Mission Learning Center

Sea Shells Found in Mountains North of Tehran, Iran

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 17:57:45 GMT

In 1975, we worked in Tehran, Iran, to establish the church among the Iranian people as we served under the oversight of the elders of the Woods Street Church of Christ (Sherman, Texas) with a great band of American Christians. It was my pleasure to teach the Americans on Tuesday nights during our mid week bible class.

On Sunday nights I met, taught, and worshiped, taking communion with our young group of Iranians which began assembling when there were only three of us. We met in the home of an older lady, who had been baptized about two weeks after we arrived.

The lady, Mary Zaya, was a Russian who came to Iran in the late 1930s as a teenager. She helped me in the work among the Iranians and some small number of Russians. Mary was never a muslim having come out of a Russian Orthodox Church searching for something she felt was closer to what God wanted for her. She longed for "Christians who practiced what they taught," in her words.

An American college age daughter of a worker in Tehran, worshiped with us in the American church services. The family was faithful in attendance, but like most Americans there they were occupied virtually full time at their jobs and just trying to keep things together to 'live.' But she found time, as we all did, to make recreational events for rest and learning, sight-seeing and pleasure.

One such event in which the lady participated was a camel caravan up into the 4,200 feet El Bourz Mountains bordering the northern city limit of Tehran. On the trip up in those mountains whose foothills projected out into a desert, she found several petrified sea shells, fossils of shells, off the beaten trail.

She brought to me and made a gift of three such ancient finds high-lighting the reality of the flood rising over the mountains. Without doubt the only time water was ever that high in the region would have been the flood described in Genesis 6 during the time of Noah, who built the ark to be saved with his family from the earth-covering waters which destroyed all those alive except the family of Noah.

Those three shells, 'evidences' of the biblical flood, the Christian lady gave me are still in my possession.

Don Petty

Missions Must Be Taught to Our Children

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 00:13:47 GMT

Our children have to learn when they are young that mission work and presonal evangelism and outreach is a part of the chrisitian life. Too low a percentage of adults choose to participate in soul-winning if they are not taught when they are in the younger years. By the time our children are teens they should know christians are to tell others about Jesus. In that way, when they become young adults they will already be in the habit of trying to bring others to church; and their nature will be to see their friends as possibly being saved and living in heaven with the redeemed.

Two ways that are effective in preparing children to live a life being mission-positive are (1) the Mission Learning Center for children ages 3 through the 8th grade. In this program the children are taught in a 'simulated culture' that the Lord wants us to tell those people of the culture about Him and His saving gospel. The room where the students are taught is decorated to literally 'immerse' the children in the culture being taught. They hear a lesson about Jesus, and they hear the Great Commission read to them as they leave the room at the end of the class. This happens to each child in a congregation 4 times per year.

(2) The second method or program of training our young is the Young Emissary Mission Apprentice Program. This program for the 11th and 12th graders of a congregation is to acquaint the student with other cultures and associate the culture with the scriptures teaching missions. It consists primarily of these few things: (a) visits to the worship places of other religions, (b) visits to restaurants serving foreign foods (other than Mexican and Chinese, which foods we eat alreay), (c) study of scriptures relating to actually doing mission work or personal evangelism, (d) studying mission methods and how to really do mission work, (e) writing papers on three subjects, "Why I Want to Do Mission Work." "Why I Want to Go to (a certain culture, country, or location)", and "Why I Am Qualified to Go as a Missionary."

When a high school student learns these things and participates in them all several times, 6 other religion visits and 6 foreign restaurant meals, plus the studies laid out, there is a further week of training he can receive starting in the summer of 2009. It is the World Evangelism School of Missions apprentice training,where the student lives one week in Winona, Mississippi, learning to actually serve on a mission field for the remaining two months of summer.

The school is being established for complete mission training to fully equipment men and women to serve as missionaries. It will be startng this September, and the apprentice program will be at the end of the school year at the end of the complete training program. Information will be made available by the people of the World Evangelism program by contacting Wayne Barrier (wbarrier@hiwaay.net) or Dennis Larson (denniswlarson@bellsouth.net). The school has been planned over a long period of time as a need seen by the late Brother J.C.Choate, who laid the ground work and called on capable men to bring it in to existence.

These two programs in local congregations followed by the intense training for mission apprentices at WESM in Winona will prepare our young to return the church to a greater rate of growth.

