DAWN Fridayfax 1999 #40

USA

Franz Mohr, "God's piano tuner"

"Franz Mohr is the world's most famous piano tuner, and has tuned pianos for almost all of today's great pianists," reports pastor Beat Rink, leader of a Campus f?r Christus (Campus Crusade for Christ) music outreach. "He testifies very movingly of Christ," says Rink˙(not only in his books, but also to Presidents, as he once told me˙- ed). "A few weeks ago, a well-known American Christian TV station broadcast a 15-minute portrait of Mohr. Following the programme, over 1,000 people called the station, and over 100 prayed on the telephone to give their lives to Christ. A second programme will be broadcast soon, and the '700 Club' (a well-known TV programme in the USA) expects as many responses as before."

Saved by songs, healed of cancer

Patt Wadenpfuhl, a singer from Cleveland, Ohio, reports: "Recently, something fantastic happened which demonstrated God's might and the power of music as a tool. One day˙- on my day off!˙- a woman called me. Her husband was dying; the doctors gave him no more than 24 hours, and advised that all family members visit him. The woman felt that God was clearly telling her to call to ask me to sing to her husband and lead him to Christ. He was a strong alcoholic, and had always run away from God. He once came to church, and said 'That woman's voice touches me deeply, but I want to run out of the room when I hear her!'. The woman believed that I could be God's special messenger to her husband. On the way to the hospital, I prayed 'Father, what should I say to him?' His kidneys had failed, and he had cancer. God answered me 'Tell him about grace, and that I love him!' When I arrived, the man was attached to an artificial respirator, with tubes all over his body. I started to sing; suddenly, he began to throw himself from side to side in his bed, and the heart monitor showed his pulse rate going wild! I expected the doctors to throw me out any moment because I was killing their patient. Then the man calmed down, and I knew that Jesus would touch him. I told him about salvation through Jesus Christ and prayed a prayer with him in which he could give his life to God. I knew that he was praying silently with me. After praying, I sang some more. I looked behind me, and saw doctors and nurses looking on, probably thinking I was mad. However, God healed the man! He has returned to his family, his kidneys are working normally and his cancer has disappeared. He has been completely healed˙- and has given his life to Christ! God is mighty! And he uses simple singers like me!" Patt Wadenpfuhl taught some sixty musicians and artists about 'artistic prayer ministry for the sick, weak and social outcasts' in Basel's Bethesda hospital at the end of September 1999. The Christian classical music group Crescendo regularly experiences that God touches people in special ways through music.
Source: Beat Rink; CRESCENDO, Postfach 219, 4003 Basel, Switzerland (Fax: 061-763 02 83; e-mail: info@crescendo.org)

Cambodia

It's worth planting churches

"A church planting institute in Cambodia is showing fruit," reports the AD2000 Movement. Over 57 men and women who have completed church planting training are planting churches in the Rattankari, Kampong Thom and Takeo provinces, according to the AD2000 Unreached Peoples' News. Over 1,000 people have become Christians in Jarai, and 60 were baptized in one day in Kampong Thom. In Takeo, 43 people have decided to become Christians. Cambodia's evangelical churches continue to grow. From some 50 churches in 1992, their numbers have increased to over 1,000 today. Church leaders in many towns and provinces meet regularly to coordinate national strategies. 21 teams are showing the Jesus Film in the nation, and a number of Christian churches have been started in people groups previously unreached by the gospel.
Source: AD2000

Indonesia

Abbalove cell church breaks out

Pastor Eddy Leo is one of the leaders of 'Abbalove', a fast-growing and structurally atypical 'horizontally oriented cell church' in Jakarta, Indonesia. The movement was previously known as 'Speed Plaza' after the shopping center which they bought for their own needs. The church is growing unusually quickly for Indonesia: since February 1999, it has grown from 450 to 510 cells, and when all satellite churches are included, between 6,500 and 7,000 people attend the Sunday services, according to missionary Jim Yost. The main place in which people come to Christ is the weekly evangelistic 'Celebration': 100 people turn to Christ there every Sunday, and one recent Sunday saw 230 new believers. Recently, 400 Christian students in the church each prayed for 6 friends over a period of 4 months. At the end of the prayer time, they organized a 2-night disco concert party, which was attended by 1,300 of their non-Christian friends. At the end of the evening, following a 10-minute sermon, 1,150 responded by deciding to become Christians themselves.

Temporary adoption

In addition, the church decided to help "pastors in Jakarta with small churches in difficulties". The aim is to help them become strong, independent churches with over 1,000 members inside 3 years. The process started 6 months ago, and almost all of the churches now have an attendance over 500. Abbalove expects that the aim will be reached within one year, not three.
Source: Nev Chamberlain etc.; e-mail: nevc@hknet.com

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