It is a good thing that people from all ideologies are talking about the horrors of human trafficking. Don’t let the “trendiness” of it dampen your indignation. If a liberal champions a good cause woe to conservatives who put their head in the sand.

Doug Nichols has been on the cutting edge of caring for street children since before some of you were born. He is one of my heroes. As Founder of Action International, Doug draws my attention to child slavery in Haiti. The children are called restavéks  (stay-withs).

He writes: “Let me share a few paragraphs from the recent book A Crime So Monstrous, by Benjamin Skinner:

…[Slaves] are everywhere. Assuming that this is your first trip to Haiti, you won't be able to identify them. But to a lower-middle-class Haitian, their status is 'written in blood.' Some are as young as three or four years old. But they'll always be the small ones, even if they're older. The average fifteen-year-old child slave is 1.5 inches shorter and 40 pounds lighter than the average free fifteen-year-old. They may have burns from cooking for their overseer's family over an open fire; or scars from beatings, sometimes in public, with the martinet, electrical cables, or wood switches. They wear faded, outsized castoffs, and walk barefoot, in sandals or, if they are lucky, oversized shoes...

[Y]ou may see their tiny necks and delicate skulls straining as they tote five-gallon buckets of water on their heads while navigating broken glass and shattered roads.

These are the restavéks, the 'stay-withs,' (child slaves) as they are euphemistically known in Creole. Forced, unpaid, they work from before dawn until deep night. The violence in their lives is unyielding. These are the children who won't look into your eyes. (-6)

Nationwide the number of restavéks ballooned from 109,000 in 1992 to 300,000, or one in ten Haitian children, in 1998, to 400,000 in 2002." (7)

Last Wednesday marked the eightieth anniversary of the death of Lilias Trotter. She died August 27, 1928, forty years and five months after following God’s call to leave her comfortable English home and move to Algeria.

According to the standards of her day, it seemed impossible that she should succeed. She was too old (34!). She was single. She didn’t know Arabic. She had no acquaintances in North Africa, except the two women who traveled with her. She couldn’t pass the physical exam for any mission board because she had a chronically weak heart following a surgery when she was younger.

If God works through the weakness of humans, as Lilias believed, he had it here in full force!

She sailed from England on March 5, 1888, with “a strange glad feeling of utter loosing and being cast upon God.” She had a passion for the God of the impossible.

Once there, she wasn’t satisfied to work only in the city of Algiers. Trotter loved to travel into the desert to find outlying settlements and nomad camps where people needed Jesus. Each journey was risky for women traveling alone with an unfamiliar guide through territories where Europeans were targets for desert bandits, scorpions, disease, and ferocious dogs.

There were no roads through the great, constantly shifting sand dunes, which rose up to 400 feet above the floor. A sandstorm would cover the subtle markings on the way. Even tiny miscalculations could mean missing a destination by miles. Within hours, the air could sear the lungs and the sun burn the traveler. It could take only half a day to reach dehydration.

In her art and writing, even today, we can catch glimpses of this world she loved. Toward the end, she was bedridden, and still she followed her calling. A map of Algeria and Tunisia hung over her bed. In her sleepless hours she prayed intensely.

On the map she wrote these words: “Take heed to the ministry which thou has received in the Lord that thou fulfill it.”

May we take those as our own words and prayer and intention.

“Remember those...who are mistreated, since you also are in the body.” (Hebrews 13:3)

Lord have mercy on your people harassed and driven from their homes in eastern India. Grant them protection and relief. That is what I would want for my body.

In the meantime, Lord, grant them to entrust their souls to a faithful Creator, and to not return evil for evil.

You should consider inviting an international student to live with you. Perhaps you have an extra bedroom in your house, or maybe there’s space in your apartment opening up soon.

Why not purposefully seek to fill it with some of the most respectful, cultured, and eager-to-learn folks around?

This kind of initiative in the heart of one of my roommates caused our apartment-family to grow this past year, adding a pair of delightful Saudi Arabian young men. Now I'm only more convinced of the idea.

Here’s why I’m persuaded:

• God loves the foreigner (Deuteronomy 10:18) and calls me to love him too (Leviticus 19:34).
• Trying to pronounce Arabic words fosters my humility.
• Ahmed and I often have extended conversations about true religion.
• My news-media-based knowledge of Muslims is supplemented with and corrected by first-hand experience. We are very similar in our desires, our depravity, and our need for a Savior.
• Mohammed knows how to make kabsa, and he’s generous with it.
• I can play an active part in reaching the nations from my own living room.
• It exposes my other friends and family to all the above.

