The Sarah Palin "sigh" factor

I was going to sit down yesterday and explain why I've supported the Constitution Party presidential candidate in every general election since 1992. I still plan to vote Constitution Party. I will write on that shortly, but first I wanted to give my reaction to the Sarah Palin V.P. nomination.

If Palin was running for president against Barack Obama, I'd support her with no qualms. She's pro-life and would work to overturn Roe v. Wade. She would lower taxes and return America to a supply-side free market in the philosophy of Adam Smith. She's a strong Christian who isn't afraid to confront moral issues and corruption in politics.

Palin is going to win this election for John McCain.

I can think of many reasons why. Here are just three.

1. She is going to be extremely popular among young voters who tend not to walk lock-step with one party. This will hurt the Democrats among young would-be Obama and Clinton supporters who tend to be influenced more by the "sigh" factor than on the issues. In general, a large block of American voters are incredible shallow and Palin ... well, just look at her.

2. She is also a great person. She has a sparky personality you can't help fall in love with. She's strong, uncompromising, spiritual and practices what she preaches. Barack Obama's appeal is that he represents change, but Barack has also been shown to be the ultimate contradiction on many levels. Obama claims to represent the common people, but many can't help but wonder if he is really one of us. It's almost as if he is trying to be liked by everybody. Sarah Palin is just the opposite. She really is one of us and she doesn't care if you like her -- even people in her own party.

Now here is the most obvious selling point:

3. Scientists claim there is more untapped oil in the Arctic than in Saudi Arabia. When gas prices start climbing way above $4 a gallon in the aftermath of a few Gulf of Mexico hurricanes, Palin is simply going to look into the camera, smile, and with her sparky sanguine squeaky voice, she is going to say: "For the good of our economy, we need to tap America's oil wealth! We've also got to protect the habitat of those caribou, moose and polar bears. So we will drill in a way that's environmentally sensitive. And I am just the woman to do it!"

(Note: one reader pointed out that I ought to include all American territory in this claim as well. The point is that we have enough oil within our borders to supply our energy needs.)

Let's face reality for a moment. When people see gas prices hurting their wallet and then see an attractive, young woman politician on television saying she'll help them because she's from Alaska, has hunted moose, and has been trying to get the drill ban on federal lands lifted all along, the choice is going to be very obvious.

I was hoping for a good showing for a pro-life third party candidate in this cycle, which could in turn affect the next elections in favor of conservative Christians. I'll explain my thinking on that later. The Palin nomination turned that chance on it's head. Even James Dobson, the Constitution Party's most well- known supporter who said he'd "never" support John McCain, has now reversed his decision based on Palin's nomination.

So here is my three point plan:

1. Vote Constitution Party. (I vote my conscience and cannot support McCain even with Palin.)

2. Hope and pray for McCain/Palin to win. (I am an idealist, but also a realist!)

3. Pray for John McCain's salvation and pray specific imprecatory prayers if he fails to pro-actively defend the sanctity of human life.

(Note: If you don't understand this term, Google The Forerunner's articles on Imprecatory Prayer.)

(In a few days, I'll write my explanation on why the Constitution Party is the way for Christians to go. But I want to see what happens at the Republican convention first.)

I Invented the Internet (Ep. 4: Kill and Destroy)

link: I Invented the Internet (Ep. 4: Kill and Destroy)

You may or may not have seen the Baby Rowan video I made last year on a baby that was born alive and left to die in an Orlando, Florida abortion clinic. I've embedded it below.

Recently, I was told about a viral video that has over half a million views in a short period of time. It has Jill Stanek talking about how she often held babies that were born alive in abortion clinics until they died -- sometimes for close to an hour.

The video above was made by Jason Mitchell in order to expose Barack Obama's opposition to a bill that made it illegal to leave these babies born alive to die without medical care.

