The thing is there is maybe a certain human rational for paranoia in ministry, but I have a problem with it in spiritual ministry. After all God does say that he has not given us a spirit of fear but of power and love and sound mind (I Tim. 1: 7).
Now I know we are to use our God given intelligence and not tempt God, but we also are not to use the tools of the enemy, the tools of the world to do our ministry and a good part of my premesis is that the missions do exactly that. So whereas their words, their teaching might be good, their actions might be attrocious and they could be quite perfect examples of "do as I say and not as I do." Sometimes, though, not even do as I say might be recommended when the Bible is the gold standard.
I can't speak for how they act now in the world of missions to Muslim countries and still a few straggler Communist countries and a few other closed countries of various sorts, but I have little faith that things have improved over when the focus was on the East Bloc.
Jesus to the Communist World
P.O. Box 38
St. Thomas, Ontario
Canada
Jesus to the Communist World, Inc.
P.O. Box 2947
Torrance, CA 90509
(213) 533-5872
Jews in the USSR (editor, Nan Greifer)
31 Percy St.
London W1P 9FG
England
(01) 580-0881 or 636-0536
Jednoto Bratska (Moravian)
Halkova 5
12000 Praha 2 Czech
241 347
John XXIII Center
2502 Belmont Ave.
Bronx, NY 10458
(Devoted to promoting a knowledge & understanding of Eastern Christianity)
Keston College
Heathfield Road
Keston, Kent BR2 6BA
England
Farnborough Kent 50116/7
[see my comments under G2W, previous post]
Krisotova Pentakostna Crkva
Ilica br. 200
41000 Zagrev, Yugoslavia
Kosciol Ewangelicko-Augsburgski (Lutheran)
ul. Miodowa zl
Warszawa, Poland
31 51/87
Kosciol Starokaloocki Mariowitow (Mariovite)
ul Wieczorka 27/29
Plock, Poland
30-86
Kosciol Metodyslczny
ul Mokolowska 12
00561 Warszawa Poland
28 53 28 or 28 53 48
Kosciol Kzymsko-Katolicki
ul Dziekanial
00279 Warszawa
31 96 62
Kirchenbund Evangelischen-reformierter Gemeinden in der DDR
Troendlinring 7
DDR 7010 Leipzig
29-10-79
Reformed/Free Reformed
Last Days Ministries
Box 40
Lindale, TX 75771-0040
Liebeswerk Kirche in Not
Ostpriesterhelfe
Postfach 1209
D-6240 Koenegstein 1
W. Germany
The Lausanne Committee for World Evantelization
P.O. Box 1100
Wheaton, IL 60189
(Occasional Papers)
Licht Im Osten
Missionsbund zur Ausbreitungdes Evangeliums, e. V.
Postfach 1240 (Kullenstr. 1)
D-7015 Korntal-Muenchigen 1
W. Germany
"Light in the East" c/o Leon Folds
184 Mars Hill Rd. N.W.
Powder Springs, GA 30073
Light in the East
c/o W. Rennett
5828 Sherbrooke St.
Vancouver, BC V5W cN1
Canada
Latvijas Evangeliska Luteriska Baznica (Lutheran)
Kirov 37-5
Riga
Latvian SSR
Lietuvos Evangeliku Liuteronu Baznycia
Lietuviu gatve 10
Kaunas
Lithuanian SSR
Lithuanian Methodist Church
Apteegi 3
Tallinn
44-92-46
Theo Lehmann, Pastor
9081 Karl-Marx Stadt
Wittgensdorferstr. 82
30724
End Sun. every month 5 pm and 9 pm
[Then are the times/days when he had his famous youth meetings when young people came from all over the DDR to attend in his Lutheran cathederal. I attended one time when I was studying in W. Berlin. I'll discuss this when I get to this point in my auto biobraphy.]
Jim Lowden
Missionary Evangelism Association
4328 W. Parker
Chicago, IL
(312) 278-5556
[He was a mentor to me, but by the time I knew him he must have been in his 80s and had battled serious heart and cancer and was not able to work overseas any more, but his church was pretty much all Romanians. He had now patience for missionaries who made compromises to their faith to work in difficult situations and he himself had worked in Greece before it became the free country it is now and also in other Balkan other countries. He was a preacher and evangelist and also church planter. He was not one to mince words, but he wasn't a gruff man either. His faith was in God and not in some human machination to get the work of the Lord done. I'm sure he's long gone on to be with the Lord by now.
Lifegate Tract Ministry
P.O. Box 891
Indianapolis, IN 46206
(Gospel material in foreign languages)
I'm sure I'm actually just touching the tip of the iceberg and there were many other things going on than I knew about, but this gives you an idea. The things that are in-country addresses, such as denominational headquarters, you must understand would have been under some level cooperation with the government to exist, and that would have varied from country to country and even from denomination to denomination. Some denominations may have been more favored within a country than another.
So I didn't have addresses and phone numbers (or only a handful) of unregistered Christianity and believers in the East Bloc when I went to Vienna to join the mission. Still, I had done the research at a couple of the leading organizations, so I did have a good understanding, and I had read quite a bit and developed my own library on the subject as well. So even if I didn't have specific addresses I still had a good idea what we were up against, and when you add that to my experiences before going to Vienna to join the mission, then that just compounds the understanding all the more.
