From a Selfish Life in a Montreal Bar To a Life of Service and Devotion to God

~ By Nick, as relayed to Donald and Lorraine Gingras (CrossRoads supported missionaries in Quebec) ~

It was another great night in the summer of 2006 at a well known Montreal bar when a businessman called Peter leaned over and asked me, as I was ordering my fourth drink, if I thought I was going to heaven when I died. I thought it was a weird question but I liked this guy and I wanted to do business with him so I answered, "Absolutely!"

Much to my surprise he said, "Really? Why do you think that Nick?" I told him that I am a good guy, I work hard and that I am trying to change the world and make it a better place. He said that was nice but that it wasn’t the way to heaven so I asked him what the secret entry code was. Of course, he said it was Jesus and honestly, I was a little freaked out to say the least. To my surprise, the seed was planted and so over the next few months, something inside me wanted to know more and more and more about this Jesus character.

It is over those few months that Peter became my friend. He introduced me to Donald and Lorraine. Donald took over my discipleship and by this time, I had an insatiable thirst for Jesus to the point when one day after a five hour session with Donald, I asked him how much I owed him for the professional services. Of course he laughed and explained that he worked for God and not for money – I was a little confused but I accepted it all. At this time, I was in a relationship of nine years with a beautiful woman and together we had an amazing eight year-old daughter. As far as marriage was concerned, it wasn’t really important to us or certainly not a priority. My partner Mylène was Catholic like me but we never talked about God. My parents were worried that I was in a sect and that at any time, "they" would take all my money and then some, but of course "they" never did. Donald introduced us to an amazing fellowship called River’s Edge Community Church and I fell in love with this community of faith, the Lead Pastor, the vision, the staff and everything it represented.

It was only after nine months of seeking, weekly meetings with Donald, going to church and praying that I finally gave my life to Jesus on February 13, 2007. What followed was an unbelievable series of blessings that forever changed my life.

While the challenges of my business were very real and extremely difficult, all of a sudden I wasn’t alone to face them. In September, 2007 I arranged to be in Israel and Jordan on business and invited Donald and Lorraine to join me. On September 7th, my birthday, I was baptized in the River Jordan by Donald and our dear friend Brother Andrew from the Holy Land Institute for the Deaf, at the exact place where Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist!

As my life continued to receive these extraordinary blessings, Mylène started to see big changes in my life; I was becoming a better father, a better friend, a better partner. I was becoming a better man! The kind of man she wanted to marry. That’s when she told me that she was prepared to put her money where her mouth is. You see, she had once told me that she loved me so very much and that she would follow me to the ends of earth. It was therefore only natural that she follow me on my spiritual journey. And follow she did! She started her own journey in becoming a follower of Christ.

In 2008 the world financial markets were falling apart. Our company lost 90% of its value in sixty days. The investors and board got really nervous and brought in professional management and we, the founders, were set aside. If it hadn’t been for my growing faith and the incredible support of my brothers and sisters in Jesus, I would have given up. Now as God would have it, the management gave up and resigned within a year and God gave us back our business. We then went on to invent a miracle product and are now back on track to changing the world.

As my faith grew stronger and stronger I began discussing with Mylène about her baptism. Funny thing is that she agreed right away and a few months later, we chose the date of September 11, at 11:11 at the Lake where we have our country house. The week leading up to September 11 was cold and rainy, about 10 °C outside and we were nervous that we had invited 35 people to come on the lake to the sandbar in boats for her baptism. Well wouldn’t you know it that by 6:00am God gave us a glorious morning where the sun was dancing on the lake and by 10:00am it was 27 °C. When we actually got on the boats at 11:00am and started the ceremony at 11:11, EVERYONE, believers and non believers were in awe; awe that our Heavenly Father had stopped the wind, cleared all the clouds and filled her mouth with the most amazing and inspiring testimony that brought us all to tears, all of us, including her father who until a few moments prior had been wondering why she was getting baptized again, 42 years later. Our cottage is an exact replica of an 1875 Catholic Schoolhouse equipped with a school bell but the cross was missing. On that day, a friend of ours climbed to the top and attached the missing cross to mark the occasion. The next day… it was cold and rainy again!

