The Friday Fax

Recent research reveals that new churches have been planted in almost 50% of the villages in Punjab, a state in northern India. That is an almost unbelievable development. An ever-increasing number of Christian leaders are joining REACH PUNJAB 2007, which aims to plant a new Christian church in every Punjabi village. Besides such reports, we regularly hear news from India such as this:

• in the past three months alone, 1,500 people in Uttar Pradesh State have been saved, and almost 300 new house churches planted. This month, 125 people from Chandoli Block have been baptised. The people are being discipled intensely, and we have been able to train 500-600 people to plant churches through intense prayer, constant training and long-term mentoring;
• 3,758 people have been trained as leaders in Uttar Pradesh;
• 2,765 Muslims who now follow Jesus have been trained as leaders;
• In 2004, 1,997 people were trained for the harvest work in north-western India, making a total of 6,697. The number of people being trained each year grew by 43%;
• In central India, 8,748 men and 1,978 women were trained last year, making a total of 27,186. Annual increase: 65%
• There is a church-planting initiative in around 50 of New Delhi's Colonies (neighbourhoods). One network of 48 newly-planted churches totalling 600 baptised believers is led by 20 people, who are training another 30 new leaders...
• Sanjeev was a young taxi driver before he joined Operation Agape, where he started as a chauffeur. Something in him began to burn as he listened to the conversations in his car. He started praying for the Farukkabad District in Uttar Pradesh and began training a few young men. Since then, over 30 house churches have been planted, and a network of 18 churches formed, united in the vision to plant new churches in all of the district's 2,000 villages...
• Of the 10,000 women who attended training, many have become effective witnesses for Jesus and are directly involved in planting new churches in their surroundings. They were trained mainly by women trained by women to train other women...
• In central India, 200 women are trained as church planters every month, as well as two church planting trainers.

"The key to this historic explosive growth, besides the simply-reproducible house churches," explains Dr. Alex Abraham, one of the human motors in the northern Indian church planting movement, "is the consistent mentoring. This mentoring model tries to follow Jesus' and Paul's training model:

1. Jesus selected 12 disciples from up to 7,000 people who followed him;
2. He showed them a model of ministry,
3. corrected them,
4. prayed with them and held retreats with them,
5. sent them out as practical training, and discussed successes and failures with them,
6. spoke into their lives prophetically,
7. commissioned them and sent them to multiply the process.

The apostles also trained their "Timothys" (2. Tim. 2:2) by working multiplicatively, thinking in terms of several generations of disciples, finally handing the baton on to them, to be passed on to others. Paul (1^st generation) taught Timothy (2^nd generation), who taught reliable men (3^rd generation), who in turn taught others (4^th generation). This is a basic Biblical principle, as shown in the following table, published in the quarterly Operation Agape newsletter:

Leader	1st generation	2nd generation	Effect
Moses	Israel's elders	The people of Israel	A holy people
Moses	Joshua	Israel's soldiers	Taking the land
Deborah	Barak	Israel's army	Victory over the Canaanites
Eli	Samuel	Saul	Establishment of the Kingdom
Nathan	David	Solomon	The temple was built
Elijah	Elisha	King Jehoash	Worship reinstated
Mordecai	Esther	Jewish people	Genocide prevented
Jesus	The apostles	Elders	Rapid church growth
Aquila and Priscilla	Apollos		Solid Bible teaching
Paul	Timothy	Reliable men	Orderly growth

"A healthy, obedient church is like a plant which grows and endlessly multiplies itself" (Dr. George Patterson)

Source: Agape Voice, Dr. Alex Abraham, June 2005, e-mail AgapeLdh (at) aol.com

Some things only happen every couple of hundred years, others only every couple of thousand. This and the next Friday Fax are dedicated to one of these millennium events.
Fourteen centuries ago, Islam overran previously Christian nations such as Egypt and Tunesia. For the past thousand years, particularly since the barbarous "Christian" crusades and the development of un-Biblical westernised religious church traditions, Christians have found it difficult to win Muslims for the Gospel. Islam, with 1.4 billion adherents, is the world's second-largest religion after traditional Christianity which has proven resistant to the Biblical Gospel. As a young Christian, I heard only one message about Islam: "it is practically impossible to win Muslims for Christ" - a message from Hell, in my opinion, born out of centuries of pseudo-missionary frustration. Ineffective missionary methods, non-integrative churches and a fantastic lack of faith among top Christian leaders right up to the 1990's combined to create a climate of missionary unbelief. In 1982, only 2% of all Christian missionaries were working among Muslims - a ridiculously small proportion.

