Announcing the launch of Reconciled World

We are so excited for our friends in Asia to officially launch their new organization called Reconciled World!

God is doing astounding, community-transforming work through these people whose mission is to apply Biblical Truth to brokenness in all areas of life.

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By understanding and applying Biblical Truth in a variety of contexts, Reconciled World tackles some of the most pressing issues of our day:

• Ashish Centre for the Differently Abled (India): Helping others see the blessing and potential of children with special needs
• Ending Gendercide (India): Building a movement to see the end of gendercide
• Skills and Discipleship Center (Southeast Asia): Training youth to be future leaders
• The Create Commission (India): Creating art to give a voice to the marginalized
• Truth-Centered Transformation (Southeast Asia): Equipping rural churches to move their communities out of poverty

While each of these programs already has been operating for years, they now will be united under the umbrella organization Reconciled World. Click here to learn more about these programs. In past blog posts, we have shared some exciting stories from these partners here, here and here; click here to read many more.

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Story: The Drunken Pastor

History with the DNA

The founder of Reconciled World (a current member of the DNA’s board of directors) attended a Vision Conference in 1999 where she encountered a new set of Biblically grounded ideas on poverty. Some of the key DNA messages about the local church and the impact of a biblical worldview on poverty became embedded in her mind, and she spent the next four years researching them through Scripture. In 2003, she began to test these ideas with local churches, and the response was “like an out-of-control fire.” Church leaders were thirsty for this training was transforming people’s lives.

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Over the years, walking by faith and listening to God’s direction, the Truth-Centered Transformation movement grew and, today, more than 1,000 churches in Southeast Asia have been trained to apply Biblical Truth to their communities. To learn details on this model, click here.

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From the founder: “Reconciled World (RW) leaders are great fans of the DNA teachings. Formerly part of Food for the Hungry, almost all the partners and program leaders of RW would point to studying the DNA ideas as a turning point in their ministry. As an organization, our focus is the application of these ideas.”

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Learn more by visiting reconciledworld.org.

Sustainable, amazing community transformation in Southeast Asia

One of the DNA’s seven core truths is that the ministry of the church must be wholistic. God is the Lord over all, and his sacrifice on the cross is meant to reconcile all things to himself (Col. 1:19-20). Just as Christ in his ministry addressed physical, social, emotional and spiritual needs, so must the church. The DNA exists to help local churches recognize and live out this calling.

In Southeast Asia, God is transforming individuals, families and whole communities through local believers applying biblical truth to their everyday lives. The results are stunning and long-lasting; this truly is transformation that only God could do. Here is one such report from our friends at Reconciled World, who closely worked with 30 churches in a certain rural area and returned to the region two years later to see the results.

While we have always believed that what God has started in these areas will continue, we didn’t have experience of what would happen. We were amazed to discover how much the areas have changed. Today, more than 95 percent of houses are made of concrete, whereas when we started, 95 percent were made of mud.

The community has made incredible strides in education. Only a few years ago, no one here continued school past grade nine. But during our visit, a pastor showed us a list of all the students from the area now attending university. Fifteen students (10 from the churches we worked with)  were granted scholarships by the government–a prize typically awarded to students in urban areas where there are better teachers. This is an astonishing accomplishment!

The groups were continuing to build roads opening up even more farm area. One pastor was acting as a buyer for most people in the area ensuring that everyone got fair prices. The communities were now investing in machinery to process their crops, further increasing their income.

Perhaps most startling was the news that six families now have cars! Cars are extremely expensive in this country. This is an incredible step up in a place where, only seven years ago, bicycles were considered a luxury. Families are using their vehicles to meet the community’s needs like transporting sick or injured people to the hospital.

God never ceases to amaze us with his ability to transform hearts and minds. May he receive all the glory for this wonderful work!

To learn more Reconciled World’s ideas, approach and programs, visit www.reconciledworld.org. Read more of their stories of transformation here!

‘Christianity Today’ magazine features special report on the Church in Japan

This month’s issue of Christianity Today includes a special report from long-time friend of the DNA Soohwan Park who has been closely involved with the recovery efforts following Japan’s massive series of disasters in March 2011.

Click here to read the full story

As an associate with the Marketplace Institute at Regent College in Vancouver, Canada, and in collaboration with the DNA (including DNA Korea) , Friends with the Voiceless (Japan), Food for the Hungry Canada and Food for the Hungry Intl., Soohwan completed extensive field research in Fukushima, Japan’s prefecture now famous for its nuclear disaster following the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. Her story in Christianity Today, titled “Redeeming Disaster,” takes a sober look at emergency-relief efforts and their tendency to overlook three vital aspects: spirituality, story and sustainability. She recounts how many local churches made great sacrifices to meet deep, invisible needs in Fukushima.

