Missions Catalyst 12.21.11 – World News Briefs

In This Issue: Finding Our Way Home

  • WORLD: Home for Christmas
  • NORTH KOREA: Pil-Soo Waits
  • UNITED ARAB EMIRATES: 11 Million Dollar Christmas Tree!
  • IRAQ: Christian Shops Burned
  • WORLD: A Happiness Index?

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!

Greetings!

Many of you will soon be heading home for family festivities. By the time you read this, Lord willing, I’ll be rolling into my daughter’s place in sunny Florida. I love to travel. Like many mobilizers, I wish I could visit the “field” more often (and not just virtually). I’m just not called to show the JESUS Film at 21,500 feet like this saint!

Many of you like virtual trips too, I notice, from the way you click on video links. Have I got a surprise for you! This panoramic view of Tahrir Square (I would have loved to be there) led me to 360 Cities. You gotta see this, full screen! I “stood” on a ghat in Varanasi, India (not to be confused with my favorite breakfast dish, ga’at).

Some creative folks bring the world to their Christmas celebrations. Thanks to Christian Reformed Missions for these hymns performed with Indonesian anklungs!

This year Christians will be deciding whether to stay home on Christmas morning or to go to church. Wherever you are Sunday morning, may you give Jesus your best.

Come Let Us Adore Him!

Pat

“I’ve never, as you so well know, had any taste for wealth or fashion. With these bare hands I took care of my own basic needs and those who worked with me. In everything I’ve done, I have demonstrated to you how necessary it is to work on behalf of the weak and not exploit them. You’ll not likely go wrong here if you keep remembering that our Master said, ‘You’re far happier giving than getting.'”  Acts 20:33-35, The Message

WORLD: Home for Christmas

Source: International Mission Board, December 15, 2011

Home. Even folks who never had a happy one long for it. No matter how far we may have wandered, we search for home like the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32).

How amazing, then, that Jesus left his home at Christmas, quietly entering this dark world. While we search for home, he searches for us.

Missionaries – or anyone who leaves the comforts of home and crosses cultures to seek wandering souls – follow in his footsteps. They give up the light and warmth of the familiar to share something eternal with those in search of God. They leave home to remind people where they came from.

In recent years, the impact of ongoing violence, political turmoil, and family breakdown has driven many young people in India’s Kashmir region to drugs in any form they can find them: over-the-counter medicines, glue, pills – or for the wealthier, LSD or heroin. More than a third of Kashmiris ages 15-35 have become drug addicts according to unofficial estimates. But a few Muslim-background followers of Christ are reminding them of what they really need.

“I used to drink bottles of codeine every night in order to go to sleep,” said a tall, clean-shaven student in the traditional woolen cloak worn to beat back Kashmiri winters. “I was causing so much pain to my family and living the life of an addict until I found Christ and was taken in by a group of believers.”

>> Read the full story for more about those who found their way home.

NORTH KOREA: Pil-Soo Waits

Source: Open Doors, December 7, 2011

Christmas just doesn’t exist in North Korea … or does it?

Pil-Soo picks up the phone and goes through the motions of dialing his family in North Korea but stops short before pressing the call button. Calling is too dangerous. It is Christmas morning and Pil-Soo reads from his Bible while eating a breakfast of cold noodles. In the Gospel according to Matthew, he reaches the murder of the children in Bethlehem, and he sees images of children’s corpses in his home city in North Korea, children who succumbed to malnutrition and disease.

Later he walks to church and greets other worshippers with a polite “Annyung-hae-seo” and sits alone in the back. When Pastor Choi enters, he nods to his North Korean friend. Except for Choi, nobody in this Chinese-Korean church knows anything about Pil-Soo’s background.

After the service Pil-Soo quickly exits, skipping the Christmas meal. Although he is fond of the Christians in this congregation, he cannot speak openly about his past. Since social contacts are risky, he instead will spend Christmas day alone, hoping that maybe his parents will call.

>> Full story. See also Kim Jong-Il Dead; NK Believers Face Uncertain Future.

