CHRISTIAN PRISONERS TO HAVE A CHURCH AT PAKISTAN JAIL

RAWALPINDI, PAKISTAN -- As a result of concerted efforts by the Sharing Life Ministry Pakistan (SLMP) aimed at seeking approval of a church at the premises of Adiala Jail in the Pakistani city of Rawalpindi, near Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, the jail authorities have this granted this request.

Adiala Jail
"God has granted us place for a Church at district Jail Adiala, Rawalpindi. On August 27, 2008 the superintendent of District Jail Adiala, Rana Rauf formally allotted the place for church," Sohail Johnson the Chief Coordinator of the Sharing Life Ministry Pakistan told ANS.
He described the winning of the authorities' approval for construction of a church at the jail as a "greatest success" of the ministry. Sohail said he was pleased that the prisoners would soon have a place to pray. He regretted that at present only 2 out of 32 prisons in the province of Punjab have churches.
"I thank you all who supported us while we were fighting for construction of a church at the jail premises," Johnson told ANS.
The Christian human rights activist while talking to ANS said he wanted to see prayer rooms in all jails of the province of Punjab.
"We have recently won remission inside jail for Christian prisoners on the basis of completion of Bible study courses," he said.
Prisoners' initiative
The Christian prisoners of Adiala Jail had staged a hunger strike at the jail last year when their prayer facility, a laundry room, was packed with prisoners, most of whom were lawyers, who protested after former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf sacked Chief Justice of Pakistan, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry on March 9, 2007.
Robbed of their prayer facility the Christian prisoners of Adiala Jail started hunger strike on March 21. In an apparent move to express its solidarity with the protesting prisoners and to draw the authorities' attention toward the problem, the SLMP staged a protest demonstration in front of the Lahore Press Club on March 22 last year, prompting the authorities to allow prisoners to worship at the jail premises.
Moved by the incident, the Chief of the Sharing Life Ministry Pakistan, Sohail Johnson resolved to seek permission from the jail authorities for construction of a Church at the premises of Adiala Jail so that the Christian prisoners could worship the Lord.
The Christian prisoners started constructing the church after receiving a formal directive from the Superintendent of Adiala Jail. The SLMP, Johnson said, provided funds for construction material and the ministry's team, has visited District Jail Adiala to see the construction work, he said.
ANS has learnt that Riaz, a Christian prisoner, has designed the church, which includes a veranda, prayer hall, courtyard and lawn in front of the church, said Sohail Johnson, adding that they plan to transform a small laundry room into a Christian library. He told ANS that most of the construction has been completed with local donations.
Sohail said some 21 Christian prisoners were doing Church construction work. "Christian prisoners are overjoyed after approval of a church. They are constructing the church building with great zeal", said Sohail.
Desperate Need
The walls of the church have been completed, now a roof is needed to be built and Christian prisoners also need 150 bags of cement, and 1600X15 kilogram iron for the construction of roof. It is an urgent need of church, while furniture (6 chairs, pulpit & table etc) and some material for electric work are also required.
Sohail confided in ANS that the Superintendent urged the SLMP visiting team to ensure construction of the church as soon as possible, fearing that a new officer in his place in case of his transfer may not like the idea of church at the jail premises.
He urged the Christians across the world to pray for provision of Pakistani rupees 240,000 (US$2,969.93 USD) which, he said, were needed for church construction. The prospective donors could send financial assistance to the Sharing Life Ministry Pakistan Account no.01-200-2209-8 Allied Bank, Bridge Colony, Cantt branch, Lahore, Pakistan. Swift Code: ABPAPKKAA979
Sheraz Khurram Khan has been reporting from Pakistan for ASSIST News Service on Christian persecution and minorities' situation since 2005. He is also a representative of the International Press Association (IPA), USA.

U.S STUDENT ARRESTED IN TEHRAN WHILE WORKING ON THESIS PROJECT

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA / TEHRAN, IRAN (ANS) -- Officials in the United States are looking into the recent arrest of an Iranian-American student in Tehran who was working on a research project on women's rights in Iran. Officials said Esha Momeni was arrested October 15 in Tehran, Iran.

