Blythswood, Missions

Blythswood Update Talita Kum July 17

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Blythswood Update 1 – July 5th

 

Talita Kum 2

 His mother has problems with her lungs.  His father is in hospital, suffering from kidney failure.  His elder brother is disabled.  Cristi is the only one able to keep the family business running.  He uses his horse and cart to transport a whole variety of things to enable his parents to pay the rent.

Talita Kum, Blythswood’s after-school programme, encouraged Cristi to stay in school and helped him to catch up.  Now he attends Talita Kum 2 which helps young people of secondary school age. 

His favourite subject is maths and his grades in this subject are very good after several years of progress.

Blythswood, Missions

Blythswood Update Daniel Centre July 17

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Blythswood Update 1 – July 5th

 Daniel Centre

Marian, now 21, is glad to be at Blythswood’s Daniel Centre in Cluj, Romania.  Unlike most of the young men who come to the Daniel Centre, he already had a job, working in a car wash.  And he had already completed two years at trade school, studying to be a motor mechanic.

But young people in Romanian’s care system inevitably miss out on some things –  learning to cook, learning to budget and handle money, learning to build lasting relationships and learning to know themselves.

At the Daniel Centre, there are regular group sessions where boys and staff evaluate their behaviour in an open and constructive way, learning to build trust and to identify ways in which they can change for the better.

Barnabas, Missions

Barnabas Update July 17

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Myanmar (Burma) Update 1 – July 2017

Pastor Jailed in Burma Falls Ill

Morning Star News June 20, 2017 

One of two assistant pastors arrested by the Burma army last Christmas Eve is suffering deteriorating health from malnutrition.  Pastor Dom Dawng Nawng Latt, 65, has become weak, lacks energy and suffers from asthma and diarrhoea, according to his wife and his lawyer. 

 Normally suspects can be held for only 28 days without trial under Burmese law, the attorney said. The two pastors finally appeared at a trial hearing on May 3.

The Christian leaders could face as much as three years in prison for allegedly assisting an “unlawful association,” and as much as five years for assisting in the management or promotion of one.  Human Rights Watch has decried the arrests as arbitrary and called on Burma to release the pastors immediately.

Burma is about 80 percent Buddhist and 9 percent Christian. The government has recognised the special status of Buddhism in Burma.

Jacksons, Missions

Jacksons – June 20th Update

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Jacksons – June 20th Update

 We still don’t know what the future holds. We had a meeting with a small panel from the Mission Council and still believe that God has plans for us in Africa.

Pray for discernment, wisdom, courage and faith for the Council. 

Fraser has been invited to attend a conference on July 1st held by NetAct, a theological education networking organisation, as a library specialist.

NetAct (based in South Africa) is keen to develop its ability to help libraries in African theological colleges. This may be where God is leading us.

Mission Africa has no one working there so it would be a big step if the Mission decided to send us.

Please pray for us as we wait to see where our home for the longer term will be.

The Persecuted Church Across the World

Pastor in Cuba Sentenced to House Arrest for One Year

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Pastor in Cuba Sentenced to House Arrest for One Year

COCHABAMBA, Bolivia (Morning Star News) –

 A civil court in Cuba sentenced the pastor of a house church to a year of house arrest for loud worship services before his attorney had an opportunity to defend him. Juan Carlos Nuñez was charged under the country’s environmental protection laws with “disturbing the peace.”

“Our mission is to preach the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, and we are suffering for that cause,” Nuñez said. “We were treated as criminals and enemies of the government. We are children of God unjustly accused and convicted.”

Authorities deployed a force of elite “black beret” army soldiers at the courthouse the day of his trial.  “This was a form of intimidation, a show of power,” Nuñez said. “You see, they feared there might be protests, because they themselves know that what they are doing is unjust.”

Conflicts like this exist because the government will not allow churches to build new meeting places to house the rapidly growing evangelical Protestant movement.

So, many religious groups used private homes for this purpose.  Estimates of the number of Protestant house churches in Cuba vary, from fewer than 2,000 to as many as 10,000.

The Persecuted Church Across the World

China’s New Policy Will Lead to More Persecution

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China’s New Policy Will Lead to More Persecution

(Morning Star News)

China Aid’s 2016 Annual Persecution Report details a seismic shift in the Chinese government’s approach to religious policy that is expected to lead to further persecution.