Don Petty, Dallas, Texas

"The Day the Sun Went Out (Forever)" - The End of Time

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 23:58:23 GMT

"The Day the Sun Went Out (Forever)" is a small booklet depicting the end of time on earth and the onset of eternity. It is told as a story about a chemist, Carl Henderson, who lived in a small town outside a city. Carl drove in to work every day, and had been thinking seriously lately about his soul.

He wanted to be a christian but just had not come to a real commitment to follow Christ, although he wanted to do so in order to be saved. His wife and son were members and asked him many times to accompany them to church and to church functions. He was planning to attend an upcoming meeting with preaching about the end of time, when.....that day arrived...that day when the sun went out, never to rise again.

Carl was driving home from work one evening when the ground began to shake and the sun was blotted out, becoming "black as sackcloth," and Carl had a hard time negotiating the 'bouncing' highway as a huge earthquake rumbled across the country. A bright cloud appeared in the sky, and Carl could see the figure of Jesus Christ coming from the east in that cloud.

He could not get home quickly enough. When he got there, his worst fears were realized. The great separation of the righteous and the unrighteous people had begun. The righteous were already on their way to eternity, rising to meet Christ in the air. Carl was not among them.

The booklet will soon be published and distributed. Information can be obtained from Don Petty, DOSYL56@aol.com.

Written by Don Petty

Two Mission Learning Center Workshops/Demonstrations Ahead

Sat, 24 May 2008 11:59:26 GMT

Two Mission Learning Center (MLC) workshops/demonstrations are to be delivered this year. First, at the Global Missions Conference in Arlington, Texas, July 23 - 25, 2008. The 'culture' to be demonstrated is CHINA. For information call (817) 267 - 2727. View www.globalmissionsconference.org for more information and to register.

Then, August 8 - 10, 2008, the culture of BRAZIL will be demonstrated (on Saturday at the noon hour) at the Lewisville (Texas) Sound Doctrine and Practice Workshop - 2008, at the Lewisville Church of Christ, Lewisville, Texas. Certainly you are welcome at both these events to further the spreading of the word of God to the lost. For information call (972) 353 - 2518. For more information and to register online view http://www.chofchrist-lewisville.org/sdp .

{NOTE: Scroll down about five entries to read who the speakers will be at the Lewisville (Texas) Sound Doctrine and Practice Workshop - 2008}

NOTE ABOUT THE TRAINING GIVEN IN A MISSION LEARNING CENTER. Mission Learning Center workshops and demonstrations have helped spread the concept of teaching our congregational children from 3 years old up to 8th grade to become "mission-positive" adults by the use of "simulated cultures" in the authentically-decorated Sunday morning bible class rooms. In the thoroughly decorated room three basic things are always taught: a CHRIST-CENTERED bible lesson, a CULTURE of another land, and the GREAT COMMISSION to "Go teach all nations."

Each Sunday a class of students are brought to the 'mission' room to tell them about the other culture and how Jesus wants us to go tell them about Him. Then a prayer is said for those people and for the church to tell them about Jesus and the gospel, and the one offering the prayer stands at the door of the room as the children prepare to go back to their regular room and reads the great commission from an open bible. The next week another class of a different age comes to hear the same lesson, but this time at their level of understanding, and so each week the same class is held but at an increasingly deeper level of study as the age level increases week by week.

This overview of the MLC is so you the reader can understand the basic concept of teaching congregational children to be mission-positive as they grow older and go out from their home congregation for work or for college. May God bless this long range effort to obey the great commission.

Don Petty (972) 243 - 2585

Topics and Speakers for Lewisville Sound Doctrine and Practice Workshop

Thu, 20 Dec 2007 21:28:02 GMT

Following are the Topics and Speakers for the Lewisville Sound Doctrine and Practice Workshop - 2008, which will be will be held at the Lewisville Church of Christ in Lewisville, Texas, August 8 - 10, 2008 Friday night through Sunday Worship Service ending at noon. The Entire Brotherhood is Invited.