Esha Momeni was arrested October 15 and is being held for interrogation in Section 209, the notorious security ward of Iran's Evin prison in Tehran, Iran, US officials said.According to CNN, Esha Momeni, a graduate student at California State University-Northridge, was arrested October 15 in Tehran for unlawfully passing another vehicle while driving, according to Change For Equality, an Iranian women's movement.
"We're seeking additional information about this case," State Department spokesman Robert Wood said Wednesday. "We stand with all those in Iran who are working for universal human rights and justice in their countries."
CNN reports that Momeni, who was born in Los Angeles, California, is a member of Change for Equality's California chapter. She arrived in Tehran two months ago to work on her Masters' thesis project on the Iranian women's movement, according to the group, which is in touch with Momeni's family in Iran.
CNN says Momeni is being held in a section of Tehran's notorious Evin Prison that is managed by the Intelligence Ministry, the group said. Evin Prison houses many Iranian dissidents and political prisoners, and it is where four Iranian-Americans were held for several months last year. All have been released.
Iranian officials had promised Momeni's family that she would be immediately released if the news of her arrest was not published, the organization said, according to a CNN report.
"While Esha's friends and colleagues were insistent about announcing the news of her arrest immediately, based on requests from her family this news was announced with delay," Change for Equality said on its Web site.
Momeni's parents decided to release the information after they went to Iran's Revolutionary Court on Sunday -- five days after her arrest -- to inquire about her case, and they were told not to return until the investigation into her case has been completed, according to Change for Equality.
CNN explained that the Momeni family returned to Iran after the 1979 Islamic revolution, but Esha had gone back to the United States several years ago to study for her Masters' degree, according to a blog post from her journalism professor, Melissa Wall.
A separate blog calling for her release (http://www.for-esha.blogspot.com/ ) has been established and includes an interview with Wall, who describes her student as "an exceptionally bright person, very creative and artistic." She calls herself "shocked" to hear of Momeni's arrest.
"I'm aware that such things happen in Iran, but I'm confident that they have nothing to fear from Esha's research project," Wall said. "It is simply an academic exercise, not meant for publication outside of academic circles. I cannot image why she should be held in detention."
On her personal blog, Wall said, "She is a videographer who was simply interviewing Iranian women. She has broken no laws, has not done anything wrong."
In a report by Matthew Weaver and with information from other news agencies on the website http://www.guardian.co.uk/ , it was stated that Momeni was working on her thesis on women's rights in Iran. She was arrested for unlawfully passing another vehicle while driving October 15 and is being held in Tehran's notorious Evin Prison. News of arrest was originally withheld because her family was told she would be released
According to Amnesty International, she was initially arrested for a traffic offence on October 15, but then her computer and other materials were confiscated, and she was taken to Evin prison, which is notorious for holding political prisoners.
The Guardian, a British newspaper, says her family was told by an Iranian court that her case was still being investigated and no details would be released until after the inquiry was completed. Iranian judicial officials have not commented on the case, and no other details were immediately available in Iran.
Momeni is a member of the Iranian women's rights group Change for Equality, and the university has called for her to be released.
"Anyone who values knowledge and the role of academic inquiry in shedding light on the human condition should be concerned," said the university's president, Jolene Koester.
The US state department said it was aware of reports of Momeni's arrest and was seeking more information. Friends of Momeni have launched a website and Facebook group calling for her release.
Melissa Wall, Momeni's thesis adviser, said the student was aware of the risks of her work.
"We talked about the dangers. But in the end, it was her decision to go. She was interested in communicating to Americans a broader image of Iranian women."
Amnesty International said dozens of other activists and supporters have been arrested in Iran in connection with their work on the Change for Equality campaign, launched by Iranian women activists in September 2006. The campaign is seeking to collect a million signatures in support of changing laws that deny women in Iran equal rights.
Momeni was born in Los Angeles. Her father moved to the city in 1977 to pursue a civil engineering degree but later returned to Iran with his family. Momeni is being held for interrogation in Section 209, the notorious security ward of Iran's Evin prison.
An article in the Los Angeles Times by Ramin Mostaghim and Borzou Daragahi says Momeni was "playing with fire" when she returned to Tehran from Southern California to work on a project about women's rights.
The two reporters state she "escaped an unhappy marriage and the restraints of a traditional society, finding solace in poetry and a calling in women's rights activism in the West."
