Day: January 20, 2016

In This Issue:

1. BURKINA FASO: Seven Servants Go Home
2. IRAN: Prostitute Hired to Hear the Gospel
3. NEAR EAST: 2015, the Year of Displacement
4. WORLD: World Watch List 2016
5. CENTRAL ASIA: Doing Business, Expanding the Kingdom

Greetings,

By now you have probably heard that Saeed Abedini has been freed. After more than three years in Iran he will soon be home with his wife and children.

You may know that another Christian brother, Michael Riddering, has “gone home” this week as well, but his wife is mourning. Will you rejoice with me that the Ridderings gave up leasing yachts in South Florida to serve the poor and sick in West Africa? I have a new hero in Mike. His story is not likely to inspire more workers in hard places, but it inspires me to live more purposefully and trust God to lead me, anywhere. Read on.

Rejoice in the Lord… always!

Pat

Mike Riddering, 45, from Florida had been working as a missionary in Burkina Faso since 2011. (Mike Riddering/Facebook, via World Watch Monitor)

Source: Mission Network News, January 20, 2016

Burkina Faso ends three days of national mourning today.

The president said security would be stepped up in the capital and the country’s borders after Islamic militants killed at least 28 people last week.

Six of those who died were from Canada, on a mission trip, while a seventh was a U.S. missionary. According to Brietbart and World Watch Monitor, the seventh victim was 45-year-old Michael Riddering, a native of Florida. He was in Ouagadougou with Pastor Valentin, his Burkinabe associate, to pick up a team of missionaries visiting from a church in Florida. They were early, so they stopped by the Cappuccino Cafe to wait.

Not long after they arrived, [al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb] launched the attack, beginning with the café. Valentin called [Riddering’s wife] Amy to ask her to pray urgently, but the line went dead before he finished what he was saying. Valentin was eventually found and rescued by security forces. Mike was found in a morgue 24 hours later.

In the days following her husband’s death, the community the Ridderings served has come around Amy and are mourning with her. She posted on her Facebook page her struggle to come to grips with what happened, her love for Mike, and her hope in Christ. That came through yesterday, when amid her grief she posted this: “One of our ladies as the Women’s Center gave birth two days ago. She wanted me to name her child. Her name is Chantal Relwende. ‘Relwende’ … means ‘Lean on God.’”

» Read full story and see also Burkina Faso Dead Include Seven Mission Workers (World Watch Monitor) and note that on the same day as this attack, an Australian doctor and his wife were kidnapped in Ouagadougou. Please keep Ken and Jocelyn Elliot in your prayers.

» Readers might also be interested in an article from Florida’s Sun Sentinel newspaper honoring Michael Riddering and learning about the ministry with which he served, Sheltering Wings.

Source: Iran Alive Ministries, January 1, 2016

Farhad, a volunteer evangelist for Iran Alive’s online ministry, did not know at first what to think when he sensed the Holy Spirit guiding him to pick up a prostitute. All he knew is that he needed to obey and that he had help waiting at home.

“I picked up one of the prostitutes waiting for clients and took her to my home. When we got there, she prepared to take off her clothes. I quickly stopped her and explained I wanted nothing to do with her physically. I said, “Please sit here behind the computer with me and listen to what they say in this chat room.”

“She became very upset and thought I would not pay her. I told her not to worry, and that I would pay her what I had promised. She agreed and sat down.

“The chat room was Iran Alive’s Church7 online service conducted every Friday night. As we were listening, the pastor said, ‘The Lord is saying that those of you who think there is no hope left, you who think addiction is the answer to your pain, you who think being a prostitute is the only way to make money, there is hope for you.’ This caught the woman’s attention. Then the pastor said, ‘God is able to open new doors in your life. God is waiting for you.’”

» Read what happened next.

Source: Cry Out Now, January 2016

2015 could rightly be described as the “year of displacement.”

• At least 40% of Syria’s population, or 7.6 million people, have been internally displaced, the highest number in the world… 4.4 million registered Syrian refugees have been externally displaced as [of] December 10, 2015.
• 13.5 million Syrians will be displaced in 2016 according to the Syria Humanitarian Response Plan, of whom 6 million are children.
• 807,000 Syrian asylum applications were received in Europe between April 2011 and November 2015 compared to 137,947 during 2014.
• Less than 20% of Syrian refugees seek safety in Europe.
• 3.6 million Syrians registered by UNHCR are in Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey.
• Germany has officially seen one million people (from all nations) arrive in the country as asylum seekers in the course of 2015.
• In November alone, more than 200,000 people were added to the list, smashing all forecasts.
• 218,394 were registered in Greece by October 2015 with an average of 6,604 refugees arriving each day in Macedonia.
• 3,485 refugees have drowned or have gone missing the past year.
• The oldest refugee passing through Macedonia has been a 105-year-old woman from Afghanistan. The youngest refugee passing through Macedonia has been a 20-day-old infant. 51.2% of all refugees are children younger than 18 years of age.

“Lord, would you use the terrible situations refugees are facing all across the region and into Europe to bring many thousands to yourself, and would you revive the church through your work among them? Lord, we pray in 2016 for peace and a beginning of a return back for many.”

» Read full story and see the UN data source.

Source: Open Doors, January 2016

The Open Doors World Watch List highlights the 50 countries where it is most difficult to live as a Christian. These are the places where followers of Christ must keep their beliefs hidden and where living the gospel means facing beatings, imprisonment, discrimination, and abuse.

The list reports that persecution became more intense in more parts of the world in 2015. While North Korea remains the most difficult place in the world to be a Christian, persecution is growing most rapidly in Africa, especially sub-Saharan Africa. In the Middle East, Islamic State violence in Iraq and Syria has increased the pace of the exodus of the Christian population from the region and is also having a global impact.

Christians living in these countries need the support of their family, the body of Christ, to help them stand firm in their faith.

» View map, facts, faces, country profiles, and more and see the Open Doors January 13 press release.

Source: Frontiers UK, January 8, 2016

Matt leads a team and has an animal feed business in Central Asia. Through this business, local families are trained in how to set up and operate their own small-scale farms. The business helps them get started by providing them with a small investment of livestock and feed.

Matt hired Adem, who had recently become a believer, as the company’s first national employee. Later he became the company’s first distributor. “It’s easier to talk about Jesus now that I am a businessman,” Adem says. “It has opened many doors for me because people respect me. They trust me. I find it is easy to start talking about spiritual things with people because I am already involved in their lives.”

Adem has several new believers he is discipling, teaching, and equipping to obey Jesus’ commands. Through Matt’s mentoring and encouragement, Adem has grown into a spiritually sensitive entrepreneur, constantly looking for new opportunities to grow the business and expand the kingdom.

» Read full story.