Loutete Church Growing
News in is that on Sunday there was a 30% increase in the Churches across the City.
Loutété 23rd-28th March 2010
We arrived in Brazzaville on Saturday at 9:30 in the morning, and went straight through to domestic departures from where I connected with the local flight to Nkayi. At Nkayi, I was met by Pastor Christian and Pastor Roger, and we all drove to Bouansa in the little blue Land Cruiser, which was rather a squash with six in the back and all the luggage. What with the bumps and the dust, I was so glad to be in the front seat! We stopped in Madingou, where a mother and daughter came to see us. The young daughter had suffered with a terrible skin disease, and I clearly remember having prayed for her. The mother had taken her to all the doctors in the main cities, but she was not cured. Now, she was so happy, as the disease disappeared soon after prayer, and today she has perfectly smooth skin.
In Bouansa, I preached at Pastor Christian’s Church. He told me how his congregation had doubled since the crusade there in September 2009. One man stood up to testify how he had been a drunkard and womaniser but was fed up with his life. He wanted to change, but did not know how. On the first night of the Bouansa crusade, he was gloriously saved and delivered. He said, “My whole life is different, now that Jesus has come into my life”.
I returned to the hotel only to be met by five or six drunkards. They all wanted prayer. Well, I preached a short message to them on their need to be saved. Conviction fell and the beers started to disappear – some under the table and others discreetly taken out of the room. The little group bowed their heads and hearts and called on the name of Jesus. This was in the hotel bar!
The technical team hired one of the very few available trucks. It looked like an old World War II truck; the windscreen was long gone and it was dripping oil as they were loading. On the short journey, they broke down and had to change a wheel bearing by the side of the road. After several hours in the intense heat, they were glad to get moving again and arrived in Loutété safely.
Tuesday 23rd The team was just completing the final touches to the set up and needed some extra cable to connect to the local power connection. A local brother volunteered to drive, but on the way back to Loutété, he drove the Land Cruiser into a huge ditch – it tottered and rolled over onto its side.
Fortunately, no one was hurt and the damage to the car was only cosmetic! A passing truck stopped, pulled it upright, and after refilling the oil, they continued on their journey.
Tonight, I will speak to the many dignitaries at the Banquet. The Gospel is the only hope for Congo. The moral decline and the worldliness cannot be cured by any other means. People often ask me, “What tangible help are you bringing to the folk of Loutété? There are so many real issues and real needs, we need real solutions”. Is the unseen Gospel a real solution? Yes, a thousand times yes! Just because it cannot be seen, does not mean that it is not a solution. Some of the most powerful forces in the world cannot be seen with the naked eye. Electricity or radiation cannot be seen, and yet exposure to radiation can be fatal. Just consider exposure to the sun’s radiation, how dangerous that can be, and yet it cannot be seen. Exposure to the Gospel recalibrates hearts, awakens consciences, destroys unbelief and is the greatest faith builder. The Gospel is God’s message of love written to mankind, and it does more to help man’s condition than any other means. When the Gospel is proclaimed under the anointing of the Holy Spirit, it becomes an event in God’s calendar.
Day 1 The seminar was held in Fepaco Church, and it was a good sign to see the church packed, as well as people standing at the entrance listening. The word fell on fertile soil. I could feel the congregation pulling on every word. What a wonderful meeting. They saw their potential to reach their city, and I am sure many will step out to reach the people around them with the Love of Christ.
The Crusade started well. It was hard to gauge just how many people were present; nevertheless, it was a good turn out. People stood near and far, but that did not matter. Our powerful sound system carried the message across the entire area. The Gospel message arrested people in their tracks; they stood and listened intently. When I gave the altar call, it was not difficult, because the Holy Spirit had already convicted almost everyone of their need to have their sins forgiven and nearly every hand shot up. Just a little of heaven’s joy came upon me to see multitudes coming out of darkness into His glorious light. It cannot be matched by anything this earth has to offer.
