Dan's Zimbabwe report: Hippo Valley Christian Mission
Dan (speaker-1) reports on his work with Hippo Valley Christian Mission: 29 schools built, each with a church that plants more churches, plus health clinics, a mind-body-soul approach, and 'Living Proof' gospel clubs in the schools. His team runs vacation Bible schools for around 1,200 kids and pop-up tent revivals. His top memory is an altar call at a church they planted five years ago, where one visibly shaking man wrestled through surrendering to Jesus. Dan is the orphanage's director of development; he tells the story of Tanish, who grew up in the orphanage after the AIDS epidemic and is now a married teacher, and of the first-ever orphanage homecoming. His takeaway is staying tuned to the Holy Spirit: on the mission field the radar is always on, and he wants that urgency in routine ministries back home instead of mailing in Sunday mornings.
More on Holy Spirit
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'When God is silent': what counts as hearing from the Lord?
- What does it mean to 'hear from the Lord,' and how often should we expect it?
Mike brings a question from his Bible study, whose paragraph heading was 'when God is silent': the author wrote that he experienced God's silence for a couple of weeks and freaked out, and Ben expected a relatable years-long drought story — 'Oh, two weeks.
From No. 603 · Found Out
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Should following Jesus feel more comfortable as time goes on?
- Should following Jesus feel more comfortable as time goes on?
A host asks whether following Jesus should feel more comfortable as time goes on — noting the low-level tension many feel around am-I-doing-enough and the stigma that contentment equals laziness.
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Do accountability partners actually work?
- Do accountability partners actually do anything?
Mike raises his accountability-partners question: the standard dude-circle advice to get a buddy to hold you accountable for Bible reading, porn, church attendance, and drinking.
From No. 598 · Emphasis | Accountability, Worship and Praying with Strangers
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Mike frames the question: are more people hearing from God?
- Does it seem like more and more people are hearing from God — and is that real or a lie and a huge distraction?
Ben asks Mike for a two-sentence framing; Mike says listening to the book of Job while mowing made him furious when Bildad 'received a word from the Lord,' turning a bad human argument into an unarguable divine claim.
From No. 597 · Maybe A Word From God