Africa

This is the first Friday Fax news item about Somalia! We have only mentioned it once before, in 2002, when it was listed as the least-reached nation in the world, with only one evangelical Christian for every 67,314 inhabitants. German missionaries in Somalia have just sent us the following news: "For 15 years, Somalia has stood for anarchy, hunger, death, violence and refugees. The nation has now managed to form a new Government. Many Somalis have experienced death-bringing hate, and know that Islam never managed to bring peace to their nation. When they hear that Jesus prayed for his murderers while on the cross, they are deeply touched. Perhaps God had to allow the situation in Somalia in order to open the people for the Gospel. For decades, there were very few Christians, and even today, many pay for their faith with their life. Now, though, couples and even entire families are coming to Jesus, and children are hearing the Word of God in the churches. A dream held by missionaries for decades has just been fulfilled: a few months ago, a number of Somali groups joined to plant a church. Even Government officials have to admit that their nation is no longer 100% Moslem. The new Christians are growing in faith and assuming more and more responsibility..."

Source: Name and address withheld

Werner Drotleff and Hans Ollesch, missionaries with Swiss mission agency AvC ("Aktionskomittee für Verfolgte Christen", Action Committee for Persecuted Christians) report about the Masai in Tanzania: "The Masai are a proud warrior tribe which used to be very resistant to the gospel. Because of their lifestyle, so many of them have AIDS that the tribe is in danger of dying out. Their leaders have recognised this, and opened themselves to the gospel. A new church was planted as the result of an evangelistic outreach around Ngotongoro in 2004; 16 Masai were baptised. The new believers had a difficult time, being persecuted and beaten.

Woman healed of AIDS, witch doctor saved
Some years ago, a new church was also planted in Ebewewe, a village in a Muslim area. A woman was healed of AIDS during an evangelistic outreach, and the local witch doctor was also saved. During another outreach before another new church was opened, Muslims incited youths to disrupt the event. The head of the local mosque even tried to damage the loudspeakers and amplifier. Just in time, though, 30 Muslim village elders arrived and forbade him to continue disrupting the gatherings; they had brought chairs and were ready to hear God's word. The hecklers left. One of the seven people who responded to the altar call was a young Muslim suffering panic attacks, who could hardly sleep at night. The mosque and the witch doctor had been unable to help him, but now he was ready to accept Jesus, along with a married couple known as witch doctors. They belong to the Sigua tribe, which had been very difficult to reach with the gospel. You can see the change in their smiling faces..."

Source: AvC, Hans Ollesch, fax (+41) 32 355 42 48

That is the name of the new newsletter published by Dawn Ministries, a global church planting strategy group. "DAWN around the world" replaces the DAWN Report, which they published for many years. Some highlights from the current issue:

Openness in Africa

"Africa is more open for the gospel than it has ever been," reports DAWN Africa Coordinator Danie Vermeulen. "Thousands of Muslims are finding Christ, and some of the most exciting church planting movements are among Muslims. Civil wars, AIDS and political repression are other factors leading growing numbers to open for the gospel..."

Interest in God is growing in Europe

"Secular ideology has failed in Europe, and there is a new interest in religion and spirituality," says Dawn European Network Coordinator Reinhold Scharnowski. "This is starting to affect European culture; writers, artists and talk show guests are speaking increasingly about spirituality. Until recently, people thought that religion is what people believe before they discover science. That has been revealed as myth. The secular faith in progress itself, which was supposed to replace religion, has failed, as clearly shown by the growing church attendance in London. The Hillsong Fellowship, for example, started with an attendance of only 70, but the numbers double every year; the attendance has now reached 5,500, with 1,500 new believers in 2004 alone..."

Uruguay: church numbers doubled

"Recent research shows that the number of Christian churches and the number of new believers in Uruguay has doubled since 1998," reports Amaury Braga, Prayer Coordinator for DAWN in Latin America. "There were around 1,000 churches in 1998, after 150 years of evangelism. This realisation gave birth to a new phase; the churches began a dedicated campaign to mobilise prayer for effective church planting. Now, in 2005, the figures show that in a period of only seven years, not only has the number of churches doubled to over 2,000, but the number of Christians has doubled with it."

Source, and to order the free newsletter "DAWN around the world": Dawn Ministries, PO Box 690787, Orlando, FL 32869-0787, USA, tel. +1 (407) 370-9312, fax +1 (407) 226-8713, e-mail tedmolsen (at) aol.com

"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

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

"Kakala smiles all over her face, and is very excited!" wrote Rolland and Heidi Baker, missionaries in Mozambique, on 8^th April 2005. "She repeats Heidi's words syllable for syllable into the microphone, touching the hearts of everyone in the village. Everyone knows that Kakala was born deaf and dumb. People ran to fetch Kakala's mother, and soon they are both standing in front of the crowd, smiling broadly. The mother again confirms that she had never heard Kakala speak before. Upon hearing the news, someone ran off to fetch another deaf and dumb girl. Heidi and the team prayed for the girl and laid hands on her, and the little Magdalena was also instantly healed, able to hear and speak. An old woman was also healed – Jesus restored her sight."

When whole villages are saved

"The whole village had gathered, and many had travelled miles from the surrounding villages on hearing that we were coming," the Bakers continue. "They saw the Jesus Film, and Heidi preached and told them what Jesus had already done in their region. The result was that the entire village unanimously decided to accept the Gospel. During our missionary outreaches in the traditionally Muslim province Cabo Delgado in northern Mozambique, we regularly see whole villages eagerly turning to Jesus the first time they hear our message. Whenever we preach the Gospel as simply, intensely and clearly as we can, there is no resistance: the poor come out of their huts, clothed in rags, and run to Jesus. They accept him as their new Lord without hesitation or doubt, renouncing their old lives of dependency on witch doctors, enslaved by evil spirits, false religion and traditions, and kneel in the dust of their village square, worshipping their new saviour Jesus. In the past two years, over 190 new churches have formed in Cabo Delgado's villages; more are added every week. The harvest in Mozambique is truly ripe…"

Source: Rolland and Heidi Baker, Iris Ministries, P.O. Box 275, Pemba, Cabo Delgado, Mozambique, tel. (+258)-82-303-0

"The President of Zambia was recently publicly baptised as a sign of his faith in Jesus Christ," report Southern Baptist missionaries. Hundreds of guests, including public officials and leading national and foreign pastors, clapped and cheered as President Levy Mwanawasa climbed out of the baptism pool outside a Baptist chapel in Lusaka, the nations' capital. In a packed service, Mwanawasa spoke of his spiritual journey, telling of his 'Damascus experience', similar to that of the apostle Paul on the Damascus road.

Mwanawasa, a successful lawyer and previously Vice President, was elected as President in 2002. His reputation as an extremely honest person earned him the nickname "Mr. Integrity", even with his political opponents. Mwanawasa attended a Baptist school as a boy, but his relationship with Jesus started to change completely when he began attending the Twin Palm Baptist Church in Lusaka in 2003. Some missionaries believe that the President's baptism is a special sign of what God is beginning to do in the nation. The Baptist churches are growing significantly, according to the report, with 116 new Baptist churches started in the past year alone, bringing the total to 985, with a further 124 mission stations.

Source: International Mission Board