|
|
|
December 2006 |
|
|
I was in front of a tribunal of three secret police officers in a provincial police headquarters building in Southeast Asia several weeks ago. We were asked to register our passports in a small town following a church celebration we had attended. We had received permission from national leaders to survey communities and churches in the country; these secret police didn’t get the memo. We found out later they had spent two years doing everything in their power to shut down the church in that region.
In 2001, MBMS International had contributed support to build a church in this particular village. Immediately after construction of this church building, the pastor was arrested and put in a 3 x 3 meter underground hole (with a 1.5 meter ceiling), packed in with 30 other men, most violent criminals. Disease and death claimed a number of lives and he eventually prayed for death himself. He was released after a month and returned to his village to find the secret police had quarantined the village and gone house to house forcing Christians to renounce their faith.
We were the first western Christians to visit this church. Our solidarity with these and other Christians was not appreciated by the secret police, who confiscated our passports and proceeded to hold them in the provincial headquarters for one week. We were interrogated and then released. Christian leaders throughout the country heard of our situation and began praying for us. They expressed their appreciation that we were willing to support them in their struggle for religious freedom.
The national government is attempting to soften their stance toward the Church, but it will be a slow process. We have nurtured a growing network of 32,000 Christians in the country over the past decade. Their leadership looks to our workers in the region for guidance and discipleship. In village after village, the growth of the church is bringing dramatic transformation to families and the community! The people we work with in this area are looked down upon as backward tribal people by the ruling culture. However, it is amongst them that a spiritual revival has ignited which is now sweeping the country. We also continue to support them with gifts of fish ponds, cows and water wells.
This is God’s story and we invite your continued prayers and financial support as we invest in holistic church planting that transforms communities amongst the least reached! What’s amazing is that God is using the “foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one can boast before him.” (1 Cor.1:27-29)
-Randy Friesen
Ministry Highlights:
-We have seen a number of conversions in northern India and have several long term team members applying for service.
-Our European and North Africa worker retreat in Portugal this week was an incredible blessing and God has encouraged our teams there with lots of new vision for their work.
Urgent Prayer:
-Please pray for our evangelists in Southeast Asia. They traveled with us to visit the growing church earlier this month and stayed longer than the rest of our team. They are currently being detained by the authorities and we are praying for their release.
-Please pray for an imprisoned Southeast Asian pastor. His wife has planted many churches in the seven years her husband has been in jail. We continue to support their family and others who need our assistance.
 Click here to download Randy Friesen's Vision For Mission in PDF format 366.33 Kb
|
|