God confirmed His word by healing the sick. I love the openness of the people. A mother had taken her little girl to Pointe-Noire on the coast, to be treated, because she could not pass water without severe pain. After prayer, the little girl testified how she had tested herself and all pain had gone. Yet another lady had a growth on her leg that simply disappeared. Jesus is indeed alive!
Day 2 Flashes of lightning all around. It looked like rain was rapidly approaching, but God gave us the victory, and the meeting was not disturbed at all. Again, great numbers responded to the clear Gospel message. During the prayer for the sick, I felt impressed to pray for someone suffering with asthma, and later a man came forward to testify that Jesus had totally healed him. As the lightning flashed, I could feel prickles of current all over my body. I know however that the real power was not the lightning but the anointing of the Holy Spirit working so powerfully touching and transforming lives.
Day 3 A rowdy crowd had to be silenced a few times. I said, “Jesus is here. Do you believe it? Then why don’t you reverence Him, and show respect for His word and be silent”. I preached a very straightforward and convicting message and the people heard it gladly. The local radio station is giving daily reports and inviting people to the meeting. The Lord healed one of the well known drivers in the city. He said that he came to the meeting because his wife had given him one of our follow-up books. To his surprise, Jesus touched him right in the crowd, and he was instantly healed of pain in the stomach.
Day 4 Saturday The wind began to pick up and black and grey clouds hung overhead. It was already drizzling, as I made my way to the meeting. It increased and increased, until the stage was completely wet. Would I be able to preach and hold the attention of the people in this rain? Well, the moment I took the microphone, the Lord gave us a calm – the rain stopped, the crowd picked up, and we had a wonderful harvest of souls. There are just four churches in this town with a sum total of 200 believers. Already, we have seen over 1,300 registered decisions for Jesus. Indeed this is harvest time.
Final Day Sunday We have clear blue skies this afternoon, and it is very hot and humid, but this did not seem to stop the people coming. A huge crowd gathered to hear the Gospel. The Holy Spirit was indeed present exposing the error of the godless view of sin, and convicting of righteousness and judgement. In the altar call, there were very real salvations. A young lady passing by scoffed at the meeting and the word going forth. Well, someone gave her a follow-up book and, as she read it, a scripture convicted her! She said, “Oh, it’s true what was being preached at the field. I have been wrong”. She gladly surrendered her life to Jesus. In total, the counsellors recorded over 1,614 decisions, which is remarkable, as the total sum of believers in Loutété was, at the start of this Crusade, around 200. That means each church can grow up to 9 times with an additional 400 new believers in each church! Oh, pray with me for the ‘new believers meetings’, which the Pastors are beginning this week.
Thank you for standing shoulder to shoulder with us to reach this city.
Roger and Shireen
Ukambani Kayatta Mini Crusade 2nd – 7th February 2010
Kayatta is a small village of close to 800 or 1000 people, and is a place of dry river beds. Just as the rain fell unexpectedly, so too did the rivers to flow once again. The Gospel message also triggered a flow of people to the field, where about half the village came to hear the good news. It was amazing to see young and old alike making a full surrender to Jesus Christ. The morning seminars stirred up the body of Christ to get busy and do the work of an evangelist. YES mini crusades can and do work! This was a good test to iron out any logistical and technical problems before we head out into far away remote places.
We now focus our attention on The Republic of Congo. The planning is well underway and our technical team flies out on 18th February to Brazzaville in order to set up in Lout?t?. We have been in correspondence with Michael Mogga our good friend from Southern Sudan. Provisional dates have been set for four major city-wide meetings. Please remember us in PRAYER
William Booth of the Salvation Army sent out his famous one word greeting that simply read “Others”, which best describes our heart. We give our all so that “Others” can hear and come to know Jesus Christ personally.
Thank you for you love and support,
Roger and Shireen West
John 10:16 I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.
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Do the work of an evangelist
Charles Spurgeon was asked about his position on evangelism. He said, “Evangelistic preaching is a choice every pastor truly called of God makes. If a man does not have an evangelist heart, he should leave the ministry. He is obviously not called.” I believe he is right. “Do the work of an evangelist,” says Paul to Timothy. That is the work every one of us has. There is a world that needs Christ. We are called upon to bring the Gospel in its purity to them.
