Missions Catalyst News Briefs 7.16.14

1. BURUNDI: Lawmakers Pass Bill to Curb Proliferation of Churches
2. NORTH AFRICA: Ramadan Adds Extra Pressure for Christians
3. ISRAEL: Messianic Jews, Arab Christians Gather amid Violence
4. IRAQ: New Prayer Movement among Kurdish Christians
5. PAKISTAN: Proclaiming a Message of Hope

Dear readers,

This edition seems to have a theme: engagement. State and church engagement, and on a global scale. As Missions Catalyst readers I am sure you are all engaged globally, but let me share some stuff about what others are doing.

The Institute for Global Engagement (IGE) is an evangelical but non-partisan, non-proselytizing, non-profit organization that “works at the critical intersection of religion and global affairs, building sustainable environments for religious freedom worldwide.”

This four-minute talk by the chairman of their board is inspiring! I was so impressed with the speaker I had to know more. Read J. Brady Anderson’s bio (Wycliffe). For more about the IGE, listen to this five-minute interview with the president.

Global engagement can be intentional or forced. Many of us learned from Perspectives on the World Christian Movement about voluntary or involuntary going or coming. Here is one church’s response to the immigrant “border children” now coming to the US.

Want to be more globally engaged with foreigners and refugees? Read this and pray this, along with the words of Ezekiel 22:29-30 (thanks for this insight, Neal!).

Pat

BURUNDI: Lawmakers Pass Bill to Curb Proliferation of Churches

Source: Christian Post, July 11, 2014

Citing a survey last year which found that there were some 557 practicing Christian denominations in the small Central African nation, Burundi's lower house of parliament has passed a bill requiring churches to have at least 500 members and a building to stanch the "proliferation of churches" in that country.

Under the proposed law, foreign churches will need at least 1,000 followers before they can register as a legitimate church, according to the BBC.

Evangelical churches have been cropping up at a rapid pace in the predominantly Christian nation of nearly 9 million people since the end of a long, ethnic-based civil war in 2005 in which an estimated 300,000 people were killed.

The government, led by born-again Christian President Pierre Nkurunziza, believes that the church community is currently too haphazard, with just about anyone being able to start a church, and it has also been plagued by scandals as well. One recent scandal involved a pastor imploring barren women who wanted to conceive to sleep with him.

The BBC said the bill got unanimous support from the MPs in Burundi's National Assembly and is likely to get the same reception in the Senate.

» Full story also reports some of the Christian pushback against this legislation. See also Burundi Law to Limit Church Members (BBC).

» From another part of the world, readers might be interested in the registered Chinese church's views of Christianity (IMB Asia Stories).

NORTH AFRICA: Ramadan Adds Extra Pressure for Christians

Source: World Watch Monitor, July 3, 2014

In about 50 countries across the world, some 1.6 billion Muslims have [been] fasting from sunrise to sunset for the 30 days of Ramadan. Much as it’s celebrated by those who choose to participate, it also brings a heightened pressure for non-Muslims if they do not agree that they should be forced to fast.

Often the pressure comes from social discrimination, but in a country such as Algeria or Morocco, where Islam is the state religion, breaking the Ramadan fast in public is punishable by a fine and imprisonment.

A majority of [Algeria’s] Christians are Kabyle Berber, and many object to being forced to fast at this time of year.

Last year, during Ramadan, there was a joint effort by the police in the same region to arrest public non-fasters. This sparked a wave of outrage among human rights activists, and in reaction, hundreds staged picnics in protest against "forced" fasting.

» Read full story.

ISRAEL: Messianic Jews and Arab Christians Gather amid Violence

Source: ASSIST News Service, July 10, 2014

“Dancing together with Arabs? Laughing together with them? These are the people I hated my whole life,” says Chava, a Messianic Jewish girl who grew up in an Orthodox Jewish family in Israel.

According to Israel Today, Chava was part of a three-day gathering where she met with an estimated 1,000 Messianic Jewish and Arab Christian youth and young adults in Haifa.

At a time when murderous kidnappings, violent riots and a developing war in Gaza are bringing racial tensions to boiling point, these young Messianic Jews and Arab Christians arrived at the conference still reeling with all the raw emotions of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

For Chava, who grew up in an ultra-Orthodox Jewish ghetto, it was the first time to be in such close quarters with Arabs.

“I used to walk with my family to the Wailing Wall and pray that bad things would happen to the Arabs,” she recalled.

“We have this view that Arabs are bad people. But when I saw them praying to God, and heard them worshiping in Hebrew and then in Arabic, God touched my heart. These are the lost brothers and sisters I have been looking for all my life,” she said.

“As I washed the feet of my Arab sister, I was able to ask forgiveness for the way my family, and my people, look at them (Arabs),” Chava said.

“To hear her say that she forgives me and loves me was so healing. It was the love from Yeshua, nothing else. I never had an Arab friend.”

» Full story with picture. See also the original report from Israel Today.

» Readers might also be interested in Mosul Exodus: Three Faith Groups, One Story (Institute on War and Peace Reporting).

IRAQ: New Prayer Movement among Kurdish Christians

Source: Christian Broadcasting Network, via OM Newsbytes, July-August 2014

The Kurds, who have one of the longest cultural histories in the Middle East, are [today divided among] Turkey, Iraq, Iran, and Syria. Kurdish culture has remained unique from other cultures around it. In fact, tens of thousands of Kurds today identify as Christians, although thousands have been fleeing their homeland recently in the wake of militant Islamic attacks. As a result of the attacks more than 500,000 refugees have flooded into the Kurdish part of Iraq.

But God is at work in the situation. Fabian Grech, a leader within with the Mesopotamia House of Prayer in Erbil said, "In the last couple of weeks, there's been a rise of prayer meetings all over the city. People are opening their homes for prayer and praying with their neighbors. The local churches have been opening their buildings for prayer in the morning. It wasn't like that before. So we are seeking God's face for our country. The prayers are filled with faith and passion—big prayers."

» Read full story. See also the original report from CBN.

PAKISTAN: Proclaiming a Message of Hope

Source: Christian Aid Mission, July 10, 2014

Despite relentless persecution against Christians, a ministry in Pakistan is seeking to strategically bring the good news of salvation [through Bible distribution] to some of the most hostile sections of the country this summer.

The project was launched in mid-May with just 285 Bibles at the ministry’s disposal. The ministry director said his group is taking a bold step of faith and trusting God to provide all of the 2,000 Bibles they are planning to make available to their Muslim neighbors near a Taliban-controlled area by August 31.

“It is one of the difficult areas to evangelize,” the ministry leader explained in a report to Christian Aid Mission. “We praise God that in spite of all the hazards caused by heat and hatred, there are those who are seeking for the written Word of God.”

Since it is illegal to evangelize in Pakistan, Bibles cannot be given out for free. They can, however, be offered for sale at a low cost. The ministry pays $5 per Bible and sells them for $2.

Wherever the ministry’s gospel workers go, they find men and women whose hearts are eager to read the Word of God for themselves.

During its inaugural year in 1991, the ministry set a goal to sell and distribute 1,000 Bibles to Muslims. That goal was reached in the first month! By the end of the year, 4,000 Bibles had been sold.

» Read full story.