One of the big reasons that greater systemic change has not taken place in Haiti is the missiological and cultural naiveté of the majority of people who go there. They go with good hearts…good intentions…good ideas…good resources – but with little cross-cultural experience. And most have not built significant partnerships with Haitians of integrity who are the "boots on the ground" for them. As a result, Haiti changes them more than they change Haiti! So this book by a successful American Christian entrepreneur is a timely read. I have sent copies to many pastors, mission directors and friends who are currently engaged in Haiti. I highly recommend it to you for any and every Christian who wants to be more informed and proactive in their praying…giving…going!

   God is not through with Haiti! He continues to build one of the greatest churches in the world there. You can be a more productive partner in that Kingdom process by reading and studying this book and the recommendations it gives to people who minister to Haiti and have Haitians in their heart.

Still in love with Haiti,
JL

 

For ten years, Ted Boers, a well-intentioned, successful American entrepreneur, devoted himself to improving the conditions of the poor in Haiti. His journey would take him into many dark places including a crisis of faith. This crisis launched him on a mission to discover what he did not know and wished he had known before he began. This book is the fruit of that journey. It contains hard lessons forged on the anvil of what might look like failure. However, this perceived failure may in fact be the doorway to hope. In it are keys to making a lasting impact on the lives of the poor in Haiti and around the world.

Ted Boers is an optimistic visionary who has always wanted to make the world a better place especially for the weak and the vulnerable. Motivated by his faith, he has a passion to “right the wrongs that anger God,” a paraphrased quote from William Wilberforce, one of his heroes. Ted considers himself to be a child of God and an honest seeker of truth. Ted wrote the Demons of Poverty because he wanted to share lessons learned from unique experiences.

“Could not put it down.”

“Very well written.”

“A compelling journey of a small group of committed individuals who attempt to make a long term, positive difference in Haiti.”

“Every board member of every organization that works in Haiti should read this book.”

“Required reading for anyone going to Haiti!”

Read the first chapter for free at www.demonsofpoverty.com. Demons of Poverty is available at the website and at Kindle, Nook, and iBookstore.

   Soia was an engaging young man from Manipur in northeast India. Christianity has been in that part of India for about 200 years, so most of the tribal groups have a rich history in the Christian faith. While at the seminary, he joined a singing group of students from that state called the Manipur Tribal Singers. Their songs and hymns touched many and were interspersed with traditional dancing and motions.

   In the early 1990s, we decided to bring the group to the States through New Directions to sing and give their testimonies to a wide variety of audiences. Our oldest daughter, Trish, and my brother Ed traveled with them along the east coast on two different occasions. Many people were blessed by the group’s singing and obvious devotion to Christ.

   When Soia graduated from MBS, he returned as a pastor to his home state and began ministering among his people. His heart was also in evangelism and he traveled by foot to surrounding villages, winning others to Christ as well. He eventually married and had two daughters, Ruth and Khummi.

   But very difficult days were ahead for him and his family. His wife became pregnant with their third child and as the time came for the baby to be born, she went into great distress. At the end of a very hard labor, both she and their little baby boy died. The loss of both was almost more than he could bear and he leaned heavily on God to comfort and sustain him and his daughters. Soia’s mother went to live with them and for some time the new family grouping overcame their sadness. And then, his mother died. It all seemed impossible to comprehend!

   Soia had to keep working and ministering to provide for Ruth and Khummi, so his sister moved in to help with the housekeeping and care of the girls. And then she died! What can we say, except it was grief upon grief! The sadness and loneliness was oppressive and began to affect Soia’s health. It was almost as if he were going through something like post-traumatic-stress-syndrome.

   And then he met Moipi, a lovely Christian woman! They were married and she became both a wonderful wife to Soia and a great mother to the girls. She got pregnant and, as you can imagine, Soia and his family were in a heightened state of anxiety as the delivery date approached. But, praise God, a healthy baby boy was born and mother and baby, whom they named Joseph, have done very well!

   Although Soia continued to minister locally and evangelize the surrounding villages, he still struggled with health issues. When Dr. Keith Thompson, (my brother-in-law and the subject of a recent email blast) was recently in West Bengal, he arranged for Soia to meet him and get a thorough examination. We are happy to report that Soia is improving daily with some very helpful medication.

