Let me introduce myself. My name is John S. Oliver. God used me to raise support for my disabled neighbor for seven years. Hundreds of dollars each month were raised after many prayers were made. There was always a relationship between prayers and money. The more prayers then the more easily the money was raised for her medicines, bus fare, groceries and sometimes rent.
That neighbor was a committed Christian. She died and has gone to live with Jesus Christ in heaven forever. Helping her was difficult for me. There were times I needed to request prayers for God to strengthen me to carry on. And He did.
Teri heard me refer to those experiences. She asked me to help her. My response was I needed to pray first. After prayer I said I was willing but I did not want to. That was because of the hurts from the previous times of asking many to give to help my disabled neighbor and heard far more no replies than yes replies.
Most Christians do not feel that the Bible is calling them to personal benevolence. Very few churches helped and then only in small ways during those years. She received all the aid possible for her conditions from the government agencies but still there was not enough for her basic needs.
I started to work with Teri to make this site many weeks ago. There were times of rapid progress then long delays. It felt like spiritual warfare. I requested many prayers just to get it this far. Along that path the Holy Spirit brought to my attention other committed Christians that are barely making it financially. These include a few seminary students, a street preacher and a full time evangelist. I have known all of them for many years. And it is a wonder that they make it from month to month. Then I felt prompted to make a site for each of them after I make this one. Note that I have made dozens of blogs and websites over the years. The technical side is easy for me.
As I pondered those I recalled years ago when I felt led to adapt what I had been using to help my neighbor and provide sites to enroll support for international students at the seminary where I worked. That seemed right yet it never got beyond some basic plans.
During the last 40 years I have been a member of Sunday school classes, small groups and churches where I knew of those experiencing difficulties. There was no system to share prayer needs, updates and funds. But in my imagination and on my mind maps I knew this was possible due to the current communication technologies.
Creating the communication systems is fairly easy from a techie perspective. But there is a major spiritual layer that also requires much prayer. I had known from my own experiences and observations that prayer and intercession is rarely taught. Over the decades I have read many books and websites on the subject. Very few were excellent. Most of them used a very Bible verses and many stories. They lacked solid biblical theology as a base.
Before Teri asked for me to help her I had just begun to write my first ebook. It would address the related biblical subjects of faith, hope and love. Each of these is essential and they relate to one another. They have practical applications for the Christian to follow Jesus daily.
Along the way I experienced a crisis of belief. In my mind and heart I came to understand that there are three major parts. I gave them names in my files. The one related to the web support systems is called Effective Charity Systems. In order for that to do well I will need to teach and that part is named Improving Prayers and Intercessions. Then in order for the prayers and intercessions to be effective as well as the sites I need to teach about Faith, Hope and Love. On the one hand I enjoy and I need challenges but this was far too complex. I was mentally and emotionally overwhelmed as I considered the path in front of me. I admitted this to others and requested prayers. I spent a few weeks wrestling with God. I knew from the start He will win but I needed to pass through that process.
Also for two years before that my heart and mind had been set on serving those in developing countries. I had invested hundreds of hours in plans and preparations for collaboratively creating educational modules for subsistence farmers, orphans and rural pastors. So how does that fit with this new direction?
I wrestled with God about this. It seemed impossible to do all this. And it is impossible for me to do alone or in my own strength. During prayer the Holy Spirit reminded me that He called me and He will complete what He began. I need to be available and willing for Him to work through me. Plus During the coming months and years the plan calls for enrolling many volunteers and some paid workers.
I will share more about this later. But know today that this is just the beginning. Several more individual sites will follow. Those initial products will serve as prototypes to raise fund to ramp up the scale so more will be included. And little by little I will include the parts about prayer, intercession, faith, hope and love.
I request your prayers for God to grant me His grace and mercy as this unfolds.
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