The following emails are only a few we have received the past few months from around the world. We are deeply grateful for our cyberevangelists Jeremy Ciaramella, Andrew Smellie, Rob Onekea and Ron Harding. We also greatly appreciate all those who assist in language translation and the work done building and maintaining the UpSideDown21 (www.upsidedown21.org) and the City of Angels Church (www.caicc.net) websites! KM
“Like cold water to a weary soul is good news from a distant land.” Proverbs 25:25
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| God has worked powerfully this week in the City Of Angels Church with a phenomenal six baptisms! Pictured from left to right: Manuel, Hugo, Tommy, Samuel, Eduardo and Andrew! |
California – Hello City of Angels International Christian Church, I am from the mainline church of Christ and teach over at Pepperdine. I just wanted to write and let you know that I am praying for your outreach efforts. Please remember in your prayers a special ministry in the mainline church called Kairos which also is seeking to plant new churches. It is really gaining momentum and, I believe, has more potential than anything I have seen in the CoC. I pray that you all have an abundant harvest…
North Carolina – I wanted to share the whole City of Angels Church’s Remnant Workshop with the disciples here, but was thwarted to do so by the elders and the evangelists telling me that I would “poison” the flock. I have been having meetings with the leaders of my church trying to convince them to join your movement… A lot of them even despise hearing Kip’s name uttered a lot in the conversations we have. My family group leader calls Kip “evil” and “Diotrephes” from 3 John. Everything that you guys are doing is from the Lord Almighty. I am so glad that there are men like you in this world who, despite facing so many challenges, try to keep the dream of Jesus Christ alive!! … You are right, it is time to put new wine into new wineskins… to start His movement over again. God is using you to shape history again. I beg you, don’t stop!!! God is with you.
Massachusetts – Thank you for the notice of the upcoming [World Missions] Jubilee and for the outreach by Upsidedown21. The last few articles were especially encouraging! It is true that autonomy is even among the members of a church. It seems uncaring and uncompassionate that church leaders don’t give directives and leave the people to figure out “what works.” Thanks again for all the hard work put into the online ministry.
India – Greetings from Hyderabad, India… I was baptized in Christ in August 1998, and I had a vision and fire to serve God [full-time] when I was baptized… Very soon I was leading a Family Group and then was leading a Zone and also the Campus Ministry in Hyderabad.
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| Naveh |
I came to church when I was a teen and in college, now I am married and have a son and its been more than nine years being in the church… For more than a year there was no proper leadership in the church and the entire church was going backward…When I tried to raise questions I was stamped as a REBEL. I was treated as a REBEL and counted out of the church membership. I was very hurt initially, but later I have realized that I am here for God and not for people. I am seriously looking for a change in my personal spiritual life and with your guidance and help I definitely believe that things in Hyderabad could be changed… Looking forward to be used by God for His mission.
Spain – Hi, from Madrid Spain! Years ago I used to go to the ICOC, but seems like they have changed so much since I went to church the first time. Last Thursday I found a former member of the ICOC and he told me that Kip McKean has created a new movement. Can you send me some address or phone number to contact them? Thank you and a hug from Spain.
Malawi (Africa) – The church in Malawi was planted in 1997. Today we have a membership of about 30, but an attendance of only 12-15. Personal view: The church is really struggling. Members are late. There is no consistent joy… We had one baptism when we moved there in 2004. She later fell away. Most of the singles started to date outside the church and left. I too am tempted to date outside the church but am not. Most members sleep during the message. Midweek has been optional for some time now. The church is more focus now on building friendships, like “GO AND MAKE FRIENDSHIPS IN THE CHURCH” not disciples of Jesus… At one point all the Bible Talks died except for the campus ministry where am at… I ask you to come here…souls need to be saved and Malawi needs a someone with experience.
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| Jose |
Ghana (Africa) – I became a disciple in the year 1998 in Monrovia Church… The Henry Kriete letter brought the same misfeelings and misunderstanding as we were also affected [like America]. The result was “lukewarmers” and an uncommitted attitude set-in to all disciples. I came to Ghana as the war in Liberia intensified and I meet the same problem here and it was worse here. So many disciples have left. I am praying that God will touch your heart so you can support the mission and our vision we have to evangelize Ghana. May God bless you.
