Formerly from the Underground Church in Saudi Arabia – Now a Powerful International Guest Minister at CTFM Melbourne this Sunday evening 22nd June

Dear friends & family in Christ in Victoria,

For those of you in the Melbourne area, Pastor Prabhu Isaac (a friend of Ps Daniel’s from the Underground Church in Saudi Arabia) will be ministeringGod’s Word this Sunday evening 6:30pm 22nd June at CTFM at 30 Star Crescent
in Hallam.

In 2001, the ministry of Interior Authority of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia arrested him and imprisoned for his involvement in Christian activities. He was put in a solitary confinement for a month and was deported after undergoing almost 7 months of physical and mental torture. He was terminated from his job and was not permitted to see or contact anyone including his wife. He was put through intensive interrogation and was pushed into prisons that were more like animal sheds, under the most disgusting and unhygienic conditions. There were implications of a death sentence by execution, or imprisonment for 10 years under some false charges; but the power and grace of God miraculously delivered him and he was released on 8th February 2002. He was deported to Chennai, India and there, he began full time ministry and began to serve the Lord.

Ps Daniel travelled to the US and lobbied with the US Congress for his and other’s release. Thank God for the US Congress and many others who helped secure the releases.

(more…)

Continue ReadingFormerly from the Underground Church in Saudi Arabia – Now a Powerful International Guest Minister at CTFM Melbourne this Sunday evening 22nd June

Why Are Christians the World’s Most Persecuted Group?

Why Are Christians the World’s Most Persecuted GroupRaymond Ibrahim – Frontpage Magazine

Why are Christians, as a new Pew report documents, the most persecuted religious group in the world?  And why is their persecution occurring primarily throughout the Islamic world?  (In the category on “Countries with Very High Government Restrictions on Religion,” Pew lists 24 countries—20 of which are Islamic and precisely where the overwhelming majority of “the world’s” Christians are actually being persecuted.)

The reason for this ubiquitous phenomenon of Muslim persecution of  Christians is threefold:

Christianity is the largest religion in the world.  There are Christians practically everywhere around the globe, including in much of the Muslim world.  Moreover, because much of the land that Islam seized was originally Christian—including the Middle East and North Africa, the region that is today known as the “Arab world”—Muslims everywhere are still confronted with vestiges of Christianity, for example, in Syria, where many ancient churches and monasteries are currently being destroyed by al-Qaeda linked, U.S. supported “freedom fighters.”  Similarly, in Egypt, where Alexandria was a major center of ancient Christianity before the 7th century Islamic invasions, there still remain at least 10 million Coptic Christians (though some put the number at much higher). Due to sheer numbers alone, then, indigenous Christians are much more visible and exposed to attack by Muslims than other religious groups throughout the Arab world.   Yet as CNS News puts it, “President Obama expressed hope that the ‘Arab Spring’ would give rise to greater religious freedom in North Africa and the Middle East, which has had the world’s highest level of hostility towards religion in every year since 2007, when Pew first began measuring it. However, the study finds that these regions actually experienced the largest increase in religious hostilities in 2012.”

(more…)

Continue ReadingWhy Are Christians the World’s Most Persecuted Group?

When Witch Doctors Fail, Jesus Delivers Miraculous Healing

Gospel for Asia

Kalith and his forefathers had a deal: He worshipped them with sacrifices of goats, pigs and chickens, and they kept him from harm. So when Kalith started experiencing severe stomach pain, he couldn’t figure out why his forefathers didn’t heal him.

Kalith and his family performed the regular rituals and sacrifices as he tried medicine after medicine, but the illness continued for three years. It wasn’t until Gospel for Asia pastor Oojam asked to pray for Kalith that things began to look up.

“I tried everything to get healing, but nothing is working in me,” Kalith told the pastor. “Pray, and if your God answers your prayer and heals me, I will [follow] Him.”

A week later, through Pastor Oojam’s prayers, Kalith was healed, and his neighbors took notice. Kalith, his wife and two other couples became the first believers in the village, and others quickly joined them.

The new congregation built a temporary church building to meet in, but even that didn’t have enough room for the growing fellowship. The building wasn’t strong enough for the local weather either. The building’s thatched roof leaked all through monsoon season.

