I have finally arrived in Vienna or in Austria wrote Wien.
We as a team have been here one week and so much has happened it is quite incredible.
We arrived on Saturday and that same evening we went to a Church service and we were amazed at the enthusiasm of our arrival and it is such ablessings to know people have beenpraying for us before even arriving and even looking for a house for us. While at this service we met many useful contacts and were also given a free mobile phone, so contacting people now in Vienna has become a lot cheaper and a lot easier.
More so though is we have been given a free house to live in, 20 mins outsdie of the main centre of Vienna by the underground. All we have to pay for is electricity and once a week the landlady will wash our clothes and cook for us. INCREDIBLE.
Today we had a random stranger come to our house and give us a whole shopping bag of bread which is amazing so now we don't have to spend so much. It is so amazing to see God provide for us as a team iin ways I personally have never experienced before, such a testimony to Gods true character.
Apart from that we felt God say settle down and get used to the culture so that is exactly what we have been doing so this first week has been very relaxed but neccessary as it will be impossible to reach the culture if we don't take time to understand it or if we allow ourselves to burn out. Now we are moving into a phase of planning a huge evangelism event a lot of things to sort but as it beginnings to form I look forward to telling you more about what will be doing.
Prayer Needs
. Finances I have no money so please pray in the 200-300 Euros I need a month.
. That planning and building relationships for this evangelism event will take form as the event is next month
. Unity in the Vienna team
Friday, 4 February 2011
Saturday, 22 January 2011
Faith Week
Well This is what I have been up to this past week. Every SOE does something called a Faith Week where each Outreach Team asks God where to go, what to do and then allow God to provide as we obey. Follow the below link and it will show you a map of our journey and what God did at each place. Enjoy.
Saturday, 15 January 2011
The Upcoming
Ok It has been a long time but here you go.
This is the team that is going to Vienna, Austria. Vegard is our team leader.
Our outreach is going to focus on 'The Arts'. As a team we are either artitsts/designers or musicans/singers and we are going into a culture which is both built upon and openly accepts these things. Our focus is on the youth of the City, they need Christ badly. We also have this amazing opportunity to a huge evangelism event with a weeks worth of specific evangelism with a huge event at the end. I am asking for your faithful prayers in this transition because there are still a lot of things that have to be sorted out.
Prayer Needs
. We need money, we need money, we are looking at up to £5000 for all four of us to live. Please pray this money in. Also practically if you believe in what we are doing please consider giving financially. You Can send an email to this address. (jonathan.franks@hotmail.co.uk)
. We need a place to stay. Pray for a home near or within the student community so they not only hear about Christ often but see how we live him out.
. We need a venue to put on a huge Arts event with dancing, music a talk etc.
This is the team that is going to Vienna, Austria. Vegard is our team leader.
Our outreach is going to focus on 'The Arts'. As a team we are either artitsts/designers or musicans/singers and we are going into a culture which is both built upon and openly accepts these things. Our focus is on the youth of the City, they need Christ badly. We also have this amazing opportunity to a huge evangelism event with a weeks worth of specific evangelism with a huge event at the end. I am asking for your faithful prayers in this transition because there are still a lot of things that have to be sorted out.
Prayer Needs
. We need money, we need money, we are looking at up to £5000 for all four of us to live. Please pray this money in. Also practically if you believe in what we are doing please consider giving financially. You Can send an email to this address. (jonathan.franks@hotmail.co.uk)
. We need a place to stay. Pray for a home near or within the student community so they not only hear about Christ often but see how we live him out.
. We need a venue to put on a huge Arts event with dancing, music a talk etc.
Next week though is faith week. Faith week is when we ask God where he wants us to go and what he wants us to do and then we do it. We have prayed and saught God and we believe he has called us to Milian, Italy for 5/6 days. To do we believe God will show us more at the time. Again though we need you faithful prayers as we do not yet have the money to get there.
Prayer Needs
. The finances to get to Milan, Italy
. To see God move in powerful ways
. Continual stretching of our faith as we trust God wholeheartedly
. Open doors
. People to be saved
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| Jonathan. England |
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| Bjarte. Norway |
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| Thijs. Netherlands |
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| Vegard. Norway |
Monday, 20 December 2010
Humility in Gods great plan
I was back home in England and I was sharing with people what God has been doing and I almost had a crisis as I could not think of one single thing. Of course this was not so God has done many wonderful and amazing things and has met so many people and by Gods wonderful love I trust that he has poured into them all his goodness and acceptance and love and mercy and grace.
