In This Issue: How God is using one grandmother
- INDIA: Grandma Leaves for the Mission Field
- KUWAIT: Member of Royal Family Goes Public with Faith
- SYRIA: Film on Life of Paul Shown at Local College
- LAOS: Officials Arrest Eight Christians
- WORLD: Human Trafficking
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!
INDIA: Grandma Leaves for the Mission Field
Source: Baptist Press News, January 11, 2012
A white-haired American woman sits in the corner seat of a train in India as it rattles past skyscrapers and slums in one of the nation’s massive cities. Kathleen Jones (name changed) chats with a street boy hawking nail polish, a friendship she has acquired during her frequent train rides.
At the end of the line, Jones, 69, a retired schoolteacher, weaves through the throngs of people in the station and out into the sunlight. She keeps a steady pace along trash-covered sidewalks and across busy streets in Mumbai until she reaches her destination: a small dilapidated building, partially obscured from the street – a brothel.
A woman runs out to greet Jones and, taking her arm, pulls her excitedly toward the others waiting in the shelter of the building’s overhang. Women crowd eagerly around Jones as she distributes eggs for their lunch and gives them each a smile and welcoming hug.
Jones comes to this brothel five days a week to share Christ’s love with the women working here. She has been working in the red light districts of India for more than three years. With four children, 12 grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren at home in the United States, coming to India was not an easy decision, but Jones says she knew it was what God called her to do.
>> Full story with pictures. See also a three-minute video about this ministry.
>> Praise God for the rescue of 13 girls in Mumbai (ASSIST News).
KUWAIT: Member of Royal Family Goes Public with Faith
Source: ASSIST News, January 11, 2012
A Kuwaiti royal prince has become a believer in Jesus Christ and says that if he is killed because of an audio recording he made about his decision, he believes he will meet Christ face-to-face.
According to Mohabat News, the Iranian Christian news agency Al-haqiqa, a Christian Arabic satellite TV station which broadcasts Christian programs, played an audio file which it attributed to a Kuwaiti prince called “Abdollah Al-sabah.”
The TV channel claimed that Prince Abdollah Al-sabah comes from a Kuwaiti royal family which currently governs the country. The channel also said that the prince recently denounced his Islamic faith and became a Christian.
The voice in the audio file introduced himself as Abdollah Al-sabah and stated, “First of all, I totally agree with the distribution of this audio file and I now declare that if they kill me because of this audio file, then I’ll go into the presence of Jesus Christ and be with him for all eternity.”
>> Full story.
>> Readers might also be interested in a story about how God Is Building His Church in Afghanistan (Open Doors).
SYRIA: Film on Life of Paul Shown at Local College
Source: OM News and Information, January 8, 2012
As the situation in Syria remains unstable, an [OM] team can see God working in people’s hearts. The team recently showed the film “Damascus,” the story of Paul’s life, in the local technical college.
After receiving permission from the authorities, they welcomed about 200 young people to watch the film. The guard handed them the key and left, which allowed the group more freedom. Most visitors took a New Testament after the film and many stayed afterward to ask questions about the gospel.
In this area there are no Christians, but many are looking for answers. Please pray for open doors and hearts. The workers also need wisdom, as nearly every day people ask them for help. Poverty in the country is spreading and medical treatment has become unaffordable for many. Please pray that in these desperate situations, the people of Syria will cry out to God. Pray that those seeking truth will find him.
>> Also read Students Recount Revolution Stories (Al Arabiya) and listen to an interview with Gary Burge on Iraqi refugees in Syria (Compassion Radio)
LAOS: Officials Arrest Eight Christians
Source: Compass Direct, December 19, 2012
Police traveled to Boukham village in Laos’ Savannakhet Province to meet with officials about the arrest of eight Christian leaders who had gathered some 200 church members for a Christmas celebration, an advocacy group reported today.
Four of the detainees were placed in handcuffs and wooden stocks, while the other four were left unrestrained. Family members were allowed to bring blankets and other provisions to the detainees but were given no explanation for their arrest, according to Human Rights Watch for Lao Religious Freedom (HRWLRF).
“While they were held without formal charges, it is quite clear that they were arrested for gathering people for worship,” an HRWLRF spokesman told Compass.
The village chief told the detainees that they had violated hiit, or the traditional spirit cult of the village, by gathering for a Christian worship service. He then ordered them not to practice Christianity in Boukham for fear that the spirits would be offended, HRWLRF reported.
Under hiit, residents must worship and placate the spirits of the village to ensure the fertility of their fields and to ensure ongoing safety and prosperity for their families.
>> Full story. See also Give Up Your Faith or Face Eviction.
>> For background on Laos, check out Reuters’ FactBox.
WORLD: Human Trafficking
Source: Pat Noble, January 2012
January 11 was National Human Trafficking Awareness Day in the US and brought an abundance of resources on the topic.
For information on this problem in the US, read Not in My Town: Exposing and Ending Human Trafficking and Modern-day Slavery.
Sometimes people are even trafficked for organs. Refugees, like these Eritreans, are at great risk of this kind of trafficking (warning: EriTube11’s nine-minute video is very graphic).
January is also a strategic time to pray against the temple prostitution in India. Every Child reports: “Each January, nearly half a million people visit the small town of Saundatti for a jatre, or festival, to be blessed by Yellamma, the Hindu goddess of prosperity. Devadasis consider Yellamma as their god.”
[The Devadasi practice] of temple prostitution has existed more than 5,000 years, says David Dass, executive director of the India Gospel League. In the state of Karnataka where he and his wife live, starving families dedicate hundreds of girls each year to the goddess Yellamma. The children are forced to begin a life of prostitution at age 11 or 12. Read Babies “Dedicated” to Temple Prostitution (BP News).
>> Watch this 11-minute video about the Devadasi history and why families still choose this for their daughters (The Guardian).
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.