Category: News Briefs

Source: World Watch Monitor, January 25, 2019

Jakarta’s former governor, known widely and simply as “Ahok,” walked out of prison January 24 after serving nearly two years for blasphemy.

He was granted early release, four months ahead of schedule, for good behavior. Outside prison in West-Java he was greeted by his eldest son and Nicholas and a group of supporters.

In a letter to his supporters last week, the Chinese Christian, whose real name is Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, asked people not to come to prison to welcome him, out of concern “for the common good” and “for the sake of public order,” according to the Catholic news service UCAN.

“Ahok will finally be out of prison and reunited with his family, but he should never have been imprisoned in the first place,” Elaine Pearson of Human Rights Watch (HRW) said earlier this week. “Ahok’s unjust conviction is a reminder that minorities in Indonesia are at risk so long as the abusive blasphemy law remains in place.”

Since 1968 more than 150 people have been imprisoned and at least six people were convicted under this law in 2018 alone, said the organization.

» See full story with links to related news.

» Also read Tides Turn against Indonesian Christians, which reports a shift in interreligious relations these last two years (Mission Network News).

Source: Barnabas Fund, February 4, 2019

Work began on January 26 to build a new church at New Alamein, one of 15 of Egypt’s new “fourth generation” cities on the country’s north coast. Church leaders thanked President al-Sisi for allocating the land, which seems in line with his promise that new towns should include churches as well as mosques.

New Alamein, about 110 km [or 68 miles] west of Alexandria, is designed to accommodate three million people and be a gateway between North Africa and southern Europe.

The president attended the opening of the cathedral in Egypt’s planned new administrative capital. At the Christmas service on January 6 (when Orthodox Christians celebrate Christmas Eve) he expressed his support for Christians, [saying,] “You are our family, you are from us, we are one and no one will divide us.”

Al-Sisi’s government has also continued the process of legalizing church buildings with 508 applications approved in 2018. However, progress is slow and more than 3,000 churches that have applied for approval since 2017 are still waiting to be registered.

» Read full story and see a more general article about the fourth-generation cities.

» See also Is Sisi Good for Egypt’s Christians? (Wall Street Journal).

 

Once again it’s time for the world’s largest human gathering, the Kumbh Mela. See related story below. Image from Allahabad, 2001 (source).

1. KYRGYZSTAN: Project Toktogul
2. INDIA: Hindus and the River Ganges
3. WORLD: Five Tech Trends That Will Impact Mission
4. AFRICA: Putting Jesus’ Teachings into Practice
5. WORLD: High Levels of Persecution in 73 Countries

Source: Far East Broadcasting Company, January 3, 2019

On December 14, FEBC Kyrgyzstan received an FM frequency for the station they plan to launch in Naryn, a city in the central part of the country. Less than a week later, Janysh, director of FEBC Kyrgyzstan, abandoned his vehicle due to heavy snow and rode for four hours on horseback in -10-degree weather to the top of a mountain to visit the transmitter site and begin initial planning. The station is expected to be up and running by late spring or early summer once the snows have melted.

In a video sent from Janysh during his snowy trek, he explains how part of the first stages of planning involves determining whether FEBC should rent or build their own transmitter. As the staff continues to make plans for the new station, lots of funding and prayers are needed to help the station meets its launch-date goals.

» Read full story or jump to the Project Toktogul page and watch the 15-minute video, which I highly recommend. Maybe it really speaks to me because I am sitting in a deep freeze here in Northern New York!

» Readers might also be interested in a recent edition of the Global Missions Podcast exploring the question How Is God at Work in Central Asia?

Source: International Mission Board, January 4, 2019

The Ganges River begins in the Himalayan mountain range in northeast India, near the border of China. It meanders southeast across the plains of northern India, delivering offshoots of its holy water via new rivers as it makes its way toward the Bay of Bengal on the coast of Bangladesh.

All along, as far back as history has recorded, people have asked more from the Ganges than fish, hydration, and a good bath. As early as one thousand years before Christ, people who would eventually be known as Hindus viewed the Ganges as a birthplace of the divine. It’s believed to be a crack in our physical world where the supernatural can slip through and immerse us mortals in its wonders.

Hindus have submitted various creation narratives about how the Ganges River came into existence. [Some] hold that the river not only sprung from a god but is itself a goddess. Rajiv Malik, a writer for Hinduism Today, summarized this view by writing, “Ganga is a living Goddess who can be felt in one’s life and can have a positive and profound impact every time one has her divine [viewing].” People with Malik’s view will refer to the river as Mother Ganga.

Despite the varied opinions, the cornerstone of most Hindu beliefs about the Ganges River is that because of its divine origin, it offers divine opportunity. For that reason, people travel for days and stay weeks along the riverbanks, hoping to siphon a bit of blessing and peace.

» Read full story.

» Let’s pray for the up to 150 million people who will participate in this year’s Kumbh Mela pilgrimage. See Why Kumbh Mela in Prayagraj Is Festival to End All Festivals or see it in dramatic pictures (The Guardian). See also In a Muslim-Majority Country, a Hindu Goddess Lives on (National Geographic) or watch the Prayercast video on praying for Hindus.

