INTERNATIONAL NEWS 5th February 2007

AUSTRALIAN PRAYER NETWORK NEWSLETTER

* GOSPEL FREES A CITY FROM GANGS, DRUGS AND WITCHCRAFT

* NEW ZEALAND CHURCH HANDS OUT $100 NOTES TO CHURCHGOERS

* ARCHBISHOPS OF CANTERBURY AND YORK TO LEAD CROSS-BEARING WALK OF WITNESS THROUGH LONDON

* NEW ZEALAND HIGH COURT BACKS RIGHT TO LIFE ON ABORTION EVIDENCE

* 39 MILLION INFECTED WITH AIDS WORLDWIDE – 25 MILLION DEATHS SINCE 1981

* NEW TECHNOLOGY TO ALLOW PARENTS TO GIVE BIRTH TO ADOPTED BABIES

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GOSPEL FREES A CITY FROM GANGS, DRUGS AND WITCHCRAFT

When the little town of Santa Tecla was reduced to rubble by an earthquake, the people struggled to rebuild and reclaim their lives. Amidst the devastation, 50 pastors from the surrounding area, some of whom were retired, joined together to bless the town. They moved in to Santa Tecla for three months. During that time they prepared meals for the 12,000 townspeople, using food provided by their own churches. These dedicated men also discipled the survivors, feeding not only their bodies, but their souls. The impact of God’s love, given unconditionally by the Church, to the earthquake victims has changed their town and lives – forever.

An even more dramatic story comes from San Marcos, a suburb of San Salvador that has been considered the most violent city in the nation. Gangs, drug transactions and witchcraft were festering and polluting everything within reach. Banks had been put out of business because they were continually being robbed, yet bars and illegal drugs were flourishing.

A turning point came two years ago when an epidemic of Dengue Fever hit San Marcos and many were sick and dying. In response to the tragedy, some of the pastors in the city mobilized young people from their churches to go and help. They cleaned up the houses and yards of the fever victims in an effortto curb the outbreak. They then gathered 3,000 people from churches city-wide in an organized march for improved health conditions. For three months the Church fasted and prayed, asking God to transform their city and in the lives of its citizens. A year later, the violence level had dropped from 80% to 10%.

By January 2002, the National Police declared San Marcos violence-free. Banks reopened, cash machines reappeared on the streets, 14 notorious bars closed, areas of drug activity disappeared and miracles began happening in the city. The Mayor and the Secretary of Health became born-again Christians along with a number of their assistants.

Source: Dawn Ministries

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NEW ZEALAND CHURCH HANDS OUT $100 NOTES TO CHURCHGOERS

(Editors comments: If this story sounds familiar, we did carry a story a few months ago of a similar project undertaken by an Australian Church. We thought however it was well worth repeating for those who may have missed the first story, and as a challenge to other Churches to consider similar projects.)

The City Apostolic Church in Christchurch, NZ has handed every family in its congregation a $100 note with instructions to use the money to do good in the community. Operations manager of the Church Simon Martin says “We decided to dissolve the local missions outreach team, which had been organizing events, and throw the whole responsibility on the congregation,” he said. When the project was announced to the congregation at first there was stunned silence, with mouths agape. “They were quite surprised, but it was the kind of surprise that had an air of excitement around it” Mr Martin said.

Besides the $100 note, each family was given an information pack and training manual. A total of 150 packs have been given out, and the church sees it as seed money. The families are being asked to partner with others in the church to come up with a project, and to partner with other businesses, charities or the city council to do something “amazing” in the community. There are also some suggested boundaries for spending the money. For instance, it cannot be given back to the church, or to help other Christians or Christian organizations or charities; it must be used for a project in which the family plays an active part; and it must affect the person’s local community and develop relationships. “The main thrust of the project is that we can be the salt and light in our community,” says Mr. Martin.

The novelty of the approach and the responsibility it leaves with the congregation has taken some getting used to. Mr Martin said “There’s quite a lot of nervousness about sticking their necks out and doing something. The church is taking a risk, but it’s a risk we need to take. We might have people who take us for a ride, but that’s okay. We have an assurance that the bigger picture here is something that is going to make a significant impact in our community, regardless of the bumps and bruises along the way.”

