Dear Pastors,

I am headed to Guyana a few hours after writing this, taking a team of 17 from African American churches in Memphis. The team consists of pastors and lay leaders who have never been out of the US, let alone on a mission trip. I am really excited and so thankful for this opportunity.

As a Church Connections office we partner with and resource churches in a number of ways. One way in which we are doing this is mobilizing the African American church for involvement in global missions. If you, like me, feel that it is not right that only 1% of the total mission force being sent out from the U.S. is African American and would like to partner with us in the mobilization of the African American church to global missions, I invite you to contact us.

I also ask that you would pray for this team as we travel and minister among churches in Guyana. The pastors on our team will be preaching on Sunday morning as we spread out among 7 churches. Other members of our team are musicians who will present a concert of Black Gospel music on Saturday evening and sing in churches on Sunday. During the week we'll be remodeling a church’s day care center, and in the evenings finish teaching Phase 1 of a Community Development training series.

Thank you for your prayers and your interest in the work of this office as together we mobilize the church both locally and globally.  - Dave

SRI LANKA: PASTOR AND THREE OTHERS MISSING
According to a March 6 report from the National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka (NCEASL), a pastor of the Gospel Missions Church in Vavuniya and three other men have been missing since March 2. Pastor Victor Emmanuel Yogarajan disappeared while on a trip with his two sons, Daniel and David, and another young man. All four were last seen leaving a house in Negombo for a bus stop en route to Colombo.

The deaths and disappearances of Sri Lankan church leaders have been increasing at an alarming rate following the renewed outbreak of civil war between the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil rebels. Pray for the families of these missing Christians. Ask God to bring peace to the troubled country and to protect believers as they boldly proclaim the gospel. (Source: NCEASL/VOM)

CHINA: HOUSE CHURCH LEADER & ELDERLY MOTHER IMPRISONED
On Feb 26, Beijing house-church leader Hui Huiqi’s 77-year-old mother, Shuang Shuying, was sentenced to two years in prison by Beijing Chongwen District People’s Court, charged with willfully damaging public and private property. On January 26, Hui Huiqi and his mother were attacked and wounded by seven police officers while walking near a 2008 Olympic hotel site in Beijing. When Hui asked the police to release his sick mother and explain the legal ground for detention, he was beaten repeatedly and later taken to a detention center. Shuang Shuying was arrested on Feb 26 when she sought information about her son, arrested a month before. Pray for this family as both mother and son are in prison. Persecution is expected to intensify ahead of the 2008 Olympics. Ask God to give believers wisdom and courage as they face these difficult times. (Source: China Aid Association/VOM)

FROM EVERYWHERE TO EVERYWHERE: MISSIONS BOOM IN NEW ZEALAND
The fields are, as always, ripe for the harvest, and New Zealanders and New Zealand-trained missionaries are hearing the call. Pioneers New Zealand is excited about the trend after preparing 12 long-term missionaries for the field last year, eight of whom have left for six different countries. “In the past it was mostly childless couples sent out from New Zealand,” says national director Jamie Wood. “Now it’s anything from young singles to retirees with the majority being young families with a median age of 28. The common factor in all of them is a passion to reach the least-accessed people in the world.” Wood expects Pioneers to be training and sending another 10-12 missionaries this year.

WEC International is also expecting a boom year with 14 trainees in its first course and another your yet to be held. It hasn’t seen numbers like this in the past five years. Unlike Pioneers, WEC has become a training and sending base for missionaries from other countries, especially Korea, which now provides the third largest group going into the mission field, after Americans and British. (Source: ASSIST News Service/Missions Catalyst News Briefs)

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Introducing World Missions: A Biblical, Historical, and Practical Survey is an excellent text for prospective missionaries and others interested in missions work. Though definitely a textbook and not a casual or quick read, this book's strength is its breadth. "Written as a textbook, its focus is on providing students in introductory missions courses with a broad overview as well as occasional deeper explorations" (from the preface). This would be a great resource for anyone teaching a class on missions or mentoring those considering missionary service.

The book is divided into five parts: (1) Encountering Missions in the Scriptures; (2) Encountering Missions in History; (3) Encountering Missions as a Candidate; (4) Encountering Missions as a Sent One and as a Sender; and (5) Missions Encountering the Contemporary World.

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Mudhouse Sabbath: An Invitation to a Life of Spiritual Discipline
by Lauren F. Winner (2003, 2007 Paraclete Press)
Reviewed by Suzanne Johnson

“Practicing the spiritual disciplines does not make us Christians. Instead, the practicing teaches us what it means to live as Christians.
…The ancient disciplines form us to respond to God, over and over always, in gratitude, in obedience, and in faith.”
– Winner, in Mudhouse Sabbath

Though we are nearly a quarter of the way through 2007, the year still has an air of “fresh start” about it for me. Perhaps because tomorrow is the official First Day of Spring, and the year does not seem fully underway until the earth comes alive again. Whatever the reason for this lingering sense of new beginnings, with that mentality I’ve recently found myself drawn to treatments on the spiritual disciplines, and increasingly desirous to see more of these rhythms and practices of spiritual devotion have a place in my walk with Christ.

One of these books is Mudhouse Sabbath: An Invitation to a Life of Spiritual Discipline by Lauren F. Winner. In her earlier spiritual memoir, Girl Meets God, Winner tells the story of her conversion from Orthodox Judaism to Christianity. In Mudhouse Sabbath, she brings her knowledge and experience with Jewish traditions to bear on the Christian faith she has now embraced, suggesting that there are “Christian practices that would be enriched, that would be thicker and more vibrant, if we took a few lessons from Judaism” (from the introduction).

The titular “Mudhouse” is a coffee shop in the author’s hometown of Charlottesville, NC and indeed, one could read this short tome (a mere 160 pages) in an afternoon spent with a latte at a coffeehouse or a picnic in the park. The subtitle describes this book as an invitation, and it is just that; you will not find detailed prescriptions and techniques for practice or lengthy passages on the theology of the spiritual disciplines. In the author’s own words, this is “a small book of musings on and explorations in those practices.” With other excellent books out there that include the former (I am also delving into Foster’s Celebration of Discipline at present) I appreciate this book for its admittedly modest scope and the author’s conversational tone even as she provides an informative treatment of each area of spiritual practice. Winner’s “musings and explorations” on 11 topics—Sabbath, fitting food, mourning, hospitality, prayer, body, fasting, aging, candle lighting, weddings, and doorposts—are thoughts to which I will return as I reflect on my own attempts (and failures) at building these practices into my own walk with Christ.

Lauren F. Winner is the author of Girl Meets God, Real Sex: The Naked Truth about Chastity, and a contributing writer to Christianity Today.

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