Pray and Prepare
Technical Preparation for Ukambani Gospel Meetings 2nd -7th February 2010
Unforeseen Fruit
“Back in 1921, a missionary couple named David and Svea Flood went with their two-year-old son from Sweden to the heart of Africa-to what was then called the Belgian Congo. They met up with another young Scandinavian couple, the Ericksons, and the four of them sought God for direction. In those days of much tenderness and devotion and sacrifice, they felt led of the Lord to set out from the main mission station and take the gospel to a remote area.
This was a huge step of faith. At the village of N’dolera they were rebuffed by the chief, who would not let them enter his town for fear of alienating the local gods. The two couples opted to go half a mile up the slope and build their own mud huts.
They prayed for a spiritual breakthrough, but there was none. The only contact with the villagers was a young boy, who was allowed to sell them chickens and eggs twice a week. Svea Flood-a tiny woman only four feet, eight inches tall decided that if this was the only African she could talk to, she would try to lead the boy to Jesus. And in fact, she succeeded.
But there were no other encouragements. Meanwhile, malaria continued to strike one member of the little band after another. In time the Ericksons decided they had had enough suffering and left to return to the central mission station. David and Svea Flood remained near N’dolera to go on alone. Then, of all things, Svea found herself pregnant in the middle of the primitive wilderness. When the time came for her to give birth, the village chief softened enough to allow a midwife to help her. A little girl was born, whom they named Aina.
The delivery, however, was exhausting, and Svea Flood was already weak from bouts of malaria. The birth process was a heavy blow to her stamina. She lasted only another seventeen days.
Inside David Flood, something snapped in that moment. He dug a crude grave, buried his twenty-seven-year-old wife, and then took his children back down the mountain to the mission station. Giving his newborn daughter to the Ericksons, he snarled, “I’m going back to Sweden. I’ve lost my wife, and I obviously can’t take care of this baby. God has ruined my life.” With that, he headed for the port, rejecting not only his calling, but God himself.”…
(Eventually the baby landed with some missionaries from the States. They changed her first name to “Aggie”. Aggie grew up in South Dakota and married a young man named Dewey Hurst. They had two children together and moved to the Seattle area, where there was a large population of Scandinavians.)
“One day a Swedish religious magazine appeared in her mailbox. She had no idea who had sent it, and of course she couldn’t read the words. But as she turned the pages, all of a sudden a photo stopped her cold. There in a primitive setting was a grave with a white cross-and on the cross were the words SVEA FLOOD.
Aggie jumped in her car and went straight for a college faculty member who, she knew, could translate the article. “What does this say?” She demanded.
The instructor summarized the story: It was about missionaries who had come to N’dolera long ago … the birth of a white baby … the death of the young mother … the one little African boy who had been led to Christ … and how, after the whites had all left, the boy had grown up and finally persuaded the chief to let him build a school in the village.
The article said that gradually he won all his students to Christ … the children led their parents to Christ … even the chief had become a Christian. Today there were six hundred Christian believers in that one village….
All because of the sacrifice of David and Svea Flood. For the Hursts’ twenty-fifth wedding anniversary, the college presented them with the gift of a vacation to Sweden. There Aggie sought to find her real father. An old man now, David Flood had remarried, fathered four more children, and generally dissipated his life with alcohol. He had recently suffered a stroke. Still bitter, he had one rule in his family:
“Never mention the name of God-because God took everything from me.”
After an emotional reunion with her half brothers and half sister, Aggie brought up the subject of seeing her father. The others hesitated. “You can talk to him,” they replied, “even though he’s very ill now. But you need to know that whenever he hears the name of God, he flies into a rage.” Aggie was not to be deterred. She walked into the squalid apartment, with liquor bottles everywhere, and approached the seventy-three-year-old man lying in a rumpled bed. “Papa?” She said tentatively. He turned and began to cry. “Aina,” he said. “I never meant to give you away.” “It’s all right, Papa,” she replied, taking him gently in her arms. “God took care of me.”
