STM Reflections

Write a short reflections answering one of the following topics or another similar topic.
- What did God teach you through STM
- What did you learn about missions
- Where did you see God work during STM
- How did you respond to the STM experience
- Describe an experience at STM that really sticks out in your mind and your thoughts about it

Also, indicate which language congregation you would like to speak do and which Sundays in July and August that you would NOT be available.

Write your kid-friendly testimony

Post your kid-friendly testimony here.

Kid friendly = brief, simple, and to the point.

You can refer to the comment from the previous post for ideas on language to use.

I look forward to reading them and talking about them with the group.

Anna

Translate the Christianese

We'll be sharing the gospel with children and others with limited English.
Translate the following words into words/phrases/sentences that a 4 year old could understand.

Sin
Punishment
Crucified
Savior
Resurrection
Ask Jesus into your heart
Lord or Leader of my life
Ask for forgiveness
Forgiveness
Confess
Eternal Life

Blog Post 2

Optional: Post any links to articles here

Assignment for the week of 4/11/10 : Record something you learned about the populations we are serving & how this will affect your ministry this summer.

See you next week at Casa del Anna and Rebecca!

Blog Assignment 1:

Read the following article from the book "Eternity In Their Hearts" by Don Richardson. Post a comment about the reading, then also respond to someone else's comment. I promise it's a great read! Enjoy!

Peoples of the Lost Book

THE KAREN OF BURMA

Near Rangoon, Burma, in the year 1795, an encounter took
place ⁱⁿ the following manner:

"If the inhabitants of that village are not Burmese," asked a sun-helmeted English diplomat, "what do they call themselves?"

"Karen," replied the diplomat's Burmese guide.

"Carian," mispronounced the Englishman. The guide left the mistake uncorrected. A Scotsman could have duplicated the Asiatic flipping the tongue on an r but the guide had long ago given up trying to persuade Englishmen that the difference was worth mastering.

"Very well," said the Britisher. "Let's see what these `Carianers' look like."
The "Carianers," it turned out, were even more interested to discover
what the Englishman looked like! This first encounter with a European's

white face electrified people ⁱⁿ that village. Drawn like moths to a lamp, they converged upon the diplomat, who recoiled slightly as wiry brown hands reached out to touch his arms and cheeks.

The Burmese guide, meanwhile, spoke disparagingly of the Karen: "Be careful! They're just wild hill people given to stealing and fighting," he scoffed.

It was not entirely true. The Karen were in fact the most progressive of Burma's many tribal peoples. Burmese, however, had abused and exploit­ed the Karen for centuries, making such descriptions self-fulfilling.

Nor could Burmese Buddhists forgive the Karen minority for stub­bornly adhering to their own folk religion ⁱⁿ the face of unremitting attempts by the Burmese to make Buddhists of them!

The Englishman, in any case, was no longer listening to his guide. Cheerful Karen voices now charmed his ears. Every man, woman and child around him glowed with radiant welcome. How refreshingly dif­ferent, lie thought, from the usual Burmese crowd's aloofness toward foreigners.

A Karen man who could speak Burmese explained something to the guide.

"This is most interesting," the guide said. "These tribesmen think you may be a certain 'white brother' whom they as a people have been expecting from time immemorial!"

“How curious," replied the diplomat. "Ask them what this 'white brother' is supposed to do when lie arrives."

"He's supposed to bring them a book," _the guide said. "A book just like one their forefathers lost long ago. They are asking—with bated breath-- "hasn't he brought it?"'

"Ho! Ho!" the Englishman guffawed. "And who, pray tell, is the author whose book has power to charm illiterate folk like these?"

"They say the author is Y'wa—the Supreme God. They say also …” at this point the Burman's face began to darken with unease, ". . . that the white brother, having given them the lost book, will thereby set them free from all who oppress them."

The Burman began to fidget. The nerve of these Karen! This English diplomat was part of a team sent to arbitrate a dispute between Britain and Burma—a dispute which Burma feared might give Britain pretext to acid Burma to its empire. And now these wily Karen were practically inviting the British to do just that! Who would have guessed, he fumed, that simple tribesmen could be capable of such subtlety?

Sensing the guide's displeasure, the Englishman also began to squirm. One word from the guide and Burmese authorities might descend with swords and spears against these humble villagers.

"Tell them they're mistaken," he ordered, hoping to set the Burman at ease. "I have no acquaintance with this god called Y'wa. Nor do I have the slightest idea who their 'white brother' could be."

