Teach a Man TO FISH. New Business in Cambodia p10. changing lives through

Transcription

1 Teach a Man TO FISH New Business in Cambodia p10 changing lives through

2 THIS MONTH AT Sharing the Joy For years, upon their return from mission trips, I ve heard friends say, You should have seen what happened! Or, with great intensity in their eyes, they ll say, You had to be there to understand what God did. In these moments I know for certain that, no matter who is telling the story, they are speaking truth and no matter how much enthusiasm I share in their joy, it doesn t compare to the joy they felt in that missions moment. I also know that no matter what the cost, they are going to share this experience with as many people as they can for the rest of their lives. These are powerful moments. They are life changing moments. And they are also promised moments for those faithfully following Christ with their lives, as Jesus spoke in Acts 1:8, You will receive power when my Holy Spirit comes on you and you shall be my witnesses throughout the earth. We have been praying for a place to draw witnesses together. A place where millions from around the world can find strength, understanding, and opportunity as they share experiences of lives changed through prayer. God has given this ministry unique platforms and incredible friends who are daily witnessing the power of the Holy Spirit in them as they lead nations in health, education, parenting, and micro-economic development. Now, we have created a place where they can share directly with you throughout the month and all of us can give glory for what God is doing in and through us. When I think of this place, I think of you, preparing for your short term mission trip and looking for answers to all those unique questions, I think of parents of children with autism finding hope, of ophthalmologists finding scheduled time to heal blind children in Kashmir, of teachers in Cambodia learning curriculum that will defeat poverty, of the orphan child feeling loved and secure, and of the Church ever expanding in this new day of witnessing the power of Jesus as lives are changed. I think of endless opportunities for God to be glorified. It is a joy this month to introduce the new SEAPC Blog! Join us by visiting This is your new place to share in and witness what God is doing in the nations. Thank you for your continued prayers and support. Let s draw friends closely together in prayer, see what God does through us, and tell our story to the nations! MATTHEW GEPPERT President, SEAPC { HEALTH } 4 If You Can Pray, We Need You { PARENTING } 6 All Things New 7 Kids in Mission: Finding Flies in Montana { EDUCATION } Staff at Charity Children s Home in Yangon, Myanmar. 8 Transforming Information into Education { MICRO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT } 10 Teach a Man to Fish Front cover photo of Geppert Brothers Fly Fishing Foundation in Cambodia by Caryn Werner. Back cover photo of children in Cambodia by Caryn Werner. SEAPC Magazine is a publication of South East Asia Prayer Center (SEAPC). Free copies are available through our office and online. seapc.org facebook.com/seapc info@seapc.org PO Box 127, Oakmont, PA our foundation The ministry that God has created SEAPC to accomplish is best described by the Chinese symbol fu or blessing. The following parts explain our beliefs: 1. SEAPC is founded by God and is about God, and 2. All things that we do are done under the authority of heaven. 3. Through prayer and obedience to the authority of Christ, blessing or prosperity comes from the Word of the Lord, the mouth of God. 4. Prosperity comes in the form of the fruit grown in the field of the Lord. In this field we work in four platforms: Health, Parenting, Education, and Micro-Economic Development. These platforms are held in place by the immovable cornerstones of the field: Evangelism, Church Planting, Discipleship, and Leadership Development. 5. May we always remember that everything which we are called to do must be centered in humility and the incredible gift of salvation given to us through the crucified life of Christ. For without the power of Christ given to our humble hearts nothing would be possible. Today, however, we can live in victory knowing that the war has been won! We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us!

