DAWN Fridayfax 1997 #26

DAWN News from USA, Brazil, India

USA: Pop-star 'Vanity' becomes an evangelist

The ex-pop-star Vanity, protege of "The artist who used to be called Prince", has become a Christian evangelist. Her conversion is the result of experiences in 1994: following kidney failure, doctors gave her only 3 days to live. On her death bed, she repented and turned her life around. She was known for her lyrics, sex appeal and appearances in dozens of films. According to her biography which has recently been published in the Washington Post, she was taking $200 worth of cocain per day before the crisis. "I wanted to die," she says. Today, though, she is a full-time preacher in the American free church 'Church of Jesus Christ for All Nations'. "Not even a million dollars would get me back out there making a mess in the world," she said in the interview.
Source: Washington Post

USA: extreme alcoholic turns 'dry'

The head of a Chicago building company paid personally for 178 students to attend the revival movement at the Brownsville Assemblies of God in Pensacola, Florida. He had also been able to send all of his employees to Brownsville - except one, Wilkie. Wilkie is a foreman, but not exactly well educated. According to his boss, his English is almost impossible to understand. At first, Wilkie didn't want to go to Pensacola because he thought he would lose a week's wages, but his boss gave him paid holidays. Even before he reached Pensacola, he started to shake, but that was part of his withdrawal symptoms, because he was an extreme alcoholic. During the worship time in Pensacola, he started crying uncontrollably and suddenly shouted "This place is full of electricity!". His employer calmed him down, saying "No, that's the Holy Spirit". "At the altar call, Wilkie also went forward. As evangelist Steve Hill prayed for him, Wilkie fell to the ground, and his stomach started making incredible movements," says his employer. "His stomach was racked with cramps for over 3 hours. Nobody had seen anything like it before. Now, several months later, Wilkie is still 'dry'."
According to the Brownsville Assemblies of God, around 107,000 people have decided to become Christians there since the start of the revival in June 1995.
Source: Brownsville Assemblies of God, Pensacola

USA: Evangelist died "with a fiery sermon on his lips"

How would you like to die? Rev. Mickey Bonner, 65, an evangelist from Houston, Texas, met death in the most wonderful imaginable way - for a Christian evangelist. He collapsed on the stage in front of a crowd of 16,000 at around 9:20pm on 5 June 1997. He had just been speaking about the power of prayer. "When I realised that he had not fallen over to emphasise a point he had just made, I knew he was dead," said Miller Hartzog, a safety director. "He died with a truly fiery sermon on his lips." Mr. Stephens, a friend of Bonner's, told of a strange comment Bonner had made before going on stage. While he was being made up, he said "I'm not sure I want to meet Jesus with make-up on my face." "The people in the changing room laughed, because they thought it was a joke. 90 minutes later, he was dead," says Stephens.
Source: Knoxville paper, Tennessee, 6 June 1997

USA: Southern Baptists plant 2,367 churches in 1996

"It's harvest time all over the world, because God is moving - and the Southern Baptists are reacting," said Jerry Rankin, President of the Southern Baptists' International Mission Board, during a missions conference in Dallas on 18 June 1997. Rankin reported that the church's missionaries and partners baptised 283,000 new Christians in 1996 alone. In addition, 2,367 new churches and 23,000 preaching stations were planted. The number of new missionaries sent out also reached a record high of 590, plus 16,000 short-term missionaries. The free church spent 93 million dollars on missions in 1996, and their Internet homepage, an 'electronic prayer wall', was visited 1.3 million times, Rankin reports.
Source: Mark Kelly, Baptist Press

Brazilian prayer development aid for Europe

In October 1997, the European Prayer Link plans to import 150 intercessors from South America, mainly Brazil, to Europe. "The basic idea is to bring 15 intercessors to each of 10 European capital cities," says David Sladden. The aim: Christians currently experiencing a revival movement of dimensions which are possibly unique in the history of Christianity want to pray together with local Christians for a spiritual breakthrough in Europe.
Source: David Sladden, e-mail: 106461.274@compuserve.com

Narayanan, a possible Dalit President for India

The path to the office of President seems safe for K.R. Narayanan, India's Vice President. Narayanan is a Dalit, a member of the so-called 'repressed castes' which consist of at least 260 million Indians, and was nominated for the highest office by the ruling United Front Coalition and the Congress Party. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (Hindu World Council) opposes Narayanan's candidacy "because of his link to the churches." Dalits, as we have previously reported, are currently searching for a new religious identity. There is continuing intense interest to collectively switch from Hinduism to Christianity, currently hindered by significant social disadvantages for Christian Dalits. K.R. Narayanan could change that.
Source: India Missions Association. Tel. 91-44-6442859

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