5,000 120,000 522,000

Yesterday, I ate lunch with three missionaries working among Muslims. One of them said "In the past two years, I've seen over 5,000 Muslims come to faith in Jesus in northern India. The work is growing so fast that the number will very likely soon pass 50,000. They meet in multipliable house churches, and ever more Mullahs are joining the movement..."
Another told "From our own experience and through other reliable sources, we know that in Bangladesh, 7,000 Muslims were baptised each month in 2003. They are radical followers of Jesus. In 2004, an incredible 120,000 joined them. Since 1997, the number of Muslims following Jesus has grown by 522,000." 522,000? That's more than the number of evangelical Christians in Switzerland, Austria and France together! Is that possible? What happened?
Baptist missiologist and author David Garrison says "More Muslims have come to Christ in the past two decades than at any other point in history. In North Africa, 16,000 Muslim Berbers turned to Jesus; in a central Asian republic, 4,000 Muslims have found Christ; 15,000 Kazakh Muslims found Christ in the past 15 years. In an appearance on Al Jazeera, Sheikh Ahmad Al Qataani, a leading teacher of Islamic clerics in Libya, said 'Every hour, 667 Muslims turn to Christianity, 16,000 every day, 6 million each year!' Those numbers are certainly exaggerated, but show that Islamic experts recognise what is happening: a massive missionary movement of Muslims to Christ."

A vision becomes reality

Let me use Kevin Greeson's story as an example of what's happening. Greeson is a Baptist missionary in southern Asia. In his book "Camel Training" published in 2004, he writes "In September 1997, I lay down on my hotel bed in Singapore, where I was attending missionary training. Before going to sleep, I saw a vision of thousands of Muslims in Bangladesh going to Hell. The vision's realism gripped me so strongly that I began to weep - for the first time in 22 years. The scene changed, though; the Muslims were given a new directive, were re-routed and went to Heaven. The next day, I was excited to hear that 30,000 US Christians had taken part in a prayer campaign for the people group among which I wanted to work, and that they had been praying the very hour I had my vision. My first years there as a missionary brought no fruit; after two years, we had gathered 23 women who worked weaving baskets for export to the West. Then we heard of Abdul (name changed).

Learning from Abdul

Abdul was a local church planter, and himself a saved Muslim - or Isahi (one who belongs to Isa/Jesus). In 1998, he had seen 50,000 Muslims baptised, and 8,000 churches planted by 2003. He was doing something differently, and we learned from him to do them differently too. We told the women to invite their husbands to a meeting; they all brought their husbands or fathers, and we explained verses from the Koran which speak of Jesus, showing him to be far more than just a prophet. They were excited and angry - excited, because they recognised the truth about Isa (Jesus), and angry about their Imams (islamic pastors), who had withheld the truth from them. Then we showed them the Jesus Film in their language. What then happened was unbelievable; the men insisted on meeting again the next day. For four days, they sat there and listened to the Gospel. They all turned to Jesus, and six new jamaats (house churches) were formed. Over the following 2 1/2 years, our team saw 4,500 Muslims baptised and 314 new churches started. Two years later, the number of churches had grown to over 800. The movement is still growing. What did we teach the Muslims which made them so open for Christ? It has something to do with a camel..."

