Well everyone, I'm back in America and now have time to write in more time and with more detail about all the craziness of this summer, as I'm just resting all of today and tomorrow. I'm still not going to tell everything because I have to leave something to tell you all when I meet you in person lol.
God has done and taught me so much, I honestly am not sure where to start. Let me give you the big picture, and then hone in on details. If you've been reading my blogs up to this point then you'll have read about a lot of it. You'll have read about how God has broken my heart for the lost and especially the 10/40 window. You'll also have read about how God tore down sinful pride that was filling my heart but covered up on the surface level, and taught me how to live a life that makes much of Him instead of myself. I didn't actually mention in my blogs but at the end of the summer we counted up and between the 16 of us over the course of 6 weeks we shared the Gospel about 1,000 times with over 450 DIFFERENT people. 9 people put their faith in Jesus Christ and in doing so despite the sacrifices that it required, gave God glory. They decided that no matter what they had to give up, He was worth it. One example in particular of someone who had to give up much was a Muslim background young man who has decided a relationship with Jesus Christ was worth more than potentially his family relationships. Then there was Etienne who decided that in light of his new relationship with Christ he would drop everything and begin to be an ambassador for Christ, I am so proud of him. God already has and is going to continue to use him to do big things in Senegal. These are the major points of what happened this summer, time to elaborate.
Point one: heart for the lost. The 10/40 window is the area from 10 degrees latitude to 40 degrees longitude that contains nearly all of the world's remaining unreached people groups. An unreached people group is a group of people that does not have any access to the Gospel. How that is actually measured and quantified varies I believe but the gist of it is that they would walk for days and day and not find anyone who could share the Gospel with them. Senegal is included in this window. If you lined up all the people who are unreached in a single file line they would circle the earth 25x. Can you imagine a line of people as long as the earth, 25 people wide, trampling to destruction? This was just a statistic to me until I spent every day for 6 straight weeks driving past a huge graveyard full of people who had never heard the name of Jesus or seen a Bible. I will now spend the rest of my life doing something about this problem, whether God calls me personally to go live overseas or not I will always be involved prayerfully and financially in sending the Gospel to the 10/40 window.
Point Two: brokenness. There is an entire post about this, so I'll keep it relatively short. I was living a life to glorify myself, all under the pretense that it was for the glory of God. That's not an easy confession to make, but it's true. Even my God given spiritual gift of evangelism I was using so people would say "wow look how successful he is!" God spent all summer showing me how not one single aspect of my life is to make much of myself, not even my salvation. All of it was to make much of Him. Even the fact that I have had access to a Bible and the Gospel for my entire life is an undeserved gift of God that I took for granted until I collided with a people group who hadn't been exposed to either, ever. The fact that I even know who Jesus is is entirely a work of God, and has nothing to do with me. Why did he do it? Did he do it because he wanted to make much of me? No. He did it because he loved me, yes. But not an American definition of love, where you make much of the person you love. A Godly love where he loves me enough to give me himself, so I can be satisfied in Him and in being satisfied in Him, also glorify Him. Life is not about making much of me, its about making much of Him. By consequence, this means making little of myself, and I'm okay with that now.
Point 3: 16 people, 6 weeks.The Gospel was shared 1,000 times with over 450 different people, most of whom had never heard it before. 9 people put their faith in the Lord. Because of point 2 I want to take time to emphasize that none of this had ANYTHING to do with me or my team being awesome. We were only faithful, God did the rest. Because of your prayers, and because of God's Spirit, we were able to see and be a part of these incredible things.
Point 4: my Muslim background friend. He is from the Wolof people group, which is one of the unreached people groups I was talking about above. There are over 5 million people in this people group, and only 150 believers, there is no complete Bible in Wolof. It is 0% Evangelical Christian, and my friend is being discipled to begin to share his faith. In case your faith isn't that big of a deal to you, this guys family might not ever speak to him again. I can't even begin to imagine sacrificing the things he will have to sacrifice, but God gets the glory because guess what? My friend looked at the Bible, saw Christ for who He really was and said if this is really true then it is worth giving up EVERYTHING that I have. He hasn't actually sacrificed a thing either, he has gained.
Point 5: Etienne. I can't say enough, and I've said a ton already, so I'll summarize. I hope Etienne is reading this right now. I'm so proud of him. First I saw him go from death into life, talking about how big of a decision it was whether to open his life to Jesus or not, because he knew he'd have to follow it his whole life. He decided Jesus was worth it and he never looked back. The Spirit came into his life as promised, and God began changing him from the inside out. He quickly became bold and passionate about Jesus, and before long was sharing his faith with family members and friends. 3 weeks after becoming a believer he had helped me lead 3 more people to put their faith in Christ. Then I left Dakar to go to debriefing, and he led another guy to invite Jesus into his heart without me even being around. He has grown so much, truly he has grown into a man of God. Being a part of his life this summer and a part of his growth was an honor and a blessing. God is going to use him for huge things, and I can't wait to hear all about it. Glory isn't to Etienne though, glory is to God. Before God came into his heart, Etienne was a cool guy, but I couldn't have said any of what I just said about him. Etienne is a living testament to the radical life change that is supposed to happen once you open your heart to Jesus. I love you dude, I'm proud of you, and I'm praying for you.
In summary, I will say one more thing that God has taught me. My last post was titled Home Sweet Home, and now that I think about it thats not totally true. When I come back to America, I miss Etienne and other dear friends. When I go back to Senegal, I miss my family and my friends here. I miss my Bible study. Home is heaven, where I won't miss any of them. I'm settling back into life in America, but I'm not settling for just any life. I'm following Etienne's lead, I'm living in light of the Gospel, living passionately for Christ. I'm not wasting my life.
