DAWN Fridayfax 1998 #47

Worldwide News from USA, Venezuela, Germany, Cambodia

In this issue:
683 million evangelical Christians worldwide
USA: Gang members form Christian churches
Venezuela: Crisis and church growth
Germany: Iranian finds Jesus through a dream
Cambodia: growing house church movement

683 million evangelical Christians: Century of growth

11% of the world's population of 5.929 billion are evangelical Christians, estimates David B. Barrett, Professor of "Missiometry". In 1900, 5% of the population of 1.619 billion were evangelical Christians, making a total of 77.93 million. That number has grown to 638 million today.

Source: David Barrett

USA: Gang members form Christian churches

In Miami, Florida, one church consists almost entirely of current and former gang members, according to Religion Today. 29-year-old Mario Forte was once a gang member, but now leads the "Jesus Disciples", a Christian church with an attendance of almost 300, most of whom are gang members. Forte, a former thief and Kokain addict, used to believe that he was "too lost for God to save." But he prayed to God anyway and changed his life, and soon had a group listening to his preaching in parks. Gang members are generally not welcome in existing churches, reports the Miami Herald. For a long time, the Jesus Disciples held services in parks, but Miami's 'Alpha and Omega Church' has now given them almost free use of a factory building, and finances Mario Forte's ministry under the title "South Florida Gang Outreach". The group helps those seeking a way out of drugs, offers gang members a place where they can 'get away from the street' and find friends, read the Bible and train for new jobs.

Source: Religion Today

Venezuela: Crisis and church growth: 3,600 new churches in the last 5 years

Church growth researcher Tomas Moreno reports that Venezuela's political and economic crisis is continuing. At present, only 5.5% of the nation's 22.4 million inhabitants are evangelical Christians. 20% of the country's 90% Catholics attend church, but the evangelical churches are growing as never before. In 1992, there were only 7,900 evangelical churches with 832,000 members; the most recent research, performed in 1997, shows that the numbers have increased to 11,500 churches with around 1.435 million members. Representatives of evangelical churches met for a Dawn congress in Caracas in 1992, where they agreed to work towards the aim of 15,000 new churches by 2015, which would reach 15% of the population. The national project is titled "15/15 Amanecer". Moreno sees regular intercessory prayer as one of the important reasons for the growth: intercession chains have been started to pray for the aim; the members wake each other by telephone at 5am, in order to pray in concert.

Source: Tomas Moreno, Amanecer

Germany: Iranian finds Jesus through a dream

An Iranian asylum seeker living near Kassel told a Christian worker of a dream which he recently had: "I was standing on the roof of my house when a bright light like a spotlight shone on me. The light then moved down to illuminate a stream, which seemed to be made of light. I don't know what it means. I have consulted books and visited dream interpreters, but I can find no answer." "Only God can interpret dreams," the Christian visitor told him, telling him that Jesus is the light of the world. "The light shining on you means that Jesus is calling you, and the stream could be an indication that you should be baptised." The Iranian was convinced, and agreed to follow Jesus and be baptised.

Source: name and address withheld

Cambodia: growing house church movement

After many years of isolation and persecution, the Christian churches in Cambodia continue to grow. The country's few churches were only granted legal status on 10 April 1990, at which time there were some 70 denominational churches and not many more than 10 house churches. In 1995, this number had already grown to 300 house churches which have since further expanded, according to Beverley Peagues in her forthcoming book "The Move of the Holy Spirit in the 10/40 Window". Another reliable source reports "hardly anywhere in the 10/40 window are the people so open for the gospel as in Cambodia. A Christian brother reported that they planted over 40 churches in a very short time, and are holding evangelistic meetings in 25 other locations, including a regular event in Wat Phnom, the country's most important temple." Recent reports from the Khmer Evangelical Church state that they have started 13 churches in only 3 months, and that they are able to plant one church per week. They plan to plant 300 new churches by the year 2000.

Source: Beverley Peagues and others

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