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Introducing and Reporting:
Roy & Melania Olsen
It’s my great privilege and delight to share with you an interview I did with Rev. Roy Olsen of Apa Vie Ministries in Pestere, Caras-Severin, Romania. I spent over half a month with Roy and his godly and sweet Romanian wife, Melania, last October. Apa Vie (“Living Water” in Romanian) and the work the Olsens are doing deserve to be better known. And this gives me a chance to report back to you who prayed and gave and made that ministry trip possible and so successful. Consider this an audio “thank you!”
Concise Overview of My Ministry Time in Romania:
- Led a day-long pastor’s conference at the Ape Vie retreat center in Pestere on the subject of mentoring.
- Taught on two successive Friday mornings at the Baptist Bible Institute in Timisoara.
- Preached and taught at churches in Maciova Colonie, Carasebes, Alba Iulia, Resita, and Bocso.
- Spent numerous hours with pastors in their homes and apartments, listening to their challenges, asking them questions, answering their questions, and growing rich in our fellowship together.
- Such was the blessing of God on the teaching, preaching, and personal interaction that [click to continue…]
Tagged as:
Apa Vie Ministries,
Guatemala,
Melania Olsen,
missions,
missions trips,
Romania,
Roy Olsen
Pastor Edwin’s bookcase
It’s easiest to write when inspired—by the Holy Spirit, by an event, by illumination from the Scriptures, by something. And what moved me last month was a set of photos from Guatemala (you’ll see the slideshow when you click through to read the full article), especially a very ordinary photo of a simple bookcase.
Rewind to 2008: “They have no study materials.”
Back in 2008 (was it that long ago?), I was invited to be part of a team of teachers going to Guatemala to teach pastors. My topic was hermeneutics (translation: “reading, teaching, and preaching the Scriptures in context”), and I spent a lot of time before the Lord preparing. One day as I was sitting in my small, but book-lined, study, the Holy Spirit whispered to me, “They have no study materials.” I haven’t learned nearly enough over the years, but I have learned not to respond by asking the Omniscient One, “Are You sure?” And He was right, of course. At the two different seminar locations in Guatemala that March, I asked for a show of hands from the pastors and leaders. How many had a Bible commentary? Only a scattering of hands went up. How many concordances? Few hands. Bible dictionary? Fewer hands. I brought that report back to our small fellowship, where we prayed. One member, Al Strickland, couldn’t get it out of his mind. He shared his burden with some men on a church-building missions trip about six months later, and the thousands of dollars needed for the pastors’ study books were pledged before that team returned home. The books were Click here to read on and see the slideshow…
Tagged as:
Al Strickland,
Atilio Chávez,
Ciudad de Refugio,
Edwin Reyes,
Guatemala,
Jorge Cerritos,
missions,
missions trips,
ResourcingNow,
T. J. Henken
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Show Notes by Jim Kerwin for Kernels of Wheat Podcast Episode 023 – Will the Real Antichrist(s) Please Stand Up?
A Short History of Antichrist
The entry for
antichrist in
Strong’s Concordance. These five entries–four verses–are the
only places where the word ever occurs in the entire Bible. Note the
plural in 1 John 2:18. Click on the image for a larger view.
Intro: In the old TV game show, To Tell the Truth, several panelists asked questions of three mystery guests. One guest had a unique story or occupation or claim to fame; but the other guests were decoys, whose presence and answers were meant to deceive the panelists. The panelists were allowed to ask questions of all three guests, and in the end had to guess which one had told the truth. After they had guessed, the moderator would say, “Will the real [mystery guest] please stand up?” and the truth would be revealed. Seeing the truth “stand up” in 1 John is our goal, with the help of the Holy Spirit. In this episode, we will be looking for history and the Scriptures “To Tell the Truth” about what has — and should be — taught about the subject of antichrists. “Will the real antichrists please stand up?”
Review of 1 John 2:18-29
- Anointing
- Abiding
- Antichrist (this episode and next)
Speculation Started with the Early Church Fathers (a sampling)
- Polycarp (A.D. 69-155); bishop of Smyrna; knew the Apostle John and Irenæus.
