Category: News Briefs

Source: Lausanne Global Initiative, September 2018

The Lausanne Global Secularization Initiative addresses the increasing secularization of society around the world, a trend closely tied to the globalization of culture, especially among urban youth.

The emerging Global Youth Culture, connected by consumerism, social media, and the entertainment industry, forms the largest global culture ever to exist. It spans the globe, embracing the same values, listening to the same music, subscribing to the same YouTube channels, and following the same influencers on social media.

This global culture is largely influenced by one predominant worldview—secular humanism—which affirms that God is irrelevant and man is at the center. In this relativistic culture, we are god and consumerism is our religion. This is a generation that does not look to the Church for answers but believes it to be a dead and empty tradition of the past. Either there is no God or, if he exists, he doesn’t interfere with our lives.

The Global Youth Culture presents a unique challenge to missions worldwide because of the large cultural gap that exists between the Church and secularized youth in society. This demographic is not limited to post-Christian regions like Europe or the USA. It is impacting cultures in urban centers of every region of the world, including the Middle East, Asia, and Africa.

» Read more.

» Of course some secularizing societies are also experiencing renewal through immigration. See The Unexpected Trend Reviving Canadian Christianity (The Gospel Coalition).

Sources: Various

This week Supreme Court judges in Pakistan delayed ruling on the final appeal of Asia Bibi who has been on the country’s death row since 2009 on charges of blasphemy. The justices also warned media about commenting on or discussing the case until their detailed verdict is released, though they set no date for its release.

See an article from Mission Network News, as well as two sources it cites, a story from Pakistan source DAWN News and a description of how Pakistan’s blasphemy laws are used to persecute Christians (Forgotten Missionaries International).

Readers may also be interested in an update on another high-profile religious liberty case we’ve followed. World Watch Monitor reports that Andrew Brunson’s legal appeal has been sent to Turkey’s highest court.

Thanks for continuing to pray for these Christians and those who persecute them as well as their countries and communities. Don’t forget, it’s almost that time of year again: International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church is Sunday, November 4. Voice of the Martyrs is distributing an IDOP video highlighting Christians in Pakistan. See below.

Source: Open Doors, October 8, 2018

North Korea is famously a difficult place for Christians to live and worship openly. The country has been No. 1 on Open Doors’ World Watch List—the annual list of the places in the world where it’s hardest to follow Jesus—for more than a decade. Tens of thousands of Christians are imprisoned or under arrest for their faith. And yet, that’s not the full story. Christianity and North Korea have a long relationship! So, here are five surprising facts about Christianity in North Korea and how this tightly controlled Communist nation has been impacted by the Christian faith.

» Read more or share this article with your friends.

• IRAN: Former Taliban Executioner Finds Peace
• CHINA: Praying for the Uyghurs
• INDIA: Hindu Extremists Accelerate Clampdown in Uttar Pradesh
• EAST ASIA: A Short History of Sharing the Gospel through Medical Work
• USA: Social Justice and the Gospel

Source: Mission Network News, September 12, 2018

Nazanin Baghestani, the program response supervisor for Mohabat TV, a ministry of Heart4Iran, shares how one night their team received a notable call. The man on the other end of the line wanted more information about Jesus. He told them he used to execute people as a member of the Taliban. He was restless and couldn’t sleep. He would wake with nightmares and couldn’t breathe.

“It took awhile for him to actually realize that Jesus could help him,” Baghestani explains. “This was hard for him to understand. So while we’d talked with him [and] counseled him [he needed more time]. And eventually one night, after we’d prayed and talked with him and read the Word, he slept. And that night he said ‘that was the first night I could sleep in peace.’ And so he found himself actually trying to forgive himself.”

The former Taliban member was excited and continued talking with the counselors and team members at Mohabat TV. Now Baghestani says he is a changed person. Thanks to Jesus’ redemptive work, this man is experiencing freedom in Christ and peace from his sins.

The story is incredible, but it is not the only one.

» Read more.

» See also a report from another broadcast ministry, SAT-7, telling the story of a transformed man, now a pastor, whom God has used to create their first discipleship series for Tajik viewers. (I like the part about the Korean Tae Kwando instructor!)

Source: Frontiers USA, September 10, 2018

In August 2016, Xinjiang’s newly-appointed Communist party secretary began instituting hardline policies and passing regulations to strip Uyghurs of even the most basic religious rights and cultural freedoms. Long beards and face veils are now prohibited. Even the act of praying raises suspicion.

In recent crackdowns, as many as one million Uyghurs have been detained. They’re sent to mass internment camps—heavily guarded centers with fortified doors and barbed wire. Inside the internment camps, detainees must withstand unhealthy living conditions, poor nutrition, violence, and torture.

The Communist regime denies the existence of internment camps. Officials insist they’re political education centers, established to fight against religious extremism and terrorism.

Critics, however, say the camps reflect a state policy of cultural genocide and an attempt to erase the cultural identity of 12-15 million Uyghurs.

We praise God for the hundreds of Uyghurs who—in the midst of a living hell—have found eternal hope in Jesus Christ and have placed their faith in him. These faithful believers are suffering.

