August 31, 2009
Watch this four-minute clip and hear the story behind the book.
July 23, 2009
Churches in Romania help transform communities
Cristi Peticioiu is a DNA trainer from Romania where he has worked for many years helping pastors and church leaders embrace a Biblical worldview and begin to practice a wholistic, transformational ministry. He recently shared this update:
“Our strategy in Romania has three parts. First, we train local churches to become “model churches” of holistic ministry in the community. Second, we train and mentor local trainers to multiply the teaching throughout the country. Third, we create a base of resources and curricula in Romanian focused on Biblical worldview and wholistic ministry. This year I will translate Darrow Miller’s book Nurturing the Nations: Reclaiming the Dignity of Women in Building Healthy Cultures. I will also translate the On Earth as it Is In Heaven curriculum.
“Romania is a culture that has been deeply influenced by a secular/naturalistic worldview. As a result, it is rather difficult even for Christians to think ‘Christianly.’ Despite this, we are seeing some very exciting impact. Here are a few brief examples:
“At the beginning of January [2009], I got a call from one of the ladies from Momaia church announcing to me that eight people came to the Lord. She was extremely excited and wanted to let me know as soon as it happened. What she said gave me hope and joy. ‘We were applying what we learned in your training, to love our neighbors in deed and we did some small expressions of love to our neighbors, who were touched by it and came to church. After several Sundays, they trusted their lives to Jesus.’
“Amost every Sunday, new people are coming to the church to hear the Gospel. That didn’t happen in the past. More and more are coming to understand why Christians in the village are acting differently. The leader of the church is now facing a new problem–they need to expand their building to fit them all. Women from the village are also educated to create their own clothing, which is being done with the support of one of our volunteers working in the villiage community center.
“In a meeting with the Mayor of Tigveni (where Momaia church is located), he stated that he gained trust in gypsies as he worked with this the church leaders and agreed to improve their living conditions through various community development projects.
Through the training and encouragement of these pastors, the community of Tigveni is increasingly able to discover local resources, skills and knowledge, which is being used to solve community problems, and together both church and civic leaders are seeing significant postive change in the community.
July 23, 2009
Marvin Olasky endorses LifeWork
Dr. Marvin Olasky, Provost of The Kings College in New York City and Editor-in-chief of World Magazine has endorsed Darrow Miller’s new book LifeWork: A Biblical Theology for What You Do Every Day to be released by YWAM Publishing in August. Dr. Olasky described the first 114 pages of the book “spectacular,” and wrote: “I’d like every student to read Darrow Miller’s chapters on worldview at work and the need to battle dualism and the sacred-secular dichotomy. He brilliantly shows how to live and work before God and why it’s so important to grasp the biblical theology of vocation. His summary of the Bible’s essential metanarrative is pitch-perfect and his application of that to cultural pursuits is exactly what those who waver need to hear.”
July 23, 2009
Chris Ampadu teaches in Armenia
Chris Ampadu is a “second-generation” DNA trainer from Ghana and is the West Africa representative for Samaritan Strategy Africa. As with many DNA trainers, he is increasingly in demand as a speaker not just in Africa, but around the world. He just returned from a training event in Yerevan, Armenia and shared this report.
“By the grace of God, I safely arrived home from Yerevan after a one-week conference hosted by the Humanitarian International Services Group (HISG) in partnership with 222 Ministries. In all, 45 participants attended the wholistic, transformational training. Ten of them are church leaders while 35 were carefully selected youth in the community of Yerevan and Ararat where the meeting took place. This historic town lies in the shadow of mount Ararat where Noah’s ark came to a rest. This was one of the best training programs I had had in my 13 years of training pastors and church leaders. The participants were very enthusiastic, zealous to learn, ready to share their ‘discipline of love’ experience from the previous day, and at the end of working on their Seed Projects gave me all the promise and assurance of donig it to the glory of God! I have never been shown such love and respect by a group of people like this before and I left in the midst of tears from the participants and myself. Please pray for Armenia, a former communist state with a great deal of poverty. The trainees will now undergo a four week business start-up training from HISG. Please pray for them!”
July 23, 2009
Wilberforce Academy joins the DNA as an affiliate organization
The DNA is pleased to announce its newest affiliate organization, Wilberforce Academy. Directed by longtime DNA friend Bob Osburn, the Wilberforce Academy aims to compliment the evangelistic and discipling efforts of U.S. campus ministries to international students by offering advanced discipleship in building societies God’s way. Central to their program will be a new transferrable curriculum built around a biblical worldview.
The curriculum is currently under development, and the DNA and Wilberforce Academy intend to collaborate on the development of the curriculum as well as help connect returning international students who have been through the training with DNA trainers and champions from the 60 nations where they work.
Bob Osburn has a PhD in international education from the University of Minnesota where he is also a lecturer in the Department of Educational Policy and Administration. He has spent 24 years working with international students.
July 21, 2009
Transformational development without dependency
DNA advocates John and Kate Marsden have served faithfully as country directors for Bangladesh for ten years, working to empower the locals for biblical development without creating dependency. This was no small task in an area hostile toward the Christian faith. Find out more, as the couple was featured in the 6:8 quarterly magazine on pages 31-34.
