“And I [Jesus] say to you, make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon, that when you fail, they may receive you into an everlasting home.” (Luke 16:9)
If you’re like me, the meaning of the parable of the unjust steward (Luke 16:1-13) has been fuzzy. This past Sunday our pastor, as part of his series on the parables of Jesus, put some surprising (for me at least) pieces together and left me with great motivation to be faithful in using what is least (money) for eternal gain (Luke 16:10). If I were to loosely paraphrase (and amplify) the verse above, it would go something like this:
Make eternal future friends for yourselves by wisely/shrewdly using the money God has given to you to proclaim the Gospel to as many people as possible, so that when you die, the people who heard the Gospel and came to Christ due to your shrewd use of money will be there to welcome you into your eternal home/heaven ...even some friends unknown to you who were reached by missionaries you supported.
I hope that has given you food for thought as it has me! You who have invested in Laura, me, and the ministries God gave to us will have Filipino and East African friends (and more) to welcome you into your eternal home. “You can’t take your money with you when you die but you can send it ahead.”
And this week, our Ugandan friend, Beth B., is training representatives from five of the South Sudanese Refugee Camps in northern Uganda, to use both the Obedience and Purity modules as evangelism/discipleship tools in the camps they come from. And thanks to a generous donor who shrewdly used their money to pay for VOICE modules, those trained will return to their areas with a free copy of each module/curriculum to use to strengthen/extend God’s kingdom in their area. That donor will have South Sudanese refugees among their eternal friends to welcome them into heaven!
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Two SEND VOICE Africa projects extended to the end of 2022!
Just this month, the final signatures were affixed.
VOICE Africa/Uganda project- $24,125, of which $5,000 has already been receipted by SEND and soon will be forwarded to VOICE Africa. This project helps to cover salaries/love gifts to enable three Scripture Union Uganda workers to primarily focus on strengthening and extending the VOICE Africa program (teaching Biblical values to children/youth) throughout Uganda.
VOICE Africa/Tanzania/Swahili project - $35,000 of which $12,000 has already been receipted by SEND and will soon be forwarded to VOICE Africa. It will help cover the cost of printing Swahili Forgiveness and Purity Activity Sheets plus the publishing of the Swahili Truth module on all three age levels.
Pray for God's provision.