Despite this unbelievable baptism, there was a thought lingering in both our minds – shouldn’t we get married or are we already married in the eyes of God? After all, we had been together for twelve years and we had a ten year-old daughter. We had been engaged for a long time, and loved each other but were waiting to have enough money to have the dream wedding. The problem was that days turned into weeks, weeks turned into months, and months turned into years. Mylène’s friend Chantal said something that resonated to our very core. She said that if we were getting married for the right reason, which is to honour and please God, we would not wait to have enough money to have a big party. An overwhelming sense of selfishness filled our hearts. After some discussion with Donald and our Pastor, we decided to finally get married in a very small, very intimate family-only celebration in our city home during Thanksgiving weekend. It was beautiful obedience we wished we had done sooner.

We are forever grateful to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for changing ours lives, for giving us strength, for giving us hope and for giving us love. Today, my prayer is that my almost eleven year-old daughter will give her life to Jesus and experience a peace in her life that took her father and mother thirty-eight years to find. I thank Peter, I thank Donald and Lorraine, I thank my wife but above all, I thank Jesus with all my heart, all my mind and of course, all my soul.

Donald reports that Nick’s story is ongoing. Nick and Mylène are now involved in River’s Edge fellowship and are working to lead their daughter to Christ. As husband and wife they are learning to become Godly spouses. Their journey is constant and edifying.

If you are interested in reading more true life stories like this, visit Donald and Lorraine’s web blog. http://heartcryforquebec.wordpress.com. Donald would love to hear any feedback you may have.

Are You Ready To Jump?

~ By Khristie Looy ~

"Trust me! I'll catch you!" We’ve all heard these famous words or perhaps said them ourselves, trying to convince a child to jump into the safety of our arms from the edge of the swimming pool. What I love best about this image is that the majority of the time a child jumps with little hesitation and with great faith KNOWING that they will be caught! These same words are from the heart of our Abba Father. He is calling us to completely surrender our hearts to Him in every aspect of our day to day lives. Do we jump into the safety of our heavenly Father's arms when He says the words "Trust Me! I’ll catch you!"?

Proverbs 3:5.6 says, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight."

One of three truths that we are teaching our CrossRoads Kids in Kindergarten to Grade 4 is "I Can Trust God No Matter What."

This seems to be a battle that I face and have found that it comes down to a daily surrender of my heart. Can I truthfully say those words in the everything of my everyday? Can I trust God no matter what? With my finances? Relationships? Work? Can I trust Him to mend my broken heart? Give the necessary strength to handle what lies ahead? Do I trust that He has my best interests at heart?

I often find myself asking the question, "How do I teach this to CrossRoads Kids when my own tendency is try to solve my own problems"?

Do you model complete trust to your kids?

Do we really trust God with ALL in our day to day?

May we always strive to surrender our hearts to trust God no matter what.

Are you ready to jump?

Tribute to Joey

~ By Robert Mudde ~

I got to know Joey well in grade 7 and 8 at Wired because he was nearly always the last teen picked up. I had an agreement with his parents that he would stay an extra thirty minutes after youth to accommodate their busy schedule. My favorite memories of Joey came during those thirty minutes. It was thirty minutes of random made up games by Joey.

There was; "How Far Can You Throw a Coat Hanger Across the Parking Lot.", "How Many Walls Can You Bounce a Pop Bottle Off In One Throw.", "I Betcha I Can Keep My Hand On This Heater Longer Then You.", "Let's See How Long We Can Lock Sasha Outside In the Cold.", and "Turn Around and Catch It."

"Turn Around and Catch It" was one of Joey's favorites. You basically threw any random object you could find at the other person while they had their back to you, and then told him to "turn" only once the object was in flight. The goal was then to catch the object, with bonus points rewarded if it was a particularly difficult object to catch. I got bonus points one night for catching a folding chair. Joey got a lecture. I gave Joey bonus points one night for catching a football. Not that it was hard to catch, just I yelled "turn" too late and it hit him in the face giving him a fat lip. Joey gave me a lecture.

Two years ago Joey went through a hugging phase. He would run up to you and give you a hug for no reason, at least three times a night too. "I'm just a hugger" he would say. One night, he got it in his head (much to the disapproval of the other guys) to hug everyone in his small group. Grade 8 boys don't like to be hugged, especially by another grade 8 boy so don't judge my supervision skills when I tell you that the resistance he faced was huge. He got shoved away, called inappropriate names, and one particular boy even knocked him off his feet with a swinging elbow after a failed hugging attempt.