I was contacted by Jason Mitchell after I linked my Baby Rowan video to his powerful piece above. Jason mentioned that he knew The Forerunner and that his dad had been part of Maranatha Ministries. Jason didn't remember me, but I knew him quite well when he was a teenager. His father, Wayne Mitchell, now a pastor in Boston, and I produced The Mandate, a version of The Foreunner for Chinese students, for three years in the mid-1990s.

I am glad to see that Jason has turned out to be even more radical than his father. God is truly a sovereign God!

A few of Jason's videos have been featured on major news networks as an example of how the viral video phenomenon is changing politics in America. Watch all Jason's videos on YouTube if you get a chance. They are a hoot!

How was the New Testament canon assembled?

Here's a question that I've wrestled with for about 15 years. I've changed my mind on the issue in the last two years after reading what the New Testament itself and the church fathers of the first and second centuries have to say on the issue of canonicity.

Protestants teach sola scriptura -- that all the Christian needs to know about matters pertaining to salvation is contained in scripture. And since the Bible contains no “table of contents” this presents a problem when there are challenges to the canonicity of specific books.

Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox believe in the authority of church councils, creeds and canons (or the "rule of faith") not only to determine matters pertaining to saving faith, but to determine the canon of Scripture itself. Here is the way one Eastern Orthodox writer put it: "The church preceded the Bible; the Bible did not precede the church." Of course, the writer was using this argument to validate the continued authority of the church to determine matters of faith and doctrine infallibly.

What I am most concerned about is how to counter the arguments of modern liberals and Neo-Gnostics who have popularized the idea that the late second century fathers, such as Irenaeus and Tertullian, began to assemble the books of the New Testament --and even to revise and edit them -- only when the Gnostics and other heretics became a threat to their authority.

Was the New Testament received as a whole or was it assembled? Most evangelicals concede that New Testament canonization was a process that took a century or more.

I posed this question to a well-known theologian once: "If we believe in sola scriptura, that the Bible alone is inerrant, how can we be sure that we have all the correct books in the Bible -- especially so-called disputed books, such as James, 2 and 3 John, 2 Peter, Revelation. If scripture alone is inerrant, how can we infallibly know that Peter wrote 2 Peter? How do we treat disputed passages such as John 8 and Mark 16?"

He surprisingly came back with the answer that we cannot know for certain, but that he personally believes that there is enough information in the books themselves and in their history for us to today to make the correct decision.

At that time, his answer was unacceptable to me. The question has huge implications for the doctrine of biblical inerrancy. His answer cannot counter the skeptics. I then made the decision to accept the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic view that it was the church itself that was given the authority to decide the canon infallibility.

Then in the last two years, I've come across another idea that is more plausible:

The New Testament canonizes itself through internal evidence

If we begin with the writings of Peter, John and Matthew as genuine apostolic writings, we can quickly find a "pedigree" for all the books of the New Testament with the exception of Hebrews, James and Jude. And I believe even these are not a problem if we look at other internal evidences within those books and some external evidence from the book of 1 Clement that was written between 68 to 96 AD.

In fact, Peter, prior to his martyrdom in Rome, knew the writings of Paul (2 Peter 3:14-16) and therefore must have known most of the other writings of the Apostles. The majority of apostolic writings (Matthew, Mark, Luke, Acts, Paul's Epistles, Peter's Epistles) were available to Peter in Rome by the mid 60s. According to 2 Timothy 4:9-12, Luke, Mark and Timothy were in Rome at the time of the martyrdom of Paul and Peter around 67 A.D.

In fact, I look at the following passage as a key to when most of the books of the New Testament could have been assembled in one place.

“Be diligent to come to me quickly; for Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world, and has departed for Thessalonica -- Crescens for Galatia, Titus for Dalmatia. Only Luke is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is useful to me for ministry. And Tychicus I have sent to Ephesus. Bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas when you come—and the books, especially the parchments” (2 Timothy 4:9-12).

The questions we should ask here are: “Which books?” and “Which parchments?”

