DAWN Fridayfax 1998 #15

News from India, Central Asia, Turkey and USA

In this issue:
India: 20 million watch television series about Jesus
Central Asia: Pentecostal churches continue to grow
Turkey: Jesus Film now legal for the Kurds
USA: Revival live - bad news for airlines, good news for digital Christians
Northern India: hand in hand to the last village

India: 20 million watch television series about Jesus

Dayasagar, a television series about the life of Christ, has won an international award. The programme's 52 episodes shown on Doordarshan, the national television, won the 1998 "Angel Award for Excellence in International Television" presented by 'Excellence in Media', a Hollywood non-profit organisation. The awards are given for particular moral or social achievements. The program is produced by Dayspring International and the Christian Broadcasting Network (Virginia Beach, USA). "Over 20 million people regularly watch the series," says Dayspring International's John Gilman.

Source: CBN/Dayspring

Central Asia: Pentecostal churches continue to grow

"I am always astonished to see how God is moving in the Central Asian republics of the former Soviet Union," says Jerry Parsley, the Assemblies of God's Field Director. "One church has 3,000 members, and a church room with capacity for 400. The people stand in the aisles and courtyard to hear the sermon," he says. The Government will not allow the church to rent a larger building. They now hold 4 services each Sunday, and count around 50 new believers each week. One woman who had taught atheism in the schools for 37 years visited one of the services, and also decided to follow Christ.

Source: AoG

Turkey: Jesus Film now legal for the Kurds

The Turkish government has given permission for the Jesus Film to be distributed in Kurdish. It thus becomes the first Kurdish film which may be officially copied and distributed in Turkey, according to the "Compass Direct" news agency. A video cassette containing the film was held for several months by customs officials until it could be judged according to Turkish laws restricting the use of the Kurdish language. The initial judgement forbade copying or public showing of the film, but a repeated application was successful. The first 1,500 video cassettes should be available during April.

Source: Compass Direct / Open Doors

USA: Revival live - bad news for airlines, good news for digital Christians

Can't afford the flight to Pensacola to experience the revival services for yourself? No problem, according to the Joel News Service. Pensacola evangelist Steve Hill has recently started preaching via the Internet. You can listen to the sermons using your computer, including the altar call. To hear the sermons, visit the homepage at www.brownsville-revival.org, . "RealAudio", the browser plug-in required to receive the sermon, is available free for download. You can select the sermon you want to hear, or download a number of sermons to listen to offline later.

The Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship offers a similar service at www.tacf.org, , but includes video transmission. You can join conferences and seminars live, providing you have the RealVideo plug-in, also available free for download. The quality is not exactly fantastic, "but the digital sermons are much easier for most people to finance than a flight to Canada", comments Marc Van der Woude of Joel News.

Source: Joel News

Northern India: hand in hand to the last village

Dr. Alex Abraham from Ludhiana in Punjab sent us a report from a meeting of various mission and church leaders which took place there on March 16, at which the participants agreed on a resolution called "Reach Punjab 2000". The aim: "To work hand in hand to plant a living Christian church in every village and community in Punjab by the year 2000." In a larger movement, Christians from various groups are working together with the aim of filling the Northwestern Indian states - Punjab, Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Haryana - with living churches. Research carried out with this aim has enabled Christians to gain a clear perspective of the remaining missionary task, set targets and make plans for reaching them. Dr. Abraham reports "Following a motivation seminar in Ferozpur district in 1997, the vision of saturation church planting has spread like wildfire in Punjab. Further church growth seminars have led to a significant increase in the number of churches. Never before have so many new churches been planted. In September 1997, there were 4 Tehsils (a geographical area with around 200,000 inhabitants) with no living church. The aim of having one church in every Tehsil in Punjab by the end of 1997 was reached." A 'block' is a small division within a Tehsil, and the goal of the initiative's next stage is to have a church in each block by the end of 1998. "Already today, at the end of March 1998," says Dr. Abraham, "there are only 6 more blocks with no church!"

Source: Dr. Alex Abraham, Ludhiana, tel/fax (+91)-161-609961

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