DAWN Fridayfax 1999 #10

News from Spain, India, Canada, North Korea

In this issue:
Spain: Brazilian women plant Spain's fastest-growing church
India: Even radical arsonist Hindus can't put out missionary fire
Canada: Post-modern church planting
North Korea/China: Chinese Christians rescue refugees

Spain: Brazilian women plant Spain's fastest-growing church

"Eighteen months ago, two Brazilian missionaries visited Vila-Real near Valencia", reports the Spanish evangelical news agency Amigos'. During their short outreach, seven local people became Christians, including several Brazilians. They founded a home group and gave the leadership to pastor Natanael Frugoni from nearby Castellon. To better care for the group, a Brazilian missionary couple, Merinho and Denise Campos, came to Vila-Real in summer 1998. Through their work, more Spaniards became Christians; the family's living room soon became too small, with many people sitting on the floor. Since then, the number of Christians has trebled, and since February 6, the church has its own chapel.

Source: Amigos 1/99; Mark-Torstein Wardein; E-mail: wardein@stalker.es; Tel/Fax: (+34)-9-64302182

India: Even radical arsonist Hindus can't put out missionary fire

Nikkie, a young Christian, had visited a YWAM Discipleship Training School in northern India. On February 8, 1999, the women on the team decided to sleep in one room together instead of in their normal bedrooms. That night, fundamentalist Hindus set fire to the upper storey of the house, which was built completely of wood, so the fire spread quickly. The team's men, sleeping downstairs, woke up and noticed the fire, which started around 1:30am, and could wake the women in time for them to escape. The fire destroyed all of their bedrooms and possessions. Miraculously, none of the women was hurt. Nikkie's relatives tell us that the natural fire was unable to extinguish the missionary fire that God had laid in the young peoples' hearts: the team continued bringing the gospel to the region, and ask everyone to pray more that the Hindu fundamentalists come to know Jesus Christ.

Source: name and address withheld.

Canada: Post-modern church planting

82% of Canadians are unchurched', i.e., not actively involved in Christian churches, according to the latest research published by Church Planting Canada', a national missionary initiative based on the DAWN strategy. Murray Moerman, editor of Outreach Canada' magazine, says that those with no religious preference' form the fastest-growing religious group in the country. How are the churches reacting? Moerman reports that there are now six regional church planting conferences planned in 1999, instead of four. In British Columbia, the conference in Vancouver in late spring will have four tracks: post-modern church planting, new churches for new immigrants, planting cell and house churches, and Natural Church Development'. During a historic conference in 1997, most churches agreed on a common target of planting 10,000 new churches in Canada, and to reach out to the 800,000 native Canadians, of which some 232,000 live on reservations. Sociological factors limit the average size of Canadian churches to 135. According to Moerman, if the number of Canadian Bible-believing Christians is to double, twice the number of churches will also be needed. The Salvation Army has already presented plans to plant 19 new churches in the next 5 years, 4 of them in Quebec, and has appointed a project coordinator, Terry Wiseman. Help is also on the way from the other side of the border: the Grace Brethren movement from the USA plans to plant 200 new churches in Canada in the next 20 years.

Source: Murray Moerman FAX (+1)-604-272-2744; E-mail: mmoerman@outreach.ca

North Korea/China: Chinese Christians rescue refugees

Up to 100,000 North Korean Christians Christians in northern China risk a fine of up to a year's salary, because they hide starving North Korean refugees. The rivers marking the border between North Korea and the Chinese provinces Liaoning and Jilin are frozen, so some desperate North Koreans try to cross the border during the night. Many are shot by the North Korean border guards; others freeze to death. If they manage to reach China, the authorities deport them back to North Korea, where they are either shot or sent to labor camps, where they often die. Despite the brutal campaigns in the 1950s, in which religion was supposedly eradicated from Stalinist North Korea, unconfirmed estimates and reports from North Koreans hidden by Chinese Christians speak of up to 100,000 North Korean Christians.

Source: Compass Direct

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