Category: News Briefs

Source: God Reports, October 16, 2019

Peter and Tammy Russell work with Wild Hope International in Tanzania after spending years working with Kenya’s Maasai. Recently, they had a five-day getaway on the pristine beaches of Zanzibar. Peter had looked forward to the time to “relax, read a good book, enjoy some good food, swim, and exercise.”

“As we flew in over the Indian Ocean, the aquamarine and coral blue of the waters surrounding the emerald archipelago formed a picture so breathtaking that I felt my soul start to rejuvenate,” he recounted.

[But] that night Peter had a disturbing dream. “I saw Maasai going to perform a sacrifice filled with occult meaning. When I woke up, I shared the dream with Tammy, we prayed together, and the heaviness lifted somewhat. But later in the day it came back, and I had a stirring in my heart to have church on the beach.”

When Sunday arrived, Peter and Tammy took a walk on the beach.

When a young Maasai man greeted them, Peter answered him in Maasai. The young man was shocked to hear his language coming from a tourist.

“I have a message on my heart to give to you Maasai here. Can you gather your friends together?” Peter asked.

» See full story with pictures.

Source: Barnabas Fund, October 22, 2019

Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), the Indonesian Muslim political party and world’s largest moderate Muslim movement, has made a significant break with Islamic conservatism in an unprecedented decision to abolish the legal category of “infidel” (kafir) for non-Muslims.

The groundbreaking move, apparently aimed at sweeping away Islamic doctrines often used by extremists to justify terrorism, was first announced at the NU national conference in West Java earlier in 2019.

Around 20,000 Muslim scholars gathered to create and endorse a new Islamic legal framework (fiqh). The new rulings include a raft of changes embracing the modern definition of nation state, instead of a caliphate, and recognizing all as “fellow citizens,” irrespective of their religion or ethnicity, with equal rights and obligation to obey modern national laws.

Indonesia is the world’s largest Muslim nation and the NU claims to have more than 90 million members. Its revisions of Islamic doctrine and legal rulings are expected to reverberate throughout the Muslim world.

» Read full story.

» The NU also eased a ban on non-Muslim greetings, that is, greetings associated with the other religions of Indonesia (The Jakarta Post).

In Ghana, where chiefs make blood sacrifices and employ soothsayers, some traditions are giving way as Christians become chiefs and elders (International Mission Board). This edition of Missions Catalyst includes several articles about how God is equipping and using local Christian leaders in Africa and beyond.

1. GHANA: The Christian Chiefs
2. MOZAMBIQUE: Graduates Ready to Serve
3. WEST AFRICA: Celebrating the Scriptures
4. EAST AFRICA: From Islamic Scholar to Follower of Jesus
5. CHINA: A Testimony

Source: International Mission Board, November 4, 2019

The tension can be felt across the crowd of hundreds outside the palace in Nalerigu, Ghana. They wait in silent anticipation for the Taraana, one of the Mamprusi king’s seven elders, to come out of the hall to present the man the king has selected as chief. When he does, the new chief’s supporters erupt into cheers and applause. The Taraana ceremoniously places a white smock on the chief followed by a bright red cap. Thus begins several days of celebration and ritual as the new chief is “enskinned.”

The Taraana—which translates literally to “peer” or “equal”—is in many senses the king’s right-hand man. However, over the next few days, this Taraana will not be involved in the ritual sacrifices to the ancestral spirits or in the formal Islamic prayers for the new chief. This Taraana is the first in the traditional kingdom of Mamprugu’s seven-hundred-year history to be a follower of Jesus Christ.

Like many West African nations, even though a democratic government runs the nation, there are traditional, tribal chieftaincy structures that are still the authority at the local and, occasionally, even regional level. These local leadership positions are almost always intricately connected to African traditional religious belief systems.

In northern Ghana, chiefs sit on skins (hence the term enskinned instead of enthroned) and those skins are often taken from the animals that were sacrificed to ancestral spirits in a prayerful plea to win the chieftaincy contest. Once in power, a chief will wear magical amulets to empower his rule and protect him from his enemies. He will regularly employ soothsayers and make blood sacrifices to ancestral shrines for guidance.

So the question arises, can a Christian become a chief? Fifty years ago, this was unheard of in northern Ghana.

» Full story (with pictures) reports there are now so many Christian chiefs in Northern Ghana that they formed their own Christian Chiefs Association, working to integrate Christian principles and discourage harmful practices. Read Annual Northern Ghana Christian Chiefs Conference Ends with a Call to Promote Peace (Ghana Broadcasting Corporation).

» Read about the evangelical Ethiopian Prime Minister and Nobel Peace Prize winner again struggling to reconcile opposing forces (Christianity Today).

Source: Global Partners, October 23, 2019

Five couples and two women graduated from the Xai-Xai Bible College in Mozambique at the end of September. (A few students received a one-year Christian ministry certificate.)

These graduates were sent out and are very needed in their communities as new churches are planted every year by the JESUS Film team and by house-to-house evangelism. Other churches were waiting for a trained pastor. The graduates returned to four different districts.

Manuel Boca and his wife will be Mozambique’s first missionaries to a foreign country, Malawi, in the next few months—once their work visas are finished. Please pray for these graduates as they transition into a new season of ministry!

