Category: News Briefs

Source: Boudha Prayer, August 2013

In the Northwest corner of Kathmandu, Nepal, lies one of the most sacred places in the whole Tibetan Buddhist world: Boudha stupa, or Boudhanath, a place of worship for both Buddhists and Hindus. The surrounding area is home for thousands of Tibetans, exiles as well as tribal people from the Himalayan areas. Every year thousands more come to Boudha on pilgrimage – Buddhist prayer there is unceasing.

Now we are calling Christians all over the world to join in on focused prayer for Boudha and the Tibetans there. In 2013 we are setting aside 100 days of prayer. Between September 1st and December 9th we invite individuals and churches to pray with us for this area. Boudha is an important Tibetan crossroads and we believe that a movement of God in Boudha will affect the whole of the Tibetan Buddhist world.

» Email Boudha100 for more details and information about how you can pray personally, with a group, or on a prayer journey.

» See also this collection of images and an article about the holy site on a Buddhist travel site (Kechara).

In This Issue: Three stories from Africa

• GHANA: Partners Train Christian Broadcasters from across Africa
• WALES: Outbreak of Revival 
• SIERRA LEONE: Planting New Churches
• UNITED KINGDOM: Return to Paganism
• BURUNDI: Prayers Yielding Fruit 

Source: ASSIST News, August 7, 2013

Across the continent of Africa, 215 Christian radio producers are going home to 15 countries with new tools and skills to share the gospel. HCJB Global joined with Moody Radio in a four-day Global Partners Project radio training intensive in Ghana, West Africa, for seminars, hands-on practice, and spiritual enrichment.

Classes were offered in leadership, fundraising, production, interviewing, on-air presentation, web integration, emerging technology, video production, and social media.

“[Participants] shared their ideas with one another and planned real steps of action to take upon returning home. There was a strong spiritual aspect as well. We paused during the teaching for a prayer of thanksgiving that God is in control, despite the obstacles,” said Jon Fugler [of] HCJB Global.

This conference exceeded our expectations in an amazing way,” said Stephen Asare, project coordinator for Moody Radio. “Originally we had room for 150 attendees but were able to accommodate 215. There is a great hunger for training in Africa.”

» Read full story from ASSIST News. See also HCJB’s encouraging report, Cross-cultural Barriers Overcome at Radio Training Conference in Ghana.

» Another Africa story: The Amazing, Surprising Africa-driven Future of the Earth, in Nine Charts (Washington Post).

Source: OM Newsbytes, Aug-Sept 2013

For more than 100 days, crowds have been flocking to Cwmbran, Wales, hungry to experience the manifest presence of God. Well over 900 people have come to Christ at Victory Church and hundreds have reported healings since [the outpouring began] April 10. The church was planted in 2010 and initially attended mostly by ex-offenders and addicts.

» Source. For more about this phenomenon, watch the 30-minute video, Cwmbran Outpouring (United Christian Broadcasters).

Source: Christian Aid Mission, July 17, 2013

After hearing that no church existed in the area, native missionaries from Trinity Gospel Ministries met with leaders of Masap, a Sierra Leone farming community, in March. The missionaries explained they were Christians and they wanted to tell the people about Jesus Christ. If the villagers were interested, they would like to start a church for them.

Immediately the people responded with applause. The God of heaven had answered their prayers. “We have suffered so much and all other things have failed us,” said one community elder. “But if you can come with a church here, then we will be happy.”

Two weeks later a team of 14 missionaries came to Masap and conducted evangelism outreach in four villages. It was surprising for them to discover the gospel had been preached in the district for over 120 years, yet Masap had somehow not been reached. They initiated churches in two of the four villages they visited, Masap and Kategiyan.

That first Sunday when the village gathered for worship, 164 people came together in a spirit of celebration and praise. The area chief, village chief, and other Masap leaders all gave their hearts to Christ.

A similar scene was repeated in Kategiyan, where the entire village welcomed the gospel message and established a church. About 75 people attended that first service.

“Seeing the beauty of what is already happening in Masap and Kategiyan, the other villages are asking that we do the same for them,” wrote the leader of Trinity Gospel Ministries in a recent report to Christian Aid Mission.

