A quick review of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

As you consider whether the new Narnia movie is worth the view, here are a few considerations:

Identity crisis and the Kingdom of God: From its opening scene the Voyage of the Dawn Treader established itself as a study in identity. Edmund struggles with his royalty in Narnia chaffing against his age in Cambridge. Lucy we'll learn later despairs over her own identity as overcast by the beauty of Susan. A third character, Eustace Scrubb, has yet to discover his identity as a child, believing facts superior to fantasy and thus unable to see himself as involved in a story more magnificent than any dream.

Mission and the Kindgom of God: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader sails on a current of mission over self ambition and thus provides for viewers a narrative describing what it means to undergo suffering for the sake of the ultimate goal. While all along succumbing to the temptation to fulfill their own desires, the characters are awakened each time by the hand of providence to who they are and how that identity is inextricable from the mission to save a world from sleepy destruction.

Imagination and the Kingdom of God: In the end Aslan faces the weeping of children sad to leave Narnia and return to their world, but the Lion reminds them He's called by a different name. He brings them to the world of Narnia for a little while so they can name him better in their world. And so viewers are left realizing Lewis' intent, that this world of imagination feeds the life we live outside the imagination, emboldens us to live it bravely, reminds us for whom we live it.

Churches and the Voyage of the Dawn Treader: This film beautifully narrates many points along the journey of the Christian life, including sin and temptation, self and the mission, grace versus works in salvation and the importance of living in the world but not with the world's desires. It's a beautiful film perfect for bridge building, illustrating the work of the kingdom of God, and is perhaps the most theologically astute and nuanced of the three movies.

How to Pray Creatively During Ramadan

Look for ways to make your times of prayer varied and interesting. The 30-Days Prayer Network has some creative ways you can pray during the month of Ramadan. For instance, using Google Earth find a Muslim country and zoom in on a particular city. Pray for the people living there as you "walk" through the city.

“The Night of Power” on Day 27 is a strategic night of prayer. This Sunday night, September 5th, is what is called the "Night of Power" in the Muslim world. It is a strategic night of prayer. During this night, which is close to the end of Ramadan, many Muslims have told stories about experiencing Jesus through dreams and visions and about many miraculous things happening. Consider setting aside this night for an all night prayer time with your church or mission group. 

For more ideas visit 30-Days Prayer Network.

Revealing Ramadan - Sara

By Carol Pipes
Yesterday, I met a young woman named Sara* at a local college campus. I was with a volunteer team from Clarkston International Bible Church in Clarkston, Georgia. Using Soularium cards, we were engaging students in conversation about God and other spiritual matters.

Sara is from Syria but she moved here from Kuwait where most of her family still lives. She misses her family but isn't interested in moving back to Kuwait. When I asked her to describe God, she used words like beautiful, protector, giver of life. Interesting, I thought. I asked her if she attended church anywhere while at school. Sara told me that she was Muslim and attended a local mosque. She also told me she was observing Ramadan.

"I haven't broken my fast," she informed me.

With that, we ventured into a discussion about Ramadan and fasting. I asked her why she felt she needed to fast and how it impacted her life.

"I fast because it is tradition," she said. "It makes me more aware of those who do not have anything to eat. It also makes me feel closer to God."

I asked her if it was easier to observe Ramadan in Kuwait or the United States. "Oh, it's definitely easier to observe Ramadan in Kuwait," she said. "In Kuwait, everyone fasts. Here, there is much more temptation. There is food everywhere. Even in class there are students eating next to me."

She said that being able to overcome that temptation made her feel stronger.

I told her about the church and the ministries they provided to internationals just moving to the states and that perhaps her family members might check them out when they moved here.

She took a card with information and then was off to her next class.

We're about half-way through Ramadan. In the next couple of weeks, pray for Sara and others like her who are fasting.
Pray that God would reveal Himself through dreams and visions.
Pray that American Muslims who are discovering the living Messiah would become a source of life and inspiration for other Muslims in the U.S. and in their homelands.
Visit 30-Days Prayer Network for more ways you can pray.