In Christ,
Matt
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Home Sweet Home
Hey everyone!
mdcoope3.blogspot.com
I am posting now to let you all know I am home, and it was an incredible summer! It was also rather exhausting though, especially the plane flight back and the jet lag. So, I won't be writing anything more here about the trip, although there is more to tell. This is officially the end of this emailing list, however I will continue to update my blog regularly (perhaps more regularly now that I'm in the US). I will also be bringing back my Facebook that I had been fasting from for quite a while now. Many pictures will be posted there. The link to that is www.facebook.com/mdcooper Thanks again for everything you all did to make this summer possible, I love you all!
In Christ,
Matt
Friday, June 24, 2011
We're all safe!
Hey guys,
I just wanted to post and let you guys know we're all safe in sound. As you may or may not have heard there has been some political unrest in Senegal over the presidency. They don't like him and with elections being next year he is trying to enact some very unpopular laws to keep himself in power. That's the shortened version but anyway Dakar is the capital (where we've been living and doing ministry) so that's where the "action" has taken place. There were some demonstrations downtown yesterday and we live at least 20 minutes from there depending on traffic and didn't leave our compound yesterday almost all day and stayed far away from any protests. It's actually been pretty interesting to observe from a distance, it's not every day you see a fully armed riot squad rolling by on the street. Anyway we aren't in Dakar anymore we're 3 hours from there at a remote location for our debrief. It's very peaceful here and we'll be here the remainder of our trip, were only going back to Dakar to go to the airport basically. I'll let you all know when I get back to America safely on the 28th. Peace and blessings!
In Christ,
Matt
P.S. As far as ministry goes we are finished but God is NOT! Even since leaving Dakar I've received a text from Etienne saying he led someone else to Christ! I'm so proud of him :)
I just wanted to post and let you guys know we're all safe in sound. As you may or may not have heard there has been some political unrest in Senegal over the presidency. They don't like him and with elections being next year he is trying to enact some very unpopular laws to keep himself in power. That's the shortened version but anyway Dakar is the capital (where we've been living and doing ministry) so that's where the "action" has taken place. There were some demonstrations downtown yesterday and we live at least 20 minutes from there depending on traffic and didn't leave our compound yesterday almost all day and stayed far away from any protests. It's actually been pretty interesting to observe from a distance, it's not every day you see a fully armed riot squad rolling by on the street. Anyway we aren't in Dakar anymore we're 3 hours from there at a remote location for our debrief. It's very peaceful here and we'll be here the remainder of our trip, were only going back to Dakar to go to the airport basically. I'll let you all know when I get back to America safely on the 28th. Peace and blessings!
In Christ,
Matt
P.S. As far as ministry goes we are finished but God is NOT! Even since leaving Dakar I've received a text from Etienne saying he led someone else to Christ! I'm so proud of him :)
Monday, June 20, 2011
More Answered Prayers!
Hey so this one shouldn't be nearly as long, but God did more mind blowing things today. While we have seen 4 people come to Christ as a summer project so far, I was able to see 3 come to Christ before lunch time today!! Every conversation I had, relationships I had built all summer were just bearing fruit right in front of my eyes. I've never seen or been apart of anything like it. 2 of the 3 had something to do with Etienne, go figure. He took his first step as an ambassador for Christ by translating for me as I shared the Good News of Christ with 2 of his friends. He ended up leading them both to Christ. At the end came the most beautiful sight I've ever seen. I'll never forget it. I looked over at Etienne and said "it is so exciting when people move from death into life!" and Etienne was sitting in between the two guys who had just received Jesus into their hearts. He wrapped his arms around both of them, pulled them into his chest and with the biggest grin I've ever seen he said something I'll never forget. He said "they are my younger brothers!" this guy who has been a believer for 3 weeks and known these other guys his whole life. It was like he had a whole new relationship with these guys. They were his brothers in Christ now and he knew it and it filled him with pure, unspeakable joy. Words don't do it. 3 new brothers in Christ today folks, rejoice with the angels.
Sunday, June 19, 2011
Answered Prayers
Hey everyone,
I know I just posted yesterday but I want to tell you all about an incredible thing that happened today. I want to tell you because it is an answer to the very things you all have been so faithfully praying at upon my request. I want you to know that your prayers have been answered (or at least hopefully some of them). This post is about the home visit to Etienne's house that I write about yesterday in my P.S.
