This MISSION in
E-ntercession
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Blessings from Hong Kong, China with Dr. Jerry Nance and the GTC team for the meeting of the Global Board and Asia Pacific Conference.
From there I will accompany GTC Pacific Regional Rep James Lowans for the dedication the new TC center in Manila. Launched by Pastor Rey Bernardes with dear friends and TC pioneers Dana & Dr Randy Rowe of San Jose Teen Challenge, we look forward to the miracles to come. Then on to Thailand and Cambodia. |
MISSIONARY MOMENT
I wrote to TC China for help to translate the words of 2 songs for the Conference in China. The work was thorough, their answer was ...
Do you want me to translate this two sentence ..."Thank you Lord for not giving up on me" & "How we adore the King?"
The Chinese can be like this:
感謝神因你從未放棄我
敬拜你主，我王，敬拜你主，我王！
Hmmmmm -Though it was a thorough and accurate answer, it didn't really help. I still didn't know the words. When we minister are we sure we are really communicating or are we just speaking the language of our comfort zone? One that we know. |
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Macau Teen Challenge was founded by Rev Juvenile Clemente in 1989. Ah Chek, a graduate of the program grew to lead the Teen Challenge with indigenous Chinese resources for over 2 decades. Macau Teen Challenge has provided a place where men and women can overcome life-controlling addictions. More than 100 students have graduated from Macau Teen Challenge.
About an hour by boat from Hong Kong, Macau is located 40 miles across the mouth of China's Pearl River and covers a 6-square-mile area that includes the peninsula of Macau and the small, adjacent islands of Taipa and Coloane. Ninety-five percent of Macau's 500,000 people are Chinese.
Compared to Hong Kong, many see Macau as a sleepy little South China village, but tens of thousands of tourists visit its casinos each year chasing dreams of jackpots. Those dreams often turn into nightmares. Although residents of Macau are not allowed to frequent the casinos, many have found their own paths of destruction, including illegal gambling, alcohol, drugs and prostitution. |
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When Juvenile Clemente from Portugal established Macau Teen Challenge in the early 90s. The government granted land for the facilities. Today MTC, under the leadership of a Chinese nationals, is registered with the government as a social welfare association. In addition to helping students overcome addictions, the center provides vocational training to give graduates means to support themselves upon their return to society. The program can accommodate approximately 55 students annually. |
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Following the meeting of the Global Teen Challenge World Board, with representatives of 6 continents, over 100 leaders gathered at Teen Challenge Macao for a powerful time of ministry, worship, prayer and training. Leaders remained from Centers in the USA, Canada, South Korea, Australia, Burma, Ukraine, Japan, Thailand Cambodia, Macao and Hong Kong, including even 21 visionary leaders from Mainland China.
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TEEN CHALLENGE MANILA
It is over 65 years since of the end of WWII. Among Asian countries, the Philippines had the highest death toll of over a million, second only to China and Japan. The brutality was incredible, with Manila and its residents left devastated by the death and destruction.
Today, the metropolis of Metro Manila is the 5th largest urban area in the world, population 20,654,307 people (2010 estimate)! It is the most densely populated city in the world with 43,079 inhabitants per km2. District 6 is the most dense community with 68,266 inhabitants per km2,
The two most common drugs of abuse are cannabis and methamphetamine ('shabu'). Opiate abuse is practically non-existent in Philippines. Up to 1991, cannabis was the most abused drug, but in 1992 shabu' became the number one drug of abuse. In 2011 the abuse has continued to escalate.
| Huffing glue is common as means to curb hunger. A bottle of Rugby contact cement is cheaper than bread and lasts longer than a loaf of bread. Kids are drawn into chains of addiction, Glue is not only a gateway to other drugs, but destroys brain tissue, often ending in death. |
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Two years ago the Mayor called together Pastoral leaders of Manila to address the pressing drug problem in the City. Ray Bernardes, who serves with Bill at Bethel Bible College offered Teen Challenge. They contacted Dana and Randy Rowe to find out how Teen Challenge could help. Over the last 2 years the team has built coalitions, developed facilities and are preparing to dedicate the new Center tonight.
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TEEN CHALLENGE THAILAND |
It is wonderful to see the ministry of
TC USA like TC NorWest Cal Nevada TC
in International partnership |
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The Manila Teen Challenge center was dedicated with Dr Randy and Dana Rowe and Pastor Rey and Eva Bernardese who will direct the center. They have stepped up in a powerful way to launch the new Teen Challenge. |
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| Government leaders are so excited about Teen Challenge in Manila that there is discussion of additional locations for TC around the island. |
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 Black Waters...
...deadly snakes |
As we looked at the "black river" that flows through the TC property in Valenzuela City, it is dark and mysterious. |
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As they cleaned the property to be occupied by Teen Challenge students, workers encountered a huge anaconda in the undergrowth. It came up from the black waters of the river that flows along side the TC property.