Johnny Selvaraj – India – All glory to God! The remnant is gathering to bring glory to Him from all parts of the world! The great news is that Raja has joined us and has many disciples rallying around him in Chennai. The first official church service was conducted last Sunday [February 3] in Chennai… Concerning the translation of UpsideDown21 articles, we have a few local dialects in India that are widely used, namely: Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam. We would need to translate in Hindi and Tamil to begin with, we have brothers in Chennai who can translate in Tamil… Love and prayers. (Johnny and his wife Annie lead our sister congregation in Bangalore, India. In a very courageous decision, Raja and Debby Rajan resigned from the full-time ministry in Chennai from our former fellowship to be able to start a new congregation of only sold-out disciples there. There are now three sister churches in India: Bangalore, Chennai and Mumbai.) KM
Tim Butakov – Russia – I remember the [Novosibirsk] Church meeting when it was announced that discipling relationships switched over from “indispensible” to “on demand” category. It was explained that “if we are disciples, we have to seek for discipling ourselves; no one is obliged to compel anybody; if you need teaching – come and you will be taught.” Such a seemingly spiritually grounded announcement released all-levels of leadership from the responsibility to take the initiative in discipling groups… which actually led to complete ABOLITION of the discipling principle.
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| Ronnie |
I witnessed people (many of them were and still are dear to me personally) being left without deep individual teaching and subsequently getting weaker, losing their convictions, becoming lukewarm, turning into “churchgoers” and even leaving the Lord because of materialism, immorality and other sins. I was surprised and even confused when I saw how easily people gave up the convictions upon which they used to base their lives for many years, and how they tolerated all-round decline of the standards of service and personal convictions; sometimes they did not even notice that decline!
The Church [in Novosibirsk, Russia] rapidly changed… The Church was getting different and was no more the place where I had once been baptized… As a result, it became difficult for me to pray, because I was ashamed to “look in the eye” of God. I could not sincerely share my faith. The Bible was no more the living Book, because I didn’t see its practical application. I was getting spiritually weaker.
In 2007 God made me acquainted with two disciples of Christ who had come to Novosibirsk from Kiev, Ukraine. They looked as ordinary guys, absolutely like me – I did not recognize they were real disciples of Jesus. Then I remembered, on the road to Emmaus the two disciples who were walking with Jesus did not recognize Him either (Luke 24). Just as Jesus explained to the two disciples from the Scriptures God’s plan all over again, the brothers started to explain to me from the Bible all over again about discipleship, the Word of God, repentance, baptism, the Body of Christ – His Church, in other words, the first principles of Christianity.
The time our brothers from Kiev could stay in Novosibirsk was limited… I clearly understood that the moment was steadily approaching for me to make a choice – to leave God or to stay with Him. There took one more important moment in this distressing period when I and my wife left God, because we did not see or understand how to remain disciples under the circumstances. To do it in the lukewarm Church meant for us to deceive people, reassuring them with tales about absolute commitment to God, but in practice showing them quite a different picture. Besides, no matter how sold-out and dedicated the new converts were, he or she would inevitably get lukewarm and lower the overall Bible standards, looking at the surrounding apathy.
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| Sunita |
And that was against our conscience. By the way, the same idea was expressed in Gordon Ferguson’s book “Discipleship”. All those things required us no less than to create a new Christian congregation. Unfortunately, because of our spiritual state in those days, we were not ready for such a courageous deed for Christ. And we took the following decision: if we cannot remain faithful Christians within the lukewarm Church and are not able to set up a new congregation, we have to wait until God will raise a new movement we could join.”
At this moment as I am writing, my wife and I are accepted by God into His family again! We are following Christ and trying to lead other people to Him again. I see the challenge before us – never stop regardless of anything! I beg you, brothers and sisters, to pray for us. We believe and now know that there are sister Churches, brothers and sisters all around the world, who are united with us and support us, though we do not see them. And to God be the glory! (After contacting our brother Maxim Potapov in Kiev, Ukraine and hearing more about God’s new discipling movement, Tim and his wife Vika were restored. A few weeks ago, the Spirit, through the Butakov’s new found faith, has planted another congregation in our family of churches, the Novosibirsk International Christian Church.) KM