The Friday Fax

Tabea Geipel works as a missionary among children living on the streets of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and often sees Muslim boys regularly come to Christ. On New Year's Day, Rama, who was baptized two days after giving his life to Christ, dared to tell his devout Muslim relatives about his newly-found faith in Jesus, and even about his baptism - despite knowing that his family may disown him and deny him his inheritance. After three days of praying and fasting, Gaspar, another street kid, went with some of his believing schoolfriends into a region known as an Islamic stronghold, to bring the Gospel to several villages. They experienced strong resistance, particularly from the witch doctors, but many people were healed and delivered by the children's prayers. Over seventy Muslims gave their lives to Christ, and are now being cared for by existing churches.

Source: Tabea Geipel, AvC, fax (+49) 6043 8136, e-mail avcnidda (at) t-online.de

"Only a few hours after the news of the tsunami on 26th December 2004, Israeli aid teams were ready to leave to take medical and humanitarian aid to the stricken areas," writes Chaya, member of the Adonai Roi church, who also delivered aid shortly afterwards. They often heard astonishing tales of how people were saved from the tsunami. In Sri Lanka, they spoke with some members of the Veddha, the island's original inhabitants who live in the jungle; only a few hours before the tsunami hit, their animals were restless and fled. The Veddhas followed them, running away from the area. That saved the whole tribe...

The Ark-Church in Batticaloa

At around 9 a.m. on Sunday, 26th December, Pastor Selvantha was preaching as usual in his church in the Sri Lankan harbour town Batticaloa. Besides many visitors, whole orphanages were in the service. Selvantha's wife left the church briefly during the sermon, because their 11-month-old baby was crying. She saw the huge wave approaching, and ran back into the church, shouting "Flee!" But Pastor Selvantha shouted "No, don't run away, pray!" His wife and six others left the church, everyone else stayed. For some unknown reason, someone had just closed all the windows. The wave hit, sweeping everything away, including the pastor's wife and baby. The water rose over the windows, and the whole congregation prayed. The windows withstood the pressure, and everyone in the church was saved. "It was like Noah's Ark," says Chaya.

Source: Chaya, Dugit, Adonai Roi church, Dugit, PO Box 1875, Silverdale, WA 98383, USA

"It is night. In the moonlight, two people, a man and his 12-year-old brother, are hurrying over the fields and hills in the shadow of the Tien Shan mountains near the Chinese border. For hours, they've been searching for their family's most valuable possession, a herd of 280 sheep," reports Andreas Wendel, German missionary in Central Asia. Nurlan, the 12-year-old, had left the herd alone for two hours on the previous day. When he returned, the herd was nowhere to be seen, and that in a region where wolves hunt. Nurlan was afraid of his mother, who would punish him harshly for losing just one sheep - and now the whole herd was missing! After hours of searching, they finally gave up. Nurlan's elder brother had heard the Gospel in jail, and become a Christian. He said "we must pray!" Nurlan was surprised. Pray? He had tried that once. While his brother was in jail, he stood in front of a statue of Stalin, crossed himself and prayed "Stalin, please help us, let my brother be released!" Now he heard his brother praying to Jesus. He too prayed a few words to Jesus, his failings now clearly before his eyes. He also prayed that they would find the herd. As they got up from their knees, Nurlan sensed a deep peace, and suddenly noticed a familiar smell - sheep! The whole herd lay only 150 metres (500 feet) away in a hidden side valley, complete and unharmed. Nurlan's heart leapt, Jesus had answered their prayers. Today, Nurlan is studying at a Bible school with other Kyrgyz youths and praying to find lost people, not sheep, who need to find their way back to their shepherd, Jesus.

