Asia

"It started under a banana tree," says a Christian from the southern Asian nation Laos. "I was hunting birds for my meal when a man from the neighbouring village sat down beside me and started talking. We spoke about our families, and I told him about my sick wife and mother, who were both tormented by evil spirits. I had already sacrificed twelve water buffalo, but without success. The visitor told me about Sipak, a man from his village, who had seen healings performed in the name of a God called Jesus. A few days later, my wife and my mother both died. In my desperation, I went to the other village to find this Sipak. He told me all about Jesus, how he had come to Earth to free us from the bondage of evil spirits. He also told me about God, the Creator, who loved me so much that he sent his son to die for me. I sensed a supernatural love and power in Sipak, and decided to follow this Jesus. I was immediately filled with peace and joy, and started telling others about my experience. Within a few days, four other families from my village accepted Jesus into their lives.

A book instead of fish
Soon, though, our faith was put to the test. I was arrested by the police, along with two of the other new Christians. They wanted to force us to sign a declaration recanting our faith. We refused, and were sent to a labour camp. We had to work hard during the day, and at night, our feet were locked into painful stocks, preventing us from sleeping. After several weeks, twelve Christians were called forward at the morning roll-call. To our astonishment, the camp chief said "You're good people and can go home. But I warn you: don't talk with others about your faith, or you'll be back here soon." Back in our village, the oppression continued; the police came almost every day to force us into a confession. After a while, one of our younger Christians could no longer stand the pressure, and signed the declaration. To remove all traces of his Christianity, he tied his New Testament to a stone and threw it into the river. Three days later, a group of men from our village went fishing. When they drew in their nets, they were surprised to find a book instead of fish. To their even greater astonishment, the book was dry and undamaged! They immediately started reading, and were excited by the message. It was the supposedly disposed-of New Testament. Through this miracle, 24 families from our village started a personal relationship with Jesus."

Source: AvC

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

"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

Kingdom Ministries, a Swiss missions agency, assists in starting church planting movements, particularly in India. One of the key elements are local Christians involved in saturation (house) church planting. Kingdom Ministries regularly receives reports like this:

"In the name of Jesus, stand up and walk!" G. Singh used the words Peter spoke to the invalid. 66-year-old Mayadar rode a sort of trike from house to house, begging, and expected Singh to give him some coins. Singh, though, prayed with authority, and Mayadar was healed! He rose from his 'wheelchair' and could walk! He was baptised, and now leads other beggars to Christ.

Deliverance and church planting

37-year-old Iqbal, a Sikh, came to a Christian meeting. He was tormented by evil spirits, and had torn 15 suits in 20 days. He was delivered following intense prayer, and decided to follow Christ after listening attentively to God's Word. Last year, the church planter working in the region led 158 people to Christ and baptised them. There will soon be a church in every village in the region.

Source: Kingdom Ministries, Switzerland, tel. (+41) 33 439 3099

Stefan D., leader of a Swiss free church, just returned from a visit to the Tatars and Bashkirs in Ufa. The people in this mostly unreached and traditionally Muslim region continue to be very open for the Gospel. Stefan D. tells of Igor, for example, who had had enough of military service after 18 months, and simply did not return to the barracks. Before the Police could arrest him, he was saved. The Police arrested him immediately after a church service, and took him to jail. On the way, they met a Christian Bishop, who the Police mistook for an Islamic Mullah. Igor asked to be allowed to speak with him, so the Police removed his handcuffs. The Bishop blessed Igor, who was then taken to prison, where the other inmates tried to intimidate him. He was very frightened, but started preaching immediately. At night, the inmates' leader came to him secretly, saying "Please pray with me for my salvation. I am a Jew." Igor prayed with him and led him to Jesus. Later, Igor was moved from one cell to another, with the result that many inmates and guards were saved.

Jesus appears to a Muslim woman and heals her

A church planter from the Ufa region reports "A Muslim woman had a heart attack and was in the intensive care ward at the hospital. She had been there for two days, and her condition was serious. Someone had informed the Christian church and asked for intercession. While we prayed, I had the impression that I should look at the clock and note the time. The doctors had examined the woman again, and tried to avoid speaking with her husband; they could not find any problems with her heart, and were afraid that he would sue them for false diagnosis. The next Sunday, the woman came to church, and told us 'At a particular time,' (exactly the time I had noted) 'I saw the window open. It was light, and I could see a figure. I didn't recognise him, but immediately knew it was Jesus. He told me 'Everything will turn out fine.' Then I was healed."

Source: Stefan D., Dr. Marco Gmuer, Kingdom Ministries, Switzerland

Around 100 years ago, North Korea was a Christian nation; Pyongyang, the capital, was called 'The Jerusalem of the East'. According to Open Doors, the 2,300 Christian churches and 300,000 believers disappeared in only a short time under dictator Kim Il Sung. Today, Pyongyang is the Babylon of a modern Nebuchadnezzar, Kim Jong Il, who dominates all aspects of society and the lives of all his subjects. No other nation persecutes Christians as brutally as North Korea. Some 25 huge prison camps symbolize the regime of terror, housing 200,000 'political' prisoners. Even the slightest criticism of the regime result in imprisonment in brutal conditions. The prisoners are forced to work up to 18 hours each day, and produce 40% of the nations gross national product. Much of the produce, such as tablecloths, vases, artificial flowers and textiles are exported to Western Europe.

However, there are signs of change. A growing number of Christians are praying for North Korea, bringing more of the regime's dark side under global scrutiny. There are also increasingly reports that Kim Jong Il's power is waning. At the same time, the regime is obviously well aware of the power of God's Word, as indicated by the confidential documents obtained by a Japanese newspaper, which document the role of Christianity in the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe.

Christianity in the Land of Spies

The strict social controls make it almost impossible for Christians to keep their faith secret. Every third person is a spy, so many flee. Several hundred thousand people have crossed the river border between North Korea and China, but most are deported back to the nation they fled. Some 100,000 managed to escape, of which two thirds became Christians. Newly-saved refugees often return to North Korea, despite the dangers, filled with the desire to spread the Gospel. "The life God has given us will not end in prison camps or starvation, but last forever. We have nothing to lose. If we die, we will be with Christ." Open Doors is currently orchestrating a prayer campaign for North Korea, and are seeking 1008 intercessors for a round-the-clock prayer watch. Soon Ok Lee, who spent 7 years in North Korean labour camps, recently published the book "Eyes of the Tailless Animals". Despite the repression, the underground church is growing, according to the Open Doors report.

Source: Offene Grenzen (Open Doors), fax (+49) 6195 676720