Gerry Charlotte Phelps

Evangelizing Needed in Pews

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                (Image from visualarts.qld.gov.au)

The new Pew poll, part II, shows a great need for evangelizing and discipleship of people in the pews.  (This is right in line with previous studies by Christian pollster George Barna.)  From www.associationforchurchrenewal.com, 6-24-08.

The second part of the Pew Study on the American religious landscape was released yesterday, and for those of you who haven't already studied it, there is alarming news. It appears that evangelism will have to begin inside the church before it can be done outside.
http://religions.pewforum.org/
reports

According to this study, 83% of those affiliated with the mainline church believe that many religions can lead to eternal life. Even more startling is that 57% of evangelicals and 59% of those affiliated with historically African American churches do not believe that Jesus Christ is the only way to eternal salvation.

In response to the question of whether the teachings of their religion can be interpreted in more than one way, 82% of mainliners, 53% of Evangelicals and 57% of African American Christians believed they can. While 97 - 99% of all those who claim to be Christians believe in God, only 62% of mainliners believe God is personal while 26% believe God is an impersonal force.

While 63% of the public believe that the Bible is the 'Word of God', only 33% believe it can be interpreted literally.

52,000 Converts, 1 Team, 3 Weeks - Kenya and Uganda

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    Shad preaching this week at D'Change Festivel,  Kisii, Kenya

This just came from Shad Williams:

There is so much to praise God for as this campaign draws to a close, that I really don’t know where to begin.  God has provided everything we’ve needed, day by day.  We have had clear, dry weather throughout the entire project, except for one night in Kisii.  But even then, it did not cancel the preaching. 

We had great attendance in both festivals and the response to all the messages has been phenomenal.  The gospel was preached a total of 70 times during this project and just under 52,000 people prayed to receive Christ. 

Over 250 pastors received training, and around 100 churches are now bigger than they were before because of many additions as a result of the evangelistic efforts.  In addition to all of this, the doors are now wide open in Uganda for the expansion of our ministry. 

We have been reminded once again during this campaign that there has never been a day like today for reaching people for Christ.  To say that the fields are white unto harvest is a drastic understatement.  The fruit is practically falling off the trees.  All we have to do is go and collect it.

Once again I want to tell all of you that we are grateful to you for helping us reap that harvest.  Furthermore, I want you to know that another campaign here in Kenya and in Malawi will take place in September.  And I am extending a personal invitation to all of you to join us and see this marvelous work for yourselves. 

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Tonight we are back in Nairobi preparing to depart for home tomorrow night (Sunday).  We left Kampala, Uganda early this morning and drove to Entebbe where we took our flight to Nairobi.  I must tell you that it is really great to get back here where we have access to American style food, abundant hot water, and the electricity is on all the time.  Sheila is just excited about a bathtub, not to mention consistent internet access.  This afternoon, after we arrived, we went down to a place called the “Java House” where I could get a latte that tastes almost like Starbucks.  Ain’t God good?  On a more serious note, I want to seriously and genuinely thank you all for your prayers and for helping us to be over here doing this work. 

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I look forward to talking with all of you, in person and on the phone, after we return.  We will be back in Adamsville to Tuesday night the 24^th.  In the meantime, God bless you all and we love you very much. 

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Yours from the field,

Shad and Sheila

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www.wegotothem.com

Some of the Bravest People in Kenya

 

                   (Image from www.myspace.com/wegotothem)

Above is Ben Bahati, Kenyan pastor raised up by Shad and Sheila Williams of www.wegotothem.com. .  Ben and his family had some very narrow excapes from slaughter during the height of the recent riots in Kenya. 

During a lull in the riots, Ben and his fellow pastors ignored the danger and went to the worst large slums in Kenya.  Most of the rioters were from these slums.  Ben and his group went into these slums with evangelistic campaigns.  They asked their huge audiences to come to Christ, and to trade their machetes and guns for the Bibles they offered.  "Carry a Bible, not a weapon," they pled.  And the audience began to go back to their homes, get their machetes, clubs and rifles, and exchange them for the Bibles.

In a few days of evangelistic campaigns in almost every large slum, some 70,000 converted to Christianity! 

Now Ben and his fellow pastors are planning with Shad to go to neighboring countries to start such ministries there also, in Congo, Nigeria and Uganda.

What a great way to respond to Kenya's national tragedy!  What courage and dedication to God - to go in only with Bibles, not weapons, approaching the rioters and killers on their home turf with Christ's love and pardon.  Their personal bravery is a lesson to us all. 

Please keep them in your prayers.

These pastors are not beginners.  They were raised up and trained by Shad and Sheila Williams' "We Go To Them" ministry over many years.  They have founded churches and worked with Shad on dozens of evangelistic campaigns.  They have helped bring hundreds of thousands to Christ in Kenya.  Now this seasoned team is longing to carry their work to troubled neighboring countries.  What they do has helped more than billions spent on foreign aid.  Help them!

Would you like to help them spread their peaceful message of Christ's love in troubled lands?  To support this great work, or just learn more, go to www.wegotothem.com.

Mass Evangelism On A Shoe-String

 

                 (Image from www.myspace.com/wegotothem)

(Since a seminary professor just used this in one of his classes, I am reminded that I need to publish it again.  This is about Shad and Sheila Williams.  It was the pastors they raised up in Kenya that I wrote about recently, during the worst of the recent riots there (which I will try to write about here soon.).  This amazing ministry is the kind that many, many of us could do too.  Not to mention supporting this one!  Give it a look.)

Every Christian is responsible for sharing Christ one-on-one.  But even if every single Christian did that (they don't), it still would not be enough to reach all of the six billion people alive today.  So people must also be reached in groups.  That means "mass evangelism."

Is there is a way to take the gospel to large groups at a time?  To people who would not be reached any other way?  There is.  It is "Field Evangelism." 

Field Evangelism can be done by churches and groups who cannot afford to put on large crusades.  For not much money and minimal equipment, a small team can "go to them" for a few days at a time.  They go to another country, to places where people are already gathered - markets, train and bus stations, schools, prisons, etc. 

Does it really work?  Going to them, where they are already gathered, rather than trying to gather them together for a meeting?  Better than almost anything else!

Just consider this.  Shad and Sheila Williams have been "going to them" in other countries for 29 years, some 149 times.  They go 5-6 times a year, for 7-20 days a trip.  They usually take no more than 4-6 volunteers with them - sometimes none.  A native pastor - one of their early converts - arranges their itinerary ahead of time and helps with the logistics.  Their financial supporters total fewer than 100 people. 