As I looked at the spot where workers found the 5 meter (15 foot long) snake, I thought of areas of life we all deal with. After creation there were snakes in the garden so it should not surprise us if they show up at a TC or our lives. Teen Challenge workers set out with machetes (left) clearing underbrush for the safety of the students.
What do we need to...(click for more) |
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Teen Challenge Thailand will provide a place where young men can overcome life-controlling addictions. A one acre property with a house in Kao Chai Son is being considered for their first residential Center.  |
In Thailand, the most abused drugs are Marijuana (Yarsaens) and Meth Amphetamine, once known as YaMah-(literally, "makes you strong like a horse.") Now it is called Bah Mah which means crazy medicine. They estimate that there are up to two million YaBa addicts and small-time dealers in Thailand.
A glance at the trash can each morning along the waterway ghetto communities supplies the picture of the leftovers of last night's abuse. From beer bottles to energy drinks abused the previous night, the children sort through the trash looking for remains. Without Teen Challenge they will fall into this empty life of addiction.
Drug addiction has reached epidemic proportions in Thailand, but, in its determination to wipe it out, the government has unleashed bloodshed on a scale not seen in this country for more than a decade.Over 1,200 dealers were recently "accidentally" fatally wounded during a drug sweep. This is a new dawn for Thailand. Teen Challenge will offer hope, real life change, and the opportunity for life, not death. Please pray as they identify opportunities to engage the needs and minister the gospel in Thailand.
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Thank you to all who prayed for Jim & Kathie Lowans and the team that ministered across Southeast Asia, We were blessed to see all that God is doing in Cambodia. As wonderful as the miracles happening through Teen Challenge in Asia, I returned home to the greatest blessing ... the birth of our new grandson, David Christopher to Nia and Chris.
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SPOTLIGHT: CAMBODIA TEEN CHALLENGE |
CLICK HERE for Cambodia TC 010 Annual Report.
There has been a dramatic increase in drug dependence in Cambodia over the last decade with the escalating rates of methamphetamine use and an increasing number of children addicted to sniffing glue. Exact figures differ greatly among UN agencies and NGO's, but the official UNODC estimate is that over 1/2 million suffer from drug addiction. |
Shirtless, with crude tattoos and scabs on his upper arms, 24-year-old Thom has been living on the Phnom Penh streets for 4 years., He is 1 of a growing number struggling with addiction to crystal meth, known here as “ice." He injects drugs in his abscessed ankle.Cambodia is still recovering from one of the most violent and horrific civil wars of the twentieth century. It is a nation that remains psychologically war-torn. Even though the Khmer Rouge were ousted from their vicious reign of terror decades ago, Cambodia is still deeply scarred by their tyranny long after the combat has ended.
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Pyep, office manager of Cambodia Teen Challenge and I mounted his cycle and headed for the back alleys and ghetto's of Phnom Penh to minister to addicts living in desperate bondage. It will break your heart to see the need! We took
pictures, shot video, captured the images of their hell and prayed for needs. The pictures provide a chilling glimpse of the ravages of the madness of war and the human cost that continues to be paid by these who are forgotten in back alley. PLEASE PRAY! |
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| They call them "silly-boys" We did not just encounter them lurking in alleys and side-streets with noses firmly planted in crumpled plastic bags filled with crude glue, sniffing and watching as the world and their lives go by. |
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We saw them on crowded sidewalks, ignored by virtually everyone. With vacant stares and glassy eyes they wander until they pass-out, sleeping night and day. "Silly boys" support their habit by begging and petty thievery. A generation of young Cambodians wasting away, poisoning their bodies and minds as they meander about the city like urban zombies.
People react to them the same as if they have seen a pile of dog-dirt on the sidewalk. Not my dirt, not my dog, not my problem.
I will to do nothing except avoid stepping in it.They have no hope without Teen Challenge, without Jesus Christ.
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| TESTIMONY, CAMBODIA TEEN CHALLENGE ... Noun Sophanith |
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My father and mother died when I was young. Life without parents was just like a car without a steering wheel. I lived on the streets. I survived by scavenging rubbish, shining shoes, and doing any other job that could get me something to eat.
I met a lot of friends out there and found out that sniffing Rugby, shoe glue, was cheaper than food and it took the hunger pains away. I had no idea of the damage the it was doing to my body and mind, I thought there was no hope...
. click for Noun's full testimony on his own words |
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Teen Challenge Cambodia provided care for over 50 students in 2010. Along with Asia Pacific Director, James Lowans and his wife Kathie, we visited the Center to minister to the students and see the new construction at Teen Challenge. We had a wonderful chapel and prayed with many students, some former Buddhists, made fist time commitments to Jesus Christ.
Teen Challenge Cambodia, located in Samrong District, Takeo province, provides residential care for street glue kids & young adults with life controlling
problems with drugs and alcohol. Teen Challenge of Cambodia offers a one‐year residential program designed
to equip them for drug‐free lives through the power of Jesus Christ. Under the leadership of Koy Chhim,
CLICK for a Cambodia TC 2011 ANNUAL REPORT |
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