Edit: Audacity

Posted on June 7, 2014 by Andrew Fuller

First Friday in Richmond, Virginia is an event in the Art District. It takes place every first Friday of the month throughout the year come rain or shine. As many as sixteen local galleries are open within a few blocks of each other in the city’s downtown area. On a warm evening it is a wonderful place to stroll and take in the local scene as an eclectic variety of shops, restaurants and street hawkers advertise their presence. Musical ensembles, theater and the occasional street-preacher can be found competing for attention. On one occasion my sons and I came across a replica pirate ship pulled up across a side street, from which fire-eaters were performing their pyrotechnics.

And then there is the art. From the gallery of the public library through a variety of permanent galleries to the occasional adapted store front, the traditional, imaginative and sometimes rather weird, invites the pedestrian gaze. My twelve-year-old and I strolled into one gallery and he immediately turned around saying: I don’t want to be here, this is bad stuff. But in another we found a wonderful variety of thought provoking images from everyday life arranged to provoke thoughts not normally associated with them.

The creative is everywhere around us because we live in a world shaped by the hands of a Creator God who invites us to create with Him. So from the average architecture of our Broad St. shop fronts, to the elaborate Brownstones across on Franklin we find art in our buildings. In the past, and still occasionally seen, there were more than 200 fish sculptures around town. Now there is the big metal policeman’s head on the wall of a building at West Grace and North Jefferson.

Richmond has its famous monuments; its murals, both historical tableau and modern interpretive; and, of course, The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. And then it has Edit, a neat little gallery at Number 8 East Broad St. Run by some friends of mine, this gallery presents itself as Art for Good, and also Art for Mission. It’s a place for Christians to exhibit the fruit of talents God has gifted them with. Photography, Oil on canvas, watercolor, sculpture and music have all been featured on first Fridays and during week day office hours.

On the most recent first Friday we visited to meet five young artists who were all exhibiting and creating at the same time. An exhibition entitled Audacity, had launched under the direction of Benjamin Winans, the resident artist. Five genres were on offer: metalwork, abstract in oil, local views in watercolor, 3D design, and some beautiful illustration. All were presented by Christians who offer their talents to the glory of God, as they express the creative within them. Meanwhile Ben was quietly working away in the background applying paint to one of my own favorite ‘canvasses’: newsprint.

The Creator challenges us with the words: Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. (Romans 12:2 NIV). The pattern of this world will never produce what the mind renewed in submission to a loving and redeeming creator can produce!

Edit would like to export their idea to places overseas where the good news of Jesus Christ, the Creator God’s message to us all, is not known. In the meantime you can find out more at: http://reachthenations.org/edit/

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Life On The Farm – A Resurrection Lesson

Posted on April 19, 2014 by Andrew Fuller

Today my sons showed me their farms. Andrew, aged 12, took me around his grand-father’s farm where he has spent his spring break working. He took me to see the places where he had been filling empty post-holes, and other holes left by tree stumps and animals. He had filled them with soil, tamped them down and then re-seeded them. We went to the barn to collect straw that he spread over the seeded areas to protect the soon emerging grass.

We then went on a little tour in which he showed me the fox-hole where a local vixen is raising her cubs, the bird nest where a blue-bird is incubating six tiny blue eggs, and the two orphan calves, Sugar and Burma, who are now out in the field eating regular grass. It was wonderful to see Andrew’s delight in showing me all the signs of life on the land that he loves. It was also great to see him thriving on a Virginia farm, a place I would never have imagined raising my own kids when a child growing up in English suburbia.

My other son, Daniel, aged 10, also showed me his farm. He showed me the cow barn, the pig sty, and the grain mill. He showed me the vegetable gardens and the cottages where his laborers live. All that he showed me was on the computer screen, because unlike his brother, Daniel prefers to do his farming in the safer environment of an electronic world. His preference is the virtual and fictional while his brother prefers the substantial activity of the real thing.

