Stories of Redemption

Since this is World Outreach Weekend, first of all I want to say good morning to you. My name is René, I'm one of the pastors here, and we are actually not going to have a sermon here today. I thought I'd hear the same amount of applause that we just heard from Rescue on that point, but instead what we're going to do is we're going to let you hear from four individuals who are doing amazing things all around the globe in the name of God's love, God's outreach to people. These are going to be stories that are going to lift your soul, kind of like human chicken soup for the soul stories right here on this stage because since it is World Outreach Week we want to expose you to stories of what God is doing all over the planet today.

But first I want to take a small commercial break, watch the screen and look at this TV spot. It's not about politics or religion or the economy, it's not about borders, history, trade, oil, water, gas, mineral rights, human rights, or animal rights. It's not about global warming, global pandemics, globalization, GDP, NATO or Kyoto. It's not about elections, sanctions, proliferations. He said, she said, my land, your land, no man's land. It's not about the stock market, black market, orange alerts, green homes, hope, change, fear, all low things. It's not about communism, socialism or capitalism, war of peace, love or hate. This is about the one month every four years when we all agree on one thing. 32 nations, one world watching. 2010 people World Cup.

I'll never forget when I first saw that commercial a few years ago during the World Cup when it first started. I thought to myself, it's Bono's voice and he's talking about it's not about this, it's not about that, it's not about this, it's about all these countries together agreeing on one thing and I thought he's talking about God, he's talking about what God is doing around the planet, sending people free and then it was about soccer and I was so bummed because that's actually not true about soccer, right? But I'll tell you what it is true about. When we all as God's people agree on one thing, the whole world does watch to see how we live out the truth that one Lord changes everything.

And I want you to meet some people who are changing things with God all around the world and let me introduce our wonderful panelists to you. First, the president and director of Music Camps International. Would you please welcome Connie Fortunato to the stage coming up Connie? Working in Eastern Europe and then the director of Carazim Ministries, that's an outreach to the poor in the Bahamas. Dr. Raul Armbrister is with us too, it's wonderful to have Raul and his wife Karen with us. Based in Singapore right now and moving shortly to Hong Kong and overseeing and training Christian leaders in 18 different Asian countries, welcome Dr. Marty Shaw to the stage. And finally our world venture missionary to France and French speaking Africa, Jonathan Findley. Let's welcome all these amazing people of God.

Now you might be thinking to yourself, why should I care what these guys have to say to me here today? Well I gotta tell you, if you came in just even a little bit discouraged or down or depressed today, you are going to leave uplifted. I called these human chicken soup for the soul stories, if you know what I mean, but every one of these people is going to tell you a story about somebody whose life was changed by the one Lord who changes everything. If you're kind of a bored believer, right, you've been coming to church and kind of bored with your faith, these stories are going to change you because often as a pastor I think church isn't compelling to people because we make the story too small.

But these stories are going to remind you you're part of a big story and you're part of a big mission to a big world by a big God and so it's going to enlarge your vision. And then if you're a first-time visitor here, this is a great way for you to get acquainted with the DNA of our church because outreach, we talk about world outreach on this weekend every year, but outreach is a part of our DNA. Outreach is why we do the Christmas concerts every year. Outreach is why we do our summer car show. Outreach is why we gave over a million pounds of food to the local food bank. So this is a way for you to see this is part of just the life blood of this church called Twin Lakes Church. We want to reach out locally and globally.

And finally, if you're a regular attender and member of this church and you've ever given a dollar to this church, this is a way for you to see how your investment's going because I think this is one of the best-kept secrets here at Twin Lakes Church and I wish it wasn't a secret, but out of every single dollar that is given to the church, at least 10% goes to world outreach. So none of these people here on this stage are here because they're trying to convince you to give more money to some program. They're here because if you've given a dime to this church, you've already supported every one of these people. These are already people in whom you've invested with every dollar given and many of the other partners that are represented out here in the lobby as well.

