Day: September 18, 2013

In This Issue: A time of shaking, a time of rejoicing

• CANADA: Move In – Can It Get Any Simpler Than This?
• KOSOVO: Singing for Soul Healing 
• AFGHANISTAN: Authorities Call for Death of Christian Converts 
• YEMEN: A Mustard Seed 
• MOROCCO: Christian Jailed for “Shaking the Faith of a Muslim”

Greetings!

“The world is experiencing an unusual period of shaking,” writes Richard Swenson, one of my favorite analysts of world events. “There is a volatility and soft-anarchy across the globe, and nowhere do we find a center that is holding.” Hear what he has to say about Syria at Swenson Trends.

In this time of “shaking,” God is also sending his ambassadors to teach the world rejoicing. See stories below of singing in Kosovo and North Africa and wedding parties as a means to share the Good News. Apparently God is not worried about the state of events.

Rejoice in the Lord…always,

Pat

About Us

Source: Tentmaking Briefs, September 2013

MoveInners, in a nutshell, are people who decide to move into neighborhoods deemed a “no-go zone” for 99.9% of Christians. Even the police dread to enter these areas of our major cities. Calling 911 [emergency services] may be futile as too often no one will come.

Move-inners are mostly young “Generation Y” couples and singles deliberately moving into low income, crime-ridden neighborhoods, to integrate themselves with the people who have little choice on where to live. These areas are made up largely of recent immigrants from the so-called unreached areas of the world.

» Full story here. See also an interview with the founder of this Canadian ministry on 100 Huntley Street, then watch an eight-minute video with highlights from the wedding celebration he and his bride threw for some 1200 neighbors.

Source: Meredith Moench, OM News, September 13, 2013

“You know, we’re still not healed from wartime here in Kosova. We’re still not really laughing,” said 19-year-old “Nora.” We’re sitting in a crowded cafeteria of teenagers. Nora seems undistracted.

Two nights before, Nora stood in that same cafeteria and stunned the room as she sang for the Arts Camp Student Talent Show. Her voice was strong as a diamond, precise on the highest notes, piercing. She closed her eyes as she stood at the microphone and let her voice do the work.

OM arts camp director “Malachi” hoped to create a special space for young Kosovar artists to develop their art forms. In a country lacking artistic support and development, Malachi’s vision is to break cultural and religious barriers with the God-given power of the arts.

Through a spiritual reflection each morning, he turned the students’ gaze inward, and pointed them to their need to know the greatest artist of all: their Creator. Each evening the students and teachers were mutually given the dignity of sharing their art form through performance, and experiencing God’s presence in the creative expression of others.

For Nora, it was singing that sparked her opportunity to attend camp. “Music is really helping me. It’s like it brings peace and joy deep inside a person. I want to heal people, because when people are hurt they do bad things. By healing people we can make things better,” she paused.

“I know that I’m not healed yet, but this camp has started to help me. It’s difficult to forgive. I haven’t forgiven the Serbs yet,” said Nora. “But I choose the way of God; I choose the way of healing.”

» Read full story. Several other recent stories from OM also highlight the power of music to touch hearts. See Dance for France and Singing Tourists.

Source: Mission Network News, September 16, 2013

According to a report originally published by Mohabat News, Afghanistan’s leaders are calling for the death of Christian converts.

“Numerous Afghans have become Christians in India. This is an offense to Islamic Laws and, according to the Quran, they need to be executed,” stated the Afghanistan Member of Parliament, Nazir Ahmad Hanafi, in a published report.

The number of people coming to Christ from Muslim backgrounds is reportedly increasing. Most Muslim-background believers have fled to India for safety; a growing church established in Delhi reportedly has around 250 members.

Afghanistan’s Parliament has addressed this issue on separate occasions over the past few months. One MP, Abdul Latif Pedram, said that “conversions to Christianity are the result of the presence of the United States in Afghanistan.” He feels the conversion of Afghans in India is part of the US’s longer-term plan to alter the country’s culture and religion.

» Read full story.

» See also Afghan Church Grows in Delhi (Matters India).

Source: Wazala, a ministry of SAT-7, August 6, 2013

In his moving account of years serving as a chaplain in the port of Aden, Yemen: Heartbreak and Hope, Peter Crooks recalls a series of conversations that reveal God’s undercover Spirit at work in members of this strongly Islamic society.

“Omar [leaned] forward in the chair opposite me. His hands were loosely clasped and he had a scarf wrapped around his head. He had at least two days of stubble on his chin. He spoke very slowly and deliberately in English, and his dark eyes were fixed intently on my own. ‘Will you baptize us?’ he asked searchingly.

“I had had a hunch that this was where the conversation with he and his friend Mustafa was headed. I hesitated briefly and replied cautiously that to do so might prove a dangerous and costly step for us all. ‘We have read the Bible,’ he responded. ‘We have studied the words of Jesus. He talked about the cross. We are ready to take up the cross. Do not stop us.'”

“I thought about that meeting with the two men and their burning question when, a week later, we were invited to attend a reception on a French naval warship … an unlikely but congenial setting for the lively conversation that unexpectedly opened up on board between myself and senior members of Aden’s security and police services, who had also been invited to the reception, about Yemeni Christians.

“‘Are there many Yemeni Christians?’ came the first question.

“‘Yes,’ I replied. No one asked me how many, and I would have been hard pressed to give a figure if I had been asked to. If I had been, I would have ventured several hundred at least, and it could well be several thousand.

“‘Where are they?’ asked another officer.

“‘Everywhere,’ I said.”

» Full story.

Source: Worthy News, September 12, 2013

A Moroccan Christian has been fined and jailed for “shaking the faith of a Muslim.”

Spreading Christianity is prohibited under Article 220 of the Moroccan Penal Code; the maximum sentence for this offense is three to six months’ imprisonment, but in a September hearing, Mohamed el Baldi was convicted and sentenced to two and a half years.

Baldi was arrested after his house was raided on August 28 and all his religious belongings were confiscated, according to World Watch Monitor.

Baldi, who converted to Christianity almost seven years ago, confessed that he attended Christian meetings in the towns of Meknes and Rabat.

During his hearing, Baldi’s mother was said to have asked Allah to exact revenge on whoever tampered with her son’s mind.

» Full story here.