The Road Less Traveled...April 2009

Greetings from Antigua! The warm weather is here soon to be followed by 6 months of rain so I am enjoying all the sunshine I can get. We are presently hosting a YWAM team from Chico, CA who have come to Guatemala for the final 2 months of their Discipleship Training School. They have ministered in a variety of places and have been a blessing to everyone. Yesterday we visited a feeding program run by a church about an hour from the base. They feed 46 kids two days each week and have a Bible program for them before they serve the meal. Many of the children are from single parent homes in which the father has either abandoned them or died. The team ministered to the children through songs, stories and dramas. Afterward we play soccer with the boys: Gringos vs Guatemaltecos. The field was on the side of a hill which made for an interesting and challenging game. The boys thoroughly enjoyed playing against us. I hope we will be able to bring more teams there in the future and provide help for them as they reach out to the needy children of the community. The team will be leaving for Lake Atitlan on Saturday for a week of ministry with a couple of churches in San Pablo.

Semana Santa, Holy Week, brought in a lot of people to the city. We passed out tracks and did evangelism during the week with several people making decisions to follow Christ. During this week the people are very open to hearing the gospel message. We celebrated Easter with a sunrise service at the Cross on the hill overlooking Antigua. We had about 50 people join us as we worshipped the Risen Savior. This service has been ongoing for at least 8 years and is one of those memorable events for the tourists and students who are in Antigua for a short term.

We are looking forward to new staff joining us soon as well as some volunteer help for the summer months. June and July have typically been our busiest months of the year and it is nice to have the extra help when we need it. We have fewer teams scheduled to come to Antigua to work with us this summer which can be attributed to the economic crisis most of the world is experiencing. The rental agreement for Higher Grounds Coffee House will expire at the end of October. The future of the shop is unknown at the present time and I ask for your prayers for guidance and direction. The proposed rent increase is beyond our ability and desire to pay each month so we are looking at other options.

During May we will be conducting a one day seminar on prayer for a large group of women and pastors in the Lake Atitlan area. We will be conducting sessions for the women, children and pastors. We also will be hosting a seminar at the Coffee House on personal support raising for missionaries. We have a guest speaker who has worked with YWAM for 30 years and raised 7 children on the mission field. He has a lot of good information to share with the missionary community as they face the challenges of living by faith.

We continue to get inquiries about our September DTS. I will be meeting with several pastors to solicit their help in selecting Guatemalan students who will participate in the 5 month program. This will be a great opportunity for them but will also be a challenge for them being away from family and being around people of different cultures. Please pray that we will be able to recruit the right students and be able to help them with the expenses of the school.


I will be going back to India May 26-June 16 to help with Evangelistic Crusades and Pastor's conferences. I am looking forward to the trip and am grateful for the opportunity to be a part of the ministry to the world's second most populated country. During my last trip God did amazing things to make Himself real to the people and demonstrate His love for them. I plan to visit a YWAM base in Chennai when I arrive to explore opportunities to bring student there for outreach. I ask for your prayers for this trip, that God will provide everything I need both financially, physically and spiritually to minister to the people.

A local missionary has developed a website to help missionaries raise funds throught the purchase of Guatemalan coffee. The coffee is grown in Antigua and is high quality. You can purchase the coffee via the internet and have it shipped to your door. Each pound of coffee sells for $10 plus shipping costs which are calculated when you make the purchase. The missionary will receive $4 of each purchase. The website for my personal support is:http://www.hishousecoffee.com/ywam-bruce-ahlberg.php
The website gives information about the ministry I am involved in and there is a short video interview. Whether you contribute through the coffee purchase or through your sacrificial giving I am very grateful to receive your prayers and support. Many mission agencies are reporting greatly reduced support for their missionaries but so far I have only had a couple of supporters that have had to reduce the contributions. Thank you for your continued partnership in the ministry.

