January 2020
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Dear <<First Name>>,
As we enter into this new decade, we pause in amazement at all we’ve seen God do in the last 10 years. God has done the impossible and opened doors that only He could open! In 2010 we had our first meeting in Nigeria. Now we are working in all 24 countries of the West and Central Africa (WACA) region! Many indigenous missionaries are being trained in local churches across WACA to make disciples and plant churches among the least reached there. The harvest there is truly ripe!
From the beginning, we knew we needed a logo. It wasn't long before the Lord revealed our logo to me. I’ve never shared the story about the origination of our logo but want to do so now as we enter 2020, a year of clarity.
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I woke up one morning knowing what the image of the logo was to look like. That morning I asked our art-gifted daughter Amy to draw what I saw. I explained what I saw and she drew it out on a napkin. She and I evidently connected, because she drew exactly what I saw…the first time! Later, I had her draw it out on a piece of paper, the image above.
The next morning, I woke up and the Holy Spirit explained to me the meaning of the logo, and moved upon me deeply, to the point that I wrote down the following:
- The son (I mean sun) is dawning from the east, where Jesus will split the sky, and where it all started.
- The sun is the reverse of the Islamic crescent, which is the biggest threat to the Christian world, but the son is rising (I mean Son HAS RISEN!) and will overtake/is overtaking the world.
- The crescent of the sun that is showing unmistakably looks like the Islamic crescent, except for one fact: the Islamic Crescent is usually pictured in the opposite direction. This shows then, irregardless of the Muslim springs of late, that the sun is setting/has set on Mohammed, but the Son has risen in the East... and lives forevermore! The eternal life of God is forever increasing in exponential measure. God is declaring His name to ALL people (ethnic groups), the God who is love, revealed in Christ Jesus.
- In this regard, it may be nice to deepen the hue of the crescent to a more burning red color, but not as red as the Islamic crescent.
- The son's (I mean sun's) rays make a cross, showing the overwhelming inability for the darkness to overcome the light, through the light of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
- The Son (I mean sun) seems so big in comparison to the world, is almost engulfing the world, and the light has the unmistakable Islamic crescent in it as well to drive home the fact that the whole world is in His hands, that Jesus died for Muslims too… that they are included in the call of the Gospel, that many in Islam are and many more, multitudes, will yet turn to the Light. This Gospel of the kingdom will be preached among all the peoples of the world, and then the end will come (Mat 24:14).
- I'm not sure if we can add shadowing to show the light coming across the globe from east to west, but I think that would add to the effect.
- The center of the globe should be the "Epicenter," Jerusalem. Turning the world slightly back from our previous renditions accomplishes this.
- The world viewed from slightly in the northern hemisphere makes the sun appear ever so slightly above due east in balance, showing the son (I mean sun) rising:)
- The colors would have to be dark enough to still be distinguishable in a black and white rendition.
- If we use something similar to this as the logo, I want it to communicate or invoke thought about these items to the viewer.
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One night after having written the 10 points above, the Lord woke me up in the middle of the night and showed me some other things. It all has to do with the huge harvest the Lord is going to accomplish among the Muslim world.
More on the crescent:
For this crescent in the logo if placed around the Mediterranean Sea, represents the crescent pattern of Muslim dispersion from West Africa, around the Middle East to Turkey and Europe. I believe that this is the area of the highest concentration of Muslims in the world, aside from Indonesia, which is the largest Muslim country in the world. In the middle of the whole Crescent is Israel, the promised land. Indeed if it were not for the Mediterranean Sea, it would not be a Crescent at all, but a solid filled circle or oval region. But you know, it is called the Fertile Crescent.
I saw this crescent, the Islamic Crescent, like the crescent of the moon. But the crescent I saw was red, solid red. The Islamic Crescent is to be covered with the blood of Jesus. Watch and see what the Lord will do.
So then, I woke up to see more images, representing things that are, that need to be, and that will be.
- I saw the Crescent... in RED, covered by the blood.
- I saw the new thing... making a way out for the Muslims to have a way to come to Christ and the need to proclaim this vision to the existing church. Cultural relevance – like the church H.O.W. in the midst of an Islamic nation, where they have a community to join when excommunicated for converting from Islam.
- I saw the reverse crescent in the logo becoming LIGHT, representing a huge harvest of Muslims being reaped for the glory of God in this region!
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Our logo has changed a bit over the years. Due to the difficulties of taking a hand drawn logo to print, we have had to make some alterations and greatly simplify it. But the message behind the logo has never changed.
To be honest, when we began this WACA project, my mindset was like it was decades earlier; I thought we were focusing on “Dark Africa,” which indeed we are. But the missiological demographics show a huge shift from African traditional religion or animism to Islam is dominant. I’ve jokingly said that the Lord is making it easy for us. We are only going to have one Unreached People Group to reach, the muslims. But much of Islam in Africa does not seem to have any qualms with ancestor worship and things of the like, which is oxymoronic when one understands that it is supposedly a monotheistic religion.
While I did not understand why the Lord was emphasizing the crescent so much in the logo, all along He knew the huge change that was well underway…and my own lack of knowledge. Now, we recognize the wisdom of God and how He has built an infrastructure of churches that relate to each other and to us across the WACA region, which are forming a huge net to reap and keep the vast harvest there, even in difficult areas. Truly, the Lord has gone before us! The crescent is being overtaken by His glorious LIGHT! He is looking for willing vessels, normal believers like you and me, to fulfill the Great Commission among every people (Mat 28:18-20). Ask the Lord if He would have you join us in August 2020 in Togo, where we plan to gather all our key leaders together and then split up into smaller teams to go upcountry, roll out Live School and do some outreach. Click here for more information.
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We are grateful for all the Lord has done over the past decade and believe that we have only seen a small glimpse of God's power. May 2020 be a year of clear 20-20 vision for you to see what it is that the Lord wants you to do with and for Him. Thank you for going on this journey with us through prayer and support.
Love,
Chip & Kathy Carroll
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Sonrise International exists to bring transformation to cultures for the Glory of God by opening the bottleneck of laborers to the mission field. We do this by assisting the national churches in West and Central Africa (WACA) to train some of their everyday believers as effective cross-cultural missionaries.
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May the Lord's blessings rest on you, that all nations might know His glory. (Genesis 12:1-3 & Psalms 67:1-2)
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