*Name has been changed.

Call to Prayer

Imagine a Middle Eastern man breaking from his morning tea a few steps ahead of the dawn call to prayer. He shuffles peacefully down a sidewalk to join his friends and family. Imagine the sound of the muezzin, that man with impressive lungs who summons the Muslim community to five prayers daily toward Mecca.

In a Middle Eastern country he might stand on the minaret of the mosque pronouncing from on high the dawn, midday, middle afternoon, evening, and sundown prayers. In Dearborn, Michigan, the local muezzin has access to a loudspeaker, and even from a mile away you can hear his voice.

Imagine crowds of men and women in saris and scarves shuffling toward the mosque past local shops advertising Halal meat. They file in. Kneel on rugs. 

This is not the Middle East, but Michigan—a place where you expect hockey, industry, brutal winters, good old hardworking mid-America. Middle Easterners who’ve worked in the auto industry for decades fill many of the jobs that move the Michigan economy. Over 800,000 live in Michigan.

Muslims along with Catholics and Christians from Middle Eastern countries have settled the area bringing their religion and culture, but also a strong desire to “be American,” says one North American Mission Board missionary, who’s been sharing the gospel with Middle Easterners in Michigan the last five years. “They’ve come to America to be Americans.” The church has an opportunity to help with that and to share Christ as well.

Across the entire Islamic world, the muezzin calls the faithful to prayer five times a day: at dawn (fajr), noon (dhuhr), in the afternoon (asr), at sunset (maghrib) and nightfall (isha'a). On Fridays all male Muslims are expected to attend the noon time prayers at a local mosque. Today, Muslims will be preparing themselves for Friday prayer. This includes a ritual washing in order to be pure for prayer. 

As Muslims here in the U.S. and around the world prepare for Friday prayers and fast during Ramadan, pray that God would reveal Himself and that they would meet the true, living Messiah, Jesus Christ.

To find out more about Islam and how you can pray for your Muslim friends during Ramadan visit the 30-Days Prayer Network.

Prayer for the Muslim World

Ramadan begins tomorrow, August 11 and ends on September 9th. Ramadan is the ninth month of the Muslim calendar. It is during this month that Muslims observe the Fast of Ramadan. Muslims worldwide will rise early tomorrow morning and eat breakfast before the day begins. They will not have anything to eat or drink until nightfall. This will continue for the next 30 days. Fasting is one of the Five Pillars of Islam and one of the highest forms of Islamic worship.

Over the next month, join us as we pray for our Muslim friends, neighbors, co-workers and acquaintances. 

Today, pray that God would prepare our hearts as we seek to pray for the Muslim world. Pray that God would give us a Christ-like attitude toward Muslims. Pray that all Christians would live out Christ's command to love others.

Islam Facts: The Five Pillars
The Islamic religion is lived out according to five main "pillars" which are obligatory religious practices for all adult Muslims. One of the "pillars" is the month of fasting (Ramadan) which is translated as "Saum" in Arabic
1. Reciting the Creed (Shahada in Arabic)- "There is no God but Allah and Mohammed is his prophet."
2. Prayer (Salat)- Five times each day. Just before sunrise (Fajr), Noon (Dhuhr), Afternoon (Asr), Sunset (Maghrib), Evening (Isha). Prayer is, in this sense, an expression of submission to the will of Allah.
3. Almsgiving (Zakat)- Both obligatory and voluntary giving to the poor. The Qur'an teaches the giving of two and one-half percent of one's capital wealth to the poor and/or for the propagation of Islam.
4. Fasting (Saum)- Especially during the "holy" month of Ramadan. During the 30 days of Ramadan Muslims are forbidden from eating or drinking from sunup to sundown. After sunset, feasting and other celebrations often occur. The daylight hours are set aside for self-purification.
5. Pilgrimage (Hajj)- All Muslims who are economically and physically able are required to journey as a pilgrim to Mecca (in current day Saudia Arabia) at least once in their lifetime.

