It’s not too late to sign up for To Every Tribe’s Mission Conference to be held next week in Dalton, GA.  We are pleased to announce that Dr. Al Mohler will now be speaking at the conference.   Conference registration is FREE!  You can register here.

The theme of this year’s [...]]]>

It’s not too late to sign up for To Every Tribe’s Mission Conference to be held next week in Dalton, GA.  We are pleased to announce that Dr. Al Mohler will now be speaking at the conference.   Conference registration is FREE!  You can register here.

The theme of this year’s conference is “The Privilege of Suffering.”  Other conference speakers include David Sitton (To Every Tribe), Dr. Erwin Lutzer (Moody Church),  Dr. Hershael York (SBTS), Dr. David Sills (SBTS), and Mr. Fred Zaspel.

The theme of this year’s conference is “The Privilege of Suffering.”  Conference speakers include David Sitton (To Every Tribe), Dr. Erwin Lutzer (Moody Church), Dr. Timothy George (Beeson Divinity [...]]]> I’d like to invite you to check out the full-page ad for our annual mission conference on p. 62 of the Aug. 29, 2009 issue of WORLD magazine.

The theme of this year’s conference is “The Privilege of Suffering.”  Conference speakers include David Sitton (To Every Tribe), Dr. Erwin Lutzer (Moody Church), Dr. Timothy George (Beeson Divinity School), Dr. Hershael York (SBTS), Dr. David Sills (SBTS), and Mr. Fred Zaspel.

For more conference information and registration please visit the To Every Tribe website.  I also mentioned the conference in an earlier post (here).

NOTE: If you’d like to promote this conference on your blog or website, feel free to “take” the add above in this post.

“I know enough about Satan to realize that he will have all his weapons ready for determined opposition. He would be a missionary simpleton who expected plain sailing in any work of God.” James O. Fraser (1886-1938) Pioneer Missionary to China

The following article was written by David Sitton, founder and president of To [...]]]>

“I know enough about Satan to realize that he will have all his weapons ready for determined opposition. He would be a missionary simpleton who expected plain sailing in any work of God.”
James O. Fraser (1886-1938)
Pioneer Missionary to China

The following article was written by David Sitton, founder and president of To Every Tribe, the mission organization in which we serve.  Lord willing, I will be visiting Chambri Island next summer with David.  This article can be downloaded as a PDF file here.

God’s Power is Demonstrated Among the Chambri Tribe of Papua New Guinea

A pack of enraged villagers charged us. I yelled for our team to run and then turned back to face the attacking mob. One of the tribesmen, hearing my voice, whirled around and sprinted towards me with a machete in his hand. His eyes were red and glazed as he swung the machete at me in a demonic frenzy. He screamed, “You have destroyed the ritual of our ancestors!” And twice he swung the machete over my head as I ducked and back-pedaled out of the way.

David and Tommi Sitton

Preaching Christ among tribal peoples in the grip of a satanic choke-hold is like stirring up hornets with a stick. Revelation 12 reminds us that the devil is “filled with fury because he knows that his time is short.” This is why world missions and spiritual warfare are inseparable. If you stir up the hornets, be ready for some action!

Situated near the Sepik River in the sweltering swamps of Papua New Guinea, the Chambri Tribe suffers under the strict tyranny of territorial and ancestral spirits. However, centuries of demonic domination over the Chambri is now being demolished by the intercessory prayers of God’s people. These impassioned intercessions have dragged the entire tribe to the very brink of spiritual breakthrough. A dramatic shift in the spiritual climate of Chambri has recently occurred that is entirely unexplainable, except for prayer and the power of God.

Ever since our work commenced among the Chambri Tribe in 1989 we’ve been asking the Lord to do something that would visibly demonstrate his superiority over the multitude of spirits that Chambri villagers fear and worship. Being a power-oriented society, it is important that they be fully convinced of God’s sovereignty over evil spirits. And finally, in the summer of 1995, the Lord did it!

Thirty minutes after Missionary Aviation Fellowship (MAF) dropped us off on the grass airstrip at Chambri Island, a woman died. Antonio was a young Chambri woman in her  late 20’s who had suffered from cancer. When she died, she was one of only six believers in the entire tribe of 1,700 people.

The Chambri, like most tribals, do not believe in natural death, particularly when it involves a young person. The belief is that someone must have caused the premature death through witchcraft or sorcery.

Over hundreds of years, Chambri tribesmen have devised a ritual to help them discern the identity of the person or clan responsible. Then the death can be avenged and the spirits satisfied.

The ritual is called wokim mambu, which means the “shaking of the bamboo.” Initiated men call upon evil spirits to come possess them and to empower a bamboo pole which will point out the guilty person. In Chambri, evil spirits influence the bamboo in much the same way as they do an ouija board.