Followed by the guide, the diplomat strode out of the village. Hundreds of Karen, palled with disappointment, watched him leave. They intended no political ploy. They had simply repeated in all sin- cerity a tradⁱtⁱon whⁱch had haunted them as a people since antiquity.

"Could our forefathers have been mistaken?" asked a young Karen.

"Don't worry," responded an elder, managing a hopeful smile. "One day lie will come. Other prophecies may fail, but not this one!"

Returning to the newly established British embassy in Rangoon, the diplomat reported his strange experience in the Karen village to his superior, Lieutenant Colonel Michael Symes. Symes in turn men­tioned it in a manuscript entitled An Account of an Embassy to the Kingdom of Ava in the Year 1795, Published 32 years later in Edinburgh, Scotland.

For the next 175 years, occasional browsers in Symes' report paid scant attention, if any, to this curious reference ^on Karen tradition. Its anecdotal nature effectively screened its historical significance. Nine‑teenth century Britishers, moreover, were not generally interested in approaching Asians as a "white brother." White master was a role more to their liking. Indeed, beginning in 1824, Britain launched a series of attacks against Burma and eventually became, for about one century, rulers of that exotic land.

Even before the first British invasion, however, history recorded a second foreigner's encounter with the Karen people's lost book tradi­tion.

In the year 1816 a Muslim traveler happened to enter a remote Karen village about 2S0 miles south of Rangoon. The Karen scrutinized him carefully as they had scrutinized all foreigners who ever came their way—especially light-skinned ones—looking for their "white brother." Well, the Muslim was not very light-skinned, but ^he did have in his possession a book. And he said the book contaⁱned writings about the true God.

Seeing their intense fascination with the book, the Muslim offered it as a gift to an elderly Karen sage. Later the people said he told them to worship it, but it seems unlikely that a Muslim would give that kind of advice. Perhaps he simply urged them to take good care of it until one day, hopefully, a teacher would come who could interpret it for them.

The Muslim continued his journey, and never returned.

The sage who received the little book wrapped it _in muslin and placed it in a special basket. Gradually the people developed rituals for venerating the sacred volume. The sage adorned himself with ornate gar­ments befitting his role as keeper of the book. He carried a special cud­gel as a symbol of his spiritual authority. And, most poignant of all, he and his people kept constant vigil for the teacher who would one day come to their village and open the contents of the sacred book to their Understanding.'

But that is not all. In perhaps a thousand or more Karen villages of Burma, men called Bukhos, a special kind of teacher representing not demons but Y'wa, the true God—yes, the Karen actually esteemed them as prophets of the true God—kept reminding the Karen that the ways of Y'wa and the ways of nats (evil spirits) were not the same. One day, these Bukhos affirmed, the Karen people must return fully to the ways of Y'wa.

Karen prophets actually taught their people hymns passed down from generation to generation by verbal communication alone. Like Pachacuti's hymns to Viracocha, Karen hymns to Y'wa reveal how aston­ishingly clear the concept of the one true God can be ⁱⁿ a folk religion! By means of these hymns, awe and reverence for Y'wa, the true God, were kept alive in the hearts of Karen people so that they would not lapse into Buddhism with its idolatry. One such hymn extolled the eternity of Y'wa's being:

Y'wa is eternal, his life is long.

One aeon—he dies not!

Two aeons—he dies not!

He is perfect in meritorious attributes. Aeons follow aeons—he dies not!'

Another hymn extolled Y'wa as Creator:

Who created the world in the beginning?

Y'wa created the world in the beginning!

Y'wa appointed everything.

Y'wa is unsearchable!

Still another hymn conveyed deep appreciation for Y'wa's omnipo­tence and omniscience, combined with acknowledgment of a lack of relationship with Him:

The omnipotent is Y'wa; him have we not believed.

Y'wa created men anciently,

He has a perfect knowledge of all things!

Y'wa created men at the beginning; He knows all things to the present time!

O my children and grandchildren!

The earth is the treading place of the feet of Y'wa.

And heaven is the place where he sits.

He sees all things, and we are manifest_-to him.'

The Karen story of man's falling away from God contains stunning parallels to Genesis chapter 1:

Y'wa formed the world originally.

He appointed food and drink.

He appointed the "fruit _of trial."

He gave detailed orders.

Mu-kaw-lee (Satan) deceived two persons.

He caused them to eat the fruit of the tree of trial.