“Disaster relief is complex,” Soohwan says. “Theologically, it involves restoration of all things that were broken and all relationships that are in need of reconciliation in order for a community to flourish (Col. 1:15-20). Fundamentally, this is not the work of a professional agency but of ordinary people in a local church loving their neighbors out of love for Christ. Christian relief work happens only when the local church realizes its mission to serve the world, giving themselves for others and restoring the fabric of a broken society.”

Soohwan’s report reflects many of the DNA’s Seven Core Truths, particularly #4: The local church is God’s principle agent in his primary agenda of advancing his kingdom.

This story will appear in Christianity Today – Korea this September.

Click here to read the full story and gain a better picture of how God is at work in Japan.

Follow Soohwan’s blog at http://www.FearNotFukushima.blogspot.com.

You’re invited! DNA Vision Conference in Korea, Jan. 23-25

Year-round, DNA Vision Conferences are conducted all over the world by people trained in the dissemination of the DNA’s biblical-worldview materials. The conferences often are discreet and unbeknownst to most of the DNA network, but when we do hear of an upcoming conference, we want to broadcast it for those who might like to attend.

January 23-25, at Seoul Church in South Korea, the DNA Korea team will join DNA co-founders Darrow Miller and Bob Moffitt in a close examination of local Korean churches–their history and their current efforts to make disciples. The sessions will be available in both Korean and English.

This is not a typical DNA Vision Conference, which usually lasts five days and has a broader focus than described above. However, it’s an excellent opportunity to engage with passionate Christ-followers and see how God is using them to build His kingdom.

The cost is KRW 50,000 (about $50 USD), and you can learn more about DNA Korea here.

Interested? E-mail info@disciplenations.org!

A great fourth quarter… and a song! Remembering a hero of our faith

Looking back on 2012, we’d like to honor our good friend and colleague, Ric Nesimiuk. Ric completed his journey here on October 21, 2012 after a difficult battle with brain cancer.

Those of us at the Disciple Nations Alliance came to know Ric and his dear wife, Gail, in 1996 when, after a successful career in real estate, they moved to Southeast Asia.

Ric and Gail applied their gifts to serve and love the Burmese people in the country of Myanmar.

Ric and Gail both were active champions of the DNA training messages, and God gave them favor with many local Christian leaders. In 1988, Ric organized the first-ever DNA Vision Conference with future DNA leaders and champions from all over the world.

Of that time, Gail writes: “…remembering well how the first [Vision Conference] changed my own life and direction of ministry!! Bob and Darrow, you changed and filled our lives with God’s map for our lives … what an awesome adventure it has been!”

Ric was instrumental in helping bring unity to the Christian church in Myanmar, organizing many more Vision Conferences and training programs, and bringing key leaders together, often for the first time.

Aung Thet and his wife, Charity, are DNA colleagues in Myanmar. They write:

Our beloved friend Ric was a man of relationship. Whenever he came to serve in Myanmar, his priority was building relationship. He built a strong and deep relationship with the people: pastors, ministers and Christian leaders. He found the potential in the leaders. This was so appropriate in Myanmar, a country of relationship. Ric never rushed ministry. He connected the relationship of the leaders to be stronger and deeper. He looked for ways to bring leaders and people together. For several years, he raised money to bring the leaders together in Chiang Mai. They talked together, listened to one another, sharing the issues and problems. In 2006, these leaders formed the National Prayer Committee which is now effective and extending throughout Myanmar. The effort Ric has paid is fruitful. We keep building on the work he so cherished.

Where some persons may choose to coast in the last quarter of life, Ric and Gail have done just the opposite. Instead, they pressed deeply into their calling and shared generously from their gifts and abilities to bring blessing, reconciliation, and healing to others. In sports lingo, they’ve had a great fourth quarter!

What is not so well known is that Ric also had a song. He was trained professionally and loved to sing. In his final year, he was able to share this love and gift with others as well.

Take a minute and enjoy hearing him sing one of his favorite songs, “Overshadowed.” Hear Ric sing! Following the first song, you can hear Ric tell his testimony and express more of his gift for music.

The point is to live life well, no matter how old you are. But, especially for those of us in our 50’s — take a principle from Ric, and don’t leave anything on the field in your fourth quarter. Make sure your “to-do list” represents the calling and priorities you claim to be most important in life. In turn, it may just be the best and most fruitful quarter of your life on this side of eternity.

Richard (Ric) Bruce Nesimiuk
May 29,1938 – October 21, 2012

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Lyrics for the song mentioned above:

Overshadowed

How desolate my life would be,

How dark and dreary my nights and days,

If Jesus’ face I did not see,

To brighten all earth’s weary ways

CHORUS

I’m overshadowed by His mighty love

Love eternal, changeless pure.

