MC – Page 42 – Missions Catalyst

USA: One High School Student Leads 895 to Christ

Source: God Reports, August 13, 2024

Abraham Aguilar was a backslidden pothead when he attended the Potter’s House Church in Palmdale, California, and felt God impress on his heart: It’s either now or never.

As a result of Abraham’s simple decision to receive Jesus at the altar, he has turned into an evangelizing machine as a senior at Palmdale High School, and 895 students gave their lives to the Lord in 2023-24.

“I thought my senior year was going to be just another year of school,” [he said]. But God had other plans.

“I just started witnessing to students, teachers and janitors,” he reports. “People were very open. During the lunch line, I would open my mouth and start boldly proclaiming God’s words.”

First, a group of 12 was saved, and they launched a Bible study on campus. By the end of the semester, 275 teens had prayed to receive the Lord. Their high attendance was 73 at the lunch Bible study. They had to move from a classroom to the gym.

In the second semester, Abraham got even bolder. He preached in the school square, and 70 students responded. By the year’s end, 895 high schoolers gave their lives to Christ.

Read the full story.

News Briefs: Strange Stories & Surprising Reversals

In this issue:

Read or share the email edition.

Editor’s Note: Surprising Stories and Strange Reversals

Greetings,

Sometimes a theme or a common thread ties our news briefs together. This edition is a bit different, but I did notice some strange reversals and surprising stories popping up in many sources.

Larger-than-life figures have fallen in Bangladesh. Scroll through these images (The Guardian) and consider their significance when you read about South Asia, the heart of the unreached world (INcontext).

Another battle is taking place on Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, where people are fighting over a statue of Poseidon, the Greek god of the sea, and whether that god has a right to the realm of Chaac, the Mayan god of rain (Religion News Service).

Join me in praying for more to turn their eyes to the one who controls not just the seas, rain, or rivers but all the cosmos. Habakkuk wrote of him: “For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.”

Amen and maranatha!

Pat

Nigeria: Christian Remained in Captivity to Aid Elderly Muslim Woman

Source: Christian Daily, July 29, 2024

A kidnapped Christian in Nigeria declined to be released so he could continue aiding a Muslim captive in her 80s, [said] the elderly woman in a social media video.

The kidnapped woman, Hauwa Adamu Kahutu, is the mother of a well-known singer in Nigeria, Dauda Adamu Kahutu, also known as Rarara. She and the abducted Christian, Bala Timothy, were eventually released on July 17.

“In spite of being a Christian, he helped me in doing almost everything,” Hauwa Kahutu says in a video posted on Facebook by group of Hausa music artists associated with her son. “He brought water for me to do ablution whenever it was time for me to say my Islamic prayers. My eyes were covered and it was difficult for me to pray, but Bala Timothy would assist me during my prayers and other tasks.”

“Bala Timothy, I thank you for being kind to me and helping me survive our ordeal in the hands of our captors,” she says, with her singer son beside her and Bala Timothy shown in a separate screen. “God bless you!”

See the full story with photo.

On another note, see also Nigerians Vow Days of Rage as Hardships Mount (BBC).

Taiwan: Widowed Missionary Returns to the Field as a Single Mom

Source: International Mission Board, July 18, 2024

Every morning when she opens her eyes, Erica Patrick thanks God for life and breath and another day to serve him.

Before her feet hit the floor, she asks him to take control of her day—to fill it with the good works he has ordained for her and to remove the plans that are not from him.

Erica’s daily expression of her dependence on God and a high view of his sovereignty has been cultivated amid seasons of deep grief and loss, mere months apart.

Erica was called to international missions before she met her husband, David, who also wanted to pursue ministry overseas. Together, they served in East Asia and raised their family overseas for almost 16 years before David died unexpectedly in 2020 at age 41.

Erica now serves in Taiwan with her three children. She has many roles—serving alongside the local church, teaching English as a Second Language classes, sharing the gospel, discipling women in leadership and being a mother.

“Yes, I’m a single parent on the field,” Erica said, “but I don’t feel like that’s a disability. It’s the lot the Lord gave us and what he has asked us to walk in for his glory.”

Read the full story to hear how she has learned to rely on the sovereignty of God in hard times.

Also from the IMB, read about Baptists partnering to send Ukrainian missionaries to Brazil.

Japan: Keys to Revival in a Resistant Nation

Source: God Reports, July 31, 2024

Businesswoman Akane Fujimoto had all the success—career, house—but she felt purposeless and empty.

So the nominal Buddhist prayed to the God her mother had received 10 years earlier: “If you really exist, if you really love me for who I am, if you have a purpose for my life, would you please appear or prove it to me?”

”I could feel God hugging me, a deep hug,” Akane says in a Know Christ YouTube video. “I came to repentance for the first time in my life. I couldn’t stop weeping. I realize[d] that everything I was looking for … was there. I experienced love.”

