Victory in the right perspective is the assurance that by the grace and mercies of God, we who were lost and rebellious, following our own sinful ways and the voices of these world have, by FAITH in Christ Jesus, become the children of GOD….
Many of you may recall what hat happened in New Orleans, Louisiana late 2005 with Hurricane Katrina and etc? What is God doing now doing in New Orleans, a place that revealed indescribable human suffering, poverty and hopelessness in NorthAmerica? How do we know that the darkness is leaving and the dawn is coming? Is it when we see that the other (rich/ poor, educate/ uneducated, celebrity/ loner, blue or yellow, etc} is a child of God?
The LORD is now reawakening HIS people to HIS all-consuming purpose of restoring HIS house and extending His grace.When the work of the Gospel that we’ve been apart of began in Dallas in 1969, it began as an extension of God’s saving grace . When the work of the Gospel began, again, in 2004 it was for the purpose of reawakening God’s people to His all consuming purpose of restoring HIS house and extending His grace {as in church extension.}We now depart from the swirling waters of “strategic planning” and crosscurrents of “church planting ideologies” that led to trials of 2011/12 and almost caused the demise of original purpose – to restore God’s house of worship in Dallas and extending His Amazing Grace to the lost.There is a new generation of Americans that must hear the gospel.
There is a new generation of Americans like my son and daughter who cannot gather as Kenyans, Mexicans, Canadian, Korean and etc…. but rather God’s people and the next generation of American Christians.It is to this generation that we say goodbye to mis-teaching of victory. Victory in the right pespective is God reawakening HIS people to HIS all-consuming purpose of restoring His House of worship and extending His Amazing Grace that saved a wretch like me and you to the next generation.Dear reader, may you say like the Psalmist; “what we have heard and known, what our fathers have told us, we will not hide them from our children; we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the LORD, his power, and the wonders he has done.” Psalm
The work of restoration of God’s house has began. It is our God-given task to restore, repair and replace with qualities of hope and humility the things that have gone neglected, to make strong the walls that have grown weak. Yet we cannot do much until every fiber of our soul and mind says; “ The Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up” ( John 2:17).
About four years ago friends and partners of Victory Fellowship fasted, held overnight prayers and teleconference prayer meetings. We prayed in desperation for the impossible: that God would bring new families to Dallas, Texas, fill the parsonage with children and spark a new movement. We prayed boldly. God honored those prayers in amazing ways… and soon new faces called of God arrived in Dallas, Texas. Imagine what else might happen if only we would shake heaven itself with passionate, fearless, faithful prayers…. again?
Elijah Kim in his 2012 book The Rise of the Global South talks about The Decline of Western Christendom and the Rise of Majority World Christianity. If you are in America the specific message could be, “The Rise of Southern States” If you are in one of America’s big city like Dallas, the specific message could be “The rise of South Dallas” which for a long time was a place of poverty, crime and hopelessness.. If you are Rift Valley, it is like writing a book entitled; “the Rise of South Rift.” If you are in South Rift it is like saying; “The Rise of Chepalungu.” WHAT IS GOD DOING IN THE SOUTH? And how can the NORTH join in the GOD-MOVEMENT so that all can be blessed? Continue reading below…
THE RISE OF “CHEPALUNGU,” SOUTH RIFT, GLOBAL SOUTH, OR_______________ (fill in the space) that HE MIGHT BE GLORIFIED? While I stand to be corrected, some of the most influential pastors / churches in America are found in Southern States. T.D. Jakes is based in Forth-Worth TX, Joel Osteen based in Houston, TX, John Haggee, San Antonio, TX, The largest Baptist Church in America, Dallas, TX, The Largest Methodist Church in America, Dallas, TX…. and the list goes on……. If you get to read the stories of these pastors and/or their parents, you would be shocked at the difficulties they faced before they and their ministries became what it is today.The RISE OF SOUTH? South in United States is remembered most for slavery…. yet in the midst of such history… God has chosen the South to reveal his glory. Any Seminary will make sure their students read about the History of Civil Rights movement and the work of Martin Luther King Jr. who was discovered pastoring a small flock in Birmingham Alabama. If, however, after Seminary you are called South, and meet some of a wise mentor, you would learn quickly that to be America’s pastor you need more than head knowledge of America’s deep South… you also need to go to Birmigham Alabama and be “baptized” (for a lack of a better word) and drink a bitter cup of America’s history…. Only then will your head knowledge move to your heart……. God has chosen the foolish things to shame the wise… and though all forms of “isms” is found in the South… it is still the place with the best theology and the hope of America might as well be said to lie in the South….. as God now do a great work among us, if we open our eyes, hearts and ears and