DAWN Fridayfax 1999 #01

News from UK, Afghanistan, Caucasus, Germany

In this issue:
Is England being re-converted?
Afghanistan: Preparation for mission following prophecy
Caucasus: Small boy found through dream
Germany: Healed in hospital following prayer

Is England being re-converted?

At the end of 1998, there can hardly be anyone in England who can honestly claim not to have heard of 'Alpha', the evangelistic small group meetings in a relaxed atmosphere on 11 evenings and one weekend, during which central questions of the Christian faith are discussed. Generally, a large percentage of the participants decide to become Christians. The media have picked up on the courses, which 4,100 churches and fellowships cooperated in publicising in autumn 1998. Nicky Gumbel, vicar at the London's Anglican Holy Trinity church, where Alpha started, has already been described by the 'Times' as "the new John Wesley", and the Daily Telegraph spoke of 'England's re-conversion' through Alpha. There are around 10,000 Alpha courses in 73 countries, 6,400 of them in England. By the end of 1998, almost 2 million people had visited an Alpha course, and the effects can be felt even in Germany's Lake Constance area, where Boehringen's Evangelical church is having to extend its building because of the number of people who have joined the church as a result of the courses.

Source: German Alpha office, Peter Aschoff, fax 0931-203019; webpage: alpha.tcf.de,

Afghanistan: Preparation for mission following prophecy

Two Swiss Christians recently visited a missions conference in Pakistan, with Erich Reber's prophecy about Afghanistan (see Friday Fax 1998/36, ) in the back of their minds. On arrival in Pakistan, a mission leader asked them whether they knew Reber. What was going on? A South African intercessor had received exactly the same prophecy about Afghanistan as Reber - that the country would soon open for a short moment, and young people would rapidly spread the gospel by truck in mountainous country. Some South African churches responded to the prophecy by encouraging young people to prepare for such a ministry; there are now over 60. Two of the South African Christians were at the missions conference 'by chance' and could confirm the developments.

Source: name and address withheld

Caucasus: Small boy found through dream

Alim's house group was growing steadily. His house stands on the high banks of the Tscherek river in a previously almost completely Muslim area. Because an ever growing number of people were interested in the gospel, and alarmed by the neighbours that people were always going in and out of the house, Islamic teachers and the village elders came to Alim to threaten him with the local Mafia and expulsion from the village if the 'sectarian activity' did not stop immediately. One day, one of the aunts went to the family's potato field with six-year-old Machmud, where the awful thing happened: the boy got lost in the rocky canyon and was not to be found. All of the villager's attempts to find him failed; the area, according to the report, has many torrential mountain streams, vertiginous cliffs, bears, wolves, lynx, snakes and eagles. Then, the youngest of the family's three sisters, at the bottom of the social scale because she is deaf and dumb, had a dream in which Jesus appeared to her, saying "Your cousin is safe in my hand! I will protect him, and nothing may harm him. He is sleeping under a roof of stone." The following day, the boy was found in a cave. He told his rescuers "I suddenly saw my kindergarten friends on a field at the bottom of the cliff I was standing on. They wanted me to jump down to them, but I couldn't - something held me back." The family is convinced that Jesus saved their child. The amazing events were reported in the local newspaper, and soon became the talk of the village.

Source: Licht im Osten (Light in the East), fax +49-711-8399084

Germany: Healed in hospital following prayer

Johannes Stener was a drug addict for 20 years, and has now spent a year in the Wiesenhof rehabilitation center, part of the Freien Christlichen Jugendgemeinschaft (Free Christian Youth Fellowship) started by evangelist Walter Heidenreich. "Once a week, we organised a game of football," says Johannes. During one of the games, he broke his finger, which was put in plaster for 6 weeks. After three weeks, though, the doctor discovered that the finger was growing together wrongly, and had to be operated on again. The operation was planned for the following day. Johannes asked for a delay, but had to show up in the hospital the next day to prepare for the operation. When he arrived, he prayed to Jesus, "feeling completely down" as he says. The following day, a doctor removed the plaster in order to x-ray the finger agai. Following the x-ray, he was sent back to the ward. As the doctor and 4 colleagues examined the x-ray, they discovered the impossible: the finger had grown together completely normally. The head doctor could hardly believe it: his comment was "That is a miracle!". Johannes says "God heard my desperate prayer and healed my finger!"

Source: Johannes Stener in FCJG, Der Weg, fax (+49)-2351-21387

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