Missions Catalyst

Source: 30 Days of Prayer, June 4, 2019

Gathered on the floor, around a tray full of lamb, dates with cream, vegetables, and bread, sat an array of unlikely people. We had all come together for celebration of divine Love revealed.

The guests were a mix of local people—only some of whom knew the Love being celebrated on this day. Three different languages were used around the table as everyone was welcomed.

The host explained, “Because this feast of Eid is so important to us we wanted you, our friends, to join us in the festivities.” He went on to share the story that gives the “Love with Us” celebration its significance. He shared how even though we slaughter a lamb for our feast, we no longer need to, because Love became the Lamb, restoring what was broken.

“We decided to celebrate this year,” he continued, “by telling each other how this great Love has personally changed our lives.” After sharing our stories, the meal was enthusiastically eaten with games following. Before leaving, everyone received the gift of a flashlight with words, spoken by Love Himself, attached, “I am the light of the world. He that follows me will not walk in darkness but have the light of life.”

After this event, the host was told by one of the guests, “You know, we grow up hearing that people like you are horrible, but we have never had the chance to hear a little about what you believe right from your mouth. The time at your house was a really good opportunity for us.”

» Read full story with pictures and prayer points. As we’ve reached the end of Ramadan, pray that around the world Christians and Muslims would share meals and lives together, and that both would come to know Jesus more deeply.

»  See also an interesting article from OMF, How the Loneliness Epidemic Should Affect the Way We Do Missions.

Source: Christian Today, May 7, 2019

Iran’s intelligence minister, Mahmoud Mahmoud Alavi, openly expressed concern about the spread of Christianity in the Islamic republic and said that some converts to Christianity were summoned to explain why they have converted.

According to the International Shia News Association, Alavi blamed evangelical propaganda for the increase in Iranian Muslims converting to Christianity in certain areas of the country.

Despite Christianity being criminalized in a country where the government is entangled with hardline Islam, the nation is experiencing one of the fastest evolving underground church movements in the world.

The intelligence minister reportedly said that although the agency is not responsible for finding the root cause of the mass religious conversion to Christianity in Iran, it is “happening right before our eyes.”

Underground house churches continue to spring up across Iran, although they must do so in secrecy because they risk torture and imprisonment in the Islamic republic.

Believers can be arrested for preaching the gospel or having a copy of the Bible translated into Farsi.

Although it’s hard to get an accurate read on how many Christians are in Iran, estimates have ranged from 800,000 to over 1 million.

» Read full story.

» See also Worth A Thousand Years of Waiting: The Staggering Rise of the Church in Iran (Desiring God), which suggests four reasons for the growth and three ways to pray.

» In other religious liberty news, Iran’s neighbor Turkmenistan continues to tightly control the practice of Islam. Muslims are afraid to fast during Ramadan, attend mosques, or grow beards, lest they be labelled extremists (Forum 18 News Service). Forum 18 also reports that in Russia, at least 56 organizations and 103 individuals faced prosecution in 2018 under new anti-missionary legislation.

Source: Mobile Ministry Forum, May 15, 2019

Five years ago, I grew impassioned for the idea that a media strategy could be used to reach nomads in East Africa. Time and again, I ran into people [who] pushed back, saying: “Oh, they don’t use media,” “They are in the bush,” and “There is no wifi.” Then they were willing to say, “You can try it, but it needs to be high quality.” Their request would have meant thousands of dollars and long production delays.

Finally, they allowed me to just use my phone for creating a simple video showing local women at work with a recording of Proverbs 31. Then we advertised the video only in areas where these nomads were predominant. 10,000 people have watched the video so far, and 200 have asked us for more videos from God’s Word.

When I took these results to locals and my leadership, they said, “We could never have believed that 10,000 Afar would hear God’s truth all for US$20 and a little time investment.” Now I have the blessing of leaders to move forward on using mobile engagement in digital ministry as broadly as possible.

Mobile ministry can be effective as we are released to try it.

» Read full story. Check out the Mobile Ministry Forum website for more stories, training, and other resources.

» Also read about Sanusi and his tribe of desert nomads who have nobody bringing them the gospel. Includes ways to pray for the nomads of the Muslim world (Frontiers USA).

Source: Mission Network News, May 27, 2019

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Hindu nationalist group, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), won [last month’s national election] by a landslide—guaranteeing five more years of power.

“My friends in the business community [find] it to be a good thing because they see it as a political stability… they don’t expect any major changes. But, I’ll tell you from the Christian community, it is really not a good thing,” [says Bible for the World’s John Pudaite].

“We have seen the escalation of persecution… during the last five years that this current party has led the government. Christians across the country are bracing themselves for another five years of the same, and many are expecting it to get worse.”

Last fall, Hindu nationalists rallied around the goal of making India a “Hindu Rashtra” (Hindu nation) by 2024. Modi and the BJP support the concept, making no secret of their “Hindu first” agenda.

» Full story explores what Hindu nationalism means for Christians and suggests ways to pray for India.

» Another article from MNN reports that Indonesia’s national election has exposed a rift.

Source: Open Doors USA, June 3, 2019

After having increasing doubts about Islam—the religion he had known all his life in Saudi Arabia—Mohammed began looking for truth online. What he found changed his heart and life as he knew it forever.

“For many years, I had doubts when reading the Quran,” Mohammed shares. “For example, the fact that Allah and Mohammed are considered to be equal. How could Mohammed, a sinful man, be equal to God?”

There were more inconsistencies. Gradually, Mohammed decided to put his Muslim faith to the test. All his life, he had been taught that missing even one of the five daily prayers would cause a Muslim immediate misfortune. Something bad would most definitely happen if you ceased praying.

“So, I decided to stop praying for just one day and see what happened,” Mohammed says. “Nothing bad happened. On the contrary, I had an amazingly successful business day.”

Mohammed’s doubt continued to mount. He began to look on the internet to learn about other religions. Soon, he learned that the message of the Bible is easy to translate and understand in every culture.

The love of God that he saw in the scriptures he read stuck with him. He continued his search online, even downloading an app on his smartphone. Through it, he learned about the basic foundations of Christianity. Mohammed felt more and more eager to meet Christians, visit a church, and own a Bible.

He traveled to two different countries in the Middle East where Christians are openly allowed to visit a church and obtain a Bible. However, these “open” churches are usually not allowed to minister to Muslims, only to Christians from families that have been believers for centuries. Mohammed wasn’t allowed to step foot in either church. He walked away, dejected and empty-handed.

» Keep reading.

»  Also read Salek’s story, The Narrow Escape (Frontiers USA).