10.19.2011
Only 2 more weeks until India and Nepal!!
Only 2 more weeks until Mike and team leave for ministry in India and Nepal! They will start the trip in Northern India with a dynamic,young evangelist and church planter that Mike met one year ago in Cape Town, South Africa at the Lausanne Congress on World Evangelism. They will strategize for the first three days to see how they can partner together in ministering to the unreached people in Northern India. Mike is hoping a thriving, multi-year partnership will result from this time together. Then it is off to the Bhutanese refugee camps in Southeastern Nepal. They will team up with the Reid Saunders Association from Salem, Oregon and KidStand from Dallas, Texas. There will be 5 days of treating the refugees in a medical clinic as well as 5 days of school and community outreaches. Additionally, there will be very engaging children's ministry events happening throughout the week. The week will conclude with a large pastor's conference and 2 evangelistic festival days over the weekend. Mike Parker will speak at one festival outreach and Reid Saunders will speak at the other outreach. Both of these men have a heart and passion to reach the lost and will powerfully bring the good news of Jesus Christ to this dark and lost area of the world. Would you please be in prayer for safety and protection for these teams, for individual gifts and talents to be poured out in full, for ready hearts and for a great harvest! God is good!
10.05.2011
Planning for Nepal!
In just one short month from now I and a small team will be heading to Nepal to join forces with two other ministries to share the love of Jesus Christ to Bhutanese refugees living in Southeastern Nepal. Our ministry team will consist of a medical team, a kid's ministry, and two evangelism ministries.
Situated between the emerging superpowers of India and China, the isolated Buddhist kingdom of Bhutan, hailed by some as ‘the last Shangri-La’, has generated one of the highest numbers of refugees in the world in proportion to its population.
Since 1991 over one sixth of Bhutan's people have sought asylum in Nepal, India and other countries around the world. Sadly, it is estimated that 12,000 girls are abducted and taken from Nepal into India every year as part of the sex slave industry.
Our team departs November 3rd and will return November 16th. It is our intent to minister to these Hindu Bhutanese refugees over the next few years with evangelism, medical teams, pastor training (for the few small churches), and other physical aid. It is also our hope that we will partner with other ministries that focus on human trafficking.
We still need to raise nearly $5,000 for this ministry trip! Would you please pray that God would be stirring the hearts of people who would partner with us financially? The return on this kind of investment is truly immeasurable!
Mike
Situated between the emerging superpowers of India and China, the isolated Buddhist kingdom of Bhutan, hailed by some as ‘the last Shangri-La’, has generated one of the highest numbers of refugees in the world in proportion to its population.
Since 1991 over one sixth of Bhutan's people have sought asylum in Nepal, India and other countries around the world. Sadly, it is estimated that 12,000 girls are abducted and taken from Nepal into India every year as part of the sex slave industry.
Our team departs November 3rd and will return November 16th. It is our intent to minister to these Hindu Bhutanese refugees over the next few years with evangelism, medical teams, pastor training (for the few small churches), and other physical aid. It is also our hope that we will partner with other ministries that focus on human trafficking.
We still need to raise nearly $5,000 for this ministry trip! Would you please pray that God would be stirring the hearts of people who would partner with us financially? The return on this kind of investment is truly immeasurable!
Mike
6.08.2011
Recent Sermon from Joshua 5 & 6
Mike preached at Sisters Community Church again on June 5th. For this sermon Mike sensed a prompting to preach a reminder from church history about how God is moving even when it seems very dark to us. There is a much larger story that God is writing even when we can’t yet see it. It’s like creating a tapestry with all the individual threads being woven together to create a design of great beauty in the end. He referred to Joshua 5 & 6 to illustrate how we need to obey God’s leading even when it doesn’t make sense to us in the beginning. He can accomplish great things out of this obedience. Click here to listen to this sermon!
