Indigenous Workers in Nepal in Prime Position to Aid Earthquake Victims

Indigenous Workers in Nepal in Prime Position to Aid Earthquake Victims

April 30, 2015

Buildings damaged during the April 25 earthquake in Nepal will take years to rebuild.

The earthquake in Nepal on Saturday (April 25) is an ongoing disaster of intense and widespread magnitude that has hit millions of people with long-lasting effects. While many organizations are rushing aid to the Himalayan republic, Christian Aid Mission's South Asia director said the primary challenge is not gathering food and tents to send to Nepal.
"During these kinds of disasters, gathering up enough aid is one challenge, and getting it to the people is another," said the director, Sarla, who is traveling to her native country this week to encourage ministry leaders and assess damages. "In some of these areas, access is only on foot."
The indigenous ministries in Nepal that Christian Aid Mission assists are well-positioned to distribute aid to survivors of the 7.8-strong earthquake that took the lives of 5,500 people and injured at least 10,000 others. With rains and landslides cutting off road access to many areas, local Christian workers know how to get aid to people deprived of their homes and to come alongside the shell-shocked survivors in their trauma, she said.
The ministries that Christian Aid assists can cheaply purchase food, water and tents from local sources, she added.
Rains hit many areas after the earthquake, and with the monsoon season approaching, there are fears that disease will spread rapidly. One native ministry leader, Bhai Anugraha, reported that when his team went to Bhaktapur outside of Kathmandu, they found diarrhea was already rampant.
"There are at least 100 people living in a single tent of 20 feet by 12 feet," he said. "The weather is not good either; it has been continuously raining. They do not have toilets. It is a mess. We were the first ones to provide at least some help."
Near the tectonic plates that created the largest mountains in the world, the Himalayas and their highest peak at Mt. Everest, earth shifted with a deafening rumble. That sent masonry from humble homes to heritage sites crashing to the ground. With shaking from India (72 dead) to China (25 dead), the earthquake and scores of aftershocks have affected 10 million of Nepal's 33 million people. They have lost loved ones, homes, businesses or farms from the quake or its after-effects, such as landslides.
The total death toll could exceed 10,000, Prime Minister Sushil Koirala said, and at least 450,000 people are reported to have been displaced from their homes.
In Gorkha District, at the epicenter 83 kilometers (51 miles) northwest of the capital city of Kathmandu, Barpak village was leveled, Sarla said.
"Of the 1,200 houses, only four are still standing," she said. "In Gorkha, people are walking out of the village. Also, many churches were lost in the Sindhupalchok area."
A Nepalese ministry leader in Kathmandu, Gopaljee, was guest-speaking at a church in the capital when the quake hit; he and the 70 people in attendance survived the rocking and swaying, but he said a church meeting on the seventh-floor of a building in the Copan area of Kathmandu ended in catastrophe.
"All of a sudden, with the earthquake it came down, and 28 people died," he said.

A church planter,identified only as a graduate of Nepal Bible College in Kathmandu, was one casualty of the earthquake.

Two nearby worship sites were destroyed, and in Ramechap in western Nepal, three people died when two other church buildings came down, he said.
"A lot of relief agencies are working in different places, but they cannot cover all of the affected areas," he said. "We talked to people from Ramechap, and we said, 'OK, we're going to Ramechap. Not all of the roads are paved – it was rainy; it was very difficult. From a certain point onward the members of our team had to walk."
Churches in Nepal meet on Saturday, and many Christians in Kathmandu and surrounding areas survived because they were in worship centers built to code rather than in aged homes when the quake struck at 11:56 a.m., Sarla said. A ministry leader based in Kathmandu thanked God that his church, 600 members sitting on the floor of a two-story concrete structure, suffered no injuries or deaths.
"It struck while we were at the end of the worship service, before the benediction and final prayer," Sita Poudel said. "The building shook very hard for almost three minutes; it was a very frightening experience."
Poudel requested prayer for those who lost loved ones and property, and for those involved in rescue and relief efforts.
"The disaster is enormous and widespread, and it is hard to even imagine the scale of damage," he said. "The scale of the disaster is beyond our capacity or comprehension, but we will have to act to help however we can during this hour. You are welcome to partner with us in relief and rescue."
Christian Aid Mission's history with Nepal goes back to the origins of the organization – and the introduction of Christianity to that country. Organization founder Bob Finley prayed in 1948 that he would see people come to Christ in Nepal during his lifetime, at that time a Hindu monarchy with no known Christians.
In 1951 Prem Pradhan of Nepal traveled to India, heard the gospel, and then returned home to preach Christ. He is widely recognized as the first apostle to Nepal. Christian Aid assisted Pradhan, who continued in his ministry after completing a six-year jail sentence for preaching Christ. Today the estimated number of Christians in Nepal is nearly 1 million.
Christian Aid's South Asia director, whose maternal grandparents' home survived Nepal's last epic quake in 1934, as well as the April 25 shaking, said she is eager to see how the organization can help Christian workers minister to victims of the disaster in the name of Christ. Some of the ministries are in remote areas, such as Gorkha, where the quake has cut off communications.
"I'm just really praying for the people in Gorkha; they're right near the epicenter," Sarla said. "And they're not going to be the priority to get the government help."
The immediate challenges are daunting, and long-term needs will stretch the ministries' capacity.
"The monsoons are coming, so it's probably going to get worse – after that, Kathmandu will have the danger of all kinds of diseases, because you have mosquitos and other problems," Sarla said. "And in the aftermath, rebuilding will be hard, because there are no support systems in the country. The Nepali diaspora will send help, but those in the affected areas are going to need support long-term to rebuild."

To help indigenous missionaries meet needs, you may contribute online using the form below, or call 434-977-5650. If you prefer to mail your gift, please mail to Christian Aid Mission, P.O. Box 9037, Charlottesville, VA 22906. Please use Gift Code: 702DIS. Thank you!

