DAWN Fridayfax 1999 #23

News from Cambodia, China, Nigeria, Mexico, Worldwide

In this issue:
Cambodia: Ex-mass-murderer becomes pastor
China: Misunderstanding - 20,000 people become Christians
Nigeria: AoG plan 1,500 new churches
Mexico: Pop icon Yuri now sings for Jesus
Worldwide March for Jesus

Cambodia: Ex-mass-murderer becomes pastor

A Khmer Rouge mass murderer and leader of a torture camp became a Christian, trained as a pastor and has planted several churches, according to the American information service Religion Today. "Duch", who has admitted to having murdered thousands of prisoners while head of Cambodia's Tual Sleng jail from 1974-79, has now been preaching the gospel for 5 years, according to Pastor Christopher Lapel. Duch's true past was only revealed one month ago, when he was interviewed by two journalists from the Far Eastern Economic Review. Duch admits to the war crimes, and is prepared to appear in court. He fled Cambodia in 1979, and became a Christian in a refugee camp, where Lapel, a Colombian, baptised him in 1993 in the village Chamka Samrong, near Battambang. Duch then studied theology at the Pacific Christian College in Fullerton, California, and is now pastor of the Golden West Cambodian Christian Church in Los Angeles. In 1992, he took part in planting two Christian fellowships in the Greenhill Site B refugee camp in Surin, Thailand, which grew into a movement consisting of over 100 churches and some 11,000 Christians, according to James Fuller, an elder in Duch's Californian church who has visited the region a number of times. "One woman, for example, started a new church simply because a friend told her what she had heard in a seminar," he says. Tuol Sleng now houses a genocide museum. The Cambodian government arranged for Duch's arrest on 9 May 1999, and is now preparing the case against him. His testimony will be decisive in proving that high-ranking Khmer Rouge officers ordered the genocide of over 1 million people, says American Cambodia-expert Stephen Heder. Despite death threats, Duch will testify, including against Tak Mok, the ex-Khmer Rouge military leader. "They can have my body. Jesus has my soul. It is important that this period is cleared up," says Duch.
Source: religiontoday.org,

China: Misunderstanding - 20,000 people become Christians

Staff of the evangelistic training movement 'Evangelism Explosion' report that a Chinese Christian recently led a six-day underground seminar. Near the end of the evangelisation seminar, he told the students "For the next 16 weeks, do what you've been doing here for the last 6 days." According to reports, one of the students took him rather too literally: he trained his church in evangelisation 7 days a week for 16 weeks! Over 30,000 people heard the gospel as a result, and some 20,000 of them decided to become Christians.
Source: Evangelism Explosion International, P.O. Box 23820, Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33307-3820, USA. Fax (+1)-954-771-2256

Nigeria: AoG plan 1,500 new churches

Rev. UcheChukwu Ama, one of the leaders of the pentecostal Assemblies of God church in Nigeria, reports that following the 1997 GCOWE strategy conference in South Africa, the denomination decided to pay particular attention to Nigeria's unreached people groups, and try to reach them with the gospel. The denomination plans to plant 1,500 indigenous churches in previously unreached people groups. To achieve this, they plan to recruit 3,000 new missionaries, two for each area, and train 1,500 pastors to assume responsibility for the newly-planted churches.
Source: Dr. Johan Combrinck, AFNET, fax (+27)-12-5480183

Mexico: Pop icon Yuri now sings for Jesus

"She was once known as 'Mexico's Madonna'," reports Leigh DeVore in the US magazine Charisma. Today, the singer calls on her audience to give their lives to Jesus "before it's too late". Yuri, who has also played roles in Mexican soap operas, told journalist Dan Wooding that her excessive lifestyle had increasingly caused her problems. In 1995, she was diagnosed as suffering from cancer in her neck, and was told that she would probably never sing again. After months of depression, she finally decided to commit suicide. "But in that moment, I heard the voices of Satan and Jesus. Satan told me that suicide was the best solution, because nobody loved me. Jesus told me that he had given his life for me." She fell to her knees and prayed that God would send someone to explain it to her. One week later, Francisco, a pastor, came to where she was staying Mexico City, to visit someone else. He explained how to become a Christian. That day, Yuri, her mother and sister decided to become Christians. "Today, I am determined to preach only the gospel, whenever I can," she says. Among others, she spoke with Maria del Sol, a well-known jazz and blues singer, who also decided to become a Christian. "Maria still has a secular programme, but includes five or six Christian songs," says Yuri.
Source. Charisma

Worldwide March for Jesus

Some 2 million people took part in this year's March for Jesus on 22 May 1999 in Sao Paulo, Brazil, according to a press release from the international March for Jesus offices. Another 1 million participated in smaller marches throughout Brazil. In the southeastern Mexican city Tabasco, better known for its sharp sauce, 3,000 people took part in the march. "Very good, nice to watch, good for family unity, peaceful and orderly!" said the onlookers. The attendance rate in Gold King, Alaska, though, was unbeatable: every inhabitant took part. Who knows how many inhabitants Gold King has? Seven.
Source: Global March for Jesus

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