Campaign!

We have just less than 40 days left in the year of 2015. It has been a year of surprises, disappointments, pain, joy, and seeing the Lord’s faithfulness more than ever before. Matthew 6 speaks about the out God taking care of us more than anything else in creation and Kayla and I have seen that to be true without exception and without end especially this year. 

Living the life of a support raising missionary is by no means easy. My work week is divided, in part, by the need to work on the assignments and projects I am presently on; along with the reality that we must raise support in order to live in this world. It is a frustrating place to be, but because of it we are able to rely so fully and completely on the sovereign faithfulness of our precious Lord.

We are currently in an end of year period attempting to raise as much monthly support as possible by the end of the calendar year! 40 days is not a whole lot of time, but it is MORE than enough time for our great God to perform the miracle needed in our support.

Due to this end of year push I have decided to run my own “Kickstarter” type campaign! The reason it is here rather than actually on Kickstarter is so that 1) the support goes through Wycliffe Associates for our benefit. And 2) you can get a tax receipt by donating to a fully recognized Non-Profit!

One time, lump sum gifts are wonderful, spectacular, and fantastic. However, recurring, monthly gifts are of most importance and most benefit. I will never snuff my nose at someone desiring to give once to the cause of Bible translation, but I will always encourage them to split that sum up into monthly installments so that their donation has longevity rather than merely altitude.

We are going to shoot to the moon with this “Kickstarter” campaign and go for full support which we have not had for the last 14 months.

CAMPAIGN: $3200.00 per month.

WHAT DO I DO?:

It would take up far too much room on this post to explain the unique and rather complicated position that I hold at Wycliffe Associates, but you can CLICK HERE to read all about what it is that I do. In a nut shell I work with a team of skilled individuals working from original language texts in order to create a resource, a tool, to make Bible translation easier, faster, and more efficient.

WHERE IS THE MONEY GOING?:

This is somewhat of a complicated question. Kayla and I  (and our baby due in June) live in Appleton, Wisconsin. We are full-time domestic stateside missionaries. That being said we are held to the same type of taxation and IRS requirements as anyone else is that makes income in the US. The money you donate goes directly into my “Ministry account” which in turn goes to 1) my semi-monthly paychecks because we have to be able to live, 2) promotional materials to assist in more effectively spreading the word about Bible translation because the more people that know the more that can happen, and 3) build up in my “ministry account” so at such time as there is enough I can travel internationally and assist with MAST trips.

SIGN UP NUMBERS:

These figures represent MONTHLY RECURRING donations.

$10-$25

• ·         A hand written thank you card from Kayla and me.
• ·         Automatically added to my mailing list for periodic updates throughout the year.

$25-$50

• ·         A hand written thank you card from Kayla and I.
• ·         Automatically added to my mailing list for periodic updates throughout the year.
• ·         A PDF copy of my first book: Renewal. A month long devotional about spiritual restoration.

$50-$100

• ·         A hand written thank you card from Kayla and I.
• ·         Automatically added to my mailing list for periodic updates throughout the year.
• ·         A PDF copy of my first book: Renewal. A month long devotional about spiritual restoration.
• ·         A paper back copy of my new book (which is currently in the editing stage) called “The Two Roads.” It is a partially straightforward, partially allegorical look at 2 Timothy 3:16-17.

$100-$500

• ·         A hand written thank you card from Kayla and I.
• ·         Automatically added to my mailing list for periodic updates throughout the year.
• ·         A PDF copy of my first book: Renewal. A month long devotional about spiritual restoration.
• ·         A paper back copy of my new book (which is currently in the editing stage) called “The Two Roads.” It is a partially straightforward, partially allegorical look at 2 Timothy 3:16-17.
• ·         Free promotional material to help you church learn and grow in the ministry of Bible translation.

$1000+

• ·         A hand written thank you card from Kayla and I.
• ·         Automatically added to my mailing list for periodic updates throughout the year.
• ·         A PDF copy of my first book: Renewal. A month long devotional about spiritual restoration.
• ·         A paper back copy of my new book (which is currently in the editing stage) called “The Two Roads.” It is a partially straightforward, partially allegorical look at 2 Timothy 3:16-17.
• ·         Free promotional material to help you church learn and grow in the ministry of Bible translation.
• ·         I will personally  visit you and/or your church anywhere in the lower 48 states to discuss, present, encourage about Bible translation and international mission.

It may get super annoying, but until the end of the year I am going to keep this website updated about the progress of this campaign so that you, my partners, can see where we on in this miracle of the Lord’s work! It will be an exciting month ahead!