I think I almost had a crisis because I was comparing what has happened to what I hoped would happen in Norway, expectations that have been built on my amazing experiences from my DTS. The kind of lets go in guns blazing, I pray and the Holy Spirit comes in thick presence, lives are transformed on the spot, people are healed, saved etc... and the truth is this has happened but not in the way I was hoping or expected. In fact it has been quite normal in that respect and as a result I have been humbled by God because he spoke something very specific to me and has recently reminded me of that he said this I want you to invest. This is profound, such a touching from heaven on peoples lives through this. Due to all my experiences in life nothing is more beautiful to me when the God of the Universe comes down and reveals the value of that person to him, when acceptance and significance is given to them. This is the place I have seen the Holy Spirit work wonders that overwhelm even me who witnesses and he does it quite normally, quite simply and even quietly as God comes closer to the hearts of those we talk to.
The key is so simple it's relationship and it brings me great excitement and encouragement but it also requires one of the biggest sacrifices of all time. It cannot be rushed. Statistics say that a non christian needs 7 positive encounters with another Christian before they make a decision. So my challenge is this why don't you be one of them.
I think I almost had a crisis because I was comparing what has happened to what I hoped would happen in Norway, expectations that have been built on my amazing experiences from my DTS. The kind of lets go in guns blazing, I pray and the Holy Spirit comes in thick presence, lives are transformed on the spot, people are healed, saved etc... and the truth is this has happened but not in the way I was hoping or expected. In fact it has been quite normal in that respect and as a result I have been humbled by God because he spoke something very specific to me and has recently reminded me of that he said this I want you to invest. This is profound, such a touching from heaven on peoples lives through this. Due to all my experiences in life nothing is more beautiful to me when the God of the Universe comes down and reveals the value of that person to him, when acceptance and significance is given to them. This is the place I have seen the Holy Spirit work wonders that overwhelm even me who witnesses and he does it quite normally, quite simply and even quietly as God comes closer to the hearts of those we talk to.
The key is so simple it's relationship and it brings me great excitement and encouragement but it also requires one of the biggest sacrifices of all time. It cannot be rushed. Statistics say that a non christian needs 7 positive encounters with another Christian before they make a decision. So my challenge is this why don't you be one of them.
Friday, 17 December 2010
Pioneering
This week was my last week before I go home for Christmas YAY. Now I leave for England in just over 24 hours. I am definitely looking forward to going home. This week has been looking at what pioneering is. A very interesting few days that was sure.
Prayer Needs
. Finances for Outreach
. Apple Laptop (it's coming to the point where I am needing a laptop so I can do more work especially so I can continue to do more design work away from home).
So here is why. For the first 2 days our tutor got two of the student to lead, they had no idea about this by the way, it was interesting to see how they handled the topic and content given to them just 30 seconds before they were to teach it to the rest of the SOE class. The reason was this. Part of pioneering is passing on what you have learned as soon as possible so others can teach it to others and so on and so forth.
We also talked a lot about the 7 most important commands of Christ and how these were a vital part of Jesus ministry and teaching, we also looked at the 7 essentials of worship and how these should be a part of every church gathering if we are defining church as a group of people gathered together. Not necessarily somewhere where you gather on a Sunday morning. What was a lot of fun is that we got to practice it and it was incredible to find at how easy it is. All we have to do is gather a few people and involve these things in any creative way we want to and away we go. I got a huge revelation in giving, it is not about giving money in a collection although that is part of it, it is about giving people specifically what they need, just like the Church in Acts did. I would love to see this happen more.
Seven Commands of Christ
Repent and Believe (Mark 1:15, John 3:16)
Be Baptised and filled with the Spirit (Mark 13:11, 16:16, Luke 24:49, Acts 2:38)
Love God, Christians and your Neighbors (Matt 22:37-39, John 13:34)
Meet and Share the Lord's supper (Luke 22:17-20)
Pray each day and feed on God's word (Matt 4:4, 6:5-13, John 6:35, 14:15)
Give Sacrificially (Matt 5:42, 6:2-19-21, 10:8)
Seven Essentials of Worship
Prayer
Fellowship
Bible
Giving
Repentance and Forgiveness
Communion
Glorify Jesus
Testimony
In our Church meeting one of the people said "you know what I really need a pair of snow boots for all this ice here in Norway" so we decided to take a collection and we raise over 500 NOK which is just over £50 which I think is incredible. This giving also released so much joy it was quite something.
I am coming home within 2 days so I look forward while I am back in Leicester to sharing stories in person.
God Jul (Merry Christmas)
Monday, 13 December 2010
Sowing, Reaping, Keeping
Well we have just had a week with Laurence Singlehurst on the topic of this blog. It was one of my most favourite week of lectures because he is British and offers only the best in sarcastic British humour, he knows how to ask the right questions and it was 100% practical in application. BRILLIANT.