LEWISVILLE SOUND DOCTRINE AND PRACTICE WORKSHOP - 2008

Topics and Speakers

"Submitting to the Absolute Authority of God" ("No other Gods") - Jeff Jenkins

"Committing It ALL to God and His Word"

(Halfway living the Christian life will not count in Judgment) - Ralph Gilmore

"A Time to Play: A Time to Produce"

("Don't play marbles with diamonds") - Dennis Jones

"Seriously Learning and Teaching the Scriptures of God"

(Learning by the Old Test; Living by the New Test.) - Ed Wharton

"Brazil 'Simulation' in Mission Learning Center"

(Raising mission-positive children in the local congregation) - LCoC Team

"Loving (Again) the Souls of the Lost"

("Go into the byways and bring them in") - Eddie Cloer

"Being Active in the Mission of the Kingdom of God"

(There is a place in the Kingdom for everyone) - Harold Taylor

"Living Under the Oversight of the Shepherds of God"

("They watch for our souls; Honor working inthe word") - Howard Norton

"Making Him Known to All Nations"

(Jesus said 'do it', and that does not leave us the choice) - Willie Franklin

"Actively Preparing to Meet God in Judgment"

("When did we give you drink, water, clothes?") - Gordon Hogan

Lewisville Church of Christ

901 College Parkway

Lewisville, Texas, 75077-2900.

August 8, 9, 10, 2008

You may contact the church at these numbers:

Email: office@chofchrist-lewisville.org

Phone: 972-353-2568

PLEASE HELP US SPREAD THE WORD OF THIS WORKSHOP BY FORWARDING THIS INFORMATION TO ALL THE CHURCH MEMBERS ON YOUR EMAIL LISTS. THANKS.

Maywood Christian Camp Missionary Retreat and Workshop

Tue, 06 May 2008 18:37:41 GMT

{NOTE: Scroll down about four entries to read who the speakers will be at the Lewisville (Texas) Sound Doctrine and Practice Workshop - 2008}

Loy Mitchell emailed me after the Missionary Retrat and Workshop was over with some ideas for the NEXT one. Me Too!! I am really looking ahead to the 'next one.'

What a great retreat it was. We are having fun, and enjoying fellowship - meals and otherwise - and ingesting the great words of the speakers..but, brethren, this has to be a little like the 'koinenia' of heaven, don't you think? Christians will surely be able to fellowship there and talk of things about God and any/all of His 'everlasting things.'

I wrote Loy back that I hope there are 'workshops' in Heaven, and the reason I do is because I want to have the love shown and compassion felt and courtesies extended and care provided for eachother that we all experienced at Maywood last week. Sylvia and I have decided we hope we can "pair off" in heaven and also "group off" to visit as we discuss eternal - those mysterious "aionian" - things.

My best thing was that I got to visit 'old timers', expecially Gordon and Jane Hogan, with whom we worked in Lahore, Pakistan, in the mid-sixties. In fact, Gordon and I shared a cabin with Gene Gibson; and the three of us had fun talking about just enjoyable things.

And let me correct something I said earlier...Gordon Hogan is WELL OVER 5 FEET HIGH. He quickly corrected a previous estimate I made of his stature; but, whatever, I know him on the inside....and his passion, compassion, love, courage, drive, and desire to preach and evangelize and serve God, far exceed any 'two meter' mark of stature. He is one of my favorite guys!! He is my mentor and my teacher and my role model as a missionary.

Okay...let's take all those things we heard and discussed and learned at Maywood, live them this year, and plan for the next one in 2009. God be with you all, Don Petty

The Visualized Church for 2008...and Beyond

Sat, 12 Apr 2008 03:39:28 GMT

On May 1- 3 in Hamilton, Alabama, at the Maywood Christian Camp, an estimated 100 missionaries and mission-positive people will meet to give/hear lectures on different aspects of missions and church growth and activities. This Missionary Workshop and Retreat will be the second year in a row that this group has met to discuss common problems and hear reports from the field and works of these missionaries, some giving a lifetime of effort to spread the Word of the Lord.

My topic this year will be "The Visualized Church in 2008...and Beyond." I will be talking about the church in America as well as visualizing a new church in the mission field. This talk was derived from some of the things we learned in our 2006 study on the Decline of the Church Membership. It will try to leverage that information into a practical 'working' church, which indeed the Lord may have envisioned when He said, "I will build my church." It is not a passive talk, because the Lord did not establish a passive, virtually 'out of sight' organization who did not work or teach or plant other churches. His word is too clear for us to believe that.