They say: "But the drama of contemporary Iran continued to tug at her. After living in her native Southern California for the last three years, Momeni returned to Tehran two months ago to videotape interviews for a project on women's rights. Amid a crackdown on such activities, she was playing with fire."
According to the LA Times report, Momeni, 28, was abruptly arrested two weeks ago. On Tuesday, she was still being held for interrogation in Section 209, the notorious security ward of Iran's Evin prison.
Her father and lawyer told The Times she had been allowed to make only one phone call to her family, and that her lawyer, Mohammed Ali Dadkhah, said Momeni was being denied access to legal counsel as a "temporary detainee," a condition that could last two months.
Before her arrest, Momeni had been scheduled to head back to California on Monday, her father said.
"The last time I talked to my daughter was one day after her arrest," said Reza Momeni, 60, a Tehran civil engineer. "She called me and said: 'Dad, I miss my family. Please give all my videos to the security guy coming to collect them.' "
The newspaper reports that Iranian officials say Esha Momeni is under investigation. No formal charges have been lodged.
"The relevant institutions and organizations are following the case," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hassan Qashqavi told reporters in Tehran on Monday. "She is under investigation and until the investigation is finalized, we cannot make any comment."
The LA Times says that before her arrest, Momeni, a Cal State Northridge student, followed a path that differed from much of the rest of Southern California's Iranian diaspora. Whereas many Iranians fled to the United States after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, her family moved back to Iran from the U.S. in the early 1980s.
Reza Momeni, a U.S. citizen and father of five, was studying in Southern California at the time of the revolution. When war broke out between Iran and Iraq in 1980, he moved his family back home. He helped rebuild damaged sites, working in conflict-ravaged areas around cities such as Bandar Abbas and Bushehr.
The paper says Esha Momeni showed an early passion for the arts, learning to play the tar, a traditional string instrument, and delving into poetry and literature. She graduated from a Tehran college with a degree in graphics and in 2003 married a man her father described as a "male chauvinist" with emotional problems.
"She had a bad experience," her father said. "Finally she managed to end her ordeal by divorcing him."
The LA Times report says that the bitter breakup drove her from arts to activism, specifically women's rights issues. She began participating in the One Million Signatures Campaign for Equality, a group that connects activists in Iran with Iranian communities in the West.
The Times says that activist organizations, many of which advocate peaceful political and social change, greatly irk authorities in the Islamic Republic. Iran accuses them of being fronts for Western powers seeking to topple the government using the "velvet revolution" tactics that contributed to the downfall of regimes in former Soviet states.
A report issued this month by a United Nations human rights watchdog raised concerns about "an increasing crackdown in the past year on the women's rights movement" in Iran, the newspaper stated.
"Women's rights activism is sometimes presented by the Iranian government as being connected to external security threats to the country," the report says.
On Sunday, security agents blocked Sussan Tahmasebi, a leader of One Million Signatures, from leaving Iran and seized her passport, according to New York-based Human Rights Watch.
Momeni moved back to the U.S. after her divorce in 2005. She joined with other scholars and activists working to improve the lot of Iranian women. Their activities sound harmless: gathering signatures for petitions, holding workshops and informing women of their legal rights.
However, Momeni's father says it was sentiment and family, not politics, that lured her back to Iran. "Whenever we talked about Iran she was tempted to come back," he said. "My daughter was not against the political order."
Against the advice of her academic advisors at Cal State Northridge, she returned two months ago to videotape interviews with women about their lives in Iran for a master's degree project, the newspaper said.
She was stopped Oct. 15 on Modarres Highway, Tehran's main north-south expressway, allegedly for speeding. Soon after she called her father, weeping. "She was scared," he recalled.
Security officers escorted her home, where they seized her computer before taking her away, the paper reported.
At a hearing at one of Tehran's Revolutionary Courts, a judge refused to accept the deed to the Momenis' home as bail or allow Dadkhah, a noted attorney, to speak on her behalf. For now, the lawyer has been briefing Momeni's mother on making legal presentations, the Times said.
"Every day, first thing in the morning, she goes to the entrance of Revolutionary Court, hoping to see her brought to trial," Reza Momeni said of his wife.