Some like to dismiss the story of Jesus as nothing more than a fairy tale. Others think of it as a great moral story that has some great lessons for the modern world but nothing more. For the Christian community the message of the cross and the resurrection is the pinnacle of the greatest story ever told, and also the greatest reality about life. That Jesus, the anointed one of God lived among us, died for the forgiveness of our sins and then rose up in new death-conquering life, is an amazing sequence of fact to the Christian. As far as everyone else is concerned they are found in two broad categories. There are those who have heard, and have dismissed or ignored, and then there are those who have never heard, and therefore never had the opportunity to weigh for themselves the claims of Christ.

This week my sons have both enjoyed the opportunity to view new life; the one in the reality of rural America and the other in the virtual of the computer game. I pray they will both always know the difference between the real and the unreal, the true and the untrue, and that which leads to real life, and that which leads to the fake. More than that though, may the truly new life in Christ always trump the wide variety of fake alternatives.

Tomorrow is Easter Sunday 2014 – Happy Resurrection Day!

 

 

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What is Happening in the Crimean Peninsula?

Posted on March 7, 2014 by Andrew Fuller

The news headlines of the last few weeks have been filled with events in the Ukraine. As I have observed the reaction of Russia to recent events in Kiev I have been reminded of the importance for Christian observers of world events to watch and pray. I have also pondered the several similarities between the present situation of Russia and that of Germany in the 1930s.

In 1919 the Treaty of Versailles enacted a humiliating settlement on the German people. To the victors of the Great War belonged the spoils. The German Empire was divided up. Punitive reparations were demanded by the allied powers and some German lands within Germany itself were even occupied! The changing map of Europe left many ethnic Germans living in non-German nations.

In 1991 the Soviet Union was dissolved. This was not as a result of the end of a war of violence, but was a factor in the end of the Cold War. Russia ceased to be a superpower and many Russian people found themselves living in newly created nations ruled by peoples of other ethnicities.

In 1933 Adolf Hitler came to power with a leadership style that united the German peoples, saw a rapid rise in German nationalism and set Germany on the course of geographic expansion.

Without saying that Vladimir Putin manifests the latent evil that was in Hitler, his rise to power in the first decade of the new millennium and later re-election to the presidency of Russia has been borne of a popular nationalist appeal to the Russian people. The Russian economy has been stabilized and grown under his government much as the Nazi movement stabilized that of Germany.

There are further similarities.

The Anschluss in 1938 saw the Nazi occupation and annexation of Austria, the German part of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire. In 2008 Russia invaded the Republic of Georgia and following a short war, occupied and recognized the ‘republics’ of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, areas of Georgia with a majority of ethnic Russians.

In 1936 Berlin hosted the Olympic Games. Hitler saw an opportunity to promote the racial supremacy of the Aryan race. The official Nazi newspaper strongly stated that other people, most particularly Black and Jewish peoples, should not be allowed to participate. Proposals by other nations to boycott the games saw that threat removed. We have just witnessed Russia host the Sochi Winter Olympics, the prelude to which was marred by news headlines about the host nation’s discrimination against the homosexual community.

The parliament of the Crimea has just voted that the Ukrainian province of Crimea be separated from Ukraine and join Russia. A referendum is proposed for March 16th to give the people of the Crimea the opportunity to say which nation they wish to be a part of. 58% of the peoples of Crimea are ethnic Russians, the Ukrainians and other people groups being in the minority. The Ukrainians have rightly stated that they would not accept a regional referendum because their constitution submits the territorial integrity of the nation to the will of the whole population, not just that of one province. The Russians, not surprisingly, have stated that they do not recognize the current regime in Kiev. However, they fail to consider that the flight of Yanukovych, the former and pro-Russian president, required a new regime to be set in place.