It seemed to take him by surprise, and I thought it was a lesson learned. The feeling of rejection, and the embarrassment from being knocked flat would have been more than enough of a deterrent for me. But not Joey. At the end of Youth, I watched as Joey creeped up behind this same failed hug recipient in the parking lot. In a flash he got him from behind with a giant bear hug. And then just as quick he was booking it off across the parking lot with the angry bear hug recipient close behind.

"He's recovering from cancer," I yelled trying to divert the beat down Joey seemed about to get. Neither heard, Joey's panted giggling and their footsteps was all that could be heard as they disappeared around the church. It took Joey a full lap to shake his pursuer and by then he was obviously out of breath. "What were you thinking Joey?" I asked. With a shoulder shrug and a grin he answered, "I'm a hugger".

What Joey taught our youth group here at CrossRoads, is that there's a lot of life to be had all around us. And that pain or fear isn't a good enough reason for us to avoid living that life. As cancer appeared again in Joey's body, we again observed the same lesson. Cancer came with its pain and with its fears, and yet Joey didn't seem to let it get in the way of him finding life around him. That's hard to do, but I think Joey cheated. He had God's help too.

In Jr. High Youth we want to be more like Joey. So often our fear of rejection, embarrassment, and pain keeps us from grabbing on to life. From making friends, from trying new things, from being who we really are, or even from having tough or meaningful conversations. If Joey could find life around him even with cancer, then with God's help so can we.

And Sasha and Chantelle, don't think you’re off the hook. I know at least half of the trouble Joey got into was a result of the laugh track that you two provided him with.

Joey, I will miss you.

Joey, this Youth Group will miss you, too.

What Do You Crave?

~ By Jessica Abe ~

I dragged myself out of bed this rainy morning wishing I had just one more hour of sleep before I had to start my day. Knowing that precious added hour of sleep was not in the forecast, I found myself with an intense craving for a lusciously warm Caramel Macchiato. I envisioned its creamy whipped topping, drizzled with gooey buttery caramel. It was just the early morning caffeine pick-me-up I needed to get on with the day. What do you crave? Do you crave brownies when you’re stressed about that exam you have the next morning? Or do you ever get a hankering for a huge bowl of popcorn with extra butter even at times when you are simply happy about life? You may have noticed McDonald’s simple but effective slogan, CRAVING, for their new line of chicken sandwiches. Certainly we all have cravings, whether it is for food or other need satisfying things such as companionship or excitement. But for many people food has made an intrinsic connection with emotion and is often used as a means for dealing with those emotions. In fact, I remember as a child that an ice-cream cone would often suppress my feeling of disappointment when something didn’t go my way. I suppose the real question to ponder is, is craving a bad thing?

In June of this year CrossRoads and WOW hosted the Sophia Logos Women’s Conference. The success of this conference was highlighted with many spiritually impactful speakers, and graced by the ardent worship music of Amanda Falk. Key speaker Lysa Terkeurst, New York Times bestselling author, president of Proverbs 31 Ministries and married mom of five, inspired women to make their walk with God an "invigorating journey." While Lysa’s stories carried us through her life story and a spectrum of emotions she encouraged women to "stop unhealthy cycles of striving and to learn to love who they are."

During a break at the conference, Lysa was available for a book signing. Excited, I quickly purchased her New York Times best selling book, Made To Crave: Satisfying Your Greatest Desires With God, Not Food. Lysa signed "Live Loved" on the inside cover of my book and from that page on I couldn’t put the book down. In this book, Lysa uses humour and the unrefined truth to take readers through her painful quest to conquer her dependency on food for comfort. She writes about her experience saying "This wasn’t really about the scale or what clothing size I was; it was about the battle that raged in my heart." Lysa describes how her passion for food was a road block to having complete reliance on God. Through searching God’s word, Lysa discovers and explains that "We were made to crave, long for, want greatly, desire eagerly, and beg for God. Only God." Lysa encourages her audience to use the wisdom of God that leads to victory, to replace old habits and thinking that often lead to letdown.