For Him,
Bruce

Correspondence Address:
Bruce Ahlberg
YWAM Antigua
6ta Av. Norte #33
Antigua, Guatemala

Contribution address:
YWAM Chico
15850 Richardson Springs Road
Chico, CA 95973
(Please attach a note to designate your contribution)



Personal blog: http://guatemalaministry.blogspot.com/
YWAM Antigua Blog: http://ywamantiguanews.blogspot.com/

He is risen!

I am the resurrection and the life
We gather together this early morning to celebrate the resurrection of our Lord Jesus! Much of the world will spend this day as they spend every day, oblivious to or denying of the claims of Jesus when he announced that he was the resurrection and the life. Newsweek’s April 13 magazine had on its cover the following headline, "The Decline and Fall of Christian America". Written by Newsweek editor Jon Meacham, the story is based on last month's highly reported American Religious Identification Survey which revealed that the percentage of Americans claiming no religion rose to 15 percent while that of Christians declined to 76 percent. It also found that the non-religious population, or "Nones," has shifted away from the Pacific Northwest to Northern New England.
The survey reflects to a great extent what is happening in many countries of the world as people doubt Christianity’s claim of exclusivism and have more confidence in their own beliefs. Last week we talked with several people in the park in Antigua about their beliefs. One of young men from Guatemala stated that it really did not matter what you believed as all beliefs were different ways to get to God. One could not claim one belief was better than another. He struggled to be able to answer my question as to how two opposite beliefs could both be true. This is the dilemma of modern man who does not want to exclude anyone or believe that there is absolute truth. Another young man when trying to explain what he believed stumbled over his own words and could not logically explain what he believed. It is as though it does not really matter what you believe because there is no absolute truth by which we can judge things. We live in a time when many people have never really thought through what they believe. They have not asked the hard questions about what they believe but seem content to live in a state of ignorance and do not seem to care about the consequences of their belief system.
It was very different talking to an elderly man who was sitting on the bench by himself. He had been to a full gospel businessman’s meeting that morning and was sitting on the bench thinking about God and what God was saying to him. He knew there was a God yet he acknowledged that his relationship with God was not one of closeness, he was lukewarm. However, he was sensing that God was trying to speak to him. Several things had happened to him during the week that had gotten his attention to the reality of God in his life. He was mulling over these things as he sat on the bench. When we approached him to talk with him, he thought we were going to ask him for directions. He was pleasantly surprised when we began talking to him about God and his relationship with him. He received what we said and got direction for his pursuit of God.
We live in a world of many contrasting belief systems but you and I are gathered here today because we have placed our confidence in a risen Savior Jesus Christ who fulfilled the claims that he made about himself .25Jesus told her, “I am the one who raises the dead and gives them life again. Anyone who believes in me, even though he dies like anyone else, shall live again. 26He is given eternal life for believing in me and shall never perish. Do you believe this, Martha?” (John 11:26-28)
Every other religious leader has been buried in a grave and never returned to life. They did not possess resurrection power and they did not promise any of the followers they would one day be raised from the dead.
Without Christ’s resurrection we are no different than the animals that die and return to the earth. We have the evidence of the resurrection through the eye witness accounts that have been recorded and given to us in the Scriptures and in historical documents. Jesus did not keep his resurrection a secret. The Jewish leaders had heard Jesus declare that he would rise from the dead and they were afraid that it could possibly be true so they made sure the tomb was sealed tightly and guarded by soldiers. Jesus had already upset the leaders with his statements regarding his origin, purpose and his destiny. When he rose from the dead the Jews had to create a story to cover themselves and try to keep the people in the dark. His resurrection proved that what he claimed about himself really was true and this was more than the Jewish leaders could bear. They were afraid of the truth just like many people today. They really do not want to believe in Jesus because that would mean they are wrong and that they need to change their ways. One of the prime ways they try to undermine the truth is to deny the inspiration of the Scriptures. If you can destroy the written evidence by invalidating its credibility then you are free to believe what you want.