Overshadowed by His mighty love

Rest is mine, serene, secure.

He died to ransom me from sin,

He lives to keep me day by day,

I’m overshadowed by his mighty love,

Love that brightens all my way.

With burdened heart I wandered long,

By grief and unbelief distressed;

But now I sing faith’s happy song,

In Christ my Saviour I am blest.

Now judgment fears no more alarm,

I dread no death, nor Satan’s power;

The world for me has lost its charm,

God’s grace sustains me every hour.

Not a curse, but a blessing: caring for the differently abled in India

There are people in the world who see a problem and walk the other direction, and then there are people who stare the problem in the face, ask God what can be done, and respond in obedience to the often long, tough, amazing road ahead.

Geeta Mondol is the latter. Her problem was the lack of appropriate education for her son diagnosed with autism, and the lack of care for all differently abled children in her city of New Delhi, India.

Geeta’s son, Samarpan, was the inspiration for her work.

“People said it was his karma; let him work it out with his birth,” she says. To which her spirit revolted and she said to herself, Where are the Christians?! Autism is not a curse, and those who have it are equally made in the image of God–that is the biblical worldview. They are not to be cast out or tied to their beds, as is done to some of the children.

In India, Geeta describes, running schools has turned into a profit-making activity. Many classrooms have 60 children per teacher, and her son wasn’t getting the attention he needed.

“Until very recently, Christian schools were well known in the country for their discipline and inculcating good values among students; similarly, Christian hospitals were renowned for their quality service,” Geeta says. Where are the Christians when it comes to differently abled children and their families?

When Geeta prayed about this, God responded with a vision which has grown over the past five years into the robust Ashish Centre: an early intervention center for differently abled children and their families. “Ashish” means “blessing” in Hindi, reinforcing that all children are blessings from God.

Here, children participate in occupational, speech and behavioral therapies and receive vocational education. The Centre offers support groups for parents and training for other organizations.

The main purpose of the Centre is not simply to provide services but to produce a whole society where every person is considered valuable and important, where differently abled children and their families are properly supported. It is a long-term focus on changing the mindset and attitudes toward disability.

Presently, in Hindi, the national language of India, there is only one word to encompass the wide range of mental challenges: “pagal,” translated as “mad.”

“There are many types of disabilities,” writes Geeta, “and working with them requires skill, patience, creativity, intelligence, and a certain level of tenacity along with warmth … but most of all, what is required is FAITH and LOVE. Faith that makes us learners at HIS feet. We ask the Creator how to work with HIS creation. We look upon our children as being made in HIS image: unique, loved, and knit by God’s own hand.”

In 2007, this Centre opened its doors with 10 students. Today, there are 300 children on the waiting list and another 250 waiting to get onto the waiting list. Half of the students are receiving scholarships because, while the program is costly, the center has committed to serving everyone, regardless of caste, creed, race, religion or any other factor.

In contrast to traditional schools, at the Ashish Centre, there is one trained educator for every four children, plus one assistant for every two children.

The foundation of all programs at the Ashish Centre is a biblical worldview, and all staff complete a five-day training before they are allowed to work with the children. A biblical worldview allows the staff to see the children differently, which is the basis of the Ashish Centre’s methods.

“When you start viewing them differently,” says Geeta, “they start responding differently. When they start responding differently, you see improvement.” All children show 50-percent improvement in the first year, she says.

Many others have noted the effectiveness of the Asish Centre. In 2011, the Centre’s thrift store won the Intel Social Innovation Award for employing people with mental challenges. Replicating the Centre’s model, Geeta was invited to help set up a center in the Indian city of Bangalore, and the government of a nearby country now is asking her assistance. She also has seen transformation in her own staff as a result of the values upheld by the Centre.

These are the biblical values the Centre teaches and exercises:

1. Each child is created in the image of God.
2. Each child is created for a purpose.
3. Each child is born with the potential to achieve that purpose.
4. No one is exempt from giving back to society.
5. All of us are differently abled.

Watch Geeta expound on this in under a minute:

A biblical view of disability – with Geeta Mondol from Disciple Nations Alliance on Vimeo.

A biblical view of disability – with Geeta Mondol from Disciple Nations Alliance on Vimeo.

Geeta and Raaj, her husband, are long-time friends of the DNA and formed their training for the Asish Centre from DNA worldview materials. Geeta first encountered the DNA at a Vision Conference in India in the ‘90s (when the DNA was still part of Food for the Hungry). From there, she joined a small team in India which was actively sharing these worldview teachings. She formally launched the Ashish Centre in 2007.

“While working with children who have special needs,” says Geeta, “what is required is not just a degree or a diploma in special education. What is required is the heart of a mother, the faith of a believer, and the humility of a person who may not have all the answers but does know One who has all the answers.”

