Missions Catalyst 09.15.10 – World News Briefs

In This Issue: Ethiopians Mobilized, Prisoners Released, and More

• MIDDLE EAST: Muslims Coming to Christ at Historic Rate
• SOUTHERN AFRICA: AmaZioni People Reconnect with Their Past
• ETHIOPIA: “God Sent This One to Wake Us Up”
• SUDAN: Kidnapped Aid Worker Released
• TANZANIA: Evangelist Arrested
• PAPUA NEW GUINEA: “I Want More Missionaries”

Missions Catalyst is a free, weekly electronic digest of mission news and resources designed to inspire and equip Christians worldwide for global ministry. Use it to fuel your prayers, find tips and opportunities, and stay in touch with how God is building his kingdom all over the world. Please forward it freely!

World News Briefs, edited by Pat Noble, are published twice a month.

MIDDLE EAST: Muslims Coming to Christ at Historic Rate

Source: Charisma News Online, August 20, 2010

Christians ministering quietly in the Middle East say Muslims are coming to Christ at an unprecedented pace despite intense persecution of those who leave Islam.

“Probably in the last 10 years, more Muslims have come to faith in Christ than in the last 15 centuries of Islam,” said Tom Doyle, [of] e3 Partners, a Texas-based missions agency.

Earlier this month, more than 200 former Muslims were baptized during a training conference in Europe led by Iran-born evangelist Lazarus Yeghnazar.

Radio, television, and Internet-based Christian programming have been key. Yeghnazar claims more than 3,000 Iranians are converted each month through his Farsi-language television and Internet broadcasts.

Doyle said Father Zakaria Botross, a born-again Coptic priest, reaches about 60 million people through his television programs broadcast across the Middle East. “The apostle Paul to the Muslims is, no question, Father Zakaria.”

>> Full story with picture.

SOUTHERN AFRICA: AmaZioni People Reconnect with Their Past

Source: Missions Network News, August 24, 2010

The story of the amaZioni [Zulu word for Zionists] begins well over a century ago, when a Christian city called Zion was established in Illinois. This group of American believers rejected all things modern and held a strong belief in faith healing. The city [sent] a group of missionaries to southern Africa. Intrigued by the missionaries’ rejection of modernity and medicine, many prominent tribesmen accepted [what] the missionaries taught.

The amaZioni grew exponentially over the years, and so did their newfound religion. They began to spawn churches and raise up leaders but moved further away from any Biblical teaching they had known.

The church in Zion, IL became a strong, evangelical church. In the early 1980s, they became aware of the legacy they had left in Africa and consequently believed it was their personal responsibility to back go to teach the truth.

When other missionaries had tried to reach them, the amaZioni would not budge. Yet when the church in Zion sent missionaries back to Africa bearing the original Zion church symbol, the amaZioni were eager to listen.

Since then, the Zion church has founded ZEMA, the Zion Evangelical Ministries of Africa [which] sends missionaries commissioned by the Zion church to Africa to teach at four Bible colleges. As the amaZioni come to understand the gospel, they begin to change their practices. More and more amaZioni are coming to faith as a result.

This is a people group rich with promise. At 18 million strong, they have the potential to change generations for Christ.

>> Full story with picture and prayer points.

ETHIOPIA: “God Has Sent This One to Wake Us Up”

Source: Accelerating International Missions Strategies, September 2, 2010

“An old Ethiopian pastor pointed his finger at me and exclaimed to our translator, ‘God has sent this one to wake us up.’ He continued, ‘Until I die, I now have my job,'” [says AIMS Vice President Jerry Smith].

“I just stared in awe at what this faithful servant of God was telling me. After two days of intensive teaching and training in Addis Ababa this ‘retired’ minister of the gospel had become impassioned anew by God’s vision for reaching the nations.

“In early July we gathered with 220 Ethiopian leaders from Kale Heywet (Word of Life), the largest denomination in the country. Their passion is to double their full-time missionaries from 1,000 to 2,000 in three years. They have asked us to equip them to do this. They already have missionaries in Ethiopia, Sudan, Pakistan, and India, and this year they sent a team to Iran to prepare workers to go there! We left with a solid commitment from our host to gather the same 220 leaders in January so we can follow up on what we imparted in July.”

>> Full story.

SUDAN: Kidnapped Aid Worker Released

Source: The Christian Post, August 30, 2010

An aid worker for Christian relief organization Samaritan’s Purse was released Monday after being held hostage for 105 days in Sudan. The 35-year-old employee, Flavia Wagner, was exhausted but in good health, reported a spokesman. She is currently in Khartoum.

In May, Wagner, another employee, and a Sudanese driver were abducted after their two-vehicle convoy was stopped by eight armed men 15 miles southwest of Nyala in Sudan’s Darfur region. The three were part of a ten-person team engaged in educational assessments in local communities in the region.

Seven days after the kidnapping the two Sudanese men were released unharmed and without explanation. Wagner remained in captivity but was allowed to contact her family and Samaritan’s Purse staff on several occasions.

For the past three months, Samaritan’s Purse worked with U.S. and Sudanese government officials to secure the international aid worker’s release.

“We thank God that Flavia is safe and free.”

>> Full story with picture.

Editor’s Note – Praise God for answers to prayer for several other captives: Coptic Blogger Released (Arab Reform Bulletin), Blind Chinese Human Rights Activist Released from Prison (Assist News), and British Missionary Freed from Hard Labor in Gambian Prison (Christian Post).

TANZANIA: Evangelist Arrested

Source: Compass Direct, August 19, 2010

Christian university students on the Tanzanian island of Zanzibar, a predominantly Muslim area off the coast of East Africa, have been denied the right to worship, while on another part of the isle a Christian leader has been jailed.

Peter Masanja, a member of the Pentecostal Church in Zanzibar, had made part of his land available for church activities [and] would invite Christians to his house. Area Muslims interpreted it as [a] plan to establish another church there … The rumor angered local residents, and they vowed to prohibit any Christian activities, the sources said.

It was only after her husband failed to return home that Masanja’s wife knew that there was something amiss.

Pastors sought to meet with prison authorities about Masanja’s arrest, but officials informed them that the person in charge of the prison was away on official business, said Bishop Obeid Fabian, chairman of an association of congregations known as the Fraternal Churches.

“We are asking for prayers for him and his family, that he would be released,” Fabian said.

>> Full story with picture.

PAPUA NEW GUINEA: “I Want More Missionaries”

Source: New Tribes Missions, August 17, 2010

Patpatar believers in Papua New Guinea said goodbye to one of their members last week who died from a suspected cancerous growth on his neck. A few weeks ago, while Blais still had a voice strong enough to be heard, missionary Aaron Luse recorded his testimony.

“I want the Christians in America to know how I came to understand the gospel so more of them will be missionaries,” Blais said. “And I want my family to know my testimony so that they will also believe that Jesus died to pay for their sins so that they can be in his family like I am.”

At his last outing three weeks ago he made his way to the believers’ meeting.

“You wouldn’t have known that day that he was a man dying with little energy,” Aaron wrote. “He couldn’t stand still as he lifted his hands and sang praises to God for what Jesus had done for him.

“We are praising God for his testimony and that he is in Heaven now. We are able to reflect on the many things he helped us with at our house, his salvation, the Bible lessons he helped us write, his baptism, the land he gave for the literacy building, and many other things.

“Thank you to many of you who have been praying for him. Continue to pray for his family, who are mostly unsaved.”

>> Full story with picture.



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