Hi all,
A little bit of housekeeping to start:
Zoom:
I wanted to make sure you see the Zoom meetings next week, the topic will be the Ukraine invasion and how it fits into the Ezekiel 38 war – register above.
Phoenix:
Don’t forget our 1 day gathering in Phoenix, Arizona on April 9 – it will be a small group, a good lunch together (provided), so we can fellowship and get to know one another, and have teaching, sharing, personal prayer, worship…a full day but at a relaxed pace! Registration and information is also above.
Tulsa National Conference:
Our October 7-9 conference in Tulsa is something we’re excited about – every other year we invite everyone to gather with us in Tulsa for a long weekend conference. Consider joining us!
EU Conference:
Due to covid, 2019 was the last time we were able to gather for our EU/UK conference, and we are SO excited to see our friends once again! Please see the information above, and you can contact Wil and Ank directly at cwowi@solcon.nl. The setting is retreat center, “Emmaus House” in a rural setting near Helvoirt, Netherlands, close to a small town, very relaxing and peaceful, and rich spiritually when we all gather! The conference fee includes food and lodging. Always an amazing time, please join us!
Africa Coordinator; Kids Without Walls
In Acts 4:34 it says no one lacked anything. They didn’t live in a commune, they lived in their regular homes, but as unexpected needs arose the body of Christ responded by taking care of that need. Some sold extra assets to help meet the need, but the core is that no one lacked. As the body of Christ expanded throughout the Roman Empire, the meeting of needs to the point no one lacked, involved time and distance.
For example, in Acts 11: 28-30 when a famine arose in the area around Jerusalem, the body in Antioch, several hundred miles/kilometers north, sent a cash offering to them with Paul and Barnabas. We also see Paul in I Corinthians 16 and II Corinthians 8 & 9, as well as Romans 15, gathering a collection for the poor in Jerusalem, the church there being overwhelmed with the needs.
Since our start cwowi has followed that pattern seen in scripture:
Each house church is responsible for meeting the needs of its own, but when a need is larger than they can handle, they appealed to the network – that’s what we see in the NT.
To this end, without most people knowing it, we have always given back into the network thousands of dollars every year to meet needs, that no one be lacking in our midst. Only rarely, on the larger needs do we send a US/Canada or world-wide appeal.
As we’ve grown, especially in Uganda and Kenya, needs in those nations have overwhelmed our affiliates. AIDS, abandonment, other illnesses/death, and poor economies have meant many orphan and single parent homes without the ability to care for the children, especially. While some in the local body have taken in some of these children and sometimes their parent as well, the burden remains great.
Our Ugandan affiliates which number some 650 house churches, started an orphanage to offer food, schooling, and care for these orphan and single parent struggling families. Additionally, we have helped buy pregnant pigs ($125 per) in Uganda for distribution among the house churches, with government training, to help provide food and income for families. In our Rwanda affiliates we have a similar opportunity with goats ($70 per)…the needs are huge, but helping people develop steady streams of income is close to our hearts. In Kenya the story is similar, though without a formal orphanage, but choosing to take in those in need, which adds a lot of expense to each household.
Yet we are a small ministry, not rich by any means, and only have a little we can take from the general fund each month to help with these needs. So I’ve been wrestling within myself, seeking the Father’s will, and needing direction from the Lord, the head of the body of Christ. Jesus said in Matthew 25 He is returning for a church who took care of those in their midst who are hungry, thirsty, needing clothing, hospitality or a visit. How do we do that Lord? Finally, a few weeks ago in one of our house church meetings, the Lord gave me His will and wisdom on the matter, so we are moving in that direction.
This is just information for now, just to let you know.
We will soon be offering sponsorship for individual children in Uganda and Kenya for $41 USD per month, forwarding the bulk to the child and their needs, with just a small amount kept back for our own administrative needs. These are people in our network, the leaders we actually know and have known for years.
When Barb and I were talking about what the Lord said to me in the visitation about this, the Lord gave her a word of wisdom who to approach about this, in our local house church. This was confirmed by another person, so we approached her. She was thrilled for this, and we discovered, such a ministry is close to her heart, and she has experience with a similar ministry that offers sponsorship for children.