Shaken Survivors

Shaken Survivors  

Nearly a half million people are estimated to have lost their homes following Nepal’s April 25 earthquake, and those whose houses are still standing continue to sleep in tents (photo was taken first day after the earthquake) as aftershocks keep them on edge. The aftershocks are expected to continue for months, if not years. At the same time, rains have hampered relief efforts and triggered fears of disease due to lack of sanitation in crowded conditions, a situation that the imminent monsoon season is expected to exacerbate. Outbreaks of cholera, typhoid and hepatitis A and E are feared. Indigenous ministries assisted by Christian Aid Mission know local sources of inexpensive supplies and are walking through rains to bring clean water, food, tents and medicines to areas difficult to access. “We have to collect water for drinking and bathing, and if water is gone then we have to buy a water tank, and if not that then we have the rivers,” said one ministry leader. “A church building in one area has gone down, and family members there have nothing left now. They have lost so many things, and there are sick people.”

Indigenous Workers in Nepal in Prime Position to Aid Earthquake Victims

Indigenous Workers in Nepal in Prime Position to Aid Earthquake Victims
From Christian Aid Mission (www.christianaid.org) For Immediate Release
Contact: Amie Cotton APR, +1 (434) 327-1240, Amie@christianaid.org
KATHMANDU, NEPAL (ANS – April 30, 2015) -- The earthquake in Nepal on Saturday (April 25) is an ongoing disaster of intense and widespread magnitude that has hit millions of people with long-lasting effects. While many organizations are rushing aid to the Himalayan republic, Christian Aid Mission's South Asia director said the primary challenge is not gathering food and tents to send to Nepal.
“During these kinds of disasters, gathering up enough aid is one challenge, and getting it to the people is another,” said the director, Sarla, who is traveling to her native country this week to encourage ministry leaders and assess damages. “In some of these areas, access is only on foot.”
The indigenous ministries in Nepal that Christian Aid Mission assists are well-positioned to distribute aid to survivors of the 7.8-strong earthquake that took the lives of 5,500 people and injured at least 10,000 others. With rains and landslides cutting off road access to many areas, local Christian workers know how to get aid to people deprived of their homes and to come alongside the shell-shocked survivors in their trauma, she said.
The ministries that Christian Aid assists can cheaply purchase food, water, and tents from local sources, she added.
Rains hit many areas after the earthquake, and with the monsoon season approaching, there are fears that disease will spread rapidly. One native ministry leader, Bhai Anugraha, reported that when his team went to Bhaktapur outside of Kathmandu, they found diarrhea was already rampant.
“There are at least 100 people living in a single tent of 20 feet by 12 feet,” he said. “The weather is not good either; it has been continuously raining. They do not have toilets. It is a mess. We were the first ones to provide at least some help.”
Near the tectonic plates that created the largest mountains in the world, the Himalayas and their highest peak at Mt. Everest, earth shifted with a deafening rumble. That sent masonry from humble homes to heritage sites crashing to the ground. With shaking from India (72 dead) to China (25 dead), the earthquake and scores of aftershocks have affected 10 million of Nepal's 33 million people. They have lost loved ones, homes, businesses, or farms from the quake or its after-effects, such as landslides.
The total death toll could exceed 10,000, Prime Minister Sushil Koirala said, and at least 450,000 people are reported to have been displaced from their homes.
In Gorkha District, at the epicenter 83 kilometers (51 miles) northwest of the capital city of Kathmandu, Barpak village was leveled, Sarla said.
“Of the 1,200 houses, only four are still standing,” she said. “In Gorkha, people are walking out of the village. Also, many churches were lost in the Sindhupalchok area.”
A Nepalese ministry leader in Kathmandu, Gopaljee, was guest-speaking at a church in the capital when the quake hit; he and the 70 people in attendance survived the rocking and swaying, but he said a church meeting on the seventh-floor of a building in the Copan area of Kathmandu ended in catastrophe.
“All of a sudden, with the earthquake it came down, and 28 people died,” he said.
Two nearby worship sites were destroyed, and in Ramechap in western Nepal, three people died when two other church buildings came down, he said.
“A lot of relief agencies are working in different places, but they cannot cover all of the affected areas,” he said. “We talked to people from Ramechap, and we said, 'OK, we're going to Ramechap. Not all of the roads are paved – it was rainy; it was very difficult. From a certain point onward the members of our team had to
walk.”
Churches in Nepal meet on Saturday, and many Christians in Kathmandu and surrounding areas survived because they were in worship centers built to code rather than in aged homes when the quake struck at 11:56 a.m., Sarla said. A ministry leader based in Kathmandu thanked God that his church, 600 members sitting on the floor of a two-story concrete structure, suffered no injuries or deaths.
“It struck while we were at the end of the worship service, before the benediction and final prayer,” Sita Poudel said. “The building shook very hard for almost three minutes; it was a very frightening experience.”
Poudel requested prayer for those who lost loved ones and property, and for those involved in rescue and relief efforts.
“The disaster is enormous and widespread, and it is hard to even imagine the scale of damage,” he said. “The scale of the disaster is beyond our capacity or comprehension, but we will have to act to help however we can during this hour. You are welcome to partner with us in relief and rescue.”
Christian Aid Mission's history with Nepal goes back to the origins of the organization – and the introduction of Christianity to that country. Organization founder Bob Finley prayed in 1948 that he would see people come to Christ in Nepal during his lifetime, at that time a Hindu monarchy with no known Christians.
In 1951 Prem Pradhan of Nepal traveled to India, heard the gospel, and then returned home to preach Christ. He is widely recognized as the first apostle to Nepal. Christian Aid assisted Pradhan, who continued in his ministry after completing a six-year jail sentence for preaching Christ. Today the estimated number of Christians in Nepal is nearly 1 million.
Christian Aid's South Asia director, whose maternal grandparents' home survived Nepal's last epic quake in 1934, as well as the April 25 shaking, said she is eager to see how the organization can help Christian workers minister to victims of the disaster in the name of Christ. Some of the ministries are in remote areas,
such as Gorkha, where the quake has cut off communications.
“I'm just really praying for the people in Gorkha; they're right near the epicenter,” Sarla said. “And they're not going to be the priority to get the government help.”
The immediate challenges are daunting, and long-term needs will stretch the ministries' capacity.
“The monsoons are coming, so it's probably going to get worse – after that, Kathmandu will have the danger of all kinds of diseases, because you have mosquitos and other problems,” Sarla said. “And in the aftermath, rebuilding will be hard, because there are no support systems in the country. The Nepali diaspora will send
help, but those in the affected areas are going to need support long-term to rebuild.”
To help indigenous missionaries meet needs, you may contribute online at www.christianaid.org/Gifts/Basket.aspx, or call 434-977-5650.
If you prefer to mail your gift, please send it to Christian Aid Mission, P.O. Box 9037, Charlottesville, VA 22906. Please use Gift Code: 702DIS. Thank you!
Photo captions: 1) A church planter, identified only as a graduate of Nepal Bible College in Kathmandu, was one casualty of the earthquake (Photo: Christian Aid Mission). 2) Relief efforts in Nepal (Photo by United Nations Development Program). 3). This woman miraculously survived the earthquake.
Christian Aid Mission is an evangelical missionary organization based in Charlottesville, Virginia, that assists indigenous missionary ministries overseas through prayer, advocacy and financial support. Since 1953, Christian Aid Mission has identified, evaluated and assisted more than 1,500 ministries in more than 130
countries that are reaching the unreached for Christ in areas of the world where there is no witness for Christ, where Christians suffer from poverty or persecution, or where foreign missionaries are not allowed. Today, we assist more than 500 ministries overseas with tens of thousands of indigenous or native missionaries in the field. These ministries are currently working among more than 1,000 people groups in 100+ countries around the world. For more information, please visit www.christianaid.org .
** You may republish this and any of our ANS stories with attribution to the ASSIST News Service
(www.assistnews.net)
Read more

