Lending to the Lord – NAMS COVID-19 RELIEF REPORTS

This Post has been edited to assist in the safety of workers in the field.

Do you know how to lend to the Lord? (See Proverbs 19:17 to learn how).

A couple of months ago, we wrote and asked for a second time in 2 years for contributions to NAMS COVID relief in parts of the world where NAMS has work or bases, that were facing particularly difficult times. We at NAMS thank God for those of you who gave and prayed towards this COVID-19 Relief Fund 2021, which we were able to channel to our leaders and bases in India, Nepal, Peru and Cuba, a few of the most hard-hit places.

You may remember that we shared that our NAMS South Asia Regional Team Leader — has contracted COVID. See his report of full recovery below. Also, thank God that our Companion in Nepal, Kiral Pal also recovered. However, three of our NAMS Companions, Pankaj Neupane in Nepal, and our NAMS missionaries in Peru, Juan Tamayo and his daughter Melissa, are  currently also COVID-19 positive. All are recovering, but please keep them in your prayers.

Two brief reports from Juan and Maida Tamayo, NAMS Companions and leaders in Lima, Peru of those helped by our COVID-19 Relief funds:

Sister Yaipsi: “Today, I want to thank our Heavenly Father for the great blessing received from all of you, my family in faith. My family and I are totally grateful for your valuable contribution and especially your prayers. May God multiply your blessings greatly and may His mercy be infinite to all of you”.

Sister Rosa: “Greetings to the NAMS brethren. Today I’d like to thank God for the great blessing which you are having you in my life. I know God is working greatly in my life with a purpose through the great act of kindness of your offering. The support of NAMS means a lot to me because it was in a moment that I was going through certain needs. Our prayers to God are powerful – their answers are reflected in the act of kindness of your offerings. I am very grateful.”.

Indeed, to all who gave and prayed, we at NAMS say ‘Thank you’ and thanks be to God.

Going to the Least of Them — COVID-19 Relief.

This Post has been edited to assist in the safety of workers in the field.

URGENT APPEAL – NAMS COVID-19 RELIEF FUND 2021

Dear NAMS friends and supporters,

We live in a world that continues to battle with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. While those of us in developed countries have started to reap the effects of vaccinations in bringing down infection rates, such is still not that case in the majority world.

NAMS has work on 5 continents, and our Companions and leaders are widely spread around the world. Some of them continue to struggle with the effects of the pandemic. A few nations like India and Nepal are facing huge surges in numbers once more, as I am sure you are aware from the news.

We in NAMS are seeking to raise funds to help people through our NAMS  NAMS bases in 3 of the most hard-hit nations globally, that is, India, Nepal and Cuba.

In fact, in India, the NAMS leader of South Asia, is now in hospital being treated for COVID.

The situation is equally dire in countries like Nepal and Bangladesh. Our NAMS Nepal leader has just reported that one of our NAMS Companions in Kathmandu, Kiran Pal, has contracted COVID-19. They are now in a desperate search for a hospital to treat her.

Kiran Pal in Nepal

Finally, the island state of Cuba has not been much in the news. But our NAMS base there reports that COVID-19 and the collapse of the economy has meant that there is a shortage of food, essential items and employment in the country.

We would therefore like to appeal for emergency funds to send to our NAMS bases in these three countries in particular, India, Nepal and Cuba, so that they can help meet the needs of people there – especially the sick, suffering or destitute.

If you would like to help or donate, please click on the ‘Donate Now’ button here or go to our website directly ( http://www.namsnetwork.com/ be-involved.html ) to donate there. Contact us at info@namsnetwork.com for other ways to transfer any gifts. (Please indicate ‘NAMS COVID-19 RELIEF FUND 2021’ on the remarks column).

Above all, please pray for these and many other nations in the throes of this pandemic.

DONATE NOW!

The work goes on.

As it has no doubt been for you, 2020 has been a strange year for us as well. Many things we had planned have been put on hold. Too many people dear to members of our network have suffered as a result of the pandemic—the disease itself and its devastating impact on economies and culture. Yet through it all we have seen God at work, and we have been blessed because of it.

