Elsewhere, police in eastern India have arrested the prime suspect in the
murder of Leprosy Home Mission worker Graham Staines and his two sons.
News agencies report the leader of the mob that attacked the Staines, Dara Singh, was
captured this week in a wooded area after an attempt to buy a weapon. Singh has
confessed to killing the Staines, along with two other murders and faces a February
14th court date. He has also been linked to other attacks on missionaries.
News Archives
Although Mozambique is no longer in civil war, the many years of turmoil have
taken their toll. The country is one of the poorest in the world, both economically and
spiritually. SIM missionaries Jay and Amy Smoker are involved in an
agriculturally-based ministry where they’re teaching new business techniques to the
Makua (muh-KOO-wa) tribe. “Mozambique has been through a very difficult
period-17 years of civil war-[there’s been] a lot of breakdown of infrastructure. We’ve
taught improved grain storage-many people like to sell their produce right at harvest,
even though that’s the time they get the lowest prices, and we’re trying to teach them to
store their grain and sell it later.” Smoker adds that the other part of their work has
gotten enthusiastic response. “We started a small prayer group and we started showing
the Jesus Film. We were able to show this film 36 times this year, and exposed over
83-thousand people [to the Gospel]. We always went into a local church setting or
with the Farmer’s Association and we never took it in unless we accompanied it with a
seminar on prayer or spiritual powers.”
Next, seminary students in Africa are not waiting till they graduate to use their
gifts to lead others to Christ. Workers with Grace Ministries International at the
Seminary in Nairobi spent their Christmas vacation sharing the gospel in villages across
Kenya. Using evangelism techniques and VBS programs hundreds of Kenya’s learned
of God’s love for the first time, with many turning their lives over to Christ. GMI
missionaries are hoping to return often to the villages to continue their discipleship
efforts.
Topping today’s news, mission workers in Chechnya say the fall of Grozny is the
opportunity of a millennium to reach Chechens for Christ. Russian Ministries’
George Law says they’re working with mostly Muslim Chechen. “These people now
are seeing Christians provide them with help, with bread, with Bibles or scripture
portions, with care, with blankets to warm them. And they’re beginning to realize there
is a difference between the traditional, nominal Orthodox Church and Evangelical
Christianity. And they are excepting this and to our amazement, people are coming to
Christ.” Some 800,000 refugees have fled Chechnya during the years of fighting
between Russians and Chechen rebels. “Pray for the missionaries that are down there
they’re working in difficult situation. The work is not without danger. We also want to
pray for a peaceful resolution of the conflict. There is going to be hate for generations
to come and only the Gospel is going to be able to overcome that.”
Meanwhile, the Bridge International has continued to share the Gospel in
Russia despite the recent upheavals in the economic and political realms along
with the war in Chechnya. In fact, the Bridge’s R.K. Ulrich says their work has seen
encouraging results in St. Petersburg. “We have completed a full year’s course of
training of church planters. They have a Bible school there-they call it the “Bible
Training Center”-their people that graduated from the school just before Christmas,
they are being dispatched in various areas this month.” Ulrich says, because of the war,
there is a lot of desperation. “In the midst of that whole atmosphere, just sending those
young people into these communities to say there is hope, here is a Bible-there is
something to look forward to. We are starting up again in March, and my prayer is that
God will send the right people to the Bible school…the students called to apostolic
work.”
Two years ago, Hurricane Mitch swept through Central America, killing 11,000
people and displacing 3 million. The devastation was complete, setting both
Nicaragua and Honduras back more than five decades. However, Christian
Reformed World Mission’s Mark Volkers says due to their teams’ work, they’ve
seen a positive. “As a result of Hurricane Mitch, two new churches have been
added-there are now five new churches in this suburb, because the people there have
seen the concern and the care, not only of the missionaries, but of the Christian
Reformed people there, the Nicaraguan Christian Reformed people. They’ve seen how
these people are in it for the long haul, how they take great care and help people get
their lives back together, both physically and spiritually.” Volkers says their approach
has opened doors to evangelize. “That’s been one of the things that has spoken to a lot
of the people there-the Christian Reformed Church has been there before Mitch, they
stayed during Mitch, and they’re still there long after Mitch and don’t plan on going
anywhere, but want to continue helping these countries rebuild.”
Next, Baptist International News is reporting a suspected arson has completely
destroyed a boys’ dormitory building on a church campus in the Philippines.
Preliminary reports indicate that the fire was started in the middle of the wood floor in
the only unlocked room in the building. However, there were no students in the building
at the time of the fire and no injuries to anyone. Please pray for the students and
administrators as they rebuild the young men’s lives and the boys’ dorm.
Headlining today’s news violence against Christians continues in Indonesia and
it has at least one missionary broadcaster concerned. President of Far East
Broadcasting Company Jim Bowman says it has had a direct impact on their ministry.
“A number of our broadcasts, one in particular the Acahnese broadcast, we’ve had to
suspend that because of the extreme tension. There’s what we consider at least five hot
spots in Indonesia right now. One is Aceh, up in Sumatra. The others are Jakarta,
Timor, Irian Jaya and Ambon because there’s a lot of threats against Christians right
now.” Bowman says despite the threats, they don’t have any plans to stop
communicating the Gospel there. “We’re broadcasting in 14 languages from Manila on
short-wave, then locally things are going ahead quite fine right there in Jakarta even
though a little more than 30 days ago there was a major burning of a Christian
institution there. This is so often the case – where there’s the most upset, people are
very often the most open to the Gospel.”
Meanwhile, Monrovia, Liberia’s ravaged capital, is reaching out for Jesus
Christ after seven years of fighting. Although the West African country’s civil war
ended in 1997, its effects are still being felt. It is in this atmosphere that the translation
work of Lutheran Bible Translators continued. LBT’s Jim Laesch. “Lutheran Bible
Translators saw the Bandi New Testament completed and dedicated. The dedication
service was on January 6th. The project goes back many years, it actually started in
1976. God protected the manuscript of the Bandi New Testament. Several times
during the course of the war, missionaries were evacuated.” Laesch says in spite of this
triumph, there are still obstacles to overcome. “The Bandi area, up in Lofa County is
still a difficult area. There’s been a lot of fighting and unrest there-in fact, they had to
postpone the dedication ceremonies in that part of the country. Pray that their
distribution can be done through informal methods and then pray that they can find their
way to the different Christian churches.”
Native actors who perform in the same language and lifestyle as the people of
India see the message of Jesus Christ in Dayspring International’s film
“Dayasagar”. The film has been taken throughout the country and shown by mobile
film teams and as John Gilman says, ministry plans continue. “We’re so excited about
Dayspring International’s goals this year. Last year, we launched 100 new mobile film
teams. And, this year, we’re adding 100 new teams and we will include some video
teams using VCR and VHS copies of the film.” Gilman asks that people uphold their
work in prayer. “There are nearly 95-percent of the people who are without Christ, so
it’s a prayer that those who have never heard the Gospel, even once, might have that
opportunity to hear the story of Jesus and His love.”
