New Constitution in Nepal Bans Converting Others

New Constitution in Nepal Bans Converting Others

November 05, 2015

A convert to Christianity is baptized in Nepal.

Nepal has quietly enshrined a long-time ban on proselytizing in its new constitution. For an indigenous ministry in Nepal that has long found ways to quietly proclaim Christ as Lord, that means business as usual.
As did the interim constitution of the prior seven years, the new constitution signed by Nepal's president on Sept. 20 outlaws "any act to convert another person from one religion to another or any act or behavior to undermine or jeopardize the religion of another," with violations punishable by prison and/or fines.
The ban fails to allow choosing one's faith to be seen as a matter of individual rights as required by international treaties that Nepal has signed and ratified, advocacy group Christian Solidarity Worldwide noted in a press statement. "Nepal's Treaty Act of 1991 requires the nation's laws to conform to the principles of the international treaties it has signed and ratified," it stated.
While the ban on proselytizing appears to contradict Nepal's assertion of the right to profess and practice one's faith, Christians were relieved that framers ultimately did away with a reported concession to Hindu groups to ban all religious conversions and rejected their demand to restore the Hindu monarchy.
The government instead approved a constitution defining the state as secular and thus neutral toward all religions, over rancorous objections and violence that included attacks on three church buildings. Nepal thus completed the transition it began in 2008 from the world's only Hindu monarchy to a secular, multiparty, constitutional republic. In the process, however, the Hindu groups showed their extremist bent, and a leader of the ministry based in Nepal said possible backlash remains to be seen.
"There could be some reaction," he said, "though not so much in the majority-Nepalese-speaking areas. But in other areas where there's not been much gospel work, there could be some reaction. We'll just see how things go."
Ethnic demands, along with violence that killed more than 40 people, overshadowed the religious concerns in the constitutional framing process, he said, and in any event Christianity has flourished in spite of legal restrictions in recent years. Originating during a harsher period in the 1980s and '90s, the ministry learned from the outset how to proclaim Christ in discreet ways. Bible correspondence courses were primary.
"It started with my mom copying down 100 names and addresses from the back of a magazine of youths looking for pen-pals – basically, they were looking for love," said the ministry director, whose name is withheld for security reasons. "My mom started writing letters to them, and she would say, 'If any of your friends would like to read my letters or would like to read more about Jesus, then please send me their addresses.'"
People sent addresses of their friends and relatives, and the current director's parents officially began the ministry in 1992. When students began completing the courses two years later, however, those who had earned certificates sent them back to the ministry leaders.
"Some were torn to pieces," the director said. "They didn't accept the certificates. Basically, the problem was they wanted more of the gospel. That was their way of protesting."
Some of the students showed up at the ministry office desiring more knowledge, and others waited two days at its Post Office box, eager to accost the leaders and request more instruction.

A villager examines a gospel tract he received from an indigenous ministry in Nepal.

"It was new; so many had never even heard the name of Christ before," he said. "They wanted to know who these people were that were sending all these gospel materials. Except for one person, all of them were college graduates. Some were in the police and military, some were judges and professors. That's when the ministry of discipleship training started. We realized it's about time we start a face-to-face."
For the first on-site training session, the ministry sent out 50 invitations; 265 people showed up.
"We thought 10 might show up," the director said. "It was a seven-day class, and at end of the training, more than 100 took baptism."
Since then, more than 500,000 students from Nepal's 75 districts have enrolled in the Bible correspondence courses, with 50,000 completing them. The Bible correspondence courses are tailored to reach Hindus (75 percent of the population), Buddhists (16 percent), animists and communists. After taking the Bible courses, more than 10,000 students have taken part in the ministry's discipleship training process.
With a philosophy of ministry geared toward quality rather than quantity, the ministry then provides a 75-day leadership training for potential gospel workers, as well as pastoral training. Taking place at different church halls every three months, the pastoral instruction involves nine, week-long sessions over two years. It is designed for those already in leadership but without adequate training.
The ministry is training two groups of 25 pastors each, at a cost of $15,000 to $20,000 per year for each group, he said.
"When there was persecution, professing the name of Christ was very costly, but since the government became secular there's freedom, and because of that there's a lot of false teaching coming in, so it's imperative that they know what true teaching is," the director said. "With Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons, prosperity gospel and others coming in, that problem is increasing, and the people that they are shepherding need to get fed the truth of the Scripture."
As unreached peoples are a high priority, the ministry's strategy is to reach out first to those who know both Nepalese and a tribal language, he said. These new, bilingual Christians would then reach their own people in their own local language.
"Ideally we would like to be training 100 people – four groups," he said. "But we need teachers able to do that, so we're working to get them, and of course we need finances to get that going. The teachers are paid, and we use local pastors. We do have pastors with just biblical degrees, but ideally we're looking for guys who have a master's of divinity and are pastoring local churches."
Five years ago Operation World estimated the Christian population of Nepal at 2.85 percent, or 850,801 people, the vast majority evangelicals; that figure is now estimated at about 1 million. With 309 unreached people groups, Operation World estimated 55 percent of Nepal's people had never heard the gospel.
After a period of persecution in the 1990s and more freedom since a transition to a secular democracy began in 2008, the ministry that has quietly proclaimed Christ as Lord has planted hundreds of churches. At present it is helping to develop 66 churches, 13 less developed fellowships and 14 incipient cell groups.
"The harvest is plentiful, the workers are few," the director said. "We need the people capable of taking the work forward. We can definitely use more funding."