Honestly it's hard to know where to start or how to collect my thoughts because it all just happened and I'm still kind of full of adrenaline but I wanted to write about it while it was fresh. I'll do my best. Etienne and I went to church together this morning to a French speaking church and it was awesome. He loved it and it was awesome to watch him worship. Afterwards Justin (my director) and I went to his house as planned. We spent all morning and afternoon just hanging out and meeting all of his cousins and uncles who he lives with. For the record if any of you travels overseas for Missions, do home visits early and often because they express SO much care for the person and respect. It means more to them than I can express, and he opened up a ton. He loved showing me hundreds of pictures of his village and family back at home and traditions. So did his Cousin Patrick who I have also blogged about before. If you'll remember, he also came to know Christ earlier in the summer. The other thing about home visits is that they are longgg. Thy are marathons but they are worth it. Anyway, back to the story. Etienne and Patrick left the room at one point and their uncle (who is the head of the family and very influential) said he wished he could participate in the group Bible studies Patrick had been organizing (see the post "launching baby movements") but he is too busy. We told him we'd be glad to share with him some of what we had taught, and handed him a "Knowing God Personally" booklet which is essentially the Gospel summarized into 4 main points and in French and English. He began flipping through the booklet and Patrick and Etienne come back in and we get sidetracked hanging out and talking. About 30 minutes later conversation came to a stop and an awkward silence and we realized that the uncle had been totally disengaged and absorbed in the booklet since we had handed it to him half an hour ago. We said hey man you've been looking at that thing for a while, do you have questions? He did, and long story short we were able to share with him John 3 how Nicodemus was a Pharisee followed all the law but that wasn't enough Jesus said he needed to be "born again." This hits home with Catholics because many of them are in a system of "works-righteousness" which basically means they try to earn their way to heaven by following rules instead of resting in the grace of God displayed by Jesus' death on the cross as payment of our insurmountable debt before God. Anyway so we asked him what he thought it meant to be born again and he didn't know but he wanted to so we explained to him Ezekiel 36:25-27 that God has promised to cleanse us and take out our hearts of stone and replace them with hearts of flesh and put in us his Holy Spirit. We emphasized how it was God cleansing us not us cleansing ourselves, and that this prophecy in Ezekiel was fulfilled through Jesus Christ and his death on the cross. Things were clicking for him and he knew that being born again meant the Holy Spirit coming into his heart a having that heart of flesh. He recognized that he could have good behavior and still have a heart of stone, and be spiritually dead. We were just about to explain to him that to get the Holy Spirit, this heart of flesh, and be born again all he had to do was repent and believe and ask Jesus into his heart. Then, much to our dismay, he said he had an appointment and would love to keep talking about this but couldn't. God wasn't shaken though, He had this in mind for His glory too. Backtracking, this entire time Etienne and Patrick have been helping translate and helping their Uncle understand the Gospel! :) Anyway, so he has to get going but before he goes we tell him that when he gets back, even though we'll be gone and probably won't ever see him again if he wants to be born again then to ask Etienne and Patrick how to go about doing that, what the next steps are. He said he would! After he left, I asked Etienne and Patrick what they thought they should say to him when he asked. They didn't miss a beat, both of them had already memorized Revelation 3:20 in which Jesus says "Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me." They knew the Gospel, they had accepted it already. They turned to the prayer in the back of the "Knowing God Personally" booklet which they had both prayed, and said they would have their Uncle read it and tell him that it wasn't that they were magic words but if they expressed the desire of their Uncle's heart then he could pray them and according to Revelation 3:20 Jesus would come into his heart just like He promised, and take out his heart of stone and put in a heart of flesh, and begin a relationship with him. I was ecstatic, these two young Senegalese believers were going to lead their Uncle to begin a relationship with Christ!!!! We're talking about Spiritual Multiplication in SENEGAL!!! IN THE 10/40 WINDOW (if you don't know what that is, google it)!!! After that I had a great discussion with Etienne and Patrick about 2 Corinthians 5:15-21 which talks about us being Christ's ambassador's and how we've been reconciled to Christ and entrusted with His ministry of reconciliation. Through asking questions about the passage, they came to their own conclusion without me shoving it down their throats that helping someone to be reconciled to God (or have peace with God) meant to share Christ with them, because they believed Christ was the only way that peace with God was possible. When that came out of their mouths, I just about lost it. They said it made them sad that so many people in Senegal dying without ever even hearing about Jesus. They understood that God's plan A for getting the Gospel to the Senegalese people was them as ambassadors and there was NO plan B. That if a President sent out his ambassador and that ambassador didn't deliver the message, that it just plain would not get delivered at all. That's HUGE. We also went through Romans 10:14 about how people can't believe in the Good News if they haven't heard it. Patrick said once he knew the Bible as well as Justin and I did, he wanted to travel the world and teach the Bible. They decided their "small" action step to apply what they had learned in 2 Corinthians was going to be to begin trying to be ambassadors to their cousins and uncles that they lived with, including one Muslim cousin. They even asked about verse 16 which talks about not seeing people as the world sees them but as Christ sees them. They drew the conclusion that it meant seeing people not by their outward appearance but seeing people as either having a heart of stone and needing Jesus, or having a heart of flesh and having Jesus. It was AWESOME!!! Some time this week, Etienne is going to help me translate in sharing Christ with one of his friends who doesn't speak English. I cannot describe to you how exciting this afternoon has been with words in this blog post but I hope that right now you're encouraged that your prayers are leading to incredible things happening here in Senegal, and I hope you're almost as pumped as I am about what I'm getting to see God do here first hand. Praise the Lord!!! No glory to me, God gave me His word to teach, He gave me His son to teach about, He gave me His Spirit to guide my conversation, God gave these young Senegalese men His Spirit to understand and be moved to action. GOD is good! GOD is might to save! God is moving and causing Spiritual Multiplication here in Senegal, in the 10/40 window, in an area where thousands of people are dying every day without even having heard the name of Jesus, there are some native believers who are upset by that, and want to do something about it. People who will be here long after I go home in a week. People who have deeper relationships with other Senegalese, people who speak the language, people whose lives are beginning to be radicalled shaped by Christ in a way that provides testimony to the people that they are living with. I can't get my mind around it. In Senegal sometimes we are seed planters, and often times we don't see those seeds grow or come to fruition but today God blessed me with seeing everything I have worked towards and prayed for this summer come to fruition right in front of me. This was why I spent a majority of my summer in a little Copy Shop with Etienne and Patrick. This was why God sent me to Senegal, this was why God asked you all to give financially so I could be here, this was what we've all been praying for. I don't know how to wrap this blog post up well, which is probably why I'm still going on and on, but today was amazing, thank you all again for everything that you do. None of this would be possible without you, I can't say that enough. I love you all, keep praying!
