{"id":5455,"date":"2015-03-18T06:01:10","date_gmt":"2015-03-18T13:01:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/?p=5455"},"modified":"2015-03-17T19:43:14","modified_gmt":"2015-03-18T02:43:14","slug":"niger-addressing-fear-with-faith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/?p=5455","title":{"rendered":"NIGER: Addressing Fear with Faith"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mnnonline.org\" data-cke-saved-href=\"https:\/\/www.mnnonline.org\">Mission Network News<\/a>, March 13, 2015<\/p>\n<p>Persecuted Christians in the West African country of Niger are \u201cvery upbeat\u201d despite recent attacks in their country.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve only lost things,\u201d they told IMB strategy leader, Greg Dorsey. \u201cWe\u2019ve not lost the church, just some buildings.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Dorsey expressed gratitude that recent violence at the hands of angry Muslims was targeted at buildings, not people.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is a sense that this is the time for the church, that\u2026what was meant for evil, God intends for good,\u201d he continued. Instead of seeking retaliation or revenge, even believers who lost their homes and possessions are confident that God is good and Jesus is still Lord.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was also encouraging to see that at least one public statement has been made by a representative of the evangelical churches in Niamey, where they publicly stated on radio and television that they forgave those who did all the damage and the burnings. That was pretty powerful.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The attacks appeared to be well-planned and coordinated, as small mobs ransacked and burned more than 50 structures all over Niamey in less than four hours. Both missionaries and national believers found marks on their gates, indicating their homes were potential targets.<\/p>\n<p>But stories abound of members of the Muslim community who warned their Christian friends and neighbors of impending danger, protected their homes while they were in hiding, and offered them shelter\u2014all indications there was limited support for the group perpetuating the violence. Dorsey said some Christians feel their Muslim neighbors were ashamed of what was done in the name of Islam.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bb <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mnnonline.org\/news\/addressing-fear-with-faith\/\" data-cke-saved-href=\"https:\/\/www.mnnonline.org\/news\/addressing-fear-with-faith\/\">Read full story<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bb More good news from MNN: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mnnonline.org\/news\/new-khmer-translation-opens-new-doors-for-the-gospel\/\" data-cke-saved-href=\"https:\/\/www.mnnonline.org\/news\/new-khmer-translation-opens-new-doors-for-the-gospel\/\">New Khmer Translation Opens Doors for Gospel<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Source: Mission Network News, March 13, 2015 Persecuted Christians in the West African country of Niger are \u201cvery upbeat\u201d despite recent attacks in their country. \u201cWe\u2019ve only lost things,\u201d they told IMB strategy leader, Greg Dorsey. \u201cWe\u2019ve not lost the church, just some buildings.\u201d Dorsey expressed gratitude that recent violence at the hands of angry &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/?p=5455\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">NIGER: Addressing Fear with Faith<\/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-5455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-briefs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5455","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=5455"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5455\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5456,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5455\/revisions\/5456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}