World Church update

One of my goals with this blog is to develop a greater awareness amongst Christians of what is happening in the church on a worldwide scale, often it's very easy us in the USA to be completely ignorant about what is happening in the church in the rest of the world. But we ignore the international church at our own peril, the days of the church in the States being one of the greatest missionary-sending, church-planting nations are long gone. Today those places are probably Columbia and China. So, check back often for news on various international church happenings, and if you have any missions newsletters or e-mail updates you receive, let me know!

This week's update is from India. For the past three years my local church has been working with several other Berean churches on the 300 in 3 project with a goal of training 300 Indian church planting pastors in three years. As of early December my church, which was responsible to train 100 of the pastors, had trained 97. However several of those pastors-most of whom are converted Hindus- have already been threatened by Hindu fundamentalists and told to stop preaching. There are also many amazing stories that are causes for great joy. One preacher went into a shop and the owner asked him what he did, the preacher told him and the owner was very antagonistic but the preacher kindly tried to explain why he does what he does and even gave the owner the address where their church meets (currently the pastor's home). The next day the owner, feeling badly for how he had treated the man went to his house to apologize and he ended up becoming a Christian. He and his entire family are now hosting a small group Bible study in their home.

It is a beautiful thing to see how the gospel continues to have the same power it's always had and continues to be effective in India, the very country in which the modern-missions movement began 200 years ago under William Carey.

Please remember the Indian church in your prayers, the following story from Voice of the Martyrs should show why they are in such need of our prayers.

" On December 23, 2006, Hindu extremists burned down a church and disrupted services in several Indian states. They continued their harassment and arrested carol singers on Christmas Eve. In a separate event, a pastor and 10 other missionaries were beaten and arrested for singing carols. They were later released. In another incident, Hindu extremist group, Bajrang Dal, attacked 20 Christians gathered in a church. "They stormed into the church, beat some of the Christians and destroyed hymnbooks and Bibles. Five Christians were injured in the attack, three suffered hearing loss due to a blow to the head, and a Bible a school student's hand was fractured," Compass Direct News reported. Pray God heals those that were injured and protects them, giving them boldness to continue their Christian walk. Acts 4:29, 30 "

Also, a week and a half ago the Pyromaniacs posted a jarring blog that reminds all of us that for many the cost of following Jesus is much greater than it is here in the USA.