Malak is the father of one of the 21 martyrs killed by Islamic State militants on the Libyan coast four years ago. See related story below. Image: World Watch Monitor.
Author: MC
EGYPT: Commemorating the Deaths of 21 Coptic Martyrs
Source: Open Doors, February 15, 2019
“We only knew martyrdom from films, but martyrdom was reintroduced and it strengthened our faith because these people, these 21 martyrs, lived among us,” [says Malak, whose son was killed four years ago].
Few will forget the graphic images of the mass beheadings in a video released and paraded online around the world. February 15, mark[ed] the fourth anniversary of the deaths of 20 Coptic Christian men from Egypt and one Christian man from Ghana—all 21 martyrs for their faith.
In the days and weeks leading up to their deaths, ISIS captors reportedly tortured the men who had traveled the 1,200 miles to Libya to find work and support their families. Militants attempted to persuade them to deny Jesus in return for their lives. They all refused.
A new book, The 21: A Journey into the Land of Coptic Martyrs, by Martin Mosebach, includes interviews with families of the men who were killed.
Reportedly, what he found was “a completely different point of view of martyrdom… No lamentation, no mourning, no pity, but, instead, pride and happiness.”
» Read full story and watch a short video about a church built to honor the martyrs (World Watch Monitor).
» See also Why the Church in the Middle East Won’t Stay Hidden (Frontiers USA).
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES: Unprecedented Gathering of 130,000 Christians
Source: Barnabas Fund, February 5, 2019
An event held in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates on February 5 was attended by [more than] 130,000 Christians; a startling occurrence in a region where Christian worship is tightly restricted and Christian converts from Islam risk imprisonment for apostasy.
The UAE has one of the fastest growing Christian populations in the world, mainly due to the inward migration of Christian workers. The country has recently gained a new cathedral, 16 new churches and has around 700 Christian congregations.
The 48-hour papal visit to the UAE this month is unprecedented for the Arabian Peninsula and may signal a softening of the government towards the Christian community, estimated to number over one million.
» Full story (and links) also describe the current state of religious freedom in this country.
» See also what the Secretary General of the Evangelical Alliance, Efraim Tendero, shared at the Global Conference on Human Fraternity in Abu Dhabi or watch his two-minute video greeting (World Evangelical Alliance) or read some comments from missiologist Todd Johnson, who points out that good Christian-Muslim relations are critical for the future of our planet.
VENEZUELA: Crisis Facts and Frequently Asked Questions
Source: World Vision, February 2019
Venezuela is in crisis. The economy has collapsed and an uprising of political opposition to President Nicolas Maduro has put the country’s leadership in question. More than 3 million Venezuelans—5,500 per day in 2018—have left the country seeking food, work, and a better life.
Latin America’s largest migration in recent years is driven by hyperinflation, violence, and food and medicine shortages stemming from recent years of political turmoil. Once-eradicated diseases like cholera and malaria have returned, and children increasingly are dying of causes related to hunger and malnutrition.
An estimated more than 1.5 million people have settled in Colombia; nearly 700,000 in Peru; nearly 280,000 in Ecuador; and Brazil, Chile, and Argentina are each hosting 100,000 Venezuelans or more. About 290,000 Venezuelans have settled in the United States and more than 200,000 in Spain, according to the UN International Organization on Migration.
While the influx from Venezuela has caused tensions in host countries, it also has brought out their hospitable spirit. Still, needs among families in transition are great. And forecasts for 2019 show the number of displaced people may increase to more than 5 million. World Vision staff in neighboring countries are helping.
» Read full story. It’s quite informative. We’re also praying for the people of Haiti, a country recently in an uproar. See Haiti Braces for More Violence (CBC News video).
COLOMBIA: Another Pastor Killed, Church Terrified
Source: World Watch Monitor, February 14, 2019
A Colombian pastor was killed as he left his church in the northwest of the country, in a region that has been plagued by violence from armed groups, local sources told World Watch Monitor.
Pastor Leider Molina, 24, had just finished preaching in his church in Caucasia, Antioquia state in northwest Colombia, on Friday, February 9. As he stepped outside he was hit by five bullets. Molina was known as a passionate preacher and an active youth leader working for his church and city, 670km north of the capital Bogotá, the source said.
The Caucasia region has suffered an escalation in violence for the last four months, according to the source. Armed groups fight for control of drug trafficking routes and the ownership of illicit crops.
“Communist guerrillas, paramilitary groups, criminal gangs, and drug cartels all see the Church as an enemy to be eradicated because, thanks to the preaching and courageous action of leaders and pastors, many young people have renounced armed conflict and illegal activities,” the source said.
The church in the area is terrified, according to the source. “Some Christians have fled with their families, while others have decided to stay awaiting the government intervention. Church leaders, however, continue their work despite the death threats,” said the source.
» Full story also reports on two other pastors in the region killed last September.
USA: “Nacho Libre” Leads Muslims to Christ
Source: Pioneers USA, February 13, 2019
Immigrant ministry is never boring, especially when God uses interesting means.