We have seen disciples made, churches planted and new mission fields open in India, Peru and the US. Our Global Apprentice Program expanded into Africa this year. We now have (or are poised for) Global Apprentice in Asia (Thailand) and Europe (England). Generous donors made COVID relief through NAMS possible in five major regions. The work goes on because the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ carries us onward.

To those who have already given this year, we say “thank you.” To all of you who pray for us so faithfully, we again say “thank you.” As the calendar year draws to a close and our brothers and sisters in the USA enter a season focused on giving thanks, we ask you to consider showing your thanks to God by making a gift to NAMS and so partnering with us in the spread of the gospel around the globe. We cannot continue to answer the Lord’s call to pioneering global church planting through disciple-making discipleship without your generous support. Thanks be to God, who is able to do far more than we are able to ask or imagine!

Donate Now

Or, you can mail a check (or use your bank’s online bill pay feature to send a payment) to:

NAMS
2820 Selwyn Ave, Suite 694
Charlotte, NC 28209

The Gospel is not in lockdown! Discipling emerging leaders in Africa.

Many of us were taken by surprise by the COVID-19 pandemic and its effect on our nations and world. Like a tornado or typhoon, it has wrought swift destruction and damage to all in its pathway. But despite the strict limitations now in play in many parts of the world that are still causing suffering and death, we thank God that He is not limited by Pandemics or shut-downs. God is still at work around the world, and we in NAMS, in  part with His church and people, are working actively despite the challenges of our times.

Our our NAMS Base in Nairobi, Kenya is an example.  Just prior to the presidential directive to have school closed and our cities placed into lock down, a NAMS’ team led by Rev. Isaac Lasky  (from Bangkok Thailand) and Pastor Pankaj (from Kathmandu, Nepal) was in town (2-8 March 2020) to do orientation with three new NAMS Global Apprentices. Had the training dates been planned a week later, it would not have been able to happen, and we saw God’s hand in the immaculate timing.

 Isaac and Pankaj with Timothy and new Global Apprentices in Kenya

The plan after the training was to have the trained apprentices join me in regular practical ministry’s  activities including preaching, training and pastoral visitations;  with each remaining committed to making disciples in their sphere of work and home.  The lockdown in Kenya brought a halt to our plans.

However, NAMS Sub-Saharan leader Timothy Mazimpaka in Kenya further reports what happened: “One day, while waiting upon the LORD to know what should be done, I got a message from a sister in the Lord that I knew from the USA with an encouraging quote from A.W.Tozer.  She had gotten it from one of Tozer’s books, ‘The Pursuit of God’ that she had stated re-reading.  As we spoke, I raised an idea to organize a way to read the book with her online and to have our Global Apprentices join in. She readily agreed. Since then, we have been reading together the book once a week and it has been a great blessing. We read, do assignments around topics raise and then come back to share. Our prayer is to get those we are reaching to also use the book as a resource.”

At the same time, Timothy and the Global Apprentices have begun using another virtual discipleship platform, by  DAI (Development Associates International) – a 9 weeks’ course on “Servant Leadership.“ They have been meeting virtually and online with 12 emerging leaders from Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya and Canada.

So, even as they aim to start the GAP program in Kenya proper with support from Isaac, GAP Global Co-ordinator, once the situation improves and they can physically be together, in the meantime they have been able to keep learning and growing through  these times with various activities on-line. We thank God for the opportunity through the COVID-19 lockdown to continue to train emerging leaders in Sub-Sahara Africa.  God’s glory continues to unfolding in ways we least expect. Glory to God in the highest!

  Isaac and Pankaj visited  our NAMS Base Community in Nairobi.

 

 

 

Going to the Least of Them — COVID-19 Relief.