What Can We Learn From God’s Silence?

By Jarrid Wilson

“I feel like many people today struggle with finding God’s voice, curious as to whether or not God is hearing their cries.”

“When Jesus had tasted it, he said, “It is finished!” Then he bowed his head and released his spirit.” John 19:30 
Although heart-breaking and brutal, the death of Jesus is hands down the most beautiful act of love this world has ever seen. And while the scriptures paint a beautifully epic timeline of this event, there is one part that has always seemed to create curiosity within my heart—the time of God’s silence while Jesus was on the cross.
Why was God silent? Where did he go? Why did he forsake Jesus?
My wife and I discussed this part of the scriptures yesterday, only to find ourselves having been both confused as a child, curious as to why God would leave his son alone on the cross.
At about three o’clock, Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” which means “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” Matthew 27:46
These words that Jesus cried out as he was hanging on the Cross have been the source of much debate among Christians throughout the years. Some people teach that because Jesus became sin God turned away from him, while others speculate that God was present, but the sin upon Jesus blinded him from the presence of God himself. Regardless of why, God’s voice was absent in the heart of Jesus.
I write this because I feel like many people today struggle with finding God’s voice, curious as to whether or not God is hearing their cries. Regardless of why Jesus thought God to be silent upon the cross, I believe that even in God’s silence there is power.
We may not always understand what God is doing in the moment, but we must trust that God will provide for those who are in need and bring support for those who need it—in his timing, not ours.
There have been many times in my life where I felt God to be silent, but later realized that “silence” was actually God doing a mighty work within me—I just failed to realize it. What we perceive as God being silent isn’t always the reality, and we must trust that God knows what he is doing when it comes to taking care of the children he created.
Whether you have financial burdens, relationship problems or health issues, trust that God is present even among what you perceive as silence. He’s still there. He’s still taking care of you. He’s still God.  

• Print Version

Jarrid Wilson is a husband, pastor and author relentlessly sharing the love of Jesus. More from Jarrid Wilson or visit Jarrid at http://JarridWilson.com

Facing Turmoil

Facing Turmoil  

She could be any kid on the streets of Beirut, Lebanon – but she is a refugee from Syria who fled atrocities by the Islamic State. The face of the displaced includes the brightness of youth coming to grips with being uprooted from home and country. Ministry team members native to Lebanon visit the homes of Syrian refugees struggling to survive to help them with practical needs and encourage them. “Being able to go into homes like this has also allowed our team the opportunity to have meaningful conversations and to share the gospel– and we’ve seen many of these families give their lives to the Lord,” an indigenous ministry director said. The ministry helps supply the neediest families with food parcels, medicines or rent payments. Food parcels cost $65 to $80 each. The team also provide diapers, baby formula, milk, gas for cooking, mattresses and sheets, appliances and English language classes. “Helping the people with their practical needs enables us to freely share with them how Christ can meet our greater spiritual needs,” the director says.

Islamic State Losses Offer Glimmer of Hope for Displaced Iraqis

Islamic State Losses Offer Glimmer of Hope for Displaced Iraqis

April 16, 2015

The gospel spreads quickly among families sharing cheap apartment buildings in Erbil, such as this complex accommodating 350 refugee families from Qaraqosh.

