Source: Open Doors, April 15, 2019
Three years ago, the church in Syria was all but dead. The vicious civil war and invasion by Islamic State militants threatened the very existence of Christianity. But our partners on the ground say the story is changing and continues to transform. God is resurrecting the church in Syria.
Still, becoming a Christian and expressing your faith in the Muslim nation (814,000 Christians out of 18 million people) is a risky choice. If or when their conversion is discovered, new believers could lose their family, friends, their job, even their life.
Recently, we were privileged to be there when a group of young adults from the Alliance Church in the city of Aleppo gathered to worship. Listen and sing along with them as they proclaim, “Christ the Lord is risen today.”
» Read full story and watch the video. You might also be interested in Open Doors’ booklet Rise Up: 40 Days of Prayer for the Middle East (free, but you have to sign up for their mailing list).
Source: INcontext Ministries, April 9, 2019
During the first three months of 2019, hundreds of lives were lost, and hundreds of homes were burned, raising new concerns about the truth behind the violence occurring between Muslim Fulani herdsmen and predominantly Christian Bachama farmers in Nigeria.
In addition to the seemingly countless numbers of people killed, it has been estimated that as many as 300,000 people (mostly Christian farmers) have been displaced from their homes by the violence.
[Some narratives] label the Muslim Fulani attacks against Christian farmers as a “genocide” perpetrated by radicalized Muslims looking to drive Christians from their homes. But even though this might be fully true, it is not the full truth.
» Read more.
» See also Seeking God on the Edge of the Sahara (Pioneers USA).
Source: WEA News, April 14, 2019
The Senior Leadership Team of the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) together with several regional Alliance and WEA network leaders attended the Opening Celebration of the AEA Plaza. The 10-story building in Nairobi, Kenya, that will serve as the new headquarters of the Association of Evangelicals in Africa is the fulfilment of a vision and the result of many years of labor. Bp Efraim Tendero, WEA Secretary General, was invited to share remarks at the ceremony and commended the great achievement, saying “Africa, your time has come!”
» Read full story and watch the five-minute video of the Secretary General’s remarks.
» Also read an article that states, “Africa is set to be the global center of Christianity for the next 50 years” (QuartzAfrica).
Source: Christian Headlines, March 21, 2019
“In the West, we often take the Bible for granted, but I recently saw a video … of underground Chinese seminary students receiving their first Bible,” wrote Jeff King, president of International Christian Concern. “When the boxes were opened, they all converged on the box to make sure they got their own copy. Each one then held their Bible, kissed it, and wept. They had finally received the book that gives life!”
The video is at least five years old and shows several dozen Christians in a building opening the box. International Christian Concern said none of the Christians are in danger because of its release. International Christian Concern posted the video on its website and on social media this month as part of its new campaign to raise money for Bibles to be sent to countries where Christianity is either outlawed or severely restricted.
Christians in the US said the video is convicting.
“If only we had the same zeal as these students,” Susan Elise Pearson wrote on International Christian Concern’s Facebook page.
Charity Meyer [added], “How beautiful. It made me realize how much I take reading and holding my Bible for granted and that my life is so easy.”
Satan “knows well that the Bible is the most dangerous book in the world,” King said.
“Everywhere it goes, it smuggles Jesus and his Spirit into the hearts of dead and dying humanity, and exposes Satan and his schemes,” King wrote. “The Bible is, in fact, spiritual fertilizer. Everywhere it goes, life springs up.”
» Read full story and watch the video (less than a minute long).
» See also a video about a small tribe in Northeast India receiving scripture lovingly translated into their language for the first time (Asia Harvest), and read North Korea: More than 100 Underground Churches Planted in 2018 (Cornerstone Ministries via God Reports).
Sources: various, April 2019
This was all over the news, but here are a few pieces we recommend:
» See also, from a ministry colleague, May God Bring Beauty from Ashes in France, which includes scripture and links to other sources (Jen Oshman).
By Shane Bennett
Here in my corner of the world, spring is gloriously breaking out all over the place. With it comes the proliferation of three things:
The number of requests you receive may correlate closely to how much money you have given in response to past requests. So, if you’re complaining about the stack of letters on your kitchen counter, realize it’s like a war veteran whining about the weight of the medals on his dress uniform. You did this to yourself. But now, what to do about it?
What if this year we all made a concerted effort to really help the short-termers who reach out to us? The Great Commandment (love God, love people) may apply even more than the Great Commission.
Here are five ways you might show love to mission trippers.
This is why you read Missions Catalyst, right? For surprising, unforeseen insights such as “give money to someone who’s raising support to go on a short-term mission trip.” Of course this is a way to love them!
But seriously, there’s only so much of this kind of love to go around, right? How do you choose how much and to whom? Consider these options. You’re smart; pick the criteria that seem best to you.
God alone knows how large a donation has to be before it outweighs heartfelt prayer, but I suspect it’s more money than I’ll see in my lifetime. You know prayer matters! You also know it’s easy to check the prayer box to say you’ll pray, and then forget. (Unless that’s just me?)
Make your prayer commitment meaningful by asking for regular prayer requests. Maybe daily ones for a trip that’s two weeks or less, weekly for a longer experience. With a little thought, most can come up with such a list prior to departure.