So once again, put your hands together and let's welcome these panelists here to this stage. Now guys, I want to quickly address just kind of one issue that pops up. We do this world outreach week every year and I think just about every year somebody has come up to me with a very sincere, well, objection. Somebody says, "René, the very word missionary conjures all these negative images, some kind of arrogant, pith-helmeted, boastful, prideful, patronizing, bigoted, white male Americans saying, 'I know what's best for everybody else on the planet,' and pushing people around. That is not what we are talking about here.

What we're talking about is this. Jesus Christ told us to go into all the world and preach the gospel. That means good news to all creation and he also modeled for us how to do this and it's the same way he did it. Heal the sick, reach out to the afflicted, care for the poor, confront oppressive institutions like the religious institution of his day and preach the good news and that's what these people and the folks represented in the lobby do with gentleness and respect. And we specifically asked all these people to share stories of redemption. That's our theme this year for World Outreach Week. Redemption was a word that the Bible uses to describe slaves in bondage being set free and it's relevant to all of us in this room because it means that God can take somebody that other people have given up on, somebody who's given up on themselves and can turn their lives around.

Now you think about that. How many of you when you look in your own life think to yourself, 'Man, I am a story of redemption. God has rescued me and turned my life around.' Can I see a show of hands to people who would honestly say, 'I'm a story of redemption.' Man, I believe your hearts are going to be touched when you read these stories of redemption today. Our theme verse this year is Luke 19:10, 'For the Son of Man has come to seek and save that which was lost.' And Jesus still, the living Jesus, seeks out and saves lost people here, here in this room and all over the world and we get to be a part of what Jesus is doing. And so without further ado, let's hear a few stories of redemption today.

I want to start over there with the director of Music Camps International, Connie Fortunato. And Connie, I have a question for you that's kind of been bugging me honestly all weekend long and it's this, 'Do you believe the Niners can win in Atlanta?' That's my main question for you today. No, just kidding. You don't have to answer that, but yes, you do. How many of you do you believe that Niners can win? Connie, I'm really bugging Connie because Connie actually just arrived yesterday afternoon to be with us from Eastern Europe. She's suffering from jet lag, so it's really impolite for me to bother her this way. But Connie, I know you're a Niner fan, so let me move on to the real question. Describe to us your ministry and give us a story of redemption.

Well, Music Camp International takes the transformational gift of music to the children of Romania and Ukraine. We conduct week-long music camps for children ages 10 to 14. And while we know that most of these children will not become professional musicians, we know that the indelible influence and impact of music is with the child for life. We do four different kinds of camps. We do City Day camps. These we frequently have from three to six hundred children. The children do both choir where they sing the great sacred classics and instrument instruction. We also do specialized music camps for children with special needs. We have music camps for blind and visually impaired children and deaf and hearing impaired children. We also do government projects. We did a government project for the government of Ukraine where we had a music camp for one thousand orphans. It's really amazing. I mean that's a stunning, stunning ministry.

And then these people go on and the kids sing in major concert halls throughout Europe. They did. That concert was actually at the Opera Theater in Odessa, which is the most beautiful opera theater in Europe. And they were accompanied by the Philharmonic Orchestra. One thousand orphans. It was powerful. That is amazing. That's powerful, powerful stuff. Now you're able to get in and have ministry in countries that a lot of missionaries can't really be very active in because people are close to it. These are countries that were communist for a long time and there's not exactly been a real positive exposure in the cases of some people to Christianity. And so you're able to expose them to the message of Christ through music.

Tell me about a conversation you had with somebody at the beginning of one of these camps. Well, we had been invited to go to a boarding school in the town of the city of Zapparizia. I had gone down and met with the principal. Her name was Valentina. And Valentina was very cordial. But when we met she said, "Now I just need to be sure that you're not a missions kind of thing. You know, we've had that here and it hasn't gone very well. We're an orthodox country and we believe in God. You can sing about God." And I said, "Oh, that's great because we do." And a couple of months later we went and the team actually moved into the boarding school and we became their curriculum for a week.