The man instantly stiffened. The tears stopped.
“God forgot all of us. Our lives have been like this because of him.” He turned his face back to the wall.
Aggie stroked his face and then continued, undaunted. “Papa, I’ve got a little story to tell you, and it’s a true one. You didn’t go to Africa in vain. Mama didn’t die in vain. The little boy you won to the Lord grew up to win that whole village to Jesus Christ. The one seed you planted just kept growing and growing. Today there are six hundred African people serving the Lord because you were faithful to the call of God in your life….
“Papa, Jesus loves you. He has never hated you.”
The old man turned back to look into his daughter’s eyes. His body relaxed. He began to talk. And by the end of the afternoon, he had come back to the God he had resented for so many decades.
Over the next few days, father and daughter enjoyed warm moments together. Aggie and her husband soon had to return to America-and within a few weeks, David Flood had gone into eternity.”
Cymbala, Jim. Fresh Power. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 2001, p. 115-119.
Urgently Needed: Labourers for the Harvest
Dear Friends, As an evangelist a passage of scripture I often look at is Luke 10:2 Therefore said he unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest. “The day is short, the work great, the workmen idle, the reward abundant, and the master of the household is urgent.” We know it’s true, but what puzzles me is why then there are so few labourers. I found a few answers as I was reading an old classic “The divine art of soul winning” by J. O. Sanders. ©1937 So I’ve copied and pasted a few sections that were a blessing and a challenge to me.
ABSENCE OF CONVICTION THAT EVERY IMPENITENT SOUL IS UTTERLY LOST. Judge Mingins had been an infidel in his youth, and had lived with his infidel companions in Philadelphia. Sometime after his conversion he was visiting one of them, who said: “George, I hear you are a Christian now. Is that so?” “Yes,” said Mr. Mingins. “George, do you believe in God?” “Yes.” “And do you believe in Hell, and that all who do not believe in God and in Jesus Christ will ultimately go to Hell?” “I do, most certainly.” “Well, George,” said he, “does Christianity dry up all the milk of humanity in one’s body as it has in yours?” “Why,” said Mr. Mingins, “what do you mean?” “I mean this,” He replied, “that here you have been living under my roof for three days and three nights, knowing and believing all this, and yet you never put your hand on my shoulder, or said one word to save me.” How many of my readers are in the boat with Judge Mingins? Many years ago, Charles Peace, one of the greatest of criminals, was brought to justice. A burglar, forger, and double murderer, he was condemned to death. As he was being led to the scaffold, the chaplain walked by his side, offering what we call “the consolations of religion.” As the chaplain spoke of Christ’s power to save, the wretched man turned to him and said: “Do you believe it? Do you believe it? If I believed THAT, I would willingly crawl across England on broken glass to tell men it was true.” Thank God it is true; but if the measure of our belief in its truth were the efforts we are making for the salvation of souls, I am afraid our belief could not be described as vital. General Booth once said that he would like to send all his candidates for officership to Hell for twenty-four hours as the chief part of their training. Why? Because it is not until we have a vital conviction of the irrevocable doom of the impenitent that our belief will crystallize into action. ABSENCE OF CONCERN FOR THE LOST. Christ had a concern for the individuals and for the multitudes. His concern was so real and so deep that at times the flood of tears could no longer be restrained, and rolled down His compassionate face. Jesus, the manliest of men, wept. Paul, the brave, besought men, night and day with tears, to be reconciled to God. When a young missionary, who had been invalided home, was asked why he was so eager to get back to his people, he said, “Because I cannot sleep for thinking about them.” Oh, for tear-filled eyes! Oh, for sleepless eyes, because of the imminent danger and doom of the unsaved! Do the tears ever start unbidden from OUR eyes as we behold our city filled with sin and suffering and shame? Does sleep ever flee OUR eyes because of our concern for the souls around? How cold, and callous and benumbed are our souls! When William C. Burns, so greatly used in revival