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Police Break Up Our Service

August 7, 2011 in Asia, Discipleship, Ministry Philosophy, Persecution, Prayer Requests, Preaching, Training Leaders with 0 Comments

This is from one of our dearest friends. He serves in China and is home on a short furlough now. I am right now on the phone with another friend from our church in China! I hurt for the believers, the Bible teachers, and all who serve God in China.

I want to comment on the questions asked by my friend.

source

Oh the junk going through my head right now….

Got a phone call from my buddy tonight just as we were laying down to go to sleep. Told me that there was an email from China just sent out to our missionary team (I am in the States right now). This morning’s church service was interrupted by twenty police officers. Two of the Chinese men training for ministry, two of the best friends God has ever blessed me with, are in the police station right now.

One of them was about ten minutes into his sermon when they came in. They didn’t all have on uniforms – most didn’t I understand. The pastor from the government church was in their entourage. Guess it didn’t get ugly or anything. They gave the Chinese people a lecture on the illegality of the service. Took down people’s info. Then they took the guys away. In good spirits, according to my co-laborer still on the field.

- why am I here on the other side of the world when this goes down?
- how long are they going to hold the guys?
- what are we going to do next week?
- whose faith will be shown to be false in this trial?
- will the cops leave us alone after this?
- how much of our 4 years of work must be rebuilt?
- do those two know how much I love them and how proud I am?
- have I prepared them sufficiently for this day?

One question need not be asked, and I pray my friends won’t ask it even in custody: is it worth it? Preaching the Gospel to many who are learning to love it, to some who’ve never heard it before? Attempting to share it with even more people? If that’s not worth it all, what is?

Was there a way to avoid this? Sure. By staying under the rock. Maybe they’ll keep pushing us back under. If so, we’ll do all we can from there. But how can we not try to reach? Not try to be more bold? How can we content ourselves with the rumors of other people’s persecutions and avoid all of our own? How can we act like we have no higher purpose than escaping persecution? Jesus was expelled from places, as was Paul – who do we think we are to rest under the rock?

So to all my friends and brothers who visit this page: please pray, not that the Lord will allow us to escape safely under the rock, but that we will take refuge in him and gladly pay the price of preaching the Salvation that cost the ultimate price to earn.

God is in control. He knew this was going to happen as well as did my friends. They have been the boldest witnesses I know of in China. They will continue to be so. Many have been saved. Others have grown spiritually.

They were big enough to get on the Devil’s radar. Their message was never political but Biblical. They told people about the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The true believers will be stronger. Some will go back because they never believed. Others may be scared for a short time but will believe and get stronger.

This is just more proof of why we must train national pastors to do the work in case the missionaries get kicked out!

This is proof of the need for an indigenous church. A church that can operate on their own, serving Jesus, without help from America.

I am so proud of these believers. I am super proud of my missionary friendsh. They are my heroes. They have trained the men. One of them was preaching today. None of them backed down. None of them denied who they were, who Jesus is, or what they were doing.

That happens because God’s men have invested correctly in the people.

This is not a man’s work and it will stand. Jesus is and will be glorified. To my friends M and J. I love you and I am so proud of you!

To my friends in China I love you. I am so super proud of you and blessed they get to know you and serve Jesus with you.

Keep up the good work!

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Jeff Bush in video explaining robbery

July 22, 2011 in Prayer Requests with 0 Comments

Robbery at Gunpoint from Jeff Bush on Vimeo.

I hope you will pray about helping Jeff and Mindy with all the expenses of this robbery. Vision is planning a love offering now!

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Jeff Bush updates us on hold up

July 22, 2011 in Prayer Requests with 1 Comment

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This past Sunday night we were coming home from church and as we were walking into the house, Mindy started to close the front door and was surprised when she felt someone pulling it back open from the outside. Immediately a gun was pointed at her and 2 men barged into our house yelling at us to get down on the floor. My parents and nephew had just arrived and thankfully each of our girls was close enough to one of the adults as we were made to sit down on the floor.

The thieves started asking for money, cell phones, etc. One of them went over to my wife and tried to pull her necklace off and asked for her wedding rings. Then one of them took me upstairs to our bedroom and made me give him money that we had saved back and started dumping out stuff from drawers and closets in our room. They found our computers and emptied out my wife’s jewelry box. During this time my wife and parents and the children were downstairs with the other thief.

My wife asked him if he believed in God and he said, “Yes.” She then told him, “I will tell you what is the most valuable possession we own. See that Book over there?” he went over, picked up her Bible and thumbed through it. Before they left as they were packing up our belongings, he started to put the Bible in the backpack and the other man told him, “Don’t take that (the Bible)!” He said, “But this lady gave it to me.” And he put in the bag. It was very ironic as they were stealing important things and he acted like he needed to take it because my wife had given it to him. May the Lord use that Bible to speak to his heart of his lost condition.

When the other one brought me downstairs he again started to wave the gun around and asked where the “big money” was and said that he was “sent” to our house because someone has been watching me. They obviously thought they were going to get more than they did. I told him that the money goes to the construction at the church (which he had already referred to our church, knowing that much about us). He didn’t believe me and both of them started to go through everything downstairs putting things in their pockets every now and then. They started filling up my backpack with our computers, camera, cell phone and took our wedding rings off our fingers. They found our passports but when I asked him not to take them, he left them alone. I also asked him for a credit card that he had taken with some of the money and he very kindly gave it back!

