ALL CREDIT RESTS WITH GOD

Glad and I met with dear friends for dinner a few days ago, Swedish officers Majors Goran and Chris Larsson. When I, with others, re-started The Salvation Army work in the former Soviet Union they were our most keen supporters, making regular visits by road, delivering humanitarian aid of all sorts; a dangerous mission in those early post-Perestroika days. In retrospect I don't believe God allowed thoughts of danger to enter our minds although a quick perusal out of our 2nd floor office window revealed just how potentially dangerous the situation was. Tanks patrolling Leningrad's perimeter, blockades halting any attempt to enter closer to the city center, and protestors seen and heard throughout the city. Just blocks from our borrowed office space was the jail where the army pioneers, including my grandparents, had been taken on their arrest in 1919.

As we reminisced many old and familiar names from that SA invasion of the early 90's were mentioned. Most will not know that I was lured to Stockholm by my friend and there, featured in a 90 minute special on national TV, THIS IS YOUR LIFE. Goran, my friend, was a key party in coordinating the TV project, but he was careful, with others, to make certain that it was a celebration of the army's impact on Russian life, and my wife and mine earlier work in New York and in appointments in Sweden. Commissioner Ingrid Lindberg who had initiated our appointment to Russia through communication with General Eva Burrows reminded me more than once; "Sven don't ever believe that you, your wife and God are making SA history alone. There's a mighty army of unknowns lifting you up in prayer 'round the clock' world wide". To list the names of individuals and organization that came to our aid following that TV special would require many pages, but in brief it resulted in thousands of tons of food and aid delivered to TSA for distribution, AZT medicine for 318 HIV positive toddlers in far-away Volgograd, summer camps for hundreds of Muscovite children, and the eventual provision of more than 400 uniforms for soldiers in the 3 corps we opened in our 1st year in Moscow, with Goran bringing Swedish teams, unknown names to most, to assist on a regular basis.

In flying back from our Latvian visit yesterday I recalled an article that speaks to this subject. I'll be writing about it further in the weeks ahead in order to stir up support for concerns beyond the comfortable, warmly heated homes of Glasgow.
----------------------------------

There is something refreshing about being around people who have a Kingdom mindset. I use this term, “Kingdom mindset” to describe someone who understands some basic principles:

1) They understand that doing ministry is not about them but about God and His glory.
2) They understand that having a magnanimous heart for seeing other churches succeed is a big win for God and the whole team.
3) They understand that other churches are on the same team all trying to fight the same enemy.
4) They understand that being more concerned about God’s reputation is far more important than protecting their own reputation.
5) They understand that when God blesses them it is so that they can be a blessing to others.
6) They understand that it doesn’t matter who receives the credit, just as long as one more person enters into heaven.

Whenever I meet people who are antithetical to the above principles, I usually want to end the meeting quickly. There is a major difference in being the presence of a big-hearted person and a small-hearted person. The small-hearted person sucks the life out of you (it gets harder to breathe the more they talk), while a big-hearted person pumps energy into you.

It was sad to hear that in Indonesia there aren’t too many churches that have this kind of Kingdom-minded attitude towards one another. In reality, a lot of churches are all doing their own thing and trying their best to protect what they have currently.

But there is hope because God left a remnant of people in Jakarta who have this mindset; and they want to work together to bring the Gospel to the whole nation.

As soon as a person comes to the realization that they can make a bigger splash for God’s Kingdom if many people are all jumping in the pool at the same time, they will stop trying to build their own kingdom (small “k”) and start building God’s Kingdom (big “K”).

I am looking forward to an informal meeting that some of these Kingdom-minded pastors have set up. It is going to be exciting to see all the great things that God is going to do as we join our hearts together. Seth Kim

Sven Ljungholm