DAWN Fridayfax 1995 #23

News from United Kingdom, Russia, Worldwide, Mongolia, Papua New Guinea

England: Hundreds of convicts are being saved

Prisoners collapse in tears and confess their sins following Bible study groups. One wrote to the old woman that he mugged, promising to pay back the stolen money when he is released.

What is happening in England's prisons? David Powe, Chaplain in Lewe jail, speaks of a new openness to Christianity in the hearts of England's inmates, and says that he has personally led 261 of them to Christ since beginning work there. Similar things are happening in many other prisons. Peter Walker, director of the national "Prison Fellowship," calls it an answer to prayer: "It is unbelievable what is happening, and we thank God for it."

Toronto Blessing in Prison

The phenomena which the media have made famous as "the Toronto Blessing" are now also appearing in prisons, according to Exeter's Rev. Bill Birdwood. He says that the phenomena are visible in many jails "which have almost no knowledge of Christianity," just as they are in around 5,000 of England's churches: people fall to the floor in tears or laughter, and speak of a special encounter with God. Rev. Birdwood expects a revival in England's prisons, and says that the regular transfer of prisoners helps spread the movement like wildfire. Only time can show whether the conversions are real. Many prisoners, though, have joined churches following their release.

Source: Church of England Newspaper, 26 May 1995

Russia: church-planting through libraries

The Protestant mission society Slavic Gospel Association reports that in Russia, more and more churches are being founded through libraries. Hugh O. Maclellan, Jr., chairman of a large American foundation, sums up: "Russians are keen readers, so why not open libraries?" It doesn't take much, according to the mission society, to train a Russian Christian and equip him with 500 books. He then opens a library in one of the tens of thousands of Russian villages without a Protestant church. A book-club soon forms among the keen readers, which quickly becomes a church. Almost all of the 250 Christian libraries in Russia have led to a church being planted, and one library has founded 6 churches.

Source: Slavic Gospel Association

Adventists: 7,000 new churches in 4 years

F. Donald Yost, director of the Adventists' centre for world-wide statistics, reports that the church's growth is continuing. According to their press office, the membership has quadrupled since 1970. They have a new member every 50 seconds, and a new church is founded every 5 hours somewhere in the world. Of the 8.4 million adult members and 16 million children and friends of the church in 209 countries, 74% come from Latin America, Africa and Asia. In the last 4 years alone, 7,000 new churches were planted. The organisation, which has 664 hospitals, clinics, medical stations, children's- and old peoples' homes, is the world's second largest Christian health and educational system, following the Roman Catholic Church. The Adventists have around 35,000 members in 586 churches in Germany.

Source: Adventist Press Office, Fax (49) 0711- 4481960

Mongolia: 23-year-old woman founds one of the country's largest churches

A young Mongol woman (name withheld) first heard of Jesus at the age of 19, while she was studying, and decided to become a Christian on the spot. She returned to her village with 14 other young Christian women. In the space of a year, the church grew to its current size of 300, with which it is one of the country's largest. The young woman is now 23 and in the leadership team, and is one of the representatives of Mongolian churches at international conferences such as that held by AD2000 in Seoul in May 1995.

Source: Reinhold Scharnowski, Fax (41) 033-377364

Papua New Guinea: law student founds 17 churches in jungle villages

A young woman from Papua New Guinea was happy to be able to leave her primitive village and study law in the next town. She says that God spoke to her during her studies, telling her to return to her village and spread the gospel there. She was not even slightly inclined to co-operate, because she wanted to have a career and a higher standard of living, and never return to her backward village. But God spoke to her three times, so she gave in and went back. She started to tell her family about Christ, and in a short time, a large church had grown. A few months later, elders came from other villages to ask her to open churches in their villages too. In this way, she has planted churches in 17 villages which previously knew only animist religions.

Source: Annelies Strupler, FAX (41)-1-272 6333

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