In This Issue: “This Led Me on a Journey … “
- SWEDEN: Friendship Sparks Network of Churches
- IRAQ: Christian Minority on Verge of Extinction
- CHINA: Eighty Million Bibles Printed
- THAILAND: Former Inmate Discovers God’s Provision
- BHUTAN: Christianity to Be Legalized?
- USA: Dare to Be a Daniel
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.
SWEDEN: Friendship Sparks Network of Churches
Source: Joel News, November 5, 2010
In 2002 Swedish church planter Charles Kridiotis had a dramatic burnout and as a consequence went into a season of prayer. “This led me on a journey where I founded my identity in Jesus more deeply, and started relearning from the Gospels and the Book of Acts about the Kingdom of God and the kind of church Jesus is building,” he says.
In 2004 the Lord connected him with four younger leaders. They started ministering together as a team. “All we did in the first year and a half was meet every second week to build relationship and pray. We learned to function in our gifting and encouraged each other from the Scriptures. We prayed a lot and experienced God’s presence, empowerment, and guidance.”
“In the beginning of 2009 the Lord spoke clearly to us to ‘give away what you have got.’ One of us received the prophetic picture of a dandelion. Dandelions are flowers that grow in the hardest of places, they spread very quickly when the wind blows, and they have medicinal properties. Dandelion became the name of the network/movement.”
Charles put up a short note on his Facebook wall, inviting all his connections involved in church planting, or thinking about starting new churches, to a meeting. Three new churches were started and ten new people turned to Christ, of which seven got baptized. One of the new “simple churches” reaches out in prisons and the criminal gang world.
“We are still in a fragile stage,” says Charles. “There is a sense that we cannot control what is happening. There is a lot of freedom and variation in the network, but we do have some foundational biblical principles and values that are the springboard for how we build and work together. We hope to see the birth of many new churches, and of course ultimately it is Jesus who is building his church. We firmly believe God is raising up a grassroots movement in Sweden and that we are just one part of this.”
>> Subscribe to Joel News. Read the full story posted on a related site (Simple Church).
IRAQ: Christian Minority on Verge of Extinction
Source: Christian Post, November 7, 2010
A Muslim leader is calling on the Iraqi government and U.S.-led forces to step up their efforts to protect the Christian minority in Iraq from extinction. Navaid Hamid, Secretary of the South Asian Council for Minorities (SACM) and a Muslim, said the deadly attack [November 1] on a church in Baghdad was a heinous crime that should be strongly condemned.
Around 58 people are believed to have died when al-Qaida-linked militants stormed the Our Lady of Salvation Church in Baghdad and opened fire on the congregation.
Hamid said Christians in Iraq were “paying a high price” for their faith and living in fear because of the “unprecedented” levels of violence against them. “It is a fact that they are on the verge of extinction in Iraq,” he said.
An estimated 400,000 Christians have left Iraq and sought asylum in the U.S. and Europe because of the persecution they face in Iraq. The biggest victims of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, Hamid said, were its minorities.
>> Full story.
See also: ‘Religiocide’ in Iraq Targets Christians (Mission Network News) and the website Christians of Iraq (especially its links to other news coverage). Another headline news story from the persecuted church comes to us from Pakistan; see Christian Woman Appeals Death Sentence for Blasphemy.
CHINA: Eighty Million Bibles Printed
Source: Christian Post, November 9, 2010
The only authorized Bible-printing company in China marked the printing of its eighty-millionth Bible on [November 8], the government’s official press agency announced.
Amity Printing Co., located in the eastern Chinese city of Nanjing, says it now prints 1 million copies of the Scriptures a month. Since its founding in 1988, the printing company has grown to be one of the largest Bible publishers in the world.
About a quarter of the Bibles printed in the world today are made in China, noted Xiaohong Xu, secretary-general of the Three-Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM), which oversees Protestant churches.
Christians that do not belong to [registered] churches and those that live in rural areas have a difficult time obtaining a Bible. Moreover, even with the rapid pace of Bible printing, tens of millions of Chinese Christians do not have a Bible because of shortage of supply or distribution restrictions.
>> Full story.
THAILAND: Former Inmate Discovers God’s Provision
Source: International Mission Board, November 4, 2010
Rather than looking forward to her freedom, Noon dreaded the day of her prison release. During the almost two years that she had served time in Thailand for drug possession, no one had visited her or had even written her a letter. She realized that when prison officials set her free, she would have no place to go and no home to go to.
“I was so worried about no one to pick me up,” Noon recalls. “I didn’t have a place to stay. But I prayed and prayed.” And again, God answered her prayer.
Not knowing that Noon’s day for release had been changed, Tiwan [a prison ministry volunteer and former prisoner herself] had rearranged her schedule that week and arrived at the prison on that very Tuesday.
“When she saw us, she cried,” Tiwan says. “When she came out she was so happy. I took her to shop for clothes, for everything that she didn’t have. This is what we do.”
“In the past I bowed down to the idols all the time. Every time I saw an idol, I bowed down,” Noon says. “But since becoming a Christian, I don’t bow down to idols because I know that God is a mighty God.”
BHUTAN: Christianity to Be Legalized?
Source: Charisma, November 8, 1010
For the first time in Bhutan’s history, the Buddhist nation’s government seems ready to grant much-awaited official recognition and accompanying rights to a minuscule Christian population that has remained largely underground.
The government’s move to legalize Christianity seems to have the consent of the present king, Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, who is respected by almost all people and communities in the country. In his early thirties, the king studied in universities in the U.S. and the U.K.
According to a source who requested anonymity, the government is likely to register only one Christian organization and would expect it to represent all Christians in Bhutan – which would call for Christian unity in the country.
>> Editor’s note: As you pray for Bhutan, please also lift up Burma, another largely Buddhist country where Christians are suffering persecution. Learn more and download a 30-day prayer guide from Vision for Burma.
USA: Dare to Be a Daniel
Source: ASSIST News Service, September 14, 2010
The youth evangelism ministry Dare to Be a Daniel has launched a new Web resource for Christian students who want to learn how to share their faith. The ministry’s online training site now offers greater interactivity – allowing students to “friend” each other, as with Facebook – and a customizable user experience. “We saw the need to take our site to the next level,” said Chad Miller, director of Dare to Be a Daniel. “The features added to the site make it a fantastic place for youth to live in community and encourage each other in the vital work of sharing Jesus Christ with their friends.”
In addition to its sleek new design and more user-friendly interface, the site still serves as a valuable information resource for students. It includes training for sharing one’s faith, a host of engaging videos, and a range of articles to help students understand and live out their Christian faith. Students can also submit their own spiritual questions.
More than 17,000 youth in all 50 U.S. states have gone through the training.
>> Full story with pictures. Dare to Be a Daniel is a ministry of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, which describes it further here.
Wow, wonderful weblog structure!
How long have you been running a blog for? you make running
a blog look easy.
I am partnering with DOVE Europe, a apostolic
movement with has churches worldwide but also in Europe.