Pastor@Prayer

With the purpose of developing a closer relationship with the Timorese leadership, and through an iniciative together with Singaporean churches, we have held monthly prayer meetings in Dili and Baucau.

Couples’ Retreat

We promoted our first meeting last March and we had the participation of couples from Dili and some districts.

The next one will be May 30th.

Global Day of Prayer

In May, 2007 the Timorese Church participated for the first time on a moment of integrated prayer with many nations in the Global Day of Prayer.

Apart from the global national and inter-denominational interaction, it was a time of eternal benefits for the national leaders and for the strenghtening of the Body of Christ.

Around 400 people, including 30 pastors representing 15 churches gathered together to seek God; there were some specials from musical groups from some churches, praise and worship and sharing of the Word about the role of the Church on the nation’s reality.

Bible Study

Every week we gather together with members from out local church to study the Word of God.

Proposal

Help families affected by conflicts, especially widows or war veterans.

Strategy

Construction of a 2 to 3 bedroom house, by using a “helpers” system, where the community participates with work and support.

Cost

Focusing on the community, we give priority on using local material, what results in lower costs, and also contributes for the Civil Construction market in Timor.

Approximate costs: US$3,000.00 for a house of 60m2.

Partnership

Apart from the local community we delegate someone responsible to oversee the construction; it may be a Timorese or foreigner.

Aided families

• 2007 – Sra. Guilhermina, Liquiça district
• 2008 – Sr. Manuel, Dili district

Proposal

Encourage the unity of churches through youth groups.

Strategy

Meetings once every month to teach the Word of God and intercession, using games and a language that is relevant to youth and young adults.

Each month the meeting was held in a different church, where the local youth lead the meeting, with their own worship team.

School of Worship

In May, 2007 we promoted the School of Worship, with the help from Praise Village, from Brazil, and their director, Beto Tavares.
There were 5 weeks with meetings 3 times a week, plus workshops about music.
Some songs were also composed in Tetun, with the help from local youth, and they will soon be recorded on CD.

Proposal

Help Timorese youth to develop the English language, to facilitate their lives in the international community.

Strategy

Classes 2 to 3 times a week, focused on conversation, to students of the Universidade Nacional (National University).

Partnership

We had the help of André Scultori as the facilitator of the classes and Sérgio Thong, Timorese, as a liaison in the university.

Attendance

We had an average of 10-15 students for the first semester of 2008

Proposal

Help families (widows and veterans) in need with basic food items, and give personal, spiritual and social aid.
On each visit, apart from receiving the coupon for picking up the groceries, the family who received the benefits is discipled through our prayers and relationship.

Duration

09 months each period

Goal

• Get near to the problem
• Identify the root of the problem
• Look for ways to solve the problem together

Aided Families in 2006-2008

• Sra. Maria Bernardida
• Sra. Domingas Maria
• Sra. Maria Ximenes
• Sra. Maria Isabel
• Pr. Fernando Gomes
• Antônia Ximenes
• Orphanage Sra. Filomena

Have YOU been to the East side?

East Timor

Do YOU know the reality?

- It is the poorest country in Asia;
- Less than 50% of the inhabitants are literates;
- Life expectation is up to 65 years old;
- Agriculture suffers with the lack of fertile lands;
- Corruption and unemployment obscure stability.

The Spiritual Reality

The Catholic Church has conquered her privileged position again, causing the Protestant Church to remain under pressure, and not participate of the total freedom that the country fought so hard to conquer.

Animism is the most practiced religion in the country, and so, there has been a syncretism of beliefs not only into the Catholic Church, but also among some Protestant churches. That causes people to participate in demonic practices through religious cult to the dead, cultural renewal ceremonies, cure and liberation search through ritualistic ways.

The leadership from the Christian Church also has its limitations concerning drawing the people to God’s Principles in the Word, into deeper knowledge. One of the greatest problems is a lack of Bibles translated into Tetum and other local dialects, as well as the illiteracy. Creeds, taboos and liturgical procedures decreases the qualitative growth and/or quantitative.

Do YOU know the challenges?

Learn Portuguese!!!

Just 20% of the population speaks and writes in Portuguese, unassuming the other 17 dialects spoken in the territory.

Become a strong petroleum producer.

This right was robbed through a political game in the past between Portugal, Indonesia and Austra-lia.

Rescue the forgotten Timorese generation on the other side of the island

There are Refugee Fields in West Timor, Indonesia. In 2001, the number reached 100.000; today the number is already smaller but, unfortunately there are few or no NGOs giving them support, not even missionaries or churches.

And, facing this silent suffering picture we were motivated by God to cross the border and reach the Timorese that are found in West Timor, the Indonesian side of Timor Island.

Would you like to know the other side?

Indonesia

With a population of 1.300.000 inhabitants, it is also the administrative center of the 28th Indone-sia’s province, being the educational, political and cultural center. It is formed by more than 550 is-lands, but the most known ones are Sumba, Molucas and Flores Islands.

The Spiritual Reality

- National Dutch Influence is the spiritual inheritance that was left;
- Catholic or Islamic presence are not expressive but, enough to influence many Protestant churches in their style, to confuse a genuine relationship with the Lord; limiting the church to a religious expression.
- The Islam has been targeting this region. The Islamic government has been relocating Muslim families from super populated centers to that area, seeking a considerable increase of their community in that region.

Have you ever heard of Integral Gospel?

The INTEGRAL GOSPEL is a missionary proposal that aims to take God’s Kingdom for each family in Timor and also to establish social projects to reach the personal needs in life, family and community.

