Missionary Testimonies

In the name of Jesus Christ, carry the load. In the name of Jesus Christ, carry the load. Till there is no more night, carry the load. In the name of Jesus Christ, carry the load. Till there is no more night, carry the load. In the name of Jesus Christ, carry the load. By your Holy Spirit, you let the light shine in each of us Lord. Father, if in any way it's begun to flicker, I thank you that your heart tonight reaches out to us and says that a smoldering wick you will not extinguish, and a bruised reed you won't break. Blow gently on those, Lord, whose lights have been flickering, and cause their light to rise up and shine brightly. And may we, Lord, as one corporate body, shine like a light on a hill here in this community of Pittsburgh, and then the nation. And Lord, we believe the whole world as we've seen tonight. By your grace, let it be so. May we carry the light in Jesus' name. And everyone say, amen, amen. May this extinguish your light for now, and let's all be seated for one last moment, shall we? Break down the gates of hell, for they are the army of God. For they are. For they are the army of God. For they are. For they are the army of God. We're here to do one thing, and that is to exalt the Lord as a people of God, and he is the mighty one. You are exalted, Lord, above all else. We place you in the highest place above all else. Right now, where we stand and everywhere we go, we place you in the highest place for the world will know. You are a mighty warrior dressed in armor of light, pressing the needs of darkness. We are strong in our fight. Through the blood of Jesus victorious we stand. We place you in the highest place above all else in this land. You are exalted, Lord, above all else. We place you in the highest place above all else. Right now, where we stand and everywhere we go, we place you in the highest place so the world will know. You are a mighty warrior dressed in armor of light, pressing the needs of darkness. We are strong in our fight. Through the blood of Jesus victorious we stand. We place you in the highest place above all else in this land. You are exalted, Lord, above all else. We place you in the highest place above all else. Right now, where we stand and everywhere we go, we place you in the highest place so the world will know. You are a mighty warrior dressed in armor of light, pressing the needs of darkness. We are strong in our fight. Through the blood of Jesus victorious we stand. We place you in the highest place above all else in this land. You are a mighty warrior dressed in armor of light, pressing the needs of darkness. We are strong in our fight. Through the blood of Jesus victorious we stand. We place you in the highest place above all else in this land. Let's give the Lord a clap of praise tonight, shall we? Let the kingdom of God is here. We declare that the kingdom of God is here. Let the kingdom of God is here. We declare that the kingdom of God is here. Among you, among you, among saints, see the damned, hear the lame, And the walking stiffness is free as is born The dead live again and the born is a goodness Jesus is King, so rejoice Freedom's there and the kingdom of God is near Among you The blind see, the deaf hear, the lame men are walking Stiffness is free as is born The dead live again and the born is a goodness Jesus is King, so rejoice The blind see, the deaf hear, the lame men are walking Stiffness is free as is born The dead live again and the born is a goodness Jesus is King, so rejoice Freedom's there and the kingdom of God is near Among you You know, it occurred to me as we were singing, Paul writes these words. If the waving of flags and the lifting of voices and hands seems like maybe it's a little much, maybe we're just demonstrating some things and letting off some steam. Here's what Paul says. For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. For the weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have the divine power to pull down strongholds. And dear ones, that's what our praise declarations do. They pull down strongholds. I want you to join hands around the table right now, please. Just join hands around that table. Go ahead and face each other. It's better to do it that way. That's better. Turn around. There you go. Let's join in prayer right now. Heavenly Father, you know how completely dependent we are upon you tonight, Lord, that what we have planned and purposed to do means nothing unless you visit us with your presence. Lord, we know that this past week has been marked with demonstrations of the fact that there is a war going on, Lord, that there is a war that's waging, a war for souls of men. And, Lord, tonight these simple songs are a declaration of that, and yet, Lord, our hearts and our faiths say tonight, Lord, quicken us, equip us, train us for war in our spirits, Lord. Lord, though we have feasted and dined in great abundance, Lord, we know that much of the world suffers in poverty and squalor tonight, Lord, because the enemy is winning the war against their souls. And, Lord, what we're here to do tonight is to celebrate the victories we've won, Lord, but also to rally once again to the sound of the trumpet, to hear the call, to be equipped together, Lord, to fight the good fight of faith, to win the war for the souls of men. And, Lord, we can't do it alone. We can only do it as your people. We can only do