Prayer Requests
. Finances for outreach to Vienna
. I would grow in glorifying God wholely (see below)
. An opportunity to put on a massive event in Vienna has arisen pray for direction and provision
I could share many, many things about what I learned. We learned about a post modern culture and what is relevant to the people, old methods no longer work we must find new creative ways, we discussed how today people need to go throuigh a process and therefore relationship building is very important. But this is I think is the key message of the whole week.
Evangelism is not a method but a question, and the question is how big is your heart ?
Mission starts with love, the challenge to me is am I loving people or am I seeing them as projects. If I am not loving I need to be renewed in my values (high view of God, of people, of myself and sacrifical love).
It is our heart and love for people that drives us, helps us persevere and stand our ground. This is tough as I realise often my motives are wrong so I have begun to ask God to give me a bigger heart, I am going to need it.
Other
God has also been teaching me a lot about his Glory and it is a mighty subject. He has been showing me how many prayers actually have selfish motives because they are about what we get out of it. For example we often pray that God would move in an evangelistic event but hearts are often syaing so I can look good (I focused), to become a stronger Christian (that's I focused), to feel better about myself (that's still I focused), to become more holy (that's I focused as well). This really struck me because my prayers a riddled with motives like these. God really spoke to me saying "since when was it about glorifying self", but those who glorify him find they will always have success because God will be glorified through it. it's a complete brain shift but I am loving the challenges.
Prayer Requests
. Finances for outreach to Vienna
. I would grow in glorifying God wholely (see below)
. An opportunity to put on a massive event in Vienna has arisen pray for direction and provision
I could share many, many things about what I learned. We learned about a post modern culture and what is relevant to the people, old methods no longer work we must find new creative ways, we discussed how today people need to go throuigh a process and therefore relationship building is very important. But this is I think is the key message of the whole week.
Evangelism is not a method but a question, and the question is how big is your heart ?
Mission starts with love, the challenge to me is am I loving people or am I seeing them as projects. If I am not loving I need to be renewed in my values (high view of God, of people, of myself and sacrifical love).
It is our heart and love for people that drives us, helps us persevere and stand our ground. This is tough as I realise often my motives are wrong so I have begun to ask God to give me a bigger heart, I am going to need it.
Other
God has also been teaching me a lot about his Glory and it is a mighty subject. He has been showing me how many prayers actually have selfish motives because they are about what we get out of it. For example we often pray that God would move in an evangelistic event but hearts are often syaing so I can look good (I focused), to become a stronger Christian (that's I focused), to feel better about myself (that's still I focused), to become more holy (that's I focused as well). This really struck me because my prayers a riddled with motives like these. God really spoke to me saying "since when was it about glorifying self", but those who glorify him find they will always have success because God will be glorified through it. it's a complete brain shift but I am loving the challenges.
Monday, 6 December 2010
Worldview. What's yours?
Prayer Requests
. Finances for myself and the Vienna outreach team
. A House in Vienna
I am excited about typing this post as this was a really fun and challenging week. There is a lot I could say so I shall do my best to be concise. The foundation of the week could be summed up in three questions:
. Finances for myself and the Vienna outreach team
. A House in Vienna
I am excited about typing this post as this was a really fun and challenging week. There is a lot I could say so I shall do my best to be concise. The foundation of the week could be summed up in three questions:
. What is a Christian Biblical Worldview?
. What kind of Worldview does the world have?
. What kind of Worldview do we have?
During the week we talked a lot about what freedom was. The problem though is that the world believes that freedom is freedom from rules and regulations and although this is true such actions have consequences. For example I could choose not to wear clothes but such consquences may be I die from the cold or I get arrested.
The best example of true freedom we found in the bible was in the story of the Prodial Son. The freedom to walk away from the Father and the freedom to walk back to the Father. True freedom then we decided needs boundaries, for example the earth has an ozone layer to protect us from the sun and allow us to breath.
One of the biggest lies of the enemy today is You Can't Change
I have always found it refreshing to be reminded how we as humans work and is best explained as the following.
. Our core values are the things we have chosen to believe
. These affect our thoughts, ideas and our personal convictions
. This then affects our action and behaviour
. Which eventually affects how we act in society and our evangelism
What I found very interesting though was when we talked about Post Modernity specifically how music and film play a huge role in that, in that they are the spokes people of the day. Story is key in this and God has been speaking to me recently about how I can use my desire to use Art and Design in Evangelism to tell stories to people. This to me is a vital piece of information because this works it is one of probably a few keys that unlocks people for Christ.
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