Recently, a few of our interns were out in the city to look for spiritually receptive people in the Muslim neighborhood near us. Our goal is to see Muslims come to faith in Jesus by investing our time getting to know the Muslims in our city. The day seemed to be a bust, and they were tired. However, they decided to press on and go to dinner at an immigrant restaurant there in the area.
Just after stepping into the restaurant, they met Ali, their waiter. He was full of joy. After a bit of conversation and talk of spiritual matters, Ali leaned in with a surprise.
“I had no peace in Islam, but I found peace in Jesus.”
“I am no longer a Muslim,” he said in a low volume. “I’m a Christian. I had no peace in Islam, but I found peace in Jesus.”
Within a few days, we gathered together for breakfast with Ali and his two sons. We wanted to hear his story of coming to faith. And as we talked, his 16-year-old son noticed the movie Nacho Libre on my teammate’s shelf. It’s a slapstick comedy about a monastery cook who moonlights as a luchador, or Mexican wrestler, to supplement the funds used to feed the orphans in their care.
Ali and his sons were spiritually inspired by the movie, despite its silliness. They say that the movie was their first exposure to Jesus. In it, they saw a Christian caring for orphans, and that raised questions in their hearts about a God who cares for the marginalized and downtrodden. And God had prepared their hearts to hear a message of his love before seeing Nacho Libre.
» For another story about God working in mysterious ways, read about a ministry outreach in Ireland in Plowing with the Big Red Bus (Operation Mobilization).
⛔ Nine reasons you’re not going to make it ????
Traps and Tendencies that Keep Us from Global Ministry
Traps and Tendencies that Keep Us from Global MinistryBy Shane Bennett
Editor’s note: We hope this month’s Practical Mobilization article provides some insight for you. You may, however, find it more applicable to those you are currently encouraging to follow God to the nations, essentially the ones you’d like to mobilize. Can I invite you to reprint this, share it widely, and forward it to the friends it might help? Thank you. — Marti Wade
Introduction
It’s the pinnacle of Christian service, right, the role of the foreign missionary? The long-dress-wearing, once-a-week-hair-washing, pop-culture-unknowing, weird-food-loving, strange-language-speaking, stunningly holy, terminally single woman who has given her all for an odd set of people and a hopeless work:
Is it any wonder you don’t want to be that?
But let’s say you’ve outsmarted the stereotypes. You’ve seen through the gauze of hero-worshipped missionaries. You can actually picture yourself serving God where God is little known. And now you’ve set your heart and head in that direction. You’ve put your hand to the plow (1 Kings 19:21).
Good for you. But you want the bad news? There are a thousand little evils in your enemy’s bag of tricks all custom-designed to keep you from doing what God has laid out for you to do. Here are just nine of them. Be on your guard.
1. The bubba you’ll fall for
He’ll fulfill 24 of the 25 items on your list since puberty, but he won’t care about the world. This doesn’t make him a bad guy. In fact, it makes him sort of a project and, for that, all the more intriguing.
Or Bubba may be a Barbara, and when you’re standing next to her in church twelve years down the road, you can know the capacity of God to make plans B, C, and Z work but still wish you were worshipping in another culture.
2. The specter of your past
I don’t know what people have said and done to you, nor do I know what dumb stuff you’ve done as a result. But I hear the whispers of those things even now: “You’re damaged. You’ve slept with too many. You’ve messed up too much. Your contribution to things that matter may be small. Don’t get your hopes up!” If you only hang onto 18 of the 1300 words here, let them be these:
You did not deserve the damage that was dealt you,
and it does not have the last word.
3. The weight of your culture
Like air and gravity, your culture exerts tremendous and largely unnoticed influence. It is relentless and almost always wins. The “bet the rent” odds indicate you will grow up to love, spend, and vote like your parents. The more that tweaks you right now, the greater the likelihood it will happen.
Thirty-one years ago, I could fit everything I owned on the roof of my little yellow Ford Fiesta, shared with two friends and all their stuff for the summer. Three months ago, I had three houses, a mountain of debt and five kids. I’m not kidding about the culture deal.
4. The lure of trendy causes
To be fair, some causes are trendy due to their merit and many of us should rally to them. Matt Damon is right about water. Malala is right about educating girls, and Jesus was right about justice for the oppressed (Matthew 25:31-36). But offering the life of Jesus in cultures that so far have heard little about it has not often been trendy, nor is it now.
Causes are rarely single and compartmentalized, for sure. It’s a messy world. But this is true: If some of us do not focus on and work terribly hard to tell people who haven’t heard about the life Jesus offers, we will drift toward work that’s easier, more measurable—and honestly, trendier.
5. What you take in as entertainment
I have no right to judge your viewing habits and I would not float mine forward as a good standard. But let’s be honest, we live in a time when you can see pretty much anything you want at pretty much any time. Our dads had to hide their dirty magazines. You get email invitations to look at stuff and you simply need to angle your phone a bit.