We have hired her part time to help organize this part of cwowi, which we are calling Kids Without Walls, or KWOW (K-WOW) We also found in our midst a computer programmer who is helping to get the web part functioning, and this is close to his heart – amazing how the Lord put everyone in place with the experience and heart for this aspect of ministry.
It will be a couple months or so before we will be ready to post pictures and bios of children available for sponsorship. For now though, on our web site you can go to cwowi.org, then click ‘network’, and then ‘network updates’ to see general information, though it is being updated and some of the postings are older – but you’ll get the idea.
When we have children eligible for sponsorship there will be much more detail, pictures, bio, and such – Stay tuned!
Russia, Ukraine, what’s next?
In the classic understanding of the Ezekiel 38 war, Russia, Iran, Turkey, Libya, and Ethiopia/Sudan align themselves against Israel and her allies. The topic of the zoom meetings next week focus on what conditions are required to get that alliance thinking they can invade Israel without military confrontation by Israel’s allies? That’s why Russia’s history with Chechnya, Georgia, Crimea, and now Ukraine play an important role in the thinking that will one day bring them against Israel.
Ukraine has the highest number of born-again Christians of any European nation, and with over total 1.5 million refugees, and millions more taking shelter in basements and subways, our brothers and sisters are suffering. By comparison, the rest of the west can sit back in luxury and argue over doctrine; What shape is the earth, pre-tribulation rapture or mid-tribulation rapture, who is the real President, conspiracies, council of God or court room of heaven – and other such distractions from the core of who we are in Christ.
As one of our leaders said, “…it may be truth, but not all truth weighs the same.” (Thank you Steve Q)
The weightiest truth is Christ in us, and that is on Who we need to concentrate. The rest is light weight.
My guess is that none of the millions of believers whose lives have been so tragically disrupted in Ukraine care if the believer walking the road with them or hiding with them in a basement in a besieged city, care one bit if that person believes differently than they do about such peripheral doctrine. They gather to pray, to worship, to focus on Who they have in common. Praying for their nation, their loved ones, their homes. Shame on those believers in the free west who have the luxury of debating doctrine that has little to do with living today for Jesus.
As Paul said, seek that which edifies, not that which divides. Forgive, make allowances for one another, and focus on Christ in each other and what He is doing. What Jesus is doing in a believer will always involve the Fruit of the Spirit/spirit and the development of Christian character- add to your faith knowledge, virtue, self-control, consistency, godliness, brotherly and unconditional love, joy, peace, gentleness, long-suffering, meekness, kindness….
To truly know what He is doing in someone, will always involve those qualities, those character issues.
It is that simple. When sharing what He is doing in us, if we are honest, if we are transparent, it will be along those lines, not along the lines of some peripheral teaching that fails to develop those things in us. Prayer can be for things involving those things – illness, needs, emotional turmoil – but it all gets back to being like Jesus. Paul said he will glory in difficulty because it brings him closer to the Lord, and more like Him – in so many words. He wanted to know not just the power of His resurrection, but the fellowship of His sufferings. Philippians 3:10.
Christ is in you. We come boldly to the throne with a simple turn of the heart to ‘Father’, and BOOM! you are there. The Father is not ‘out there’ as if He must be brought down, and neither should we seek a formula which takes us ‘up there’. Christ is in you. Right now, in your spirit, down in the deepest part of you. Wow, you can sense His presence right now, in your spirit. With that, you have all things.
When you have Christ you have everything, and anything other than that is usually man’s formula’s designed to work oneself into God’s graces or get the devil away. Christ is in you. He won it all. He gave us authority over any demons bothering us.
“He who spared not His only Son, but gave Him for us, how shall He not along with Him, freely give us all things?” Romans 8: 32
Many will recall the Lord had told me that March would see transition. In the US look for similar transitions through September and October, and not just on the Supreme Court or November elections…much more, though some time in between for relative calm, though economic pressures.
Just do what He asks you to do today. Look for Him ordering your steps. No fear, for nothing catches Him by surprise, and if you lack provision, ask the Father to reveal His provision. How amazing to think the Creator of the Universe is our friend! And more than that, lives inside us. We have it all! No formula needed. Amazing grace.
Blessings,
John Fenn
