Day: July 16, 2015

Missions Catalyst News Briefs 7.16.15

1. WORLD: Sharing Jesus with Our Muslim Neighbors
2. TURKEY: So Logical and True
3. WORLD: Latest Trends in Religious Restrictions
4. MIDDLE EAST: Good News
5. NIGERIA: Workers Stand Firm amid Violence

 

Greetings!

It was as a guest at an event sponsored by the Friends of India club on a local college campus that I first heard of the Ramayana, the epic story of Ram. After the graduate students introduced me to the story they grew up on, I decided I should learn more about it to better connect with my Indian friends. (You can find many versions on YouTube.) This month, I read about another epic, the movie Baahubali, which claims to have cost more than any other Bollywood film, and a different Indian film which holds the world’s record for speedy production, only twenty-four hours.

But when I think of real Indian heroes and achievements, the globe-trotting musician Benny Prasad may currently top my list. He holds the world’s record for the most countries visited in the shortest time. His testimony is worth watching.

Movies, sports, and the arts suggest we all want a hero even if that hero is fictional or legendary. Every culture has its heroic tales. Might learning some of them open doors to share the greatest epic story of all time?

Blessings,

Pat

Source: Anglican Frontier Missions, July 3, 2015

On a packed, beat-up bus, filled with smoke, deep in the heart of an Islamic nation, I was chatting with [a] new-found friend who me told me that though his mom and dad were Muslims, he’d didn’t really believe it anymore.

After a few more minutes of conversing, the bus stopped abruptly– no gas station, no rest stop, nothing in sight. What followed absolutely amazed me. Every single man got off the bus, spread out in two lines on the frozen dirt of the high mountain plateau, and began doing the Islamic prayers. Even the guy sitting next to me who had just told me he didn’t believe anymore was joining in!

Though many of us understand some of the historical, political, social, and religious events that have led American culture to become increasingly “tolerant,” relativistic, and post-modern, wrapping our fingers around the world’s second largest religion can be downright baffling. Where is Islam today? How does it differ, country to country? Where might global Islam be heading? And most pertinently, when I meet a Muslim, what are some things I might say or do to draw them nearer to Christ?

» Read full story.

» Also on the topic of Muslim-Christian relations, read How American Muslims Are Helping Black Churches Rebuild After Spate Of Fires (Huffington Post) and watch this fun, challenging, ad about the labels we put on people (Coca Cola).

Source: TWR News, June 30, 2015

A broadcasting ministry received the following letter from a listener in Turkey:

“Hello, I’m a student at a theology university of the country’s religion. We were always told that the Bible has changed. And they teach us always the faults of the Bible. I was so much wondering about these things that I finally got a Bible.

“Our teacher told us that if we want to learn how ridiculous Christianity is that we can listen to a radio program. This is how I started to listen to your program. I listened nine months regularly to your programs. You never said anything ridiculous. What you told was so logical and true. I decided to give my life to Jesus Christ. It is so difficult for me to study at this school and to be a Christian. I can’t talk with anyone about this.”

“Could you please pray for me?”

» Read full story and one from another broadcasting ministry that writes about ministering to an Iranian woman suffering from hopelessness and depression (SAT-7).

» In some parts of the world, Christians, too, have limited access to Christian input and materials. See The Journey of God’s Word to Myanmar (Asia Harvest). And listen to an interview on Building the Church in Burma (Compassion Radio).

Source: INContext, July 2015

In February 2015, the Pew Research Center released the sixth in a series of annual reports analyzing the extent to which governments and societies around the world impinge on religious beliefs and practices. Looking at the overall level of restrictions—whether resulting from government policies or from hostile acts by private individuals, organizations, and social groups—the study finds that:

1. Restrictions on religion were high or very high in 39% of the 198 countries and territories monitored.

2. Nearly 5.5 billion people (77% of the world’s population) live in nations where religious restrictions of some kind (related to either government or social groups) are either high or very high. This figure has increased from 76% in 2012 and 68% as of 2007.

3. Among the world’s 25 most populous countries, the highest overall levels of restrictions were found in China, India, Burma (Myanmar), Egypt, Indonesia, Pakistan, and Russia, where both the government and society at large impose numerous limits on religious beliefs and practices.

4. Among these populous countries, China had the highest level of government restrictions in 2013 [the most recent year for which data was available].

5. India had the highest level of social hostilities involving religion.

» Read the rest of the report.

Source: Act Beyond, July 2015

Most of what we hear about the Middle East is terrible news. But the turmoil and warfare there are creating desperation that has lead to an openness to the gospel for many people. We heard several Syrians quoted as saying, “Satan has caused this war in Syria, but God has used it to lead us to Jesus, which never would have happened otherwise.”

Amal was a young boy when he started having scary dreams of death and hell. He could never get away from them. For several years he said that he was tormented by these dreams. When he was about 12 years old he cried out to God begging him to please take away these dreams, to show him how he could get peace.

Amal is now a disciple who makes disciples. He has received some training from some long term workers with whom we work. With their help and encouragement Amal started several groups with men interested in the gospel. Many are now believers and have also started groups. God is at work!

» Read full story.

Source: Christian Aid Mission, July 2, 2015

Far from allowing the Islamic extremist violence of Boko Haram to drive them out, native Christian workers in Nigeria’s northeast have expanded their church-planting ministry to meet the needs of displaced people.

An evangelistic ministry based in Nigeria has long focused its efforts on the primarily Muslim, northeastern states of Adamawa, Borno, and Yobe, which have been under a state of emergency since May 2013. Many of the thousands of displaced people have fled to camps in Adamawa’s state capital of Yola. The indigenous ministry is still working in northeast Nigerian villages, albeit much more discreetly, but it has expanded to camps for the internally displaced—not only offering humanitarian assistance, but proclaiming Christ at a time when few are bold enough to do so.

“There are more than 70,000 people in the camps there, so it becomes another mission field for us,” said the director of the indigenous ministry. “We used to reach them with the gospel in their villages, but now we reach them not only with the gospel; we reach them with food, we reach them with medicine, we reach them with Bibles.”

» Read full story.