it as ones that you've called to be together in the things that you've placed before us. We're the people of God, called by His name, called from the dark and delivered from shame. One holy race, saints every one, because of the blood of Christ, Jesus the Son. With our lips blessing one confession, with our hearts open to untruth, my Lord. He has erased the transgressions, named us and called us His own, His very own. That makes us His people. We're the people of God, called by His name, called from the dark and delivered from shame. One holy race, saints every one, because of the blood of Christ, Jesus the Son. Now let's sing this statement to the powers of the air. Hear us, those spirits. Hear us, those spirits of darkness, so you will know where we stand. We are His servants, we're virgins with scars, but by the blood of the Lamb, the blood of the Lamb. We're the people of God, called by His name, called from the dark and delivered from shame. One holy race, saints every one, because of the blood of Christ, Jesus the Son. Once more, sing it, we're the people of God. We're the people of God, called by His name, called from the dark and delivered from shame. One holy race, saints every one, because of the blood of Christ, Jesus the Son. And all God's people said, Amen. Praise the Lord. Go ahead and give someone a hug and tell them you're glad you're part of the same family. Be seated. For those of you who are new to us tonight, I'd like to introduce to you, who are visiting with us, the gal that has really put together all of this evening and the entire Missions Homecoming weekend. Let's just give a warm, loving welcome to Cheria. It's my privilege to make a few announcements tonight. And I just spent two days with our missionaries and our guests from India and the Soviet Union. And I had the time of my life. And I hope that you too will take some time during this week and some of them will be here for a few more weeks and even a couple months. And that you will take the time to get to know them personally. We're trying to do everything we can to make that easy for you. Out in the hallways, we have tables that have pictures of their ministries and their names. And you can even sign up on the sheet if you want more information or if God's put it on your heart to commit to pray for them. We also have available a book table out there. And at the book table, you can receive our newly printed booklet about all of our missionaries and our local ministries here called Embracing Our World With His Love. We chose not to hand it out tonight because we didn't want to get messed up with food and everything. We like it a lot. And so it's available right through that door at the book table. And it's free. Also at the book table, we have some other things available for you. This is Operation World. I believe that every Christian that prays ought to have one of these. It's a daily prayer guide, and it's packed with information about every country in the world, its political situation, its economic situation, the numbers of Christians, what the indigenous workers and the Christians are asking for prayer in those countries. And to me, it's second to my Bible. And I believe that if you're a Christian, you ought to be praying. So we've got a bunch of them out there at the book table for you. We also made available tonight 52 fun things, I repeat, fun things for your family can do together because we believe that missions is a family affair. All this summer, the children on Wednesday night have been studying about missions. And tonight, you're going to see them come, and you've met some of them already. They're going to come through here representing the peoples of the world. And they're dressed up in various costumes. And watch out for Jonathan Passavant because he's got a dagger around his neck. So this is a fair warning, okay? On your table, we always at our World Christian Fellowship give you one of these global prayer digests that we have so many people tonight. We don't have that many. If you're really interested and you didn't get one at your table, go to the book table and sign up, and we will see to it that you get a copy of one of these. It might be the next month that we'll make sure that you get one. Also, on your table, you ought to pick this up. It's a yellow sheet. It looks like this. This is a list of all the seminars that are going to happen tomorrow. We've arranged it from 9 to 5, but you're not expected to be there from 9 to 5. We've listed the topics, the teacher, the room, even a description of what they're going to be talking about. So if you only have one hour during the day, come anyway. Don't feel like, well, I can't make it. And again, I want to say, when I spent time with our missionaries, when we went on our retreat, I had some of the most stimulating discussions and conversations that I've had in years. It was exciting to hear what God is doing around the world. It was a boost to my faith. It meant a lot to me in my ministry here. We want to add a couple of additions to this. Bob and Vicki Darkey, I don't know if you're able to do Urban Challenge. Yes? Well, they're doing the Urban Nursery Night right now. They have twins, twin boys. They had a fire in their apartment building, and it destroyed most of their apartment. And so we're unclear right now as to whether they'll be feeling up to being able to do the first seminar called