1 2 3 ヂｨ ピｯド Second Nissan 5778 Anno Mundi アｯプ KNIL NOISSIM Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet Mauris nec nisl a tellus eleifend mollis. Welcome to the Annual April Fool s PAGE of David Upp s Mission Link! Sherlock & Dr. Watson went camping. As they turned in for the night, Sherlock looked over, and he asked Watson, What do you see? Watson gazed for a moment, then said, "I see stars, & possibly Eternity, which gives humanity hope for if eternity exists in this material world, then indeed Eternity may exist for you & me, in a new place a new dimension." Sherlock, turning to his friend exclaimed "Yes, Watson. You see the night sky. And that means you have forgotten the tent!" ---Contributed by Dave Binns, Rhode Island Illiterate? Write for our Free Booklet! Why is Hospitality so vital in the USA's State of Missouri? cuz "Missouri Loves Company"! I have just finished an interesting book on Levitation. In fact I couldn't put it down! UK: A course I can get round Oxford. I ve watched t Inspectors Morse & Lewis for yonks! unless it's nearly invisible. They don't want to be labeled as "Old" or "Out-of-It". Have they taken a look at the Ears of the Younger Generation lately? In Micronesia, I'd measure time by Q: Why do scuba-divers go into the water by falling backwards out of the boat? A: Because if they fell forwards, they would fall into the boat. 5/27/16 NPR News: A boy was surprised by people's attitudes toward "Modern Art" --so he placed a pair of Glasses on the floor. Within minutes folks in the museum began to gather around them, admiring & discussing the glasses and what it meant to display them on the floor. "People 4 will the Phases of the Moon. But in marvel over anything, if it's in a museum!" Kansas, the Moon is always out Seniors do not want to wear the same window & has the same He left several different objects around a listening device in their ears shape... Oops, that's a street-light. but nothing else caused such a spectacle! Abraham's youngest son was named Shuakh (son by Keturah, Gen. 25:2). What is Shuakh's name...according to the Vulgate (& English Douay-Rheims based on it)? Since there's no "sh" [nor any "kh"] in Latin, his name in both translations is "Sue". So Abraham s son was the original Boy Named Sue! View the "Big Bang Theory" Introductory Slideshow frame-by-frame at http://haraldkraft.de/thebigbangtheory/ Surprise! It agrees with Archbishop Ussher, that Human Beings came into existence at about 4,000 BC! BBT s Date for this is written just behind the Modern Man s leg. Also: Moai of Easter Island, are oddly placed at 2000 BC, before the Pyramids of Giza Giza [ 1000 AD ]. Both wildly wrong! Isn t it funny how Science can wind up confirming the Scripture? Ape & Man Created on One Day! Hilarious that an Anti -Creation show would identify plausible date of The First Humans!
1 Vapid Pud s Kiln Noissim 4th Month, 2770 Ab Urbe Condita Trivia Questions: Another of my Longest-running ML Traditions March TQ: Is God anti-rich, unjustly biased, for Poor People? A: "God's Prefential Option for the Poor" is a dishonest Teaching by the Roman Catholic Church. It grew out of the 1968 Latin American [RCC] Bishops' Conference in Medellín, Colombia; a fundamental concept in "Liberation Theology" (doomed attempt to combine Marxist Dialectic with Christianity). Karl Marx hypothesized an endless struggle between The Rich & The Poor: disproven by global realities (70% are Middle Class [FIVE Billion], with merely about 15% Rich and 15% Poor [1 Billion each). God's Law teaches that we, just like God, must always be Just/Fair/Unbiased! But Romans Catholics, like current Jesuit Pope, mis-represent God as Unjust/ Unfair/Discriminatory/Unrighteous. Theologically, that is pathetic, contradicting both Bible & Doctrine of God. The only way this makes sense is that historically RCC has "been in bed with" the Rich/Elite (especially in Latin America). Belatedly, they are trying to atone for that sin by artifically "Swinging the Pendulum" over to an opposite unjust extreme, condemning everyone with Plenty. It's gone on far too long (Gustavo Gutiérrez' Liberation Theology, 1971). It's time to acknowledge that Capitalism has brought about genuine Global Dominance of the Middle Class & Democracy. Let s all discard atheistic Marxist Theory. UPP-n-Coming Missions 2017 promises more Global Missions for me: Teaching Seminary in Pakistan & The Philippines, a major Missions Conference in Hungary, a Vision Week in Mongolia, a April TQ: How many VIM to Ethiopia, and more Elements from the Mission Itineration & UMC Periodic Table are Conferences across the USA. Please, support these Misisons found in an iphone? by your Prayers & Donations. How Methodists Plant New Fellowships & Congregations A UM Bishop in Texas said: One of the worst things we can do as a Church is send people out untrained to start new churches." How did YOUR local UMC get Planted? Let s relearn our Methodist patterns! Year-EndReports used to ask every Methodist Pastor: What new Preaching Points have you added in the past year? Don t assume Everybody is Capable of setting a New Direction for their Lives! 