Alpha Weekend This last weekend we had our alpha retreat. This weekend was very special for me in that 1)I got to pray with my neigbor across the street to accept Christ, 2)to watch other people decide to follow Christ, and 3) I preached my first sermon to a larger crowd all in Dutch. It was incredible. We will continue doing the alpha course and possibly offer it in spanish and english next season.
Posts
Why "Evangelism" is so different in Post-Christian Culture? Tim Keller and Oikos Evangelism Tim Keller in this teaching articulates what I have experienced with regard to doing evangelism in a post-modern, post-christian society. Growing up in Latin America and inside of the Bible Belt of America, evangelism has been described as a program such as evangelism explosion or the 4 spiritual laws from Campus Crusade. Although these are incredibly great resources and methods, Why don’t they work so well as in these other settings. The answer is because people live in a setting where the gospel is extremely foreign to them. Most people I come in contact rarely believe in God, let alone understand the gospel. Many of them think they know all their is to know about Christianity and are not interested. Therefore evangelism become a lifestyle where you have to live the gospel through your life and less of a program to share. Keller quotes John Stott’s commentary on the book of Acts o...
I just heard a sermon by Tim Keller (Redeemer Presbyterian Church from New York City). He spoke of the Fulton Street revival that lasted from 1857-1859. In those 3 years every single church in New York City grew by over 50%, 1/3 of Ireland (100,000/300,000) came to Christ, and more than a a half million people came to Christ in the US during those 3 years. He goes on to speak about the one element that is found in every single revival/awakening in the OT, NT, and throughout Church History. He describes that as "Kingdom Centered Prayer" or "Frontline Prayer." It is Corporate, Intensive, Prevailing (doesn't stop), Kingdom centered prayer. Three elements he describes are 1) Request for the grace to confess and repent from sins. (This triggers more of God's presence and it is repentence born out of the joy and assurance of God's Love. 2) Compassion and zeal for flourishing of the church. That mechanical worship of God is replaced by a 2 way relationship. 3...
Stichting New Life Netwerk- (IPHC) We have now officially set up New Life Netwerk as a foundation (stichting) here in the Netherlands. The four members of the founding board were made up of Pastor Grace and her assistant pastor Mary along with Juan Sarmiento who is a part of my core team for our church in West Amsterdam. This was a historic moment as we now have two churches officially in New Life Netwerk. Pastor Grace's church is in the Bijlmer (South East Amsterdam) and she reaches primarily people from Africa, Suriname, and the Caribean. Our new work in West Amsterdam also has a multi-cultural flavor in that we are made up of not only Dutch, but of other nations. Juan comes originally from Venezuela and I come from Chile/USA. (We never know if we should speak in English, Spanish, or Dutch with each other). We are excited about the official birth of NLN and look forward to what God has in store for us.
Ten more weeks...
Ten more weeks until my due date, November the 9th, and the pregnancy is going great. I had to be tested for pregnancy diabetes, because Judah weighed 10 pounds at birth (which is usually an indicator for diabetes). But yesterday the results from that came in and my blood sugar is normal! Praise God! No sugar free diet….! We are expecting a little girl. We have picked a beautiful name…Hannah Grace. Judah calls her “Hannah Gracie”. Talking about Judah…we just celebrated his birthday on the 17th of August. He loved it! It was the first time he could realize that this was all for him and he is still singing birthday songs. He is just developing so quickly, he learns new words every day and because I speak to him in Dutch, he is picking up Dutch real fast. Here are some pictures!!