For a few minutes I was able to talk to him about the Lord and he listened, probably more so than the average person on the street! Finally after about an hour they decided they weren’t going to get anymore. The older one lifted up some duct tape of ours that he had found in a drawer and was going to tie us up. I begged him to not touch my girls and although it sounds crazy, he started to walk over and then just set the tape down. I believe the Lord blinded his understanding as he just put the tape on the table and said, “Ok, let’s go.”

Before leaving, he said, “If you report us to the police, we’ll be back to take your daughter.” They then proceeded to go out the door in what felt to most of us like the end of a very bad dream. We all gathered together and through many tears, we thanked the Lord for protecting us. Our 9 year old daughter, Lydia, got her Bible and suggested we read a passage from Psalms.

After having talked through this, my wife said, “Whenever I imagined that something like this would happen, I always imagined that we would all be hysterical and panicking, but somehow the Lord gave us all a peace as if we were just calmly watching it happen in a dream.” Even our daughters were very calm during the time that the men were in our house. Only once towards the end did they start to cry.

And our VERY active 15 month old Alexa, “somehow” sat quietly on her Papaw’s lap for close to an hour without moving!! We see now how God protected us and kept us safe as many people have told us that usually when they come in unmasked, many times they kill or will do something so you cannot identify them. We believe that the Lord held their hand from touching and harming us.

We ask that you would pray for us that the Lord will give us back a sense of security in our home and will allow the girls to not be afraid. Pray for the protection of all missionaries on the field where wickedness abounds so much more. Although we had many earthly possessions taken away from us, we are not so worried about any of that. We are just thankful that we have each other and no one was harmed! So many of you have been kind in sending emails, saying you are praying for us and some have even taken up a love offering to help with our needs. We want to thank you for this.

Our fellow missionaries have been kind enough to allow us to borrow a computer. And our churches in Argentina have showed us their love in so many ways. We may not be able to answer every email as our computers were stolen and some emails were never received, but we have read everything received and thank you so much for loving us!

Here to Serve,
Jeff and Mindy Bush and family

www.reachingall.com

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Update from Jeff Bush

July 20, 2011 in Prayer Requests with 0 Comments

Mindy and I want to thank everyone for your prayers over the last few days.

On Sunday night we were robbed when 2 young men followed us into our house with guns and yelling for us to get on the floor and give them our money. They took everything as jefe put on a blog and my purpose is not to say much about that, rather to say a big THANK YOU to all of our extended family. We love you guys as family and the prayer and moral support has been very, very helpful to us. The Lord has given us a calmness thru everything and just between us I would like to ask for you to pray for my wife and girls since they were very shaken up and scared about night times, etc. I know I probably have a lot of unanswered e-mails from everyone, but we ask your patience b/c we are just setting up our e-mail and all now since a good friend let us borrow his wife’s computer.

I would like to say to everyone the importance the Lord has placed on my heart to make sure our focus is on Him and to love our family — after having most things stolen, I realize that all the material possessions are not that important and having the family well is way better than anything else.

Love you guys and thanks for everything.

here to serve,
jeff

Post in series

Missionary Wife Robbed at Gunpoint
Latest Update from the Bushes

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Latest update from the Bushes

July 18, 2011 in BCWE Team Updates, Prayer Requests, South America with 0 Comments

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I just got off the phone with Jeff Bush. Mindy didn’t sleep much last night. The older two daughters were the most affected by watching all of this go down.

I got some more details.

The thieves were apparently in the yard hiding when they pulled the car in. Jeff got out. Locked the outside gate and the family went in the house. Mindy was the last one in and they grabbed her just as she was going to shut the door to the house.

They were waving their guns. They grabbed Mindy and pushed their way into the house.

They took Jeff at gun point upstairs and made him go through things looking for money and valuables. They threatened to tie him up and he asked them not to mess with his girls. They apparently talked among themselves and decided to not tie him or anyone else up.

Jeff will not be going to the police because it would be a waste of time and only cause them to publish the details of what happened and where they live.

Obviously they have suffered a financial lost and also a great sentimental loss with the theft of their rings. But most of all there is an emotional loss because of thieves entering the house, violating their privacy, threatening them, etc.

The Bushes have 4 small girls. Mindy is pregnant with the 5th. This is a difficult time for them and I hope you will pray for them.

I also ask you to think about helping them get back what they lost. They need 2 laptop computers, camera, rings, money, and several other things.

I thank God for how He protected them. Things could have been much worse. They could have done bodily harm to the family but God protected them and even caused them not to tie or tape them up. They even had the duct tape ready to use!

Pray also for Jeff’s Dad and Mom who were there watching all of this happen to their children. This is a very hard time obviously for them and all that love the Bushes.

You can find out more about the Bushes on their web page by clicking here.

If you would like to send them an offering you can do so at

Jeff Bush
MWBM
P.O. Box 519
Braselton, GA 30517

A missionary friend is going to loan them a computer so that they can get messages from you on FaceBook and via email so feel free to write them.

God bless you for your love and concern!

This is a link to the earlier post!

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