Category: News Briefs

TURKEY: Embracing Outcast Children

Source: ASSIST News Service, December 4, 2013

California-born Norita Erickson of Kardelen Mercy Teams, based in Ankara, Turkey, where she works with Turkish people with disabilities, has an extraordinary story to tell.

“Turkey is a country of 75,000,000 people and 99 percent of the population is Islamic, some more strongly Islamic, while others are more moderate. But 17 percent of the Turkish population – and that might include some Christian minorities too – has a disability. That’s a very high percentage. Part of it is also a belief in fate. In many Islamic countries, they believe that God has written your whole life on your forehead and nothing you can do will change it. So you don’t mess with fate because that’s what God has given you as the test for your life.”

“I really didn’t understand what it meant to serve the disabled until 1997 when I went into a state-run institution and was shocked to find 400 children who had been sent away to live in this place. They were tied in their beds, covered in their vomit and bodily filth, and were screaming, as there did appear to be anyone there to care for them. No one appeared to know what to do with them and the attitude of the care givers was that these children were ‘cursed’ and they were ‘cursed’ having to work in such a place and so they would just do a little as was needed until they died.

“I was shocked and I ran out of that place and I cried out to God. I was angry. I said, ‘How could You show this to me? I wish I didn’t know what I just saw.’ It was overwhelming – just like going into a concentration camp… I started to cry and I heard the Holy Spirit saying, ‘You are weeping my tears for these children.'”

Kardelen is the Turkish word for a snowdrop flower, the first flowers to emerge at the end of winter when they respond to sunlight.

“I saw these children, and our ministry, like this. These children are hidden away, but they respond to the sunlight of God’s love as we bring it into their homes and into these institutions,” she said.

» Read the full story, which includes links to an interview with Norita, details the struggle she experienced due to her Armenian background, and more. See also her book, Cry Out.

CANADA: Yummo Comes Home

Source: Outreach Canada, November 20, 2013

 It is surprising to many Canadians today that 150,000 aboriginal children were forced to go to Indian Residential Schools from 1831 to 1996 as part of Canada’s official efforts to assimilate the indigenous people. It is not surprising that many victims did not survive the experience.

Yummo Comes Home is the story of an Okanogan/Thompson Aboriginal man who revisits the Kamloops B.C. Residential School building where he was hurt to reclaim and bring back home his boyhood innocence and confidence. The son of a settler immigrant, Don Klaassen, portrays the sentiments of the descendants of the immigrant settlers who are discovering this often forgotten portion of Canadian history.

In this 28-minute documentary video, the two men demonstrate what it means to experience reconciliation and take bold steps to shape a hopeful future.

» Learn more. This is a great story of healing from childhood abuse, and it’s sensitively told. You can preview the entire video online.

SOUTH AFRICA: Praying for Peace and Healing on the Streets of Manenberg

Source: 24-7 Prayer, December 16, 2013

Thursday is prayer walk day, and two friends joined us – their first time walking around Manenberg. We left the office and began to walk, only for people to tell us to get off the road because the gangs were shooting at each other.

We obliged, prayed for and declared peace along the street, and then played with a tortoise in a [shop]. Then we were told it was OK to walk again, because the shooting had finished. We did so. As we went, we saw an old man on crutches. We asked to pray for him. He had broken his hip falling off the roof. He had had surgery, and couldn’t walk without crutches, and even then very slowly and in much pain.

After we prayed healing for him, he began to move his leg freely, and exclaimed that he couldn’t do that previously and it felt better. The pain had left, and movement had come! He then wept as he accepted Jesus into his life, still overwhelmed by getting healed. Then he walked home, waving his leg around as he went, unaided by crutches.

» Read the full story.