To learn more about Islam, visit 4truth.net.

Muslims, Christ and the women who love them

The word "Muslim" stirs mixed emotions among Americans. Fear, skepticism and stereotypes have fueled misunderstandings between Muslims and Christians in the years following 9/11, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have raised a deeper awareness both of great danger and desperation found among Muslim-populated areas worldwide.

As part of your own soul searching, how do you respond when you see a veiled head, hear conversations in Arabic, or experience any of the other artifacts pointing to worshipers of Allah?

It was MSC missionary Cherie Gray in Tucson, Arizona, who first opened our eyes to the Islamic world of African refugees as, unhindered by language, religion and stereotypes, she offered the practical presence of the Gospel among families disoriented in their transition from refugee camps in Somalia to a desert valley city in the wild west United States.

MSC missionary Pat Maddox in Clarkston, Georgia, was next. Daily, through her work with Friends of Refugees, she visited the families freshly arrived from Somalia, Morocco, Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere, offering them bread, English lessons, assistance with moves, furniture or just the presence of a caring person. Through partnerships with local relief agencies and churches she also demonstrated practically the work of Christ in her life.

And just recently we spoke with Annie Taylor*, a NAMB Nehemiah Church Planter serving in another town in the southeastern United States where Muslim families have established communities and strong Muslim culture, but where God is at work through dreams and visions and the willingness of faithful believers willing to enter the lives of Muslims. For Annie, it's through deep connections with Muslim women.

"There's a window of opportunity of about a year," says Annie. "When they come to the states if they meet a true Christian within the first year, they are much more likely to accept Christ."

By spending hours with families, attending birthday parties for the prophet Muhammed and making Muslim women her true friends, Annie has experienced God's work.

"They'll tell me the story of how in a dream Jesus was standing at the edge of their bed. He'll say something like 'I am the truth.' This happens more than you would believe."

In a recent book, Woman to Woman, another Christian woman, Joy Loewen, recounts her journey from indifference and even fear to love and friendship with the Muslim women in her life. Her book is a memoir but it's also a manual for understanding the mind of a Muslim woman. Just as the missionaries mentioned above, Loewen chronicles the complexity of culture among Muslim women who are responding to the gentle love of Christ as believers are faithful in sharing His Good News.

It was a fashion show, just as I expected, writes Loewen. Approximately two hundred women, lavishly dressed and happily chattering away in Arabic, Persian and Urdu, entered the hall carrying large pans of fragrant meats and sweet dishes. I knew I was in for a delectable treat of Eastern cuisine. Scanning the room quickly, I realized I was the lone Caucasian woman. I braced myself and asked God to make me stand tall and ryal like Queen Esthers, who name my parents had intentionally chosen for my middle name. As I prayed and viewed all this from the doorway, my nervousness fled and enjoyment rose within me.

As we consider how to share Christ in the real world among Muslims, what is keeping us from appreciating their rich culture and some amazing opportunities to help them know the one true God through Jesus?

--Adam Miller

More resources

What does Islam teach about Jesus? Jesus and the Koran

Christianity and Islam. What's the difference?

Mistakes Christians make with Muslims. Common mistakes

Go dog go

She's 18 inches tall. She eats flies. But as far as North America Mission Board missionary Andrew Mann is concerned, his Labrador Retriever is a full-fledged – albeit four-legged –"missionary." See how God is using a trained therapy dog, and her owner, to bring people to Jesus in one of New York City's toughest neighborhoods.

Video: Find it Here

The journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step. In this video, see how believers all across North America spent one amazing weekend beginning an advance toward the goal of "every person hearing, every believer sharing."

Can we be certain Jesus died on the cross?