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: 702NGOC. Thank you!

Recovering from Loss

Recovering from Loss  

The 7.8-magnitude earthquake that hit Nepal on April 25 and another registering 7.3 on May 12 devastated the country nestled in the Himalayas, but private citizens are leading the effort to rebuild and recover, according to the director of an indigenous ministry. Many churches lost buildings and homes. In Dhola Kha, a local ministry with assistance from Christian Aid Mission has purchased land and is rebuilding a house to be used for worship, including a small room in one corner where the pastor will live. “We still need financial help for this project,” the director said. “It is a very hard time for the believers. In winter it will be very cold. Therefore, we are planning to temporarily put a tin wall round it. If there will be no earthquake any more, it will be okay for a few years. But yesterday again a 5.5 earthquake came. It is on and off.” The ministry also offered a three-day, earthquake trauma program for more than 300 children, including worship, drawing, art and dance, to help them overcome their ordeal. “We also did a medical camp for two days, and around 280 people benefited from it,” the director said. “We had many helpers as full volunteers from our church and from our sister church. Of course we did gospel work, too, through these works. To run the program we had offering collections and your help.”

Spain's Christians Brace for Syrian Refugees

Spain's Christians Brace for Syrian Refugees

October 22, 2015

When Catholic rulers retook Cordoba and its famous mosque in 1236 (a cathedral was later inserted into the mosque in the 16th century), they preserved its celebrated architecture. (Wikipedia)