What happens when they get off the plane?  The local pastor who has made all the arrangements meets them.  Before long they drive up to a pre-selected gathering place, set up sound equipment and start putting on a musical show.  The crowd gathers around.  Someone preaches a brief evangelistic message - often one of the volunteers.  There is a translator.  People in the crowd raise their hands if they want to accept Jesus as Lord and Savior.  Then they are instructed in how to grow in Christ, and directed to various churches.  Then it's on to the next place, several places, into the night, when the "Jesus" movie is shown somewhere.  After several packed days, it's back on the homeward-bound plane.

How has it worked out?

The results: in 29 years, over 5 million people have accepted Christ!  Five million!  That is around the size of the lifetime total conversions reached by mega-evangelists with huge budgets and staffs.  Why the difference?  The mega-evangelists go more to middle class people and some poor - mostly 1st and 2nd-world countries.  Shad and Sheila go to very poor, 3rd-world countries, or where struggling poor people are.  The cost per convert is around $1.50.  Imagine! 

Is there any better return on investment in the world?

Doea it last?  Yes!  Shad and Sheila have raised up many native pastors and many churches have been formed.  A seminary has been established in India and sends out many new pastors and evangelists from village to village.  African pastors get continuing training in Africa by Shad and by some of the more senior African pastors they have raised up there.  On each trip, surrounding churches are flooded by new converts from Shad and Sheila's evangelism.  It lasts!

Would your church like to help convert hundreds and thousands of people in other countries?  Or would a group in your church?  They can!

Would your seminary or Bible School be willing to explore and enable such "field evangelism?"  The faculty?  Students on their own?  Bringing about a lot more of it could be revolutionary.  It could seed an unprecedented surge of Christianity around the world.

For more information, go to www.wegotothem.com, and www.myspace.com/wegotothem.   Shad and Sheila Williams train people all the time.  And since they are not getting any younger, you should hurry! 

There is never as much time as we think.  And most of 6 billion people are still waiting for you to get there.

Where Is Your Church - and When?

         (Image from collegeparkbaptist.org)

Not only where is your church, but when is it? And what is it?  Rubel Shelly, guest blogger,  tells this story:

Dr. Halverson was chaplain of the United STates Senate for several years.  He would occasionally visit the seminary where Cook was a student.  After one of those visits to speak to students, he joined a group of them for coffee and made himself available for informal conversation.

"Dr. Halverson," began one of the seminarians, "where is your church?"  The student was asking about the street location of the Presbyterian Church Halverson served, but he got a deeper and more insightful answer.

"Well, it's three o'clock in Washington, D.C.  The church I pastor is all over the city right now.  It's driving buses, serving meals in restaurants, sitting in board meetings, having discussions in the Pentabon, deliberating in Congress."  He proceeded with a long list of roles and responsibilities where his church was functioning that day.  "And periodically we get together at a building on Fourth Street," he added, "but we don't spend a lot of our time there."

Then Rubel comments,

The pastor-chaplain was not naive with his answer.  He was brilliant.  And he had the clear intent to challenge a young would-be pastor to raise his sights above the Sunday event of the church as an assembly.  Or even church as programs and budgets and organization.

The church was never intended to be isolated from the world but to penetrate it as salt does food.  Jesus wants his people to be "in the world" but not "of the world" - functioning as light to dark places.

Thanks Rubel.  I needed that.  Maybe some others could use it too.

(Rubel Shelly's weekly FAX of Life can be emailed to you free.  Just email him at GBCIII@aol.com )

China May Be New Center of Christianity

                                          (Image from lancs.ac.uk)

Ten thousand Chinese a day become Christians.  Currently there are as many as 111 million Christians in China (of whom 90% are Protestants.) 

Many are severely persecuted by the Chinese government.  But they also are zealous missionaries and evangelists.   Two Protestant seminaries in China are secretly training missionaries to the Muslims.

By 2050, there are expected to be some 200 million Christians in China.  That would make China the second nation in Christianity, behind only the United States.  (Brazil would be the third.)

So writes "Spengler," the pen-name of the esteemed journalist and thinker who writes anonymously at the Asian Times.  He suspects that:

...Christianity will have become a Sino-centric religion two generations from now.  China may be for the 21st century what Europe was during the 8th-11th centuries, and what America has been for the last 200 years: the natural ground for mass evangelism.  If this occurs, the world will change beyond our capacity to recognize it.  Islam might defeat the Western Europeans, simply by replacing their diminishing numbers with immigrants, but it will crumble beneath the challenge from the East. 

People do not live in a spiritual vacuum, Spengler continues.

...where a spiritual vacuum exists, as in western Europe and the former Soviet Union, people simply die or fail to breed...When war or economics tear people away from their roots in traditional life, what once appeared constant is now shown to be ephemeral.  Christianity is the great liquidator of traditional society, calling individuals out of their tribes and nations to join the ekklesia (church), which transcends race and nation.

The movement of the Chinese into Christianity is their greatest hope for democracy, writes Spengler.

China's network of house churches may turn out to be the leaven of democracy, like the radical Puritans of England who became the Congregationists of New England.  Freedom of worship is the first pre-condition of democracy, for it makes possible freedom of conscience.  The fearless evangelists at the grassroots of China will, in the fullness of time, do more to bring U.S.-style democracy to the world than all the blustering nation-building of President George W. Bush and his advisors.   

(For the effects of migration on the spread of Christianity, and more, read the whole fascinating article.)

Korean Missionaries? In Afganistan??

Korean missionaries are in the news again today, here, because a group of them in Afganistan have been taken hostage.  The pastor and one other have been killed and left by the road.

Release of Taliban prisoners is being demanded in exchange for the other Koreans in the group.

That has become a familiar, weary story.  Foreigners are taken hostage in a Muslim land.  Demands must be fulfilled before they can be freed.  So what else is new?

But the rest of the story seems the stuff of

     (Image from opinionjournal.com)

fantasy.  What in the world are missionaries from Korea doing in a place like Afganistan?  We picture them moving through Afganistan, and it seems unreal.  .We wonder - as many Afganis probably do - what in the world are they doing there?  (As Koreans must have wondered a century ago what all those strange-looking missionaries were doing in their country.)

That story is hard to get a handle on.  It is also something few would ever have predicted.

