I kind of operate under the idea, "If it ain't broken, break it!" I am convinced God uses Perspectives to break hearts and open eyes to the world as He sees it! When we gain His perspective - we tend to live and lead differently. Where I observe God's spirit moving, I see a church leader committed to reaching neighbors and nations. This is why I am encourageing every new worker in our movement to be informed, inspired and involved by taking a Perspectives course as soon as they can. God used it to break my heart and mold it more after His heart for the whole world. 
 
 
 
http://perspectives.org/ 

Posted by: Ralph Trainer

Recent statistics reveal that by the year 2010, in just three years, there will be more than 25 million orphans due to the AIDS pandemic. 
 
Every church, every church, should be exploring ways to do what Jesus asked us to do when he spoke of these little ones.  
 
What are we doing? 

Posted by: Ralph Trainer

This is a place that can put on a missions conference! The Ohio Valley district under the leadership of David Klinsing and Missions Director Keith Mackintosh have joined hands with David Smith and Kirk Lithander to combine OVD's leadership conference and Fairhaven's missionfest '07! 
 
What a Sunday! Sammi Dagher preached his heart out! The choir sang and the orchestra played like unbelievable! Anyone owning an international costume wore it and flags from countries around the world were waved by children! 
 
I love going to places like this! Buoyed up! I was informed, inspired and committed to more involvement! 
 
Way to go y'all! 

Posted by: Ralph Trainer

Welcome to Saly, Senegal and to Africa Together ‘007! I love this place! I love Africa! I’m so glad you’re here! 
 
For those of you living and serving in Africa, thanks for coming. I want you to know the group of mission mobilizers and pastors serving in our districts and churches are a group that believe in you, pray for you and want to partner with you. They want to herald your vision and come along side you to help you accomplish your God-given objectives. 
 
For those of you who serve Stateside, I want you to know that our team of servants here are an anointed, gifted and effective! They face some of the toughest challenges in the world. You’ll be sure to see what I mean over the next few days. As I know them, they are called and committed. Their one desire is that this place once called the Dark Continent would get brighter and brighter each day, until He comes! 
 
I would like to offer a special welcome to our speakers, Mabiala Kenzo and Isaac Keita. They are God’s choice servants for our time together. 
 
My sincere desire is that God would meet us here and that we would live the call to reach “Africa Together!”  
 
Ralph 
 
“I always pray with joy because of your partnership…” Philippians 1:4 

Posted by: Ralph Trainer

What an exciting place to be! Rev. David Yoon leads with a Great Commission heart. The church gives over 30% of their income to missions. They have a goal to annually give over $600,000 for missions! By 2020, they would like to see 20 more full-time Christian workers stateside and 20 missionaries overseas! 
 
Churches like this buoy me up! 

Posted by: Ralph Trainer

"How little chance the Holy Ghost has nowadays. The churches and missionary societies have so bound him in red tape that they practically ask Him to sit in a corner while they do the work themselves."  
- C.T. Studd 

Posted by: Ralph Trainer

"A tiny group of believers who have the gospel keep mumbling it over and over to themselves. Meanwhile, millions who have never heard it once fall into the flames of eternal hell without ever hearing the salvation story."  
- K.P. Yohannan 

Posted by: Ralph Trainer

"And people who do not know the Lord ask why in the world we waste our lives as missionaries. They forget that they too are expending their lives... and when the bubble has burst they will have nothing of eternal significance to show for the years they have wasted."  
- Nate Saint  

Posted by: Ralph Trainer

I first heard this from Randy Corbin, DS of the Mid Atlantic District. 
 
I'll be with him today! In fact, arriving in Berlin, Germany today are over 80 pastors and lay people from the Mid-Atlantic District. They've spent the last several days throughout Europe and the Middle East. 
 
They are asking God to break their hearts! 
 
I meet with them for a De-brief in Berlin! God is at work in them and through them. This should be good, real good! 
 
Way to go Randy and Andy! Andy Kerr the District Missions Leader has had a significant part in making this happen! 
 
Broken in Berlin, 
 
Ralph 

Posted by: Ralph Trainer

Registrations Close September 1: 
 
Desired Outcomes: 
 
1. To position ourselves where God can break our hearts and open our eyes to the world as He sees it. 
 
2. To equip mission mobilizers and pastors. 
 
3. To identify with and encourage our missionary teams serving Africa 
 
4. To be exposed to and celebrate what God is doing in and through Alliance missions in Africa 
 
5. To experience refreshing worship and prayer personally and corporately 
 
6. To explore opportunities for partnerships 

Posted by: Ralph Trainer

OMM and AYMission join together for the first time to send a team of soccer players to Thailand. We've assembled some pretty good players (MKs, All-American, State Champs, Olympic Development Players). But make no mistake, above all we want to position ourselves where God can break our hearts and open our eyes to the world as he sees it. We want him to do His work in and through us. 
 
We'll be placing in each opposing player's hands testimonies (in Thai) of World Class soccer players. We'll be holding sports camps and playing some of the best teams in the country.  
 
Thailand means, "Land of the Free" -- thus the name: Liberty Tour. Thailand is the most Buddhist place on the planet. Only Jesus can offer real liberty. 
 
If interested in reading a daily trip blog, email trainerr@cmalliance.org. 

Posted by: Ralph Trainer

HAMS stands for Home Assignment Ministry Seminar. 
 
I have been known to say, "Easter is my most favorite time of the year! Afterall, if He's not risen, all we do is in vain!" 
 
Then comes, "Christmas!" And then comes, "HAMS!" 
 
I look forward to this all year! I look forward to beign with our missionaries, some who have been gone for 2 or 4 years! I love to hear their stories of God's faithfulness and Light coming to dark places!  
 
