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Image from The Himalayan Boy and the TV Set (BBC)

Missions Catalyst News Briefs 10.15.14

  1. AFGHANISTAN: Answer to Prayers for the Pashtun
  2. PAKISTAN: Blasphemy Charges Dropped
  3. IRAQ: All Knayeh Hostages Freed
  4. MALI: Christians Return Home
  5. NIGERIA: Pastor Escapes Boko Haram in Deluge
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Greetings!

This week yielded an unusual number of stories with happy endings, including charges dropped and captives set free or escaped. A human rights activist was even freed in Burundi. Burma agrees to repatriate Royingya refugees in Bangladesh and released more than 100 child soldiers from the army.

While there seems to be a season of release for the captives (Isaiah 61:1), why not pray for whole groups of people enslaved spiritually? See the new BBC documentary, The Himalayan Boy and the TV Set (72 minutes) and pray for the Buddhists of Bhutan and the changes coming to the Himalayan peoples. If you are inspired to touch the lives of children in the Himalayas, read about a literacy project among orphans in Nepal.

Can you use some good news this week? Read on.

Rejoicing,
Pat

AFGHANISTAN: Answer to Prayers for the Pashtun

Source: Godreports, October 8, 2014

Last year the U.S. Center for World Mission began equipping thousands of churches in Latin America to pray for the Pashtun, one of the biggest least-reached people groups in the world.

The Pashtun number over 30 million and the Taliban are included within this ethnic group in Afghanistan. “If you are wondering whether prayer really makes a difference, in this particular case, we have the proof,” says David Taylor, with the U.S. Center.

A Christian radio ministry had been broadcasting for years to the Pashtun and were receiving about 60 responses to their program each month. “As soon as thousands of churches in Latin America began praying for the Pashtun, this radio program began receiving hundreds and then thousands of responses each month,” Taylor exclaims. “Like the Bible story of the disciples whose nets could not handle all the fish, this ministry is now asking for help from others to handle this unexpected interest in the gospel!”

Some of the churches praying for the Pashtun are located in El Salvador. In one of these Salvadoran churches, a man was dying of HIV-AIDS. “He decided to come to the Wednesday prayer meeting which was focused on the Pashtun,” Taylor recounts. “As he was praying for them he felt the Holy Spirit come upon him and move throughout his body. He felt as though he had been healed. The next day he went to the doctor to have his blood checked. When the nurse came back with the results, she was beaming. His blood was completely clean of HIV!”

Taylor sees a valuable lesson for believers here. “When we bless the nations, God blesses us in return. This is the principle we see in Psalm 67: ‘May the peoples praise you O God, may all the peoples praise you! Then the land will yield its harvest, and God, our God will bless us.’”

» Full story with pictures.

PAKISTAN: Blasphemy Charges Dropped

Source: Barnabas Fund, October 13, 2014

Charges against 55 Pakistani Christians who were falsely accused of blasphemy have been dropped after a written compromise was agreed between the Muslim accuser and the believers involved.

The accusation of blasphemy was made against a group of Christians in a small village in Tehsil Samandri district, Faisalabad, on September 3 following a dispute with a gang of Muslims over the use of land for a graveyard. Thirteen Christians, including a 12-year old boy, were arrested; they have now been released.

The Christians were originally charged under section 295-C of the Pakistan Penal Code, which refers to defiling the name of Muhammad and carries the death penalty. Remarkably, following the intervention of Barnabas-funded Christian lawyers, this charge was later overturned in a rare move by police.

» Read full story.

» Also read Iran Drops Death Sentence against Pastors and Laos Releases House Church Christians (BosNews Life).

IRAQ: Syrian Christian Hostages Free

Source: WorldWatch Monitor, October 13, 2014

The last of a group of 20 Syrian Christians kidnapped October 5 have been released as their pastor awaits trial before an Islamic court.

Rev. Hanna Jallouf, a Franciscan priest in the northeastern Syria town of Knayeh, was abducted with about 20 other Christians. The town, in Idlib province, is eight kilometers from the Turkish border, an area where al-Nusra Front and other rebel groups have been fighting the Syrian army for three years.

Citing Franciscan administrators in the region as well as "local sources," the Vatican news agency Fides reported October 7 that Jallouf and "several men of the Christian village" had been abducted. Several children were reported to be among the abductees. Three Franciscan nuns who run a youth center and dispensary in the village were inside the St. Joseph Convent at the time of the kidnappings and escaped capture.

» Read full story.

» See also Kurdish School Children Released by Islamic Militants (AINA) and Boko Haram Frees 27 Hostages Says Cameroon Government (The Guardian).

MALI: Christians Return Home

Source: Barnabas Fund, September 26, 2014

Many Christians who were driven from northern Mali by Islamist rebels have begun to return to their homes in the region, which was liberated by French troops in early 2013.

Upon arriving in their communities, Christians have found that their churches were looted and desecrated by the al-Qaeda-linked Islamists. The cities of Timbuktu and Gao were left with no churches intact.

Dr. Mohamed Ibrahim Yattara, president of the Baptist Church in Mali, told World Watch Monitor that properties and vehicles belonging to Christians were also damaged and that an important community water project set up by a church in Timbuktu was all but destroyed by the Islamists. The substantial cost of rebuilding churches and infrastructure will be a heavy burden for Christians who have returned with very little.

» Read full story.

NIGERIA: Pastor Escapes Boko Haram in Deluge

Source: Godreports, October 13, 2014

He was held for 10 months by Boko Haram, the same Islamist group that has terrorized northern Nigeria and kidnapped some 300 schoolgirls. But God brought a downpour of heavy rain and a flood to wash away his captors and secure his escape.

Rotimi Obajimi, pastor of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, was kidnapped January 6, 2014 as he traveled from his rural church toward Maiduguri, according to a story by the Sahara Reporters.

The radical group took him to Sambisa Forest, a former game preserve filled with leopards and lions that has become a haven for Boko Haram. It is suspected the group is holding the Nigerian schoolgirls in the same area.

Pastor Obajimi was tied up for months in the forest, while many in his church prayed fervently for his freedom.

During the first week of October heavy rains began. It was a deluge so strong that the camp began to flood. Because of the flooding, his captors deserted the camp and Pastor Obajimi managed to free himself.

For days he walked through the dense forest before he finally wandered into a village October 7, where soldiers picked him up. He was treated at Maimallari Hospital and debriefed by the military before he was allowed to return to Maiduguri.

“We were so amazed to see him because we have been praying earnestly for a long time trusting Jesus that he would surely come back but lo and behold he was brought to our headquarters in Maiduguri by the military,” a pastor from the Redeemed Christian Church told Sahara Reporters.

» Read full story.

» Read about another escapee and learn about Russia's hidden workers: the slaves of Dagestan (The Guardian).

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Missions Catalyst is a free, weekly electronic digest of mission news and resources designed to inspire and equip Christians worldwide for global ministry. Missions Catalyst was founded in 1996. Since 2007 it has been a ministry of Pioneers.

Use Missions Catalyst to fuel your prayers, find tips and opportunities, and stay in touch with how God is building his kingdom all over the world. Please forward it freely!
Pat Noble has been the "news sleuth" for Missions Catalyst since 2004. In addition to churning out the news, she is working to create a SWARM (Serving "World A" Regional Mobilizers) in Northern New York using the NorthernChristian.org website.

You can connect with her at patnoble.flavors.me.

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