Missions Info

AROUND THE WORLD: Bible Agencies Unite to Strengthen Ministry Impact
Two Bible ministries with complementary missions have announced plans to merge. Bible League International (BLI) and the World Bible Translation Center (WBTC) both bring unique strengths: Bible League in Bible distribution and WBTC in Bible translation. The new organization will focus on expanding a literacy program around the world, as well as using digital delivery technology recently developed in a strategic alliance with twelve other ministries. According to BLI CEO Robert T. Frank, “This merger will strengthen operations for both of our ministries, increasing the tools available to reach the three global audiences we share: the poorest of the poor, the persecuted church, and those walking in darkness.” (Assist News Service)

AROUND THE WORLD: Bible.is App Expands Global Gospel Outreach by Adding Arabic
Bible.is, the popular Bible app from the Audio Bible ministry Faith Comes By Hearing (FCBH), is now available for use in Arabic. Spoken by more than 221 million people throughout the world, Arabic now joins Spanish and English as the major trade languages available for users to navigate the app. Since their Digital Bible Project started last year, Arabic has consistently been in the top five languages accessed across the multiple platforms offered by FCBH. In addition to the Bible.is app, the ministry's Audio Bibles can be accessed via podcast on iTunes, as well as streaming and download directly from its website, all free of charge. FCBH currently has Audio Bibles in 538 languages, with 188 of those available for reading and listening on the Bible app, helping make the Digital Bible Project the world's largest resource of Bible recordings and texts. (Faith Comes By Hearing)

CHINA: Repeated Arrests of Christians Prompts Petition to Government
Pastors from unregistered churches in China have lodged a petition with the Chinese government, calling for religious freedom and a peaceful resolution to an ongoing conflict involving one of Beijing’s largest house churches. Shouwang Church has persisted in its efforts to worship in public despite many of its one thousand members being detained by the police, placed under house arrest, or losing homes and jobs. Government interference has taken place since April 2011. The petition to the National People’s Congress, which is the first of its kind in sixty years, asks for special permission to be set up to investigate events surrounding the church’s clash with authorities and a review of current rules governing religious affairs. (Barnabas Aid)

EGYPT: Christians Attacked in Slums
Deadly clashes between Egypt's Christians and Muslims highlighted rising interfaith tensions. Security had to be tightened around churches in a Cairo slum following riots over rumors of a Christian who converted to Islam. The reports turned out to be false, says Greg Musselman, spokesperson for Voice of the Martyrs Canada. "The last reports I saw: twelve were dead, and churches were burnt down. Really, it was started by a group called Salafist…an ultra Islamist group. The coordination of the rebellion grew over whether or not this was the first play by the Muslim Brotherhood to make a grab for power.” Musselman says the two groups don't seem to share the same ideals. Leaders say that 190 people detained in connection with the violence face a trial in military court. Even while that might be good news, the Christians in Egypt still feel like easy prey. (Mission Network News)

FRANCE: Luis Palau Leads Unprecedented Evangelistic Campaign
In a country that has resisted open proclamation of the gospel for hundreds of years, God provided a much-needed breakthrough in southern France, focusing attention on the city of Marseille and the greater area of Provence. Invited by 1 Meme Coeur, an organization of church leaders from throughout the region, evangelist Luis Palau led evangelistic campaigns in Istres, Aix-en-Provence, and Marignane. The campaign culminated in a three-day gospel festival on Marseille’s Plage du Prado beach. Riding on the tails of France’s official Day of Music (June 21), and appealing to France’s affinity for gospel music, the festival in Marseille included a good deal of music and helped reach sixteen thousand people with the gospel. The campaign, involving more than thirty evangelical congregations and three thousand believers, was the first time certain events were allowed to be held in open venues, including amphitheaters, public beaches, and parks. The gatherings brought together civic and church leaders as never before. Hundreds of individuals made public decisions for Jesus Christ. (Assist News Service)

