Missionary Scribbler

Church Planting Lesson Fifteen

Pastor Jeff continues to plow through the book of Acts discussing the Biblical model for church planting.

Check out the entire podcast here.

21st-Century Slavery

Allen Allnoch is a Shepherd’s Staff missionary and a fantastic writer. Allen’s home is in Bluffton, SC, and his mission field is in South Africa. Check out his blog.

In preparing lessons for our after-school children’s programs this week, I’ve had to grapple with an extremely troubling issue: human trafficking. As the soccer World Cup approaches in June, we’re trying to make children and teenagers aware that traffickers are expected to descend on Cape Town in large numbers.

The depth of evil associated with this issue is astonishing. I was shocked to read that today, despite more than a dozen international conventions banning slavery in the past century and a half, there are more slaves than at any point in human history. Children are lured away from their homes (or off the streets for those who have no homes), with the promise of a better life. People of all ages are bought and sold as if they are nothing more than cattle. Kids as young as 3 and 4 are exploited sexually , offered up for prostitution and for pornographic purposes. The list of atrocities is long and painful to confront.

The problem is especially acute in South Africa, where there are an estimated 38,000 children trapped in the sex trade. According to a January 18 article in Time magazine, “More than 500 mostly small-scale trafficking syndicates … collude with South African partners, including recruiters and corrupt police officials, to enslave local victims.”  For the four-week period of the World Cup, Cape Town public schools will be closed, meaning more children will be on the streets and vulnerable to those who would seek to take advantage of them.

I can’t comprehend the hardness of heart that would compel a person to treat a child, or person of any age, in this way. If you don’t believe Satan is real, then just google human trafficking and read some of the horror stories. Only a supernatural force of evil could influence people to sink to such depths.

But there is hope in the One who has already overcome the devil and all the havoc he has wreaked on the world. God is a God of justice and He “works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed” (Psalm 103:6). He has made it clear in Scripture that He loves children and all who are oppressed, and that there is misery in store for those who mistreat children:

Jesus “called a little child and had him stand among them. And He said … if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea” (Matthew 18: 2-3, 6).

“If God is for us, who can be against us?” Paul rhetorically asked in Romans 8:31. Still, these little ones need your prayers, as do teenagers and others who are vulnerable to those who would exploit them. For more insight into South Africa’s human trafficking crisis, see http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1952335,00.html. For more information on the issue in general, see http://www.justiceacts.org.

Allen’s Blog

Allen’s Missionary Page

the least of these…

This is a little boy I met in an orphanage. He has a mental disability he weighs not much more than twenty pounds, and he is nine years old. –Aaron Mondok

Aaron posted this picture on his Facebook account today. He wrote yesterday in his update to us that he met this little guy and that he planned on seeing as much of his new friend as possible.

Aaron has always had a tender spot in his heart for the marginalized and less fortunate. To be honest with you, I never thought much about those with disabilities until we adopted Allie. She has opened a whole new world to us. I spend time and hang out with disabled kids every chance I get at her school new. Something drastic happened in my life that has brought about a change of heart. But that isn’t the case with Aaron. He has always been naturally tender. On the mission field, in urban ministry, or in children’s ministry at our local church, he has always both given and lived the gospel around little kids. If the child was the under dog of the group, Aaron made that kid the most loved kid in the room.

Pray with us for this little guy. If you look closely at his hand, its deformed because he continually sucks it. That could be due to a combination of under nourishment coupled with his attempt to self-soothe.

Samaritan’s Purse Chile Relief

Gearing up for Haiti

One of my responsibilities at Shepherd’s Staff Mission Facilitators is maintaining the website. Today I added a new missionary to the site that I love very much: my son. This Sunday I take Aaron to the airport. He’s being sent out by Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale to serve as a ministry leader in Jacmel, Haiti. He’ll be the point person for Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale’s projects in the country.