There are two ways to sign up for monthly donations. 

The easiest is to CLICK HERE and use your credit or debit card. It is fast, easy, and painless!

Or send checks with my ministry account number M10826  ON A SEPARATE PAGE ATTACHED TO THE CHECK payable to: 

Wycliffe Associates 
11450 Translation Way
P.O.Box 620143
Orlando, FL 32862

Let's make this happen church! We are all in this together to place the WORD OF GOD into the hands of EVERY person on the planet in EVERY language! 

In Him,

Andrew J. Belcher

Loss. . .

     Last night I was given a call by my mother. There was a solemn, tear-jerked, quiver in her voice. Her words were short, to the point and determined. "She's gone" my mother stated.

     After a stroke three months ago. After going in and out of rehab and the hospital and the assisted living facility. After improving then declining, then improving then declining again. After three months of fighting and trying and pushing. And after over four scores of years lived to the fullest, loving the Lord, loving her family, and giving deeply from her heart; my grandmother passed from her temporary home into her eternal state.

     When God created Adam and his helpmate Eve in the beautiful Garden of Eden the only thing that we can assume they knew was how to say "hello." Not actually, as i'm sure the words were there, but the concept of hello would have been supreme. As humanity, we are not created to say goodbye at all. We are intended for life, and every type of goodbye is, in some way or another, a form of death. This death is what goes against our created nature.

     She will be missed dearly. This goodbye is a hard one. I've been to funerals in the past. I've performed "last rites" if you wanted to use that language. I've preached burial ceremonies and funerals several times in my ministry positions. But, this one. . .this one is different. This funeral will be hard, just plain hard. . .

     My grandmother's journey home was at least expected to some degree. But the expectancy of goodbye does not make it any more customary to a person.

     Having faith in the Lord is the hope of eternity. I believe, and know that she in a perfect state knowing fully, as she once was fully known. The hope we have is a hope in a resurrection just like the resurrection we witness through the Bible that Jesus experienced. It is beautiful, it is glorious, and it is altogether holy.

     Bless the Lord for a life well lived. A family well loved. and a resurrection well-received! Please be in prayer for my family right now as we figure out logistics, and grieve the loss of a dear heart.

Amen,

Andrew J. Belcher
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Fruit?

  

     How do we know that the work we are doing is being beneficial at all? Is "spiritual fruit" the end all be all of the mission field? Why do we press on in this tiresome work looking constantly for some kind of effectiveness? 

     I constantly work 40 hour weeks attempting to accelerate Bible translations around the world. It is a long process, and at times it is a headache looking at all of the coding, screens, emails, etc. Selfishly I look at what I am doing and think "I wish I could see more of what this is accomplishing." Selfishly I lean back in my chair and stare blankly at my computer screen thinking "Man, I wish I could be somewhere like West Africa of Southeast Asia or the Amazonian Basin working hands on with a translation project." 

Then the Lord divinely smacks the back of my head. . . 

     I have been put in the situation I am in because this is where the Lord wants me to be currently. I am not discontent with it, I am only a human being thinking in a very short term way. The only way I am naturally able to think is similar to Plato's cave. I see my reality thinking temporarily that that is all there is; not knowing that what i'm seeing is but shadows or what is real.

     But where is the fruit?! Where is the effectiveness of what I am working on all day every day? What am I doing to effect the world with the Word of God? It's there, it has to be there. I can look through the black hole of my shut off computer and know that on the other side there is another human being working just as hard as I am using what I am working on to bring the Bible to their language group. 

     I know that every time I publish a new resource on the other side of the world someone in West Africa, Southeast Asia, or the Amazonian Basin is looking at that resource and it sheds new light on a passage of Scripture, or a certain word that brings the Bible to life in their language. I know that there is effectiveness. Effectiveness is a subjective word. 

     As a human being believing in the salvific nature of the Lord, and having been adopted by him I am in a constant struggle in my soul between thinking like the spirits in bondage in the cave, and thinking like those outside seeing reality for what it is. I know that what I am doing day in and day out is producing good, solid, healthy spiritual fruit. I see it. I experience it almost on a daily basis. Yet the wrestle is that i'm not doing enough. Jesus says "I am enough, you just need to be faithful." 