2 a Pastor has to obtain some special permission [& training?!] to begin a new Fellowship. That s not our way. Continued on page 5
ヂィピッドアップ April Fool s Day, Year of the USA 240 Buddhism is the Second-Largest Religion in Kansas?! You may have noticed that from a map I used in my March ML (but Judaism is #2 in Missouri & Islam #2 in Nebraska). In terms of Missions & Evangelism, I hope it will be helpful to see HOW one wanders into Those. A transcript from University of Kansas reveals a Typical Pattern: Life Crisis, wild Searching, Stumbling upon a NON-Christian (this strange-ness allows a new Door to open to any Spiritual Reality), fall under the influence of a Practitioner of another Religion, new Practices ossify, Alienation. We must realize that a Life Crisis brings new openness to the Spiritual, and bring Biblical Faith to a Person-in-Crisis, before they Wander Away & get LOST! [KU Researcher] Nathan: That s great. Could you discuss a little more how you began practicing with the group? Did you have experiences with other Buddhist groups? Was there specifically about the Tibetan tradition and this lineage that spoke to you as opposed to other forms of Buddhism? [Host for a Buddhist Group in Wichita] Mike: I don t know. Whenever you get asked that question it becomes it s nice to talk about yourself, and then there s a lot of detail. You could go back to when I was a kid and walking through the park and saw some guy mediating, and really it happened, and I just remember that having an impression on me. There was a Western [TV] show, is it David Kane was a blind Kung Fu master? So there was that kind of. And then there was all that that you kind of grew up with in the 70 s, so I think that kind of laid the foundation. You just get hints of it. But anyway, I got to it fundamentally, I was in D.C., and my life kind of fell apart in DC. Bad relationship and I had found two books at a bookstore in DuPont circle. One was Rain of Wisdom and one was Cutting through Spiritual Materialism, both we talked about tonight. And they were phenomenal, but when 3
Vapid Pud s Kiln Noissim 4th Month, 2770 Ab Urbe Condita I came back to Wichita, I wanted to study Zen Buddhism, because it s cleaner. It s more analytical. Tibetan Buddhism didn t appeal to me at the time because it s just so busy. It s not that s it s not necessarily as easily understood. It might be more easily understood than Zen Buddhism for all I know. But it s what I call, what Greg Smith used to say you just dance with the one that brung ya, so when I saw Bardor Tulku Rinpoche and the way he was able to express himself in broken English and through a translator, and talking about everything that I had started to come to realize. When things were falling apart in D.C., I realized what I had been doing up until that point was being really selfish. Well, I don t even think I understood that. I just realized what I wanted to do was try and help people. What can I do to help people, because right now everything I do is really, aggressively self-centered. And I just let go. It s one of those stories, for me, where the universe just opened up. It s not like, you think there s a happy ending, but there s another story that goes on and just keeps going. But then I fell into Buddhism, and I was extremely grateful to Greg for doing it, and the emotion was really intense & it has driven my practice since. I don t know, is that an answer? [my emphasis through use of color and of bold type] You can read the FULL Transcription (without any bold or highlighting) at https://kuscholarworks.ku.edu/bitstream/handle/1808/18327/rksp_malcolm_mike_ 2015-07-16_Transcript.pdf?sequence=3&isAllowed=y [You could walk in, & see a lama and just fall in love with the lama & say I want to do ngondro which is heavy...] David Upp: I recall a delightful time that I spent with a