The recent Luis Palau evangelistic crusade in Monterrey, is considered one of the great successes by the organization. The area is Mexico’s fourth largest city, and at least 7,000 people indicated they committed their lives to Jesus Christ. LPEA’s Jim Williams says this was a breakthrough for them. “It is the first time to be on Televisa. They estimated that we had a million people watching in the Monterrey area every night. The people at Televisa said that they had never seen anything like it. This was the best unity we’ve seen in many years. There’s a good strong church there and they have already started to follow-up the converts.” Williams says this was encouraging to the churches because of the unprecedented response to the call of the Gospel. “One of the things that we would like people to pray is that the local churches would take advantage of the wide open door that the Lord has provided, and that this type of evangelism would continue.”
News Archives
Elsewhere, new opportunities have opened up which will allow the Bible League to expand their ministry in Hungary and Macedonia. The Hungarian government expressed concern over the moral decline of their youth and are now requiring them to study the teachings of Jesus and the Bible in their public schools. The Bible League is partnering with Campus Crusade for Christ to help carry out this requirement with Bible studies, discipleship and evangelical Scripture placement.
We begin today in Russia where final opinion polls predict an outright win for Acting President Vladimir Putin in Sunday’s presidential election. Russian Ministries’ Peter Deyneka agrees. However, Deyneka says it’s unclear what that means for religious freedom there. “Even western government leaders are not sure who Putin really is and what his future aims are. Although Putin is a former KGB Director, Putin has made some reassuring promises about respecting the freedoms of all believers. But, at the same time he has cracked down severely on media freedom and he says said that reform should be carried out under tough control.” Deyneka says Russian Ministries is prepared if religious freedom is curtailed. “Regardless of what follows the election, the future of the evangelization of Russia is now more possible that ever because thousands of new Russian Christian leaders are being trained.”
Next, as relief efforts continue into Mozambique, there’s a threat of still more flooding in the area. SIM International’s Ron Frazee says they are helping with the current emergency, but they’re also looking ahead. “Now comes the hard work of long-term rebuilding and community redevelopment. We like to give our help through the local church so that people being helped see the help coming from God, and so it’s just natural then, to be able to share the Gospel with them.” Frazee adds that support is needed in a variety of ways during the crisis-from supplies to manpower, and most importantly, he says: “Pray for the Christians, that they’ll be strong in their faith, that they’ll be ready and willing to share their faith with people around them who have no hope…and just be able to give a word in season, because this is when people’s lives are disrupted.”
Nearly seven-thousand people came to Christ in Monterrey, Mexico last week as a result of evangelistic meetings with Luis Palau. According to agency spokesman Jim Williams, more than 97-thousand people attended the stadium rallies, making it one of the 10 best crusades in Palau’s history. Williams also says nearly five million people heard the Gospel on television. Televisa, Mexico’s top network, televised Palau’s live call-in program. Officials say many came to Christ as a result.
Meanwhile, the headlines are filled with stories about debt-from national to consumer debt, the concept of owing someone is not unusual. What’s disconcerting is how quickly that gets out of hand when priorities are off. Re-aligning priorities under God is what’s behind the ministry of New Focus National. Jenny Forner says they’re about ready to begin training, but training whom? “New Focus really helps churches and the people that they’re helping, because it gives them the infrastructure to be always open to people who have needs…and then, for the people that it’s helping, it not only helps them to receive something from the church, it also gives them a way to be able to give back.” One woman, whom we’ll call Judy, tells us how New Focus encouraged her family with the love of Christ. “No one wants to admit that they’ve gotten to a point where they need this kind of help. This program gave us hope when we didn’t see a way out…and this program brought us out and showed us what true Christianity is really about.”
We begin today on the continent of Africa where the cult tragedy in Uganda has claimed hundreds of lives. Reports say new breeds of Christian religious sects are mushrooming across Africa as people disillusioned with politics seek to improve their lives. SIM International’s Ron Frazee explains why cults are considered treacherous. “The thing that makes them dangerous is that they have some bit of Christianity mixed in with their beliefs, and this sometimes draws young Christians away from the true faith.” Frazee adds that evangelistic workers need prayer support as they fight the heresy of a cult and continue their outreach. “They have to keep teaching the Bible, and as the truths of the Scripture appears into people’s minds and becomes part of their lives, then they begin to be able to judge between right and wrong, between truth and error.”
Meanwhile, pastors and lay leaders are participating in seminars in preparation for special meetings in Pakistan in October. Manmin World Mission’s Johnny Kim says Doctor Lee Jae Rock will be holding evangelistic meetings in that Islamic country. Kim explains how they’re able to do this. “We have a lot of Pakistanis here in Korea. And we evangelize them and we taught them the Bible and we trained them so they could evangelize the people in Pakistan. So, when they finished their training here in Korea, they went back to Pakistan and established a church and evangelized the people.” Kim is asking people to pray as they may have a chance to share the Gospel with the leader of Pakistan. “Minister Derick Cyprian promised that he would arrange a special meeting with General Musharraf. If we visit we would like to introduce who Jesus is and how we are so much blessed by the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”
The ministry of the World Bible Translation Center came through the recent havoc in Indonesia relatively unscathed. WBTC’s Craig Smith says they are thankful for God’s protection for their current project. “While we’re very concerned about the strife in various parts of Indonesia, our main ministry right now is focused on getting a complete Bible translated into the modern Indonesian language that the people speak today. We’re talking about a country here that’s a chain of some 17-thousand islands, inhabited by two-hundred million people.” Smith asks that believers pray “…for receptive hearts among the Indonesian people. It’s a country that’s heavily Muslim-dominated, and at the same time, there are many searching people. We feel like we have a great window of opportunity right now to share the good news of Jesus.” WBTC currently has seven translations of the New Testament and one full Russian Bible text available on-line, with more to come.
Next, the largest Christian event in Europe is underway in Bremen, Denmark. TV satellite is beaming the message of “ProChrist” to 12-hundred locations in 17 countries from France to the Ukraine this week. According to IDEA News, 45 interpreters are translating the Gospel message into 14 languages. Guest speakers are stressing the importance of making the Christian faith the focal point in the lives of Europeans. The organizers are expecting close to one million people will hear the Gospel by the end of the week.