This is not easy to deal with, but it certainly works against our spiritual health and maturity. At the shallow end, it makes us weak. At the deep end, it will leave you disqualified and sitting on a pile of manure you’ve shoveled together yourself.
6. The debt you’ve accrued
It may have seemed like a good idea or it may have looked like the only way, but now, oh my, what a mess. Again, I have no grounds to judge, but let me encourage you to question the common narrative, to consider who benefits from you buying that next shiny thing, to think critically about the messages of your culture, and to bring someone older and smarter than you into the loop of your money habits. (Yeah, people actually do that. It hurts like heck at first but makes you happy later.)
7. The need to please others
Right now, you may be doing any number of things simply because your parents wouldn’t want you to do them. That’s normal. But over time it’s also normal for us to want to live a life that makes sense to the people most important to us.
This is part of what makes society work and shouldn’t be written off too hastily. But it must be weighed against the tendency of God to ask for radical obedience and his track record of using ordinary dopes like us to accomplish extraordinary things, and often to the bewildered surprise—even disappointment—of friends and family.
8. The lazy longing for comfort
Life is hard work and most of us at some point give in to the desire to float downstream for a while with a cooler nestled in the tube tied to ours. But to find yourself doing effective work in North India, speaking Urdu like a champ, will require more than going around the bend of a lazy river.
You may be flush with your own power and energy, right now. That’s God’s gift. Run with it! But keep your head up and your eyes open. You wouldn’t be the first rock star to find yourself satisfied plinking a couple of tunes around a campfire.
9. A numbing love of tolerance
ISIS and the devils in Burma (and elsewhere) notwithstanding, tolerance is the tenor of global culture these days. It is the utopian theory du jure.
Honestly, it has a lot going for it. Jesus was certainly more tolerant than the religious leaders of his day. And people will like you better if you overlook their quirks and flaws. But what do you do when the wave of tolerance washes over you and you wonder if Jesus really is necessary for life?
Tolerance to the right degree will enliven your Christianity. Taken too far, it will neuter and then kill it. Well before getting to that point, you will have compromised enough to give up the crazy notion of raising your own salary and raising your kids in a killer hot place with little or no access to the internet.
Conclusion
If you’ve made it this far, can you do two things for me?
1. Respond
Take a second to share which of these would most likely knock you or your friends out of the race, or another thing if I failed to mention it. Comment on Facebook, reply on Twitter, or share your thoughts on our website.
2. Remember
Since this list is too grim for even my worst days, remember with me that God is more powerful than all of these, in all their various combinations, in all areas of our lives.
These nine reasons you’re not going to make it could be—should be—proven wrong. One day I’d love to have coffee with you right in the middle of what God calls you to and celebrate our respective victories.
God Provides a Husband | World News Briefs
The Berber Evangelistic Association works to give the 25 million Berbers of North Africa access to the Bible in their own languages. See related story below.
NORTH AFRICA: God Provides a Husband
Source: Partners International, January 30, 2019
D. is a woman who has been a convert for years but who do not attend church. She isn’t able to attend church or leave her home due to the traditions of Kabyle [Berber] society. We’ve been in contact with her for the last two years [by] phone. When she became the age that her society deems the age to get married, she made it clear to her family that she would never agree to marry a non-Christian.
Her mother began to question her. “Where will this Christian man come from? No one knows that you exist.”
D. became worried, but we prayed with her. We told her that beyond the walls and roof of her house, she has a Father in heaven who will provide for her because he loves her.
A few weeks after we prayed with her, a man within our church expressed to us his desire to get married. We told him about D. and how she wanted to get married to a Christian man. We then put them in contact with each other and prayed the Lord would bless them. The Lord allowed their relationship to progress and they recently celebrated their wedding in a church.
We give glory to our Lord who tells us that he will build his Church, and nothing will prevail against it.
» Read full story and learn about the Berber Evangelistic Association, an affiliate of Partners International.
» Marriage questions are tricky for new believers in contexts with few Christians, but also for Christian parents who are concerned about their kids’ choices. See When Christians Marry Muslims (Shane Bennett).
SOUTH ASIA: Solar-powered Evangelism
Source: OM News, January 2, 2019
A team in South Asia is using the sun to help share the good news with people who have never heard it. In this region, there are many isolated villages scattered about the mountains, disconnected from the rest of society. This results in a lack of education and illiteracy for many. OM has been sending teams with solar-powered audio Bibles to these villages. These audio Bibles are not just great for reaching those who cannot read, but also a great tool to help villagers share the gospel with others.
On a recent outreach to one village, a team met a woman who had received an audio Bible from another team a few months before. As she listened to the words of scripture, she understood that [Jesus] is “the way, the truth, and the life.” Eliza shared this good news with her husband and they both began to realize this news was too good to keep to themselves. They decided to share it with their whole village.
Pray that Eliza, her husband, and others who have received audio Bibles would not just hear the message of hope and see it as something good, but would truly accept the gift of salvation by putting their faith in Jesus and continue to share it with others.
» Let’s also lift up other believers who live in isolated areas. See Ten Ways to Pray for the Secret Church in Afghanistan (Open Doors).