This is a guest post from a friend of ours who is a missionary doctor working with Muslims. It is the final part of his guest series, "Day-to-day Observations from Asia."

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If our goal in sending Christians around the world is to see thriving indigenously led and supported, theologically accurate churches rapidly multiplying in unreached cultures, then it behooves us to think about the means that are most worthy of our support and effort. 

To have a church, one does not need a building or denomination or organization or even instruments or chairs. The most important part of any church is the Bible. 

Missionaries come and go, but the Bible will be with the church forever (or else it is not a church). So they had better know how to study the Bible. Hence, teaching bible study methods is missions and everything else supports that goal. 

(By that definition, I spend about 10-20% of my time doing “missions” and the rest of my time doing “support.”  So I am not trying to deride “support”; I am just trying to point out what we need to strive to do.)

Christian literature is rife with “golden keys”:  Do this and your church will grow! Use this method and experience Christian success! This one thing will cause your ministry to expand!

Many of these keys are fabulous and godly tools. The Jesus Film or the Alpha Course pop to mind. But they are just tools. 

There is no golden key. It’s mostly just hard work—the stuff expected of everyday Christians. 

• Consistently show up at work on time and do a good job. 
• Express appropriate grief and mourning when there is a death in the neighborhood. 
• Build a reputation (and it can take years) of being a godly man, a holy man, with a god-fearing wife. 
• Drink a lot of tea (or coffee, etc.) with your friends. Many cups a day, day in and day out, for years. 
• Be known as a “Bible man.” Memorize Scripture and quote it regularly to your non believing friends. Try to bring up Jesus or the Bible within two minutes in every conversation (time yourself if you must). 
• Bathe everything you do and say in prayer. 

As a hero of mine has said, “Nothing works, therefore try everything.” There is no "golden key" other than the Holy Spirit and hard work. 

This is a guest post from a friend of ours who is a missionary doctor working with Muslims. It is a part of his guest series, "Day-to-day Observations from Asia."

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It would sure be nice if, when approaching the New Testament, all of my questions would be answered with short, pithy sound bites that make sense in a cross-cultural situation. 

So what does Paul think of circumcision? In his teachings, he certainly has some entertainingly negative and visually striking things to say about the practice:

I wish those who [teach salvation by circumcision] would emasculate themselves.” (Galatians 5:12)

But in real practice, his actions regarding the cultural aspects of circumcision seem mixed. 

I speak, of course, of Titus and Timothy, two young fellows who both first encountered the ever-opinionated Paul in a decidedly uncircumcised state. Titus and Timothy discussed their condition with Paul, and ended up with different conclusions. Timothy gets circumcised as an adult, and Titus does not. 

But even Titus, who was with me, was not forced to be circumcised, though he was a Greek. (Galatians 2:3)

Paul wanted Timothy to accompany him, and he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews. (Acts 16:3)

(By the way, the very fact this gets talked about in the Bible is a relief to me. 'Twould be a bit embarrassing to discuss it with a typical Westerner, but it definitely is a matter of discussion in the Muslim culture I work in. Maybe the conversations I have here in My Fair City are not so far off of New Testament norms.) 

Paul has Timothy get circumcised “because of the Jews”?  Since when has Paul let “the Jews” bother him?  Does this mean he had Timothy circumcised for cultural reasons? 

And just the opposite, he tells Titus to not get circumcised. 

OK, Paul, what’s the deal?  Just what am I supposed to tell a new Muslim believer who wants to know what to do with his children? 

That circumcision lacks the power of salvation is beyond refute. That, as a cultural marker, it may be reasonable seems possible and even probable. 

That Paul does not have a “sound bite” for the Muslims of My Fair City is manifest. Suffice it to say that I am glad that my folks had me done as an infant. 

This is a guest post from a friend of ours who is a missionary doctor working with Muslims. It is a part of his guest series, "Day-to-day Observations from Asia."

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So we went to this Muslim wedding in our fair city. We get invited to lots. It was not clear to me who the groom was, but that was beside the point. They slaughtered 5,000 chickens and scores of goats to feed the guests, thus demonstrating what my true intentions were in attending—to eat well.  (Hmm, I have just inadvertently confessed to my true motivation in many social situations…but I digress.)

I, being decidedly a man, was in a spacious and now cacophonous room with all the other men, hanging out, mingling, laughing, introducing and being introduced. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a familiar face. Let’s call him, “The Poet.” 

