DAWN Fridayfax 2002 #29

China

China's shy women

"One of our workers took some Bibles to a house church in central China, and gave them to two new believers, Lily and Zhang, sisters who had been saved that day in the house church," reports Open Doors' Pierre Tschanz. "Around two years later, another member of our staff was in the same town, and met Lily and Zhang. He wanted to know what they had done since becoming Christians. Ashamed, the two girls blushed and bowed their heads, as though it were an exam. "We planted churches," they said. "How many?" The girls looked at each other cautiously: "only 29." Astonished, the Open Doors representative asked how many members the churches have. "In the smallest, only 300 come for prayer," they said humbly, "and in the largest, no more than 5,000".

From 10,000 to 300,000 members in three years

"Such reports may seem unbelievable, but in Open Doors, we regularly hear such reports," says Tschanz. "A missionary in southern Henan province was active in a house church movement with 10,000 members. He was sent to Singapore for training for three years; when he returned, his movement had multiplied 30-fold to 300,000 members. We estimate that there are 10,000 new believers in China every day."
Source: Pierre Tschanz, Open Doors, Postfach 267, 1008 Prilly, Switzerland

Mongolia

165 churches

"In June 2002, two thousand people from all over Mongolia attended a conference in Ulaan Baatar, the capital," reports Walter Heidenreich, leader of the Freie Christliche Jugendgemeinschaft in Lüdenscheid, Germany. "After 12 years of Christianity in Mongolia, there are some 165 churches spread across the nation, some 60 of which are in the capital. Christians from many different churches met for the 'History Maker' conference in a circus tent. Every day, we saw people healed and saved, and many signs and wonders."

20 years on crutches, now healed

"One evening, a murmur raced through the crowd as a woman who had only been able to walk with crutches for 20 years suddenly ran down the aisles. Nobody had prayed for her - the Holy Spirit healed her spontaneously," Heidenreich continues. "It was moving to see 28 prisoners, members of a prison church planted by one of our staff, attending the conference every day with two guards, one of whom was saved on the first evening. On the last day, we baptised 60 people in a river. A number of people were healed during the baptisms."
Source: Walter Heidenreich, FCJG, info@fcjg.de

Northern India

Religious revolution on the way?

Vishal Mangalwadi, one of the best-known Christian writers in India and TV and radio writer, sees signs of a 'religious revolution' in India. Driven by 'a spirituality of hate' at the heart of the conflict between Pakistan and India (see www.vishalmangalwadi.com/articles/hate.htm ), Muslims and Hindus are heading towards war, while a growing number of people are looking for a way out of the established Hindu caste system. 50 million 'Forward Caste' Maratas in Western India, for example, are considering starting a new religion. Some members of the lower "Backward and Forward castes" are starting to open to the Gospel, with unpredictable consequences for India's religious structure.

Mega-churches and house churches in Northern India

"In my Northern Indian hometown Allahabad, 7,000 new believers meet in one church - mega-churches in Northern India, who would believe it?! And 12 groups have planted 2,000 house churches in a State in the heart of the Hindu North, and hope to reach 1 million new churches in the next 10 years. We should not forget the role of the written word in this coming revolution," Mangalwadi continues. "Not many remember that the Protestant Reformation was mainly the work of writers, translators, printers, illustrators and preachers. In every important Reformation city in Europe, 6 or 7 printing companies were busy around the clock, and religious literature dominated Europe for the following 350 years."
Source: Vishal Mangalwadi, WisdomFromIndia.com

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