Category: News Briefs

Source: SAT-7, March 21, 2019

“I grew up with a lot of religious people around me. Faith interested me, and I started researching different religions on the internet, but I had a preconception that Christianity was bad,” [explains Kaya, a young man who serves with SAT-7, a Christian satellite television ministry].

“My father took me for a walk one day, and he took me to a church. He just wanted to go for a walk, but I believe that God used my father without him realizing it.

“As soon as I stepped inside the church, I felt like I had entered a different world, and I was filled with peace. When I look back on it, I realize that it was the Holy Spirit. For a year, I continued to search and think about God. I was very confused, but I just prayed, ‘God guide me to the truth.’”

“On Christmas Eve, I was reading the Bible and suddenly I felt that Jesus Christ stood in front of me. I couldn’t grasp what was happening at the time.

“I immediately got down on my knees and said, ‘Jesus Christ, I believe in you.’ I was twelve years old at the time, but I knew that I had found my purpose in life.”

» Full story describes the explains the struggles and uneasy truce young Kaya and his family have experienced. These tensions are not uncommon in Turkey (or other places), so Kaya is able to relate to, encourage, and pray with listeners who contact SAT-7.

» Also from Turkey: The Turkish president says he intends to turn the Hagia Sophia into a mosque again.

Source: Morning Star News, March 28, 2019

Amid a nationwide wave of kidnappings, the Rev. Emmanuel Haruna of the Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA) was kidnapped at gunpoint outside his home on church premises in Gidan Ausa, Nasarawa state.

“He was making a phone call by his house when some men shot into the air and took him away,” the Rev. Romanus Ebenwokodi, ECWA spokesman, told Morning Star News. “Please pray for his safety and release.”

Earlier on Monday (March 25) in Kaduna state, gunmen reportedly abducted the Rev. John Bako Shekwolo, priest of St. Theresa Catholic Church in Ankwa Kachia County, according to an archdiocese statement. Little else was known at this writing.

In Nasarawa state, Pastor Haruna leads an ECWA congregation in Gidan Ausa, near Lafia, the state capital. Also chaplain of the Boys Brigade, Nasarawa State Council, he was said to be searching for a better signal to make a phone call when he was kidnapped after 10pm. A statement from the Nasarawa State Council confirmed the kidnapping.

» Read full story, which details other incidents, and pray for those involved.

» See also Islamist Terror and Supernatural Deliverance in Nigeria (Gateway News). For in-depth analysis, listen to an interview with Alex Thurston, Episode 123: Boko Haram (Africa Past and Present Podcast).

Source: Mission Network News, March 20, 2019

A [Christian] man named Elijah was leading a training event when a Buddhist monk came across the meeting. Elijah invited the Buddhist monk in, and the monk stayed for the rest of the day.

Once training for the day concluded, the monk asked Elijah if he could return the next day, but with two friends. Elijah agreed. Sure enough, the following day brought three Buddhist monks to the training.

“As they were hearing in the discipleship classes about who Jesus is, and what he does, and intimacy with Jesus, and what it means to be a Christian, then they finally explained to Elijah ‘well, somebody has to be wrong here. Either Buddha is God or Jesus is God,’” explains Tim [spokesman for a partner ministry, Global Disciples].

“They asked Elijah if he would be willing to test and to see who really was God. They would go to a forest, and they would fast and pray, and if God or Jesus could bring lunch to them, and if he could make it rain, then those three Buddhist monks agreed that they would them accept Jesus as Lord.”

The men traveled to the jungle and once there, they prayed. Tim relays that at exactly 12:30pm, there was a man hollering in the forest. The stranger stumbled into the opening where Elijah and the three monks were. The man was lost, but as they talked together, he opened his bag and shared his food with Elijah and the monks.

“God gave them their first miracle,” Tim says.

However, it still needed to rain. The catch? It was the dry season for this region. Tim says on this particular day there were no clouds in the sky. Eventually, the monks left the forest, unconvinced by the meal.

“[Elijah] wrestled with God, even so much so that his whole body was sweating, and he was wrestling, and he was wondering ‘God, do you really do things like this? Would you make it rain?’” Tim says.

Elijah finally returned home and about five o’clock that evening clouds began to form and it rained so hard that they had to cancel their evening service, and the Buddhist monks couldn’t even come to the service that evening.”

The next morning, the three Buddhist monks returned to where Elijah was leading the training, and they proclaimed Jesus Christ to be Lord. Tim says they were secretly baptized by Elijah. They even left their Buddhist priestly robes in the area of the forest where they had met with Elijah as a symbolic gesture of leaving their old lives to begin a new life in Jesus.

“Today, those three Buddhist monks are evangelizing and they’re working among drug addicts in their country.”

» Read full story.

» Also read about a series of miracles that helped launch a movement in India (YWAM Frontier Missions) and take a look at a slide show about the baptism of 520 in Chon Daen from Northern Thailand (Change the Map). Just watching this really lifted my spirit! Watch it!

Source: Pathways to Global Understanding

Looking for a mission curriculum to use with a class or small group? Want something that covers the biblical foundations but also historic, strategic, and cultural dimensions, and includes media and case studies? Check out Pathways to Global Understanding.

This curriculum, edited by Meg Crossman, been around for quite a while and you may have seen it. Now, though, there’s a set of 12, half-hour teaching videos and leader’s guides that make it easy to run your own group. Pathways has also put together a great resource list you can use to augment the sessions. (It’s worth creating an account just for that.)

All this is free, but to get the most out of it, each participant should get a copy of the (468-page) book and read the articles on each topic.

» Learn more and register to access the videos and other materials. Get the book from YWAM Publishing for US$33.99 or a condensed version, PathLight to Global Awareness.

