Displaying items by tag: Outreach

New technology provides creative ways to distribute Scripture. One Wycliffe Bible Translation partner organisation plans to distribute 250,000 SD cards (ultra-small, high-capacity flash memory cards) in a language community in West Asia by the middle of this year. The Acts of the Apostles film and other Scripture media in the local language will go on the cards. Pray that many people will hear and respond to the Scriptures through this strategy.

The following is from a Pray for Scotland pdf: ‘We are in unprecedented times of change and upheaval. But, praise God, we are also in unprecedented times of opportunity and openness to the Gospel. In modern warfare, ground assaults precede air attacks to remove defences, supply lines, etc. So it is in the spiritual battle. As the ground troops, our task it is to take back the ground lost to the forces of evil. We do this through mission and outreach, through acts of kindness and compassion, through being “salt and light” where God has placed us in the workplace or other part of society, and in other ways. The air assault to prepare the way for the ground troops is our prayers and worship; two warfare weapons that change the atmosphere in our streets, communities, towns, and cities - removing obstacles to the advance of the Gospel, demolishing strongholds, replacing “heaviness” in the atmosphere with “lightness”, and opening hearts and minds to receiving the truth about Jesus.’

The Japanese are considered the largest unreached people group in the world, with over 120 million still waiting to hear the Gospel. Enormous hurdles stand in the way of the Japanese putting their faith in Jesus. Five of these hurdles are: - spiritual forces of evil, idolatry, and ancestor worship - the Bible and Christianity are viewed as Western and anti-Japanese - busy-ness and materialism - hopelessness, with more than 30,000 suicides per year - the Church's low influence in society. However, a low birthrate, an ageing society, natural disasters, economic decline and feelings of social isolation have provoked a recent resurgence in spiritual searching. The Japanese are now increasingly open to the Gospel, and many believe Japan is ready for an unprecedented awakening to the Good News of Jesus. Only a move of God will bring the freedom, joy, peace and hope that the Japanese desperately crave.

On Tuesday Bristol magistrates convicted two Christian preachers of public order offences, many believing they rode roughshod over principles of freedom of speech. They imposed a fine and costs on each of them, totalling £2,016. The case arose over an outreach in Bristol where Michael Overd and Michael Stockwell had preached the Gospel in front of John Wesley’s Chapel. They told the crowd that ‘the thief comes to kill, steal and destroy’, adding that people were on their way to hell because of their view of Christianity. It was decided that the inclusion of homosexuality in a list containing thieves and drunkards was abuse. Michael Phillips, defending, told the court the list of sinners was in 1Cor. 6:9-10. It was the same passage cited in the Appeal Court case of Alison Redmond-Bate, where important principles of free speech were laid down and her conviction set aside. There, as in this case, a hostile crowd gathered and police were called. There, as in this case, the preachers, not the trouble-makers, were wrongly arrested.

It's a volatile neighbourhood with conflicts, terrorism, and food shortages on all sides. With Libya to its north, Sudan to its east, Central African Republic and Cameroon to its south, and Nigeria to its west, Chad continually attracts the masses seeking refuge when trouble occurs across this region. But there is little refuge to be found, only inadequate infrastructure, instability, conflict, immense poverty, notorious governmental corruption and threats of terrorism. The people of Chad have urgent physical needs. But there is an even greater tragedy that affects eternity: there are more unreached people groups in Chad than in any other nation on earth. The good news is that the number of Muslims turning to Christ is steadily growing. Efforts to reach the unreached are seeing fruit! The door in Chad remains miraculously open to the Gospel.

Tory MP Nigel Evans has harshly criticised a foreign aid programme that hands money directly to Pakistan’s poorest people. Britain currently helps fund the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP), which offered cash support to over 235,000 families across Pakistan in 2012 and could be helping 441,000 by 2020. The Department for International Development (DfID) argues that offering just over £10 a month to these families cuts out middlemen, reduces the risk of fraud, and minimises the cost of the programme. The budget for the transfers, which help people who live on less than £1 a day, has risen from £53 million in 2005 to an annual average of £219 million in the period 2011-2015. However, Evans has called on DfID to launch an urgent examination of the process, saying, ‘This should only be a temporary measure, but it seems as if we’re exporting the dole to Pakistan, which is clearly not a clever idea.’