God’s Word is the foundation of our beliefs but beyond this we have our own personal experiences with Christ and how he has changed our lives. Your personal testimony has great impact on people and testifies of the reality of the resurrection power of Christ working in your life. It is hard for someone to deny a changed life although they may question how Christ changed it.
Another evidence that we have of the resurrection of Christ is the power of his Name. If Christ were simply a man who died how could his name have power over demonic forces and physical conditions such as sickness, disease and abnormal bodies? When believers pray in his Name there is power released and people are healed and set free from demonic bondages. The Name of Jesus is powerful and everything must bow to its authority. Last night in the park I talked to a Guatemalan lady who shared her testimony of being healed of cancer through the prayers of a believer from the USA. Demons must leave when they are commanded to go in the Name of Jesus. I have personally witnessed people who were demon possessed for years but were set free when the demons were commanded to leave in the Name of Jesus. If Jesus’ name meant nothing more than just a human name then the demons would not have to leave. But behind his name is all authority in heaven and on earth. At his name the demons tremble, at his name sickness leaves, at his name people are miraculously healed. I have never heard of someone being healed by declaring the name of Mohammed, or Buddha, or any other leader of a religion.
We have reason to celebrate today because we serve a risen Savior who is actively working on our behalf through the intercessory prayers he is praying for us today. Jesus is praying for you and I right now!
He is the head of his church, those who have been called out of the world to become part of his Body on earth. He is in control and he is actively working in his people who have submitted themselves to his Lordship. The intimacy that Jesus shared with his disciples is now possible for all believers through the gift of the Holy Spirit who Jesus sent to be the Teacher, Counselor, Guide, and Helper. The Holy Spirit is our other witness of the truth of the resurrection. Jesus promised his disciples that he would send the Holy Spirit and in order to do this he had to ascend and go to the Father in order for the Holy Spirit to be sent to the earth. As much as the disciples enjoyed Jesus’ presence with them each day, Jesus told them it was better for them as well as for future believers that he go to the Father and send the Spirit. Our spirit bears witness to the reality of the Holy Spirit dwelling in each one of us.
We have the witness of the eye witnesses, the witness of the written Word of God, the witness of the power of the Name of Jesus, the witness of the Holy Spirit dwelling within us to prove the resurrection of Christ being true.
We have been given this message and its reality to share with a lost world. The first disciples after they were empowered by the Holy Spirit shared this message with their Jewish friends and enemies as well as with the Gentiles. They did not remain silent, the message was too important to not share and the stakes were too high for those who never had the opportunity to hear the message. We have an urgent message to share because it is a true message. It is a message that changes the outcome of the verdict that the world is facing which is a sentence of death. When I grew up there was a tv show called Perry Mason. Perry Mason was a lawyer who always defended someone who was falsely accused of a certain crime or he was called on to present evidence that would convict the person guilty of the crime. Many times the key evidence that had the power to change the verdict that seemed inevitable was not presented until the last minute. Once the evidence was presented the case was closed. The evidence of the resurrection is that piece of evidence that we all need to change the verdict on our lives. Believing in Jesus’ resurrection changes everything. It is the most liberating event that has ever occurred and it is the message that we have been given to share with the world.
Today we have the opportunity to both be the message and share the message of the truth of the resurrection with the world. We cannot hold back, we cannot be ashamed or timid about sharing this message even though we may be ridiculed or rejected the message is the truth that God wants the world to know. There are many who will receive a verdict of guilty unless they hear and believe the message God has given us. Our privilege is to share the truth with them and live the truth before them so that they can see its reality and be drawn by the Holy Spirit to surrender their lives to Christ and receive his gift of eternal life made possible through the resurrection of Jesus.
May we leave this place filled with the Holy Spirit, filled with the joy of knowing that we know the truth, filled with the hope that one day we too will rise from the dead and forever be in the presence of Jesus where we will rule and reign with Him.
The early church celebrated the resurrection by confirming with one another the truth of the resurrection. As they greeted each other one would say,”He is risen!” and the other person would respond, “He is risen indeed!” There was both certainty and joy in their confession. Let’s leave today with that same certainty and joy.