Dadkhah said he was confident the young woman would be released soon.
"Based on my experience, these sorts of arrests are conducted by low-level security personnel, rank-and-file personnel," he told The Times. "It takes time before the top officials are involved and settle the case wisely and prudently."
Reza Momeni noted that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad insisted during a visit last month to the U.N. that Iranians were free to say what they wanted.
"If my daughter makes a film about women's rights because she is proud that Iranian women are asserting their rights," Momeni said, "what is wrong with that?"

THE EXTRAORDINARY STORY OF BROTHER YUN - THE HEAVENLY MAN

IRVINE, CA (ANS) -- I wasn’t sure what to expect when I agreed to interview Brother Yun, the Chinese Christian whose book, The Heavenly Man, has been a worldwide bestseller.

Dan Wooding with Bishara Awad, president of the Bethlehem Bible College and Brother Yun at the studios of Safe Worlds IPTV
I have to say that, as a former critic of Brother Yun, a.k.a. Liu Zhenying (born 1958), an exiled Chinese Christian house church leader, evangelist, and proponent of the Back To Jerusalem movement, I was more than a little concerned that he might be upset at me for my previous comments about him.
But that was soon allayed when he arrived at the studios of Safe Worlds IPTV in Irvine, California, for the interview. A huge smile on his face, he came bounding in and threw his arms around me and hugged me like a long-lost brother.
I immediately warmed to Brother Yun and his loving personality as I launched into the interview, conducted via a translator from Finland called Brother Ren.
I began by thanking him for coming to the studios and his face again lit up like a lamp and he shouted, “Praise the Lord.”
Brother Yun began to sharing about his early life in the Southern part of Henan Province among the simple farmers and pheasants of Liu Lao Zhuang, Nanyang County.
“The reason I became a believer in Jesus Christ was because the western missionaries were obedient and they brought the gospel of Jesus to my home area,” he said. “My mother received the Gospel through the western missionaries in the nineteen-forties, but then the communists took power in China and they expelled all the missionaries.
“During the early years of the revolution, all the pastors were thrown to prison, all the Bibles were burned and all the church buildings everything was destroyed. But there was no way that they could bind and stop the Word of God to work in the hearts of my people.
“In 1978, the leader Mao Zedong, very boldly proclaimed that ‘we have moved Christianity to the history museums.’ But Mao Zedong and his wife were wrong. They were mistaken. When you go to China today you will find Mao Zedong in the history museum, but Jesus is working in the hearts of millions of people in China.”
I then asked Brother Yun how he became a Christian.
“I became as a believer in Jesus Christ during the last years of revolution at that time when Mao Zedong said he had ‘moved Christianity to the history museums.’ It was because of a miracle that I came to faith in Jesus.
“At that time, my mother did not dare to confess to anymore that she was a believer in Jesus, but in the middle of all this, God suddenly allowed my father to become sick and he contracted terminal cancer. One night, my mother was so upset that she decided to commit suicide by hanging herself and just when she was about to do that, she suddenly heard the voice of the Holy Spirit calling to her, ‘Come back home. Come back home. Jesus loves you.’ My mother pulled down the rope that was hanging from the ceiling and then she kneeled by the chair and reconciled her life with Jesus.
“After that, for the first time, she came to us children after midnight and said, ‘There is hope for my family. We have to call upon the name of Jesus.’ That was the first time in my life I heard the name of Jesus. My mother had never told us anything about Jesus before this. And so, with this simple understanding, we started to call upon the name of Jesus, a name that is above all the other names. It has greater power than cancer and within one week my father was completely healed and restored from terminal cancer.”

Dan Wooding with Brother Yun and his translator, Brother RenBrother Yun went on to say through his translator, “My salvation was very simple. My mother could not teach us a lot about the Christian faith, but she said that Jesus had come with ‘grace and truth’ and these were two things she was teaching us. Because of this great miracle that occurred in my family, we all became believers in Jesus. Our relatives came to visit our home after about a week and one after another, they also knelt and said that Jesus was alive and they also became believers in Jesus.
“The Bible says that ‘the ways of the Lord and the thoughts of the Lord are so much higher than our ways’ and less than a year later, when I was seventeen years old, late one evening I heard Jesus calling me and saying, ‘Brother, stand up and be my witness to the west and the south.’ That was my first meeting with Jesus. The amazing thing is the first one who opposed my idea to become a witness for Jesus was my own mother.
