Engelsen AdVentures: March 2013

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Soaring with the Super Eagles

Leslie/Todd: We returned a couple weeks back from Nigeria, one of our favorite places to visit! Our Nigerian brothers and sisters in Christ are nothing short of amazing. They live in turbulent times with ongoing Muslim-Christian conflict, yet they are so quick to love as Jesus loved and beautifully bold in their Christian witness. We have so much to learn from them!

Todd with Reverend Panya Baba, the person who introduced Leslie and Todd, and one who has discipled both of them in more of what it means to follow Jesus. Reverend Baba's wife brought Todd his favorite Nigerian snack.

We were pleased to see a semblance of peace return to Nigeria's Plateau. In our previous visit, hundreds had been killed just days before our arrival and hundreds more were killed days after our arrival. We were on a 6 pm to 6 am curfew then. People were quite tense. There remain smaller skirmishes to this day where a person or two are killed here or there, but in general, peace has returned for a season on the Plateau. The peaceful Nigeria we had known for decades was back, and so beautiful.

Except for one night. You see, if there is one thing than can bring peace to all of Nigeria other than Jesus, it's football, or soccer as we call it in these parts. And while we were there, a great thing happened. Nigeria's football team, the Super Eagles, won the Africa Cup of Nations - Africa's football championship. As the 95th minute of their championship match with Burkina Faso ticked away and the Super Eagles claimed their victory, all of Nigeria broke out in celebration. We didn't mind saying goodbye to peace for a night.

We need to be praying for our Nigerian microfinance partner. This trip focused on discussing with them the way forward in the midst of these turbulent times. Their microfinance program has been hit hard as markets have been burned down and many put out of business. Management and governance of the program suffers in times like this. What was once the strongest of our African microfinance partners was really struggling. They have great resolve to turn things around. Let's pray that they can do that, because there has never been a time when Nigeria needs a strong Christian microfinance program like now.

Les with members of a fantastic Nigerian organization doing urban ministry.

As you might suspect, in Nigeria Todd is "Mr. Leslie". Les lived almost 17 years in Nigeria, so our visit was packed with visits from people we love dearly - those whom Les raised as literal babes are now taking their university exams. Les has maintained ties with an urban ministry in Nigeria and they had some great meetings while we were there. We even found time to make some new Nigerian friends, and we can see how God may use their ties to further extend His kingdom from heaven to earth in the years ahead.

Meet the Engelsens!

We (Todd and Leslie Engelsen) lead PEER Servants — an organization of committed and gifted volunteers and staff dedicated to serving indigenous, autonomous microfinance institutions in the materially poor world. Todd is the President of PEER Servants while Leslie assumes many key responsibilities within the organization.

We met in Nigeria in 1998. Leslie had been in Nigeria for over 12 years at the time working in urban ministry — especially in helping materially poor women caught up in prostitution find new life in Jesus Christ. Todd had been working for almost 15 years at John Hancock as an actuary and senior officer and used his vacation time to come to Nigeria as a microfinance consultant to Rescue Fellowship Nigeria, PEER Servants’ new Nigerian microfinance partner. It was a match made in heaven — we married in 2002. Todd left John Hancock in 2004 to focus full-time in his responsibilities as PEER Servants President.

Living Simply

"Labor hard, consume little, give much to others and all to Christ." William Okoye, Pastor in Abuja, Nigeria

"Poverty is freedom. It is a freedom so that what I possess doesn’t own me, so that what I possess doesn’t hold me down, so that my possessions don’t keep me from sharing or giving of myself." Mother Teresa, No Greater Love, p.96

"The Lord owns the world and everything in it—the heavens, even the highest heavens are his." Moses, Deuteronomy 10:14 (NLT)

"To live a simple lifestyle means to live intentionally beneath your potential standard of living for the purpose of sharing your excess with others." Jeff and Judy Heath, Wycliffe missionaries in Chad (quoted in Simplify by P. Borthwick, p.148)

"We are not accustomed to denying ourselves in order to serve others. But Jesus insisted that discipleship is impossible without self denial. Instant gratification is at the core of modern life. Costly self-denial is at the center of Jesus’ way. We must choose." Ron Sider, Living Like Jesus, p.34

"If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will save it." Jesus, Mark 8:34-35 (NLT)

"The gap between the rich and the poor continues to widen. In 1960, the richest 20 percent of the world’s countries had thirty times more income than the poorest 20 percent. By 1990 the richest 20 percent had 60 times more! Since Christians own two-thirds of the world’s wealth, the majority of that top 20 percent were “Christians.” While we get richer, one billion desperately poor people live at the edge of survival. Millions starve every year. Tens of millions of these desperate people are brothers and sisters in Christ. That we tolerate their anguish is a sinful rending of Christ’s one body." Ron Sider, Living Like Jesus, p.79

"Nothing that you have not given away will ever really be yours. Nothing in you that has not died will ever be raised from the dead. Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in." CS Lewis, Mere Christianity, p.180

"But who am I, and who are my people, that we could give anything to you? Everything we have has come from you, and we give you only what you gave us first." David, 1 Chronicles 29:14 (NLT)

"My parents and their colleagues were caught up in the kingdom where God was the center. . . . This released them from self centered preoccupation with their own survival. Personal fulfillment and safety was a by product, not a goal in their vision. . . . They had a fierce joy in knowing that they were doing the right thing and that God was pleased. . . . Suffering was taking for granted and not something to avoid at all cost. . . . Simpler lifestyle was not something God had inflicted on us but something they had chosen for the sake of the kingdom." Kari Torjesen Malcolm, We Signed Away Our Lives, writing about missionaries in China in the early part of the 20th century

"Not that I was ever in need, for I have learned how to be content with whatever I have. I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little. For I can do everything through Christ who gives me strength." Apostle Paul, Philippians 4:11-13

"With forgiveness, and the justice that flows from Christ’s compassion, the economic divisions that condemn some to deadly starvation and others to suffocating affluence can give way to wholeness for all." Ron Sider, Living Like Jesus, p.27

"Give me eagerness for your laws rather than love for money! Turn my eyes from worthless things, and give me life through your word." Psalm 119:36-37

Suggestions for Simple Living
* Cultivate contentment, desire less.
* Resist covetousness and consumerism.
* Buy things for their usefulness, not their status.
* Learn to enjoy things without owning them. Benefit from places of “common ownership” (parks, museums, libraries, rivers).
* De-accumulate. Develop the habit of giving things away.
* Offer others the use of your possessions.
* Develop a network of exchange.
* Avoid impulse buying.
* Don’t buy now pay later.
* Avoid credit cards if they are a problem.
* De-emphasize respectability.
* Simplify your wardrobe–give away excess.
* Learn how to make do with a lower income instead of needing a higher one.
* Be grateful for things large and small.
* Emphasize a joyful life.
Scott Bessenecker, The New Friars, p.182

"Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal. Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be." Jesus, Matt.6:19-21

"We must learn to give until it hurts and not hold on to our earthly possessions too tightly because we will always meet people who need our clothes, furniture, food & money more than we do. . . . We must make decisions every day about our lives and priorities, decisions not for ourselves but for others, decisions in agreement with God’s heart for the needy." Dave Andrews, Can You Hear the Heartbeat?

Engelsen AdVentures

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Soaring with the Super Eagles

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