Others on the program will speak on their specialized interests and will include the following men: Don Norwood, James Jones, Gordon Hogan, Colin McKee, Randal Matheny, Claude Lewis, Loy Mitchell, Ken Wilkey, and Jeremy Barrier. Special classes for the young at heart taught by Jeremy and Joey Barrier.

You may get information on the workshop by emailing Wayne Barrier at the following

email address: wbarrier@hiwaay.net

Activities for Missions Straight Through to the Fall

Thu, 28 Feb 2008 05:39:08 GMT

What an emotional year for the church and mission work. One week after a group of about a dozen of us met in late January at the World Evangelism Building in Winona, Mississippi, to plan activities for establishing the World Evangelism School of Missions in Winona, our beloved brother, J.C.Choate made his last journey en route to eternity with the Father. His work goes on for World Evangelism at the Choate Publications work at the Winona-based headquarters for printing and mission work. This work will be continued by Betty Choate, the Louis Rushmores, and the Jerry Bates. God be with all these as they reach thousands with the printed page and campaign work.

The Teachers of Missions Workshop was held in Hurst, Texas, February 22,23, where the Christian Colleges and Universities had representative speakers assemble to discuss new methods of training missionaries and establishing churches. This year it was sponsored by Harding University and directed by Monte Cox, professor at Harding. In other years this effort is sponsored by David Lipscomb University and Abilene Christian Univesity. We always have breakout groups to get more into detail of understanding of the activities going on and beginning in missionary programs of our univesities.

Then on May 1- 3 in Hamilton, Alabama, at the Maywood Christian Camp, an estimated 100 missionaries and mission-positive people will meet to give/hear lectures on different aspects of missions and church growth and activities. This Missionary Workshop and Retreat will be the second year in a row that this group has met to discuss common problems and hear reports from the field and works of these missionaries, some giving a lifetime of effort to spread the Word of the Lord.

Then we will demonstrate a Mission Learning Center on China at the Global Mission Conference at the Arlington Convention Center, in Arlington, Texas, July 23 - 26, in a missions gathering of the churches of Christ to advance domestic and global outreach. For information call 817.267.2727.

The next exciting 2008 event in our work occurs on the weekend of August 8 - 10. It is the Lewisville (Texas) Sound Doctrine and Practice Workshop - 2008, at the Lewisville Church of Christ. (Contact phone number is 972.323.2518. We will hear 9 of the top speakers in the brotherhood deliver timely lectures for these very days and times in church history. We will give another Mission Learning Center demonstration at noon on Saturday, August 9. This demo will be on Brazil, showing one of the mission points of the Lewisville Church. Display space may be reserved by calling the church number above. (see speakers and topics on previous journal entry on this blog and look for the advertisements in the Christian Journal, Gospel Advocate, and Christian Chronicle.

In early September, at the Saturn Road Church of Christ in Garland, Texas, there will be the annual North Texas Teachers Workshop. Reach the church by phone 972.271.2444

Here is an addition to the list of mission events sent to us on Feb. 28. I am sending you an attachment announcing the French World Missions Workshop, Sept 19-21, 2008 in Castle Rock Colorado., God bless you, From Yann Opsitch, opsitch@bible.acu.edu

You might plan to attend as many of these events as possible, and gain all the nourishment they have to offer. All of it promises excitement and information about the challenge and charge to the church.

God be with you, Don Petty

Lewisville Sound Doctrine and Practice Workshop - 2008

Sun, 18 Nov 2007 15:00:24 GMT

PLEASE HELP US SPREAD THE WORD OF THIS WORKSHOP BY FORWARDING THIS INFORMATION TO ALL THE CHURCH MEMBERS ON YOUR EMAIL LISTS. THANKS.

A New Type of workshop will be held at the Lewisville (Texas) Church of Christ August 8, 9, 10, 2008. It is being called Sound Doctrine (and Practice) Workshop because it is addressing the 'sound doctrine' of Christ in the New Testament, and it is being called (Sound Doctrine and) Practice Workshop because it will address the practice of the church in the New Testament; thus, we will call it the Sound Doctrine and Practice Workshop - 2008. The invitation to attend is extended to the entire brotherhood. The dates we have chosen places the workshop right between the Global Mission Conference in Arlington, Texas, and the North Texas Teachers Workshop at Saturn Road Church of Christ in Garland, Texas.

