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J U N E — J U L Y
2 0 1 6
I S S U E
Mission LINK
from Rev. Dr. David Upp, Great Plains Conference Missionary
Combined Issue
SO much has happened since May
9th that I’ve had to compress the
rest of May and all of June into a
Single Issue… & July will be even
busier! Here’s my LOG for the first
half of 2016: “20, 22, 24, 26” [20
inter-island sails, 22 US states and
territories, 24 flights, in 26 weeks].
For a change, most of my travel &
work lately have been by car & IN
the USA: North Carolina, Virginia,
Massachusetts, and Rhode Island;
but I have also preached/sharedabout-Global-Mission at ELEVEN
UMC’s & two Brazilian Churches.
THE GREAT FRONTIER
Between Islam and Christianity
Reciprocity in Global Missions
Something Rare and Wonderful happened in late May: I
was able to HOST a Church Leader from FAR AWAY who
had previously been MY Host! Last August, I spent several
days & nights at the Parsonage of Mutare District
Superintendent Daniel Chitsiku [shown here addressing folks
from all four UMC’s in Newton, Kansas] from the Zimbabwe
East Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church. Rev.
Chitsiku gave good presentations & led our Q-&-A Sessions. I
was also able to Share about Missions in Newton and at both
Marion UMC’s. I’m wearing my KUDU shirt, from
Chitakatira Sewing Club.
The Articles inside this June-July Mission Link:
Islam & Christ
Summer Institute
on Islam [Boston]
led very intensive
& clarifying study!
ETHNOGRAPHY
Trivia Questions
Anthropological
Research advances
Prayer Discipline,
Tribal Rights, &
Global Missiology
Answer to May’s Q
and a pair of NewQuestions for your
Lazy-or-Not-so-Lazy
Days of Summer!
MISSION LINK BY DR. DAVID UPP
JUNE-JULY 2016
What Used to Be: “An Un–Crossable Frontier” …
When Hardly Any Muslims Became Christians
Muslims have confessed Jesus Christ as Lord!
See Arabic Baptists’ Hymnal and Conference
book (Boston)? See “Alleluia” 3x in Arabic
calligraphy on a Praise-Screen? & Pictures from
1-of-FIVE Egyptian Arabic Christian Congregations in Richmond (Virginia)? & “Reach the
Beach” (in Revere, MASS.) was an evangelistic
outreach to Saudi Arabs this past weekend!
My teachers at Institute on Islam included a
former radical Wahhabi Muslim from Saudi
Arabia, a former devout Muslim woman from
Uzbekistan, & former Fulani/Nigerian Muslim
scholar—with a Ph.D. from Al-Azhar, one of the
youngest Islamic Jurists ever. All Christians
now, training more Church-Planters serving in
North Africa/Middle East & the Arab-Diaspora!
For about 13 centuries, very few Muslims
became Christians, partly because at first they
swept through the Mediterranean World like an
unstoppable force & interpreted this as God’s
Judgment (rather than toppling a Barbariansapped, aged Roman Empire). But the Muslims
have lost nearly every battle they’ve fought for
the last 500 years—so one would think that
eventually their Superiority Complex would
wear thin (instead, most of the 80 Million
Muslim martyrs have been killed by other
Muslims, blaming defeat on a divided Umma).
Now, at last, trends are changing. 30K
Moroccan Muslims have accepted the Gospel,
150K Algerian Muslims are now Christians,
and since about 1960 thirty to fifty MILLION
Trivia Questions:
May TQ: China poured nearly 1.5 times as much concrete in
the three years [ending in 2013] as the U.S. had in ______?
A: In 2011-13, China poured 150% as much concrete as all of
the USA poured during the entire Twentieth Century!
Source: Lakshman Achuthan, COO of Economic Cycle Research Institute
June TQ: What professional milestone did Reverend
David Upp reach on May 27, 2016 [before signing up for
Medicare on the occasion of his 65th Birthday on June 15th]?
July TQ: How many Genders are listed for people
so that they can Identify Themselves on Facebook?
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MISSION LINK BY DR. DAVID UPP
JUNE-JULY 2016
David goes Time-Traveling Again!
Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Grandpa
I finally got to Oxford, Maryland, where Robert Morris,
Senior was Factor/Agent for an English Shipping firm. His
son, Robert Morris, Junior, later emigrated from Liverpool
& took up the family trade (in Philadelphia). RM Senior
died in 1750 from an Honor Salute, and with his death the
Oxford Port collapsed… ships headed to Annapolis instead.
+ His 1710 HOUSE and Tavern-Office
But… Their House is still standing (although
re-modeled with a Mansard Roof much later):
doing business as The Robert Morris Inn, and I
stayed in one-of-the-two original rooms (5/20-21)! I
took my meals in the tavern next door where RM
Senior made a table into his office, hosting many
Captains as they brought their cargoes into Port!
Great-Grandfather & Great-Grandmother
I am David Ellsworth Upp (son of Robert Ellsworth Upp,
named for Robert Morris + his grandfather Ellsworth Upp).
