The Shift Conference, Part 2

The afternoon session featured a 7-member panel discussion titled “The Voice of Legacy,” that focused on the importance of moms and dads mentoring those struggling spiritually, or who are young in the faith.

The first aspect of mentoring begins at home. Your children need to hear about some of your struggles, your testimonies of God’s answers to prayer, your aspirations for the future. They need you to bless them verbally; they need your love, kindness, encouragement, and acceptance.  

You can’t mentor everyone, so the question asked was, “How do you decide whom to mentor?”

·         Watch their lives, their hunger. Are they serious in wanting discipleship?

·         If anyone becomes a burden, ask the Lord to intervene by perhaps removing them from your influence.

·         Listen to your spouse, because your home will be used to mentor these individuals. Respect his/her spiritual radar. Agree.

·         Be wise about how you spend your time.

·         Be a person of prayer, and love the Word of God.

·         Trust God to protect your circle of mentoring.

·         Look for the abandoned, the introvert, those who cannot speak for themselves, the abused, the lonely, etc.

There’s a difference between caring for someone and sharing your life with them. A word of sound advice about mentoring is this: be careful that your mouth doesn’t write a check you can’t cash. In other words, don’t make promises you can’t keep.

One leader shared how he and his wife were called, verbally, by God, to leave the West Coast and move to D.C. He gave this advice:

·         Love on every person you pass or meet.

·         Impact people in your city. Go “in and out” of the city; be out and about.

·         Affect the people who live next door.

·         Love your city.

·         Don’t curse D.C. People speak curses against our government, and it also affects the people who live in the city. Bless D.C. and the people who live there. Ask God to take blinders off eyes so they can see the truth. Declare the good things you want to see God do in D.C. For example, say, “I bless D.C. with peace in their streets. Let there be an absence of drugs and violence. Let there be godly restoration in families, in churches, in neighborhoods. Let good businesses prosper. Let there be equity in the courts and halls of justice.” (You get the idea!)

·         Learn from cross-generational people. The young need the old, and the old need the young.

·         Dialogue with people: revival will not be very effective if we don’t.  

Years ago, in the Charismatic Church, the discipleship movement was, in many cases, much too involved in people’s lives. People were told when and whom to marry, where to live, talked into business ventures that lost money, coerced into selling their homes, giving their money to the pastor, and other hurtful things. It became a system of control by power-hungry and prideful individuals. Thankfully, I don’t hear of such things today.

At sessions’ end, a pastor prayed powerfully for the restoration of families: fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, fathers and daughters, and mothers and sons, and we received his blessing.  

I applied this session to my own life, and asked the Lord to give me wisdom in mentoring. Perhaps you will too.

Copyright © 2016 Elaine Beachy

 

The Shift Conference, Part 1

Embassy Church, located at 3855 Massachusetts Avenue, NW in Washington, D. C., hosted Georgian and Winnie Banov’s “Global Celebration” the week of November 2 – 6, 2016. My husband and I attended all day Friday, and I bring you eyewitness news of the event.

Rick Pino and his band led the beautiful morning worship with heartfelt, soul-stirring songs: I Want No Other Lovers; I’ll Pour My Love on You; Jesus You’re Beautiful; and Pioneer. Rick prophesied, “The bowls of the prayers of the saints are being tipped over in heaven! Their prayers are being poured out upon the earth!”

Georgian Banov was the first speaker of the day. He spoke of a coming reformation to the Church that honors the past reformation of Martin Luther with the revelation that Salvation comes “by grace through faith, and that [faith] is not of yourselves, but is a gift of God; not of works, lest any man should boast.”

Known as the Apostle of Joy, Georgian said, “Jesus believes in us; God believes in people! Jesus likes the way I preach, and He likes me!” Then he asked the question, “Why do we act like Christianity is this huge effort? It’s the easiest thing in the world. Faith is not forced; it’s willing, receiving. Faith is a gift from God. We can’t work it up. But faith does come by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. Faith is not something you do—it’s something you have. God gave to every man the measure of faith.” He also spoke about the operation between free will and the mind of man. Georgian noted that democracy and economic growth came because of the Reformation.

Dave and I bought tickets to the Partner’s Lunch at noon with Georgian. After a meal of “build your own tacos,” rice and beans, salad, and finger desserts, Georgian spoke of the work of Global Celebration in Asia, Africa and Eastern Europe, as well as here in the United States. They rescue “children of shame,” (so called because an unwanted child is thrown, alive, into the trash or onto sidewalks), and place them in orphanages they have established. They find homes for these children where they can be personally nurtured by a mom and a dad.

They also rescue children that are soldier slaves, sex-trafficked, and those used for child labor. There are 8.3 million such children, and it must stop, Banov said. A heart-breaking reality in these countries is that, because of the intense poverty, moms and dads sell their children into these trades for $30 a child! Can you imagine selling your child for $30? Can you imagine the intense emotional grief, rejection and abandonment these kids must feel? The Banov’s currently have rescued five hundred children from these horrific conditions. Three of these children are now in college!

Georgian secretly escaped Communist Bulgaria in the early ‘70’s, and he urged us, “Don’t ever let Socialism and Communism come to America! I grew up under it, and it is a terrible system of total, oppressive control.” When Communism collapsed in 1989, Georgian took the first plane out of America to Bulgaria to bring life and hope to those without Christ and freedom, in the very place that once held him captive. He remarked, “Winnie (his wife) and I seek out the hurting, forgotten, lonely, poor, hungry; the sex slaves, the child soldiers, and those in forced child labor situations.”

He writes, “We believe that reaching ONE person can change families; changing families can transform cities; and changing cities will transform nations!”

His ministry is fertile ground for the Kingdom of God. I urge you to join my husband and me in becoming a partner with Georgian and Winnie in their labor of love to the world’s lowest of the low. Visit their website at www.GlobalCelebration.com and join the joy revolution of bringing help and hope to the world’s most needy! Dave and I thank you for joining the global celebration with us!

P.S. I was not asked to write about them or their ministry; some of my Facebook friends asked me to give a report of our day with Global Celebration. This is strictly my own initiative.

Copyright © 2016 Elaine Beachy