Here’s a report from CCFL’s Pastor Chet Lowe. This will give you an idea of the kind of things Aaron will be involved with:

—-FROM CHET – START————————–

We have been on the ground for one week. Since that time, our team has:

1. Built four homes from the ground up

2. Conducted week long vacation bible schools at two locations

3. Worked in a clinic for severely injured children (malnourishment and untreated injuries)

4. Planned flights for next week into inaccessible areas to conduct feasibility assessments  for future projects

5. Became the administrators at a clinic seeing 500-700 patients daily.

6. Organized and restocked medical supplies for a large warehouse serving as clearinghouse for incoming medical supplies

7. Renovated a birthing clinic

8. New construction on a security wall in the mountains for a local school

9. Developed the site plan for our acquired property including staking out all potential temporary structure sites

10. Met with officials from UN (united nations) and NGO’s (non-governmental organizations)on the ground to coordinate our efforts

11. Developed a child welfare plan of action with local Christian orphanages

12. Met with leading pastors in area to coordinate Christian effort

13. Moved and restocked the medical depot of relief supplies for all medical NGO’s on the ground in Jacmel

14. Asked for approval to conduct chaplain service for Canadian Army members in Jacmel

15. Secured housing for incoming teams- built bunk beds, established internet in house, etc

16. Planning meetings with Samaritan’s Purse representatives next week to deepen partnerships

17. Planning meetings with Churches Helping Churches representative to deepen our partnership with James MacDonald’s church.

Need lots of prayer! He is glorious!

—-FROM CHET – END————————–

Aaron’s missionary account number with Shepherd’s Staff is 4350. To give to his account online, click here. Fill in name and account number in the fields provided.

To set up monthly support, please download the EFT form and mail it to Shepherd’s Staff.

Connect with Aaron on Facebook.

Aaron’s Shepherd’s Staff missionary page

Church Planting Lesson 14

Pastor Jeff continues to examine the biblical model of church planting in the book of Acts.

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Church Planting Lesson Thirteen

I made the whole kit and kaboodle available below if you don’t have the previous lesson files. Simply right click and select “save link as”. That’s if you have a PC. If you have a Mac, I don’t know what you have to do… Command something or other.

But I do know if you have an iPhone and you click download, your phone’s browser will open up a Quicktime page and you can listen there. That’s pretty sweet.

download thirteen

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download one

"Legal right", but no heart to exercise it….

Pastor Jeff Jackson shares the following on his blog about a couple with big love and insurmountable circumstances.

In the recent update that I sent out to my mailing list I talked about a couple from Croatia who came to this country with nothing and have been very successful in real estate–specifically in purchasing rundown apartments and fixing them up. They now own two low-income apartment complexes in tough neighborhoods here in Phoenix and the vast majority of occupants in their complexes are refugees. This couple genuinely loves refugees and they have bent over backwards to help them in numerous ways.

When the economy was good, the average time for a non-English speaking refugee to find entry-level, minimum wage work was about 3 months. Since the economy has slowed down, it is now taking 8-9 months for them to find work. The challenge: the resettlement agencies and available funding from other sources is sufficient to cover their rent for a maximum of 5 months.

Because of this couple’s love, care, and concern for the plight of refugees, they have been VERY patient with refugees who are unable to pay their rent. They have been carrying the load themselves for some refugees who are 4 to 5 months behind on rent. They don’t have the heart to evict them, even though they have the legal right to do so. They know that the refugees would literally have no place to go if they were forced to move out of their apartments. With all the refugees have already suffered in their own countries and in the countries where they lived in refugee camps, this couple just can’t bring themselves to play a role in adding the experience of homelessness in America to the baggage these special people already carry.

Well, this last Saturday, while I was visiting one of their complexes, I had a meeting with the wife. In tears, she told me that the other complex, the one they owned first, is now in foreclosure proceedings. Her and her husband have used up their resources, and they were unable to pay the full mortgage payment on the complex for the past two months. Her heart was broken. But it wasn’t over the loss of income she would experience or the damage that would be done to their credit. Her heart broke because if it’s foreclosed on, a new property manager will be brought in by the bank or a new owner will come in, and it’s very likely that many refugees will be evicted when they are unable to pay their rent within the legal time frame.

She said there is a group of people thinking about investing, but it doesn’t look good. The deadline is March 8. The clock is ticking. Would you mind praying?

Jeff Jackson

Jeff’s blog

iPhone Friendly

Our cell phone plan expired so my wife and I got each other newly remanufactured  iPhones for Christmas. I did not like the way the Shep Staff website looked on the phone’s browser; the phone changed the look of our menus by making them wrap into two rows. So I made some modifications to our site to appear more iPhone friendly.

You can listen to our podcast two ways on your iPhone:
1. click on the podcast icon and it opens in Quicktime and allows you to listen (photo left).
2. click on the iTunes icon on our page or blog, you can also listen. The icon opens up in your iTunes app (see right). Both open up very nicely on the iPhone. I was pleasantly surprised. Give it a try. Our current podcast series is a college level church planting course taught by our founder Pastor Jeff Jackson at Calvary Chapel Bible College.

