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Welcome to thE-TASK for October 2002!

What news and info do you want to read about in thE-TASK? Send your input and feedback for features and people group info to Felicity at
fburrow@imb.org.

Thanks to those of you who responded last month. Great suggestions! We will work on implementing them in coming months.

What’s Inside:
People Group Info: the Sangil of the Philippines, Prayer Points, Mission Projects in the Philippines, The Persecuted Church, 'Comic Relief', God's Heart for the Nations Bible study.

Unreached People Group (UPG) focus:
The Sangil of the Philippines

Personal story:

A survey team of Christians visited a Sangil village
with the intent of living among the people to share the Gospel. The
Sangil offered the visitors a meal and the visit seemed successful.
Soon after, a Christian worker settled in the village, teaching the
Bible to the villagers and providing social services. After building
relationships with the Sangil villagers, though, this worker discovered
that the survey team's initial dinner had been poisoned. Because God
protected the team from death, the villagers saw God's power, and the
ministry multiplied. Trust between workers and the Sangil has grown
and there are now 40 known Sangil believers.

World View Info:

The Sangil originally came from Indonesia to the
island of Mindanao in the Philiipines. They scratch out a hand-to-mouth
existence, living near worn-out fishing grounds and depleted farmlands
on the coasts of the southern Philippines islands. There are an
estimated 13,000 Sangil, all almost totally unaware of God's grace.
Infant mortality and malnutrition are high, and the majority of Sangil
are illiterate. Gambling and the use of illegal drugs deepen the
Sangil's poverty and sense of hopelessness. As a result of both poverty
and political rebellion, crime is rampant in many areas - from robbery
and murder on land to piracy on the water. The Sangil struggle to make
a living, even to survive, without ever knowing the riches found in a
relationship with God.

The Sangil are Muslims, but despite their faithfulness to Islam, there
is still a lot of animism in their basic beliefs. For example, sickness
is believed to be caused by the spirits and an offering of a white
chicken is made with prayers addressed to the spirits for healing.

Since the first Sangil became Christians several years ago, warfare
between the Filipino government and rebel armies has scattered those
believers. But God's love is not stopped by war: several more Sangil
have professed belief in Christ and are now forming the first Christian
church in the area. A few portions of the Bible have been translated
into Sangil, but translation is slow and tedious work. These are large
obstacles, yet Sangil believers must overcome them if they are to share
God's love with their families and friends.

Taken from http://www.ad2000.org/peoples/jpl2853.htm
<http://www.ad2000.org/peoples/jpl2853.htm> and
http://www.omf.org.uk/content.asp?idx=8571
<http://www.omf.org.uk/content.asp?idx=8571>

Prayer Points:

• Pray for Christians to be called to work with the Sangil.
  (Matt. 9:38)

• Ask for His protection as they travel among these people. (John
  17:15)
• Pray that these workers will be gifted to teach literacy,
  nutrition and health care and that as these needs are met, the Sangil
  will see a beginning of the decline of robbery as a means to meet needs.
  (I Cor. 12: 12-13, 18-20)
• Pray that as a church planting movement develops, the peoples
  of the world will know that it is God-led and will want that same kind
  of relationship for themselves. (2 Cor. 518-21)
• Give God great thanks for this new church and for the
  perseverance of the Sangil believers. (Phil. 1:3-6)
• Pray that He would continue to meet all their needs, especially
  providing discipleship and leadership training that is appropriate to
  their cultural needs. (Phil. 4:19-20).

"Whom shall I send and who will go for us?" Isaiah 6:8

"Ask the Lord of the Harvest to send out laborers into His harvest
fields." Matthew 9:38

For more info about praying for the nations, go to
www.imb.org/CompassionNet/index.asp

Project List for The Philippines

Apply online at www.thetask.org/students/apply!

The Persecuted Church:

Thanks to Robert for the suggestion of including information about the
persecuted church in each edition of thE-TASK.