In Christ,
Matt
I know I just posted yesterday but I want to tell you all about an incredible thing that happened today. I want to tell you because it is an answer to the very things you all have been so faithfully praying at upon my request. I want you to know that your prayers have been answered (or at least hopefully some of them). This post is about the home visit to Etienne's house that I write about yesterday in my P.S.
Honestly it's hard to know where to start or how to collect my thoughts because it all just happened and I'm still kind of full of adrenaline but I wanted to write about it while it was fresh. I'll do my best. Etienne and I went to church together this morning to a French speaking church and it was awesome. He loved it and it was awesome to watch him worship. Afterwards Justin (my director) and I went to his house as planned. We spent all morning and afternoon just hanging out and meeting all of his cousins and uncles who he lives with. For the record if any of you travels overseas for Missions, do home visits early and often because they express SO much care for the person and respect. It means more to them than I can express, and he opened up a ton. He loved showing me hundreds of pictures of his village and family back at home and traditions. So did his Cousin Patrick who I have also blogged about before. If you'll remember, he also came to know Christ earlier in the summer. The other thing about home visits is that they are longgg. Thy are marathons but they are worth it. Anyway, back to the story. Etienne and Patrick left the room at one point and their uncle (who is the head of the family and very influential) said he wished he could participate in the group Bible studies Patrick had been organizing (see the post "launching baby movements") but he is too busy. We told him we'd be glad to share with him some of what we had taught, and handed him a "Knowing God Personally" booklet which is essentially the Gospel summarized into 4 main points and in French and English. He began flipping through the booklet and Patrick and Etienne come back in and we get sidetracked hanging out and talking. About 30 minutes later conversation came to a stop and an awkward silence and we realized that the uncle had been totally disengaged and absorbed in the booklet since we had handed it to him half an hour ago. We said hey man you've been looking at that thing for a while, do you have questions? He did, and long story short we were able to share with him John 3 how Nicodemus was a Pharisee followed all the law but that wasn't enough Jesus said he needed to be "born again." This hits home with Catholics because many of them are in a system of "works-righteousness" which basically means they try to earn their way to heaven by following rules instead of resting in the grace of God displayed by Jesus' death on the cross as payment of our insurmountable debt before God. Anyway so we asked him what he thought it meant to be born again and he didn't know but he wanted to so we explained to him Ezekiel 36:25-27 that God has promised to cleanse us and take out our hearts of stone and replace them with hearts of flesh and put in us his Holy Spirit. We emphasized how it was God cleansing us not us cleansing ourselves, and that this prophecy in Ezekiel was fulfilled through Jesus Christ and his death on the cross. Things were clicking for him and he knew that being born again meant the Holy Spirit coming into his heart a having that heart of flesh. He recognized that he could have good behavior and still have a heart of stone, and be spiritually dead. We were just about to explain to him that to get the Holy Spirit, this heart of flesh, and be born again all he had to do was repent and believe and ask Jesus into his heart. Then, much to our dismay, he said he had an appointment and would love to keep talking about this but couldn't. God wasn't shaken though, He had this in mind for His glory too. Backtracking, this entire time Etienne and Patrick have been helping translate and helping their Uncle understand the Gospel! :) Anyway, so he has to get going but before he goes we tell him that when he gets back, even though we'll be gone and probably won't ever see him again if he wants to be born again then to ask Etienne and Patrick how to go about doing that, what the next steps are. He said he would! After he left, I asked Etienne and Patrick what they thought they should say to him when he asked. They didn't miss a beat, both of them had already memorized Revelation 3:20 in which Jesus says "Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me." They knew the Gospel, they had accepted it already. They turned to the prayer in the back of the "Knowing God Personally" booklet which they had both prayed, and said they would have their Uncle read it and tell him that it wasn't that they were magic words but if they expressed the desire of their Uncle's heart then he could pray them and according to Revelation 3:20 Jesus would come into his heart just like He promised, and take out his heart of stone and put in a heart of flesh, and begin a relationship with him. I was ecstatic, these two young Senegalese believers were going to lead their Uncle to begin a relationship with Christ!!!! We're talking about Spiritual Multiplication in SENEGAL!!! IN THE 10/40 WINDOW (if you don't know what that is, google it)!!! After that I had a great discussion with Etienne and Patrick about 2 Corinthians 5:15-21 which talks about us being Christ's ambassador's and how we've been reconciled to Christ and entrusted with His ministry of reconciliation. Through asking questions about the passage, they came to their own conclusion without me shoving it down their throats that helping someone to be reconciled to God (or have peace with God) meant to share Christ with them, because they believed Christ was the only way that peace with God was possible. When that came out of their mouths, I just about lost it. They said it made them sad that so many people in Senegal dying without ever even hearing about Jesus. They understood that God's plan A for getting the Gospel to the Senegalese people was them as ambassadors and there was NO plan B. That if a President sent out his ambassador and that ambassador didn't deliver the message, that it just plain would not get delivered at all. That's HUGE. We also went through Romans 10:14 about how people can't believe in the Good News if they haven't heard it. Patrick said once he knew the Bible as well as Justin and I did, he wanted to travel the world and teach the Bible. They decided their "small" action step to apply what they had learned in 2 Corinthians was going to be to begin trying to be ambassadors to their cousins and uncles that they lived with, including one Muslim cousin. They even asked about verse 16 which talks about not seeing people as the world sees them but as Christ sees them. They drew the conclusion that it meant seeing people not by their outward appearance but seeing people as either having a heart of stone and needing Jesus, or having a heart of flesh and having Jesus. It was AWESOME!!! Some time this week, Etienne is going to help me translate in sharing Christ with one of his friends who doesn't speak English. I cannot describe to