Military victories against the Islamic State (ISIS) and the U.S. president's affirmation of the Iraqi prime minister's handling of the war on Tuesday (April 14) give displaced Iraqis a glimmer of hope, but they see little chance of returning home soon.
Having retaken Tikrit from ISIS on April 2, the military forces battling ISIS are claiming substantial momentum. Instead of continuing north toward the ISIS stronghold of Mosul, which many of the displaced Iraqis call home, Iraqi forces went south and west into Islamic State-held territory in the vast province of Anbar.
Iraqi refugees longing to return home to Mosul, Qaraqosh and surrounding areas have been living in tents and run-down apartment buildings in Erbil and Dohuk since last August.
"Up to this point people are still so disappointed, especially the ones that live in tents. They don't have buildings, and they are very disappointed about that because they don't have any sign that they will return very soon," said the Iraqi leader of an indigenous ministry to the refugees. "Most of them asked the government if they can return or if the government can return their area from the terrorists. They say, 'No, if we let you return you will be under the range of the missiles or whatever bombs they have there,' so they can't."
In his visit to the White House, Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi had hoped to obtain drones and other U.S. weapons in the fight against ISIS. President Obama instead pledged a much needed $200 million in humanitarian aid to those whose lives have been disrupted by war. He also affirmed the success of Prime Minister Abadi, who took office in September with Shiite support, to unite Sunni and Kurdish fighters.
Shiite militias from Iran also have played a role in victories against ISIS, and the U.S. and Iraqi leaders spent a good part of their 40-minute meeting discussing the role of Iran, which both leaders fear is trying to expand its influence in the region. President Obama said "any foreign assistance" in the war must go through the Iraqi government, with Prime Minister Abadi adding, "We are also keen to bring all fighters under the control of the state and under the command of the commander of the armed forces."
The United States has deployed more than 3,000 troops in Iraq to train and advise Iraqi forces and provide security, intelligence and logistical support. U.S. coalition airstrikes were key in retaking Tikrit from Islamic State militants on April 2.
ISIS took Mosul in June 2014 in a surprise attack that drove thousands of Christians and others from the country's second largest city, where the militants carried out gruesome atrocities. The White House remains opposed to sending troops and has warned that helping Iraqi forces, Kurdish fighters and Iranian militias unseat ISIS from Mosul will involve a lengthy process. At the same time, Kurdish fighters reportedly are already trying to enter the city.
Most of the refugees, especially the Christian ones, came from villages in the Nineveh Valley, which separates Erbil from Mosul, the indigenous ministry leader said. With assistance from Christian Aid Mission, the ministry was able to place many of them in apartment buildings, and as people from Muslim, traditional churches, and other backgrounds came to Christ, churches emerged.
"We ended up having something like a church in each building, and that is a very, very good tool for people who never heard about the Lord," the indigenous ministry leader said. "Even some refugees from a traditional church background don't know Jesus Christ. They don't know Christ as their personal Savior, don't attend church, and they don't have the Bible."

Iraqis displaced since last August are awaiting signs that the Islamic State will be defeated and they can return home.

As Christianity spreads in refugee camps in northern Iraq, the Islamic State is putting up fierce battles to retain the land needed for its self-proclaimed caliphate. More than 1,900 U.S. coalition airstrikes have helped recover 25 to 30 percent of the territory the Islamic State seized last year, the White House said this week, but there have been setbacks in the battles for Anbar.
In Ramadi, the capital of Anbar Governorate less than 70 miles from Baghdad, Islamic State militants last week took an area north of the city, Albu Faraj. After vehicle and suicide bombs tore open the way for ISIS militants, they killed 15 members of families of police and military personnel in their homes. Hundreds of families reportedly fled.
An Anbar provincial official urgently called on Prime Minister Abadi to send reinforcements and supplies.
One reason for Iraq trying to retake Anbar now is that it is largely Sunni territory that would presumably involve less involvement from Iran's Shia militias, who were uneasy partners with the Iraqi and Kurdish forces that took Tikrit. The more the United States supports Prime Minister Abadi in fighting ISIS and smoothing relations with Sunnis, the reasoning goes, the less influence will be left to Iran.
Iraqi security forces began attacking ISIS towns in Anbar Governorate on April 8 in what is hoped will be a lead-up to retaking territory in Nineveh Province, including its capital, Mosul. Displaced Iraqis in refugee camps hear talk of the imminent liberation of Mosul and other areas from ISIS, but they see no serious signs of what would be a huge operation with many civilian casualties, the ministry leader said. Meantime, he said, he and his team are still seeing unprecedented openness to the gospel.
"In the present situation, almost everybody is open to listen to you, because most of the people are brokenhearted; they lost a lot, and they have no hope," he said. "So whatever you give, whatever you show, they just bow their heads, they cry with you, and they will accept what you say."
Besides providing food, clothes, diapers, baby formula and paying medical bills and expenses for emergency operations, the ministry also operates a mobile medical clinic out of a van outfitted for the task. It reaches at least 80 people per day; all of them hear the gospel and receive a Bible, as well as prayer.
"I love Muslims; my ministry is reaching Muslims for Christ," the director said. "In this time of disaster, I would say that 90 percent of them are very open to the gospel. Last week 30 people got saved and joined the church."

To help indigenous missionaries meet needs, you may contribute online using the form below, or call 434-977-5650. If you prefer to mail your gift, please mail to Christian Aid Mission, P.O. Box 9037, Charlottesville, VA 22906. Please use Gift Code: 444IRAQ. Thank you!

Healed Before the Operation

Healed Before the Operation
A Gospel for Asia (www.gfa.org) News Release. For Immediate Release
WILLS POINT, TX (ANS – April 16, 2015) -- Abilash lifted up his voice, joining in perfect agreement with the radio broadcaster who was praying intently for the sick. Abilash felt a spark of hope rise up inside as they prayed.
Living in Constant Pain
Earlier that month, Abilash had fallen and severely injured his backbone.
“I was unable to bear the pain,” he explained. “I was unable to sit and stand. When I went to the hospital for checkups, the doctor told me that my backbone was fractured, and I had to have surgery.”
But Abilash couldn’t go through with surgery; it cost too much. So Abilash lived on with the pain.
One evening, as Abilash lay on his bed, a Gospel for Asia pastor visited. Abilash grew up in a nominal Christian home, and he welcomed the pastor, especially now.
“He comforted me from God’s Word and prayed for my healing,” Abilash said. “He told me about Gospel for Asia’s radio broadcast and encouraged me to listen to the program regularly.”
Healing Through the Radio
Abilash took the pastor’s words to heart. Early one morning he rose from his bed in spite of his searing pain and turned the radio dial to the station.
Abilash hung on to the words in the message he heard. When the broadcaster began praying to God for healing, he wholeheartedly joined in. After the broadcast ended, Abilash called the station and asked the prayer team to pray for his healing. The man on the other end assured Abilash they would be in prayer for him.
In Abilash’s next medical checkup, the doctors informed him that no operation was needed. The Lord healed him, and he is now able to move without pain.
“Miraculously,” Abilash explains, “God healed me without the operation. He gave me relief from the severe pain that didn’t enable me to walk, stand or sit before. I thank God for the healing, and I praise God for this radio program.”
Abilash, because of the power and love that Christ revealed to him through the pastor and the radio program, now attends Sunday worship with other believers. He has embraced the love of Christ and gives Him all the praise for his healing!
Abilash’s testimony is just one example of what God is doing through GFA’s radio ministry. Read another story of Christ’s faithfulness through this ministry.
(http://gospelforasia-reports.org/2014/01/unwelcome-new-years-guest/?motiv=WB21-RB00&cm_mmc=GFAReports-_--_--_- ).
** You may republish this or any of our stories with attribution to the ASSIST News Service (www.assistnews.net)
Read more

