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August 12, 2014 By Steve Wheeler

Thinking Ahead

What can we do to help people affected by disasters like Typhoons, Cyclones and Tsunamis. The partners that provide the support to start new churches in these poor communities are helping put first responders, with the love of Jesus, right in the places where they will be needed most. By starting a new church and sharing the gospel, teaching and making disciples of the new members–a team of responders are available the next time a disaster happens.

WATCH A SHORT VIDEO ABOUT DISASTER RELIEF BY LOCAL CHURCHES

The remains of a house in the neighborhood of one of the White Fields churches following a typhoon.

Many of the people that live in these communities, live in very simple structures made from the local building materials available. The Pastors and their families help the members of the church reach out in love to assist their neighbors. Often the congregation will share their own limited resources with non-members who have lost everything. This example of self-sacrifice becomes a tremendous testimony of how the love of Jesus is displayed in real life situations.

Our support for the salary to sustain the pastor and his family is designed to provide the means to get the church started. After they get established then the congregation begins to support the ministry and sustain the local church. The ministry keeps helping the community over and over. In addition to the initial response after the disaster – local pastors provide ongoing leadership to help manage resources and get the whole community back on their feet.

We need more partners to share their resources to help start new churches. Then we have a network of local survivors who love the Lord and will minister to their neighbors when a disaster strikes.

JOIN the support team here:

July 10, 2014 By Steve Wheeler

First Priority: The Gospel

In North America we live in an environment that has traditionally been among a majority of “Christians.” Even though we may now be recognizing certain coming limitations on our freedoms to live and speak as Christians, we still have major freedoms — for instance the right and privilege to gather openly in public to worship. Not everyone in the world enjoys that freedom.

White Fields is supporting pastors in places where the restrictions on religious freedom are severe. Some face rules and restrictions from their government. In other places the pastors and their families face the danger of persecution by individuals or groups who vehemently oppose Jesus Christ.

In Myanmar (formerly called Burma) some of our pastors are facing heated persecution and resistance from the local village and Buddhist leadership — like this testimony:

“In the beginning of May, I appointed an evangelist to work in a certain village where there is no existing church. All the people in this village are Buddhist. Sadly, the chief of the village and the people were very angry and they did not want any Christian teacher or evangelist to evangelize their village. So they chased him out. I sent him to another village and the chief allowed him to stay for six months! Praise God for answering our prayers for this!” (Pastor Ngun)

These evangelists are not afraid to bring the gospel to their people — even into dangerous places. They also attribute the success in the other village, even after failing to gain access in one place — to your prayers! God can open the door of the heart of people to hear the gospel. These pastors continue to preach the gospel — just like during the book of Acts. Even when the disciples were persecuted in one place they moved to another place: “Now those who were scattered went about preaching the word.” (Acts 8:4 ESV)

In Myanmar there is also a new development in the government. They are considering a new law: The Religious Conversion Bill. This bill was introduced in May by some zealous Buddhist Monks that want the government to make it illegal for a Buddhist to convert to another religion without the permission of a Buddhist Board delegated by the government. Although they say this bill is to protect people from being forced to convert to Islam (A frequent occurrence when Muslim men marry Buddhist women), the bill also makes it a crime to “proselytize.” The bill would provide a one or two year prison sentence to anyone leading a person to convert from Buddhism (The Majority religion in Myanmar) to any other religion including the voluntary conversion to Christianity.

You can read a news article about the bill here: http://www.mmtimes.com/index.php/national-news/10811-interfaith-marriage-push-met-with-opposition.html

Our pastors will not quit because of the opposition. They will even be strengthened in their commitment and motivation to reach their countrymen with the gospel. Your prayers can help! Please pray for God to provide wisdom and strength.