As Leslie Hook of the Asian Wall Street Journal writes today's U.S. Wall Street Journal,

Asian missionaries are everythere, and today they're often found in some of the world's most dangerous hotspots. 

Who knew?  And why is that?  Ms. Hook continues,

Although only about 30% of South Korea's 49 million citizens are Christian, the country is second only to the U.S. in the number of missionaries it sends abroad.  As of last year, 16,600 Korean missionaries were stationed in 173 countries."

How did this enormous change come about?  Catholic missionaries went to Korea 200 years ago, then Protestant missionaries atreamed into both Korea and China 100 years later.  Many missionaries were targeted and killed.  But they kept coming.  Now there are 350 million Asian Christians, up from about 20 million in 1900.  And more and more Asians are becoming missionaries.

Korean Christian aid workers are one example of missionaries from the "majority world" - continents other than Europe and North America.  South Korea alone has gone from 93 missionaries abroad in 1979 to over 8000 in 2000 and double that by 2006.  About half go to other East Asian countries, and others to places like Jordan, Turkey and Syria.  Missionaries from across the world are still flowing into Asia as well, like the African from Nigeria who runs an underground church in China.

Now there is a backlash in South Korea, with "vacation missionaries" being criticized for going to situations "where they are way out of their depth,"  according to Tim Peters, a Christian living in Korea.  The hostages are being criticized for being naive and the churches for competing with each other to see who can perform the most dangerous missions. 

Several churches and organizations have canceled their trips to Afganistan.  The Korean government has restricted its citizens from traveling to Afganistan without explicit government approval.

Meanwhile, family members of the victims are gathered at Saemmul Church, praying and watching newscasts.  Christians around the country are keeping vigil.  Amid the onslaught of critical voices, many in Korea's Christian community feel misunderstood.

"It's not about competition.....I think missionaries are sharing because they have boldness," says Kim Hee-chan, who works at the Middle East Team, a group that helps organize missionaries.  And, she says, "Missionaries sacrifice."  A fact the hostages in Afghanistan know only too well.

US Military Chaplain Proudly Salutes Flag of Another Nation

If you have not yet discovered the blog of military chaplain Mitch Lewis at http://mitchlewis.net/blog/ , this post from his blog today will give you a very partial idea of what you have been missing.

                            (Image from whirledview.typepad.com)

SALUTING THE FLAG(S)

I saluted the flag today, and stood at attention as the national anthem was played. Actually, I did it several times as I attended a number of different ceremonies on post. Oh, and it wasn’t always the U.S. flag or “The Star Spangled Banner” that I was saluting. I stood at attention and rendered honors to the colors of our host nation as its beautiful national anthem was played. In fact, our two nation’s flags fly side-by-side all over post.

The people of the nation in which I am stationed are proud of their country and its flag. They have plenty of reason to be proud of their accomplishments over the past half-century and their thousand year old culture.

As I stood saluting the colors of a nation not my own - but which I will spend the next two years defending - I thought about the ignorant argument of some self-described “progressive” Christians that equates patriotism and patriotic acts with idolatry. The existence of nation-states is NOT the root of the world’s problems. Love of one’s own country does not stop one from respecting or cooperating with the people of other nations. It certainly does not imply that one has given one’s nation the absolute and unconditional loyalty due only to God.

If some misguided Christians think that I’m committing idolatry and worshiping “the American imperial god” when I salute my national colors, I wonder what god they think I’m worshiping when I salute the flag of my host nation.

Military chaplains are often in as much danger as the service men and women they serve.  Chaplains fill a vital role in supporting their spiritual needs, standing beside them in grief and addressing their searching questions.  They are too little in our prayers.  And we honor them too little. 

Do yourself a favor and track Mitch's blog.  Do him a favor by adding him and other chaplains to your prayers.

(Mitch cannot say where he is stationed, only that it is not Iraq or Afganistan.  The photo above is not from his location.)

(See also Marvin Olasky's article "Caught With Their Flags Down", at the excellent World Magazine, at http://www.worldmag.com/articles/13016.  Hat Tip to Joseph Slife.)

Hostile "Authorities" Stop Shad in Kenya

                              (Image from travelnotes.org)

Shad and Sheila Williams and their team are presently on an evangelistic trip to eastern Kenya.  Shad emailed this morning asking for our prayers.  Yesterday hostile "authorities" appeared and stopped them from continuing to hold a meeting in a market.

Eastern Kenya is near the border of Somalia, a country made very dangerous by Islamist warlords.  Islamists are also trying to come to power in Kenya.  This does not sound good. 

Your prayers for them at this time are very important.

Top Scientist and His Faith

                        (Image from achievement.org)

Much of the chattering class believes that no thinking scientist could possibly be a Christian.  Or even any rational intelligent person.  But many scientists, and countless other intelligent people, are in fact Christian.

One of them is "...arguably the most important doctor and scientist on the planet today."  So writes Joel Rosenburg here.  He is Dr. Francis S. Collins, the director of the Human Genome Project.

"He and his colleagues have mapped out the 3 billion letters of the human genetic code imprinted into each of our cells...They are figuring out the Creator's 'instruction book' for the human body, and thus racing to find cures for cancer, diabetes, and so many other horrible diseases."

But did Dr. Collins perhaps "inherit" a strong Christian faith from his family, such that he clung to it in spite of all his scientific training?  Actually, religion was not important to his family.  So he grew up as an agnostic, later deciding he was an atheist.

Then one day Dr. Collins visited a patient who was dying of cancer.   She explained that "...she had no fear of dying because she had a personal relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ.  She explained that God loves us and has a wonderful plan for our lives, and offers us a way to eternal life through Jesus.  Then she asked, 'Doctor, what do you believe?'"

He fled the room as fast as he could.  "He was touched by her story and moved by her faith."  But he couldn't answer her question.  So he began a search of the evidence for Christianity.  Eventually the evidence convinced him, and he became a Christian. 

Although only about 40% of scientists are Christian, Dr. Collins says he sees no contradiction between his science and his faith.  He says that now "...he sees science as a means both of discovery as well as worship." 

The more he learns of how God has created and wired us, the more he feels he has "...caught a glimpse of God's mind."