Parchments are blank pieces of papyrus or animal skins used for preparing manuscripts. We don’t know what “books” Paul is referring to here. Some have suggested that Paul is referring to scrolls of the Old Testament. However, it is unlikely that toward the end of his life, Paul is asking two important bishops in the early church to take a dangerous journey to Rome before winter in order to prepare an edition of the Hebrew Scriptures. It's also improbable that Paul needed the Scriptures for some other purpose. Rome had Jewish synagogues with these writings and Paul, as a rabbi, would have also committed huge portions of scripture to memory.

Paul almost certainly meant his own writings and perhaps other Apostolic writings that Timothy and Mark had assembled. It is thought that the “cloak” he refers to here is a large piece of waterproof leather used to wrap scrolls and parchments – sort of a first century book case that was used to protect parchment and papyrus when traveling.

But what is significant about this passage is that it puts five important New Testament figures in Rome around 66 or 67 AD. We know that Mark was an associate of Peter (1 Peter 5:13). The second century Church Father, Papias of Hierapolis, relates that Mark was Peter’s interpreter and wrote his Gospel as a record of what Peter preached at Rome. We know that that Timothy was Paul’s scribe (1 Thessalonians 1:1; 2 Thessalonians 1:1; 2 Corinthians 1:1; Colossians 1:1; Philemon 1:1; Philippians 1:1). Timothy is even mentioned as being present at the writing of the Epistle to the Hebrews (Hebrews 13:23). Thus I personally believe the most likely explanation for the authorship of Hebrews was that it was composed during this time as one of the final letters of Paul. The Epistle to the Hebrews was probably then redacted after Paul’s death either by either Luke, Mark or Timothy -- or perhaps by an elder or a scribe from the Church at Rome, such as Clement.

We have an interesting early testimony from Clement of Rome (c. 68-96 AD) on the whereabouts of Peter and Paul at the end of the reign of the Emperor Nero (67 AD).

“But not to dwell upon ancient examples, let us come to the most recent spiritual heroes. Let us take the noble examples furnished in our own generation. Through envy and jealousy, the greatest and most righteous pillars [of the Church] have been persecuted and put to death. Let us set before our eyes the illustrious apostles. Peter, through unrighteous envy, endured not one or two, but numerous labors and when he had at length suffered martyrdom, departed to the place of glory due to him. Owing to envy, Paul also obtained the reward of patient endurance, after being seven times thrown into captivity, compelled to flee, and stoned. After preaching both in the east and west, he gained the illustrious reputation due to his faith, having taught righteousness to the whole world, and come to the extreme limit of the west, and suffered martyrdom under the prefects. Thus was he removed from the world, and went into the holy place, having proved himself a striking example of patience” (1 Clement 5).

If we accept 1 Clement as a reliable history (although not authoritative as Scripture) then we also have to put Peter in Rome along with Paul, Luke, Mark and Timothy -- writers to whom are attributed 19 out of the 27 books of the New Testament. Thus we have these 19 books of the New Testament in Rome in about 67 AD.

This body of work was then collated passed on to the last remaining Apostle, John, in Ephesus who assembled the canon together with his own writings and passed it on to his disciples. The remaining books, the Gospel of Matthew, the Epistles of James and Jude are associated with the Jerusalem church and would have come to through Antioch to Ephesus after the destruction of Jerusalem.

This is why Clement of Rome, Polycarp of Smyrna and Ignatius of Antioch are able to quote freely from so many New Testament books as though they were already accepted as authoritativeury and by the late first century and early second century. It is significant that these bishops represent the furthest eastern and western centers of Christianity at the end of the Apostolic era in 70 AD -- Antioch, Asia Minor and Rome. For there to be such continuity in the New Testament texts they quote, the canon must have been circulated in some type of systematic way in order for it to have reached such a wide audience.

The testimony from the late first and second century Church Fathers (Papias of Hierapolis, Irenaeus of Lyons and Clement of Alexandria) is that each of the books received its authority directly from the Apostles Peter, John and James the brother of Jesus.

