Synergy Stories

“All Nations Ministries” Visits Mozambique

Fri, 29 May 2009 15:07:46 -0600

Sisters, OR: Mike Parker, the Executive Director of All Nations Ministries, recently returned from his initial vision trip to Mozambique, where he met with Gildo Cuamba, the national Director of Association for Light Development (ALD: the In-Country Partner for the Circle of Light (CoL) program). During his visit, Gildo and Mike explored the possibility of incorporating Mike’s evangelist teams and ministry into the outreach initiatives of ALD.
Mike was familiar with the Circle of Light program in Kenya, and wanted to partner with CoL in Mozambique because of the wide open door for sharing the gospel and the opportunities to grow along with CoL in a new country. The future looks very bright at the prospect of combining the practical need for home lighting with the essential and eternal need for the light of the world, Jesus.
Please pray for us as we continue to move forward with the good news of God’s great love for this world.
If you’d like to read more about ANM’s perspective of their visit to Mozambique, you can read Mike’s blog from the trip: www.gotellallnations.blogspot.com

Jesus, the Foundation for Discipleship & Development

Fri, 29 May 2009 08:04:58 -0600

Kitale, Kenya: On my first visit to Kenya in 2003, John Coors, the Founder and President of Community Uplift Ministries, commented, “We think we have an idea about how to create and adapt a sustainable business model for lighting and cooking. But how do you keep Jesus sustainable?” Perhaps another way to ask the same question is, “How do we keep Jesus central—not losing focus on Him—in the middle of economic and community development efforts?”
It was, and remains, an important question for all of us to ask. The natural tendency is to separate the two into two separate and distinct categories. In the past this separation has created a false dichotomy known as the sacred/secular debate. In more recent years it has morphed into the tensions between business and ministry. But both business and ministry are two inseparable parts of our formation as disciples of Christ. In other words, discipleship ministry and marketplace employment are equal-opportunity-contributors to our spiritual formation and maturity. Why else would Jesus teach more about money and the investments of our time, talents and treasures, than any other topic? He was clear, “No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You can not serve both God and wealth.” (Mt 6:24 & Lk 16:13)
But did your notice that Jesus never separated the two. He said, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Either your heart for God will direct where you spend your time, talents and treasures or your calendar, checkbook and stuff will show another master is at play. Wealth, contentment and a the demand for more, in all it’s forms, are inevitably at odds for your heart’s attention. Things will begin to master us unless God masters us and all we claim to possess in this world.
In His words and action, Jesus taught the priority of who must master our God-given resources. Its easy to say, “God must be our first and only devotion... the one who masters our hearts with love and our treasures with wisdom.” But to “take every thought captive to the Lordship of Christ” is no small or simple task. It means taking every thought about our personal and corporate economic status and ruthlessly subjecting it to our devotion to Jesus. Our calendars, checkbooks and stuff tell a story of our devotion to God, every bit as much as our personal testimony (and the data may be more honest and trustworthy). They expose the priorities we believe as either disciples of Christ or disciples of the world.
The ancient Desert Fathers took Christ’s teachings literally to mean, “In all your business transactions, lose a little.” That is why it has been important for CoL to lose a little by providing, not only a sustainable economic development program around lighting and cooking, but also a platform by which Jesus (the Light of the World and Bread of Life) can be preached and received. With every CoL community launched, two buildings are constructed; the Energy Store and a Christian Training Center. These are inseparable aspects necessary for lasting transformation and holistic discipleship. The Christian Training Center is centrally located next to the Energy Store in each CoL community and provides a platform by which people can gather to discuss and follow the way, truth and life of Jesus.
For any lasting development to progress, an ethical and moral foundation must be laid for culture to grow and mature. Jesus overcomes this world’s entrenched forms of corruption and depravity by becoming the narrow way, the living truth and the abundant life that leads to a lasting maturity, integrity and dignity.
Therefore, from the beginning of the Circle of Light (CoL) lighting and cooking program in 2002, there has been a vision to collaborate with other like-minded ministries to provide essential discipleship and sustainable development resources to the rural communities. These rural communities are usually the last in receiving essential discipleship and development resources (if not, all together overlooked). Yet in Africa, the majority of people still live in rural villages. Meaning, the majority of essential community and personal needs remain largely untouched, beginning with their need for Jesus.
So I don’t know how to keep Jesus sustainable? (My suspicion is that He’s taken care of that through His Spirit... read John 14) But I do know, If we lose focus on Him in the process of our development efforts, then faith, hope and love are lost with Him and we quickly become overwhelmed by a task to complete, driven by a pressure to control outcomes and we fill up with resentment toward those who stand in our way. None of which look like the life and love of Christ.
I can therefore only conclude that the foundation of discipleship and sustainable development begins and ends with Jesus. We can’t keep Him central, because He’s already central, regardless of our best or worst efforts. What we can do is continually fix our eyes on Him, the author and perfecter of our faith.