Going back to 1938 we find a similar situation in the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia. After the Anschluss, leaders of the German people within Czechoslovakia began to agitate for the absorption of Western parts of Bohemia and Moravia, where they were in the majority, to be similarly absorbed into Germany. The British and French agreement with Hitler, known as the Munich Agreement, whereby the Sudetenland was given to Germany without reference to the will of the Czechoslovak government was a factor that emboldened Nazi Germany in its expansion plans. The road to Warsaw led figuratively through the Sudetenland annnexation!

Germany long blamed its post-World War I plight on the Jews. The sad plight of the Jews under Nazi Germany needs no restating. The Crimea contains a substantial minority of Tatars. Under Stalin Tatars were either starved to death or deported from the Crimea. Under an independent Ukraine more than a quarter million have returned. The Tatars are one of many minority Muslim people groups in former Soviet lands. They have a long history of grievance against Russia, not dissimilar to that of the more well-known Chechen people.

Under the guise of the international war on terrorism, Russia has strongly suppressed endeavors by some of the Muslim regions in the Caucasus to gain more autonomy. The actions of Chechen terrorists against Russian schools, and other public buildings have further hardened the Russian attitude. Many would say that the civil rights of some of the Muslim people groups have been restricted. The terrorism of some Muslim factions in many places around the world is abhorrent to us all, however in Russia there are some similarities between the attitudes of a rediscovered nationalism toward its minorities comparable to those of Nazi Germany toward the Jews.

The Anschluss and the Sudeten annexation were not the end of Nazi expansion. Subsequent invasions and occupations led directly to the European Second World War, and also to the Holocaust. What might we expect from a Crimean defection? Russian expansion into ethnic majority Russian areas of Belarus, and the BalticRepublics! Further restrictions on the rights of minorities within Russian borders!

The apostle Peter, one of the first followers of Jesus Christ encourages his readers to be self-controlled and alert  because our enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour (1 Peter 5:8). Casting current events in the light of a greater spiritual battle is an important reminder to those of us who seek the Kingdom of God that we can be involved with the Lord in changing the otherwise course of events.

Is history repeating itself? Sometimes it does, if we do not learn the lessons of the past, be watchful, and pray wisely into present experience.

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Hallelujah – a Reflection on the Isaiah 19 Highway

Posted on January 8, 2014 by Andrew Fuller

The Old Testament prophet Isaiah speaks of an International Highway with the words: “In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria. The Assyrians will go to Egypt and the Egyptians to Assyria. The Egyptians and Assyrians will worship together. In that day Israel will be the third, along with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing on the earth.” (Isaiah 19: 23,24) The words were spoken more than twenty-seven centuries ago but as we look at the Middle East today they seem as though they could not be farther from the truth.

The area which was a cradle to civilization, and the area to which Jesus first preached his Good News manifests chaos. Syria lies in ruins because of civil war; Iraq emerges from years of conflict even as anti-government elements take control of some key cities; the failure of reconciliation between the sons of Isaac and the sons of Ishmael inflicts suffering on many Palestinians and insecurity on many Israelites; Egypt seems only saved from similar chaos by the prayers of God’s people; while Lebanon, itself ruined by civil war thirty years ago, continues to suffer a stream of political assassinations.

I recently watched an interview with a young man called Timothy. He grew up as a missionary kid in the Middle East as his parents served at a Christian medical facility. Two years ago he joined the marines and was sent to Afghanistan. A month into his tour of duty he was blown up by an IED. He lost both legs and the use of his right arm. Yet he still has his voice. As a member of MusicCorps, a band developed from the US military Wounded Warrior Project, he recently performed alongside Roger Waters, founding member of Pink Floyd. The song “Hallelujah” by Leonard Cohen has become his signature.

In the interview he was asked what the word “Hallelujah” meant to him. He said: “I thought I understood it, but the next thing you know my whole life’s coming down around my ears. Every dream, every hope I ever had for the future is broken around me and I don’t know where to turn. It was in that place that God said: Do you still trust me? Do you still believe that I have what’s best for you? It was at that moment that I understood Hallelujah”.

