Karen Refugees of Phoenix

I received this email from my buddy Jeff the other day:

After I saw the new Rambo movie, I was compelled to call the Arizona Republic and tell them that a large group of the people that were being exterminated in the Rambo movie are living here in Phoenix. They sent out a reporter and a photographer last weekend, and the story ran today, ALL over Phoenix....and my phone is ringing off the hook!

The article isn't completely accurate and he attributes some things to me that I didn't say, but overall, it gets the point across.

Thought you'd enjoy seeing it.

It's an interesting article. Here's an excerpt:

The Rev. Jeff Jackson came to West Dunlap in December in large part because of his decade-long background of working with Karen refugees in Thailand.

He and Glenn Ramey, who has served as the church's pastor for the past 41 years, estimate that 250 Karen now attend their church. It is a remarkable story of regeneration for a once demographically obsolete church that was dying just three years ago.

The base of the church's congregation, Caucasian city-dwellers, had left for the Valley's expanding suburbs. Ramey struggled with the church's decline and gave serious consideration to closing it down and putting the land up for sale. But at the depth of the demographic crisis, recently arrived Karen refugees, many unable to speak English, began showing up at its doors.

"The infusion of the Karen was a great blessing to us," Ramey said.

Read the rest of the article here: link

It's not too late to bless a missionary

My friend Jeff emailed this blog post he read over on Piper's blog:

13 Ways to Bless Missionaries Without Paying for Postage
December 19, 2007  |  By: Tia
Category: International Outreach

Were you unable to send a Christmas present or care package to some missionaries you love this season? It’s okay. You can still bless a missionary this Christmas.

Here are 13 post-office-free ideas to get you started, most of which you could do right now from your desk:

• Pray specific Scripture for them and their ministry, and then email it to them.


• Call or email their parents—Christmas might be just as lonely for the ones at home as the ones away.


• Purchase phone minutes for an international calling card through an online service like OneSuite and email them the account number.


• Donate frequent flier miles to them.


• Purchase an iTunes gift card for them. Have it sent to you and email them the account number.


• Commit to pray for them on a specific day of the week for a year.


• Write a song or poem or story for them. Email them the text and a recording of you reading or singing it.


• Get friends and family together to create a holiday video greeting for them using Google Video or YouTube. Include lots of people you know they miss.


• Make a year-end gift through their missions board or agency.


• Western Union—the fastest way to send money.


• Call their local florist (not everyone is in the jungle these days) and have flowers delivered, or their local Pizza Hut and have pizza delivered—with corn and shrimp as toppings!


• Donate to a charity that means a lot to them.


• Make a monthly commitment to support them financially.

If you have your own ideas, respond to this post and let us know what they are. Maybe next year we can offer 50 suggestions, or 100.

(Remember to use d iscernment in written or video communication if your missionaries work in security-sensitive locations.)

HT: Desiring God

New Blogger

Uber Christ Follower Jeff Jackson is now blogging. Jeff Jackson is director of Shepherd Staff Mission Facilitators and one of my mentors. He's a great communicator, teacher and story teller so check out his blog. There's no doubt you'll learn something new every time you read it.

A Unique Opportunity by Jeff Jackson

Jeff Jackson posted the following on his blog this morning. Give it a read. Jeff is full of wisdom and experience when it comes to reaching across from one culture to another.

I'm in Phoenix right now at the home of some very close friends. In less than three hours I'll be speaking at a local church here that houses a small church made up of refugees from a country in Southeast Asia. The vast majority of these precious people have spent at least the last 10 to 15 years or more living in refugee camps inside Thailand--and now they live in America!

I've spent time with many of the Karen people in the largest of those refugee camps in Thailand and there is a possibility that I may be given the blessing of actually meeting some of the ones I met over there. It's incredibily surreal.

Since I discovered a few days ago that I would have this opportunity, I've been begging the Lord for just the right words from Him to share with them. Having factored in some of the huge challenges they are facing with their transition to life in this country and the reality that they may be here the rest of their lives, I've concluded that He would have me speak to them from that letter that the prophet Jeremiah wrote to his own people who had been taken from their land and were then living in exile in a very foreign and strange country.

One of the verses from God's word that is commonly used as a word of encouragement is Jeremiah 29:11, (check it out.) That particular verse is actually just a portion of the letter that I mentioned above. I'm going to share with my Karen brothers and sisters what Jeremiah had written to these people regarding the attitude they should have, what they should be doing, and what they should be seeking and praying for as they were forced to adjust to life in a place that they never dreamed they'd be living in. The world has come up with a summary phrase for what Jeremiah instructs them to do: "Bloom where you're planted."

If the world gets the concept and the Word of God certainly teaches the concept, have we gotten a handle on it yet? Just wondering.

HT: Jeff Jackson

Suggested Reading from Jeff Jackson

Jeff Jackson, missions guru of Shepherd's Staff Missions Facilitators, compiled this great reading list as a resource in the missions training manual he wrote.

On Being a Missionary by Thomas Hale

People Raising: A Practical Guide to Support Raising by William P. Dillon

Getting Sent: A Relational Approach to Support Raising by Pete Sommer

Friend Raising by Betty Barnett

Serving as Senders by Neal Pirolo

Operation World by Patrick Johnstone

Anthropological Insights for Missionaries by Paul G. Hiebert

Principles of War by Jim Wilson

Let the Nations be Glad by John Piper

Eternity in Their Hearts by Don Richardson

Missionary Methods: St. Paul's or Ours? by Roland Allen

Concise History of Christian Mission by J. Herbert Kane

Ministering Cross Culturally by Sherwood Lingenfelter and Marvin Mayers