1. Pakistani Christians Urge Prayer Amid Violence 2. India: Mission Races Naxelites to Win Tribes 3. Nigerian Mission Faces Land Confiscation 4. India: Prayer Power Counters Indifference, Persecution 5. Argentina: Ukrainian Immigrants Find Hope 6. Philippines: Unreached Group Responds to Education Ministry 7. Photo of the Week: Living Water for Haitians

———————————————————————- These are the contents of today’s Missions Insider Report by Christian Aid July 9, 2003 Vol. 4 No. 27 Visit our website at http://www.christianaid.org ———————————————————————– John Lindner, Editor Sarah Carter, Assistant Editor ———————————————————————– Note: Missions Insider refrains from mentioning names that could make the subjects targets of anti-Christian activity. Names are sometimes mentioned of ministries conducting work commended by authorities or located in areas of greater religious freedom.

———————————————————————– 1. Pakistani Christians Urge Prayer Amid Violence

After a bomb blasted a Shiite place of prayer and a Roman Catholic priest was murdered outside his home, Christians in Pakistan are requesting urgent prayer for their safety and continued ministry.

A bomb blast in Quetta City near the Afghanistan border on July 4 targeted a Shiite place of prayer, but Christians feared they could be caught in the crossfire between two warring Muslim factions. The blast occurred when two militants entered the Imam Bargah, where 500 Muslims had gathered for prayer. Official reports say 20 people were killed in the blast, but confidential yet unconfirmed sources told Christian Aid 140 actually died.

Three weeks earlier 13 Shias were killed while traveling in a van when two men on motorbikes fired on them.

“The situation in our city is growing worse day after day,” the confidential source told Christian Aid today. “Everything in the city is disrupted. There is a general curfew. All educational institutions are closed. All shops are closed except general grocery stores may open a few hours a day. Attendance at churches is only 10 percent of normal. There was another bomb blast in a fruit market last night. Uncertainty and insecurity affect everyone, even the Christians.” He also said religious extremists are conducting strikes throughout the country.

According to a report by Compass Direct, six men overpowered the watchman at a Roman Catholic Church in the small village of Renala Khurd (near Okara near Lahore) and threatened to kill him if he sounded an alarm. When Father George Ibrahim went to investigate the disturbance, the gunmen shot him and then fled. According to Roman Catholic Archbishop of Lahore Lawrence J. Saldanha, the main motive for the priest’s murder probably was the government’s decision last fall to “denationalize” the church school and return it to the church, a move that angered nationalistic Muslims.

“We need continued prayers as never before,” an evangelical minister told Christian Aid.

For more information write and put MI-427 470-PERS on the subject line.

———————————————————————- 2. India: Mission Races Naxalites to Win Tribes

A mission in India is fighting to reach certain tribal groups before the Naxalites, a movement of Maoist rebels, stir them up to violence and retaliation.

The tribes are at risk of being ensnared by Naxalite ideology because they live in poverty and ignorance. They still cling to a lifestyle passed down from their ancestors, foraging the jungles for food. Now, in the midst of hard times, they often blame the government and the wealthy for their poverty. This state of mind makes the tribal people easy targets for Naxalite propaganda. The rebels incite the tribes to anger and violence so that they will fight for the Naxalite movement.

For this reason many tribal people have been attacking government officials and wealthy people. Several native Indian mission workers have also faced violence at the hands of these misled people.

However, the Lord’s work continues to be done. In Chattisgarh state, the biggest tribal state in India, an evangelical ministry has planted 160 village churches. Thirty believers, also from Chattisgarh, recently dedicated their lives to missionary service. Ministries continue to provide Bible classes and seminars, as well as food and medicine, to believers and unbelievers alike.

For more information on what ministries are doing among poor tribal people of India, write and put MI-427 637-CFI on the subject line.

———————————————————————- 3. Nigerian Mission Faces Land Confiscation

Nigerian authorities are threatening to seize the property of a Nigerian Christian mission and make it available to Muslim developers if a building is not constructed on it soon.

The mission purchased the land three years ago when it was forced out of its old headquarters by a Muslim landlord. While the mission leader says the location is “the best land any mission could think of,” funds for putting a building on the premises have not been forthcoming. Gifts have enabled the mission to drill a well and start molding blocks, but it has not yet been able to begin any kind of structure.

Because the land is in a prime location-and because it is being developed by Christians in a Muslim environment-authorities have told the ministry to put up a building within four months or the land will be confiscated and sold to others.

The first project the mission wants to construct is a building for its school of missions. It now operates the school in a rented facility with 16 students, but had to turn away 40 students last year for lack of space. Moreover, the Muslim landlord has tried to evict the ministry as tenants and has raised their rent.

The first phase of the project will provide space for about 20 students and will cost only US $20,000. Eventually, the mission wants to construct a separate dormitory, an auditorium and offices. This first phase will meet their immediate needs, satisfy the building requirement of authorities, and secure their land.

The mission began as an outreach to the then newly discovered Koma tribe in 1983 and this year celebrates its 20th anniversary. The mission has planted several churches among the Koma and has expanded its outreach among the Verre, Minda and Dirim peoples. It operates several schools for children and a medical clinic in the jungle.

Persons who are interested in learning more about this pioneer mission or how they can help should write to and put MI-427 550-MCM on the subject line.

———————————————————————- 4. India: Prayer Power Counters Indifference, Persecution

Despite persecution, missionaries in India find that people are turning to the living God when they see the power of answered prayer.

