I just got back from an interesting trip to the Middle East that I would love to post more about soon. But for now I wanted to talk about an interesting and challenging Christian activity that is taking place within Egypt. The Zabbaleen are Coptic Christians that live within Egypt. There is only 60,000 of them or so and they are responsible for picking up 1/3 of Cairo’s trash. They take this trash and pick it up off the streets and then bring it with them back home. Their home is literally a landfill. Trash surrounds them.

It puts a whole new spin on the idiom, “one person’s trash is another man’s treasure.” The men go out into the city and pick up the trash and bring it home where their wives sort out the trash into plastics, glass, papers, etc… It is a very efficient recycling system. After they do this they make goods out of the trash and sell it.

At first as an American I can respond with disgust and anguish that these folks are living in a landfill. Can you imagine little kids that often put whatever they find in their mouth living in a landfill and putting whatever he can find in his mouth!!! Sometimes there is broken glass and used syringes!!!

However it has been once told to me that an observation of the phsyical condition of someone’s life is an example of someone’s spirtiual condition. In light of this, when we look at the lifestyle of these Christians I can impose an idea that quite possibly this is exactly the life that we are to life. We are to be those who go within the dirtiest and darkest of places and pick up waste, sort through it and redeem it. These families give me quite a picture of what we are to be like. In the midst of darkness we are to be light. In the midst of trash we are to be garbage collectors and redeem the usefulness of fallen and broken items. To look at the bad and find the good within it. For more information about the Zabbaleen you can read:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A23780270

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zabaleen

http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0106/p07s02-woaf.html

I am sending this out only because they encouraged me to forwarded it to other people interested in missions. I find the article encouraging and thought provoking and I thought I would share it with you.  ~~~  Missions Catalyst e-Magazine    Practical Mobilization - May 13, 2008This week: Top Ten Myths about Missions  ~~~Missions Catalyst e-Magazine is a free, weekly electronic missions digest designed to inspire and equip Christians worldwide for global ministry. It includes missions news, practical ministry ideas, and helpful resources. Use it for your prayers, and pass along what you learn to anyone you think would be interested! Practical Mobilization, by Shane Bennett, appears monthly. Email Shane here.We‚Äôre approaching 4000 subscribers. Will you help us grow? Forward Missions Catalyst to someone you know!  In This Issue

• Introduction - Top Ten Myths about Missions
• Myth #1 - Only Extraordinary People Need Apply
• Myth #2 - Missions Means Going Overseas, Planting Churches
• Myth #3 - Non-Christians (Especially Muslims) Are Hairy, Scary Meanies
• Myth #4 - It‚Äôs All About Money
• Conclusion - Can You Help Me Out?

  Introduction - Top Ten Myths about Missions~~~This past week marked the end of the Perspectives semester for me. I wrapped up by teaching the final lesson seven times in churches from Ohio to the Puget Sound (I don‚Äôt know why we don‚Äôt all live there!) When I teach lesson 15 (or lesson 12 in the PathWays curriculum), I spend a fair amount of time talking about what ‚Äúpeople in church‚Äù think. And although I‚Äôve talked to a few people in church, I fear I may overestimate my grasp on what they actually think.One thing I do know is that God loves the church and so do I. So when I‚Äôm talking to a Perspectives class about ‚Äúthe church‚Äù I try to be complimentary, considerate, and cautious and encourage others to take the same approach. George Miley has spoken extensively about the beauty of the church and her potential to join in the purposes of God. I think it was him who said, ‚ÄúMost people in most churches want to do what God wants them to do. Sometimes they just need to understand what that is.‚Äù Realizing this helps me back off from aggressive, full-contact mobilization. It also tones down remarks I might want to make about churches that don‚Äôt see things the way I do.All the same, I want to understand how the average Lou and Sue, sitting in the pew, think about missions stuff. What begins to crackle in their minds when the pastor introduces a ‚Äúmissions‚Äù speaker? What synapses fire when a video rolls about poor kids in Faroffistan? From what I‚Äôve seen there are some serious misconceptions floating around in our churches, at least some of our churches. We could call these collective assumptions, beliefs that simply don‚Äôt reflect reality, ‚Äúmyths.‚ÄùI‚Äôd like to float out my top ten and invite you to reply with additional misconceptions about missions you‚Äôve noticed.  