That was 2.5 years ago. Today, Akane has a vision to save all of Japan—a feat reputed to be hard due to the stronghold in the nation that makes the people that makes people resistant. Where others have struggled, Akane is optimistic.

“I heard from other Christian people that sharing the gospel is hard in Japan, but actually it is quite fun,” she says. “They have material things. They are in a comfort zone. You cannot compare [that] to the fullness of Christ.”

Akane says the vaunted Japanese resistance to Christianity consists of pride, worrying what others think, competitiveness, and suspicion of the gospel.

But the very same strongholds of resistance are the keys to revival.

Read the story or watch the 28-minute video it’s based on, also below.

UK: What Are So Many Iranians Doing Here?

Source: Bible Society, July 19, 2024

At a church in the southwest of England, a young Iranian receives an easy-to-read Bible in modern Persian. He can’t believe it. “If they see you holding a Bible like this in Iran,” he says, “they kill you.”

Bible Society is known for international Bible translation and distribution, but the story that inspired its founding 220 years ago involved providing Scriptures within Britain in a non-English language. Today, while Bible Society remains the main publisher of the Scriptures resources in Welsh, multilingual domestic outreach also means putting the Bible in the hands of refugees.

Not everyone is enthusiastic about new arrivals in this country. Increasing numbers in recent years are remarkable at least statistically, and at the General Election, various parties promised they’d make the numbers fall. But for the Church, more people within reach is more to reach, so you’ll find churches at the forefront of welcoming new arrivals—wherever they’ve come from.

What turns visitors into members? It would seem to be the Bible. If refugees are coming for the welcome, they’re staying for the Word.

Read this interesting story about faith in Iran, immigration issues, a network of welcoming churches, and more.

See also a video from Radical, The Gospel Is in Iran (But Can Christians Survive?) Randall at Frontiers says, “This 20-minute documentary is sobering, but it is also filled with hope. Consider hosting a movie night with your friends or church small group so that you can discuss it and pray for Iran together.”

For news from another part of the Middle East, follow Christian Mission to Gaza. Also read Gospel Opportunities Arise from Widespread Fear in Lebanon (Heart for Lebanon via Mission Network News).

Eric Liddell, the Lost in Laos, and the Great Progress of the Gospel

In this edition:

Read or share the email edition.

7/25/24 Note: Found two typos in this edition — one just a repeated the word, but the other more substantial: in item #3, yes, we know William Carey published his “Enquiry” in 1792, not 1892. Sorry! Fixed both on the website but won’t resend the email. If you see mistakes like that, please don’t hesitate to let us know.

If you take issue with the claim that the gospel has taken root in people groups that include 75% of the world’s population (in item #3), read the rest of the article and take it up with the authors. They assert that more than half of the unreached are in “Frontier People Groups,” no more than .1% Christian and with no known and sustained disciple-making movements. That’s a stricter definition than the “less than 5% Christian, less than 2% evangelical” standard used to measure UPGs, which is what me see more often. That’s how the source can say the segment constitutes 25% of the world population instead of 42.5%.

New Podcast: Following the Journey of Eric Liddell

Source: Radical

This summer’s Paris Olympics mark the 100th anniversary of a Christian athlete’s unexpected triumph at the 1924 games—a victory immortalized in the iconic film Chariots of Fire. But Eric Liddell’s greatest glory wasn’t winning a gold medal in Paris. It was losing his life for God’s glory in China.

Follow Liddell’s remarkable journey from victory on the racetrack to death on the mission field and find out what’s happening today with the gospel he loved in the countries he knew best.

Learn more and listen to the podcast, Glory Road. It’s well produced and insightful.

Also, in case you missed it, take a look at mission mobilizer Alicia Bennett’s Olympic Family Devotional.

The Faith Road: A True Story of Peril and Mission in Southeast Asia

The Faith Road: A True Story of Peril and Mission in Southeast Asia, by Eliot Branch. College Press, 2021. 210 pages.

Hear how an ordinary man from rural Missouri came to follow Jesus and introduce others to him in a tiny landlocked country in Southeast Asia. Eliot partners with expatriates and national missionaries to launch an effort to reach the (initially estimated) “Final 58” unreached people groups of Laos.

Follow Eliot, Nick, and a team of first-generation believers as they launch out in five-day faith journeys following the practices described in Luke 10 and attempt to stay one step ahead of the police to reach the remaining lost peoples at the ends of the earth.

Missionary biographies are many, though I’ve never read one about Laos. This one winsomely explains and illustrates key principles for walking with God and reaching the unreached in any context.

Nik Ripken, author of The Insanity of God, says in the foreword: “I beg you to hear my heart: this is not a book about missions for missionaries. This is a book for the church. This is a message for all Christians. This is a story for you.”

Learn more or get the Kindle edition for just US$2.99. Also available in paperback.

Also worth a read, Aila Tasse’s Cabbages in the Desert: How God Transformed a Devout Muslim and Catalyzed Disciple Making Movements Among Unreached Peoples. We highlighted that one when it came out in May.