Heartland News & Prayer

May 31, 2011 by Wendy Carter.

Hi There!

“I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.” John 14:18

Our son, Lee, his wife Melissa and almost 1 year old son, Aiden, are currently in S. Korea. Melissa was a bridesmaid for her Trinity Western roommate’s wedding in Seoul last weekend. We adopted Lee when he was just turning six and this week they are travelling south to Lee’s orphanage near Pusan. How exciting for them all to meet again – for the staff at this Christian orphanage and for Lee and his family alike. They will stay in this place for a few days so Lee will certainly learn a lot about his original background. They return to Canada June 9 and we will also be excited to hear all their stories. Please pray for their safety, good health and opportunity to be a tremendous encouragement to the people of his first home. God has brought Lee full circle which amazes us as a result of our family decision 24 years ago.

William is preaching at Streetsville Baptist Church just after our morning’s service. Don’t forget our Farewell Potluck Supper tonight at 5:30 at our home in Churchville. Check out his blog – www.william.heartlandfellowship.ca. Tomorrow at lunch Gary and William are off to Muskoka Bible Centre for the Fellowship Pastors’ Retreat. Pray for safety in our motorhome and good conversations with other pastor friends. They will return Tue afternoon. Then William leaves for home this next Thursday (June 2) at 2:00 p.m. via Air Canada. He travels to Bangkok to stay for a few days, on to Kuala Lumpur on June 7 to visit his sisters and then flies to Yangon, Myanmar on June 14. It will be sad to see him go. He has made a lot of good friends in Canada.

We have copies of Life on the Zipline – From Fear to Awe available for purchase or you can order online (www.lifeonthezipline.com). Don’t forget Gary and Kaiya’s weekly radio program at www.thelittlebigshow.ca.

Home Group happens this Thursday at the Burton “manor” at 7:00 p.m. We are continuing to view Don Carson’s series on the Bible and praying.

Take care,

Wendy
wendy.carter@kainos.org
This blog is a summary of our 9:00 Sunday morning services held at 7777 Churchville Rd., Brampton, ON L6Y 0H3, 905-230-8116. It can always be found at www.blog.heartlandfellowship.ca.

Saying Good-bye to William by Gary Carter: Myanmar, known as the Golden Land, is a beautiful country with its golden pagodas but desperately in need of achieving self-sufficiency. Its GDP is $1250 per person thus being one of the poorest countries in the world. We have been in contact with Richard for several years who is running an orphanage with 55 children. He is hoping to start a brick-making business to support his ministry needs. His cousin, William, after 6 months in Canada, is returning to his church planting ministry in Yangon and Chin state. He has several business ideas in mind to create self-support: continuing his English teaching, employment services, growing a particular healing plant in Chin state and making portable solar systems for electricity. In Myanmar, if you live in a city, four hours of electricity per day are available at random due to rolling black outs. There is no electricity provided for villagers. Every day it gets dark very quickly at 6:00 p.m. since the country is close to the equator. Generators cost $300 with a fuel cost of up to $5 per evening. Candles cost $1 per week with the added risk of fire. The average male worker only makes $100 per month income if he has work at all. Gary has put together a 12 volt solar light system with LEDs to run for 10 hours that William can make. Each unit will retail at about $150. William believes he can buy the needed parts in Yangon. The fourth business idea would certainly change the education and economy in this country. However, until you have an official business license the government may shut you down on any whim. To get that license you must have $10,000 free capital in your account in a government bank. Therefore, it is impossible for an ordinary citizen to get the money and license to do business. One license will cover any number of businesses. Our church’s goal is to find 10 people in the next year who would donate $1000 each or 10 people investing $100/month for a year or any other amount to invest in William’s business license. The money will be held in our charity, Kainos International Ministries until the total amount was raised. Please pray that God will answer this need and that young men, like William, will be captured by the love of Christ to accomplish great things for Him. (Ephesian 3:14-21)

First Mission Antioch by Steve Macdonald: According to Acts 11:25-26 Barnabas and Saul (later Paul) taught the church in Antioch for a whole year. “The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch.” Acts 11:19-20 and Acts 13 lists the leaders in this church. Simeon (the Hebrew word to hear or listen) called Niger (meaning black) came from Cyrene, Libya in northern Africa (Mark 15:21). This was a Jewish community where 100,000 Judean Jews had settled in 323-285 BC. Is it safe to say that Simon may have been black? His son, Rufus made it to Rome (Romans 16:13). Was Antioch on their travel itinerary?

Lucius of Cyrene, his name being derived from Latin lux “light” or “bringer of light”, is believed to be the first Bishop of Cyrene by some churches. Was he a travelling companion of Simeon, Rufus, Alexander and MOM? He was likely one of the congregation members to whom Peter preached on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:10). Did he leave Jerusalem when the persecutions began in Acts 11:19-20 and go to Antioch?