Muslim Migrants Throw Christians Overboard

 
Italian Police: Muslim Migrants Throw Christians Overboard

 

By Jeremy Reynalds, Senior Correspondent, ASSIST News Service (jeremyreynalds@gmail.com)   

 

ROME (ANS. APRIL 16)  Muslims who were among migrants trying to get from Libya to Italy in a boat this week threw 12 fellow passengers overboard -- killing them -- because the 12 were Christians, Italian police said Thursday.

 

According to a story by Hada Messia, Livia Borghese and Jason Hanna for CNN,  police in Palermo, Sicily, said Italian authorities have arrested 15 people on suspicion of murdering the Christians at sea.

 

The original group of 105 people left Libya on Tuesday in a rubber boat. Sometime during the trip north across the Mediterranean Sea, the alleged assailants -- Muslims from the Ivory Coast, Mali and Senegal -- threw the 12 overboard, police said.

 

Other people on the voyage told police that they themselves were spared “because they strongly opposed the drowning attempt and formed a human chain,” Palermo police said.

 

CNN said the boat was intercepted by an Italian navy vessel, which transferred the passengers to a Panamanian-flagged ship. That ship docked in Palermo on Wednesday, after which the arrests were made, police said.

 

The 12 who died were from Nigeria and Ghana, police said.

 

Thousands of people each year make the dangerous sea journey from North Africa to Europe's Mediterranean coast, often aboard vessels poorly equipped for the trip. Many of them attempt the voyage to flee war and poverty in Africa and the Middle East.

 

CNN said that according to the Italian coast guard, more than 10,000 people have arrived on Italian shores from Libya since last weekend alone.

 

Many die each year while attempting the voyage, often when boats capsize. Last year at least 3,200 died trying to make the trip. Since 2000, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), almost 22,000 people have died fleeing across the Mediterranean.

 

The IOM reported Thursday the latest boat to sink in trying to make the journey. CNN said only four people survived from the original 45 on board, bringing the estimated death toll so far this year close to a thousand.

 

** You are free to republish this and any of our stories with attribution to the ASSIST News Service (www.assistnews.net) 

Read more

Will The Nightmare Ever End For The Nigerian Schoolgirls Kidnapped By Boko Haram?

One Year On: Will The Nightmare Ever End For The Nigerian Schoolgirls Kidnapped By Boko Haram?
By Nigeria-born Dan Wooding, Founder of ASSIST Ministries and the ASSIST News Service
CHIBOK, NIGERIA (ANS – April 14, 2015) – It has been a year since the jihadist group, Boko Haram, carried out the cowardly crime of kidnapping nearly 300 schoolgirls, all between 16 and 18 years old.
The girls were abducted on the night of April 14-15, 2014, in the town of Chibok, in northeastern Nigeria, about a two-hour drive from the border with Cameroon.
According to CNN, the Government Girls Secondary School had been closed for a month because of the danger posed by Boko Haram militants, who are opposed to Western education, particularly for girls. But students from several schools had been called in to take a final exam in physics.
“The militants stormed the school, arriving in a convoy of trucks and buses and engaging in a gun battle with school security guards,” said CNN. “Then they forced the girls from their dormitories, loaded them into trucks and drove them into the forest.
Most have never been seen since, except in a photograph in which they sat on the ground in a semi-circle, clad in Islamic dress.”
Police said the militants kidnapped 276 girls in all. About 50 managed to escape soon after they were abducted. Those who did not, it is feared, may have been raped, brutalized, enslaved, and forced to convert to Islam.
And now, an agonizing year on, there's a growing recognition that the girls may never be brought back. Can you imagine the incredible heartbreak for these girls, who will never recover their childhood, and their parents who are facing the fact that they may never see their loved-ones again.
“This crime has rightly caused outrage both in Nigeria and across the world,” the country’s President-elect, Muhammadu Buhari, said today (Tuesday, April 14, 2015) in marking the anniversary. “Today is a time to reflect on the pain and suffering of the victims, their friends and families. Our thoughts and prayers, and that of the whole Nigerian nation, are with you today.”
Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani Nobel laureate and teenage education campaigner who herself was a victim of Islamic terror, also issued a statement on Tuesday offering “solidarity, love and hope” to the kidnapped schoolgirls of Chibok. She referred to her own suffering at the hands of Islamist militants.
"Like you,” she said, “I was a target of militants who did not want girls to go to school. Gunmen shot me and two of my friends on a school bus. All three of us survived and are back in school. Now we speak out on behalf of all girls about the right to get a proper education. Our campaign will continue until you and all girls and boys around the world are able to access a free, safe, and quality secondary education.”
CNN, in a separate story, said that the abduction of more than 200 schoolgirls a year ago this week captured global attention and inspired the hashtag #BringBackOurGirls, but the horrors for Nigeria's children are widespread.
“Around 800,000 children have been forced to flee their homes as a result of the conflict in northeast Nigeria between Boko Haram, military forces and civilian self-defense groups,” UNICEF said Monday.
The “number of children running for their lives within Nigeria, or crossing over the border to Chad, Niger and Cameroon, has more than doubled in just less than a year.”
More than 1.5 million people have fled their homes due to the violence, UNICEF said. About 1.2 million are displaced internally, while others have crossed into Cameroon, Chad and Niger.
“The vast majority of the displaced -- more than 880,000 -- are staying with host communities with little access to humanitarian support, putting additional strains on already stretched health, education, and social services,” it said.
The April 14, 2014, kidnappings of the Chibok schoolgirls “is only one of endless tragedies being replicated on an epic scale across Nigeria and the region,” said Manuel Fontaine, UNICEF regional director for West and Central Africa.
“Scores of girls and boys have gone missing in Nigeria -- abducted, recruited by armed groups, attacked, used as weapons, or forced to flee violence. They have the right to get their childhoods back.”
Kids are being used by Boko Haram as combatants, cooks, and lookouts, UNICEF said. “Young women and girls are being subjected to forced marriage, forced labor and rape,” it said.
At least 196 teachers and 314 schoolchildren were killed in 2014, and more than 300 schools were damaged or destroyed.
A personal note from Dan Wooding: My heart breaks for the land of my birth as Boko Haram continues to wreak havoc with their never-ending onslaught on the innocents of Nigeria, particularly the children. We can only hope and pray that they will be defeated, the girls, the many other children also kidnapped, will return home, and Nigeria could finally be returned to a semblance of peace and harmony. Will you join me in that prayer?
Photo captions: 1) A photo purporting to be the missing schoolgirls clad in Islamic dress. 2) Boko Haram continues to cause havoc in Nigeria with its violent tactics. 3) Malala Yousafzai addressing the United Nations. 4) Young protestors shouting #BringBackOurGirls in Abuja, Nigeria's capital city.
** You my republish this or any of our stories with attribution to the ASSIST News Service (www.assistnews.net)
Read more

