Category: News Briefs

Source: OMF Global Chinese Ministries Newsletter, November 2013

One of China’s most admired traditions has been respecting parents and the close ties between family members. Many have thought that the way China cares for elderly parents has better exemplified biblical teaching on respecting one’s father and mother than the treatment often meted out to parents in the nominally Christian West. However, it seems this good tradition is fast disappearing.

Neglect of elderly parents has now become so common in China that the government has enacted a new law forcing children to regularly visit and care for their parents. “Family members who live apart from their parents should visit often or send their regards to their parents,” states the new Elderly Protection Law which came into force on July 1 this year. Anyone “neglecting the elderly” can now face court action.

Many Chinese churches have formal programs to honor their elderly members and give them financial aid. Many more help informally in myriad ways. They set an encouraging example in a society which has become increasingly unconcerned with the elderly.

» Read full story.

Source: Baptist Press News, November 5, 2013

He was 14 years old when he was kicked out of his country. Now 36, Rasaili spent 18 years in a Nepali refugee camp, after being forced to leave Bhutan.

Today, Rasaili is one of 70,000 Bhutanese refugees resettled in the USA within the last four years. And he, like many Bhutanese, has found a freedom in Christ that he could not have imagined before he left his homeland.

From a Hindu background, Rasaili has seen Jesus work in miraculous ways through the healing of his wife Pabitra. He believed in Jesus because of this experience.

“I have a heart to do something in the kingdom of God,” Rasaili said. “My wife and I have a burden to change our community for Christ – even go as a missionary to Nepal, India, and Bhutan.”

He now serves as associate pastor of First Agape Baptist Church, one of five Bhutanese churches in the Atlanta area.

First Agape began in 2010, starting with two Bhutanese families. Just this year, he sent a Bhutanese couple to plant a church in Kansas City, Missouri, and he organizes groups of Bhutanese leaders throughout the Midwest and eastern United States.

Last year, First Agape trained 38 pastors, elders, deacons, and Sunday School teachers, all committed to planting Bhutanese churches all over the USA. This year, they expect 50 people from 22 states.

» Read full story, and watch a brief video about Dharnal.

» See also J. D. Payne’s recent post on planting ethnic churches in the USA (Missiologically Thinking).

In This Issue: A human chain in Pakistan

• PAKISTAN: Human Chain Formed to Protect Church
• NORTH KOREA: Huge Massacre? 
• MONGOLIA: A Miraculous Moving of God’s Spirit
• WORLD: More People Have Cell Phones than Electricity
• RUSSIA: Also at a Crossroads

Source: The Christian Post, October 8, 2013

Between 200-300 Pakistani Muslims and Christians united and gathered to make a human chain around a church in Lahore, Pakistan’s second largest city on Sunday [October 6].

Just two weeks after a church bombing killed more than 100 people in Peshawar, the human chain, organized by the citizen group “Pakistan for All,” is part of the movement’s goal to raise awareness about minority rights and concerns.

“Well the terrorists showed us what they do on Sundays. Here we are showing them what we do on Sundays. We unite,” Pakistan for All organizer Mohammad Jibran Nasir told The Express Tribune.

Mufti Mohammed Farooq opened the event by reading several passages from the Quran that called for tolerance of other beliefs, while Father Nasir Gulfam, who had just preached the church’s Sunday service, stood by his side before they took hold of each other’s hands, modeling their message.

» Read full story.

» Readers might be interested in another story from The Christian Post, this one from the U.S.: Muslim-Born Man Testifies, ‘I’ve Never Seen This Type of Love Before’ After Church Unites to Save His Local Business.

Source: ASSIST News, October 13, 2013

Some 20,000 prisoners of conscience [have disappeared] from North Korea’s Camp 22, a massive concentration camp.

According to a story by Robert Park published in Forbes and the Chicago Tribune, the camp was geographically larger than Los Angeles and thought to have once held between 30,000 to 50,000 prisoners.

Satellite photographs indicate that guard posts, interrogation and detention facilities at the camp had been razed last year. By that time, those accused and exploited had been reduced to about 3,000.

While an estimated seven to eight thousand prisoners are believed by some observers to have been taken away at night via train, the rest remain unaccounted for.

On the basis of testimony from former camp guards Ahn Myong-chol and Kwon Hyuk, worldwide attention has been focused on the horrors which took place daily at Camp 22 – a literal killing field.