     Calming to my soul, Jesus' words enters into my heart and I can once again lean back in my chair and know I am here for such a time as this. I do not produce fruit; Jesus does; that 

Jesus in enough,

Andrew J. Belcher

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Communion of [Persecuted] Saints

     Throughout the world there are Christians following fervently the laws, statutes, and commandments laid out for the church to adhere to in the Bible. These precious individuals exist in the same light of life as Christians stateside. Belief is universal; it is global in scope and global in purpose. Yet, despite the fact that Christianity is designed inherently to change the entire world so often I tend to find myself thinking only about the believers in my church or in my circle of friends. Is it human nature to hold a belief in something in such a heartfelt, deep-seated way yet miss the point through your own two eyes? Maybe it's just my human nature. 

     

     It is problematic for the local American church to see it's church, or the believers in its state as the believers that have value. No one would ever come out an say that, of course; they would just function that way. I go to church every Sunday and the last thing on my mind as I am sitting relatively comfortably in the side-locking seats listening to a dynamic speakers with a fancy headset mic is the persecuted church meeting together in secret out of fear of improvement or death. Should it be on my mind? Yes. It is. No. . .

     The old saying "out of sigh, out of mind," is used frequently in the Victorian era, during the period in history of the "men's parlor" and the "women's parlor." When the pocket doors separating the whiskey sipping, tobacco spitting men from the harpsichord playing, letter writing women, are closed everyone is "out of sigh out of mind." So often do the walls or our churches, the state lines, or on a larger scale so often the Atlantic and Pacific function as spiritual pocket doors separating the most developed world Christians sitting in the A/C from the dirt floors catacomb believers everywhere else---Out of sight, out of mind.

     The church has had periods of persecution from the beginning. The Roman Emperor Nero was probably the worst of all. He was known to hang Christian's heads on stakes to decorate his gardens. Their deaths are recorded to have taken place in the Roman arenas performed by gladiators, or wild predators. Terrible, gruesome, horrendous deaths. Persecution that took place in the history of the church is seldom far from our minds. It is brought up in sermons, and written about in books. It is heard on pop-christian podcasts and used an evangelistic tools to scare people to heaven. The history of persecution is very real, and frequently spoken about.  But friends, the history of persecution has not ended.

     Christian persecution history is being written daily in many countries around the world. These are our brothers and sisters. These are dear persons loved and adopted by the Father. These are people no different that us here in every way save the fact that they remember moment by slow moment the reality of persecution. Let's ban together as a universal church to pray for and try to help these brothers and sisters. One of the way that we are pressing forward as the Universal Body of Christ is to place a heart language Bible into the hands of each one of these believers. We can do something. We can change the world together.

Jesus saves,
Andrew J. Belcher
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Growing Up

    

And Jesus kept increasing in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.

--Luke 2:52

     Jesus did not begin his life as the wonderful, masterful minister of the Lord we often think of him to be as we read the majority of the gospel books. He was born a lowly birth, to a couple of parents that were not especially affluent of influential in their worlds. Our great Savior was required just as everyone else in the world to grow up both in their physical life, as well as spiritual. Yes, Jesus Christ endured teething, puberty, and moving out of his parents house. His childhood and adolescence was physically alike to any other Jewish boy being raised in Nazareth.

     In addition to his physical maturation a spiritual maturation also took place in the life of Christ. By saying he grew in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man Luke is telling us that both the physicality of Jesus increased and grew as well as his faith, knowledge of God and spirituality.   

     Scholars will argue backwards and forwards about the "missing years" of Jesus' life because we know about his birth and consecration, a brief look at him in adolescence and the next we know he's approaching middle age and already going out to minister. Regardless of the "missing years" this is such an important bit of information that Luke gives us. It gives us true hope that the writer of Hebrews is accurate when he states "One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin." Growing up in this world introduces much to our lives that we are unsure of and can beget much temptation. It is such an encouragement to know that Jesus did not come into this world perfectly mature, and that he grew up in every way as we do. 

     As we go about our lives let us remember that we are in the midst of a process. The Lord is constantly producing in us holiness and spirituality when we walk in his ways. This is a part of growing up. We partake in the same maturation process spiritually as Jesus did which is such a wonderful encouragement!  

In His saving name,

Andrew J. Belcher 

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A Ruler for Us

      But the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel. And they said, "No! But there shall be a king over us, that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles.

1 Samuel 8:19-20

The year is 1050 B.C. The nation of Israel had just come through hundreds of year of affliction and oppression. The Bible tells us in the book of Judges that leaders were raised up by God in order to be agents of redemption for the people of Israel, but they were not permanent or in total authority. The judges were kinds of influential spokes people, if you will. The people of Israel saw time and time again the positive affect judges had on the nation after so many times falling into affliction due to their sin; but it simply was not enough for Israel, as the whole Old Testament makes clear nothing ever is.

