Missions Catalyst News Briefs 12.06.17
- PAPUA NEW GUINEA: Embers Fanned into Flame
- NIGERIA: Missionary Shot after Singing Amazing Grace
- EGYPT: 21 Churches Receive Long-Delayed Approval to Rebuild
- UZBEKISTAN: Silk Road Secrets
- USA: Dinner Churches Spring Up Nationwide
Greetings!
I LOVE Christmas hymns. For one glorious season, truth is in the air! Hymns are full of good stuff, theologically speaking. Check out my new favorite, When Love Crossed Over by Paul and Rita Baloche.
Paul told King Agrippa that Jesus told him to “cross over” to the Gentiles so that they “may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me” (Acts 26:18).
Do you suppose that some of these dark places would benefit from the simple, true theology of the hymns? I believe the powers of darkness hate and fear such hymns, as the Nigeria story below suggests.
Speaking of Nigeria, have you heard of the late, great Nigerian hymn writer Ikoli Harcourt Whyte? He wrote over 200 Igbo hymns with his leprosy-riddled hands. Some say that the Queen of England also became aware of his music and once requested the BBC to play his hymns on Christmas Day. Read Letter from Africa: The Nigerian Who Composed Hymns from a Leprosy Colony (BBC, with thanks to Justin Long for this find).
Rejoicing with hymns,
Pat