News headlines for November 21st 2002

(USA)–Topping the news, the latest numbers show the American economic recovery regaining momentum. While the forecast is looking better in 2003, for millions of Americans, worries about a wobbly economy and a fragile job market persist. The American Tract Society’s[1] Mark Brown says their newest tract is entitled “Surviving Unemployment”. “At no other time, other than maybe another kind of emergency in your life, like losing a loved one, do you confront such a head-on collision with your finances. And, hopefully then, with a part of your existence of where you think you might be heading after life.” Brown says with this tract, a different outreach is possible. “The response has been very encouraging. It’s very timely, it’s not like people are breaking down the doors to get this tract, but it’s being distributed by many churches; bookstores are picking it up; and individuals are picking up large quantities to hand out to many people.”

(Africa)–Next, the race is on for the hearts and minds of Children in Africa. Worldwide Christian Schools[2] President Scott Vander Kooy says Africa is 49-percent Christian and 42-percent Muslim. He says Africa is positioned to be a significant power base for either Mohammed or Jesus Christ. To help turn the tide to Christ, Worldwide Christian Schools has a goal of raising 250-thousand-dollars for Christian schools and training. Vander Kooy says your gift to this project could have an eternal impact on an entire continent.

(USA)–A new animated video could revolutionize the way children come to Christ around the world. Book of Hope’s[3] Rob Hoskins says they’re currently producing the Book of Hope in this special format to reach those who can’t be reached with the printed word. “That would be the illiterate, 33-percent of the child of the world. We have large numbers of children in inaccessible areas in China and the Middle East. There’s a whole segment that we call the alliterate, which are those children and youth in the first world in the west who know how to read, but choose not to read because they’ve grown up on media.” According to Hoskins, they still need funding to complete the project. “The project is about a $3 million project and we’ve raised about $2.1 million. We’ll also be rolling the project out in nine other cultural versions and those nine other versions cost about $250,000.” The project is expected to be completed in March, 2003.

(Honduras)–Elsewhere, the national church in Honduras is teaming with energy and evangelistic verve. Walk Through The Bible’s[4] Terry Sparks says it was in this climate that they held a special training conference in the capital city, Teguciculpa. Response to their program was so good, Sparks says, they’re going to expand. “We’re going to be going back in December and going to be training some additional people to teach the ‘Prayer of Jabez’. This time, our goal is to have about 400 people present and train about 50.” The latest mission trend focuses on training nationals to take ownership of their ministry. In light of that, Sparks says prayer is needed for this pivotal conference. “We need to ask people to pray that God will continue to give us he ability to find the key nationals that we can train. In addition to that, there’s always a need for finances.”

(Mexico)–And finally, about 100 people gathered in Oaxaca, Mexico last month for the Bible League’s[5] First Congress of Indigenous Church Planters. Those in attendance shared progress reports of a five year old pilot program combining literacy, evangelism and discipleship. Results indicate more than 14-thousand people joined Bible studies which resulted in the start of 46 churches and 309 baptisms. Pray that many more churches will be planted and that more people will come to Christ.

[1] http://www.gospelcom.net/mnn/media/group.php?agencyAb=ATS [2] http://www.gospelcom.net/mnn/media/group.php?agencyAb=WWCS [3] http://www.gospelcom.net/mnn/media/group.php?agencyAb=BOH [4] http://www.gospelcom.net/mnn/media/group.php?agencyAb=WTTB [5] http://www.gospelcom.net/mnn/media/group.php?agencyAb=BLG ———————————————————————

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