During the days of Acts, Peter and John were detained by the high Priests and commanded not to speak any longer in the name of Jesus. The response of the apostles was that they must obey God. “So they called them and charged them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.” And when they had further threatened them, they let them go, finding no way to punish them, because of the people, for all were praising God for what had happened.” (Acts 4:18-21 ESV)

We are praying that our brothers and sisters in Myanmar will retain the current freedom to bring people to their house and share the gospel. But, if the law denies that privilege, then we are praying for their strength and wisdom to serve God first and not man. The gospel is the priority. You have the ability to stand with our pastors in prayer.

LISTEN TO PASTOR NGUN’S STORY:

KPRZ — Salem Communication Radio Spot

God is Able

I never cease to be amazed at what God can do. In the days during the Acts of the Apostles, God used persecution to scatter and spread the influence of the church. What the authorities thought would be a persecution to stop the spread, God reversed the intended actions and caused the persecution to spread the gospel even further: “The Church in Antioch Now those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except Jews. But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who on coming to Antioch spoke to the Hellenists also, preaching the Lord Jesus. And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number who believed turned to the Lord.” (Acts 11:19-21 ESV)

God is so able to bring good out of what man means to be harm that one of the main persecutors of the church became one of the greatest evangelist — Saul converted to become Paul the Apostle.

But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. Now as he went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven shone around him. And falling to the ground he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” And he said, “Who are you, Lord?” And he said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. (Acts 9:1-5 ESV) But Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints at Jerusalem. And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on your name.” But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.” (Acts 9:13-16 ESV)

God is still moving among men like this today: “From May 29 to 31, an evangelist came from the city. He is a very gifted preacher, especially among Buddhist people because he was converted to Christ from Buddhism. The people were interested in hearing about salvation. I also met several people through my outreach ministry. U Oo is interested in knowing more about Jesus. Pray he will continue to study about Jesus and the way of salvation.” (Pastor Tam)

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May 20, 2014 By Steve Wheeler

Pastor Norberto in the Cemetery

You heard right! Pastor Norberto is starting a church among the families that have taken residence in a cemetery. These people are too poor to live anywhere else. They are allowed to live among the tombs in the cemetery so this is the place they reside. The tombs provide a form of shelter to keep the rain off them.

The sign marking the entrance into the cemetery.

The members of a church White Fields began several years ago help provide large cauldrons of soup with chicken and rice. This may be the only meal each week that provides meat to the children of these families. Your prayers are helpful as this pastor and his family take the gospel to the people in this place

Explore Pastor Norberto’s Prayer Page

The tombs provide some sense of shelter from the rains and weather.

You can listen to our Salem Broadcasting KPRZ radio spot:

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April 24, 2014 By Steve Wheeler

Because I Needed It.

For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. (1 Cor. 1:18 ESV)

Our pastor shared in his Easter Sunday sermon about an encounter that he had with a five-year-old boy leaving his pre-school class earlier that week. “What have you got in your box there,” the pastor asked the young man. Some boys would just respond, “stuff,” but this boy proceeded to open the container and began to share all the objects that his teacher had used to explain the events leading to the crucifixion of Jesus.

When he pulled out a thorn, he described how the soldiers had made a crown of thorns and shoved it down on Jesus’ head and made him bleed before they eventually hung him on the cross. After hearing about several of the objects in the boy’s box our pastor asked him, “Why did Jesus have to die, why did those people crucify him?” The little boy responded, “Because I needed it.” It is thrilling the way God can work in the heart and mind of a five-year-old to bring them to a genuine understanding of the meaning of the gospel and the death of Jesus for our sin. He died because we needed it. “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:21, ESV)

We should never underestimate the power of the gospel when believed by a child, even a five-year-old child. I receive with great joy the testimonies that our pastors around the world share of children who have received Jesus Christ and then are used by God with great power to influence others and even lead their entire family to believe the gospel and serve the true and living God.