Lysa Terkeurst’s book, Made to Crave, encourages women to rely completely on Christ through all trials and struggles in life, including weight loss or weight management. She tackles the reality of how emotional eating can replace God’s role in satisfying our needs. Lysa’s book, alongside the Bible, is a helpful tool in discovering how God wants us to value food and our health. Made to Crave is a must read for anyone who wants to reach healthy lifestyle goals while growing closer to our Father in the process.

Going Deep - Christian Fellowship Is More Than Just Talking About Football

~ By Darcy Schellenberg ~

As fall has arrived and Canadian football is coming down to the last days of the regular season, the jaw flapping around the water cooler is heating up. This would include disparaging comments of lineage, heritage or just comparisons between shoe size and IQ. As with any contest of allegiance, the well planned parting comment usually wins. Any venue is quite often fair game, even at church, with Pastor Dan Cochrane usually taking his fair share of lumps for his team. This may lead some to believe that the camaraderie and fellowship amongst these believers will have a faith building component. Sadly, this is not the case and the "surface" talk is only a stepping stone to better things.

At the start of any conversation, especially amongst men, the weather, work load and busy schedules will usually dominate the landscape of conversation in order to break the ice. Acceptance and group building dynamics may be built on such interactions, but the eternal consequence of such interactions are not realized until the conversation finally shifts away from the "surface" talk. The direction at that point is either a quick exit for fear of having to actually share something serious or to go to the next level which has the potential to shift the conversation to the important spiritual side of every man.

The definition in my Bible states: Fellowship / companionship; a group of persons with a common interest. Among Christians, the common bond is their faith in Christ, particularly in partaking of the Lord’s Supper.

This definition would tend to encourage all believers to get to the point with each other’s spiritual walk, especially when a contrite and humble heart is what is needed to come to the Lord’s Table. With relationships built around the statement of Christian Fellowship, we will need to understand that Jesus would not likely have talked about football or hockey unless your heart and spiritual walk was "on side". His agenda was much more important than "surface talk". With every word spoken by Jesus, without exception, eternal consequence would have been the essence of His message.

As we interact with others, believers or not, our statements and actions also have eternal consequences. If they know that we are believers or even go to church, their view of Christianity would be right in front of them. The impression that we leave and the image that we reflect would have a lasting impression on them.

So next time you receive that punch in the shoulder or that verbal jab berating "your" team, think of it as an invitation to enter into a conversation with "Eternal" consequence. Acting on this process, we may encourage others to place themselves into a place of blessing by helping them take another step in their spiritual journey. The Great Commission demands this from all believers as we take our own steps in our journey.

We Belong Together Like Peanut Butter And Toe Jam

~By Rob Tannahill ~

Sometimes my brain gets stuck. Occasionally it happens in a conversation and people think I've had an aneurism. More often, like this time, it happens when I'm reading. I'll read a sentence and my eyes will continue to read on but my brain will have stopped way back where it got stuck. Sometimes it takes me a couple of pages to realize I'm not actually retaining what I'm reading because my brain is stuck. Then it takes a few minutes for me to find exactly where my brain got stuck. I really can't function until I find the stuck spot. It is very frustrating.

This recently happened while I was reading the Gospel of John. Somehow when I get brain stuck reading the Bible it feels really spiritual; like God is trying to get my attention. The line was, "Unless I wash you, you won't belong to Me." It's found in John 13:8. The whole passage is about Jesus washing His disciples' feet which Jesus just starts doing without telling them what He's on about. It's Peter who breaks the silence (as usual). He refers to Jesus as "Lord". "Lord" is a cool title. "Lord" has status. With this one word, Peter is elevating Jesus and humbling himself. That's a lot of work for one word to do but "Lord" gets the job done.

• 13:6-8a| Peter argues with Jesus.

• 13:8b| Jesus says this "belong" statement where my brain gets stuck.

• 13:9| Peter misses the point.

• 13:10-11| Jesus makes a jab at Judas.

• 13:12-17| Jesus explains why He washed their feet.

• 13:18| Jesus makes another jab at Judas. (At this point Jesus is wishing Judas would just leave).

Because Peter calls Jesus Lord, we automatically understand the hierarchy of roles that Jesus and Peter play. Jesus is the master and Peter is the slave. These are the titles that Jesus uses when He explains the foot washing in verses 12-17, master and slave. Typically slaves are forced to serve the master. In this case the slave really really wants to belong to the master and the master is the one who is serving the slave through a very disgusting toe jam cleansing. The brain stuck part is the necessity of the serving which creates the belonging. The person being served belongs to the person who is serving.