   As he travels to distant villages and baptizes the converts, he sends pictures back to us as you will see in this slide show. The only thing he asks is funding for Bibles to help the new believers grow in the Lord. Enjoy the pictures that show him “doing his passion”! Thank you for your prayers for Soia, his family, and for any financial support you can give for his Bible distribution.

Always grateful for Godly partnerships!
J.L. and Patt
&  

After their marriage, Keith and Hannah spent a summer of medical ministry in Africa – an experience which forever confirmed their passion for medical missions. As a result, they continued to have an extensive medical mission ministry abroad while running a very large and successful practice in America. Since Hannah is a gifted Bible teacher, she would accompany Keith on most of his medical missions to teach the Bible – especially to women. Across the years they traveled and ministered in Haiti, Africa, Russia, China, India, Nepal, South America – virtually every country I minister in – and more!

Recently Keith retired from a wonderful medical practice in Thomasville, NC. After turning 70, he now gives even more time to minister medically and spiritually in America and around the world as the Lord leads him and Hannah. I know you will be blessed by this brief report on his recent medical ministry journey to India. Without his annual medical trips to India, we could not have seen the advancements spiritually and medically at the Holy Palace Hospital. He has become a great friend, partner and mentor to Dr. Rai – just as Hannah has to his wife, Mary (pictured together, above right). Their faithful involvement there is another great example of the power of long-term partnerships! In addition to going over themselves annually, they have also recruited other doctors and medical people to go along to work at Holy Palace Hospital and help enhance and advance the medical facility. So we are so thankful to all those who have invested their time, love, compassion and medical expertise in Holy Palace and their rural medical ministry to the poorest of the poor.

Please take a moment to click on these latest reports by Dr. Rai. I know you will be blessed and challenged as you see something of the extensive ministry they are having medically and spiritually!

- Medical Ministry
- Nurses' Training Program
- Mobile Clinics
- Children's Ministry
- Church Ministry

In the love and compassion of Jesus,
J.L.

PS: Since one of our dear friends and partner from Manipur, India, visited with Dr. Keith at Holy Palace, we will be featuring our partnership ministry with him in our next report. I know you will be blessed and encouraged since this partnership also goes back over two decades to the "Manipur Tribal Singers." Be watching for the report next week on Pastor Soia from Manipur in Northeast India.

   That has certainly been the case in all of our partnerships and projects in other countries where God has led us. None of them started BIG. They all started small – literally with nothing but vision and faith. And we have learned this essential principle: “Partnerships must precede projects." In other words, no project is any stronger than the partnership it is built upon."  The Bible also reminds us that projects are temporal but partnerships are eternal. That's because God is a relational God. So from His perspective, partnerships are far more important than projects. None of us will take any of our projects to heaven – only our partnerships based in Christ!

   So it has been a great joy to spend my life building partnerships. First of all in marriage and family. Then in the family of God. I certainly have not built perfect relationships or partnerships – in either marriage or in ministry. Since there are no perfect people, there are no perfect relationships or partnerships. But we should strive for relationships that are constantly maturing through the Spirit and the Word.

   Certainly, one of the joys of my life has been the relationship and partnership God has given me with Stakwell Yurenimo in Kenya. It was another of the "sovereign serendipities" God surprised me with as he connected me as a white American with a young Samburu adolescent – whose father was a polygamist with several wives. His first wife was the mother of Stakwell. So, with Mother's Day coming this weekend, I honor two Samburu women and mothers in this introduction to the last report on our recent time of ministry in South Horr, Northern Kenya. The first is Stakwell's mother (pictured left).

   The second woman and mother is Chairlady (pictured right). As I shared in an earlier report, she was the very first convert among the Samburu. It was my joy to help baptize her nearly two decades ago. Her son, Isaiah, is now one of the elders of the local church we helped them build, as well as an evangelist who is bivocational – as you will see in this report.

   In the final slideshow, we will be focusing on the Camp and work team that went with us. Like other building teams in the past, they helped us make some important additions to the Camp – little by little...line upon line…stone upon stone…board upon board…row upon row…flower upon flower...building upon building. As a result, in less than a decade, we have seen the facility develop from the raw "African Bush", as pictured below, to a thriving Sports Camp and Guest Lodges alive with activity that you will see in the slideshow.