By Mike Licona

All four New Testament Gospels report that Jesus was crucified and died as a result. Is the evidence sufficient to warrant the conclusion that these reports are accurate? Before investigating for an answer, I would like to note the importance of this question. The atoning death and resurrection of Jesus are the cornerstone doctrines of Christianity. If either failed to occur, the Christianity preached by the apostles is false. For if Jesus did not die on the cross, there is no sacrificial death on behalf of our sins as the New Testament teaches. Moreover, since the term "resurrection" refers to the transformation of a corpse into an immortal body, if Jesus did not die, there was no corpse to be transformed by a resurrection.

Without a resurrection, Christianity is falsified. The apostle Paul taught: "If Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless" (1 Cor. 15:17 HCSB). The Gospels report that Jesus likewise said that his resurrection would serve as proof that His claims about Himself were true (see Matt. 12:39-40; John 2:18-22). Thus, according to Jesus and Paul, if the resurrection of Jesus did not occur, it is time to find another worldview. Accordingly, since a resurrection requires death, Jesus' death by crucifixion is a link that cannot be broken if Christianity is to be regarded as true.

In this article, I would like to provide four reasons that support the credibility of the claim that Jesus died as a result of being crucified.

Read the rest of this article at 4truth.net.

Mike Licona is a New Testament historian, author and Christian apologist. He is the apologetics coordinator for the North American Mission Board. Follow him at www.twitter.com/didjesusrise.

Planting churches in Arizona

By Mickey Noah

As a Southern Baptist pastor for the last 30 years – and as a North American Mission Board missionary for the past six – Louis Spears has conducted many a funeral. But none of them prepared him for the long, lonely walk behind his wife’s casket almost two years ago.

A native of Guthrie, Okla., Spears and his wife, Shelley, had been married for 32 years – ever since they were both 20-year-old church planters in Oklahoma. But in May 2008, she succumbed to a pancreas-related illness only 11 days after its sudden onset.

“Shelley was an incredible person, a woman of many talents,” says Spears. “The main thing I miss about Shelley – other than just being together as not only my spouse but also my best friend – is the amount of prayer-time she spent on my ministry. She was really my partner in ministry. It’s a huge loss and huge gap in my life.”

Spears’ strong, tried-and-true personal faith prevented him from caving in to the temptation of chucking his whole ministry and blaming God in the process.

“I never thought about blaming God. I was not mad at God. The worst thing was being totally cut off from Shelley, missing her encouragement and positive reinforcement.”

Still after almost two years, the 54-year-old missionary said the grief is still “like big ocean waves that just swell up over you and you can’t fight them, but you know the Lord is the Lord, that He is supreme, and that in His design, He had a purpose for it.

“I can’t see it and I don’t understand it but I really don’t argue with Him about it. I really tried during Shelley’s 11-day crisis and through the last year to live my life without regrets. I didn’t leave anything undone or unsaid,” said Spears, who has a 24-year-old daughter, Amy, one grandchild and another on the way.

Spears is one of some 5,300 missionaries in the United States, Canada and their territories supported by the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering® for North American Missions. He is among the North American Mission Board missionaries featured as part of the annual Week of Prayer, March 7-14, 2010. This year’s theme is “Live with Urgency: Share God’s Transforming Power.” The 2010 Annie Armstrong Easter Offering’s goal is $70 million, 100 percent of which benefits missionaries like Spears.

While no one or nothing can ever replace the vacuum in his life caused by Shelley’s death, Spears depends on his challenging missionary work in Arizona to take up some of the slack, ease the pain and bring new victories.

Read more at onmission.com

Expanding God's work in Puerto Rico

By John J. Correa

At the onset of his missionary career, pastor Luis Rodríguez and his wife, Lourdes Santiago, were dismayed at the lack of commitment from church members at the church they’d planted in Coamo, Puerto Rico. However, this apathy did not hamper the efforts of these Southern Baptists. Besides, from God's divine perspective, this was only the beginning.

Luis remembers the challenges faced during those uncertain days after being sent by the Raham First Baptist Church of Santa Isabel to plant a new church in Coamo.