  Myth #1 - Only Extraordinary People Need Apply~~~‚ÄúGod is only looking for little Jesuses or Pauls to carry his love to other cultures. If you‚Äôre normal, you don‚Äôt measure up. If you missed a quiet time this year, forget it. Don‚Äôt bother dreaming about learning a foreign language if you said a swear word in your own language last week!‚Äù Now, it‚Äôs my hunch that some people embrace this because it gets them off the hook. ‚ÄúI‚Äôm not good enough, so God can‚Äôt use me. Dang,‚Äù followed by, ‚ÄúWhew, that‚Äôs a relief.‚Äù Others though, disqualify themselves with sadness and regret. They honestly wish God could use them, but realize that he‚Äôs looking for better raw material. Certainly, God has used some extraordinary people in the Bible and history: Deborahand Solomon, Dr. Luke and Dr. Livingstone come to mind. But the guest-list is also packed with misfits: Gideon, Rahab, Peter, and Balaam‚Äôs donkey. If that beast qualifies to speak for God, maybe a lot of the rest of us do as well. I think our mobilizing energy could often be better used helping people see that God wants to use them, rather than arguing that missions is important, valid, and good.  

  Myth #2 - Missions Means Going Overseas, Planting Churches ~~~My friend and teammate Jon Hardin makes this apt and wry observation: ‚ÄùMany people have the sense that at the end of a missions event, there will be two doors out of the room. You must choose one as you depart. Over the first door a banner reads, ‚ÄòFuture overseas church-planting missionaries.‚Äô If that is you, you walk out that door to the polite applause and eternal awe of the rest. Over the other door a banner reads, ‚ÄòLoser. Attend this event again!‚Äô If that‚Äôs you, you know what to do.‚ÄùThere are dozens of main avenues of involvement in missions, and alternate routes as varied as the people who love Jesus. Yet many people in church seem to have an unspoken sense that being involved in missions means something like going to Africa to preach and plant churches. If people can‚Äôt imagine themselves doing that (and most believers can‚Äôt), then they revert to myth number one: God doesn‚Äôt use people like me.As mobilizers we‚Äôve got to find ways to help people see the myriad of buy-in points for joining what God is doing cross-culturally. My favorite wake-up call is for women who‚Äôve managed a household and raised children to adulthood. They‚Äôve developed skills in the accomplishment of those tasks that could bring great help and hope to young missionary families. Let‚Äôs help them do that. (Remember the column aboutmissionary nannies?)    Myth #3 - Non-Christians (Especially Muslims) Are Hairy, Scary Meanies~~~Caveat: Yes, many people are suffering at the hands of Muslims. Yes, some Muslims have done mean things on a massive and deadly level. Yes, some verses of the Qur‚Äôan suggest that Muslims should kill all who don‚Äôt believe like them.That said, personally I know more mean Christians than mean Muslims. Don‚Äôt you? I know more Christians than Muslims, so I‚Äôm not trying to establish a ratio in absolute terms. I‚Äôm just saying maybe we need to challenge this myth about Muslims. I‚Äôve been invited in and served food by Christians, Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists alike. I‚Äôve seen Muslims behave like Jesus, another argument against the meanness assumption, more times than I could relate. And many times that Jesus-like behavior has been directed to me. Without presuming to address all the issues this entails, can I encourage us as mobilizers to find ways to help people have one decent conversation with someone from another faith? Perhaps you‚Äôve seen this in Missions Catalyst before, but it bears repeating: According to Dr. Todd Johnson, eight or nine out of every ten Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists do not personally know a Christian (referenced here). A lot of ‚Äúus‚Äù have never met any of ‚Äúthem,‚Äù either. A cup of tea and a chat might begin to dispel the ‚Äúmean‚Äù myth.  Myth #4 - It‚Äôs All About Money~~~I raise support to fund my work and family. (It‚Äôs nice that you assumed Missions Catalyst generated enough revenue to pay me and the other two on the team! Did you think you were the only one whose subscription was free?) Maybe you raise support too. It‚Äôs been a part of the missions process for a long time. Unfortunately, we seem to have given the impression that supporting missions is mostly about money. Mainly by saying things like this: ‚ÄúYou, Lou and Sue in the pew, should give me your money, in smallish but regular doses.‚Äù Since most missions efforts (at least as we approach them now) require money, how do we do what needs to be done and dispel this myth at the same time? One option is to only allow half of us to raise support. (Hmmm, which line do you want to be in?) Lately I‚Äôve taken to challenging people to think in huge ways about how God might give them funds to pass on to missions efforts. ‚ÄúImagine in 15 years you have the capacity to write a check for $12 million to endow a mission agency‚Ķ‚Äù Other times I just breeze right over the money question. I‚Äôll say, ‚ÄúAnyone can give money. What about your skills? What about your life?‚Äù We who raise money to fund our ministry habit need grace and wisdom in this area. Maybe we need some new thinking as well. A friend and I are working on an article and maybe a book about how missionaries raise money all wrong. If you have thoughts about that, or about any of these myths, feel free to write.  

