Happy Thanksgiving!

Dear friends,

There is so much for which we give thanks to our Lord.  He has blessed us in many ways.  We are especially thankful for you, dear friends, and we pray that your Thanksgiving Day will be a very special time for you and your families.   

Rod and Bec

PERU, EXPOSITORY PREACHING SEMINAR, A MOVEMENT IS LAUNCHED!

October 31, 2015

Dear friends,

It’s good to be in our home on this stormy afternoon in Baton Rouge.  As I begin to pen this letter, I again give thanks to our Lord for the good shelter that He, in His sovereignty and goodness, provides for us everyday.  He is protecting Bec and me, even at this very moment, from the growing downpour outside my window and the soon-to-come whipping winds and streaking bolts of Louisiana lightning.  But, much more importantly, He is providing our souls with safe haven from the terrifying tempest that never ceases but only whirls around us (and when possible within us) with raging fits of evil.  He is our Shield.  He is yours too, as you well know.  Oh, what praise we give Him on this stormy day!  Let’s be careful to stay in the Shelter! 

PERU EXPOSITORY PREACHING MOVEMENT LAUNCHED! – The ‘Action Steps’ expository preaching seminar in Peru went very well.  The purpose of my week there was to train those men who were selected by Peru Mission to be members of the initial teaching team in the launching of a multiplying, expository preaching movement in all denominations throughout Peru. 

Peru Mission posted photos on their Facebook page which they preceded with these very kind words:

"Thank you to Rodney Wood for coming to teach a week long seminar to several of our Peruvian pastors. Dr. Wood taught the men how to preach expositorily. He not only gave great information from his book "Action Steps" (he also gave the book newly printed in Spanish) but encouraged the pastors and motivated them to be faithful to God's Word and to His people. We had about 20 men who benefited greatly from this time together who left with hearts filled with God's Word and His Spirit. The pastors will continue in groups in our various cities working together to study and preach God's Word. This will be a tremendous asset to northern Peru. Please continue to pray for our pastors and churches here in Northern Peru."

I am very grateful to Rev. Wes Baker, Rev. Steve Hill, Rev. Stuart Mills, and the Peruvian pastors for granting me the privilege to teach and join with them in the effort to advance expository preaching in Peru.  I would also like to express my deep appreciation for the wonderful hospitality of Stuart Mills and his wife Meg who hosted me in their home for the entire time that I was there.  What a blessing to be with them and their three children, especially since I have known both of them since before they were married!  I first met Stuart when he was a teenager and I was blessed to serve as “regular pulpit supply” minister for our very, very dear friends at The Plains Presbyterian Church in Zachary, Louisiana twenty years ago, and I met Meg almost that long ago on a Sunday morning when she was playing violin and I was preaching at Grace Presbyterian in Central, Louisiana.  What a great joy to be with them all these years later!   

 

FINANCIAL NEED:  Brothers and sisters, we are very grateful for every gift that has been provided to help us fulfill our calling.  But we are presently in great need of your financial participation with us.  We are totally dependent on our Lord’s workings through your response to our communication of our need.  Would you please consider providing a special year-end gift to The Mission Foundation?  We will be praying earnestly that God will give you guidance regarding our request.

In the love of the One who shields us all from the storms! 

Rod and Bec

You can now make your donations to our ministry online.  You can simply can simply CLICK HERE TO MAKE A DONATION .

Or if you prefer, you can use the QR Code below: 

FINANCIAL SUPPORT OF THE MISSION FOUNDATION

• CLICK HERE TO MAKE A DONATION

Ragamuffin Rich Mullins: "Did you believe that I loved you?"

The Mission Foundation

Sunday Evening, August 30, 2015

Dear friends,

Recently Becky and I watched a film that came out in 2014 but for some reason had flown under our radar:  Ragamuffin, the life story of Rich Mullins. As you may know, it was Rich who gave us “Awesome God” and other songs that many of you have sung countless times. But, as you may not know, Rich Mullins lived in almost constant desperation to survive the turbulence of his soul.