3 { HEALTH } If you can pray, WE NEED YOU. You are too late! Where were you? We don t need you now! These words rang out of the mouth of Dr. Tariq Qureshi, Head of Ophthalmology at SMHS in Srinagar, Kashmir. It s hard to know exactly what to say back to the top ophthalmologist in Kashmir who just said we don t need you. But Brother Mark simply asked him, What is your dream? These four simple words that changed the direction of a conversation that was heading south at the speed of light. Dr. Qureshi answered back, A high-tech school for the blind. Then Brother Mark looked at him and said, Done! Last December this dialogue happened in the office of Dr. Qureshi, or Dr. Q as we now like to call him. During the last six months, we have become good friends with Dr. Q. On Christmas, he sent us Christmas greetings and then we just saw him a few weeks ago. He had a big smile on his face and asked us to keep him in our prayers. I forgot to tell you that he is a Muslim, but he happened to go to Christian mission school as a boy. He is also on the school board of the largest Catholic missions school in Srinagar. In Isaiah 42:7, we read, To open blind eyes, To bring out prisoners from the dungeon And those who dwell in darkness from the prison. These words described Jesus ministry and we are called to go and do His works. When I think about Dr. Q, I start thinking about the other doctors, nurses and medical professionals that have served with us. Dr. Peng, one of our SEAPC board members, served with us in Tibet as part of Touching Hearts in Tibet. We were also blessed by Dr. Tim Jones who has served alongside his wife Jean Jones and nurses Harry Mundorff and Laurel Houck in a number of different countries with SEAPC, including Cambodia, Myanmar, and this summer Nepal. What a blessing that they keep going back to the nations to serve again and again! What I like about these medical professionals is that they pray! They really pray for the people that they minister to and intercede for the countries that they our working in. We need physicians and intercessors to come and be part of these medical outreaches. If you can pray, we need you. If you are a doctor or nurse, we need you. If you would like to join one of our teams, please me at billrichardson@seapc.org. BILL RICHARDSON 4

4 { PARENTING } { KIDS IN MISSION } SPONSORSHIP REQUEST I want to help needy children find hope for today and their futures. I would like to sponsor a child through Raising Kids. $50.00/month or $600.00/annually I prefer to sponsor a boy girl no preference I prefer to sponsor a child in Cambodia Myanmar Nepal India (education costs separate) I will also provide $25/mo. for education no preference I am unable to sponsor a child at this time, but will make a contribution in the amount of $ to help cover expenses. Name Address Telephone Number Address Complete and mail to: SEAPC/Raising Kids PO Box 127, Oakmont, PA Make checks payable to: SEAPC ALL THINGS new Twelve new children have arrived at Charity Children s Home in Yangon, Myanmar nine girls and three boys. There are two sets of two siblings in the group. Their backgrounds vary from struggling families who cannot provide to those being abused by step-fathers to those who have been cared for by grandparents for years until their grandfather died. To each of these children all things are new. They have started a new phase in their lives. Each of them have come to a new home; a place where there are lots of other kids, beds to sleep in, hot food to eat every day, a playground to play on, a school to go to, and new people who care about them. Most of them are also hearing about Jesus for the first time. The team of caregivers and house parents, Chung Nung and Dim, do a great job helping the children to acclimate and start along their new path of success. One would think that with approximately 200 children at this campus, house parents and caregivers would not know all of them, but that is not true. They care about the children so much that they know each of them by name and many personal details about each one. It always amazes me how well they know the children. I m sure that the daily devotion time for the staff is one of the firm foundations of their level of care. Another thing that will be new for these 12 children is interaction with people from other countries. Most foreign people stick to regular tourist areas and do not get to the villages where most needy children come from. Myanmar is a country that is fairly new to being open to foreigners. These children will now have the opportunity to learn English and to learn about other cultures from people who come to visit them. Visiting Myanmar is not a hard thing to do. We encourage you to visit the children s homes there. The children can always use the English practice and crosscultural experience. Villages are ready and waiting for medical outreaches. People are yearning to hear the Gospel. We are sending a team to Myanmar in November to do medical outreaches in communities and to work with the children. If you are interested in potentially joining us, contact Carly Davis at carlyd@seapc.org or TINA TOMES Finding Flies in Montana Tinnie Winnie fell to the floor. Her parents looked and called out in fright. But the little Gecko had crawled out of sight. They had come a long way in the back of a car, Little did they realize just how far. But they hadn t eaten for a day or two, When the car was parked beside a petting zoo. Gnats and fleas and all kinds of treats Had made their way beneath the seats Of the car in which they had hidden that day. G, G, and T had eaten their fill of things sweet and sour Tumbling down through the opened door, They landed on grass instead of a floor. And there was sweet Tinnie all in a ball, A little bit shaken but not hurt from the fall. Be careful what you eat out here, Said Gregory Gecko to his family so dear. Not everything here is as it appears, For there are strange flies that over the years Have been made by people. Is this one? asked Tinnie. Is this one of those? as she held up a bug in front of his nose. Indeed it is, said her father so wise For this is a place where people tie flies To catch big fish. Look, at the colors so rich and so bright Who could have made it? They just look so right to be eaten today or maybe tonight. They are GBFF flies, or so I ve heard, Made from rabbits and elk and exotic birds. Look, there are the brothers with their special guests Geckos from Mexico here in the west. Those two boys really are blessed To have all they want here in Big Sky And to have Gecko friends who come to say Hi. Let s give them a GECKO shout of good cheer, Ready on three, come join together in one voice to hear. And be sure to shout aloud with no fear GECKO! Memo: Raising Kids 6 7 Background by vecteezy.com, skaterjob. Moose by Fishing flies picture by Caryn Werner. If you were Gregory and Georgette you would certainly feel like a grasshopper among giants in the land of Montana. Montana is big and free feeling as God planned it. When we go to Montana we always feel and see how BIG our God is. HE is a big, big God. He holds the universe in His hand. Handmade fly fishing flies from the Geppert Brothers Fly Fishing Foundation in Cambodia Colossians 1:17 AND HE IS BEFORE ALL THINGS, AND IN HIM ALL THINGS CONSIST. Younger Geppert Brothers in Big Sky, Montana

