Pray for Art Rogers

Please take a moment and pray for Art Rogers who posts over at 12 Witnesses after you read today's post.

Update on my grandma's church

Well, I preached yesterday at my grandmother's church. To give you some background, this is the church that dismantled the indigent clothes closet because they "didn't want that riff-raff coming in and out" of their church. Since then, they also made it clear to me that they weren't going to give me an honorarium because I was still on full salary with the IMB and didn't need the money. They are correct; I don't need their money. (at this point, I don't want it, either)

So, for the past 6 weeks or so, I have been praying about what to preach on. I specifically didn't want my emotions to get away with me and prevent God getting the glory for yesterday. So, I ended up preaching on James 2:1-13. I called the sermon "Prescription for an Ailing Church". I was gracious, but I didn't hold back. I told them that they were a sick church and they needed fixing and anyone who didn't see that their church was in trouble was part of the problem. My whole family attended, since it was Mother's Day. I saw many, many mouths gape open wide at much that I had to say. Again, I was gracious, told them I needed to hear it as much as they did, and the reason that I was saying what I was saying was because I loved them and wanted them to be the very best they could be.

Last night, I showed slides about our missionary life. I challenged them and encouraged them to reach our of their comfort zone and reach the people around them. I did a mini-sermon on Acts 1:8 before I showed the slides (PowerPoint) Afterwards there was an ice cream social. I mentioned at the beginning of the slide show that several people had been offended by what I said, due to the number of folks, (n0ticably deacons) who weren't there that night who normally were. I went on to explain that since most of what I had to say was scripture, that they were offended by the Word of God and were under conviction by the Holy Spirit.

Many people who attended last night told me how much they appreciated what I had to say. They said they felt like their toes got stepped on, but that was OK as they hadn't been stepped on in a very long time.

Pray for this little church. Pray that God would get a hold of them and really shake them up. For HIS glory!

Totally Outraged

My grandmother, who is 91 years old, had some sort of stroke behind her eyes about two years ago and has completely lost her sight. Despite that, and a few other health problems, she has maintained her sense of humor and her sense of purpose. For the past several years, she has operated her church's "Clothes Closet" for the poor. It has allowed her to be active and gives her a place of ministry, since she can no longer see to teach Sunday School. It has given her an outlet for her to love God by loving others. I am very proud of my grandmother.

A couple of weeks ago, a deacon of her church came and told her that they were 'shutting down the clothes closet'. My grandmother asked why (of course) and she was told this: "We don't want all that riff-raff coming in and out of our church each week!" My grandmother was outraged! But the deacon was bull headed and wouldn't give in. (he has been the ram-rod around there for a long time and wasn't going to back down).

My grandmother was crushed. Her ministry outlet was gone. Her last "purpose" was gone (according to her). She has endured bullies before and usually came out on top. But this time, it was different. She said she just didn't have the strength to fight for it. I think she is depressed about the fact that she "gave in". She told my sister that now, all she has is simply to wait for the Lord to take her home." She said "I can't see to teach, I can't see to drive people to the doctor; I'm no longer strong enough to go out on visitation; I am simply useless". (I wasn't there at the time; my sister told me about it later)

It broke my heart to hear her talk like that. Please pray for her to be encouraged (and for sight). We call her "Meme".

I am going to be preaching in that church on Mother's Day. I really need your prayers to control what I say from the pulpit and not use it for my own (very heated) opinions. Pray that I would glorify the Father in what I say. Anybody got any ideas about what to say?

Devastated

That is the only word to describe it, unless it is disappointed.

Yesterday, I had a post about leading a young woman to the Lord in my target country, which is a restricted country.

Today, I pulled that post down after receiving the following email from that same woman:

Dear (Nomad),

Thanks for all of your kindness. I realized that one person can not have two believes, so I am not a Christian. I apologize for my mistake.

Good day ahead!


Best Regards
(young woman)

I am so sad for her. I don't have any other information. I emailed her back and told her that Jesus was still waiting for her and would be until the day she dies.

Please pray for her. For security sake, let's call her Dawn.

Praise report

I wanted to mention that my wife feels that she has finally 'turned a corner' in regards to her post-surgery recovery. She is getting around better and is feeling good in that respect.

Thanks to all who have prayed for her, even if you didn't know who she is.

Language Test Update

Thank you so much for joining me in this with your prayers. I am very pleased to inform you that I took my test this afternoon and passed it!



Language study is an important part of the missionary life as we learn to communicate in the host language with the goal of sharing the Gospel. This is one step onwards towards that goal.

Prayer Request

Will you take a moment right now and pray for me? Sometime on Wednesday (my time) I will take a language exam. It is just a first level test, but is important nonetheless. I don't know if it will be morning or afternoon, but by the time you have Wednesday night prayer meeting at church, my test will already be over with, so go ahead and pray right now. Being that the board has now paid for, well let's just say "more than 3" language schools for me, I am interested in doing my best. But I must say, I am getting to old to have to learn very many more languages. They all start to mix in together. (Oh for the gift of tongues!)

Thank you in advance for your prayers. I'll update tomorrow with the results of my test.

Prayers Answered

Thank you so much for praying! Our prayers were answered EXACTLY as we had hoped.

God is good! (all the time)

Another Prayer Request

Without divulging too much personal information, I need to request prayer again for my family. My wife will have surgery this weekend to determine the cause of constant pain she has been having.

Our request is that the doctors would be able to completely take care of the problem DURING this first surgery. If a second surgery is indicated, recovery time would take up to six months.

Thank you for your prayers.

Quick Update

First of all, I want to thank all of you who have prayed for us. We really appreciate your prayers. When you pray for us, you join us in our ministry and share a portion of it.

Second, I can say that we can honestly see a difference since you have prayed. One thing that you need to realize is since we didn't recognize this as a spiritual attack for so long, there are some wounds that now need to heal. Attitudes have been affected; relationships have been altered. However, we feel the major portion of the attack has been stopped.

Our children have been at the center of this attack and they seem to be doing better, but we still have a long way to go. Another thing being attacked was my family while I was away each week on business. Since the prayers started, I can say that this last week was the first week without a major "incident" in three months!

Thank you for your prayers; please don't cease to pray!