listen to GOD.THE RISE OF GLOBAL SOUTHJesus was born among the least of these in the “South.” Someone has said he came into the world through a door marked “NO ENTRANCE” and went through a door marked, “NO EXIT.” What a great example. God has chosen the foolish things to shame the wise.. imagine a virgin womb and an empty tomb? You do not need a PHD to understand…. you simply need faith that comes through hearing and hearing the word of GOD.THE RISE OF THE HOMELESS, REJECTS AND MALCONTENTS? Recently in America, most pastors have sensed the call of God to take a stand with those considered, homeless and otherwise rejects of the society. It is almost impossible to a pastor, before you experience first hand what people ordinary people… in the south… go through…. It is one thing to talk budgets of one million… it is another to talk of one dollar touching one million people translating into one million dollar that will contribute to the rise of the South. Why is it necessary that before one pastors a church, there is a need to identify among the poor, the homeless and those whose dreams have been “flushed down the drain?” Is it because God has chosen the foolish things to shame the wise? Is it because God always begins his great work in odd places?Our youth just return from a Youth Camp event and ministry in partnership with another ministry to downtown Forth-Worth. ON Wednesday their day was dedicated to ministry among the poor, the refugees and the homeless… Today we’ve heard stories of what God is doing in “the South.” A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE? If you were to find a king and anoint for God’s service…. where would you go? To the far North? Among the rich? Or among the homeless? If you were called to plant a church… where would you go? Among the poor, homeless or among the rich and the have-it-all? If you were to do something great for GOD, where would that be? I close with a personal reflection… and could a revelation of my own ignorance….. When I was in late 20s I admired people like Dr. Mohler who earned a PHD in Systematic Theology at very early age and almost wanted to be like them…I still admire him and think he is a great man of God though I disagree with him on many points theologically. Now that I have crossing to 40s I admire people like Dr. Maxie Dunman, who was my president at Asbury Seminary. Maxie had a Doctor of Ministry and began his life as a simple pastor in Southern states, having been born and raised in Mississippi. Today the state of Mississippi is considered the poorest states… but with GOD Mississippi is well positioned to reveal the glory of GOD. If you have read your bible you would know that God has always chosen the foolish things to shame the wise. Beginning with Abraham, God makes a promise of a great nation and had to wait for many years before a son, Isaac is born…. God gives a dream to Joseph and had to go through suffering of envy and hatred, sold to slave traders, finding himself in Pharaoh’s house, jailed then brought to his rightful position.
Next God has Moses born at time that he has no chance of survival… Born when an immigration law was in full force and a need was there to kill all young boys. God goes against all laws, rules and traditions and the next thing we see, Moses is raised by Pharoah’s daughter and becomes adopted son of Pharaoh…. He get his best education in Egypt and at about 40 years of age. … he comes like a well-sharpened leader, only to meet rejection among his own Hebrews brothers and having killed an Egyptian had to flee for his life. He ends up, in the wilderness and it appears the dream for Israel’s future has gone SOUTH….a gain.. BUT while in the widlerness… GOD appears to him in a burning bush… and the rest is history… God begins to raise a people out of slaves… to be his people…. Surely the biblical story…. is a story of the rise of GLOBAL SOUTH, every time….. if you are going through something… remember “yon bwonchin bunik che chang…. ak ko-arogen sobondang’ung… inai ile wolun Jehova SAENGUYNG.”…. that is it when things appear to have gone SOUTH that God is at work……. A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE?When I first arrived in America, I had a dream of going back to my Lemeiywet village with an airplane and a million dollars for the purpose of bringing radical changes to the community…. A wise man, Dr. Maxie Dunman said to me, “In many years of pastoral ministry, I learned one thing….. and I want you to listen closely….. If you want to move a people in deep South from hand hoe farming to combine harvester… you don’t buy a combine harvester or you simply move and live among them for 17 years.” 15 years later, Joyce and I have been in deep South, and we think God is up to something the next two years.Why are we in facebook and talking openly about many things? Have we moved here to simply live among one another, knowing that facebook can be a place to vulnerably share your needs with one another for “body ministry”. As James 5:16 says, “confess your sins to one another and pray for one another (doesn’t say give counsel), that you may be healed. How can we make our Facebook experience a safe place where one will not receive judgement but also necessitates the willingness to risk being vulnerable and transparent?How can we let the SOUTH know it is their time… as those in the NORTH embrace that is GOD’s time for the SOUTH (which in most places represent great poverty and need) to arise and shine?
