Category: News Briefs

Source: United Bible Society, February 19, 2016

Nearly five years into the conflict in Syria, which has killed or displaced half the population, staff members of the Bible Society there are continuing their ministry to provide Scriptures for all who need them.

“The thirst for Scriptures among Christians here has only increased with all the unrest,” notes the Society’s director, who, along with other staff members, has stayed on despite the dangers. “The past five years have been very traumatic for Syrians in general and for Syrian Christians in particular. Every family has a sad story. With this loss of hope, people are turning to God’s Word for comfort and encouragement.”

Amidst this immense trauma and upheaval, the team has received far more requests for Scriptures than ever before. In 2010, the year before the conflict began, the Bible Society distributed just under 15,000 Scriptures. By 2014, the demand had increased tenfold, and nearly 159,000 Scriptures were distributed across Syria that year.

[Visitors to the Aleppo bookshop include] a steady flow of young people who are being offered free Scriptures through a joint project between the Bible Society and local churches.

» Read full story.

Source: GodReports, March 11, 2016

The temperatures in parts of Mongolia are below freezing from November to March, and -40 is common. (-40 degrees happens to be the point where the temperature is the same for both Fahrenheit and Celsius.) Many of the people still live in heavily insulated “yurts,” locally known as “gers” … round structures covered with tarps and animal skins with thick carpets inside and an oil or wood stove as the heat source.

Nazarene missionaries Sunny and Lisa Um moved to Darkhan, Mongolia, in 2012. In 2014, they obtained a long-term lease on property in a poor community outside of Darkhan. Sunny and Lisa observed that many people in that community were sick since their water sources were shallow wells or dirty streams.

In the dry, cold grasslands of Mongolia, water is a precious commodity. So one of their first projects was to drill a deep well on the property that would help provide water for the community. During the week, they charge a minimal fee for the water to help maintain the equipment. But on Sunday, the water is free to everyone! What a beautiful expression of the gospel message. “On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, ‘Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink’” (John 7:37).

» Read full story from GodReports, or go right to the article in Engage, the global missions magazine of the Church of the Nazarene.

 

In This Issue:

1. BURMA: Week of Prayer March 7-13
2. NIGERIA: Churches Unite for First Time to Address Violence in North
3. INDIA: More than 500 Rescued from Slavery
4. ISRAEL/PALESTINE: Palestinian Christians and Messianic Jews Issue Joint Statement
5. MEDITERRANEAN: Migrants Sold Fake Life Jackets

Greetings!

This past week’s major news stories unsettled me. I felt as if the world was changing too fast to make sense of it. Not until I sleuthed for news we could use for Missions Catalyst did I find relief. I found stories about the things that matter most and that speak of the good news of the Gospel and its advance.

Consider the story of Shahid, a Libyan man who came to Christ and now reports baptizing Muslim-background believers on the same shores where ISIS beheaded 21 Coptic Christians (Light the Way), or the story of a skateboarding disciple-maker in one of Asia’s urban centers who is seeing lives changed (Pioneers). I’m also encouraged by reports of those reaching out in love to the world’s refugees.

If your head is spinning by what you are hearing, take heart. Heaven’s headlines are always GOOD News.

In Him,
Pat

 

Source: Christian Solidarity Worldwide

This March, we’re dedicating the whole week of 7-13 March to praying for Burma. In November 2015, Aung San Suu Kyi’s National league for Democracy (NLD) party was elected to power, ending over a decade of oppressive military rule.

We’re excited about this important step for Burma, but this is just the start of a long road. Aung San Suu Kyi herself said in a recent interview that “Prejudice is not removed easily and hatred is not going to be removed easily.”

March 7-13, CSW will be holding an online week of prayer. You can join us by signing up for daily prayer emails, so you too can pray for the future of Burma at this critical time.

» Learn more or sign up to participate.

