Category: News Briefs

Source: JESUS Film Project, October 11, 2013

With God, nothing is impossible! Through the “JESUS” Film, his Spirit is moving in amazing and unprecedented ways, changing hearts and transforming lives, even in very difficult and previously unreached countries.

Only two decades ago, there were less than 50 known believers in the entire nation of Mongolia. Now, through the film “JESUS,” tens of thousands are turning to Christ. Hundreds of growing, reproducing churches have been planted, as new believers have been nurtured and equipped to share their faith and are now spreading the Gospel and making new disciples.

Praise the Lord for his faithfulness, and for the amazing work his Spirit is performing to bring unreached people “from darkness to joy”!

» Watch the short video From Darkness to Joy.

» Did you know more than 175,000 people have installed the Jesus Film Media App? It provides access to films you can use in more than 1,000 languages.

Source: OM News, September 16, 2013

“Before I left home, I started to have doubts,” said Tatiana at her interview to enroll as a student at OM Russia’s Discipleship Center. “I bought my sleeping bag just in case, and decided to just take a step of faith.”

Once she arrived at OM Russia’s base, Tatiana was pleasantly surprised when she realized she wouldn’t have to sleep on the floor in her sleeping bag! Why was Tatiana so worried about the living conditions? Because she’s no longer so young; she’s a pensioner (retired).

Last year, OM Russia’s board suggested that they train older people, because the training center’s goal is “to motivate and challenge people at a ‘crossroads’ moment in their lives, when they are faced with a choice of either developing a career and pouring their energy in that direction or opening themselves up to God’s service and seeking God’s Kingdom first,” according to field leader Colin Cleaver. This year, OM Russia opened a special faculty for pensioners to train to become missionaries.

For the past eight years, the center has focused on recent university graduates, but team members have realized that not only young people find themselves having to make decisions about their futures.

“Our board observed that pensioners are also often at a similar crossroads, needing to decide on a new life direction,” said Colin. “In addition, they are often financially independent, free from caring for their children, and with time on their hands – in short, the perfect potential missionaries!”

»  Read full story.

In This Issue: Worship in North Korea, Egyptian hip hop, and fruit in Burundi

• NORTH KOREA: Believers Lead the World in 100 Days of Worship
• EGYPT: Hip Hope
• LAOS: 50 Christians Face Eviction  
• SRI LANKA: Threats from Buddhist Extremists
• BURUNDI: Amazing Fruit

About Us

Source: Charisma News, September 17, 2013

September 23 through December 31, Christians are invited to follow the lead of their North Korean Christian brothers and sisters to do what led to their persecution in the first place: gather together in small groups for daily public worship in the common places of life – their homes, schools, workplaces, parks, libraries, bus stops, and more – using the historic four pillars liturgy of the North Korean underground church:

• The Apostles’ Creed
• The Ten Commandments
• The Lord’s Prayer
• The Lord’s Supper

» Read full story and visit the Seoul USA’s 100 Days website for additional materials. See also Why The NK Underground Church Loves the Ten Commandments So Much and the 12-minute TED Talk, Hyeonseo Lee – My Escape from North Korea.

» Readers might also be interested in this story from the same region: South Korea’s Travel Bans a Blessing in Disguise for Missions.

Source: The Christian Post, September 10, 2013

Egyptian Christian Maged Medhat raps about Jesus in Arabic and English and is touring the United States this month in Oklahoma, Washington D.C., and Los Angeles.

Although he was raised in a Christian home, Medhat said he never took his relationship with God seriously. As he grew up, he started listening to hip hop and rap in the streets of Alexandria, Egypt. He described “the underground rappers in Egypt” as “really bad people.” They encouraged him to rebel against the government and the schools and to foster hatred against others.

Then Medhat began to examine his faith and came to a saving knowledge of Christ. “I surrendered my heart to Jesus,” he explained and then “fought with God for six months” over whether or not he should become a full-time Christian rapper.

After six months, he dedicated himself to Christian hip hop.

In addition to his own music ministry, Medhat serves with Hip Hope International, an organization that trains rap musicians to reach out to “un-churched, unsaved, and nominal Christian youth.” Their training sessions focus on spiritual growth as well as artistic development. In Egypt, their program graduated seven people this year.

The Egyptian rapper asked for prayer that his music would bless people across the world, that Hip Hope International would continue to succeed, and that Egypt – torn by a complicated civil war – may be at peace once again.

» Full story with picture and video.

» Also from Egypt: Members of a church attacked and burned down in August offer this music video as their message of forgiveness (YouTube). Beautifully done.

Source: Mission Network News, September 17, 2013

According to a report from the Human Rights Watch for Lao Religious Freedom (HRWLRF), on August 30 the leaders of Nongdaeng village (a rural community in Central Laos) summoned representatives of 11 Christian families to the government headquarters building for an official meeting concerning religious affairs in the village.

During the meeting, officials ordered all 11 families – comprising 50 men, women, and children – to recant their Christian faith and return to their village’s traditional animist religion.