So on my way back from Maryland, I stopped in Braymer,
Missouri, to put flowers on the graves of Ellsworth & Rachel
Shiner Upp & my great-great-grandparents Tobias Riley and
Mary Antrim Shiner, on May 25th, just before Memorial Day.
and Saw my Med-Tech Boss [‘73-‘75]!
Not only did I get to spend a day with Shirley A.
Mitchell, M.T. (AMT), while in North Carolina in May,
but also a few days (in Rhode Island, late June) with old
colleagues Dave Binns [my fellow Lab-Tech] & Cheri
Colton Binns, R.N. from Houston’s Fourth Ward [Ghetto]
Clinic … Foundation of my cross-cultural Ministries!
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MISSION LINK BY DR. DAVID UPP
JUNE-JULY 2016
Some Promising Conversation-Starters for Your
Sharing with Muslims about our Lord Jesus Christ
1) The personal goal of Islam is to live exactly
the way that Mohammad lived (commanded
more than thirty times in The Qur’an). The
personal goal of Christianity is to allow the
Lord Jesus Christ to live in and through you.
Which of these two human models would be a
better “fit” for the goals you have for your life?
7) The Bible is identified in the Qur’an as “The
Book” that God sent; The Qur’an itself is “The
Recitation”. Recitation is almost a lost art in
the West, although our American schools used
to teach it & value it highly in my grandparent’s
time. But in ancient Arabia, Recitation and
Poetic Oratory was regarded as the highest Art.
The Bible is meant to be read studiously, verse
by verse, as the best/highest Written Literature.
The Qur’an is easy to memorize and it is meant
to be listened to in the original Arabic, Arabia’s
best/highest Oral Literature. These two different
categories should not be ignored nor confused.
2) In Islam, Adam was created in Heaven and
thrown down to earth for committing one sin.
How many sins do you think God would allow
you to commit before you’d also be rejected?
3) Many believe the Incarnation is impossible.
Let’s be clear: that would mean God cannot
become a human being if God wanted to do
that. Is anything too hard for God? Should WE
try to decide what Almighty God can/can’t do?
8) In Islam, becoming acceptable to God is
based upon following certain specific works
[although there is not enough information in the
Qur’an itself to obey any of the Five Pillars]. In
Christianity, we believe that we are saved by
Faith alone {Taking for our own the basic beliefs of
our Faith and Trusting God completely}, then our
good deeds are a joyful response to being Saved.
4) Some think that all of God’s prophets have
lived without committing any sins at all. Is that
actually what the Qur’an says? Was there ANY
prophet God ever sent who lived a sinless life?
5) Mohammad is often called the Final Prophet,
but The Qur’an teaches that Isa/Jesus will be
sent back to Earth just before Judgment Day &
will call all the people of the world to the True
Faith. So actually Isa/Jesus would be the Final
Prophet of God, and the “Seal of the Prophets”.
9) The ancient Egyptian Pagans believed that
after death their souls [made heavy by their
sins] would be weighed against a feather on the
scales [-Book of Breathings/Book of the Dead].
I am glad that my religion rejects that old myth.
[Don’t be quick to identify Allah with the God of the
Bible, nor to affirm Islam as the spiritual descendant
of Abraham’s Faith, nor other easy correlations of
Judeo-Christian faith with Islam. Avoid the Muslim
Brotherhood’s “Official Islam” though it is parroted
by Kafir Press, Presidents, and Professors across the
Western World (e.g. “Islam is a Religion of Peace”).
Do Not Attack Mohammad or Islam or the Qur’an.]
6) In Islam, the hermeneutical principle called
“Abrogation” means that newer prophecies are
better than older prophecies: any old messages
should be abrogated & new messages preferred.
So which prophet of God is the Final Prophet is
very crucial, & that point will determine which
teachings should be followed by everyone who
wants to submit themselves to God’s Holy Will.
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Mission Link by Dr. David Upp
June-July 2016 issue
Putting my Anthropology & Linguistic Degree
into God’s Service for Global Mission Work!
Why did I go to North Carolina? I spent a week with Caleb Byerly,
head of our Manobo Mission Team, writing/editing many modules of
the first Ethnography for the Tinananon Tribe. Parts will help them
be recognized by The Philippine Government: securing their lands &
“Putting them on the Map”! Parts will guide PAT & SIL for a New
Testament & Ethno-Arts work. Parts will inform Prayer Warriors
globally, and our Mission Strategy will be posted on the Web to
recruit more Manobo Christians to help Evangelize the whole Tribe!
Smallville Methodist
Church {=Hutchinson First
UMC} flies a Superboy Cape
on their Steeple in honor of the
3rd Smallville Comic-Con: to
invite local fans into worship
“where Clark Kent grew up”
In the Green Box below, The TEN-FORTY WINDOW
(Old World, North Latitudes 10º– 40º and especially its
cities) are places where we must focus Global Missions!