News headlines for March 10th 2003

(Jordan)–Topping the news, the conflict with Iraq continues to escalate, and one humanitarian aid group is readying themselves to meet the expected flood of war refugees into Jordan. Myles Fish, president of International Aid[1] , says their representatives are establishing a relief system in the camps, but security remains a concern. “One of the problems that was experienced in Afghanistan was that some of the stock piled supplies were looted in advance of the refugees arriving. So learning from experience I think the Jordanian government is being careful not to release that.” Fish says part of their mission is to provide health care. “We will be providing food and water purification systems, pharmaceuticals and medical supplies. We have an entire portable medical clinic that we’ll be setting up so that we can provide health care to the refugees as they come.” International Aid meets the other part of the mission by partnering with local believers in order to show God’s love by meeting physical and spiritual needs.

(International)–The JESUS Film’s[2] goal is to make the Gospel accessible to every person on earth. With the advent of the Internet, the question now is, “How near are they to access?” The Jesus Film Project’s Mike Waid says it’s also a path into areas closed to traditional ministry. “The Internet is definitely a global community. Most of the content on the Internet is in other languages. The Internet doesn’t have any geographic boundaries, so there’s not a country that you can say the Internet is in. It’s more a global community.” Waid says the Internet is a powerful evangelistic tool. “Of the 808 languages we have available, 59 languages are available to watch online. The Jesus Film available on the Internet has no geographic boundaries, so it could be somebody who speaks French who lives in Canada, or they could live in France. It really doesn’t matter. The thing that is common is they both speak the same language.”

(India)–Next, the year 2003 marks 25 years of International Needs Network’s[3] ACTS Ministries in Bangalore. The focus is on the blending of work, worship and witness to spread the Gospel within an ever more hostile culture. Through the ministry’s work, several local congregations have been established as a result of the evangelistic outreach of ACTS Institute, and also a dedicated band of church planters.

(USA)–And, last year, Crossroads Bible Institute[4] saw exponential growth in the number of students enrolled in their inmate Bible courses. For those who have graduated to the next level, a majority of them are in a hold pattern, awaiting instructors. CRBI reports a critical shortage of secondary level instructors, which means the over 600 inmates on the list either give up, or face a long wait. They are asking for both volunteers and funding to keep encouraging inmate believers in their faith.

[1] http://www.gospelcom.net/mnn/media/group.php?agencyAb=IAI [2] http://www.gospelcom.net/mnn/media/group.php?agencyAb=JFP [3] http://www.gospelcom.net/mnn/media/group.php?agencyAb=INN [4] http://www.gospelcom.net/mnn/media/group.php?agencyAb=CRBI ———————————————————————

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