During the National Conference of Religious Work held in April 2016, Chinese President Xi Jinping emphasized the importance of religions “persistently following the path of Sinicization.”

Despite China’s insistence that Sinicization is an integral ingredient in the harmonization between church and state, the policy pivots on the government’s assumption that other countries are using religions based abroad to undermine its authority.

This forces religious practitioners, especially Christians, to choose between compromising their deeply-held beliefs and risking being treated as violators of the law.

In addition to this attempt to tailor Christianity, China has continued to persecute individual Christians at a frequency unseen since the Cultural Revolution.

The data gathered by China Aid illustrates China’s alarming regression into a more Maoist regime, and conditions are expected to worsen this year as the new regulations seek to further limit religious activity and indicate a catastrophic potential to place more Christians behind bars.

Blythswood, Missions

Blythswood Update 2 June 17

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Blythswood Update 2 – June

 Talitha Kum 2

With the benefit of one-to-one tuition at TK2, Jeno can read, write and do basic arithmetic. He knows his times tables and likes to play chess. His Blythswood tutors are confident that he is more than capable of fulfilling his childhood ambition of becoming a tractor driver. 

“Without the support of TK2, Jeno’s reading and writing would be non-existent,” says Carmen Popa who has watched his development in recent years. “He would probably have resorted to stealing like he used to, to feed his younger siblings when they were hungry. 

“You don’t need a driving licence to be a tractor driver, but with learning support Jeno is fully capable of passing the test. We are already speaking to farmers to find one who might be interested in taking him on.” 

Barnabas, Missions

Barnabas Update 2 June 17

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Myanmar Update 2 – June 2017

Open Doors

Please pray for seven Christian families from Myanmar who are living as refugees in India. The Muslim-background believer families have been expelled from a refugee camp in which they had been taking shelter.

“The Muslims in the camp are afraid that they would convert people to Christianity,” wrote our contact. “There are around 1,200 Muslim families in the camp. They need urgent help to rent land and put up tents. Even Amod, a Rohingya Muslim-background believer leader in India, cannot go near the camp to reach out to the believers.”

The Muslim-majority Rohingya people are an ethnic minority in Myanmar. They have become the target of persecution from radical Buddhist groups as well as the Burmese army. Muslim-background believers in the Rohingya tribe face further persecution as they are ostracised by their own people, as well as by the Buddhist majority.

Missions, The Persecuted Church Across the World

Christian Sanitation Worker in Pakistan Dies after Hospital Refuses to Treat Him, Family Says

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Christian Sanitation Worker in Pakistan Dies after Hospital Refuses to Treat Him, Family Says

June 5, 2017 LAHORE, Pakistan (Morning Star News)

A Christian sanitation worker in Pakistan died on Thursday (June 1) after Muslim doctors refused to treat him for poisonous gas he was exposed to in a sewer.

Doctors at Civil Hospital Medical said they refused to treat 28-year-old Irfan Masih because they were fasting and he was unclean.

Family members cleaned Masih’s body, after which the doctors sent for an oxygen cylinder.  But the cylinder was empty and, before they could arrange another, he died.

The doctors were arrested and accused of criminal negligence and manslaughter for allegedly refusing Irfan Masih treatment.

Pakistan Medical Association Officials later demonstrated against the arrests and the case filed against the doctors, claiming that the accusations were fabricated.

Though Christians account for 90 percent of sewage workers and an even higher percentage of sweepers, they make up only 2.45 percent of Pakistan’s population, which is more than 95 percent Muslim.

The Persecuted Church Across the World

Persecuted Church Mexico

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Christians and the Mexican Drug Cartels

Open Doors

Mexico is one of the most violent countries in the world, as a result of the presence of organised crime.

The culture of violence affects all Mexicans, but especially its most vulnerable groups in rural areas, including minority Christian denominations such as Protestants. Believers who actively engage in transforming society constitute a threat to drug cartels and other criminal groups. Those who convert from indigenous traditional beliefs to non-traditional Protestant denominations face persecution. Members of the Catholic Renewal Movement have also been targeted.

PLEASE PRAY

For physical protection for persecuted believers in Mexico and for God’s provision and grace towards Christians denied access to basic social services and resources

That those involved in drug cartels will come to know Jesus and encourage positive change.