Chambri men boasted to me for six years about how easy it is to conjure up the spirits. It is so simple, they say, that “even our children can do it.” And this is true. Tribal children grow up learning how to manipulate the spirits through a variety of sacrifices and rituals. And most New Guineans will tell you that they have seen the spirits. No doubt, they have intimate dealings with demonic spirits on a regular basis.
Antonio died on a Saturday morning, was buried that afternoon, and the Chambri were ready to call up her spirit that same evening. As the sun was setting, more than 200 people gathered in an open area between several huts. Two young men stood to begin the solemn séance. One man held a five-foot long bamboo pole while the other tapped on it rhythmically with a human bone. He chanted softly at first and invited the spirit of Antonio to come take control of the bamboo. And then his chants became louder and more aggressive.

I inched over next to the bamboo, angry that they were attempting to conjure up the spirit of Antonio. With loud shouts I announced that “Antonio was a follower of Jesus; she is in heaven with God right now; and her spirit will not appear tonight!”

Probably ten minutes of intense spiritual warfare ensued. The Chambri sorcerers were begging with the spirits and I was raising my voice asking the Lord to restrain the spirits and to show Himself to be more powerful than the ancestral spirits. In the name of the Lord Jesus I rebuked the men and forbade the spirits to show up or to have any influence over the bamboo. Finally, one of the men threw the bamboo down in disgust,saying, “The spirits won’t come tonight.”

I yelled out loudly, “That’s right! Our great God is more powerful than the spirits! He has proven his superiority by disarming your spirits and forbidding them to move the bamboo!”

Suddenly, confusion erupted as people were running around and screaming and throwing coconuts at us. And I thought the people were chasing after us, so I yelled to our team to “Run!” and they took off sprinting down the grass airstrip. As part of my team hustled back to the campsite, I continued to shout out the truth of God’s power and authority over their spirits. The villagers were furious and screaming insults and threats against us while I persisted loudly about the supremacy of God over evil spirits.

Suddenly, a woman appeared out of the shadows over to my left. Those of my team that were still with me – We physically felt a surge of evil power sweep over us. Obviously, this was a much more potent sorceress. She waved her hands over her head and began to sway and dance and chant and plead with the spirits. Though she was more than twenty yards away from the bamboo, all of her attention was directed towards it. She was attempting to levitate the bamboo by the power of the spirits.

Once again, there was a time of intense spiritual battle as she pleaded with the spirits to reveal themselves. And I continued to pray loudly for the power and presence of the Lord to rebuke her and to dis-empower the spirits who would seek to take authority over the bamboo.

Then the Lord prompted me to issue this challenge: I yelled out the name of the sorceress,

“Rosa! Bring out your most powerful sorcerer. If he can persuade the spirits to shake the bamboo, we will follow and worship your spirits. But if he can’t do it, you need to repent and worship and follow our God!

Rosa became all the more loud and radical, twisting and gyrating her body in a frantic attempt to summon the spirits, but the bamboo lay lifeless on the ground. Finally, with cursing, she gave up and retreated into the night. One of the young men grabbed the bamboo and angrily shoved it up through the open doorway of a hut. I quickly bellowed out my challenge once more for them to bring out their most powerful sorcerer. But they refused to even try. But now, several villagers, in their anger charged after us. And I shouted again for my team to run for safety.

This is when the machete-wielding tribesman chased me down. He took three quick steps forward and raised the bush knife over me. I wheeled around to avoid being hit on the head, fully expecting to be slashed in the back. I flinched, but nothing happened. When I peeked around, I saw that one of the unsaved Chambri men had jumped in between me and the swinging machete! He saved my life – Not because he was a believer in Christ, he wasn’t. He did it because three times he saw the demonstration of our God’s authority and power over their spirits. And he was afraid of what our God would do to them if I was killed.

To my amazement, forty Chambri villagers encircled me and quietly escorted me safely back to camp. My strength left me and I fell to the ground weeping. I wept because of my great love for the Chambri; I wept because of the incredible adrenaline rush of almost having my head chopped off; and I wept because of the realization that God had just used us in an awesome display of his power, openly rebuking the spirits that have ruled over Chambri for thousands of years. All of that emotion exploded out of me as I lay face-down in the wet grass sobbing for a long time.

The machete man came to visit me the next day. He brought a gift of two beetle nuts and apologized, saying, “I don’t know what came over me last night, but I almost killed you!” I replied, “I know what came over you. You are a servant of evil spirits. But three times last night our God showed himself to be more powerful than your spirits. You need to repent and turn to the Lord Jesus.” This man’s name is Bob. I now jokingly referred to him as Machete Bob and he has become my best friend among the Chambri. Although he did not commit his life to Christ, he did follow us around every day, helping us in everything we did. In the years following, he insisted that I use his canoe and boat motor whenever I went visited the surrounding tribes. Bob is now my constant companion and guide on these gospel excursions.

Praise Report: I received word in 2002 that Bob and his wife had become believers in Christ and are now part of the Chambri fellowship.

The spiritual conflict with the sorceress was a significant turning point. Dozens of Chambri villagers began visiting us, whereas before we only had a sprinkling of interested visitors. They had seen in a visible way the power and supremacy of God over the evil spirits that dominate them. This demonstration of God’s power is giving them the courage to listen to the gospel message and seriously consider who Jesus Christ really is.

