CHRISTIANS IN INDIA " REJOICING " UNDER NEW GOVERNMENT

India - Hopeful excitement is building in India as the new government, which has already taken steps to protect Christians from persecution, begins its administration.
"Everyone is now anticipating five years not only of political stability, but also 5 years of having a government that wants to protect minorities," said Dave Stravers, president of Grand Rapids, Michigan-based Mission India.
Parliament passed new directives for law enforcement about a week ago for the protection of minorities, Stravers said.
"You can substitute the word 'Christians' there for 'minorities,' because it was a direct response to what happened last year in the state of Orissa and other places where Christians are being attacked," he explained. "So this is really a very significant transition."
Many believe the transition is occurring not only in the political world but also among the people of India.
"Even the secular and Hindu pundits in India are saying that this election shows a cultural shift happening," Stravers said. "People are tired of the politics of hate; they're tired of the religious extremism; they're tired of what they call 'casteism.' They don't want this kind of politics anymore. So this is very good news for the Gospel."
The Gospel has been spreading rapidly throughout India, and religious tolerance could open even more doors.
"India is so responsive to the Gospel right now," Stravers said. "We are hearing from virtually all the corners of India about openness, response, people being baptized by the thousands, even the tens of thousands...It just appears to us that all the conditions are right for a wonderful, massive, movement to Christ in India.
"Keep your eyes open, because you're going to be reading and hearing a lot more stories of what's happening in India."
On his last trip to India, Stravers learned one such story from a young man who had grown up as a very devout Hindu. A Christian had brought Scripture for his family, but later his family moved away.
"He said that from the age of 9, he felt the Lord had been pursuing him, and he had been resisting it," Stravers said. "Finally, God started giving him dreams, and these dreams in the night directed him to talk to certain people that he knew; he didn't know they were Christians."
Stravers met the man a few weeks after he and his wife were baptized.
"Even though the result was he lost his job and his family is opposing him, he's just very happy and telling everyone his story," Stravers said. He compared the way God pursued this young man to the way God is working in the nation of India.
"In this case He decided to pursue this man...for 20 years, till he came to Christ through a dream and a witnessing friend," he said. "From my perspective, God has decided to pursue India. And when God is pursuing you, something remarkable is going to happen."
The election could also benefit the lowest, most oppressed caste in Indian society -- the Dalits. Many Christians are Dalits, and Mission India is working hard to provide support and training for them.
"The Christians in India are among the poorest people in the country...the kind of people you saw in Slumdog Millionaire" Stravers said. "Those are the people who are coming to Christ in great numbers."
Stravers encouraged Christians to pray that God will provide for poor Christians, and that the government will continue to protect minority populations.
"Pray that it's really true that there will be some peace, some stability, and the doors will stay open," he said. "Also pray that extremists, whether they're Hindus or Muslims, will not be successful in intimidating or creating fear among believers."

A FIFTH GRADER BRINGS AN ENTIRE FAMILY TO FAITH

Nicaragua ― One night Chema Lopez, a JESUS Film team leader, was sitting outside his home in Nicaragua with his daughter. A young man approached them, introducing himself as Gabriel Antonio Madrigal. Gabriel explained that he was a Christian because of a presentation Chema did at his school seven years ago when he was in fifth grade.
Gabriel and his class watched "Jesus for Children," and then Gabriel prayed to become a Christian. When he got home, he told his parents that he had seen the presentation, that he'd become a Christian, and brought home the small book that Chema had given each student.
Gabriel was the oldest of four boys. His father drank very heavily and abused his mother very badly. After hearing of Gabriel's commitment to Christ, his father did not change. However, a month later, in 2002, Gabriel found his father in their living room reading the small book and crying. He became a Christian that day, and life changed drastically for Gabriel's family. The drinking and abuse stopped, and his father began conversing with and giving advice to his sons. Today, every member of his family is a believer.
JESUS Film has been considered one of the most successful evangelistic projects ever. However, they believe that the true success isn't the number of people who have already seen it, but the number who will follow Christ after seeing it. They seek to share the Gospel with people in their heart language via media.
Praise God for the courage of young Gabriel and the change that he initiated in his family. Praise God for His perfect timing and the impact that JESUS Film Project is having around the world.

CHURCH OF ENGLAND TRIES TO BROADEN APPEAL WITH SONGS BY U2 AND PRAYERS FOR GOOGLE

The ideas for alternative-style worship are part of an initiative launched by Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, to appeal to the younger generation.
They are set out in a new book compiled by the Church's Fresh Expressions programme, which aims to boost church attendance with more relevant and exciting services.