Freed From Death to Walk in Life

Freed From Death to Walk in Life
A Gospel for Asia (www.gfa.org) News Release. For Immediate Release
WILLS POINT, TX (ANS – April 5, 2015) -- Ekagrah’s keen eyes surveyed the landscape as he entered the small mountain village. The new Gospel for Asia pastor looked to the hills, places he had never seen, filled with people he had never met. He came with his wife and young daughter, ready to step into the new life God had for them, ready to share this new life with others.
But for most of his 32 years, Ekagrah had known nothing of the hope he now came to share.
Teenager Loses Mother and Seven Siblings
Death and sickness followed Ekagrah like a plague. When he was a teenager, his mother and seven of his siblings died within a short period of time. His older brothers, rather than encouraging him to continue his studies, told him to quit school, get a job and help them.
So he did. When Ekagrah grew older, he traveled to the capital city to earn some money for his family. For five years he labored, carrying belongings for foreigners who wanted to walk the mountain paths, before he returned home to see his family.
While in his childhood village, Ekagrah married a woman named Geetika. They soon moved back to the capital city, and Geetika gave birth to a beautiful little girl. Then “the plague” struck again.
Young Husband Watches Wife and Daughter Fall Sick
After the baby was born, Geetika felt a strange burning sensation creep over her body, a sensation that would not go away. At the same time, their daughter succumbed to frequent bouts of vomiting, fever and diarrhea.
With no family around to help, Ekagrah faced these challenges alone. Following his late mother’s example, Ekagrah earnestly sought his gods for his wife’s and his daughter’s healing.
He offered sacrifices and took his family to see witch doctors and medical doctors, but nothing helped. Eventually he grew angry with his gods for not answering him in his need and decided to stop worshiping them.
Disappointed Husband Finds Peace at Church
One day, after five years of suffering and disappointment, Ekagrah met up with his nephew and nieces, who told him about Jesus. Curious to know more, he asked one niece about her church and about her God. She invited him to attend their church, so that weekend Ekagrah slipped away to church without telling his wife.
As he walked through the doors, a flood of peace washed over him. As the service started and the Christians sang and clapped their hands, Ekagrah stared at everyone in awe and surprise. During the service, the pastor’s words touched his heart, and he decided he wanted to go back the next week.
Ekagrah had decided not to tell his wife about Jesus or the church until he learned more about Him, but Geetika had other plans. While her husband attended church, Geetika had noticed her pain subsiding, leaving her feeling refreshed. She wanted to know why, so the next week, when Ekagrah started leaving without her, she stopped him.
As a young man, Ekagrah traveled far from his home in hopes of helping his family after the tragic deaths of his mother and seven siblings. Eventually, he married a woman named Geetika, but difficulties continued to follow him: Geetika and their young daughter both contracted a mysterious illness that nothing seemed able to cure. 
Family Transformed From Tears to Joy 
“Where are you going?” she asked.
When Ekagrah told her about Jesus and the church, faith filled Geetika’s heart.
“I am ready to follow Jesus right now,” she declared. “I believe He will heal me and my daughter completely, and there is no doubt about His power.”
“Before long,” Ekagrah shares, “we began to experience the peace of God prevailing in our lives. An affection to God developed in our hearts.”
After watching his family suffer for five years, Ekagrah lost hope in his gods. He talked with one of his nieces, a Christian, who invited him to church. While Ekagrah attended church, his wife noticed her pain subsiding, and this gave her faith to trust Jesus for complete healing. The whole family soon embraced the love Jesus freely offers.
After a few weeks of attending church, they decided to embrace the freedom and grace Jesus offers. At the same time, God completely freed Geetika and their daughter from their mysterious illnesses.
“Our joy knew no bounds,” Ekagrah says. “We began to follow the Lord with a wholehearted devotion. Our home [became] a home of prayer.”
Husband and Wife Become Missionaries
Although many friends and neighbors told them to renounce their faith in Jesus, their love for Him only grew through the years.
“We were burdened to share the love of Christ with the lost humanity,” Ekagrah shares. “Before long, my wife and I decided to serve the Lord as missionaries.”
The two enrolled in a Bible training program, where they learned more about Jesus, the Word of God and how to share their faith with others.
After following God for several years as missionaries, they learned about Gospel for Asia. After joining GFA, they moved to a remote village in Central Nepal.
When Ekagrah and Geetika first came to the village, people didn’t want to hear what they had to say. Some people even threatened them and told them to leave. But the couple faithfully prayed and fasted, and within a few months, God touched the hearts of three men and women. They, like Ekagrah and Geetika, embraced the peace and healing found only in Christ.
Husband and Wife Help Many Understand Christ’s Love
Throughout the last 10 years, Ekagrah and Geetika have gotten to know the men and women of their small mountain town. Through their example and their words, several others have come to know the God they love. Here, under the tender gaze of Ekagrah, the Lord’s shepherd, a church has grown. Every week, dozens of men and women gather to learn more about the Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ.
In the distance, four villages sit, places Ekagrah has visited many times. In each of these four villages, men and women regularly gather to pray with him and hear him share more from the Word of God.
After coming to know Jesus’ love, God gave Ekagrah and Geetika a heart to share this divine love with others. They went through a Bible training program and started serving the Lord as missionaries. After a few years, they joined with Gospel for Asia.
Today, as Ekagrah steps outside the doors of his small mountain home, he can lift his eyes to the mountains around him and thank the Lord who not only brought him from death to life but also enables him to share this hope of new life with others.
You can stand with men and women like Ekagrah and Geetika, enabling them to share the Good News with those who have never heard.
Sponsor a national missionary today? Just go to: http://www.gfa.org/sponsor/search/
Photo images: 1) As a young man, Ekagrah traveled far from his home in hopes of helping his family after the tragic deaths of his mother and seven siblings. Eventually, he married a woman named Geetika, but difficulties continued to follow him: Geetika and their young daughter both contracted a mysterious illness that nothing seemed able to cure. (Gospel for Asia) 2) After watching his family suffer for five years, Ekagrah lost hope in his gods. He talked with one of his nieces, a Christian, who invited him to church. While Ekagrah attended church, his wife noticed her pain subsiding, and this gave her faith to trust Jesus for complete healing. The whole family soon embraced the love Jesus freely offers. 3) After coming to know Jesus’ love, God gave Ekagrah and Geetika a heart to share this divine love with others. They went through a Bible training program and started serving the Lord as missionaries. After a few years, they joined with Gospel for Asia. 4) God sent Ekagrah and Geetika to a remote village in Central Nepal. Though they faced several threats and people seemed uninterested, Ekagrah prayed and fasted for God to touch hearts. Today, 10 years since he and Geetika first arrived, dozens of people gather in their village and the surrounding towns to worship the God who freed Ekagrah and Geetika from a life of death.
** You may republish this and any of our stories with attribution to the ASSIST News Service (www.assistnews.net).
Read more

