THE DCI MINUTE
4th December, 2009

When I came to Christ way back in 1977 the Lord did so much for me in such a short time taking away in a moment all my excessive liking for drink and pills which had led to all manner of poor health, bad relationships and dreadful behaviour. In fact Jesus did so much for me that all I wanted to do was to tell all my friends who were just as bad as me and allow Jesus to heal them as He had healed me more or less overnight. Anyway I lost all my after-hours friends in a matter of weeks save for one who stayed with me for six months. Sadly every one of them is now in eternity and by the grace of God I am still strong and working 12 to 14 hours days.  I only tell you this story because it gives me tremendous pleasure that this week we have provided 22 newly trained men in India with bicycles to get around on and with lanterns for evening meetings, and they will soon be leading a lot of people to Jesus and starting new churches, which was all I wanted to do myself in the first place. And then over last weekend we heard how the first Tamachek speaking people in all of history in one part of the Sahara have just now decided to follow Jesus and be baptised, all because one of our least likely students of years ago went on to spend years amongst these nomads and translated the whole New Testament into their language. Next week we will tell you about our Christmas Party for the Poor and where it will be, all we can say right now is that when Jesus fed the 4,000 in the Bible it didn't seem anything like so complicated! What a lot in one minute, but before we go can we ask you to please ask around for some extra trustees for us, any age from youth to retired preferably with a passion for our sort of things and a bit of management expertise would be good. We have a plan that we need help with, something like this one which works well for a similar organisation, although in our case disorganisation is probably a better word. Anyway, we will welcome your views and feedback, please. We also have a job vacancy for a part-time paid secretary, click here to see more and that's it for today, time has definitely beaten us again. Much love and every blessing from,

Les + Pilar

Click here to see lots of news and comment on the web pages this week.
And click here for our photos to show your friends are here.

THE DCI MINUTE

27th November, 2009

This Sunday Jonathan who is one of our best managers flies to Uganda to see George's new plantation which we hope will make George and his 38 churches, banks for the poor, Schools of Mission and Skill Training to be self-sufficient within two or three years. Jonathan is also supervising plantations in Burkina Faso, Indonesia and Liberia and another one has just started this month for Ranledis in Cuba. Click here for photos of them all and if you can remember, do pray for Jonathan every day next week. He is very brave. Next, if you live anywhere near Nottingham then our friend since 1984 Keith Smith and his new wife Lynne are speaking at St. Nic's at 7 pm on Sunday. Keith knows the deserts of Burkina Faso better than anyone who was not born there as he has been living with the nomadic Fulani for years. Click here for Keith's very beautiful web page. Now our turn, from December 13th to the 22nd we are making a very long overdue visit to the people in Spain and France who support DCI each month, and to Jean-Francois in the French Alps, who is one of our best and most faithful translators and who is very seriously ill.  We are on Easy-Jet to Barcelona and then hiring a car for about 1,500 miles of visits to people we know and love. This means that if you want us to handle any funds for you or send any gifts to people overseas for you, can you tell us about this by December 9th which gives us time to sort out any problems with the banks. Once we are away it will be mobile phone only which is not the best way to go looking for missing transfers, especially if you are on a mountain road. So will December 9th be OK ? And there we are, our minute has gone all too fast once again but if you have a moment please see this week's photos and news on the website. Bye then till this time next week, much love always, God bless you.

Les + Pilar

THE DCI MINUTE 
20th November, 2009 

In a week which included enjoying Pilar's birthday on the best Monday evening get together of the year by far, going home to find that we had been burgled while we enjoyed the Lord, rushing the dog to the vet for a life-saving operation, being told how important we and our call are at least 60 times while waiting in the telephone queue for the insurance company these words were just right for us, and perhaps they will be for you as well:

Let nothing disturb you,
nothing distress you,
when all things fade away,
God is unchanging.
Be patient for with God in your heart
nothing is lacking,
God is enough. 
Teresa of Avila, 1515- 1582

There is some really lovely news on the website to enjoy and this weekend you can also be the first to read three short and very easy to understand pages from Henri Nouwen that we have put together on the compelling subject of Church - love it, hate it and what to do about it.

Much love, we are home all weekend if you want to ring, write or call, bye till next week.