Source: DMG Informiert (DMG newsletter), fax (+49) 7625 959109

"On Sunday, 24^th April 2005, we sent out a small army of "Mystery Worshippers" into London's churches. These holy spies reconnoitred 70 services in the English capital, checking how hard the pews are, the length and quality of the sermon, strength of the coffee and warmth of the greeting. Many of our readers are dedicated pew warmers, and were excited to accept the challenge," says Simon Jenkins, editor of shipoffools.com, the Christian internet news site behind the project. Each of the mysterious spies left a card depicting a lone masked rider – the only sign for the churches that they had been examined by the service testers. The results were published on 10^th May. Here's a selection of what London's churches have to offer, compiled by Assist News Service's Michael Ireland:

• rhythmic snoring during the (silent?) prayer time;
• four old women on the back pew, criticising the pastor;
• an immediate invitation to join the choir;
• passionate singing of the Vatican national hymn;
• "We'll be back in a moment" – a service with a commercial break;
• a barking dog, accompanying the sermon for a full 52 minutes;
• a 2½-hour service, with a sermon by a (female) preacher who spoke for a long time, said nothing and finally collapsed of excitement (or exhaustion?);
• being discovered in a Puritan church and escorted out;
• no coffee – but Champagne!
• fleeing made impossible by pews which close automatically once you're seated;
• in one church, visitors were greeted by attractive young women;
• a Catholic church which didn't even mention the new Pope;
• a church which welcomed the 'spy' so intensely and successfully that he was the last one to leave…

Do you want to know more? www.shipoffools.com has the full reports.

Source: Simon Jenkins, Steve Goddard, publisher of www.shipoffools.com

Rubens and Stefanie Cunha report from a historic evangelistic outreach in El Salvador, Central America: "The largest event in El Salvador's history took place in February 2005 when American evangelist Mike Francen spoke. One pastor estimated the attendance at 190,000 on the second evening; the nation's highest officials were present, including President Antonio Saca and Head of Police Mr. Menesses. A number of miracles occurred; on the first evening, three people who had been blind since birth gained their sight; on the second evening, three invalids stood up from their wheelchairs, able to walk again. The events were broadcast live on television and radio throughout the nation. Many healing wonders occurred in the preparatory conferences: the blind gained their sight, deaf could hear, tumours vanished and the lame could walk. It was just like Acts…"

Source: Rubens & Stefanie Cunha, www.rcem.org and www.gofwo.org

A conference about global mission and evangelisation is being held in Athens from 10^th-15^th May 2005, organized by the World Council of Churches (WCC). (This report was written before the conference; we have not yet received a report from the conference itself.) The title is "Come, Holy Spirit, Heal and Reconcile" with the subtitle "Called in Christ to be reconciling and Healing Communities." The WCC's Juan Michel sees the conference as a fantastic opportunity for Christians of all continents to unite in the direction of mission and discuss the future of the Christian witness. The conference will be moderated by UK Baptist pastor Ruth Bottoms. The ecumenical conference is more open than ever before; almost a quarter of the attendees will be Christians with an Evangelical, Pentecostal or Roman Catholic background, complementing the mainly liberal WCC member churches. One of the participants is German evangelical missions expert Dr. Andreas Franz.

Source: Juan Michel, WCC

A "Strategic Leadership Consultation" was held in London from 5^th-7^th May 2005, at which leaders of church networks and parachurch organisations from 10 European nations met to discuss ways churches can involve themselves more in government processes. The central questions posed by the consultation were how the church can be involved in the political process without becoming party political? And how can the voice of Christian faith be heard on the social and political issues which shape people’s lives? Reverend Steve Chalke, the founder of Faithworks who has earned the respect of all of Britain's major political parties for his social projects, says "access and influence are based on whether we can help community leaders to get results. Real trust begins in small places and is built on trustworthiness." Mal Fletcher, Director of Next Wave International and host to the Consultation, added "The church is often better known for what it opposes than what it proposes! That needs to change. As churches, we need to learn to produce better societies by producing social reformers and activists. What sort of city, and what sort of nation do we want to live in in ten years, and what are we prepared to do to create that future?" Pastor McCauley, leader of South Africa's Rhema Church with 32,000 members, joined the Consultation by telephone. He asks the question "If our church was not there, would our community miss it?" The result of the Consultation were 14 statements of principle which the attendees agreed to apply to their work in local communities, and is available on the Next Wave International website

Source: www.nextwaveonline.com