Day: November 20, 2024

1. Global: Making a Difference in Media
2. Bangladesh: A Beaten, Broken Church Bravely Grows Back
3. Israel: Arab Pastor Helps Hurting Jews and Muslims in Nazareth
4. Ireland: Thousands March for Jesus in Dublin
5. Suriname: A Dying Tribe Encounters New Life

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Source: Various

Do you tend to see “the media” as a bad influence to be warded off? Or is media a tool to embrace for good? Some of both? Either way, a good way to respond is by praying for members of the media.

October 27 was a Global Day of Prayer for the Media. More than 2,000 people from more than 25 countries joined a live-streamed prayer marathon, thousands more visited a website about the event, and many Christians working in media roles shared their stories. Check out this excellent 20-minute video with scripture-inspired prayers for the media. Maybe you could use it to pray for the Missions Catalyst team.

Check out Create International’s Gospel Gadget Podcast, particularly episode 82, Media That Is Transforming Nations. Also from Create, read A Hidden Legacy: How a Christian Thangka Sparked a Tibetan Movement.

Source: Christian Freedom International, November 7, 2024

Three years ago, a church of new believers discovered the cost of following Christ. They were beaten. Their church [was] damaged. Their adversaries were their neighbors [militant Buddhists].

“They were trying to stop people from coming to our Savior Lord Jesus Christ,” said Chakma. He is a leader in this small church in an isolated forest.

The good news is that God’s Church is growing even in far-flung and hostile places. But when you consider what these Christians are enduring, it is extraordinary that they remain steadfast in their faith. One trait of Christianity is that persecution grows the church in unexpected ways.

Their bruises are a testimony of their faith in God. Their church, [now] rebuilt, is a testimony of God’s church caring for one another.

Read the full story.

We love stories about life coming back on a big scale or small. From the other side of the world, check out Revival Grips Brazil’s Amazon, in which a pastor reports, “In the first six months of this year, we baptized 14,500 people. Our goal for this year is to baptize over 30,000 people” (CBN).

Source: Joseph Project International, November 13, 2024

“Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” one of Jesus’ disciples asked, according to the Gospel of John. Today, an avalanche of “good”—in the form of humanitarian aid—is coming out of Nazareth, the historic Israeli city where, the Bible says, Jesus grew up as a boy.

What makes this humanitarian aid effort truly extraordinary is that it’s being led by an Israeli Arab pastor and his congregation, determined to help not only needy Arab families but also Jewish families struggling to put food on the table.

Since Bible times, there’s been animosity and distrust between Arabs and Jews in the Middle East—a reality that Saleem Shalash, pastor of Home of Jesus the King Church in Nazareth, knows only too well from firsthand experience.

“It’s not easy,” said the father-of-two, who speaks both Hebrew and Arabic. “As Israeli Arab Christians, we’re in the middle, like a piece of cheese between two slices of bread.”

But that does not stop Pastor Shalash and his congregation [from] delivering aid packages to more than 150 families every month, including Arabs, Jews, Muslims, and Christians. They run the largest Israeli-Arab aid center in Israel, supported by Joseph Project International, the largest importer of humanitarian aid into Israel.

“The good news is that this piece of cheese gives the taste to the bread,” Pastor Shalash said. “God put us here in this special place, Nazareth, to serve all people and be peacemakers.”

Read the full story and watch a short video clip from Pastor Shalash.

Source: Christian Today, November 9, 2024

Twelve thousand Christians, young, old, male and female, and of various ethnicities, walked through the center of the city of Dublin in excited solidarity for the faith at the first-ever “March for Jesus.” All Nations Church and Betania Church, both based in the city, organized the event on October 26, supported by other churches in both Ireland and Northern Ireland.

[According to organizers] they gathered to affirm the Christian identity that has enfolded the peoples of Ireland since missionary St. Patrick first arrived in the fifth century A.D.

Read the full story or watch a short highlight video below.

Source: Trans World Radio via Mission Network News, November 5, 2024

Lifted: A Dying Tribe Encounters New Life, [a 76-minute documentary], tells the story of an American family God called to the mission field in the 1950s. They were inspired by the stories of Jim Elliot, Nate Saint and three other missionaries who were killed in 1956 trying to befriend the Waodani people of Ecuador.

“Ivan Schoen was a carpenter. He was working on houses in St. Petersburg, Florida. He saw this article in the news of these missionaries’ death[s], and the Lord used it to say, ‘Ivan, I am calling you into this same line of work,’” says Clay Perry with TWR, the film’s primary producer.

What followed was a lifetime of risk, total lifestyle change, prayer, and relationship-building with two Amazonian tribes in Suriname, South America.

Read the full story and watch the trailer and/or full documentary. Parental discretion advised. You might also enjoy The Enemy God, a feature-length film about God’s work among the Yanomamö people of the Amazon.