Pushing Back Darkness

Hey everyone! It’s been quite a while since our last fundraising event, but we have something exciting coming up!! Charlie Hall will be doing a great night of worship for us at 7PM on August 8th at The Bricktown Brewery in downtown OKC . Jerome will speak and update us on all that has been going on in Sierra Leone. Because we will be having it at the Bricktown Brewery this time, you don’t have to be 21 to come!! The event is free, however donations for the Wellington Orphanage are greatly appreciated. Hope to see you all there.

“Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” 2 Cor 10:17

Someone whom I deeply respect as ‘Great in the Lord’ confronted me yesterday about my wife’s involvement in Sierra Leone. The arguments put forth were:

1. There is an abundance of ministry that is needed right here in OKC, so there is no need to rush off to Africa 3 times a year to do ministry. There are people over there that can do ministry in their area.

2. My calling is not to be a missionary in Africa. I am the spiritual leader of the household so Shanna’s job is to fall in line with my ministry. Her place is at home with the children and so she should not run off to Africa and leave the children.

3. He said that biblically a missionary was someone who lived in a different place, not someone who traveled to a different place several times a year.

Here were my answers:

1. Shanna already does more ministries than a dozen men here in OKC. And the Lord said, “Go out and preach and teach to all the world.”

2. She is in line with my ministry. My ministry is to CHASE HIM with all of my heart and to display HIS GLORY. I must decrease, He must INCREASE. I have encouraged and pushed her to go since I first heard the call to minister to these children. She is my greatest gift to them.

My children need more adversity, not more stability and predictability. I have been involved with many great parents that have poured there very souls into their children only to have them rebel. Either my children will Love HIM or they will not. And the best way to show them is to show them that HE is our Life. They need to see that they are not the center of our universe. However, Shanna does not use this as an excuse, she gives them plenty of love and affection.

3. In the bible you actually see more traveling missionaries than you see permanent missionaries.

You see this was not the first time I had been approached about this subject and I appreciate the rebuke. I say, “Confront me more and more about many subjects.” If I am in the Lords will I will come out stronger. SHARPEN ME! I will call to HIM and say, “Am I wrong LORD?!” If I am in HIS will I will hear the voice of the ONE I LOVE calling my name! He will say to me, “Come higher my beloved!” I will see HIS beauty. This morning I have seen HIS BEAUTY! And HIS beauty was revealed in MY WIFE THAT HE HAS GIVEN TO ME!

BEHOLD THE BEAUTY OF THE LORD!

One day she was empty, sinful and without hope or direction! At the same time her outward beauty was exposed and exploited, crowds of evil men rejoiced in her aimless empty life. THE CROSS changed all that! OH LORD HOW POWERFUL ARE YOU! You take those who are empty, sinful, without hope and give them real BEAUTY! You break them and then give them NEW LIFE! OH HOW I LOVE YOU!!! AND OH HOW I LOVE HER!

Now she starts her day exposing herself to One and One only. But He will expose Himself through her for all the nations to see. And my children will see Him through her and they will make their decision. And let me tell you we have many children that do not look like us or live with us. Who are our children? They are those who hear and obey the WORD of the Lord! We will give them our best for the LORD has given them to us.

A couple of days ago Solomon, (one of our African sons who lives in Sierra Leone) was told by his classmates, “Your mother (Shanna) could not love you the way you say, it is impossible, you are making it up.” They are right because his mother can not but the Lord can through HER! Behold the BEAUTY of the LORD as he takes the a weak, empty stripper and has her love an orphan, who was not her own, who lives on the other side of the world, with a LOVE that others do not even believe in…a Love they say is “impossible.” What is impossible with Man is simple to HIM!

Doesn’t the Lord do the same for us? He came across heaven and earth to give us a Love that the world calls “impossible.” He took us while we were wicked, sinful and empty and became a Mother to us. HIS word can no sooner forget us that a mother can forget the baby feeding from her breast! WOW! May we love with that same Love! That is why I say…

I am running! Running after YOU!
You have become my souls DELIGHT!
I am running! Running after YOU!
Here with YOU I FIND MY LIFE!

Your beauty has become my joy in song!

Thank You Lord for giving me a glimpse of YOU through my wife. May we die everyday for You.

Written by Jerome Crawford

I have been back from Sierra Leone one week today. I guess it is about time to give you all an update. Thank you for your patience as I soak in the goodness of God while settling back into American life.

I am sitting on my porch having a Treasure time with Jesus

I just re-watched a video for about the 10th time of one of my African sons singing a worship song while we were at Macondi visiting his university.