HUNGARY: Hungarian Parliament Passes Europe’s Most Restrictive Religion Law
Although Communism officially ended in Hungary over twenty years ago, the Hungarian Parliament just adopted its new "Law on the Right to Freedom of Conscience and Religion, and on Churches, Religions and Religious Communities." More than one hundred currently registered religious organizations will be retroactively stripped of their status as religious communities are "de-registered" as religious organizations, losing key rights and privileges provided to registered churches. Only fourteen religious organizations will retain their registration status, and religious organizations that have been "de-registered" may not use the name "Church" and will lose their status as a religious organization if they are not re-registered. Noting the passage of the bill, the pastor of an evangelical church, stated, "This is the greatest discrimination against evangelical Christians since the fall of Communism. This is just the first step against real, active, Bible-believing Christian groups. During Communism we were oppressed and persecuted, but we didn't expect the same from a so-called 'Christian' government." (Assist News Service)

IRAQ: “Religicide” Exterminating Iraqi Christians
More Christians have been fleeing Iraq in recent months than ever before. Carl Moeller with Open Doors USA says extremists are calling for the complete extermination of believers in the country. "We've been calling this a 'religicide,' which is the systematic destruction and elimination of a religious group simply for being that religious group. And we see this now unfolding in a very shocking way," says Moeller. The number of Christians in Iraq has dropped dramatically in the last few decades from 850,000 believers in 1991 to 345,000 believers in early 2010. Today, this number is perhaps less than 250,000. The loss of so many believers in just a year can be attributed in part to one significant event: the sixty Christians who were killed in October 2010 in a terrorist attack by al-Qaeda-linked groups at Our Lady of Salvation Church in Baghdad. At the current rate of the exodus, Iraq will not have any Christians left in three years, according to an Open Doors' field worker. (Mission Network News)

KENYA: Kenya Christians and Muslims Debate Hijab in Schools
Muslim leaders in Kenya are calling for government action on Christian schools that have banned students from wearing the hijab, the head covering traditionally worn by Muslim girls and women. Church leaders have defended the ban, saying teachers have the right to determine dress code in the schools, according to a denomination's religious traditions, discipline, and philosophies. Sheikh Juma Ngao, the Kenya Muslim National Advisory Council (KMNAC) national chairman, said denying the hijab was an affront to the rights of Muslim followers and could triggers mass withdrawal of Muslims from the schools. (Ecumenical News International)

MIDDLE EAST: Refugees Find Healthcare, Comfort at Church Clinic
The recent political and humanitarian turmoil in the Middle East has created a host of needs. As conditions get increasingly worse, many are fleeing. However, one church has become a beacon of hope and health for many who have fled. More than one million Iraqi refugees—Sunnis, Shiites, and Christians—have flooded into this undisclosed nation over the past dozen years. For most refugees, healthcare is more or less out of the question. In 1998, the church asked an American internist and pediatrician to host a monthly free clinic for Christians attending the church. With the support of ReachGlobal, the clinic is now open twice a week and sees patients from numerous other countries and religious backgrounds. (Mission Network News)

NEW ZEALAND: Greg Laurie’s Harvest Draws Thousands
In what has been billed as the largest outreach of its kind since Billy Graham visited New Zealand more than forty years ago, evangelist Greg Laurie saw more than 2,500 people make decisions of faith at a recent Harvest Crusade. Some two hundred churches throughout the Auckland area watched and prayed expectantly as they hosted the Greg Laurie: Auckland Harvest at Vector Arena. By the end of the two-night evangelistic outreach, 2,777 people made decisions to put their faith in Christ, while another 170 made the same decision via an online broadcast. (Assist News Service)

NORTH KOREA: Call to End Persecution of Christians
Recent reports by human rights organizations accuse North Korea of putting up to 180,000 people into forced labor. Christians are among the inmates facing torture, starvation, and execution in political prison camps. Persecution watchdog Release International is working to support North Korean Christians who have fled the country by providing safe houses, pastoral support, and health care. An interim petition calling for religious freedom in North Korea has gathered more than twenty thousand signatures from concerned Christians in the U.K. The petition can be signed at www.releaseinternational.org/petition. (Assist News Service)