When Muslims throw the Koran in the river

"One morning in May 1999, I read a report in Bangladeshi national newspaper, quoting a Member of Parliament who stood before his colleagues and asked 'What is happening to our religion? Muslims in the capital are throwing their Koran in the trash, and in one district, they even throw the Koran in the river.' What was going on? One day, an Imam held the Koran up in the Mosque, saying 'This book has done nothing to improve our lives.' Then he threw the book in the river. The congregation of around 4,000 men followed their leader's example, throwing their Korans in the river too."

What comes after resignation?

Kevin Greeson's report shows something of the inner erosion happening in Islam. But many adherents of other religions and religious subsystems are just as resigned. Just as traditional Constantine churchianity, Animism or Buddhism, the core of Islam does not help people live their lives, but generally just preserves the status quo of poverty, difficulties, uncertainty and illness for most and riches for a privileged minority. On top of all that, religion can only superficially answer the questions every person faces: why am I here, what am I supposed to be doing, where am I headed? The Bangladeshi Imam spoke for many in his recognition of the truth. In this phase of religious resignation, most people simply perform religious rites perfunctorily, outwardly going with the flow, inwardly questioning. Many Muslims, for example, wonder about Allah's secret 100th name...

The camel knows

Every Muslim knows that Allah has 99 names, and many know of a tradition which says that only a camel knows his 100th name. That name is 'Isa'! The Koran, the Muslims' holy book, does not answer the question directly, but gives enough clear hints. Many experienced missionaries start a conversation with Muslims with the words "I have discovered an amazing truth in the Koran, which gives hope of eternal life in paradise. Would you please read me Sure Al-Imran 3:42-55?"

The Koran teaches that Jesus knows the way to heaven

This Sure says three things about Isa (Jesus) which clearly lift him above the status of a prophet: Isa is holy (3:42-48), has power over death (49-54) and knows the way to heaven (55-56). This is a shock for many Muslims, because what does the Koran say about Mohammed? The surest answer is to say that Mohammed is what he said of himself; in Sure 46:9-10, he says "I am nothing new among prophets; I do not know what will become of me or my followers. I am just a voice of warning."
If Mohammed is nothing different or more than all the prophets before him, and did not claim to be the greatest prophet of all, did not know where he or his followers would go after death, and professes to simply be a voice of warning, the contrast with Jesus' statements about himself (for example John 6:47 and 14:1-7) could hardly be greater. If you then ask a Muslim "I want to go to heaven when I die. Which prophet can help me get there?", the result is often a process leading them to read the Injil (New Testament) and find Jesus. Information from the Koran (very important for Muslims) reveals Jesus to be clearly more than just a prophet, and endows him practically with saviour status. "The Koran does not contain enough light to show someone the way to salvation, but enough small candles to guide seekers the right way," says Greeson.

For God's sake, don't bring Muslims to church!

Greeson sees four aspects which are decisive in helping Muslims find Christ and remain in him:

1. Speak in a way that Muslims understand. 'Canaanite' language is as much a hindrance as calling yourself a Christian, which is so culturally and historically laden that Muslims understand "A person with Western culture, ungodly and immoral." The word 'Isahi' (follower of Isa) is far better.
2. Cultural conformity is not a hindrance, but builds important bridges. Paul became a Jew to the Jews, and a Greek to the Greek. Followers of Jesus must learn to overcome their fear of the unknown and foreign cultures through love.
3. Send out early. Where Muslims who become Isahis are taught and sent out early, they win others to Christ and plant new churches, thus starting a movement with church multiplication as one of its basic principles. Christians who do not understand this and claim that these things need significantly more time are a serious hindrance, and should be avoided.
4. "Please do not bring newly-saved Isahis to existing traditional churches!" advises Greeson. That tears them out of their cultural surroundings, and causes them to be rejected by their friends and family - exactly the people which a church planting movement should reach. A far better strategy is to start culturally relevant Jamaats (meetings). House churches provide an ideal structure. "So if Muslims do not come to church, we take the church to the Muslims!"

Source: Kevin Greeson, "Camel Training Manual". A summary of the CAMEL training is available.