"When we arrived at Raham-Coamo, we noticed the believers there didn't really have a commitment to come to the services,” said Rodriguez. “When we were on our way to a prayer service, they started calling to excuse themselves from coming to the service. In that moment I turned and looked at my wife and wondered if our efforts were really worth it. We began doubting if God was really involved.”

When Luis and Lourdes arrived at the small church for the prayer service, only one other couple had come to intercede for God’s work there – but a couple with a very special need.

"With great sorrow in our hearts, we found brother Carlos Santiago and his wife, Andrea, who was kneeling in prayer,” recalls Rodriguez. Andrea’s hair had fallen out due to the chemotherapy she was undergoing to fight her cancer.

“I looked at my wife, she looked at me, and the Lord spoke to my heart, saying, ‘For the love of that solitary life I'm sending you to Coamo. It's one life, one soul. Don't worry about the ones who made excuses and didn’t come.’”

Because of Andrea’s commitment, Luis and Lourdes were motivated to press on with God’s challenge of planting a church in Coamo. The result was the creation of the Raham Baptist Church in Coamo.

The name of the church, "Raham," is the Hebrew word for "God has shown compassion.” This is precisely the spiritual gift that continues to be one of the driving forces behind Rodriguez’s work in Coamo.

Luis and Lourdes Rodriguez are missionaries for the North American Mission Board, responsible for planting churches in Puerto Rico. They are two of the some 5,300 missionaries in the United States, Canada and their territories supported by the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering® for North American Missions, and are among the NAMB missionaries featured as part of the annual Week of Prayer, March 7-14, 2010. This year’s theme is “Live with Urgency: Share God’s Transforming Power.” The 2010 Annie Armstrong Easter Offering’s goal is $70 million, 100 percent of which benefits missionaries like Rodriguez.

Read more at onmission.com

In word and deed

By Adam Miller

Two blocks east of the “El” Train Red Line in Uptown Chicago, a lady named Susan limps over from under a covered bus stop.

“That’s my spot. I was here. I just had to sit down.”

She marks her spot by hanging two canvas bags on the fence where a dozen men and women are lined up outside Uptown Baptist Church.

“I was here. This weather is killing my arthritis.”

Her voice is husky but kind. She limps toward the bus stop, sits and takes a sip from something tightly wrapped in brown paper, looks over her shoulder again, then settles back against the glass enclosure.

As the line builds, she comes back.

Next Monday, she says, they’re giving out shoes.

“Could you help me with this?” asks Susan, holding up a kids’ Revenge of the Sith wristwatch six hours fast. “It’s a cheap watch. I don’t know how to fix it. It’s not a very nice watch.” 

Every Monday around 4:30 p.m. the iron gate separating Uptown Baptist from the sidewalk creaks open and some 350 homeless men and women file into pews for a word from scripture then to the basement for a hot meal.

Shouldering computer bags and backpacks, a flock of Chicagoans scatter from the train and the buses toward home or an evening job in one of the city’s most diverse communities.

This is North American Mission Board missionary Michael Allen’s mission field.

“Uptown is one of the most diverse places in the Chicago area,” says Allen. “It's diverse in almost every way you can imagine -- ethnically, socio-economically, in gender and in age. It’s home to retirees, young couples, newborns, the brilliant and the mentally ill.”

Nearly 80 languages are represented in Uptown’s public schools.  The neighborhood’s population includes government officials, college professors, business professionals and a sub-culture of “down-and-outs.”

Allen is one of more than 5,300 missionaries in the United States, Canada and their territories supported by the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering®. He is among the NAMB missionaries featured as part of the annual Week of Prayer, March 7-14, 2010. This year’s theme is “Live with Urgency: Share God’s Transforming Power.” The 2010 Annie Armstrong Easter Offering’s goal is $70 million, 100 percent of which benefits missionaries like Allen.

