Mini-Outreach - Week 9

Mini-Outreach to the

Flathead Indian Reservation

in Northwest Montana

Jun 4-7 2013

My only contact with the Native American is through the Hollywood movies.  And as a child, I did play ‘Cowboys and Indians’.  Apart from these, I have no further knowledge.  Therefore, to have a mini-outreach in our FCD to the Flathead Indian Reservation in Northwest Montana and learned about the Salish and Kootenai Native American Tribes is truly once in my lifetime experience.

My highlight was to meet Elder Small Salmon, from the Salish Tribe.  He shared that today, there left only a few full-blooded Salish Natives.  As such, the Salish language and culture would soon become extinct.  Elder Small Salmon is one of the few left. He went on to share that he gave up his acting career in Hollywood to teach the Salish language and culture to the next generation.  He now teaches the Salish language and culture to about 60 children at the Nkwusm Salish Language Institute.  My training has taught me to respect and honor the cultures of all Nations. As I sat listening to Elder Small Salmon, I could feel his passion to see his language, culture, people and land lived on for many generations. There is much to learn from his dedication and commitment.  He has given up a small ambition in the Hollywood scene for a much bigger vision.  That is - raised up generations of his people where their language, culture, stories and legends will live on forever.  Here is a quote taken from the Nkwusm Salish Language Institute handout, “When you lose your language, you lose the soul of your culture because you are forever disconnected from the wisdom of your ancestors.”

I come from a little island called Singapore.  Singapore is a multiracial and multicultural country.  We have a unique language called ‘Singlish’.  It’s colloquial English. We can easily identify each other in the crowd when ‘Singlish’ is spoken.  This is the power of the language of the people.  It’s our identity as a people of the Nation. We belong to each other.  Singaporeans are proud of our language and culture.  Shouldn’t it be the same for all others.

Church Planting - Week 8

By

Dawn Rogers 

The best nugget of truth I learned during the week of Church and Regional Church Development was the Five P’s of Evangelism.

Presence: let the people in the area witness a godly life. Don’t make it an agenda to get people saved. Let the people see that you love them. They want to see how you will care for the needy, sick, and uneducated.

Proclamation: Proclaim the gospel of Jesus. Depending on the culture and community, people will need to hear the gospel in different ways that they can understand—proclaim the gospel in a way they need to hear it such as preaching, drama, stories, or other ways.

Persuasion: Bringing them to a point of decision to accept Jesus as Lord and Savior; this means a heartfelt faith, not just praying a prayer that they repeat after you.

Planting: “Go therefore and make disciples” (Matthew 28) Teach them to come together, mature, be discipled, and learn His ways. Let them be apart of redeeming their culture, and not a traitor of their culture. Plant, go back there, and appoint elders.

Propagation: Make church planting churches. Raise up the leaders and show them to multiply leaders.

I think the Church needs to understand these principles. Sometimes we want to rush things along and see people saved; but living a life of integrity, a life where we walk with Jesus, that people get to see is a better foundation. When someone witnesses the Church living a life that truly reflects Christ, loving as He did, and walking in truth then when they accept Jesus and want to walk with Him they know what it looks like. I think that type of “soul saving” is much better than having someone repeat after you the prayer of salvation without them having much understanding to count the cost.

Let’s love and walk as children of the light, living lives that show people whom our Savior and Father is. Let’s do life with people and humble ourselves to understand them. 

Eviromental Stewardship - Week 7

By

Richard Won

For “the earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof” (I Cor 10:26 ESV)

           

An awesome week in FCD on Stewarding The Creation Of God. Probably, one of the best topics in FCD.  The premise is God created and owned the earth and He intended it to be fruitful and abundantly full of life. We are called to steward it which is an honorable position (I Cor 9:17) In order to preserve the earth we need to think of sustainable community development such as recycling of plastic, paper and metal. Earth dwellers to be more contended in life and consume less, accumulate less, use less goods and stuff. Basically, it is Recycling the material; Refusing toxic and chemical waste; Re-educating the mindset; and Renewing the land by planting more trees;

            Some of the key ideas and community principles I have gained:

1. God loves the beautiful earth and He wants it to be abundantly fruitful. John of Damascus says, “The whole earth is a living icon of the Face of God”
2. Beware of the pitfall of over consuming, over spending and over possessing of stuff that I do not need. It creates toxic waste which pollute the earth. The key in community development is educating the masses to be contended rather than drawing our identity from stuff.
3. The rule of thumb in environmental issue is if it is good for people but bad for creation, then it is no good at all.
4. In Community Development, a good steward of God’s creation must think in terms of long term, long haul and bringing lasting change and inner transformation of the heart and mind
5. Helping the community to rethink of the lie that they have no choice in environment injustice. A world-view change in the hidden assumption can lift up the community with hope and life.