Israel wanted a permanent, authoritative, powerful, salvific ruler. Israel wanted a king! Why did the people want a king rather than the system of government they have had for the last several generations? For three reasons the desire for a king was too great for the nation to keep quiet any longer. 1) There were a few certain judges who became very corrupted and lived a lifestyle of sinfulness (1 Sam. 8:1-6). 2) Israel wanted to be governed and seen like all of the nations which were surrounding them (1 Sam. 8:19-20). And finally 3) there was an impending oppression from the king Ammon and the nation was afraid which led them to want a strong, powerful ruler to defend them (1 Sam. 12:12).

Not being content, jealousy, and fear. These are the reasons the people wanted a king. Oh, how often can we resonate with these three emotions? It is an interesting thing about the United Kingdom of Israel when you think about its history. It is not as if the nation had never been in this situation prior. They had corrupt judges al l through the book of Judges. There had been impending affliction and oppression, that’s the very reason the judges existed in the first place. In 1 Samuel 8 however, it just became too much for the nation and they gave into their insecurities.

Like Israel we face the same temptations and possible sins day after day, constantly. It’s not like we will experience some temptation and think “Oh my, I’ve never been tempted by this before!” There is nothing new under the sun. It is not a matter of being tempted it a matter of giving in to the temptation and therefore rebelling against the Lord. Rebelling against God? Yes, just like Israel did when they requested a king.

1 Samuel 8:6-7 tell us that whenever Samuel cries to God about this request the Lord responds by saying “Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them.” The Lord had ordained not a monarchy but a theocracy; a God-governed system.  God wanted to be an integral part of the life of the nation but by having a king God is removed from the governing equation entirely. Moving through the life span of the kingdom in the Old Testament it is apparent that when God is removed from the governing equation, it typically does not go well for the people of Israel.

What happens we allow our lack of contentment with how things are going, our jealousy and envy of what someone else has, or even our fear that we are incomplete or on the verge of a total meltdown control the way we interact with God? Or even further, how often do we let these things affect whether we interact with God at all? When God is removed from our governing equation how can we expect anything to happen differently than what occurred in the book of 1 Samuel with the nation of Israel?

Let us for a moment address the three reasons Israel wanted an authoritative king individually.

1.  They were not content with the governing system they had due to corruption and sinfulness.

We know that the Lord provides all that we need. That can be read in any given passage on the Bible. If the nation of Israel would have remembered the sovereign exodus from Egypt they would have remembered what Moses wrote down in Exodus 15 when God establishes himself as the king over the nation. So when they asked for a king it was a blatant rebellion to God because that title was already assumed by him. Perhaps instead of not feeling content with the situations we face in life we ought to think about all of multitudes of previous situations the Lord has been faithful in. And before we gladly rebel against the sovereign Lord we should take a moment and think about what takes place when we trade the position God holds with man taking over.

     2.   Israel wanted to be like other nations.

It is a fallen human condition to be jealous and envious of people. For this reason we must be ever vigilant to focus on and become more and more like Jesus. James 3:16 says that “where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice.” This is exactly what took place in 1 Samuel. Leviticus 20:26 is a statement directly to the people of Israel that tells them “You shall be holy to me, for I the LORD am holy and have separated you from the peoples, that you should be mine.” For Israel to want a king like other nations it is taking this statement made by God and throwing it directly back in his face and telling him that you would rather be like others than holy to God. As believers we are also set apart for God. We are made holy with the purpose of becoming more Christ-like. We are not to be like this world, but become more and more different than the world. We should desire to be more like Jesus not more like other people.

     3.   Fear motivated the cry out for a king.

Fears are those emotions that are sudden. Seldom do people grow in fear. You are either afraid of something, or you are not. I can’t think of a time I was not afraid of something and gradually became afraid of it. This is not to say fears cannot increase, but the fear had to previously exist for it to increase. But it is not something that the people are God are supposed to have. By this I do not mean things such as spiders, or heights, or the ocean; I mean fear of life altering oppression or of other people. Isaiah 41:10 tells us “fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” The Lord is good and fear is not needed when He is present. We must believe, as the nation of Israel should have, that our God is able and will defend and protect us.

            When the nation of Israel cried to Samuel for a king it was sign of rebellion and disobedience. Much can be gleaned and learned from the failures of others. We have a faithful and patient God that is slow to anger knowing that our sin will cause punishment enough in our lives. Let us learn from Israel and not follow in their footsteps.

In Him,

Andrew J. Belcher

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