Healing and Psalm 84
Mike recently preached at his home church of Sisters Community Church in Sisters, Oregon. This church is going through a significant transition with a launching of two separate churches. The pastor, leadership, and full elder board has been sensing for some time now a clear call to plant a new type of church in Central Oregon. The pastor recently resigned in order to pursue this new calling. As a result, Mike was asked to help the first few Sundays in the transition by providing messages to a dividing and hurting body. (Clearly, anytime something of this magnitude happens within a church, there will be mixed emotions on the part of the congregation.) Mike had a strong sense that the first sermon should point eyes up and be briefer and simple, yet not simplistic. As a result he preached from Psalm 84. Many of the congregation shared with him afterwards that it was just what they needed to hear at this time. We would like to give you the opportunity to listen as well. Just click here to hear Mike’s sermon from Psalm 84.
4.05.2011
Mission America Coalition: Orlando 2011 A Leadership Consultation
I am currently in Orlando, Florida for a very critical leadership consultation related to Cape Town 2010 - The Third Lausanne Conference on Global Evangelism. Mission America is the US arm of the Lausanne Movement. It expresses itself through three ideas - prayer, care, and share so that churches and communities are reaching out in prayer, deed, and proclamation of the Gospel.
The meetings this week are for US church and ministry leaders to pray, discuss, and Lord willing - initiate new strategies related to the major challenges and opportunities facing the US and Global Church. After the last Lausanne Congress in 1989 held in Manila over 300 new strategies/initiatives were launched - including new ministries.
Approximately 1,000 US church and ministry leaders are in attendance - many of whom did not attend Cape Town but are involved in the greater movement of Lausanne Mission America and/or are significant ministry leaders.
Our meetings this week are being wonderfully hosted by the international headquarters of Wycliff Bible Translators, Campus Crusade for Christ, and Vision 360.
I would really appreciate your prayers for the week. Each day, there are 20 affinity group consultations around the major themes discussed in Cape Town. I have been asked to help provide leadership to the affinity consultation "US and Global Evangelism.". It is a huge honor and blessing since we are such a small organization. The over arching prayer is that the results of this week will lead to strategies for the next 10 to 15 years.
My second prayer is for networking/partnerships. Pray that the Lord would open some significant doors of friendship and ministry partners with churches and other ministries.
My third prayer request is for the Lord to really show himself and speak to our hearts as a collected body what He wants for the US church in initiatives, partnerships, strategies, and the re-evangelizing of the US church and a move of the Holy Spirit in awakening the church.
Last, pray that God would show me how and where ANM can begin to minister in the US in equipping churches and communities for evangelism. Maybe this would mean an open door this week into a few churches or maybe it means partnering with others.
Lastly - pray for my wife and daughters that the Lord would care for them while I am gone - no one sick, no one injured, no appliances or vehicle trouble.
Blessings
Mike
The meetings this week are for US church and ministry leaders to pray, discuss, and Lord willing - initiate new strategies related to the major challenges and opportunities facing the US and Global Church. After the last Lausanne Congress in 1989 held in Manila over 300 new strategies/initiatives were launched - including new ministries.
Approximately 1,000 US church and ministry leaders are in attendance - many of whom did not attend Cape Town but are involved in the greater movement of Lausanne Mission America and/or are significant ministry leaders.
Our meetings this week are being wonderfully hosted by the international headquarters of Wycliff Bible Translators, Campus Crusade for Christ, and Vision 360.
I would really appreciate your prayers for the week. Each day, there are 20 affinity group consultations around the major themes discussed in Cape Town. I have been asked to help provide leadership to the affinity consultation "US and Global Evangelism.". It is a huge honor and blessing since we are such a small organization. The over arching prayer is that the results of this week will lead to strategies for the next 10 to 15 years.
My second prayer is for networking/partnerships. Pray that the Lord would open some significant doors of friendship and ministry partners with churches and other ministries.
My third prayer request is for the Lord to really show himself and speak to our hearts as a collected body what He wants for the US church in initiatives, partnerships, strategies, and the re-evangelizing of the US church and a move of the Holy Spirit in awakening the church.
Last, pray that God would show me how and where ANM can begin to minister in the US in equipping churches and communities for evangelism. Maybe this would mean an open door this week into a few churches or maybe it means partnering with others.
Lastly - pray for my wife and daughters that the Lord would care for them while I am gone - no one sick, no one injured, no appliances or vehicle trouble.
Blessings
Mike
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