As a first step in addressing Europe's refugee crisis, European Union (EU) leaders on Sept. 22 assigned 15,000 mainly Syrian refugees to Spain, with still greater batches to follow in subsequent years. Some in Spain fear the wave of Syrian refugees will bring more Muslim influence to a country where radical Islam has made inroads, but one Spanish ministry is eagerly welcoming them.
The refugees are Spain's share of an initial distribution of 120,000 refugees across Europe. Having established churches in the southern province of Andalusia and in Morocco, which lies nearly nine miles from Spain's southernmost point across the Strait of Gibraltar, the ministry director sees the EU plan as an unprecedented opportunity. In Ceuta, a Spanish enclave on Morocco's northern tip, he already has substantial experience with Syrian refugees; he's been proclaiming Christ to them for three years.
"Our experience is that they come to the Lord fast," said the director, identified only as Antonio for security reasons. "They say, 'We are here because Islam [jihadists such as the Islamic State] put us here and broke our family and broke our country,' and they open very fast. There are house churches among Syrians."
With 6,000 refugees arriving at European countries every day, more than 500,000 have flooded the continent's borders this year, according to United Nations figures. While that figure may pale compared with the more than 4 million refugees that have fled to Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan, the refugees have created political crises in Europe as infrastructures fray and cultures clash.
Only Germany and France have been assigned more refugees than Spain, which for decades has seen Muslim immigrants from Morocco grow into a kind of religious target group for competing radical Islamists from abroad – kindling Catholic-Muslim tensions in the autonomous region of Andalusia, named from the Arabic "Al-Andalus" caliphate of Muslim conquerors that ruled from 711 to 1492.
Analysts point to the revelation by Spain's National Intelligence Center (CNI) in 2011 that Islamic-ruled countries from the Middle East and North Africa have channeled millions of dollars to radical Islamists in efforts to compete for Spain's nearly 1.9 million Muslims, of which 800,000 are Moroccans. Saudi Arabia heads a list that includes Kuwait, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, according to the CNI. Saudi Arabia funded a $30 million Islamic Cultural Center in Malaga, as well as mosques in Marbella and Fuengirola, for the purposes of promoting its repressive Wahhabi brand of Islam, according to the CNI.
Furthermore, imams in more than 100 mosques in Spain preach Islamic extremist doctrine, according to the Spanish daily ABC. Salafism, an Islamic extremist movement based on restoring the original traditions of Islam, has increased its presence in Spain, according to the newspaper.
As the Syrians and other refugees arrive, Spain's Islamic centers also will be keen to welcome them, the ministry director said. Islamic extremists such as the Salafists aim to re-conquer Spain for Islam, Antonio said.
"It's evident in every place – in every place they go, they build a big mosque with a big minaret to say, 'We are here,'" he said. "Saudi Arabians are sending imams and money. They're buying many things. They're sending missionaries. They pay for a place, and they take control of the Muslims of the area."
While extremist sects such as Salafism and Wahhabism tend to be separatist and discourage integration into Western society, Antonio said that, overall, Muslims quietly adapt when they are a small minority. As they become a majority through population growth, migration and conversion, they seek to exercise more influence through government and influential networks, he said.
With deep love for Muslims in relationships he has developed in Morocco and in the Spanish enclave of Ceuta along Morocco's northern-most border, Antonio can hardly be labeled an Islamophobe, even if some might read that into his description of Islamist wishes that he's detected.
"They want Spain," he said, citing Islamist wishes to retake Cordoba, with its Mosque-Cathedral of Cordoba, an architectural wonder that is more than 11 centuries old, and Granada, with its mighty Alhambra, a former Islamic palace and fortress complex. "They say, 'This is my country, and we want it back.'"
Antonio said those who make first contact with the arriving Syrians will have the most impact.
"We're encouraging the church to be the first to contact them and have an impact with them with the gospel," he said. "I am beginning to work with 100 Syrian families just in Jerez, but I'm working with other believers to do the same. They say, 'I don't know how to work with Syrians.' I said, 'It doesn't matter – you receive them, and I'm ready to work all year to train you so you can work with the Syrians.'"
About 30 volunteer workers help Antonio in the outreach in Jerez, and the same number of volunteers work in each of the other Spanish cities where his ministry has planted some of its nearly 70 house churches, including Seville, Malaga, Jaen and Cordoba. In the three churches that he pastors, four or five people at each church receive Christ each week, he said.
His experience with Muslims includes proclaiming Christ and training leaders in Morocco, which has resulted in 100 small fellowships. Whereas in Morocco he takes care not to speak against Islam, in Spain he refrains from speaking against the dominant Roman Catholic Church, where surveys have repeatedly shown few practice their religion, and even those who do are rarely familiar with the Bible or Christ's salvation.

Holy Week in Jerez includes processions with idols that evangelicals eschew, but they focus on proclaiming Christ rather than deriding Catholicism. (Wikipedia, El Pantera)

"In the past, the missionaries didn't do a good job in southern Spain; they began to fight against Catholicism," Antonio said. "In the Bible, I don't see Paul fighting against other religions. I only share the gospel. I share about Jesus, His love, how it changed my life, how he impacted my family and relatives. When you talk about this, they change."
His ministry team establishes relationships with people by identifying their needs, which in southern Spain's weak economy often means distributing food, visiting people in hospitals and helping with other medical needs. Through EU networks, the ministry has ample access to food supplies, so Antonio said his main need is financial assistance for transportation, Bibles and tracts.
"Gas is four times higher in Spain than what it is in the United States," he said. "My main need is this, because it's expensive to spread the gospel. People call me from Jaen, and I cannot go, because how am I going to pay for everything? It's not possible."
His ministry also hopes to renovate a building to start a Christian school for U.S. families at nearby Rota military base, which ultimately would render his ministry completely self-sustaining. Until then, he primarily seeks funds to purchase the Word of God in Arabic, Spanish and English, and the wheels to get its message to otherwise unreached people – before radical Islam reaches them.

