His Glory, His Honor

Tribute to Missionary Jeff Tarplah

Jeff loved the Lord and His people.
His affection and care for people will
forever be an inspiration to us.
"Cousin", the name he
affectionately called his friends
shall forever dear to our memories.
We will miss Him!
Missionaries
PASTOR OLIVER AND ELLA RUSS
Douala, Cameroon

Cuzzin...was the name we would call
one another. Jeff, loved life. He had
a passion for prayer, ministry,
worship and a great smile.
He inspired me to go all the way for
ministry. It was heart renting to
hear of his passing.
PASTOR ZANGAI PEABODY

We would like to share our
condolence to the entire Living
Water Ministries family and the
Biological family of Rev. Tarplah.
"Jeff" as he was commonly called
was a blessing to the body of Christ
in Abidjan and Côte d'Ivoire. The
Abidjan Bible Training Center
which he started has trained
hundreds of Leaders in various
churches in Côte d'Ivoire who are
having great impact on their
ministries and churches. Glory be to
God!
We would like to say that his labor
was not in vain but remains though
he is gone to be with the Lord but
his labor will always speak. May his
soul rest in perfect peace.

God bless and we will keep in touch
as there is a memorial service in
Abidjan on Sunday for him.

Rev. Morris & Kris Yeedoun
Latter-Rain Harvest Ministries, Inc. &
Vision International University
Cocody-Angré
06 BP 1968 Abidjan 06
Côte d'Ivoire, West Africa
Tel 225-22-42-87-97
Cell 225-07-43-60-00
Cell 225-09-11-96-82
Website: www.lrhm.net


I am greatly moved. Among my first
memories of a personal walk with
God was Pastor Jeff who was my 8th
grade Bible teacher and minister for
the Sober Watchman Ministries. As
my 8th grade teacher, he challenged
me to stand up fearlessly as a
Christian and not be intimidated
since I was a new Christian and very
timid. Jeff appeared in class and
asked everyone including me to give
a personal testimony of my
salvation,quote Romans 12:1-2 and
interpret it to the class. That was my
first public speaking challenge and
moreover I was supposed to say that I
was part of the Christians on
campus... Scary thing.

I lost all my friends after that class.
Lonely and timid, Jeff helped
provide that solid foundation for
Christian growth and clear doctrinal
base, through his work as our 8th
grade teacher and a campus
fellowship leader for the Sober
Watchman Ministries. Learning
about the Holy Spirit, listening to His
direction and obeying His moves for
missions and establishing new
Christian works was what drove this
"mystery man".

Chapman Junius

Impacting a generation, one student at a time

Why Mormons Do Better Youth Ministry

Let's face it. Most of us look at the clean cut Mormon missionaries that peddle the streets of our city and knock on the doors of our houses as somewhat out of date. Although they are kind and well spoken young men, when they knock on our doors we either don't answer or tell them we are already Christians who reject Mormonism and bid them good day.

We think to ourselves how "behind the times" these young people are forced to be when they are required to do door-to-door evangelism for their religion. We reflect on how grateful we are that we have the truth once and for all delivered to the saints. We may even think about how much more superior our youth ministry strategies are compared to theirs.

Or are they?

* Mormons expect a lot out of their teenagers. We don't.
* Mormons ordain their young men into the ministry at the age of twelve. We don't.
* Mormons require their teens to attend seminary every day of high school. We don't.
* Mormons ask for two years in the field of every graduating senior. We don't.


Maybe that's why we don't meet a lot of ex-Mormons, while there are hundreds of thousands of former church attendees in the true church of Jesus Christ (of everyday saints) who flee the church after graduating from high school.

Maybe that's why Mormons give more, work harder and are exploding as a religion. In 1985 there were 4.5 million Mormons and now there are over 12 million.

When many of our teens graduate from high school, they grab their books and a beer and go off to the college dorm (A.K.A. "The Party Zone"). When Mormon teens graduate from high school they grab a backpack and a bike pump and go off on a mission.

They know what they believe and why they believe it. They've hammered out their theology on our doorsteps. Their souls and minds have been steeled and sealed into Mormon orthodoxy through their fanatical commitment to the accomplishment of their version of the Great Commission.

Meanwhile we compress most of our mission work into one week in Mexico once every year or two. And even that is comprised mostly of building houses, not necessarily advancing the kingdom of God and the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

There's a great line in the movie Braveheart where Robert the Bruce is commenting on William Wallace to his father. He says, "He believes. I want to believe like he believes."

When I look at the Mormons I think to myself, "They believe. I want to believe like they believe." Now don't get me wrong. I don't want to believe what they believe. Mormon theology is far from what the Bible says about Jesus, God, sin and salvation. It is, by no means, a truly Christian religion.

Having said that, Mormonism pushes their kids harder and takes them deeper and farther than even the most ardent of evangelical youth ministries would ever dare.

Can you imagine a youth group that challenged every teen in the youth ministry to meet at 6am every day of the school year for a class on Christianity? That's exactly what Mormons do with their high schoolers and their belief system!

We get excited if once a year at 7:15am, while Mormon teens are coming back from their daily seminary lesson on Mormonism, our teens gather around a pole and pray.