This Post has been edited to assist in the safety of workers in the field. These are extraordinary times. Much of the world is still trying to cope with the devastating spread and effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. In parts of the world where NAMS has work, some of our leaders and Companions are facing unprecedented challenge. In this special post, we would like to appeal for emergency funds to help some of the most needy people in a few of our mission regions. People who were already poor. People like Sindhu featured below – the poorest of the poor. Will you pray for them? If the Lord moves you, will you give to our COVID-19 Relief Fund? We hope to send as much as we can to our Regional Team Leaders to help with their efforts. Please read and pray. Here are some of our other needs we have received from our regions…

1. Kathmandu, Nepal. Our NAMS leader in Nepal, Pastor Tek Prasad Rijal is based just outside of the city. Because of the lockdown, they have been helping with the food needs and support of at least 25 families in their locality. Additionally, Tek is well connected to relief efforts of various other churches in the city and will be able to help from some of the funds sent.
2. Nairobi, Kenya. Our NAMS leader in Kenya, Pastor Timothy Mazimpaka reports that they have been working with a group of women from Ngara Market, most of whom are the sole breadwinners in single-parent families. They have been struggling without work at the market, to feed themselves and their families. A gift of US$1,000 will enable to the 15 of so women to have basic foodstuff and support for a month or two.
3. Havanna and Cienfuegos, Cuba. Our NAMS leader in Latin America is based in Temuco, Chile – Pastor Andres Casanueva. Our NAMS base there has relationship with NAMS partners in Cienfuegos and a base in Havana, Cuba, which they have been regularly supporting. Because of the COVID-19 lockdown, many of the poor families have had no recourse for help and support. We would like through our NAMS base in Chile, to send them crisis-relief funds and support for basic needs.

Please click on the ‘Donate Now’ button here or go to our website directly ( http://www.namsnetwork.com/ be-involved.html ) to donate there. Contact us at info@namsnetwork.com for other ways to transfer any gifts. (Please indicate ‘NAMS COVID-19 RELIEF FUND’ on the remarks column).

Click here to DONATE.

Pacesetting for the Kingdom! (By Revd Timothy Mazimpaka)

A section of young professionals together with NAMS’ facilitators

Do you know Eliud Kipchoge? He was a Kenyan marathoner, who during the 2019 World Athletics Championships in Vienna, Austria, became the first man in history to run a marathon in under two hours – specifically 1 hour, 59 minutes and 40 seconds. But Eliud did not run or win the race on his own.

He was surrounded at alternative times during the race by different groups of 36 men in all, dressed in uniform black gear, who acted as his pacesetters (or pacemakers). Asked to comment about the role of his pacesetters in his historic achievement, Eliud said: “They are the best athletes in the world. I thank them. It’s not me alone who made history. We made history together.” It is debatable whether Eliud could have broken the record without those pacesetters running with him.

In December 2019, a NAMS global team from drawn from the USA, Chile, Egypt, Zambia and Kenya played a similar role of being pacesetters to a group of Christians called to run in Gospel ministry in Mbeere Diocese, one of the upcountry Dioceses in the Anglican Church of Kenya. During the week of teaching and celebration, our team shared with and inspired about 400 youths, 20 young professionals and 30 clergy to become agents of godly transformation in their community by sharing the Good News of the Kingdom of God and making disciples of others who could do the same.  We thank God for the new partnership we have with Mbeere Diocese and pray for another 100 years of faithful and fruitful Gospel work and harvest will grow from our time there. Will you pray with us for this?

Feedback from two participants:

“I didn’t know that through ‘multiplication’ I am the potential to bring millions of people to Christ”— Miss Justina.

“In my work as a clergyman,  I have tried with my all to serve my church, but to no avail. This training has taught me the smarter way to serve: To equip my congregation to do the work I used to do alone.” Rev. Thomas.

Will you consider partnering with us in our work in Sub-Saharan Africa, as we seek to help to make disciples who make disciples, raise disciple-making leaders and plant disciple-making churches?

Click here to DONATE.

KATHMANDU CHRISTMAS REQUEST

During this Christmas season, we are all familiar with the nativity story of Mary and Joseph finding no room in the inn, having to make do with  keeping the baby in a manger (Luke 2:7).

This month, we are making a special appeal on behalf of our NAMS base community and their church community in Kathmandu, Nepal who are likewise building-less at the moment. As renting buildings or rooms are not only challenging (in a Hindu-majority nation), but also typically expensive, they are seeking to build their own building on a piece of land they have leased for 5 years (with an option to renew for another 5).