   But most of all, each one of them left a finger print and foot print – not just on the Camp, but on the hearts of our beloved Samburu people – child after child…teenager after teenager…worker after worker…Moran after Moran…mother after mother. And just as certainly, each of them came back with the Samburu people stamped indelibly upon their hearts, minds and memories! So we thank God for this latest team of partners who went with us and made such a positive impact in both partnerships and projects: Craig Burr, Wally Fonville, Jack Franck, John Fraser and Rob Rose!

   So come walk with Patt and me (and Meribell Yurenimo and me as pictured below) on this third and final report on our recent time of ministry in Kenya with Stakwell.

In His Love for the Samburu People,
J.L. & Patt
 & 

RAGING RIVER

WATCH THE SHORT VIDEO OF THIS RAGING RIVER

VIEW PREVIOUS REPORTS

                      
PART ONE:                                      PART 2:
SAMBURU WOMEN'S CONFERENCE       MINISTRY TO SAMBURU WARRIORS

   This horrific bombing at the finish line of the famous Boston Marathon is a good example of the many "soft-targets" that will become the scene of more and more Islamic jihaddist terrorism.  It is virtually impossible to stop fanatics and suicide bombers from inflicting carnage and mayhem at social events and sports events where thousands of Americans are gathered – with their defenses down. It is not that I am a prophet in predicting this. It does not take the gift of prophecy to see the obvious! All we have to do is to get our "heads out of the sand" as a nation and quit ignoring the reality of this worldwide Islamic Jihad against America, Christianity, Judaism and all we stand for. With their pan-Islamic mentality, they are still out to dominate the world through the imposition of sharia law under a global Caliphate, or Islamic Ruler – like the fanatical Ayatollahs who rule in countries like Iran today. 

   All over America today there are thousands of "sleeper cells" just waiting for the right opportunity to activate. Many more are in the making as more and more young Muslims are being "radicalized" by the vitriolic rhetoric of mullas in Mosques and Islamic Training Centers all over America and the world! Just like the Tsarnaeu brothers were "radicalized" – the same is happening to untold thousands of others on a daily and weekly basis. And just like these two brothers, many of them have come to America as immigrants, been granted Green Cards, attained citizenship, enjoyed good educations, have benefited from our social welfare programs and seem to have been completely "civilized" and "socialized" into our American way of life! For years they seem to live normal lives as students, workers, athletes, friends – neighbors down the street where we live. All the while many of them are being "radicalized" by Islamic Fundamentalism. And then the right moment comes – the bombs explode…people are killed…others are maimed…others are traumatized…all are "terrorized!"

   Add to this scenario the reality of highly toxic chemical weapons, dirty bombs and nuclear explosives that can be smuggled in a suitcase or brief case – and you have an apocalyptic reality of epic proportion! Again, I am not trying to be an alarmist – just a realist. We are in a life-and-death-winner-take-all "War on Islamic Terrorism." And while we must become even more diligent and resolved as a nation, as Christians we must "wake up," as Paul exhorted the Church at Ephesus (Eph. 5:14)! We too must become "radicalized" in our faith! Nominalism will never win against fanaticism! We must quit buying into the spiritual and theological non-sense of universalism and multiculturalism with their gods and goddesses of plurality and tolerance. The only thing that can compete against "Radical Islam" is not nominalism – but "Radical Christianity!" And by "radical," I do not mean fanatical. I mean that we must be captivated and motivated by radical love…radical compassion…radical forgiveness…radical mercy...radical good works! We must break out of our bondage to materialism…prosperity…upward mobility…comfort…safety…security – or "middle class mediocrity!" We must wake-up…stand-up…study-up...speak-up…act up for the Lord Jesus and the principles of His Kingdom – which are truly radical!

   To help in that spiritual and cultural radicalism, I want to again direct many of you to my book and DVD study series entitled: "A Christian Perspective of Islam." In light of the Boston Bombings, I have also reposted several Power Points on some of the true differences between Christianity and Islam. I hope you will click on them and study them for your own edification. Hopefully in the process you will become a more "Radical Christian!"

In His Radical Love & Truth,
J.L.

A CHRISTIAN PERSPECTIVE ON ISLAM

Book

- Download Free PDF Version
- Buy in the JLPF store for $15

Free PowerPoint Presentations

- Part 1: The History of Islam
- Part 2: Jesus vs. Isa
- Part 3: Twin Towers