A NEW DAY DAWNS FOR DOW

Excitement about the Missionary Potential of a New Location

James P. Dretke, Chairman of the DOW Board, Christmas 2013

A new Place, a new Potential

POBLO-TX (People of the Book Lutheran Outreach - Texas), an extension of a mission project started twenty years ago in a suburb of Detroit where many Muslims settled, is now functioning in Texas under its own 501 (c3) umbrella, its own agenda, and its own new name, acronymed DOW (Disciples of the Way Ministries).  Across the years we have been grateful for each church that has given us "a home," and for each individual, congregation or group that have supported this ministry by prayer, personal involvement, or financial help.

Our minimal staff, along with a host of volunteers, struggle to keep up with the opportunities knocking at our doors and  the space out of which to carry on our two primary "pre-evangelism" thrusts that are meeting the immediate needs of many. This avalanche of activity has caught the enthusiasm of a good number of lay people who give generously of their time and talent to help people learn how to read and speak English, and as well, for many to learn how to sew.

We have been richly blessed in this outreach ministry by the people of Our Redeemer Lutheran Church, Dallas, who have given DOW space out of which to initially carry on this work and expand it. But, the hallways are bursting at the seams.

Out of the blue, God and the former members of Zion Lutheran Church, Watauga, TX have given DOW a marvelous expansion opportunity. They have presented DOW with an unexpected Christmas gift, their whole church facility, a relatively new building. The big challenge for us now is how to maximize the usage of this wonderful, unanticipated Christmas present.

Besides giving DOW a golden opportunity to extend its ministries into another part of the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, it gives us space to set up a library-training facility for any and all who are serious about learning how to talk with Muslim neighbors or family members, interact with Muslim co-workers or Muslim parents whose children go to their children's schools -- all with a goal of being faithful to our living Lord Jesus Christ, who died for Muslims, too, and now lives for them as well.

Patterns of Training

Since I began seriously engaging Muslims in Ghana in the Spring of 1962, I have been involved in training programs for evangelism among Muslims. These have ranged from one to four week long intensive training sessions at the congregational level to training of interested persons from neighboring congregations gathered at a central location for once-a-week evening sessions to special weekend seminars (a Friday night and all-day Saturday learning experience). There have also been intensive 3-4 week university or seminary course offerings carrying academic credit even to the Ph.D. level.

In the coming New Year of His grace, we shall offer various courses at our new site in Wautaga. Some of you are within reach of this facility to consider taking advantage of these, but we are very much interested in also serving you who would benefit from such training -- even if you live away from this area. We want to be prepared to serve you where you are by way of weekend seminars, even in some cases if time and distance are not prohibitive, at your own church. The way is wide open for various patterns and approaches toward accomplishing our common goal, that of getting the living Word out to Muslims wherever they are living!

 

This is where your input is important! We invite you to look at the members of your church or neighboring congregations to try to gauge what interest there may be in evangelism among Muslims, or whether such enthusiasm might be generated. If the latter, our DOW staff and I are ready to work with you to begin some new ground-breaking evangelism activity in your area.

In the meantime, pray with us that this new facility in Wautaga will be fully utilized for an ongoing proclamation of the Gospel among Muslims, "beginning in our own Jerusalem." In Jesus' Name, Amen.