Les + Pilar

THE DCI MINUTE
13th November, 2009

Here is one photo that we never, ever thought that we would see even if we lived to be a hundred. A church leader wearing a T-shirt that he designed and had made for himself and for all the 22 new leaders that his church graduated into mission in Peru. You can see them all by clicking here which makes us feel so very blessed, honoured and humbled by this display of loyalty and gratitude from a pastor who we have never met. And the news on the website includes yet more School of Mission graduations in Colombia, Zambia, Malawi and Cameroon with brand new start-ups in Zimbabwe, India, Cuba, Burundi and Congo. For us this is spectacular and even better our figures are out for last year. Incredibly in the hard year that it has been, people have sent in just over £81,000 to start and support mission, that is almost 20% more than last year. Our expenses are almost 20% down at just £3,053. On top of that Pilar and I have either been earned or been given another £12,000 each which more than covers all the expenses of running DCI and living, so we have much to thank the Lord and to thank you for. Happily we do not have the same problems at Malachi in Ivory Coast who did not budget for a visit this week from gun-toting rebel soldiers who wanted £50 to allow him to start his Business for Mission buying and selling rice and a further £6 a month, or else. What a place ! Back home we have lots of people sick this week, four quite seriously so and in hospital, and we are not alone as news has just come in that both the founder and the new leader of Links International are poorly, Norman Barnes with two broken arms and Rich Hubbard with suspected cancer, and in need of everyone's prayers along with our own friends and partners. So, our minute of catching up has gone yet again but there's just time to say if you can make it it will be lovely to see you next Monday at 7.45 onwards in the Vineyard building for our get-together for fellowship with lots of cakes, coffee, grapes, thanksgiving and prayer.

Les + Pilar

THE DCI MINUTE
6th November, 2009

Keith Smith is one of our oldest friends from way back in the 80's and he has spent almost his entire life since then living with nomadic camel-riding tribes in the deserts of northern Burkina Faso and Niger, sharing his faith with them.  My favourite memory, because Pilar was not with me on this occasion, was being driven over the sands on Keith's moped to visit a Muslim Imam who quietly told me how Isa, that is Jesus had appeared to him in a dream and told him how to pray for his daughter was was not expected to live one more day.  On waking he did what he had been told and the girl rose there and then. Anyway, for just as many years we and many others have being praying at Keith's request for him to be married but bearing in mind the single-minded vision of this man and where he lives, you do wonder if some prayers pass beyond the impossible into the unreasonable! Nevertheless here we are, over the summer Lynne from Scotland married Keith and then they went to the Sahel bush for a very different African ceremony. You can read all about it here and see Keith's truly gorgeous photographs of a distant world. So, as our minute together ticks away be happy for George in Uganda for he finally has a car, a 1996 Toyota Corona and can now visit his 38 new churches and everything else he is doing, and be as happy for Malachi in Ivory Coast who now has a rice business to fund his Schools of Mission and new churches. Finally be as happy as our friend Gus here in Nottingham because his hospital tests show a sudden and inexplicable recovery from a very serious lung disease. For Keith, for that Imam, for George, for Malachi and for Gus, one day which dawned like any other the Lord quietly passed by and that is all any of us ever need.

Les + Pilar

This week has brought lots of news for the DCI Page, please don't miss it.
Please see this list of the jobs that we need help with. Who do you know ?
Don't forget that our next Monday small group is the 16th for Pilar's birthday.

THE DCI MINUTE
23rd October, 2009

In the home group that we attend the conversation last night was all about Gideon whose story begins with him threshing wheat whilst hidden away inside a wine press for fear of the people outside.  When the angel of the Lord unexpectedly appeared and began to speak, he could not even finish the message before Gideon interrupted him with a stream of but's, if's, why's, and how's, all of which revealed a fearful and unbelieving heart that could see no way forward. However, it was only a very short time later that in sight of a 22,000 strong enemy army and with only 300 men on his side Gideon was shouting, "Get up, watch me, follow my lead, do exactly as I do." This is a very different man to the quivering and protesting Gideon who could see no further than the circular walls of the illicit winepress. You can try to discover what had happened to him by reading Judges 6 and 7, but whatever did happen can happen again just as unexpectedly when the Lord comes to visit. So take courage because instead of sending you the world news this Friday it looks like the Lord wants at least one person nearer home to know that all the questions you have on the inside are going to be answered and everything on the outside could change as well, just as it did for Gideon. Our minute together is ticking away all too fast, just time left to say that all is well with the people we care about around the world, and to remind you that our next small group is on Monday November 16th, not the 9th, to coincide with a 60th birthday which will give us another good reason to thank the Lord and enjoy a couple of hours together. Much love and our prayers, always.

Les + Pilar

This week has brought lots of news for the DCI Page, please don't miss it.
And some new new photos just come in on our album page here.

