Sent to Shine

Well you can have a seat and once again welcome to Wow! My name is René, good morning everybody! Everybody we have missionaries from all over the globe. 18 of our 25 international ministry partners are joining us this weekend live in person. They're scattered all throughout the congregation so put your hands together and let's welcome them right now! Great to have them here. We love you guys!

You know if you are new this weekend you're going what is going on here? You picked a super exciting weekend to check out church. My name is René, I'm another one of the pastors here at Twin Lakes Church and this is the one weekend each year that we pause to take a look at our international ministries. That's why we call it World Outreach Week. Wow! And this focus as you just heard continues all week long and personally I'm very excited.

This is perfect timing because our India short-term team which my wife Lori led just returned a few days ago from their ministry at Little Flock Children's Home which TLC supports. They were there, you can check out some highlights, they spent some time with the women who make the very jewelry that we are selling. Those are the women who make the jewelry we're selling and they spent a lot of time in the new clinic that we built painting and cleaning and outfitting it for ministry. That was part of our 2020 vision.

Also they spent time with the kids and the staff and with the seamstresses who completed a program in the new facility that we built with our 2020 vision funds. They learned how to tailor clothes and then they get a micro loan for a new sewing machine and one of our team Kalina is a beautician. She gave the kids haircuts too. So put your hands together let's welcome back the India team. They just got back. So much great stuff was accomplished and did I mention that my wife is back? I'm so happy that she's back.

Although she does mention that we're missing one Tupperware that she can't seem to find but I don't know. I know nothing but I just got I gotta tell you a funny story. Lori a few days ago was in the Mumbai India Airport and she's sitting there on a connecting flight to finally get back to the Bay Area and she's got to kill about four hours before the next flight and the guy gets up from the seat next door in the airport and he leaves the Hindustan Times which is one of the local dailies that is a huge newspaper in Mumbai India and it's in English and one of the languages they speak of course in India.

So Lori figures all good you know free newspaper I'll pick it up and see what is making news here on literally the other side of the globe because I need to be informed about stories that I don't care about you know back at home and so she opens up the paper and the first thing her eye settles on is this picture of the cement ship in Aptos Breaking news SS Palo Alto is broken apart in the California storms and everybody's saying it's a small world after all no please don't sing that song let's move on.

Grab your message notes that look like this isn't that crazy and let's talk about what the Bible says about missionaries and if you are thinking why why should I care about this missions stuff I don't care about the missions conference the missions weekend let me just tell you if you came in today feeling discouraged feeling just a little bit down you are going to leave so uplifted today I guarantee it because you're going to hear sort of human chicken soup for the soul type stories that'll just get you really encouraged.

If you're kind of a bored believer sort of bored with your faith you're gonna leave inspired because you're gonna realize that sometimes our faith can become so me first right but you're gonna realize that you're not just part of a little story in your your little house or your little town or your little life you as a Christian are part of a big story that our big God is doing all over our big planet.

And here's what I really want to get across if you are a regular attender to TLC and you've given even one dollar to the church you are going to be so stoked to see how your investment is doing because this is a little known fact I think about Twin Lakes Church every single weekend we take at least 10% of every offering we bring in at least 10% goes to our 25 international ministry partners 18 of the 25 are here this weekend.

So the people that you're seeing out there the people you're gonna be meeting on stage they're not here to try to solicit funds from you they're here because you already fund them through the ministry of Twin Lakes Church and this is your chance to see how your investment is doing including our three newest partners that you're gonna meet on stage here in just a few minutes.

But first I want to establish from the Bible what missionaries are all about because in our culture the word missionary has just sort of negative connotations right some kind of a pith-helmeted white male trampling over other cultures with a sense of arrogant supremacy right especially if you ever took you know cultural anthropology in college or something in Santa Cruz you know this is the kind of criticism of missionaries.

So it seems to me like we got to ask the question where does this whole idea of being a missionary come from what did it originally mean where do we as Christians even get this idea because when you think about it where is the word missionary in our English Bibles? Now I'm just gonna pause for just a second just think about it for just a second where are you gonna find the word missionary in your Bible? It's not there.