Allen has worked with social ministries for years, beginning with his tenure at Moody Bible Church and continuing with leadership at homeless and recovery ministries throughout the city. His ability to interact across a broad spectrum has given the Jamaican-born pastor a voice among Chicago businessmen and politicians. 

“One day I could be at a press conference with the mayor of Chicago and all the movers and shakers and be in a suit and tie, then later that day on the street talking to somebody who’s drunk and just gave his girlfriend AIDS,” says Allen. “It's a powerful thing. It's an amazing thing. It's God at work changing people's lives and I get to be used by Him to accomplish it.”

Read more at onmission.com >>>

Garden of the Gods

What could be better than serving as a North American Mission Board missionary in picturesque Colorado Springs? After all, the city of 380,000 backs up to the base of snow-capped, 14,000 feet-tall Pikes Peak on the edge of the Rocky Mountains.

Money and Outside magazines have both deemed it as No. 1 on the list of the best places to live in the United States. It’s perceived as a Christian “mecca” and nicknamed “The Evangelical Vatican” because so many evangelical Christian organizations are headquartered here – Focus on the Family, The Navigators, the International Bible Society and Young Life, just to mention a few.

Colorado Springs is a military stronghold, the location of the Army’s Fort Carson, Peterson Air Force Base, Schriever Air Force Base, NORAD and the United States Air Force Academy. 

The 6,000-foot high city is headquarters to the U.S. Olympic Committee, the U.S. Olympic Training Center, and the national sports federations for Olympic bobsledding, fencing, figure skating, basketball, boxing, cycling, judo, hockey, swimming, shooting, triathlon, volleyball and wrestling.

The Colorado Springs area is also a vast wilderness of “lost” souls. Just ask Bill and Carol Lighty. 

Bill, 53, serves as a NAMB national missionary and director of missions for the Pikes Peak Baptist Association, which includes about 50 Southern Baptist churches and church plants. In a metro area of more than 600,000, 83 percent – some 500,000 -- never darken the door of a church -- any church.

“God really broke my heart over the lostness of the Pikes Peak region,” says Lighty, who – with his wife of 32 years, Carol – has worked in his current assignment two and a half years. Prior to that, he spent almost 21 years as pastor of Chapel Hills Baptist Church in Colorado Springs. The Lightys have two grown daughters, Trisha and Ashley, and two granddaughters.

Lighty is one of some 5,300 missionaries in the United States, Canada and their territories supported by the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering® for North American Missions. He is among the North American Mission Board missionaries featured as part of the annual Week of Prayer, March 7-14, 2010. This year’s theme is “Live with Urgency: Share God’s Transforming Power.” The 2010 Annie Armstrong Easter Offering’s goal is $70 million, 100 percent of which benefits missionaries like Bill Lighty.

Although Lighty says Mormonism and Catholicism are both strongly entrenched in the Colorado Springs area, “there’s half a million people here who don’t know Christ.”

In addition to Pikes Peak, another of Colorado Springs’ famous landmarks is the “Garden of the Gods,” so-called because when it was named in 1859, it was described as a “place fit for the assembling of the gods.” Lighty said this focus on the mythical gods – but not on the one true God – is symptomatic of many of the residents of the Colorado Springs area.

“In a very real sense, Colorado Springs is not godless because the people here have a lot of gods they worship,” he says. “Some worship nature and the mountains. Some worship skiing. Some worship the metaphysical. Spiritualism is a big element of our culture, and we have a strong Wiccan movement. Some worship their motorcycles. With five military installations here, many worship the military and the goal of getting promoted to the next rank.

“So our challenge is competing with all these other gods plus the mountains – where there’s something to do 12 months out of the year -- in order to help people worship the one true God versus their multiple gods,” Lighty says.

Read more at onmission.com >>>

Off the Beaten Path

To understand a person, walk a mile in his shoes. But if that person is an Appalachian Trail thru-hiker, you’ll have to walk several hundred miles.