In an August report, David Hawk of the Washington D.C.-based Committee for Human Rights in North Korea (HRNK) commented on Camp 22’s rapid depopulation, “If even remotely accurate, this is an atrocity requiring much closer investigation.”

» Read full story.

Source: Mobile Mission Forum

While over 96% of the world’s population has access to a cell phone, 1.5 billion people do not have access to electricity. In the Third World, 79% of the people have no electricity. Yes, they can talk on their phones while they carry water jugs home. So what is the best way to reach these people for Christ? Their mobile device.

The Mobile Ministry Forum (MMF) Consultation at the Wycliffe Bible Translator Headquarters on December 9-11, 2013, in Orlando, FL, is the key gathering for people interested in learning how to use mobile technology for ministry outreach. This three-day conference includes TED-style presentations, discussions, ministry field reports, workshop breakouts, and networking time. The call is to anyone using mobile technology in a ministry context, creating apps or content, or anyone interested in starting a mobile ministry.

The Mobile Ministry Forum (MMF) is a coalition of ministries working towards the goal of giving every unreached person a chance to encounter Christ and his kingdom in a compelling, contextualized fashion through their personal mobile device by 2020. Ministries include Biola University, Campus Crusade for Christ, Christian Broadcasting Network, Cyber Missions, International Mission Board, and Wycliffe Bible Translators.

Source: JESUS Film Project, October 11, 2013

With God, nothing is impossible! Through the “JESUS” Film, his Spirit is moving in amazing and unprecedented ways, changing hearts and transforming lives, even in very difficult and previously unreached countries.

Only two decades ago, there were less than 50 known believers in the entire nation of Mongolia. Now, through the film “JESUS,” tens of thousands are turning to Christ. Hundreds of growing, reproducing churches have been planted, as new believers have been nurtured and equipped to share their faith and are now spreading the Gospel and making new disciples.

Praise the Lord for his faithfulness, and for the amazing work his Spirit is performing to bring unreached people “from darkness to joy”!

» Watch the short video From Darkness to Joy.

» Did you know more than 175,000 people have installed the Jesus Film Media App? It provides access to films you can use in more than 1,000 languages.

Source: OM News, September 16, 2013

“Before I left home, I started to have doubts,” said Tatiana at her interview to enroll as a student at OM Russia’s Discipleship Center. “I bought my sleeping bag just in case, and decided to just take a step of faith.”

Once she arrived at OM Russia’s base, Tatiana was pleasantly surprised when she realized she wouldn’t have to sleep on the floor in her sleeping bag! Why was Tatiana so worried about the living conditions? Because she’s no longer so young; she’s a pensioner (retired).

Last year, OM Russia’s board suggested that they train older people, because the training center’s goal is “to motivate and challenge people at a ‘crossroads’ moment in their lives, when they are faced with a choice of either developing a career and pouring their energy in that direction or opening themselves up to God’s service and seeking God’s Kingdom first,” according to field leader Colin Cleaver. This year, OM Russia opened a special faculty for pensioners to train to become missionaries.

For the past eight years, the center has focused on recent university graduates, but team members have realized that not only young people find themselves having to make decisions about their futures.

“Our board observed that pensioners are also often at a similar crossroads, needing to decide on a new life direction,” said Colin. “In addition, they are often financially independent, free from caring for their children, and with time on their hands – in short, the perfect potential missionaries!”

»  Read full story.

In This Issue: Worship in North Korea, Egyptian hip hop, and fruit in Burundi

• NORTH KOREA: Believers Lead the World in 100 Days of Worship
• EGYPT: Hip Hope
• LAOS: 50 Christians Face Eviction  
• SRI LANKA: Threats from Buddhist Extremists
• BURUNDI: Amazing Fruit

About Us

Source: Charisma News, September 17, 2013

September 23 through December 31, Christians are invited to follow the lead of their North Korean Christian brothers and sisters to do what led to their persecution in the first place: gather together in small groups for daily public worship in the common places of life – their homes, schools, workplaces, parks, libraries, bus stops, and more – using the historic four pillars liturgy of the North Korean underground church:

• The Apostles’ Creed
• The Ten Commandments
• The Lord’s Prayer
• The Lord’s Supper

» Read full story and visit the Seoul USA’s 100 Days website for additional materials. See also Why The NK Underground Church Loves the Ten Commandments So Much and the 12-minute TED Talk, Hyeonseo Lee – My Escape from North Korea.

» Readers might also be interested in this story from the same region: South Korea’s Travel Bans a Blessing in Disguise for Missions.