Previous | Home | Issues | Nations | Search | About | Next
In this issue: Senegal: "Sugar water" from Christian miracle well Brazil: Satanists' temple becomes a Christian church Ethiopia: From murderer to pastor |
Senegal: "Sugar water" from Christian miracle well"Life in Senegal has always been hard, but it has got worse in recent years because the water table has sunk dramatically in many areas of the country. A decades-long drought has brought salty seawater far into the country up the few rivers. Even wells bored well away from the sea are now so salty that the water is almost undrinkable, and large numbers of people have to walk for miles to fetch drinking water, which is often a job for women and girls. In one town with some 5,000 inhabitants, the only deep well which had given good water had finally also become salty. A Christian church in the town had a small area of land, and some of the townspeople suggested drilling a well there. Most considered it a waste of time, because a well had been dug there some years before, and had brought only salty water. The Christians prayed, and had the impression that they should drill the well. They hit water only 6 meters down, and the water so sweet that the first people to try it shouted that someone had put sugar in it. Some consider it to be the best water they have ever tasted. Every morning, 300 women wait to draw water from the well. When all 300 are finished, the well is empty - but the next morning, it is again full. In Senegal, people are well aware of the symbolic nature of events: the townspeople go to a Christian place to receive what they need to live. Every one of the population is convinced that this is a miracle performed by the Christian God, and even in Dakar, the capital 100 miles away, people are speaking about the 'Christian miracle well'."
Source: David Maranz, Wycliffe Bible Translators
Brazil: Satanists' temple becomes a Christian church
Source: Advance Newsletter 11/98
Ethiopia: From murderer to pastor"Negussie Tameru lives in a small mud hut, and like most of the inhabitants of Shola Gebeya, he doesn't know how he's going to feed his family of 7 tomorrow. Almost 80 percent of Ethiopia's population are farmers, and according to UN estimates, two thirds can neither read nor write. Ethiopian Christians reckon that less than 1 percent of the population outside the Christian belt in the South are Evangelicals. Negussie, though, smiles broadly when asked how he found his new hope in Jesus Christ: 'Of course I have many needs - but I have Jesus Christ!', he says. Negussie started down the path with Jesus soon after the unexpected end of his career as a bandit. At the age of 18, he was already carrying a gun, and forced everyone who crossed his path to give him what he wanted. At some point, he killed someone, and was sentenced to 6 years in jail. Following his release, he returned to his banditry, and the local police finally confiscated his gun. Hopeless and penniless, he took a job as a watchman at the Baptist mission. He was distrusted by everyone who knew him, and people told the missionaries that they would regret employing him. He began to work, and had time to think about his life, searching for a new identity. Hesitantly, he paid the 5 Birr for his own Bible - that is more than two days' wages. It was the first book which he ever tried to read. The first thing he read upon opening his Bible was Revelation 21:8: "But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars - their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death". Negussie put the Bible down quickly: he was not only a murderer, but had also been heavily involved in witchcraft and worshipping false gods. "I was frightened, and thought 'This Bible is a bad book', and hid it," he says. A few days later, though, his boss, an Ethiopian Christian, asked him whether he wanted to hear something good, and told him about the forgiveness available in Jesus. "That day, I could only cry," says Negussie. "I could not believe that God could forgive everything I did. He was so touched by the gospel that he went to tell all his children, including those of his first wife, the good news. "They all decided to become Christians," he says. Today, Negussie is pastor of a small church in Shola Gebeya, and wants nothing more than to reach the people in the surrounding villages with the gospel."
Source: IMB News, Baptist News, December 1998
 |
This Web version of the DAWN Fridayfax is maintained by the Jesus Fellowship Church (Jesus Army) as a service to the Christian church. Please visit our web pages which feature the e-zine Streetpaper and its special Revival section. |
|