“It’s not until about mile 500 that they start to listen,” says North American Mission Board Mission Service Corps missionary Suzy Miles. “Before that, they’re superheroes.”

MSC missionaries Craig and Suzy Miles started Appalachian Trail Servants (AT Servants) six years ago so they could help represent Christ through service, evangelism and discipleship to reach the longtrail hiking community trekking the 2,175-mile Appalachian Trail (AT).

The couple has hiked about 1,000 miles of the trail themselves, and visited most of its length to conduct ministry training to churches near trailheads and to minister to hikers through acts of kindness.

The Mileses are two of more than 5,300 missionaries in the United States, Canada and their territories supported by the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering®. They are among the NAMB missionaries featured as part of the annual Week of Prayer, March 7-14, 2010. This year’s theme is “Live with Urgency: Share God’s Transforming Power.” The 2010 Annie Armstrong Easter Offering’s goal is $70 million.

Read more at onmission.com >>>

Week of Prayer for North American Missions

In Romans 1, Paul tells us he is not ashamed of the Gospel and is eager to preach it everywhere he goes. Like Paul our North American missionaries know that only God is powerful enough to transform lives. Every day they live with urgency to share that transforming power.

During the Week of Prayer for North American Missions, March 7-14, pray for our eight Week of Prayer missionaries and others like them who are supported by the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering® and the Cooperative Program. As you read about each missionary and pray for them, consider how you can partner with them to take the gospel of Jesus Christ throughout North America.

Day 1: Jim and Myrtle Ballard | Blackfoot, Idaho

Day 2: Mike and Vickie McQuitty | Syracuse, New York

Day 3: Vivian and Jim McCaughan | St. Louis, Missouri

The Power of Prayer

By Dave Storey

I love how the Bible describes Elijah as a man just like the rest of us, but we also know that he prayed fervently. Though we always have prayer meeting on Wednesday nights, sometime last November I sensed that we should also be praying on Saturday nights – to have a time when people could just come and gather near the front of the church and pray for the next day’s services, and that God would show up with convicting power, as mentioned in John 16:8.

A few weeks after we started having prayer on Saturday nights at our new church in Blackville, New Brunswick, we witnessed God’s movement in the life a young woman named Jennifer. Just like a lot of people who grew up in churches around here, she was a Baptist and had “religion,” but she wasn’t genuinely converted. That Sunday night she was really broken and responded to the invitation I extended after warning people to flee from wrath to come, to be born again. The Holy Spirit convicted her that she was religiously lost, and her mother recommitted her life to Christ, too!

I think that when people come and pray, it invokes the Holy Spirit’s presence. When we ask God to show up, we can expect Him to move. Sometimes it will be conversions of the lost; sometimes convictions for believers. It really boils down to us coming to God; not too much happens if we’re not seeking His face.

Dave Storey is a North American missionary serving in Doaktown, New Brunswick, Canada.

The challenges of campus church

This morning the North American Mission Board (NAMB) staff was on the phone live with North American missionary Mike McQuitty, a Baptist Campus Ministry (BCM) director at Syracuse University.

As the town of Syracuse fills with snow and the energy of March Madness, Mike McQuitty describes a college campus dark with an undercurrent of sin and despair.

“College campuses are the greatest missions fields in the world,” says McQuitty. But addiction and mental illness ravage many among the student body, he says. “Please pray for these students.”

Faced with the challenges of a transient mission field as students come and go, McQuitty’s job is to raise up leaders and start new works. The church McQuitty helped start is now student run and student led. 

Transience and change have turned to strengths at Syracuse University. So while bolstering and building the work at Syracuse, he’s also preparing believers who will graduate and enter the mission fields of their careers and vocational ministry.

One student he mentions became a believer through the BCM, and is now an international missionary in a closed country. Similar stories are coming out of Syracuse and dozens of BCM works throughout North America.

To learn more about McQuitty, and the work at Syracuse, visit www.onmission.com.

