Caleb had represented Judah among the twelve spies sent out by Moses from Kadesh Barnea into the land of Canaan (Numbers 13). Caleb and Joshua had the distinction of being the only two who on that strategic occasion believed that God would enable His people to overcome the Canaanites in battle. So Caleb and Joshua were blessed by God to outlive their critics and the defeatists who said it couldn’t be done. Now most of the promised land has been conquered. Caleb is eighty five years old. Surely Caleb is long overdue for retirement – but no! Caleb declares "I am as strong this day . . . for war . . . Now, therefore, give me this mountain . . ." Joshua 14:11-12. Caleb wasn’t interested in the flat plains or any easy task, nor was he going to hide behind any excuses for indemnity, he wanted the mountain, and not just any mountain. This included great fortified cities protected by the feared giants of the Anakim. For Caleb, faith in God’s promises was not expressed in human passivity, but in active obedience. Not only did Caleb attempt great things for God in his later years, but he accomplished great things . . . "because he wholly followed the Lord God . . ." Joshua 14:14.
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Volume 5 1990 A CAPTIVATING VISION
The closest that I have come to the West African state of Mali was in Cell 11 of Lusaka Central Prison. One of my cell mates was a tall Muslim businessman from Timbuktu. He recounted how, not long ago, a tribal chief in MALI “had a vision”. The chief captivated his tribe with his “vision from Allah” that he had been chosen to lead his people “in search of the holy land”. The entire village followed him across the vast Sahara desert in search of the promised land. When they arrived in Libya the chief promptly sold all his people into Arabic slavery to pay for his lavish retirement. It’s impossible! It can’t be done! Don’t be ridiculous – what difference can one person make?
Have you ever encountered those kinds of reactions? Anyone who embarks on a challenging enterprise – especially those determined to end legal abortions, eradicate pornography, establish a Christian school or Christian Teacher Training College, stop the ongoing slave trade in Sudan or work for national Reformation and Revival – will encounter those people who seem to believe that they have “the gift of criticism” and “a ministry of discouragement!” The Easter season is a very special time of the year for Frontline Fellowship. We date Frontline Fellowship from Easter 1982 when Peter Hammond crossed the border on a Bible smuggling mission to marxist Mozambique. This year (1997) we celebrate 15 years of God's provision, guidance, protection and blessing.
As we look back over the last 15 years, we praise God for His matchless grace in enabling our faith mission to travel literally millions of kilometres and conduct over 15 000 meetings in 21 countries, distributing tens of thousands of Bibles, hundreds of thousands of Christian books and Gospel booklets, millions of tracts and tons of medicines, food and clothes to suffering Christians in conflict areas. During these years we have witnessed God removing communist persecutors of the Church and bringing religious freedom to Romania, East Germany, Russia, Albania, Mozambique and Ethiopia. We have seen nations rise and fall but the Church of God has steadfastly grown throughout these troubled regions. Volume 4 1987 What’s involved in being a Frontline Fellowship Field Worker?
Missionary work has always involved dangers, difficulties and great distances of travelling. And although few modern missionaries end up in the cooking pot, we do get into hot water in other ways. Who of us can forget that day when our College was due to start on 13 March 2001?
The day before, we waited in vain for students and staff to appear. Envisioning a one-man Bible school, I waited in vain until after nightfall when, first, Virgil and his family appeared and then, later, 2 other Frontline workers. Thus we had a suite of lecturers to minister to the first 16 students who seemed to suddenly come from nowhere! The largest missions congress in history has been targeted by the most massive malicious cyber attack ever seen.
With over 4,200 participants from 197 countries gathered at the Cape Town 2010 Congress on World Evangelisation, another 100,000 people were to receive live streaming of the conference through 700 global link sites in 95 countries. Operation World is the most important missions book available today. It is an absolutely indispensible part of any missionary’s library.
Yet when Patrick Johnstone first approached a major Christian publisher, his manuscript was rejected as “unmarketable!” Now, mission leaders from around the world are united in affirming Operation World as the most important, useful and influential missionary book available. Millions of copies have been printed of the 7 editions of Operation Worldand they have been translated into 15 different languages. Multiple editions have been published in German, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Korean. At this time translation work is also underway in Arabic. By God's grace, our Reclaiming Africa for Christ Biblical Worldview Summit (BWS) was greatly blessed. Over 100 delegates participated from as far afield as America and Australia, Ghana and Nigeria, Romania and England, Zambia and Zimbabwe and from all over South Africa. There were also many day visitors who joined in on different aspects of the programme.
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