work in Murray McCheyne’s parish, and later in China, was commencing his ministry, his mother met him one day in a Glasgow close. Seeing him weeping, she said: “Why those tears?” He answered “I am weeping at the sight of the multitudes in the streets, so many of whom are passing through life unsaved.” General Booth received a message from one of his captains that the work was so hard he could make no progress. The General sent back a reply of two words: “Try tears.” Success visited that corps. WHAT CONCERN FOR THE LOST CAN ACHIEVE “I went to hear D. L. Moody preach when I was a country minister and he so fired my heart, that I went back to my country church and tried to preach as he preached, and we had really a great work of grace. It did not start immediately; and I was so discouraged, because things did not go as I thought they ought, that I called my church officers together and said: ‘You will have to help me.’ They promised to do so, and finally an old farmer rose and said: ‘I have not done much work in the church, but I will help you.’ One of the officers said to me afterwards: ‘Do not ask him to pray, for he cannot pray in public,’ and another said: ‘Do not ask him to speak, for he cannot speak to the edification of the people.’ Next morning we had one of those sudden snowstorms for which that part of the country is famous, and this old farmer rose and put his horse to his sleigh and started across the country four miles to a blacksmith’s shop. He hitched his horse on the outside, and went into the shop all covered with snow, and found the blacksmith alone. The blacksmith said: ‘Mr. Cranmer, whatever brings you out today?’ The old farmer walked to the blacksmith’s bench, and putting his hand upon the man’s shoulders, said: ‘Tom!’ and the tears started to roll down his cheeks. Then with sobs choking his utterance, he said: ‘Tom, when your old father died, he gave you and your brother into my guardianship, and I have let you both grow into manhood and never asked you to become a Christian.’ That was all. He did not ask him then; he could not. He got into his sleigh and drove back home. And he did not go out again for months; he almost died from pneumonia. “But that night in the meeting, the blacksmith stood up before my church officers and said: ‘Friends, I have never been moved by a sermon in my life, but when my old friend stood before me this morning, with tears and sobs, having come all through the storm, I thought it was time I considered the matter.’ We received him into the church, and he is a respected church officer today. PREACHING FAILS, SINGING FAILS, BUT INDIVIDUAL CONCERN DOES NOT FAIL.” ABSENCE OF CONCEPTION OF THE VALUE OF A SOUL. A man will work harder to recover diamonds than gravel. Why? Because they are of so much greater value. How then can I compute the value of a soul? BY ITS NATURE AND ORIGIN. Man was made in the image of God, and into him was breathed the breath of God. Man is an immortal being. BY THE DURATION OF ITS EXISTENCE. The human soul exists eternally, and either in bliss or in woe. (See 2Co 4:18 1Co 15:53 Ro 8:11 Jude 1:7 2Pe 3:6,7 Mt 25:46.) BY THE COST OF ITS REDEMPTION. It required not shining silver or yellow gold to pay the price of man’s redemption, but crimson drops of precious blood from the broken body of the Son of God. This makes even the meanest soul worth saving.
As we look across Africa there is still a ripened harvest that must be reaped – opportunities we have now may not be available tomorrow. I think of the lyrics of an old Broadway song. A bell is not a bell ’til you ring it. A song is not a song ’til you sing it. Love in your heart is not put there to stay. Love is not love…’til you give it away. The Gospel is not the Gospel until it’s given away! His heartbeat has become our heartbeat, as we begin 2010 may we understand the value of a soul. May what is important consume us. With a renewed passion we launch out into the deep for another mighty catch. From 20th to 28th February we are returning to the Republic of Congo to a remote village Lout?t?. In January we will minister in and around Nairobi, as well as spend time in prayer and preparation for 2010. We are aiming and praying about returning to Southern Sudan in May June July and August.
Family news. On Christmas Eve at about 9pm our car finally arrived. Timothy and Joshua were both home for Christmas. We spent our time together in Nairobi. One highlight was a family picnic in Naivasha in the Rift Valley.
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