I know The Poet a little bit; he’s the friend of a good friend. He has the habit of quoting various couplets in many situations and fancies himself a bit of a writer himself. I had heard that in recent months he'd become much more religious and could be seen at the mosque daily.  

The Poet worked his way up close to me, and then announced in a loud clear voice that carried well around the room, "We believe that all the prophets—from Adam and Noah through to Jesus and Mohammed—that all the prophets were circumcised.” 

The room grew silent for a moment. 

While he spoke to the crowd, it was clear that he was speaking to me, “the Christian.” And it was clear that even though he made a general statement, he wanted an answer. 

And what to answer? There were numerous things wrong with his statement.

Adam and Noah were not circumcised. Should I argue that point? 

Jesus was much more than a prophet. Should I argue that point? 

I do not believe Mohammed was a prophet of God. Should I argue that point? 

Thanks be to God, at that moment, I did not have a mouthful of chicken and the goat hadn't yet been served. 

Without having time to think, I answered just as loudly, “The Old Testament tells of the importance God placed on circumcision, an outward sign, but it also says that circumcision of the heart is more important. It does not matter if you are outwardly perfect, if your heart is dirty. Only God can change a man’s heart.” 

There seemed to be a general murmur of approval, and conversations resumed.

Is that how the Holy Spirit works? In poorly motivated situations, between mouthfuls of chicken, and before the goat is served?

This post is by a friend of ours working in Beijing.

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For 1000 days, the countdown clock has been ticking, and now the day is finally here—the start of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. The opening ceremonies are scheduled to begin at 8PM, on this 8th day of the 8th month in the year 2008.

Yes, the number 8 is very auspicious in traditional Chinese culture. Having lived in this city for the past 10 years, it has been interesting to watch Beijing re-invent itself before these games—from slighly frumpy and insecure to brash and confident.

And now the city is ready. The buildings have been painted; the flowers (40 million of them) are arranged neatly; the cabbies have new uniforms; the volunteers are all smiling; and the security forces are in place.

What will the next two weeks bring? Fame and disappointment for athletes; fun and excitement for fans; ulcers and headaches for the leadership of the country as they work hard to live up to their promise of a "safe Olympics."

Another thing that the coming weeks will bring is prayer. To help with the worldwide prayer effort, I would like to recommend a resource that can be used during the games. "China Games and Beyond" (PDF) is a 40-day prayer journal designed to focus prayer on China during the Olympic and Paraolympic games that run from August 8 to September 17. (You can also order a hard copy.)

Each day features a specific sport and prayer requests for Chinese athletes and coaches as well as the Chinese church. Each entry also includes a meditation and prayer from John Piper's Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ and questions for reflection.

I have tickets to join in some of the sporting fun, including men's 100 meter finals, and men's basketball finals. I can hardly wait. But as thousands enjoy the games, my prayer is this—that we will be kept from the idolatry of athletes and the idolatry of country.

There is glory to be seen in these games, but it belongs to the Creator alone.

This is a guest post from a friend of ours who is a missionary doctor working with Muslims. It is a part of his guest series, "Day-to-day Observations from Asia."

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My wife had a doctor's appointment on a recent Saturday morning. She was well into pregnancy and the visits were becoming more frequent. I went along because I hadn't met the doctor yet, and because I wanted to make sure I understood my role in the upcoming delivery.

The doctor was late so we ended up sitting in the waiting room for over an hour with dozens of other patients.

Luckily for us, there was an educational TV channel on to keep us well-informed. Unluckily for us, the information was about the Sauna Belt.

The TV was showing an American infomericial made in Southern California (no offense to my friends there).

Apparently, people in Southern California are all young, blond, attractive, and find numerous articles of clothing unnecessary. Most importantly, they all keep their unrealistic figures by wearing a Sauna Belt.

The whole thing was dubbed into Hindi. Most of the clichés did not translate well. (You’ll have to trust me on that one.)

The Sauna Belt, which this infomerical was trying to sell, is a 12-inch-wide plastic and vinyl belt that you wrap around your stomach. It's battery-powered to create heat. Lots of heat. Allegedly, this will help you lose weight. You will become beautiful, thin, happy and fulfilled.

It was 100 degrees in the waiting room. All of the patients were dripping with sweat, yet almost everybody was studying the idea with apparent seriousness. There was a toll-free number where Hindi speaking operators would take your credit card information, and arrange for a courier to send you this thing.