They obeyed not; they believed not Y’wa…

When they ate of the fruit of trial,

They became subject to sickness, aging, and death ….

An author named Alonzo Bunker, who lived among the Karen for 30 years during the late nineteenth century, describes a typical late-evening teaching session in the jungle led by Karen Bukhos near Toungoo, Burma:

It is quite impossible to describe the solemn and reverential manner in which these white-haired elders recited the attributes of Y'wa, and with what awed attention the children listened . . . they were drawn as a magnet to this council of elders. For a while there was silence, save the crackling of bamboo and brush in the fire. And then the old prophet of the village . . . arose and extended his hands, as if in benediction, and said:

“ O children and grandchildren, formerly Y'wa loved the Karen nation above all others. But they transgressed his commands, and in consequence ... we suffer as at present. Because Y'wa cursed us, we are in our present afflicted state and have no books."

Then a great hope seemed to light up his face as, looking toward the stars, … he exclaimed: "But Y'wa will again have mercy upon us, and again he will love us above all others. Y'wa will save us again. It is [because we listened] to the language of Mu-kaw-lee that we suffer."

Then followed ... [an] impassioned recitation in the lyrical verse of his ancestors … The old man . . . spoke with a native eloquence which can be felt, but not described:

"When Y'wa made Tha-nai and Ee-u, he placed them in a garden saying, 'In the garden I have made for you seven different kinds of trees, bearing seven . . . kinds of fruit. Among the seven, one tree is not good to eat . . . . If you eat, you will become old, you will sicken, you will die. ... Eat and drink with care. Once in seven days I will visit you

’After a time Mu-kaw-lee came to the man and woman and said, 'Why are you here?

"'Our father put us here,' they replied.

"'What do you eat here?' asked Mu-kaw-lee.

"'Our Lord Y'wa has created food for us, food without limit.'

"'Show me your food,' said Mu-kaw-lee.

“…They pointed them out, saying, 'This one is astringent, this sweet, this sour, this bitter, this savoury, this fiery, but [as for] this tree, we know not whether it is sour ^or sweet. Our Father, the Lord Y'wa, said to us, 'Eat not the fruit of this tree. If you eat, you will die.'

“... Then Mu-kaw-lee replied, 'It is not so, O my children. The heart of your Father Y'wa is not with you. This is the richest and sweetest. . . . If you eat it, you will possess miraculous powers. You will be able to ascend to heaven ... I love you, and I tell you the truth, and conceal nothing. If you do not believe me, do not eat the fruit. If you will each eat the fruit as a trial, then you will know all...

In paragraphs that follow, the man, Tha-nai, refuses the enticement and walks away. The woman, Ee-u, lingers, succumbs to temptation, eats the fruit and then entices her husband., who also eats. Alonzo Bunker's translation continues:

The woman returned to Mu-kaw-lee and said, 'My husband has eaten the fruit.'

“[Mu-kaw-lee] laughed exceedingly, and said, ‘Now O conquered man and woman, you have listened to my voice and obeyed me.’

The next morning Y’wa came to visit them, but they did not follow him with the singing of praises as usual. He drew near to them and said, 'Why have you eaten the fruit of the tree that I commanded you not to eat? ... Therefore you shall grow old, and you shall become sick, and you shall die.'

". . . When Y'wa had cursed man, he left him. . . . In course of time sickness began to appear. One of the children of Tha-nai and Ee-u fell ill. Then they said to one another, 'Y'wa has cast us off. We cannot tell what to do. We must go and ask Mu‑ kaw-lee.'

"So . . . they went to him and said, ' . . . we obeyed your words, and ate. Now our child is ill. . . . What will you advise?'

"Mu-kaw-lee replied, 'You did not obey your Father, the Lord Y'wa. You listened to me. Now that you have obeyed me once, obey me to the end.'

Then the old prophet related, still continuing in the ancient verse of his people, how Mu-kaw-lee instructed them in the prin­cipal offerings to be made [for] various kinds of sickness. These offerings were to be made to his servants the nats [demons] who presided over certain diseases, as well as accidents.

He also told how Mu-kaw-lee instructed them to divine by the bones of a fowl, which became to these hillmen the guide to almost every act of life.

Alonzo Bunker also quotes a Karen "Song of Hope," expressing their longing for the eventual return of Y'wa:

A second song of hope speaks of a king who will return:

Good persons, the good,

Shall go to the silver city, the silver town

Righteous persons, the righteous,

Shall go to the new town, the new city.