  Conclusion - Can You Help Me Out?~~~Help me field test the reality of these myths: Forward this column to one person you know who has some interest in missions, and to one person you know who doesn‚Äôt. Ask them if Lou and Sue really think these things. Next month we‚Äôll look at the remaining six myths. They have to do with God‚Äôs view of Americans, the sins of the clergy, whom you should vote for in your country‚Äôs upcoming elections, and a brief interview in which Bono talks about how much he likes Missions Catalyst. (OK, I‚Äôm kidding about most of those, but the first one is true!)  

  Quick Links‚Ķ~~~Subscribe to Missions Catalyst e-Magazine Browse the archivesView the calendar of missions eventsQuestions? Problems? Submissions? Contact managing editor Marti Smith.  

James passage Chapter 1 about disobedicence leads to deception.  ”Over 40,000 churches have been planted in Northern Indian, and many of these churches still don’t have Bibles in their own language. Yet, their growth can be attritubed not by what they know from Scripture, but how obedient they are to the Scripture.”Let us take a lesson from this.  ”If too much time passes between reading God’s Word and obeying it, people disobey God and establish a habit of negligent disobedience in their lives.” Read  more about this topic here: http://www.cpmtr.org/?q=node/25 

“God so loved the world that He gave His son…” John 3:16I delight in the Risen One during this holiday season. Thinking about how the Creator of Heaven and Earth, took on flesh to walk among sinful people that He may teach them, heal them and call them back to Himself. A little over three years among mankind He spent and all this came together with the essence of His teaching, “You must die, so that you can live.” His death and resurrection being the example for us.As much as I am mesmerized by  His life on earth, I can’t help but get even more excited about a reality that is hidden from many, but hopfully not to you. John 1:14 says that “In Him we beheld the glory of the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth.” And just as the Father sent Him, so He sends us (John 20:21). We are to be on this earth “the glory of the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth.” For if we have been born again we have certainly been begotten. We have been born with a new spirit a new heart and a new desire.  I am often caught up thinking like an individual too much. Something that this meditation has helped me to realize is that corporately you and I who call upon Jesus as our Savior and Lord are a part of a unified will of God, the Bride, His Church, made from the blood and water that poured forth from His rib. Yes I am drawing a parallel to Eve, who was created out of the rib of Adam. We too, as the Church are His helpmate. Imagine how glorious it is that God of all Creation lives in Us His Church, as He works through us and earnestly seeks after His lost sheep, tossed and turned among the mountains and valleys of this sin-stained Satan-ruled world.  Through His message carried through our lives He is calling forth for Himself a pure and spotless bride from among every Tongue, Tribe and Nation.  Rejoice again that He has called you to join Him in the fellowship of His sufferings, that we might see the reward of His sufferings in the days ahead, when sin and death will be utterly destroyed upon His return. Let us speed His Kingdom. Pray earnestly for unreached peoples, Send missionaries with your finances and if God would so choose to honor you with such an assignment allow Him to utilize you as a Missionary among the unreached. What a joy we can find in those words. “God so loved that He gave…” 

Finishing The Task is a cooperative attempt of about five missions organizations started in 2006 focusing on getting 639 people groups adopted by church and see them reached with the Gospel. I thought I would share in this update encouraging statistics that happened since 2006. Notice 6 of the 639 have over 2% Christians now, and 200 have church planting movements beginning in them. There are still 315 peoples to adopt and pray for, please visit http://www.finishingthetask.com/639.aspx and consider adopting a people group to pray for and send missionaries too.  639 List Statistics

Status

• 315 are unengaged. No one is trying to reach them.
• 103 are adopted but not yet engaged with church planting.
• 200 are engaged with church planting.
• 6 are at least two percent reached.
• 15 are on the list because of a research error.

Church Planting Indicators

• 294 have at least some known believers.
• 63 have at least one known church.

Resource Availability

Please note that just becasue a resource exists, it does not mean that anyone is using the resource or has ever used the resource in the past. In some cases, the resource was developed for a related people group who speak the same language.
• 468 have at least a portion of scripture.
• 469 have a JESUS film.
• 436 have a radio broadcast available.
• 532 have a gospel recording.

Information taken from their website: http://www.finishingthetask.com/Statistics.aspx