And so if the very word missionary is not even in the Bible then what are we doing supporting missionaries is this even a biblical thing where do we get the idea of missionaries from? Well the classic text is in the Gospel of John chapter 17 where Jesus is praying a prayer this is the night before his crucifixion and he's praying to the father about his disciples and not just the disciples there in the upper room with him about but about us.

And here are the words that he prays we're gonna put them on the screen they're in your bulletin and let's read them out loud together church let me hear you just as you sent me into the world I am sending them into the world and the word missionary comes from this verse you say I don't see it there well the word sent in the Latin Bible which was the Bible most people read for a thousand years of Christian history that's from the Latin word missio which simply means to send.

So to be a missio Mary just means you are a sent person you are a person who is on mission and here Jesus is saying I am a person who is on a mission and anyone who is my follower is a person who is also on a mission from God so stay on mission don't get distracted from your mission as a Christian.

And we live in a world where there are so many distractions not just temptations to sin but just all kinds of distractions away from our focus as Christians away from the reason that we were sent away from our mission and so the obvious question to ask is what are we sent for? If we are all missionaries in a sense if we're all sent as Christ was sent then why are we sent?

Well jot this down two things first missionaries are sent to show our faith we are sent to show through action what we as Christians what the kingdom of God is all about. Let me put it this way up in San Francisco I love going to San Francisco by the way I love the city anybody else here just love the city of San I really do love it and I just love exploring things.

And I don't know if you've noticed but in San Francisco there are many buildings that fly foreign flags and they are what is called diplomatic missions and here's some pictures of them here's the diplomatic mission of Mexico up in the city here's another diplomatic this is the diplomatic mission of Italy up in the city and here's a place my family and I have spent some quality time the diplomatic mission of Switzerland.

Doesn't know a classic you know with all that's kind of Swiss graphics they're all diplomatic missions otherwise known as embassies and all of these buildings tend to be very beautiful inside and outside and what are inside those buildings what kind of people are inside of diplomatic missions or embassies ambassadors because you see ambassadors and missionaries are the same thing.

Ambassadors are sent from foreign lands to kind of dispel stereotypes to let people know what their countries and what their people and what their values are really like to try to establish strategic relationships and they often do that by showing off their culture in attractive and unique and truthful ways and that's exactly what Jesus asks you and me to do.

That's what he means when he says this in our key verse for this week and let's all read this together from Matthew 5:16 let me hear you let your light shine before others that they may see your good deeds and glorify your father in heaven are you following me you and I are ambassadors of the kingdom of God your house is a diplomatic mission of heaven in your neighborhood your car is kind of a little mobile diplomatic mission of the kingdom of God.

And when I use terms like embassies those are political terms but of course I'm not talking about human politics I'm talking about the kingdom of God that transcends all human politics which is a kingdom of mercy and the kingdom of justice and a kingdom of humility a kingdom of peace a kingdom of compassion and those are the values that we share as we are ambassadors of the kingdom and Jesus did that.

But let's go one step further because Jesus wasn't just sent to show people what the kingdom of God is like he also showed people looking about God for a reason to save lost people so missionaries are also sent to share our faith to preach the gospel because people are lost and they need life.

Jesus said in John 10:10 I have come that they might have what life and might have it to the what the fall Jesus came to give dead people life Jesus came to give sinful people forgiveness Jesus came to give broken people wholeness that's why he came so you have to have both you show what the kingdom of God is like you give people a preview of what heaven is like a kingdom of healing and a kingdom of peace with God you show that through your actions and through your character and then you share it through your words.

The Bible says Jesus was mighty in word and deed so we need to do both right and that means Christians should not only start churches we should start churches but also in the name of Jesus helped to begin to alleviate the miseries of the human condition that people deal with that communities deal with and as we do that we're gonna gain credibility we're gonna gain a hearing for our words.

So we show it through our actions we share it through our words this is very clear it's very simple the Bible oh I could just show you a hundred verses where the Bible says the same thing that's what we're here for this is our mission as Christians.

So if it's that clear why aren't we more effective if it's that clear why do missionaries in some circles have such bad reputations and sometimes deservedly well here's one reason right from our verse in John 17:18 remember he said just as you sent me so I am sending them as he was sent so we are sent there's our control we're supposed to go like Jesus went.