At the end of that week the children, about 350 of them, did a concert at the Glinka Philharmonic in Zapparizia with the Philharmonic Orchestra. That night, because it was the final day before the spring break, the children left to go back to the villages throughout the country. My team left to return to Kiev and I was alone at the boarding school. The next morning Valentina came and asked if she could meet with me. And when I went in she said, "You know Connie, we knew when we invited you that it would change the lives of the children and you have done that. And our school will never be the same. These children's lives have been changed forever. Thank you." But she said, "What we didn't know is that it would change us. And my teachers have worked alongside your teachers this week. They've seen the way you treat them with love, with dignity, with encouragement, without criticism, without harshness. And you have changed my teachers forever and I'm so grateful."

And then she stopped and her eyes filled up with tears and she said, "But what I really didn't know is that it would change me. You know, 23 years ago my son was brutally attacked and murdered and my life of joy and happiness and everything being okay as I knew it came to an end at that point. And for the last 23 years I have buried myself in this school. And I didn't realize until this week that it was the God to whom you sing praise that carried me through my deepest grief and through my darkest hour. I had given up on my PhD program and I'm going to go back to school. I'm going to finish my PhD and my life is forever transformed because you came to Zapparasia." That's a beautiful story.

Connie, you know what I love about that story is so often when we encounter people who may be a little bit standoffish when they find out that we're Christians or even that we go to church or believe in God, we can sometimes be offended by that or frightened by that. But often behind that there's a deep wound and maybe more than one. And we just have to develop that relationship, develop trust, and then often the truth about that comes out and you understand why there was resistance in the first place. I just want you to share one more thing. She was literally just back there in Eastern Europe and held up her iPad and took a little video of a teenage girl that she's seen now several years in a row. Give us the backstory on what we're about to see.

When Sylvia first came to music camp, she's in Sibiu, Romania. She was one of those people that you notice right away you kind of go, "Whoa." You know, she had metal and chains and tattoos and just everything everywhere and obviously just a very deep cavern that needed to be noticed. And the team loved her and she began singing music in praise to God and studying instruments and hand bells. And the next year she came back again, which was shocking to me, but she was just a little more mellow. And then the next year I noticed a change in her face and a softness. And this year she came back again and I met with her and I said, "Sylvia, what keeps you coming back?" And this is what she told me.

Why do you come back? Because I like it very much and it's changed me. It's changed you. Tell me how it's changed you. With my English. Thinking to God and thank to him. Church. You said before you didn't think very much about God. I didn't think at him, but I never said it's true. I never said it's not true. I didn't care so much. And now I care. Now you care. Don't you love that? And now I care about God. Let's thank Connie again for the wonderful work she does.

Our next panelist, Dr. Raul Armbrister and his wife Karen were both living the high life down there in the Bahamas. Raul was an executive with a cruise ship company and Karen was the main female TV anchor woman on the Bahamas newscast. And then they began being exposed to the shantytown life that the majority of the population of the Bahamas lives in. And God touched their hearts and now 100% of their time is devoted to helping out the people in the Bahamas. There's high unemployment there and so they do a lot of vocational training teaching guys how to fish and women how to be seamstresses. We've sent short-term trips from Twin Lakes to help build those facilities. And Dr. Armbrister has some very startling and exciting stories of redemption. It's great to have you with us. Would you share one of the stories with us?

Oh it's so good to be here. One of the things we learned as missionaries was when you go into a new environment you respect the power and the hierarchy that's there. Recently trying to share Christ with a new village we came across a power that was just totally negative. In fact we came face to face with a mambo which is a witch doctor but this was a female witch doctor. She was very very negative towards the gospel of Jesus Christ. And we decided to go in and our first step was to pray because she intimidated people to the point where they did not want to take food and clothing. Even though there was obvious abject poverty they were afraid. And we started praying, "Lord, teach us how to pray and teach us what to pray for." We went back one day and they were in the middle of an Obia ceremony. Obia is black magic, juju, a form of African black magic. And she came out dressed in all of her ceremonial sorcery garb and she was totally upset. She said, "You're disturbing the spirits. Get out of here. You don't know what's going to happen to you if you keep doing this." But we would not relent. We would not walk away. We just kept giving out food and clothing to people who would accept it and we prayed for people. And she was just really really angry with us.