» Editor’s note: The government of Thailand has decided to send back to Burma the nearly 100,000 refugees, mostly persecuted minorities, who live in camps along the Thai-Burma border. Read a report from Vision Beyond Borders about their plans to relocate vulnerable refugee children during these dangerous days. And, for an interesting glimpse of Burma’s history, see Gospel-singing Nurses Key to General’s 140-mile Retreat from Burma.

Source: World Watch Monitor, February 23, 2016

The world’s deadliest terrorist group is not in the Middle East. It’s in Nigeria, where the Islamist insurgency Boko Haram and other forces killed more than 4,000 Christians in 2015.

That tally was a 62 percent increase from the previous year, according to Open Doors, a global charity that supports Christians in places where their faith exposes them to government, social, or sectarian hostility.

In response, Nigeria’s largest confederation of Christian churches is, for the first time, jointly endorsing a commitment to revive the Church in the country’s north, before it collapses from a decade of violence that has killed thousands of Christians and driven away more than 1 million.

At the same time, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), has jointly published with Open Doors a detailed study of the violence and its impact.

CAN is comprised of councils representing Protestant denominations, indigenous Evangelical churches, Pentecostal churches, and the Catholic Church. Together they encompass about half of Nigeria’s 173 million people.

» See full story with map and pictures.

Source: International Justice Mission, March 3, 2016

In an ongoing rescue operation, Indian police and IJM staff have rescued 564 children, women and men from forced labor slavery at a massive brick kiln.

This is IJM’s largest anti-slavery operation ever—and it took place in the exact same, sprawling factory where [IJM] helped rescue more than 500 people in 2011.

The kiln owner had evaded arrest in that first operation, but today his impunity has ended. Police arrested him and five other accomplices from an organized trafficking network. They are currently in custody and will face charges under India’s anti-trafficking laws and Bonded Labour Act.

Over the next few days, Indian officials and IJM staff will stay with the families and make sure they have nourishing meals and medical care. IJM field workers will help the families return to their home villages by train on Friday.

For the next two years, IJM staff will meet with the families regularly and connect them to long-term rehabilitation programs and opportunities so they can rebuild lives in freedom.

IJM will support local police as they build the legal case against the kiln owner and the trafficking ring that helped him grow his business—hopefully ending this systematic abuse of the poor for good.

» See full story with pictures and read more coverage of this dramatic rescue operation in The Times of India, The Hindu and The New Indian Express.

Source: Lausanne News, February 25, 2016

Thirty Palestinian Christians and Messianic Jews met in Larnaca, Cyprus, January 25-28, 2016 for four days of prayer, fellowship, and study. They issued a statement affirming their unity as believers in Jesus and calling on their communities to join them in reconciliation initiatives.

The Lausanne Initiative for Reconciliation in Israel/Palestine (LIRIP) hosted the conference. Its vision is “to promote reconciliation within the body of Christ and our wider communities in Israel and Palestine by creating a network that encourages, under the auspices of the Lausanne Movement, models of gospel-based, Christ-centered reconciliation that will have prophetic impact in relation to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”

The Larnaca Statement highlights the issues and challenges affecting reconciliation, noting:

“In times of tension and violent conflict, relationships suffer, while suspicion, accusation, and mutual rejection thrive. At such times it is even more essential that we who affirm our unity in the Messiah must uphold ethical standards of life that are worthy of our calling, in all our attitudes, words, and deeds.”

It recognizes that “we hold very different theological positions regarding the land, and also very different perspectives on the causes of the social, political, and economic realities that impact the daily life of all who inhabit the land.”

Nevertheless, it calls for “a generous theological stance, which makes room for and respects the conscientious convictions of others that they sincerely derive from their reading of Scripture” and for “every effort to maintain our fellowship with each other as a witness to the unity of the body of the Messiah and to the boundless love of God for all people.”

» Read full press release.

