CCIM Snapshots from Africa
The Kingdom of God Breaking in Upon Us Requires that We Hold Back our Own Best Solutions and Thinking
If you are familiar with the work of CCIM you will have noticed that we go about ministry in a fairly unique way: we expect to be hosted by those we travel to and minister alongside. At first glance this seems to be disproportionate to the economic realities of west meeting east. How does one coming from one of the most affluent countries in the world get off on asking those in the poorest countries in the world to host her?
Well, it’s taken some time and the Lord’s heavy hand upon us at CCIM, but we are now convinced and thoroughly convicted that this is how the Lord would have us move. Let me try to explain.
My first exposure to the unique economic working of the Lord came as I was staying with Edith in Uganda back in 2011. Having breakfast on her front porch one day, she pointed out to me the verse in Matthew 10:41a, “He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward.” Edith understood that keeping me in her home was a gift back unto the Lord and one that would be honoured in the big scheme of things.
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Three of Us to Uganda
We are two and one-half weeks away from journeying to Uganda. Myself, Crystal, and Nelson will be arriving in Uganda on September 18th, and will be in the country until we begin our flights home on December 16th.
When I go to a country and to those I will be with, I am hosted, fed and given a place to sleep, by those I’m ministering alongside, while the money that I bring into a country is for the internal travel of our on-the-ground-team (which includes the pastor/s we are travelling with once there).
Now, with three of us going, Nelson having just decided 9 days ago, I’ve been communicating that we are now three coming and asking if this is okay on their end in terms of the hosting of us.
Emerging Movemental Influence
Some months back Alongsiders International posted this grid contrasting old style leadership and the new, emerging movemental influence. At CCIM we immediately recognized this as our very own manner of ministry as we stand alongside indigenous pastors and church leaders around the world.
In the months since, we continue to come across other ministries that are keen on exactly this way of reaching and discipling and growing our communities and nations.
And while CCIM works with church leaders who, more often than not, have been raised to minister in the old style of leadership, we are intentionally challenging and equipping pastors and churches to move into an increasingly ‘movemental’ model.
Capturing God’s Heart – Disciples – Volume 40
“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:19-20
The church is where disciples are being made.
Where disciples are being made there is the church.
The Real Work Belongs to the Lord
The international launch of CCIM was in the fall of 2011. It was at that time that I took my first ministry trip to Africa. I had been invited, persistently invited, by a gentleman in Uganda and after prayer and discernment realized that it was time to begin what the Lord had been telling me about for some time.
In the year 2000 the Holy Spirit had begun showing me these rolling hills as far as I could see, covered by trees more than I could count. And with this vision came his words, “Each tree represents a life that your words will touch.” Initially I thought I was imagining all of this. Yet as time went by and as the Lord continued to impress this vision upon my spirit and mind I began to take this as God telling me something.
Capturing God’s Heart – Peace – Volume 39
God has a lot of things to say about peace:
“Let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it.” 1 Peter 3:11
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.” Matthew 5:9
“A harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.” James 3:18
“When a man’s ways please the Lord, he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.” Proverbs 16:7
Our peace comes from God:
“Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in every way. The Lord be with you all.” 2 Thessalonians 3:16
The Work of Death
God delights to meet with His people. Gathering, walking, talking, abiding in each other’s presence, this is the agenda and heart of God and all of His efforts ever since the beginning of time have been unto relationship, and since the fall, have been about restoring relationship.
Within the text of Genesis, right at the start in chapter three, we find God restoring dignity to mankind and covering over what had already been lost.
“The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.” Genesis 3:21, is not just a nice little verse about the newest fashions of the day. It is about God interrupting created order for the sake of his children. God the creator of all things, the one who sustains all life, kills one of his creatures for the benefit and blessing and restored dignity of both Adam and Eve.
Walking in The Way
I recently created a diagram to illustrate the work that CCIM does compared to the more traditional and humanitarian aid work that many organizations are involved towards. First off I want to make it plain and clear that there is nothing wrong with humanitarian aid work. For many around the world it is a lifeline that speaks to the reality of God in our midst through the practical help of others. I myself have benefited from practical help through the years.
What I learned though, through my own years, is the understanding that for every bad fruit in our lives there is a bad root. Bad fruit does not just come from nowhere, there is always a legal right for that bad fruit to be there. 
What I mean is this: authority in the spirit realm works by very clear rules and principles with each one of us giving either Satan or God authority in our lives.
Coming Out of Agreement
It is a very easy, natural even, to agree with the compromises of health and of strength within our bodies and lives. Years back I heard it said this say, “When you agree to your limitations they are surely yours.”
I recently heard the testimony of someone who had at one time realized her agreement with the chronic ill-health she was experiencing. This began of course in the mind, “Gosh, I am so physically unwell” would replay in her mind and spirit until one day she realized that she was in agreement with ill-health.
Once she realized this she made a decision to come out of agreement with ill-health, and as she began to disagree with her chronic ill-health she became healthy. To this day she does not have the compromised health she was once experiencing.
Capturing God’s Heart – Sabbath – Volume 38
It is hard taking a day of rest. There is this driving fear that would keep us working, working, working. Bills need to be paid, food needs to be bought; there is just always something that needs to be taken care of.
It is why it is so difficult to understand on a human level God’s rhythm, and command even, to take a weekly sabbath.
“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.” Exodus 20:8-11
God, at the beginning of time, set into place a rhythm for our working and our resting. And while we do not any longer live under the law of the Old Testament, we do want to understand the principle behind this command; we want to know God’s heart and intention for us in this admonition to keep a sabbath.