Displaying items by tag: Praise

Paul, a convert from Islam, now works distributing food to newly-arriving Syrian refugee families. Recently, he gave out the last food package he had for the entire month. The lady next in line started crying when she realised there was none left for her family. She told Paul that she and her children were desperate. Paul said they were out of food packages, but offered to pray for her. He also told her how he came to Jesus. As they finished praying, Paul’s phone rang with the unexpected news that another 35 food portions were available. The mother, full of wonder and gratefulness, praised God for how Jesus had answered their prayer. A few weeks later, her husband (who had been fighting with IS) came to meet Paul. He said, ‘I heard what you had done for my family. I thought about how I was in Syria killing people in the name of religion, but you love in the name of Jesus. I left the other fighters to come and meet the man who loved my family, and to learn about Jesus from you.’

Marilyn, a 16-year-old Coptic Christian girl kidnapped on 28 June to be ‘converted to Islam, then married off or sold’, was released and returned to her family on 30 September after police found her in a city just outside Cairo. The city, named 10th of Ramadan, is several hundred kilometres from her village. Her village priest, Father Boutros Khalaf, found out where she was being held and notified the local police. They managed to arrest her kidnappers, Taha and his brother Gaber, and released Marilyn. She was returned to her family after 92 days. This was one of a series of kidnappings by Islamist networks. Pray that the other victims will be safely restored to their families.

‘There is no one, no life, no story that is beyond God’s power to love and transform’, writes Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury, in his foreword to the book ‘40 Stories of Hope’. The book was launched at Lambeth Palace at a gathering of prison chaplains and prison volunteers. Catherine Butcher compiled the book with Pastor Osien Sibanda, who contributes some stories drawn from his work in Bristol Prison. The book contains forty different stories of faith and hope from prisoners, prison chaplains, and ex-prisoners. These remarkable testimonies speak powerfully about life-changing encounters with Jesus. Readers can explore how we can all find hope in Jesus, no matter who we are. Prison chaplains will be giving copies of this book to inmates along with forty daily readings and prayers, and group sessions which can also be used.

US-backed militias have completely taken Syria's Raqqa from IS, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The fall of Raqqa city, where IS staged euphoric parades after its string of lightning victories in 2014, is a potent symbol of the jihadist movement's collapsing fortunes. From the city, the group planned attacks abroad. The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an alliance of Kurdish and Arab militias backed by a US-led international alliance, have been fighting IS inside Raqqa since June 2017. See also World article ‘Mission opportunities as country rebuilds’.

The streets of Kiev were filled with songs of praise and thanksgiving from 500,000 evangelical Ukrainian Christians who had gathered to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. People travelled from all four provinces to celebrate and thank God for the freedom to worship, to preach the Gospel in their country, and to celebrate His faithfulness to His Church. The gathering took place after Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko signed an order recognising the anniversary of the Reformation.

A North Korean defector, Jung Kwang-il, has used 350 helium balloons to send 1,000 flash drives loaded with portions of the Bible from South to North Korea. The flash drives were donated by college and high school students in the United States. Jung said, ‘It was confirmed by GPS that all balloons dropped in the Mount Kumgang area of North Korea. This launch is the last one for the year, because the direction of the wind is due to change.’ Fifty-four-year-old Jung, who was sentenced to three years in a North Korean prison camp, is now based in South Korea and often sends USB drives, SD cards, and other devices carrying Christian material and testimonials from North Korean defectors across the border.

The USA and the world are still reeling from the horrific shooting that killed 59 people and wounded over 500 more on 1 October in Las Vegas. While we are all still grappling with this senseless act of violence and ‘pure evil,’ as President Trump termed it, there are also stories of courage and heroism which showcase the best aspects of the human spirit. Many people acted selflessly during the shooting. One couple attending the concert fled from the scene in their pickup truck, but returned to help transport the wounded to hospitals. Another story emerged of a husband who gave his life for his wife by shielding her with his body as bullets rained down on the crowd. Two friends at the concert heard the shots and hid under some tables, then a complete stranger came and shielded them.

Turkey’s president has now confirmed publicly that an American pastor jailed for the past twelve months is being held as a political hostage. In a speech at his presidential palace, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan openly called on the United States to exchange pastor Andrew Brunson for Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen, a Turkish citizen living in exile in the US since 1999 who is accused of masterminding last year’s failed coup via his international network of followers.

Dr John Sentamu said it has never been so important to support young people as he launched a major fundraising drive to extend the reach of his youth trust almost a decade after it launched. The Youth Trust seeks to ‘change our world for the better’, and has supported more than 50,000 pupils in 450 schools since 2008. It has now embarked on a drive to raise £375,000 to extend leadership courses for those living in the top 20% of the most deprived areas across the north of England. That means reaching an additional 15,000 youth from disadvantaged communities, in 300 primary and secondary schools, in the next eighteen months.

About 500,000 public school students, from all fifty US states, will join the Focus on the Family's Bring Your Bible to School day on 5 October. This is the fourth such annual student-led religious freedom event. Many Christian students feel there is unspoken pressure on them to stay silent about their faith. Others report overt efforts to silence them from presenting their Bible-based viewpoints in class discussions or assignments, even though the First Amendment recognises the rights of students to talk about their faith and read their Bibles outside classroom time. This day gives Christians the chance to show how their faith is an important part of who they are. 356,000 students participated last year, with Alliance Defending Freedom offering students free legal representation if their rights were violated at school.