Persons who believe their father and mother

Shall enjoy the golden palace.

When the Karen king arrives,

There will be only one monarch.

When the Karen king arrives,

There will be neither rich nor poor.

Karen prophets, in spite of the ever-present and pervasive influence of Buddhist idolatry in Burma, constantly fortified their people against idolatry through proverbs such as the following:

O children and grandchildren! Do not worship idols or priests! If you worship them, you obtain no advantage thereby, While you increase your sins exceedingly.

Honoring one's parents was also a sacred obligation:

O children and grandchildren! Respect and reverence your mother and father!

For when you were small, they did not suffer so much as a mosquito to bite you.

To sin against your parents is a heinous crime.

Prophets of God among the Karen also emphasized man's duty to love God and one's neighbor:

O children and grandchildren! Love Y'wa, and never so much as mention his name [lightly].

If you speak his name [lightly],

He goes farther and farther from us!

0 children and grandchildren! Do not be fond of

Quarreling and disputing, but love each other.

Y'wa ⁱⁿ heaven looks down upon us. And if we do not love each other,

It is the same as if we do not love Y'wa.

Karen who violated the code were called to repentance with a promise of mercy from Y'wa:

0 children and grandchildren! If we repent of our sins,

And cease to do evil—restraining our passions

And pray to Y'wa, he will have mercy upon us again.

If Y'wa does not have mercy on us, there is no other one who can.

He who saves us is the only one—Y'wa.

The importance of prayer was not overlooked:

0 children and grandchildren!

Pray to Y'wa constantly By day and by night.'

The Karen people thus present a striking anomaly to theologians. Jesus, as far as the Gospel record tells us, commended the religious awareness of a comparative handful of Gentiles: a Roman centurion, a Syrophoenician woman, the Queen of Sheba, Naaman the Syrian, the widow of Zarephath, the people of Nineveh. Likewise Peter was startled by the unexpected piety of a Gentile called Cornelius (see Acts 10:34). The Karen race, however, confronts us with hundreds of thousands of individuals whose awareness of basic spiritual facts may have matched that of history's average Jew or Christian!

The piety of the pagans mentioned in the Bible, moreover, seems traceable _in each case directly to Jewish influence. In two cases, the min­istry of Jesus Himself was instrumental. But the Karen live 4,000 miles from Jerusalem. Granted, their name for God— Y'wa—suggests influence from the Jewish Yahweh, but no equivalents for Abraham and Moses, the second and. third most important figures _in Judaism, have been report­ed by compilers of Karen tradition. Surely Jewish influence would have emphasized Abraham and Moses.

Likewise, if Karen traditions trace back to, for example, Nestorian Christian influence of the eighth century, or to later Roman Catholic missionary contacts of the sixteenth, seventeenth or eighteenth cen­turies, one would expect some mention of an incarnation or a Redeemer

dying for man's sin and rising from the dead.

Again, I have found no such concepts reported by students of Karen tradition.

And if we theorize that Jewish and/or Christian influence touched the Karen, but so fleetingly that only the basic concepts of God, creation and the fall of man registered with them, then we face a difficult ques­tion. How could so fleeting an influence leave such a deep and lasting impression on an entire people, especially when Buddhism and their own tribal spiritism so strongly opposed that influence over long peri­ods of time?

History teaches that only very strong or very protracted influences can instill new religious concepts across cultural barriers, especially when other influences—Buddhism and spiritism in this case—are so con­trary to those concepts.

Could it be that Karen beliefs about Y'wa predate both Judaism and Christianity? Did such beliefs spring from that ancient root of monotheism which characterized the age of the early patriarchs? The answer is almost certainly—yes!

By far the most amazing aspect of Karen monotheism was its frank acknowledgment of its own incompleteness. And in view of the natural worldwide tendency of most peoples to dislike and even distrust for­eigners—especially if their color is different—the Karen anticipation that completeness would come to them via "white foreigners" is almost equally amazing. One of their hymns stated:

The sons of Y'wa, the white foreigners,

obtained the words of Y'wa.

The white foreigners, the children of Y'wa,

obtained the words of Y'wa anciently.'