My wife and I found it rather amusing. Why, exactly, when one is already drenched with sweat, would one want to wrap oneself in hot plastic and vinyl? We tried, mostly with success, to hide our giggles.

You will be happy to know there was also a toll-free number for Bangladesh, in case any Bangladeshi's want to order the Sauna Belt.

This is a guest post from a friend of ours who is a missionary doctor working with Muslims. It is a part of his guest series, "Day-to-day Observations from Asia."

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I was studying Psalm 43 with a friend in Urdu the other day. We came to where it says in English, "I will go to the altar of God."

As I read along in Urdu, I did not know the word for "altar," so I asked my friend what it was. He didn't know how to translate the word into English, but he gave the following English description: "It is God's bloody place, where the throats of the animals are slit for sacrifice."

Of course. It's an altar.

Sometimes I think of an altar as the carpeted stairs and dais at the front of the church meetinghouse. But it's not. It is a bloody place—a place of sacrifice and death.

I need to remember that.

In this month’s Lausanne World Pulse there is a fascinating article on how God is sending African Christians to re-establish the Evangelical church in secularized Europe.

Today, some of the largest congregations in Europe—Western and Eastern—are either founded by Africans or are led by people of African descent.

A renewal movement is underway as these immigrant churches challenge the moral relativism of European culture.

I asked Pastor Mike Gunn, Director of Acts 29 International, for his take. He writes,

I think authentic, contextualized African theology, imbued with God’s missional Spirit can help the west regain its biblical moorings, but I fear that the prosperity gospel will taint much of what Africa is bringing to the table....

I hope to give [church-planters] a foundation to unlock biblical truths that relate to what God has already done in the midst of their beautiful culture. Our goal is to see the gospel redeem their culture and their cities.

International Outreach is partnering with Acts 29 to bring solid theological resources to church leaders in Africa and Europe so that they might proclaim the excellencies of him who called us out of darkness into his marvelous light.

This is a guest post from a friend of ours who is a missionary doctor working with Muslims. It is a part of his guest series, "Day-to-day Observations from Asia."

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Recently there was a political agitation in our city. The exact details escape me, and indeed, when you ask local people why it happened, they get glassy-eyed themselves, as if they also do not fully understand it. I think one political party was upset about something that happened somewhere, and wanted the government to do something about it.

Or maybe they just want to make a scene. They succeeded.

Around 9 AM, just as rush hour was starting, a whole bunch of Sadhus (Hindu holy guys) sat down in the middle of the one of the busiest roads in this part of the world. Horns blared, people shouted, brakes screeched, dogs barked, goats jumped, and traffic came to a standstill.

The Sadhus said they would sit there until the district magistrate came and listened to their complaint.

I got into the traffic jam about a half hour after it began. By the time I realized what was going on, it was too late—I couldn't move. For a few minutes foot traffic was able to get through, and then even pedestrians came to a halt. Every square inch within a quarter mile was full of someone or something.

What space the cars didn't take up, auto rickshaws filled. What they didn't take, bicycle rickshaws filled. What they didn't take, scooters and motorcycles filled. What they didn't take, the bicycles filled. What space they didn't take, pedestrians filled. Until there was no space left. No one could move.

Throw a few cows and curious goats into the mix and it was a first-rate state of affairs. 

I am constantly amazed that there are not more fights in situations like that. But everyone remained calm and talkative as the two hours passed before the protesters finally packed up and left.

At one point, several schoolboys were walking on roofs and stepping on the backs of other schoolboys, to try and get through. A couple of them stopped and chatted with me for a couple of minutes because they wanted to practice their English. I said their mode of transportation was like a mosh pit, and one replied, "I do not know what a mosh pit is, sir, but these agitators are causing a fine stir."

Eventually the traffic began to move, and life got back to "normal," as we know it in our fair city.

This is a guest post from a friend of ours who is a missionary doctor working with Muslims. It is a part of his guest series, "Day-to-day Observations from Asia."

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I was watching Justin Taylor interview John Piper and John Macarthur the other day. He asked them what they do when they encounter faithfulness but also fruitlessness (or something like that).

I think the intent of the question was, What if a person is in ministry and there does not appear to be any obvious fruit? What if a godly man who is called to preach, preaches biblically, but the fellowship he is ministering to still melts away?

A lack of obvious, short-term "fruit" often leads people to question the faithfulness of the pastor. This may be appropriate, and indeed, accountability to remain faithful is a hallmark of a good pastor.

