DAWN Fridayfax 1998 #11

News from India, USA, Germany, Egypt

In this issue:
India: Fiery coals in Madras
USA: Baptists give over $100 million to world mission
One voice
Egypt: 150,000 take part in evangelistic services with Luis Palau

India: fiery coals in Madras

It was going to be a literally hot party in Madras. A Hindu celebration called the Holi Festival was scheduled for Sunday, 15 March 1998, including 'holy fire walkers', Hindus who are respected as being particularly holy. To demonstrate their holiness, they walk bare-footed through a 6-meter-long bed of burning coals. The loudspeakers had been blaring Hindu music for the whole week leading up to the festival. In missionary circles, the talk is increasingly of so-called 'power encounters' in which two spiritually very different worlds collide. I had asked the local 'Christian Fellowship' to pray that the truth about the event should become visible, which they did, praying that Jesus would stop the power of the demons hidden behind the Hindu gods' names, so that people would realise what sort of fire they are playing with. At 2pm that Sunday, the flames in the bed of coals were several meters high, and at 5pm, everything was ready for the promised spectacle. Accompanied by the sound of drums, the first of the fire walkers set off in front of hundreds of spectators. "But hardly had his foot touched the coals, he fell face first into the fire," reports Satsama, a Christian who was watching. "It took 6 men to lift him out. Exactly the same thing happened to the second fire walker - he also fell into the flames. The others who tried did manage to walk through the fire, but they were screaming with pain as their feet were burned, and left the ceremony very quickly to escape the shame. The spectators left disappointed."

Source: Satsama and others, fax (+91)-44-2301063

USA: Baptists give over 100 million dollars for world mission

Marty Croll from Richmond, Virginia, reports that the Southern Baptists' so-called "Lottie Moon" Christmas collection last year saw the greatest ever increase in donations. According to an estimate released on 11 March 1998, last year's total will reach US$102.6 million. Jerry Ranklin, President of the Southern Baptists' Mission Board, says that this sum is still not very much for the denomination's 7.5 million active members, and can still be increased. However, the financial mobilisation campaign could already lead to a dramatic increase in the number of missionaries sent out and financed. "This rate of donation shows how important world mission is for the Southern Baptists," he says. Dellanna O'Brien, Executive Director of the Southern Baptists' Women's Missionary Union says that modern technology and direct reports from the missions fields has increased the amount of information available about unreached people groups, so that Christians can be far more personally involved in mission through donations, prayer and action.

Source: Marty Croll

One voice

"Worship is a hot topic in many places," writes Detlef Schmidtke from Speyer, Germany. "Worship in the church, in home groups, on the street, how to become a worshipper instead of simply going through the actions of worship." Out of the discussions came the idea for a common worship service in which as many Christian churches as possible, from all over the globe, are joined together via the Internet. Last year, 226 churches took part in a similar project. The "One Voice" project wants to coordinate Christians all over the world for a common worship time on 19 April 1998.

International Coordinator is Mark Nelson (e-mail onevoice@praise.net); more information is available on the Internet at http://praise.net/onevoice, or from Detlef Schmidtke, tel. (+49)-6232-629860, e-mail dschmidtke@syskonnect.de; Ludwigstrasse 2, D-67346 Speyer, Germany

Egypt: how 150,000 took part in evangelistic services with Luis Palau

"Last night, they really did not want to let me into the church," writes a Christian leader from Cairo, Egypt's capital. "Dozens of people who wanted to come to the church had to be turned away. It was the first evening with evangelist Luis Palau. The Sunday School rooms, conference rooms and even the car parks were full of people taking part in the gathering via video screens. Over 3,000 people took part. In Egypt, Christian meetings must take place in Christian buildings, so renting an auditorium or stadium for the event was out of the question. But the Christians were inventive! As Pastor Menis introduced the Argentinian evangelist, he said that more people would be watching than had space in Cairo's football stadium. How could that be? The concept was clever, yet simple: the whole service was recorded on video, and dozens of people worked overnight to make hundreds of copies which were delivered to the 610 churches taking part in the event. It is estimated that 150,000 people could take part in the event in this way.

Apart from an empty bomb threat, the event was undisturbed. "Very many people made use of the opportunity to dedicate their lives to Jesus," says one of the organisers.

Source: name and address withheld.

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