1. The Gospel of Matthew originated in Jerusalem or Antioch and received its authority from the Apostle Matthew and the other 12 Apostles;
2. Mark received its authority from the Apostle Peter;
3. Luke from the Apostle Paul (and the 12 Apostles);
4. John from the Apostle John;
5. Acts from the Apostle Paul (and the 12 Apostles);
6. All the letters of Paul from the Apostle Peter (see: 2 Peter 3:14-16);
7. The letters of Peter from the Apostle Peter;
8. The letters of John from the Apostle John;
9. Revelation from the Apostle John;

10. Hebrews gets its earliest mention by Clement of Rome (c. 68-96 AD);

(This is the only Epistle of disputed authorship that most modern evangelical scholars think has no clear link to Paul. However, Hebrews is quoted extensively in the earliest writings, such as 1 Clement, and all the earliest church fathers believed it was of Paul.)

11. James from James the brother of Jesus (and from the 12 Apostles);
12. Jude from James (and from the 12 Apostles).

These two letters have enough internal testimony to place the authors as brothers named James and Jude in the church at Jerusalem. It's a small step of process of elimination to identify them as the brothers of Jesus.

Early Codices

Another key to confirming this view is the fact that the earliest New Testament papyri (fragments from the 2nd and 3rd centuries) were bound in codices of five books:

1. The four Gospels;
2. Paul's nine Epistles to the seven churches plus Hebrews;
3. Paul's five Pastoral Epistles;
4. The seven Catholic Epistles;
5. Revelation.

In fact, the earliest fragments from the mid-second century appear right around the time that "books" came into use of rather than scrolls. It is then not too much of a stretch to say that the early Christians scribes either popularized or invented the codex in order to collate the books of the New Testament and distribute them over a wide geographical area. This would eliminate the problem of having a separate scroll for each book that might be lost or damaged.

We should then examine the earliest testimony of the Church fathers, especially Papias, Clement of Rome, Ignatius, Polycarp, Irenaeus, Tertullian and Clement of Alexandria to confirm the apostolic authority and authentic authorship of the New Testament books. Irenaeus is arguing to defend the canon against heretics who would make the number of Gospels more or less. He is writing as if this is already established, not as one who is arguing to establish a canon. Irenaeus, a student of Polycarp, received the canon from the generation of Christians who were taught by the Apostles themselves. The term that evangelicals should use is “receive as canonical,” rather than “determine” or “choose” which books were canonical. Thus the canon was not assembled over a long period of time, but was known by the second and third generation of Christians who defended its authority against the claims of heretics.

Another important key is the Muratorian Canon (170 AD) is the earliest list of the New Testament books. It names all of the New Testament books in our canon today with the exception of James –- which could have been overlooked or mentioned in a missing portion of the fragment.

From this, I draw the conclusion that a New Testament canon existed at the very latest by the early-second century, and there is strong evidence that all 27 books of the New Testament were known as Scripture at the end of the first century by bishops such as Clement of Rome, Papias of Hierapolis, Polycarp of Smyrna and Ignatius of Antioch.

Forerunner Vision

The following is my from my newsletter which is sent out via snail mail to our ministry project supporter every so often. The rest is self-explanatory! - JCR

Dear Friend of The Forerunner International,

Greetings in the victorious name of Jesus Christ, the King of all nations!

As you might know, the name “The Forerunner” comes from the ancient church’s title for John the Baptist. I have always thought of The Forerunner as a ministry that has both a prophetic and evangelistic calling. Like John, we are to be a “bright and shining light” that will go into the whole world “in the spirit and power of Elijah” to preach the Gospel.

When I first started in media ministry in 1987, I published a little newsletter that went out to about 100 people in our church and elsewhere. I used to dream about the day when publications and videos I produced would be used of God to reach millions of people around the world. I had many encouraging words from pastors and church members about my calling. Of course, this was before desktop computers, the world-wide-web and non-linear video editing platforms were available to me.

Reflecting on the providential events that have occurred since that time, I spent a few hours recently reading newsletters from the 1990s that reported on my short-term missionary trips to Russia, Ukraine and Tatarstan. I was struck and encouraged by the impact we had on young people in this huge region of the world where the Gospel was virtually unknown at the time.

