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

"The number of house churches in the USA has probably doubled in the past 18 months, from 2,500 to 5,000," according to participants at a symposium organized by Church Multiplication Associates' Neil Cole in Los Angeles from 25-28 April 2005. "The main growth comes from missionary groups aiming to reach the unchurched with the Gospel and involve them in multipliable discipleship structures," says Cole. "We're expecting up to 1,000 participants at the next national House Church conference in the USA in Denver from 2-5 September 2005," say Tony and Felicity Dale, part of the team organizing the conference. John Eldredge was the main speaker at last year's conference; this year, speakers include Rolland and Heidi Baker, who saw some 5,000 new churches planted in Mozambique and neighbouring nations over the past 5 years, Wolfgang Simson and Neil Cole.

Bill Bright Billion Soul Initiative

Dr. Bill Bright, the founder of Campus Crusade for Christ who died in 2004, prompted the Billion Soul Initiative founded at the end of last year. Close colleagues and participants in consultations with Bright report that he explained his personal missionary vision for the future shortly before his death. He called on Christians to cooperate to call 1 billion people to follow Christ in the next 10 years by planting 5 million house churches. James O. Davis, John C. Maxwell and Steve Douglass subsequently formed the Global Pastors' Network. A 'global church planting congress' is planned for September 2005, in which over 350 Christian leaders will gather to plan this "largest evangelistic initiative in human history", as the organizers describe it.

Source: various, including James O. Davis

While researching his soon to be published book 'Apostolic Genius', Alan Hirsch, author of 'The Shaping of Things to Come' "stumbled upon some extremely notable, even astonishing, discoveries by important observers of the global Christian scene." Already in 2001, Professor David B. Barrett and Todd M. Johnson mentioned that there were already 111 million Christians without a traditional local church. Barrett highlights particularly the development of the so-called 'Neo-Apostolic' networks and movements, of which there are already over 20,000 around the world, numbering around 394 million Christians. According to Barrett, these Christians reject historical denominationalism and all restrictive central authority, and attempt to lead a life of following Jesus, seeking a more effective missionary lifestyle. They are the fastest-growing Christian movements in the world. Barrett estimates that by the year 2025, these movements will have around 581 million members, 120 million more than all Protestant movements together. Hirsh, who has invited all of Australia's missionary movements to a conference in Victoria (Forge National Summit, 1-3 July 2005), confirms the trend from his own experience, and believes that these new Christian movements "are simply under the radar of traditional Christianity", at least as long as it holds on to the classical Constantine church structure (pastor + building + programme = church).

Source: Alan Hirsch, www.forge.org.au

Berlin was infamous for the violent demonstrations on 30^th April and 1^st May, International Workers' Day. "That's going to change," reports Kerstin Hack. The 'spiral of violence' was broken last year, with only 'minor incidents' in places known for major violence, and only one single street battle. 2005 was "The most peaceful 1^st May since 20 years!", according to the press. Kerstin Hack: "There were no real street battles, only a few thrown stones and bottles, and one upturned car which lost petrol but did not burn. That's certainly partly due to the many people who celebrated a peaceful May Day and the Police's wisdom, but also to the Christians on the streets praying, both in 2004 and 2005. There was an open-air service, and cleaning teams and prayer teams were on the streets. In 2004, it was relatively peaceful wherever the intercessors were; violence only escalated in places which we had too few people to cover. This year, with only one exception, the violence stopped almost before it began."

Source: Kerstin Hack, e-mail info/at/down-to-earth.de, tel. (+49) 30 822 7962

After many examinations in specialised clinics following her infection with Hepatitis A, Christina Roth from Dresden was diagnosed as suffering from Hodgkin's Lymphoma (lymph node cancer). Only 20 years old, the diagnosis was a deep shock. She went through chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Many Christians prayed for her, but she was not supernaturally healed; the therapy was effective, and the tumour disappeared. The next shock came only four weeks later during a check-up: she had leukaemia, perhaps as a result of the radiotherapy. On 9^th November 1999, she started her second chemotherapy. Weeks passed in which she was sometimes close to death. Her doctors later suggested a stem cell transplantation, which Christina refused, much to their concern, because they thought she wanted to die. (The stem cell transplantation had a 50% chance of success, chemotherapy 10-20%.) Christina, though, decided to trust God, "who is above all chances of success". Whenever she spoke with her doctors about God, they listened without paying any real attention. A check-up at the Carl Gustav Carus University Clinic in November 2004 finally delivered the long-hoped-for result: "Complete remission of both Hodgkin's Lymphoma and the secondary Acute Myelitic Leukaemia..." "I can now declare you healed!" the doctor said, a statement which is very seldom made of cancer patients.

Source: Christina Roth, Dresden, in Josua Bote (Joshua Courier), Germany. Fax +49 30 672 1415

Daniel Hari, Pastor and founder of Omegalive.ch, an initiative for evangelising New Agers, writes about his recent seminar about "Healing like Jesus" in Ticino, the Italian-speaking part of Switzerland:

"Fifty-one people took part in the course, many of whom found Jesus and were baptised. One morning, one of the participants had a strange experience: 'I suddenly sensed the spiritual presence of my Indonesian guru, and felt dizzy. The feeling only passed when someone prayed with me and I renounced my connection with him. I used to revere him, and was impressed by his wonderful ability to lovingly heal people while in a trance - it seemed so pure and powerful, and I had never seen anything like it in Christian churches. Now, my eyes have been opened: I was deceived. He wanted to sleep with every woman in his seminars, including me. I managed to keep him at a distance. Now, though, I am completely free, and have no grudge against him. Jesus Christ freed me from the man, and I can now bless him."

Source: Daniel Hari, www.omegalive.ch

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

People used to skip church to go fishing. Today, they go fishing to experience church. An increasing number of churches and mission agencies are specialising in reaching unchurched anglers and outdoor-enthusiasts below a typical church radar, according to a Charisma report. Terry Chupp, founder of Team Jesus Ministries (www.teamjesusministries.org) believes these groups to be the least-reached in the USA. "If you only fish in your own bathtub, you'll catch nothing. You have to go where the fish(ermen) are," he says. There are an estimated 50 million recreational anglers in the USA. Evangelist Al Odom reports that over 2,500 anglers have come to faith in Christ; "We use fishing as a lure, pardon the pun, to draw men into an environment where they can experience the life-changing power of Christ." The New Testament, he says, has many references to fishing, and 8 of Jesus' 12 disciples were fishermen. "I think it was no coincidence that God's plan was to use fishermen to bring his Word to all people," says Jim Grassi, founder of Let's Go Fishing Ministries (www.letsgofishing.org).

Source: www.charismanow.com