Charisma Staff

India is home to one of the largest illiterate populations in the world.

Nearly half of India’s population—over 463 million—is under the age of 20, which means that these children will eventually be members of the world’s largest democracy.

“The vast majority of those children are the poorest of the poor,” Dave Stravers, with Grand Rapids, Mich.-based Mission India, says of these kids. “Their families earn less than $1.25 a day. Forty percent of them are malnourished.”

The Evangelical Church of Vietnam (also known as Tin Lanh) just finished celebrating 100 years of ministry in the Communist country. Its first celebration of the achievement was held from June 14 through June 16 in Da Nang’s large indoor stadium and drew a crowd of about 15,000 people with an overflow of 1,000—its largest-ever gathering.

The event was the first of four celebrations to mark 100 years since the Christian and Missionary Alliance began its outreach to Vietnam. The second celebration was held in Hanoi on June 20 with about 4,000 in attendance, the third was in Ho Chi Minh City on June 23 and 24, and the final celebration was held on July 2 at the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, Calif.

The Da Nang celebration featured a parade of hundreds from 20 tribal groups, all with membership in the ECVN, along with a 480-member tribal choir that sang “The Halleluiah Chorus.” Thousands of believers raised their hands, responding positively to a call for total commitment to Christ, regardless of how difficult. Delegates were challenged to reach Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Europe or anywhere there are lost people.

The task of taking the gospel to the ends of the earth is a huge task.

But in Haiti, it just got smaller.

Thanks to advances in projection technology, the 2011 My Hope Haiti program—which airs nationwide July 21-23—will be broadcast in some of the most remote corners of the country, using tiny Optoma mini-projectors.

Smaller than a three-by-five notecard and less than an inch thick, the mini-projector reminds you at first glance of a pocket digital camera, only it shoots out a crisp picture about three-feet-wide and two-feet-deep with audio to support a crowd of at least 50.

But perhaps the most valuable part of the mini-projector is its ability to recharge directly from a 12-volt motorcycle battery.

Members of a church in Suleja, Niger state, on the northern outskirts of this Nigerian capital city, culminated a week … Read More

The people of Kanohraj* village wanted to kill Daruka for sharing God’s love until a dead cow changed their minds. … Read More

One London church leader is trying to persuade fellow clergy that today’s worship services are excessively long.

How long would you estimate your attention span to be? Ten minutes? A half hour? Ninety minutes? It is safe to say that the length of one’s attention span would ultimately depend on the topic or issue at hand. What if the topic was your Creator—the Lover of your soul?

The Bishop of Lichfield, Rev. Jonathan Gledhill submitted in his London diocese recently that “clergy should aim to keep the time of worship to no more than 50 minutes.” He believes worship has become too complicated, leading to confused and excluded churchgoers.

Whether they’re in church or standing on a street corner, the members of Grace Tokyo Church loudly sing their songs … Read More

Senegal is somewhere between 4 and 6  percent Christian, and reports show that most in that percentage are Roman Catholic. The Joshua Project has found that only 0.2 percent of the nation are evangelical Christian.

Missions work is vital in the mostly-Muslim country, and a missionary family with The Mission Society felt the burden of the work immediately.

Adam Dalenburg says, “We spent our first couple of years trying to do everything for everyone.”

The family preached, taught English as a second language, and tried to provide for the felt needs of as many as possible to live out Christ’s love. But Adam soon had a revelation.

In about a month and a half, Nepal is supposed to have a new constitution ready to go.

Faced with an Aug. 31 deadline, there’s a high risk of a collapsed peace process should the draft not be completed by that time. 

The new deadline is the extension of another deadline at the end of May which was missed. The May target came about as the result of a 2008 election that eventually brought about an accord between the Maoist rebels and the government. However, the peace was hinged on meeting a two-year mandate for a new constitution.

The political chaos that could result from another miss could permanently derail what’s been accomplished since the civil war ended in 2006.