God wants first to take misery from the heart of people, so that misery will be taken from the community through these people.

We want to adopt macro villages that have a regional impact, so we can influence micro regions. Then, we will bring ministerial support, discipleship and biblical teaching modules, as well as pro-jects in other social areas.

The main target is to pass on this training style to national leaders, adapting them to their cultural style; also bring the challenge to initiate the same thing in other towns; getting to the final target that will be local leaders reaching other islands, where most people are Muslim.

Mobilization Strategy

1º Step – USA – Indonesia

From February 2005 will be returning to CFNI, our Mission School, to obtain an Interna-tional Minister License. This document is necessary for our pastoral ministry among Timorese and Indonesian churches.

Soon after that, we intend to go to a school in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, for two months. There we’ll be improving the language – Bahasa Indonesia, as well as establishing more contacts within the na-tional leadership in the churches that will be working in partnership.

2º Step – East Timor

We will be returning to Dili, East Timor, where we’ll get involved in the local reality, reinforcing some contacts and contextualizing our ministerial goals. As soon as the local churches grasp the ministry vision, we will start an itinerant ministry among them, offering biblical teaching and leadership training.

3º Step – West Timor

According to God’s direction, we will be moving on to the city of Kupang, in West Timor, to minis-try specifically at the Timorese refugee’s camp and local churches. There we’ll put into action the Integral Gospel program in the areas of Pastoral, Leadership, Health, Social and Professional, unchaining the former projects.

Intercessors Team

Prayer is fundamental in God’s Kingdom. Our prayers open closed doors, make resistant peo-ple become receptive; they throw down strongholds, they elevate leaders and extend the King-dom of our Lord Jesus Christ. Prayer not only changes things, situations or people; it changes also the ones who pray.

Some important aspects for individual intercession:

- Faithfulness in prayer, especially when receiving a Prayer Letter;
- Unite the family and friends in the prayer;
- Share with us what God may be revealing to your heart.

Some important issues for Church Intercession:

- Motivate intercession time for missions;
- Expose our Prayer Letter in the church boards or where people can read it;
- Encourage the church members and family groups to join us.

Counselors Team

This group provides a pastoral care in the field and encouragement to continue the journey.They will provide verbal and non-verbal communication, under personnel base interaction.

Some ways of support:

- Administrative orientation – help to reach the goals, inputs on important decisions, communication and keeping accountability.
- Ministerial adaptation – help to deal with pressures and challenges, they oversee our work and possible wastes in a hostile environment.

Some important points for the counselors:

- Direct and regular personal communication;
- Response to help requests with spoken matters;
- Initiative in the support way.

Some important points for the Finance Facilitator:

- Get to know how to do the finance transactions;
- Keep track of monthly bank balance, as well as sort out any eventuality;
- Contact the sponsor that may need any clarifications;
- Perform worksheets for financial reports.

Some important points for the Web designer:

- Webpage Creation and maintenance, as well as the Internet;
- Monthly updates;
- Contact with the links.

Financial Sponsors Team

Sponsors are the ones that pledge certain pre-established monetary sum, for a certain period of time. This is the group who will enable the accomplishment of this project; they are send-ing the ones who will go to the battlefield.

This team is going to cooperate in a specific way in our budget:

You can be part of that…

Collaboration – a group of friends who will be involved in this project very occasionally, or in a sporadically way;

Partnership – a group of friends who will be involved in partnership for specific projects of short term.

Covenant – a group of friends who will be involved in this project in covenant that means, for unlimited time and in direct involvement.

Be part of the Intercession Net

Intercession Commitment Term

- We will be faithfully involved in the intercessor prayer for this project, especially when receiving the prayer letter and its specific requests.
- We will work on the incorporation of the family and friends in the Intercession Chain; as well as encourage church members, ministries and family groups participation.
- In case of interruption of the Commitment due to any reason, we may inform the responsible person in charge.
- we will be involving the whole church in monthly intercession moments and sharing the Prayer Letter in the church bulletin boards or bulletins.
- As we get involved as prayer intercessors, and the Lord reveal us His Word and Orientation, we will also be sharing those words for the missionaries.
- There will be prayer and ministerial report letters sent from the field.
- We want to declare ourselves as part of Timor Project through Spiritual Support. When signing this Prayer Commitment, we declare that we are aware of each item above mentioned.

Be part of the Financial Sponsors Net

Financial Commitment Term

- We will be using the deposits identification method by cents. In this case, the contract number must correspond to the sum in cents added to the chosen contribution value.
- In case of Commitment interruption, we should inform the person in charge with the minimum anticipation of a month (when possible).
- We will inform the financial facilitator in case we have any difficulties in shipping the amount of the contribution in the pre-established date.
- After sending the money, any sum that still remain not used will be transferred to a savings account type. This will be our reservation in case of emergency situations.
- All the income received will be only designated to Timor Project, under the couple’s coordination. If it’s necessary to redirect any amount of money, there must be prior approval from the sponsors.
- There will be a financial report per semester for administrative reasons. If the sponsor wishes to obtain monthly details, please contact the financial facilitator about this matter.
- We want to declare that we will be part in Timor Project through Financial Sponsoring. When signing this Financial Commitment, we declare that we are aware of each item above mentioned.

One more period of our journey in Timor came to an end… It was much more intense this time… however we could experience the presence of the Lord and His faithfulness throughout all the experiences… in the heat of the battles, challenges and in the triumphs too.

We had 50 people at our home to celebrate a party organized by the church that we were connected to. The Bible Study group and the worship team prepared a delicious dinner.

Coffee ‘n’ Chat 27