I feel this in the core of my being. I know this emotion intimately. I dread it. I fear it. I don't want to be indebted to anyone. I want to be independent. When someone does me a favour, I feel compelled to return it. I can even extend this feeling to compliments; I feel like I owe them. When someone serves me I belong to them. This feels very negative like it's something to avoid but somehow I think that is exactly what Jesus had in mind. My brain got stuck.

In verse 15 Jesus says, "I have given you an example (foot washing) to follow. Do as I have done to you." And then later in verse 34 He says, "Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are My disciples." I'm left with the distinct impression that Jesus is all about us belonging to each other. I get that I need to serve and that has always made sense to me. The love I have received from Jesus is a part of me. It flows through me and makes loving other people fun. But if I am unwilling to be served by the person I have served, I think that proves my love for them is incomplete.

Pride. The root of this is pride and the only antidote I'm aware of is humility which is exactly the posture Jesus took when He bent down to wash. Equally humbling is watching someone you love and respect clean out your toe jam. So embarrassing. Peter was appalled but when given the alternative, he would rather have Jesus clean everything than risk not belonging, not being His disciple, not loving and being loved.

We all belong together. We were made to belong together. The sin of refusing someone's love, of telling that person their love isn't good enough ought to be banished from our community. Jesus cares about this so much that on the night of His betrayal He was compelled to humble Himself and use His last remaining moments of freedom to teach about belonging. Belonging requires humility which will prove our love for each other so that the world will know we are disciples of Jesus; so that we know we all belong together like peanut butter and toe jam.

Who Do You Say I Am?

~ By Jordan Cavanaugh ~

Who do you say I am? That question has been buzzing through my head all summer and the beginning of this fall. How would I respond to Jesus today? How does my life respond to that question? Do I live like He is truly the Christ and the Son of God or just another guy in history who did a lot of really great things?

Jesus said in the beginning of the Gospel of Mark, "The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news." When I came across this recently I had no idea what Jesus was talking about. What in the world does He mean repent and believe the good news? This is the very beginning of Mark nothing good has happened. No message has been declared, just this phrase repent and believe the good news. I couldn’t help but wonder how I missed this verse in Mark 1:15 all these years. How come whenever I read this verse I assumed when Jesus says good news that He is talking about the death and resurrection, but after reading it this time how could it mean that, the book has just begun! That would not make any sense! How did I miss this?

My prayer for this year is that our ministry would not miss the simple beautiful truths in scripture because we feel like we already have the answers or have read the passage before; that we would be able to embrace Jesus Christ with new eyes and not make assumption based on what we have already been taught or told.

So what does Jesus actually mean when He says

good news in the beginning of Mark? I believe what Jesus is trying to do here and what the author of Mark is trying to communicate is: pay attention right now, because what I am about to share with you is the good news of kingdom of God. Mark goes on to list story after story of how tangible this good news is. This good news is not impersonal or far off, it is right here in the flesh in the person of Jesus Christ.

Immediately you encounter the demon-possessed man who is trapped in darkness and is set free by Jesus. Then we watch as Jesus does the unthinkable and actually touches a leper and heals him. We observe as Christ not only heals the paralyzed man, but also forgives his sins. This is the good news! These stories are the good news of Christ, because of Jesus there is freedom from bondage and darkness. Because of Jesus there is dignity given to the outcast, because of Jesus we no longer carry the guilt of our sin and shame, but have been forgiven. "The kingdom of God is near, repent and believe the good news" I cannot help but get excited, because my heart knows that this is truly good news. It bubbles up inside of me and I have to testify that this is our God! This is Jesus who brings good news. I look forward to the journey with our students this year as we look at the good news in the gospel of Mark. We pray that our students would taste and see how good this news actually is and that they would not be able to contain themselves. That they would be so impacted by these words and this person Jesus that it would radically change the way they do life.

We are so excited about this journey through the gospels and encountering Christ with our high school students. If you are a high school student or know one who is looking for a place to get plugged in, Sr. High Youth is going to be an exciting place to be a part of this fall. For more information about Sr. High Youth Ministries contact JordanC@CrossRoadsChurch.ca.

