DAWN Fridayfax 1995 #19

News from California (USA), Jordan, Palestine, Illinois (USA), Korea, Turkey

It all began in the garage...

Many Arabian Christians have emigrated from the Middle East, mainly to Europe and the USA, because of the danger to their lives. Through their evangelism, more and more Arabs are being saved. In the USA, small meetings in a Los Angeles garage have grown to become 128 Arabic-speaking churches. The mission society Voice of the Truth (Colorado Springs) reports that the churches work well together and have become strong supporters of Middle-East churches.

Source and Info: Fax (001) 574-6075

King Hussein of Jordan: Christians, the glue of the Middle East

According to the city-expert Ray Bakke (Chicago), King Hussein of Jordan made the following comment to him in a private conversation: The Middle East is torn back and forth by Islamic fundamentalism, nationalism and racism. I want to say quite openly: Christians are the glue keeping this situation together. If Christians were driven out of the region, the moderate Moslems would have to follow shortly afterwards.

Source: Ray Bakke, Middle East Concern

Arafat's favorite book: God's Smuggler

The internationally-famous Bible smuggler Brother Andrew (67) of Open Doors told us that his biography "God's Smuggler" is one of PLO-Chief Arafat's favorite books. Brother Andrew, who managed to smuggle a million Bibles into China years ago, has a friendly relationship with the PLO-Chief and is respected for his unshockable engagement for Christians and Moslems. Currently, and unofficially, he has approximately the status of an army chaplain, and says that Arafat always has a Bible on his desk. Apparently, Arafat always asks him to bring more copies of his book and the Bible, so that he can distribute them to his staff.

Source: Brother Andrew, Open Doors
More from Palestine

Hamas terrorists hear the gospel

Recently, Brother Andrew had a surprise invitation to speak to over 400 heavily-armed, Hamas terrorists in Gaza. He spoke to these young men for 2 hours, and says that are amazingly open towards the gospel despite being them carefully raised and trained Moslems - praying 5 times a day, no sex, alcohol or drugs. After his speech, many asked for a Bible with tears in their eyes. Since then, the director of the Israeli Bible Society has been invited to set up a stand at an Arabic book fair in Gaza. His comment: I could not have hoped for that in even my boldest dreams.

Source: Brother Andrew, Open Doors

Religious wave continues in the USA

The amazing outbreaks of revival which started in traditional, conservative Christian Wheaton, Illinois, are continuing among students. They and their professors have been confessing their sins in thousands, in services lasting up to 12 hours. In April 1995, similar phenomena occurred during the semester holidays at CCU (Colorado Christian University) in Estes Park. Following a speech by Lori Salierno, almost everyone attending - students, professors and other staff - went down on their knees to ask God to forgive their shallow lives and sins, and for personal renewal. According to Dr. Schmidt, CCU s president, this experience could be one of the furthest-reaching intellectual and spiritual challenges for our American school system.

Source: CCU Monthly Report, Tel 001- (303)-202-0100

AD2000 conference brings more countries together at one table than the UNO!

With 560 million people, the evangelical Christians are the fastest-growing minority in the world. Particularly in Latin America, Asia and Africa, many churches and denominations are growing up to 5 times as fast as the population. From 17-26 May, there is a conference for Christian leaders in Seoul, Korea, with the themes of promoting international synergy effects and the special challenges facing Christianity up to the year 2000. With a total of over 210 nations and approximately 10% of the world population represented, the conference brings more nations together than the UN.

Info for the German-speaking world: FocuSuisse, Fax (0041) 53-228678

Mass-baptisms in Turkey

Many Christians in Turkey, particularly ex-Moslems who have become Christians, are still being harassed, persecuted, tortured and imprisoned and can often only be freed through court actions - and that in a country in which there is supposed to be religious freedom. We now know from reliable sources that there are evangelical churches in every large town in Turkey. At one recent service, 27 people were baptized, which is the largest number since Paul preached in Ephesus 1900 years ago.

Source: Advance, CompuServe 70420,1057

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