A Frontiers worker shares how his team is using Facebook to connect with hundreds of Muslims who want to learn about Christ. See story below. This edition of News Briefs features several other stories of unusual or unexpected ministry.
Day: October 2, 2019
MUSLIM WORLD: Bible Studies with Bots
Source: Frontiers USA, September 16, 2019
“We have been waiting for this chance to study God’s Word,” Khadija said at the start of the Bible study.
Khadija and her husband, Rayan, live in a remote community—a place that may never have been open to the gospel had it not been for Facebook.
Some months ago, Rayan started engaging with us on our team’s evangelistic Facebook page, where he watched videos about Jesus and read passages of Scripture.
Like hundreds of other Muslims who have visited the Facebook page, Rayan also studied the Word with the page’s bot, a software application that runs automated mini-Bible studies.
After Rayan completed the mini-Bible study, we connected him with one of our Muslim-background believing partners. This gave Rayan the chance to meaningfully interact with a follower of Jesus.
But before ever meeting a believer in person, Rayan had already shared Jesus with more than a dozen people. His entire family had started reading the New Testament with him, and he had even been studying the Word with several coworkers using a smartphone app.
» Read full story with prayer points. Such things are happening in many other places, too, as ministries leverage tech resources for evangelism and discipleship. While smartphone access is unequal economists now estimate that as many as six million North Koreans, a quarter of the population, now have mobile phones (Reuters).
» Another Frontiers article caught our eye and reminds us not to overlook evangelism opportunities: Jesus for the Non-poor (Frontiers UK).
RUSSIA: A Hitchhiker’s Prayer Comes Full Circle
Source: SEND International, September 25, 2019
A couple of years ago, as Jami and her family were packing up to move from Ulan-Ude, Siberia, to a small village populated by the Buryat people, they were struck by an overwhelming need to gather prayer support for their ministry.
“We felt a fresh desperation to come to God, seek him, and ask others to engage in the spiritual battle of prayer with us,” Jami said. The SEND team in Siberia has sought to pull together 1,000 people committed to praying for the Buryat people.
Now, the team says God is moving in hearts like they’ve never seen before! God graciously is allowing our teammates to see answers to some of those thousands of prayers. Jami shares about one answer that encouraged her family:
A few years ago, as we drove through some towns near Lake Baikal, we picked up a Buryat lady who was hitchhiking. It turned out she was a believer, and we had a lovely conversation. She asked us to pray for her son who was far from God. We did pray for him, but then we lost connection and didn’t think much about her as time passed.
Then we moved to our home in Spring Village. For the last several months, a Buryat guy in his late 20s has been coming to our home group. At first, he seemed a bit abrasive and antagonistic, but through the months, he has grown softer and hungry for the Word. He reads the Bible ravenously every day, and comes to the group with questions that he writes down throughout the week.
We believe that God has plans for this young man. He is a leader and has a heart for God and for his people. He shares his faith with enthusiasm and boldness, bringing unbelieving friends to church, our home group, and other evangelistic events.
At [an August] Buryat Partnership meeting back in Ulan-Ude, we spotted a face we knew: The hitchhiking lady! And, as it turns out, the young man in our group is the son we prayed for years ago!
» Read full story. Lord, raise up more prayer teams to seek you on behalf of the unreached.
USA: Student Says His Autism Is a Gift from God
Source: International Mission Board, September 17, 2019
Six months after his parents moved from California to Uruguay with the International Mission Board in 1990, Steven Kunkel stopped speaking. His parents first thought their one-year-old son had culture shock but knew something else was wrong when Kunkel did not speak for nearly three years.
When Kunkel was 4, his father took him to Sacramento, California, for a formal diagnosis. The doctors informed him his son was severely autistic, saying he would never be able to live on his own, learn to speak, or make any friends. The doctors recommended they leave the mission field and put Steven in a specialty school for autistic children, but they knew God had other plans for their family [and returned to Uruguay, with their son, who started speaking at the age of five].
Though doctors told his parents Kunkel would have trouble speaking, he showed a knack for languages early in his life. By the age of 15, Kunkel spoke three languages: English, Spanish, and Portuguese. At that point, Kunkel sensed a call from the Lord to be a missionary to Japan.
After working with the Japanese church [in Paraguay] for seven years, Kunkel answered God’s call by moving to Japan when he was 22. Kunkel stayed in Japan for two years and enrolled in Boyce College as a Global Studies major in spring 2015. Kunkel has continued to learn other languages and currently speaks seven fluently: English, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, Arabic, French, and Turkish.
As Kunkel prepares for missionary service, he hopes to encourage others to trust that God can use them no matter what is standing in the way. Through living with autism, Kunkel has learned to rely completely on God’s power so much so he now thanks God for his disability.
“My autism is one of the greatest gifts the Lord has given me. The Lord healed me, but not 100 percent because he wants me to rely on him,” Kunkel said. “If it was not for my autism, I would not be determined to learn languages, meet friends, share the gospel with people, and to encourage others.”
» Read full story. Note the IMB article is a reprint from a related source published in 2015. A 2018 article which included more of Steven’s story, especially his experience with autism, reported his graduation from Boyce and plans to return to Japan later that year (Stims of Joy).
JAPAN: Unlikely Encounter on a Frozen Volcano
Source: OMF International, September 27, 2019
Clouds came closing in fast, the visibility deteriorated within seconds. The wind picked up and the temperature dropped significantly. We were just below the 1,989-meter (6,277-foot) summit of Mt. Yotei and icicles were forming on my beard. I stopped and changed from my sweat-drenched clothes into some dry clothes.
My two friends and I were still shivering, but all set to make the descent on our snowboards, when I spotted someone crawling up the mountain on all fours. I was surprised, because he or she were alone and far from the regular hiking route, and obviously without snowshoes, skies, or a snowboard. I knew that being alone on a mountain like this could turn into a death trap very easily, especially in conditions we were experiencing at the time. After some quick turns on our snowboards we reached the young man and I couldn’t believe what I saw.
He was wearing gumboots, gardening gloves, and a normal winter parka, with a scarf wrapped around his head—absolutely unprepared to be in the mountains. Straight away we offered help and, as he had no provisions, he gladly received a spare sandwich and finished up our water supply.
[While] he gobbled down the yummy bacon, avocado, and egg sandwich, I scolded him for doing such a foolish thing. But after my initial rant I asked him why he was there. He told us that his girlfriend had broken off with him, and so he’d fasted for two days straight. Then he’d decided to climb Mt. Yotei in search of a spiritual experience, hoping for an awakening or some kind of enlightenment…
» Read full story and pray for those seeking spiritual truth, that they will encounter Christians at just the right time.