Lessons From God

~ By Kurtis Kooiker ~

If I write this… will you read it? If I write to you about the world and our God, will it change your heart? If I speak from my heart will you understand? All questions I allow into my thoughts once again, and questions I do not have the answer to… come to think of it, there are very few questions I feel I actually have the answer to…

Many times in this past week I have been asked, "How was your trip to Africa? Pretty crazy, hey?" Truth be told I never really know how to answer that question. Yes, I was in Africa. Yes, I did travel up to the refugee camps around Dadaab, and yes it has changed my life. The reality is that every time I leave my front door my life is changed and altered in one way or another. The fact that I am on the other side of the world should be inconsequential. Of course my life will be changed. The difference is how God uses these opportunities to break me. I can so easily get stuck in a rut or routine back at home that hearing from God becomes so difficult (or so I think). There are so many "noises" around me that keep me from hearing and seeing my God in action in our world. So God took me out of my regular schedule and placed me on one of the most difficult trips of my life.

I have never had such unrest about a trip in my life. When I was told that Anton and I would be going to Kenya to visit refugee camps and gain information of what was actually happening there, I was pumped. But as the week went by my attitude changed, I had no peace about this trip, I could not understand why we were going or what exactly we were to do and we had no plan.

Why did I no longer have peace? Why was God only speaking to my leaders and not me? Something was wrong here… So I made a decision to follow and see where God was leading. I got on the plane and found myself in Kenya a day and a half later… this was the beginning of a very long week. A week in which we (Anton, my sister and her husband and I) could not make anything happen ourselves. We would try and make a plan one way and not be able to or we’d be redirected into a new avenue, or we would just continue to hit road blocks. This only fueled the unrest I had already had and I began to question the team and God as to whether we really were supposed to be here. As the week was slowly fading away and no plans or headway was being made, I became so frustrated with God. I began to ask questions like, "Why? Why take me away from my home and family to be stuck in Kenya with no plans and no purpose?" You know what His response was?

"Find yourself in My presence and I will give you rest",

"Seek Me with your whole being",

"Demonstrate your trust in Me",

" Live in dependence of Me",

"In closeness to Me, you are safe",

"Spend time with Me."

My responses to these were, "God I do not have time for this, we have plans to make and a deadline to keep." Wrong answer.

As our time was growing shorter and deadlines getting closer, and still with no plans, I finally stopped fighting. I took a seat and let all my frustration out on God. You know what? He is a big God and He can handle us and whatever we throw at Him, He just wants us to actually throw it at Him. As I let my heart pour out to God I found myself just giving in to Him, admitting that I could do nothing without Him or His presence. I finally began to really pray and present my specific requests to Him and give Him all control. In this, I began to find slivers of peace. You know what He began to tell me?

"Find yourself in My presence and I will give you rest",

"Seek Me with your whole being",

"Demonstrate your trust in Me",

" Live in dependence of Me",

"In closeness to Me, you are safe",

"Spend time with Me."

As I began to allow myself to listen and be loved by my God, He began pour out His love and teach me. What did I learn?

God is in control! He sees all, hears all and is ALL.

God wants my heart, not what I can do for Him.

God wants a relationship with me, and wants to converse with me.

Four Days From A Logbook : Flying in Papua New Guinea

~ By Nick Swalm~

MAF (Mission Aviation Fellowship) was recently blessed with a new GA8 aircraft. As I was asked to recount some of the effect it has had on our ministry, four days jumped out at me.

June 17, 2011

A good day’s work. Flew a total of 4.6 hours with ten landings, providing general service for communities in the Jimmi River area north of Mt. Hagen. Flew a medivac from the newly opened Pyrulama airstrip for a lady with a retained placenta. Five-minute flight to Kompiam hospital saved four days of walking (carrying the patient on a stretcher).