However, traditionalists have criticised the unorthodox services as "pointless" and "shallow", and have warned that experimenting with Church tradition would do more harm than good.
One Holy Communion service promoted in the book, called Ancient Faith, Future Mission, begins with the congregation being shown a video clip from the YouTube website about a United Nations anti-poverty campaign.
Worshippers are told that "our planet is messed up" and that "things are not right".
They are then asked to approach the altar and rub sea salt on their fingers to represent tears, before walking around and meditating at eight "prayer stations" representing themes such as "gender equality" and "environmental sustainability".
A psalm is recited in "beat poetry" style to the accompaniment of African Djembe drums, and prayers are said "for the corporate world, for influential CEOs who oversee billion-dollar industries".
The prayers continue: "We pray for John Chambers of Cisco Systems, Bill Gates of Microsoft, Dr Eric Schmidt of Google Inc, H Lee Scott Jr of Wal-Mart Stores and others who have already made commitments to justice."
Among the alternative services explored in the book, which is co-edited by the Rt Rev Steven Croft, the new Bishop of Sheffield, are so-called "U2charists", services in which the congregation receives communion but sings the songs of the Irish rock band U2 instead of traditional hymns.
The services, which include such songs as "Mysterious Ways", "One", and "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For", have been pioneered at St Swithin's church in Lincoln.
The book also features Transcendence, an event held in York Minister in which traditional Latin chant is set by DJs to hip hop or ambient dance music and video images are projected onto the walls.
The Rev Sue Wallace, who has pioneered the event by blending modern technology with ancient prayers, says that the response has been overwhelmingly positive.
Many of the services promoted in the book feature physical activity and symbols alongside traditional sermons.
In chapter of the book, Archbishop Williams says: "The Bible is full of stories about God communicating through act and sign as well as language ... Far from being bound to communication through clear information economically expressed in words, our society is still deeply sensitive to symbols and inclined to express important feelings and perceptions in this way."
The Fresh Expressions initiative was launched by the Archbishop in 2004 to combat the significant drop in churchgoing that has been seen in Britian over recent decades. In the past few years the decline appears to have steadied.
Church leaders are particularly concerned about the loss of younger people, who are abandoning the pews at a greater rate than their older counterparts.
The Rt Rev Graham Cray, who heads the Fresh Expressions initiative, said that it was vital that the Church explored new ways of engaging with modern culture.
"We have to reconnect with a very large percentage of the population that has no contact or interest in traditional church," he said.
"It is important to offer spirituality to people who are offered a multi-choice lifestyle and who think that the last place they'll find it is in church."
He said that the new services were carefully designed for specific communities and stressed they was not supposed to challenge traditional worship.
However, the Rev David Houlding, prebendary at St Paul's Cathedral, bemoaned the Church's attempt to widen its appeal.
"All this is tosh. It's just a passing fad, irrelevant, shallow and pointless," he said.
"There's no depth to it and it's embarrassing because it'll make people think that we're eccentric and silly."
The Fresh Expressions initiative has spawned churches for surfers as well as commissioning priests to work in night clubs and skateboard parks.

NASA BACKS MONTH LONG HOMOSEXUAL PRIDE CELEBRATION MONTH

NASA is celebrating homosexual pride month.
After a presidential proclamation declaring June homosexual pride month, NASA is drawing some reaction for its support. Mat Staver of Liberty Counsel tells OneNewsNow NASA has obviously gone off course and they need to get back on track.

"NASA needs to focus on what it's good at and that is sending people to the moon, not celebrating sexual perversity," he believes. "NASA has clearly misfired here. It's off track. It's out of step with the American people, and I think it goes back to the president of the United States who is left of every social issue."

Staver does not believe people will tolerate Obama lifting up perversity. "When he simply ignores the Day of Prayer, he apologizes for America, says that America is not a Christian or a Jewish nation, and lauds Islam and apologizes to the Islamic leaders and bows down to them," he points out. Celebrating homosexuality will be part of America's downfall if its people do not change course, Staver concludes.

CHRISTIAN MURDERED FOR DRINKING TEA FROM A MUSLIM CUP IN PAKISTAN

International Christian Concern (www.persecution.org) has learned that radical Muslims running a tea stall beat a Christian man to death for using a cup designated for Muslims on May 9.

The young man, Ishtiaq Masih, had ordered tea at a roadside stall in Machharkay village, Punjab, Pakistan, after his bus made a rest stop. When Ishtiaq went to pay for his tea, the owner noticed that he was wearing a necklace with a cross and grabbed him, calling for his employees to bring anything available to beat him for violating a sign posted on the stall warning non-Muslims to declare their religion before being served. Ishtiaq had not noticed the warning sign before ordering his tea.

The owner and 14 of his employees beat Ishtiaq with stones, iron rods and clubs, and stabbed him multiple times with kitchen knives as Ishtiaq pleaded for mercy.The other bus passengers and other passers-by finally intervened and took Ishtiaq to the Rural Health Center in the village.

The doctor who took Ishtiaq's case told ICC that Ishtiaq had died due to excessive internal and external bleeding, a fractured skull, and brain injuries.Makah Tea Stall is located on the Sukheki-Lahore highway and is owned by Mubarak Ali, a 42-year-old radical Muslim.

ICC's correspondent visited the tea stall and observed that a large red warning sign with a death's head symbol was posted which read, "All non-Muslims should introduce their faith prior to ordering tea. This tea stall serves Muslims only." The warning also threatened anyone who violated the rule with "dire consequences."

A neighboring shopkeeper told ICC on condition of anonymity that all Ali's employees are former students of radical Muslim madrassas (seminaries). Ishtiaq's family said that they immediately reported the incident to the police and filed a case against Ali. However, the murderers are still freely operating the tea stall.

When ICC asked the Pindi Bhatian Saddar police station about the murder, the police chief said that investigations were underway and they are treating it as a faith-based murder by biased Muslims. When asked about Ali's warning sign, police chief Muhammad Iftikhar Bajwa claimed that he could not take it down. However, the constitution of Pakistan explicitly prohibits such discrimination.