The last line of the song runs “Even though it all went wrong, I stand before the Lord of song with nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah”. Timothy concluded the interview with the words: “I may be more whole now than I have ever been in my life!”

Hallelujah literally means – Praise the Lord! A broken young man, broken by the sin of the world, has learned to Praise the Lord despite his circumstances. He has learned that he may be more whole now in his brokenness than he has ever been before.

God came into the world in human form to bind up the broken heart, and to heal the wounded soul. Every broken heart, every wounded soul, continue to carry their scars, but surely in Timothy’s testimony there is inspiration for all along the Isaiah 19 Highway. A young man grew up a product of this region and was then broken by the conflict between competing worldviews. So many souls in the region have also been broken by that same age-old conflict.

I am in a month of prayer. Today I was praying for the Highway region. I found a prayer rising within me that the same wholeness that Timothy has experienced in his Hallelujah, might bring restoration along the highway and bring the Isaiah promise into being.

 

The TV interview can be viewed at: http://cdn17.castfire.com/video/305/2242/8032/1973166/cbsnews_2013-11-10-101206-4077-3-0-0.1100.mp4?cdn_id=26&uuid=4a0a9a24e1b88676a3fe527a52380159&referer=http%3A%2F%2Fm.cbsnews.com%2Fpostwatch.rbml%3Fvideoid%3D50158847%26feed_id%3D35&track1=CBSNews&track2=MobileWeb

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Affordable Healthcare?

Posted on October 23, 2013 by Andrew Fuller

The Affordable Health Care Act has been widely promoted by the Obama Administration as a means of addressing the Health Care crisis in the USA. It was passed in 2010 amid great protest across the nation. It was only passed because the Democrat party held a majority in both houses of Congress at the time. The Republicans now hold the majority in the House of Representatives, and have been roundly blamed in the press for forcing a government shutdown in a vain attempt to cancel the new health care plan.

Since I have many international friends, some of whom have asked me what Americans think of the Obama administration and of the health care proposal I thought I would share a little bit of my story.

I am self-employed with a young family. I have always arranged my own medical insurance. For the last ten years I have been insured through Anthem Blue Cross in Virginia. During the last year my policy premium for a family of two adults and three children has been an affordable payment per month of several hundred dollars for a policy that carries a $1,500 deductible per individual (meaning, for non-American readers, that we have to pay the first $1,500 of medical expenses per individual before the insurance begins to cover part of the cost) and a maximum family out-of-pocket expense of $10,000 for a year. My current policy will expire on February 1st, 2014. During the past summer I received a letter from Anthem telling me that when my existing policy expired I would not be able to renew it. I would however be able to find out what the company’s new policy offerings would be after October 1st when the new national health care exchange system went live.

Wanting to take learn about the new healthcare system I registered for an account at http://www.healthcare.gov on August 6th to be prepared for October 1st. To date, I have not been able to log in to the system, and have begun to collect a record of all my interactions with the help desk.

On October 1st Anthem began making available on their website the details of their offerings for health insurance for 2014. Having talked with an agent, who was far more helpful than anyone I have either texted with or talked with at healthcare.gov, I learned that the new policy most comparable to my current one ($1,500 individual deductible, $11,000 max out of pocket) will cost me well over a thousand dollars per month. The new premium represents a 214% increase over 2013! I also note from the Anthem policy quote that the premium includes both a fee toward the cost of the health exchange and an excise duty levied on the insurance companies.

I looked back through my financial records and learned that the cost of this policy alone is 25% more than the total I have spent on health care for my family (policy premium and out-of-pocket combined) than the most expensive healthcare year I experienced in the past ten years. It represents an increase in healthcare cost of 94% over my average annual healthcare expenditure for the past ten years.