I am so proud of my African family. Since He has connected our hearts and lives I have experienced so much of His love! I have known He has loved me since I gave my life to Him, but I know in increasing measure now. I see through their lives, through their worship, through their commitment and devotion to God and people, through their love and service, their sacrifice, that His love is greater than what my mind had conceived.

He rescued them, took care of them, provided for them, loved them, and I see their response to that love being full surrender to Him. They are like the one leper that came back and thanked Jesus for healing his life. Just as I am like Mary, who followed Jesus everywhere He went, sat at his feet in worship just to be near Him after He healed her life.

I feel so close to God. Even while I am back here in America, I am getting up while it is still dark and spending 3 to 4 hours every morning singing worship songs to Him, praying, reading the bible. I am playing worship music all day, singing songs of praise in my heart, pouring out my worship to Him. He rarely leaves my thoughts. My mind is full of thoughts of thankfulness and His faithfulness. My heart is full of love for Him. So much of this is a result of the great amount of love and kindness I was shown while in Sierra Leone…by the kids, the Pastors, the staff and the community. It is also because I have seen the great struggles that everyone is facing and faces regularly there, yet how they each press into God, thanking Him, praising Him, trusting Him, seeking His face despite the great opposition they daily face.

I see that it is their pleasure, their joy, to be with me when I am there…to love and serve me as though I have always been a part of their family. I have been shown such kindness, such love and it is healing my life in ways that I never imagined. Because of the love I have been shown, I am drawn so close to the ONE I love the very most, the ONE who rescued me, took away my shame, made me new, placed His Spirit on the inside of me and called me His own, while the world rejected me and others used me for their own gain.

I just cannot begin to tell you how grateful I am for this precious part of the body of Christ in Sierra Leone. I understand more of what it means to be one family in Christ because they have grafted me into theirs. His love is the commonality that binds us together beyond space, time and culture. It is the universal language that He speaks. If we have ears to hear, we will hear His voice speaking to us through each others’ lives. I will forever praise Him for giving me ears to hear and eyes to see Him through the lives of the believers in Sierra Leone. I see His beauty when I look at their lives…I see His faithfulness when I hear them sing worship songs to Him…I see His strength when I see them serving Him despite great spiritual opposition…I see Him in their smile, in their laughter, in their hard work, in their sacrifice. I see Him more clearly than I ever have through their lives.

My prayer for them, for me, for you who are reading this is to please, please, please keep seeking Him above all else. I am begging for Him to increase our love and worship for Him even more as one body…our desire to daily feed from His word, to let His Spirit ever be our Living Water. Apart from Him we can do nothing…all of our worth is in Him and Him alone! He doesn’t need us to accomplish His purposes on this earth, yet when we seek Him He uses us so we might know and understand more of His heart…His heart for the weak, the oppressed, the poor and the needy…because at our core, this is what we all are. We are all in desperate need of Him…some of us just don’t realize it, we become deceived and chase after idols that will never truly satisfy, or in pride we try to be the master of our own lives. But we are all poor and needy at our core…we were only made for Him. My African family gets this more than most Christians I know, including me.

He is the blessed Controller of all things, sovereign and in control. He alone reigns throughout the earth. One day we will see that we are but dust and He is Ruler and Judge over all…judging righteously with grace and mercy towards those fully devoted to Him.

I am so thankful that He gives us intimate relationships here on the earth to help us know His love more and draw us near. Those in Sierra Leone will never fully know how thankful I am for them. May I ever live to love and serve them the way they have me. May I use my voice to speak up for their rights and to implore others to judge them fairly. (Proverbs 31:8-9) They are more precious to me than any earthly treasure. They are my gift from GOD!

Those of you here in America who give of your time, money and resources to make a way for me to return to Africa again and again are a gift to me from the Lord. Those of you who give towards the needs of these precious people have become a great source of my joy in the Lord. You have become so endeared to me. May I ever live to love and serve you the way you all have me. You are more precious to me than any earthly treasure. You are my gift from GOD!

I will ever praise Him for making us all one family in Christ. May we lift high His name together across the earth for His glory and our joy!

I love you all!
Shanna

If you would like to look at pictures from my recent trip, here are a few links: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2065196&id=1139719726&l=860c697af7

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2065202&id=1139719726&l=41c1c3dfd2

Here is a link to a few videos of two different boys singing worship songs:

http://www.facebook.com/#!/video/video.php?v=1475976856288

http://www.facebook.com/#!/video/video.php?v=427561706263&subj=1139719726

Dear Sweet Lovely Deborah

God has not done any mistakes by sending you to Africa, especially in Sierra Leone at Wellington Orphanage. He will always bless you for obeying his call. He still has more mission work for you to complete. I was sitting and thinking about you leaving your sweet country and family, including friends, just for the call the Lord gave you. Today I want to use this opportunity to encourage you as you continue to do His will. For He has many things in store for you especially at His place which is heaven.

