[MORRIS RUDDICK VIETNAM REPORT] OUT OF THE BOX

Morris & Carol Ruddick [MORRIS RUDDICK VIETNAM REPORT] OUT OF THE BOX "My heart burns with the fire of God when I talk with you." This was a recent comment of a Vietnamese pastor I work with. This man is a part of those who embody the future of Vietnam, who are paving the way for the new thing God is doing globally. Our time in Vietnam since mid-January has been rich, full and fruitful with a series of unexpected God-things taking place. All we've been working toward is maturing. It is dovetailing with God's sovereign moves across the earth, as we're witnessing the fire of God manifesting. It is linked to the shift that we believe is the forerunner of the new thing the Lord is doing between the generations. So, thank you for your prayers. At the forefront of our strategy has been an approach that mobilizes Vietnamese to help Vietnamese. Our aim has been to help them become self-sufficient as a culture within a culture, to mobilize believers to be a people of God who bring influence, as they become a blessing within their communities. Our goal has been to build community builders as we work toward establishing God's blueprint in the roles served by both pastoral and business leaders bridging the generations. These are ones who are a part of the ground-swell of God's purposes manifesting for Vietnam's believers. While we have started (and have continued) with a unique business startup program, our efforts plant what we call the God's economy program, "how to do business God's way." It is business with a purpose. In many ways, it's a different way of thinking. It is not unlike that of the Jews, the people of the Book, who have had to think strategically over the centuries to survive. But it is more than just survival. God's pathway has been for His people to be the head and not the tail. As our efforts have taken root and begun bearing fruit, we have begun preparing experienced business leaders to mentor the next generation. We have also long had the vision to tap the secular community with our efforts. This has spilled over into the field of education. From Orphans to Community Influence Here is one story to illustrate what is emerging. One of our closest associates, a successful business owner, has been caring for a group of orphans he and his wife have taken responsibility for. With very little help from the West, he has built the housing for this group of orphans on a property he owns. We have prayed with him as he has taken steps of faith and the opportunity has morphed. Through the orphanage now they reach out to their neighbors with gifts and food onholidays. They also conduct free English classes for many in the neighborhood who want to come, which broadens the spiritual foundations of those attending. However, their long-term vision is to establish a private Christian school. Taking one step at a time, their application for a private kindergarten is expected to be approved soon. New Emerging Opportunity In another "unexpected" from this trip, we were introduced to and broke bread with the boss of a close Vietnamese associate of ours. Our friend is in charge of the language program for a private college. Interest was expressed in our program for these students. Having been a part of a group (ICCC) that prepared a video series for the Chinese educational TV system in the late 90s, I am acquainted with the challenges of communicating spiritual things to a non-believing audience. It is an additional challenge when there are governmental restraints over spiritual things. Within the arena of doing business God's way are matters tied to the wholesomeness of faith, the spiritual values which comprise the faith-culture for doing business successfully. Interestingly, many within China, promoting the Chinese video series have surmised THIS to be the key edge defining Western business success. This premise ties in to the biblical mind-set of why the Jewish people have been so successful in business over the centuries. So we have been discussing the applicability and uniqueness that our approach will offer the students of this college. Before our departure, we conducted an informal workshop with a group of these students at a private Bistro. Our expectations were exceeded as we shared openly on topics related to the Lord andpertinent to these students. The matters we broached ranged from how to discover their gifts, discerning their destiny, God's plan for their lives, entrepreneurship, factors of leadership, community and the cultural similarities between the Jews and the Vietnamese. This wonderful time of exploration was concluded by my praying a prayer of blessing over them and then our being encouraged by these students and invited back for "more." Ripples from Generational Blessings One of our God's economy programs on this trip was done for the Methodists. Both pastoral and business leaders attended. One of those attending is the owner of a private kindergarten program. Her comment upon completion of our time together was that God had spoken to her about expanding her already successful operation into a K-12 school. This is the same thing the Lord has spoken to our business friend with the orphanage, who is awaiting approval for the first step