Urban Challenge. But if they are, they'll be there first thing in the morning at 9 o'clock. We have two additions. Lisa Anderson will be sharing on the topic, are you taking full advantage of your singleness? This is for male and female. It's not just for women on the mission field, but are you taking full advantage of your singleness? And Myrna Sotomayor will be sharing on a very interesting topic. She's Mexican, and she's here in America right now. She's going to be sharing a glimpse of the ugly American, how not to look stupid when ministering cross-culturally. Okay? She'll let you know what you look like when you're ministering in another nation. That's how not to look stupid when ministering cross-culturally. Okay? We hope that you enjoy these. Right now, I would like to honor some special guests of ours. We're focusing on our missionaries to the world tonight, but also we support several ministries in the Pittsburgh area because we believe that God's called this church to take our city for Jesus Christ. And we know that we're the body of Christ, and we as one church can't do it alone. So we have invested in local ministries, and some of the representatives are here tonight. And as I call your name, if you would stand, Al Albright from Youth Opportunities Unlimited and his wife, Lori. Representing Eaton Christian Academy, Jim Franks and Dave Lloyd. Thank you. Representing Youth Guidance Incorporated, which locally in our church, we call it Touch a Child for Jesus, is Rosalie Smith. There she is. We have a member of the Youth Opportunities Unlimited, and we have a ministry here called Priority 2 that ministers to the unemployed, but they do more than just give people a job. They get them saved and have their lives changed around. And we have here Charlie Beck. Also, I understand from the North Pittsburgh Crisis Pregnancy Center, Amy Shearing and Linda Smith are here with us tonight. At least one. Reverend Charles Upshaw and his lovely wife from Greater Love Outreach are here with us also. We have a family, two families really, but one of them are Duke and Mona Opperman, and they have a ministry where they take in children into their home, and I think at any one time they have about 17 or 20 kids, something like that, living with them. I lose count. And their representative tonight is Tina Opperman, representing that family. Tina, are you here? Yes, welcome. Two people unable to join us tonight, another family that works with teenagers in trouble, either in drugs or alcohol abuse, in a ministry more than Conquerors, Dave and Joyce Erdner were unable to join us tonight, and Joe Belanti from Urban Partners. And those are the ministries locally that we represent, but at this time I would like to also honor and recognize anybody in this room who has been involved any time in short-term missions. I'd like you to stand up, because I believe that what you do in short-term missions is an important job. You're reinforcements on the field to our long-termers. So if you would stand up, we'd like to give you a round of applause, too. We believe that that's just the tip of the iceberg is what is going to be going out from North Way Christian Community. One other thing I need to announce is we are going to honor our missionaries tonight. Mimi Lodac and her team who do the banners, you saw Mimi up here doing the number with the flag. She's got a gift from God, an anointing, and she came to me with a vision to present our missionaries with a banner. And it follows with a theme that you're going to hear tonight of carrying the light to the world. And every one of them are going to be given a gift that is made specially for them. And I'd like Mimi to come forward right now, and she's going to share with you the scriptural meaning behind each of the signs. Every little thread hole has a meaning. What we wanted to have happen is, as our missionaries went to their respective fields, that they could have one visible point of reference, one visible point of connection between them way over there and us way over here. So the basis for this banner is Acts 13, 47, which is a quote of Isaiah 49, 6. And it says, I have made you a light for the Gentiles that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth. And what we have here on the bottom in the cupped hands, those hands are your hands as you carry the light of the gospel. And central to the gospel is the cross of Jesus, and you see that we've made that out of the flame. And the flame does go to the four corners of the earth. So no kindred, tribe, nation, or tongue is beyond the reach of the gospel as you bring it. There are shadows behind the hands, and that's to allow you to know that you are in fellowship with those people that have gone before you. And more likely than not, there will be people coming after you. The work is not yours exclusively. China all by itself is not up to the Starkeys. There will be people coming after them, and that should be a sense of comfort to them. Also, you can interpret the hands raised up as being receiving of the Holy Spirit because it is He who allows you to accomplish a task that is really beyond your human endeavor. And we trust, then, that you are blessed by these. We were making them. That one is... Turn around so I can see it. That one is going to the chases in Jamaica. I personally was able to deliver with Tom Walker and our youth team a banner like that