Leadership principles from the life of Joshua

As Israel was set to enter the Promised Land a new leader had to be commissioned to bring them into the land and lead them into battle. Moses was disqualified from leadership because of his outburst of anger and disrespect he showed toward God when he struck the rock instead of speaking to it as God had commanded. Moses had some anger issues that led him to actions that he regretted and kept him from crossing the Jordan. Moses saw the Promised Land from Mt. Nebo but never set foot in it. The new leader of the million plus people of Israel had to be someone who was well prepared and qualified as it would be a daunting task for anyone. God had a man prepared for the task, Joshua the son of Nun. Tonight I want to look at his life and how God prepared him and developed him into a great leader. The principles of successful leadership identified in his life are principles that all of us can apply to our lives as we seek to serve the Lord in whatever role has placed us in.
Mentored by Moses
Joshua was part of the mass exodus from Egypt. We are not sure of the exact age when he left, the only age we know for certain is that he was 110 years old when he died and that 40 of those years were spent in the wilderness. I am guessing he was between 30-40 years old when he left Egypt which is considered to be young when you live to be over 100. He witnessed the powerful hand of God in the judgments on Egypt and the miraculous deliverance. He witnessed the miracles of provision in the desert as well as the judgments on the people for their disobedience. All of these experiences helped to shape his life, his understanding of God and his faith in God. The first mention of Joshua finds him leading the men under his charge in the battle against Amalek (Ex. 17:8-16). He witnessed the power of God at work to defeat the enemy. Joshua served alongside of Moses as his assistant. There was obviously leadership potential in him and Moses took him under his wing to mentor him. In Exodus 24:13 Joshua was with Moses when the Lord told him to come to meet with him on Mt. Sinai where he would receive the commandments of God. Mentoring is a powerful tool that helps prepare leaders for positions of great responsibility. The Bible is filled with examples of people who were mentors and were mentored. Joshua was privileged to have a great mentor in Moses. He shadowed Moses, and served him. Leadership is service and Joshua had the opportunity to serve one the greatest leaders in history. Mentoring is important at any age. Studies from the Barna group indicate that after the age of 13 only 5% of youth in the USA will make decisions for Christ. It is vitally important to reach and begin training and discipling youth at an early age. Joshua had the advantage of an excellent mentor. He learned through observation of Moses’ life how important it was to be obedient to the Lord and have faith in the word of God. As believers we need to be engaged in the training of young people or in making it possible for them to be trained. If we fail to invest in our children and the youth of our churches we will continue to lose future leaders of the church. Youth With A Mission has had from its inception the vision of training young people to be disciples of Christ who will impact the world. The Discipleship Training School is designed to lay a foundation of Knowing God and making Him known. YWAM champions youth and gives them opportunities to grow in leadership while they are young. There are many other organizations that are attempting to accomplish the same things with young people and we need to be encouraging youth to take advantage of the opportunities to be a part of this training. Our base will be conducting a DTS this September and I want to see at least 5 Guatemalan youth attending it. We will need to raise funds to help them attend and I ask that you pray that God will help us select the people He wants in the school. Joshua had the advantage of being mentored by Moses to prepare him for the leadership role he would one day have. Mentoring is not just for young people, all of us need a mentor who will help us develop our faith and grow in our maturity in the Lord. We need to learn from others by placing ourselves under them and invite them to speak into our lives. I want to encourage each of us to find a mentor and be a mentor to someone. Invest yourself in another life to train them and help them live out their faith. We are living in a time when many young people are growing up in single parent homes and they need a mentor to help them learn how to be a true disciple of Christ.
Faith and obedience