with their kindergarten. Many business leaders from this workshop indicated they now understand how to better use their businesses for the Kingdom as they serve as community builders. I have a friend who has commented that he has enough in-laws to make a denomination! The family that has spawned the leadership of the Methodists in Vietnam didn't start that way. However, they have become an example of what is now significant with the generations strategically cooperating to bring in the "new thing" God is doing. Not long after the government change in 1975, the oldest of nine siblings came to faith. He then brought all the other members of the family to the Lord, including their parents. The parents went on to become pastors and half the siblings are now pastors and half are business owners with all the extended family being believers. From the beginning to this day they have supported one another. And their influence now extends across the nation. Yet, at the time they came to faith, things were not easy for believers. They formed a close family-community and prayed. They reached out and blessed their friends and neighbors. The youngest son (the pastor hosting us), is almost a generation younger than the oldest. As a young teen he felt a strong call into the ministry and upon completing school in Vietnam, they all came behind him and he was sent first to Korea and then to the US to study for the ministry. He has his doctorate from a respected U.S seminary. Their Bible School, where members from across Vietnam attend and where we did our workshop was property that was owned and donated by their parents. Unexpected Multiplication The participants of another of our workshops felt so strongly about the significance of what we taught that they asked us to do another workshop in conjunction with another group in another part of the city. We did. These folks are not only ready but eager to put into action what our program teaches. What was distinctive about this group was the number of successful business owners, who in addition to running quite successful businesses, have opened their homes to their friends and now are also pastoring congregations of 45 to 60! One of the most unusual "unexpecteds" was a request from a secular source to minister spiritually to a business professional. We did and it was received and embraced, an indication of the spiritual hunger that is resulting from the years of prayers and the spiritual climate change underway at this time in Vietnam. Unexpected Convergence Yet among all the things that took place, personally the most exciting was the start of plans for a coalition of Christian business leaders to mentor the next generation. Strategies have been laid out and steps taken for what we believe will trigger the opening of unusual doors for spiritually hungry people eager to do business patterned after the ways of the people of business described "in the Book." After these steps, before leaving, we "unexpectedly" were invited to share a meal with a group of three Vietnamese businessmen and a pastor. Two of them had gone through our program about four years ago. They were on their way back from another Asian locale putting on a seminar on how to start a business It was for an expatriate Vietnamese group preparing to return to Vietnam. They are the mobilized business community already doing what we are talking about. They are eager to bring our program into their efforts. These are the highlights. There was more, but I think you get the idea. God has been bringing it all together. It has been eight years since Easter of 2008, when the Lord opened the doors for usinto Vietnam. With the God's economy program at the forefront, we've invested over two years into our efforts with these amazing people. Now the fruit is coming forth as we plan for our next two trips, as we expand our efforts with strategies in education, make plans for successful business owners to mentor the next generation, get key materials translated, and walk through the open doors with university students hungry to embrace alternatives to the world's pathway of success with new (biblical) mind-sets. Again, thank you for your prayers. The fire of God is truly burning in Vietnam. Our efforts have been supported by literally a couple of handfuls of dear friends. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts. I pray that you recognize the shift and the opportunity we have before us and that your very vital support continues and should the Lord speak to you, will increase. The opportunity has never been greater. For those who may have only considered helping us, we are prudent with our expenditures and do a LOT with a little. We pray that you'll consider getting in the boat with us for this time of opportunity the Lord is opening for us. The year that began with Christmas of 2014 proved one of our greatest times of challenge. Our dear grandson Isaiah unexpectedly died. Twice while we were ministering in Vietnam in 2015, the ground floor of our home offices flooded. In the time following, my computer crashed with the loss of important data. We KNEW that God had something significant coming soon. That "something more" is happening now. Thank you again for your prayers and support. In His love and ours,

