Category: News Briefs

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.

Source: Meredith Moench, OM News, September 13, 2013

“You know, we’re still not healed from wartime here in Kosova. We’re still not really laughing,” said 19-year-old “Nora.” We’re sitting in a crowded cafeteria of teenagers. Nora seems undistracted.

Two nights before, Nora stood in that same cafeteria and stunned the room as she sang for the Arts Camp Student Talent Show. Her voice was strong as a diamond, precise on the highest notes, piercing. She closed her eyes as she stood at the microphone and let her voice do the work.

OM arts camp director “Malachi” hoped to create a special space for young Kosovar artists to develop their art forms. In a country lacking artistic support and development, Malachi’s vision is to break cultural and religious barriers with the God-given power of the arts.

Through a spiritual reflection each morning, he turned the students’ gaze inward, and pointed them to their need to know the greatest artist of all: their Creator. Each evening the students and teachers were mutually given the dignity of sharing their art form through performance, and experiencing God’s presence in the creative expression of others.

For Nora, it was singing that sparked her opportunity to attend camp. “Music is really helping me. It’s like it brings peace and joy deep inside a person. I want to heal people, because when people are hurt they do bad things. By healing people we can make things better,” she paused.

“I know that I’m not healed yet, but this camp has started to help me. It’s difficult to forgive. I haven’t forgiven the Serbs yet,” said Nora. “But I choose the way of God; I choose the way of healing.”

» Read full story. Several other recent stories from OM also highlight the power of music to touch hearts. See Dance for France and Singing Tourists.

Source: Mission Network News, September 16, 2013

According to a report originally published by Mohabat News, Afghanistan’s leaders are calling for the death of Christian converts.

“Numerous Afghans have become Christians in India. This is an offense to Islamic Laws and, according to the Quran, they need to be executed,” stated the Afghanistan Member of Parliament, Nazir Ahmad Hanafi, in a published report.

The number of people coming to Christ from Muslim backgrounds is reportedly increasing. Most Muslim-background believers have fled to India for safety; a growing church established in Delhi reportedly has around 250 members.

Afghanistan’s Parliament has addressed this issue on separate occasions over the past few months. One MP, Abdul Latif Pedram, said that “conversions to Christianity are the result of the presence of the United States in Afghanistan.” He feels the conversion of Afghans in India is part of the US’s longer-term plan to alter the country’s culture and religion.

» Read full story.

» See also Afghan Church Grows in Delhi (Matters India).

Source: Wazala, a ministry of SAT-7, August 6, 2013

In his moving account of years serving as a chaplain in the port of Aden, Yemen: Heartbreak and Hope, Peter Crooks recalls a series of conversations that reveal God’s undercover Spirit at work in members of this strongly Islamic society.

“Omar [leaned] forward in the chair opposite me. His hands were loosely clasped and he had a scarf wrapped around his head. He had at least two days of stubble on his chin. He spoke very slowly and deliberately in English, and his dark eyes were fixed intently on my own. ‘Will you baptize us?’ he asked searchingly.

“I had had a hunch that this was where the conversation with he and his friend Mustafa was headed. I hesitated briefly and replied cautiously that to do so might prove a dangerous and costly step for us all. ‘We have read the Bible,’ he responded. ‘We have studied the words of Jesus. He talked about the cross. We are ready to take up the cross. Do not stop us.'”

“I thought about that meeting with the two men and their burning question when, a week later, we were invited to attend a reception on a French naval warship … an unlikely but congenial setting for the lively conversation that unexpectedly opened up on board between myself and senior members of Aden’s security and police services, who had also been invited to the reception, about Yemeni Christians.

“‘Are there many Yemeni Christians?’ came the first question.

“‘Yes,’ I replied. No one asked me how many, and I would have been hard pressed to give a figure if I had been asked to. If I had been, I would have ventured several hundred at least, and it could well be several thousand.

“‘Where are they?’ asked another officer.

“‘Everywhere,’ I said.”

» Full story.

Source: Worthy News, September 12, 2013

A Moroccan Christian has been fined and jailed for “shaking the faith of a Muslim.”

Spreading Christianity is prohibited under Article 220 of the Moroccan Penal Code; the maximum sentence for this offense is three to six months’ imprisonment, but in a September hearing, Mohamed el Baldi was convicted and sentenced to two and a half years.

Baldi was arrested after his house was raided on August 28 and all his religious belongings were confiscated, according to World Watch Monitor.

Baldi, who converted to Christianity almost seven years ago, confessed that he attended Christian meetings in the towns of Meknes and Rabat.

During his hearing, Baldi’s mother was said to have asked Allah to exact revenge on whoever tampered with her son’s mind.

» Full story here.