Category: News Briefs

Source: Preemptive Love Coalition, February 19, 2017

A devout Muslim, Waleed worked for years as a soldier with Special Forces, and he has the sorrow and stories to prove it. He is more than qualified to work as a security specialist on our front-line deliveries. But now, standing there with that big grin on his scarred face, he looked more like a little kid.

How can he be smiling? We’re in a bombed-out church in the heart of Mosul, where ISIS had painted a giant black flag on the cross out front. Where thousands of Christian homes were marked with the Arabic letter “N,” their lives threatened with the sword, their possessions looted [and] families ultimately driven out of their ancestral neighborhoods like cattle.

Already that day, we’d picked through airstrike wreckage, seen rotted bodies of ISIS fighters, heard and felt and seen the battles of this god-forsaken war, heard stories of untold suffering—and now, standing in this bombed out, burned-up church, Waleed had the nerve to grin at the destruction?

“See? Look up… they missed it.”

» Read full story and/or watch the two-minute video.

» See also Mass Christian Immigration from Iraq Makes Future of Church Uncertain (Voice of America), and read about Burmese Christians ministering in Mosul (Christianity Today).

Source: International Mission Board, February 22, 2017

Every year when the list of Oscar nominees is released, I scour it to find obscure titles tucked away in each category. One group that is always full of gems is “Best Foreign Language Film.” The five movies included are selected from the best of the best that the international film community has to offer. Foreign films offer me something most of the Hollywood-produced ones don’t—a glimpse into a different culture’s worldview. Although I live and serve in Africa, a submission from Australia caught my attention this year.

Tanna, directed by Bentley Dean and Martin Butler and filmed on the Pacific island nation of Vanuatu, is a classic Romeo and Juliet tale of forbidden love. However, since the story was conceived and acted by the indigenous people of Yakel, it’s full of insights into their values, fears, and attempts (and failures) to answer the questions of life.

The challenge the characters in Tanna confront—what cultural norms must be abandoned to preserve life—is similar to one Christians ministering cross-culturally often face: What elements of a culture must be abandoned in order to follow Christ?

Watching films created in different cultural contexts helps me evaluate my own cultural biases and appreciate the diversity of life in our world.

» Read full story and another recent IMB article about biblically faithful contextualization.

» Readers might also be interested the film The Enemy God, recently made available for streaming and download. Want training in film making? Check out the news about the Academy of Frontier Media and Arts (with thanks to Brigada for the tip!)

Source: World Watch Monitor, February 20, 2017

Ten white plastic chairs are arranged in a circle on the roof terrace of a four-story apartment block housing hundreds of Asian laborers. This is a part of Qatar where tourists never come—Doha’s Industrial Zone, where all the hard groundwork is done to maintain Qatar’s image as a modern state. The roads here in some areas are bad, there are no streetlights, and the air is filled with fumes.

Although it is officially illegal to meet outside of government-approved areas, tonight a group of Christians will meet here together to read the Bible and pray.

Most visitors will see only grand, extravagant palaces, brightly illuminated skyscrapers, and futuristically designed mosques in Doha, the capital. Within a few years, a dozen new architectural accomplishments are going to join those landmark buildings—state-of-the-art football stadiums for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, which are said to be costing the country $500m a week.

But the FIFA PR show cannot hide the other side of Qatar—a profoundly intolerant country for non-Muslims. There is a deep division between the extremely rich Qatari nationals, who are now a tiny minority in their own country, and the hundreds of thousands of often exploited laborers, mostly from Asian countries. Reports from charities such as Open Doors suggest there are serious dangers for those not part of Qatar’s Muslim elite. Qatar is ranked 20th on Open Doors’ 2017 World Watch List of countries in which it is most difficult to be a Christian.

» Read full story. A related article describes Christianity in the Arabian Peninsula.

» Also check out Qatar Needs to Stop “Playing the Victim Card,” in which a Qatari author touches on domestic worker abuse (Doha News).

Source: Mission Network News, February 17, 2017

Last summer while in Pakistan, Bruce Allen [of FMI] had met a couple who had just gotten baptized.

These two new Christians were on fire for the Lord and wanted to grow in wisdom and encouragement and to share their faith with their family as well as others. In fact, this was their main prayer request.

“Habib did indeed have an opportunity to share his faith with his family—and they promptly tried to kill him, throwing him off the top of the building,” Allen shares.

Imagine that, having the very people who are closest to you, know you most intimately, violently turning on you for sharing the gospel. It’d be easy to understand if Habib had grown bitter and vowed to never return. But that’s not his story.

Just last month, Allen was back in the country, meeting with new believers and even was able to see some new believers get baptized.

“At the end of that day, having conversations with some of the people who were baptized, we discovered that it was Habib’s family who had gotten baptized.”

Habib and his wife’s steadfast testimony was impactful and influential, and God used it along with his Word to bring this family to him.

» Read full story and also another FMI report about ministry in Pakistan, It Begins with One Cup of Tea.

Source: Operation Mobilization, February 16, 2017

What if the Bible wasn’t in your language? What if you thought God didn’t speak your tongue? What if the Bible was in your dialect, but you had to rely on other people to share it with you because you couldn’t read it for yourself?

Such is the reality of many unreached people groups across the globe, including the Islamic Yao tribe in Malawi.

Up until 2015, the Bible was unavailable in the tribal language of chiYao, in written or audio format. Today, the whole Bible is ready to be heard through AudiBibles.