But too often a lack of short-term “fruitfulness” weakens a minister's resolve to endure, even though a Biblical call for endurance is exactly what is needed in so many cases.

What about the fruitfulness of prayer? Or the fruitfulness of obedience? Jeremiah, Hosea, and others were faithful in their calling, but none of them saw "fruit" in the way we usually think of it. They called people to repentance and no one repented. Yet God seems to make much of their fruitfulness of obedience, their fruitfulness of endurance, their fruitfulness of faithfulness, their fruitfulness of doing what is right even if the stars fall.

This is a guest post from a friend of ours who is a missionary doctor working with Muslims. It is a part of his guest series, "Day-to-day Observations from Asia."

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On Shoob Bara'At, the local Muslims in our country go to the graveyards to pray for the dead, mostly family and friends. I asked my friend, "Well, could you pray for a non-Muslim on that night also? How about Jews, Christians, and Hindus?"

He thought for awhile, and then replied, "Well, I guess I could pray for a Christian or a Jew, since we worship the same God, but I don't think I could pray for a Hindu, since they pray to different gods."

He offered to pray for any dead relatives of mine that needed prayer, but I respectfully declined. 

As we were walking about, observing the rituals (which were surprisingly festive, considering the circumstances), we ran into a Muslim gravedigger who was about to start on a job.

When local Muslims bury the dead, they do not preserve the body in any way, but just wrap it in a simple white sheet, and put it in the ground. No headstone, just a pile of earth. And in a hot and moist climate such as this one, bodies disintegrate rapidly.

Since space is at such a huge premium in the mind-bogglingly crowded alleys of our fair city, they obviously have to bury on top of a place where someone else was buried before. So I asked the gravedigger how long he would wait, before he dug a fresh grave on a site where someone was buried previously.

He was a remarkably cheerful chap, given the soberness of his profession, and he happily replied, "Ten years, Doctor-Sahib. I have every space memorized in these graveyards [that's at least a thousand graves], and I know where I can bury someone. If I wait ten years, then there will be no bones or anything when I start digging anew."

I am not sure in which part of my brain I will file away that little factoid, but I am sure to not forget it.

This is a guest post from a friend of ours who is a missionary doctor working with Muslims. It is a part of his guest series, "Day-to-day Observations from Asia."

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The other day, I stopped by the house of one of my Muslim friends. He informed me that his 19-year-old nephew was in the hospital and he asked me to come and look him over.

No problem. I’m a Physician. I get this a lot.

The nephew had gotten pretty banged up when he fell from a three-story building, hitting a few things on the way down. Most of the injuries were not alarming and already taken care of—scrapes, cuts, bruises. He had also broken his heel, which will probably take a couple of months in a cast to heal up.

But the main thing was a broken jawbone. The x-ray was impressive, with several breaks. The answer seemed obvious to me: he needed an operation to get his jaw wired shut.

Enter the negotiations.

As it turns out, the accident happened eight days ago. The family had already been told to get his jaw wired shut, but they were refusing to have the operation because they couldn't afford it.

In this country, you pay for your medical care with cash up front or else the doctor won't do it. Makes sense, otherwise nobody would get paid. So the family and the surgeon had been negotiating for eight days while the patient survived on sugar water in an IV drip.

Well, that's no good.

As I looked him over, he just seemed a little odd. He couldn't speak because of his injury, but he followed commands fine. Even so, he was not interacting normally. He didn’t look at me or his parents or his uncle; he mostly stared off into space. He didn’t even look at the pretty nurse who stopped by…. Now that is odd in a teenage boy. 

The next 30 minutes were taken up in an animated discussion of operations and costs and second opinions and so on. I finally left because it was time for me to get on to my next appointment.

I saw my friend the next day in his office and I mentioned that his nephew seemed a little odd. I asked whether his brain might have gotten hurt in the accident? My friend replied, "No, that is the way he has been since he was 12 years old, let me tell you a story..."

But then a customer came in and my friend discontinued the conversation about his nephew.

When I finally got him alone for a bit he told me that his nephew—when he was 12 years old—had been in the countryside, and had walked into a field to empty his bladder. He unknowingly voided on a Djinn, a Muslim spirit being. (They are different than angels, usually viewed as bad, but sometimes neutral or even good.) Therefore the Djinn had cursed him.