If we are sent like Jesus was sent then we are to go like Jesus went go like Jesus that means have Christ's courage but also have his sweetness have Christ boldness but also have his humility have Christ strength but also at the same time have his compassion that's how he went so that's how we're supposed to go to.

When we don't go like Jesus went when we go like a human king with with arrogance and like a bull in a china shop that's when we're hypocrites and our and our actions don't match our message and missionaries get a bad reputation we're supposed to go like Jesus went.

I want to show you something in that now put kind of the thinking caps on here because we're looking at John 17:17 and in the verse right before this and in the verse right after this Jesus talks about the same topic watch this look at John 17:17 Jesus says sanctify them by the truth talking about us to be sanctified means to be made holy right then he has John 17:18 this verse about I'm sending them on a mission then the next verse John 17:19 says for them I sanctify myself that they too may be truly sanctified truly made holy.

Now why in the world does Jesus stick a verse about mission sandwiched in between two verses about holiness it sounds like a total non sequitur except it isn't because this is how the Christian gospel gets spread if it if the ambassadors are holy that doesn't mean religious it means holy like Jesus then people go I want to listen to those kind of people.

Listen my guess is that some of you in this room right now have never really found Christianity that compelling and I'll tell you one reason why it could just be that you've never really known a holy person not holy like Jesus because when you do that's very very compelling.

I was reading this week about Benjamin Franklin I was such an interesting character but you know he never fully bought in to Christianity now he came close as he grew older and in his very last year he asked for something about the resurrection to be put on his tombstone which is very intriguing but for most of his life he publicly was very resistant to Christianity.

But he became friends with a guy named George Whitfield and George Whitfield was a very popular pastor and missionary in the 1700s in America they became best pals and when George Whitfield passed away it came out that Benjamin Franklin actually had been one of his biggest supporters.

Benjamin Franklin actually gave much of his fortune to George Whitfield's church and somebody asked him well you don't even claim to be a Christian and you were one of the biggest supporters of George Whitfield's ministry how do you explain that and he had a great quote he said essentially well I'll tell you why because we need more people like George Whitfield.

Can you be that kind of a Christian where even people who say they don't believe look at you go you know I may not believe all that Christian stuff but we need more people like you around here that's the key to effective outreach go like Jesus went.

And in case you're saying well that's impossible I want to just introduce you to three people who are in my opinion doing this right now if you only had a stereotype of what missionaries do here is the real deal our first of three guests is Catherine Besk who grew up here at Twin Lakes Church and now along with her husband Kenny and their kids work in Thailand with a ministry called Zoe International and here's a brief video explanation of just what it is that they do watch the screen.

Since 2002 Zoe International has been striving towards our mission of reaching every person and rescuing every child Zoe is committed to end child trafficking when we achieve this by working alongside the government we want the good guys to win so we partner with the police trains national crime units and many other government agencies Zoe has rescued children from some of the most horrific situations imaginable.

Our desires to not only rescue children but to see complete healing and life transformation we provide loving Africa with houseparents who provide for their daily needs and a team of people who assist in the healing process so it is a place where many children have their first opportunity to go to school.

We also provide vocational training and life skills that better equip them to succeed we provide the children with a safe environment where they can discover who they are created to be we train up leaders in our leadership training school where we provide Bible teaching business and leadership learning as well as vocational and language skills.

This two-year program combines classroom study and hands-on application as our students lead the children and youth ministries as well as take part in our street and village outreaches the Zoe Child Rescue Team also works hard to prevent children from being trafficked as our team travels to vulnerable communities to provide much needed anti-trafficking education by doing this they're equipping people with necessary tools they will need to resist the tricks and toys of human traffickers.

The years ahead are filled with excitement and big dreams we hope you join us.

Hey put your hands together let's welcome Catherine Best with Zoe International Ministries they're working in Thailand right now Catherine it is great to have you here I remember when you used to babysit our kids and now here you are as a missionary and we'll talk about how you got there in just a second but you know we've been talking about how you show your faith through your deeds and then you have a chance to share your faith through words and you see lives changed how have you guys seen this happen do you have any specific examples?