you how exciting this afternoon has been with words in this blog post but I hope that right now you're encouraged that your prayers are leading to incredible things happening here in Senegal, and I hope you're almost as pumped as I am about what I'm getting to see God do here first hand. Praise the Lord!!! No glory to me, God gave me His word to teach, He gave me His son to teach about, He gave me His Spirit to guide my conversation, God gave these young Senegalese men His Spirit to understand and be moved to action. GOD is good! GOD is might to save! God is moving and causing Spiritual Multiplication here in Senegal, in the 10/40 window, in an area where thousands of people are dying every day without even having heard the name of Jesus, there are some native believers who are upset by that, and want to do something about it. People who will be here long after I go home in a week. People who have deeper relationships with other Senegalese, people who speak the language, people whose lives are beginning to be radicalled shaped by Christ in a way that provides testimony to the people that they are living with. I can't get my mind around it. In Senegal sometimes we are seed planters, and often times we don't see those seeds grow or come to fruition but today God blessed me with seeing everything I have worked towards and prayed for this summer come to fruition right in front of me. This was why I spent a majority of my summer in a little Copy Shop with Etienne and Patrick. This was why God sent me to Senegal, this was why God asked you all to give financially so I could be here, this was what we've all been praying for. I don't know how to wrap this blog post up well, which is probably why I'm still going on and on, but today was amazing, thank you all again for everything that you do. None of this would be possible without you, I can't say that enough. I love you all, keep praying!
In Christ,
Matt
Saturday, June 18, 2011
Final Sprint
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| Me and Usher |
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| Me and Stephen/Etienne (If you follow Anna's blog, this is the guy from the dream) my new brother in Christ! |
Hey folks,
Blog link (with pictures of Etienne and other names you've heard me write about): mdcoope3.blogspot.com
It's time for the final sprint. I'm beginning the process of going harder in one week for the Gospel than I might have previously thought was possible, and quite honestly I'm not going into it armed with a full tank. I'll explain in a moment what that is going to look like, but first I want to start as always by thanking each and every one of you for your support, which I absolutely could not do without under any circumstances. God used you all to get me here and he has use you all to get me through, so THANK YOU for being willing to be used in that way.
This past week has been pretty crazy. One of our teammates, Ben, was sick for about a wee and a half and finally got sent home. He wasn't deathly sick or anything but it wasn't really getting better and we basically realized that if he stayed he wouldn't get back on campus to do ministry at all anyway, and he needed to get home to better medical facilities to figure out hat it was. Now he is home safe, and has been diagnosed with mono :( pray for him please! Anyway through all that we were all pretty affected because we lost our project directors for a week essentially to constant trips back and forth to the clinic, constant phone calls to Campus Crusade back in the U.S. as well as Ben's parents and etc. This also left a lot of responsibility on the other staff members (like me). It was crazy spending most of the week as the only guy staff member that was around and available. I ha to impromptu lead a lot of devotionals and things like that which were scheduled to be Justin, and fell on me. Even little things like helping get our team out the door in the mornings, and enforcing curfew. It was faith stretching. One of the things that kind of got forgotten about in the process was our weekly outreach. We realized the day before that we hadn't secured a place to have it, and that was my entire day that day trying to make it happen. God is good though and we got a GREAT place for it at the last second. The outreach was a Christmas in June party, which was awesome. We got to teach our curious Senegalese friends about the biggest Holiday in America and all of our fun traditions. In the process we were able to tell them why it was so important to us, the birth of our Savior. We read them some prophecies from Isaiah as well as the stories of Jesus' birth in Matthew and Luke. Then a girl from our team, Brinkley, shared her testimony of how Jesus had changed her life. We also had a lot of time talking and hanging out and enjoying sharing culture with them. We cut out snowflakes and stockings and put them on the walls. The stockings had Senegalese names like Fatou and Etienne and Babacar and Ousmane. :) We also decorated cookies, and played Christmas music!
Anyway, more about the sprint. There have been a lot of comparisons here about STINT (being here for a year or two) being like a marathon, and summer project being like a sprint. The STINT schedule is much less intense and full than ours, what we do is NOT sustainable in the long term. We're like special ops or something, we come in with the man power and energy to provide a short term boost to the ministry here, and since we aren't here for long we can go harder. Cross country and track people know what I'm talking about here; if the race is shorter, you have the freedom to run faster. If it's longer, you have to show discipline in pacing yourself. What I'm doing here has been specifically compared to a 400 race. Its 1 lap so it's just short enough to be a sprint, and just long enough to make your legs want to give out at the end. I have never personally ran in one of these races but my director has described it as your body basically giving up and you only make it to the end because you see the finish line and your willpower kicks in. You see it and you realize the harder you push to get there the sooner rest comes. "Rest is coming soon, I can see it, but now is the time to give everything I have left." This is my mindset for the next week. We get Monday through Thursday here doing ministry. Thursday night is our goodbye party, and then Friday morning we leave for our debriefing. That will be blissfully sweet rest but now is not the time for that, now is the time to do everything I can in faith so that when I leave I can rest peacefully knowing I did everything God asked me to do and the rest is up to Him as far as the salvation of my friends here. Oh, how I pray that I will see them in heaven one day. Pray that with me and God Willing (or Inshallah as they say here in Senegal) I will introduce you to my friends here in heaven one day. Anyway pray with me and for me this week that God's Spirit provides me with energy that I don't have for this final push, so that I can leave nothing on the table. So I can do everything God calls me to do and when rest comes that it will be a peaceful rest because of that. As I push harder, y'all pray harder! :) Thanks so much, I can't wait to see you all very soon.
