An unexpected response came from the people of Hualien (wah-leen) County, Taiwan during the most recent stop by Operation Mobilization’s Doulos ship. Aside from the governor’s visit, more than one-thousand people went aboard, and at least 70 people responded to the Gospel. The OM teams also got a chance to play some sports on shore and explain why they were visiting in Taiwan. Continue to pray for the seeds that were planted in this area, as the ship moves on to Japan.
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Meanwhile, Bethany Christian Services is working to help families along their adoption journey. A special program was piloted in Michigan in cooperation with many other agencies to help create ‘forever’ homes. BCS’s Jim Nelson. “The ‘Won by One’ program is built on the basis of collaborations with inner-agencies throughout the state. What we intend to do is to connect with service providers in the child welfare agencies to assist us in finding ‘forever’ homes for children who have been waiting for a substantial amount of time in foster care.” Nelson says it is in this avenue that the kids are exposed to Christ. “If you look at the central themes of the ‘Won by One’ program, it’s time, love from our Lord and Christ, commitment and sponsorship–and I think if you really look behind those concepts, there’s a foundation of spirituality that grounds and pulls those concepts in together for what we’re trying to do.”
We begin today in the Middle East where the military withdrawal from Israel has led to safety concerns for staff with a Christian Broadcasting Network station in the area. The group that fled to Israel last week now fears for the safety of those left behind. CBN’s Mike Gwartney. “Israel pulled out in such a short notice, that we weren’t able to get all of our employees across the border that wanted to get across the border. We had a total of 56 employees at the station, we got across seven of them. In three weeks, what’s going to happen is the concern is going to kind of die down, and the Hezbollah are then going to go in and there’s going to be some persecution of Christians.” Gwartney says this situation is one of concern for them. “The total outreach of the station hasn’t been affected. [However], the news has been affected…now, the Hezbollah have brought their propaganda in and people in the region don’t know what to believe, because they’re uncertain as to what the truth is. As far as METV (Middle East Television) goes, pray that we can still bring to that region a true teaching of the Gospel.”
Meanwhile, rains have come to the drought-stricken areas of Ethiopia. But it may be too little too late. At present, the massive food shortage roils on and relief groups are just trying to make it through the next harvest season in November. World Concern’s Al York. “They were only able to make water deliveries and food deliveries within five kilometers to eight kilometers of the city because of the rains on the roads. So, in the short-term, it’s caused difficulty in bringing the delivery of the food to the people most in need. There won’t be an impact from the rains on agriculture for another several months.” The process of humanitarian aid often provides a willing ear for the Gospel. “We see that within areas where we come with our partner agency, Hope Enterprises, or where we partner with someone like SIM that we bring that Christian witness. The people know who’s bringing this food and you have an opportunity to discuss that.”
Despite Muslim threats, Walk Thru the Bible has launch a “World Teach” program in the Philippines. World Teach is a saturation Bible-teaching strategy with a goal of having a trained Bible teacher for every 50-thousand people around the world. Walk thru the Bible’s Terry Sparks. “We had meetings in Manila and Cebu. Altogether, we trained 422 new World Teachers in the Philippines and had, we estimate, about 10,000 people at our meetings. It was the largest and most successful launch that we’ve had so far.” According to Sparks, there’s concern their World Teachers could be in danger. “There were many bomb threats during the time we were there. Every time we went into a build we were searched. I think we really need to be in prayer for the Philippines. The cause of the unrest is that the Muslim radicals want the Philippines to be a Muslim country.” Thousands of churches have been started and trained leaders are needed to help lead them.
Next, Audio Scriptures International is reporting success from their Internet ministry. The organization recently got word that an Ethiopian evangelist working in a Middle Eastern country was using their broadcast on-line for his work. Apparently, this Christian man has been downloading and recording ASI Bible cassettes off the Internet in Hindi, Tamil, Amharic, Farsi, Russian and Urdu. ASI says the Internet has opened many doors for evangelism and asks that believers pray for missionaries as they make use of this tool.
We begin today’s news in the shadow of threatened violence in India. There has been intelligence trickling in that Christians have become targets for Hindu radicals in places that had earlier been free of violence. First, there was a church bombing near Andhra Pradesh. Then, other stories began to come in. India Evangelical Mission’s G.V. Matthai confirms the reports. “There were three other churches that people got inside and beat the people. The churches are closed-there is no morning service or evening service in Andhra Pradesh. [But], the Christians are more committed.” Matthai adds that their ministry has seen great encouragement despite the trouble. “We have seen in history, Christians were persecuted, but last year was the heaviest that persecution took place in the history of India. But, we have seen that wherever the public meetings were held, thousands of people came forward and accepted the Lord.”
Elsewhere, TransWorld Radio’s ministry in Russia suffered an economic setback that forced it to close its doors in May. However, with one door closed, another has opened that will nearly quadruple the number of stations that will carry Christian programming in-country. TransWorld Radio’s Rich Greene explains what’s happening beginning today. “We’ll be broadcasting daily over Russia’s two largest state-owned channels, and so we’re very excited that TransWorld Radio is going to be able to continue proclaiming the Gospel of Christ within the country, and allowing people to come to know Jesus Christ as their personal Savior.” Greene says they have the potential to reach over 156 million people throughout Russia, the Ukraine, and Belarus. “This just shows the wondrous ways that God works in being able to broadcast the Gospel over a system that was set up during the pre-Soviet Union era, and so, this is a miracle.”
A Christian mission organization is using education funding as a way to get university student into Christian service in eastern Europe. Mission without Borders’ Carol Marriott says they’re trying to raise the money to send students the university. “The cost of a college education in Romania, for instance is just phenomenal. Right now we’re looking at sending 449 U-S dollars to put a child through the University of Romania. What that covers is their tuition, their books, and what the government calls school taxes.” Marriott says they’re encouraging students to get involved in Christian work. “One of the things we’re trying to do is we want to get them to make a commitment to the mission for a certain amount of time. That maybe they’ll bring their experiences back and work in some of our field programs.” Marriott says the program is a great way to help educate Christians, enabling them to be better leaders in their communities.
Next, there are reports that a Mission Aviation Fellowship plane was hijacked during a flight between Erave and Mendi, earlier this week, in southern Papua New Guinea. The hijackers were among a group of passengers who boarded the aircraft. A band of three armed men forced the pilot to change course and robbed him and three other passengers. When the attackers arrived at their destination, they got off the plane and allowed the pilot to take off. No one was physically injured, and the aircraft was undamaged.