Well Zoe means fullness of life and you can't offer someone new life when they're enslaved right they need to be set free first before they can hear the good news and there was a little boy Kenny works with the local police and we'll call him Nong. We should explain just briefly just kind of to give people the picture your husband Kenny also from Santa Cruz County was trained here as a law enforcement officer and so what he does over there now in Thailand is he works with their local law enforcement officers to teach them how to get at the human traffickers who traffic in these child sex slaves and then you trained here as a teacher then teach these children sorry if we're interrupting but go on.

So Nong was on the street and Kenny saw him working and he got to be a part of his rescue with the local police and we were able to bring him to Zoe and we've watched him start to trust and just blossom and this Christmas the kids are putting on a little performance and Nong was right in front of me and he was had his arms out and he was worshiping and dancing for the Lord so it's just been beautiful to see children become children again.

You're gonna make me cry. That's powerful stuff but one of the things I love about your example Catherine is that sometimes we all might disqualify ourselves from being missionaries because you think vocationally I've got to be a missionary whatever that means for life and yet all a missionary is is doing whatever it is that the Lord has laid on your heart and has trained you to be a teacher, a policeman, a translator, an administrator, a cook, a mechanic, a pastor only you're doing it in a country where there is this kind of a need and it could be for as short as a couple of weeks or a month or it could be as a career path.

And one of the things we want to ask you to do at the end of the service today is really pray and consider how God might be asking you to go or to support people who are going. Great to have you here Catherine gonna ask you a follow-up question in a second but first let's meet our next panelist watch the screen for an explanation of his ministry.

My name is Neil Karlstrom, Danielle Karlstrom, Three Kids, Braden, J.C. and Julie, my name is Jamie Schottenberg, my name is Alyssa Schottenberg, Three Kids, Isabella, Eliana and Gavin. We started the Red Island Project and the Red Island Project exists to reconcile people health and force back to Christ. For my wife for Alyssa it had to do with the true need of caring for women during a time of pregnancy that's so special.

As I learned more and more about the realities of women dying in childbirth my heart was just compelled to open up the Sutter Beauty Maternity Center. With our moms that have come to the center and just in talking to ladies in the community I thought what if we started washing their feet as the women are graduating out of our program. I sit down with them and I share why Jesus washed his disciples feet and why I wanted to do that for them. We are the same in Christ and they are a child of God and we are loved just beyond anything we could ever understand.

I was born here in Madagascar, grew up with Amalagasy. I get to fulfill a dream of mine from childhood to work with restoring the forest here in Madagascar. There's been so much deforestation we've seen a direct connection between deforestation and poverty. I'm the director for Eden projects here in Madagascar. We have over 300 employees up and down the coast that are planting mangroves all the time so I partner with Neil Karlstrom to further develop these projects.

We strive to find the area where we can come alongside them teaching them how to re-force their land that is heavily deforested. As their land gets reconciled as their lives gets reconciled we share the true hope the everlasting hope that's found in Jesus.

Our kids started collecting things from the house and they they went out and they made a little store. And they started selling to customers coming by. God, He uses our children way more than we know. They have learned Malagasy, they have learned French. They have taught us how to love the Malagasy so in a way they've taught us how to be missionaries.

We have the kids club that we just naturally jumped into. It was a youth pastor for some time. When we came to Madagascar we heard about Ruth, our Malagasy midwife who had started a kids club in 2013. Today we taught about the fruits of the spirit. Now it's grown into 120 plus kids every week and so we strive to do these together as one family.

It's powerful stuff. Put your hands together. Let's welcome Neil Karlstrom with the Red Island Project in Madagascar. Good to have you here Neil. Neil and I actually met a few years ago now at a summer Bible conference that we were both at and as speakers and when Neil told me that what he did, that he combines reforestation with midwifery and the gospel, I thought there is not a more Santa Cruz-y missionary in the world and so I knew that we had to support you guys.

So tell us a little bit about how Red Island Project accomplishes what we've been talking about. You show the kingdom of God and then you have a chance to share your faith.

Yeah it matches very well because we are not the traditional mission by any means. I mean if you asked us five years ago about Madagascar we would have said, "Isn't that a nice kids movie? There's people that... where is Madagascar?" We have we had no clue but God didn't call us to be church planners. He didn't call us to be evangelists out in the streets. He called us just to do what we love to do and so we just naturally fell into learning all about Madagascar and its severe poverty and its darkness and we got to jump into these projects and just do what we love to do.