- …being zealous as touching that which is good, abstaining from offenses and from the false brethren and from them that bear the name of the Lord in hypocrisy, who lead foolish men astray. For every one who shall not confess that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is [click to continue…]
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1 John 1,
1 John 2,
1 John 4,
2 John,
anti,
antichrist,
Apostle John,
Athanasius,
Counter-Reformation,
dispensationalism,
Jim Kerwin,
John Calvin,
John Chrysostom,
John Wycliffe,
Kittel,
Martin Luther,
missions,
Polycarp,
Reformation,
Revelation 13,
Romania,
Strong's Concordance,
Tertullian,
Thomas Cranmer,
To Tell the Truth game show
What He says, we will do,
Where He sends, we will go;
Never fear, only trust and obey!
Often when we’re obedient to what God tells us to do, when we’re obedient to go where He tells us to go, when we’re obedient to give when He tells us to give, exciting things happen because we’re flowing in the stream of God’s purposes. A lot of you were encouraged by the blog post entitled Bye-Bye Bible! I want to share another story in that same vein, from material that is (mostly) someone else’s testimony. She doesn’t mention me by name, for which I’m glad (but you’ll be able to figure out my geeky part in the chain of obedience anyway), and I mustn’t mention her by name, because she is off to the 10/40 Window for some tent-making ministry time.
Let me bring you into her story just after she has felt a confirmation that she was to return to the 10/40…
We came to the realization that I would need a laptop to Skype back home with my family. E-mail is great, but it doesn’t come close to talking to each other “for real.” So, we took the need to the Lord in prayer. I counted my money that I had saved, and it came to an amount that gave me hopes of a start towards a laptop computer.
However, while we were at Holiness Camp, I felt prompted to give that money to the Lord. [click to continue…]
Tagged as:
10/40 Window,
Iowa Holiness Association (IHA),
missions,
obedience
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Show Notes by Jim Kerwin for Kernels of Wheat Podcast
Episode 022 – We Lend a Hand with LendAHand in Costa Rica, Including an Interview with Bobby Hoyle
Pastors and LendAHand team members gathered at the Monte Getsemaní retreat center in Costa Rica. The three people at the extreme right of the group are (left to right) Kathryn Hoyle, Bobby Hoyle, and Pastor Jorge Fernández.
Late on Friday, August 3, I returned from another teaching trip, this time to Costa Rica. In this podcast, I share for about fifteen minutes on my small part in teaching a group of pastors associated with Iglesia Centro Misionero in Los Guido, San José, Costa Rica. I cover some of the highlights of the trip, but I encourage you to read these three related blog posts also:
What you may find even more interesting is this episode’s interview with [click to continue…]
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Bobby Hoyle,
Costa Rica,
Jim Kerwin,
Kathryn Hoyle,
Kingsway Charities,
LendAHand Mission Teams,
missions,
Pastor Jorge Fernández,
Ray Rempt
Listen, Obey, and Blessings Follow
Wednesday, 1 August 2012
Naomi (left), Pastora Cristina (center), Pastor Oscar (right)If you read yesterday’s entry, right down through the postscript, then you’ll know I mentioned a Bible the Lord had impressed me to give to someone. That act of obedience is now accomplished, and the full story can be told. (And I didn’t know the full story until after I obeyed and gave it away!)
My family feels a certain amount of frustration with me before Christmas and my birthday, because they don’t know what to give me, and I can never think of anything to put on a “wish list.” I pretty much have everything I need, and there’s not a lot I want. I have prayed over the years that Hebrews 13:5 would be true in me, and the Lord seems to have answered that prayer. (In that verse, did you ever notice at the end the satisfying why behind the exhortations at the beginning? Yes, I’m [click to continue…]
Tagged as:
Bobby Hoyle,
Cristina Chaves-Vargas,
Hebrews 13,
Jimmy Hernández-Arroyo,
LendAHand Mission Teams,
Lockman Foundation Costa Rica,
missions,
Oscar Morales-Toval
From My 2012 Costa Rica Journal
Flag of Costa Rica
Dateline: Sunday, 29 July 2012, Los Guido, San José
Have you ever been so caught up in what God gave you to do that you almost missed what He was doing? Especially when what He was doing was right under your nose? I came close to falling into that trap on this fine Sunday morning. Aviso (Notice/Warning): My story may look like it’s developing into a finger-pointing criticism, but bear with me to the end and see (like I did) what God was really up to.
Ostensibly, my assignment was to preach at Iglesia Centro Misionero (Central Missionary Church), a congregation of several hundred on the edge of the very poor, violent, and [click to continue…]
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Acts 22,
Acts 9,
Arnoldo,
Costa Rica,
Gladys de Chávez,
Jimmy Hernández-Arroyo,
John 1,
Jorge Fernández-Vargas,
Lilian de Chávez,
missions
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Show Notes by Jim Kerwin for Kernels of Wheat Podcast
Episode 021 — Does God Hate Socks?
