This Month You Can ... Support a Native Missionary
This cost of supporting an indigenous missionary varies according to country, location, and family status. For example, living costs are higher in the Middle East than in Mexico, and higher in Mexico than in India. Workers in larger cities need more financial support than those in rural villages, and married workers need more than single workers. Christian Aid seeks to find sponsors for native missionaries at $50 per month, and in cases where more is needed, several sponsors are sought.
Each individual or church that sends $50 or more monthly will be assigned a missinary for whom they can pray. Christian Aid will send a name, photo, and biographical sketch to sponsors, as well as information about the indigenous ministry represented and updates on the missionary as they become available (oncee or twice each year). Support for missionaries cannot go, such as China, the Middle East, or certain critical areas in Southease Asia, is especially needed. Names and photos of these missionaries are sometimes supplied, but sending biographical information and reports outside the country can jeopardize the worker.
For more information on sponsoring a missionary, please contact Christina Aid at www.christianaid.org
Source: Church Around the World - November 2009
Ministry Records More Than One Decisions for Christ
For the first time in its five-year history, the media arm of Campus Crusade for Christ (CCC) recorded over one million decisions for Jesus Christ in a single month. In its announcement, CCC's Global Media Outreach (GMO) reported that 1,030,581 people indicated either a first-time decision to follow Jesus or a decision to recommit their lives to Christ through one of more than 90 GMO-hosted gospel Web sites in June. “This is an historic event only possible by God´s power,” said GMO founder and chairperson Walt Wilson. “Over the past few months, we have seen an increasing number of people come to our evangelistic web and mobile sites."
Since its inception in 2004, GMO has seen the number of people making commitments in Christ grow from 21,066 people the first year to more than 3 million people in 2008. For 2009, the ministry had projected around 5 million decisins. In the first six months of this year, it had already recorded 4.1 million.
The demand is so high these days that GMO has had to enlist support from Northland, A Church Distributed, one of Florida´s most prominent megachurches, to recruit and train 5,000 online missionaries by 2010. Even with the added support, the ministry admits its needs about 10,000 to meet the demand, which is 7,000 more than it currently has.
Source: Church Around the World - November 2009
Christian Murdered in Istanbul, Turkey
A German businessman was killed by a mentally unstable man on crowded street in Istanbul just because he was a Christian. Gregor Kerkeling was killed in front of St. Anthony's Catholic Church in Istanbul's central district of Beyoglu. Church security cameras captured the attack on Kerkeling, who regularly visited the church to pray when in town for business. The attacker reportedly had been visiting area churches searching for Christian victim.
Since 2006, five Christian men have been killed in Turkey because of their beliefs. The previous murders were committed by men in their early twenties who said they were motivated by religious and nationalistic beliefs, allegedly fanned by influential figures said to be plotting to destabilized Turkey.
Source: Church Around the World - November 2009
Scottish Bible Defaced
Christians voiced anger and dismay after a Bible that was part of an exhibition inviting viewers to add their reflections to it was defaced with offensive and foulmouthed statements. Glasgow's Gallery of Modern Art has now decided to put the Bible in a glass case after the exhibit, called Untitled 2009 and part of a show called "Made In God´s Image," was vandalized. Artist Jane Clarke, a minister at the Metropolitan Community Church, had asked visitors to annotate the Bible with stories and reflections as a way of making it more inclusive. But several visitors to the gallery took the invitation a bit further than she anticipated.
On the first page of Genesis, the first book of the Bible, one viewer wrote, "I
am Bi, Female and Proud. I want no god who is disappointed in this." Some of the
comments were much worse.
Clarke said, "I had hoped that people would show
respect for the Bible, for Christianity and indeed for the Gallery of Modern Art.
I am saddened that some people have been chosen to write offensive messages. As a
young Christian I was encouraged by my church to write my own insights in the
margins of the Bible I used for my daily devotions -- this was an extension of
that idea."
Source: Church Around the World - November 2009
North Korea Executes Christian for Distributing Bibles
North Korea publicly executed a Christian woman accused of distributing Bibles and spying for foreign countries, South Korean activists have reported. A mother of three, Ri Hyon-ok, 33, was accused of spying for South Korea and the United States and organizing dissidents. She was executed in the city of Ryongchon on June 16. Her husband, children, and p
North Korea has been ranked the worst prosecutor of Christians for seven years in a row on teh annual Open Doors Watch List. Anyone found to be a Christian or to possess a Bible is sent to a government-administered labor camp or faces public execution. It is believed that tensof thousands of Christians are currently suffering in North Korean prison camps, according to Open Doors. North Korea is suspected of detaining more political and religious prisoners than any other country in the world.
Source: Church Around the World - November 2009