Prayer Requests:
- For energy in the last leg of this sprint.
- For Babacar (both of them), and Hdiangue, and Usher, and Musa, and Djamel, and Frederic, that the Spirit would move in their hearts and show them their need for a Savior, and show them that Christ is that Savior. For me to have Words to speak as I share the Gospel with them just a few more times.
- For the rest of my team and their contacts, the same prayer request as above.
- For Etienne and Patrick and Paul Demba and Paula (Praise the Lord!) as they continue to learn what their new relationships with God practically look like and how to follow Christ.
- Safe travel to our debriefing location, and a God given time of rest and reflection on the summer.
- That every student at the University of Cheikh Anta Diop (UCAD) comes to know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.
In Christ,
Matt
P.S. If you were astute enough to observe that I'm sending this on Saturday instead of Sunday then here's why: I have a visit to Etienne's house tomorrow afternoon! I'm very excited :)
Beautiful song about God's heart from the nations, based on Scripture.
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Bittersweet Countdown
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| I jacked this picture from Anna, although I shared in the experience haha, this was AWESOME |
Hey everyone!
blog link: mdcoope3.blogspot.com (I will try to put pictures up)
I miss you all a ton, and I hope things are going great wherever you so happen to be. Of course I will start by thanking you all for your ongoing support. I need it very badly. Your prayers especially, but also for your encouragement! Thanks so much to those of you who emailed me or commented on the blog, it was refreshing to hear from you and I hope you'll keep it up. For those of you that I didn't hear from, I'd still love to.
I just finished reading the book "Don't Waste Your Life" by John Piper and it was pretty good. He says countless times in the book that "He is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him." that's such an amazing thing that we don't have to choose between a miserably stoic and therefore unhappy life that pleases God and "doing things our way." We can be eternally satisfied in a beautiful God and experience unspeakable joy and in doing so make much of God. The apostle Paul's words will not leave my mind when he said "For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain." I pray that I would continue to learn to live that way. To truly believe that God's steadfast love is greater than life.
Anyway, this is a taste of what God has been teaching me, on to Senegal stuff. If you can't tell from my last blog post, I'm trying to be transparent with these blogs and let you all see my heart. It's not all smiles and laughter all the time. I love it here, but to be honest sometimes I don't even really like it haha. I love the awesome cross cultural experiences that I would be missing if I hadn't come. I love the people. I love experiencing community with African brothers and sisters in Christ. I love the many many dear friends I have made on campus, Senegalese students close to my age and oh how I desire for them to know and experience a relationship with God. The sad reality is that most of them don't, and for many of them that might never change, though I'll never stop praying for it to happen. I can't describe to you what it's like to every day go past a massive graveyard full of people who never knew the Jesus that died for them. Many of them never even heard, never had the chance to know Him. Brothers and sisters, does that break your heart? It should, it breaks God's heart. It's a huge problem that EVERY believer in Christ is called to be a part of. I know that sounds crazy and maybe you disagree but for me having been here I know that whether or not God calls me back to live here (I don't think he has long term) I will always give and I will always pray because I am not okay at all with how many people die having never heard the name of Jesus, never seen a Bible.
In addition to seeing that tragedy first hand every day, there have been a lot of long, tough conversations that try my patience. As I shared last time, there are many discomforts. It's hot and dry all the time, you are constantly dirty and thirsty. However, in this environment growth in Christ is unavoidable which is beautiful. There are many beautiful things about this place that I will miss when I'm gone but to be totally honest there have been times when I have desired nothing more than to be just that, gone.
Anyway, I can't wait to see you all. Pray for my friends Babacar (two of them), Usher, Musa, Hdiague, Arthur, Toumani, Saiv. There are many many others but these are the ones I have met with the most. Some are closer and more open than others but all of them don't know God and are in need of a Savior. Pray for me as I begin the bittersweet countdown of 16 more days. I will miss it, but I can't wait to leave lol. Hearing from you all is so refreshing, so make that happen if possible.
Prayer Requests:
- All the names I listed above, that conversations would go well with them and that they would come to know Christ
- Our team member Ben, he has been sick with a fever since Monday or Tuesday and so that's a pretty huge prayer request. We want to see him get better and back doing ministry as soon as possible.
- The guys from the Bible study I led this year. I really hope and pray that they are having strong walks with the Lord wherever they are this summer, and I can't wait to see them again. If ya'll are reading this, love you guys!
- Etienne (Stephen) and Patrick as they begin walking with Christ and experiencing His love and plan for their lives.
- That every student at the University of Cheikh Anta Diop (UCAD) would come to know Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord.
In Christ,
Matt
Monday, June 6, 2011
Launching Baby Movements!
Hey everyone!
