Use What You Don't Have

An excerpt from...

Use What You Don't Have

By Michael Johnson, Special Assignment
April-June 2013

“And the LORD said unto him, What is that in thine hand? And he said, A rod.” (Exodus 4:2 KJV)

Moses felt as if he didn’t have much. God told him to use even something that might seem worthless. I hear God saying the same and to use what we do not have.

Using our home church as our base, we sent out a survey to churches and the community asking them what were the most pressing problems they faced. When the surveys were returned, we realized we did not even ask the right questions. People wrote in their own responses. The principal one was “We need mentoring for our young men and women.” With nothing in our hands to do this, we turned to those who had the calling. God used them to shape our cause.

We participated in two large forums on pro-life among African American Christian leaders. Our focus has been more in tune with promoting families; not just on the woman and her child, but on the circumstances that led to her impregnation, including how to involve the father of the child.

We have worked on promoting counseling and a gun buy-back program as well as rehabilitation and reuniting Returning Citizens (a.k.a. those released from jails), and are moving toward establishing a healthcare center for those who “fall between the cracks” in the medical system.

We started out with nothing, but it becomes clearer day by day that God is moving in our lives to make a difference, especially in areas that we know nothing about.

Do you have a skill that God can use? Michael and Kay Johnson need coworkers willing to counsel families, mentor children in juvenile detention, provide healthcare for our proposed clinic, and the list of needs goes on and on. Join this team by contacting Jared Gleason at recruiting@wgm.org.

Prayer Calendar: May 26 - June 1

The Call's prayer calendar offers this mission's prayer point for this week:

PRAY for Michael and Kay Johnson as they build up families and those who "fall between the cracks" in Philadelphia.

“And the LORD said unto him, What is that in thine hand? And he said, A rod.” (Exodus 4:2 KJV)

"Moses felt as if he didn’t have much. God told him to use even something that might seem worthless. I hear God saying the same and to use what we do not have." ~Michael Johnson, from Use What You Don't Have

The World Was His Parish

An excerpt from...

The World Was His Parish

In Memory of Denis Applebee
April-June 2013

The Call staff would like to honor the memory of Dr. Denis Applebee, a great man of God who was a significant part of the magazine for over 25 years through his columns “The World Is My Parish” and “A Window on the World.”

On September 16, 2012, World Gospel Mission lost a great warrior for the Great Commission when Dr. Denis Applebee passed away at the age of 84 at his home in Ivybridge, England.

After his conversion to Christ, Denis had two life goals: to serve Christ and to be like Christ in life. Without question, we can affirm that his life goals were achieved. Denis was a beloved speaker across the United States and around the world, and those who heard him preach—whether young or old—were blessed by the gifts God had bestowed on him.

He loved the writings of fellow Englishman John Wesley. Wesley often told listeners, “The world is my parish.” Wesley’s quote synchronized so well with the role God asked Denis to play that it seemed only natural for his first column in The Call (formerly Call to Prayer) to be titled, “The World Is My Parish.” In his first of many articles for Call to Prayer, Denis referred to Wesley’s statement, “To put myself alongside such a fellow countryman may seem a bold claim as well, but I dare to do so as I answer God’s call to minister to the missionary family of World Gospel Mission.”

“So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:18 NIV). Denis truly fixed his eyes on the eternal as he served to build up the church in the United Kingdom, the United States of America, and around the world. For us at The Call, we remember a godly man who wrote from his heart out of an intense desire for all people to know the one true Savior.

Pick up Dr. Applebee’s pen and continue writing so that others will know the one true Savior. Write your story of what God has done in your life. (It doesn’t have to be long.) Once written, ask God who you need to share your story with. Set up a time to meet with that person and share your testimony.

Prayer Calendar: May 19-25, 2013

The Call's prayer calendar offers this mission's prayer point for this week:

PRAISE God for the legacy of His saints, like Denis Applebee, in leading others to Him.

On September 16, 2012, World Gospel Mission lost a great warrior for the Great Commission when Dr. Denis Applebee passed away at the age of 84 at his home in Ivybridge, England. ~From The World was His Parish

Prayer Partners

An excerpt from...

Prayer Partners

A ministry with two sides
By Marsha Hartley, Texas-Mexico Border Ministries and Mary Jo Simpson, WGM Partner
April-June 2013

From Marsha:

I cannot overemphasize how prayer has impacted me and my ministry.

One of my ministry partners who has been traveling with me the longest on my missions adventure is Mary Jo Simpson. While I am on homeland ministry assignment this year, I have been meeting with Mary Jo for prayer as often as our schedules allow. I always come away from her home feeling inspired and empowered to travel and share at my next HMA meetings. She is 90 years young, but through her dedicated praying for missionaries, she “travels” all around the world. She still prays for a Japanese lady, now back in Japan, whom I taught in the third grade in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. I know that I could not have followed the Lord on this missions journey of more than 26 years without Mary Jo and other faithful prayer partners “traveling” with me through prayer.

