nov2014 mission link -...

Mission Link from David Upp November 2014

#

Aliquam 2 Donec 5

Part of the Missionary’s Work is Evangelizing in far-‐off lands, but Another important part is Sharing about Global Missions with members in local Congregations/Fellowships across the Sending Conference. It is called “Itineration”.

When I was teaching full semesters (in the “South Pacific”, India, Liberia, etc.) I could calculate in advance when I could be back in the “North Atlantic” & available for Itineration in your congregations. With Fragmentation of Mission Appointments, this has become much more difficult (but I WILL be in Hutchinson through Epiphany [January 6, 2015])! Pictured above is an event in Marquette, I have also preached at Great Bend, South Hutchinson, Hutchinson: Tenth Avenue, & am scheduled for December 7 at Kanopolis. Whether your idea is an event for the entire congregation, or one to be tailored for a Women’s /Men’s Fellowship Group, Youth Group, or even a Children’s Program [Marquette combined those last 2): I would be happy to serve you! I can focus upon a single nation where I’ve served [e.g. Liberia], a Region [e.g. South Asia, Micronesia], or another concentration [House of Europe, Tea, Migration, Epidemics, Materials {This is made of WHAT!?}, Bible Translation, or Bible Studies].

Mission Itineration at Marquette, 11/11/2104. Would YOUR Congregation host an Event about World Missions?


2

1

When I grew up in Hutch, Trinity Methodist Church celebrated Missions every January/Epiphany. Thinking back to the Three Wisemen [Gentiles who wanted to know Jesus] we invited Missionaries & their Mission Converts to our congregation to tell us their testimonies. We ate covered-dish suppers and worshipped together [with new hymns in foreign languages], then divided into age-groups to dig deeply into Mission: World-wide Witness. Travel was still difficult and communication much slower. But we found a way to grow & to support foreign Missions as Jesus had commanded us.

2

Today there’s a new way to experience Missions is as a Volunteer-In-Mission. I’ve been on about 20 VIMs [since 1977: with St. Paul UMC, Wichita], applaud them, and encourage your participation! They give a genuine taste of mission work, but those who spend their vacations this way should not be confused with Missionaries sent out by all Churches in full-time work (with training, super-vision, & full Evaluations). The same is true for food banks & resale shops & disaster relief in our towns & conferences. It is Great… but it’s not Global Missions.

Great Plains Conference does not have a Missions Board. It has been collapsed into “Mercy & Justice” with other valid, but clearly non-Great Commission, ministries). This is not a direct violation of our UM Discipline, but is reflecting the wide-spread neglect of Missions in many mainline denominations. Sad… But we can do Better! Let’s re-vitalize our Missions.

ITINERATION on Furloughs Missionaries LOVE to Share their experiences of serving Christ

overseas while they are back in their Home Conferences!


The “Gentle Tasaday” … Evolutionist MYTH of a “Stone Age Tribe” created by the National Geographic staff & their Co-‐Religionists!

f

l

l

I first became aware of Mindanao’s Manobo Tribes in 1972, as a Rice U. Linguistics and Anthropology major. A National Geographic cover showed an Ape-Boy climbing jungle vines, from a Tribe of Cave-Men. This was a dream-come-true: proving their Evolutionist dogmas. Initial contacts showed they had no experience with metals, lived in caves, & had no words or either the sun or moon. I understood how glorious this seemed to my non-Christian colleagues, the only problem was that I have a New Testament in their own anguage on my shelf ! Interviews later confirmed they spoke Cotobato Manobo, ike their cousins driving taxis in the city. This tiny band of two dozen were survivors of

a battle who’d fled deep into the jungle &

2

stayed there from fear of their enemies. Their parents had not taught them about their modern lives [like the Hippies in Australia, to give us another example of rapid culture-loss in the 20th Century] & (like almost all of us) had no personal experience in how to smelt metals or make the everyday objects in use. Once those items were lost, broken, or needed new batteries, they ceased to be a part of Tasaday material culture; who were then reduced to using stone & vines and other materials which were in reach. Lacking even machetes & ropes, they moved into caves to provide shelter for their families. Lacking clinics & medicine mortality rose to the point where they were becoming extinct. Discovery by the

3


4

(Continued)