“Can Anything Good Come out of Nazareth?” (John 1:43-51)Can anything good come out of Global South? Can anything good come out of Southern Culture? Or let’s be more specific: Can anything good come out of a child born in poverty, born by a young virgin girl and raised by adopted father, Joseph and preaching and teaching in all the places he goes?
Isaiah 53:4 says of Jesus, “Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted.” Isaiah 53:5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.Acts 5:30 The God of our fathers raised Jesus from the dead–whom you had killed by hanging him on a tree.Romans 6:11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
A New and Glorious Chapter!2012 in Dallas Ft. Worth
THIS MINISTRY IS GOD’S NOT OURSIn 2009… we heard what we believed then to be the voice of GOD saying, “Trust me for a a relocation site of Victory Fellowship in Northwestern areas of Dallas for I have rejected a relocation of acreage and facilities to Mesquite as I did once in 1979.”
In 2010, the same word came from the LORD, this time, a little louder and we began searching for that place and came to a conclusion we had found one in Coppel.Coppel is located about five miles from the Dallas-Ft. Worth International Airport and 15 miles from Dallas Love Field Airport. Surrounded by major regional freeways such as I.H. 635, I.H. 35 E, Highway 161 and the S.H. 114/121, these assets make Coppell an easily accessible to any place in the Metroplex and anywhere in the world.
A NEW AND GLORIOUS CHAPTER
The vision of Victory Fellowship to be a place where blood bought saints fervently seek God’s face until healing of all nations is made tangible was birthed in our hearts October 2004 with the theme scriptures being Isaiah 61:1 thus;
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach the good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the broken hearted”
And Joshua 14: 10 – 16 thus:
“Just as the LORD promised, ………. Now give me this hill country (NIV; KJV “mountain”) that the LORD promised me that day” (12a)..
In 2011, God made the call to relocate acreage and center of our ministry to Northwestern areas of Dallas-Ft. Worth so loud and even brought storms that showed us that Victory Fellowship’s vision to be a place of healing, a place of praise and a place where God is adored is build on a firm foundation.
Victory Fellowship continues today because of GOD. Only GOD has stood for Victory Fellowship. BLESSED be the name of GOD, who is a stronger tower and the righteous run unto him and they are safe.
As we approach the end of 2012, and a celebration of our 8th year of existence as an Evangelistic & Church Extension Ministry on November 7, we have every reason to PRAISE GOD even as we continue in firm faith and believe that the vision for a permanent venue for Victory Fellowship in Northwestern areas of Dallas Ft. Worth is not just a self-deception, but real and moving towards a day of fulfillment. We must admit that at this time, we are open to God’s leadership who makes all things beautiful in His time.
One of the biggest challenge we face is that of raising adequate support through giving. It is one thing to pledge a million dollars, it another to give consistently until such a goal is realized. The good-news is that God will make a way through generosity of God’s people from all nations and backgrounds so that Victory Fellowship can grow to be, by God’s grace, an instrument of healing to the nations and a place where people from all nations, tongues and kindred can find forgiveness, healing, reconciliation and hope of eternal life through Jesus, our Lord and Savior.
It has been said, without vision people will perish and without funding the mission cannot be successful.
It is our prayer that over the next six months, God will begin to speak to some people to consider how we can partner together and bring the vision of acreage to reality no later than November 7, 2014 and completion of a beautiful center of prayer, worship, healing and ministry by November 7, 2017 so that His name might be glorified.
It was in 2007 that God first said to us 2017 will be a year of fulfillment of the things I have spoken and revealed to you…. God’s promises are yea and amen and we stand in faith as we journey towards God’s preferred future.
There are about four things the scripture emphasize from Genesis to Revelation;
- Great Commission {to all people – e.g Lisu, Spaniards, Southerners, Northerners, Immigrant, Non-Immigrant, Alien, Resident, Rich, Poor, , reject, loved, celebrity, homeless etc}
- The role of the Holy Spirit,
- Worship of God revealed in the person of Jesus Christ, and
- Being a family of GOD starting with your Jerusalem, {i.e immediate family} to Samaria, to Judea and to the ends of the world…..
