chris and becka warner

Just got an email from one of our friends in Burundi at Philidelphia church. Please keep them in your prayers as you think of it…

A good news we started Clemence and I with some christians from Kinama church a daughter church in Gihosha our area where we live. Very soon Kinama church will join us to open official
We need your prayer contribution we are in the right way we share with you to church plant churches.
We miss you much and the Lord is doing great  things in Burundi.
Politicaly things are changing war is going over  fear in the population slowly is going and the full gospel is taking place in people heart what amazing time we are living from  our Lord

We love you much

In Christ

Theo

On a much happier note, our friends in Burundi at Philadelphia Church have just started another church in the interior! These guys never cease to amaze me. These wonderful friends have lived through more war, bloodshed, and tragedy than most, and yet they continue to bring the love of Christ to everyone around them. The situation in Burundi has been very tense these days, with more rebel activity, killings, and unrest. But they just keep moving forward in faith and hope and love. Unbelievable. Please keep them, and the nation of Burundi, in your prayers as you think of it.

One of my projects in the coming weeks is to put together some resources for a group of leaders we worked with in Burundi. As we processed and discussed how we could partner in the future, this was one of the areas that they asked me to consider. It’s not really a “money issue,” meaning they have always been really good about trusting God to provide from their own resources without having to rely on outside sources. But in this case, it’s about the resources themselves; there are just very few books available in Burundi. There are a few obscure titles in French, but that’s about it. So I want to put together some books and maybe a few other resources that they would benefit from in the areas that they need. I am actually really excited about doing this, mostly because I love books and most of my spiritual growth has come from reading. My only concern is shipping-how do I get them there without spending more than the books are worth? (any ideas?) But before I cross that bridge, I get to have the fun of picking out the books

I already have a growing list of potential titles, but here’s where you can help me. I need some recommendations for books in the following categories:

Discipleship and Spiritual Growth

Family/Children/Youth Issues

Health and Nutrition

Money, Budgeting, and Finances

Leadership and Management

So here’s my question: What books are some of your favorites in the above categories, or what books have really impacted you and you recommend as a resource? Leave a comment or send me an email! If you’ve never left a comment, this would be the perfect time to start. Just click below. I’m open to any recommendations, but just as a guideline, the easier to read/simpler the book is, the better.

We’ll be giving a short presentation at the church I grew up in (Meadowbrook Community Church) tomorrow. This type of communication is such an important part of what we do, but to be honest I’m never really sure what the best approach is. Part of it is that I still get nervous when I have to speak in front of lots of people from my own culture, which I hope will disappear with experience. The other challenge is figuring out the best way to communicate in five or ten minutes. Here’s a video (ok, more like a slideshow) I put together for tomorrow that attempts to give a general picture of where we were, what it was like, and what we were doing.

Though I’ve always been mildly interested in Native American history, my main point of interest has been the link between the various atrocities that were committed against Native Americans, often in the name of Christianity, and their passionate resistance to Christianity to this day. At the risk of over-generalizing the situation, essentially Native Americans never really had a culturally relevant presentation of the gospel. Instead, they were introduced to a “colonial-Christianity” which was inseparable from the politics of those whose ultimate goal in dealing with the “native problem” was either total elimination or total integration. They were lied to, cheated, marginalized, and murdered. We know this. But what you may not realize is that those dark pages in America’s history have deeply and profoundly impacted the Native American community’s openness to the gospel, to this day. I was reminded of this during dinner with our friends in Montana. They shared some of the challenges in working on an Indian reservation, many of which were linked directly to the initial negative exposure the tribe had to Christianity.

Over the past few years my exposure to different cultures has opened my eyes to how common this sad story is. Two cultures interacted with each other; Jesus was misrepresented; there were profound hurts on both sides; one culture came out on top; and to this day the minority culture struggles with its identity, unable to heal because the Healer remains hidden from them. They know His name, but it is the name of a foreign God who belongs to a culture that destroyed their way of life.

When we were living in Australia, I was struck by the direct parallels between the history and present challenges facing both Aboriginals and Native Americans. Both cultures live on the edge of mainstream society; both marginalized and spiritually hardened against the religion of the culture that destroyed their way of life. During an outreach to a small Australian town, I decided to spend most of my time with the alcoholic aboriginals. They had been designated a small piece of land under a bridge on the edge of town where they could drink freely. Every night twenty to thirty would congregate, and they gladly welcomed a new face with an American accent. They were very open spiritually, but it was obvious that something under the surface was preventing real transformation in their lives. I asked one of the older men what he thought about Christianity. He wasn’t too drunk to be careless, so he asked me, “Do you want the nice version, or the truth?” I said

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