I wrote in the summer of 1995:

When I arrived in Nizhny Novgorod, a city several hundred miles east of Moscow on the Volga River, I was surprised to find that Predvestnik is well-known in the churches. I was immediately invited to preach in three churches on the basis of what I had accomplished with Predvestnik. One pastor, named Vladislav, told me that it was his favorite Christian publication. When I was introduced his church, I saw through a show of hands that many people had read Predvestnik.

Further away from the big cities, such as Moscow, people are more open to the gospel and Christians are more open to receiving and distributing literature. It's not as though we have become famous, but Predvestnik is having a great impact in cities where we distribute more than a few hundred copies. We receive testimonies from remote areas telling us that the newspaper is received "like a great treasure" and that it is passed from hand to hand. We have made a small explosion in the former USSR with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

While many ministries are doing similar work, what makes The Forerunner unique is that we have always sought to teach Christians to use biblical principles to transform society while retaining an evangelistic focus. We have always tried to hit topics that are vital yet neglected by the church in our post-modern age. I’ve been encouraged to see that the most popular articles on our website are those that I feel most strongly about, and I yet wondered at the time of their writing if people had “ears to hear.”

I thank God that these articles and videos are now being translated into the languages of nations where such Christian media is rare. The most encouraging aspect is that I did not have to recruit most of the translators, but several helpers have contacted me to volunteer their service or ask permission to use our materials. I believe that eventually The Forerunner will not even depend on me to continue, but will be run by freelancers all over the world who will take on designated assignments as part of their ministry. I believe it is God’s plan to raise up young people from strategic areas of the world who will work together to promote the vision and purpose of The Forerunner.

A Brief History of The Forerunner

The Forerunner was originally a newspaper founded in 1981 four years prior to my conversion to Christ. It was published and distributed through Maranatha Campus Ministries. The vision for the publication was campus evangelism, but it became more focused on the ideal of the Reformation and teaching young people and Christian leaders to have a total biblical worldview. I became a Christian in 1985 and soon started to pursue my dream of publishing Christian media. I began working as an associate with editor Lee Grady in 1989. Then I worked directly with Bob and Rose Weiner to continue the publication until January 1994.

Around that time, I moved to Melbourne, Florida and founded Media House International, a non-profit Christian foundation with the purpose of publishing foreign language edition newspapers and newsletters: Predvestnik, The Mandate, The Champion, El Campeón, and so on. In the 1990s, I spent much of my time raising necessary support for Predvestnik and similar projects. Our main project was the Russian language newspaper.

1999 to Present

In 1999 and 2000, we concentrated on publishing books and producing several videos in the Russian language, one of which, Hollywood, won “best documentary” at the Christian Broadcasters Awards in Moscow in 2000.

In 2001, I was married for the first time (“to one wife”) and my life changed drastically. For seven years, I have been working full-time as an English teacher. I like this pace of this life in that teaching pays the bills without any worries or surprises. As a teacher, I have 180 non-work days each year in which to be involved in missionary projects. Recently, I have concentrated on video production ministry, finishing an apologetics DVD called The Real Jesus. In 2007, I also took a three-week trip to Ukraine to attend a Christian teachers’ conference.

One of the reasons why I haven’t written as much recently is that video projects are now funding themselves through sales and I have little need for extra personal support. However, if you want to help with the plan to expand The Forerunner’s missionary projects you can purchase DVDs from our website or you can give a tax-deductible donation. That is the purpose of this prospectus.

Prospectus: The Forerunner in 2008 and 2009

Here I want to outline what I’d like to accomplish in the next two years.

Funding

Last year, our income came from three main sources.

1. Generous donations from people like you who supported my three-week trip to Ukraine in the summer of 2007.
2. Sales of DVDs through our website — especially several titles I produced with Eric Holmberg, The Real Jesus, God’s Law and Society, The Beast of Revelation: Identified, and a book I co-authored called, Four Keys to the Millennium.
3. The Google Adsense program at on our website and YouTube channel.

