We begin today in Mozambique where the country’s president is appealing to the outside world for more help. Flooding in that region has killed at least 350 people and left 650-thousand people homeless. Food for the Hungry’s Shaun Walsh says they’re stepping forward to help. “We’re hiring helicopters for literally doing rescue for people from trees and the tops of their roofs. Many people literally have been there for four or five days. So, they’re drinking water that is full of disease. And, they’re starving to death.” Walsh says they’re dropping relief supplies in plastic bags to help feed these people. He says it’s presenting the church an opportunity to witness. “The local churches are one and part of the same victims here. But, many of them are asking, even though we are the victims we also want to reach out to the same communities.” Call 1-800-2-Hunger if you’d like to help in this relief effort.
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The objective is to learn about missions in the Caribbean-and there could be more painful ways to do it. Evangelism Explosion is offering an imaginative look at their work in the area via a different approach to short-term missions. E-E’s John Sorenson. “We’ve got a cruise with a purpose that we’re going to do in the summertime. It’s a chance for people to spend some time with Dr. Kennedy and to visit three different ports and see the E-E ministries on three islands. We’re going to be visiting San Juan, St. Thomas and Nassau. We’ll be going on to those islands and maybe doing some E-E work there.” Sorenson adds the bigger purpose is to show the passengers the bigger vision of E-E. “If they could just see through the Caribbean, what’s going on with E-E on those islands, then they can imagine what’s going on with all the nations of the world.” The cruise is slated to begin July 15th and ends the 22nd. If you’d like details, check out their website at: www.eeinternational.org.
Meanwhile, missionary radio broadcasters are continuing their efforts to reach the unreached with the Gospel through radio. Words of Hope’s Lee DeYoung, is a member of the World by Radio campaign. DeYoung says the need for radio is great around the world. “There are approximately, right now as we speak today, 84 languages with either definite or probable need that are all spoken by a million or more people that don’t yet have Gospel broadcasts.” DeYoung says those numbers continue to rise as the world’s population increases. “On the one hand the number of mega-languages does grow. If one measures the number of languages that we knew to need broadcasts at the beginning of the project in 1985, and the number added, we’ve added more than we thought we needed back then. However, the number of languages of a million or more has grown in the meantime, so the target keeps moving. But, we’re getting closer to the target even though it is moving we’re moving faster.”
Elsewhere, the Flying Hospital has teamed up with Operation Blessing for a special medical missions trip this month to Pueblo, Mexico. So far, the teams of doctors have already completed dozens of much-needed surgeries. Operation Blessing reports that many lives have been impacted with the love of Christ. The facility is set up to include a counseling area in the clinic site where the patients can sit down with a counselor or get a free Bible. The staff asks that believers pray for the teams during the demanding trip.
The question facing many Bible translation groups is “what will it take to get the job done?” JAARS provides the support for the technology used around the world in this effort. Pat Snyder says they are using the latest technology in order to overcome the greatest obstacles faced by missionaries on the field. “Previously, communications could be maintained-you’d exchange letters, which would take quite a bit of time to physically get from one place to another. The first e-mail was exchanged and it’s reduced the amount of time that it takes to get things done.” Snyder adds that this means greater flexibility for their work. “As folks go out to their allocations, suddenly the satellite telephone takes on an importance for us within Wycliffe to add e-mail capability to the traditional radio/telephones that we use. As a language team goes out to their allocation, they can stay in that communications loop, even when there are no other ways to do it.”
We begin today’s newscast in Kosovo where increasing violence is forcing more troops into the region. However, the increasing tensions are not having an impact on International Aid’s plans to work there. I-A’s Jerry Dykstra. “We’re going to be dedicating a new health clinic we’re rehabbing and that will be done probably around the first of April. And, that will be in a town about 50-miles from Pristina, which is the capitol. And, there’s a real need there for health clinics to get some of the people (treated) who have not been treated very well health wise for many years.” International Aid has already sent 27 shipments of relief supplies to Kosovo. Dykstra says they’ll be helping physically in an effort to change hearts. “In a climate of ethnic and religious hate, we’re planting seeds that God will then grow. That’s just tremendously true. People can pray that this atmosphere of hate as we it, that somehow God change hearts.” Dykstra is encouraging people to give financially so the work can be successful.
Next, an evangelist is asking people to pray for the people of Scotland and Ethiopia. Evangelist Sammy Tippit is in Scotland today to begin a Christian conference there. He says while Scotland has a rich religious history, he’s praying that God will move mightily among the people. On Saturday he will travel to Ethiopia for evangelistic in that African country. The meetings will be held along the Sudanese border. Tippit says he expects Sudanese refugees to attend the meetings. Pray that many will come to Christ.
Meanwhile, an evangelical group is asking people to help flood victims in southern Africa. Baptist World Aid recently made a five-thousand-dollar grant available to assist in relief efforts. The flooding has affected close to 800-thousand people and more than 150 people have died as a result. Many families have no clean water which escalated the outbreak of disease. BWA is channeling help and aid through the Baptist Convention of Mozambique in an effort to lead people to the Savior.
We begin today in Nigeria where President Olusegun Obasanjo is visiting the northern city of Kaduna, where more than two-hundred people died in sectarian clashes a week ago. Meanwhile, ethnic riots erupted yesterday in the southeast in a backlash to last week’s violence. Evangelical Baptist Mission’s David Jacobs says: “The government has made it clear that the present government of the state of Nigeria is not an Islamic state, and as such, we still have the freedom of worship–and the present government has never interfered with any religious activity, as long as you have not violated the principle and the law of the government.” Jacobs says despite the trouble, their work continues. “We need more missionaries to help, and to evangelize the area that still needs to be evangelized. A couple of churches were destroyed by the fanatic Muslims, but that really has not affected the propagation of the Word of God. It rather has enhanced.”
Even as India remains in turmoil over parliamentary elections, evangelistic work continues. Audio Scriptures International’s Harvey Hoekstra says they are concerned for the believers acting on behalf of ASI’s “Adopt-a-Village” outreach program. “In some of the villages where people have turned from Hinduism to Christ, there is opposition. Recently, one of the coordinators in the “Adopt a Village” program and his wife and their son were attacked during the middle of the night. Fortunately, there were no deaths, but this was an effort to put fear in their hearts.” Hoekstra explains what the “Talking Bible” project. “This is a version which has an entire New Testament in whatever language one wants to use. These 500 units will be field tested in the “Adopt a Village” program in India. In villages where there is a very high percentage of non-readers, someone volunteers to gather the people together to listen to the Scripture in their language.”
