News headlines for April 17th 2003

(Nigeria) — We begin today in Nigeria where tensions are mounting ahead of Nigeria’s high-stakes presidential poll next weekend. The poll puts a Christian, President Olusegun Obasanjo against a Muslim, Muhammadu Buhari. Voice of the Martyrs'[1] Todd Nettleton says they’re concerned. “We have seen violent attacks by Muslims against Christians in the northern states of Nigeria. We have seen the government move toward Sharia law in some of those northern states. So, it’s very much a concern to think about a Muslim president of the whole country and what that would mean to the Christians there in Nigeria.” Nettleton says VOM is collecting used Christian books to help with discipleship, as the Gospel is spreading in Nigeria. “The church in Nigeria is growing in some of the areas that have moved toward Sharia law. The Christians there, they have been forced to really evaluate their faith and many have drawn closer to Christ and the church has grown.” [2]

(USA) — Next, while a United States victory in Iraq is nearly assured, a U-S based ministry isn’t sure the victory will be good spiritually for the country founded under God. Life Action Revival Ministries’[3] Byron Paulus. “One of the fears I have is that in a nation that already has a tendency, especially in the life of the church, to trust and depend on materialism and our military might. Could it be that we suffered a greater defeat if we were given a victory and yet lost a more important war and that is the war against sin? To think we won a military battle while we’re murdering over one-million unborn children every year, while we’re experiencing over one-million divorces every year. You have to stop and ask yourself the question, ‘are we better off spiritually or will we grow more cold and more complacent because now we can see that there’s victory without dealing with the real heart issues.” [4]

(USA) — The Bible League[5] is celebrating 65 years of ministry. It started on Good Friday, 1939 when William and Betty Chapman began knocking on doors in Indiana asking people if they owned a Bible. Since then the ministry has become more than just a Bible distribution ministry. The Bible League trains national Christians in evangelism, discipleship and church planting. Since 1938, the Bible League has distributed over 640 million Scriptures and have had a hand in planting more than 26-thousand churches all around the world.

(World) — Next, with the celebration of Passion Week, Jews around the world are observing Passover. Jonathan Bernd with “Jews For Jesus” spends this time of year sharing with others the meaning that Passover has for the Jews and its relevance for Christians. “When we look at the Passover meal and we think about that Gospel message and how we can take it to other people we shouldn’t celebrate Passover as something that happens hundreds of year ago. We should celebrate it as if we need to be redeemed and set free today. And so the application message from all this is how can we apply this to our hearts.” While having branches all over the world, Jews For Jesus has recently felt the need to expand further. “We felt God calling us to enlarge our tents and partner more with other believers in Jesus and to reach out to every Jewish community outside of Israel with a population of 25,000 or more as well as building our work in Israel. And we’ve called this project ‘Operation Behold Your God.’”

(Senegal) — And finally, After a 13-month stay, visiting 20 ports in 14 countries, one of the ships in the Operation Mobilization[6] fleet has left Africa. But, not before over 750-thousand people visited the book fair, with another 100-thousand attending onboard conferences. Right up to the last hours in Senegal, God was at work. Crew members had numerous opportunities to encourage many small groups of believers to grow in their faith and share the Gospel boldly. Pray for these believers as they serve Him.

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

http://www.gospelcom.net/cgi-bin/ramhurl?f=/mnn/interviews/04-17-03ToddNettl eton.rm [3] http://www.gospelcom.net/mnn/media/group.php?agencyAb=LARM [4]

http://www.gospelcom.net/cgi-bin/ramhurl?f=/mnn/interviews/04-17-03ByronPaul us.rm [5] http://www.gospelcom.net/mnn/media/group.php?agencyAb=BLG [6] http://www.gospelcom.net/mnn/media/group.php?agencyAb=OMI ———————————————————————

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