Hope Against All Odds - Docshare02.docshare.tips

on theon thefront linesWhen the shaman initially forbade Nolavy to becomean evangelist, Todd and Patsy invited both her parentsto their home for soda and cookies. During their visit,Todd recounts, “We asked the shaman, ‘Would you allowyour daughter to join the evangelism program?’ And heaccepted. He said, ‘I trust you.’”And when a political coup brought gunfire just yardsfrom the McGregors’ home, the shaman told Todd, “Bishop,I will protect you. The youth of the community and we willsurround your home. Do not fear.”Madagascar’s religious composition includes 5percent Islam, 40 percent Christian and 50 to 55 percentAfrican Traditionalism. Todd says ancestor worship playsa significant role in the latter faith tradition. Adherentsattempt to communicate with deceased ancestors, and,as acts of appeasement, conduct elaborate bone-washingceremonies several years after their relatives die.African Traditionalists also pray to deceased familymembers. Todd and Patsy first witnessed this whenthey happened onto the ceremonial sacrifice of a cow.Afterward, people started praying—first to God, thento Jesus and then to their ancestors. “It was very much afront linesjust trying to communicate more effectively in their ownculture and grow together. That is why we lived in theslum with them for three and one-half years.”For the first 11 years of their ministry in Madagascar,Todd and Patsy served in Antananarivo, the capital andlargest city. There, through their ministry, People ReachingPeople, they taught at St. Paul’s Theological College;constructed and started nine health clinics; founded,constructed and ran the School for Lay Ministry; built11 new churches and planted an international, Englishspeaking church and missionary school.In 2002, with their daughters Corbi and Chareseabout to enter high school, the McGregors moved to Kenyawhere the girls could attend the Rift Valley Academy formissionary children. The move was an act of faith for Toddand Patsy. Their ministry in Madagascar was flourishing,and they had no idea what lay ahead for them in Kenya.“We decided that if our children were going there, we weregoing to follow them,” Todd says. “We believed the Lordwould open up ways for us to work and minister.”Todd affirms that the Lord did open doors: for Patsyto direct a retreat center near Nairobi, and for him to“You won’t believe this. You prayed, and it rained.It rained that day, and it rained hard. And it onlyrained right above that village.”syncretistic approach,” Todd explains. “This is a problemwithin the churches Christianity is just added to theirexisting belief.”Despite this mindset, Todd says people are veryreceptive to the gospel. They have a strong, albeitdifferent view of God, recognizing him as a superior God.They comprehend the concept of sin, perhaps betterunderstanding it as taboo. And because they fear God, theywant to know more about him.“What we try to do,” Todd says, “is to share the GoodNews of the Lord Jesus Christ, why he came, and why Godsent him We’re basically looking for them to turn awayfrom their sins .And through building relationships withthem, we can then say, ‘Let’s go on a journey together. Let’sstudy the Scriptures and see what God reveals to us sothat we can be pure before him’ A lot of our approach is6Spring ’12minister in the rural, tribal areas of northern Kenya. Forthree years, he flew there weekly with AIM and MissionAviation Fellowship (MAF) pilots—the only aviatorswilling to make the treacherous flights.The semi-arid region where he ministered had nopaved roads and little access to water. In some areas,Islamists were prevalent. Where he was working, theywere hostile. A number of evangelists were stoned, andTodd was on a hit list. At times, he had to travel with anarmed guard. But in the midst of this, he says, “peoplewere coming to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and we werestarting churches.”On one memorable occasion, he and fellow evangelistswere leading a week-long mission in a remote village.At week’s end, they baptized 50 to 60 people, planted achurch and prayed for rain. Several weeks later, an excitednew Christian told a member of their clergy team, “Youwon’t believe this. You prayed, and it rained. It rainedthat day, and it rained hard. And it only rained right abovethat village.”During his tenure in the north, Todd planted sevenchurches, built a girls’ dormitory and trained new andexisting evangelists. After he left, a bishop was appointedto live and minister in that area.In 2007, the McGregors returned to Madagascarto continue their focus on evangelism, education andeconomic development. Since then, they have baptizedthousands of new believers, planted and constructedover 15 new churches, and formed discipleship and smallgroups. Prayer meetings gather daily at 6 a.m.Through funds from U.S. donors, they have alsopurchased land and