DAWN Fridayfax 1996 #34

DAWN News from Myanmar (Burma), Romania, Islamic World, Thailand/Laos/Cambodia, Germany/Albania

Memo: The Was want Bibles, not false Gods

Even Myanmar's military fear the Was in the northeast of the country and on the Chinese border. The Wa, a people group of three million, are known as vicious warriors who have even forced national military forces to retreat. In order to calm them down, the government sent them some Buddhist statues a while ago. The Was sent the presents back immediately, and asked for 100 Bibles and Christian missionaries to be sent. They wanted to know more about God. The missionaries who went to the Wa reported that the chief, who used to be a head hunter, became a Christian and was baptised. After his baptism by immersion, he ducked under the water one hundred times-once for every head he had hunted. Later, he made himself available to speak for the evangelistic Jesus film.

Source: Jesus film project, Volume 12 issue 3/96. Fax (1)-714-361-7579

Romania: film mission plants churches The mission organization Campus for Christ reports that around 185 new churches have been planted in Romania since 1991 as a result of showings of the Jesus film based on Luke's gospel. Virgil Anderson, one of the movement's missionaries in Romania, reports in the latest "Update" magazine that at least 1,067,792 people have seen the film in 16,076 showings. Of those, 294,706 showed continued interest in Christianity. Anderson estimates that 200 follow-up groups for the interested people could develop into churches in the next two years. The standards of the Rumanian Evangelical Alliance UK only accept a group as a church when it has at least 21 members, an organized structure, and has been accepted by a denomination. Source: Jesus film project, Volume 12 issue 3/96. Fax (1)-714-361-7579

Mission in cyberspace The US-based conservative Baptist mission organization CBInternational points out the opportunities offered by computer technology and electronic mail. Hans Finzel, the organization's executive director, described how he watched a missionary in a predominantly Islamic country in the Middle East tell the gospel a highly-educated Moslem on the other side of the town on-line. Finzel says he spoke about Christ with the Moslem in a way which would have probably been impossible face to face. One big advantage is that the missionary can remain completely anonymous. If the other person shows further interest, Finzel says that it is possible to build up a relationship and finally meet them. In case of danger, the missionary can end the conversation at any time without leaving a trace. Finzel says that areas closed to traditional evangelisation can be reached in this manner by speaking openly in on-line fora in cyberspace, the 'virtual world' of computerised information transfer. Source: CBInternational, Impact, PO Box 66, Wheaton IL 60189-0066 USA.

Thailand/Laos/Cambodia: new churches among the Khmer It is generally assumed that the predominantly Buddhist Cambodians and Laotians are hard to reach with the gospel, according to the American Baptist publication "Impact". Sunthon Rawang, who graduated from a theological college in the Philippines in 1994, seems to have found a way. In only one year, Sunthon, who is himself a Khmer, has planted 10 house churches among his people in Thailand's eastern border area with Cambodia and Laos. The around 250 members of the house churches are refugees whose relatives still live a few miles away in Cambodia and Laos. Rawang trains these Christians to plant new churches during their frequent travels on the other side of the Thai border. Source: CBInternational, Impact, PO Box 66, Wheaton IL 60189-0066 USA.

Germany/Albania: Grandpa with a mission It is not only the young who have opportunities for mission, according to the now 71-year-old Claus Clausen from the small town of Breklum in Germany: God also has missions for the 'Grandpa' generation. He attended a meeting with Loren Cunningham, at the time leader of Youth With A Mission, and heard that the group was inviting people to join missions to Albania. When he contacted YWAM with two organised teams, they asked him "Are you sure you shouldn't go yourself?" He thought about it - and went. In only a short time, he had organised TV and classroom evangelism and started dismantling disused schools in Germany to reassemble them in Albania. In spring 1996, he was invited to meet Albania's President Sali Berisha. He is particularly pleased about an event during the summer: around 100 newly-saved Albanians were baptised in the Mediterranean. Source: Christoph Mohr, Gemeinde-Erneuerung 3/96 Nr. 60, FAX (49)-040-322403

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