Although it’s not a huge amount of money, this is residual income that is consistent from month-to-month made from publications and videos I’ve produced over the years. The website now has over 2000 articles and the plan is to make continual improvements that will facilitate changes and growth.

Widening Our Scope through Internet Media and New Technologies

In the one of the editions of The Forerunner in 1992, I wrote an article called “The Fiber-Optics Revolution” that described the coming popularity of the world-wide-web. At the time, I thought that we would soon get 100 percent of our media through the Internet. This would come to pass in what I predicted would be “five to ten years.” We have finally started to turn the corner of this “revolution.” Streaming video sites such as YouTube have only taken off in the past two years and there is a new wireless technology looming on the horizon that will replace high-speed cable modems.

The coupling of high-speed wireless with new video technologies will have its greatest impact for the Gospel in third world countries, many of which are vital mission fields. An important factor in the fulfillment of the Great Commission is that it will be possible for us to develop face-to-face relationships with foreign nationals while training them to be evangelists in their own culture.

While several people have volunteered to help us out of their own burden to do the work of the Lord, I’ve also discovered that many media projects I have envisioned can be “outsourced” over the Internet to students in foreign countries. I’ve already employed a few people who are happy to do work for just a few dollars an hour. For a ministry that depends on a small budget to finance this work, the appearance of many “freelancing” websites employing third world workers is a providential answer to prayer.

As an example, I was recently faced with the daunting task of converting the entire Forerunner.com site to a content management system (CMS). The Forerunner site was first constructed in 1996 and I have since put up about 2000 articles in an antiquated format. I saw that the CMS conversion could be accomplished with just a little knowledge of website formatting. However, I estimated that it would have taken me at least 50 hours of work. I wasn’t too excited about the spending a few hours a week here and there until it was finished.

In the meantime, conversion to CMS was a must in order to streamline and modernize what had become an unwieldy website. The older format was holding us back from making needed changes to the site. After praying for an answer, I found one of the many “freelancing” sites run by Asian workers who bid on these types of projects. In a short time, the CMS conversion was finished. This method of outsourcing tasks has a virtually unlimited application and I am excited about some of the possibilities.

Video – The advance of video production technology in the last 10 years ago is nothing short of astounding. For a fraction of what it cost just a few years ago, we are able to produce professional quality DVD productions. From 1998 to 2000, I worked on several video projects with Eric Holmberg and Reel to Real Ministries. I also took two trips to Russia to work with Loza (The “Vine” Church) to help found one of the first Christian video ministries in that country. Reel to Real is now known as The Apologetics Group (TAG) and the ministry’s influence is greater than ever before. I recently became a board member of TAG and I am acting as a script writer, video editor and producer. We recently completed the DVD, The Real Jesus, with Eric as host and narrator. We now have several more productions in the works.

I have been pleased at the response to the apologetics, pro-life and teaching videos I’ve posted on Forerunner.com, YouTube, Facebook and elsewhere. I’ve received many comments from people we have been impacted. In fact, I wanted to share one comment I received recently:

You guys are awesome. These YouTube videos helped change my mind from pro-choice to pro-life … I like to keep a pretty low online profile. But I really enjoy your videos. Your videos … are what did it for me, as well as watching the March for Life on TV. I will be walking in next year's March for Life in San Francisco.

From: “Ajax,” a viewer who asked to remain anonymous

Foreign Language Internet Projects – The Internet has opened up a much wider audience than ever before possible through print publications. Forerunner articles that would long ago have been discarded now have daily readers in almost all countries of the world. At one time, I hoped to print foreign language editions in many countries. We were able to see this with Russian, Spanish and Chinese versions, as well as a few issues in Indonesia, Brazil and South Africa. At present I am beginning to outsource the translation work of our most highly read articles, the ones that have proven to have the highest impact.