“They charged these Lao Christians with believing the religion of a foreign Western power, which is considered destructive to the Lao nation,” stated HRWLRF. “Officials expressed their intention that no Christian faith can be adhered to or practiced in Nongdaeng.”

» Read full story with picture and prayer points.

» Also read A Light in the Mountains (OM News).

» Interested in this region? Our friends at OMF UK recently wrote us about an upcoming book, The Gospel in the Land of a Millions Elephants, and put in a good word for Reg Reimer’s Vietnam’s Christians: A Century of Growth in Adversity.

Source: Barnabas Aid, September 16, 2013

Christian leaders from Sri Lanka have asked supporters to join them in prayer as their churches face a mounting threat from Buddhist extremists. In the latest wave of incidents, police asked at least seven churches to close on Sunday, September 8 because of threats from Buddhists.

At one of the churches, in Meegoda, Colombo district, 30-40 Christians had gathered for prayer when a mob led by three Buddhist monks forced their way into the premises.

One of the monks hit the pastor over the head with a guitar until the instrument broke and the pastor was knocked unconscious. His mother tried to intervene but was herself beaten by some members of the mob.

The congregation was told that it was a Buddhist village, and the mob demanded that their prayer meetings stop immediately.

Churches are being told by the authorities that they must obtain permission from the Buddhist and Religious Affairs Ministry, even though religious groups are not officially required to register with the state in Sri Lanka. This is proving extremely problematic for Evangelical and Pentecostal churches, because they are not recognized by the Buddhist and Religious Affairs Ministry.

So far this year, there have been 45 anti-Christian incidents. Many of them have involved church gatherings being attacked but pastors and individuals have also been targeted.

» Read full story.

Source: Simon Guillebaud, September 3, 2013

Editor’s note: We have reported several times on the ministry of Great Lakes Outreach in Burundi. August 3-17, they were part of an effort that sent out 761 evangelists in 42 teams around the country. The summary below is from their partner Onesphore, founder of Harvest for Christ.

• 39,753 people were reached with the gospel, of whom 18,218 gave their lives to Christ. Numbers are down (!) a little on previous years because we didn’t preach exclusively but also did service projects
• 60 Muslims and 28 witchdoctors were among the converts
• 171 people were healed from regular sicknesses
• 15 paralytics walked
• 15 blind people recovered their sight
• 8 deaf/mute people heard/spoke again
• 20 demon-possessed people were delivered
• 55 separated couples were reconciled and brought together
• 8 divided families were reunited

“Zacharie is a young man whom witchdoctors said had been poisoned by his dad. So for the last twenty years, the two had been enemies, and Zacharie had tried many times to kill his father. By May 2013, Zacharie had become mad, and was living in caves. When our evangelists arrived, he tried to beat them, but they refused to be cowed, instead praying for him. After an hour of such prayers, he was miraculously healed. Immediately he was filled with love for his father and went off to find him. The village heard about it, came to see what had happened, and fifty of them gave their lives to Christ. His mum, who had divorced his dad, came and was reconciled with her ex-husband.

“In an area steeped in witchcraft, the team felt it best not to preach for the first week but to simply to serve the community in any way possible. They came to a big witchdoctor and offered to work in his field and cultivate for him. He was blown away after a few hours and allowed them to share why they were doing it. On the spot he and his family repented. He publicly burnt all his charms, whereupon 30 other people gave their lives to Christ too. When our team left, many came to see them off in tears.”

» See full story with picture.

In This Issue: A time of shaking, a time of rejoicing

• CANADA: Move In – Can It Get Any Simpler Than This?
• KOSOVO: Singing for Soul Healing 
• AFGHANISTAN: Authorities Call for Death of Christian Converts 
• YEMEN: A Mustard Seed 
• MOROCCO: Christian Jailed for “Shaking the Faith of a Muslim”

Greetings!

“The world is experiencing an unusual period of shaking,” writes Richard Swenson, one of my favorite analysts of world events. “There is a volatility and soft-anarchy across the globe, and nowhere do we find a center that is holding.” Hear what he has to say about Syria at Swenson Trends.

In this time of “shaking,” God is also sending his ambassadors to teach the world rejoicing. See stories below of singing in Kosovo and North Africa and wedding parties as a means to share the Good News. Apparently God is not worried about the state of events.

Rejoice in the Lord…always,

Pat

About Us

Source: Tentmaking Briefs, September 2013

MoveInners, in a nutshell, are people who decide to move into neighborhoods deemed a “no-go zone” for 99.9% of Christians. Even the police dread to enter these areas of our major cities. Calling 911 [emergency services] may be futile as too often no one will come.

Move-inners are mostly young “Generation Y” couples and singles deliberately moving into low income, crime-ridden neighborhoods, to integrate themselves with the people who have little choice on where to live. These areas are made up largely of recent immigrants from the so-called unreached areas of the world.

» Full story here. See also an interview with the founder of this Canadian ministry on 100 Huntley Street, then watch an eight-minute video with highlights from the wedding celebration he and his bride threw for some 1200 neighbors.