(more…)

Continue ReadingWhen Witch Doctors Fail, Jesus Delivers Miraculous Healing

Upcoming Election in India Brings Fear, Insecurity for Christians amid Unrelenting Persecution

NEW DELHI, March 31, 2014 (Morning Star News)

With a report showing Christians in India faced at least 151 attacks last year, predictions that a Hindu nationalist party will win a general election beginning in April are stoking fears of more violence.

The New Delhi-based Evangelical Fellowship of India (EFI), which released its “Partial List of Atrocities on the Indian Christian Community 2013” earlier this month, says the number of attacks could be much higher than the 151 recorded. The report comes days before India’s nine-phase parliamentary election, to be held April 7 to May 12.

Opinion polls point to a victory for the opposition National Democratic Alliance (NDA), led by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that ruled the country from 1998 to 2004. Its prime ministerial candidate, Narendra Modi, chief minister of Gujarat state, has been one of the most prominent icons of the Hindutva ideology, which sees India as a Hindu nation with religious minorities as second-class citizens. Modi has been banned from entering the United States since 2005 due to failure to prevent the massacre of more than 2,000 Muslims in Gujarat in 2002, a year after he became the chief minister.

(more…)

Continue ReadingUpcoming Election in India Brings Fear, Insecurity for Christians amid Unrelenting Persecution

Police in India Rebuke, File Case against Christians Fleeing Hindu Extremist Attack

Photo Pastor Tilas Bedia, left, with the family of his brother Chandra Bedia center Morning Star NewsNEW DELHI, March 26, 2014 (Morning Star News) – A police station official in India’s Jharkhand state this month reviled Christians who sought protection after Hindu extremists beat and threatened to kill them for refusing to convert to Hinduism, area church leaders said.

Accusing Christian leaders of forcible conversion, the Hindu extremists earlier this month attempted to forcibly convert several church members after disrupting a home worship service, beating them and parading them half-naked through the street, area pastor Rampath Nath told Morning Star News.

Police subsequently registered a case of forcible conversion against four Christians, he said.

Virender Singh, the police official at the station in Patratu Thana, Ramgarh District, verbally abused the Christians who fled their homes, rebuked them and sent them away without taking their complaint after the Hindu extremists beat them on two consecutive days, stripped off their clothes and chased them from Pali village, Nath said.

Some 10 Hindu extremists stormed into the March 4 worship meeting at the house of pastor Tilas Bedia at 7 p.m. and began beating the Christians, including the pastor’s 60-year-old mother, Christian leaders said.

(more…)

Continue ReadingPolice in India Rebuke, File Case against Christians Fleeing Hindu Extremist Attack

Evangelist Benny Hinn’s Return to India for Prayer Conference Sparks Protests, Allegations of ‘Hidden Agenda’

Evangelist Benny HinnBy Nicola Menzie , Christian Post Reporter – January 7, 2014|

Benny Hinn, controversial evangelist known for his “miracle healing crusades,” is one of the main speakers at a Christian Prayer Conference being held this month in Bangalore, India. As with his last visit in 2005, Hinn’s engagement has set off protests among locals concerned that the charismatic preacher will be flying into the country with “a hidden agenda.”

An estimated 2,000 Hindus gathered in Bangalore, in the State of Karnataka, on Friday, Jan. 3 to demand that government officials bar Hinn from attending the Christian Prayer Conference. The event, scheduled for Jan. 15-17, is being hosted by the local Bethel Assembly of God Church.

“Hinn is coming to Karnataka with a hidden agenda of converting Hindus to Christianity as he did when he visited Bangalore in 2005. Several organizations are secretly working for the success of the event,” representatives of protesting groups were quoted as saying.

Bethel Assembly of God Church organizers insist that the Christian Prayer Conference will not be a “healing crusade,” but that ministry participants will provide prayer for the sick, according to the Bangalore Mirror. The publication notes that the entry fee for the prayer meeting is $13 (850 Indian rupees), less than seven percent of the average monthly income in India.

When Hinn visited Bangalore in 2005 for a “Festival of Blessings” event, several court cases were reportedly filed against the evangelist with plaintiffs claiming his purpose for being in the country was to convert locals to Christianity. The U.S. evangelist’s presence was so disturbing to some that protesters reportedly set fires throughout the city, and 10,000 law enforcement officials were deployed at the Jakkur airfield where the crusade was attended by more than 7 million people.