An Opportunity for You

As you may know, each of the gang behind Missions Catalyst, Marti Wade, Pat Noble, and Shane Bennett, raises support to do the work they do. Missions Catalyst is a part of that work. If it has been helpful for you this year and you’d welcome a chance to say thank you to and bless Marti, Pat, or Shane, we’d like to offer you that opportunity. The links below will direct you to a donation page at their respective organizations, or, if you prefer, to send a note of thanks.

» Give to Marti, or email Marti.

» Give to Pat, or email Pat.

» Give to Shane, or email Shane.

Thank you for being part of the Missions Catalyst tribe. We’re grateful for you.

Missions Catalyst 12.4.13 – World News Briefs

In This Issue: “She accepted the invitation to have someone pray for her needs…”

About Us

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!

Pat

Pat Noble has been the “news sleuth” for Missions Catalyst since 2004. In addition to churning out the news, she is working to create a SWARM (Serving World A Regional Mobilizers) in Northern New York using the NorthernChristian.org website. You can connect with her at www.whatsoeverthings.com.

 

 

KYRGYZSTAN: Christ and Tradition

Kyrgyz on horseback

Source: Christian Aid Mission, November 21, 2013

Like most ethnic Kyrgyz, [Dinara’s] Muslim family followed the religious traditions of their ancestors. From childhood she believed truth could only be revealed through Islam.

While running an errand in her village, Dinara came upon a strange sight – a gathering of Christians who were openly singing and preaching about their God. She stopped in her tracks when the speaker shared how Jesus Christ changes lives.

Consumed by worries over family quarrels, illness, and mounting debts, this wife and mother of two children longed for peace. She accepted the invitation to have someone pray for her needs.

Three days later Dinara sought the counsel of a Christian neighbor who attended the event, asking how she, too, could become a follower of Jesus.

Today Dinara is growing in her faith and enjoys attending a home Bible study. Her husband thinks she is merely visiting friends. Knowing he will be furious, she dares not tell him or any of their relatives about her conversion.

Identifying oneself as a Christian brings all sorts of challenges for new believers, who experience misunderstanding, ridicule, and in some cases even abandonment by families who feel they have scorned their very heritage.

» Recently the government of Kyrgyzstan allowed a reporter to investigate the country’s prisons. Check out A Month in Prison (Institute for War and Peace Reporting). Readers might also be interested in Thieves of Honour, a new novel set in Kyrgyzstan, and Fields of Gold, an account of ministry in neighboring Kazakhstan (reviewed in our November 27 edition).

GLOBAL: Christian Social Entrepreneurs

Source: Joel News #884, November 29, 2013

Entrepreneurs are essential drivers of innovation and progress. In the business world, they act as engines of growth, harnessing opportunity and innovation to fuel economic advancement.

Social entrepreneurs act similarly, but their passion is to meet the needs of the marginalized, the disadvantaged and the disenfranchised – populations that lack the financial means or political clout to achieve lasting benefit on their own.

This is of course highly compatible with the values, beliefs, and goals of the Church in its mission to achieve social, economic, and environmental justice. Therefore it’s not surprising that there’s a growing movement of Christian social entrepreneurs.

“Christians pursuing social causes have a unique set of advantages including rootedness, freedom from the rat race, a basis for unshakable confidence, and the ultimate clarity of purpose,” says journalist Julia Thompson.”In Christ, we have one direction that sets everything else in its place: to obey and follow our leader, the servant king who turned the universe on its head by hanging on a cross. That truth at once creates and demands all of the innovation, courage, and vision we need. It’s a radical invitation to participate in the ultimate social venture of making all things new.”

» Subscribe to Joel News here.

» See social entrepreneurship at work in the country of Malawi through Sustainable Options in Malawi (OM News) and William Kamkwamba: How I Built a Windmill (TED Talks). Kamkwamba’s story is also told in the book The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind and the soon-to-be-released feature documentary film William and the Windmill.

CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC: Genocide Looms

Source: ASSIST News, November 20, 2013

Seleka, a coalition of local and foreign Islamic militias, seized control of Central African Republic (population 70 percent Christian) in March. By attacking Christians and sparing Muslims, they have turned CAR into a sectarian tinderbox. “Christian” militias are responding, targeting not just Seleka bases, but local Muslims, who respond by carrying out reprisals against Christians. Peter Bouckaert (Human Rights Watch) warns: “This heinous cycle of inter-religious violence only continues to intensify, threatening to explode into an all-out war between Christians and Muslims.”

UNICEF goodwill ambassador Mia Farrow (who recently returned from CAR), the UN Secretary-General’s Special Adviser for the Prevention of Genocide Adama Dieng, and other investigators warn that genocide is a real possibility. Please pray for the Church in CAR. May God intervene!

» Read full story with additional background, analysis, and prayer points.

» See also Unspeakable Horrors in a Country on the Verge of Genocide (The Guardian) and Listen to the Silent Crisis in the Central African Republic (Rob Hoskins, One Hope).

JAPAN: A World Overturned

Source: SIM USA, November 13, 2013

It was March 11, 2011 – the date of the triple disaster in northeast Japan. First, the 9.0 earthquake devastated the area and brought on other tragedies. In minutes, a tsunami claimed 20,000 lives and caused a meltdown at the Fukushima First Nuclear Reactor. A mandatory evacuation followed.

As pastor of Fukushima First Bible Baptist Church (just a few kilometers from the No. 1 reactor), Akira Sato shifted into survival mode, checking on members. Within weeks, his now-homeless congregation was invited to live in a Christian campground in west Tokyo, nearly 300 kilometers from their hometown. Roughly 70 of his 200 members moved to this camp; the rest of the survivors found safe haven with relatives all over Japan. Sato authored two books about his church’s experience.

Along with the retaining wall that fell with the tsunami, three other walls have broken down [says Sato]:

1. The wall separating church and community. Prior to the disaster, local churches were relatively unknown by most Japanese people. Some 99.5% of Japanese are not Christians. However, because churches and Christian volunteers stepped up to provide relief supplies and other assistance, they earned a tremendous reputation throughout the country.

2. The wall between churches and denominations. Denominations have set aside differences, banding together to meet needs in their communities. One church could not afford to purchase the land they were leasing, so three different denominations collectively raised the funds to purchase the property. The common pledge across the denominational spectrum is: “We commit to work together – not build walls between ourselves.”

3. The wall between Japan and the world. The global Church has rallied to Japan’s side following this horrific disaster. The resulting sense of community will continue for some time. The people of Japan are in awe, touched that Christian foreigners continue to give, come, and serve.

The destruction of these metaphorical walls coincides with a spiritual openness among Japanese people unseen since the end of World War II.

» Full story with pictures.

WEST AFRICA: Meeting the First Believer from among the “Hidden People”

Source: Baptist Press News, November 8, 2013

To say that Ellen Zaborsky is a fan of her church’s adopted people group is a bit of an understatement.

Sitting in the sanctuary of Unity Baptist Church in rural Prince George, Virginia, the retired ninth-grade science teacher is wrapped from head to toe in a vibrant pink cloak called a taseynest – traditional women’s wear among [a people group] in West Africa.

In 2009, Unity took responsibility to share the Gospel among those they call “the Hidden People,” a group of roughly 300,000 nomads who roam the West African desert. The church has since sent six short-term teams to their adopted people, and Zaborsky has aided every team – at least in spirit. Though her heart is firmly planted in West Africa, the 69-year-old won’t ever set foot there. A wheelchair and a heart condition have ensured that.

Fortunately, on this Sunday morning in early fall of 2013, a piece of West Africa has come to her.

Zaborsky listens intently as “Ibrahim,” the first known believer among the Hidden People, preaches a sermon to Unity’s congregation. It’s a surreal experience for many of Unity’s members, who, like Zaborsky, have been praying for the Hidden People for years.

» Full story with pictures.