Joshua’s leadership ability was recognized by Moses and he was chosen to be one of the spies sent to inspect the Promised Land and bring back a report to the people. Joshua had already seen how God defeated the Amalekites. God had been faithful to his word and it was with this same confidence in God that he along with Caleb saw the tremendous potential that lay before them in the Promised Land. Numbers 14:6-10 records their conversation with the people. They communicated as strongly and as encouragingly as they could that God would give them the land and defeat the enemy. Joshua had eyes of faith to see what was available and confidence in God’s ability to give them what he had promised. Great leaders in God’s kingdom have to have eyes of faith to see the potential and dependence upon God to do what he has declared he will do. Their enthusiasm was met with hostility and rejection. Fear had gripped the heart of the people and they missed out on what God had for them. Joshua and Caleb had to wait many years for the rebellious generation to die before they could enter the Promised Land. They lived with the memory of the fertile land that was promised to them but unattainable because of the disobedience of the people. Disappointment is part of leadership. As a leader you can see the potential in people and opportunities but when you see people make wrong choices that are destructive or see them not take advantage of opportunities that God has given them to grow you can be very disappointed. This is an aspect of leadership that is very difficult to go through. Your influence on others is limited by their choices which you cannot control. Joshua did what he could but ultimately people will make their own choices and with those choices there is often disappointment and delays.
Filled with the Spirit
Joshua’s faithfulness to the Lord was rewarded. When the time came for Moses to step down from leadership, Joshua was God’s choice to lead the next generation into the Promised Land. Joshua was given an impartation of the Spirit which set him apart for leadership. Numbers 27:18-23 describes the public transfer of authority and recognition of the new leadership role that Joshua would assume. Leaders must be filled and led of the Holy Spirit. Without the Holy Spirit the leader will lack the wisdom necessary to make decisions that will affect many lives. The wisdom of the Holy Spirit is supernatural wisdom. It is not wisdom that is gained through experience; it is supernatural wisdom that the Spirit imparts when there is a need. As we are filled with the Spirit and learn to hear His voice as He imparts wisdom and understanding that is beyond our human understanding we receive the guidance and instruction that will give us success. Joshua had the Spirit of God at work in him and Moses gave public recognition that he would be the next leader. God had prepared Joshua for this moment and He placed him in the position when he was ready. God must be the one who places us in positions of leadership. If we try to force our way or strive after a position of leadership it will not work. When God is ready to put you in a new position it will be recognized by the other leaders and the people. It was obvious to the people that Joshua was the one to lead them and they pledged faithfulness to him.
Strength and Courage
As the new leader of Israel Joshua needed to be strong and courageous (Joshua 1:6-9) Leadership will always be faced with challenges that at times seem extremely difficult. A leader who is weak and afraid will only lead the people to be fearful. Their strength is not in their own abilities but in their relationship to the Lord and his ability to work through them. God promised he would be with Joshua just as he was with Moses. He would never abandon him. Joshua had seen God work through him, he knew all things were possible with God because God was faithful to fulfill his word. There would be many enemies that Israel would have to defeat. They would be outnumbered and not have the same weapons of warfare but they had God as their banner leading them into the battle and fighting for them as they walked in obedience to his commands.
Priority of God’s Word
Joshua’s success would be dependent upon his fulfillment of the laws and commands of God. He was to saturate himself in God’s Word, meditate upon it and teach to the people because their success was dependent upon their obedience to the Lord. This is another critical aspect of leadership and that is studying, applying and teaching the Word of God to the people. Our success will be determined by our obedience to live out the Word of God in our lives. When leaders begin to live lives outside of the Word of God, trouble immediately follows. We have all witnessed great leaders be removed from leadership because of failure to live out the principles of God’s word. God will not be mocked, He will remove leaders who are walking in disobedience to him. Most of us are aware of what happened with Todd Bently whom God was using in Lakeland, Florida, to bring salvation and healing. His ministry was stripped away from him overnight when it was revealed that he was separating from his wife and was involved in inappropriate relationships. He has since remarried and has subjected himself to a restoration process with other leaders. Leaders will be attacked more strongly by the enemy and we need to hold them up in prayer as well as hold them accountable for their actions. Joshua’s life was marked by obedience to the Lord. The only exception was when the Gibeonites deceived him and he made a covenant with them