Please join us in praying for the Uyghurs.

» Read full story. Readers might also appreciate Bob Blincoe’s short but stirring article about what our Spanish-speaking friends call los pueblos abandonados, the abandoned (or unreached) peoples.

» Justin Long’s recent weekly roundups include many links to informative stories about events in China. Take a look.

Source: Morning Star News, September 17, 2018

Under the influence of Hindu extremists, police and media campaigns against Christians in Uttar Pradesh state, India has mushroomed since one such attack sent a pastor into hiding last month, sources said.

After false media reports of large-scale, fraudulent conversions of Hindus by pastor Durga Prasad Yadav in Jaunpur District went viral in July, followed by false police charges, there have been multiple area reports of disrupted worship meetings, pastors, and evangelists arrested, and Christian leaders fleeing their homes to avoid arrest.

At least 12 pastors have gone into hiding since [September 13]. Pastor Yadav also remains in hiding, but attendance at his church’s worship services has nearly doubled since Hindu extremists began targeting him and others using state and media machinery.

» Read full story.

Source: OMF Billions, September 6, 2018

In the 1970s David, a former Malay soldier with leprosy, received care from an OMF nurse in Thailand [and later said,] “when Minka put my stinking foot on her lap to treat my ulcer, then I knew what the love of God was.”

Medical mission like this has always been part of OMF’s work. Founder James Hudson Taylor grew up working in his father’s chemist’s shop and later took medical training in preparation for service in China. There he found treating people physically also brought opportunities to share about Jesus, the healer of souls.

So in 1866 when the Lammermuir set sail, Hudson Taylor and the first China Inland Mission workers carried with them medicines and equipment so they could set up a hospital and dispensary.

In 1913 Canadian Jessie McDonald became the CIM’s first female doctor. She joined the veteran missionary doctor Whitfield Guinness at Keifeng hospital and served there for 26 years. The CIM hospital was the only medical facility in the area and patients traveled far to be treated. McDonald made a point of treating all patients equally, including in 1939 Japanese soldiers wounded when invading the city.

In 1956 the CIM opened Manorom Hospital, the first medical facility in Central Thailand. The hospital developed particular expertise in treating leprosy. This was widespread in the area and meant social isolation for the patients. However the hospital and its remote clinics welcomed them, even with their sores that no one else would touch, and so they began to feel valued and loved. Through the work the leprosy patients also heard about Jesus and soon a church was formed. In fact, this church was the very first in Central Thailand. Shortly after another church whose members were physically healthy developed. Despite fear of the disease initially separating the members, within a generation the two churches united, showing the reality of the gospel in their lives. Today several leaders of the united church are former leprosy patients.

Today there are around 100 OMF workers serving across East Asia as doctors, surgeons, dentists, and in a whole range of other medical roles. Praise God for the witness of medical mission past and present!

» Full story with pictures. Also read A Gospel-Driven Response to Disability, or check out another article taking a long look at history, this one from our friends at IMB: 10 Ways Missions Has Influenced Africa.

» Want to use your medical skills in missions? Visit MedicalMissions.com and consider attending the Global Missions Health Conference in Louisville, Kentucky, November 8-10. It’s an annual event.

Sources: Various, via Pat Noble

Have you read the newly published statement Social Justice and the Gospel? More than 8,000 have signed it. Whether or not we agree or agree completely, I hope we can agree that the conversation is thought-provoking and necessary. Here are a few responses that made my short list of must-reads:

• From Kevin DeYoung at The Gospel Coalition, Is Social Justice a Gospel Issue?
• From Al Mohler, speaking on social justice at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary chapel (37 minutes on YouTube).
• From Christianity Today’s Mark Galli, Evangelism Is a Work of Social Justice.

Also read Worship and Justice: Spirituality that Embodies and Mobilizes for Justice. Thanks to Global Christian Worship for pointing me to this. Check out an infographic from MissioNexus on networks. I thought it was very informative for making a case for the church being involved in social justice.

One more thing. I am presently in Florida waiting for my grandson to be born and had the opportunity to hang out at this cool place that’s all about fighting hunger. Have you heard of them?

Will you join 100,000 believers from around the world for three days of prayer and fasting (August 19-21) for the 2+ million Muslims on Hajj (August 19-24)?

• MUSLIM WORLD: Freedom in Christ
• NIGERIA: Behind the Fulani Herdsmen-Farmers Conflict
• PHILIPPINES: A Sharia State for Mindanao
• INDIA: Anti-Conversion Laws Could Be Repealed
• USA: Teen Rescued from Trafficking by Postal Worker

Greetings,

Before our next edition of news briefs, the annual hajj pilgrimage will have come and gone, so I don’t want to miss this opportunity to offer you fuel for prayer for the pilgrims and for ministry to Muslims in general.

For a good introduction, see First Friday Prayer for the Muslim World: Hajj and the Festival of Sacrifice (SEND International). SEND is one of some 180 mission agencies banding together to ask God to draw 10 percent of the world’s Muslims to himself in the next ten years. Will you pray with them?

Pat