The curse was thus: once or twice a month, for 2 or 3 days at a time, the boy would stop functioning. He would just sit and stare straight ahead without speaking. He could eat and drink during these times, but otherwise would just sit for hours and stare.

Various doctors they had consulted had not helped, but the boy's mother (my friend’s sister) had a special Koranic prayer book she would chant a prayer from, and then blow them (literally) over her son. This usually worked.

In between the spells he seemed normal, finishing high school and now doing computer-based cloth design.

My secular friend asked me: "Do you believe in Djinn?"

I love this job. We talked awhile.

The next day, my friend asked me to see his nephew in his home.  (They had refused to have the operation, and the patient had been transferred home, complete with a massive round-the-head bandage to supposedly hold his jawbone in place while it healed.) He asked me if I could help with the spells.

But when we arrived, there was a crowd in the house, and my non-religious friend did not want me to talk about the ailment at that time.

Based on what Jesus said about the expelled evil spirit who wanders about and then returns to the house to find it empty and moves back in with seven of his friends, I was not sure that an exorcism would do any good yet. It seemed that this young man had a pretty empty house. Filling it with righteousness would be a first step, so that when the Djinn eventually gets expelled, it can't come back in.

After tea, we talked and prayed for healing, and I left them a copy of Psalm 1, and Psalm 42/43 (Hope in God!). I suggested that the boy meditate on this for awhile. I also recommended that the patriarch of the family approve of it before they started reading.

He said OK, with only a brief scanning. They were all gathered around reading aloud when I left.

So anyway, that's what I've done during my lunchtimes the last couple days. How about you?

What does a cross-cultural missionary look like? One description won’t work. Cross-cultural gospel-spreaders take all kinds of forms: Bible translators, ESL teachers, environmentalists, pizza shop managers.

Missionaries across the world bless their host cultures in diverse ways to demonstrate and teach the love of God. If you want to know what a missionary does all day, we recommend finding some and asking them. They’ll appreciate that you did.

But in the meantime, we’ve asked one for you.

One of our friends is a doctor in an Asian city with a large Muslim population. He cares for people’s physical needs while laboring to illuminate their great spiritual need and the Solution.

We’ve asked him to write his observations on life, and we’ll post them here over the next weeks starting tomorrow. (You can subscribe to our blog by RSS or email, if you don't want to miss any.)

Some afternoons he spends lunch discussing evil spirits with his patients and pointing them to Scripture. Some mornings he spends hours stuck in traffic jams of rickshaws and goats.

Mainly, he strives to love Jesus Christ and display this love, so that others too might follow him.

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Posts in This Series:

• Do You Believe in Djinn?
• Praying For and Burying the Dead 
• Faithfulness and Fruitlessness
• The Traffic Jam 
• What Is an Altar? 
• Overdubbed Infomercials 
• Responding to the Poet 
• Circumcision and Culture 
• Nothing Works, So Try Everything
  

Persian World Outreach has recently completed a translation of Let the Nations Be Glad in Farsi, which you can order by emailing them.

We are very excited to see this book in Farsi, because it is the native language for millions, most of whom are Muslims who live in hard-to-reach areas like Iran and Afghanistan.

Persian World Outreach’s next Piper translation project is Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die, which should be available in the next year. They also offer many other English to Farsi translations (PDF).

There is a relationship between the sermon series that just ended at Bethlehem concerning our vision for the next generation and the book I just finished writing on the missionary sacrifices of William Tyndale, Adoniram Judson, and John Paton.

When Iain Murray gives an account of the “rise of the missionary spirit” in Scotland in the 1800's he comments that “a new zeal to take the gospel to the world was born out of a new experience of its power.” Then he draws attention to the connection between the renewed homelife and the missionary upsurge:

Friends, parents, neighbors first it will embrace
Our country next, and next the human race.

The Gospel does affect homes first. In Scotland it led to a type of home life and family religion fitted to produce young men and women whose great interest was the service of Christ.... [John Paton’s] autobiography provides an unforgettable account of the prayerfulness of his father...

The Lowland cotter’s lad cherished and guarded in his heart the spell of his father’s habit of communion with God, and the vision of his mother’s absorbed passion to win her children to see fear and love the Most High. These were his main equipment in life. No science can produce them; no money can purchase them.