“In tears, I talked to my mother and told her, ‘Jesus has called me tonight to be his witness.’ I was sharing this with my mother and she told me that reason she was opposing me was, ‘I'm an old believer. If Jesus wanted to speak to somebody in this house, He would first speak to me.’ But I could not be disobedient to this heavenly calling and so from this time until today, I have tried to be obedient to witness to Jesus in west and south.”
I then asked Brother Yun what were the circumstances of his first arrest.
“Less than a year after I started to preach the Gospel and many miracles started to happen, hundreds of people came to faith and, of course, the authorities began to recognize that something is going on, and they posted a reward for my capture as a contra-revolutionary,” he said. “Once a person starts to proclaim that Jesus is alive and that He's the Son of God in atheistic, communist China during those years just after the revolution, you became immediately a threat to the leadership.
“The first time I was arrested was when I was seventeen years old and together with my mother, we were bound together and led around the village in a procession. Still, I was able for almost ten years, to share the gospel but then, in early nineteen-eighties, there was a tremendous hunting going on in China and they wanted to catch the Christians and I was caught. But I have my own interpretation about this I had been almost ten years in fulltime ministry I was exhausted and worn out burnt out. So God prepared me a Chinese style vacation to go and rest.
“I didn't end up in a prison because I had committed any crime; it was just my faithfulness to the Gospel and He gave me the mercy and the grace to endure it. I spent four years in the prison the first time. That first imprisonment became very important for my life. During a period I was going through a torture in prison, I heard a voice. As a contra-revolutionary, you only had two options; you were either sentenced to life imprisonment or to be executed. That was a totally impossible situation. Can you imagine in that situation? I had lost my hope for survival, but then Jesus came to me and He said, ‘My child, I know everything you are going through right now. See I'm going to open a door for you that no man is able to shut.’ Just the fact that I'm sitting here today is proof that Jesus is real and He is alive.”
I then asked Brother Yun, whose new book, Living Water, edited by Paul Hattaway, how he got his name.
“In China, I've always been called Brother Yun,” he explained. “This name, Brother Yun in Chinese, means ‘a cloud’ and it comes from book of Hebrews chapter twelve and verse one where it talks about the ‘cloud of witnesses surrounding us.’ But I received the name, the Heavenly Man, from the Holy Spirit and this happened in a situation when I'd started a discipleship training seminar and, in the middle of that seminar, the Holy Spirit spoke to me about sharing with the people how important it is to be always ready to die for Jesus. I really saw a vision with my inner eyes that one day China's name is going to be changed. It's going to be called the ‘Village of the Gospel.’ He told me in order to achieve this in China; he wanted to send messengers of the gospel to every village, town and city in China.
“We were coming to the close of this training session and were commissioning these young evangelists and pioneer workers and missionaries to go to different parts of China, when suddenly the authorities surrounded the farm house where we were meeting and I and my team were captured. I had been training these people like I always do about five important points of the life of a disciple, a true follower of Jesus. I said that ‘if you want to be a truly disciple of Jesus you have to be a person of prayer.’ And then, ‘always to be ready, no matter what the circumstances, to witness about Jesus.’ And, number three, ‘always be ready to be thrown to prison and suffer for the name of Jesus and if needs be, be ready to die for the cause of the Gospel.’ And number five, because of the special situations in China, I also taught that you have to ‘train up yourself to escape for the Gospel so you can continue your ministry.’”
Brother Yun said that the arrest took place in the middle of winter and the police captain began beating him and ripping off his clothes.
“He started to question me, asking, ‘Who are you and what are you

Cover of Living Waterdoing here? Where do you live?’ I was on my own and I had prepared what I should say, but then the Holy Spirit gave me the words and I proclaimed boldly, ‘I'm the Heavenly Man and I live in the Village of Gospel.’”
Brother Yun then said that the bemused police officer couldn’t understand what he was saying and asked him, “Where in China is the Village of the Gospel?” and so Brother Yun said he boldly told him that one day every village in China would carry that name.”