Nearly 6 Million Converts - And Why You Never Heard of Him

          (Image from concierge.com)

Recently I wrote a friend this:

"Dear Carol,

"Shad is an absolute marvel.  I know of no individual in history with as many conversions.  How is it that he is not in headlines every week?  Or being begged to come and speak at every seminary and church?  I don't understand it

"Gerry"

Carol emailed this back:

"Dear Gerry,

"That is a great question and one that bothered me immensely until I learned a basic fact I never knew, when I went over to Malawi and Kenya with Shad to spread the gospel.

"There is a basic difference in being a missionary and being an evangelist.  There are many missionaries.  They are usually part of a large denomination or Christian organization.  Most missionaries go and fill a specific assignment at a specific place or area.  They do not wander around the country like Shad spreading the gospel.

"Shad is not a missionary.  Shad is an evangelist.  What I have learned about evangelists is that they are not large in number, and most come out of small ministries that are independent so no one ever hears of them.

"Some years ago when I went to Malawi with Shad, we stayed three days at the Baptist mission in the capitol city of Lilongwe, so we could drive to places outside Lilongwe and preach out in the field.  The head Baptist Missionary lived at the mission.  He told me there were 50 Baptist missionaries in Malawi.

"Also I visited with an Irish Presbyterian missionary who was living there.  All the Baptist missionaries were assigned to hospitals, schools, clinics, etc., to help the poor and needy.  The Presbyterian worked in a local school where he served as the chaplain of that school.  There were mostly Christians in the school so he did what school counselors do.  Evangelism was not in his job description. 

"The Baptists did have one weekend a year where lay people came to Malawi from America.  Then they, along with the missionaries, went out to do talks in places like soccer stadiums where some publicity beforehand invited people to attend.  I doubt any of them got as far away in the boondocks as we did.  We were six hours away at times from a village or a hard top road.

"Shad goes where no one else goes.  Many we spoke to said no one had ever come to that area to talk about Jesus.  Many never heard Jesus' name before we arrived.  We set up loud speakers in fields, bus stops, market places and places in suburbs of cities where construction workers took the usual noon break.  None of these people were looking to go to an event.

"Shad's motto is 'We go to them.'  And that describes it.  The harvest is ripe because the people have never heard the gospel.  The miracle of Shad's success is that he goes where the fruit is hanging on the vine and there is plenty of it.  He goes where no one else has been.

"Shad also works only three countries now, which he knows like the back of his hand, and has plenty of indigenous help.  Shad picks converts with a heart for evangelism and personally trains them.  He puts them on the payroll, usually for something higher than the national average salary, about about $100 to $150 per month.  He makes them part of his staff and team.  He must have 20 full-timers and many more part-timers doing campaigns with him, then on their own when he is back in the States.

"Shad even started a seminary in India which has two courses; a one-year one for church planters, and a six-month one for evangelist training.  They graduate a good number each year at low cost, because the Catholics gave Shad an old monastary where the students sleep on their bedrolls.  So all it takes is Shad's staff training these guys and some food to get them by.  He operates an entire seminary on what we pay a single public school teacher in the U.S.  They do on-the-job training.  Shad's staff can now do evangelism without Shad and do it year-round when Shad is not there.

"The big thing in my opinion (and I am not an expert on any of this, just having been to Malawi and to Kenya and on Shad's Board for 20 years) is that the Holy Spirit has annointed Shad for this ministry in a big way.  Shad never gets off-target.  He never loses focus.  If you were to ask Shad to preach at your church, he would do a great job.  I know his sermon, however, word for word.  He will present the gospel.  He can't talk about anything else.

"His wife Sheila is a good musician, brilliant organizer, and as much of this as he is.  They have walked in faith like no one I have ever known.  Time and time again Shad gets ready to leave with nothing in the cupboard.  Then on the day of departure, some strange and unexpected contribution comes his way.  So he makes his flight and the rest is history.

"But having said all of this, I still have never seen Shad be the subject of any article in any Christian magazine.  He has offered to partner with denominations.  But they are interested only if they could take over where Shad would be subject to a bureaucracy and control by those who don't know the business like he does.

"So one of the great stories in Christianity today is virtually untold.  But with millions of converts and such a small staff, I guess one doesn't need the story told - except to the indigents in those foreign places who have never heard the gospel.

"Thanks for asking.  And thanks for your support of Shad and getting the word out with your ministry.

"Sincerely,

"Carol Vance"

(Carol Vance, by the way, is the then-D.A. who sent me to prison.  He and his wife are now my good friends.)

(Shad Williams ministry is at www.wegotothem.com)

MY FAVORITE 5 POSTS FOR 2006

            (Image from bigstockphotos.com)

Here are my five favorite posts for 2006:

1. This one, with its links, outlines the rise of the West and its decline, with or without the Islamists.  That Christianity gave rise to the power and prosperity of the modern West.  That abandoning Christianity some years ago is now killing Europe.  And that evangelism in Europe is literally the only thing that can save it - and why.  See "No Evangelizing, No Europe" at http://www.gerrycharlottephelps.com/2006/01/no_evangelizing.html.

2.  This one, with its links and notes, sketches how and why the mainline churches have been in decline for more than 40 years, ever since they left historic Christianity, beginning with the "War for the Seminaries" of 1920s-1930s.  It also suggests making the denominations more democratic as one way to turn around their long decline.  See "Leadership at Odds With Churches" at http://www.gerrycharlottephelps.com/2006/02/leadership_at_o.html.

3.  This one - the introductory chapter of my new book - sketches how to grow any church by methods field-tested in various locations.  And how such growth in numbers and finances will arise from basic evangelizing and back-to-basics discipling.  See "Fruitful Church Growth" at http://gerrycharlottephelps.com/2006/07/fruitful_church.html. 

4.  This one denies the false choice between evangelism and helping the poor, but contends that each is necessary to the other.  See "Helping the Needy and Afflicted, and Evangelism" at http://www.gerrycharlottephelps.com/2006/08/helping_the_nee.html.

5.  This one is about the latest big theological fad - the fourth in the last 30-odd years, with a shorter turn-around each time - and about maintaining our theological balance in spite of onrushing fads.  See "Eco-Theology: The Newest Big Fad" at http://www.gerrycharlottephelps.com/2006/06/ecotheology_the.html. 

UPDATE TO THE POST BELOW

If you have not read the post right below, this post may not make much sense unless you read that one first.

The tale below helped me understand something that had puzzled me before about my mother.  That was another comment she made, that she always obeyed her mother, no matter what her mother told her, without question.  As a rebellious child myself who obeyed, but with resistance  and complaining, that was hard to understand. 