And that incident caused us to just ramp up our prayers. We started praying, "Lord, move her or save her." About two weeks later we got a phone call, "Come to the village right away." There was a shooting. A young man was shot on the wall of the church. It was her son. It totally devastated her. But Karen and I were the first to show up to her house. And we prayed with her and we cried with her and we mourned with her. In our culture when people show up for an environment like this, in an environment like this, you feed them and you provide drinks. And we went out and we bought drinks and we provided food and we fed the people and we were there with her. And she was like, "You guys are crazy. As mean as I am to you, as bad as I am towards you, why are you doing this?" That was the gospel opportunity, the moment we had prayed for. We shared Jesus with her. But she was such a tough cookie. She did not accept Christ right away. But she moved away. And she was gone for about a year. And in that year we saw people come to Christ. We saw miracles take place. We saw a transformation in that village that we had begun to pray for. And then she returned. And we thought it was just going to be just total chaos. But she came to me and she said, "This Jesus that you shared with me, I've now accepted him into my heart." She is now a part of our empowerment program. She's taken in three orphans in the village. In fact, this picture is of her and her family. There is a picture of her and Karen and the children right there. Just a couple of days before we came. Totally redeemed and transformed. Praise God. That's awesome.

You know, I have a follow-up question to ask you that we haven't covered yet in any of these services. But I hear this sometimes in conversation. You do both, you and Karen do both vocational training, feeding the poor, you would call it social gospel ministry maybe, and also evangelism and calling people to a commitment to Christ. Now you'll hear people say often, "I'm comfortable with one or the other. I don't believe we should be doing all that social stuff. Let's just evangelize." Or, "Let's just do the social stuff. Why do we need to intrude with the gospel? Of course, I love your mix." But tell me why you feel that that's the way you've chosen to do ministry there and why that's effective.

One of the things we learned right away with sharing the gospel of Christ that because of environments people may be resistant to it. So we learned the method that Jesus used. We hide the story or the message in the story. People see a house repaired. They see food. They see clothing. They see the things that they need for survival. While they accept that, it creates the opportunity for us to share Christ. So there's the parable with the hidden message and then the return on our investment for investing our lives is seeing people one by one transform, accepting Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. And you guys were saying yesterday we were talking about this and you said really that that's such an important component even from a sociological perspective because what really you were saying what really gets them out of poverty isn't the food we give them, it's the hope that Christ gives them. It's that hope component.

Yes, we learned right away that poverty is not the absence of things, it's the absence of hope. When they find Christ, they find hope eternal. Amen. Let's thank Dr. Ambreister and Karen for the work they do. Dr. Marty Shaw, he and his wife Denise headquartered now in Singapore, soon moving to Hong Kong, he oversees ministries and pastoral training in 18 different Asian countries. Now a lot of those countries he can't really even mention publicly because it's actually illegal or nearly illegal. It can get you into a lot of trouble in jail if you're a practicing Christian starting or operating a church there. So it's a dicey ministry in a lot of ways but one of those closed countries you met somebody in that country that has a powerful story of redemption. I wonder if you'd share that with us.

My wife and I do travel to several countries like that and we always have to be careful but it always seems that the testimonies that come out of that are very, very powerful. We found ourselves in one of those countries and one of our missionaries were there and the staff that works with them, Christians, they wanted to get together with us so we found ourselves going to the very back room of a restaurant. A room with no, the paint was coming off the walls, there's no windows, it was relatively secure to be able to talk. And as we sat around the table with the others there, there was a joy and laughter, these were Christians that were together and all in ministry and as we finished eating there was a certain anticipation. They said we'd like you to hear the testimony of this woman, one of our fellow colleagues. She's 25 years old. This is a story she told us.

