Next, Christians are being urged to pray for North Korea. According to IDEA News, a Korean pastor is accusing the Communist government of committing genocide of its own people. Nearly 100-thousand people are said to be in concentration camps without food. The pastor who wishes to remain anonymous says anyone caught with a Bible is dealt with as a South Korean spy and shot immediately. According to secret service records, 400 Christians were executed last year.
News Archives
Topping today’s news, groups sending aid into the flood-ravaged Mozambique are asking for help to increase their shipments. The aim is to ensure that those who’ve lost homes and farmland can survive the immediate crisis until the next harvest. Operation Blessing’s Dick Kohl explains how they are rising to the challenge. “We’ve located a donation of cough medicine that we are sending over-we also know that they need food, so we’re putting in the same container with the cough medicine, about 70-thousand meals. We’ve also put together a package of medicines, one for cholera and one for malaria.” Kohl explains the phenomenon that occurs during tragedy. “The people in Mozambique are just like us, and if they are low, they’ve lost their homes, they’ve lost loved ones, they are sick, this is the time in their life when they would be receptive to hearing the Gospel message. A disaster like this gives us a wonderful opportunity to reach out and share the message of Christ’s love.” Kohl says right now their most desperate needs are cash and prayer.
Next, hundreds of people came to Christ in Ethiopia as evangelistic meetings were held along the Sudanese border. Evangelist Sammy Tippit says as many as 100-thousand people heard the Gospel and more than 65-hundred people came to Christ. Tippit says many of them were Sudanese. “There were 2,000 people from that border region who came for the sole propose of coming to the evangelistic meetings. Many of them came to know Christ. The exciting thing about that is these people spill back over into Sudan where you can not have evangelistic meetings and they can take the Gospel that they’ve heard and received back into Sudan.” Camera crews taped the meetings and Tippit says they hope to translate it into different languages. “So, we are going to lay this down and then we’re going to provide to the believers the video of the crusades so that they can have videos all in these villages all throughout this whole region. We’ll be able to impact all of Africa.” Tippit’s raising 31-thousand dollars for that effort.
Twleve Chinese Christian leaders were in the United States recently to talk about ways the church in the west can help the church in China. Erik Burklin of China Partners says the symposium saw a new openness from members of the China Christian council. “In the past we’ve always felt like it was a closed door, or at least there was careful scrutiny of who could go to China and do work over there. At this symposium is was very evident that the China Christian Council is more and more trying to open its doors to the west to seek help from their western counter parts.” Burklin says evangelism is successful in China, but they need assistance in discipleship and leadership training. “There is, on the average now, one ordained pastor for every 10,000 Christians and that’s just those that they can count with in the registered church. So, you can see there’s this huge need right now for training emerging Christian leaders and pastors.”
Elsewhere, the Turkmen secret police have just deported a Baptist couple and “Compass Direct” reports that other leading members of the Baptist church are being forced to leave as well. After being held in prison for over a month, Anatoli Belyayev (ah-na-toh-lee bel-ya-ev) and his family were forcibly placed on a flight to Russia. A Baptist source in Moscow feels that many of the non-native church community will likely be deported from Turkmenistan, where other religious activity is illegal.
We begin today’s newscast with a look at Sharia law in Nigeria and its impact on the church there. President of Open Doors USA Terry Madison says the number of states in that African country that favors Islamic law concerns him. “The northern half of Nigeria is predominately Muslim. The southern half is predominately Christian. Sharia law has been introduced in a number of the northern Muslim states, but in those northern states there are minority Christian communities and it is in this context that some of the violence has taken place.” Madison says his prayer is that Muslims and Christians can live together without violence. Open Doors is holding seminars to help. “These seminars present ways in which you can love your Muslim neighbor and how you can live an authentic Christian life in front of them and with them and be a good neighbor. You should always be prepared to give an answer to anyone who asks you to give a reason for the hope that you have. But, do this with gentleness and respect.”
Next, Nigeria’s worst cycle of ethnic and religious violence in 30 years continues to flare up in pockets of the country. The decision to introduce Sharia law provoked bloody clashes between Christians and Moslems, and set up reprisal attacks. To douse the tension, country officials urged a suspension of the controversial measures. What all this means to ministry, Book of Hope’s John Young explains. “We’ve gotten government approval for distribution there in Nigeria-I know that they’ve had a difficult time, but I think right now is a real turning point in their history. There’s a lot of hope and they’re really looking forward to the future, especially with the ministries and the missionaries that we’re working with in Nigeria.” Young says they are optimistic about reconciliation. “I think that what was in the past, hopefully will stay in the past. We are in the process of doing a book for Nigeria and are planning on sending about a half million copies of the book to the folks that are on the field there. We’ve got full government approval to do it.”
While Russia’s battle for Chechnya continues, ministry leaders are strategically planning how to reach the lost with the Gospel. Russian Ministries’ Peter Deyneka says they’re uniquely positioned to help the thousands of refugees. “Because Russian ministries is an indigenous organization, it is one of the few ministries that has been granted access to the refugees. And, along with food clothing and medical care, Russian ministries is providing the one thing that many other relief agencies can’t, that is hope for the future through Jesus Christ.” Deyneka says evangelism among this predominately Muslim people group could expand as they train Christians this year, but they need help. “It costs $120 per seminar, per missionary to train them. We are looking to God for $204,000 in the next eight months to make these 90 seminars possible to train 1,700 young men and women to evangelize Russia.”
Elsewhere, Bulgarians may soon experience further restrictions on their religious freedom. The Bulgarian National Assembly recently approved the first reading of a bill which creates a two-tiered system that favors the Orthodox Church and gives them full religious freedom. Forty-four minority religious groups have spoken out in opposition to the law that they say would impede their ability worship and share Christ freely in their community.
Topping today’s news, an evangelical ministry is thanking God for protection in the wake of a volcanic eruption in the Philippines this week. According to Philippine scientists the Mayon volcano has stopped erupting. American Leprosy Mission’s Chris Doyle visited the area and says their work didn’t suffer. “We have some projects at a leprosy hospital close to there. The folks at that hospital have been asked to participate in some of the relief work that’s going on there right now, but in terms of our projects, none of those have been affected.” Doyle says currently they’re assisting the government and community-based leprosy clinics. He says while cases of leprosy are dropping…”We’re still seeing a lot of cases with children. Generally speaking, when prevalence rates are dropping down, you tend to see fewer cases with children. So, we’re trying to continue to get out there and find all the new cases and get them on treatment. And, then help them in whatever way we can, including spiritual care.”
