Day: February 5, 2014

In This Issue: Constitutions, conflicts, and Central African churches

• TUNISIA: Constitution Rejects Sharia Law
• CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC: Church Protects 700 Fleeing Muslims
• KAZAKHSTAN: Trial Begins for Retired Pastor
• RUSSIA: Praying for Sochi and the Winter Olympics
• EUROPE: Seven Signs of Hope

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Missions Catalyst is a free, weekly electronic digest of mission news and resources designed to inspire and equip Christians worldwide for global ministry. Use it to fuel your prayers, find tips and opportunities, and stay in touch with how God is building his kingdom all over the world. Please forward it freely!

Al-Zaytuna Mosque, Tunis. Christopher Rose, Flickr/Creative Commons

Source: World Watch Monitor, January 20, 2014

Three years after the “Arab Spring” started in Tunisia, the country’s National Constituent Assembly is close to passing a new constitution which rejects Islam as the “main source of law,” but states it is the State’s duty to “protect the sacred.”

The new constitution, which has taken two years to conclude, comes almost three years to the day since the fall of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, itself 10 days after the death of a Tunisian vegetable seller which began the movement that would sweep across North Africa and into the Middle East.

Since the revolution of 2011, the question of whether the State would be seen as the “protector of the sacred” has caused great controversy between the moderate Islamist party which came to power after the first post-Ben Ali general election and the broadly secular opposition.

As well as being the “protector of the sacred,” the constitution appoints the State as “guarantor of religion” and “guarantor of freedom of conscience” and promises the “neutrality of places of worship in relation to political manipulation.”

» Read full story, which discussing reactions to these decisions.

» For a long view on the Arab Spring, hear seasoned diplomat and ambassador Marwan Muasher speak at Yale on The Second Arab Awakening and the Battle for Pluralism. Well worth your 30 minutes. Jump to 6:30 where he begins (YouTube).

Source: Christian Post, January 21, 2014

A Central African Republic priest has opened his church as a shelter to Muslims fleeing the Christian militias terrorizing his community.

“I am not going to let anyone hurt the people inside my church; it doesn’t matter whether they are Christians or Muslims,” Xavier Fagba, who leads a church in Boali, a city northwest of the capital Bangui, told FRANCE 24.

At the service on Sunday, Fagba told his congregation to make their Muslim counterparts feel comfortable and greet one another with a “kiss of peace.”

“We just stop causing people pain,” he said.

Jean-Claude, a Christian, encouraged Ahmad – his Muslim neighbor for years – with a hug at the end of the service.

“You need to be strong. Stay positive,” Jean-Claud told his neighbor, who recently had his house destroyed in the violence.

Ahmad said that although he felt that there were individuals trying to protect him, he felt that he would not be fully safe unless he made it to the capital.

“There are people here who are good to us,” Ahmad told The Daily Nation. “But we can’t stay here any longer. We have to leave. I want to go to Bangui. At least there is still some safety there.”

Currently about 70 French troops are guarding Fagba’s church, where 700 Muslims, mostly women and children, are staying. The volume of people has put a strain on the church’s resources, especially its sanitary conditions, however, without a method to evacuate the people safely, they are planning to remain sheltered there.

» Full story with picture.

» Some readers might be interested in a related story, Victimized Christians Take Revenge in Central African Republic; Man Eats Muslim After Christian Mob Attack (Warning: video contains violent and disturbing images).

Source: Forum18, January 22, 2014

Eight months after his arrest and despite his failing health, 67-year-old retired Presbyterian Pastor Bakhytzhan Kashkumbayev was brought from prison in handcuffs [on the 22d of January] for the first hearing in his criminal trial in a court in Kazakhstan’s capital Astana. He faces charges of harming health, inciting hatred, propagating extremism, and leading an organization that harms others, Forum 18 News Service notes. The charges carry a maximum penalty of eight, seven, ten and six years’ imprisonment respectively. He denies all wrongdoing.

About 70 people were present in court to support retired pastor Kashkumbayev, among them foreign diplomats.

The alleged “religious extremism” is possession of two books entitled Healing the Broken Family of Abraham and “New Life for Muslims,” his lawyer told Forum 18.

» Read full story. For more about persecution in Kazakhstan and throughout Central Asia, see additional stories from Forum18 and the January 2014 issue of Persecution magazine (International Christian Concern).

Sources: Various

Athletes, sport fans, and tourists from around the world are gathering in Sochi, Russia for this year’s Winter Olympic Games (February 7-23). What a great opportunity to pray for all those in Sochi and the countries they represent! Many Christian ministries have also been planning and preparing for outreach events for many months. Will you join us in lifting them up?

Engage Sochi includes three virtual prayer walking guides to take you around the Sochi region and the Olympic venues where the games will be held.

Athletes in Action‘s website features stories about the journeys of some of this year’s competitors.

Russian Ministries and more than 500 Russian churches are partnering in a scripture distribution effort; pray for that!

» Know about other ministry efforts, prayer campaigns, or interesting stories related to the Olympics? Let us know.

Source: Joel News International 888, January 9, 2014

Almost 3,000 young people from 40 nations in Europe started the New Year at the Mission-Net congress in Offenburg, Germany, where they received faith, hope, and vision for their continent. Jeff Fountain was one of the speakers who shared about seven signs of hope he sees in Europe today. These signs are:

1. New prayer initiatives are emerging across the continent.

2. The shakings of God: [God] has been shaking the Marxist world, the Muslim world and now the world of Mammon. “Everything not based on God’s kingdom will be shaken,” says Fountain.

3. New spiritual hunger: Despite (or because of) secularism, spiritual hunger is rising. Here is a ripe harvest field for incarnational mission.

4. New expressions of church are emerging outside of traditional church walls.

5. The New Europeans: Look who God is bringing to Europe – from Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Almost half of all EU migrants are already church members. Migrant churches contribute to urban church renewal bringing lost gifts of spiritual discernment, colorful worship and bold proclamation.

6. Unity of heart: Never before has there been as much convergence as today between old rival church traditions – Pentecostal, Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox. Spiritual renewal movements have swept over denominational barriers.

7. Recovery of the gospel of the Kingdom: The awareness that the Gospel is not just good news about salvation, but about Christ’s lordship over all spheres of life is leading to expressions of mission involving the transformation of individuals, families, and communities.

» Subscribe to Joel News. For more perspectives on Europe from Jeff Fountain, read his Weekly Word (The Schuman Centre).

» See also Faith Rising in East, Setting in West – Europe and Christianity (Christian Post) and Sharing the Gospel in the UK: A Nigerian’s Perspective (Christian Today).