So I'm sitting here on my second 30 minute time block of the week, which I usually use for skyping with my parents. They aren't able to get on tonight though, my mom has a pretty crazy week so please be praying for her! Something incredible happened today so I wanted to take the time to update you on it!
Once again, it starts with Stephen, or Etienne. I don't know if I've shared this with you guys or made this clear but his real name is Etienne, and its Stephen in English, so I kind of alternate between calling him both of those names. Anyway so I was going to meet with him for Discipleship (since we're not called to make converts of all nations, but disciples) and I brought with me one of the STINTers, his name is Ben. That stands for Short Term International, and they are people with Campus Crusade for Christ who live here for 1-2 years. I was supposed to bring one of them to get Etienne plugged in with them so they can continue to meet with him after I go home. Anyway, so discipleship went great but thats not the point of the story. Etienne's cousin Patrick was around, and another guy that I didn't know. Towards the end of our Discipleship lesson, Andy (one of my teammates on summer project) walks up and begins to share the Gospel with Patrick. Patrick speaks little to no English so Andy was basically just reading him the Gospel in French which isn't an ideal way of doing things but its better than him not hearing it at all. He used his little bit of English to tell Andy that he had questions but didn't know how to ask them in English. Right about that time Ben and I were finishing up with Etienne, and Ben speaks really good French. So Ben was able to translate for Andy as he shared the Gospel and answered questions for Patrick. As this was going on, the aforementioned "other guy that I didn't know" (His name was Saiv) got involved because he had only been quiet up to this point because he didn't know English. He was curious and next thing I knew there were multiple French Bibles out as they all began to study. In the meantime, Etienne was off to the side having his very first quiet time!!!! It was an incredible scene here in Senegal, Africa where there are almost no believers and everyone in eye shot was studying the Bible. Turned out that Patrick said he was going to pray and receive Christ into his heart but he wanted to do it at home in his room!!! Saiv was interested but not ready to take that step yet. Patrick had the idea of starting a Bible study and as we were sitting there he invited 10-12 of his friends by handing them Gospel tracts and saying "Read this, prepare questions, we will have Bible study every Wednesday morning at 11am" and he is even trying to reserve a room on campus for it (which we can't do but students can). It was so exciting, a baby Senegalese movement of believers was started today at the University of Cheikh Anta Diop and I was privileged enough to be a part of it. Not only are people coming to know Christ here in Senegal, but those people are telling people, and Spiritual Multiplication is happening where it has never happened before! Guys, we are talking about a movement of believers among unreached people groups here!! I serve such an incredible, powerful God, and he has allowed me the undeserved privilege of being his ambassador and what I witnessed today was such a treat I had to tell you all about it. Thanks for taking the time to read, and please pray for these Wednesday morning Bible studies! Pray also for Patrick and for Etienne who are just beginning to have quiet times and walk with Jesus and are very excited about him (enough to want their friends to hear). Pray that this movement would spread from the little copying shop where all of this happened to dorms to the whole campus to eventually the whole country of Senegal. God is big enough to do that.
In Christ,
Matt
So I'm sitting here on my second 30 minute time block of the week, which I usually use for skyping with my parents. They aren't able to get on tonight though, my mom has a pretty crazy week so please be praying for her! Something incredible happened today so I wanted to take the time to update you on it!
Once again, it starts with Stephen, or Etienne. I don't know if I've shared this with you guys or made this clear but his real name is Etienne, and its Stephen in English, so I kind of alternate between calling him both of those names. Anyway so I was going to meet with him for Discipleship (since we're not called to make converts of all nations, but disciples) and I brought with me one of the STINTers, his name is Ben. That stands for Short Term International, and they are people with Campus Crusade for Christ who live here for 1-2 years. I was supposed to bring one of them to get Etienne plugged in with them so they can continue to meet with him after I go home. Anyway, so discipleship went great but thats not the point of the story. Etienne's cousin Patrick was around, and another guy that I didn't know. Towards the end of our Discipleship lesson, Andy (one of my teammates on summer project) walks up and begins to share the Gospel with Patrick. Patrick speaks little to no English so Andy was basically just reading him the Gospel in French which isn't an ideal way of doing things but its better than him not hearing it at all. He used his little bit of English to tell Andy that he had questions but didn't know how to ask them in English. Right about that time Ben and I were finishing up with Etienne, and Ben speaks really good French. So Ben was able to translate for Andy as he shared the Gospel and answered questions for Patrick. As this was going on, the aforementioned "other guy that I didn't know" (His name was Saiv) got involved because he had only been quiet up to this point because he didn't know English. He was curious and next thing I knew there were multiple French Bibles out as they all began to study. In the meantime, Etienne was off to the side having his very first quiet time!!!! It was an incredible scene here in Senegal, Africa where there are almost no believers and everyone in eye shot was studying the Bible. Turned out that Patrick said he was going to pray and receive Christ into his heart but he wanted to do it at home in his room!!! Saiv was interested but not ready to take that step yet. Patrick had the idea of starting a Bible study and as we were sitting there he invited 10-12 of his friends by handing them Gospel tracts and saying "Read this, prepare questions, we will have Bible study every Wednesday morning at 11am" and he is even trying to reserve a room on campus for it (which we can't do but students can). It was so exciting, a baby Senegalese movement of believers was started today at the University of Cheikh Anta Diop and I was privileged enough to be a part of it. Not only are people coming to know Christ here in Senegal, but those people are telling people, and Spiritual Multiplication is happening where it has never happened before! Guys, we are talking about a movement of believers among unreached people groups here!! I serve such an incredible, powerful God, and he has allowed me the undeserved privilege of being his ambassador and what I witnessed today was such a treat I had to tell you all about it. Thanks for taking the time to read, and please pray for these Wednesday morning Bible studies! Pray also for Patrick and for Etienne who are just beginning to have quiet times and walk with Jesus and are very excited about him (enough to want their friends to hear). Pray that this movement would spread from the little copying shop where all of this happened to dorms to the whole campus to eventually the whole country of Senegal. God is big enough to do that.