A Christian woman in Pakistan, Maria Samar John, is fighting for
custody of her son in a divorce proceeding against her Muslim husband.
Four years ago, she was kidnapped by her Muslim uncle, who kept her
locked up for five months and then sold the 17-year-old to a Muslim man.
Armed men forced her thumbprint onto marriage and conversion
certificates, and her son was born 16 months later. Beaten repeatedly by
her husband and mother-in-law and pregnant again, she escaped a year
later. Although Pakistani law would not allow the father to take the
children because of the circumstances, supporters are concerned whether
the law will be enforced on her behalf because she is a Christian. Ask
God to give your sister justice in her custody battle. Pray that her son
would grow up in the Lord's ways and be a mighty man in the Spirit.

Comic Relief:

From Dave Barry

AUSTRIA FACTS AT A GLANCE

Currency Unit: The Pflugenhaffenlepzeigenhohenzollern (or "Winkie")

Language: Foreign

Tipping: Not Permitted

Littering Punishable by: Death

Alps: Yes

Taco Bells: No

God's Heart for the Nations Bible Study:

By R., a worker from Central Asia and Felicity Burrow

"He'd been watching, studying how I worked the soil, not digging too
deeply, gently pushing, then pulling the soil to even it while covering
the seeds just cast onto the freshly turned earth. Earlier, I'd given
the cultivator a rigorous workout, pulling up rock after rock from the
rich soil as we prepared the ground for seeding. The portion of the
common area we'd finished two weeks earlier already had millions of tiny
green sprouts, and the people began to realize that, by golly, this
project can work! And now, a young teenager wanted to work the
cultivator . . .

I'd started out as the sole worker. The painters nearby had noticed,
probably wondering WHO this guy was with the strange garden tool. Then
Alkul arrived. Then Valodya, who pulled out the other tools. Then . .
. perhaps we had fifteen people at one point digging, tossing rocks,
raking, pulling weeds. Neighbors talked to neighbors, moms stopped to
watch the work. Girls stopped to watch the boys work. Even the
painters watched.

Community happened. A community began to sprout.

I related the cultivator incident to Alkul, because the boy's request to
help involved more than simply taking over my task; he worked the soil
EXACTLY as I had. The people here are watching, and they're learning.
What are we - Alkul and I - teaching by how we treat our wives, our
children, neighbors? What an opportunity we have to be light in our
community!

We understood the weight of this lesson. Sometimes, we have to work
hard before casting the seed."

-- From R., a worker in Central Asia

Last month, we looked at being God's people - and what God says about
us as his people - before allowing ourselves to become busy doing
God-stuff on our campus. This month, let's focus beyond ourselves as
individual believers, and see ourselves as a community of believers who
are all gloriously different, but who have the same ultimate goal: to
love God and make Him known among the nations of the world (Is. 49:6b).

Developing unity in our community of believers is hard work, but it is
the work we must do before we can be an overt witness on our campuses
and in our world. Jesus tells us that the watching world will know we
are his followers by our love for each other. Just as the world was
watching the planting and the lives of the men mentioned above, the way
we treat our fellow believers speaks volumes to the unbelieving world
about who we are and whom we follow - even if we never say a word.

Look up the following verses and answer the questions below related to
developing community:

2 Chronicles 30:12, Romans 15:5-6 - According to these verses, what does
God give to his people?

For what purpose does God give this gift?

Psalm 133:1 - What is unity like, according to the person who wrote this
Psalm?

How would you re-word Psalm 133 using today's language metaphors?

Read John 17. How many times does Jesus refer to his belivers "being
one" or being "unified"?

How do the unity passages in John 17 relate to John 15:17 and John
13:34-35, and Colossians 3:14?

Eph. 4:3 - What does Paul say is our responsibility in this verse?

What can you do in your life today to proactively create unity among
your community of believers to show the watching world that you serve a
God of love?

What can you do tomorrow? The rest of this week?