June 18, 2011

Loaded up family and headed to Rumginae (Western Province) to provide a week of coverage in the area for a pilot on leave. After trip to Rumginae headed back to Muluma airstrip to bring another mother with a retained placenta to the Rumginae hospital. This young mom had lost the baby three days earlier and was still bleeding. She had been carried for four hours to get to the airstrip that afternoon. As we loaded her on the aircraft we noted that in addition to the problem of blood loss she also had a fever from the toxins in her body. I flew her and her husband fifty-five minutes to Rumginae Hospital. The doctors at Rumginae commented that they were glad I had brought her in as she was in very bad shape and would probably not have lasted much more than another day in the bush. The trip to the hospital by ground would have required over a week of trekking and crossing two major rivers that terrify even able-bodied travelers. It was a relief to see her husband at the aircraft a few days later reporting that she was well and looking for a flight home.

 

June 19, 2011

Enjoying a quiet Sunday afternoon at Rumginae when a radio call came in for a medivac from Suabi. A French anthropologist and her boyfriend from New Zealand were studying in the area and he had been attacked. The initial report was that he had been stabbed, had lost a lot of blood and was having a lot of trouble breathing. I readied the aircraft for the forty-five minute flight as Dr. Daniel and Dr. Sharon from the Rumginae Mission Hospital boarded the aircraft with their medical equipment. Upon arrival at Suabi we found the young man had been speared in both lungs and in the stomach as well as having been beaten in the head with a rock. As the doctors assessed him and stabilized him for the flight I provided the aircraft oxygen tank and pilots oxygen mask from the plane to help him breath for the fifty minute flight to Kiunga Hospital. We left Suabi with two doctors, the anthropologist, and the patient on a stretcher. By God’s grace there were doctors, surgeons, a pilot, and a capable aircraft all in the right place to save this young man’s life that day. The doctors commented on the way home that evening that had we been an hour or two later he would likely not have lived.

June 20, 2011

Flew three pastors and their wives from Rumginae to Obo; the pastors and their wives had just completed a course on marriage (something very rare in PNG) with about fifty other couples. At Obo there was another patient in bad shape. The day before, this young mother who lived about five hours up river from Obo had successfully delivered a baby, but its twin was still stuck inside and refused to come out. With no other options she canoed five hours down river to the Obo aid post. The community health workers there could do little to help her, so called for the aircraft to take her to Rumginae Hospital for surgery. Upon arriving at Rumginae doctors spent over seven hours in surgery to remove the unborn baby and repair the damage inside.

As the doctors worked on her, I flew another plane load of pastors and their wives (who had completed the same course at Rumginae) to their villages at Suabi and Hesalibi. As I left Rumginae I was advised by the doctor that a lady had been bitten by a death adder at Hesalibi. As he had been unable to get radio contact with the community since the initial report that morning, Doctor Daniel said, "Examine the patient when you get there and if she shows any signs of envenomation, bring her in." As I flew from Suabi to Hesalibi I was relieved to hear via radio from Rumginae that the patient was doing much better and I would not be required to bring her into the hospital, or examine her for symptoms.

After Hesalibi I picked up missionaries Tom and Salome Howey and flew them from Mogalu to Kiunga where they were to depart on an international flight for Australia the next morning. With them I also carried four Papua New Guinean teachers and health workers who were headed out to Kiunga for supplies for the next term at the remote school at Mogalu.

These were the first four days of this new aircraft’s service in the Western Province in Papua New Guinea. Not all days are quite this action packed (though many are), but you can see that in the course of only four days, we were able to provide an invaluable ministry to national pastors, teachers, health workers, missionaries, and save the lives of four people in serious need.

Our ministry here is very much about partnership. Over the course of a week we fly a huge variety of passengers, enabling their ministries whether they are teachers, health workers, Bible translators, or missionaries. They tell us time and time again, "Thank you, we couldn’t be here without you!"

In the same way we are extremely grateful for your partnership with us in this ministry. Without you praying for us and supporting us we couldn’t be here, sharing Christ’s love in Papua New Guinea. Thank you!

 

Nick and Paula Swalm, along with their children Kayla, Malachi and Meegan, have served for five years with MAF (Mission Aviation Fellowship) in Papua New Guinea, and are originally from Central Alberta. CrossRoads helps to support these missionaries. Please feel free to contact them at nick.paula@gmail.com.

Being Missional in Light of a Missional God

By Anton Beukes ~

The God we serve is a missional God. He has always been, and will always be. To be missional is part of His character, part of His being.

In the Bible we realize that God’s missional character stems from His love, that intricate love within Himself (as Father, Son and Holy Spirit). He poured that love out into His creation, with the crescendo when He created mankind, in His image. God created us so that we can worship Him, but also that we can love Him. As He loves us, we are there to love Him, and one another.