Rich Mullins October 21, 1955 - September 19, 1997 photo by Jonathan A. Meyers

In his days as a child with two brothers and two sisters on a farm in Indiana, Rich was not like the other children. He was a musical prodigy who studied classical piano. He says that, as hard as he tried, he never seemed to be able to do anything right on the farm. This garnered the strongest disapproval from his father John Mullins who had to work extremely hard to support his family. Seemingly unaware of the lasting injury he was causing, Mr. Mullins related to Rich in a manner that bruised and bruised until at last the mark of the blows was unfading. Even when Rich was an adult and had reached great heights of success, the rawness of those wounds was regularly renewed by jab after jab of rejection by his father.  And then there was the devastating blow:  a breakup with the girl whom he met at Bible college and he was sure he would marry.  It all left him staggering in the ring. He battled against despair. At least a couple of times, he mustered late night courage to call his father, but his father refused the phone. Rich’s spirit sank lower and lower as he smoked another cigarette and took another drink.

Although Rich’s struggles never seemed to go away completely, by the gracious workings of God, he learned something that we must all learn and learn and learn some more: Our Heavenly Father loves ragamuffins! What is a ragamuffin? Merriam-Webster defines a ragamuffin as “a child who is dressed in rags and is usually dirty and poor.” As I write this, I am reminded of the very first words of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount: “Blessed are the poor in spirit . . . .” The favor of God is upon those who recognize that they are ragamuffins! 

Rich came to understand God’s love for ragamuffins through a man with whom some of you may be familiar – a native New Yorker who spent most of his life serving our Lord in the city of New Orleans – Brennan Manning, author of The Ragamuffin Gospel. It all began one day when Rich was driving to yet another city to take his tortured heart onto another stage and give of himself, which he did with an uncommon vulnerability. His traveling assistant pled earnestly with him to listen for just a few minutes to a certain sermon. As the tape was inserted, a most pleasant and distinguished, baritone voice said:

In the 33 years since I was first ambushed by Jesus in a little chapel in the Allegheny Mountains in western Pennsylvania, and then, literally, the thousands of hours of prayer, meditation, silence, and solitude over those years, I am now utterly convinced that on judgment day, the Lord Jesus is going to ask each of us one question and only one question, “Did you believe that I loved you?  that I desired you? that I waited for you day after day? that I longed to hear the sound  of your voice?”  The real believers there will answer, “Yes, Jesus, I believed in Your love, and I tried to shape my life in response to it.”. . . . Jesus Christ in this moment comes right to your seat and says, “I have a word for you. I know your whole life story. I know every skeleton in your closet. I know every moment of sin, shame, dishonesty and degraded love that has darkened your past. Right now I know your shallow faith, your feeble prayer life, your inconsistent discipleship. And my word is this: I dare you to trust that I love you just as you are, and not as you should be – because you’re never going to be as you should be. (excerpt from a sermon by Brennan Manning)

As Bec and I watched that film, I asked myself, “Is it true that the central question for us when we get to heaven will be ‘Did you believe that I loved you?’” My mind was taken to Genesis, Chapter 3. We humans, in our parents Adam and Eve, chose not to believe that God loves us. We believed that God’s prohibition with regard to “the tree” was more restrictive than it really was:  Eve told Satan that God said that they were not even to “touch it.” We believed that God had lied to us about the consequences: The Serpent said, “You shall surely not die.” We believed that God was withholding good from us: Satan said, “God knows that you will be like Him . . . .” We chose to believe that God did not love us! 

What a dishonor to God! Dishonor by those whom He had created to be the recipients of His love! But God the Son became a Man and honored His Father with the sacrifice of His own blood – love unto death – as He the Divine Man suffered dishonor at the hands of His own creatures, having made Himself their fellow man.  He endured this in order that you and I might be forgiven of disbelieving in His love and that we might become men and women who will one day stand before Him and say, “I believed that You loved me.”     

May God bless you, my fellow ragamuffins!