Morris Ruddick Global Initiatives Foundation www.strategic-initiatives.org www.strategicintercession.org Global Initiatives is a 501 (c) 3 tax-exempt organization

NO-SPIN OPPORTUNITY: VIETNAM - Morris Ruddick

Morris & Carol Ruddick Having spent almost three decades working alongside some of the best from the advertising world, I know the fine line that can exist between the perception and the reality. In a world wrought with information clutter, as God's representatives, we need to follow the standard upheld by Jesus: eschew hypocrisy and avoid the spin. I spend prayerful time before the Lord both in preparing and during our venues. Then afterward, I prayerfully evaluate both the tactical and strategic results and implications from these "assignments." In order not to allow these opportunities to take on a life of their own, or if I could express it this way, to avoid a spin that reduces God-opportunity into the precepts of men, I view each venue as a standalone assignment and a sacred trust. The Pharisees had all the right foundations, but allowed what should have been God-opportunity to digress into a spin of a self-serving, self-promotional focus. In their zeal, human efforts bypassed the supernatural, blinding them in missing the forest for the trees. That is why I consider it so important to prayerfully ponder the impact of these "assignments," to grasp the difference between the tactical and strategic. The Realities and the Response It reduces the spin and keeps the focus on the God-opportunity. Solomon said that a dead fly would make the perfumer's oil stink (Eccl 10:1) and that a little foolishness can be weightier than wisdom and honor: a strong word for those whose ambitions have convinced them that the end justifies the means. "Unless the Lord builds a house, the builders labor in vain." Ps 127:1 For more than seven years, we've been exposed to the full range of the realities underway in Vietnam: spiritually, economically and politically -- within the Vietnamese infrastructure, within the church in Vietnam and within those attempting to come alongside those emerging as the "true players" in what God is doing. In a talk I gave not long after the doors had opened to us in Vietnam in early 2008, I framed the observation that God chooses the most unlikely candidates, to employ the most unlikely strategies, to bring about the most extraordinary results. Whether it has been the penetration of a society to redeem God's people during the time of Joseph, the leadership model to forge community unity through David or the Kingdom empowerment to conquer darkness through Jesus, this has been God's pattern. God uses the simple things to confound the wise. It has always been and it remains: no-spin, righteous opportunity. Compromise, phoniness and self-promotion are dead flies in the ointment. "Teach me Your ways O Lord and I will walk in Your truth. Unite my heart to fear Your name." Ps 86:11 The Big Picture Vietnam is on the cusp of revival. Not in any way to disparage the importance of evangelization, but revival does not equate with evangelization efforts. True revival is nothing short of the sovereign outpouring of God's presence. I recall in the early 70s that the consciousness of God's presence was everywhere. Even non-believers acknowledged it. People were hungry for God. It was the result of the amassing of prayers of people tired of the traditions of men, who were fervently reaching out to God as the psalmist advises (above) in Ps 86:11. With the exception of China, I know of no other place like Vietnam, where grass-roots prayer has manifested to such a level in this hour. The Vietnam house-church movement which began in the 1980s, for the most part, continues as a movement of prayer. The Least Likely Within that context, we've planted God's economy, often among some of the most unlikely. In one of our recent workshops, we ministered to a group of over a hundred, most of whom had come from pretty rough backgrounds on the streets. Among its members are ones who have been totally healed from the final stages of HIV. Yet now, set free as some of the most mobilized and sold-out of followers and leaders, they are zealously and strategically penetrating the darkness with new businesses and even a private Christian school. Along those same lines, a key part of what we do is to mobilize community builders, ones who are committed to be blessed to be a blessing through their businesses and enterprises. From the simplicity of these efforts, we're seeing fruit emerge. Because these efforts involve God's timing in this nation, we're seeing them dovetail with big-picture developments that only God could have orchestrated. Other than being busted at immigration for bringing in a small plastic sword among the toys, Carol's work with the orphans exceeded expectations and her efforts resulted in being asked how soon she could return. Carol was a part of a Vietnamese team that brought in food and also ministered to the leaders in this remote, rural orphanage. In all these efforts, not only are we seeing the most unlikely becoming the head and not the tail, but we are seeing change in the spiritual climate. Most importantly, our efforts have become aligned with the cusp of revival taking root from one end of this country to another. We likewise have been pursuing efforts with venues in which brethren from one region of the nation are reaching out to others in other regions -- Vietnamese helping Vietnamese. Heeding the spiritual realities faced by these brethren, we've targeted those who have made prayer a lifestyle and building their communities as their goal. It's what the Apostle Paul referred to as "the principle (law) of Christ" in bearing one another's burdens. The foundation has been firm and what is now emerging has bypassed not only our expectations, but even what is considered conventional wisdom within believing-circles. Again, it is God's most unlikely candidates, employing God's most unlikely strategies, to accomplish the most remarkable results. Thank you so very much for your faithful prayers and role in making these efforts possible. Gratefully in His service,

