News headlines for April 7th 2003

(Great Britain) — Headlining today’s news, the war in Iraq isn’t making it any easier to reach Muslims with the Gospel. That’s the word from Gangadin Hannoe who’s a World Team missionary reaching Muslims in London, England. “If you hurt one Muslim the rest of the Muslim world feels that. Muslims think of America as a Christian country, even as Britain is a Christian country. So, they think this is a war between religions. If we have a link with the United States, many times they see us as enemies.” Hannoe, who’s staying at D & D Missionary Homes[1] in Florida, says the Muslim faith isn’t a religion of peace. He tries to use that in witnessing, but sometimes it backfires. “We show from the verses (and) they are shocked. They ask the question is this (my) religion, but when they find out this is what is in the Koran they say, ‘hey, my religion tells us that we have to be aggressive to be a real Muslim’ so even when they read this some nominal Muslims becomes immediately some very pious Muslim and to a certain degree fanatic.” [2]

(Bhutan)– Next, no one was injured when authorities in Bhutan invaded a Gospel For Asia[3] church service last week. GFA officials say the pastor was interrogated, but nothing else happened. The pastor of the church has been persecuted and imprisoned since receiving Christ, but continues to boldly preach the Gospel. GFA is asking for the Lord’s protection as government representatives say they plan to conduct similar activities at their Bible school in the region.

(USA/India)– A Christian radio station in the United States is helping Bibles for the World[4] blanket a city in India with the Gospel. 91-point-three, WCSG in Grand Rapids, Michigan was able to raise nearly 100-thousand dollars during their day long “Friendriaser” event. 60-percent of the money was raised for capital needs, but 40-percent of the money is going to going to pay for about eight-thousand Bibles for the people of Calcutta. This is the third year for the event, which has raised 100-thousand dollars for missions.

(Russia) — Meanwhile, evangelical churches in Russia are being allowed to reach out to children in orphanages. Slavic Gospel Association[5] ’s Michael Johnson says this type of ministry is desperately needed because orphans in this country face a difficult future. “Statistics show that when these children are let out of these orphanages apart from hearing and responding to the Gospel these kids will end up as drug addicts, alcoholics, prostitutes, they’ll be recruited by the local mafia and many of them will in fact commit suicide.” That’s why SGA has started ‘Orphans Reborn’ — an effort to help fund this incredible outreach opportunity. ”We’ve equipped these workers with things such as Bibles, and Christian literature, discipleship material, we provide them with humanitarian aid, and they go into these orphanages every single week to do evangelism and discipleship for these children. And, we can do it at a rate, roughly, of 30-dollars a year, per child.”

(Haiti) — And, children are getting involved in radio evangelism in Haiti through Operation Saturation. It’s a ministry of Men For Missions[6] — the layman’s voice of OMS International – designed to lead all of Haiti to Christ by 2004 by distributing fixed tuned radios. Men for Mission’s Wayne King says they use Sonny Solar to promote child involvement. “Sonny Solar is a cartoon character that talks to kids on the internet, their vacation Bible schools not only here in the U-S, but around the world. The radio itself is sponsored for 30-dollars, but kids can understand how kids in another part of the world can be reached with a technology they understand.” VBS materials are available. King says this program does more than place radios. “It will also help to keep that radio station on the air. So, it’s not just a radio, but it’s an entire program not only to send the message, but to maintain the message on into the future.”

[1] http://www.gospelcom.net/mnn/media/group.php?agencyAb=DAD [2]

http://www.gospelcom.net/cgi-bin/ramhurl?f=/mnn/interviews/04-07-03GangadinH annoe.rm [3] http://www.gospelcom.net/mnn/media/group.php?agencyAb=GFA [4] http://www.gospelcom.net/mnn/media/group.php?agencyAb=BFTW [5] http://www.gospelcom.net/mnn/media/group.php?agencyAb=SGA [6] http://www.gospelcom.net/mnn/media/group.php?agencyAb=MFM ———————————————————————

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