{"id":5250,"date":"2014-12-16T10:34:42","date_gmt":"2014-12-16T18:34:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/?p=5250"},"modified":"2014-12-16T10:43:13","modified_gmt":"2014-12-16T18:43:13","slug":"missions-catalyst-news-briefs-9","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/?p=5250","title":{"rendered":"Missions Catalyst News Briefs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Missions-Catalyst-no-tagline_large.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-4515\" src=\"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Missions-Catalyst-no-tagline_large.png\" alt=\"Missions-Catalyst-no-tagline_large\" width=\"620\" height=\"207\" srcset=\"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Missions-Catalyst-no-tagline_large.png 620w, https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Missions-Catalyst-no-tagline_large-300x100.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>In This Issue: When the light of heaven breaks through the darkness<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/?p=5248\">MIDDLE EAST: Bright Side of Anarchy Caused by Terror Groups<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/?p=5246\">COLOMBIA: Light Pushes Back Darkness<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/?p=5244\">INDIA: Christians Injured in Pre-Christmas Attacks<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/?p=5242\">CENTRAL ASIA: \u201cSecret Church\u201d with Coffee and Cakes<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/?p=5240\">AUSTRIA: God Raising Up the Roma<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Greetings,<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>December 25 will be just another day in 14 of the world\u2019s countries (those that do not recognize Christmas as a public holiday). <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Christmas_traditions#mediaviewer\/File:Map_of_Countries_that_do_not_recognize_Christmas_as_Public_Holiday.png\" data-cke-saved-href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Christmas_traditions#mediaviewer\/File:Map_of_Countries_that_do_not_recognize_Christmas_as_Public_Holiday.png\">See this map<\/a> and try to name them (<a href=\"http:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Map_of_Countries_that_do_not_recognize_Christmas_as_Public_Holiday.png\" data-cke-saved-href=\"http:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Map_of_Countries_that_do_not_recognize_Christmas_as_Public_Holiday.png\">answers here<\/a>). Spoiler alert: one of them is Bhutan. Recently we pointed you to two video stories about Bhutan, one about <a href=\"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/?p=5086\" data-cke-saved-href=\"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/?p=5086\">changes coming to the kingdom<\/a> and one about <a href=\"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/?p=5189\" data-cke-saved-href=\"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/?p=5189\">Pema<\/a>, the inspiring carver with cerebral palsy. This time I\u2019d like to point you to a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.worldwatchmonitor.org\/2014\/12\/article_3508079.html\/\" data-cke-saved-href=\"https:\/\/www.worldwatchmonitor.org\/2014\/12\/article_3508079.html\/\">short video from some pastors in Bhutan<\/a> speaking about religious rights (World Watch Monitor).<\/p>\n<p>As we celebrate Jesus\u2019 coming and bringing light to darkness, let us remember that anywhere the light of heaven breaks through the powers of darkness, it is like Christmas. Let us pray all year long, \u201cLet earth receive her King!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And remember this about the nature of light: the light that shines farthest shines brightest at home. The Billy Graham Center for Evangelism offers some good tools to help you speak to others about the Light of the world. See their videos on \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/vimeopro.com\/wheatoncollege\/speaking-the-story\" data-cke-saved-href=\"http:\/\/vimeopro.com\/wheatoncollege\/speaking-the-story\">Speaking the Story at Christmas<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Merry Christmas,<br \/>\nPat<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/Pat.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/Pat.jpg\" alt=\"Pat\" width=\"139\" height=\"191\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Pat Noble has been the \u201cnews sleuth\u201d 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 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.northernchristian.org\">NorthernChristian.org<\/a> website. You can connect with her at <a href=\"http:\/\/whatsoeverthings.com\" target=\"_blank\">www.whatsoeverthings.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In This Issue: When the light of heaven breaks through the darkness \u00a0MIDDLE EAST: Bright Side of Anarchy Caused by Terror Groups COLOMBIA: Light Pushes Back Darkness INDIA: Christians Injured in Pre-Christmas Attacks CENTRAL ASIA: \u201cSecret Church\u201d with Coffee and Cakes AUSTRIA: God Raising Up the Roma Greetings, December 25 will be just another day &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/?p=5250\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Missions Catalyst News Briefs<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-briefs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5250"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5250\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5251,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5250\/revisions\/5251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}