In Christ,
Matt
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Brokenness is Beautiful
Hey guys,
Life in Senegal has been a whirlwind as usual, and as usual there is so much to put in this blog post and so little time. I'm going to start as always by thanking you all sooo much for even taking the time to read this, and above all for making everything I'm doing and experiencing here possible. You all are a completely invaluable and irreplaceable part of my ministry.
As many of you read on my blog already, Stephen received Christ on Monday and is our new brother. :) He came to church with me for the first time this morning!
Lately, God has been teaching me a lot of things and I have kind of left those things on the back burner when posting for the sake of time and wanting to tell you about what's going on as far as ministry, so I'm going to spend a lot of this blog post talking about that. If there is one word that describes what God has been teaching me since I've been here it's "brokenness." There are certain parts of your heart that are weak and vulnerable that you can get absolutely professional at covering up and pretending they aren't there... In America. Here those parts of your heart are exposed blatantly and they have to be dealt with and improved upon if you want to survive. God is and has been daily breaking me of my critical spirit, my independent spirit, my need to be right, and my protectiveness of my rights, time, and comfort. He is breaking me of my desire to be served, my desire to be a success, my drive to be recognized, my confidence in how much I know, and many other things. In the absence of those things God has begun to grow in me things like an encouraging spirit, an awareness of my need of my teammates; he is teaching me to yield my right to be right, and to be content in discomfort and sacrificial with my time. He is teaching me to serve others willingly and not seek recognition for it, to use my gift of evangelism out of a desire for Him to be glorified and not out of a desire to be successful at ministry, and shown me how much of a blessing and an honor it is that He has chosen to use me at all. He has shown me that for anything to happen it requires a work of the Spirit and my knowledge of the Bible or ability to talk isn't going to save ANYONE.
There are 2 great examples of how God has been teaching me these things. One is our new building. The people who own the complex we're staying in moved all the guys from the building we were in to another building within the same complex. The old building had a real mattress, not a good one but a mattress none the less. This building has a thin piece of foam with sheets on it. The other building had consistent power, and all the outlets worked. This one has sketchy power and none of the outlets in my room work even when the power is on. Which, by the way means no fans in my room. Oh and did I mention my mattress has bed bugs and we've had major moisquito infestation issues in this building? Yeah, God has been teaching me that what it took for Him to redeem me was not comfortable and neither is living life as one of his disciples if you are doing it right. A comfortable life is a wasted one.
The second example of this is the story of me and my friend Babacar. The first time I met Babacar I got into an argument with him, a heated argument that I had to walk away from. it was not Christ like and quite frankly it was embarrassing. None of the people here know the first thing about the Quran, it's just a cultural thing that they brainlessly follow and when you try to talk with them about logic and theology and doctrine they will argue for hours but not have any idea what they are talking about or have anything to back up what they are saying. Much of what they say the Quran says in order to support their arguments is not only not in the Quran but actually directly contradictory to what the Quran does say. What you have to do is have patience, listen to what they are saying no matter how ridiculous it might be, and try to get past the logic and to the heart level. In Babacar's case I did not do that, I let the brainless arguments get the better of me because I felt like I had to be right, it was incredibly prideful. God broke me over this afterwards because I felt like I had ruined my witness with him and perhaps the witness of my teammates. A day or two later, my teammate Kyrus calls Babacar up to meet and he says he can meet. I was not feeling very confidant and I decided to stay out of the conversation, and let Ky do all the talking. However, as I was sitting praying for the conversation I felt God rebuking me and telling me he had a plan and to get in the talk. Filled with God's Spirit instead of my own I was able to work through the arguing, and remain patient. None of the things that had bothered me the other day bothered me this time around. I got to the heart level with him, made things personal instead of just doctrine, and had one of the best spiritual conversations of the whole trip! I was even able to apologize for the other day and use that as an example of my imperfection and how Christ on the cross forgives me for that, and gives me his perfection before God. I was also able to share how I now have the Holy Spirit in my heart to redeem me from my mistake and work in me to change me so I didn't act like that again. It was amazing, now Babacar is one of my best friends here in Senegal. Because of what happened we have a connection that goes more than skin deep. Pray for him as we continue to meet with him.
Thats all I got for now, so here are some prayer requests:
- Babacar, that his heart would be softened and open to the Gospel. That he would come to know Christ.
- Stephen, as we continue to build him up in his faith and he learns what it means to walk with Christ.
- My heart, that God would continue to work in my, break me, and teach me. Pray that I will be filled with the Spirit daily so I can remain patient and selfless, and that God would give me words to speak.
- Pray that every Senegalese student at the University of Cheikh Anta Diop (UCAD) would come to know Christ as their Lord and Savior.
Again, I will reiterate that I am dying to hear from any and all of you, so please if you're reading this I'm talking to you! Leave a comment on my blog or shoot me an email if its personal and let me know how you are doing; and if you have any feedback about my post whether its just that it encouraged you or you have a question or whatever please feel free to write that as well.
In Christ,
Matt
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