specially made for the weavers in Grenada. Pastor Jay? You know, the last several days have been very, very exciting for me. I was able to spend a couple of hours with our missionaries in a retreat yesterday. And just to be with those folks as they open their hearts and share their perspective. I mean, you know, sometimes all we do is just run back and forth on McKnight Road to the grocery store and into Pittsburgh. That's our world. And to be with people who are in other parts of the world and remind us not just of God's blessing but of God's call on our lives, it's really been refreshing. And tonight, our purpose in sharing is that you will benefit also from the sense of what God is doing through you and your support and your prayers and share in something of what an impact these people are making around the world. So we're going to go ahead and bring our missionaries up one at a time. And I know that if you're having difficulty seeing, I feel badly that we have to be so far away, but at least we're all in the same room. This is the largest church restaurant in Pittsburgh. And I'm delighted we could all be here tonight. Let me begin with our mission family, the nation of Turkey. Let's welcome David and Betsy Hunter and Nathan Altai. Come on, let's really welcome them now. We love you. Tell us what's happening, just in a nutshell, obviously. David ministered such a wonderful word on Wednesday night about a passion for the gospel. And you can get that tape if you'd like that also, or I guess Sunday. Betsy's going to go first. We have so many things to praise God for. First of all, just on a personal note, we want to praise him for a safe delivery for this little baby who has been such a wonderful joy and blessing to us. But on a larger scale, we're praising God that he is sending in many, many workers, missionaries into the country of Turkey, probably double the amount that were there five years ago. And we know that it's not a coincidence, but that we know that this is a time for Turkey, that the Lord is doing something, the Holy Spirit is at work, and he is building his church there. So we praise him for that. David and I have been involved in a Bible correspondence course which is able to reach by mail many Turks in areas where there is no personal witness and areas where people would not be able because of family pressures or other pressures would not even be able to meet with a believer. And many good things are happening in the Bible correspondence course. We have been able to have advertisements in newspapers, in magazines that had never been accepted before, but now there are two major magazines that have ads for the Bible correspondence course, and we've seen hundreds of responses from people who are very seriously interested in learning what does it mean to follow Jesus Christ, what does it mean to study the Bible, what is this person of Jesus Christ who they have only heard of at most as a prophet. So we are praising God for that. We rejoice and praise God for your prayers, your love, and your support of us in Turkey, first of all. I also can report with praise to the Lord that your prayers are being answered in the country of Turkey. That's the most important thing in my heart to report to you. When I first went to Turkey in 1978 with Operation Mobilization, they spoke of 50 known believers in a country of 45 million people at that time. And that has increased four times, maybe five times today. They spoke of no indigenous church in the country, and today there are three growing, small but growing, indigenous churches in Turkey. There was a small Bible correspondence course that is growing, as Betsy reported, and we are seeing slowly Turks turning to the gospel. So we thank you for your prayers. They are being answered. And we do feel one in spirit with you. We're pretty far away. We don't get back very often, but we feel the oneness when we come back. Thank you for your prayers. One real quick little personal note before you leave, Betsy. This includes you. Real quickly, folks, God knows what you need. When David was here, was it four or three years ago? Three years ago, he spent a year in Pittsburgh, and I remember going up to the Ponderosa with him once for lunch. And he was a little bit dejected. He said, I know the Lord brought me back to find a wife. I said, well, that's great. Tell me about what you're praying for. And he said, well, I'd like her to be very intelligent, very attractive, and it's an absolute necessity. I said, those two I can believe God for, that she's had experience living in Turkey and has a heart to take the gospel to Turkey. I'd never met an intelligent, attractive lady with a heart for Turkey. Nine months later, he was married, and there's Betsy. Isn't that great? Praise the Lord. Next, let's welcome together a big family and a great family, John and Don Hugerbrugge and their four children, Jennifer, Jay, Erica, and Stephen, from the nation of Morocco. Wow, they looked the part, too. Look at this. All right, who gets the microphone? Don? In a minute and a half, I'm going to preach a sermon on 2 Chronicles 20, and I think I even have Pastor Jay beaten here. I have seven points, all beginning with Ps. This is supposed to be a praise report, but you'll see how it comes together. The Lord dropped this into my mind, just boom, during a worship service, and the chapter begins off with, number one, a problem. The Moabites and the Ammonites, if I can pronounce this, were coming against Judah and the king Jehoshaphat. The second P is prayer. They fell on their faces before God. They were all together in unity, in prayer and fasting. A representative from every town fell on their face and sought God in prayer, and they prayed, We do not know what to do, but our eyes are upon you. God gave them a promise. That's P number three. Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the battle is not yours but God's. P number four is plan. God gave them a plan. God's specific answer for this specific problem was go beyond the offensive, take up your positions, and stand firm. P number five is praise. With a loud voice, they praised God, and they sent the singers and the praisers in front of the army, and they were saying, Give thanks to the Lord for his love endures forever. P number six is possession. When they began to praise, God sent ambushments against them, and they all killed each other. And when they came on the scene, they were able to go in and possess all the spoils, anything of wealth, and it took them three days to carry it off. And P number seven was peace. God gave them peace on every hand. Praise the Lord. Well, what does that have to do with Morocco? A lot. There have been missionaries in Morocco for over a hundred years, and they have seen the problem, and they have prayed. And God gave them a promise. That was Revelation 15, pardon me, Revelation 5, verse 9. With your blood, you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. And God gave them a plan. And his plan was that he would move in a powerful demonstration of the Holy Spirit with signs and wonders. And that plan has been given to us in this generation. And we are praising God for that plan. And we are going in, and by we, I don't mean just us. Four years ago, there were approximately a hundred missionaries in Morocco. There are now approximately 150. God is increasing the number of missionaries in Morocco. And he's given us all this promise and this plan, and we are going in, taking possession of the country so that the peace of Christ will reign in that country. Praise the Lord. Real quickly, how long will you be remaining in America before you go back? Until September 19th. September 19th. And why don't you tell the folks that are here today, Dawn, what you told me yesterday about where you're staying and how much that's meant to you. Go ahead. When we came home, we didn't know where we were going to be staying. We really felt the Lord wanted us to come to the Pittsburgh area. Unfortunately, we have no family in this area. The home where we did live was not our own. And when we arrived at the airport and were met, Sherry said, everything's taken care of. We thought maybe we were going to be staying in a camper, you know, six of us in a camper. I keep falling through the cracks here. But some friends of ours in Sillianopole connected with Grace Church in Harmony, and our home group here found an apartment for us, completely furnished it, stocked our refrigerator with food, gave us everything that we needed, even gave us a car to use for the summer. And between Grace Church in Harmony and North Way Christian Community, all of our rent and utilities are covered. And I praise the Lord. That means so much to know that people care so much for us. It was a fantastic homecoming. I try to keep my expectations low, you know, when I'm coming home. And it just so far surpassed our expectations. And we want to thank you from the bottom of our hearts for the love that you showed to us. Amen. Thank you so much. Thanks, kids. Our next missionary family is a one-unit family, Lisa Anderson from Mexico. Come up, Lisa. Here's your banner. Praise the Lord. Thank you. It's exciting here, Lara. Almost every morning there's a prayer meeting here, and you come in and we all pray and talk about, we turn to the different cardinal points. And whenever we turn to the south, we talk about, we speak forth that let him go, give him up in Jesus' name. And that really took on a special meaning for me, and I want you to know that when you turn to the south and you do that, in many people's minds you think of Mexico, the tremendous things are happening. And one real specific prayer request that you had a personal involvement with, a year before last, Sherry and Elisa Casper and Ray Spiker came down and did a singles retreat. And singleness in Mexico is kind of interesting. It's just happening. They used to marry him right off kind of in high school. And more and more we're seeing that it's a growing population in need of ministering. And in Mexico, socially it's not very acceptable, meaning there's more and more singles, but it's something that has a real bad stigma. And so you usually think of a Christian camp as just ministering to children, and they go around and they play. But we've seen that it's providing an opportunity to disciple that age group in two ways. One is that there are counselors, and so they go to a 10-week counselor training course in which many of them have come from abusive backgrounds or backgrounds that have not, they really haven't learned how to work with younger people. And so we have them for a long period of time. And then the second one is during the singles retreats, and the one that Ray came down and spoke with, I'd come back and shared, we were singing about it