News Archives

Headlining today’s news, Christians in South Korea are bathing next week’s summit meetings in prayer. Over the weekend, nearly 50-thousand people participated in a special joint worship service for reunification of the country. Manmin World Mission’s Johnny Kim participated in the meetings. He says the church should be involved because the problems are great in North Korea. “A lot of people starving now, especially the children have no food. So, South Korean churches should help them and show the love of Jesus Christ our Lord before (the) summit meeting for reunification.” Kim says with or without reunification evangelization will continue. “Of the pastors and Christians who have been in North Korea til now, the people of North Korea are very open minded to the Gospel. Even though there are some persecutions and a lot of limitations we think there are a lot of possibilities to preach the Gospel to the North Korean people.”

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.

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.”