The Affordable Health Care Act was promoted as an opportunity for all Americans to obtain affordable health care (whatever that means). The White House currently carries the following statement on its website at: http://www.whitehouse.gov/economy/middle-class/making-health-care-more-affordable

“The Affordable Care Act, passed by Congress and signed into law by President Obama in March 2010, gives middle class families better health security by putting in place comprehensive health insurance reforms that will hold insurance companies accountable, lower health care costs, guarantee more choice, and enhance the quality of care for all Americans”.

At the present time I don’t feel that I have more choice. The evidence above attests to the fact that my healthcare will NOT BE MORE AFFORDABLE.

To be continued …

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What Became Possible?

Posted on October 3, 2013 by Andrew Fuller

Earlier this week I was challenged by the words of a 72-year-old lady who has a profound ministry of intercessory prayer. She said: “God showed me that if we actually prayed into what wasn’t there He would bring it into being then prepare the people to put into that place!” Now that’s quite a deep thought, but when you are involved in praying churches into being in places around the globe where the church has never existed, you have to ask yourself from time to time: How does this happen?

It got me to thinking: What became possible on the day that God first thought of you? Christians believe in a God who ascribes purpose and plan to every one of his human creations. They live out that purpose as they give themselves into His service, and they sometimes live that purpose even without giving themselves to Him.

The prophet Jeremiah says: “I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb”. (Jer. 1:5) and David records in what we know as the 139th Psalm: “all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be”. Both of these statements invite us into the incredible adventure of discovering what God made possible on the day that He first thought of each of us. This is not about time messing with the sovereignty of God, for those who might suggest that God did not think us up on any particular day. Rather, God, dwelling in eternity, invites us to take a sideways glance out of our time-defined world, into His plans.

In the second chapter of Luke’s gospel we read of a woman called Anna. She had been a widow for many years and at least eighty-four. She never left the temple in Jerusalem, presumably having been there for many years. She ministered before to God in prayer and fasting, but had been so positioned by His purposes that she should be in place on the day that Mary and Joseph brought their new born son into the temple, so that she could speak about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem. One brief moment worthy of scriptural record defined a life-time of service to God. That moment became possible when God had the idea to birth Anna to Phanuel and his wife.

In another place and time, centuries displaced from these events, the purposes of several people came together to build a Christian school in Niamey, Niger. Over a ten year period grade-levels were added and class-rooms were built so that earlier this year 280 children could populate nine classes and receive an education that not only includes academics but introduces the ways of the Lord. At the end of the 2012-13 academic year the school ranked first among 65 elementary schools in its district, in one of the poorest and most Islamic nations in Africa.

Named Anura, from the Hausa word for light, the school became possible the moment the Lord thought of the many who’s lives ultimately have made it possible. What became possible the moment the Lord thought of you?

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Hometown Fanatics

Posted on August 9, 2013 by Andrew Fuller

It would be hard to imagine a crowd of Muslims marching on the streets of Richmond shouting: “American Police go to Hell!” and parading banners that state: “Shariah, the solution for us!” However that is what has been happening on the streets of my own hometown of Luton, thirty miles north of London.

Richmond, where I have lived for the last twenty years, has a Muslim community, however it is a community that is peace-loving, and contributing to the diversity of the American dream. By contrast, my hometown has become home to a large population of Muslims, mostly of South Asian descent, and sadly gained a reputation for being a source of extremism.

On 7th July 2005, the four London bombers were filmed on CCTV entering the train station in Luton to travel together up to the capital. The station entrance is one that I have passed through on many occasions. Taimour al-Abdaly who carried out the Stockholm bombing in December 2010 was an Iraqi-born Swedish citizen. However he lived with his wife and children in Argyll Avenue, Luton, a road which runs along the back of my High School. On other occasions I have seen reference in the media to convicted Islamic extremists who had connections to Luton.

My attention was recently drawn to a BBC documentary entitled “My Hometown Fanatics” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SX8hQ28aR0) and first broadcast in the UK in February. Stacey Dooley, the presenter, is a young documentary maker who grew up in Luton and returned to her home town to explore the growth of the Islamic presence in the town. She also talks to the leaders of the English Defence League, a street protest movement which opposes the spread of Islamic extremism in the United Kingdom, and which has its origins in Luton.

