In This Issue: Morocco Clamping Down, Deaf Mute Healed, and More
- IRELAND: Call to Prayer on St. Patrick’s Day
- MOROCCO: Clamping Down on Foreign Christians
- NIGERIA: Sectarian Violence Continues
- BHUTAN: Exiles Face Hostilities while Christianity Spreads
- INDIA: Believers Attacked
- CENTRAL ASIA: Deaf Mute Healed, Family Saved
Missions Catalyst is a free, weekly electronic digest of mission news and resources designed to inspire and equip Christians worldwide for global ministry. Use it to fuel your prayers, find tips and opportunities, and stay in touch with how God is building his kingdom all over the world. Please forward it freely!
World News Briefs, edited by Pat Noble, are published twice a month.
IRELAND: Call to Prayer on St. Patrick’s Day
Source: Operation Mobilization, Headlines, March 10, 2010
Millions of people all over the world will celebrate St. Patrick’s Day on March 17. In the fifth century, Patrick was one of the earliest missionaries to bring the good news about Jesus to Ireland. But in the midst of the parades and parties today, few remember St. Patrick himself, and fewer still know the message he brought.
Please pray for Ireland on St. Patrick’s Day – that once again Patrick’s message will be known and valued in “the land of saints and scholars.”
OM Ireland has prepared a free, three-page prayer guide for this year’s holiday. And Irish Christian folk/rock band MrJAG has released an inspirational worship song based on the Celtic prayer, “St. Patrick’s Breastplate.” It is available for download here, with all proceeds going to OM Ireland.
>> Also read Shane Bennett’s article, St. Patrick’s Day: A Missional Holiday (Missions Catalyst, March 14, 2007).
MOROCCO: Clamping Down on Foreign Christians
Source: Mission Network News, March 10, 2010
Christians around the world are puzzled by sudden, recent anti-Christian activities in Morocco. Todd Nettleton with Voice of the Martyrs says two years ago Morocco would have been called a tolerant Muslim country, but not anymore. “So far this week, we’ve heard of six different foreign Christians who either have been expelled from the country or are in custody awaiting expulsion.”
Nettleton says, “In one case, we heard about Christians working at an orphanage who were expelled from the country, leaving all of the kids in the orphanage without supervision, simply in the custody of the government of Morocco.”
21 other foreigners are awaiting deportation.
>> Full story.
>> See also this firsthand account entitled Grieving, by a pastor intimately connected to the orphanage, Village of Hope.
NIGERIA: Sectarian Violence Continues
Source: The Christian Post, March 8, 2010
As many as 500 people may have been killed in attacks on Sunday on two predominantly Christian villages near the Nigerian city of Jos.
Locals believe the attacks were carried out in revenge for the killing of hundreds of Muslims in January. The area has been blighted for years by tensions between the Muslim Fulani ethnic group and the Christian Berom ethnic group.
Peter Gyang, who lost his wife and two children in the attacks, was quoted by Agence France Presse as saying, “Gunshots were fired just to scare people out of their houses, only to be macheted as they fled into the bush.”
>> Full story.
>> Also read The Most Recent Violence in Plateau State (from A Tunanina). Listen to Reverend John Joseph Hayab’s presentation, Nigeria: Islamic Radicalism, Religious Violence, and Prospects for Reconciliation (Hudson Institute). Or watch a seven-minute video, Neighbors (Christianity Today, viewer discretion advised).
BHUTAN: Exiles Face Hostilities while Christianity Spreads
Source: Compass Direct, February 23, 2010
Thrust from their homes in Bhutan after Buddhist rulers embarked on an ethnic and religious purge, Christian refugees in Nepal face hostilities from Hindus and others.
“Christians, like Hindus and others, were told to leave either their faith or the country,” said Gopi Chandra Silwal, who pastors a tiny church for Bhutanese refugees in a refugee camp in Sanischare, a small village in eastern Nepal’s Morang district. “Many chose to leave their homeland.”
Persecution in Bhutan led to the spread of Christianity in refugee camps in Nepal. Though exact figures are not available, refugee Simon Gazmer estimates there are about 7,000-8,000 Christians in the camps – out of a total refugee population of about 85,000 – with many others having left for other countries. There are 18 churches of various faiths in the camps, he said.
>> Full story.
INDIA: Believers Attacked
Source: ASSIST News, February 19, 2010
A group of 300 Hindu radicals entered the homes of Christian believers in a slum located in Mysore, Karnataka state on February 17, 2010, and assaulted them for their faith in Christ.
According to the Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC), the attack took place at around 7:00 p.m. when the radicals belonging to Bajrang Dal, a right-wing Hindu organization which is the youth wing of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), made their way to the location of 22 Christian houses in a slum.
The GCIC report said that they indiscriminately attacked and beat up men, women, and children, shouting, “Jai Hanuman” (Hail, Lord Hanuman), as they did. They also alleged that the saffron-clad radicals “misbehaved with the women engaged in the household chores and hit them with stones and beat them with wooden clubs.”
>> Full story.
CENTRAL ASIA: Deaf Mute Healed, Family Saved
Source: Pioneers, March 2010
[Fifteen years ago] the pastor of [a] local church told his assistant to go to an old section of the city (which is all Muslim) and preach the gospel. As soon as the first man he spoke to heard about Jesus, he got upset and told the evangelist to leave his house. When the pastor heard about what happened, he told the evangelist to go back to the same house one more time. The evangelist began to refuse, saying that the man would certainly beat him, and maybe even kill him. But the pastor was stern and sent him out again.
When he got to the same house, he saw a five-year-old girl playing at the front gate. He began to tell her about God, about creation, and about Jesus Christ being the Savior. After a while, the father discovered what was happening, and came out with a large stick to beat the evangelist. As he was about to strike, the girl shouted, “Papa, stop. Don’t hit him. You must listen to what he says and start going to church every Sunday from now on.” The father dropped the stick and started crying.
His girl had been deaf and mute all her life, and Jesus Christ had miraculously healed her. The evangelist had not known her condition. He was simply being obedient to the command to preach the gospel to the lost, even if it meant that he would be beaten and possibly killed. The entire family of seven came to faith in Christ.
>> Full story.
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