Charisma News

It’s another hot and dusty Sunday morning, and service is about to begin at the Camp Kunduz Chapel.

No, this place of worship isn’t nestled in a small town in the heart of the Bible belt. It’s about as far away from there as one can get. Furthermore, the small plywood structure is nothing reminiscent of a massive cathedral capable of housing a huge congregation of worshippers.

Still, for soldiers of faith stationed in the heart of northern Afghanistan, the place serves its purpose quite well.

While almost 13 million people are on the brink of starvation in the Horn of Africa, relief agencies are frustrated that they may be unable to help those most desperate. It’s not because they don’t have the food. It’s because terrorist groups linked to al-Qaida are preventing the aid from getting there.

Todd Nettleton with Voice of the Martyrs says Somalia is the biggest challenge. “The al-Shabaab militant terrorist group has made it a stated goal to completely rid the country of Christians. They literally are hunting down Christians, and anyone who is thought to be Christian or rumored to be a Christian is a potential target.”

Well-known Christian aid groups have been forced out of the country in areas where al-Shabaab cell groups are in power. Nettleton says: “There’s so much lawlessness. And in the midst of that, you have so many people who are starving to death. But the reality for someone who identifies themselves as a Christian to go in: they really paint a target on their back just to go into the country.”

His heart pounding, Rasul Gupta hurried into hiding to escape from angry family members who wanted to beat him. What did they have against him? He chose to follow Christ.

A few months ago, Gospel for Asia-supported missionary Pallab Singh met Rasul, a member of the Brahmin caste, and the two struck up a conversation. As they talked, Pallab had the opportunity to share about how Jesus had touched his life. He also explained the gospel to his new friend. After thinking about Pallab’s words, Rasul ended up deciding to surrender his life to the Lord. At the church where Pallab serves as pastor, Rasul testified that he wanted to follow Jesus, and he joined the congregation.

But his new faith sparked frustration from his family members. Staunchly devoted to their traditional religion, his parents, in-laws and even his wife chastised Rasul for his decision to serve Christ. Like many other Brahmins, they believe any connection with Christianity, which is often considered a low-caste religion, would make them impure.

As schools nationwide prepare to open their doors for another year of learning, most parents are shopping for back-to-school bargains using a school-issued supply list as their guide. But this year, U.S. kids are thinking beyond their own backpacks and buying supplies for kids they have never met.

Americans are stocking up on items for Operation Christmas Child—a massive year-round project of international Christian relief and evangelism organization Samaritan’s Purse—where participants fill shoe boxes with school supplies, toys, necessity items and letters of encouragement for kids overseas.

After a year of discussion and surrendering their ideas to the
Lord, Bible League International (BLI) and World Bible Translation
Center (WBTC) announced on Friday their plans to merge in an effort to
deepen their impact and ministry around the world.

“We began to understand that if any of us in the Christian
ministry world are going to be successful it will not be on our own.
It has to be through partnership,” President and CEO of Bible
League International Robert Frank told Charisma News.

The decision to merge came as a result of a unanimous vote by both
organizations’ boards.

Historically BLI has provided training materials and has worked
through networks of churches and other community organizations around
the world in 63 countries to get the Word of God in the hands of
people in order to bring them into fellowship with Christ and His
church. For more than 30 years, WBTC has provided accurate
translations of God’s Word into various languages of the world.

Widows like Swati Baidya and Mridula Das don’t often hear that someone loves them. Swati and Mridula live in South Asia, where being a widow is something like being a pariah: Widows are kicked out of their homes, rejected by society and often find themselves begging for even a little something to eat. In spite of their lot in life, Swati and Mridula have found real hope in their lives.

Mridula’s Story
Mridula is only 33, but she felt as though her life was over. This young widow was left alone with three children to feed when her husband died. And her society did not do anything to help. Rather, it blamed her for causing her husband’s death.

As if Mridula’s status in society wasn’t bad enough, her life got worse when she started having serious health problems. She had to spend more and more of her meager earnings on medicine, but she kept working. She tried to work, but after several years of fighting her weakness left her unable to work.

When GFA-supported missionary Kerketta Rai started a prayer fellowship in her village, Mridula started going. She heard the gospel and began to understand the power of prayer. So she asked everyone who attended the prayer meetings to pray for her. As a result, she was completely healed. Slowly, she began to understand the truth about Jesus and she chose to give her life to Him.

A half a million minor girls are working as prostitutes across India.

The problem is especially significant in West Bengal. In just one year, 2,500 teenage girls were trafficked from the region. Some girls were kidnapped, others coerced into a life of sexual slavery.

Women with children sometimes choose to enter the realm of brothels and slavery as a means of survival. According to the EFCA ReachGlobal website, the average daily wages for rural women laborers in India is 34 to 43 upees (76 to 96 cents) a day, but prostitutes routinely make 100 to 300 rupees ($2.25 to $7.75) per customer and average three or four customers per day.

The phrase “door-to-door” could make a lot of people think of an annoying salesman. But in Haiti, more and more hear that phrase as “freedom.”

The unemployment rate in Haiti has been horrific for ages, but since the deadly earthquake that hit the country January 2010, even fewer Haitians have been able to hold a job. Some estimates list the rate of unemployment at nearly 70 percent.

Add on top of this devastating economy a terrifying cholera scare, and many are in desperate need of hope.

Two church buildings in one area of South Asia were recently targeted by anti-Christian extremists. Both churches have GFA-supported missionaries serving as their pastors.

The first, a brand-new church building, was vandalized, and construction was halted on the second.

Ayukta Reddy’s new church building was finally complete and the congregation was preparing for the building dedication when vandals broke the windows and the glass in the door. They also painted the name of a local god on the door. The vandalism occurred on Wednesday.

With the full impact of My Hope Haiti not known for months, over 15,000 decisions for Christ have already been registered—with about 10 percent of the churches reporting—after last weekend’s My Hope broadcast reached the nation through TV, radio and projectors.

Standing in front of a mirror, Francois primped her flowing red dress. She applied her mascara and blush, then combed her short black hair. She took one more look at her reflection and turned to head out the door to meet her friends for the evening.

Abruptly, she stopped dead in her tracks. The invitation to attend a My Hope Haiti program at a nearby church pierced her thoughts.

I haven’t been to church since I was little, so why should I suddenly go now? Francois thought. But I know I must.

Authorities of predominantly Islamic Zanzibar island chain decline to act. Influential Muslims on this East African island have begun building what appears to be a hotel on a 100-year-old burial site owned by an Anglican church, Christian leaders said.

Church leaders with ownership papers for the land told Compass they are disturbed that authorities have taken no action since they filed a police complaint in December about the seizure of the burial site three kilometers (nearly two miles) from Zanzibar city’s airport. Tanzania’s Zanzibar Archipelago, including the largest island of Zanzibar (officially known as Unguja), is 99.9 percent Muslim.

“We see that the government is partisan and would not like to see the church grow in Zanzibar,” the Rev. Canon Emmanuel John Masoud told Compass. “The retired Chief Justice Augustino Ramadani, who is a member of the Anglican church, was appointed to be a link between the church and the government to facilitate the negotiation process, but it seems that nothing is bearing fruits. Hence the church is not supported in any way.”

This past month, high schoolers from Wheaton Bible Church broke a sweat under the hot Haitian sun doing construction work … Read More

A pastor in Iran found guilty of leaving Islam awaits the outcome of a judicial investigation into his spiritual background … Read More