Rod (for Bec and me)

2003 - Standing Beside My New Friend Who Would Become My First Teammate, Rev. Dr. Femi Adeleye of Nigeria, now living in Ghana

Langham Preaching, the initial International Consultation, 2003,
High Lea Conference Center, near Cambridge

Femi and I in 2003:  Having recently attended the Ten Year Celebration of Langham Preaching in Ghana, I found it interesting that my Nigerian brother Rev. Dr. Femi Adeleye and I are standing together at the right side of this photo of the delegates a the initial International Consultation for Langham Preaching, a brand new work of Langham Partnership International founded by John Stott (back row, just right of center).

I well remember the quite meaningful conversation that Femi and I had about his ministry as we rode the train together after the consultation. Little did he and I know that we would later (2005) be asked to team up in our very first assignment -- the launching of a new program in Ghana!  

Although Femi was not able to attend the Ten Year Celebration, I am very thankful that he and his wife Affy came to the home of our brother Emmanuel Ahlijah to visit with Becky and me.  It was a delight to see them!  

Femi is included in the pictorial presentation in my most recent post here on my blogspot. 

(I should mention that I did work with Chris Wright in El Salvador in 2004, but Ghana was the first country in which I was asked to actually join with a colleague in the establishment of a new program.)

CELEBRATING TEN YEARS! GHANA - LANGHAM PREACHING - NEPS, National Expository Preaching Seminar

National Expository Preaching Seminar - LANGHAM PREACHING
Established in March of 2005

THE WAY WE BEGAN TEN YEARS AGO! 

My brother and Langham colleague, Rev. Dr. Femi Adeleye of Nigeria
What a blessing it was to join with Femi
in the launching of the new program in Ghana!   

Rev. Emmanuel Ahlijah, former National General Secretary of GHAFES (IFES,
known in the U.S. as Inter-Varsity) was the first coordinator of the work in Ghana.
It was while he was attending a conference in Germany that Emmanuel
spoke with John Stott about bringing Langham Preaching to Ghana.
In 2005 his vision for his country became a reality!

Rod, Femi, and Emmanuel, 2005

Emmanuel Ahlijah was joined by a great group of leaders

in establishing this new movement.  Below are some of 

the original members of the planning committee and 

some from more recent years.  

Our 2005 seminar was held at this lovely
Presbyterian Women's Center

AND NOW TEN YEARS LATER, 

THE LANGHAM PREACHING MOVEMENT

 IN GHANA CONTINUES!  

Femi, Rod, and Emmanuel - 10 years older!

Affy and Femi Adeleye and Emmanuel

It was great to be with these planning committee members again.
They have been involved in the movement since its beginning:
Rev. Dr. T. B. Dankwa (Chairman), Mr. Victor Obeng (Country Coordinator),
Mrs. Beatrice Nkyekyer (member),Rev. Emmanuel Bortey (Vice-Chairman),
and Mr. Kwame Adu (member).  

Rev. Jude Hama, former National Director of Scripture Union
has been a leader in the movement from the beginning.  I finally had
the opportunity to give him a copy of my book,
Action Steps for Expository Preachers.  He and other Ghanian
leaders have been great encouragers to me through the years as I
have sought to develop the methodology provided in my book.  

This is the young man who picked me up at
the airport in 2005 when I first arrived in Ghana.  

Bec with Dr. Theopholis "TB" Dankwa, who serves
as chairman of the planning committee
Our brother TB was for many years the pastor of one of the leading
evangelical churches in Ghana - Accra Chapel, which
is located next to  the University of Ghana Medical School.  A number of years ago,
Pastor TB granted me the privilege of delivering the installation sermon for his successor.
We give thanks to our Lord for our brother TB and his much
blessed service to the people of Ghana.

Organizer of the Kumasi Seminar

Bec with Emmanuel and Beatrice

Bec giving words of greeting at one of our seminars.  

We want to thank you again for making
it possible for us to go and serve
in places like Ghana.
We are deeply grateful.
With much love to all of you!
Rod and Bec