Manaen; meaning a comforter or a leader, is brought up (Greek: syntrophos - foster brother) with Herod Antipas, the tetrarch. This was the same Herod who had John the Baptist jailed and then beheaded. Manaen was a man of rank and education. His conversion shows that the Gospel was not confined to the poor, the Jews or Gentiles but also to people of influence and nobility. And so the five church leaders were Barnabas, a Levite from Cyprus by way of Jerusalem; Simeon possibly a dark skinned African; Lucius of Cyrene an African from present day Libya; Manaen, a high-class royalty; and Saul, a Jew who had formally killed Christians (Galatians 3:28) – all one in Christ..
Did Jerusalem hesitate too long to carry out the command of Jesus to take the Gospel to the whole world? Jerusalem was no longer the center of the Christian movement. Prophets were leaving there to go to Antioch (Acts 11:27), such as Agabas (Acts 21: 9-11). In Acts 13:2-3 Barnabas and Saul were set apart by the Holy Spirit for ministry. Antioch clearly became a model church because these five people listened to the Holy Spirit. What gift has the Holy Spirit given you (Romans 12:6-8)? Are you exercising that gift? What can you do to model yourself after these five?

God Answers Prayer (John 15:7) by William: God answers our prayer in three ways. Yes! He immediately gives us what we ask for. Wait! He sometimes lets us wait. It might be a week, a month or years. The Heavenly Father and God who knows the needs of His children always answers our prayer requests in the right time. God is never late. No! He sometimes answers us with “No! that’s not good for you. Every believer easily accepts No.1 (Yes). But it is very hard to understand God when He answers our prayers by No. 2 (Wait) and No. 3 (No!).

Every answer to our prayers is perfect and good enough for us from God’s point of view. God never does anything without having a specific purpose in our lives. Every single thing that has been happening always brings and bears God’s purposes. Even in the hardest time of our lives or when our prayer is not given yet, it is very important to think and carefully find out what is God’s purpose with this or that thing which is happening. Why isn’t my prayer answered yet? What does God want to teach me with this lesson? If we can’t understand the reasons by ourselves, why don’t we ask God Himself? He will definitely tell us and help us clearly understand His purposes. One of the reasons why God answers our prayer by saying “No!” is that we ask for the satisfaction of our desires and passions (James 4:2-4).

Another reason why God sometimes answers “No!” to our prayer is that He is the Creator of the universe. He can count every single hair on our head and knew us even before we were born. He knows what we need and what is good for us. He knows us more deeply and even better than we know ourselves. On December 26, 2004 a tsunami took place in Indonesia. Some Christians wanted to worship on the beach but were refused permission. They held their service in the mountains and were not affected by this crisis. Why does God let us wait to get the answer of our prayers? It is simply because He wants us to learn some important lessons about Him and His purposes in our lives.

These purposes have to do with our sins. Disobedience to the Words of God, bitterness and unforgiveness hinder the hands of God who always loves and cares for His children. Even though we are quite ready to get the answers of our prayers physically, God cannot send the answer to us until we are spiritually ready to receive it. The second purpose is our faith. God’s biggest purpose for letting us wait is to make our faith grow so that we can see Him clearly and understand Him more. When our prayer is answered beyond what we can afford or imagine, the tears of our heart-felt thanks flow like a river. We become to understand how God is working in our lives and confess His faithfulness and protection in our lives. That makes our faith grow so that we will be able to encourage others by our experiences.
Matthew 7:7-11 says, “Everyone who asks receives.” But why don’t we get all the answers of our prayers every time? Maybe we are asking for a serpent instead of a fish. Many believers understand these Bible verses in a wrong way. It leads them to not believe the Bible and stop praying. But the Scripture must be interpreted by the Scripture itself. One of our biggest problems for not getting the answers of our prayers is that “we only know how to ask.” We are just asking all the time!
According to Jesus’ teaching in John 15:7, asking is not the first priority but abiding in His words is the very first thing that we need to do. Only after that whatever we wish and ask will be done for us. If we first abide in His Words and follow His instructions, Jesus promises us to answer all our prayers. Matthew 7:7-11 teaches us that whatever we ask will be given. At the same time, Luke 18:1-7 teaches us to pray patiently and continuously until we get what we ask. In order to pray continuously, we must be patient. Unless we are patient, we will give up praying too soon. When we are praying continuously, it does not mean that we are bothering God. But it rather means that we have communication and fellowship with our Father in Heaven who loves us with unchangeable love. He always gives us what we need, but not what we want. Check out the story of Ishmael, Abraham’s son from Hagar (Genesis 16). A true disciple must learn how to pray patiently. Patience will help a true disciple to be able to wait for the right time of God.

Groaners by Steve Macdonald:
Did the musician who robbed the bank make off with the lute?
If an optometrist fell on a lens grinding machine, would he make spectacle of himself?
Did Christopher Columbus finance his trip to America with a Discover Card?
Does reading while sunbathing make you well-red?
If the place Stalin is buried a communist plot?
Is an eye doctor on an Alaskan Island and optical Aleutian?
Is propaganda a gentlemanly goose?
When you step on a grape, does it say anything or just whine a little?
Is a cardboard belt a waist of paper?

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