FOLLOWING GOD
At the beginning of this year, my family and I what we believe was a call and leading from GOD to step out in faith and prepare for what God is getting ready to do through Victory Fellowship today and tomorrow. As part of that preparation, we had an opportunity, through prayers, hospitality and support of God’s people to travel as a family. In our travels, God gave us an opportunity to renew fellowships with friends and prayer partners in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina. We are grateful for prayers and give glory to God who lead us through the journey. God honors any act of faith and will use it win souls of all nations.
IT IS TIME TO EXPAND OUR MINISTRIES AND OPPORTUNITIES
Over the journey of the last seven years, God has revealed to us the faces, stories, children, and families behind the numbers whose nakedness has been covered by others and those in need of theirs covered. Every year since 2004, my Joyce and I have always provided transitional housing for a family with children, providing counseling, referrals and etc. Today there are over seven families that have been ministered to. At this time, we sense God’s calling to expanding the ministry and opportunities at Victory Fellowship. There are great needs in our world, and God is counting on each of us to make a difference. There is a “Macedonian Call” to make a commitment to help end homelessness at home and abroad.
By homelessness we do not mean owning a house because there are many home owners who are homeless. What we mean is offering the gospel that has the power to give a soul assurance of eternal home and as a consequent a place to call home in the brief time God gives us to be here on earth. We have a calling to expand the ministry and opportunities of Victory Fellowship because it is the gospel that gives power to an individual or community to meet the spiritual, physical, mental and emotional needs of others that also includes such needs as housing. Today in our world, there are many children having a house to stay but are still classified homeless. Because of a down-turn in economy many homeowners are literally one month away from homelessness. There many young adults as well elderly people staying in comfortable apartments yet classified homeless. There are many people with excellent jobs, yet homeless and poor. This breaks the heart of God and gives us a great urgency to take the gospel, doing everything we can to meet the physical, mental, and spiritual needs of ALL people.
VICTORY FELLOWSHIP
Victory Fellowship is a vision began at the General Conference resulting in corporation in the state of Texas October 31, 2004 for the purpose of sharing the gospel to ALL people. For seven years, Victory Fellowship has been sowing the seeds of the gospel among ALL people.
THE VISION OF A BEAUTIFUL SANCTUARY
Over the next one year, if Jesus tarries, we will be implementing a vision of relocation and provision of a beautiful church facility to continue the work of the gospel God began in the Pleasant Grove addition of East Dallas when a group of middle-aged men and women gathered together to pray. Two years later in 1970 they purchased a piece of property on the outskirts of East Dallas and began to implement a vision for a church campus where people could be equipped in a lifestyle that is Bible-based, God-centered, Christ-exalting, gospel-focused, grace-filled, and grounded in the theological heritage of the scriptural holiness movement made relevant to a changing world. They could hardly imagine that forty years later this church would be strategically located in one of the fastest growing cities in America.
The vision is alive and we are in process of planning by faith for a day to dedicate a pastor’s house in recognition of the fact that ministry of the word and pastoral leadership is required for a vision to be fulfilled. Following dedication of a pastor’s house would be faith commitment to provide acreage and church facility where all people may worship, fellowship and train their children in the way of the LORD. Please pray about joining our faith journey. Whereas we are asking for your gifts of tithes and offering, we want you to know that money isn’t the solution – at least not by itself the vision and mission of sharing the gospel with the lost. The greatest resources are people and our donations do make an impact when invested properly through organizations that are transparent, efficient, and strategic in not creating dependency but rather, creating opportunities and empowerment. There many homeless souls to reach and you can make a difference.
INVITATION
At this time, we are in prayers and preparing to visit and make phone calls to a number of friends and family throughout the world. We feel it is God’s time to a step further and invite family, friends, and the rest of the world to consider praying and if possible donating an offering to Victory Fellowship then renewing that pledge monthly, quarterly, or at least yearly. We have decided to make our donation public not because we want attention or pats on our back but to let people know that we it is time forVictory Fellowship to arise and shine for the light has come. The work of the gospel demands prayers and generosity of God’s people and it cannot wait.+
Please pray about doing something to change a life or a community. There are a lot of needs in the world. Brokenness and nakedness abound. From the living WORD of GOD we have been called to clothe the naked—whether it is physical or emotional. If you help, one day Jesus will say “…I was naked and you clothed me…” and you will reply, “Lord, when did we see you naked and clothe you…? (Matthew 25:38) He responds, “Whatever you did for the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.” (Matthew 25:40).Sincerely in Christ,
+Have you prayed today for someone you might have misunderstood? Have you asked the LORD to show you more of that person’s thoughts, desires, motives and beliefs? Proverbs 20:5 says, “A plan of a man’s heart are deep waters, but a man of understanding draws it out.” It is dangerous to run with half-truth…. If you dig into deep waters through prayer…. GOD will reveal to you amazing things….. Wherever you are this FRIDAY night where many will gather for overnight prayers… seek GOD earnestly.