It’s time [Sierra Leone] had something to celebrate. From 1991 to 2002 the nation was engulfed in a brutal civil war that took the lives of some 50,000 citizens. Perhaps the most visible atrocities of the war are the thousands of amputees whose arms, legs, and ears were cut off by unspeakably cruel rebel soldiers.

» Read full story.

Source: Baptist Press, July 31, 2013

He is difficult to find and even then is barely visible, but he’s there. Green Man, a symbol of ancient pagan religion, stares down from the nave of Norwich Cathedral. In a way, his presence is symbolic of how it has always been, and still is, in this [once] medieval city.

Norwich has the unique distinction of being officially classified as England’s most ungodly city. Its “ungodly” status comes from the 2011 census, [which shows] Norwich leading the way in a national shift away from Christianity, with 42.5 percent in the city saying they have no religion, against a national rate of 25.1 percent.

“Norwich is kind of a microcosm of England,” [Pastor Marvin] Lucas said. “As far as Christian history is concerned, England used to be more pagan. It’s kind of come full circle, I believe; back to paganism.”

» Read full story.

Source: Simon Guillebaud, August 13, 2013

The amazing work continues in Burundi! There are six days to go, and this will be the last update from me until the full results come in a few weeks from now, but it’s just so encouraging to share, and key in terms of prayers yielding fruit. Here’s the latest from Onesphore, who writes:

“Here is one of many stories reaching us. In Kiremba, one of our teams met a family whose seven-year-old girl was blind, crippled, and her tongue hung limply outside her mouth, so she was unable to speak. They washed her and prayed for her, whereupon she immediately got her sight back, began speaking, and was able to walk. The whole village ran to see the miracle. Her family and 25 others in the village gave their lives to Christ.

“At Busoni, where earlier in the week the deaf/dumb man was healed, two of our groups were seriously beaten up by the sons of witchdoctors who saw them as a threat to their business. We are trying to encourage them. Pray for their perseverance. The enemy is obviously not happy with all the fruit.”

» Read full story. See Simon’s blog for additional reports and context.

Source: Mission Network News, July 4, 2013

Lesotho’s shepherds spend weeks at a time in difficult conditions in the highlands, tending their employer’s flocks of sheep and goats and spending their nights in simple rock shelters. It’s a job that keeps them isolated and marginalized.

Africa Inland Mission (AIM) is trusting God to bring together a team of eight single young men to live among these least-reached shepherds and introduce them to Christ. The project is part of AIM’s Training in Ministry Outreach program.

“I believe that the shepherd community of Lesotho offers extraordinary opportunities for incarnational witness,” says AIM missionary John Barry, who has served among them. “While conditions are difficult, and the population density very low, relationships [among shepherds] are intense. I think this offers the perfect opportunity for genuine discipleship.”

» Read the full story, and watch the beautiful five-minute video Set Apart. See also two previous AIM reports, The Shepherds of Lesotho and The Shepherd Evangelists.

Source: Baptist Press, July 3, 2013

Thousands have fled their homes in northern Nigeria amid Islamic extremist attacks on Christians, partly in retaliation for the government’s state of emergency and the destruction of extremist bases.

The violence was attributed to ethnic Fulani Muslims and to the Islamic extremist group Boko Haram, indicating the latter has regrouped and retaliated against Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan’s state of emergency and corresponding destruction in May of Boko Haram bases in the Sambisa Games Reserve in Borno.

Boko Haram is blamed for killing pastor Jacob Kwiza and attacking five Christian communities in Borno’s Mandara Hills area, Morning Star News reported. Fulani Muslims are blamed for killing Toma Vongjen, a Christian in the Wase area of Plateau State, and destroying church buildings in four villages there, the persecution monitor reported.

The thousands who fled their homes had been warned by Boko Haram to flee within a week or face death, area Christians said, the Associated Press reported.

Dinfa Lambda, a pastor in Jos, told Morning Star News whole villages have been displaced in northern Nigeria and that Christian fellowship and evangelistic outreach efforts are no longer possible.

“There are Christian villages that have been completely wiped out by these Muslim terrorists,” Lambda was quoted as saying.

» Read full story, as well as another Baptist Press story making the case that Nigerian Islamic Terrorism Transcends Religion.

» See also, Boko Haram Begs for Forgiveness, Signs Ceasefire Deal (Vanguard News) and Why Nigeria Matters (Julian Linnell, Anglican Frontier Missions).