In the documentary Miss Dooley contacts Muslim women she knew in school, meets with a number of moderate Muslims in the community and visits the Mosque. She also walks the streets of Luton alongside a group demonstrating against the perceived lack of respect from the local police for Muslim culture and customs, and talks to former members of Al Muhajiroun, a now banned British Islamic group with links to international terrorism. Interspersed with these conversations are her contacts with the EDL in which she explores their desire that the Islamic community embrace liberal British values and integrate rather than maintain a separate cultural identity.

The EDL emphasize that they have a broad base of support including members of the Jewish, Sikh and Muslim communities. In a BBC interview a Glaswegian Muslim of Pakistani origin states that he is a member of the EDL because the EDL stands for the strengthening of British patriotic values (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQpYCTeKbOY).

As a reflection on the interviews with Muslim radicals on the streets contained within the documentary I have to ask a question that the presenter does not ask. Why are Muslim radicals in Britain so committed to destroying the society that their parent’s generation obviously found so attractive as they immigrated to Britain? In the decades immediately following the Second World War, hundreds of thousands migrated from Pakistan, Bangladesh and North India in search of work and a better life in Britain. Their welcome stemmed from the colonial relationship that Britain had with the subcontinent. British industrial success was based in part on the Protestant work ethic, and despite the evils of industrialization and colonialism, I would suggest that nineteenth century Britain enjoyed the blessing of God flowing in the wake of the eighteenth century evangelical revival. The Muslim world has never enjoyed great industrial or material success. Until the mass extraction of oil in the post war years the Gulf mostly remained the same desert of poor nomads that it was when Islam first appeared in the 7th century.  At the same time the Muslim world continues to be typified by tribal warfare and violence. So why does the Muslim extremist think that enforcing his form of strict Islam will bring all things into a true submission to God?

Regrettably the documentary fails to include any point of view from the church. There are strong churches in Luton which are committed to proclaiming Christian truth to the Muslim community. Their points of view are however missing from the narrative. Sadly this is more a commentary on how secular much of British society has become; a secularism that really has no idea how to respond to the Muslim community with the only answer that can bring reconciliation.

 

Check out an earlier post related to my hometown:

https://thefullerreport.com/2013/05/22/the-ninevite-in-my-backyard/ ‎

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The Egyptian Revolution

Posted on July 15, 2013 by Andrew Fuller

I was in Egypt during the protests that led to the army removing President Morsi from power. The atmosphere on the streets was electric and the TV pictures from Tahrir Square showed just how extensive the crowds were.

I have mixed feelings about the actions of the armed forces. Out on the streets the army was very visible. It was also clear that they were one with the protesters. Soldiers manning their gun turrets were waving at the car loads of flag-waving protesters. However, elections did take place in Egypt in 2012 which were widely regarded as free and fair. This was the first time Egypt had opportunity to freely elect a president. Predecessors up to President Mubarak had all been dictators of the style who manage to get themselves automatically re-elected.

With those elections bringing an Islamist, or for that matter, anyone, to power, surely the electorate should wait until the next election to remove their leader. Indeed President Morsi stated this in a speech shortly before he was deposed. He asked that the people be patient, allow him to continue his policies and if, come the next elections they remained unhappy with him, then to elect someone else.

However, there are a number of reasons why Morsi, or anyone representing the Muslim Brotherhood, was not going to be a popular choice in the long-term, particularly in Cairo, where the January 2011 protests that led to the fall of Mubarak were most obvious.