today, how the bonds were broken and the lame walked and the dead who many people internally and emotionally had experienced so much deadness were set free. And a real special note was that my last event at the camp this September, this past September, was a singles retreat. And I was privileged to be not the director of it but to be a conference speaker. And that's a big answer prayer because I'd worked myself out of a job. And that's the answer to your prayers, that the people, there were Mexicans who were able to take over and direct the camp and lead the counselors, and so I only had to speak. And so as I was speaking about enjoying the singleness, I remember the last night as I was talking about how do we enjoy our singleness, that period of time. And one of them was service to the Lord, and a counselor came up to me and said, afterwards, Lisa, I want to thank you because you've exemplified that. And I thought, what a privilege it is to have been there and known that that period of time in which I'm single was able to be utilized in serving the Lord and a deep relationship with him and also deep friendship. So those are your answers of prayers. And when you talk about the bonds being set free, you pray specifically for the people that go down there and minister. So I thank you. And I'm going to talk to David Hunter about how he does his prayer requests and gets spouses and everything. No, I'm just kidding. Lisa, you'll be about six more months here. Is that an offer or is that... I'm just checking my calendar. And then you're doing what? I'm going to be here until November. And then I'm headed back to Kikoten. And the job will have a little bit wider spectrum now because I'm going to be going and working in Christian Camping International. So it just won't be at Kikoten. It will be sharing with other camps in South America and Central America about Christian Camping and how that can become service to the church. Thanks very much. And as I said on Wednesday night, one of the most exciting and most tangible evidences of a successful ministry is a disciple who's followed after you. And I want to welcome Myrna Sotomayor from Mexico, who's really from Mexico, now in Los Angeles. Myrna, bless you. Here's your banner. Actually, yours could send the light to Los Angeles, I guess, couldn't it? Myrna, in case you don't know the whole story, Myrna met Lisa five years ago. And Lisa helped to disciple Myrna to maturity in Christ. And through a lot of prayer, Myrna was released to be a missionary to the Spanish-speaking population in Los Angeles. Isn't that exciting? We need it too. Amen. All right, go ahead. Well, one of the answer of prayer is, I think, my English. Now I understand a little more English, and I think I speak a little much better. And I want to tell you that I have two answer of prayers very important for me. And one of them was to have the opportunity to share the gospel with my people in Los Angeles. And thank God it was possible and is possible. I have one nice experience. One day I was trying to reach one church about trying to find some information. And I dialed the number, and the answer was, hello. And I said, do you have services in Spanish? And the person said, no, I think it's the wrong number. And I said, well, I'm sorry. And again, and I hung up the telephone. Thank you. And I thought, well, maybe I did wrong, and I did again, and dialed again. And the lady was answering, and I said, I'm sorry. And she said, do you speak Spanish? And I said, yes, of course. And she said, you are trying to reach a church? And I said, yes. She said, me too. And I shared with her the gospel. Well, she was a Christian, but she was so far away from Jesus Christ. After I spoke a little bit with her, she said, well, give me one address, because I want to recommit my life before God. And thank God for your prayers, because every time when I'm walking or sharing the gospel in LA, I know that you are praying for me, and it's just wonderful. And the second one is, after nine months, my mother wrote me a letter, and she said, I respect you, and I'm reading my Bible, and I've not agreed that you're a missionary, but I respect you, and I think now is the time that I feel more mature, and I love you. And it's wonderful for me, because after I came to the United States, my mother said, you are crazy, and I'm very mad with you. I don't understand you. And she was really mad, and for me, it was very difficult. But nine months later, she said, okay, you are okay, my dear. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Next, we have all the way from Bombay, India, representing her husband, John, and their work there, a medical clinic. Let's welcome Amini Abraham. Can I hold something for you while you're holding the microphone? Do you want me to hold this for you? A little easier? First of all, I want to thank God for this opportunity. God gave me a representative of India, not only for the small work we are doing in India, but also I am a representative of my country, India. So I am thankful for that, and I am also thanking for the North Way Community Church and the people, and some of my friends in America, say I am thanking you. We are doing the work in India. India is a very, very cultured country, and so many languages in India. In the middle of that country, in the city of Bombay, we are working in a backward area. We are working in the middle o