without consulting the Lord. As a leader we must always go to the Lord for wisdom and discernment. Joshua kept his covenant with the Gibeonites. In our court of law the covenant could be broken because of the deception that was involved. In a marriage covenant there is a provision for annulment if there was deception on the part of one person. If the person you are marrying kept hidden the fact that he or she was still married to another person, the marriage would be null and void. When Joshua made the covenant with the Gibeonites, there was no clause for deception. Once the covenant was made, he had to honor it. Joshua was responsible to check things out before entering into an agreement. We would all be much wiser if we did more checking before we agreed to bind ourselves to an contract with someone we really don’t know. Joshua failed to do any checking and he failed to seek the Lord for discernment. It is easy for us to rely on our own wisdom and understanding and fail to seek the Lord in our decisions. Godly leaders know how to seek the Lord and are not quick to enter into covenant unless they have consulted the Lord and done their research.
Encouragement and Motivation
Another aspect of Joshua’s leadership was his ability to encourage and motivate others. Tom Landry was a very successful coach of the Dallas Cowboy football team. He was quoted to say, “The job of a football coach is to make men do what they don’t want to do, in order to achieve what they’ve always wanted to be.” As a leader Joshua had to confront the people with their failures and encourage them to pursue everything that was theirs. The conquering of the Promise Land took several years to achieve. There came a time when the people just gave up on possessing all the land. The enemies had been conquered but they did not move into the land to settle in it. They had reached a point where they were satisfied with where they were at. Joshua 18:1-10 relates the situation and how Joshua handled it. He was not content to have 7 of the tribes not move into the land that was theirs. He said to them, “How long will you neglect to go and possess the land which the Lord God of your fathers has given you? (18:3). Leaders at times need to provide a push to those who can easily settle for less than what they are capable of doing or desire to do. Leaders have to be willing to challenge the status quo and encourage their followers to pursue excellence and develop their gifts and talents to their maximum potential. It is human nature to find a place of contentment and just hunker down and not pursue what you could really achieve. I have great admiration for people who are seeking to become better at what they do, more knowledgeable about their field of study and are willing to invest in training or take steps of faith to pursue their goals and dreams. When you stop dreaming you stop living. Leaders are risk takers and they encourage others to take risks to become everything they can be. They are not content to settle for something less than what could be and they encourage others to press on and do what needs to be done to pursue their dream. Joshua put a little fire under the feet of the Israelites to motivate them to take possession of everything that God had given them and they responded. The people may not have appreciated what he said at that moment but after they moved into their new land I am sure they were grateful that they had not settled for something less than they could have had.
A Legacy worth remembering
The final aspect of Joshua’s leadership was the legacy he left with the people. In Joshua 24, he gives his farewell address to the people and leaders of the nation. He publicly challenged them to choose whom they would serve and stated that he and his house would serve the Lord and not the gods of the other nations. During his lifetime, Joshua did everything the Lord asked him to do. He accomplished his mission and God fulfilled every promise that he made to Joshua and the people because of Joshua’s obedience. Joshua finished strong, he was not a backslidden unfaithful man but one who lived his entire life in obedience to the Lord. He left a legacy for Israel and for us as well that I pray will be said of each one of us at the end of our lives. Judges 2:7-9 describe the legacy of Joshua.’
7-9Joshua, the man of God, died at the age of 110 and was buried at the edge of his property in Timnath-heres, in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash. The people had remained true to the Lord throughout Joshua’s lifetime, and as long afterward as the old men of his generation were still living—those who had seen the mighty miracles the Lord had done for Israel.
He was revered as a “man of God” and I can’t think of a better title to describe any of us when we die. He was a man who knew God, loved God, served God and lived each day for the glory of God. His teaching and influence affected the people in his lifetime as well as the people who lived long after him. May our lives have an eternal impact on the people we serve and inspire them to live godly lives that will bring glory and honor to the Lord.