THE DCI MINUTE
16th October, 2009

A few years ago our Christmas Parties for the Poor were born only because very few people could make the date for a Christmas party that we had arranged here, and then the Lord said the strangest of things from Luke 14, 12-14. So we moved the Christmas party to Uganda and made the national press by giving the poor a day that they have never forgotten, and every year since we have fed the 5,000 around the world at Christmas time and seen lots of them decide to follow Jesus. So when only two or three people replied about our Sixties Birthday Party we were half-expecting something to happen, and sure enough an opportunity came to bless one of the poorest villages in Peru instead. So with the money that we had put aside for the party there will now be a first-ever church, school and community building - and a party for all the abandoned mums, children and people that our friend Juan the taxi-driver has brought to the Lord in Picapiedras, which by the way means Flintstones. Just as special is news from Sierra Leone, the world's third worst country where we do not know anyone, to say that the DCI Schools of Mission there have got so many hundreds of people coming that it has all got out of hand. One of our readers from the USA also happened to say that her boss is going to print and give away 5,000,000 Bibles for the developing world, and could we tell the people please ? Makes the 200 books that we are sending to Ghana this week look perhaps a trifle inadequate, but we will get up there with the big guys one of these days.

A smile, a hug and a blessing in Jesus' name for the weekend from Les and Pilar.

THE DCI MINUTE
9th October, 2009

Our niece Debora arrived from Barcelona this morning where it is still hot and she couldn't believe how cold it is here, nearly time for us to put the heating on !  This week we have had a lovely first contact with a lady in Tokyo who has offered to work with us in Japanese, which might be our green light to move towards the hundreds of millions of people in Japan, China and Indo-China. But over in Honduras our on-line pastor, Ana is injured after her car slid off a mountain road, turned over six times and left her and her daughter alive but with broken bones. Meanwhile Yoppi's wife, Rini has gone with a team and a lorry full of food, blankets and medicine to the Sumatra earthquake zone where Christians are not normally welcome; inevitably Rini is reporting some heartbreaking sights on our news page.  Click for photos of Yoppi with the ducks, chickens and fish that are beginning to fund our work together in Indonesia, then click Banking for the Poor to see three new shops opened by Malachi in desperately poor Ivory Coast, and you can also see this month's progress on the Malawi Clinic, the one that will end a 7 hours walk to the nearest doctor. Now, if doing Facebook is easy for you, why not think about becoming an assistant editor for us, or if prayer and discernment is more you, how about being a fund manager or trainee trustee for the DCI Fund? Lastly before our minute together ends don't forget that on Monday at 7.45 onwards our small group gets together in the Vineyard Building with all the tea and coffee you can drink and Sue's lovely snacks as well. We are there to thank God and this time I am going to take 15 minutes to show you in the Bible why DCI has found so much favour, and how you can as well, something I haven't done for over ten years. Anyway, if you have never been to our small group, come on - you are more than welcome.

CAN AN UNSETTLED MAN
SING THE SONG?

I have been very intrigued by the fact that the same King Solomon who wrote Ecclesiastes, which is a picture of the unsettled believer, also wrote the following book of Song of Songs which is the picture of the believer who is satisfied and settled in God's love. But which book did he write first? My hope is that he wrote Ecclesiastes first and later found so much peace, securing love and quietness in God that he was able to write Song, from his own experience. Otherwise it looks like a young man who was overflowing with love for God and saturated with God's love for him made a few wrong turns and turned into a confused older man, no longer so sure or happy about many things, still incredibly wise and observant yet not always with heavenly wisdom.  There is a lesson and a warning here for the young man to remain in God's love and not experiment with self-satisfaction, yet there is hope for the older and perhaps cynical man that there is still a place of rest to be found for his soul. Personally I would like to leave my frequently unsettled Ecclesiastes life behind and live in the God-given satisfaction of Song of Songs forever. What do you think ?

THE DCI MINUTE
2nd October, 2009

Our hearts go out to the people in Indonesia after the multiple earthquakes of this week on top of similar quakes last year and that fearful tsunami. Our web pages are made by Yoppi in Indonesia and we talk maybe twice a day. He says that he can't contact any of the believers in the affected area but he has found his sister-in-law who lives there and gave birth to a 8 lb boy in it all.  Better news is that we have sent £1000 to Andy and Val in nearby Thailand to help open a centre near the Burmese border to care for and educate local and refugee tribes children. Ten years after they heard us speak in Slough, the word emerged from deep within and turned into the call of God leading them to sell up and follow Jesus to Asia. Still in that part of the world, Sarwar in Pakistan has got his printer at work on the 3rd edition of Pastor Eric's book with £450 from here and another £100 that he has raised. Another £3000 has gone to buy a minibus for the orphanage in Zimbabwe that Anna and Jim support through DCI, which will be marvellous especially when a hospital trip is needed. And there we are for this week, our minute has gone so God bless you and please pray for us all here, as often as you can because if you will forgive the word, our work at DCI is 'evolving' and we are not who we used to be years ago nor are the opportunities and invitations to serve the same as they used to be. Both the world and the Church have changed so much over the last 25 years that sometimes it is a real struggle for us to know who we are today and what we should be doing to stay within our call and giftings. Not all that glitters is either gold , a good idea or God ! Until next time  . . .