News headlines for February 10th 2003

(Congo–Kinshasa)–In the headlines, more than 100,000 people displaced by fighting in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo are facing starvation in light of failed peace accords. Grace Ministries'[1] Sam Vinton says the crisis has gotten to the point where the United Nations is getting involved with relief. “This is a necessity especially in towns or cities because people there depend on food being brought to them. Like in Kindu, there was a blockade by the Mayi-Mayis around the city so we had two large shipments of food flown in from Goma to help the Christians in Bible school and theological school students.” Vinton says as far as the effect of the war on ministry: “It’s handicapping the spread of the Gospel or even the pastors visiting parishioners, going from village to village because they’re afraid of meeting up with these soldiers or bandits along the way. So, I think we just need to pray for the peace process, that this will take place and that peace will be restored.”

(Congo)–Elsewhere, following the recent violence in Nyankunde, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Mission Aviation Fellowship[2] has had to temporarily close down the base there. MAF’s John Lewis explains that tribal warfare has taken its toll on their outreach. “Our main base there was totally destroyed and looted. A large hospital with 120 beds also totally destroyed and even the roofing has been taken off the hospital now.” Lewis asks for prayer for the Congo team as they seek to continue serving in a very difficult environment. “There is nobody living there anymore. I talked to the pilot yesterday, and he keeps flying over it and he sees trash and the results of the looting all over the place, but it is still not even safe to land there. So, for the last two or three months we have not even been able to go back to that base.” Please continue to pray for the safety of the pilots as they support missionaries in the Congo.

(USA)–An organization that focuses on church leadership training has some ambitious goals. Greg Gripentog, the new President of OC International,[3] explains. “We’re launching into a five year strategic plan which would see us, Lord willing, doubling in size between now and 2007. Right now, we have about 325 personnel. That would mean being over 600 personnel in five years. Right now, we have resident ministry in 20 countries of the world, so it would be a significant expansion in terms of the number of countries we have ministry.” Gripentrog says this expansion will have a huge impact on training worldwide. “Lord willing, five years from now we’ll be impacting over 100,000 leaders every year through direct ministries. Then we impact literally hundreds of the thousands of other leaders through indirect ministries through radio, through web sites, through various kinds of publications – pastors’ magazines, journals and things like that.”

(Russia)–Next, the World Bible Translation Center[4] is asking prayer for their Director of Distribution, while he is training a new team member in Russia this week. The Center’s new Distribution Representative will aid the Center in building relationships with churches and ministries serving the Russian people. So far, they have released 25 New Testaments and 11 complete Bibles with more than 25 million Scripture items placed in the hands of people around the world.

(Lithuania)–And, Lithuania is one of Bethany Christian Service’s[5] newest European programs. Bethany officials say at the outset of this venture, they have a letter of cooperation from the Adoption Service, administered by the Ministry of Social Security and Labor, allowing placement of children for international adoption. Please pray that as the opportunities arise to share the Gospel, that the staff would be strong in their witness. Pray too for the children that their lives would be changed by the love of Christ.

[1] http://www.gospelcom.net/mnn/media/group.php?agencyAb=GMI [2] http://www.gospelcom.net/mnn/media/group.php?agencyAb=MAF [3] http://www.gospelcom.net/mnn/media/group.php?agencyAb=OCI [4] http://www.gospelcom.net/mnn/media/group.php?agencyAb=WBTC [5] http://www.gospelcom.net/mnn/media/group.php?agencyAb=BCS ———————————————————————

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