(more…)

Continue ReadingEvangelist Benny Hinn’s Return to India for Prayer Conference Sparks Protests, Allegations of ‘Hidden Agenda’

Project Rescue Setting Sex-Trafficked Captives Free in India

Project Rescue co-founder David Grant at a safe house for children affected by slavery. (Project Rescue)1/6/2014 Gina Meeks

Though many think slavery is a thing of the past, more than 29.8 million people are held captive as slaves today, according to a comprehensive report from Australia-based Walk Free Foundation. The majority of victims are located outside the U.S., with nearly half—14 million—in India.

That’s why Project Rescue focuses on rescuing and restoring sex-trade victims in India. Since its founding in 1997, in the red light district of Mumbai, the ministry has helped more than 24,000 women and children affected by sexual slavery and now serves in 15 locations throughout India, Nepal, Moldova, Bangladesh, Tajikistan and Spain.

Lucy, the director of a girls’ home in North India who did not share her last name for security reasons, explains that mothers who work in brothels often give their children to Project Rescue to temporarily provide custody of the children and bring them to a safe house. There, the children are cared for around the clock and attend Christian schools.

“Every time we take a child out of the brothels, it is physically and spiritually bringing them out of darkness into light,” Lucy says. “It’s been amazing to see the transformational power of Jesus—to see a child who was abused, scared and angry, and watch them over the course of months blossom.”

(more…)

Continue ReadingProject Rescue Setting Sex-Trafficked Captives Free in India

Christians prepare to face increasing persecution in India

Dalits are the group once known in India as untouchablesChristian Today -Published 29 November 2013

In national elections due in the next few months, observers warn that if a Hindu Nationalist government comes to power attacks on Christians in India will increase.

There has been a spate of attacks on Christians and Muslims in India in the last year. Mapping of the attacks on Christians and Muslims show that the worst affected areas are Gujarat and Orissa, where the upper-caste Brahmins hold significant economic power.

They use this power to enforce their ideology which is to reduce the “Dalits” – or lowest caste – and Christians and Muslims to be second class citizens.

In Kandhamal, Odisha, in 2008 attacks were carried out on “tribal” Christians and the agencies that helped them, with 38 Christians killed, 18,000 injured and 50,000 displaced.

World Vision, a Christian relief agency, was forced out of the area.

(more…)

Continue ReadingChristians prepare to face increasing persecution in India

Economist says Christianity is Helping India’s ‘Untouchable’ Women Rise from Poverty

By CLG on DYoung professional women walk along the street in Bangalore, India. - CNA/Hilary Senourecember 30, 2013

A Georgetown University researcher’s pilot study found positive improvements for India’s Dalit women after converting to Christianity.

A researcher at Georgetown University in Washington has found that impoverished women in India are more likely to improve their economic circumstances after converting to Christianity.

“Conversion actually helps launch women on a virtuous circle. A woman feels better; she’s part of an active faith community; she works more; she earns more money: The extra money she earns and saves encourages her to earn more and save more and plan and invest in the future,” said Rebecca Samuel Shah, research fellow at Georgetown’s Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs.

Shah presented her initial findings of a pilot study looking at “patterns and directions where conversion had an impact” on Dalit women in Bangalore, India, at a conference on “Christianity and Freedom,” held in Rome Dec. 13-14.

Shah and her team studied 300 women who lived in a Dalit slum community over the course of three years. When they began their research, they did not know that 23% of the women being interviewed were actually converts to Christianity.

(more…)

Continue ReadingEconomist says Christianity is Helping India’s ‘Untouchable’ Women Rise from Poverty

7-Year-Old Boy in India Tortured, Murdered for Christian Faith

 The son of a believer, Anmol went missing after attending Sunday school at a Believers Church on Nov. 17 in northern India. His body was found the following day. (11/27/2013 Taun Cortado – Charisma

The body of a 7-year-old boy in India retrieved from a pond last week revealed horrific details of torture before he was brutally murdered because of his Christian beliefs.

The son of a believer, Anmol went missing after attending Sunday school at a Believers Church on Nov. 17 in northern India. His body was found the following day. Previous threats and persecution of his family indicate he was targeted because of his family’s faith.

“The unprecedented torture and death of this innocent child sadden our hearts incredibly,” says K.P. Yohannan, Gospel for Asia founder and international director. “Persecution of Christians is a weekly occurrence, but this intensity of brutality against a child is unthinkable. In this horrible tragedy, we find strength and hope in Jesus.”

According to Yohannan, persecution of Christians has increased by more than 400 percent in the past few years.

