Meanwhile, politicians in Haiti are crying foul, as flaws have surfaced in the vote count from the May 21rst local and legislative elections. As the chaos mounts, government aid programs find they are often weakened by such politically explosive events. However, Food For The Poor (FFP) says they’ve been able to maintain their aid flow because they use a system that bypasses political turmoil. FFP is working through churches and church-based aid programs to ensure its relief activities are not affected. Pray for their continued ministry.
News Archives
In the first months of Vladimir Putin’s presidency, Russia seems eerily calm after a period of chaos. Christians For Israel’s Willem Glashouwer says while many organizations are glad for Russia’s new president and his apparent openness to things of a Christian nature, he’s seeing evidence of a dark side. “Putin, the new president, is anti-Semitic. Anti-Semitism is on the rise, we see the numbers rise of people we bring home from the Ukraine, so we’re continuing to do that.” Glashouwer adds that despite increasing pressure felt throughout Eastern Europe: “We just go on with projects just like these and in that, share with the people the love of Jesus. These young Christians who are on the buses in the Ukraine just say ‘we want to help you to get home’. Many times the Jews ask, ‘But why do you do it?’ They’re so accustomed to Christian hatred toward them.”
Next, women around the world are being encouraged to get more actively involved in the suffering church around the world through a new program. It’s called Women of the Way by Open Doors Ministries. Jane Huckaby heads up the WOW initiative. “There are wonderful conference that we have, radio broadcasts, news letters, news briefs that talk about what’s happening in the suffering church, but they wanted to do more. So, we decided that we need to really respond to them and provide for them an opportunity to serve more.” Huckaby says these chapters are encouraging persecuted believers to continue evangelism, which is a two-fold blessing. “It ministers to the women in America, and gives them an opportunity to do something for the suffering church. And, for those who are in persecuted areas, get the benefit of prayer, visits, letters and funds.”
Headlining today’s news, more missionaries are being pulled out of Indonesia in light of more Muslim/Christian violence in the region. New Tribes Mission’s Guy Sier says violence broke out between Muslims and Christians on the island of Sulawesi. “We have a flight base and a supply base in the city of Palu. And, tensions began to rise there to the point where we could no longer risk our folks remaining in Palu. So, we not only had to pull out two families out of Palu, but about a half a dozen families, also out of surrounding tribal areas because we could no longer support them out there.” Sier says it’s unclear when they’ll return to the area, but the work will continue. “We’re working mainly on church training for elders and on Bible translation and translation of Bible lessons. So, much of that work could continue from another location.”
Next, violence in the youth culture has created a series of stereotypes in many American churches. However, Global Advance’s David Shibley says there is an interesting dichotomy involved here that can be encouraging. “Some of the finest Christians I have ever met are teenagers right now. It’s the most missions-savvy group of teenagers that this country has ever produced. They feel as though they are connected to the entire world and the entire world scene. I believe kids really feel an identity today with the suffering of the world and they want to go make a difference in Jesus’ name.” Shibley adds that there is an unusual strength being shown in the upcoming American Christian church. “God is raising up a radical core of kids and they are hundreds of thousands strong, perhaps millions strong in this nation. And I believe that there is a second ‘Jesus movement’ coming, much like the one we experienced some 30 years ago, except this is even more radical and it’s far more focused on world evangelization.”
An unexpected response came from the people of Hualien (wah-leen) County, Taiwan during the most recent stop by Operation Mobilization’s Doulos ship. Aside from the governor’s visit, more than one-thousand people went aboard, and at least 70 people responded to the Gospel. The OM teams also got a chance to play some sports on shore and explain why they were visiting in Taiwan. Continue to pray for the seeds that were planted in this area, as the ship moves on to Japan.
Meanwhile, Bethany Christian Services is working to help families along their adoption journey. A special program was piloted in Michigan in cooperation with many other agencies to help create ‘forever’ homes. BCS’s Jim Nelson. “The ‘Won by One’ program is built on the basis of collaborations with inner-agencies throughout the state. What we intend to do is to connect with service providers in the child welfare agencies to assist us in finding ‘forever’ homes for children who have been waiting for a substantial amount of time in foster care.” Nelson says it is in this avenue that the kids are exposed to Christ. “If you look at the central themes of the ‘Won by One’ program, it’s time, love from our Lord and Christ, commitment and sponsorship–and I think if you really look behind those concepts, there’s a foundation of spirituality that grounds and pulls those concepts in together for what we’re trying to do.”
We begin today in the Middle East where the military withdrawal from Israel has led to safety concerns for staff with a Christian Broadcasting Network station in the area. The group that fled to Israel last week now fears for the safety of those left behind. CBN’s Mike Gwartney. “Israel pulled out in such a short notice, that we weren’t able to get all of our employees across the border that wanted to get across the border. We had a total of 56 employees at the station, we got across seven of them. In three weeks, what’s going to happen is the concern is going to kind of die down, and the Hezbollah are then going to go in and there’s going to be some persecution of Christians.” Gwartney says this situation is one of concern for them. “The total outreach of the station hasn’t been affected. [However], the news has been affected…now, the Hezbollah have brought their propaganda in and people in the region don’t know what to believe, because they’re uncertain as to what the truth is. As far as METV (Middle East Television) goes, pray that we can still bring to that region a true teaching of the Gospel.”
Meanwhile, rains have come to the drought-stricken areas of Ethiopia. But it may be too little too late. At present, the massive food shortage roils on and relief groups are just trying to make it through the next harvest season in November. World Concern’s Al York. “They were only able to make water deliveries and food deliveries within five kilometers to eight kilometers of the city because of the rains on the roads. So, in the short-term, it’s caused difficulty in bringing the delivery of the food to the people most in need. There won’t be an impact from the rains on agriculture for another several months.” The process of humanitarian aid often provides a willing ear for the Gospel. “We see that within areas where we come with our partner agency, Hope Enterprises, or where we partner with someone like SIM that we bring that Christian witness. The people know who’s bringing this food and you have an opportunity to discuss that.”
Despite Muslim threats, Walk Thru the Bible has launch a “World Teach” program in the Philippines. World Teach is a saturation Bible-teaching strategy with a goal of having a trained Bible teacher for every 50-thousand people around the world. Walk thru the Bible’s Terry Sparks. “We had meetings in Manila and Cebu. Altogether, we trained 422 new World Teachers in the Philippines and had, we estimate, about 10,000 people at our meetings. It was the largest and most successful launch that we’ve had so far.” According to Sparks, there’s concern their World Teachers could be in danger. “There were many bomb threats during the time we were there. Every time we went into a build we were searched. I think we really need to be in prayer for the Philippines. The cause of the unrest is that the Muslim radicals want the Philippines to be a Muslim country.” Thousands of churches have been started and trained leaders are needed to help lead them.
