News Archives

The horrific violence of civil war in Sierra Leone has resulted in a stronger body of believers. Christians in Action’s Raymond Attawia (uh-TAH-we-UH) says local residents know about the church’s reputation and are turning to the local Christians for help. Attawia says even Muslims are asking for their help. “He was saying, “You know, we know you Christians are doing so much. A lot depends on you Christians in this country.” So, the witness of the church has been enhanced.” The Evangelical Fellowship of Sierra Leone works with other denominations and organization to help plant churches. Right now, there are 21 congregations with over 4,000 people and more calls for churches to be planted. As the country stabilizes, Attawia asks that Christians pray that more lives be touched. “I guess we also need strength to be able to just finish this task of evangelism over out land. As the country becomes more and more peaceful we need to take this Gospel into the villages.”

Meanwhile, because of the increasing number of people coming to Christ in India, evangelicals are doing all they can to build churches in that country. India Evangelical Mission is one such group. President of the organization G-V Matthai explains the need. “There are people who can not meet in their home. Their houses are small. They can not conduct a worship service. We have the need to build five churches this year. It will take about four-thousand dollars to buy a piece of property and build a church.” According to Matthai those churches will help meet some of the need, but not all of it. “Every week, 35 new churches are being established in India. So, the Christian population is now about 4.4 percent out of one-billion people. So, God is doing a great work.”

Project Hannah, Trans World Radio’s innovative outreach to women by women, is flourishing in Southeast Asia, and the ministry’s focus shifts to the Americas. Project Hannah producer, Marli Spieker (speaker) says this week, they launched the newest version of the program. “We’re going to grow as the Lord provides. We were in Asia until this month, and now we will be broadcasting in three new languages, Mandarin, Japanese and Vietnamese this month and also Spanish.” Spieker describes the reason Project Hannah exists. “The plight of the women all over the world is the same. It changes a little bit the way the abuse presents itself, especially in the Third World countries. Women do not have a high place in society. Project Hannah is a ministry of encouragement and compassion-and what we are telling them [women] is that, “God loves you!””

Elsewhere, Christian Blind Mission International estimates that the chances of survival for blind children in the Third World countries are between slim to none. CBMI’s Alan Harkey says it’s because of these grim facts that they are observing National Children’s Day on October 8th. “The majority of childhood blindness is caused by Vitamin A deficiency. It’s a tragic situation. In fact, every minute, a child is going blind, and when we think about the fact that half of those children who go blind will die within two years, that is a statistic that I think everybody in this country should be paying attention to.” Harkey says for many children, CBMI’s work represents the hope and compassion of Jesus Christ. “We are placing a renewed emphasis on children simply because they are the future. If we can stop their blindness, then we not only save their sight for a lifetime, but in many cases, we save their lives.” Please pray for CBMI’s medical staff as they continue their ministry.

A Voice of the Martyrs source reports that a Cuban pastor and his family were forced out of their home in the Cuban city of Las Tunas on Tuesday. Pastor Jorge Ferrer Jr.’s church has been very active in evangelism, and has established many daughter churches in recent years. Local believers think that because of his Christian ministry, his home was confiscated. In recent months, the situation for Christians in Cuba has seemed to improve, however, believers are far from free from persecution in Cuba.

Next, Christians from around the world gathered to share the Gospel in Sydney during the Olympic Games. Gospel Literature Services’ Dr. David Crandall says they had a half million booklets in 15 languages ready thanks to a cooperative effort. “Our logistics on this end of it was handled by the missionaries here and everything was prepared well for us and we have just had a very, very exciting time of witnessing and talking to folks on the street about the Lord.” Crandall says several dozen came to the Lord, adding that now, the real work begins. “We have produced a book called “The Ultimate Question” and that is going to be sent to every believer who has accepted Christ as personal Savior or those folks that seem to be very, very interested, we will send the book out. Then we’ll be in contact with missionaries around the world that live hear these folks and ask them, within two weeks, to make contact with them.”