In the first seven months of 2016, the OM Malawi team handed out 297 solar-powered AudiBibles. Each recipient of a device is expected to start a weekly listening group, as the Word of God is meant to be shared.

“The AudiBible is a true preacher,” said Fredson Phiri, one of the AudiBible trainers. “It doesn’t add, it doesn’t subtract; it gives the whole truth to the person. It preaches itself.”

» Read full story and other OM articles about ministry in Malawi.

1. VIETNAM: The Far-Reaching Impact of Uncle Som’s Testimony
2. BURUNDI: Missionary Surgeon Recognized for Outstanding Service
3. TURKEY: Letter Campaign Seeks Release of Imprisoned US Pastor
4. PAKISTAN: Asia Bibi Story Highlighted on Day of Social Justice
5. SUDAN: Rescued Refugee Returns with Gospel

Source: OMF International, January 23, 2017

[Uncle Som] began trusting in and following Jesus. However, for several months he still had the ancestral altar in his house and allowed other family members to take part in animistic practices. Now he was ready to make a clean break from all of it.

Many others fasted and prayed for Uncle Som as he publicly turned away from the spirits and from ancestor worship. Three months passed and he was alive and well, joyfully praising Jesus and telling his story to other Tai Dam.

In a nearby country, a group of Tai Dam families had turned to Jesus. They [realized] they needed to turn from their old ways but were worried about the response they would face from their community. That’s when a Tai Dam Christian from Uncle Som’s village shared his story with them. Now they are considering the way forward for them and have an example of a Tai Dam man like them being faithful to God, despite the pressure to follow their traditional ways.

» Read full story with prayer points. It’s not too late to join a month-long prayer movement for Vietnam.

Source: Joel News International, February 6, 2017

A missionary surgeon to Burundi has won the first-ever $500,000 Gerson L’Chaim prize for outstanding Christian medical service. Jason Fader, whose parents were also medical missionaries, is one of 13 surgeons serving the 10 million people in the sub-Saharan African country. Three-quarters of the population are malnourished, making Burundi the hungriest country in the world.

Fader, who grew up in Kenya, has been in Burundi since 2013. In addition to caring for about 25,000 patients a year with his team, he trains local doctors. “Jason is doing surgeries that no one else has done before in Burundi,” fellow doctor Rachel McLaughlin said. “He’s teaching medical students surgical skills and management.”

The prize money will be used to create the country’s first postgraduate medical training, add 48 new beds to the 172 at Kibuye Hope Hospital, and improve lower-limb fracture care—a crucial need in a country that travels by foot. “Literally hundreds of people will walk because of this prize,” Fader said. “Thousands of people will be cared for. And tens of thousands will be helped by the doctors we train here.”

Fader is part of a recent resurgence of medical missionaries. Attendance at the Global Missions Health Conference has ballooned more than tenfold over the past 10 years. Attendance at the Christian Community Health Fellowship conference has quadrupled. And the Southern Baptist Convention’s International Mission Board reported an all-time high of 300 medical missionaries on the field in 2013.

The African Mission Healthcare Foundation (AMHF), co-founder of the Gerson Prize, was created in 2010 to promote health care in Africa, where Christian mission hospitals provide about a third of all medical work.

» Read full story from Joel News, or watch a short video from AMHF.

» We also read that Kenya’s health system is on the verge of collapse as a doctors’ strike grinds on (The Guardian).

Source: Joel News International, February 6, 2017

A missionary surgeon to Burundi has won the first-ever $500,000 Gerson L’Chaim prize for outstanding Christian medical service. Jason Fader, whose parents were also medical missionaries, is one of 13 surgeons serving the 10 million people in the sub-Saharan African country. Three-quarters of the population are malnourished, making Burundi the hungriest country in the world.

Fader, who grew up in Kenya, has been in Burundi since 2013. In addition to caring for about 25,000 patients a year with his team, he trains local doctors. “Jason is doing surgeries that no one else has done before in Burundi,” fellow doctor Rachel McLaughlin said. “He’s teaching medical students surgical skills and management.”

The prize money will be used to create the country’s first postgraduate medical training, add 48 new beds to the 172 at Kibuye Hope Hospital, and improve lower-limb fracture care—a crucial need in a country that travels by foot. “Literally hundreds of people will walk because of this prize,” Fader said. “Thousands of people will be cared for. And tens of thousands will be helped by the doctors we train here.”

Fader is part of a recent resurgence of medical missionaries. Attendance at the Global Missions Health Conference has ballooned more than tenfold over the past 10 years. Attendance at the Christian Community Health Fellowship conference has quadrupled. And the Southern Baptist Convention’s International Mission Board reported an all-time high of 300 medical missionaries on the field in 2013.

The African Mission Healthcare Foundation (AMHF), co-founder of the Gerson Prize, was created in 2010 to promote health care in Africa, where Christian mission hospitals provide about a third of all medical work.

» Read full story from Joel News, or watch a short video from AMHF.

» We also read that Kenya’s health system is on the verge of collapse as a doctors’ strike grinds on (The Guardian).

Source: WEA Religious Liberty Commission, January 30, 2017

For over three months, US pastor Dr. Andrew Brunson has been detained in Izmir, Turkey for his Christian faith. Charged falsely with holding “membership in an armed terrorist group,” he now desperately needs your help. The WEA is launching a letter-writing campaign to demand his release. We also encourage you to sign the ACLJ petition for Andrew.

» Read full story and view the sample letter.

» Also pray for three men in Sudan, one a Czech national, as they seek to appeal lengthy prison sentences (Voice of the Martyrs).