One missionary recently reported the testimony of a man from Tamil Nadu state. The man had lost his eyesight from typhoid a year before and asked the missionaries to pray for him, saying he would believe in Christ if he were healed. The missionaries agreed and told Christian Aid, “Some made fun of us, but the very next week he stood up and testified to the congregation that the Lord Jesus had restored his sight.”

Another man in a certain village was in an accident that severely damaged his neck. Hospital treatment proved to be ineffective. In desperation, he called a local missionary to come pray for him. After the prayer, the man sat up and ate, and his neck movement is now back to normal. Because of these and other examples of God’s power, many people are embracing Christ.

Yet many continue to oppose the gospel. In one village in the western state of Gujarat, Hindu zealots went to a missionary’s home while he was away and beat up his wife. They tried to coerce her to give up Christianity and ran her out of the village.

In another village, a community leader attempted to stir up the police and get them to revoke local Christians’ permit to build a worship center. The Lord intervened, however, and the police refused the man’s false accusations, telling him “not to create confusion.”

The ministry is determined to bring the light of Christ to people steeped in darkness. To learn more about how this mission is doing it, write and put MI-427 610-FMPB on the subject line.

———————————————————————- 5. Argentina: Ukrainian Immigrants Find Hope

Ukrainian immigrants to Argentina are finding hope in Christ, thanks to a faithful mission in difficult times.

The mission’s directors, Roberto and Elena Papa, told Christian Aid recently that they were able to buy every Bible in the Russian language available in Argentina and distribute them among ethnic Ukrainian believers. And the good news didn’t stop there. Many of them used their Bibles to share the gospel with family and friends back in Eastern Europe. The Papas are planning to make a trip themselves to various countries of the former Soviet Union, hoping to encourage and challenge churches they helped found and the Ukrainian pastors who care for them.

Roberto and Elena Papa began ministering to Ukrainians in Argentina in 1999. Elena, herself a Ukrainian, translates for the displaced Eastern Europeans, helping them to find jobs and get medical attention. She also translates discipleship materials into Russian.

The plight of Ukrainian immigrants in Argentina is grave. An agreement made between Argentina and the Ukraine in 1992 lured many to the country with promises of US $25,000 and jobs. However, upon arrival the immigrants were forced to sign a paper renouncing the money. With no income, no homes, and no way of legally getting a job or medical care, many ended up on the streets of Argentine cities, scrounging for food.

Suddenly Ukrainians who had been doctors and engineers were forced to beg for the most menial of jobs. Women who had been exposed to radioactive material from the Chernobyl incident came by the hundreds, and with them came genetically diseased children they were unable to care for.

Although the “agreement” that brought many Ukrainians to Argentina was cancelled in 2001, there are still 50,000 Ukrainians in the nation. Elena and her husband continue to reach out to them by helping them find jobs and get medical attention and giving them food. Roberto also pastors a mission church in Buenos Aires for Ukrainians. In one year this church grew from 10 to 160 people. It continues to grow, with Ukrainian immigrants coming to the Lord each week.

To learn more about the Papas’ ministry to Ukrainians in Argentina, write and put MI-427 280-EEO on the subject line.

———————————————————————- 6. Philippines: Unreached Group Responds to Education Ministry

A ministry to an unreached tribal group in the Philippines has found that reaching out through education opens doors to an otherwise resistant society.

The mission recently opened a high school for some of the orphan children it takes care of. It also held summer classes for children in the neighborhood. Mission leaders were worried that neighbors, mostly of a non-Christian religion, would show no interest in the classes, but thankfully the school was bursting at the seams with 53 students from kindergarten to high school. An added blessing was the attendance of many curious parents. Because of the unexpected response, many classes met outside under a tree, since there was no room inside.

The summer school courses focused on the four basics of math, English, science and values. The ministry never lost sight of its purpose, unabashedl y sharing the Lord with students.

Because the people responded positively to the instruction, the ministry plans to begin a literacy program for them. Literacy is important, the mission leader says, because “peace and order may be attained if they only know how to read and write.”

The mission also hopes to draw in tribal people through church services at an orphanage it runs and possibly through pre-school classes. To learn more about this ministry, write and put MI-427 801-BHR on the subject line.

———————————————————————- 7. Photo of the Week: Living Water for Haitians

http://www.christianaid.org/pow/pow-4-27.asp

“Can someone please have mercy on us and bring us water?” an elderly gentleman asked a Haitian missionary couple. People in his village used to have to walk miles up a mountain to get water by the bucket and carry it back to their homes. The need was made known to Christian Aid, who in turn made the need known to believers in America. As a result, gifts were sent enabling a mile-and-a-half of pipe to be connected with another piped water supply, bringing mountain spring water to the Haitian village. Attempts to drill local wells resulted only in brackish water. A church was planted in this village three years ago, and a footer for a permanent church building was recently laid. The local VBS program began yesterday. For more information on this effective evangelistic and church-planting ministry in Haiti, write and put MI-427 120-LWM on the subject line.

———————————————————————- Mission Statement:

Missions Insider is a free weekly email report from Christian Aid Mission, your link to the world of indigenous missions. We seek to establish a witness for our Lord in every tribe and nation (Matthew 24:14) by supporting highly effective native missionary ministries based in poorer countries overseas, or where believers are persecuted. Christian Aid has contact with more than 6000 indigenous ministries that have a total of 300,000 missionaries on the field or ready to go when support is available.

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