-Adam Miller

NAMB missionary serving as Olympic chaplain

North American missionary Derek Spain is serving as one of the official Vancouver Olympic Committee chaplains at the Athletes Village in Whistler, B.C. As a chaplain, Spain will be available to pray with and minister to the athletes competing at the 2010 Winter Olympics. Spain is pastor of Lake Placid Baptist Church and director of  North Country Ministries, a ministry focused on the athletes who live and train in Lake Placid, N.Y.

To keep up with Spain, follow him on Twitter (@derekspain) or on his blog.

Day 4, Vancouver, B.C.

 It's Monday in Vancouver, British Columbia.

At the corner of West Cordova and Burrard Street in downtown Vancouver the seagulls fight for positions atop lamp posts, flapping and cawing at ravens, pigeons and each other.

From this intersection one sees the nations mingle with a city living its Monday morning, even though so much of its rhythms are set to the beat of this most prestigious of Vancouver events since the World Expo of 1986.

Canadians and Croatians alike mount the sidewalk from buses whose sides read Vancouver 2010. Some countries go to work today, and some are just beginning their celebration of global competition and camraderie.  

Vancouver is grand without the Olympics, its mountains rising snow capped at the ends of alleyways and vessels cutting wakes through Coal Harbor. But now a new world of expectations and anticipation turns every Skytrain stop and street corner into an intersection with possibility.

This is the Vancouver Southern Baptists enter with their mission of making the Gospel of Christ known among nations.

Yesterday, Quillian Mercer shared a More Than Gold pin with a family at events in Whistler. “They were just so excited just to get the pin. Then I gave them the card that explains it,” said Mercer, a student pastor at Bethany Baptist Church in McDonough, Georgia. “Some people just wanted to hear my accent. I never thought God would use my accent as a way to talk about Him.”

Olympic pins, hot chocolate, coffee and accents are all part of seed planting among the nations in Vancouver.

“There’s a lot more happening here than just sports events,” says Jeff Wagner, North American Mission Board resort and special ministries coordinator. Jeff sees a man with a book full of pins from many Olympics. “Where there might be hesitancy to talk to me about Jesus on any other day, sharing a pin or a cup of hot chocolate shows that we’re interested in them on a human level.”

This is day four and only the beginning as we watch God work in the lives of His people here in Vancouver!

Years in the making

From an apartment window at 26 stories we watch fog fill distant hills and traffic stir the streets of Surrey, a town just 20 minutes from Vancouver on the Skytrain. Loss of a slider from the Republic of Georgia's luge team creates mixed emotions as a city builds toward tonight's festivities and more than a thousand Christian volunteers gear up for ministry. NAMB missionary Derek Spain remains in Whistler with fellow Olympic chaplains, ministering amid aftershock of a fallen competitor.

Churches across Vancouver will host viewings of the opening ceremonies, providing venues and hospitality to a city whose population will swell by more than 300,000 over the next three weeks.

"This has been years in the making," says Alan Au, a coordinator for Southern Baptist work during the Vancouver Olympics. "We've had volunteers arriving for three days from all over."

Many volunteer groups led by NAMB missionaries and pastors have already jumped into their roles providing hospitality at Skytrain stations, labor support to More Than Gold offices and outreach efforts throughout the city.

"The Olympics have provided Vancouver with an opportunity it hasn't seen since the World Expo in 1986," says Au. "It provides for increased infrastructure, for more emphasis on caring for the underprivileged and homeless and for an amazing cooperation among churches of many different denominations. Because of this the churches in Vancouver will be able to work together for many years to come."

Life in the Fast Lane

He travels “90 miles an hour down an ice chute with an inch of error on either side.” His name is John Napier. He is a U.S. Olympic bobsledder and a new Christian. In this video, travel to Lake Placid, N.Y. and learn how North American Mission Board missionary Derek Spain leads Olympic athletes like John to faith in Jesus. View video.