“Until we can answer the question ‘what are we doing in our community?’ we can’t really go to local government or agencies and ask, ‘what are you doingfor our community?’ We need to be showing the way.”

Source: Challenge Weekly

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ARCHBISHOPS OF CANTERBURY AND YORK TO LEAD CROSS-BEARING WALK OF WITNESS THROUGH LONDON

Churches across Britain are being encouraged to bus up to 8,000 parishioners to London for the “act of public witness,” and will be asked to sign a petition calling on the government to take action against modern-day slavery, such as human trafficking from Eastern Europe.

The “walk of witness” is to take place on March 24. The Archbishops of Canterbury and York will join black and white youth in carrying a giant cross through London in a procession to express repentance for the Church of England’s complicity in the slave trade. The march will culminate in a symbolic “release from the past”, possibly in the form of a replica slave auction notice being torn up or shackles being removed from the cross.

The event coincides with the bicentenary of the abolition of the slave trade and is reportedly the latest stage in the Church’s commemorations since February last year, when the General Synod voted to apologize for its involvement in slavery.

Source: Inspire Magazine

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NEW ZEALAND HIGH COURT BACKS RIGHT TO LIFE ON ABORTION EVIDENCE

The pro-life organization Right to Life has won a victory in the New Zealand High Court over evidence that can be produced in a major court case yet to be heard. Right to Life has taken the Abortion Supervisory Committee to court on the grounds that it has failed to properly interpret the law.

As part of the case, it plans to produce evidence from six women who have had abortions. Their evidence recounts that counselling they received was to facilitate an abortion, and that they were not informed of the potential physical and psychological damage that might follow having an abortion. The Crown challenged that evidence on the grounds that it was irrelevant and should be inadmissible. The High Court has now rejected the Crown challenge.

Right to Life spokesman, Ken Orr, said the judgment was a victory for women and their unborn children, and that they now have the right to be heard.

Source: Assist News Service

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39 MILLION INFECTED WITH AIDS WORLDWIDE – 25 MILLION DEATHS SINCE 1981

Ten times more people in Africa are getting life-saving AIDS drugs than just three years ago, but still most get no treatment and the pandemic continues to spread, the World Health Organization (WHO) reports.

A total of 1.04 million people in sub-Saharan Africa get the antiretroviral drugs that prevent pregnant women from passing the virus on to their babies, and help many people with the virus live normal lives. “We have reached just one-quarter of the people in need, but the number of those who need treatment continues to grow” WHO HIV/AIDS Director Dr. Kevin De Cock told an International AIDS Conference in Toronto.

The obstacles include a lack of funding, not enough cooperation from countries involved, and physically finding the people with AIDS. The virus currently infects 39 million people globally, and the virus has killed 25 million people since it was identified 25 years ago. 95 percent of people infected with the virus live in the developing world. An estimated 800,000 children below the age of 15 require antiretroviral therapy but only about 60,000 to 100,000 receive it.

Source: Intercessors for America

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NEW TECHNOLOGY TO ALLOW PARENTS TO GIVE BIRTH TO ADOPTED BABIES

Snowflake adoption is a relatively new technology allowing for frozen embryos, left over from couples trying in vitro fertilization, to be adopted and carried to term by the adoptive parents. They are called snowflake babies, and couples inquiring about adoption are being given the chance to give birth to these babies.

Hannah Strege, now 7, was the first of these babies to be adopted, and birthed by her new mum. “I was adopted as a seed and put in mummy’s tummy to grow, she said.” In the new process, which allows couples to actually carry their new baby, a frozen embryo is implanted in the uterus for development, just as a regular pregnancy would be.

Currently there are 400,000 frozen embryos awaiting adoption. To date 113 snowflake babies have been born. The message sent to the donating parents? “What we want to be able to do, is show them that placing these embryos for adoption, and allowing them to be born, is the answer”.

Source: Breaking Christian News

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