By Garold Anderson
Love one another as I have loved you. The world will know that we are Christians by the love that we show to one another. We have a hope and a future in Him.
Kent Hodge
It's been a very nice time. We are starting a school called Christian Faith Academy. It is for the preschool age. They interviewed yesterday and we have chosen two staff. It is great to be a part of what God is doing there.
Esther Hodge
Susie and I are medical students in London and as part of that year we spend a couple of months working in a hospital somewhere else in the world. So we decided to go to Jos. We went to a hospital called Faith Alive Foundation, which is in central Jos, pretty near to where the riots happened last November. It provides free services to Muslims and Christians. It was started by a Nigerian who trained in a prestigious hospital in America, but God told him to go back to Nigeria, and so He obeyed. He started a clinic and offered medicine and counselling for people with HIV. The main work they do there is fighting AIDS. Almost 10% of the population there have HIV. Only 3% of the people who have HIV actually get drugs to fight it and a lot of them are in Nigeria, because of this hospital. He treats people through the support of English churches and an American relief system set up by President Bush to provide AIDS relief for the people in Nigeria.
I used to think of AIDS as a bad disease because I thought it was their fault. But a lot of the people who came there were Muslim girls who were married at very young ages and had got AIDS either from their mothers or their husbands. So, it wasn't really their fault. This doctor is working so hard to help people. Every person he sees he treats as an individual and will pray for them regardless of whether they are a Christian or a Muslim. They treat them with medicine but also holistically.
Every morning at 8 o'clock they have a devotion and someone will preach to them for about half an hour from the Bible and then give a talk on how to stay healthy. One of the biggest problems out there is lack of education. Three ladies came up to me and told me that they couldn't sleep at night and they were really hot. Basically nobody had told them anything.
So first thing in the morning they preach to these people, Christians and Muslims alike. They tell them that God can heal them whether they are Christians or not. So they use the hospital to spread the Gospel as well as to treat people.
The second morning we were there I was sitting in the devotion, and Doctor Chris told me that I had to get up and preach, which I wasn't expecting at all. So I just had to get up and speak to them. I had to do that three times throughout the week. This has really taught me a lot and I am really grateful for the experience. What really struck me was the people because, regardless of what I 'd said, they'd all come up to me and encourage me. They are all so welcoming and friendly. English people I think sometimes tend to be quite judgemental, but the people there are so open and there is so much opportunity to grow there because you can get up and make a fool of yourself and they will still congratulate you afterwards.
Susie Liniker
The hospital started as a clincic. Basically it treats mostly HIV patients but there are also outpatient and pre-natal clinics. They also teach people how HIV is prevented. It was very interesting listening to the counselling sessions because the people don't know anything about their health. In one session I sat in with a lady who couldn't even read. She had the test done and it turned out negative, but the doctor had to explain what negative meant because she didn't understand it. There was another couple who had been tested a few months earlier, and it turned out that the husband was positive and she was negative. But she didn't believe it because there is period in which the virus for HIV cannot be detected. Anyway, the doctor reassured that she was negative, which was such a good thing for here because it meant that she would be able to have children free from HIV.
I haven't done anything with HIV in this country so it was good to see what they do over there. In the anti-natal sessions they encourage the husbands to get involved. They give the wife an invitation to bring the husband along because if you get the husband involved, he will be more interested in the children. The husband is very important over there because the wives actually have to ask their husbands if they can take the medicines given by the doctor. So having the doctors there means that the wives are more likely to take the medicine.
What really interested me was that this was a Christian hospital, but there were Christians there of all denominations, and they all worked together and prayed together. I think it was more a church than a hospital. They were Christians all with different backgrounds with a common goal: they wanted to reach out and help others. They come together, they have devotion and preaching in the morning, then Dr. Chris prays with his patients, then in the afternoon they pray together. So it is a church, they are group of Christians working together to help others.
We had the chance to go to other areas of the hospital, for example they have clinics outside the hospital. On the second week they had a conference for tribal leaders about preventing and treating HIV. This is very helpful because couples go to these leaders to ask if they should get married if the husband is possible, and they also ask them about using condoms. It was really interesting to see how the Christians discussed this issue.
Garold Anderson
Good morning. Well before I begin I would like to say again how wonderful it has been to be with and Laurie and I truly feel a part of this body of believer. So it's just exciting to be back again after so many years and then after our few visits with you in the last year or so.
I just want to make sure that the things I have said recently have been remembered. With the children at school, we looked at the story of the three little pigs and the building blocks of our lives. Because Jesus told a story that was like that with two people who built their houses on two different things.
I'm going to talk about a very strong building block of our lives, a strong foundation. With the Logos group we talked about a strong issue of foundation. I gave the challenge to think about these next months and take some time to pray. One of the ideas was, what is it that convinces us that God is real? And if not, what is standing in our way to be convinced? What is the foundation of our lives?
As I come to the end I will come into prayer. The building blocks of our lives is a part of what I want to talk about. I'm usually a creative person and I create many things. On Friday we did a play by someone else which was a modern day version of Adam and Eve and the breaking down of a relationship. It was a very painful story and it is at this point that I want to begin today.
The testimonies that we had from Nigeria were so fascinating and it's amazing how God really brings everything together for a Sunday service. We cannot do everything but our God can and we can work together with him.
A promise, a prayer and a command.
I want to begin with a simple prayer.
Ish and Isha, in the play that we did on Friday, it was the use of drama to convey the reality of what sin and brokeness really has done.We often read the story of Adam and Eve it often remains a story on the page. In this play, we really brought it painfully to life, with modern day people and circumstances. This is the beauty of knowing God and this is the beauty of Christianity that there is a way forward.