I grew up in a rural part of this country, a very rural part of the country and I was born into an area with a unique kind of tradition, unique that they carried on. In the country you can only have one child but in the rural areas they let us get away with a little bit more and of course every family would love to have a son but in our family there was a girl that was born and the tradition that was really bizarre was that in our village, in our area, when a second daughter, if a second daughter was born, they would give her a local kind of alcoholic brew that they had as soon as she was born so that would be kind of out of it even more than a newborn would be and then they would take her out into the mountains, into the woods and either bury the baby alive or else they would just leave it there to die. Into my family, when I was born, I already had a sister so I was the second sister and for some reason my family did not take me out and bury me, they just took me out behind the house, into the woods, into the mountains and they left me there to die but I cried and I cried all night long and because they didn't take me out too far the family could hear me crying all night long and in the morning my older sister went to my mom and said, "Mom can't we bring her back in? I can't stand this anymore." And they did and my life from there growing up in a rural area in a poor area which is difficult anyway got worse if it can get worse. The abuse in the family and all of the other things that I had to experience growing up and she this went on for 45 minutes and just sharing the all how she found Christ but she said the abuse and everything was just horrendous. I had no hope and like many people in rural areas I didn't know where to go. I didn't see that there could ever be a change in my life except as many people in her similar situation in that country would do they would say if I could leave here if I could go to one of the huge cities then my life would change. Maybe I could do something different and when she was old enough in her teenage years that's exactly what she did. She said I ran away to the large city and and in that large city I was young and I was a country girl and people found me and and although I thought they would bring me hope it only brought more heartache it only brought more abuse and she went on and shared more and more some of the things that took place until some Christians found her and shared the love of Jesus Christ with her and at that point she believed in Jesus and her life changed and she I had no idea when we walked into that that back room in that restaurant that there was even an inkling of the kind of background and experience she had had for the first probably 22-23 years of her life and now she was working with our missionaries in a ministry trying to reach people just like her and the thing about it was she said this pointing the person next to her this is my husband he's a Christian we're working together and and I want to see a Christian home develop and even more of a of an impact to me was the entire time she was telling the story she was holding her baby daughter in her arms a daughter that would experience something very very different than what she had experienced a daughter that was born into a family with hope and to see someone who started out the life her life abandoned in the mountains in the woods behind her house because nobody wanted her to have joy and experience because the son of God because Jesus had come to seek and to save and he had found her.

Thanks Martin. You know, I hope you're hearing this because you might relate to some of these stories you might relate to the story of the woman that Connie met who was the principal of the school who was antagonistic to hearing anything about Christianity because of wounds deep wounds from the past where she felt abandoned by God 20 years before or you might relate to the woman in Raoul's story who was antagonistic to the message of the gospel because she felt threatened by it she had a pre-existing spirituality that where she felt like Christ was a threat to that and so you might relate to that story from your own background or perhaps like Dr. Shaw's story you relate to somebody who grew up abandoned by her family you may have felt abandoned physically or even emotionally by your family or or even abused God forbid but you see God I believe brought these people here to tell these stories to tell you that there is hope for you there's hope for you and there's hope for people that you know that are like those stories and there's hope for people in your family that have similar stories because God is the God who writes these stories of redemption all over the planet it's so exciting to get this this big picture.

And speaking of somebody who has a big picture Jonathan Finley was a ministry here at Twin Lakes Church and then went to France married a French woman over there they have French little ones he's got a French family and kind of probably thought he'd settled in Paris and then soon discovered that God is doing things in French speaking Africa and in fact we got some video of their church's ministry where they are going from Paris to French speaking Africa and partnering with the French speaking Christians in Africa doing ministry there so Jonathan's ministry has expanded from the suburbs of Paris to really having global impact there on that continent and Jonathan I'd love for you to tell us more about that.

Great introduction thank you. My story is about a young man who grew up in the very first church that I was a part of helping to plant his name is Benjamin and to become a missionary it's not really a career track in in the Paris region so Benjamin grew up kind of in the the suburbs of Paris the multicultural multi-ethnic suburbs of Paris almost as diverse as the pictures that you saw in in Africa he was the only white kid on his basketball team he likes to say that he never saw the Eiffel Tower until he was 19 even though he lived 20 minutes away. Benjamin is a leader and it's been my privilege to see him grow up he became an investment banker worked for the Bonc Nacional de Paris 25 he was making a very very big paycheck. He came to me in 2007 dissatisfied with his life when you're that successful at 26 you start to wonder what's next and I said hey Benjamin I need to understand this connection between where we're planting churches here in Paris and French speaking Africa why don't you come with me so he came as a part of a team a joint team that included members from Twin Lakes Church and we helped install an Ethernet network on a bible school campus.

