Thursday, 4 December 2008

RENEWED MUSLIM JIHAD THREATENS MINISRTY IN NIGERIA


Nigeria ― Muslims have renewed battle efforts in their decades-long dispute with Christians in Nigeria.
Plateau State, located in central Nigeria, is on the front line between the Muslim-dominated northern region of Nigeria and the predominately-Christian south. Jos, the capital city of Plateau State, has recently been the location of many violent attacks. 400 have been confirmed dead, and attacks have been centered on the burning of churches and Christian homes.
An indigenous mission agency, Grace Foundation Inland Mission, requests prayer for believers in Jos. Grace Foundation reports that pastors and believers were among the 400 killed, contributing to the belief that attacks were targeted at Christians.
"They claim it is a reaction to a local government election, but we all know that it is preconceived," said the group's international director, Andrew Abah, in an e-mail received by the home office. "Election has nothing to do with burning down of churches, killing of pastors and other Christians, and massive looting of Christian shops."
Some government officials say radicals are using violent religious oppression to disguise a political ploy.
One of Grace Foundation's missionaries was taken captive by Muslim extremists, but after 10 hours he managed to escape to safety. He is currently staying with a fellow missionary. Thousands of others who have been displaced by the violence are now taking shelter in public buildings such as police stations and hospitals.
"There is a 24-hour curfew but [it's] not fully adhered to by the Muslims," Abah reported. "They are quietly entering into houses and killing people."
In addition to their missionary work among regional unreached people groups, Grace Foundation also has a children's home for orphans and vulnerable children.
The staff moved children from the Unreached Children Home (UCH) to a safer location due to fear of becoming the militants' next target.
Shortly after the move, Muslims marched to the Grace International mission base to set fire to the facility. In God's providence, however, they were deterred by Christians until the military arrived and intervened. The government has deployed almost 300 armed soldiers to control the violence.
Please pray for Christians in Nigeria. Pray for the preservation of Grace Foundation and for an end to these attacks.

MAN USES CELLPHONES TO EVANGELIZE


Man Uses Cell Phones to Evangelize
While waiting in line at the bank yesterday, all around were cell phones ringing non-inspiration, meaningless noise. It made me think that Jesus would not like these lyrics that seem not appropriate to be broadcast by cell phones, especially at the Christian credit union. It seems that all around us now a days, there are cell phones ringing ungodly, intrusive, or satanic ring tones that misdirect people who are in need of hope and faith? Just look around and one can come to the realization that, Satan is taking over the world using cell phones. With that in mind, we must fight fire with fire, and use the cell phones as modern Christian armor. A cell phone in the hands of a good Christian is a powerful weapon against Satan. Knowing that the spiritual battle has now come down to using the cell phone to spread God's word, it made perfect sense that the next stop after the bank was the Sprint store. It was time to upgrade to a high-bred cell phone. After testing a bunch of phones, the Motorola V950 was definitely the best sounding. Now it was time to go home and start searching the web for some Christian and Christmas ring tones. Right away I landed the mother load of quality Christian ringers, www.ChristmasRingtunes.com.
After reading some news articles about www.ChristmasRingtunes.com, it was obvious that this is a honest company, working for Jesus, and dedicated to the Emmanuel Orphanages of Tijuana. A nice feature is that there is no subscription required, and you can download one ringtune at a time with no other commitments. A really positive feature is the profits from www.ChristmasRingtunes.com goes into the Emmanuel Orphanage fence building fund. Also it is free to preview over fifty great Christian and Christmas ring tunes. After researching the Emmanuel Orphanage, I found some information on them. They are a non-denominational Christian ministry that provides homes, education, medical care and love to nearly 150 children rescued from the streets of Tijuana. It houses young boys from age 5 - 18 years of age. In 2006, Emmanuel Orphanage opened the first facility for homeless and sexually exploited girls. When a person downloads from www.ChristmasRingtunes.com, the Orphanage is one step closer to having a fence that is desperately needed to protect the children.
So when it comes to spreading the word of our Lord and Savior to the people in need of faith and spiritual uplifting, Christmas Ringtunes seems to have something for everybody. Within seconds from listening to the very first ring tune, I started praising and giving thanks. What a blessing. With God s word and spiritual enlightenment, Christians should be aware of the power of our cell phones ring tunes.
It should not be left unsaid, that anyone using their cell phone as a ministry to spread the word of our Lord Jesus Christ, can expect to be blessed. Other great biblical ring tones at www.ChristmasRingtunes.com are "Believe In God", "Jesus Said" , "Holy Holy Holy" and "Jesus Loves Me". I called this organization customer support line and found that they call back right away with excellent support and I was reassured a successful ring tone download, or there is no charge.
Some other favorites are "No Christmas Without You", listed as number 53, and for all of the seniors and people that enjoy the spirit of Christmas, "O Holy Night" by the artist Gilia is a blessing. Other great ringtunes are "The First Noel", "Silent Night", "12 Days of Christmas", "Away In A Manger" and "Hark The Herald Angels Sing".