We are going to miss you every day and every time. As for me, i just don’t know what i will do. I am so used to you and will miss you too much.
I was not thinking about writing you about mission work but God directed me to write about that.

Please promise me that you will come back and visit us soon. I will always pray for you as you travel to different states, countries and villages etc…
I will always love you.

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This was a letter given to me by one of the older children at the Orphanage on June 10 a week and a half before I left Africa.

For 6 months I got letters all the time, sometimes funny notes, silly pictures, sometimes sad letters and many unforgettable ones like this. The walls of my room there were covered in pictures, notes and drawing that the kids gave me.

Deborah Lange

Hey all!
So sorry for the lack of posts and blog activity…keeping up with it overseas is a task I wasn’t able to do this time. But I’m home and want to share all that is brimming in my heart of what happened and what I learned and saw of Gods world.

Here is a brief email update I wrote write before coming home.

1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful and He will do it.

This has been my life verse for the last year. God has been so very faithful in every way.

I leave for the US in one week. I can’t believe it. Please forgive me for my long delay since writing you, as the Psalmist said ‘my cup overfloweth’. I truly have been so completely busy and full keeping up with all the work and ministry that is going on here in Sierra Leone, and there has definitely been so much happening.

When I sit down to write, its difficult, my fingers freeze because emotions flood my heart and hundreds of stories and experiences tumble in my mind as I try to decide how to put into words the magnitude and deepness of what I’ve experienced.
I am not a skilled enough writer to do that. But I will try to share briefly in this letter glimpses of what the past 6 months has meant to me.

Above all, God has fulfilled and done more than my biggest hopes and imaginations were when coming here. Definitely not without huge challenges and obstacles to overcome, but the rewards and blessings far out weigh the rest.

My love for our God, His gospel, and His people around the world is deeper then I ever even thought possible.

My desires, focus, and dependence rests solely in Christ more then ever in my life.

Scripture has come so alive to me and God has given me such revelation and hunger for His words, the words of life!

God has opened the door for me to serve, give, and help in the biggest capacity I have done so far in my life, yet I am the most humbled and broken before God’s throne of grace. God has clearly shown me without a doubt I am nothing and can accomplish nothing of value apart from Him living though me and supporting me every step of the way.

With all my heart I want to thank al of you who have faithfully given and supported my trips and ministry in Sierra Leone; giving, praying and encouraging me. God calls us each to serve and give to Him in the way He calls us. And it brings me such joy to see how He brings all the parts of the Body of Christ together to fulfill His work. Thank you for doing your part. I know God will open the flood gates of heaven and pour blessings on you and your families.
Let me assure you the the children of the Wellington Orphanage are praying for you, they know where they would be without support and love from the Body of Christ and they truly are blown away and so appreciative that so many of you who haven’t even met them yet are willing to give so faithfully and sacrificially to ensure they are taken care of and have hopeful and fulfilled futures.

Some of you gave additional funds so that I could meet immediate needs of the community which I was able to do on so many different occasions.Your giving literally helps feed the hungry, care for the sick, and love the lonely of Sierra Leone.

My work and ministry these months has been so multi-faceted. Tutoring, teaching,loving and discipling the children at the Orphanage, connecting and building relationships with the people in the Wellington community where I am living, traveling in the provinces for crusades and revivals, encouraging and supporting the Pastoral leadership and their families, hosting and working with the many mission teams that come to Sierra Leone, and what ever else God brings my way to do.

Whether its participating in a Crusade where thousands gathered every night and hundreds gave their lives to Christ or sitting in my room worshiping and praying with a small group of girls during our evening bible study time together. The presence of God is enrapturing and powerful. When we bask in His presence we are never left the same. Hebrews 9:23 “Let us hold unswervingly to the faith we profess, for He who promises is faithful”

There are so many remarkable stories and experiences I can and will share with you, but for now those will have to wait, but I promise once I get back and settled I will blog more. I know the things God has let me experienced happened for a purpose and I cannot keep them to myself, but I desire to share them so that you too can marvel at the wonderful works of our Lord and His powerful acts of mercy and love over our lives.

I would appreciate the added prayers for the children and rest of the Africans as I leave soon and for safe traveling on my return trip on the 22nd of this month

1 Corinthians 2: 9 No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him