DAWN Fridayfax 1995 #31

News from Abchasia (Georgia), Cuba, China, Worldwide, Argentina, Greece, Vietnam, Mongolia

The Abchasian Wonder

In Abchasia, a small breakaway republic with only 550,000 inhabitants on the Black Sea, there was no evangelical church known before May 1995. There was a Baptist church and a small Russian Pentecostal church in Sukhumi, the capital, but they were attended only by other ethnic groups (Georgians, Armenians and Russians among others), and four or five other small groups of Armenian and Russian believers in other towns. We have reports that the Abchasian President Vladislav Ardzinba and his government invited the evangelist Aril Edvardsen to come and evangelise at the start of May.

The mission organisation tells us that hundreds of Abchasians showed interest in Christianity for the first time, and that a new church could be planted. The church, along with a number of other church-planting projects, are now being led by three Russian missionaries. The Abchasian government expressed the desire to return to Christianity, which, according to tradition, was first brought to the country by Simon the Zealot (Acts 1:13) who was later burned at the stake as a martyr. Further church-plants and evangelistic outreaches are planned.

Source: AD-2000 Prayer Track News, Vol. 4 No. 3

Cuba: Persecution and Revival

The persecution of Christians in Cuba is again on the increase. 86 house-churches in Camaguey Province were closed recently. Despite the hard conditions, the Cuban Christians are still proclaiming "Cuba Para Cristo!" (Cuba for Christ). They are also praying intensively that "God will powerfully reveal himself" to the country's political leaders. For many Cuban Christians, no price is too high for the evangelisation of their country; many pray night and day, and are not afraid to go to jail. There are still too few Bibles in the country, and the demand is increasing steadily.

Source: Offene Grenzen

China: "The more they are repressed, the more they spread"

Although the numbers of Bibles distributed worldwide sank 3.6% in 1994 to 608.7 million, the number distributed in Asian and Pacific countries increased 21.6%. The Amity Press has printed 8 million already in China alone, and the demand is far greater. A house-church leader in Henan Province says that the new converts from his movement alone need 23,400 Bibles each month. The persecution of Christians in China continues, with raids and arrests (foreign Bible-teachers included) increasing, but the number of Christians is growing. The growth comes mainly from the house-church movement, which cannot be controlled by the state.

In the Prefecture of Zhoukou, there are 33,000 known house-churches. The situation is reminiscent of the people of Israel in Egypt at the time of their repression, of whom it was said "the more they repressed them, the more they spread." The Christians are preparing for further persecution, with many no longer sleeping at home to avoid arrest.

Source: Advance Aug. 95

Over 700 million people have seen the Jesus Film

According to Campus for Christ, around 701 million people in 220 countries have seen the "Jesus film", based on Luke's gospel. More than 41 of those 701 million showed interest in becoming Christians. Over 400 mission organisations use the film, which is now available in 325 languages.

Source: Campus for Christ/Advance 95
More World news

Argentina: Baptists called to found 152,239 new churches worldwide

The 5,500 Christian leaders of Baptist churches in more than 100 countries who attended the 17th Baptist World Conference in Buenos Aires have accepted a resolution calling for each of the 152,239 Baptist churches currently existing worldwide to found at least one church by the year 2000 and more than ever before to attempt to reach the 20% of the world population who have no contact with Christianity. It is estimated that the Baptist movement has around 100 million members worldwide.

Source: Advance August 1995

Three Greek Satanists Become Christians

Unconfirmed reports tell of 3 members of a 20-person Satanist Circle in Athens becoming Christians. The three people had previously been accused and convicted of kidnapping, raping and murdering two women. The report also says that the group performed human sacrifices in the area around Athens.

Source: Advance August 1995.

More than 100,000 Vietnamese have become Christians

In northern Vietnam, a whole tribe suddenly became open for the gospel: more than 100,000 members of the Hmong tribe have become Christians as a result of radio programmes, without a single missionary or bible teacher. The fact was first realised by the outside world when a Hanoi newspaper expressed concern that the Hmong were converting to Christianity. The members of the tribe, who are illiterate, were not able to write to the radio station to report the conversions.

Source: Advance August 1995

Mongolia: Christian programmes for the state television

Campus for Christ's New Life Network reports that they are now working on evangelistic programmes from the "Moody Science Programme" series for the Mongolian State Television, following two years of preparation. Those familiar with the situation in Mongolia describe this as a miraculous opportunity.

Source: New Life Network, Josefstr. 206, CH-8005 Zurich, Switzerland

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