The policeman then asked for the name of his father and he replied, “Filled with Grace” and he then said his mother’s name was “Faith, Hope and Love.” He went on to say that his older brother’s name was “He’s coming back.”
Not surprisingly, the police officer decided that Brother Yun had lost his mind, was dangerous for society, and so he threw him in jail.
I was startled when Brother Yun then began singing a song that he had in prison.
He then told me, “Just because they said that I was a ‘crazy man,’ I really started to behave like one, but I was being crazy for Jesus. I didn’t care about what they thought, and I continued singing, praising God and praying aloud. You know, you have two possibilities when you are in that situation: you have to make up your mind about whether you are going to complain or feel sorry about being in prison, or you can say, ‘I'm going to praise Jesus from morning to evening when I am in a prison. I'm going to thank him for this grace that He's giving to me.’
“It took several weeks before they could put my face to the wanted poster that had been appearing in all the police station across the country. One of the policemen told him, ‘You aren't any Heavenly Man, you are that preacher we've been looking for many years and now we've finally got you.”
Brother Yun went on to say, “As a pastor, when you are captured in China even today, one of the first decisions you have to do is to decide whether you are going to betray anybody or not because that's what they want you to do to. They want you to become a Judas who will give names and locations to them. I decided that I'd rather die for Jesus than give them even one name which they were asking.
“I then decided that I was going to face this storm by not eating of drinking. It was quite strange because actually the Holy Spirit, when I was fasting in prison reminded me how much Jesus was willing to pay a price for our deliverance and how much the disciples suffered and how most of them died for the Gospel.
“I remember once, when they came with all these torture instruments, they said, ‘Today, you have to decide whether you want to remain alive or you are going to die in our hands today.’ And then they started to torture me by taking hold of my hands and they pushed them on the floor. Then they started to squeeze, one after the other, extremely thick needles under each one of my fingers. After few minutes of this terrible pain, my spirit left my body. Then I returned back and I was in the middle of this horrible pain and I could not take it any more, so I prayed, ‘Jesus, I cannot take this pain any more. Give me a possibility to die for you I want to come home and leave behind this pain.’
“I came to learn a very important lesson at that point because, if God has a purpose and plan for your life, you can not easily die away from it. And again Jesus came to me at that lowest point of my life when I thought I was going to die and he said, ‘My child, I know everything you are going through right now.’ And in a fraction of a second, my eyes were opened and I saw how the gates of the prison were opened for me and one after another, I walked out to freedom.
“I had Bible in my hands and soon I was witnessing about Jesus to thousands of people in meetings outside of prison. Eventually, I was standing up in front of white people and black people and different colors of people, and witnessing about how great Jesus is.”
Sadly, we ran out of time for this interview, and so if you want to know more about the story of Brother Yun, you will have to read his two books, The Heavenly Man and Living Water.
I have to say that my opinion of Brother Yun has changed completely after meeting with him and I pray that God will continue to use him as he traverses the world sharing his story and bringing attention to the plight of China’s Christians.
All I can do is echo what Brother Yun said at the end of the interview: “Hallelujah!”

Stark Truths Of Hinduism: The Hindu Right Fears not Conversions, but Equitable Society

NEW DELHI, INDIA (ANS) -- Right-wing Hindus never had any issue with Christians or with conversion when it came to using -- and exploiting -- Christian institutions, says Udit Raj, a leading Dalit (Untouchable) activist and Chairman of All India Confederation of SC/ST Organizations.
Writing in Tehelka, India's first independent weekly news magazine, (Vol 5, Issue 42, dated Oct 25, 2008) at:www.tehelka.com/story_main40.asp?filename=Ne251008proscons.asp , Raj says Hindus, "(They) have had no problem in availing Christian medical facilities. No abhorrence has been evinced toward convent schools, where the so-called upper castes were taught the English that got them jobs abroad and enabled them to articulate their views at global forums."
Raj says that changed around 1998, when the BJP came to power.
"Targeting Christians became politically useful. A massive campaign was launched against Sonia Gandhi, making an issue of a person of foreign and Christian origin wielding power over a Hindu majority country. It culminated in the hatred for Christians, who are now seen as villains instead of the gentle community they had hitherto been known as."
Raj writes that wisdom lies in understanding the causes which escalate the processes of hatred.
