct partnership with missional communities we’ve worked with in Germany for the past five years. In one town where we do a baseball camp outreach, they now have 5,000 refugees in a migrant camp that was originally planned to house 500. Our friends there lead a team of Christian workers who are serving the refugees daily by meeting practical needs, listening to their hearts, and sharing the hope of the Gospel. You can support the refugee outreach by donating to a Refugee Fund we’ve set up through Breakaway Outreach. We will be giving periodic updates on specific needs and offering opportunities to go and serve there. Samaritan’s Purse is another gospel-centered ministry you could give to.

3. TALK TO YOUR CHURCH LEADERS

#WeWelcomeRefugees has been launched to position the global church as a key agent in the current Europe/Syria refugee crisis. “Globally we must become a collective voice and partner to be the hands and feet of Jesus and create enough leverage to start to turn the tide on this urgent and significant issue.” They have tools to help you talk to your church about refugee relief efforts. If your church isn’t yet having a conversation about the refugee crisis, you need to start one… like, yesterday.

4. CONTACT LOCAL AGENCIES

You might be surprised to find local agencies and organizations that are already serving refugees in your community. Do a search and find out how you can volunteer with them.

5. GO

Contact Breakaway Outreach about upcoming missions opportunities stateside and overseas that serve refugees.

6. HOST A REFUGEE/FAMILY

This is certainly a huge commitment, but one that multiple families, communities, or churches could undertake together. “The Church remains the biggest civil society movement in the [west]. We have buildings, we have people, and we have spare rooms. Not only that, but we have the networks that could help people to settle,” says Andy Walton. I’m aware of some congregations that have already called on their people to host an individual or family.

7. GREETING CARDS or CARE PACKAGES

Collect care packages or greeting cards for refugees. It might sound petty in light of greater material needs, but NEVER underestimate the power of encouraging words. One thing our ministry is doing is having schools, youth groups, and children’s ministries make greeting cards to send to refugees. It may not be meeting a huge tangible need, but words from halfway around the world can be incredibly encouraging to a refugee. I know this personally from having weekly email correspondence with Ali, my Syrian friend in the Berlin refugee camp. He’s reminded me repeatedly how much comfort my words and greetings give him.

8. _______________________________

Okay, I’ve left this one blank for a reason. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to this issue. We all can’t help in the same way but that is no excuse to ignore the human plight of suffering souls. Ask God what He would have YOU do, then DO IT. Just don’t do nothing! This is the biggest humanitarian crisis of your lifetime and the greatest global challenge the church faces in our generation. Doing nothing is not an option. Pray and ask God how to fill in the blank. Don’t let being overwhelmed by such a complex global crisis paralyze your prayer life in this particular area and prevent you from walking in the simple obedience of the Holy Spirit. If you talk to God about it, He will give you clear marching orders.

Shapers: Leadership That Restores Hope, Rebuilds Lives (leadership lessons from Nehemiah with great parallels to the refugee crisis of our times).

The post 8 Ways YOU Can Help Refugees appeared first on Jimmy Larche.

Today, more than 19 million people have been forced to flee their home countries because of war, persecution, and oppression, and every day an estimated 42,500 more join them. The refugee crisis in our world today is a global issue for the body of Christ—something the church cannot ignore.

The phrase “refugee crisis” might be hard for you to grasp—until you see the photographs of a Syrian toddler, dead on a Turkish beach, after the boat in which his family was attempting to flee to Europe capsized at sea. Or until you see children sleeping on floors and sidewalks as their desperate families crowd in a Hungarian train station, fearing officials will send them off to sinister camps. Or the pictures of Greek tourism towns filling up with tents and humanitarian workers, to accommodate refuges arriving on their shores daily in wobbly boats.

This past summer I took a group of teenagers on a mission trip to Germany. Over the last five years our ministry has been in strategic missions partnership with German churches in organizing gospel-centered baseball camps for youth and children. These sports outreaches are engaging German culture in fresh ways, bringing communities together, and sharing the gospel with unreached people groups. This year, we had the impelling assignment of piloting a new baseball camp in Berlin. While there, we visited a refugee camp and hosted some of the refugee kids at our sports camp during the week.

Here you will find hundreds of men, women, and children who have been driven from their homelands due to war, civil unrest, or other crisis situations. I met a Yazidi refugee from Iraq. He was a taxi driver who had to flee his country because of ISIS. Unfortunately, they could only afford to send one family member, so he went ahead of his family to seek out asylum in Germany. He is now waiting for paper work to go through to see if he can bring his wife and eight children there. But he has lost contact with them and doesn’t know if they are even still alive. I met Ali, a Syrian refugee. He also left his war-torn country in search of a safe place to bring his family. It took him three months to travel to Berlin. I just received an email from Ali saying that his asylum was granted and now he must continue the convoluted process of getting the rest of his family there.

We heard many other heart wrenching stories at the refugee camp in Berlin.

Over the next year, Germany expects to receive up to 800,000 asylum-seekers. The world is coming to Germany! Some of our network of missional communities in Germany are already involved with serving many of these refugees. One partner church in a town of 30,000 inhabitants, now has 5,000 refugees at the refugee camp in their community. Their church, which has hosted baseball camp for several years now and seen multitudes of young people come to Christ through this ministry, was itself born in 1990 with a core group that was made up of dozens of Russian refugees seeking asylum in Germany. Their church came into existence because of outreach to refugees. It’s in their DNA so it only makes sense for them to do everything in their might to serve the refugees in their area because, as one of my friends there has said, “Our church does know [from personal experience], that people need a home, shelter.”

