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Archive for the ‘News’ Category

Please pray for the Desiring God blog

Posted in News, Prayer Requests on February 21, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Every other week or so since June of last year I have written a blog posting at the Desiring God blog under the same banner as this blog, The Works of God.

Usually I prepare something new.  But I heard from more people than usual on my blog posting from a couple of weeks ago regarding prayer, so I offered that one, slightly modified, for the DG blog later this week.

I have one main hope for all those postings, even the unpleasant ones about abortion, euthanasia and genocide: that people would see God in disability in all his sovereignty and goodness.

And then, in seeing God this way, they would act to embrace and include and prepare all those, created in his image, who live with disability in this present age for the work he has prepared for them to make him look glorious.

Please pray that God would do more than we could possibly hope or expect!

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Just the Way I Am – still $5 but not for long!

Posted in News on February 18, 2012| Leave a Comment »

When I checked on Friday, there were copies of Just the Way I Am still available for $5 at Desiring God.  But not many!

The supply is limited and once Desiring God’s inventory is exhausted, they won’t be available at Desiring God any longer.

Free shipping on orders of 10 books or more.

Cases of 30 books are also available with free shipping.

You can order it here.  This is a web-only special!

After Desiring God’s supplies are gone, you can still order it through Christian Focus, Amazon or Barnes and Noble.

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Please pray for the 1%

Posted in News, Prayer Requests on February 17, 2012| 1 Comment »

According to the World Federation of the Deaf, there are 70 million Deaf people in the world.

That’s 1% of the world’s population!

According to The Joshua Project, there are 33 Deaf people groups around the world that are considered unreached, which means less than 2% of that people group are Evangelical and less than 5% are adherents to Christianity.

33!

In a printed report from The Joshua Project, they listed 52 Deaf people groups that are unengaged, which means no full-time workers involved in evangelism or church planting.

52!

Some of those countries were no surprise – Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Myanmar.

Others were quite a bit more surprising – France, Germany, Italy.

I don’t have an answer for this, but I know that God does.  Please pray he would provide for our Deaf brothers and sisters around the world, and that he would call millions more to him, for his glory and for our collective good.

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“I wanted to know for sure – am I truly believing?”

Posted in News on February 16, 2012| 1 Comment »

God took home one of his saints last week who knew plenty about physical suffering and disability.

Mike Stohmeyer was a great friend of Desiring God.  A tribute to his life, and his wife, can be found on Desiring God’s blog.

But even better, listen to him for yourself in this 3 1/2 minute video:

May we all join him in saying, “my faith is real!”

 

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Limited time: Just the Way I Am is available for $5!

Posted in News on February 14, 2012| 2 Comments »

Just the Way I Am is now available for $5 at Desiring God!

The supply is limited and once Desiring God’s inventory is exhausted, they won’t be available at Desiring God any longer.

Free shipping on orders of 10 books or more.

Cases of 30 books are also available with free shipping.

You can order it here or by calling 1.888.346.4700 or 612.435.2401.  Update!  This is a web-only special!

After Desiring God’s supplies are gone, you can still order it through Christian Focus, Amazon or Barnes and Noble.

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There’s so much work to do. . .

Posted in News, Scripture on February 13, 2012| Leave a Comment »

My friend and DG colleague, Dr. Mark Struck, was doing some background research and discovered this:

285 million people are visually impaired worldwide: 39 million are blind and 246 million have low vision.
About 90% of the world’s visually impaired live in developing countries.

Source: WHO, 2010

So, the number of people living with some form of visual impairment is just less than the entire population of the United States!

Clearly, an emphasis on disability and an emphasis on reaching the nations can naturally go together in our churches.

Because we want everyone to know our King!

And (Jesus) came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written,

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives
and recovering of sight to the blind,
to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”  (Luke 4:16-21 ESV)

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Pastor David left out someone important

Posted in News on January 29, 2012| Leave a Comment »

David Michael stood to tell the congregation about Paul’s impact on Bethlehem and listed several things that have happened because Paul was born with no eyes.

He forgot to mention one equally vital person – himself.  God planted Pastor David in the middle of every activity related to the disability ministry from the beginning.  Without his leadership, I don’t know what would have happened.  I am very grateful to God for this man!

And I also think Krista would have written her book anyway.  But I’m happy Paul played a small role in that as well!

Here are David’s kind remarks. To God be the glory!

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God kindly answers prayers

Posted in News, Prayer Requests on January 28, 2012| Leave a Comment »

At the end of my talk on Wednesday I asked for prayer for three things:

1.  For Bethlehem, that we would recognize all people have gifts and we would welcome all.

2.  That God would bring more helpers for our disability ministry – from sign language interpreters to classroom 1-1 aides to the host of other needs

3.  That God would end abortion, if not through laws, than through changed hearts, and that he would let us be agents of change for his glory.

That very night a young man introduced himself and said he would be volunteering soon – that was encouraging!  And a young man no less (Please don’t misunderstand – I love all the ladies who serve families like ours.  It’s just nice to welcome another man!).

And we need to keep praying.  We can, in one sense, measure our progress on number 2 and 3 – more volunteers, fewer abortions.  Hearts that are truly welcoming also have outward evidences, but that can be harder to see.

In all three cases, it is God who does it!

I will thank you forever, because you have done it. Psalm 52:9 ESV

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Paul is not impressed!

Posted in News on January 27, 2012| 1 Comment »

Paul came up frequently during my talk on Wednesday evening. Pastor David Michael also had some nice things to say about how God has used Paul at Bethlehem.

As you can see, Paul was not impressed.  At least we know he isn’t tempted to pride when people talk about him!

It’s nice that he’s so comfortable with Susan, who serves as his aid at church.  She is a great blessing to us.

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Just the Way I Am is available again!

Posted in News on January 26, 2012| 1 Comment »

The third printing of Just the Way I Am, God’s Good Design in Disability is once again available!  You can get it through Desiring God or Amazon.

If you don’t know about this book, I cannot endorse it highly enough for the preciousness of the truths on every page and the beauty of God’s children with disabilities on display.

Here’s Pastor John’s endorsement:

I’m often asked how I respond as a Christian and as a pastor to calamities in the world . . . and I try to give my answers from the Bible. Often these questions become very personal because a child is born who isn’t as whole as the other children, and the parents don’t even know how to talk about it. It’s like a calamity in their hearts at first, and yet they love this child. I think the answer I’m going to give from now on is just to take this book, Just the Way I Am, and just give it to people.

You can watch his video endorsement here.

Please, spread the word!

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