Category: News Briefs

Source: Wycliffe Bible Translators, April 25, 2018

The people of South Sudan have rarely known peace. The decades since Sudan’s independence from Britain and then South Sudan’s independence from Sudan have been marked by turmoil and war.

Despite the turbulence, Bible translation has been taking place. The Baka translation began in 1980 in southern Sudan. The team endured civil war, violence, having to flee as refugees, and a kidnapping. Through it all, translation continued, and in March 2017, the Baka community celebrated the launch of the New Testament.

Now that the Baka have God’s Word, “God is not a foreigner anymore. Jesus is one of us. He can talk [our] dialect,” says Pastor Bennett Marona, the translation project manager.

» Read full story or watch a video about the Baka translation.

» See also The Bible in Uzbek, the story of the 22-year process of completing the translation of the Bible into this Central Asian language. In a surprising turn, it was publically launched in the capital with official approval by the country’s government (United Bible Societies).

Source: Frontiers USA, April 4, 2016

I hustled our children into the back seat of the taxi as Kevin climbed in the front seat. “Where are you from?” the driver asked.

“America,” Kevin said. “How about you?”

“I’m from Syria,” the driver responded.

“Oh. I prayed for your country this morning!” Kevin blurted out.

I cringed a little in the back seat at Kevin’s response. What was that emotion in me? Embarrassment? Shame? What did it matter if this taxi driver knew Kevin prayed? Why did I feel like hiding?

It was true after all. Kevin had spent a couple hours that morning, as he often did, in our team’s prayer room. And he had prayed for Syria.

Although I felt sheepish and not very brave about sharing our spiritual lives with this taxi driver, I look back and see that all it took was Kevin’s casual comment, and Tarek, the taxi driver, was hooked. We didn’t know it at the time, but that was the day Tarek’s pursuit of Jesus shifted into high gear…

» Full story is worth reading. Here’s my favorite line: “That first night with his new Bible, Tarek devoured a hundred pages of the Gospels.”

» See also another story about a taxi driver, Listener in Mongolia Becomes Volunteer Broadcaster (FEBC). And don’t forget to pray for the work of God in the Muslim world during Ramadan this year. It begins May 15. Check out resources from Frontiers, Prayercast, and of course 30 Days of Prayer.

Source: Mission Network News, April 26, 2018

The Tewe people in central Mozambique have had missionaries come to them for years. Today, about 40 percent of the Tewe people are Christian. However, the Tewe people have no Bible and less than one hour of scripture in audio [form]. Because of their limited access to God’s Word, it is easy for Tewe Christians to mix biblical teachings with the local ethnic religions.

Joshua Harrison with Audio Scripture Ministries says the Tewe people group “is still considered a least-reached people group because there are still some significant cultural strongholds with witchcraft and syncretism. So our team looks at that and says, well, clearly there are some missing tools and access to God’s Word in a form that people can use on a daily basis. That’s why we want to bring that connection to God’s Word in audio [form].”

“We are excited to report that we have over 10 hours of scripture recordings and songs and Bible-engagement materials that we’ve recorded [in the Tewe language] and the community response has been fantastic.”

The process has contained some challenges. The Tewe language is not a written language, which has made it difficult for the team working with local Tewe speakers to translate scripture before they can record.

But God has blessed ASM’s scripture recording efforts in Mozambique. Together with Tewe speakers and musicians, they have completed 18 songs and 50 Bible stories so far.

“The excitement for this is palpable as people hear God’s Word in their heart language. It is really wonderful to see. There is great hunger for the Lord.”

» Read full story. You might also appreciate another MNN story, this one about God’s Word going forth against impossible odds in colonial India.

Source: World Watch Monitor, April 16, 2018

China’s Christians may not be surprised by recent tighter government control of religious affairs, including a ban on online Bible sales. But they are unsure what comes next.

Following [last] month’s announcement that Bibles could no longer be made available online, large websites like Taobao, Jingdong, Weidian, Dangdang, and Amazon China have now stopped selling them. The Catholic news website UCAN reported that “books about Christianity have also been blocked and the business licenses of some shops have been canceled,” and that, according to social media users, websites had started to stop the sale of Bibles as early as March 30.

» Full story provides more context and links to other sources.

Source: Pioneers, April 4, 2018

In 2004, Greg and Alex, a father-son team working in Bolivia, came across a man on the road who was holding a little, broken radio. He pleaded with them, “Fix it, it’s my life!” They helped him get the radio repaired and realized it was tuned to a radio station broadcasting in his native language, Quechua.

Greg and Alex had been searching for a way to share the gospel with the people of isolated villages cut off from the rest of civilization during the rainy season. They were amazed to find the radios were made in their native Canada. Since then, they raised funds to purchase and distribute radios that include a Quechua audio translation of the Bible. In the last 10+ years Greg and Alex, along with many short-term workers, have distributed more than 50,000 little red radios.

» Full story includes a photo essay. The video above is actually part 2 in a series. Watch part 1.