Yesterday, at one of those family times after dinner, we were listening to Rod Parsley preach when all of a sudden he said something that captured our attention…. He said, “2011 was hell!… But thank GOD 2012 came along!”
Some of you went through somethings….. but thanks be to GOD who giveth us the victory through Christ Jesus our LORD {I Cor. 15:57}.
And what VICTORY are we celebrating? It is victory over the power of sin and death…. that sin of contempt, that sin of lust, that sin of greed, that sin of vain glory and….. Victory over the powers of this dark world and over the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms…..
Thanks be to GOD he giveth us the victory through Christ Jesus our LORD….. and so we declare 2013 a year of VICTORY….
God called upon St. Francis of Assisi to rebuild the church. Unsure what church God meant, Francis chose a ruined one near where he lived. He recruited all kinds of people to help him build it.Some people could not understand why someone wanted to mark the place where we meet God. Others stood akimbo watching, and they kept watching from a distance for a long time, until one day, before they knew it they were part of those mixing cement.As the work continued, year after year, month after month, building the church became more important then finishing it for building it together gave people who were formerly invisible to each other meaning, purpose, and worth.Search your hearts, listen to God’s urging, consider stepping outside your comfort zone and make a commitment to building something that is eternal (His church)…… as you ask;(1) Who are we?
(2) Where are we?
(3) What is wrong?
(4) What is the solution?
Jesus conversing with Nicodemus these questions as paraphrased;’Sorry, Nicodemus, it is not enough to be an open-minded, sympathizer of mine. It is not enough to recognize that I am a teacher come from God, and am performing some wonderful signs. These are fair and accurate conclusions you have made with your human understanding. But you must be born again…… and this is a supernatural work of the Spirit that is completely out of our control; it is a gift from God.’ (See John 3)
Relax. What God wants to do involves all of us, whether we are from charismatic, fundamental, or other backgrounds. All we can do is join in the journey of prayer to GOD who will do it in the way he chooses, even if it means exalting the humble and humbling the exalted, and by transforming cowards, doubting Thomases and etc into the cornerstones of his work for the glory of His name.
Whenever we asked father for School fees…. he often said, “remember, I am not your source…. GOD is your source and His resources are not limited.” For your needs today and tomorrow, TRUST in GOD….. He is is your source and not your job, parent and etc
Apostle Paul says that Jesus alone will transform everything. Until then, we live as strangers in this world on a mission, believing, that we can be salt and light in the cities and nations God has planted us, making an eternal difference by our lives.
CALL TO PRAY
Please pray for the body of Christ to arise and shine. Pray also for ministers of the GOSPEL and suport them faithfully and reverently as directed by the voice of the Great Shepherd.
HOPE 2017
We have reason to believe Victory Fellowship is God’s vision of a church that embraces Jesus Christ and His word as the HOPE of the city of Dallas-Ft. Worth now and in more so in 2017….
Many people who have gone before us prayed and sacrificially supported us…. you and I are not here by accident or by our own ability. There are prayers and pillars who prayed at greater length and gave in greater depth so that you and I today can enjoy the fruits of the vision we are apart of….
The vision of VICTORY is a tool GOD gave us in 2004 to help us help others to live lives that are biblically enlightened, spiritually fulfilled and eternally meaningful.
As autonomous incorporated body with the state of Texas it is a vessel through which you and I can join with GOD in dreaming and implementing dreams for 2017 and beyond, if JESUS tarries…..
My prayer to GOD in this season is to open our eyes to see…. and our ears to ear. Many of us are here in Dallas and part of a vision of VICTORY because of centering moments of prayers of 2009 and 2010…..
Now it is your turn to pray for others, for the vision that has been shared… Pray in all manner of faith knowing that any word GOD has spoken will not return VOID…
“God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it?Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?” { Numbers 23:19}.
Go therefore and LOVE the unlovable……
FORGIVE the unforgivable and may your life and work manifest the fruit of the SPIRIT in faithful living in your home, workplace, school, church and world….
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Erick Chepkwony, TH.D 