            What have I learned? I can worship the God of creation in nature, in the lake, in the mountain and in the animals. George Washington says, “Nature itself is a broadcasting station through which God speaks to every hour” Nature is speaking so loudly but we can’t hear it due to our own occupation of self. John Scothis Eigena says, “Christ wears two shoes in the world: scripture and nature. Both are necessary to understand. At no stage can creation be seen as separation of things from God”

            I can help to sustain the earth and the environment by doing my part in recycling of paper, plastic and metal. It may be a drop in the ocean but that one drop can make a difference. Never despise the days of small beginning

Nation Building - Week 6

By

Michael Brewer

It's always important to be gaining understanding.  As Christians, God has given us minds to be able to know truth, and to apply that truth to our world.  Vishal Mangalwadi spent this entire week really challenging us to think and understand God's desires for his people, and the world he has given us.  While classes this week touched on many topics, I believe it is safe to say that our speaker wanted us to understand the heritage of missions that we as Christians are a part of.  As he took us through the history of the rise of the modern world, I was astounded as he painted a picture of devoted, God-fearing men and women who helped build the modern world.  Abolition, workers' rights, equality of women, technology, science, and freedom were areas of society in which men and women of God played key roles.  Without these people, and their integral view of the Gospel of Christ, our speaker posited that the west would not have arisen as we know it, and we would not be enjoying the fruit of so many dedicated peoples' efforts.  With that knowledge, he then challenged us to go out and do the same.  As Christians, we must not sit on the sidelines.  The Gospel, the Truth, is known to us, and it has something to say to every society, every nation, every problem, and every individual.  This week challenged me personally to engage my mind and my talents in whatever I find at my hand to do, because no issue is untouched by our mandate to disciple and baptize nations.

Thanks for reading!

Arts and Community - Week 5

By

Bethany Bernard

This last week in FCD we had Sean Hall come and speak to our class about Community and Art and how those two can be used together. He talked about how the definition of art is breathing something new into existance. One example of that is making empty spaces into a place where communities can gather. He also talked a lot about how our story, God's story and the story of other people outside of the kingdom are supposed to be walked side by side until they become like one journey.

Some of the key ideas or themes from this week are: 

1. Holy Imagination-We are created with the ability to imagine alongside God

2. Sensing life/experiences with the 7 senses-taste, smell, sight, touch, hear, kinesthetic (what God thinks and speaks to us), Organic (What we feel inside). 

3. Truth-It's a person and not a set of ideas and that person is Jesus. 

The challenges this week brought up for me, is to live more creatively and to savour moments more often by using my seven senses. We took this challenge to the streets of Kalispell and went around the small town of Montana with the focus of being the embodiment of love like Christ loves and savouring the moments we found ourselves in. Through this experience I realized that if i am going to savour moments in my life i need to be more intentional about it. We also went on a field trip to visit the mayor of Kalispell and ask her what she feels community development ideally looks like in Kalispell. She gave a lot of good insight as to how government can become more community focused then politically focused. We also visited a local park called BACK BACK park that the community of Kalispell chose to create after a house blew up there last year and it had become an empty lot. This is a prime example of how art turns space into a place. If you ever get the time to be in Kalispell MT you should check that park out it is quite beautiful and filled with cool artsy things like a teepee and a pizza oven. But my favourite thing they built in it is the porch they built that you can sit in. All in all I would say that this week has been a pretty fun adventure of seeing how Art and Community can and should be used together for the glory of God.

Community Transformation - Week 4

By

Clara Won

One principle I learned in Community Transformation is that,
‘The Church is the litmus paper of what is happening in the community’.
- by Alistair Pettrie. This is a sobering revelation. It means that what’s happening in the Church is also happening in the community. As I ponder on it. I come to realize that it is evident. The Church has tolerated the low morality among it’s members.  But is ‘loud’ against those whose behaviors we deemed unacceptable. Today, divorce rates are on the rise in Churches. Leaders and members are involved in extra-marital relationships. Families are broken and have become dysfunctional. Many of our children are growing up in homes with single parents or parents often not home due to work commitment.  As a believer, it has dawned on me that repentance should being in our own household. It is time to ‘clean’ up our own backyard in order to have a voice to represent God in the community. It is time the church takes 2 Chronicles 7:14 “If my people who are called by my name Humble themselves, and  pray and seek my face and turn from their Wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin andHeal their land.” seriously. We need to be on our knees repenting,Seeking and praying for God’s forgiveness and asking God to helpUs live rightly.  When the truth of God works in our hearts, then weCan be a blessing to our community and nations beyond.

Community Development Principles - Week 3

By

Dawn Rogers 

God’s heart is for His kingdom, for Heaven on earth. God’s heart is for us to be whole, for us to walk in His intentions that were made from the beginning.