And for my wife Danielle, she always has had a passion for women and babies and so now she's involved in the maternity center that we have here there in Madagascar and she gets to love on these women during a vulnerable time in their lives and they have women from that are broken, the women that are abused sexually and physically. They have prostitutes in the program and they get a care for them and so intimately and it changes the community and dynamics and provides a sanctuary for them.

And for what I do I have a passion for God's nature and just reforestation and most people say what does reforestation have anything to do with the Bible? But what we get to do is we get to come alongside them and and teach them how to reforest the land. Madagascar is over 90% deforested and that has a dramatic effect on the poverty and their lives and just meeting basic needs.

And so we we hire the Malagasy to do the work. So we hire from all different backgrounds those who are Muslim and witch doctors, those heavily involved in the ancestral worship and we teach them how to care for the land and so it's just a natural process as they get their hands in the dirt and they start to care for creation that they're drawn to the Creator.

And what's interesting is as you develop relationships conversations about faith become conversations between friends over the years. Exactly. And you've seen some amazing fruit and by the way I'll jump just in for a second to say if you're going yeah what does reforestation have to do with scripture? You'd be surprised actually at how much the Bible has to say about that. We did a message here about a year and a half ago called "Is God Green?" and we just went through all the passages of scripture that talk about the importance of the trees and all through the Old and New Testament. It's fascinating stuff if you're interested and it's on the website.

But tell us how these relationships have borne fruit. Give us one example.

Well one example is is Mama Tina. We found her when she was just still a young adult and she liked many Malagasy or just struggling to live and struggling to make it day after day. And she was able to actually go to school but her sisters and stuff weren't able to. And we found her and gave her a job with Eden Projects and she started to have an income and started to learn how to take care of the land and the area and had a purpose and a meaning for her life which a lot of Malagasy are still just searching for because they don't have a job or a means to do so.

And so she was able to provide for her family, for her parents and able to send her siblings to school. And then after some time as she grew in these projects she started she got married and then had it and got pregnant. And then we were able to send her into the program, the maternity center, and where she just got full one-on-one care with these women. And she's overwhelmed by all the love that she's been receiving and then when that question was posed in one little meeting, you know, "Do you want us? Do you want to give your life to Christ?" She came running to the circle and she's like, "God has done so much for me. God has brought me all of this and it's all because of Him that my life has changed and renewed and I need to be the light now in the darkness, darkness in the community." And she needs to do that.

And because it wasn't just words. It was something that she saw in action. So that's great. Isn't that a great story? I love that. I love it. Thank you so much, Neal. And there's one more great new ministry partner I want you to meet today. Watch this video.

Mercy Ships is a unique organization because it is bringing services to countries that would otherwise never be able to access those services. It gives us the flexibility to bring first world health care to the developing world. The diseases, the medical conditions we encounter are the diseases of poverty, abject poverty. Much of what we address would not be there if it weren't for the level of poverty in these nations. The millions of people who either physically or financially do not have access to health care are staggering.

People say to me, "Well, there's all these millions. How do you think you can change that? And we can change the individuals one life at a time." We just see people that need help. You realize that they have no way of getting help. And I want them to know that they're loved. What we love is a language that doesn't need words all the time. You can show compassion and care for them.

We are volunteers and I think that's part of what makes it beautiful. The people come to here with just a heart to serve and a heart to make a difference. And so that makes it a great environment. See you a bit more? After the rejection and the ridicule and the hard lives that they've had up until this point, then to have a ward full of nurses and the other shift staff, people just pour out so much love on them. Love does make a difference.

Every single patient that comes in here does come away with not only physical healing, but also emotional and spiritual healing as well. What happens in their hearts is really what changes them. And that's what I think empowers them to go home and be people and to get jobs and to go to school and to believe in themselves. This is really the setting that is unique. We're working hard here to leave a legacy of improved healthcare. You can stand in the gap while we encourage the development of the healthcare systems in the nations in which we serve. As it gets very much the concept of training, we always want to do ourselves a good job. That's perfect really because they've got the skills they can to get the program. That's come at the end really. We want the day to come when all the nations on earth are able to care for their people. And we have a long ways to go, especially as we're serving in some of the poorest nations in the world.

