Day: April 19, 2017

1. AZERBAIJAN: Dreaming for Muslims to Believe in Christ
2. GAMBIA: No Longer an Islamic Republic
3. MYANMAR: Study Shows High Incidence of Suicide among Refugees
4. TURKEY: The Malatya Murders and Ten Years of Forgiveness

…and lots of links to more!

A group of Iraqi Christians lined up to travel several hours so they could celebrate Easter in their own church, damaged by the fighting. Read their story (Open Doors).

Greetings,

There are some exciting things afoot in the here-but-not-yet Kingdom! Explore how networks are changing the shape of world mission (Mission Frontiers) and read about the once-a-generation gathering of European students to celebrate the Resurrection (Evangelical Focus).

Partner with the Moroccan church by praying for a very timely need: Moroccan Christians sent a letter to their prime minister calling on authorities to take the necessary steps to ensure Christian basic rights like freedom of worship. Pray also for the Church in Turkey; watch the video mentioned in a related story below.

If, like me, you don’t want the Easter holiday to end, learn about Eastertide or join Eastern Christians in observing Pentecostarion. I plan to incorporate the vision of the International Day for the Unreached into these new-to-me holiday seasons. Got ideas on how to do this well? Let me know.

Blessings,
Pat

Source: Joel News International, April 2017

Azerbaijan is a Muslim majority country where the freedom to practice any other faith often comes with a price. According to estimates there are only 10,000 evangelical Christians.

Sari Mirzoev should know. In 1991, shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union, he became the first Azeri Muslim to convert to Christianity. “Nobody understood why I did this, but as I saw God at work in my life, I realized that everyone around me was spiritually dead.” He accepted Christ while attending a Russian congregation. At the time, there wasn’t a single church for ethnic Azeri people. “All the believers that I knew were Russian.”

In 1995, Mirzoev says God gave him a prophetic word that Azeri Muslims would come to Christ as a result of his testimony. Twenty-two years later, he leads the largest Azeri evangelical church in the country called Love Baptist Church. “Sometimes we have as many as 30-40 people who accept Christ as their personal Savior in a single service,” says Mirzoev.

» The full story appeared in Joel News International; subscribe here. To learn more, read/watch a related report from CBN News.

» See also Uncovering the Unreached, the story of a western worker mobilizing Ukrainians and Russians to pray for Muslims and other unreached groups in their region (Send International).

Source: Open Doors, February 6, 2017

At the end of 2015, Gambia’s then President Yahya Jammeh pronounced the West African country to be the Islamic Republic of Gambia, saying the decision to make it an Islamic state was made because Islam is the religion of the majority of Gambian citizens. This decision raised fears among the Christian minority and human rights groups, but now Gambia’s new president, Adama Barrow, has pledged reforms, including removing laws in Gambia’s constitution that violate freedom of religion.

Speaking at his first news conference since taking office on January 26, President Barrow said the country’s official name will no longer contain the word “Islamic.” Gambia, whose population is 90 percent Muslim, with the remainder of the population being Christian and animist, will move forward as the Republic of Gambia, rather than the “Islamic Republic of Gambia.” These encouraging changes are a welcome sign to Gambia’s Christian minority that the new administration will be more disposed than the outgoing president to safeguard religious freedoms for all citizens of Gambia.

» See full story with picture and prayer points.

Source: World Watch Monitor, January 2017

A new study has found a high incidence of suicide among women in camps housing long-term refugees fleeing Myanmar’s ethnic conflict, reports the BBC News Magazine.

In a study of refugees in Thailand’s Mae La camp, where 90% are ethnically Karen—a group that mainly identifies as Christian—Dr. Gracia Fellmeth found that last year, suicide was “too common” in the camp, accounting for half of all deaths among pregnant women and new mothers.

With 40,000 residents, Mae La is the biggest of the camps on the Thai-Myanmar border, which combined are home to more than 100,000 people.

Dr. Fellmeth, who reported her findings in the British Medical Journal, visited the camp as part of a study into the mental health of mothers around the time they give birth. It focused on a couple who had committed suicide together by swallowing weed killer, despite the pregnant woman showing no alarming signs at an antenatal clinic days before. It also found that a quarter of all the women they spoke to thought about suicide, with about three percent having made an attempt.

The report concluded that “refugee populations are at risk of developing mental disorders as a result of their marginalized status, socioeconomic disadvantage and exposure to trauma.”

» Read full story. From neighboring Thailand, read Changed: Healed to Help Others and watch a video with Pastor Mao’s testimony about how the Lord spared him from the debilitating results of a brain tumor and gave him a growing ministry in his village (GNPI).

» See also a few more reports about refugee populations: No Place for Eritreans (Carnegie Council) and a story about more than 40 refugees, including women and children, shot dead off the coast of Yemen (Your Middle East).

Source: International Mission Board, April 18, 2017

Ten years ago in the city of Malatya, Turkey, three Christians were martyred for their faith by men who pretended to be interested in the gospel.

In the days following, the press spoke to one of the widows, and she declared her forgiveness for the murderers. In Turkish culture, [it] was unheard of that someone could forgive such an act of evil. So the story spread, and people across Turkey were talking about it in their homes, tea houses, and places of business.

During the fifty-plus years of evangelical Christian work in [modern] Turkey, this message of forgiveness has been proclaimed hundreds of thousands of times. Sometimes it is proclaimed through God’s Word, sometimes through preaching and prayer, but rarely has it been declared more vividly than in the sacrifice of our brothers and in the words of this widow.

Currently, the evangelical church of Turkey lists its number of believers at around six thousand, a number that is about double the number of believers in 2007, the year of the murders.

» Read full story and see also a few additional stories of forgiveness, both connected to Egypt’s Palm Sunday attacks: Wife of Slain Security Guard in Egypt: “I Forgive My Husband’s Killer” and Widow of Palm Sunday Martyr: “He Asked Me to Wait for Him… But He Never Came Back” (Open Doors).

» April 18 was the Global Day of Prayer for Turkey in commemoration of the Malatya martyrs (watch a four-minute video below). Also pray for Turkey’s future on the heels of a significant political referendum.