But in light of this story, I think it was that my mother was just so grateful to her mother for "saving" her.  And most especially, for never telling anyone, ever, about that event.  A six-year-old would have dreaded above all having anyone know.  And especially dreaded becoming labeled "the girl who fell in the hole in the outhouse," with all the inevitable teasing and taunting by other children., seemingly forever.  Her mother saved her from that too by never telling another soul.  I think her mother must have seemed a mythic, heroic figure to her.

She may not have realized at that early age that her mother would have gone right into that pit instantly to get her out, elegant white dress and all.  Later, she would have realized that if it seemed the only way, my grandmother would have gone into that pit to get even her worst enemy out.

If she had, would that not have been something like what God did for us when he sent his son into the pit of the world to save us?   Who gave his son up for us all while we were still sinners, even for his enemies who hated him?

Last Stories of My Mother

It was given to my mother to die without pain, slowly and gently, for three years.  Her sentence came while she lived with me at seminary.  The doctor told us she had a rare kind of tuberculosis.  No one could catch it from her.  It was not contagious from one person to another, but had to pass through the soil first, like Valley Fever.  Given her frailty, it would be terminal.  Probably about three more years he said.

Mother went through the usual stages of being terminal.  Denial first, then rage, then acceptance.  Soon she developed a quiet patience, and in her final year, a luminous sweetness.  And she told me then about things I never knew before.  This is one of them.

This happened when she was about six.  Here is her picture from that time.

   

______________________________

          (Click on picture to enlarge)

She was always tiny, so must have been a tiny six year old.  This would have been about the time World War I started.  Her mother took her to an elegant resort in the country.  Everyone there dressed for dinner, and dressed in fine clothes during the day.  Here is her mother, looking about like she must have dressed at that time and in that place.

_______________________

          (Click on picture to enlarge)

It was a gracious pre-Civil War mansion, converted to a summer resort hotel out in the countryside.  There was a grand hall stretching through the center of the mansion, from the front door to the back door.  Like most places in those days, it had no indoor bathrooms.  (As can be seen in President Johnson's boyhood home in Johnson City, Texas, which was ahead of its time in having running water and a bathtub in a bath room, but still, no toilets.)  Instead, there were men's and women's outhouses out back, at some distance from the back door of the hotel.

When her mother introduced my mother to the ladies' outhouse, she pointed out that one of the holes where one sat was slightly broken so that it was somewhat too large - dangerous for a small girl.  "Be careful!" she warned Mother, "so you don't fall in there.  If you do fall in, you won't be worth saving!"

(Of course most of you are not old enough to have ever been in a functioning outhouse, but you have probably seen the cartoons of a closet-sized small house with a door in the front.  Just to give you the background, right inside is like a wooden bench-high cabinet going all the way across.  On top would be a hole about the size and shape of a toilet seat.  One sat on the hole in the customary way.  Needless to say, the place reeked.  And looking down through the hole into the deep, dark, smelly pit below was pretty disgusting, often with a pile right under where the seat was.  So with that background...)

My mother began to look down as she told me.  One day she went to the outhouse by herself.  She was not careful enough and fell through the hole into the pit underneath.  Somehow she managed to climb back out, made it to the back door of the hotel and entered the grand hall just as her mother, dressed all in white, was coming in the front door.  When Mother saw her, my mother cried out - and her voice became again the anguished voice of that six-year-old as she told it to me - "Mother, can you save me?"

Mother said her mother cleaned her up, and never, ever told anyone about it.  "I never told anyone either, until now," my mother finished.  She sat silent, as if she still felt the awful humiliation and fear.

I was silent too, seeing the vivid picture.  The tiny, unspeakably filthy little girl, covered with dark, lumpy slime, dripping, stinking, cringing at one end of the grand hall, afraid she was beyond being wanted, being loved, even beyond saving.  And her cry to her elegant, immaculate, white-clad mother at the other end of the hall, "Mother, can you save me?"

It made me think of how we must look to God.  And how willing he is to clean us up and save us anyhow.  Just as her mother was so happy to see her poor daughter - who could have died in that pit - and so eager to clean her up thoroughly, and comfort her, and dress her in white again.  And who would have gone into that pit instantly to get her daughter out, if only she had been there.   

Isn't that like what God has done, and still does, for us?   Who did not send his son into the pit of the world to condemn us, but to save us?

YOUTH EVANGELISM TAKES 'EXTREME' MEANS. SO WHAT?

Does old-time evangelism still work?  Or that old "Little Bo Peep" method?  You know - "Leave them alone and they'll come home, wagging their tails behind them."  Are there some other choices?

How about the outdoor "CityFest" put on in Houston last week by evangelist Luis Palau's team?  Certainly not "your father's" evangelistic campaign!  Two days in a reserved city park beside a blocked-off central traffic artery.  Multiple venues and stages, giant screens, continuous action.  Extreme sports.  Sport stars.  Big music stars,  One of the Baldwin brothers.  Wall-to-wall media coverage, here.

The results?  Over 225,000 in attendance over 2 days.  Over 4000 decisions for Christ.  People drawn into local churches, youth into youth groups.  People came, saw, sang along, laughed, applauded, cheered - and heard the gospel.  Many changed.  A city of millions saw and heard the coverage, saw the spotlights in the night sky, the crowds, heard the distant music and the roars.  Many noticed.  There was an impact on attitudes and thinking.

What did it take?  At least 2 years of preparation, at a guess.  Raising some $3.75 million in Houston.  Involving some 600 local churches.  Recruiting and training over 7000 volunteers. A big staff.  Meticulous planning and execution.  Working like dogs.  Was it worth it?  Be serious!  What alternative was there?

Or how about the ministries to addicts written about by Dr. George Hunter III in "The Celtic Way of Evangelism?"  Addicts are, unfortunately, a significant part of the population, especially the young.  They put themselves beyond reach, in a culture so closed, so all-encompassing that it defines every part of their lives.  Their culture also provides the drug lords with their best recruiting tool, their guaranteed market.  Younger, newer addicts are always joining them.

The only way for most drug users to "kick" the drug culture is to switch to the "recovery culture."  This is where Christians do their work with them.  They sometimes have to form their own churches.  With their tattoos, body-piercing and behavior patterns, they are not welcome at most churches.  Parents in "normal" churches fear they will attract their own children to drugs.  My old friend, evangelist George Phillips, pastors a church of drug addicts in Kentucky.  Did other churches ask him to do that?  No, it was the county Sheriff!  The Sheriff knew they needed Christianity, and worried that churches did not want them.  So he approached Pastor Phillips on his own.