No, God doesn’t hate socks,
but He
has been blessing our socks off lately!
Because it’s been so long since our last podcast in our continuing study through 1 John, I thought it would be appropriate to give our listeners a rundown (all-too-brief and incomplete) of my missions trip to Guatemala and my ministry trip to Iowa. I’ve been busy — flying 3,800 miles round trip to Guatemala, driving 4,000 miles (Florida and Iowa) — and this week’s trip to Costa Rica (another 4,300 miles) hasn’t even begun (although all the teaching materials are ready and delivered).
The last few months have become a kaleidoscope of memories:
Tagged as:
Atilio Chávez,
Ciudad de Refugio,
Costa Rica,
Fermin Chávez,
Gladys de Chávez,
Guatemala,
Iowa Holiness Association (IHA),
Isaiah Reid,
Jorge Cerritos,
Lilian de Chávez,
missions
Guatemala Diary, Days 4 & 5 — What a Weekend!
Day 4, Saturday 5/12
Not much to report today. Perhaps it’s the quiet before the storm. I spent several hours out on the covered terraza waiting on the Lord and reading in my Bible. I’m glad to be able to spend some “down time” with the family. And this evening we began working on the conversion of Tirsa’s old Asus Eee PC, one of the early, smaller netbooks. It came with Windows XP and it has become useless, either due to “Windows rot” or viruses. She has asked me to convert it to Ubuntu Linux, and I just may try the latest version. That would be a challenge, because this unit only has a 4 Gb “hard drive” (an overglorified SD card) and 512 Mb of RAM, with a very underpowered processor. Tirsa has been working on a “slideshow” for the anniversary tomorrow (on another computer).
Annie Cerritos (Jorge's wife, left) praying with Olga (right) as Olga dedicates her life to Christ
Day 5, Sunday 5/13
Today is the fourth anniversary of the day that Atilio’s church met in their new building for the first time. Strange to say, I remember seeing the building, a concrete shell of a place, on my first visit here in March 2008. How time flies! On that first visit only the Lord would have known that I would be the speaker for this anniversary. With Gladys translating for me, I ministered about the importance of focusing on listening in prayer, rather than speaking.
Pastor Atilio followed up with a narrative of God’s provision and faithfulness in their new building, although for him there seemed to be a shadow over his heart. A few feet from where he stood on the platform (and from where I had been standing just moments before) a young worship-team musician had been murdered in cold blood by [click to continue…]
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Atilio Chávez,
Ciudad de Refugio,
Gladys de Chávez,
Guatemala,
John 2,
John 3,
John 4,
Jorge Cerritos,
missions
Guatemala Diary, Day #3 – A Day of Three Oportunidades
No, these have nothing to do with today's story, but I thought they were pretty, so I thought I'd include them. Gladys tells me they're called "camarones" (shrimp), and I guess I see the similarity. There are all sorts of flowers, fruits, and vegetables growing in the garden here!
Time-Sensitive Prayer Request: Dr. Gladys de Chávez, my hostess and translator for most of my time here, has been sick con gripe (with the flu) ever since I arrived, and she seems to be getting worse, not better, despite repeated times of prayer for her. She is to translate Sunday morning and for two two-hour sessions on Monday and Tuesday. (Her sister-in-law, Lilian [yes, no double “l”] will translate for me Thursday and Friday.) Please pray for complete healing for Gladys. And as a matter of prevention, please pray that I won’t catch este gripe from her. ¡No lo quiero! (I don’t want it!) Now back to our regularly scheduled daily blog post…
Me gustan las oportunidades de Dios. I love it when God gives us opportunities. That should be even more true when those opportunities are beyond our means to seize, and we have to rely on Him. I had three opportunities today, one pequeña (small), one mediana (medium), y una oportunidad grande (large).
My Teaching Materials Are Finished: The day started early, as days do around here at Casa Chávez. Maybe the six singing canaries outside my bedroom [click to continue…]
Tagged as:
Al Strickland,
Atilio Chávez,
Bobby Hoyle,
Gladys de Chávez,
Guatemala,
Jorge Cerritos,
LendAHand Mission Teams,
Marlón Villa-Toro,
missions,
Sue Strickland
Roy Olsen and Jim Kerwin with some students at the Baptist Bible Institute in Timisoara (Click on the image for a larger version of the photo.)