From Mary Jo:
How awesome to see how God answers when we ask Him to open doors for our prayer partners. While we ask, His answer is already on the way. He cares, He protects, and He calms. Usually before Marsha tells me how He answered, I already know. Truly He is an awesome God. I remember when she was first called to be a missionary. She’d never been farther from home than Morehead, Kentucky. Then He called, and she went to Kentucky Mountain Bible College. We prayed for her. Suddenly she stepped out even farther. Kentucky Mountain Holiness Association wanted her, but You, dear Lord, wanted her to go even farther. He sent her to World Gospel Mission, and then to Bolivia. I still pray for some of her students she had in Bolivia. I wrote to one from the time she was 9 years old, a scared little Japanese girl. I’ve continued writing to her ever since, and I’m still praying for her.

Partnering with missionaries in prayer is vital to their ministries. Even if you don’t have a relationship with a missionary as close as Mary Jo and Marsha do, a good way to enhance your prayer ministry is through the WGM prayer calendar. You can either visit www.wgm.org/praycal each day or click the printer-friendly link to print a copy of the calendar to put on your refrigerator or in your Bible. You can also request a printed copy at globallink@wgm.org.

What do you have? We have little girls.

An excerpt from...

What Do You Have? We Have Little Girls.

By Billy Coppedge, Uganda/South Sudan
April-June 2013

We have little girls. Our family, whether officially or not, is involved in loving little children, both ours and those around them.

Joanna’s mother sent a children’s magazine for our two oldest girls, Elsie Jayne (4) and Lucy Mae (3). It had a picture of a children’s Bible club. The girls immediately wanted to do a Bible club with their friends. Joanna decided they could plan something for the next school holiday. The girls told me all about it, but I was actually quite insincere in my enthusiasm and expectations.

My conviction came when they assembled the invitation list. They wanted to invite two Hindu boys, Kitron and Hersh. Now, Kitron had been previously very mean to Elsie Jayne. I felt uncomfortable with him being at our house. But Lucy Mae said Jesus had put Kitron on her heart, so Kitron was invited.

The week for the Bible club came and anywhere from 40 to 60 kids came daily, including Kitron. Organized chaos would probably best describe our “program,” but at the end of the week, 19 kids prayed to make the decision to follow Jesus!

What do we have to offer Jesus? We have little girls.

Those little girls are being used by Jesus, not only to stretch their father’s faith, but also to share Jesus with other children. Did I mention Kitron was one of those 19? Hallelujah! Praise God forever! The kingdom is a little more crowded because of two little girls’ desire for a Bible club.

ACT: Does this story inspire you to get your little ones involved in missions? WGM can help with ideas at www.wgm.org/kidsworldgo.

Prayer Calendar: May 12-18, 2013

The Call's prayer calendar offers this mission's prayer point for this week:

Has God placed something unexpected in your life? PRAY about using the unexpected in ministry.

"We have three children (girls). Now there is no arguing. Our family, whether officially or not, is involved in loving little children, both ours and those around them." ~Billy Coppedge, What Do You Have? We Have Little Girls.

Hazel's Quilts

An excerpt from...

Hazel's Quilts

The Fabric of God’s Blessing
By Rachel Elwood, Support Staff
April-June 2013

“My ability to sew is God’s gift to me, and what I do with it is my gift back to Him.”

Hazel Dowden was blessed with an aptitude for sewing and has been active in using her talents ever since she was 12 years old. The mother of two and grandmother of five began making quilts when her grandchildren were born. As the children grew up, she began looking for other people to make quilts for, including shut-ins from church, people in nursing homes, newborns in hospitals, foster care children, and the police department where she lives in Plainfield, Indiana.

“Whoever God would put on my heart, I would make them a quilt,” Hazel said.

A few years ago, God began leading Hazel to explore giving her quilts to missions. She contacted Deb Cunningham, a staff member at WGM, to see if any WGM field could use the quilts. Deb’s response? “Oh yeah! We can use those!”

Today, Hazel’s quilts can be found all over the world: Kenya, Honduras, Indonesia, Haiti, and, of course, the USA. Right now, she’s working on a large number of quilts to take to the Africa Gospel Church Baby Center in Kenya. The Baby Center is a home for orphaned and abandoned babies, including those who are HIV positive. Hazel and her husband of 44 years, Ted, are looking forward to their first missions trip there this summer.

Hazel treasures the hours of labor, spending a lot of the time talking to God. “That’s when He gives me people to make quilts for,” she said. “I pray over the quilts as I make them. For example, when I give a quilt to a newlywed couple, I tell them, ‘When you have problems, and you will, realize that when you cover up with this quilt, prayer will cover you with His grace.’”

“I get a blessing when I make the quilts,” she said. “It’s all God’s time and it’s all His work.”

What gift has God given you that you can use to return the blessing? Take some time to consider how God can use your practical abilities for His glory.

Prayer Calendar: May 5-11, 2013

The Call's prayer calendar offers this mission's prayer point for this week:


PRAISE God for the many blessings He has given you.

What gift has God given you that you can use to return the blessing? Take some time to consider how God can use your practical abilities for His glory.