Some good buds recently participated in a huge, multi-day prayer gathering for unreached peoples and sent out this crazy great prayer guide in advance. Check it out. It might serve as an inspiration for you or someone you’re helping to go.
You could also show love by writing your prayers in a text or email or calling them and praying live. What about taking their prayer requests to an ongoing group you are part of?
I know, I know, you’re thinking, “What advice do I have about missions?” Or maybe, on the contrary, you don’t want to break your new year’s resolution to stop telling other people how to live their lives (again!) But you probably do have some words of wisdom. And can I tell you something? If you deliver them right, they will even bless your friend.
Your advice may be as simple as, “Read this article, Nine Ways to Get the Most Out of Your Mission Trip. You’ll benefit.”
You can also think for a moment of a key way God challenged you during a short-term trip and share that, or even a way the Lord has spoken to you in a sermon or your devotions recently.
You may want to provide a word of warning or counsel. You know: don’t fall in love with your team leader or local translator. Do consult with your team leader before going off with a friend or starting a multi-day fast. Give ongoing attention to how God is using your experience to transform you. Drink more water if your pee gets dark and smelly.
Over the course of my career I’ve gone from frantically throwing tokens in a Turkish pay phone for a once-a-summer, 90-second call, to now enjoying leisurely, multi-participant video chats at will! Technology allows for—to the point of almost demanding—instant global contact. This does cause some problems (“Stop chatting with your girlfriend back home and pay attention to this local person we flew across the ocean to hang out with!!”)
While keeping that in mind, consider reaching out and communicating with the person you helped send. A ping or two over the course of a week-long trip or weekly for a summer-length project wouldn’t be intrusive but could be super encouraging.
Simply let them know you’re thinking of them. Use the communique to tell them how you’re praying. Pat them on their virtual back and say, “You’re doing good, kid!”
Finally, one of the best ways you can show love is to follow up with the short-termer after they get back. I’m thinking a coffee-centric event in which two things happen:
Here are four easy-to-remember, worthwhile-to-answer, debrief questions:
Ask those questions and the follow-up ones that emerge from their answers and your short-term bud will feel the love.
Ministry people debate the value of short-term missions ad nauseam. You could probably argue both sides of the debate intelligently. But maybe, like me, you feel it’s often a waste of time. The goofballs are going to go! And some of them are not even goofballs. God will delight to use them. And they’re going to ask us to help them succeed.
This summer, let’s go above and beyond. Perhaps we’ll be honored to play a small part in a mighty kingdom harvest.
Greetings,
In addition to today’s news brief stories, I’d like to share three items you may find useful for engaging conversations.
Happy spring!
Pat
Algerians for Missions aims to send out 1,000 Algerian mission workers by 2025. The training center mentioned in this video opened in December 2017. See related story below about how God is using this ministry (Operation Mobilization).
Source: Operation Mobilization, March 22, 2019
“I’m so excited that God is working mightily in Algeria. You might have heard about the revival; you might have heard about people becoming Christians. …But when you are there for yourself and you see for yourself, then you begin to be reminded that God is so powerful,” Hee Tee said. In 1988, she and her husband, Youssef, OM Field Leader for Algeria, returned to his native country to pioneer church planting and discipleship ministry there.
Now, with churches filled and thousands of people coming to faith, the couple recognize a new need: believers in Algeria know about Jesus, but they don’t know about missions.
Algerians for Missions, Youssef and Hee Tee’s new ministry passion, aims to send out 1,000 Algerians for missions by 2025 within Algeria and beyond. By the end of 2018, Youssef reported that 130 Algerians had already been sent on short-term trips.
To facilitate this process, Youssef and Hee Tee advocated for, fundraised, and oversaw the building of a new missions training center: the Timothy Mission School. “That building, as far as I know, is the first in the whole Middle East and North Africa that recruits Muslim-background believers, trains them and sends them out for missions,” Youssef stated.
“Truly God has a special plan for the Algerian church, and he is putting all the puzzles together to accomplish his plan,” Hee Tee said.
» Speaking of Algeria and its gifts to the church, have you seen the new movie Augustine, Son of Her Tears? It looks like a good one!
Source: Christian Headlines, March 25, 2019
According to The Washington Examiner, the UK’s Home Office, which oversees immigration and passports, rejected a man’s application for asylum, saying the applicant’s claim that Christianity is “peaceful” is “inconsistent” with the Bible.
The Home Office said in its denial letter that books of the Bible such as Leviticus, Exodus, Matthew, and Revelation are “filled with imagery of revenge, destruction, death, and violence.”
“These examples are inconsistent with your claim that you converted to Christianity after discovering it is a ‘peaceful’ religion, as opposed to Islam which contains violence, rage, and revenge,” the letter says.
A legal expert told The Examiner that its likely that this decision is more anti-asylum than anti-Christian.
“The Home Office is notorious for coming up with any reason they can to refuse asylum and this looks like a particularly creative example, but not necessarily a systemic outbreak of anti-Christian sentiment in the department,” legal expert Conor James said.
In an opinion column for The Examiner, Becket Adams said there seems to be a “trend in the UK of government officials taking explicitly anti-Christian positions.”
» In other news related to global migration, readers might be interested in the story of an eight-year-old refugee who won the New York State chess championship—and evidently many people’s hearts.