1. SLOVENIA: Help from Historical Heroes
2. KAZAKHSTAN: State Demands Young Worshipers’ Personal Data
3. USA: Do You Know “the Great Commission”?
4. INDIA: Several Killed in Protests over Dalit Protections
5. ALGERIA: “Finally, My Father Is Home”

Source: United World Mission, April 6, 2018

Over ten years ago UWM missionaries Benjamin Hlastan and Todd Hunnicutt began to learn more about Slovenia’s [Protestant] Reformer, Primož Trubar. Together with other scholars and church leaders they rediscovered the simple, clear gospel that Trubar shared in the 1500’s, and they saw the potential for impact.

In 2008, the 500th anniversary of Trubar’s birth, they co-founded a Slovene non-profit organization to translate Trubar’s works into modern Slovene. Three key books have come out gaining attention from national media, one during the 450th anniversary of its original publication (originally published in 1564, republished in 2014). Materials are being used in educational settings, including various videos and an animated biography of Trubar. Countless events, lectures, and concerts with Reformation themes have followed in the years since.

2017 was the 500th anniversary of the start of the Reformation, and Todd and Benjamin worked with others to provide events and outreaches all year long [and] partner with the evangelical churches to distribute all 50,000 copies [of the Slovene New Testament].

One person who received a New Testament was literally going to commit suicide the day he got a copy on the town square, but said he knew this meant God is calling him. Another man who used to go to an evangelical church had fallen back into drugs; he was on his way to his dealer when we saw people from that church giving out Bibles. He stopped to talk and is now coming to church again! Churches have had people come to church who got a New Testament and then found out about a local church on the Bible website.

If 50,000 copies of the New Testament have been given out, that means, we can estimate that around 10% of Slovenia’s 500,000 households now have a copy.

Slovenia’s reformer is sowing seeds 500 years later that we trust will bring fruit in the years to come.

» Read full story to learn more about Trubar’s accomplishments and the face of ministry in modern Slovenia. What better use of history than to help people find help for today and hope for tomorrow?

» See also Deadly Chicken Soup, another story about an historical hero, this time in Colombia (Ethnos360).

Source: Forum 18, April 11, 2018

A research institute attached to the Religious Affairs Department of West Kazakhstan Region instructed some local registered religious communities to submit by April 10 [the] full names, ages, place of study, and personal state-assigned numbers of all people under the age of 18 who come to meetings for worship. The official who sent the letter claimed to Forum 18 the information is needed for “monitoring.” Kazakh human rights defenders have expressed concern about the move.

“It was not sent to Muslims, for example, just to Christians, and selectively,” an official stated.

After the deadline expired, the official who issued the instruction told Forum 18 that five religious leaders who replied had all refused to supply the personal data. “We accepted this,” he claimed. He added that he would apologize to them “verbally,” but defended his original instruction seeking the information.

A Deputy Head of the Religious Affairs Committee in the capital Astana, Balgabek Myrzayev, claimed to Forum 18 he knew nothing about the letter. He refused to say whether such a demand for personal data on people under 18 without their parents’ or guardians’ permission is legal or not.

Religious leaders risk prosecution if people under 18 attend meetings for worship against the wishes of at least one of their parents or guardians.

» Full story includes all the details and several links for those who want to understand the whole situation.

» For more positive news from Central Asia, see Three Women Share their Stories (FEBC).

Source: Mission Network News, April 4, 2018

The Barna Group recently conducted a survey and found that 51 percent of churchgoers do not know the term “the Great Commission,” which is found in Matthew 28:18-20.

The survey found that 17 percent knew the term and could identify what it meant as well as the scriptural passage it went with. Twenty-five percent of the people surveyed said they had heard of “the Great Commission,” but they didn’t know what it was, and finally, six percent said they couldn’t remember if they’d heard the term before.

Barna further shared five passages from the Bible with churchgoers and asked if they could guess or identify which passage was known as the Great Commission.

Thirty-seven percent answered correctly. Thirty-three percent weren’t sure if any of the passages referred to the Great Commission, and 31 percent answered incorrectly.

The study says this could mean the term is used less in churches or it could show a decrease in interest of working towards the Great Commission.

» Full story attributes the findings to biblical illiteracy and offers suggestions and resources for families.

» Editor’s note: It may be helpful to acknowledge that the term Great Commission is a man-made one. Many would say there are actually five Great Commission passages, not one.

Source: Mission Network News, April 16, 2018

For centuries, a group of people in India went by the name “untouchables.” Today, these same people are referred to as Dalits and despite their new title, they continue to face discrimination and worse in Indian society. And it’s all in the name of religion.

In recent nationwide protests led by the Dalits, at least eight people were killed. Streets, buildings, public transportation, and educational institutes were temporarily shut down.

The angry response came after a Supreme Court ruling which Dalits believe leaves them more vulnerable to the abuses of society.

David Curry of Open Doors USA says, “It’s really brought to light, yet again, the challenge that we have in India for human rights, in particular recognizing that each and every individual is of value, and of equal value.

“We’ve seen it before … when we look at the rising persecution of Christians in India. It’s a significant portion of the population—about 65 million people are Christians in India. And yet they’ve seen this incredible rise of persecution.”

» Read full story.

» Also read Converting to Buddhism as a Form of Political Protest (The Atlantic) and Big Brother in India Requires Fingerprint Scans for Food, Phones and Finances (New York Times).