DAWN Fridayfax 2000 #39

Indonesia

Is the blood of the martyrs again the seed of the church?

Pastor Benyamin Munthe from the G.K.I.I.-Church in Medan, Indonesia, is obviously on the death list - and God has protected him many times. Two months ago, a bomb exploded in his church, but nobody was hurt. Last month, they heard something scratch the car during a brief stop. They discovered that a bomb had been magnetically attached to the roof. They were able to remove it, and throw it in a river, where it exploded shortly afterwards. On Sunday September 17, two men rode up on motorcycles and started shooting at the car. They shot the driver, Kalep Situmorang, and then started firing at Pastor Munthe. He and his family called on the name of Jesus, and the attackers' guns jammed. A few months ago, Pastor Munthe's church held a large 'City Taking' seminar with around 2,000 pastors from 40 denominations. Kalep recently watched George Otis' well-known "Transformation" video, which has been seen by some 35 million people so far. One report in the video is of Pastor Julio Ruibal, who was martyred for his evangelistic efforts in Cali, Colombia. Shortly after his murder, a revival started in the city (we reported). Another report in the video tells of Pastor Mariano from Almolonga, Guatemala, who survived a murder attempt when a pistol forced into his mouth jammed. "After seeing the video, Kalep remarked that the price for unity and revival among the Christians in a city is high, but that he would be prepared to pay it, if revival would follow!" reports a friend. "That has now happened. Kalep died. We now pray that the price has not been paid for nothing, and that a revival will start in Medan," says Jeff Hammond, who sent the report.
Source: Jeff Hammond, jeff@link.net.id

Switzerland

Famous ICF members

Claudio Minder is the reigning Mister Switzerland. He is a Christian and, according to the Blick newspaper, attends the International Christian Fellowship's services in Zurich every Sunday, as well as one of the 'Workshops' (cells). (ICF, with a weekly attendance around 3,000, is Switzerland's largest Protestant church.) "In ICF, I'm Claudio, not Mister Switzerland, and that's great," says Minder. Jeanette Meier, a well-known singer, is also an ICF member. "I cried for joy in my first ICF service. Today, I couldn't live without Jesus," she says. Danila Baumann, DJ BoBo's ex-wife, is another prominent member of the youth church: "I feel like a newborn baby since attending the ICF services, and I experience life much more intensely."
Source: Blick, Zurich, 19 September 2000

USA

Archeological discovery confirms evidence of the flood

A National Geographic report (16 September) documents the discovery of a Bronze-Age village 100 meters under the Black Sea. According to archeologists, this confirms evidence of a great flood in Noah's days, as described in the Old Testament. The Neolithic settlement, 12 miles from the Turkish coastal city Sinop, was discovered in September 2000 by Robert Ballard, an American oceanographer who previously discovered the Titanic and Bismarck wrecks. The discovery seems to confirm that people lived on the Black Sea coast 7,500 years ago, before being driven inland by a great flood. There is strong geological evidence for a flood which caused the Mediterranean to rise until it breached the natural dam of the Bosporus, flooding the Black Sea. "Today, we know that these people were killed by a flood. This is an amazing discovery," says Dr. Ballard. The settlement was discovered with the assistance of a sonar device attached to a submarine. Dr. Fredrik Hiebert, the team's chief archeologist, spoke of a 'landscape as in Pompeii." "This discovery is the first evidence that the Black Sea region was settled before it was flooded. The history of this region, which is so important for Europe, must be rewritten," says Hiebert. Walter Pitman, a geologist at Columbia University who first presented the 'Black Sea Flood Theory' in his book 'Noah's Flood', commented: "I always knew that people had lived there, but finding the village is like finding the proverbial needle in the haystack."
Source: National Geographic Society

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.