"In the Autumn of 2003, nobody knew if the translation of the Bible into the East African language Nyungwe would ever be completed; pastor Semo, one of the most important translators, had suffered a major stroke and could no longer speak. Nobody else was prepared or able to lead the team of translators," writes Wycliffe's Judy Boothe. "But God had a wonderful plan: pastor Semo would be healed before the eyes of his relatives, in his home village - surroundings which had been hostile to the Gospel for a long time. And so it came to pass: while pastor Semo was visiting his home village, two of his sisters each dreamt that he would speak again. The same day, an itinerant preacher came to the village. When he saw pastor Semo, he said 'Today, you will speak again,' laid his hands on pastor Semo and prayed. Pastor Semo was immediately able to speak again. The whole village was in tumult, and many came running to see the miracle with their own eyes. Pastor Semo didn't lose any time, and immediately resumed work on the Bible translation, together with four other Nyungwe speakers."

The Bible in 2,377 languages

Wycliffe reports that the Bible is now available at least in part in 2,377 languages, with translation projects currently underway in 1,678. Wycliffe staff are involved in 1,376 of these projects. In 2004, 82 new projects were started. Translations are needed into further 3,000 languages. There are 6,912 known languages, and Wycliffe aims to have at least started translating the Bible into all of them by the year 2025.

Source: Wycliffe, "Welt der Schrift" ("World of the Word") 2/2005

"There was once a card saying 'Most Christians would rather die than think', but thoughtless repetition of Christian ethics and doctrines doesn't make you a Christian," says Joe Riffe, member of staff of the young 24-7 Prayer movement started by Pete Greig five years ago. In that short time, the movement, which started with only a single prayer room, has become a many-faceted movement for mission and social justice, with related movements in 58 nations. "Inside and outside this movement, a new generation of leaders is currently taking shape," writes Riffe. "They are seeking humble, creative and relational expressions of Christian ministry. That's were 24-7transit comes in, teaching these people how to live well and hence lead well. We accompany them on the two most exciting journeys: the inward journey, which leads to spiritual transformation, and the outward journey, which leads to social transformation."

Young leaders in the monastery

Move in to a 'boiler room' in Britain or the USA and spend 8 months in a monastic community, living a life of prayer, study and action? 24-7 is convinced that the time has come for such a discipleship training programme. They are offering the training starting in September 2005, focussing on building a "Biblical world view". "Our world view forms the way in which we see society. However, a world view is not simply the filter through which we see the world, but our philosophy of life, including the answer to the question 'Why am I alive?' Our world view also has a strong influence on how we see Christianity. When Mark 12 tells us to love the Lord with our whole mind, we need to know what we believe, and understand the world which God made. We aim to build three things: authentic spirituality - truth in our relationship with Jesus ("Love the Lord with all your heart", Luke 10:27); relational spirituality - lovingness to others ("Love your neighbour as yourself", Luke 10:27) and missionary spirituality - take the Gospel to the world ("Make disciples of all nations", Matthew 28:19)" says Riffe. "As Jon Stuart Mill said, one person with a belief is equal to a force of 99 who only have interest."

Source: 24-7prayer.com

"A 70-year-old grandmother from Nebraska who took early retirement became a global evangelist, preaching the Gospel in the most dangerours places on Earth," reports Charisma News. Gwen Edland has spoken in over 40 nations and led thousands of people to Christ, including a Voodoo priest in Haiti, who himself subsequently led 25 of his colleagues to Christ. "She constantly encourages others to take the Gospel to the poorest of the poor, and would travel anywhere on Earth to bring some of Jesus' love to the people," says missions pastor Connie Bissen of Omaha's Trinity Church, where Edland is a member. The widowed mother of four has twelve grandchildren. She once prayed that God would send her to places where the people had never heard about Jesus. Her first missionary trip was not to the third world, though, but to Sweden. She was there in 1991, and says that God taught her Swedish miraculously so that she could explain the Gospel to anyone prepared to listen. In 2003, she accompanied a medical team to Recife in Brazil, where she spoke in a prison to inmates sentenced to life for murder or gang violence. 480 came to faith in Christ then, and 850 the following year.

Source: www.charismanow.com