HAMS is July 16-20 in Wheaton, IL. Will you join us in praying God will meet us there? Will you pray God will use the presenters to equip them to serve in our churches effectively? 

Posted by: Ralph Trainer

I blogged some of my thoughts, the sender. Here are some of Renee's thoughts, the goer. 
 
Renee’s first blog 
June 4th, 2006  
 
It’s my turn, I suppose. To blog, that is. Bernie has been doing it for a while, Jonathan has his own page of the website and now that Cori has posted a blog, I don’t want to be the holdout. Unless, of course, it involves vulnerable sleeping conditions and situations where I have toilet paper in one hand and a small shovel in another. 
 
There have been times over the past month when I have also seemed to be the emotional holdout as well. I have walked unaffected through one emotional situation after another these days. Some of you may have been concerned and some even hurt or offended. I hope not, because the lack of tears has by no means been a reflection of the degree to which I will miss family, friends, co-laborers. 
 
Just as the trains that pass outside our new little apartment for one month here at Wheaton run on one track, so it seems does my mind and my emotions. I have been singly intent on one thing – dealing with our belongings. Even when taking a break for things like District Conference, homegroups, special services or visiting with friends and family, my mind has always been partly on the packing task before me. 
 
It finally hit me, and I use the word hit very deliberately. Wednesday, with the boxes ready to go the Post Office, it hit. Lest I come across as incredibly cold and calloused, it wasn’t the completion of the task or the moving of stuff. On the way back from the Post Office Bernie took our dog, Chip to his new home. It’s a wonderful new home and I am so grateful to God for it, but it’s not our home. He’s not our dog any more. He has a new family to love him, and they already do, but he was not a pet — he was family. As I type it hits me again. 
 
As we worked through the night into the morning, trying to accomplish what has seemed to be impossible, that is emptying our home, I was able to get back on my track. I was relatively successful until the end. I vacuumed Jonathan’s room and turned off the light. As I did, it seemed as if he were there, in his top bunk as he has been every morning for the five years, surrounded by his Titans memorabilia and his weather equipment. 
 
Then I went to Cori’s room, vacuumed it and turned off her light. The big dancing flowers Bernie had painted on her purple wall seemed lonely without her there. I felt like I was in the finale of some long-running TV series, turning off the lights and walking away. I remembered the day after putting the nail on our Christmas tree (most of you know what that means, but if you don’t ask me), Cori crawling into Bernie’s lap in the big chair downstairs and saying she wanted to be a Christian. 
 
I remembered the many nights and often late into the night, singing, praying, fellowshipping, struggling, having exciting conversations and hard conversations with so many of you. While we hope to have many more of those opportunities in the future, they will have to be somewhere else, because I turned that light off too. 
 
Okay, if this is blogging, I may never do this again because this hurts, and I prefer to holdout from hurt. Yet as I type, I remember that though the light to one season in our lives has been turned off, there really is only one Light that counts because it will never be extinguished. His light stepped down into darkness, opened my eyes, let me see… and now it is my privilege to take His light to other eyes, with the expectation that one day, we shall all share in His promise. “And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine one it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it…and night will be no more…for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever (Rev. 21:22-26, 22:5). 
 
And just as the former things are passing from us in this season, so they all will in this life, but He will wipe every tear from our eyes and there will be no mourning, crying or pain for those who are His. 
 
I’m going to stop here, before it stops being a blog and just becomes a sermon. Ah, now I know why Bernie enjoys this so much 

Posted by: Ralph Trainer

On my way to Franklin, TN for the commissioning service for Bernie and Renee Anderson, I wrote down some thoughts from 37,000 feet: 
 
I wonder what their greatest fear is. As I recall it, it wasn't the climate, the food we'd eat or the sickness or diseases -- my greatest fear was that people wouldn't pray. 
 
Who can know today the results, the fruit, God will give not only to Bernie and Renee but to their children and to their church? 
 
This church has the capacity to love, this is good. They will love their new pastor in time even as they hold the ropes for the Andersons. 
 
Mongolia has had some casualities, what makes us think the Andersons will make it there? 
 
Why would anyone go to such a cold, desolate, lonely place...apart from God's call? 
 
Why would anyone go to that God forsaken place? Because, God hasn't forsaken Mongolians. 
 
Can sacrifice be anymore sacrificial? 
 
Who will join them? Perhaps there are others that might say today, "Here am I. Send me." 
 
There is nothing more fulfilling in all of my life than to be used of the Lord to reach an unreached people group. 
 
Max Lucado is right, "the Bible is bound together with good-bye trails and stained with farewell tears." 
 
Airports. Suitcases. Tailights. "Wave to grandma and grandpa!" Misty eyes. Tight throats. Tears. "Email us!" "Come and see us!" 
 
Missionaries know the words "goodbye" all to well. Those who send know them too! 

Posted by: Ralph Trainer

This is going to be one great Sunday! In fact, it will a GREAT, COMMISSION SUNDAY -- in the truest sense of the word! 
 
This is Bernie and Renee's last Sunday in Franklin, TN. They are being commissioned to serve with the C&MA in Mongolia!  
 
Bernie and Renee have served WELL. Bernie is an Acts 1:8 Pastor. Renee has served the Southern District as Missions Mobilizer and as a member of the MMAC -- Missions Mobilization Advisory Council.  
 
The Bible is bound together with goodbye trails and farewell tears. There will be a mixture of sadness and joy...Family and friends will gather. Michael Card will be there to offer special music. I believe God's Spirit will be there too. 
 
I love to see Acts 13 in action. Now there was a church that the Holy Spirit of God was free to speak because He would be heard. It was a SENDING church. 
 
Thanks Bernie and Renee for your sensitivity to His voice and your obedience to His Call. 
 
God-speed, 
 
Ralph  
 

Posted by: Ralph Trainer