It is designed for the entire membership - worship, study, missions, evangelism, personal work, serving in the leadership, ministering, visiting, helping others in the church and outside of the church. Speakers and topics with the 'program' will be announced as all details are completed.

During the weekend workshop, there will be 9 topics with 9 seasoned speakers, there will be exhibits of many brotherhood works, singing of original music written by Lewisville members, a meal at Saturday noon, and a workshop on the Mission Learning Center showing how it is done and demonstrating the method with an actual class of children in a 'simulated culture.'

The Lewisville Church of Christ was established 10 years ago and began with 200 'charter members.' That number, 10 years later, stands at near 800 members. This is being accomplished by practicing the sound doctrine being preached and taught by men adhering closely to God's word and members living as Christians. This congregation is experiencing growth at a time when the overall membership of the church in the U.S. is declining. There are reasons for that. The workshop may help you learn some of these reasons.

All members of the Lord's body are invited and encouraged to come to the workshop. It is being overseen by the elders of Lewisville, who invite all members across the country to come and hear some excellent speakers express 3rd millennium views of the church established in the first century. Don Petty

Mission Learning Center Workshops and Other Outreach Things

Sat, 11 Aug 2007 01:07:12 GMT

Mission Learning Center (MLC) interest has gained momentum over the years and workshops have been scheduled where Sylvia and I and the Webb Chapel MLC workers are working together to make the workshops more informative by including an actual "simulation" at the next two workshops. First, in Garland, Texas, at the Saturn Road Church of Christ we do a 1 1/2 hour workshop and demonstration with actual students in an MLC 'simulation of Chile.' That will be Saturday September 8. Contact Saturn Road Church (Wayne McReynolds) for details on the entire workshop.

Then, Lord willing and the creeks 'go down' in Arlington, Texas, at the Global Mission Conference next summer (2008) we will do the same type workshop, this time doing the actual simulation on China. The discussion part will be about 1 1/2 hours with the real demonstration with children studying about the culture of China and getting their Christ-centered bible lesson at the conference. Joyce Hardin at MRN has the details on this agenda and curriculum.

More is going on than the MLC workshops. It is great to note that the eldership at the Lewisville Church of Christ in Lewisville, Texas, have given approval and encouragement for an MLC to be established in the congregation there where we will teach children three years old to 8th grade to be mission-positive as a part of their bible and christian education by the members of Lewisville. We have been members at Lewisville since December 31, 2006.

In May of this year we discussed a study we made with the help of many of you in the brotherhood, on the Decline in Membership of the Church of Christ and what some Solutions would be. I actually spoke an hour on the subject to about 75 mission-minded people at the Maywood Christian Camp in Hamilton, Alabama. From that presentation we were invited to discuss the work to increase our membership at Winona, Mississippi, at the World Evangelism offices. J.C. and Betty Choate and Wayne and Janet Barrier are moving that work forward and adding help to expand and further reach the lost with, not only the printed page in books and articles and magazines and papers, but now are planning a World Evangelism School of Missions.

A planning session was held there in Winona with about 25 mission-minded people discussing the school and the ways to increase our membership here in the U.S. and abroad. Curriculum and students, ideas and operation were all under the careful and watchful eyes ofthe leaders there, the Choates and the Barriers. But I believe many good ideas were generated to help that work move forward.

Then, from all this flurry of study and brain-storming and idea-generating discussions, we approached the elders at Lewisville again and they approved a workshop next year (in 2008) to address reaching the lost and working as strong christians to do the work as set forth in the New Testament. This will encompass both missions and serving the local community with service and teaching. This is a workshop that everyone in the brotherhood will be invited to attend. It will address some of our passivity in the church and some of the things we must do to regain our momentum as New Testament christians. We have many things, topics, and speakers already in the agenda and program. We are hoping to offer something for all members...evangelists, personal workers, missionaries and good members who work to help the cause of Christ, like bringing in the stranger, clothing the naked, giving food to the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, visiting the sick, and visiting the prisoner. Sound familiar? How about reading it in Matthew 25: 34 - 40. Those are some pretty critical "commands" by Jesus.

Okay, Christian People, let's shake any passivity or defeatism and get back in the game. We have sat on the bench long enough...we are players, not spectators in this battle. Let's give it what we have. God bless you as we work to glorify Him, Don Petty