This worldwide crisis isn’t going away overnight. It puts the global church at a very critical crossroads in our generation. I wonder what history will write about the church of our day one hundred years from now? Did we minister to “the least of these,” did we “Give justice to the weak and the fatherless; maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute. Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked” (Psalm 82:3-4 ESV), or did we just do church as usual?

Sociologist Rodney Stark documents that the early church’s engagement with suffering people was crucial to its explosive growth in the first few centuries. Their influence spread exponentially throughout the Roman Empire and impacted their world right in the heart of a pagan culture that was hostile and intolerant toward Christianity. The church grew from about 25,000 Christ-followers to approximately 20,000,000 Christ-followers in its first three centuries. Stark gives us a great explanation for how that occurred. Cities in the Roman Empire were characterized by poor sanitation, contaminated water, high population densities, open sewers, filthy streets, unbelievable stench, rampant crime, collapsing buildings, and frequent illnesses and plagues. Rather than fleeing these urban cesspools, the early church found its niche there. Stark explains that the Christian concept of self-sacrificial love of others, emanating from God’s love for them, was a revolutionary concept to the pagan mind:

Christianity revitalized life in Greco-Roman cities by providing new norms and new kinds of social relationships able to cope with many urgent urban problems. To cities filled with the homeless and impoverished, Christianity offered charity as well as hope. To cities filled with newcomers and strangers, Christianity offered an immediate basis for attachments. To cities filled with orphans and widows, Christianity provided a new and expanded sense of family. To cities torn by violence and ethnic strife, Christianity offered a new basis for social solidarity. And to cities faced with epidemics, fires, and earthquakes, Christianity offered effective nursing services.

Around the time of 165 AD, a devastating epidemic swept through the Roman Empire that lasted fifteen years and claimed the lives of anywhere from a quarter to a third of the empire’s population. Some suspect that it was smallpox, but historians don’t know for sure. But one thing is certain: It was extremely lethal. Nearly a century later, another plague ravaged the Roman world, killing massive numbers of people. It is reported that in the city of Rome alone, 500 people were dying per day at the height of the epidemic.

“In the midst of the daily horror of family members and friends dying all around, many people fled the cities and sought refuge in the countryside—especially those among the privileged classes, who had estates where they could retire until the devastation passed,” says Mike Breen. “The pagan priests and philosophers of the day were powerless to explain the disaster or curb its advance, so many simply ran for their lives.”

Though these responses may seem like what you would expect in a time of great disaster and upheaval, one group of people refused to leave the cities in a panic. Like Nehemiah in ancient Persia, their hearts were broken for the things that break God’s heart. This group of people intentionally stayed in the cities to look after the sick and dying, willing to provide whatever they could for those who were suffering, even if it only meant a decent burial after the disease took another life. These people, looking very much like missional tribes, demonstrated care and compassion by nursing the suffering in this epidemic. These remarkable people who stayed in the cities to care for those being ravaged by the epidemics were Christians. Many of these Christians actually lost their lives while caring for others.

Here’s what Dionysius, the Bishop of Alexandria, wrote in an Easter letter around 260 AD, during the second epidemic:

“Most of our brother Christians showed unbounded love and loyalty, never sparing themselves and thinking only of one another. Heedless of danger, they took charge of the sick, attending to their every need and ministering to them in Christ… Many, in nursing and curing others, transferred their death to themselves and died in their stead… Death in this form… seems in every way the equal of martyrdom.”

Breen points out that these early followers of Jesus weren’t trying to do anything heroic or significant. They were expressing simple obedience to Jesus’ command to “do to others what you would have them do to you,” and living out his mercy, justice, and compassion.

Mother Teresa said, “Don’t look for big things, just do small things with great love.” Because these early Christians did small acts of mercy with great love, they gave many sufferers hope that stretched beyond the grave and a compelling vision to root their lives in something eternal. It is presumable that many of the sick that did recover naturally became Christians and joined the communities that had nursed them back to health. “Because of these kinds of dynamics, Christianity went from a marginal sect on the fringes of Jewish society to the most dominant faith of the entire Roman Empire within a few hundred years,” says Breen.

Aid and relief organizations have noted that the refugee crisis is an opportunity to show Christ’s love and open the world’s eyes to the goodness of our God. Steve Van Valkenburg, an area director for one of these organizations in the Middle East, said, “I think that a lot of refugees see that there is something different there, they see the Muslim on Muslim fighting, and then they see how the Christians are reaching out with love and caring — that has to do something with their hearts.”

In collaboration with our network of missional communities in Germany, Breakaway Outreach will be sending winter gift/care packages and Christmas greeting cards for the children in refugee camps. It may not seem like much, but all of us who call ourselves followers of Jesus Christ must begin to ask the question of, not only how do we support our German friends in caring for refugees pouring in to their land, but how do we partner with God in His agenda in dealing with the greatest global crisis in our hour?

The early church exploded because it became a movement of missional communities nursing and caring for people in the middle of a pandemic crisis. A hundred years from now, what will be written about how the church of our day handled its greatest global crisis? Did we show up or did we play it safe?

To do nothing is a failed strategy—and simply too high a price to pay to caress our own false sense of securities halfway around the world. In ancient Persia, Nehemiah’s heart was broken for the hurting people in Jerusalem. He couldn’t go back to business as usual in the secure confines of the Persian king’s palace. He was moved by compassion—care thrust into action. He not only rebuilt walls, but the lives of the most distressed people of his times.

Has your heart been broken for the things that break God’s heart?

What will you do about it?

Here are 8 Ways YOU Can Help Refugees.

Shapers: Leadership That Restores Hope, Rebuilds Lives (leadership lessons from Nehemiah with great parallels to the refugee crisis of our times).

The post What Will The Church Do With the Refugee Crisis? appeared first on Jimmy Larche.