8 MILLION GIFT FILLED BOXES TO REACH THE NEEDY CHILDREN AROUND THE WORLD


UNITED STATES - The world’s largest Christmas project is celebrating the collection of 8 million gift-filled shoe boxes that will be shipped overseas and hand-delivered to needy children around the world.
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Since 1993, Operation Christmas Child has collected and hand-delivered more than 61 million gift-filled shoeboxes to children in some 130 countries. This year’s collection of 8 million will go out to more than 100 countries.
“The cool thing about these boxes is that each of these will be filled with toys but they’ll also have a gospel tract in the language of the people that will be receiving it,” says pastor Greg Laurie of Harvest Christian Fellowship in Riverside, Calif.
“And you can also put a letter in it if you’d like and even correspond with the people that will receive the box, and many people have written back,” he added.
On Tuesday, the Orange County Processing Center for Operation Christmas Child sent off the boxes that it had collected, marking the first send-off of the three scheduled to take place this week. On Wednesday, the Denver Processing Center was scheduled to send off at 10:30 a.m., and on Thursday, the Charlotte Proccessing Center will have its send-off at 10:30 a.m.
“[H]aving been on the receiving side – where we gather the boxes – and the distribution side, I’ve seen the look of joy that comes in a child’s face when they open up that box,” Laurie told members of his congregation Sunday before his megachurch dedicated the 8,000 boxes it had collected.
“And it's Christmas for them,” he added, noting also that the boxes are distributed all year long.
This year, churches and households across America joined with those in 10 other countries to send gift-filled shoe boxes throughout the world. More than 2,200 collection sites were set up throughout all 50 states in America and more than 130,000 volunteers worldwide – including some 100,000 volunteers in the United States – joined forces to prepare the boxes for transport to distant lands.
Though National Collection Week officially concluded on Nov. 24, shoe box gifts can be mailed to the office of Christian relief organization Samaritan's Purse, which runs Operation Christmas Child.

LEBANESE CHRISTIAN LEADER RECONCILES WITH SYRIA


DAMASCUS, Syria: A prominent Lebanese Christian leader who fought and lost a bloody battle with Syrian troops in Lebanon nearly two decades ago received a red carpet welcome Wednesday by Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Michel Aoun's visit comes as the two countries are trying to establish harmonious and friendly relations. Apart from meeting Assad, Aoun will also hold talks with Syrian officials and leaders of Syria's Christian community over the next five days.
But the visit has been criticized by anti-Syrian Lebanese politicians, many of whom urged Aoun to cancel the trip. Aoun said his animosity ended when Syrian troops left Lebanon in 2005.
As acting prime minister and military commander in 1989, Aoun fought against Syrian troops in Lebanon. A year later, Syrian forces drove his troops out of their positions, forcing him into exile in France. He returned home in 2005, after Syria withdrew, ending nearly 30 years of domination of its smaller neighbor.
Later, Aoun entered an alliance with the pro-Syrian Lebanese militant group Hezbollah in its confrontation against Lebanon's Western-backed government.

He now heads the largest Christian bloc in the Lebanese parliament. Other Christian groups and Sunnis have criticized his alliance with the Hezbollah. Those ties boosted Aoun's standing within Lebanon's powerful Shiite community, and allowed Hezbollah to claim that its opposition to the pro-Western government went beyond its Shiite base.
"I am very happy with this visit and hope it will be the beginning of a bright period in the history of Syrian-Lebanese relations," Syria's state-run news agency, SANA, quoted Aoun as saying shortly after arrival.
After a two-hour meeting with Assad, Aoun told reporters at the presidential palace: "We spoke with open hearts and minds in order to clear the Lebanese-Syrian conscience. The person who clings to the past cannot build a future."
In the past, Aoun angered Syria when he testified against it in Washington and campaigned for the so-called Syria Accountability Act. The U.S. Congress passed the act in 2003, accusing Damascus of sponsoring terrorists and seeking weapons of mass destruction.
His visit Wednesday comes six months before Lebanon's parliamentary elections.
Aoun's showing in the 2009 vote could determine who wins a parliament majority and forms the government. It is believed that the main election battles will be in the Christian regions and over the seats he controls. His opponents contend that Christians won't back him because their mood is not pro-Syrian.
In their meeting, Aoun and Assad are also believed to have discussed the fate of Lebanese missing since Lebanon's 1975-90 civil war. The families of the missing and human rights group say Syria is holding dozens of Lebanese.