Currently, they need US$10,000 to finish the building that they have started, which still lacks compound materials to build the walls and interior as in the picture below.

Their prayer is they will be able to use this building, and others in time not only for their weekend services and weekday discipleship and outreach activities, but as a base from which to build and grown the NAMS Himalayan/Tibetan Base Community. Their vision is that it will be a centre from which to raise, train and send many peoples out into the Himalayan-Tibetan region. They hope that this building in addition will allow for multi-purpose usage and income-generation opportunities.

This Christmas, will you consider a small gift in aid of this project? If so, please click on the Donate link below (- Indicate where applicable, ‘For NAMS Kathmandu Project 2019’.)

Finally, please keep us and our work globally also in your prayers.

Thank you

NAMS Himalayan-Tibetan Peoples Region,

 

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Scoring the Goal of Life!

M* is a certified football (soccer) coach. He is also a NAMS Companion, living and working in his native Cairo, Egypt. M runs a football academy for young Egyptian boys and girls. He also coaches teenage/young adult teams of African migrants intent on getting into the professional football leagues of Egypt and onto fields abroad.

But his passion is to make disciples for the Lord Jesus Christ. And to this end, he is seeking to share the Gospel contextually and sensitively with the ones he coaches, as well as with people of the majority religion in Egypt. Already, God has brought to him a few contacts, and has invitations to lead sports ministry among refugees in neighboring Arab countries.

M is also establishing a NAMS base community with his wife and another young couple they are discipling, pictured above (faces obscured for security). Through this, they will seek to make and multiply disciples, leaders and new communities in the country and, in time, in other parts of the ME. Will you pray for M. in the difficult context he and his family work in? They have many challenges – financial and security being the main. If you would like to pray or give towards their work and the work of NAMS global, please consider making a gift this Christmas. You will be making a huge difference in the work that M and other NAMS Companions around the world are doing.

(*M is not his real name).

To DONATE – CLICK HERE.

 

We are a new creation. (By Manik Corea)

Christianity is not a religion of human reformation but of divine transformation. God is seeking a new breed of men and women who are wholly changed by Him. Jesus startled the Pharisee Nicodemus with the statement – ‘you must be born again of the Spirit’ (John 3:3-8). A new start is required.

God does not just want to mend the old ‘you’. In fact, as part of our salvation, he crucified (read ‘killed’) the old you, that is the one that was a slave to sin, and begun the work of making a new person altogether, one whose focus and locus are situated firmly in person and power of the resurrected Christ.

In Romans 12:2 and 2 Corinthians 3:18, the Greek word ‘metamorphoō ‘ is used, commonly translated ‘transformed’. In Romans 12, the emphasis is on allowing our minds to be renewed and transformed through offering ourselves to God. On the other hand, the 2 Corinthians passage speaks of transformation that is done through God’s Spirit as we behold His glory. We look to Him and He changes us.

Transformation requires our co-operation and response to what God has wrought through His power and glory. We cannot generate our own transformation any more than a child can will himself to grow a few inches overnight. But when we choose to let God change and redeem us, our natures are transformed (2 Corinthians 5:17).

It is a change that is real and lasting. We see this in creation. A butterfly is not merely a caterpillar with wings – it is an entirely different creature. Within the tomb of its chrysalis, a transformation – metamorphosis – occurs, and what emerges is radically different. It is startling fact of science that a caterpillar eats only leaves and never drinks, whereas a butterfly never eats but survives by drinking nectar.  Similarly, our whole outlook on life, what sustains us and feeds us, will be wholly different (Romans 8:5,6 cf John 4:13). We have hope, faith and love enough to last through an eternal tomorrow. But it must infect our ‘todays’ as well!

Peter Kuzmic, a Croatian theologian, said, ‘Hope is the ability to hear the music of the future. Faith is having the courage to dance to it today.’

Hope and faith go hand in hand. Because our hope is in God to deliver us in the future, we can trust him today for all the things that threaten us – even terrors of the night, the trials of life or the worst persecution. Our hope in God will lead us to turn and trust him more, and we will find that not only will he be with us through the storms, he will turn what may seem like terrible things into something good.