are starting economic developmentprojects in each parish. So far, five churches haveagricultural initiatives, and have received training from U.S.volunteers on how to develop a cooperative agriculturalprogram and start a small business. Half the projects areled by women.The McGregors’ educational efforts include trainingclergy/evangelists for ministry, offering the “Introductionto Christianity” Alpha course and “Rooted in Jesus Program,”providing weekly English classes and sponsoring childrento attend primary and secondary school. In 2011, theyopened a new lay training center and dormitory. This yearthey expect to break ground for a primary school.Patsy, who has written several books on Madagascar,grew up in an upper middle class Episcopalian home.She says that moving into a slum was “a very differentexperience.” She remembers asking the Lord, ‘What doyou want me to do here?’ “I didn’t hear a ‘to do’ list. Ididn’t hear ‘write a book, get your doctorate.’ I heard,‘Just observe; just live and be intimate with me.’ Andthrough my intimacy with Christ and seeking him dayby day, yes, I wrote books and got my doctorate, and I’mdiscipling women and young ladies. But the focus is onintimacy with God.”Patsy admits that Madagascar’s inescapable povertydaily overwhelms her. Intimacy with God helps hermaintain hope and convey it to others. For Todd, hopebuilding occurs in the early morning devotions in theirchurches.“We want all our people involved in daily devotions,”he says, “but we do them in community. People have theirindividual devotions, but they do them in the presence ofothers. I think that building community and starting offthe day together brings tremendous hope for everyone. Weare able to provide hope through the Gospel and the LordJesus Christ, but it has to be done living in community. Andso when we go through difficulties, we’re there to supportand encourage each other. We’re there to be.”L. to R., Corbi, Patsy, Todd and Charese McGregor.Life as a missionary kidGrowing up on the mission field in Madagascar, CorbiMcGregor Sandoe had adventures that youngpeople in America only experience in movies.A favorite for the daughter of Anglican missionariesTodd and Patsy McGregor was traveling to therainforest with her father— in canoes, helicopters andon the tops of trucks. There she would discover “treeafter tree after tree,” people living in huts or grasshouses and spiders the size of an open hand. “Thereare no roads,” she says, “and you’re usually walking inmud because it’s so wet.“At the same time, the people are great. It’s all aboutrelationships getting to know people. It’s not aboutbusy work or trying to succeed in life. It’s just aboutbeing yourself, and family and making sure you lookout for each other and the community.”Corbi was two years old when her family moved toMadagascar. By the age of four, she was speakingfluent Malagasy, the country’s native language.When she and her sister, Charese, were in middleschool, the McGregors moved to Kenya so that thegirls could attend a boarding school for missionarykids. The students she met there remain her bestfriends, their kinships forged through life together inanother culture.Corbi admits that returning to the U.S. for collegewas “for sure” a cultural shock, but one for which theboarding school had prepared her prior to graduation.Likewise, adjustment to life off the mission field hasbeen difficult, because, as she says, “I am a thirdculture kid, which means I’ve grown up in one culture,but my parents are from a different culture and I livewith the combination of the two of them. I don’t trulyfeel I’m a part of any one culture.”Now married and living with her husband, Joe, inLebanon, PA, Corbi says she “really enjoyed” growingup on the mission field. “It gave me a broaderperspective and world view I’ve had an opportunitythat other people have never had, and I know how tonavigate different cultures a lot better, since I had togrow up in two separate cultures and adjust to them. Itgave me a way to be very practical in just life in general.”w w w. g o r d o n c o n we l l . e d u / c o n t a c t m a g a z in e 7

IN RECENT YEARS, OUR NATION HAS EXPERIENCED MORE THAN ASEVEN-FOLD INCREASE IN BANK FAILURES. IN SUCH UNCERTAIN ECONOMICCONDITIONS, ONE MIGHT BE ADVISED TO SEEK A MORE HEARTENINGMETAPHOR THAN A BANK TO EXPRESS THE SECURITY OF OUR HOPE.WYOU CAN TAKE TO THE BANKEdward M. Keazirian, (M.Div. ’83, Th.M. ’93), Th.D.8Spring ’12e might consider Ben Franklin’s proverbial“death and taxes” as an alternative tothe banks for expressing dependability,certainty and permanence. However, in aculture that confuses true hope with wishfulthinking, optimism, positivism and other attitudes aboutthe future, even the certainty of death and taxes falls shortof the security of the hope we see proclaimed in Scripture.Death and taxes have their temporal limits, but true hopetrumps even death and taxes because true