Source: ASSIST News, January 10, 2016

“It is raining like crazy in Lesvos tonight and people who got soaking wet arriving on boats today have not been able to dry up at all,” [writes refugee advocate Zrinka Bralo]. “I met a great crew from Zagreb on the beach today. They are working with unaccompanied minors in Moria camp and came out to help on the beach. It was truly humbling to see the efforts to of one American lifeguard from the Dutch Boat Refugee Foundation to save a life of a man who was so hypothermic that he slipped away and stopped shaking.”

Zrinka went on to say, “I am still sticking with my policy of not taking photos of people in distress, especially children. I am also finding it increasingly difficult to restrain myself when I see other people hugging children off the boat and pulling out big lens cameras and sticking it into the terrified children’s faces. But that is another story. I leave you tonight with my rage, my guilt, and a few photos of the fake life jackets I struggled to pull off tiny children this morning.”

Recently police have raided and arrested people working in factories in Turkey making these “fake life jackets” to sell to the people. The Guardian reports that police allegedly seized 1,263 lifejackets filled with non-buoyant materials from an illegal workshop in Izmir that employed two Syrian children, according to Agence France-Presse and Dogan news agencies.

The raid came in the same week that the bodies of more than 30 people washed up on Turkish beaches, having drowned in their attempt to reach Greece. Some of the dead were pictured wearing lifejackets, leading to suspicions that they may have been fake.

» See full story with pictures and read Turkish police find factory making fake lifejackets in Izmir.

» Other stories related to the refugee crisis report that nine Christian leaders in Australia were arrested for protesting deportation of refugees (Christian Post / Christian Headlines) and that refugees were tear-gassed in France (Foreign Policy) and Macedonia (Al Jazeera). See also A Street View of Immigration (SAT-7 video).

In this issue:

1. MIDDLE EAST: Jesus Appears to Muslim Family and Tells Them He Is Sending a Man to Tell Them More
2. CHINA: Revival Falls on State-Controlled Churches
3. VIETNAM: Spiritual Climate
4. INDIA: Humiliating Attack Tests Young Pastor’s Faith
5. DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO: The War on Christianity

Greetings,

For the first time in almost 1000 years, the leaders of two major church traditions met and agreed… on at least some things. Read Russian Patriarch Kirill and Pope Francis Meet in Cuba, Sign Declaration (The Moscow Times). To see what they agree on, read the declaration (Catholic Herald). You might also be interested in coverage of the event from World Watch Monitor.

This week’s news has some interesting “East meets West” themes, but I find a greater overarching theme: that of the unstoppable gospel. Perhaps the words of Jesus to Peter in Mark 16 are less about who is the head of the church than about who builds it: “…I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.”

Be encouraged. He is building.

Pat

Source: God Reports, February 2, 2016

Tyler Connell with the Ekballo Project has been touring college campuses around the U.S., sharing stories and video from his most recent trip to Middle East, where he documented a dramatic move of God among Muslims, particularly with refugees.

In the last few months, he and his team visited Harvard, MIT, Iowa State, Clemson, and the University of Georgia, among other campuses. “In every stop we saw the presence of Jesus break in to these college campuses and touch students, with bodies healed, people saved, and people giving their lives to serve in the mission field,” Connell exclaims.

College students are amazed to learn what God is doing in Iraq and the surrounding region. “Jesus is moving in these Middle East nations,” he says. “Many there are disillusioned and broken and just want to know the truth. Now more than ever there is a harvest among Muslims that has not been seen in history.”

[Ekballo’s] film [Life in the Desert] chronicles a young missionary from the Northeastern US. Two years ago he moved to the Middle East to work with Syrian refugees.

“They go house to house and visit these Muslim families and sit with them and talk with them and find out their names, their stories, and love them. As trust is built, they begin to open up about the Gospel,” [explains Connell].

One afternoon [the missionary] walked into a white tent with a family of eight people inside. [He introduced himself and announced] “I’m here to tell you about Jesus.”

He wasn’t quite prepared for their reaction…

» Read about what happened next and (though that particular story isn’t in the film!) watch Life in the Desert.