Month: October 2013

Source: Mission Network News, September 17, 2013

According to a report from the Human Rights Watch for Lao Religious Freedom (HRWLRF), on August 30 the leaders of Nongdaeng village (a rural community in Central Laos) summoned representatives of 11 Christian families to the government headquarters building for an official meeting concerning religious affairs in the village.

During the meeting, officials ordered all 11 families – comprising 50 men, women, and children – to recant their Christian faith and return to their village’s traditional animist religion.

“They charged these Lao Christians with believing the religion of a foreign Western power, which is considered destructive to the Lao nation,” stated HRWLRF. “Officials expressed their intention that no Christian faith can be adhered to or practiced in Nongdaeng.”

» Read full story with picture and prayer points.

» Also read A Light in the Mountains (OM News).

» Interested in this region? Our friends at OMF UK recently wrote us about an upcoming book, The Gospel in the Land of a Millions Elephants, and put in a good word for Reg Reimer’s Vietnam’s Christians: A Century of Growth in Adversity.

Source: Barnabas Aid, September 16, 2013

Christian leaders from Sri Lanka have asked supporters to join them in prayer as their churches face a mounting threat from Buddhist extremists. In the latest wave of incidents, police asked at least seven churches to close on Sunday, September 8 because of threats from Buddhists.

At one of the churches, in Meegoda, Colombo district, 30-40 Christians had gathered for prayer when a mob led by three Buddhist monks forced their way into the premises.

One of the monks hit the pastor over the head with a guitar until the instrument broke and the pastor was knocked unconscious. His mother tried to intervene but was herself beaten by some members of the mob.

The congregation was told that it was a Buddhist village, and the mob demanded that their prayer meetings stop immediately.

Churches are being told by the authorities that they must obtain permission from the Buddhist and Religious Affairs Ministry, even though religious groups are not officially required to register with the state in Sri Lanka. This is proving extremely problematic for Evangelical and Pentecostal churches, because they are not recognized by the Buddhist and Religious Affairs Ministry.

So far this year, there have been 45 anti-Christian incidents. Many of them have involved church gatherings being attacked but pastors and individuals have also been targeted.

» Read full story.

Source: Simon Guillebaud, September 3, 2013

Editor’s note: We have reported several times on the ministry of Great Lakes Outreach in Burundi. August 3-17, they were part of an effort that sent out 761 evangelists in 42 teams around the country. The summary below is from their partner Onesphore, founder of Harvest for Christ.

• 39,753 people were reached with the gospel, of whom 18,218 gave their lives to Christ. Numbers are down (!) a little on previous years because we didn’t preach exclusively but also did service projects
• 60 Muslims and 28 witchdoctors were among the converts
• 171 people were healed from regular sicknesses
• 15 paralytics walked
• 15 blind people recovered their sight
• 8 deaf/mute people heard/spoke again
• 20 demon-possessed people were delivered
• 55 separated couples were reconciled and brought together
• 8 divided families were reunited

“Zacharie is a young man whom witchdoctors said had been poisoned by his dad. So for the last twenty years, the two had been enemies, and Zacharie had tried many times to kill his father. By May 2013, Zacharie had become mad, and was living in caves. When our evangelists arrived, he tried to beat them, but they refused to be cowed, instead praying for him. After an hour of such prayers, he was miraculously healed. Immediately he was filled with love for his father and went off to find him. The village heard about it, came to see what had happened, and fifty of them gave their lives to Christ. His mum, who had divorced his dad, came and was reconciled with her ex-husband.

“In an area steeped in witchcraft, the team felt it best not to preach for the first week but to simply to serve the community in any way possible. They came to a big witchdoctor and offered to work in his field and cultivate for him. He was blown away after a few hours and allowed them to share why they were doing it. On the spot he and his family repented. He publicly burnt all his charms, whereupon 30 other people gave their lives to Christ too. When our team left, many came to see them off in tears.”

» See full story with picture.