hope is eternal.The best working definition of biblical hope that Ihave ever heard is simply “faith extended into the future.”Like our faith, our hope is grounded in the unchangingand absolutely trustworthy character of God. And likeour faith, our hope is based on three expressions of God’sfaithfulness: God’s word, God’s action and God’s promises.Abraham epitomizes faith because he believed andobeyed God when he had nothing more to go on thanthe word of God. When God said, “Go,” Abraham trustedand went. In the same way, Abraham also stands as thearchetype of hope. Because he was fully convinced thatGod could do what he promised, Abraham never wavered,but in hope–against all the evidence, humanly speaking–he believed he would become the father of many nations,just as God had promised. His faith fueled his hope, so thatwhat he knew of God’s faithfulness and trustworthinessin the present became his assurance for the future aswell. Abraham lived with the expectancy–the hope–thathe would inherit all that God had promised him. Althoughhe did not see his hope completely fulfilled in his lifetime,we are told that he saw and welcomed those promisesfrom afar. Even death did not quell his hope, for he wasconvinced that God could raise the dead if necessary inorder to fulfill his promises.Long before Jesus ever addressed the doubts ofThomas, Abraham was blessed and honored for believingwithout having seen. For Abraham, hope is vindicated noton the basis of what he has seen, but because of what Godis. True hope is rooted in God. This is a foundational theme ofhope throughout Israel’s scripture, but it is especially evidentin the raw expressions of the soul in Job and the Psalms.Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you areGod my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long(Ps. 25:5).Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in theLORD (Ps. 31:24). . . I trust in God’s unfailing love forever and ever. Iwill praise you forever for what you have done; inyour name I will hope, for your name is good (Ps.52:8–9).Whether the psalmist’s hope is in the LORD or inhis name, the meaning is the same. His hope is rooted inthe being, character and reputation of God, for the nameembraces the very essence of the person. Therefore, truehope–that sense of confidence and expectation that goodthings will happen in the future–depends on the realitythat God is sovereign, in control of all that happens andthus able to direct all circumstances and events for theaccomplishment of his purposes; that God is good andw w w. g o r d o n c o n we l l . e d u / c o n t a c t m a g a z in e 9

loving, certain to purpose only what is good and lovingfor all creation; that God is compassionate and merciful,sensitive to and patient with the limitations of Hischildren in understanding, accepting and submitting toHis purposes; that God is righteous and just, committed tovindicating the innocent and punishing the guilty, rightingthe wrongs that people have suffered, and restoring what waslost or stolen in the unfolding of His purposes from beginningto end; that God is trustworthy, faithful to keep His wordand to fulfill His promises; and that God is true, consistentin word and deed with all the perfections of His nature.However, because God is the guarantor of truehope, Job’s hope does not fail. Despite all the contrarycircumstances swirling around him, Job can still affirm,“I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end hewill stand upon the earth. And after my skin has beendestroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will seehim with my own eyes—I, and not another. How my heartyearns within me!” (Job 19:25–27).Though true hope is focused on the future, it sustainsus in the present. We know that no matter what happens,our hope will endure. It will transcend death and it willTherefore, the godless—those who forget God—haveno hope. Just as reeds depend on the water of the marshfor life, so hope must be rooted in God to survive (Job8:13). When we are cut off from God, whether by our owninitiative or God’s, all hope is gone (Job 27:8), for hope notonly resides in God, but also derives from God.ultimately prove to be redemptive simply because itis guaranteed by the God who fulfilled His promises toAbraham—and indeed to all who believe—through theredemptive work of Jesus Christ and through the gift ofthe Holy Spirit. And that, dear friend, is a hope even betterthan anything you can take to the bank.As we eagerly await in hope the ultimate consummationof all that God has initiated in word, ac

alumni on hope seminary news in memoriam alumni news opening the word Maria L. Boccia Hope in the Desert Anne B. Doll True Hope You Can Take to the Bank Edward M. Keazirian In the Furnace of Affliction: Lessons from the Life of Daniel Carol M. Kaminski Joy in a Prison Cell Roy E. Ciampa Hope for the Wounded Karen E. Mason seminary ent 4 8 11 14 .