Day: March 19, 2014

In this issue: Holiday celebrations and bringing a message from the king

• NEPAL: Minstrel Leads Many to Christ
• INDIA: Trouble in the South
• SRI LANKA: Buddhist Nationalism Fuels Attacks
• PAKISTAN: Peace Center Planned 
• NORTH KOREA: 33 Christians Face Execution

Greetings!

I’ve never been good at traditions; ask my kids. Even birthdays were celebrated without much gusto. But ever since Thanksgivukkah I’ve been thinking more about how to leverage holidays for cross-cultural outreach. And I couldn’t help but notice the abundance of festivals this week.

I write on St. Patrick’s Day. A friend in India proposes that March 17, 2014 may set the world record for most inebriated folk, as Holi and St. Patrick’s Day fall on the same day! I’m thinking about a good friend hosting a Nowruz party for her Iranian friends, tomorrow. I’m also recruiting for an Easter outreach to international students. And earlier today I was meditating, during this Lenten season (a new tradition for me), about the story of Purim.

Then there are the holidays that almost every culture celebrates in some way, but with dates that are all over the calendar. Did you know that in the Middle East, Mother’s Day is March 21st (vernal equinox)? You have two days to write and send an e-card to the “mom” of the host family who fed you so well on that short-term trip! (If you haven’t done a mission trip to the Middle East, consider it!)

Celebrating new life, light, and our Savior King with you,
Pat

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A top leader of one of Sri Lanka’s most militant Buddhist extremist groups led 250 people in an assault on a Christian leader and his family last month, according to sources in the country.

Based in the capital city of Colombo on the island nation’s western coast, Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara, general secretary of the Buddhist extremist Bodu Bala Sena, made the 71-mile trip to Sri Lanka’s central Kandy District to lead 250 villagers and 11 Buddhist monks to the premises of a Holy Family Church leader identified only as Pastor Susantha, according to the National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka (NCEASL).

After storming the pastor’s Asgiriya premises at about 6:30 p.m. on February 16, the villagers and 11 Buddhist monks belonging to the Bodu Bala Sena demanded that he immediately stop worship services that take place there. As Pastor Susantha was explaining to Gnanasara his right to continue worship services, the mob dragged the church leader and his wife from their home and assaulted them, sources said.

“The mob punched, slapped, and hit the pastor and his wife with their fists,” a Christian leader told Morning Star News. “The pastor and wife both suffered minor physical injuries.”

» Read full story.

A group of Korean Christians are planning to build a “peace center” for a Christian community in Pakistan that was hit by a terrorist attack last year.

Last month, a delegation of Korean church leaders visited the Anglican Diocese of Peshawar at the request of Bishop Humphrey Peters. During the visitation, the delegation, which included Dr. Myoung Hyuk Kim, chairman of the Korean Evangelical Fellowship, and the Rev. Dong-Hwi Lee, senior pastor of the Tin Church, announced plans for a peace center.

When completed, the planned facility will include a library and conference hall and be accessible to all people regardless of religious belief, according to Episcopal News Service.

“The project was revealed in the Diocese of Peshawar’s newsletter The Frontier News,” noted ENS, adding that it was being done “in the memory of the martyrs of the All Saints’ Church Peshawar.”

The Dictator of North Korea, Kim Jong-un, decreed that 33 Christians who had planned to establish 500 underground churches under the leadership of South Korean missionary Kim Jung-wook were to be executed. The missionary has been held since October of 2013 in a North Korean prison camp. Now 33 of his friends and followers from the North are due to die in their cells at the State Security Department.

Kim Jung-wook has been held in North Korea since October of 2013. He was forced to “confess” that he worked for the intelligence services and had intentions to overturn the North Korean government. The South Korean Intelligence Service denied this and stated that Kim Jung-wook was kidnapped in China and taken to Pyongyang by North Korean forces.

In his previous purge of 80 persons, witnesses stated that dictator Kim Jong-un had them all machine gunned in front of family members as they watched in horror. Over the last year and three months, the dictator has also purged members of his own family in a brutal way.

Open Doors calls Christians globally to cover the country of North Korea in prayer. North Korea has been the No. 1 persecutor of Christians on the Open Doors World Watch List for 12 years in a row. Engaging in secret religious activities is a crime punishable by arrest and even public execution in this nation. North Korea’s government also regularly detains foreign missionaries.