Firstly the January protests in Tahrir Square were not initiated by the Muslim Brotherhood. Those protesting represented a wide variety of socio-economic groups and religious affiliations. They were protesting the restrictive practices of the Mubarak regime that infringed upon basic human rights such as freedom of speech, and the lack of free elections. They were also protesting high food price inflation, resulting in part from the 2008 world-wide economic recession, and high unemployment. The protests had no strong Islamic overtone. Thus it is not surprising that the recent protests in Tahrir Square would involve many of the same groups. The Muslim Brotherhood strongholds are found in the poor areas of Eastern Cairo, not in the wealthier city center and residential areas. They never had much presence in Tahrir Square.

Secondly a look at the demography of the election in 2012 shows that Morsi was elected by majorities in the western part of the nation and in the eastern industrial areas along the Suez Canal. The electoral districts along the Nile down the center of the nation, from Alexandria on the Mediterranean to Luxor and Aswan in the south voted in the majority for the opposition candidate Ahmed Shafik. The electoral result was roughly 51.5% to 48.5% showing Egypt, like the recent US elections, to be closely divided.

However, the opposition candidate had been Mubarak’s last Prime Minister, hardly someone to inspire confidence in those who wanted significant change from the practices of the previous regime. Consequently many moderate Muslims and some Christians had voted for Morsi as the viable alternative to the old regime.

Lastly, Mr. Morsi had not made himself popular with many of those who elected him. His actions with regard to the constitution, the profile of Islamic law and the replacement of government officials had antagonized many groups of people. Also he was regarded as failing to tackle the huge economic problems that Egypt faces. The value of the currency has declined by 50% since the Arab Spring, prices have continued to rise and the poor have been increasingly marginalized.

Morsi did himself no favors by choosing as the new governor of Luxor province the leader of the political wing of a terrorist group responsible for the deaths of 62 tourists in an attack on a tour bus in 1997. That event did much to reduce the tourist economy of upper Egypt.

Looked upon from the viewpoint of many of my Egyptian friends Morsi’s departure is good news. However we can only hope and pray that the next round of democratic elections enable someone who is capable of uniting a diverse community around common domestic and foreign policies, and serving out their term in government without inciting large protests.

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Project Javelin

Posted on June 16, 2013 by Andrew Fuller

In 1988 a group of British guys working with the church in Burkina Faso, West Africa, launched a mobile village evangelism ministry. Named Project Javelin because Joshua was commanded by the Lord to hold up his javelin toward Ai with the words: “for into your hand I will deliver the city” (Joshua 8:18), the initiative was conceived to focus the attention of the national church on the unreached tribes of the north of Burkina Faso.

A former military truck was painted cream and equipped with sound and projection equipment. A team of local pastor-evangelists accompanied by several ex-pats traveled on month-long programs of visits to areas of the north of the nation. Spending several days in a series of villages where the good news of Jesus was unknown the team shared media such as the Jesus Film, along with music and preaching. Prayers were said for sick people and in some cases practical assistance was provided as needed.

Over five years the experience of the project was amazing, with many new communities of Christians coming into being. The majority of these were among the predominant tribal groups, however and perhaps inevitably, young evangelists were exposed to the reality of unreached tribal groups such as the Fulani, Tuareg and Songhai. Some of these subsequently moved to the north to learn the languages and cultures of these people and share the gospel.

One of the British guys who was involved with Project Javelin moved to the province of Oudalan and began to learn the Fulani language. Twenty years later he has developed a ministry that touches many of the small communities spread through the North-Eastern part of the nation. In 1992 he knew of only two believers among the 200,000 local population. By 2007 there were 16 believers, many of whom he had personally discipled. By March of 2013 there were over 80. Many of these later converts had been discipled by young Burkinabe evangelists who had in turn been trained for cross-cultural ministry by him.

During the years subsequent to the initial church planting activity of Project Javelin a partnership between a Burkinabe agency that nurtures development of infrastructure through the church, and the American ministry, International Cooperating Ministries, was established. This has enabled church buildings to be constructed across the nation for more than 100 congregations. A proportion of these are in the northern regions specifically targeted by Project Javelin evangelists. Also a ministry center including a church, a conference center, an orphanage and school have been constructed just outside the capital city of Ouagadougou.

