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WORKINGTHROUGHANEWMISSIONAGENCY:“PIONEERS”ManyLayersof“Ecclesiocracy”ExistbetweenaSendingChurchandaTeamoutintheField

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The first time I was sent out into a Mission Field, was by Perkins School of Theology – but since I was going to teach in Africa, I was sent through the General Board of Global

Ministry of the United Methodist Church. When Bishop Mutti sent me to teach in Fiji, I was sent through the World Church Office of the Methodist Church of Great Britain & Ireland. When I served in Guyana, it was via the charity “Bags of Hope”.

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Now my Bishop has approved my being sent out through another mission-sending agency, one called “Pioneers”. Pioneers is comparable to a denominational mission board, but for non-denominational congre-gations. Pioneers has grown rapidly by “merger & acquisition” of other such boards and now has over 3,100 Missionaries: www.pioneers.org/about Their primary focus is upon Church-Planting among the many still-

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UNreached Peoples. They offer more Teams than any other agency I know. I spent a week with them in January [Pix: Out for Lebanese food & Teaching Pioneers Story-Telling]. Later this Spring I should be taking a ”Survey Trip” so that I can meet face-to-face with an existing Team overseas which could make good use of my skills, training, & Missions Experience. Hopefully, that can dove-tail with my on-going missions.

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January’s Trivia Question: Human and Chimpanzee DNA is 99% Identical… TRUE? Answer: No, that is a Lie… 66-70% at most!

Read Jeffrey P. Tompkins, Ph.D. [www.icr.org/article/7892]* “66-70% at most!” This Blatant Evolutionist Hoax is virtually unchallenged. The full Chimpanzee Genome has not even been documented. False data is generated by a deliberately deceptive software algorithm that shuts down the investigation of any sequences which are not extremely similar, thus falsifying the data. Huge sections of Human DNA and of Chimp DNA are completely absent in the other. Similarities are primarily the "re-use of effective code" a practice used by all software engineers... and also by the Great Designer of Life! Of course, when all of the non-similar sequences are excluded the remainder will appear nearly identical, but that is not a truthful presentation. Furthermore, all of the DNA material beyond the basic gene sequences which we currently understand was also excluded from this comparison. Without a doubt, what is now called “Junk DNA” will emerge as carrying Essential Information for offspring! *Jeffrey P. Tomkins, Ph.D., 2014. Human and Chimp DNA--Nearly Identical?. Acts & Facts. 43 (2) at www.icr.org/article/7892 & Many more details at https://answersingenesis.org/answers/research-journal/v6/comprehensive-analysis-of-chimpanzee-and-human-chromosomes/

February Trivia

Question:

How Dangerous is it to be a Christian Missionary? What

percentage of them are killed while they are serving Jesus?

January 2016 Trivia Question

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Dear Sir, [India’s Academic Patterns insist upon Formal terms of address] Thank you very much for your reply. I was really happy reading your mail. It is refreshing to learn that you still remember us.

Sir, most of us (your MTC students) are in Mission Fields now. Christina and Diktei are in Nepal; Zira and Fela in Lucknow; Partei & Zopuia in Jharkhand; Te-a in Odisha; Kimi & Remi in Arunachal; Ruati, Kuri & Puii in Assam; David, Hruaia, Duhawmi & Samuel in Home Mission. David, Duhawmi & Samuel are Evangelist Teachers whereas the rest are Evangelists. Four persons viz. Jerry, Siama, Muana & Tluanga are pursuing their BD –the first three in Serampore College and the last in ATC. As up-graders, they joined in the 3rd year. Presently (6 Jan – 5 Feb, 2016), seven of our junior batch are undergoing mission orientation in Aizawl; three of them are serving under Masihi Sangati [A department that deals with Non-Mizo (Hindi speaking people) people in Mizoram] as Evangelists, while the rest (fiver) are planning to study Theology. I am looking forward for you next ML. We keep mentioning your name in our Whatsapp Group! We cannot thank you enough for all you’d done for us. I feel that WE missed a great deal of knowledge, because you had to leave us too early. -Kima Hmar [e-mail received on January 21, 2016] [In 2015, God gave the Mizo Synod Board a harvest of nearly 7,000 new converts!]

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How does it feel for me to hear news of my former students at the Missionary Training College, in NE India? Ask Watkin Roberts, Welsh Missionary to the Hmar Tribe! Rochunga Pudaite will tell this tale: www.youtube.com/watch?v=sikIusHuqfE

Rick Warren … The King of Low-Hanging Fruit? Again, I had the great privilege to attend a congregation with a very Specialized Target Audience. I went to a "Deaf Church". When I studied American Sign Language in college, a measles epidemic had left thousands of young children deaf. Today, that bump has aged (like the Baby Boom through our demographic ranks). Hutchinson [Kansas] has a population of 42,000, but a Deaf population of only 50... and most of those are elderly. You don't have to reflect on congregational finances long before seeing that nobody can earn a living building a Deaf Church here! Nevertheless, a couple has made it their local mission to make sure the Deaf here in Hutch have worship designed for them. I am not opposed to Signers at worship for a "Hearing Church" (that is a good thing!), but much of the service will not minister directly to any deaf attendees (especially IF the signer uses literal translations... one member of this "Deaf Church" ran away in panic when the preacher of a local "Hearing Church" announced "A Church On Fire!" Sadly, that really happened). Most of the Twelve there had additional disabilities; their offering was $8.

I am not jealous of Rick Warren's ultra-successful Church Plant, I rejoice in all Growth of God’s Church. I congratulate him for his fantastic ministry (especially his sending VIM-ers to every nation!). But, as he tells his own story, he went to the MOST Populous State's FASTEST-GROWING COUNTY’S most EXPLOSIVE-growth Neighborhood to plant... the absolutely easiest place in the USA [land of the most mega-churches] to harvest. He has gathered Believers (many by "transfer growth" -- plus some new converts) into Saddleback Church. My own church-plant took place in the "Least-Churched County" of the "Least-Churched State" (it failed, but brought a blessing to a handful of folks with Good News in the midst of troubled times in family lives, while it lasted).

My point is to Exalt Self-less Shepherds who go to work in the most difficult fields without any possibility of worldly "success". I have in mind: Missionaries devoting their lives to translating the Bible for a Language-Group of under 500 people which might die out before the work could be completed, Missionaries who rushed into areas where Tropical Diseases killed them in months, Missionaries who shared Christ's Love despite cruel persecution and executions, Missionaries attacked for being Enemies-of-Demons/Idols/false-gods, and Native Missionaries who were scorned as “merely helpers” of Foreigners.