Day: July 20, 2016

In this issue: Sharing donuts in Japan’s city of peace

1. JAPAN: Of Donuts and Atom Bombs
2. NORTHEAST AFRICA: Community Garden for the Zaila
3. MALI: Kidnapped Swiss Missionary Still Alive
4. CAMEROON: 5,000 Kapsiki Speakers Brave Danger to Welcome Bible
5. IRAN: A Media Mogul Comes to Christ

Greetings,

I’ve seen sports, music, mountain climbing, and even surfing ministries that are designed to open doors for the gospel. Have we neglected the ministry of food? Nothing connects people like food!

Granted, it can also be divisive. Half of my household is now vegan, some of us have high blood sugar, and—shortly after buying 17 chickens—I discovered I have high cholesterol. So I’m a food pusher and a food cop, pushing eggs on my vegan kids while scolding my husband and mother-in-law for eating foods too high on the glycemic index.

My family’s spats are nothing compared to the war over hummus (see Give Chickpeas a Chance: Why Hummus Unites, and Divides, The Mideast), worse yet, the one over beef eating in North India. Perhaps our enemy knows the power of shared food?

I’m reading Tim Chester’s book A Meal with Jesus: Discovering Grace, Community, and Mission around the Table and watching Peter Reinhart’s Artisan Bread Making to mobilize myself and my tribe for welcoming international students. For additional inspiration and ideas about reaching international students, check out the latest edition of Mission Frontiers.

Whether you make your own healthy delights at home, help plant a community garden, or hang out with seekers in a donut shop in Japan (see stories below), may God bless your efforts to invite people to “taste and see that the Lord is good.” After all, he is the Bread of Life!

Pat

Source: Pioneers USA, June 16, 2016

A ministry team is trying to introduce the people of Hiroshima to an everlasting source of peace, one donut at a time.

» Watch video.

Source: Frontiers USA, June 16, 2016

In a remote corner of Northeast Africa live the Zaila people. They are living versions of the desert land where they reside—hard, austere, and seemingly impenetrable. For generations, these staunch Muslims have had no one reaching them with the Good News of Jesus Christ.

John and Rachel Miller had never heard of the Zaila when they first responded to God’s call to reach the nations for his glory.

But the Millers had heard of unengaged people groups—those who have no churches, no believers, and no messengers of the Kingdom trying to share the Gospel with them. They were convinced that even the most remote communities need a chance to hear about Jesus. John and Rachel decided they could be part of the solution and go to the Muslim world where the need for the Gospel is greatest.

As John and Rachel worked to recruit their team, they moved to a capital city in the region. They began looking for open doors to serve further afield where they could live among an unengaged people. At that time, the Zaila were one of Northeast Africa’s largest unengaged Muslim people groups. As they started meeting Zailas living in the capital, God stirred their hearts for this lost people.

Then they met a chief from Adaye, a remote Zaila village.

“Our people are hungry,” the chief told John, an agriculturalist, “and we don’t have a produce market in our town. Would you help us start a garden for the village?”

» See full story with pictures.

» You might also be interested in A Tale of Two Farmers, which brings together a man who grew up helping with the wheat harvest in Kansas and Oklahoma and a very different kind of farmer in Japan (SEND International).

Source: World Watch Monitor, June 17, 2016

Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) has released a video, purporting to show that a Swiss nun kidnapped in Mali in January is alive and in good health.

The three-minute video, posted on social media [on 16 June], shows a veiled Beatrice Stockly speaking in French, saying that she has been detained for 130 days but is in good health and has been treated well, although it has been very hot. She concludes by thanking her family and the Swiss government for all their efforts to secure her release.

» Read full story, which includes links to previous coverage, and see also a report from the International Business Times which refers to Stockly “the last Westerner living in Timbuktu.”

Source: United Bible Societies, July 11, 2016

Usually, large gatherings are banned in Cameroon’s Far North region, due to high security risks—Boko Haram has carried out a number of deadly attacks there. But on June 4, the iconic mountains near Mogodé—a town very close to the Nigerian border—witnessed an unprecedented crowd of 5,000 Kapsiki people celebrating the launch of the first Bible in their language.

Special authorization was granted to hold the gathering, and 250 soldiers were provided for protection by the general in charge of the region’s armed forces.

The day before the launch, the town organized a grand parade to welcome the new Bibles as special guests of honor as they arrived in the back of a military truck. In fact, the convoy carrying the new Bibles, Bible Society staff, and soldiers received a rapturous welcome in every Kapsiki village that it passed during its 120-kilometer journey from the Bible Society’s offices in Maroua to Mogodé.

As the truck pulled up outside the Catholic Church, a crowd of joyful Kapsiki Christians surrounded it. Their singing and dancing continued late into the night.

» See full story with pictures. Pray for the Kapsiki and their neighbors. (I was encouraged to read that one of the first things the Kapsiki did was take up a collection was taken to help other people in Cameroon who do not yet have the Bible in their language.)

Source: Iran Alive Ministries, July 1, 2016

The largest network of secular satellite channels in Iran is owned by a wealthy family that lives outside Iran. This network consists of over eighteen 24/7 channels that cover every interest from movies to sports and from channels dedicated to children to MTV-like music. Two years ago, we started praying for the salvation of this family. Last summer, Soleiman and his wife Sayeh, co-owners of this network, accepted Christ and contacted us. Sayeh explains:

“Having experienced the power of God’s transformation in our lives and being inspired by Pastor Hormoz [of Iran Alive Ministries], my husband and I decided to start a new Christian television station. We had the finances; we had the know-how.

“But as we prayed about starting this Christian TV station, God spoke to my heart: ‘Sayeh, do you want to glorify yourself or me? If you are looking to glorify me, you don’t need to start a new station. I already have one: Iran Alive (Network 7). I want you to work with my network.’”

» Read full story and pray for the continued transformation of Iranian leaders and others who hear the gospel.

» See also another story from this part of the world which describes the recent baptism and protection of 18 former Muslims (Bibles for Mideast, via GodReports).