Day: February 17, 2016

In this issue:

1. MIDDLE EAST: Jesus Appears to Muslim Family and Tells Them He Is Sending a Man to Tell Them More
2. CHINA: Revival Falls on State-Controlled Churches
3. VIETNAM: Spiritual Climate
4. INDIA: Humiliating Attack Tests Young Pastor’s Faith
5. DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO: The War on Christianity

Greetings,

For the first time in almost 1000 years, the leaders of two major church traditions met and agreed… on at least some things. Read Russian Patriarch Kirill and Pope Francis Meet in Cuba, Sign Declaration (The Moscow Times). To see what they agree on, read the declaration (Catholic Herald). You might also be interested in coverage of the event from World Watch Monitor.

This week’s news has some interesting “East meets West” themes, but I find a greater overarching theme: that of the unstoppable gospel. Perhaps the words of Jesus to Peter in Mark 16 are less about who is the head of the church than about who builds it: “…I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.”

Be encouraged. He is building.

Pat

Source: God Reports, February 2, 2016

Tyler Connell with the Ekballo Project has been touring college campuses around the U.S., sharing stories and video from his most recent trip to Middle East, where he documented a dramatic move of God among Muslims, particularly with refugees.

In the last few months, he and his team visited Harvard, MIT, Iowa State, Clemson, and the University of Georgia, among other campuses. “In every stop we saw the presence of Jesus break in to these college campuses and touch students, with bodies healed, people saved, and people giving their lives to serve in the mission field,” Connell exclaims.

College students are amazed to learn what God is doing in Iraq and the surrounding region. “Jesus is moving in these Middle East nations,” he says. “Many there are disillusioned and broken and just want to know the truth. Now more than ever there is a harvest among Muslims that has not been seen in history.”

[Ekballo’s] film [Life in the Desert] chronicles a young missionary from the Northeastern US. Two years ago he moved to the Middle East to work with Syrian refugees.

“They go house to house and visit these Muslim families and sit with them and talk with them and find out their names, their stories, and love them. As trust is built, they begin to open up about the Gospel,” [explains Connell].

One afternoon [the missionary] walked into a white tent with a family of eight people inside. [He introduced himself and announced] “I’m here to tell you about Jesus.”

He wasn’t quite prepared for their reaction…

» Read about what happened next and (though that particular story isn’t in the film!) watch Life in the Desert.

Source: CBN News, via Joel News International, February 15, 2016

It’s Thursday evening in Fujian Province, southeast China. Scores of men and women are dancing, waving flags, blowing shofars, singing and worshiping God. You might think these images come from a charismatic service in America or Africa. But they’re not. This is communist China. And what is remarkable about this scene is that it’s happening in an officially government-controlled congregation known as Three-Self Church.

“Dramatic changes are happening,” evangelist Duan Huila told CBN News. “God is moving in a powerful way inside these Three-Self Churches.” He and his wife have witnessed this move first-hand. Both are evangelists and have for several years crisscrossed the Chinese countryside documenting the Holy Spirit’s move among Three-Self Churches. “The most amazing thing is that the Lord is raising up God-loving people in these churches—so many brothers and sisters who love God deeply and want to serve him,” Duan said.

» Read full story and watch related video from CBN. See also a 2014 Joel News story on the paradox of the rapid spread of Christianity in China and consider subscribing to Joel News for more stories about the advance of God’s kingdom.

» Also read Leave China, Study in America, Find Jesus (Foreign Policy).

Source: OMF Blog, February 2016

Hoa came to know Christ at age 17. Like many of her peers, she grew up in a Buddhist family. When school friends invited her to church, she met Christ and gave her life to the Lord. She eventually moved to Ho Chi Minh City to work in business.

Over time, however, Hoa’s fervor for the Lord diminished. She married a non-Christian man and was ridiculed by her mother-in-law who worshiped ancestors and wanted Hoa to do the same. After a bout of severe illness in her family, Hoa learned that her mother-in-law had asked a spirit doctor to curse them. When the spirit doctor died, the family’s health returned. Through these trials, Hoa was driven to the arms of her Savior once again.

Hoa’s story is not unlike many Christians in Vietnam. In fact, in a population of 93 million, less than two percent are evangelical Christians.While Buddhism and Confucianism are widely accepted, ancestor worship is the dominant religious practice, inciting a fear of spirits in many people. Introducing the good news of Jesus Christ to Vietnam’s people will require reaching entire families and communities, not just individuals, with God’s love.

Praise God that a small Christian population is steadily growing in Vietnam. A small number of Kinh believers (the majority group) follow Christ in the North and South, totaling around 447,000 believers.

» Read full story and download prayer materials for Vietnam. Throughout February, receive daily prayer points on weekdays by texting PRAYVIETNAM to 24587.

» For news about religious dynamics in another Buddhist-majority country, see Spiritual Battle Rages in Sri Lanka (Christian Aid Mission).

Source: Morning Star News, February 4, 2016

A pastor in northern India who was beaten and paraded through streets with his head half-shaved as crowds called for him to be cut to pieces said he is thankful that he was counted worthy to suffer for the name of Christ.

On Friday (January 29), Hindu extremists posing as policemen picked up Avdhesh Savita, a 35-year-old father of four, from his home in Rendhar village in Uttar Pradesh state and took him to Orai, Jalaun District. They beat him, shaved half of his head, one eyebrow, and one side of his mustache, and put him on a donkey as they led him in a procession through Orai.

They and others in the frenzied crowd mocked him, falsely accusing him of forcible conversion.

“The mob that was parading me was shouting, ‘Kill him, cut him in pieces,’ but I kept telling them that faith unites, it does not divide,” Savita told Morning Star News. “I told my tormentors that I believe in Christ out of my own freewill, and that I have never hurt anyone, but they just did not listen to me.”

» Read full story which includes further explanation and analysis.

Source: World Watch Monitor, February 3, 2016

In central Africa, a brutal militant Islamic group has embedded itself in the eastern extremes of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Muslim Defense International (MDI)—formerly known as the Alliance of Democratic Forces—has become embedded in the region and is attempting to rid the area of its Christians to create a foothold of Islam in the wider Lakes region.

The MDI has been repeatedly attacking the mostly Christian population in these parts of DRC for years. Kidnapping and murder are common. Although their successes ebb and flow, they continue to display surprising strength and have found a firm foothold where they can prepare for jihad into the Lakes Region, the heart of Africa.

Islamic militancy in Africa is part of a broader, global ideological current. Groups taking inspiration from IS have, over the past year, claimed the lives of thousands of Christians on the continent, holding Christians captive from Mali in the west to Somalia in the east.

» Read full story.

» Pray for the DRC (Prayercast). Readers might also be interested in learning more about the story of Salah, an East African Muslim who risked his life to protect Christians from terrorists, eventually dying from the wounds he sustained in doing so (Answering Islam).