But sin destroyed that perfect relationship, and with their disobedience, Adam and Eve broke away from God’s perfect life with them. They now sinned and could not appear before the Holy God. But it was God, and not man, that took the first step to reconcile this broken relationship, in Genesis 3:9 we read; "But the Lord God called to the man, "Where are you?". God reached out to those fallen because of sin, and ever since that day He continues to reach out to mankind.

At first we see that God calls one man, Abraham, to follow Him, and that he and his descendents will be blessed because of their obedience to follow God. In Genesis 12:1-3 and 17:8 we read that God blesses Abraham, but also establishes a covenant with him, He promises Abraham that out of him will come a great nation, and he will receive honour, but also that this nation that will come from him, will be a blessing to all nations. Throughout the next 500 years God slowly made His promises come true – Israel became a great nation (even in slavery), and eventually received their own promised land. God continues to bless them, despite their disobedience.

We continue to read through the Old Testament how God reaches out to Israel, providing different ways for them to reconcile with Him. Through Moses He gave the Law, and through David He established a kingdom as a representative of His rule (Psalm 2 and 2 Samuel 7:11b-16). He instructed David’s son, Solomon to build a temple where He would meet His people, not only the Israelites, but also the foreigners, as we see in Solomon’s prayer of dedication: "As for the foreigner who does not belong to Your people Israel but has come from a distant land because of Your great name and Your mighty hand and your outstretched arm—when they come and pray toward this temple, then hear from heaven, Your dwelling place. Do whatever the foreigner asks of You, so that all the peoples of the earth may know Your name and fear You, as do Your own people Israel, and may know that this house I have built bears Your Name."

Through the prophets God pronounced His judgement against His people because they did not obey His law, but even worse, they did not reach out to others (including their fellow Israelites) with love and compassion (read the Book of Amos). The Day of the Lord will bring judgement because of their lack of social justice, but after that God will bring restoration and reconciliation (Isaiah 42-44, especially 43:1-13).

And God is true to His word – He brings restoration, not necessarily as the people wanted, but more as the people (and the whole world) needed. In Matthew 1:21 we read: "She will give birth to a son, and you are to give Him the name Jesus, because He will save His people from sin". God sent His own Son to bring restoration, salvation and reconciliation, and from the beginning His message sounded out, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near" (Matthew 4:17).

In Matthew 9:35 we read the summary of Jesus’ threefold ministry: preaching in the synagogues, teaching the Good News and healing every sickness and disease. God continues to reach out to the world through His Son, restoring the broken relationship, but also tending to their physical, social, emotional and spiritual needs. And as He reaches out to the people, He commands His disciples to do the same (Luke 9, 10 and Matthew 10), but He knows that their ministry will be limited until the time they receive His Spirit. And so in Jesus we see the ultimate example of being missional – Him being perfectly obedient to the Father, showing compassion and love, living and showing faith, giving all He has and training others to do what He did. He preached and taught, but His actions in love confirmed His words.

And after His sacrifice and victory, His death, resurrection and ascension, Jesus continues to reach out to the world through His Spirit working in His followers. Reading the Book of Acts, we see the Holy Spirit working in and through the Early Church to reach out to the ends of the known world with the Good News of salvation, and through compassion in action. This story continues today – God is still working through the Church of Jesus Christ, His Spirit is still empowering believers to witness about their faith through their words, deeds, love, compassion and attitudes.

Father, Son and Holy Spirit – a Trinity that reaches out to the world. That is the Missio Dei, the Mission of the missional God. We see the Father’s heart in His love for us, we confess the salvation work of Jesus Christ, and the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. God is missional – but how does that impact us?

In Genesis 1:27 we read that we were created in God’s image – a reflection of His character. And as Christians, we have been made children of God (John 1) and as disciples, imitators of Christ. We are filled with His Holy Spirit and called to obey His Word and commands. Therefore, if God is missional in His being, then we are as well. We are missional because we serve a missional God. It is only because we are made in His image, because we are called to be His children and to follow Him, that we can be missional.

In the coming months we will discover what it means to be missional as believers, but first we will see what it means to be a missional community in next month’s edition of The Crossing.