We’re broken. Our relationships on all levels have been damaged—with God, with ourselves, with one another, and with creation. It is not as He intended it to be. But God is a God of hope. God is a God who came to bring Heaven to earth, to reconcile all things, to bring us into fullness in His kingdom, which is “now and not yet” every day. God’s heart is for His kingdom, for Heaven on earth. God’s heart is for us to be whole, for us to walk in His intentions that were made from the beginning.

And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man. Luke 2:52

Our Father desires us to walk in this too. Jesus is our model; He is who we look to in order to see things as they should be. All in all, this comes down to love. What does it look like to love God and love our neighbor? They are equally important in value. Jesus sums up the law in loving.

With love we have the potential to restore things, to see a glimpse and a glory of how things were meant to be. If we walk in love, we would do no wrong to our neighbor. When we walk in love we are living out the kingdom of God, we are living out the heart of God for all creation.

So God cares about every part of us: physical, social, psychological, and spiritual. What do we shine to the outside world? Are people seeing the God of mercy and redemption? Or do they just see the spiritual, your-soul-needs-to-be-saved God?

For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. Colossians 1:19-20

Biblical Worldview - Week 2

By 

Richard Won

This week on Worldview by Ms Christine Colby, International Director of Community Development Centre, Kona Hawaii is awesome. In the past, I could not understand worldview well. I felt the subject was too big, too many jargon, complex and technical. So I was looking forward to learn from the world renowned scholar on world view. Ms Christine could explain it simply and clearly. She was able to bring the subject matter to an irreducible minimum that the class could captured and convinced of the subject. 

Worldview is everything in Community Development. An understanding of it will move people towards God's intention. Society and culture have distorted true biblical worldview into Animistic Worldview and Secularistic Worldview. In Animism where everything is spirit and hinges on the supernatural. Fear is the issue and the way out is to appease the spirits by offerings and sacrifices. In Secularism where everything is physical or natural. Pride is the issue and man seeks to achieve, produce and gain. The man who is the richest, most intelligent, has most toys is viewed as successful. In Secularism, there is no understanding of God at all. Everything is controlled by man. However, to reach the Animistic or Secular culture, we need to educate the people on the Biblical World View that God created humankind according to Gen 1:26. And God made human to be male and female. They are equal in terms of value but different in function. God had given dominion or authority to man and even though man fell due to sin, the dominion was not removed from man. God value us. God called us to reign with Him. This is the correct world view of who we are in God. 

After we have understand the worldview of the people, we must discern the belief tree of the culture. Don't just simply solve the fruit or behavior issue in the community such as poverty, oppression, violence, alcohol abuse, drug abuse etc. Go deeper and look at the root issues such as rejection unbelief, unforgiveness, pride etc. Keep asking questions and keep probing on why the problem exists in that culture. What has happened? When it happened? Who has caused it to happen? And after we have evaluated the questions. We go to God in intense prayer and seek a suitable solution and strategy to help the society.

To effect a worldview change in any society or culture is a very long process. We have to uncover the lies and deception that the people have been bound to believe in for a long time. The Community Development persons must think in terms of 100 years development. Is a tall order and we enter into it for a long haul to effect a change. History has shown us there are breakthroughs such as Willbeforce who took him 36 years to change the British government to abolish slavery in England. And Father Salman who worked for over 30 years among the garbage collectors in Cairo. And the breakthrough came for these two heroes of faith.

We should never give up hope but to press on. The Isaiah 61:1-4 is a great encouragement for CD workers that God is still very much at work in the world. 

Isa 61:1-4

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the Lord 's favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; to grant to those who mourn in Zion— to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified. They shall build up the ancient ruins; they shall raise up the former devastations; they shall repair the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations. (Isaiah 61:1-4 ESV)

Welcome - Week 1

By Michael Brewer

Hi my name's Michael, and I just wanted to give some perspective on my first week in the Foundations of Community Development course here at YWAM Montana.  Team dynamics is huge in any undertaking.  Very little gets done if a team cannot recognize its strengths, value the individuals that make it up, and communicate effectively with each other to achieve a common goal.  In our first week, we focused on what makes a good team, and how we could apply that to the team the God has brought together for these 3 months of exploration into what makes development possible.  Some of the main topics we discussed were personality types, conflict transformation (making conflict resolution something that translates into resolution as well as deeper relationship), and communication.  For me personally, I have been in YWAM for 8 years and have led a lot of teams, but I am always seeking to be more well rounded in how I contribute to and operate within a team setting.  God has faithfully led me in a process of transformation that is leading me to become someone who values others, walks in humility, and seeks to give God the glory in everything I do. I am excited for how this school will continue to shape me in that journey.  

Blessings!