DAWN Fridayfax 1997 #9

DAWN News from USA, Nepal, Albania, India, Ethiopia, CIS

USA: pulpit split in two during Bible reading

It was threatening to be a completely normal Sunday morning as the pastor of an evangelical church in Houston, Texas, stepped up to the pulpit at 8:30. He only managed to read a single Bible verse: second Chronicles 7 verse 14, where it says "If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land." then, according to one report, he was "seized by the Holy Spirit, shook, and was finally thrown out of the pulpit like lightening. He then remained lying on the ground for about one and a half hours." the whole church began to pray, not stopping until the end of service at around 2 the next morning. Later investigation showed that the pulpit had been split in two, which is quite remarkable because it was made out of a material designed for space travel, which is practically indestructible. One commentator said "if you threw this pulpit out of the 30th floor of a high-rise block, it would hardly be scratched, let alone break. There were special powers at work here!" Through this new experience with God, not only have "hundreds of people become Christians", but a whole series of churches has decided to call a 40 day fast.
Source: David Sladden and Brian Mills, Reading fax (44)-118-9264523

Nepal: when pigeons fall from the sky

A team belonging to the mission agency OM (Operation mobilisation) was travelling in the mountains of Nepal to spread the gospel in the remote mountain villages. One day, the team was running out of money, and food was very difficult to obtain. Suddenly, the team saw an eagle which dived towards some pigeons. It hit two of them, but for some unknown reason, dropped them. These two pigeons dropped to the ground immediately in front of the group, thus providing them with food for the day.
Source: OM, via Heinz Strupler, Lufingen, Switzerland tel. (44) - 1 - 8135183

Albania: "world's most atheistic country" sends out missionaries

For many years, Albania was closed to be Gospel because of communism. Following the fall of the government, an increasing number of Albanians are coming to Christ. After only a few years of evangelisation and training, Albania is ready to send out the first of its own missionaries, according to the mission agency Campus for Christ. Five Albanians, ex - Muslims, will work among other Muslims outside Albania as Christian missionaries.
Source: Campus for Christ, fax (44) - 1 - 2717819

India: 1,000 new churches for West Bengal

In the Indian state of West Bengal, there are around 75 million people. According to the India Mission Association in Madras, the rickshaw pullers are no longer to be seen on the street, because the six thousand "motorless" rickshaws and 12,000 rickshaw pullers have just been banned by the government and have to look for new work. Despite intense assistance given to the poorest of the poor, Christianity has up to now been advancing only very slowly: there are currently only around 200 churches in the city of Calcutta with its millions of inhabitants. That is about to change. During a DAWN consultation in December 1996, Christian leaders in West Bengal resolved the following: "We will work together until December 2001 to plant 1,000 new churches, so that there is an active church in every postal area." To reach this aim, the pastors and church staff promised to regularly and faithfully pray together, work as partners, encourage each other, and to ask other members of the body of Christ to help them in this great undertaking.
Source: Steve Spaulding, DAWN Ministries, fax (1) - 719 - 548 - 7475

Ethiopia: Last-minute gospel

Andrew Meekens, an elder in the International Christian Church in Addis Ababa, was one of the victims of the tragic plane crash last November, when the aircraft ran out of fuel after being hijacked. One of the members of the cabin crew recently reported that following the pilot's announcement of his intention to attempt an emergency landing, Meekens stood up and spoke to calm the passengers. He explained the gospel of Jesus and invited the people to accept Jesus as Lord and Saviour. The surviving steward reported that 20 people responded, including one of his colleagues who was killed in the crash.
Source: Church around the World, PO Box 464, Mt. Morris, IL 61054, USA

CIS: CoMission starts to focus on church-planting

CoMission, a strategic partnership of over 80 Christian organisations, was invited by the Russian and other Eastern European states to provide evangelistic and ethical assistance. In the five years from 1992 to 1996, CoMission staff have visited 50 cities, trained 40,000 teachers in ethics and started 1,441 Bible study groups. King Crow, Executive Director of the CoMission II leadership team, recognised a big problem: "New converts had a hard time integrating into existing Christian churches. They needed a new form of church to take them in and lead them further in their faith." For that reason, CoMission has decided to put more energy than before into planting new churches.
Source: King Crow, CoMission

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