Category: News Briefs

Source: International Mission Board, May 21, 2018

Every day thirty-four thousand people flee their homes to escape famine, poverty, and war. Every day thousands of families become refugees. But those are just numbers. And numbers don’t move us. Real stories of real people do. That’s why Human Flow, an epic documentary by the provocative Chinese contemporary artist and activist Ai Weiwei, is so powerful and so important.

The scale and devastation of the global refugee crisis is expansive, but Weiwei is an able guide, taking viewers around the world and introducing us to real people—real image-bearers of God—along the way. He doesn’t focus on the causes of the crisis; rather, he offers a compelling and compassionate window into a world of deep suffering.

“Being a refugee is much more than a political status. It is the most perverse kind of cruelty that can be exercised against a human being.”

The film takes viewers through twenty-three countries, asking us to witness the suffering that forces people to flee their homelands.

» Read full story or watch the video, available through a variety of streaming services.

» While a record number of the earth’s inhabitants are on the move, many former nomads are settling down to give their children a better life. Read about or watch a documentary on The Last Nomads of Morocco (Al Jazeera).

Source: Barnabas Fund, May 22, 2018

Two thousand Kachin Christians, who were trapped in the jungle by the Myanmar (Burmese) Army have now reached safety, traveling on foot and by elephant.

Barnabas Fund contacts report that although they are now free and safe, many are still in desperate need and thousands of Kachin have taken shelter in churches. There is also the threat of further attacks by the military: “Please continue to pray for the Kachin. The Burmese Army have sent more troops to other Kachin areas, and we are expecting a new flood of attacks and refugees soon when the rainy season starts.”

Attacks by the army, which began in April, trapped around 2,000 Kachin Christian civilians in the jungle of northern Myanmar, with the total number of Kachin displaced estimated to be as high as 10,000. Those who fled, including new mothers and the elderly, have mostly traveled without any mechanized transport through thick jungle. Several are reported to have been injured by landmines.

» See full story with pictures and other news about the persecuted church from Barnabas Fund.

» See also Fulani Violence against Nigeria Christians Hits Record High (World Watch Monitor). Note that this story reflects not just a clash of religions but also the age-old conflict between farmers and herdsmen. We would do well to pray for persecutors as well as persecuted.

Source: Mission Network News, May 28, 2018

More than half of the refugees worldwide are children, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Many have been separated from their families or their parents can’t provide for them, leaving them in hopeless situations.

However, seeing the desperate situation of these children, Bethany Christian Services is helping to change their lives through their Refugee Foster Care Program.

“We have kiddos coming in from Central America. We have kids from Ethiopia, the Republic of the Congo. We have kiddos from Afghanistan in our program. Right now, we have a huge need for foster families to be able to open their home, their hearts to give our kids an opportunity to be part of their family,” [says Bethany’s Ana Jose].

After refugee children have fled their home country and end up in refugee camps, Bethany receives their referrals and helps to get them processed, then brings them to the United States to live with a loving foster family. Jose says there are millions and millions of refugee children who are in need of foster care. Bethany receives up to 60 referrals every week.

» Full story explains the placement process and how children are reunited with their families. For an MNN article concerning immigrant families separated at the US border, see a related June 5 story.

» Also read an interesting story about artists who paint portraits of Syrian children caught up in the refugee crisis (World Vision).

Source: United World Missions, May 2018

For the past few years, we’ve been taking groups from the States to areas in the mountains with hundreds of pockets of unengaged, unreached minority peoples.

In 2016, we had an American leader come to see what this was all about and decide whether or not his congregation would get involved. We took him and some others high up in the mountains (14,000+ feet) in a very rural area where many of the villages consist of only a few homes. As they were driving through a village, the leader pointed west up another valley and asked what was up there. We didn’t know. A very outdoorsy person, he asked to be dropped off and allowed to hike up there by himself for the day.

At the end of the day they picked him up. He said he had hiked, worshiped, and prayed up the valley. At one point he had been invited into a home. These people didn’t speak any English, and he didn’t speak their language, but they had a great time drinking tea together. He prayed for and blessed the home before he left. After the trip, he decided his congregation would adopt that valley.

The next summer we were holding the semi-annual English camps which take place in our city for students from these mountain groups. One of the students, Z, trusted in God during the camp. Afterward, he needed a ride back home, so one of our colleagues gave him a ride back to his very remote village. His home was the same one that the leader had visited a year before. Z became the first believer in his valley.

» Full story.

Source: Open Doors, May 27, 2018

The Church in India is growing at an unprecedented rate, with village church pastors forging a burgeoning movement. In January 2015, more than 1 million people converted to Christianity at a single-tent revival event. Increasingly, the leaders of these churches are bearing the brunt of persecution in India, often finding themselves the first target of Hindu extremists, especially when extremists begin to see the impact of these leaders and their passion to share the gospel.

When Hindu nationalists learned Pastor Tilak’s ministry had led 40 families to Christ, they urged the Naxalites, a communist insurgency group in India, to silence him.

» See full story with picture and prayer points. This man went through a lot! Can anyone help us verify the conversion claim in the second sentence?

» See also the infographic Profiles of Some of Today’s Heroes of the Faith (INcontext Ministries). Note that it seems to be two pages long (two separate images).