During the 1830s, a Karen named Sau-qua-la gave an address before the English governor-general of Burma. He said that Europeans, the "white foreigners," were originally younger brothers of the Karen peo­ple! The Karen, as older brothers (rascals that they were), negligently lost their copy of Y'wa's book. The white brothers, on the other hand, care­fully preserved their copy. As a result white people became "righteous" and are known as "guides to God." They also learned to sail in ships with "white wings," crossing oceans.

Alonzo Bunker summarizes the tradition as follows: "The Deliverer [of the Karen] . . . was to be a 'white foreigner,' and was to come across the sea from the west with 'white wings' [sails] and bring Y'wa's 'white book." Some versions of the tradition said the book would be of gold and silver.

The Karen nation was thus poised like an 800,000-member welcom­ing party, ready for the first unsuspecting missionary who approached them with a Bible and a message of deliverance from God. Whoever lie proved to be, he was destined to enjoy one of history's greatest privileges!

Before we discover who the favored fellow was and what it took to get him on his way, let us scan the horizons of Burma and surrounding coun­tries to see who else was waiting with bated breath for a message from the Almighty . . .

New Day STM - Training Guide

New Day Short Term Mission Trip – Training Class

Purpose:

1. To give missions team members an understanding of the biblical foundations of missions.
2. To equip students to share their faith
3. To train the teams in practical matters of serving and teaching
4. To build community and fellowship with one another

Expectations:

1. Please make every effort to attend all classes and complete all assignments. Full participation will not only benefit you, but the whole team.
2. Be on time to class each week – Class starts at 9:30 am.
3. Your attitude as a missionary will be a requirement of being on the team. A no-complaining policy is in effect from now until the end of the missions trip. A habit of having a bad attitude or complaining is grounds for removing you from the team.
4. Participation in the Pre-trip Experience Activity (see below) is required.
   

Trip dates:

Week 1: June 19-25 and Week 2: June 26- July 3

Support Raising:

No financial support raising is needed this year. However, we will identify prayer partners. More details to come on how this will work.

Blogging:

Each week, you will have a at-home assignment to do and respond to on the team blog. You should post (1) an individual insight or response to the assignment and (2) a response to someone else’s post (i.e. you should have two separate posts each week.)

Blog address: http://ndstm2010.blogspot.com/

Pre-trip Experience:

One of the perks on the New Day STM is the proximity to the site. At least one time prior to the trip, you are expected to visit Palm Court, the Karen church at Ridge Road Baptist Church, or attend a special event.

(1) Church services are each Sunday at 2pm at Ridge Rd. Baptist Church on Ridge Rd. in Raleigh.

(2) Many members of RCCC visit families at Palm Court regularly, so you may also accompany one of them on a visit. From the STM Sunday School class, Anna, Alex, Rebecca and Elaine visit Palm Court regularly.

(3) We will also be volunteering at Palm Court as a part of 30 hour famine on April 10, so you can visit then as well.

Trip Information Briefing 5/2/10:

This is where we will be going over the logistical details about packing, travel, where/how we will be staying, etc. Please invite at least one of your parents to come (they will have to miss first session if they normally attend Mandarin or Cantonese worship) to receive information that is important for them to know.

New Day Short Term Mission Trip – Syllabus

Date:	Topics:	Preparation for Sunday School:	Blog Topic
Week1: Sunday, March 28	Syllabus overview Missions overview Consensus activity		Read the posted article. Write a response to it on your blog.
Sunday, April 4 Easter	No Sunday School
Week 2: Sunday, April 11	Knowing the populations we are serving	Bring an article about refugees from Myanmar, Somalia, Vietnam or Burundi. Be prepared to summarize it for the team.	What is one thing you learned about the population we will be serving? How will this affect your ministry?
Week 3: Sunday, April 18	What to expect Raising Prayer Support	Bring the names of 5 people who would like to have praying for you during the trip. Bring your laptop if you have one.	Translate the “Christianese” posted on the blog-site into words and phrases a 5 year old can understand.
Week 4: Sunday, April 25	Sharing the gospel with kids.		Write your “kid friendly” testimony or Gospel story. Respond to at least one other person’s story with affirmation or a suggestion.
Week 5: Sunday, May 2	Parent info session	Bring your parents!	TBA
Week 6: Sunday, May 9	VBS Tasks Assignments		TBA
Week 7: Sunday, May 16	VBS Planning	Bring lists/ideas of supplies that need to be purchased for VBS activities.	TBA
Week 8: Sunday, May 23	Adult Meeting - Leadership, Prayer and Final Preparations	Adult Leaders Only Optional: youth may meet to plan for VBS