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: 314GMM. Thank you!

Dissolving Gospel Barriers

Dissolving Gospel Barriers  

Reaching out to Muslims in northern Morocco, such as this mother and child, is a matter of establishing relationship and identifying needs, and for that Spaniards amount to indigenous missionaries. As parts of northern Morocco formed a Spanish protectorate from 1912 to 1956, Moroccans and Spaniards share a common bond that is still reflected in most northern Moroccans being fluent in Spanish. “For Americans it’s very difficult to share the gospel there, but for a Spaniard it’s very easy, because when I go to Morocco they say, ‘Hello, brother,’ because our culture is very similar,” said the director of a ministry based in southern Spain. “And they say, ‘What do you believe, what are you doing here, and we begin to talk about the love of God.’” The ministry director travels across the Strait of Gibraltar to Morocco once a month, but he feels it is imperative to go once a week. Each trip across the nearly nine-mile strait by ferry costs $200. “The ferry, the food and the gas is expensive,” he said.

Frustrated Islamic State commander searches monastery for weapons, finds Bibles

Frustrated Islamic State commander searches monastery for weapons, finds Bibles

By Mark Ellis and Michael Ashcraft, Special to ASSIST News Service

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA (ANS - October 21, 2015) -- Sister Hayat, a 30-year-old Iraqi nun, lived a quiet life of devotion in a Dominican monastery near Mosul, Iraq. She helped care for children in an orphanage and also taught anthropology at a local university. Then Islamic State jihadists overran the city.

“When we realized that running was our only option, all the nuns packed a bag,” she said. “We met in the church and prayed, before kissing the floor one last time and closing the door of the monastery behind us.”

She is now helping refugees in the city of Erbil, where she spent the last five months caring for elderly nuns, according to a report by World Watch Monitor.

A few days after fleeing, an Islamic State commander called the abbess, Sister Maria, to taunt her. “Just to let you know, I’m sitting in your chair now and am running things here,” he said.

Then he demanded to know where the sisters kept their weapons; he couldn’t conceive that such an important building in the community would be without an armory, Hayat told World Watch Monitor.

Sister Maria guided him to the library.

But his careful search didn’t turn up what he was looking for and he called her back, noticeably upset.

“There are no weapons here, just books,” the man shouted through the phone.

Photo captions: 1) Refugees flee Mosul. 2) A refugee camp in Erbil.

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About the writer: Mark Ellis is senior correspondent for the ASSIST News service and also the founder of www.Godreports.com , a website that shares stories, testimonies and videos from the church aorund the world to build interest and involvement in world missions.

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

Building a Christian hospital in an area 98% Muslim

Building a Christian hospital in an area 98% Muslim

By Mark Ellis, Special to ASSIST News Service

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA (ANS - October 21, 2015) -- God has given a Pakistani pastor the vision to build a 100-bed Christian hospital in an area south of Lahore that is 98% Muslim. He’s building a 10-foot-high wall around the property and housing for security guards first.

In 1989, after Pastor Saleem Massey earned a seminary degree in the U.S., someone asked about his ministry vision as he returned to the land of his birth.

“I want to plant 12 churches, start a Bible school and a hospital,” he told the inquirer. Some 26 years later, he has planted 16 churches, multiple schools, and is on his way to fulfilling the totality of God’s plan.

Poor villages surround the five-acre parcel he purchased on a main highway south of Lahore where he plans to build The Good Shepherd Christian Hospital. There are no existing medical facilities in this area and his plan is to treat the poor for free.

“My passion is to introduce Jesus and spread the fame of Jesus by compassion, love, and mercy, to let the Muslim world know we love them,” Pastor Massey says. “It will be a charity hospital and the poor will not pay,”

“The cross will be exalted on top of the hospital,” he adds.

Born in a nominally Christian family, Pastor Massey accepted Jesus as his Savior in 1972 after attending an evangelistic meeting conducted by his cousin, Pastor Ashiq.

Pastor Massey has encountered fierce opposition in his efforts to plant churches in predominantly Muslim villages. “They don’t want us to plant churches among Christians living in Muslim villages,” he notes.

“The Christians are working for the Muslims as bonded slaves. We go there so we can lift them up.”

A few years ago, Muslim opposition forced him to stop construction of a church in Ladi Village.

