Christianity Moves South

As part of our "homework" for our missionary training, we're reading a book by Philip Jenkins called The Next Christendom. Wait! Don't leave. It's really interesting! Jenkins says the energy and enthusiasm for Christianity has moved, especially from Europe, to the Southern Hemisphere--Africa, South America and parts of Asia. He says that far from dying, Christianity is growing and gaining momentum in the South. That's certainly true in the Church of the Nazarene. In 1984, Africans represented 6% of all Nazarenes. Today, Africans represent 20% of all Nazarenes.

Jenkins also says it's wrong to think that Europeans and Americans "imposed" Christianity on the Southern Hemisphere. He points to the Ethiopian Church which is almost as old as Christianity itself, and to the Christians in India who trace their faith to the evangelical efforts of "Doubting Thomas." When I was in India several years ago, I asked a young Christian husband and father how long his family had been Christians, thinking they might have been converted in the efforts of missionaries. He drew himself up proudly and said, "My family can trace its Christianity to the second century AD." That puts Christianity in India long before it was in either Northern Europe or America!

Jenkins visualizes a day when the Southern Hemisphere is sending missionaries to the Northern Hemisphere, and in fact that is already happening. Brazil, Korea and South Africa have each sent missionaries to Europe and America. Jenkins says that much of the commitment to faith in Europe is coming from immigrants. For example, he writes that on any given Sunday in London, half of the worshipers in Christian churches were born in the Southern Hemisphere.

Just as American Christians had to develop churches and styles of worship that fit America, churches in Africa, Asia and South America are having to develop churches and styles of worship that fit who they are. There is both opportunity and danger in this designing process. We'd ask you to be in prayer for Eugenio Duarte (Africa), Vern Ward (Asia), and Christian Sarmiento (South America) as they try to strike the balance between previous denominational practices and emerging regional needs. God is doing a great work in the Southern Hemisphere, and your prayers can help Nazarene leadership as it serves the church and the Kingdom.

Thanks Nampa First and Early Church!

Sunday, July 22, was a wonderful day that reminded Nan and me why we love First Church! We spoke in both Sunday morning services, had a great and relaxing lunch with Pastor Kent (pictured at right) and Kay Conrad and were the guests at a reception after the evening service. Thanks to the Conrads for your warmth and hospitality and affirmation. Thanks to Mary Winkle, the Nampa First NMI President and the NMI Council for organizing the reception and presenting us with the globe clock. Thanks to Dan Edgar, Doug Ward, and Ray Burwick for helping build and pack the shipping crates. Thanks to Bev Verner, Erroll and Rhonda Carrim, Chris and Cara Werlinger for bringing food or helping with moving tasks. And to the folks in both services and all the ministries at Nampa First Church, thank you for your warmth and kind words and your promises of on-going prayers. We love you!

Our New Home

When we visited the ANU campus in February, we took this picture of one side of the duplex which will be our home beginning this coming January. It was built in the early 1990's and has housed a variety of American faculty, short-term visitors, and church dignitaries. We love its distinctive style--tile roof, bay window on each side, surrounded by tropical plants and literally "solid as a rock." More on that later.

Our neighbors, already in their half of the duplex, will be Rev. Randy and Mary Jane James, the new ANU chaplain and his wife.

Since we returned to the States, workmen have begun working on an addition to our home. Each morning the men working on our house and on the new student center arrive on flatbed trucks from off campus. The work on our house is relatively short term, but some of the workmen involved in the student center process build small wooden cabins where they live until the project is completed. Their lives are not easy, but we were told in February that ANU pays above the going local rate, and because jobs are scarce, anyone who is employed feels lucky. Even so, we'll be praying for these men and the extended families their wages support.

The material they use for all the buildings on campus is grayish-red rock dug out of a nearby quarry. When we were there I asked more than once about what kind of rock it was, but people didn't seem to have a special term (granite, limestone, etc) for it. As the grandson of an Indian stonecutter, I'll want to investigate further after we arrive! The rock comes to the site in large chunks where the workmen chisel it by hand into building blocks.

These are the first pictures we have had of the remodeling, so we're excited to see (and try to guess exactly) what is being done. It LOOKS like an additional room on a lower level. We didn't know there was a basement when we were there, but our time on campus was short. Stay tuned!

Thank you Kirkland!

For the last 3 years we lived in the Seattle area, we attended Kirkland Church of the Nazarene. It was, without doubt, one of the most fulfilling church experiences of our lives. For one thing, the Kirkland Church was doing "Africonnections" long before we thought of the word. The church, under the leadership of then pastor Randy Craker and with the logistical expertise of Debra and Charlie Voelker, made multiple trips to Mozambique to do building, lead Bible school, teach pastors, and perform other tasks to assist the Church of the Nazarene in Mozambique.

On Sunday evening, July 8, the church held a barbecue leading into our presentations. So many people came--even people no longer attending the Kirkland church and members of a WAPAC Work and Witness team--to be a part of the evening. Thank you Kirkland FIRST for your longtime commitment to Africa and also for your ongoing support and love!