Morris Ruddick Global Initiatives Foundation 3838 South Wabash Denver, CO 80237 USA www.strategic-initiatives.org www.strategicintercession.org Global Initiatives is a tax-exempt 501 (c) 3 non-profit organization

[RUDDICK UPDATE] VIETNAM: A NATION'S DESTINY - Morris Ruddick

Morris & Carol Ruddick A close friend recently observed that far too many don't really "read" emails anymore -- they selectively scan them. Many are plagued with -- shall we just call it what it is: spiritual ADD (attention deficit disorder). We've become a generation of Martha's: encumbered and distracted with the cares of serving. Simultaneously, we live in a time of being bombarded with distractions, when the tendency to slip into spiritual myopia -- majoring in minors -- is simply overwhelming. It all dovetails with my most recent SIGN post on the antics of the religious spirit, if you haven't seen it yet: http://strategicintercession.org/2015/04/the-religious-spirit/ In keeping the focus, we need more undistracted time with Him -- much more than ever before. That observation sets the tone for our current venue in Vietnam. We're already in-country and about His business. The time before leaving was a series of spiritual firestorms, each demanding priority over the priorities. That included not getting to this pre-trip prayer letter until now -- days after arriving. Another sign of the times is that the bar has been raised. Within the context of God clearly doing "new things," no longer can we rest on "more of the same harder" or past exploits. We need to overcompensate in our spiritual maintenance, in finding our rest, our priorities and our focus in Him. God's Timing and Opportunity Punctuating the tempo of the times, and not unlike the setting giving rise to Pharaoh's dreams, God clearly is unveiling dimensions of incredible opportunity, driven by His timing on things. In coming through Hong Kong, the front page of the Asian Wall Street Journal (April 29) had an amazing article titled: "Entrepreneurs Return as Vietnam Thrives."http://www.wsj.com/articles/forty-years-after-fall-of-saigon-entrepreneurs-return-to-vietnam-1430326981?KEYWORDS=Vietnam++Entrepreneurs It shouts to the importance and timing in our role of planting God's economy and the message we have for those called in the marketplace. While Vietnam still has its challenges, it is emerging with significance. This article unveils the amazing role that the Vietnamese Diaspora has played in Vietnam's recent economic development. The growth figures Vietnam now touts economically compares and in ways even overshadows heavyweights in the region such as Indonesia and China. Shared Values and the Destiny of a Nation It is why we're here, as Vietnam's praying Body prepares and assumes its role as the head and not the tail. To coin an adapted overused wakeup call unveiling the focus: "It's the marketplace, Stupid!" The Wall Street article highlights one of the shining stars, a Vietnamese-American, who came to the US as a toddler with his family after the regime-change in 1975 -- and the impact of his recent return and influence. It points to shared business values, but in the author's not incorrect, but short-sighted view, Confucian ones. What he has missed is that Vietnam in its wisdom has been developing closer and closer ties to Israel and has remarkable parallels in the values it shares with Jewish culture and those known over the centuries as THE people of business. That's why it's God's time for those who live their lives by the Book. http://www.strategic-initiatives.org/pages/publications/EnduringEconomies.htm So, here we are. What is unfolding is something bigger than us. And the pace is increasing. Strategic Agendas and the Soul of a Nation While continuing to impart and plant God's economy, we have transitioned into working with Vietnamese brethren, genuinely called as marketplace practitioners who, like the biblical Joseph, will change the spiritual climate in their spheres of influence. From that, God has anticipatory responses from which the spirit of poverty is broken, releasing God's destiny for His people. Carol's work with orphans is closely related. It is a key to God's heart and our Isaiah 58 mandate. The Vietnamese believers we work with take Isaiah 58 very seriously. There are 300,000 orphans in Vietnam. The soul of a nation is defined by ones such as these and those reaching out to them. It marks the future for all of them. It wasn't long ago, that we spent time with some Vietnamese orphans, schooled in God's economy, now believing adults turned entrepreneurs, who as trained, skilled hair-stylists were buying out the owner. Related and giving focus to raising the bar and working with "Vietnamese willing to help Vietnamese" includes an initiative, a fund, operated by committed believers, that targets youth from late teens into their 20s. It is modeled after the very positive accomplishments of Junior Achievement, a program in which teens start fledgling businesses sponsored and mentored by successful community businesses: (https://www.juniorachievement.org/web/ja-usa/home), but in this case believer-owned businesses. We likewise have been working together with bridging and combining the strengths of marketplace practitioners in the north with those in the south -- with business agendas that bless the community while carving out the leadership role destined for the Body. Along those lines, we have serious discussions underway, with key people for other business-ministry agendas ripe for the groundswell and costs that have been paid for what is now taking place in this nation. Encapsulating all this, one of our closest Vietnamese associates, punctuated our efforts, encouraging us to bring more, with the words: "You bring the fire of God to us." The fire we bring is the authority for the mantle they wield. Pushing Beyond the Distractions But we need your prayers and support. What is converging is equally marvelous, extraordinary and timely. It's why we need to surmount the distractions! It's why we need your prayers. It involves the destiny of a people who bear the brandmarks of the Lord Jesus, who have been through the fire. Opportunity looms and the timing is now. It was in just such a time of turning that the prophet Samuel said: "God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in failing to pray for you." (1 Sam 12:23) At another critical juncture -- and after Jesus told His disciples He no longer called them servants, but friends, that He found them asleep. He said to Peter: "Could you not keep watch with me for one hour?" (Matt 26:40) I'm not oblivious to the distractions, but this is a time to gird up the loins of our hearts and press past the distractions. Please, for God's destiny for this nation, will you vote with your prayers? Please, will you enable us to do more? Gratefully in His service,