Should Christians try to evangelize junkies?  Or would it be better to leave them in their trap?  As a source of most of the robberies in the country?  Better to leave them as an attraction for younger kids?  Better to leave them as the basic "demand" that supports the "supply" of drugs, the murderous crime syndicates and the filthy-rich drug lords running and ruining so many of the poorest parts of the world?  Please!  Instead, we need them to be the productive people they can be.

How about other "outcast" or "off-beat" groups?  Ex-cons?  Bikers?  How about unbelievers of all kinds?  Dr. Hunter points out that we are surrounded again by "barbarians," the old term meaning pagans or non-Christians.  He recommends we evangelize them with the ancient Celtic missionary methods.  Not waiting for them to come to us, but going to them instead, as teams.  Getting to know them and their ways, and offering them Christianity in new ways.  Ways that are attractive to them, but without sacrificing anything truly essential in the Christian faith.   

Does that seem hard?  Then think of evangelizing in mostly-pagan Europe.  Luis Palau once told a group of us that about 20,000 was then considered good attendance at a conventional evangelism campaign in the U.S. But 2000 was good in the UK and 200 in Europe.  So what should we do about evangelizing Europe?  Just too hard?  No worries.  The Muslims love to evangelize Europeans!  We could just leave it to them.

In most U.S. churches it is not nearly that hard.  What is involved there is changing style, not substance.  Doing whatever is possible to attract the younger generation.  If not, who will carry Christianity forward here - those born before 1940 or earlier?  How much longer would they be able?  The U.S. church may think its task of re-inventing itself is hard and painful..  But the alternative is appallingly more hard and painful, in ways we must hurry to understand.

The three big questions this generation will answer are: Do we want our children and grandchildren to be Christian?  Do we want them to live in Christian countries?  Do we want the West to continue to exist? 

If the answer is "Yes," then we must invent or copy whatever kinds of evangelism it takes to achieve that, whether "extreme" or not.  If we throw ourselves into it as we have not done for generations, it can work.

MASS EVANGELISM, ON A SHOESTRING

Every Christian is responsible for sharing Christ one-on-one.  But even if every single Christian did that (they don't), it still would not be enough to reach all of the six billion people alive today.  So people must also be reached in groups.  That means "mass evangelism."

Is there is a way to take the gospel to large groups at a time?  To people who would not be reached any other way?  There is.  It is "Field Evangelism." 

Field Evangelism can be done by churches and groups who cannot afford to put on large crusades.  For not much money and minimal equipment, a small team can "go to them" for a few days at a time.  They go to another country, to places where people are already gathered - markets, train and bus stations, schools, prisons, etc. 

Does it really work?  Going to them, where they are already gathered, rather than trying to gather them together for a meeting?  Better than almost anything else!

Just consider this.  Shad and Sheila Williams have been "going to them" in other countries for 29 years, some 149 times.  They go 5-6 times a year, for 7-20 days a trip.  They usually take no more than 4-6 volunteers with them - sometimes none.  A native pastor - one of their early converts - arranges their itinerary ahead of time and helps with the logistics.  Their financial supporters total fewer than 100 people. 

What happens when they get off the plane?  The local pastor who has made all the arrangements meets them.  Before long they drive up to a pre-selected gathering place, set up sound equipment and start putting on a musical show.  The crowd gathers around.  Someone preaches a brief evangelistic message - often one of the volunteers.  There is a translator.  People in the crowd raise their hands if they want to accept Jesus as Lord and Savior.  Then they are instructed in how to grow in Christ, and directed to various churches.  Then it's on to the next place, several places, into the night, when the "Jesus" movie is shown somewhere.  After several packed days, it's back on the homeward-bound plane.

How has it worked out?

The results: in 29 years, over 5 million people have accepted Christ!  Five million!  That is around the size of the lifetime total conversions reached by mega-evangelists with huge budgets and staffs.  Why the difference?  The mega-evangelists go more to middle class people and some poor - mostly 1st and 2nd-world countries.  Shad and Sheila go to very poor, 3rd-world countries, or where struggling poor people are.  The cost per convert is around $1.50.  Imagine! 

Is there any better return on investment in the world?

Doea it last?  Yes!  Shad and Sheila have raised up many native pastors and many churches have been formed.  A seminary has been established in India and sends out many new pastors and evangelists from village to village.  African pastors get continuing training in Africa by Shad and by some of the more senior African pastors they have raised up there.  On each trip, surrounding churches are flooded by new converts from Shad and Sheila's evangelism.  It lasts!

Would your church like to help convert hundreds and thousands of people in other countries?  Or would a group in your church?  They can!

Would your seminary or Bible School be willing to explore and enable such "field evangelism?"  The faculty?  Students on their own?  Bringing about a lot more of it could be revolutionary.  It could seed an unprecedented surge of Christianity around the world.

For more information, go to www.wegotothem.com.  Shad and Sheila Williams train people all the time.  And since they are not getting any younger, you should hurry! 

There is never as much time as we think.  And most of 6 billion people are still waiting for you to get there.

Christianity True? Try Scientific Test

Attitudes toward Christianity differ.  Some people believe, some don't.  Some non-believers would like to believe, but can't.  Some are indifferent.  And some are hostile.

But the big question should be "Is it true?"  If so, we dis-believe at our peril.  If not, it is moot. 

Can Christianity, then, be scientifically proven true or false?  In a way that those who have been trained in a science would find conclusive?  It actually can be so tested.

The Bible, says "If... you seek the Lord your God, you will find him, if you seek witth all your heart and all your soul." (Deuteronomy 4:29).* 

That is a testable hypothesis.  It can be proved true or false.

It works for genuine skeptics.  But not for those too arrogant to test.  Or too cowardly.

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*Similar scriptures are: I Chronicles 28:9; II Chronicles 15:2 and 4; Isaiah 55:6 and 65:1; Jeremiah 29:14; Romans 10:20; and Revelations 3:20.

NEVER 'DRESS UP' FOR CHURCH AGAIN

This morning I managed to catch the bus to get to church, just in time.  A little later I looked up from my reading and saw that I was on the wrong bus!  On time, but headed in the opposite direction. 