5 { EDUCATION } transforming information into EDUCATION 8 A gentle breeze drove the summer heat from the French-style school administration building. Thirty of us crammed into a meeting room were discussing the future of Banteay Meanchey schools. There was a good connection between the young superintendent and Sothea Chap, our project director. These two young ladies were both master s degree holders, the product of the Cambodian education process raised up from the ruins of civil war. The only female superintendent in the province, our new friend was determined to make her mark on equal rights for the education of girls. Swimming upstream in cultural currents established when Cambodia was part of the Indian empire, she was a fountain of new thought, and a wellspring of hope for the 10,000 students in the district she served. Phnom Srok had been a brutal killing field during the Pol Pot era. In fact, 10,000 people had died there, hand digging a massive earthen dam. City people, they had been force marched out to this remote area and starved to death. Anyone with an education was a threat to the despot and had to be re-educated to the common man s lot in life. As I watched these two ladies resonate in their desire for a new Cambodia, I was deeply touched. They shared with an enthusiasm and profound love for country that I have not observed in the meetings we had held in the other eight districts. Those had been wonderfully professional and totally positive as from district to district we were well received. But this was heart and right brain, passion for people and purpose, designing destiny for thousands of little girls buried in a school system that would leave them barefoot and pregnant at 16. Education is the process of facilitating learning, or the acquisition of knowledge, skills, values, beliefs, and habits. The process has a scope, the outcome you desire to see, and a sequence, the building of a vocabulary that will create the outcome. Thoughts become words, words become actions, actions become behaviors, behaviors become habits, and those habits define your role in culture or the greater civilization. Sothea has mastered the vocabulary, and corresponding actions that are Banteay Meanchey Arise. The superintendent had, over the same time period, mastered the language of education and administration so they totally understood each other and could define values, beliefs, and habits that would result in children completing the process and lifting their generation from that killing field to the destiny God had made for them. To observe that interaction has been one of the highlights of my 40 years in recruiting people to the process. Jesus said, Follow me and I will make you fishers of men. Discipleship is the process of learning the disciplines of Christian culture that produce faith, hope, and love in an individual. To see Sothea define the value of education through the eyes of a Christian to a young woman raised in the despair of Cambodia was like watching a flower bloom. The love in the room was palpable. WE HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY TO REACH 130,000 CAMBODIAN STUDENTS. Education began in prehistory, as adults trained the young in the knowledge and skills necessary in their society. In pre-literate societies this was achieved orally and through imitation. Story telling passed knowledge from one generation to the next. As cultures began to extend their knowledge beyond skills that could readily be learned through imitation, formal education developed. So today there is a global discussion about degrees or skills training. As Dr. Chris Marshall, our mentor, observes, Information without application is just information. So, we are working to see all children in Banteay Meanchey graduate from high school with a skill. We are believing the Lord for funds to build skill training centers adjacent to existing high schools to provide the process whereby the student will be able to acquire knowledge, skills, values, beliefs, and habits. One is finished, the foundation is in for the second, but we need $600,000 to complete the eight buildings. The second skill training center is adjacent to the Phnom Srok High School. And it all came out of the connection I observed on that day in Phnom Srok District as I saw two young women who had overcome all resistance to master the vocabulary and practice necessary to lead thousands of young people into their destiny. A young man, the elementary principal, interrupted their reverie by asking about discipline and order. I asked him, if you were teaching a unit on social studies and you observed that a young girl was drawing on her slate a blouse and skirt and was drawing a pair of shoes to go with them, what would you do? I would bring her attention back to the unit, he said to the agreement of his colleagues. What would you do? I would get her a notepad and colored pencils and have her design a clothing line which I would then teach other young ladies and we would produce her designs and sell them online as a garment industry. I smiled as I tried to lift his thinking to a higher level. Working together, we can lift that girl and her friends to new heights. You and I, SEAPC, have an unprecedented opportunity to establish knowledge, skills, values, beliefs, and habits in 130,000 students in the Cambodian Public Schools in Banteay Meanchey Province. Already 550 fourth grade teachers and administrators have dedicated their lives to Jesus and received the resurrection power to transform. 30,000 students have received the bilingual children s Bible, My Precious Book. The Lord s Prayer has been established on 500 campuses. Now we must deliver these skill centers. Yes, SEAPC is involved in education. Cambodia is being raised up from the killing fields and the horrors of bondage to fatalism and generational poverty to take her place among the ASEAN nations. Right now, Cambodia has cheaper wages than China and a lower GDP than Laos, but as we see the example of two young women who followed the process and attained knowledge and skills, we are encouraged to believe that Jesus, in His resurrection power, is raising up a living testimony to His glory and Cambodia will be saved. A refreshing breeze is wafting its way through the rice fields. It is the breath of God. MARK GEPPERT