The Shepherd’s Staff webpage does not have an app yet (maybe some day), but you can save the page to your iPhone’s home screen with a nifty little icon featuring the Shepherd’s Staff logo (see left). In your iPhone’s browser, click the “+” button then select “add to home screen.”

There you go.

Mondok Newsletter February 2010

More Missionaries, More Missionaries

I’m amazed at the growth Shepherd’s Staff Mission Facilitators is experiencing. When I came on board in the Fall of 2007, we served between forty to fifty missionaries. When I moved back to Florida at the end of 2008, we had around seventy.

Shepherd’s Staff, at that time, created the position of Regional Mission Pastor (RMP). Pastor Pat Kenney and I divided the US at the Rocky Mountains. He oversees missionaries to the west and I to the west.

In 2009, seven missionaries have joined us from South Florida not counting the three currently in the application process. 20 total from my region since the RMP position was created. Nationwide, we’re up to 110 total missionaries.

Churches Served

Here’s a list of churches served in my territory:

Low Country Community Church, South Carolina
Shades Mountain Baptist Church, Alabama
Calvary Chapel Kalamazoo Valley, Michigan
Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Calvary Chapel St. Petersburg, Florida
Brentwood Baptist, Tennessee
Walnut Grove Chapel, Indiana
Community Church, Wisconsin
Calvary Chapel Boynton Beach, Florida
Calvary Chapel Chester Springs, Pennsylvania
Oak Mountain Presbyterian, Alabama

Whether or not the new missionary is in my territory I get to interact with each one during intake process. If they are in my area, I wear a human resources hat and conduct interviews and track down references. Intake includes some counseling, advising, and training. Because I also oversee the website, I build an online profile for the incoming missionaries on both our website and Facebook page.

It’s a privilege to serve so many missionaries and do whatever we can to get their stories out there on the Internet. We also make it easy for churches and friends to partner financially. It’s an incredible blessing to have such technology at our fingertips to help us interact with those obedient to the call of missions on their lives.

Partnering

There is a stark contrast between raising support as a US based missionary in an administrative support role versus the overseas ministry pioneering role. I think you’d agree that one is much more appealing in an Indiana Jones kind of way. But I hope I can get you to agree with me, also, that both roles are necessary. When my family and I launched into our South Sudan Missions Endeavor several years ago, we raised $10,000 in one weekend at our church. Sudan was something folks could get on board with. Contrast that to pitching for support to folks about my human resources-training-pastoral-website management-consultation-administration role. It’s not nearly as adventurous and we’ve felt it as we’ve worked to keep our support at a level we can live on in our South Florida economy. Last month our support plunged two thousand dollars. Thankfully, I’ve been able to pick up some work with a tree service a couple of days a week to supplement. (Believe it or not, I used to work as a tree faller when I lived in Northern California when I was a younger man cutting down giant Redwoods and Douglas fir.) It’s a good “tent-making” job, but it takes me out of the office a couple of days a week.

Thanks to all of you who continue to support and have contributed in the past. We thank God for you and covet your prayers. I’m thankful also for Shepherd’s Staff for contributing to our income from day one. As our responsibilities have increased, so has the support from them.

Please pray about partnering with Shepherd’s Staff and my family as we continue to provide valuable support to missionaries and their churches.  

There are three ways to give:

3. Give online:

Type “Mondok 0513” in box.

Tech

Our cell phone plan expired so my wife and I got each other a new iPhone for Christmas. I did not like the way our website looked on the phone’s browser; it changed the look of our menus by making them wrap into two rows. So I made some modifications to our site to appear more iPhone friendly.

You can listen to our podcast two ways on your iPhone:
1. click on the podcast icon and it opens a nice page that allows you to listen on your phone’s iPod application.
2. click on the iTunes icon on our page or blog, you can also listen. Both open up very nicely on the iPhone. I was pleasantly surprised. Give it a try. Our current podcast series is a college level church planting course taught by our founder Pastor Jeff Jackson at Calvary Chapel Bible College.

Here’s another interesting stat for those of you who like numbers. Our website was getting about 300 hits a month when I began working here in 2007. Now it gets about 9000 a month with inbound links from our podcast, missionary blogs, web searches, Facebook page, and Twitter account.

Allie Update

Christine Scheller, writer for Christianity Today, wrote an incredible article about our family. Check it out online here.