“We do not allow you to build a church because you believe in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – that’s blasphemy,” his Muslim accusers said. “You beat drums for your music and we have a mosque nearby and don’t want to hear it. And, since Islam has come there is no need of any other religion.”

Pastor Massey fought a legal battle to build his church for two years in the courts.

One day he received three emails, two from churches in the U.S. and one from a church in Australia, telling Pastor Massey they were praying for him to get approval to build his church.

Then something amazing happened on the same day he received the email.

Photos: 1) Dr. Saleem Massey with orphans whose parents were burned alive by radical Muslims. 2) Building the wall around the new hospital.

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About the writer: Mark Ellis is senior correspondent for the ASSIST News service and also the founder of www.Godreports.com , a website that shares stories, testimonies and videos from the church aorund the world to build interest and involvement in world missions.

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

Living the Faith Where It's Not Safe to Believe

Killing Christians: Living the Faith Where It's Not Safe to Believe (Book Review)
By Dan Wooding, Founder of the ASSIST News Service
NASHVILLE, TN. (ANS – September 6, 2015) - Forty Egyptian churches burned to the ground. House church leaders sentenced to Iran's infamous Evin prison. Eighty Christians murdered in North Korea for merely owning a Bible. Believers nailed to crosses in Syria. And that was the news for just one month in 2014. The terror has continued into 2015 to unimaginable heights.
Widespread persecution can't stop the faithful who spread Jesus' love in the face of grave danger. Check out the news, and note the places where war, poverty, racism, seething religious violence, and killing seem to own the day. Right in the middle of it all, Jesus' church is thriving.
In Killing Christians: Living the Faith Where It's Not Safe to Believe (W Publishing Group, ISBN 9780718030681), Middle East director for e3 Partners Tom Doyle (with the help of Greg Webster, shares the personal stories of persecuted Christians, many of whom pay the ultimate price for their faith. From secret meetings to torture rooms, Doyle brings readers eight unique stories from the front lines with never-before-heard testimony of those Christians being targeted.
According to a news release sent to the ASSIST News Service, Christians are being persecuted, but this book is about hope. The people in these stories are real and the depth of their faith is unfathomable and inspiring as they live it out in the midst of overwhelming odds and the evil that surrounds them.
“There is remarkable freedom in having no expectations, no plans for tomorrow,” says Farid Assad of Syria. “The question I and many others start every day with is this: ‘Jesus, what do You have planned for me and my family?’ Only today matters. Only how I live for Jesus counts. Everything else is superficial. When I hand over my life to my Lord, knowing each day may be my last one on this earth, I am more at peace than ever before.”
Tom Doyle pastored churches in Colorado, Texas, and New Mexico for twenty years before becoming a missionary in the Middle East. His passion for Israel was fed through guiding tours there, eventually becoming a tour guide for the State of Israel. Tom also serves as the Middle East director of e3 Partners (http://e3partners.org), a global church planting ministry. He is the author of three books, Breakthrough, Two Nations Under God, and Dreams and Visions. He and his wife, JoAnn, have six children and two grandchildren.
Note: Thomas Nelson, part of HarperColiins Christian Publishing, is a world-leading provider of Christian content and has been providing readers with quality inspirational product for more than 200 years. The publishing group provides multiple formats of award-winning Bibles, books, gift books, coolbooks, curriculum and digital content, with distribution of its products in more than 100 countries. Thomas Nelson is headquartered in Nashville, TN. For additional information, please visit: www.thomasnelson.com .
Media Contact: Stephanie Newton, Director of Publicity, (615) 902-2320, Stephanie.Newton@HarperCollins.com
Photo captions: 1) Book cover. 2) Tom Doyle. 3) Dan Wooding reporting from Tiananmen Square, China, for ANS.
About the writer: Dan Wooding, 74, is an award-winning author, broadcaster and journalist who was born in Nigeria of British missionary parents, and is now living in Southern California with his wife Norma, to whom he has been married for more than 52 years. They have two sons, Andrew and Peter, and six grandchildren who all live in the UK. Dan is the founder and international director of ASSIST (Aid to Special Saints in Strategic Times) and the ASSIST News Service (ANS). He is also the author of some 45 books.
** You may republish this or any of our ANS stories with attribution to the ASSIST News Service (www.assistnews.net)
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