6 { MICRO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT } Teach a Man TO FISH Photos by Caryn Werner. You have probably heard this saying, Give a man a fish and he will eat for that day, teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime. My brother Sam and I have always liked this saying and growing up as missions kids and sons of a fisherman in the 80s and 90s, we heard it often. If you know our father well, you know that he enjoys taking a simple, worldly, transformative quote like this and adding God s perspective. What man can do has never been the standard in the Geppert family. Though I ve never heard it, I could imagine our father saying, ok, but if you teach a man to throw a net on the sea in obedient and unprecedented faith in Jesus, you ll own the fishing market by the end of the day. In the 80s and 90s when the age old teach a man to fish phrase was resurfacing, pioneers, developers, and the greater global missions community were re-entering many of the war torn nations of Southeast Asia with the hope of changing lives through Christ. Many good works emerged and several of those works became long term platforms. In 2000, SEAPC adopted micro-economic development as one of its four main platforms. Through faith, prayer, and the support of Christian men and women around the world we found creative ways to strengthen followers of Jesus and their families through local economies. Today, Sam and I have come back to the teach a man to fish principle, and by applying the principle with our own belief (which we share with our dad and the Apostle Paul) that God will do exceedingly abundantly more than we could ever imagine, Geppert Brothers Fly Fishing Foundation was born in poverty-stricken Banteay Meanchey Cambodia. Today, 14 local professionally trained recent graduates from the SEAPC-built Rongko High School are earning abundantly more than they were at this time last year, by producing handcrafted flies for the fly fishing market in IT HAS TAKEN much prayer AND NEARLY 20 YEARS TO CAST OUR NETS IN FAITH. western Montana. The sale of those flies is generating income for those fourteen young people, their extended families, and producing scholarships for them and their peers to attend university programs in nursing, business, and computer technology. More than that, Geppert Brothers Fly Fishing Foundation has become a model business for the national government to market the region to global investors. It has taken much prayer, tremendous friendships, and nearly 20 years to understand micro-economic development in Southeast Asia and for Sam and I, about as much time to let go of our pride and fears, and to cast our nets in faith. Thank you to those who have invested through SEAPC microeconomic development programs. Banteay Meanchey and many other regions are ripe for righteous economies to emerge in Southeast Asia and through SEAPC we want to help you participate in their development. Please join us in the platforms today through seapc.org and find out more at geppertbrothersflyfishing.com. MATTHEW GEPPERT 10

7 PO Box 127, Oakmont, PA RETURN SERVICE REQUESTED Standard Mail Non Profit U.S. Postage Paid Oakmont, PA Permit No. 114 precious Since you were in My sight, You have been honored, And I have loved you; Therefore I will give men for you, And people for your life. ISAIAH 43:4