‘We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.’ (Hebrews 6:19). It mitigates against the suffering and the injustice we sometimes or often face, and reminds us that despite the vicissitudes of quotidian life, our God still reigns and he is quite capable of working all things for good to them that believe.

Indeed, our hope is in the King who is reigning now as Lord and will return to bring all things under His feet. And that same Christ calls us now to an indefatigable work by His power and direction, to rescue and ready a people for Himself when He comes.

We are called to make a difference in the world, to be and become, as God’s people, an alternative community of hope; a veritable city of refuge for the lost and the losers, those huddled masses of the lonely and oppressed. It is this hope and trust in God then that will prove, now and at the last, the great and lasting antidote against the poison of hopelessness that darkens so many a life today.

A disciple who makes disciples knows how the story ends, because they would abide in the transforming story of His Word. And by his Spirit and new creation, would they live and are instruments of his power and love in our world for good.

Are you one of them? What difference will you make in a neighbor or strangers life today?

AS WE REACH ANOTHER’S YEAR END, WILL YOU PRAY ABOUT SUPPORTING THE WORK AND MINISTRY OF NAMS GLOBALLY, OCCASIONALLY OR REGULARLY?

US$25 or $50 monthly will help support our Regional Team Leaders and Companions in places where they are ministering with very little support or income. If you would like to help, please go to this link: 

https://www.namsnetwork.com/be-involved.html

where, at the bottom of the page, you can donate online or find out how to send us a check.
Thank you.

 

It is Finished. (By Manik Corea)

“Christianity is a strange thing” contended Watchman Nee (Nee To-sheng), that great Chinese church theologian of the last century. “If at the outset we try to do anything, we get nothing… For Christianity begins not with a big DO but with a big DONE.”

Redemption cannot be purchased by us but is freely offered by God. Salvation in Christ is not achieved, but simply received by faith. Since we came into sin through our birth relationship to Adam, we must be delivered from sin by a blood sacrifice – that of Christ, the second Adam. (Romans 5;18-21, 2 Corinthians 5:21).

And so ‘Tetelestai’ was the Greek translation of Jesus’ final word, as John recorded in John 19:30. It simply means ‘It is finished!’ The implications would have been widely understood in their day. It was an accounting term signifying full payment. The debt of our sin had been completely written off. He paid and we are freed – from the awful hold of sin and its wages of death, if we would trust Him with our lives.

But as we receive Him and all He did for us, a life-changing alteration ensues. Once we were separated and estranged from God, but through the passion of Christ, we are brought near and made one with God.

Through and in Christ alone, we come to God and now stand in Him (John 14:6, Hebrews 10:19-22; Romans 5:1,2). God justifies us of our past and sanctifies us in the present by placing us in Christ.

This affects and transforms every aspect of our new life with God from here on. Our identity, purpose, characters, circumstances, words, works and worth, in fact, all we are becoming, is viewed now from a vantage point far different and superior than our past. We who are seated with Christ in heavenly places, are called to think and be different (Ephesians 2:4-7;  Philippians 2:14-16; Colossians 3:1; 2 Corinthians 5:16; 1 Peter 1:13-16 etc.) Christ in us becomes our hope of glory (Colossians 1:27).

Therefore, our faith lives or dies on the basis of whether we remain in Christ and He in us (John 15:4,5). In fact, being ‘in Christ’ is a central theme in the New Testament. The expression occurs 216 times in Paul’s epistles and 26 times in John’s writings – Who we are ‘in Christ’ makes all the difference to God and us, today and for eternity.

The difference this makes (or ought to) in our daily lives in this world should be monumental. A disciple of Jesus has simply recognized that his life is not his own anymore – it belongs to Jesus. It is hid in him – and every aspect of his past, present and future with it.

NT Wright, in his book ‘Following Jesus’ said: “The longer you look at Jesus, the more you will want to serve him in this world. That is, of course, if it’s the real Jesus you’re looking at.”

Will you take a good look at the real Jesus today, then forsaking all, take up your cross and follow him today?

And, for the sake of the Gospel of God’s kingdom, bring someone else with you!