One of the most remembered sounds of Patton’s childhood was his father’s voice, at family worship, as “he poured out his whole soul with tears for the conversion of the heathen world to the service of Jesus.” The thatched cottage of the Patons was only one of many such nurseries. Most of the Scottish missionaries came from homes and backgrounds where simple living, hard work, many sacrifices and earnest devotion were the every day experiences of youth. (A Scottish Christian Heritage, 222-223)

Our translators have been hard at work again. Thanks to their efforts, we’ve been able to post several new sermons and articles on our site since the beginning of 2008.

Check out newly translated resources in these languages:

• German (Quest for Joy booklet)
• Romanian (5 new sermons)
• Russian (3 new sermons)
• Spanish (22 new sermons)
• Thai (Quest for Joy booklet)
• Finnish (Quest for Joy booklet)

We add translated resources regularly, so check back to find the newest materials.

Find out how you can help with the translation of Desiring God resources.

In March, I went to visit Kenya. I kissed my husband goodbye and left him at home. Or so I thought. But when I got to Kenya, I found him all over the place.

At Moffatt Bible College in Kijabe, for example, the librarian gave me a tour. One set of double doors opened to the textbook closet. Most students can’t afford to buy books for their classes, so here they can check out the required texts for the term. In the center of the center shelf was a stack of The Supremacy of God in Preaching.

Later that week, at a workshop in Old Kijabe Town, Peter heard that I was John Piper’s wife. He turned his smile on me and said, “Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Missions exists because worship doesn’t. . . . Worship, therefore, is the fuel and goal in missions,” quoting from Let the Nations Be Glad.

Peter is a graduate of Moffatt Bible College and is now the Assistant Pastor at Kijabe Mission Church. I wouldn’t have been surprised by a former student telling me that he appreciated my husband’s book. But I was blown away that a couple of years after Peter completed his missions class, he still could quote word for word from the textbook—that’s impact.

There are things we can do to help our kids love the nations and the cause of Christ, even though a heart and calling for the Great Commission is ultimately something only God can grant. Here are a few ideas from Ryan and Anna, who are currently preparing to serve in Asia with their two young daughters.

1. Pray for missionaries as a family. We keep a stack of prayer cards on the dinner table and rotate through them during mealtime prayers.

2. Read missionary biographies to your children. The stories of Hudson Taylor, Adoniram Judson, William Carey, Gladys Aylward, and other missionary pioneers are captivating ways to orient a child’s heart on the most important things in life.

3. Draw the whole family into supporting missionaries financially. Teach your kids from a young age that being a good steward of their money involves channeling resources toward the the cause of Christ in missions. Older kids can donate some of their lawn mowing and babysitting money. Younger children can earn money doing chores around the house which can be set aside for missionaries.

4. Find your child a missionary kid pen pal. Many children of missionaries around the world would be delighted to get mail from a child their age in their parent’s culture. Your child (and the whole family) will learn valuable insights about living abroad through the eyes of a child. Additionally, when the missionaries visit your church, your child will already have a relationship with the MK and will be able to include them more easily.

5. Entertain missionaries in your home. Inviting missionaries over will be as much of a blessing to your family as to the missionaries. Host them for dinner or for a whole furlough. Build or buy your house with this in mind.

6. Take risks as a family. There are ways to live life which help children grasp the reality that discomfort and suffering are normal and rewarding parts of the Christian experience. Volunteer at a rescue mission; house a single mother; move to the inner-city.

7. Affirm and nurture qualities in your children which could serve them on the mission field. As your children grow in knowledge and skill, encourage them to think about how they could use their gifts in missions work. Then, if God says, “go,” release them to go!

8. Teach your children to be world Christians. Don't expose them to only the American perspective on news and realities around the world. Go out of your way to make them more aware than the average American Christian about geography, world history, and the plights and perspectives of people across the globe.

9. Read missionary prayer letters to your children. Ask them questions about the content and look up facts about the missionaries’ location on the Internet.

10. Use missions fact books and resources such as Operation World, the Global Prayer Digest, the Joshua Project, and Voice of the Martyrs (VOM). Kids of Courage is the youth-oriented arm of VOM and offers activity books, spotlights on the persecuted world, and more.

Most of all, pray every day that your kids will develop hearts that mirror God’s compassion for the nations and love for his glory in them!

You might be aware that in the last few months, significant political changes have been occurring in Pakistan. My friend Joe and his wife just got settled there for long term work in one of its major cities. I asked him to briefly describe his perception of how these political changes are impacting the people and affecting the spread of the Gospel.

