Fireworks for Freedom is an idea birthed out of prayer and love for the people of Southeast Asia.  It is about putting hands and feet to the story of Jesus, continuing His ministry by helping people arrive at sustainable freedom.

It’s a challenge and a call to celebrate freedom this 4^th of July by giving it.  The idea is to funnel thousands of dollars towards a ministry that is already on the ground throughout Southeast Asia, the Rapha House.  Check out their website for more info.

Fireworks for Freedom might look like a guy who decides to give Rapha House the money he was going to spend on fireworks.

Maybe it’s a family who decides to match their “fireworks budget” with a gift to Rapha House; the family celebrates their freedom while giving it.

Maybe it’s a youth group that runs a fireworks stand, with all profits going to help others arrive at sustainable freedom.

Maybe it’s a youth group that runs a fireworks stand, with a certain percentage of the profit going to Rapha’s safe houses in Asia.

Maybe it’s a church that hosts a Freedom Party on the 4^th of July, with a $5 entry fee that will go towards to the Rapha House.

Maybe it’s a young adults group that wants to invest in something that won’t end in a pile of burnt trash, so instead of burning a bunch of stuff themselves, they have a great slam dunk shindig and then caravan to a local fireworks show that costs nothing.

Maybe it’s a teenager who designs a shirt to raise awareness.

You have any other ideas?  Sweet!  Share the love in the comments section or shoot me an e-mail…

Jonathan Straker and others from their team in Sendai have put together a Facebook group that you can request to join by going to this URL: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_158389390884633&view=docs#!/home.php?sk=group_158389390884633. On this group’s page, they have done a really good job pooling resources and such.

You can get more information from their website – www.asianmissionforum.com – and there is a flyer available here for download.

Life is war. That’s not all it is. But is always that. Our weakness in prayer is owing largely to our neglect of this truth. Prayer is primarily a wartime walkie-talkie for the mission of the church as it advances against the powers of darkness and unbelief. It is not surprising that prayer malfunctions when we try to make it a domestic intercom to call upstairs for more comforts in the den. God has given us prayer as a wartime walkie-talkie so that we can call headquarters for everything we need as the kingdom of Christ advances in the world. Prayer gives us the significance of frontline forces and gives God the glory of a limitless Provider. The one who gives the power gets the glory. Thus, prayer safeguards the supremacy of God in missions while linking us with endless grace for every need.

I really like the imagery Piper gives us here. While reading this I had a vision of something like a scene from “We Were Soldiers” with Mel Gibson where the soldiers are in a real bind, surrounded by the enemy with no real chance of escape or survival. In that moment, these frontline soldiers are able to call back to base with their trusty walkie-talkies for reinforcements and the full force of the army they represent comes crashing in with jets to obliterate the enemy. Now, of course, our mission is not to destroy the people God has called us to, but rather to destroy the enemy that is keeping us from them. We’re in a great big rescue mission where the culprit is the devil and his cronies and the hostages are those who they are keeping from the Good News of Christ in one way or another. In this scenario, I think the scene is much the same: we are battling it out, and it looks like we’re going to lose. But we’ve got God – the ultimate Army – on our side. All He really needs us to do is call in His Air Strike to release the spiritual darkness holding these hostages captive and set them free. After all of this, who gets the credit? It’s certainly not us – it’s the Great Big Army who made it all happen. We just happened to be the ones on the ground asking for help.

We will soon be starting a new phase in our ministry, and we would love for you to be a part of it. We’re calling the transition period “Mission: Launch.” For the next 7 weeks, starting on November 17th, our team, along with as many of you as would like to be involved, will be praying and preparing intensely for the work God has given us in Cambodia.

We will be sending out more information about specifically how and for whom to pray. If you are one who is interested and would like to get involved in prayer with us, please join our Mission: Launch Facebook Group. We will be updating the group and this page regularly over the next 7 weeks and beyond.*

The culmination of all this will be on January 5th. We are asking all those participating to spend the day in prayer and fasting with us for the work God is doing, and will do, in Cambodia.

We are so excited to see the ways in which God will answer all of our prayers. Thanks for reading.

Chris and Casey (Hanson) Allison

* Note: you can subscribe by RSS to this page (Mission: Launch category) to keep up-to-date on the changes being made here.

The Allison Family - 2010

It has been a really, really long time since I last put an update on here, so I wanted to do that. We have now been in Cambodia for almost a year and a half (not including the 3 months that we spent in the states). There have been a lot of ups and downs in just this short while that we’ve been here. We are so excited, though, to be living this dream and seeing God’s hand unfolding His works in front of us. This truly is one of the coolest lives one could live.

Thank you so much to all of you who have been praying for us. This is the best and most important thing you could be doing! We have just sent out our latest newsletter, so hopefully that will catch you up on some of the things we’ve been doing. You can subscribe to our feed if you’d like to also (use the orange button on the right).

I will try to post on here more often in the future. Thanks for reading.

This is a great video we recently were told about. We are always blown away by the statistics we read about in Asia. Despite the odds, we are seeing growth in churches throughout Asia and we look forward excitedly towards the future when Asian Christians will be the leaders in Evangelizing Asia.

This video serves as both an announcement of our move to Cambodia and a thank you to those of you who are helping us. We couldn’t do this without you and we are so grateful for your partnership in this work. May God bless our work in Cambodia!