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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? 2 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! 3 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. 4 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!