Source: International Mission Board, January 14, 2019

In 1949, Father Roberto Busa approached Thomas J. Watson, the founder of IBM, with a simple proposal: let’s bring words to your computer! Busa recognized God’s ultimate creativity and dominion over all creation. And he challenged Watson to take the computer beyond pure computational power and make it work with text.

Busa was motivated by a desire to digitize the works of Thomas Aquinas so they could be accessible to anyone with a computer, but the result was that digital text revolutionized communication. Busa once said, “Since man is a child of God and technology is a child of man, I think that God regards technology the way a grandfather regards his grandchild.”

I wonder what God thinks of his technological grandchildren today? Is he pleased with the way we have used our God-enabled creativity to create the tech that is impacting this world?

Let’s take a quick tour of five technology-enabled trends and explore their implications for Christian mission.

1. Uberization
2. Blockchain
3. Surveillance
4. Artificial intelligence
5. Internet of things

» Read full story and consider each trend’s implications. I learned a lot!

Source: Frontiers USA, January 21, 2019

“No, don’t beat the thieves,” Sheikh Idriss said into the phone as I sat in his simple home on the edge of the village. “And don’t arrest them, either. Let them go and tell them to come to the civil court tomorrow morning.”

The thieves were two poor women. They’d been caught stealing corn from the sheikh’s fields. The normal response was to punish them with a beating.

For several weeks, Idriss and I had been studying the Bible together. Most recently, we’d read about forgiveness, and today, Idriss saw a chance to put Jesus’ teachings into practice.

“Jesus says to forgive them,” Idriss said to me after finishing the phone call. “I want to take these things we’re studying in the Word and teach them to my people.”

Idriss leads a Muslim tribe of almost 100,000 people. As a civil judge, he used to rule his court with an iron fist. Idriss still gives out firm judgments—but now he delivers them with kindness and mercy. When men and women come to him for counsel, he often presents them with a gift: a portion of God’s Word.

» Full story reports that a ministry team has shared Jesus with dozens of sheikhs in this region. Some have clearly declared Jesus their Savior.

» See also another story from Africa, this one from Togo, Gospel Workers Push through Hardship (Christian Aid Mission).

Source: World Watch Monitor, January 16, 2019

In its latest annual survey of 150 countries monitoring how difficult it is to live as a Christian, the 2019 World Watch List showed extreme, very high, or high levels of persecution [in 73 countries]. A year earlier, it was 58 countries.

[Open Doors] reports that new laws in China and Vietnam seek to control all expression of religion. It says that in China, it’s the worst religious repression there’s been in more than a decade; some even say since the Cultural Revolution ended in 1976.

In the north and Middle Belt of Nigeria, meanwhile, at least 3,700 Christians were killed for their faith—almost double the number of a year ago (an estimated 2,000)—with villages completely abandoned by Christians forced to flee, as their armed attackers then move in to settle, with impunity.

Nationalistic governments such as India and Myanmar continue to deny freedom of religion for their sizeable Christian minorities, sending the very clear message that to be Indian, one must be Hindu, or to be Burmese one must embrace Buddhism. Extreme persecution also comes at the hands of radical Islamic militias.

In Mexico and Colombia, persecution mainly comes when church leaders challenge corruption and cartels. But, globally, it also comes from family and friends, from fellow-villagers and work colleagues, from community councils and local government officials and from police and legal systems. Christian women and girls face more persecution pressure in family and social spheres; men and boys are more likely to experience the brunt of pressure from the authorities or militias.

» Read full story and see the 2019 World Watch List Report.

In this Issue: News from the Middle East, North Korea, and More

1. USA: The Go Documentary
2. TURKEY: In This City
3. NORTH KOREA: One of Five Countries Where Christmas Is a Crime
4. WORLD: Data on Population, Poverty, and Faith
5. WORLD: The Biggest News Stories of 2018

Source: Grace Church, 2018

“When it comes to missions, the world in severely unbalanced: only 2.4% of all missionaries go to the unreached; there is only one missionary for every 278,431 unreached peoples; and out of every dollar Christians give to missions, a little more than a penny goes to the unreached. These statistics broke our hearts. We wondered what we could do about it. After a long journey of discovery, we realized what the true issue was: No one knew about the problem. And if no one knows, how can anyone care?”

Two guys, one a filmmaker who serves as his church’s communication director, the other the church’s director of outreach and mobilization, led efforts to change this at their Kansas church and beyond. They and a team of creatives ended up making the Go Documentary. It explains the reality of unreached peoples and their need for Bible translation and other ministries and takes viewers on a journey to Nepal for a first-hand look.

The documentary premiered at their church in September. “We were so encouraged to see people take to heart the message of the film. Sixty families signed up to translate Bible verses into a rare Nepalese dialect.”

They’ve now entered it in multiple film festivals and are eager to see how God will use it. Well done!

» Watch the Go Documentary (37 minutes) and see the related website.

» Another story from the USA reports on the launch of a movement to prayerwalk every college and university campus in the nation by January 2020 (Intervarsity, via Mission Network News).