Missions Catalyst News Briefs 05.16.18

1. WORLD: Celebrate Cultural Diversity Day
2. PAKISTAN: Top Judge to Hear Asia Bibi’s Appeal
3. INDONESIA: Family Launches Suicide Attacks
4. BURKINA FASO: Patriarch Banned from Village, Comes to Christ
5. WEST AFRICA: “God, We Need Rain Today”

This edition includes several stories from Africa—now, for the first time, home to more Christians than any other continent. Full infographic from Gordon-Conwell’s Center for the Study of Global Christianity looks at the global status of Christianity in 2018.

Source: Wycliffe Bible Translators, May 10, 2018

Did you know that May 21 is World Day of Cultural Diversity? It’s a day set aside to celebrate and appreciate the beauty of cultural diversity around the world.

God made all of us and he loves us all so much—no matter where we live or what language we speak! Teach your kids the importance of valuing diversity—and all God’s children around the world—with these fun ideas on experiencing another culture right from your own community (PDF).

» Full story. Want to start celebrating cultural diversity in your kitchen? Download Wycliffe’s new international cookbook for kids. When you sign up, you’ll also get their monthly email with free activities and lessons for kids.

» Also read Saying Yes First, the story of one Texas church transformed into a multicultural community (AG News). Encouraging. This issue of News Briefs ends with another story from the Assemblies of God. See below.

Source: World Watch Monitor, April 26, 2018

Pakistan’s chief justice says he will decide, “soon,” the fate of Aasiya Noreen, a Christian woman whose 2009 conviction on blasphemy charges has fixated world attention on the country’s treatment of religious minorities.

Chief Justice Saqib Nisar told Noreen’s lawyer, Saif-ul-Malook, on April 21 that he would hear the woman’s appeal. Noreen, popularly known as Asia Bibi, has been imprisoned since 2009.

“Be ready, Saif-ul-Malook. I am going to fix your case soon and I myself will preside over the bench,” the Catholic news service UCAN reported Nisar as saying.

“Bibi’s family and everyone else who understands her ordeal [is] ecstatic at the news that her appeal will be heard soon,” Malook told UCAN. According to Pakistan Today, the Chief Justice also said that all criminal appeals before the Supreme Court will be decided by July. The report did not explicitly mention Noreen’s case, but it is a criminal matter.

Noreen, a Catholic mother of five children, was arrested for allegedly making derogatory comments about Islam’s prophet, Muhammad, during an argument with a Muslim woman. She has been in prison ever since and was sentenced to death for blasphemy a year later.

» See full story with links and pictures.

» Grieved about levels of religious conflict in today’s world? Read Four Simple Ways to Love your Muslim Friends this Ramadan (Crescent Project).

Source: Open Doors, May 13, 2018

As we [were celebrating] Mother’s Day in the US, it’s almost unconscionable to think about a mother who would prepare a suicide bomb—alongside her two young daughters (aged 9 and 12)—and detonate the bomb inside a church. And a father who would drive a truck bomb in front of a church and do the same—and direct his young sons to suit up in suicide vests on motorcycles to attack yet another church.

But this is what happened in Indonesia on Sunday.

Three bombs exploded across three churches in Indonesia’s Surabaya, capital of East Java province, on Sunday morning (May 13) while Christians gathered to worship.

At least ten people were killed in the attack—including worshippers, a suicide bomber, and several police officers. Over 40 others were injured.

CNN reported that the attacks were planned and executed by one family—including a husband, wife, and four children. The investigation reported that the family was involved in a terrorist group with ties to ISIS.

The explosions took place at a Catholic church (Santa Maria), a Protestant church (GKI Diponegoro), and a Pentecostal church (GPPS). CNN also reported that the blasts occurred one after another between 7:30 and 8 a.m. Three other explosives were later found at two of the church premises but were successfully defused by the bomb squad.

» Read full story. Note that later reports say the youngest daughter of this family, who survived, was eight years old, not nine.

» For more context and local commentary, see Indonesia on Maximum Security Alert Following a String of Explosions in East Java (Global Voices). Also read a more encouraging story from Indonesia, about a Christian worker now serving there. God began planting seeds for gospel ministry in her heart when she was younger than these children (Weave).

Source: Christian Aid, April 26, 2018

A six-year-old girl had mysteriously died and Bwaba tribal leaders [performed] a divination ritual to determine what had provoked local spirits to commit such an outrage. A shadow fell on [90-year-old] Adama [whom] they accused of employing witchcraft to bring a deadly disease on the girl.

The traditions of the animist village called for him to be expelled for two years to verify his guilt; if he managed to survive in the wilds, he would be declared innocent and could return.

For more than a month he managed to survive on leaves and grass along with meat that a daring granddaughter snuck to him, and for shelter, he’d attached a blanket to tree branches. But the solitude, the elements and the psychological trauma soon took their toll. Gaunt and broken, he was cursing some rocks when indigenous missionaries spied him.

“He learned about the love of God… and decided to follow that God of love who gave his life for the salvation of humanity,” the [ministry] director said. “All our missionary training centers were praying God would completely restore his dignity. Two months later, the villagers discovered the real reasons for the death of the girl, and that it had nothing to do with him.”

Village leaders admitted they were mistaken in putting blind trust in occult practices and invited Adama to return. He began leading a house church, and three village leaders put their faith in Christ.

“They were baptized four months ago,” the director said. “The leaders of the village decided to abandon the divination practices, which had made so many victims. Now four families, including the family of the village chief, praise the Lord.”

» Full story with picture.

» You might want to take a look at a photo essay about animism in nearby Ghana, Power in the Blood: Animal Sacrifice in West Africa (International Mission Board). The images are compelling and not too graphic.