I'm not saying that we copy the Mormons specific strategy. I can't foresee our teenagers racing Mormons to the door in a battle of the bicycles. Nor do I believe the answer lies in a daily early morning class. We don't need to copy their strategy. We do, however, need to adopt their philosophy.

We need to push our teens. We need to turn them into active activists. We need to build consistent opportunities for service, outreach and training. We need to equip them to share their faith and then go with them, leading the way. After all, we are youth leaders.

Somebody may accuse me of looking at this as some sort of competition. It is. We are in a competition with Satan for the souls of our young people. And we are getting our rears kicked.

My problem is not with Mormons. It's with us. Let's learn from the Mormons and turn our kids into missionaries. Armed with the power of the true gospel (not some aberrant belief system) our teens could mount a comeback and help us win this thing.

Game on.

For God So Love the World

Have you decided to trust Jesus as your personal Savior and Lord?

Do you desire a personal relationship with the One who created you and loves you no matter what? If so, tell Him in your own words or use this sample prayer:

Father God,
I know I need you but can never get to you on my own. I receive Your Son Jesus as my personal Savior. I believe He took all my sins onto Himself when He died on the cross, conquering death for my sake and giving me access to you.
Thank you for forgiving me and for sending the Holy Spirit to transform my life.
Amen.

Obstacles to Forgiving Ourselves

READ | Psalm 51:10-12

Every human being has a sin problem. We all lose our tempers, make mistakes, and do things that seem completely out of character. Sin is a universal problem. But God provided forgiveness for everyone who'll accept it. Why do many believers find it impossible to forgive themselves?

First, we struggle with self-forgiveness at times because we find it difficult to accept God's forgiveness. Guilt can be so strong that it may seem to overshadow the enormous gift of pardon and restoration that God freely provides. We may think our past actions are so terrible that God would never forgive us. That's a tragic error.

Second, personal disappointment can prevent us from forgiving ourselves. We often have ridiculously high, self-imposed standards for our behavior and accomplishments. When we fail to achieve them, we're all but crippled by disappointment. This makes self-forgiveness seem impossible.

Third, seeing the results of our sin can block self-forgiveness. If our wrong actions produce tangible negative consequences, we may become so blinded by the result that we can't forgive ourselves. Seeing the outcome of sin every day keeps guilt alive in our minds. As a result, we may simply refuse to let it go.

Are you harboring guilt and remorse for past sin? First John 1:9 says God's forgiveness is available now. Christ gave His life to make you free. Take Galatians 5:1 to heart. Don't willingly stay in chains because you're unwilling to forgive yourself for something God has already forgiven.

The Gravity of Inactivity

Roller Coasters can be a fearsome and terrifying experience for the unsuspecting. At your highest peak, fear is literally injected into your spine as the brainless machine completes its course, all the time never stopping to attend to your whimp. This is my summer vacation at the Universal studio theme park, in Orlando Florida in a nutshell. Funny now, yeah, but then fun was not the closest then.
Frankly, I do not think I want to ever return on any one of those emotionless machine.

"Whimp!"
I can hear you call me that. Hey but yeah, still I am not footing on a roller coaster, at least not anytime soon.
Fear cripples.
The gravity pulls you against their thrust of the high speed roller coaster and immediately you can feel your heart ooze out of you chest and leaks through your ankles. It seems so natural to scream at this point. Everyone lets out a gut scream as they all feel gravity drain their blood from their brains down their ankle in it confusion to stabilize the physiology of the body.


Today, it almost seems no-one gets enough adrenaline rush. This drive the adventurous to endeavor even more dare feats from sky diving to bungie jumps and even "Ultimate Fights". Sooner or later the new breed of people will become immune to any sort of fear or thrill.
At this point, I can only imagine what people who start to do for fun or for 'vacation'.

Falling after been lifted, whether it is on a roller coaster or a bungie jump or diving out of a flying plane, can be dangerously terrifying. Posted to most of these extreme vacation activities are signs warning eager participants of hazardous possibilities. Of course no one read these days, except for the conscious.
The pull of gravity can be fun for some but wicked to others. You can tell from the childish glee on the faces of those survivors as they emerge from to crazy ride.

At this point, it is those who were so conscious not to ride that are made to feel gravitated to 'whimpishness'. Fear induces inactivity which eventually robs, and depraves ultimately.

Even though the Bible warns that 'it is a fearful thing to fall in the hand of the living God', most mature christian have resulted to playing and running with too many worldly safety gadgets which are gravitating them to the sins of 'inactivity'.

It is high time we Sound the Trumpet! Ignite the urgency!!!

Where is the simple childlike trust in the sovereignty of The Most High?!!!!!

Where is the command to 'come boldly to the throne of grace' where we can attract more spectacular grace to win giants bigger than ourselves and mountains higher than ourselves and valleys lower than we imagined?

Where is the choice to accept our cross, pick it up and follow Him?

Where is the unquestionable willingness to know, follow and obey Him?

Where is the deep longing for an absolute quiet time, in
His presence before and at the close of our day?


where is the hunger and thirst for speaking to each other in hymns and spiritual songs and the excitement of an altar call?

Whimp?!!!!! Shoooos! That sounds like hard work, just to keep up...


Work out your Salvation with Fear and trembling...it is a fearful thing to Fall in the hand of an angry God. For God has provided all that pertains to life and godliness for those who fear Him.