"So it becomes our responsibility to fathom the mystery of conversion, usually assigned as the basis for attacks on Christians. The RSS, Bajrang Dal and VHP blame those said to offer inducements to convert; they also accuse the global Church of pumping money into India to influence the country’s have-nots.
"In such a context, the word ‘conversion’ becomes synonymous with ‘terrorism,' a connotation that could not be further from the truth. What does conversion mean except the choice of another faith or ideology? Laws against conversion are in operation in several states and, to date, not one case has been reported where a conversion was made in the greed for inducements."
Raj says that what worries the Sangh Parivar is not the welfare of Dalits, but a possible reduction in upper-caste Hindu numbers.
"Their prejudice is so entrenched that they are not in a position to sense the agony of those who suffer under the caste-based system. In general, Hindu believers treat the disadvantaged as sinners reaping the fruits of a past life. Thus, a leper is to be shunned; the exploitation of Dalits is justified. On the contrary, a Christian finds an opportunity for spiritual fulfillment in serving the leper and healing the sick. Before they build churches, Christians normally build schools and hospitals. Why do major Hindu religious establishments involve themselves only in collecting donations and not in performing such community services?"
Let us examine the few hopes still left for Hinduism, says Raj.
"Are Dalits, tribals and members of backward groups allowed to become priests? Tall claims are made of Dalits being trained to become priests or being welcomed to take up Hindu rituals. But, on the ground, the traditional situation has not changed. Though physical untouchability receded in the 20th century, the mental block remains.
"The Hindu Right and the so-called upper castes see ‘saving’ Hinduism as their mission. But, in this competition with Islam, Christianity and Buddhism, the superficial brotherhood shown by right-wing Hindu organizations toward tribals and Dalits does not ultimately win their hearts."
Unless the problems inherent to Hinduism are addressed, conversion can never be stopped, he says.
Raj concludes: "A Christian marries his or her co-religionist; a Muslim does the same. Is that possible for Hindus across caste? Are the upper castes ready to welcome reservation for their Hindu brothers? Is their society ready for inter-dining and for inter-caste marriages?
"Without these conditions being fulfilled, no one on earth can stop the rejection of Hinduism by the so-called lower castes. The so-called upper castes can only stop conversion if they introspect, eradicate the evil in the caste system, and visualize themselves in a situation where they and their families are carrying human excreta on their heads. Then, they will feel the suffering of those condemned to do so for life."

Africa Sends Out Missionaries by the Thousands in New Wave of Missions Activity

ETHIOPIA (ANS) -- An Ethiopian tells how when he landed on Indian soil as a missionary in 1998 it surprised him as much as anyone else, according to an article from Joel News International (JNI) by Sheryl Montgomery Wingerd, in JNI's Great Commission Update.
"Could this be possible?" the East African asked himself. "We always thought only white people could be missionaries."
Wingerd writes that more than a step of faith, this venture created a worldview change for the new missionary. After all, he had gone out from Africa, the continent that for generations has been known as the mission field, the place where missionaries go.
But God had prepared the way. Soon after arriving, one of his team members shared the gospel with a woman. She stopped him. "I had a dream last week," she said.
"Fire was consuming the village and people were running. Two people were praying with arms outstretched. Then something like a cross came between the fire and the village."
The woman concluded, "You were the people."
Wingerd reports that in the following three months 1,357 people gave their lives to Christ. After their initial success, the home church in Ethiopia sent 20 more missionaries to India and Pakistan.
"In Nigeria, missions have been gaining momentum since the mid-70s. Now 5,200 missionaries are serving around the world," the Ethiopian missionary says.
In her article, Wingerd explains that in the same way, thousands of Africans from across the continent are defying old stereotypes and embarking on the cross-cultural missionary adventure.
In some areas, she says, the church has been doing it for awhile; in other places it's just getting started.
In Nigeria, missions have been gaining momentum since the mid-70s. NEMA, the Nigerian Evangelical Mission Agency, now has 5,200 missionaries serving in Africa and around the world.
Wingerd says that a church in one of South Africa's townships has been sending out short-term missionaries for seven years, according to a report at a recent MANISA conference. Just two years ago they sent their first long-termers. Church members are enthusiastic about their missionaries who are working in three other countries, and are committed to support them.