Christians targeted in violent attack on a Kenyan university college

Christians targeted in violent attack on a Kenyan university college, which saw 148 people slaughtered
By Dan Wooding, Founder of ASSIST and the ASSIST News Service
GARISSA, KENYA (ANS – April 4, 2015) — The militants who slaughtered 147 people in a Kenyan school on Thursday, appeared to have planned extensively, even targeting a site where Christians had gone to pray, a survivor said Friday.
According to media reports, he masked attackers — strapped with explosives and armed with AK-47s — singled out non-Muslim students at Garissa University College and then gunned them down without mercy, survivors said. The gunmen took dozens of hostages in a dormitory as they battled troops and police before the operation ended after about 15 hours, witnesses said.
Al-Shabab spokesman Ali Mohamoud Raghe said fighters from the Somalia-based extremist group were responsible. The al-Qaeda-linked group has been blamed for a series of attacks in Kenya, including the siege at the Westgate Mall in Nairobi in 2013 that killed 67 people, as well as other violence in the north.
The group has vowed to retaliate against Kenya for sending troops to Somalia in 2011 to fight the militants staging cross-border attacks and kidnappings.
According to CBC News (http://www.cbc.ca ) -- the masked attackers, singled out non-Muslim students at Garissa University College and then gunned them down without mercy, survivors said. Others ran for their lives with bullets whistling through the air.
“Amid the massacre, the men took dozens of hostages in a dormitory as they battled troops and police before the operation ended after about 15 hours, witnesses said,” said their story.
In a separate story, CBC News added that Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta said on Saturday, April 4, 2015, that those behind an attack in were “deeply embedded” in Kenya, and called on Kenyan Muslims to help prevent radicalization.
His televised speech in response to Thursday's 15-hour siege at the Garissa university campus came after the Interior Ministry said five suspects in the assault had been detained, some while trying to flee to Somalia.
Four suspects were Kenyans of Somali origin, and the fifth was Tanzanian, the ministry said.
The suspected mastermind, Mohamed Mohamud, a former teacher at a Garissa madrassa, is still on the run. Kenya has offered a $215,000 US reward for his arrest.
In an audio message soon after, a Shabab spokesman, Ali Mohamoud Raghe, said the attack had been carried out because “the Christian government of Kenya has invaded our country,” a reference to the Kenyan military’s 2011 incursion into Somalia to oust the Shabab from its strongholds.
He said the university had been targeted because it was educating many Christian students in “a Muslim land under colony,” a reference to the large Somali population in a part of Kenya that Somalia once tried to claim. He called the university part of Kenya’s “plan to spread their Christianity and infidelity.”
Meanwhile, the Religious Liberty Commission of the World Evangelical Alliance, has issued a statement in which it says, “Let’s Eradicate Terrorism in Response to Killing of Christian Students in Kenya.”
The statement says, “We condemn the cowardly, senseless, inhuman, targeted killing of innocent Christian students at Kenya’s Garissa University College by masked gunmen from the Al-Shabaab terror group this week. But let’s not stop there, and see this attack as the last straw.
“We were at a loss of words as we heard the news of attackers with explosives and AK-47s targeting a campus site where Christians had gone to pray on Thursday. This deep sorrow should now impel us to defeat terrorism in Africa, the Middle East and elsewhere.”
Then Executive Director Godfrey Yogarajah said,“We cannot look at terrorism in isolation, be it Kenya or Somalia or Iraq or Syria. Al-Shabaab, which claimed responsibility for the shameless killing, as well as groups like al-Qaeda, Islamic State (ISIS) and Boko Haram are transnational terror groups or aspire to become one, and appear to be either cooperating or competing with each other in revealing their evil intent.”
Kenya shares a long, porous border (435 miles) with Somalia and has long suffered from instability in its neighborhood. Kenya also has several coastal towns, which can facilitate movements of terrorists from Somalia. Al-Shabaab controls southern parts of Somalia, where the common border exists.
Al-Shabaab has a Kenyan affiliate, called al Hijra, which exploits perceptions among sections of Muslims about their marginalization by the primarily Christian administration of President Uhuru Kenyatta.
Al-Shabaab has been seeking to retaliate for Kenya’s decision to send troops to Somalia in 2011 to fight the terror group. It is estimated that Al-Shabaab killed at least 400 people and injured over 1,000 in more than 100 attacks between 2011 and 2014.
The same terror group also attacked Nairobi’s Westgate Mall on Sept. 21, 2013, leaving at least 68 dead and 175 wounded. This week’s attack was even more brutal.