3

people of the outside world spared them from that end (but the corrupt Marcos-era officials who protected them from outsiders [refusing all research and interviews] also began to steal resources from their zone within the jungle). After the Fall of President Marcos, anthropo-logists did finally gain access to this tribe & the MYTH was shattered. Wide-spread HOAX charges appeared, but it was really dogmatic devotion of the Evolutionists that kept the truth from being seen. (Discuss: Did Michelangelo operate in The Stone Age? Or an eye-surgeon who used obsidian scalpels?) The Biblical Perspective which I bring to the evidence argues that the LOSS of such knowledge, skills and values demonstrates a break-down in Encultu-ration, rather than an excuse for conjuring up imaginary pre-history. Absence of midden heaps [shells/bones/ garbage/waste] in their home-caves suggests the Tasaday hadn’t lived there very long; their language not diverging far, has confirmed a recent isolation.

Now let’s jump forward to 2013. A young Missionary feels led to Mindanao. He begins to learn Cebuano & to meet pastors on the island, teaching & encou-raging Christian unity. He is teaching [near an area where the local Chief has forbidden conversions to Christ] when that Chief walks in during a lesson on Prophecy. All rise in recognition of that

Chief & he stays to listen. Then the Chief stands to confront the missionary: ‘We have prophets in our place – What are you teaching about them?’ After a quick prayer for guidance, he responds ‘Do you have many rivers in your place? Are they all equally clean? A true prophet speaks from a pure source, God; while other prophets offer drinks from muddy water.’ The Chief nodded, went home and lifted his ban against becoming Christians!

That missionary is Caleb Byerly from North Carolina. I met him in 2011 at Eita on Tarawa, Kiribati. He is married to Gladys, a Filipina who speaks Tagalog & Cebuano: their son Roshan was born 9/23. In a previous Mission Link, I gave you a link to this next story:www.youtube.com/watch?v= 656kqugtmXw. Caleb had a dream in which he gave an unique musical instrument to the Tinananon Manobos. The dream was so clear that Caleb was able in three months to build that instrument. In a back of a jeepney carrying pastors to a meeting, one man kept staring at Caleb, trying to remember when he had seen him before. Then he realized he had seen Caleb in a dream 3 years earlier… & this missionary worked with him. Last month, together they took that instrument to a Tinananon Chief—who was stunned by it. He took Caleb into the music room where there was an empty spot for their Salimbaa this instrument they’d lost 100 years ago!!


1

My News in this Mission Link, is that I shall be joining Caleb in Manila next January for a mission to Mindanao & the Uma-yamnon Manobo Tribe (& also possibly a mission to the Tinananon Manobo in April 2015). This will be my first missionary work in The Philippines since I taught seminarians from 6 different “Igorot” Tribes of the Northern Luzon boondocks/mountains in Imugan, Nueva Vizcaya (at Shalom Bible College, founded by EUB/ UMC

missionaries Delbert & Esther Rice). My rôle will be to suggest strategies, to discern our progress, and to furnish Cebuano Bibles. We will share with Pastor Manigos [a pastor in the jeepney story above] who’s, I’m told, eager to meet me. This ministry is funded by making & selling musical instruments [especially the traditional drums & flutes] in Malaybalay & Iglugsad, Bukidnon. This should become a highlight of my missionary service! It is true that there are dangers in this outreach. The Umayamnon have had violence erupt within

2

their community over the pronunciation of their tribal name [the Y should be pronounced like the J in Jesus, not as Y in You]. There are also risks from Moro/Muslim terrorists (who kidnapped Kansas missionaries Martin & Gracia Burnham) as well as Communist insurgents. This fear’s why the GBGM failed in 1995 to send me to teach at Cotabato’s So. Philippines Methodist College[though UM Bishop Granadosin had specifically invited and requested me]. January’s mission falls during their dry season, & we’ll have a river crossing + 22 miles by motorbike on trails too weak for cars [I’d prefer riding a horse: Is that my ‘inner Circuit-Rider ’?]. Please, focus in prayer on the Evangelization of the Manobo Tribes who’ve not yet heard the Gospel: to respond as God & Manobo Christians invite them!

The answer is The US Virgin Islands! This former Danish colony blurs into today’s UK colony of the British Virgin Islands, where they use US Dollars! It seemed safer not to make drivers change sides, but the drivers end up away from the road’s center and not able to pass in safety.

New Trivia Question:

What is the Eighth most highly populated island in the world?

October Trivia Question:

In which US Territory do cars drive on the road's LEFT side??

nov2014 mission link -...

Documents