Pastor Thawng, our Field Director in Myanmar, shared about a little girl attending the pre-school at the church of Pastor James. One day she came home at the same time a Buddhist monk was visiting her family. He asked her what pre-school she was attending. When she expressed that it was the Christian pre-school he began to rant about how “Christians are bad,” and he was furious with the mother for letting her daughter attend the Christian pre-school. But, after a few minutes of this tirade—the little girl spoke clearly and strongly to the monk. “You better not say bad things about the Christian God or He will hurt you.” The monk backed to the door and as he departed he told the mother, “I must go now or she will take all my power.”

The next day, the mother came to Pastor James and asked, “What power does my daughter possess that would make a Buddhist monk fearful like that?” He shared with her the gospel and explained how to believe in Jesus. He expressed that her daughter had confessed faith in Jesus and that belief meant that she now had the power of God through the indwelling Holy Spirit. That whole family has believed in Jesus Christ, they have been baptized and joined the church.

Here is another testimony of how God used a little girl as told by Pastor Hlaing:

“I praise God that he used a little girl named Soe to tell her parents of him. (Soe attends our Sunday school.) Praise the Lord! Their names are Mr. Tan and Mrs. Ma. Mr. Tan shared how they came to know God: ‘My daughter always prayed to God before meals and before bed. She also prayed whenever she would wake. Several times I forbade her not to believe and follow this other religion, but she always refused me. Many times she told us that there is a living God in heaven and his Son Jesus is the Savior of all men. She would tell us that our god is not living, that we should not worship it because it is just an idol. She said if we continue worshiping it, we will be thrown into the lake of fire. Her words were rooted in my heart and since the first week of February, we have tried to go to Sunday service—my wife and I—and the preaching of the pastor touched our hearts. My wife and I prayed to God and have been studying about the Christian God for several weeks. Eventually we have come to understand clearly that there is a true and living God. Both of us are very happy and have decided to join Pastor Hlaing’s church. Praise the Lord!’ This couple was baptized March 16, 2014.”

I hope that you are encouraged by hearing what God can do, even through small children. He does not need to use mighty and powerful people to expand his kingdom. In fact he often chooses to use the weak and simple to confound the wise.

For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.” Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” (1 Cor. 1:18-31 ESV)

The support provided by White Fields allows the indigenous pastors and their families to fulfill their mission. They reach children and their families with the hope and peace available only through Jesus Christ.

February 22, 2014 By Steve Wheeler

Reaching Children

The goal of White Fields is to establish self-sustaining new churches. We provide the start-up salary to an indigenous pastor, so that he can minister full-time, sacrificially serving a community that needs an evangelical church.

“Your support helps the children of these communities receive a quality education and relief from poverty.”

Children in poor countries do not automatically receive free education. In some cases school is not available to them without their own supplies. The local church, under the direction of the pastor, establishes ministry outreach to these underprivileged children. The pastor and his wife often start preschools, provide school supplies, and give a foundation that helps children and families rise out of poverty caused by the lack of education.

The church also provides Bible schools that share the gospel, teaching Bible stories and providing opportunities for biblical character development. A community depressed by generations of little or no education—both academic and biblical—is transformed through this ministry.

Because our pastors are from the culture in which they serve, they strategically meet the needs of children and families within their community. Parents can often be reached because of the improved behavior of their children who’ve been transformed by the gospel. Parents and community leaders are often drawn to Christ by observing the compassion of the church toward the weakest children in their community. Street kids, children thrown into a life of begging or prostitution are rescued by the church and given new hope through a relationship with Jesus Christ and ongoing fellowship with a supportive community of Christians. These children will grow into young adults and one day will establish their own families based on Christian principles.

“The character development taught to children through Bible lessons improves the quality of future leaders in the communities, families, and churches.”

In poor communities our pastors establish feeding ministries supported by the members of the local church. Genuine compassion is a natural out-growth in the lives of forgiven and transformed new Christians. Through these ministries a healthy meal shared with the malnourished and less fortunate children of the neighborhood—by the local church members—dramatically impacts the whole community.

By supporting the pastors of White Fields you make possible the generous relief to children through the ongoing ministry of a local church congregation.

But Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 19:14

“Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me.” Matthew 18:5

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