Morris Ruddick Global Initiatives Foundation www.strategic-initiatives.org www.strategicintercession.org

Missions Update Time in Denver with Morris & Carol Ruddick

Morris and Carol Ruddick - Denver, CO gathering

A few of us gathered at the home of Morris and Carol Ruddick in Denver, CO on Saturday night, May 17, 2014, to meet one another and share the life found in the Lord.

Morris primarily spoke of their recent ministry trip to the Far East. Each of us had opportunity to speak of our walk with the Lord and His working in our lives.

Laurie and I were able to give a short report of our journey, and the founding of Love For His People, Inc. A time of worship, sharing and prayer made for a good time of fellowship.

Steve Martin

Founder

Love For His People

P.S. Photos by Morris Ruddick and Steve Martin, using our Canon cameras!

Steve & Laurie leading worship. (Thanks Morris for the guitar use!)

Morris Ruddick capturing the moment with his Canon camera.

Listening as each one shares some of their history.

(R-L: Cathy, John Barden, Linda and John Downing)

Steve & Laurie Martin, David Works

Love For His People's brief history spoken about

Morris speaks on his last trip to the Far East.

Morris & Carol Ruddick

John Downing

Prayer time...David Works (see below)

John Barden standing

Morris speaks of the joy is seeing persecuted Christians become the head and not the tail.

As an added note, it was good to meet and get to know David Works. Part of his story is written below in an article from 2008. David Works daughters were murdered in December, 2007. 

Steve Martin

Father remembers two daughters killed at New Life Church

"Not a day goes by that you don't miss your daughters"

By Tom McGhee
The Denver Post

POSTED:   12/05/2008  UPDATED:   5 YEARS AGO

Stephanie, left, and Rachel Works will be among four victims memorialized at services next week at New Life Church and Youth With a Mission. (New Life Church )

• Feb 26:
• Heroic guard says New Life church rejected her for being gay
• Feb 25:
• Hero of New Life church shootings says leaders turned her away when she told them she was gay
• Dec 10:
• New Life shooting victims remembered two years later
• Oct 4:
• Guard felt call before '07 shooting at New Life
• Jun 12:
• Parishoners carrying guns isn't always a good thing
• Mar 28:
• Murray obsesses with guns, shootings
• Report reveals clues to killer's mind

David Works and his family expected Dec. 9, 2007, to be a normal Sunday — a day of church, reflection and relaxation.