There's a picture of the team on the on the screen there great actually it's jeremy the IT guy here who helped head up that project to to put in the Ethernet at the at the school some of the fastest internet in West Africa now you actually have faster internet than we have here at the church I think that's probably true I think that's probably true I've been trying to get connected here so Benjamin's story is a transformation story because you might think that he kind of took a downward turn when he decided to move to West Africa and to move into a Muslim village a poor Muslim village in in northern Ivory Coast but God was already preparing him the way he was raised in the in the Paris region even his banking skills he was recently asked by one of the union bosses who it's actually a weavers union boss to consult on some of his investments Benjamin's suggestions were so successful that this union boss gave him a piece of land so that we could build a place to receive our teams that we keep sending every year the village where he now lives has requested a team to come and do a vacation bible school this is a Muslim village in the public school so in October we'll be sending a team of 25 from Benjamin's home church in Paris my wife is helping to lead that team to set up a a Muslim well to set up a bible school in a Muslim public school how does how does that sound and this is Benjamin standing right there in the midst of the people in his village in his village and it's important it's important to add that the the village where he lives the the jula language is spoken the jula people represent four million people in Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, and Mali just a handful are believers Benjamin knows two of them because they're two secret believers living in his village who are who aren't yet brave enough and for good reason to share with their families that they're Jesus followers but they are in fact Jesus followers. Isn't that fantastic let's thank Jonathan for all that he and his team are doing over there.

Now you might be wondering to yourself well okay this was great how can I apply this to my own life beyond being vaguely inspired well I'm certainly glad you asked that question because that's why we're actually going to end in just a few minutes and a little bit early so that you have a little bit extra elbow room in your schedule to check out some of those tables in the lobby your DVR will work your Tivo will function the game will be recorded and you can check out some of those tables there I want you to look at this sheet that's in your bulletins it says at the top how can you be part of a story of redemption and here's the application it lists on this handout all of the tables that are in the lobby but you know what I love about what Paul and Robin have done with this is the tables are listed by action step not just you know go look at the table and get a pamphlet but for example the third one down today before you leave you can rescue a child by sponsoring one in Africa or one in India with the orphanages there that our church supports some of you already do this that's awesome some of you though have been thinking about this for weeks or maybe months or even years you've been going out one day I want to do it well today's the day you can pick that up and and you can get involved also look at the let's see the fourth one from the bottom it says help girls rescued from trafficking by purchasing their products these former child prostitutes who've been rescued from that life are now working with eye sanctuary and trading hope producing handiwork that is giving them an income so that they don't have to go back to that life it that's a wonderful ministry too in fact I bought this little risk thing at eye sanctuary this morning and which I thank you very much Jonathan I feel very cool and hip because the hip men wear these kinds of hand bracelets now in fact I was out there at the display and I asked one of the ushers I said wow I'll check me out I feel really hip now and he goes well hip er thank you very much I know so I'm kind of like one notch more in that direction but there's all kinds of stuff for men and women at these places and all sorts of other things too plus you heard Paul and Robin mention the wonderful people at polar bear ice cream who actually attend twin lakes church have free samples out there so that you can if you've got low blood sugar right now you're gonna hang around and pick up some of those and by the way one of their flavors that they have available this morning is made with locally grown honey and the guy who makes the honey also goes to twin lakes church so it's just kind of a twin lakes church missions love fest out there and I hope you can take advantage of that you can also sign up for one of our many short-term missions trips I'd encourage you to pick up the brochure and consider that and sign up to have lunch or dessert with one of our missionaries for example I noticed Raul just opened up a lunch that he's going to be welcoming whoever wants to have lunch with him tomorrow so if you want to have lunch and find out more about where Raul and what where Raul and Karen are doing you can sign up for that lunch lots of stuff out there hope you check it out and now with the same enthusiasm that you gave the Niners and rescue would you please thank these four amazing people as they have their suits.