Meanwhile, a variety of Christian ministries are combining their effort to organize the largest prison outreach in the U-S history. Prison Fellowship Ministries along with thousands of other volunteers are planning to launch “Operation Starting Line” over the Easter weekend. The program hopes to changes lives by introducing them to Christ. The event will kick-off a five year evangelistic program aimed at reaching every person in every prison in the nation. Today there are more than six-million men and women under correctional supervision.
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Next, a Muslim rebel offensive in the southern Philippines has been squelched by government troops, but the uprising has missionary groups on alert. Kermit Karlberg is the Philippines field director for World Team. Karlberg, who’s on furlough and staying at D & D Missionary Homes in Florida, says they’re cautiously moving forward. “We do have to be careful. And, just be sensitive to our type of ministry and also to the environment and what’s going on around us. There have been instances in the past because of fighting or skirmishes that we had to have our workers leave an area.” Karlberg says despite the Muslim dominance in the region, people are reading scripture. “They are understandably very religious and open to the scriptures and to studying the Bible. They are very respectful of the scriptures and of worshiping God so they are also interested in what the scriptures have to say.” Karlberg hopes that interest will lead many to Christ.
Food For The Poor and the Jamaican government last week announced a major land donation to help house the poor. The ministry gave of all the land needed by FFP to build two-thousand homes for the island’s poor. FFP’s Nick Adams. “It’s quite exciting and pretty amazing when you think about it because it’s quite a big parcel of land we’re talking about in different areas. We’re excited that it worked out with the government and allows us to move ahead again in this project.” Officials pledged to build a new infrastructure for the new communities. Adams says this project is an answer to prayer. “We go into these areas and try to make change and work with the people there through the churches, so we’re developing a link. We feel that, in a sense, we’re bringing the people in these communities back to God. I feel like God has opened so many doors for us over this past year. It’s amazing to see how many opportunities we’ve been given. I just feel like everyone has joined together in this great effort to help the poor in these countries, especially Jamaica for this project.”
Elsewhere, AMG International is working to encourage believers in India. Many of the pastors cannot afford formal Bible training or resources to learn. That’s where the work of the publishing arm of AMG comes in. Pulpit Helps, India Edition, is the only supply of information besides the Bible that many Indian pastors have for preparing sermons and Bible study lessons. While they praise God for the opportunity to help reach India, AMG is asking for help with the resource’s continued production and distribution.
We begin today’s newscast in Mozambique where some flood relief operations are winding down. However, Christian aid groups continue arriving to help the flood victims. Shelter Now International’s Jeff Johnstone says their group is in the process of assessment. “Now that the waters are starting to recede, we’re targeting the south end of Mozambique. We’re looking at partnering with another organization down there to develop some shelter response. We’ve got about a million people homeless in Mozambique right now, and conditions are just terrible-we haven’t been able to get in to really do an accurate assessment until now.” Johnstone says their work brings hope. “We are able to bring the love of Jesus. It is extremely impacting when you can look at somebody in the eyes, offer them a loaf of bread and just impart the love of Jesus to them. It also gives us the opportunity to bring in the Gospel.”
Elsewhere, Ukraine’s trouble with the International Monetary Fund belies the serious state of the country’s economy. Because the people are cash poor, ministries face quite a challenge. However, that doesn’t stop evangelism. On the contrary, says New Hope International’s Hank Paulson. “It’s not just the economic difficulties the country is facing. It’s also facing a moral and spiritual crisis. Many of the church leadership in Ukraine have asked for us to come alongside national staff and partner with them. That has resulted in us providing salaries for a full-time person, who then, in turn can go into the ministry and share the good news of Jesus Christ.” Paulson says they developed a unique way to help. “We make the materials available through resource libraries throughout the country where children’s workers, teachers, youth workers, pastors can come and check out resource materials, use them, and then after a semester, come back and exchange them for another set.”
Christians in Germany have written a strong letter of protest to the Sudanese government after a bomb incident last week. According to IDEA News, a German church delegation got caught in a bomb attack on a school in Southern Sudan on March 14th. Bishop for the German Protestant Church Rolf Koppe is condemning the incident, which claim the life of one Sudanese worker and injured 11 others. The Germans were not injured. Koppe is asking the German government to get involved.
Meanwhile, an American church building project is helping a church congregation in Russia. Brian Smith is the pastor of the Geneva Presbyterian Church in Canton, Michigan. Smith says their plan is to assist a church connected with SEND International. “We had made a decision when we were going to expand our facility, that we would tithe 10-percent of what was given to the building to help build other churches. The campaign ended up raising about $900,000 so we’re going to give away about $90,000 to other churches. We decided to support really three other ministries, the primary one being to build a church in Divnogorsk, Siberia.” Smith explains this particular church has a need, not unusual in Russia. “They’ve got about 150 worshipers that were meeting basically in a public building, but then the Russian authorities really was cracking down on that. So, they need to build their own facility. They have bought the land. They’re planning, this Spring, to begin construction.” Smith says they’re sending a work team to help.
We begin today in civil war battered Sudan where another Christian hospital has been bombed. According to Voice of the Martyrs Todd Nettleton a VOM sponsored hospital was bombed by the radical Islamic Government. Nettleton explains. “Also affected was an organization that we have partnered with called Far Reaching Ministries. One of their Sudan workers, a man named Tombek Marcello Daniel was killed in the bombing. Also in the area another person was killed and others were wounded. It does seem like in recent weeks there has been an increase in the bombing.” This is the third bombing of a hospital in the last two weeks. Nettleton says it’s not having an impact on evangelism. “In terms of the church growing it is not having an impact. And, really, in some ways it’s encouraging people to seek out Christ and to be thinking of eternal things which leads them to questions and the answer is obviously Jesus Christ.”