» In the full story, several first-year students briefly share their ministry hopes. Let’s ask God to continue raising up and equipping the Christians of this African country.

Source: Ethnos360, October 20, 2019

Not every people group has the privilege of having a Bible in their language. So, when a Bible translation is completed in a new language, it is understandably a time for celebration.

In the case of a certain people group in West Africa, a Bible translation has been in the works for many years. This summer, their New Testament translation was completed, printed, and shipped to Africa just in time for the scheduled celebration. This New Testament is only the second Bible translation completed by Ethnos360 in West Africa.

The day of the event, more than 300 people came to celebrate, both believers and unbelievers. There were people from the village where the event took place, leaders from other villages and leaders of other religions. Several missionaries also came to celebrate. All of the visiting leaders as well as those among this people group who had completed the literacy course received Bibles. Pray with us that they will read their Bibles!

» Read full story and another from Ethnos360, What Do You Mean—Heart Language?

Source: Open Doors, November 4, 2019

“Abdul Razak” is an Open Doors trainer who lives in East Africa—but he has not always followed Jesus. And he did not accept Jesus easily. His journey was long and tumultuous, and worsened by Christians’ inability to answer his questions about the faith.

But the Holy Spirit made the words of John 3:5 (“Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit.’”) stick in his heart, and prevented him from giving up his search for truth.

Today the frustrations that made his road to Jesus so difficult drive his passion to equip Christians to defend their faith—and to offer the best possible help to Muslims seeking the way, the truth and the light.

» Read this man’s story.

Source: Asia Harvest, October 2019

[During the Cultural Revolution] in the 1950s a total of 49 Chinese pastors from the Wenzhou area were arrested and sent to prison labor camps in northeast China’s frozen Heilongjiang Province. Of these men, Miao Zizhong was the only one to survive the ordeal and return home alive.

Miao grew up without knowing the gospel, and he regularly hurled foul-mouthed insults at the servants of the Lord. He became an angry man, bitterly lashing out at other people without provocation.

Everything began to change in Miao’s life in 1948, one year before China became a Communist country. When he was 32 he contracted a serious disease, and when he went to the largest hospital in Wenzhou they declared his case incurable and advised him to return home and prepare for death. News got around that Miao was perishing, and a relative visited and pleaded with him to believe in Jesus Christ. He accepted the gospel and repented of his sins.

From the moment Miao received God’s offer of salvation, his physical condition improved, and after a while he was completely healed. Overcome with gratitude to the Lord for sparing his life, Miao surrendered his future to God’s service, and he immediately traveled to another district to preach the gospel.

For the next six years Miao continued to proclaim good news to the spiritually hungry people of Zhejiang, until the authorities caught up with him in the winter of 1954. He was hauled in front of a “struggle session” by the local people’s militia, and was lectured about the evils of Christianity and commanded to sign a statement renouncing his faith. With a calm demeanor, Miao looked his persecutors in the eyes and declared:

“Jesus is the Savior of my life. I would be ungrateful to deny Him and as such I would go to hell. I cannot do this.” Upon hearing that, the cadres began to gnash their teeth and with their fists they started beating Miao viciously. He prayed fervently, asking the Lord for help. The evil men used every method, but in the end were unable to coerce him into submission.

» Full story includes a picture of Miao Zizhong, who went on to serve the Church in China for decades. It’s an excerpt from the recent book Zhejiang: The Jerusalem of China. We pray that the testimony of this house church leader will stir up the faith of believers in China who are again experiencing heavy persecution.

» From another Asian context, read Pastor Spends Months in Canoe to Bring Gospel to Filipino Islands (Mission Network News).

1. SYRIA: A Horrifying Scene
2. NIGERIA: Violence Targets Pastors
3. SOUTH ASIA: Miraculous Escape
4. AFGHANISTAN: Forgiving the Taliban
5. UKRAINE: Every Day on Their Knees—for Five Years

Source: Open Doors, October 14, 2019

Last Tuesday [October 8], the heart of Qamishli, a city in northern Syria, was beating with life. Kids were in school, men and women were at work, shops were open, taxis were driving.

Explosions ended the peace in the town on Wednesday afternoon, October 9. Turkey had begun an offensive military action against Kurds in northern Syria. People rushed back to their houses, kids were dismissed from their classrooms, and the streets emptied. Life stopped.

George Moushi, the pastor of the [Evangelical Christian] Alliance Church in Qamishli, saw the need of the people in this situation. He went out to estimate the damage, to see what he could do for his people. Unfortunately, missiles don’t differentiate between a child or a grown up, between a terrorist or a mother.

Pastor George described the damage he saw on the ground. “Thankfully the bombs didn’t hit the center of the city where the majority of people are,” he says, “but, despite that, there were deaths and people injured.”

“Today I visited a Christian family whose house was hit by two missiles. Fadi Habsouna, the father of two children, was injured and lost his house and his shop. His wife was also severely injured in her spine and she is in a critical state. Doctors said she needs surgery and she might be paralyzed forever.”

» Read full story as well as Urgent: Christians in Syria Need Your Help which includes ways to pray and an opportunity to give.

» See also Turkey’s Syria Offensive Explained in Four Maps and read how neighboring Lebanon is calling for help as they experience their worst forest fires in decades, which have now spread into Syria (BBC). Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin just published a special edition on Syria. Look beyond the headlines and pray for this region.