The Prophet Isaiah foresaw a momentous day in which the shroud of spiritual darkness overhanging the nations would be destroyed and replaced with God’s salvation (Isaiah 25:7-9). We are seeing the fulfillment of this as the Lord steadily dismantles the devil’s stronghold over the Chambri tribe.

The battle lines are now decisively drawn in our struggle for Chambri souls. Gospel seed has been steadily sown and watered since 1989. By God’s grace, I believe the time is near when I will be able to report an even greater in-gathering of souls; and the church will be even more gloriously established in the Chambri swamps of Papua New Guinea.

Satan may yet make attempts to maintain his throne in Mexico, but [...]]]> Today I heard about Melinda Rankin for the first time.  An amazing woman!  Melinda was a single Presbyterian missionary in northern Mexico in the mid-ninteenth century who started a school in Monterrey.  Her little autobiography, Twenty Years Among the Mexicans, ends with these excellent words:

Satan may yet make attempts to maintain his throne in Mexico, but only to find himself baffled and thwarted. The Bible is rapidly shedding its hallowed influences, and will constitute bulwarks against which the gates of hell shall not prevail.

To me, the crowning joy of the work in Mexico is the triumph of Divine Truth over superstition and error, proving beyond a doubt that the Bible is Heaven’s ordained instrumentality for elevating fallen humanity, and for bringing back an apostate world to the allegiance of God. If there is one nation of people more than any other -with whom I shall delight to join in singing the song of Redeeming Love in the day when that great multitude, which no man can number, stands before the throne of God, I am sure it will be with the Mexican nation.

Big dittos!

If you live in the southeast (or elsewhere for that matter) and are interested in missions, you may want to attend To Every Tribe’s annual mission conference on October 29 – 31. The conference will be held in Dalton, GA (about 30 min. south of Chattanooga) at the NorthWest Georgia Trade & Conference Center. [...]]]>

If you live in the southeast (or elsewhere for that matter) and are interested in missions, you may want to attend To Every Tribe’s annual mission conference on October 29 – 31. The conference will be held in Dalton, GA (about 30 min. south of Chattanooga) at the NorthWest Georgia Trade & Conference Center. The theme of this year’s conference will be The Privilege of Suffering.

This year’s conference speakers include TETM directors, David Sitton, Rod Conner, and Ron Sanford, as well as Dr. Erwin Lutzer, pastor of The Moody Church in Chicago, Dr. Timothy George, dean of Beeson Divinity School, Dr. Hershael York, professor of preaching at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Dr. David Sills, professor of missions at SBTS, and Mr. Fred Zaspel, pastor at the Reformed Baptist Church of Franconia, PA.

This is going to be  a challenging and edifying conference. Hope to see you there!  For more information about the conference and accommodation options, please see TETM’s website.

To whet your appetite, you can listen to one of the messages from TETM’s 2008 missions conference, The Purpose Driven Death:

• Brett Harris: Not Too Young to Die
• Gregg Harris and Rod Conner: Hitting the Bull’s-Eye in Missions
• David Sitton: Dead is Better
• John Piper: Filling Up What is Lacking In the Afflictions of Christ

Once, after preaching from Acts 14:16 and 17:30 that God commands all men everywhere to repent, Carey was [...]]]> William Carey certainly can’t be accused of being unevangelistic.  And yet he was an unabashed Calvinist (yes, all 5 of ‘em), and in fact, it was his God-centered Calvinist (Pauline) theology drove his passion for people, missions, and evangelism.

Once, after preaching from Acts 14:16 and 17:30 that God commands all men everywhere to repent, Carey was confronted with the following comment by a Brahman who heard his message: “Indeed I think God ought to repent for not sending the gospel sooner to us.”

Carey’s response is classic:

“To this I added, suppose a kingdom had been long overrun by the enemies of its true king, and he though possessed of sufficient power to conquer them, should yet suffer them to prevail, and establish themselves as much as they could desire, would not the valor and wisdom of that king be far more conspicuous in exterminating them, than it would have been if he had opposed them at first, and prevented their entering the country? Thus by the diffusion of gospel light, the wisdom, power, and grace of God will be more conspicuous in overcoming such deep-rooted idolatries, and in destroying all that darkness and vice which have so universally prevailed in this country, than they would have been if all had not been suffered to walk in their own ways for so many ages past.”  (from A Vision for Missions, by Tom Wells, p. 13.)

Carey’s wise words betray the following convictions:

1. God is sovereign not only in salvation but also in the course and progress of the gospel throughout history.
2. God’s goal in missions is ultimately to make his wisdom, power, and grace conspicuous.
3. God sometimes sovereignly withholds the gospel from going to certain people in order to accomplish his own God-glorifying purposes (cf. Matthew 10:5-6).
4. At any moment that he sovereignly chooses to do so, God is perfectly capable of “overcoming…deep-rooted idolatries” and “destroying all that darkness and vice which have so universally prevailed” in the world.
5. God accomplishes this through “the diffusion of gospel light” which requires that gospel-bearing messengers participate in his mission (cf. Rom 10:14-15).