During the last year Project Javelin has been restarted under the leadership of one of the Burkinabes who trained with the team many years ago. With the blessing of the leadership of the national Assemblies of God, which happens to have in some of its most senior positions two of the men who, as young pastors, helped initiate the project twenty-five years ago, a project for multiple truck-based teams is planned.

During recent months some initial expeditions took teams of African evangelists into the North to present similar programs to those of the 1980s. Our friend who has worked in Oudalan recently wrote: “Almost each week there is news of someone giving their life to Christ. Last week, P, P, and S did a week of evangelism with J (and the PJ team) from Ouagadougou, and about 30 people came to Christ. P had 6 new Muslim converts in his church on Sunday. We estimate there are now over 100 local Muslim-background believers in the province”.

The Kingdom of God is advancing in the North of Burkina, despite the threat from Islamic militants. The work of Project Javelin and of dedicated evangelists and pastors is bearing great fruit.

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The Ninevite in My Backyard

Posted on May 22, 2013 by Andrew Fuller

A long time ago a man called Jonah was sent by God to a city called Nineveh. After much procrastination he finally made it to the city, and preached the word of God to the inhabitants. The people repented. Since that time there have been communities of devout God-followers living in the Chaldean region of Nineveh, now in modern Kurdistan, Iraq. Those communities have seen empires come and go and have maintained their tradition of liturgical and sacramental worship. Sadly, since the fall of Saddam Hussein they have experienced much persecution from Muslims.

I recently met a woman who was born in Baghdad to a family with origins in Nineveh. Her first language is Aramaic. She and her Egyptian husband have used their respective professional qualifications to serve as Christian missionaries for many years. They served for a decade in a nation on the Arabian peninsula before being excluded from that nation on the basis of their ‘religious’ activities. They have more recently settled in my hometown of Luton, in England.

The church in the United Kingdom has a long tradition of sending Christian missionaries into the nations. I know several whose roots are in my own hometown. Some of the greatest missionary initiatives of the modern era have their origins in the British church. So, it is with some surprise, and yet at the same time, encouragement, that I contemplate the arrival of more and more missionaries from “The Global South” to serve in the West. Some are coming to pastor immigrant Christian congregations. Luton has an international church (http://www.luton-intl-church.org/) which is a spiritual home to peoples from Africa, South Asia and Europe. The pastor was born in Pakistan. At the same time Richmond, where I now live, is home to congregations that serve Arab, Brazilian, Cambodian, Chinese, Hispanic, Indian, Korean, Russian, Sudanese and Vietnamese communities with outreach to many more ethnic minorities. The lady who I recently met, together with her husband minister to Arabic and Middle-Eastern Muslim communities across the United Kingdom.

The church needs to understand this global shift. The migration of peoples is fragmenting communities. At the same time it is giving incredible opportunities for Christians to reach out to the minority, the displaced, the refugee and the newly arrived with the love of God. Missions is a global initiative. There is still a great need for those who are called to go to a people and a place where the name of Jesus remains unknown – at least 180 identified Muslim people groups with populations exceeding 100,000[1], to name just one of the challenges. At the same time there are growing needs for those who are willing to serve in the post-modern, post-Christian communities of Europe.

The challenges of secularism, relativism and Islamic migration have, in some places, paralyzed the impact of the church in Europe. Marginalized and disregarded by society the community of God’s people now has the opportunity to respond with the proclamation of the good news to communities who once knew the true God but have somehow lost sight of Him in the modern era. May there be many more called from the places that once walked in darkness to come and proclaim the light where darkness has recently fallen. May there be many more Ninevites in our backyards!

[1] http://www.frontiers.org.uk/thehub/pray/unengaged.php – accessed May 2013 and revised downward with information from IMB.

Posted in Culture and Politics, Luton, Missions, Nations | Tagged , , | 1 Comment