"We were just getting settled in (after climbing in their minivan to leave church). I was in the passenger seat, Rachel behind me, Stephanie behind her mom. Rachel hadn't gotten in yet; she was fussing with her purse. I was just fastening the seat belt and I heard a loud bang. I looked around and I saw this guy in black. He started shooting us up," David Works, 52, said Thursday.

By the time the shooter, Matthew Murray, 24, left the Workses' vehicle to continue his attack inside Colorado Springs' New Life Church that day, David Works' two daughters were bleeding to death.

Stephanie, 18, died at the scene. Rachel, 16, lived for nine hours before dying at the hospital.

"Not a day goes by that you don't miss your daughters — it is with me all the time," said Works, who was wounded in the attack.

The girls were among four people whom Murray killed before putting a bullet into his head after a church security guard, Jeanne Assam, 43, wounded him.

Services will be held next week to memorialize the four killed in the rampage at New Life and another religious facility, Youth With a Mission, which is in Arvada.

Murray had first struck at Youth With a Mission, a school and missionary organization. There he killed Tiffany Johnson, 26, and Philip Crouse, 24.

Murray, who had two 9mm handguns among his weapons and more than 1,000 rounds of ammunition, wounded two others at New Life.

"You never think that that is going to happen to you," Works said.

Gunman angered over no mission

The troubled Murray, who had been raised Christian in a deeply religious family, was angered that YWAM had refused to send him on a mission.

He left behind a hate-filled screed that included the words "Christian America . . . this is YOUR Columbine."

Murray family spokeswoman Casey Nikoloric said the Murrays won't attend the memorial services.

They believe their presence would take the focus away from the dead.

"They don't want anything to take the focus away from where it ought to be, but that is where their hearts and their minds will be," Nikoloric said. "They do plan to observe in prayer the specific moments of silence that New Life and YWAM will be observing, and they will certainly be there in spirit and thought and prayer."

Works, his wife and two surviving daughters have had a year to come to grips with the tragedy. It hasn't been easy, he said, but they have had the support of their community and church.

And they have met with Murray's parents, Ronald and Loretta, several times since the shootings.

"We're not mad at Matthew, we're not mad at his parents, we are not mad at God," Works said.

In a statement released Thursday, Ronald and Loretta Murray said: "We will always have an ache in our hearts for the families of these precious young people and for our beloved son, Matthew. Yet, God's love has truly carried us through this past year . . .

"We are extremely grateful for all those in our community and across the nation who have sent cards and letters and have prayed for us. We are very thankful for the graciousness and mercy we have received from the Crouse, Johnson and Works families, and from YWAM and New Life Church."

Brady Boyd, 41, New Life's pastor, was in his second-floor office when an assistant came in and told him congregants were under attack. Through the open door he heard a fusillade of shots coming from the church below — shots that he believes were Murray's last.

Pastor told to stay put

Church security guards told him to stay put, and he watched from his window as congregants poured from the building and ran for safety. He didn't know anyone had died until police took him to a room where Marie Works and others were sitting.

"I saw Marie Works sitting in the middle of the room covered in blood and I realized I didn't know the full story," he said.

Peter Warren, director of YWAM, said the shootings have had an impact on the school.

"The anniversary will stir some things up," Warren said. "We are doing well, as well as can be expected."

Denver Post reporters Kieran Nicholson and Elizabeth Aguilera contributed to this report. Tom McGhee: 303-954-1671 or tmcghee@denverpost.com

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This article has been corrected in this online archive. Originally, due to a reporting error, the name of Rachel Works was misspelled.

Read more: Father remembers two daughters killed at New Life Church - The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/ci_11142454#ixzz329tRI7Xw
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