I want to begin with a promise.
I have been praying for this time with you and this is something God placed on my heart for us. And though this promise was spoken to the children of Israel many years agao but it can still play a part in our lives.
Years ago when I was much more wise than I am now, I would think about the words in scripture that were powerful: oo FAITH! And another powerful word would be LOVE. It's a soft word of God but it's love that brought Jesus to the cross. I thought hope was a weak word. I hope I can...
Listen to this, the promise: I know the plans he has for you, not for disaster..to give you a hope.
I have learnt that it is one of the strongest words in scripture.
There are things in life that happen to people; there are times when people find they have a disease in their body called HIV, Aids. And when people face these things, they lose all hope. There are times in relationships that people see no way forward and they lose all hope. There are times even in churches that we face difficulties together and we begin to lose perspective and we lose hope.
Before we can really come to the place of FAITH we've got to have hope. Hope. Ok, I want to a little theatrical exercise with you. I want you to say the word hope with me. I want you to repeat it the way I say it.
We need to know that we have a future. When we find ourselves hitting a wall and in difficult places, how do we know that we have a hope and a future. Because God is our God. God has a plan for your church and for your life. Even if you find that this church is not where you want to stay, there is a hope for me and a hope for everyone here; here is a future. We're not talking about some kind of social club, we're talking about the living body of Crhist. Whether we are here or in Nigeria or in London; the living body of Chrsit. We have a hope and a future. God knows the plans for you, for your welfare and that are not for disaster.
There are many things that are before you. There are many things. There are many decisions before you in the very close future of this church. Many important things that this church needs to decide and do. I think the cameras that you have...the facilities are amazing. That's a sideline. With your life, and with the relatiionshiops tha are here, things need to be accomplished.
You have to begin by asking why and what. God says, you will come and you will pray and I will listen.
Can you imagine if I came here to speak to you, and as I was speaking, my feet began to do what they wanted. You see it doesn't work if the body doesn't work together. Communiciation doesn't work if the body doesn't work together. Paul says such a powerful thing: 'How can the hand say to the foot, 'I don't need you'. Paul says, 'No, this is the beauty and the amazing thing about Christianity: it's a body.' Each part is needed. Each part has a very important thing to bring. You have a very important role and part to play within this body. You. But somehow within it, we've got to find a way to work together. So we begin with knowing that God says we have a future. God has plans for us to give us a hope and a future.
A command.
The thing that is on my heart to deposit here today is foundational. It's just solid rock. I really pray that we are able to take this seed because this is the heart of christinaty. I want you to imagine with me, from the gospel of john...
This takes place at the end of the ministry of Jesus. This is the end of his time with his disciples; those he has been mentorying. As he comes to the end, he's going to say, 'guys just remember brush your teeth everyday'. I think he would say something a bit more serious. 'Ok guys, always keep the other guys guessing.' No. What would you do if this was the last day with your family? You know this is the last moment, you would think real hard and say what is the most important seed thatI can plant into their life. And that's exactly what Jesus does.
We've been through a lot together and now it's coming to the end...
'A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another'.That is a very powerful command and then He goes on and adds something else: 'That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.'
The Bible is really specific. We know love because love has been defined for us. While we were enemies of God, He extended his love through his Son to us. God proved his love in that way. This is how we know love; that Christ died for us. We don't just have some kind of idea of love. We have a real definition and that is the thing that transforms my life, is that I have a real solid definition of love in the one that I am following.
'Love one another, in the same way that I have loved you.' That brings us hopefully to a place that we heard in a song earlier. We can't love others without him. Remain in me and you can do this. Without him we cannot walk in that kind of love.
I want you to understand how important this was when he spoke these words to his disciples.
He didn't say, 'if you can stop all conflict...' No. Love one another. We are different. We have different parts to play and it is within us, that Jesus gives us the command to love one another, as he has loved us. It is an amazing command and he expects that we can do it.
This is how people will know you are my disciples, if you love one another.
I just want to accent this by looking at John 15.
It's a thing he keeps repeating to his disiples and something that needs to reverberate in the depths of our souls. Love one another as I have loved you. He says it again. Here's my command, love one another. And then he says it again.
Be so concenered about one another, even if you disagree. Because this is the power. God IS love. The power on this earth that created all things that are is love. God, the power that can stand against the fiery furnace, is love. Christ is about to go the cross, the absolute example of love, and he's talking to his disiples about love.
I want to leave us with a prayer. A promise that God has a future for us. God has spokem to use because God has plans for us. God loved the world so much that he sent his Son, and his own sons and daughters into the world. But this is how it's all going to happen: Love one another.
God gave his disciples a simple format of a prayer. He said 'Our father, who art in heaven, your name is holy. You are the name above all. You are the God who made all things. Holy is your name.' That's where Jesus begins in the prayer to focus on God. 'May your kingdom and your ways come on earth, just as they happened in heaven. May your ways come into my life, just as it happens in heaven. Jesus bring your love and your possibility of loving and giving into my life, just as your will is accomplished in heaven. Today, give me what I need, the depth of my soul and the strength to do what is before me today. And I ask in my own life, that your forgiveness would come. Forgive me. Have mercy on me. So I also say, forgive those who have done something against me. Give me the hope to be able to forgive. Help me to get past my weakness and to forgive those who have done things against me. And I would ask that you would lead us away from the paths of temptation and from the evil. Deliver us. And give us a hope and a future. For thine is the kingdom of love and forgiveness and hope a future. Thine is the power to accomplish these things in my life. And thine is the glory. And as we follow you, we proclaim that it is you who does these things. Amen.'