Oh, just great!  I had to get off and wait for another bus headed downtown, then catch a second bus.  I would be very late.  It was also a dangerous part of town to be stuck in, on foot.  Not good.   I was saying, "Lord, did you really think this through??"

Sure enough two seedy looking guys came along and sat down beside me.  Of course I ignored them.  Then one left.  I kept reading.  Finally I saw that the remaining guy was way down at the other end of the bench and respectfully looking away from me.  So I decided to talk to him.

Asking for help seemed a good way, so I asked him for the time.  He stood to get a watch out of his pocket, gave me the time, and apologized for the watchband being broken.  I told him what a good church I was on my way to, and he said he liked church.  He started telling me about growing up Baptist in Brady, a little town I know out in West Texas.  He was a shy man, just starting to get a little gray.

He grew up very poor, and could not dress well.  His mom made him a suit to wear to church out of flannel and corduroy.  But it didn't look like the suits the other kids wore, and they made fun of him.  The people in the church really dressed up in expensive clothes, with rings and watches.  "Like some kind of fashion show," he said.

When he got into his teens he would wear dark jeans, a white shirt and some cowboy boots to church.  He made sure the boots were always polished.  But one day in a Sunday School class, some boys - the same ones who had teased him about his clothes when they were all little - started pointing to a hole in his sole and laughing at him. 

After that he noticed that several of the older men in the church stopped wearing suits to church and would wear slacks and informal shirts.  He believed they did it just to put him at ease.  He really appreciated it.

When I invited him to go to church with me, he looked away, embarrassed.  His jeans and t-shirt were old, clean but a little tattered.  There was a faint smell of beer about him, not strong - probably from last night, not this morning, judging by how he looked.   I told him we dressed every which way at that particular church, but I think he was skeptical about that.  On the bus he sat at a good distance, never looked at me and was gone the next time I looked.

It really made me think.  About how, when I was growing up, church actually was like a fashion show.  About how that would make people feel who couldn't keep up with that.  Our family couldn't have kept up, except we sewed really well and managed to look at least OK without having much money.  But - is that what church is all about?  About competing as to who can display the most wealth?  About out-doing each other in fashion?  Even if it makes others feel ashamed about how they dress?

At my church, some of the older men and women still really dress up.  It is just how they grew up.  Some dress casually.  And some dress very casually.  The pastor wore a Hawaiian shirt this morning.  But then, so does Rick Warren, pastor of the famous Saddleback mega-church.

So this morning, I decided never to dress up to go to my church again.  I want everyone to feel welcome there.  And I want them to come.  As Christians, our mission in life is to help people come to Christ, then to become mature Christians.  For that, going to a church is important.

That man this morning seemed to want to go to church.  He might have really needed a church today too.  But I suspect that some of us who unthinkingly dressed better might have needed it even more!  Personally, I'm convicted.  We need to deliberately "dress down" more when we go to church.  God forbid that we would make anyone feel unwelcome in His church simply because of clothing.  It is a very small "sacrifice," when you think about it.

HELPING THE NEEDY AND AFFLICTED, AND EVANGELISM

Recently many of us have responded to appeals to help Israeli charities.  These charities provide emergency care for hundreds of thousands of Israeli families living in bomb shelters, and for those whose homes and businesses have been destroyed. 

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For some, that raises the old question: "Should we put our money and efforts into 'doing good' or into evangelistic efforts?"  The answer has to be "Yes".  It is best to do both.

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It is a centuries-old argument among Christians.  Is evangelism more important than helping the needy and afflicted?  Or is giving them help more important than telling them about the good news of the gospel?  Where should we come down between these two positions, seemingly at opposite poles?

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In fact, what about all the other questions about the needy and afflicted?  Is helping them even commanded by God?  If so, what is the Christian way to do it? 

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These questions are urgent.  Still, I would like to take a pass on all them!  Even though I have written a book on many of them.*  And even though I have started and run charities that helped some thousands of needy people and have preached about this to some other thousands. But I still want a pass for now.  Instead, another matter concerning them and the gospel needs to be confronted.

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The fact is, when Christians help the needy and afflicted, they shrink what scripture calls “the offense of the gospel.”  Often we forget, but the gospel carries an offense.  Plainly said, it offends people!  It offends those who hear it.  It even, God help us, offends us to tell others about it, at least until we do it enough that we notice less.

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How can it be that such good news as the gospel would offend people?  Let me count the ways.

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One is that people who try to be strong and independent are easily offended by the gospel.  That is because it says that none of us will be able to save ourselves by our own efforts, no matter how hard we try.  That's offensive!  Aren’t we supposed to take care of ourselves and not be dependent on anyone else? 

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A big one is that Christians are supposed to live by a set of rules.  And they sure look like party-pooping, bust-your-bubble, never-have-any-fun rules.  Surely God does not expect anyone actually to live like that!  Are you serious?  What is he anyhow, some kind of control-freak?  First, very few people would ever give anyone that much control over their lives.  And second, if they did, it would never be to anyone who wanted them to live like that.

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Another is that religion is thought to be no more than superstition, probably by a constantly growing number of people.  They think science has disproved it.

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Another is the damage that being a Christian can to do to your reputation and your prospects.  You would lose respect.  Seriously.  It is true.  It could hurt your career.  That is true too.  You can get sneered at.  Laughed at. Ignored. Dismissed.  Become invisible at important times and places. Fired.  Kicked out of your family.  Scorned.  Passed over. Vandalized. Hated. Attacked.  Even persecuted or killed, depending on where you are and when.  All true.

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Then, when people have another religion, they have additional, strong reasons to object to hearing the gospel.

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No wonder people can get offended, even hostile, when some batty Christian thinks they might be a candidate for becoming as stupid and wrong as they think Christians are.  And no wonder Christians inwardly shudder – no matter how much they may deny it or say that no, it is really something else that stops them – when the time comes to help save the life of the go-ahead-make-my-day unbeliever somewhere near them.

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Surely we can agree that there is an offense to the gospel.  Yet there are a couple of ways to shrink that offense.  One is to live out the gospel.  That alone – let’s face it – very seldom brings people to Christ.  But it keeps us from driving them away.  When they see us not living out the gospel, they are quick to spot us as hypocrites and to turn even further away.  It is a case of “See, I thought so.”

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The other way is helping the needy and afflicted.  Now, quick, before someone else brings it up – no, that does not mean Christians should help them as a propaganda ploy.  That without really caring about their needs, we should use them just to help convert others.  Certainly not!  That would be offensive to God.