He writes,

On March 24 the National Assembly of Pakistan appointed a new prime minister to lead the nation alongside President Pervez Musharraf. The appointment of Makhdoon Yusuf Raza Gilani is considered by many to be a major step toward a more democratic and just government. Whether or not this hope will be fulfilled remains to be seen, but we are thankful to God for the relatively smooth transition of power that has taken place in recent weeks.

Though there is a renewed sense of stability in the higher echelons of government and mild optimism among some Pakistanis, life remains hard for the overwhelming majority of people in this nation. The high cost of food, the constant threat of sickness, and the lack of access to basic services will not disappear quickly. These problems are vast and even a well-performing government will have a difficult time addressing the numerous issues.

Sadly, Pakistanis have been waiting all their lives for better days. Many politicians, leaders, and generals have come in their 60-year history, promising to bring about greater peace, stability, and prosperity. In reality, the people of Pakistan have been left with mostly unfulfilled promises and plans.

On March 23, we celebrated the resurrection. The Apostle Peter writes that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is all about hope: “he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Peter 1:3). Hope is what more than 100 million Pakistanis are desperate for. Many in this nation have given up on things changing for the better and have turned to drugs, religion, or escape to the West. Some have once again decided to put hope in the government to make things right.

Let’s pray, as Paul instructed in 2nd Timothy, for those who are now in high positions of power in Pakistan. Let’s pray that through them God would be pleased to bring greater peace, stability, and prosperity to this nation that has been labeled “The World’s Most Dangerous Place.”

But more than that, let’s pray for the people of Pakistan, and let’s be ready to go and share with them the “living hope” of Jesus Christ. This is a hope that is certain, grounded in both his death and resurrection. And it is a hope that has the power to bring about true joy even in the midst of the most difficult and seemingly hopeless circumstances (1 Pet 1:6).

Making plans for summer? If you’re interested in being completely stretched, battling discouragement, experiencing new kinds of joy, and significantly widening your perspective of God’s heart for the nations, check out some of these short-term opportunities.

• Pioneers
• Frontiers
• Christar
• AIM

These links represent only a few of the many opportunities available. For a longer directory of missions agencies, see Urbana’s list.

Third Culture Kids (TCKs) are children who grow up in a culture other than their parents’. Their “home” culture is the first culture; their “host” culture, the second. And they live in the middle, the “third” culture. TCKs include children of missionaries or other international workers. They face unique struggles in their lives of transition. It’s our privilege as the body of Christ to provide care for them as they join with their parents in God’s call on their lives to be overseas.

Here are 15 ideas from the TCK Advocate at Frontiers on how to love TCKs:

1. Begin a relationship with one—or with a whole family of TCKs. Commit to keeping in touch with them. Many people are in TCK’s lives for only a short time. The long-term people are few and greatly appreciated. Be one of those long-term people.
2. Seek them out when they are “home” visiting your country. Make it a priority to spend time with them when they come back.
3. Learn their names. This may seem small, but many people only know their parents’ names; it is significant to them when people remember their names as well.
4. Listen to them. Ask meaningful questions about their lives.
5. Introduce your kids to them. Encourage them to exchange pictures with each other and send cards and emails to each other when they are apart.
6. Go visit them in their country!
7. Invite a college-age TCK whose parents are overseas to live with you.
8. Invite TCKs who are in your area without their parents to come over for holidays and school breaks. They may need an adopted family. Communicate with their parents and encourage them in their relationship with their parents.
9. Learn about what it’s like to grow up as a TCK. Visit websites like TC Kid or MisLinks.
10. Pray for the TCKs when you pray for their parents. Pray Scripture for the children. Read some suggestions on how to pray for them.
11. Encourage families as they make decisions for educating their children overseas. Many families choose to use local schools so their child can be a part of the culture. Be encouraging and pray that their children will shine for Jesus in their schools. Some find that boarding school is the best option for their children. Other families desire to homeschool their children. Consider sharing your resources with them or visiting a homeschooling fair on their behalf.
12. Consider giving them your frequent flyer miles to help with transportation to and from their two countries.
13. Send quality paperback books to TCKs overseas. Books can be like best friends and will be re-read and shared with others.
14. Don’t be surprised if TCKs do not seem to appreciate your culture like you do. TCKs often feel overwhelmed by all the excesses in American culture. For example, they may feel surprised by the size of grocery stores, how often people eat out, the high cost of entertainment and how often people “splurge,” the lack of modest clothing even in the church, the sensuality in TV shows and movies, and how much people eat in one sitting.
15. Get advice right from the source—ask TCKs what makes them feel loved and supported.