» Wondering how Pathways compares with the Perspectives on the World Christian Movement course? I’d say it very covers similar ground but with less depth in some areas. You may find it easier to digest and implement. See also XPlore, Momentum, and Storyline.

Source: God Reports, February 26, 2019

Educational authorities in the Chinese district of Lishan have initiated a push to eliminate religious belief in kindergarten, requiring students to sign a statement saying they will “advocate science, promote atheism, and oppose theism.”

The commitment also requires the pupils to pledge they will not view religious websites or engage in religious forums online, according to a report by The Colson Center.

The plan bars schools from hiring teachers that hold religious beliefs. “With regard to existing teachers, it calls for increased supervision, including ‘comprehensive inspections of teachers’ preparation for lessons in order to root out any and all religious content,’” according to the report.

[President Xi Jinping] has made the compulsory separation of children from religious life a linchpin in enforcing China’s official atheism.

» Read full story.

» See also China Official Says West Using Christianity to Subvert Power (Reuters, h/t Justin Long).

Source: Morning Star News, March 11, 2019

The Somali pastor of an underground church in Kenya near the Somali border suffered a broken thigh bone and other injuries after Muslim extremists beat him with wooden clubs last Friday night [March 8], sources said.

Pastor Abdul, a 30-year-old father of three, had finished leading a prayer gathering at 9 pm on the outskirts of Garissa and was on his way back to his house when several ethnic Somali Muslims attacked, he told Morning Star News from his hospital bed, still visibly in pain.

Pastor Abdul said he did not know the assailants. As they approached him, he said, one of them told him: “We have been following your movements and your evil plans of changing Muslims to Christianity.”

Leader of an underground church of 30 former Muslims, he clandestinely met with them in smaller groups on varying days for worship, prayer, and Bible study, he said.

“My family is in great fear, and Christians have located us to another place. Our prayer, for now, is to get a safe place for my family. My life and that of my family is at stake.”

His children are eight, five and three years old.

» Read full story and pray for this man and his family.

» From another part of Africa, see Egyptian Edict Is an Encouraging Sign for Christians (Open Doors and Mission Network News).

Source: Beyond, March 15, 2019

We invite you to join us in praying these colorful Bible passages over the Hindu world as Holi approaches.

“Come now, let us settle the matter,” says the Lord. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.” Isaiah 1:18

Father, we pray for you to prepare them and their own sin to fall on them so that they would be ready to accept the Good News. May their sins turn from scarlet to white as snow through acceptance of the Lordship of Christ Jesus.

One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul. Acts 16:14

Lord, we ask you to open the hearts of Hindus to pay attention to the good news of the gospel when your followers speak to them. May many thousands of Hindus come to be called worshipers of the one true God.

After this I saw a vast crowd, too great to count, from every nation and tribe and people and language, standing in front of the throne and before the Lamb. They were clothed in white robes and held palm branches in their hands. Revelation 7:9

Thank you, Almighty God! Thank you for your promise that members from every Hindu believing people group would be counted among those standing before your throne at the end of days.

» See full article and read If You Can Find a Christian, another inspiring piece from Beyond about ministry in the Hindu world.

Source: INContext Ministries, March 15, 2019

On Friday March 15, 2019, [more than] 49 people were killed and more than 20 seriously injured in mass shootings at two mosques full of people attending Friday prayers in Christchurch, New Zealand. Christians can learn three valuable lessons from this tragedy.

For most viewers, watching the act of terror unfolding on their televisions, the perpetrator is the one carrying the weapon and the one who finally pulls the trigger. However, the one who pulls the trigger is only the final link in a long chain of negativity, suspicion, fear, and hatred. Every post on social media that polarizes people becomes another link in a deadly chain that has the potential to influence someone who is willing to pull a trigger.

We need to be constantly reminded that our words either give life or drain life. There is no neutral exchange. Our comments influence people. We should take extra care of the possible “hidden” messages we communicate in the name of Christ. Truth should never become a motive for guiding people into a place of suspicion or hatred.

» Read the rest of this opinion piece about the New Zealand massacre. Food for thought.

» Also read about the social component of terrorism and the myth of the lone wolf attacker (Deutsche Welle) and Today, We Weep with Those Who Weep (Muslim Connect). Thanks for praying for New Zealand.

Source: Operation Mobilization, March 7, 2019

Eliza, one of the local believing women who moved back to the mountains, started practicing her professional trade in her new home. Then a church in the city gave her a grant to purchase more equipment and take on apprentices.

She hired two local girls, taught them her craft, and slowly started telling them about Jesus. “Sometimes they would watch movies in the national language about Jesus, and she would share her testimony. They were just really amazed that she was from their ethnic group, but she was a believer in Jesus,” Ellen recounted.

As Eliza shared, she read the Bible with the girls and showed them from the Word who Jesus is.

“Why didn’t anyone tell us this before?” one of them wondered. “We’ve grown up our whole lives and not known about Jesus.” Eliza also gave both apprentices New Testaments in the national language, and one of the girls took it home to her father, read it with him and watched a couple of the DVDs about Jesus with him, too. From their conversations, Eliza said she believed both young women decided to follow Jesus.

“They’re some of the first people we know of that have become believers in our town, that haven’t gone somewhere else, but have actually heard from a local person and have come to faith,” Ellen stressed.

“She shared so much sooner and so much deeper. She said to them: ‘God brought you because he knew you were ready to believe.’ We never saw that [openness] ourselves, but watching a local sister share the gospel, that was really exciting.”

» Read full story and another from OM about a Russian man engaging the least reached in the Caucasus. (Father, raise up more laborers like these.)

» See also: Tajik Christians Fear Talking about Their Faith (Institute for War and Peace Reporting).