The Pakistani Forerunner – Urdu is the most widely spoken language among Muslims with 270 million speakers. It is the national language of Pakistan as well as among people in Bahrain, India, Oman, United Arab Emirates and even in Guyana. Although Urdu is widely spoken there are very few Urdu language sites on the Internet. Our first project is Why Creeds and Confessions? Foundations in Biblical Orthodoxy, a book that has already appeared in the English and Russian languages. We are working with an Urdu woman from Pakistan, Nosheet Gloria, who has a burden to translate the best articles from The Forerunner.

The Turkish Forerunner — Yuce Kabakci is a young minister from Turkey – a nation of 70 million people with only about 3500 church-going Christians. He is in fact, the only the third pastor from Turkey who has received seminary training. He has also translated a number of Reformed classics as well as some recent works into Turkish. We are working together to build a Turkish language section of The Forerunner website. This will become significant in the coming years since Christian literature in this “gateway” nation to the Muslim world is rare.

Russian Forerunner – The goal is to get the remaining articles from 20 issues of Predvestnik, the Russian language Forerunner, on-line. There is some work to do in converting the Cyrillic text of our earlier issues to universal fonts. We also have two book translations that will soon appear on the Russian section of our site. Then I hope to constantly post fresh content on this site by working with a Russian editor and translator who will share our vision. The number of people with Internet access in the 15 nations where Russian is spoken is growing daily. This exciting prospect means that we can reach more people than ever before for relatively little money.

Brazilian Forerunner – A young man from Brazil, Felipe Neto, contacted me to ask permission to translate several of my articles into Portuguese. We will use these articles at the Forerunner.com site and work to get more articles into Portuguese. Many people are surprised to learn that Portuguese ranks as the eighth most spoken language in the world, and the third among western nations (behind English and Spanish) with close to 200 million native speakers. It is the national language of seven countries in four continents around the world including Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Portugal, and São Tomé and Príncipe islands. Although there are different spoken dialects, proper Portuguese as a written language is identical in all these countries.

Spanish Forerunner – A few years ago we published a single edition newspaper called, El Campeón that was distributed in Peru, Costa Rica, even Cuba. A Baptist ministry from Chile has also published some of my articles in Spanish. They produce a beautiful magazine called La Verdad (Word of Truth). I was greatly encouraged to see some of my content in their Spanish magazine. We want to translate hundreds of articles and find a Spanish freelancer who will work to build a Spanish section of The Forerunner.

Chinese Forerunner – The Mandate was a newspaper that we helped publish in English for Chinese international students studying in the United States in five editions. There were also two Chinese editions. Now we want to translate all of the articles from The Mandate into Chinese.

America, Return to God was a 128-page magazine/book edited by Thomas Wang (who is known as the “Chinese Billy Graham”). The publishers asked permission to reprint five articles from The Forerunner. I was blessed to see our ministry featured alongside ministers I look up to such as D. James Kennedy, James Dobson, Jerry Falwell, and Gary DeMar. This book was distributed to 400,000 people in an English language edition in the United States. Now their plan is to publish the magazine in China and Christians will be encouraged to pray for revival in America! Of course, we'd like to include this material at our website.

Increased Cooperation with Ministry Partners

While using an “outsourcing strategy” to cost-effectively jumpstart several projects, I also hope to find many like-minded Christians in foreign countries who share our vision to preach the Gospel worldwide through the media. I believe that there are many Christian students and young pastors around the world who just need encouragement and networking opportunities.

Instead just one “Forerunner” ministry, there will be many.

Our focus is now to encourage the development of the following strategies:

• Cooperating foreign language websites who are translating our materials
• Foreign language Internet articles and videos hosted at www.Forerunner.com
• Dubbing of our DVDs into several foreign languages
• Training foreign nationals to produce videos relevant to their own culture

I believe it is God’s will for us to advance the kingdom of God by cooperating with like-minded Christians and ministries. I hope that you will prayerfully consider supporting the following opportunities. God has opened a door for us that is already resulting in greater fruitfulness and effectiveness than ever before.

Yours for Christ’s victorious kingdom,

Jay Rogers