PAPUA NEW GUINEA: Matching Grant Will Help Complete Fifteen Bible Translation Projects
According to the Joshua Project, twenty-five percent of Papua New Guinea is comprised of evangelical Christians. According to SIL's Ethnologue, 830 languages are spoken in Papua New Guinea, representing twelve percent of the world's languages. To help push the country's translation projects toward completion, Wycliffe Associates is raising matching funds for the New Ireland Translation Institute (NITI) in the New Ireland Province of Papua New Guinea. Following through on a new model of collaboration of Bible translation organizations, the Bible translation acceleration ministry is helping national translation teams to get the New Testament translated into the last fifteen languages in the region that are without scripture. National translators living in the New Ireland Province regularly travel from their villages to the New Ireland Translation Institute to carry out the work of Bible translation. They rely heavily on the support of Wycliffe Associates for everything from their food during the training to the computers they use for translation work. (Mission Network News)

RUSSIA: Older Orphans Face Serious Risks
There are roughly twenty-one million children under the age of 15 in Russia. Nearly 730,000 of these are orphans. Strict adoption laws can make inter-country adoption from Russia difficult, but so can uncontrollable factors like a child's age. After age 3, the chances of adoption for a Russian orphan are slim; by early elementary school, opportunities to find a forever family are virtually nonexistent. "After 7, there is no chance," Natasha Votrakova, country director for Buckner in Russia, told Buckner International. "I mean, it's zero. There are no adoptions in Russia that are done by Russian families after the age of 7." The consequences of overlooking these children are severe. Adoptive parent Garth Wilkins says, "After they are emancipated from the orphanage at 16 or 17, ten percent of the kids commit suicide within the first three years. Forty percent turn to alcohol and drugs, and forty percent fall into a life of prostitution or crime." (Mission Network News)

SOMALIA: Christian Agencies Continue Work despite Security Issues
Christian relief agencies providing aid to millions of people facing drought face security issues in the war-torn country of Somalia, where humanitarian officials say operating is difficult, but not impossible. Nearly 3.7 million people, half of the country's population, are affected by a serious food crisis, which declared famine in two regions of southern Somalia. An estimated 1,500 refugees fleeing the famine were arriving daily in Dadaab camp in northern Kenya. Another 1,700 are arriving in eastern Ethiopia. (Ecumenical News International)

SUDAN: South Sudan Churches Hope for Peace and Growth
Church leaders in South Sudan expressed their readiness to help secure peace, stability, growth, and development in their new nation, which was proclaimed an independent state on 9 July 2011. Leaders led citizens in thanksgiving prayers on July 10, a day after thousands in Juba city witnessed General Salva Kiir Mayardit sworn in as the first president. "We stand willing to play our part in sharing the burden of responsibility which rests on the shoulders of the government of South Sudan," Archbishop Daniel Deng Bul of the Episcopal (Anglican) Church of Sudan said in a pastoral letter on Independence Day. Amid celebrations by the churches, which played a critical role in the 50-year struggle for independence, Deng said his church understood the new government faces numerous challenges in delivering the fruits of autonomy. Kiir will lead Africa's 54th state of nearly 9.7 million people, which is beset by serious social and economic issues. Most people live on less than one dollar per day. More than ten percent of children die before the age of 5 and more than seventy-five percent of adults cannot read or write. (Ecumenical News International)

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Students Predisposed to All-inclusive Beliefs
Due to the recent release of a controversial book written by a well-known pastor discussing heaven and hell, the topics of pluralism and universalism have risen to the surface of Christian conversation. "There's definitely an increase in terms of young people today being at least open to the possibility of results of universalism and pluralism," says InterVarsity Christian Fellowship evangelist York Moore. "Among Christians, I think we've seen an increase as well." A recent study by the Barna Group seems to confirm this. Universalism—defined by the Barna Group as the belief that all human beings will be saved after death—was supported by forty-three percent of subjects questioned. "Another thing this study cites is that 51% do not believe that they have a responsibility to tell people about their faith in Christ," explains Moore. "So that lack of responsibility, coupled with an openness for universalism and pluralism among Christians, is a real problem in InterVarsity." Moore says the danger of straying from these 2,000-year-old truths is significant. "People are gravitating toward that which is easy, that which is more appealing to our American lifestyle, and the consequences of that could potentially be disastrous." Already the number of college students who leave the church during college and return later in life has declined significantly. Despite the various voices influencing college students, InterVarsity has been winning this war. InterVarsity is still seeing a higher number of conversions than at any time in their 70-year history. (Mission Network News)