United Arab Emirates: 11 Million Dollar Christmas Tree!

Source: OM Newsbytes, December 11, 2011

Last year the Emirates Palace Hotel in Abu Dhabi erected a 13-meter-high, heavily decorated Christmas tree covered with gold and semiprecious stones. Valued at over $11 million, it was declared the most valuable Christmas tree in history.

Even non-Christian nations may recognize Christmas, and it gives thousands of national and expatriate believers rich opportunities to explain their faith on a personal level. Let’s remember to pray they can introduce God’s Son-shine into dark places.

>> Full story.

>> Editor’s note: The hotel later regretted this show of opulence (Huffington Post). Watch the short video to see what US$11 million looks like. This prompts me to pray they will understand that God is more pleased with the loud, off-key song of a little girl or the ba-rum-ba-bum-bum of a Canadian drummer than he is with a jewel-decked tree!

IRAQ: Christian Shops Burned

Source: Compass Direct, December 6, 2011

Attacks against Christian Assyrian businesses in northern Iraq over the weekend, which local sources said were organized by a pro-Islamic political party, marked the first such destruction of Christian establishments in the Kurdish region.

The rampage threatens the frail security of Iraq’s dwindling Christian population, sources said.

After mullah Mala Ismail Osman Sindi’s sermon claiming there was moral corruption in massage parlors in the northern town of Zakho, a group of young men attacked and burned shops in the town, most of them Christian-owned. The businesses included liquor stores, hotels, a beauty salon, and a massage parlor, according to Ankawa News.

In retaliation for the Zakho attacks, members of the Kurdish ruling party, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) burned an Islamic Union office in Zakho. Over the weekend, KDP members ransacked and destroyed 10 Islamic Union offices in Dohuk province.

>> Full story.

>> With the withdrawal of US troops, many are wondering what the future holds. NPR correspondent Deborah Amos points to the refugees for the answer, suggesting Iraqi refugees are the best indicator of the country’s future. Give a listen to this nine-minute interview (AmericaAbroad), hear her talk about her book Eclipse of the Sunnis or read the transcript here (Carnegie Council).

WORLD: A Happiness Index?

Source: Pat Noble, December 16, 2011

Paul reports that Jesus said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35). In the Gospels, Jesus’ words about giving seem to refer to the blessings of heaven or the pressed-down, shaken-together kind.

“You’re far happier giving than getting,” as The Message renders it. Science Journal says “spending money on others promotes happiness” (findings also summarized in the Live Science article, Key to Happiness: Give Away Money).

I don’t need the research to confirm what I know to be true for me. But could this be true for cities or countries as well? We can easily find out who is giving the most but how do you measure happiness? Well, Aneki.com has somehow determined the four happiest countries as well as the three least happy. (My gut reaction is they’re wrong on all counts, but maybe they couldn’t get data on North Korea!)

None of the four happiest were anywhere near the top of the World Giving Index (see the full report PDF for great info graphics). It would be interesting to see how Aneki’s list of most generous countries compares with the World Giving Index’s list. Of course the giving is measured not only in dollars, but the dollars that are measured are of course expressed as a percentage of the GDP. Another way to rank a country’s giving might be to measure how the governments spend tax dollars. The Quakers did just that with US data (Friends Committee on National Legislation). This must certainly be an indicator of the people’s happiness!

I still have cities on my mind since our November 16 edition. It may be hard to measure the happiness of a country, but some bright techies figured out how to measure the mood of a city, and they did it in Berlin, one of the cities we prayed for in November! The mood of the city is displayed in real time.

Go ahead, make yourself happy! Are you giving away money this Christmas? I hope you’re giving to some missionaries who are loving an unreached people group.

May the Lord’s face shine upon you.

 

Pat Noble has been the “news sleuth” for Missions Catalyst since 2004. In addition to churning out the news, she is working to create a SWARM (Serving World A Regional Mobilizers) in Northern New York using the NorthernChristian.org website. You can connect with her at www.whatsoeverthings.com.


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