To get involved in the Ashish Centre’s incredible work, e-mail Geeta at ashishcentre@gmail.com. Check out their website, and like them on Facebook!

Video: Darrow Miller in Asia, speaking about the dignity of women

DNA co-founder Darrow Miller speaks all over the world about topics relating to a wholistic, Biblical worldview. One of those topics is the true value and dignity of women. His popular book on this topic, Nurturing the Nations: Reclaiming the Dignity of Women in Building Healthy Cultures, has been translated from English into several other languages by people thirsty for their societies to read and understand God’s true intent for women.

In October 2012, Darrow visited Singapore, in Asia: a continent that exhibits some of the world’s most brutal treatment of women and girls. Every year, China and India combined kill more baby girls than those born in the U.S. (source). They have bought into the lie that men are superior to women.

Darrow spoke at the Cell Church Missions Network‘s Global Summit: a gathering of about 500 Christian leaders from all over Asia. The Summit’s organizers offered Nurturing the Nations for free in both English and Chinese, and Darrow gave a powerful presentation. Click below to watch it; you won’t be disappointed!

“It’s a Girl” film on gendercide debuts in Phoenix

On October 25, the powerful documentary film “It’s a Girl” played for about 140 people in Phoenix, Arizona. The film exposes the horror of the One-Child Policy in China, deadly, deep-seated prejudice against females in India, and the resulting gender imbalance in these two countries.

Every year, according to an expert featured in the film, China and India together eliminate more baby girls than all the girls born in one year in the United States.

The audience included university students, Christian laborers, a high-school principal and her students, and many others spanning ages 14 to 80. Following the film, DNA co-founder Darrow Miller and “It’s a Girl” director, Evan Grae Davis, entertained questions from the crowd. Several audience members purchased copies of Nurturing the Nations and the “It’s a Girl” DVD, promising to show the film to their small groups and churches.

Two literally life-saving organizations were highlighted:

Let Her Live is a grassroots Christian organization in India that attacks gendercide at the root. They are out to change people’s minds about women, reversing the lie that women are inferior to men and, instead, showing that all people are made in the image of God.

All Girls Allowed is a grassroots Christian organization in China working against the One-Child Policy (and ensuing forced abortions), supporting women who choose to keep their baby girls, and caring for abandoned and trafficked girls.

Since the screening in Phoenix, this film has been shown to the European Parliament and myriad groups all over the world. Evan Grae Davis (its director) was invited to speak at the Ted X Conference in Mumbai, and Eric Metaxas wrote a powerful piece on this topic in BreakPoint.

Gendercide is a topic on which Darrow Miller has researched, written and spoken extensively. Click here to read a collection of his thoughts, and pray about how you can engage with this important issue.

LifeWork now available in Korean!

One of DNA’s most popular books is now available in Korean!

Even though all of DNA’s books are composed in English, when people around the world read them, they often ask to translate the books into their local languages. So far, DNA has books in 24 languages ranging from Afrikaans to Vietnamese!

To buy this book, e-mail YWAM Publishing in Korea: ywampubl@hotmail.com

LifeWork: A Biblical Theology for What You Do Every Day approaches the fact that even though we spend 50 to 75 percent of our waking hours working, we rarely (if ever) step back to explore the vision that drives our lives and work. In this book, DNA co-founder Darrow Miller lays out the thought background necessary for each of us to establish a meaningful, integrated understanding of our life and work. Whatever our work or vocation, God calls each of us to a new way of living–fully in his presence. Read reviews on Amazon!

Southeast Asian church doubles in size in just one day

This story comes from our DNA partners in Southeast Asia, where more than 700 local churches are being discipled, and God is vibrantly on the move. For the safety of our partners and local believers, we are not disclosing the specific country.

In one area, there was a small church made up of 10 families. After they completed just the first training, “Introduction to Wholistic Ministry,” they wanted to show God’s love to a family whose wife was having heart surgery. The church decided to help in a very practical way: by harvesting the family’s crops while the wife was recovering and the husband was tending to her in the hospital.

About 30 people from this tiny church set out to the couple’s field — pulling up crops, bagging them and delivering them to the couple’s doorstep.

When the couple returned from the hospital, they were very surprised and moved because they had worried about what to do with their crops waiting to be harvested. Even facing high medical bills, they had assumed their harvest would have to be abandoned.

They said they wanted to believe in God because they had been seeking love but had never found any until they saw the love in the church.

The couple opened their hearts to Christ after receiving such a practical example of his sacrificial love for them. On top of that, nine other families in the community witnessed this event and also asked to receive Christ!

Praise the Lord who orchestrates all such events for His glory.