Audio Bible Listening Groups Coming to Mozambique

Fri, 29 May 2009 08:00:05 -0600

Albuquerque, NM: Faith Comes By Hearing (FCBH) offers the world’s largest catalog of Audio Bibles to individuals and nations who hunger to hear the Bible in their native heart-language. Offering every person on our planet equal access to the Bible requires meeting the unique cultural and literacy challenges present in underdeveloped countries. FCBH is attempting to address the biblical illiteracy and unaccessible nature of written language needs of a complex world through modern technology. Their mission is to offer the Bible through this technology in every language or tongue.
For the first time in history, every known language (or ethnos) group has been identified. There are 6,809 in our world today. Along with many other partners (like Synergy Initiatives), FCBH is working hard to record an Audio Bible in 2,000 of these languages and start 2 million listening groups in order to make the Bible accessible to 97% of the world's population by the year 2016.
Synergy Initiatives has been in an ongoing dialogue with FCBH since finding out about their Proclaimer Audio Bibles and listening group program in late 2008. It is our hope and intension to use the audio Bibles to establish weekly Bible listening groups throughout the Circle of Light communities. The listening groups will be hosted at the Christian Training Center and throughout the surrounding community. Training is scheduled for August 3-5, 2009 in Maputo, Mozambique and implementation will begin immediately following. We work together so that faith in God might come to people living in the surrounding villages by providing an opportunity for them to hear the Bible in their own heart-language.

‘Movie Nights’ In a Backpack

Wed, 27 May 2009 15:57:21 -0600

Social Circle, GA: Synergy Initiatives has been in an ongoing dialogue with Renew World Outreach since finding out about their audio/video ministry in late 2008. It is our hope and intension to use short films and feature length movies in our community ‘Movie Night’ outreach events. The movie nights will be hosted at the Christian Training Center on our Circle of Light community sites.
As the new Christian Training Center is being developed for Mozambique, we have been dreaming about ways to expand the opportunities to share the love of God along side the tangible development resources provided at the Circle of Light Energy Store. With that in mind, we have become more intentional about providing the necessary resources to take advantage of the available technical resources. Included in these resources are print materials, audio bibles and now video materials and equipment that can be used to teach the Bible to small and large groups who don’t have the literacy proficiency to read the Bible or print material.
Since the 1980s, there has been a growing awareness of the special, sophisticated nature of oral cultures around the world. This new awareness has drawn upon the extensive collection of oral traditions present in many African countries. Academic trends since the 1970s have reflected this new interest and a seriousness about the characteristics of oral cultures and the related concrete-relational worldview, in contrast to the linear, analytic western worldview. This growing awareness in the field of orality has created educational models and resources that not only teach people to read but help preserve and expand our understanding of the value and role oral communication and literature have and continue to play in the human story.
Christian Missions have given great attention to the topic of Orality, arising out of anthropological insights from missionaries into oral cultures, oral traditions and oral literature. Many current approaches and programs have been developed on the basis of cross-cultural insights learned by these missionaries. Their various observations and emersion into cultures they ‘live in’, ‘communicate with’ and ‘relate to’ in the mother-tongue of different people groups have yielded invaluable understanding and respect for the complex nature of God’s creation know as mankind.
C.S. Lewis was asked, after writing the space trilogy, “Do you enjoy writing science-fiction books and will you do it again?” Lewis is said to have answered that he had no intension of writing in the genre again because he disliked modernity and considered himself a “pre-modernist” in his philosophy and writing preference. The follow-up question was asked, “If you dislike the genre, why use it in the first place?” To this he replied, “I want to get as many hooks in the water as possible.”
Regardless of what anyone thinks of using modern video technology, it is undeniable that it is here to stay as a significant way we tell our human story. Also, the impact of such video projects as the “Jesus Film”, and others like it, can not be denied as a significant tool to share the life and love of Jesus all across the globe. Therefore, along with ministries like Renew World Outreach, we hope to make the good news of God’s love—demonstrated through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, the Messiah, and His indwelling Spirit—more accessible to those unable to read it for themselves. So along with helping them learn how to read and write, we’ll give them an opportunity to sea and hear the gospel story for themselves. It is another hook in the sea of soul’s hungry for God.

Ranch View Middle School Fundraiser

Thu, 14 May 2009 07:50:06 -0600

Highlands Ranch, CO: Miss Di Rito’s 7th grade ‘Connections Class’ at Ranch View Middle School had the idea to put together a charitable fundraiser called, “Wagons for Water.” There original plan was to raise money to build wagons and ship them over to Africa. Once they saw the price tag for shipping, we were able to connect them with “Acirfa,” a ministry established to help deal with the unique transportation and delivery challenges in Africa.

Their gift of $1100 is being used to bring bikes and carts to the first CoL community in Mozambique. From there we hope to grow additional vocational training opportunities and economic development initiatives for each CoL community that include a viable delivery and distribution infrastructure for water, cylinders and batteries.

It was encouraging to see the lights go on in these young peoples eyes as they realized that their fundraiser was going to make it possible for a handful of people on the other side of the world to get a job and provide for their families. Their efforts were literally making a life or death difference for people they will never meet. That sounds like faith being born out of love to me.