Africans are still mindful of what foreign missionaries have done in their continent, Wingerd states.
"We appreciate you, and what the Lord has done through you for us," said Nigerian Dr. Rev. Nicholas Asamayan, who mobilizes black churches for missions. "And to those who died, thank you for your sacrifice and your love. But in God's prophetic timetable, the time has come for us," he said. He explained that it is time for an Afro-centric approach to missions, for defining mission in the African context, for writing materials and coming up with creative ideas.
"They are moving into the earth's difficult un-reached communities. Professionals back home, such as engineers and doctors, raise money to support them."
The JNI article says that God's new company of African missionaries is moving into some of earth's difficult un-reached communities. What motivates them to go into lowly villages with bad water, disease and a fearful relationship with local gods? Or to venture out into Europe, Asia and South America? Each country has its own story.
In Nigeria, it began with students, JNI reports.
As they went out to the villages for their year of national service, they saw parts of their nation they hadn't seen before, and were moved to action. They began planting churches, but they also caught a vision for missions, leading eventually to the birth of three mission agencies, Calvary Ministries, Christian Mission Foundation, and EMS, the missions branch of the Evangelical Church of West Africa. Then, in the early 80s, NEMA was born -- the Nigerian Evangelical Mission Agency, which celebrated its 25th anniversary in October, 2007. They have an exciting support group -- the Mission Supporters League (MSL), an innovation rarely found even in more prosperous countries. It includes 100 chapters of professionals, such as engineers and doctors, who raise money for supporting and sponsoring missionaries.
In Zimbabwe 10,000 churches were planted in the '90s. As persecution came, they went abroad preaching the gospel.
Then there is Zimbabwe. "Our church planting model," says Dr. Shana, "is described in Acts 8 and 9: 'When they were persecuted, they went abroad preaching the gospel.'"
Shana's congregation, the mushrooming Word of Life Church in Bulawayo, has planted 3,500 churches all over the world, instilled with the missional vision to affect the community around them in every sphere of life.
But Zimbabwe's missionary movement, according to Dr. Shana, came out of troubled times. It started with a movement in the '90's where 10,000 churches were planted. Soon after, the country dove into economic and political turmoil.
Unexpectedly, those 10,000 churches became the seedling bed for a new missions thrust. As Zimbabweans left the country to settle in new places, they took their faith with them.
"We've been following our diasporic sheep," explains Dr. Shana. "In their new homes, they miss the church they've had in Zimbabwe, so they begin to meet in groups, and talk to their communities. A little group starts, which we support and we watch over for a period of time. And we start a church."
"In Ethiopia over 3,000 missionaries have moved from one culture to the other to share Jesus Christ."
"The gospel has been in Ethiopia for 1,670 years," said Pastor Langana at MANI SA '08, "first brought here by the eunuch in Acts 8.
"But I'm sorry to say that, even though we were a Christian nation, we never reached the rest of Africa."
Things changed in 1990. "God brought a missionary," said Langana, "and used him as a key person. He told us, 'It is time for Ethiopia to see the people who are unreached.' We had never been thinking of going outside Ethiopia."
Now, more than 3,000 missionaries in the North African country of Ethiopia have moved from one culture to another in order to share the gospel of Jesus Christ.
The missions-minded country of Ghana, which has sent people to such far-reaching places as China, Ukraine, Brazil and India, was inspired by the Nigerian missions movement, and continues to be motivated by the Acts 1:8 strategy.
It's simple, the JNI article says. Every church has four realms to influence: 'Jerusalem', your own home town, 'Judea', the next closest region, 'Samaria', even farther out, and then 'the ends of the earth.'
The Church of Pentecost is a good example, which opened Pakistan as its 70th mission field this year.
Ross Campbell, MANI's Information Coordinator, observes that "from the day of conversion, believers are commissioned, equipped and engaged in Kingdom advance."
And this is only one of Ghana's major denominations which all have international mission boards. Others include the Presbyterians and Methodists. GEMA, the Ghana Evangelical Missions Association is a connecting point for them all.
Wingert concludes that, in these and other countries, Africans are a key part of today's missionary task force, digging into the hard work left to finish the job of fulfilling the Great Commission.