In This Issue: Pray for Sudan, World AIDS Day, Persian Couple’s Story
- SUDAN: A Season for Prayer
- IRAN: Persian Couple’s Amazing Story
- GHANA: Damascus Road Experience for Hiplife Musician
- BURMA: Church Closed When Pastor Refuses to Wear T-shirt
- LAOS: Village Expels Christian Families
- INTERNATIONAL: December 1 Is World AIDS Day
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.
Greetings!
Before we get into the headlines, please join me in welcoming two dozen new subscribers! They signed up through our friend John McVay – editor of Ask a Missionary – at the recent Global Missions Health Conference in Louisville, Kentucky.
A big thanks to John and to all who help us get the word out about Missions Catalyst.
And speaking of conferences, check out our Events Calendar for good things planned around the world throughout 2011.
Blessings,
Marti Smith | publisher and managing editor
SUDAN: A Season for Prayer
Source: World Evangelical Alliance, November 2010
Sudan is [less than] two months away from a referendum that could propel the country back into civil war.
A fragile peace, signed into being five years ago under the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, is on the brink of unraveling, with preparations for the vote on January 9 still behind schedule and foreign governments slow to fulfill promises of assistance.
Churches in Sudan have shouldered a large part of the burden in readying people for the referendum and pushing it high on the agenda of the international community, but the tangible support of the global body of Christ would be a great comfort to them in this uncertain time.
Prayer Requests:
- Pray for effective preparations for the referendum on southern independence.
- Pray for agreement on the North-South border and that it be accurately and effectively demarcated.
- Pray for a reduction in violence.
- Pray for the provision of health care to the wounded and traumatized and for effective distribution of food and medicine to all.
- Pray for wisdom for NGOs (charities) as staff make decisions about when to leave and return.
- Pray for the rapid development of infrastructure across the South and other disadvantaged areas.
- Pray for equitable use of oil revenues and natural resources.
- Pray for efforts to mediate outstanding North-South issues.
- Pray for wisdom across the international community in how to respond should a disputed outcome occur.
- Praise God for the growth of the Church in Sudan. Pray that such growth continues in all parts of the country.
>> Full story. Prayer requests (slightly adapted) from a list in the 18-page report, Implications for the Church in Sudan of the Referendum on Independence for the South (Middle East Concern).
>> See also Announcing a Season of Prayer for Sudan (WEA).
IRAN: Persian Couple’s Amazing Story
Source: Partners International, November 10, 2010
Having grown up in a Muslim family, [the young woman’s] conversion to Christianity was a decision full of risks and potential dangers, but she loved Jesus and wanted to be his child.
Her new-found faith faced a severe test when her parents arranged for her to marry into a fundamentalist family. The man who was to be her husband had brothers in the Revolutionary Guard and he prayed religiously five times a day. She wanted to honor her parents so she didn’t protest, but she was secretly horrified.
One day she told her husband about her “Uncle” Tony and that she wanted to go visit him. Tony talked to the husband on the phone and personally invited him to come with her. The husband was unaware that his wife was a Christian and that she was traveling to join Tony and many others for a Christian conference.
Tony met him the first day and simply talked about general things. The next day Tony revealed that he was leading a Christian meeting. The man was shocked, but, to Tony’s surprise, quickly asked how he could attend.
The husband attended all of the seven-day conference. On the last day, Tony opened his hotel door to find the man, a black belt in tae kwon do, standing there waiting for him …
>> Full story.
>> See also: Iran’s Supreme Leader Openly Warns against House Church Movement (Present Truth Ministries).
GHANA: Damascus Road Experience for Hiplife Musician
Source: ASSIST News Service, November 8, 2010
“The past three weeks have been revealing for ‘rap heavyweight champion’ Lord Kenya, who says that he has been ‘arrested’ by the Holy Spirit and is now a true born-again Christian,” the Graphic Showbiz reports.
Still in awe, Lord Kenya told the Accra-based, state-owned newspaper that he was hit by lightning and fell flat when he went to get his regular supply of [marijuana] after seeing off a friend.
“I tried getting up, but I couldn’t, so I went on my knees in a prayerful pose and started crying like a baby. I refused to take my usual supply of ‘wee’ (marijuna) that night and headed home, but I was ‘arrested’ by the Holy Spirit and ended up in a church in my neighborhood where I was warmly received and anointed.”
He has since put the world behind him, as he is now enjoying an amazing relationship with God. “Now I cannot stand the scent of alcohol or ‘wee,’ and I am trying hard to convince those I used to smoke with to quit the habit.”
The hiplife celebrity has testified that his life has never been the same since that night and pledges to spend the rest of his life in the house of the Lord, as well as to become “very prayerful.”
>> Full story with picture. Note: Hiplife, a Ghanaian musical style which fuses hip hop and highlife, is gaining popularity throughout West Africa and abroad.
BURMA: Church Closed When Pastor Refuses to Wear T-shirt
Source: The Christian Post, November 19, 2010
Officials in Mergui Region ordered a Baptist church to cease holding worship services after the pastor refused to wear an election campaign T-shirt supporting the military government’s Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP).
The election commission summoned 47-year-old Pastor Mang Tling two days after the election and ordered him to stop holding services and to discontinue the church nursery program.
Village headman U Than Chaung had given the pastor a campaign T-shirt to wear in support of the USDP. When he refused to wear it, the headman filed a report with local authorities accusing him of persuading Christians to vote in favor of an opposing party, the National Unity Party (NUP).
Under Burmese law, religious leaders can be penalized for “engaging in politics,” giving the pastor a reason to decline the T-shirt.
>> Full story.
>> See how Burma’s children are responding to God’s love in this short video clip (Vision Beyond Borders).
LAOS: Village Expels Christian Families
Source: Compass Direct, November 9, 2010
Officials in Katin village in southern Laos have ordered six more Christian families to renounce their faith or face expulsion in early January, advocacy group Human Rights Watch for Lao Religious Freedom (HRWLRF) reported [November 9].
The Katin chief and the village religious affairs officer, along with local security forces, recently approached the six families with the threat after having expelled 11 Christian families (48 people) at gunpoint last January. The six families now under threat had become Christians since the January expulsion.
The eviction last January followed months of threats and harassment, including the confiscation of livestock and other property; the detention of 80 men, women, and children in a school compound; and the death by asphyxiation of a Christian villager.
Immediately after the expulsion, two more families in Katin village became Christians despite the obvious risk to their personal safety, according to HRWLRF. The village chief allowed them to remain in Katin but warned all villagers that their own homes would be “torn down” if they made contact with the expelled Christians.
>> Full story.
INTERNATIONAL: December 1 Is World AIDS Day
Source: Mission Network News, November 30, 2010
“World AIDS Day is a global celebration where we look back on all that’s been accomplished for those that are infected and affected by HIV, as well as look forward to what more we need to do,” explains Kim Buttonow with Food for the Hungry.
On December 1, 2010, millions around the globe will join in celebration, observation, and future planning. People will celebrate advances in technology, including some that have helped refine knowledge about mother-to-child transmission of AIDS, resulting in fewer and fewer infants being born with the disease.
Others will celebrate life and the grace God has given many who live with HIV. In Ethiopia, for instance, Food for the Hungry will host a race that will be run by AIDS-infected individuals. In a culture where a heavy stigma is attached to the disease, watching hundreds run will help to debunk stereotypes and show that those with the disease are still living, breathing humans made in the image of God.
>> Full story with prayer points. More information on World AIDS Day observances available at Food for the Hungry.
