During WW2 Singapore City was about to face a siege by the Japanese. General Yamamoto delivered a note saying, “In the interests of chivalry we invite you to surrender.” Lance Percival fell for it and surrendered despite outnumbering the Japanese 4 to 1.
Dear Team: “Not on Our Watch!”
I want to be one of these boys. I don’t know their names, but I know their actions. They are probably like most any boy who lives in Zimbabwe today. Loves to play football (soccer), gets into mischief, wishes for a chance to go to school, and goes to bed hungry way more than they want and way more than we experience here in the States. I still want to be one of them.
Dear Team: Dream Big, Ask Boldly
This might be a small thing, but it tickled me. I should have known better when ITMI’s Charl van Wyk asked me how many thumb drives we had. Charl doesn’t look at things like most people. He…
Dear Team: Facing (What Seems like) Giant Limitations
ITMI’s Jahim and Gisma Buli, in Juba, South Sudan are facing the “giants” in their world. Jahim is being persecuted by other believers because…
Dear Team: We Really Shouldn’t Be So Surprised…
ITMI’s Lazarus Yezinai tells us of a woman named Miss Anita who came to the church that ITMI helped start from the teachings of VCLi’s S.A.L.T. Discipleship training. The church is located on the front lines of battle, inside this Muslim slum. Miss Anita was not at church to worship, but specifically to…
Dear Team: Greetings from Bangalore, India
Taru called one girl up front and asked her if she loved the clay pot she’d just painted beautifully. The girl gushed. “Do you think it is beautiful?” Thru asked. The girl glowed. Then Taru did something unexpected.
Dear Team: Will You Hold the Rope? (because Piotr is greedy)
Piotr has a passion to reach all the approximately 60 million Polish speaking people in the world. The first step was to get them an accurate, readable and usable form of God’s word.
As happy as he is with the success and acceptance of his new translation, Piotr says, “…but I am greedy. I want more.” Anyone that knows Piotr knows how unlike him it is for the word “greedy” to come out of his gentle, soft-spoken mouth.
Dear Team: 5 Villages Have Access to Clean, Safe Water!
…nonetheless, Johan Leach and I set out to visit and dedicate the five new water wells just completed last month in the remotest of remote villages in far western Zambia.
Dear Team: A Surprising Difference Between Barotse Plains Villages
It was a discovery that surprised me. There just isn’t that much space west of the Zambezi River in Zambia. There aren’t that many people there. Yes, there are several hundred thousand villagers spread out amongst plethora of small villages that dot the desolate land mass wedged between the river and the Angola border. But still, they all pretty much live the same, eat the same and display many of the same beautiful physical features. And yet they…
Dear Team: You Sure See A Lot of Strange Things When You’re a Missionary
Being a missionary sure exposes you to a lot of strangeness. Strange cultures. Strange customs. Strange perceptions. Strange ethics. Strange multiplied. It’s true even for the missionaries in big city areas. The strangeness multiplies exponentially as you move further from the densely populated areas into the bush.