“It’s an unfortunate race among terror groups to cause destruction of human lives to maintain their relevance at a time when ISIS is causing unprecedented bloodshed. This trend demands that the international coalition fighting ISIS in Iraq and Syria should expand their mission to include other terror groups as their targets – of course, not with airstrikes or troops on the ground,” Yogarajah added.
“World leaders should join hands to defeat terrorism by cooperating with each other and treating the end of terrorism in every country as a common objective.”
The statement added, "The United States gives millions of dollars as military and financial aid to Kenya to help fight terrorism, and can, therefore, have a say in how Kenya counters the threat from Al-Shabaab. And Kenya seems to be going the wrong way.”
Godfrey Yogarajah then said, “We, as Christians, believe in the power of prayer, and we must be on our knees for the victims and survivors and the governments and the international organizations that are committed to sincerely help eradicate terrorism.”
Photo captions: 1) Kenyan soldiers and ambulance workers responding to the attack by Somali militants at Garissa University College. (Photo Credit Dai Kurokawa/European Pressphoto Agency) 2) President Uhuru Kenyatta responding to the attack on TV) 3) A member of the security forces escorts a student off the campus of Garissa University College after an attack by Somalia's al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabab gunmen, April 2, 2015. (Photo credit: AFP/Carl de Souza)
** You may republish this or any of our stories with attribution to the ASSIST News Service (www.assistnews.net)
Read more

Kenyan University Attacked by Al Shabaab

Kenyan University Attacked by Al Shabaab

 By Jeremy Reynalds, Senior Correspondent, ASSIST News Service (jeremyreynalds@gmail.com)  

 

KENYA  (ANS. APRIL 2, 2015) Al Shabaab, the Somali-based Islamist terror group, attacked Garissa University in north-east Kenya on April 2. So far at least 147 people are reported to have been killed and 79 injured in the  attack. 

 

The four attackers were killed. 

 

According to a news release from Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), local reports indicate that the militants launched the attack at 5.30 a.m. by throwing explosives at the university's main gate before storming the facility, firing indiscriminately and gaining access to the student hostels. 

 

According to several reports, the assailants separated the students based on their religion and allegedly released Muslim students, while killing several non-Muslims on the spot and taking others as hostages. 

 

A BBC story reported that UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned the attack, and said the UN was ready to help Kenya “prevent and counter terrorism and violent extremism.”

 

The United States said it was offering Nairobi assistance to take on Al Shabaab and would continue to work with others in the region to take on the group.

 

The Kenyan government has named Mohamed Kuno, a high-ranking Al Shabaab official, as the mastermind of the attack.

 

A BBC Somali Service reporter said Kuno was headmaster at an Islamic school in Garissa before he quit in 2007.

 

The BBC said Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta offered his condolences to families of the victims and ordered “urgent steps,” to ensure police recruits could begin training immediately. 

 

“We have suffered unnecessarily due to shortage of security personnel,” he said.

 

Mervyn Thomas, Chief Executive of Christian Solidarity Worldwide said in the news release, “We extend our deepest condolences to the families of those killed and injured in this attack, and we pray for the safe return for the students who are still unaccounted for. CSW deplores this cowardly attack on civilians. The separation of hostages according to their faith echoes previous Al Shabaab attacks and highlights the group's deadly and divisive sectarian motivations. This is particularly poignant coming on the eve of the Christian celebration of Easter.” 

 

CSW said that Al Shabaab attacks in Kenya have increased since Oct. 2011, when Kenya's army joined international efforts to stabilize Somalia following the cross-border abductions of foreign tourists by the group. It formally aligned itself with al Qaeda in 2012, although reports of foreign fighters amongst its ranks predated this announcement. 

 

There have been three attacks in the last two years in which the group has separated hostages according to religious identity and murdered them accordingly. They were the siege at Westgate Shopping Mall in Sept. 2013, the hijacking of a bus traveling from Mandera to Nairobi in Nov. 2014, and the attack on a quarry in Mandera in Dec. 2014.

 

The attack on Garissa University comes as the terror alert in East Africa was raised by the US, UK and Australian governments. 

 

Christian Solidarity Worldwide works for religious freedom through advocacy and human rights, in the pursuit of justice.

 

For further information, visit www.csw.org.uk

 

** You can republish this or any of stories with full attribution to the ASSIST News Service (www.assistnews.net)