Tibetan Rinpoche [Abbot] over a cup of salt-tea in Leh, Kashmir in 2008. That was during my acclimatization to the Religious Diversity of India, before teaching Seminary. Fine, Study World Religions but don t Lose Jesus doing that! The First weekend in March, Hutchinson (along with many places in Kansas) faced wildfires. A 25 square mile area was put under a Mandatory Evacuation, 'round a ½ x 7-mile Fire. 5 days of fire fighting struggled to contain the blaze. All together, 1,000 square miles burned in Kanas that week! IF you would like to donate to University Scholarships for Christian Manobos, Explore "Tagikul" at http://media.wix.com/ugd/f72766_66a 10955ec814d84b5b3a1d89372e4dd.pdf Yes, US Tax Deductions for Charitable Contributions are available via Evergreen Missions: www.evergreenmissions.com Congratulations, Lithuanian Christian College on their 4/1 25th Anniversary! 650 Baltic, Central-Asian, & N. American Students! M I s s I o n Itineration Already in 2017, I have Shared about Missions in Hutchinson (Tenth Avenue UMC, Grace Episcopal, Wesleyan Church, Faith UMC, and Trinity UMC), Lyons, Pratt, Inman, Great Bend, Hoisington, Galva, and Canton; in addition to Sharing Overseas; & I have three more bookings in process for later this Spring. Hutch CC = Nat l Champs! http://worldmethodistcouncil.org/about/member-churches claims that there are now 80,000,000 Wesleyans in the World! The only problem with that, is Dr. Eddie Fox gave that same number in 1981. Has the Tremendous Growth of African Methodism over 36 years been offset by big losses in Europe and all across North America?? 4
ヂィピッドアップ April Fool s Day, Year of the USA 240 Church Planting (continued from Page 2) Although a wise pastor will always work with those over her/him in the Church, only when & if you get to the point of *Chartering* a new Congregation must you involve a DS/District Board of Church Location & Building! Every Methodist Pastor should be on the look-out for new places to extend/ expand our UM Ministries! One needs a Faithful Commitment to fully obey the Great Commission of Jesus Christ. For example: The [Southern] Idaho Methodist Conference closed over 195 churches (according to their Archivist). There aren't 195 towns in Southern Idaho! We would start a new congregation "at the drop of a hat" [mostly since every pastor was Expected to churchplant]. IF you can Lead a Church, you can Lead a NEW Church! Duh! It's not a separate skill-set. Will every new church-plant succeed? No, but we should do REAL MINISTRY while it exists. Can anyone accurately predict which new church-plants WILL succeed? No! Not even when $100,000 is poured into some attempt by an expert! All "Lead-Pipe Cinch" locations have also been identified by a dozen other Denominations which makes our success anywhere very UNlikely. Put Church-Plants within the Proper Category of Start-Ups As Tyler Cowen describes in his new book, The Complacent Class: We "Americans have seemingly lost some of their entrepreneurial drive. In the 1980s, new startups accounted for some 12 13% of all businesses. Today it s 7 8%. If we want to create an economy that is a jobs machine, we are going to have to have more business startups. Which means that we have to create a climate in which people feel comfortable in launching such risky new ventures." The answer I support? Plant New UM Churches Everywhere! Venture Capitalists are Top Experts at this! They reject up to 90% of all new proposals they ferret-out, yet Two-Thirds of the Start-ups which they do support financially FAIL. Realization: There are NO Experts at Start-ups! 80% of new businesses FAIL in their first 5 years, and 80% of the ones that DO survive, fail in their next 5 years (no matter how much money you PUMP into them). So: Start as many as your current staffing will allow. Do REAL Ministry in them as long as they DO exist. & Don't pump in outside money (Let these projects rely upon the existing local budgets & members)! Could that possibly work? Yes! It is How We planted TWO new Methodist churches every day for an Entire Century [from Bishop Asbury's time till the Holiness Movement]! What killed that success? A) The Death of the Class Meeting, engaging every Methodist in Spiritual Growth, & B) deciding that The Mission of Methodists is just some vague transformation or alteration, when John Wesley specified: "To Spread Scriptural Holiness Across these Lands". That s Biblical Morality/Repentance/Sanctification, plus Global Sending of Missionaries. 5