Powerful, powerful stuff. Let's welcome Amy Nyquist with Mercy Ships. Great ministry along coastal Africa. Good to see you, Amy. We should mention Amy's sister, Sarah Marsh, works here on staff. She's the producer of our venue service. So there's that local connection too.

Amy, I can't think of... All three of these ministries are such great examples of showing the kingdom of God and then having a chance to share. Give us an example of how that happens in Mercy Ships.

Mercy Ships' mission statement is to follow the 2,000 year old model of Jesus to provide hope and healing to the world's forgotten poor. And I always tell people, I mean that's literally what we do. We take his example, Jesus came and what did he do? He saw our humanness and he wanted to meet those needs. So he helped the blind see. He helped the lame walk. And that's what Mercy Ships does for an opportunity then to share with them about this greater need that they have for eternity.

So one of my favorite stories I love to share is one of the specialties we do, we do give sight to the blind. We do cataract surgeries. And often what will happen is we have back to back surgeries and then the patients have to wait under a tent until enough time passes and the doctors can pull off their bandages. So we've got a crowd of like 50 Africans that are just hanging out. And our doctors start coming around and they start taking off the bandages.

And when you watch someone who hasn't been able to ever see, which means they can't work, to be given sight, I mean just their entire face changes. And this gentleman sat there going like this and he stood up and he said, "Okay, I don't know who this God is that these people are talking about, but if he cares enough to give me my sight, then we all need to follow him. Let's go!" And he walked off to find one of our chaplains who basically are there to pray with our patients and give them Bibles in their own language.

So this is why I love what I get to do. Oh, that is such, such good news. I told you you'd be inspired. Such great stories. I've heard these three times and I get teary-eyed every single time. You know why? Here's why. Like me, you probably sometimes tell yourself, "I was doing more right in the world. I wish my life had more impact." But you have no idea of the fruit that the seeds you have sown have already been bearing because these are all missionaries you have already supported if you've given a dime to Twin Lakes Church.

All these things we've been talking about today, these are things that you've been a part of. You've been a part of every single thing we've been talking about. And I know on behalf of these missionaries and all the rest that we've got in the lobby, thank you so much for supporting them. Go out and encourage them. Let them know you're praying for them too.

And I want to encourage you to come back tonight, come back on Wednesday night, get to know them more, but apply it personally in this way. Ask yourself, if Jesus sent us as he was sent, then how is Jesus sending me right now at this moment in my life? We all have different seasons in life, right? You might be at a season in your life as a young person, maybe fresh out of college or high school, or maybe as a retired person, where you've got the freedom to actually go and serve for a longer period of time.

Maybe you're not at that season in life right now. You've got small kids at your house or something like that. Maybe your choice is to go for a shorter period of time or at least to pray for... Adopt one of these missionaries in the lobby or that you meet on Wednesday night and tell them, "I'm going to put your card on my fridge and we are going to pray for you every day." I know they'd really, really appreciate that.

So ask, "God, how are you sending me at this stage in my life this year?" And tell him, if you mean this sincerely, "I will go where you send me. I will follow wherever you lead me at this stage." That might change next year, but at this stage, where is God asking you to go in your neighborhood and in the world because you are a missionary too, not just these three? You're a missionary because you and I are also sent.

Let's just thank these people who came to join us today and all the missionaries that are here. Wonderful job. These people are fantastic. Let's all get to our feats.

Thank you guys so much for what you do. And let's stay standing and let's pray for these people right now. God, I just pray for Amy and I pray for Neil and I pray for Catherine and all of their families, and I pray for all the other international ministry partners that are in the lobby today and all of those who could not join us.

And God, I know that there are times when it is very hard to keep going forward, when they too must wonder if all the effort is worth it. And maybe there's more times that are like that than there are times of wonderful stories of harvest. And so God, I just pray that your Holy Spirit would just come alongside them and encourage them and remind them of the harvest, remind them of the fruit, remind them of their mission, and help them and help us to stay on mission and to not get distracted by all of the fall to all of modern society that tries to get us off track, but help us to stay focused on being your ambassadors of the kingdom of heaven.

Help us to show and share our faith empowered by your Holy Spirit. And I pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. And you guys can have a seat. One more time, let's thank these guys for joining us today. What a wonderful morning. I love it. Love it.