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But when Christians give real, truly compassionate help to the needy and afflicted, and are seen doing so, it does soften the offense of the gospel.  It does help correct the public image of Christianity.  It does show, better than words, that contrary to all the horrible, untrue images of Christianity, there are other, nobler, loving and truly admirable marks of a Christian.  It does make many stop and think.  Many revise their views when they see the love of Christ made so visible by action.  Many are more ready to give Christianity another look, even a hearing.

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Remember in the “Sermon on the Mount”, how Christ said, “Let your light so shine before men that they may see your GOOD WORKS, and glorify your father which is in heaven.” (Matthew 5:16)

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As it turns out, what helps us get an audience for the gospel is not our resume, or achievements, or personality, or wonderful way of talking about the gospel that causes our light to shine so that people will glorify God.  No, it is our good works!

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What qualifies as good works?  The Bible describes them as helping the poor, the afflicted, the broken-hearted and the oppressed.  (Look at the Old Testament version of Matthew 25, in Isaiah 58:6-12; or Isaiah 61:1-2 or Luke 4:18-19, Jesus’ first recorded sermon.)  When others see Christians doing these things, they begin to look at Christianity differently.  And they become more likely to glorify, not us, but God.  All that helps lessen the offense of the gospel. Then people are more likely to be open to hearing the gospel, and to accepting Christ when they do.

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Good works alone can never substitute for hearing the gospel.  But they often help get it a hearing.

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* "Up and Out", all of which is posted online here, with chapters listed in the left-hand column.

CHRISTIANITY BLOOMS IN N. IRAQ

              Iraqi Retired General, Georges Sada

             (Image from misunderestimated.com)

Unprecedented religious freedom "has finally come to Iraq because of U.S. military action there, and more Iraqi Muslims are becoming followers of Jesus Christ today than any other time in the history of the country," according to Michael Ireland in "Good news from Iraq: retired Iraq general says record number of Muslims turning to Christ," in ASSIST News, here.

Best-selling author Joel Rosenberg (The Last Jihad), interviewed General Sada in Baghdad in March, hearing from him how Saddam moved his WMD to Syria in 2002.  Now his story is "being closely analyzed by the CIA, DIA and Congressional Intelligence committees."

According to Julia Duin in "Good News" from Northern Iraq, in The Washington Times, here, General Sada was a fighter pilot like his father.  "He rose quickly in the 1960s and 1970s and was made a General in 1980.  During the 1991 Persian Gulf War he was responsible for interrogating U.S. and allied pilots shot down over Iraq...When Saddam Hussein's younger son, Qusay, demanded that the 24 pilots in Sada's custody be killed, the general refused.  He was imprisoned for a week, released, then discharged from the military on Feb. 5, 1991.  But he kept his extensive military contacts, who told him of Saddam using private planes to fly WMD to Syria in 2002." 

The foreword to his recent book, Saddam's Secrets (available from column on right), is by U.S. Air Force Col. David Eberly, one of the pilots whose lives Sada saved when Eberly's plane was shot down January 19, 1991.

Sada recently told the Virginia church that all peace-loving people "should kneel down and thank the (American) mothers and fathers who have sacrificed their sons and daughters for the sake of freedom in Iraq."

Now the former fighter-pilot has turned evangelist.  Sada says Kurds "are converting to Christianity 'by the hundreds' in Northern Iraq."  He cites "...growing numbers of evangelical Christians in the Kurdish city of Irbil and a recent church conference of 854 Christians" at a university there.  He says the Kurds are "creating a constitution that does away with Shari'a, or Islamic law, a move counter to trends in other Muslim countries."  In a recent interview, he said "No Christians in the Kurdish territory are persecuted."  But "outside the Kurdish area, Christians are in a very tough situation."

Rosenberg says Sada told him moving stories about what God is doing in Iraq today.  Sada said that "Some 5,000 Iraqis have publicly identified themselves as new followers of Christ since Iraq was liberated, and that an estimated 8 out of 10 Iraqi believers say they converted because Jesus appeared to them in dreams or visions."

At present, Sada is a senior security advisor to Iraqi President Talabani, and is helping redesign the Iraq military, along with his efforts to strengthen the Christian Church in Iraq.

According to Rosenberg, Sada's recent best-selling book, Saddam's Secrets: How An Iraqi General Defied and Survived Saddam Hussein, is "an absolutely fascinating description of how Sada became a follower of Christ, rose through the ranks of the Iraq Air Force, ended up working so closely with Saddam, and now works for peace and reconciliation in the name of Jesus."

MUSLIM CONVERTS DREAM OF JESUS FIRST

"...unprecedented religious freedom has finally come to Iraq because of U.S. military there.  And more Iraqi Muslims are becoming followers of Jesus Christ than at any other time in the history of the country,"  here. 

Joel Rosenberg, New York Times best-selling author, wrote "...some 5,000 Iraqis have publicly identified themselves as new followers of Christ since Iraq was liberated."   Also, "..an estimated 8 out of 10 Iraqi believers say they converted because Jesus appeared to them in dreams or visions."

Will add more when I get back into town.  Until then, see the article at the Washington Times, here.

MUSICIANS URGENTLY NEEDED

      (Image from cnn.com)

(Shad and Sheila Williams, at www.wegotothem.com, are evangelists to the world who have raised up pastors, churches and seminaries on two continents.  They have brought millions to Christ.  In their just completed 3-week Kenya campaign, over 56,000 came to the Lord!  It would be wonderful to be a part of something like that!)

Now, unexpectedly, they are in urgent need of a musician or musicians.  Below is Shad's appeal.  If you know someone who might be interested, please pass this on.)

"Dear friends,

"I know it is late in the game, but I am sending you this to ask you to pray with Sheila and me that God will miraculously provide some one or some ones to sing/play for the India campaign coming up next month (July 13-31.) 

"This is a desperate need. 

"If you know someone who might be remotely interested in going to sing in the school meetings or play an instrument (guitar, keyboard, etc.) please have them contact me immediately.  I know I am asking for a miracle - but...GOD.

"Love in Jesus,

"Shad"

GREAT VIDEO ON 2ND COMING OF CHRIST

Just click on www.lifetalk.net/2ndcoming/ee.html.   

"Being On Time" for God - Part 3, Final Part

        (Image from Oxfam.org.au)

(Shad Williams is today's guest blogger.  His long article about "Being On Time" for God was broken up into shorter daily segments.&