(more…)

Continue Reading7-Year-Old Boy in India Tortured, Murdered for Christian Faith

Persecuted and Forgotten 2013 Report – Situation of Christians in in many countries has deteriorated

The cover image of the report shows the destruction of the Virgin Mary Church in Imbaba, Cairo, Egypt, May 2011ACN News ^ | 10/18/2013

In many countries the situation of Christians has sharply deteriorated. This is the finding of the report Persecuted and Forgotten? which was launched at a meeting in the UK Houses of Parliament on 17th October by the UK office of the international Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN). The report examines the situation of Christians in 30 different countries, including Afghanistan, China, Laos, Pakistan, Vietnam and Zimbabwe. In particular it analyses the situation in a number of majority Islamic countries and in those states whose political systems have a pronounced authoritarian character. The reporting period covers the past two-and-a-half years.

The principal finding of the report is that in two-thirds of the countries where persecution of Christians is most severe, the problems have become arguably even worse. In fact the Church’s very survival in some parts – notably the Middle East – is now at stake.

For Christians the so-called “Arab spring” has in many cases become what the report calls a “Christian winter”. Although the political upheavals have brought suffering to people of all faith communities, nonetheless it is above all the Christian confessions that have experienced the most open hostility and violence. They have become victims of every kind of political, economic, social and religious conflict – for example the conflicts between Sunni and Shi’ite Muslims. As a result, a great many Christians have been forced to flee. The report describes the exodus as reaching “almost biblical proportions”.

(more…)

Continue ReadingPersecuted and Forgotten 2013 Report – Situation of Christians in in many countries has deteriorated

Christianity Spreading at “Remarkable Rate” in Emerging “New India”

With more than 71 million claiming Christianity, India is now the eighth largest Christian nation in the world. -Dick McClain, The Mission SocietyChristianity Spreading at “Remarkable Rate” in Emerging “New India”With more than 71 million claiming Christianity, India is now the eighth largest Christian nation in the world. -Dick McClain The Mission Society

Ty Mays (Nov 15, 2013)

“With more than 71 million claiming Christianity, India is now the eighth largest Christian nation in the world.” -Dick McClain, The Mission Society

(Norcross, GA)—Christianity in India is growing at a rapid rate among middle and high caste Indians and young people, according to the latest issue of “Unfinished” magazine, which examines social, economic and cultural trends in the “new India.”

The current “remarkable receptivity to Christ” across the entire spectrum of Indian society, which had been traditionally among only lower castes and marginalized communities, is one of five dominant themes identified by Indian anthropologist Prabhu Singh that define today’s India and its missional challenges. In his article “Welcome to the New India” in the current issue of “Unfinished,” Singh also explores new eras of “glocal” complex connectivity, heightened cultural sensitivity, alarming religious animosity and widening economic disparity.

“With more than 71 million claiming Christianity, India is now the eighth largest Christian nation in the world,” said Dick McClain, president and CEO of The Mission Society, publisher of “Unfinished.” “Yet with 456 languages and more than 2,611 distinct people groups, India still has more people groups unreached with the gospel than any other nation—88 percent of its population.”

(more…)

Continue ReadingChristianity Spreading at “Remarkable Rate” in Emerging “New India”

Amazing Testimony of How Jesus Revealed Himself to a Hindu Girl from a Royal Family

(India)—An amazing testimony was recently posted by Paul Ciniraj Ministries (PCM), from a former Hindu girl in India. (Photo Sayujya on right PCM)Aimee Herd (Nov 13, 2013) – Charisma NewsAutomatically I knelt down before Him. I confessed before the Lord Jesus and accepted Him as my personal Savior and Lord, said Sayujya. (Photo Sayujya being baptized PCM)

“Very clearly I heard again the same voice, ‘My daughter.’ I look[ed] back. There was a bright light shining on the corner. Inside of the light I saw Jesus the Lord.”

(India)—An amazing testimony was recently posted by Paul Ciniraj Ministries (PCM), from a former Hindu girl in India. (Photo: Sayujya on right/PCM)

Sayujya Thampuratti belongs to the Hindu Royal family of Kerala in India, and she shared recently about how Jesus came to her one day—revealing Himself to be the One Way to God the Father—and changed her life forever.

“From childhood I was an idol worshiper,” says Sayujya. She describes in the posting how she had been “offering flowers to [her] idols” when one of them fell from her hand and broke into several pieces. She became very upset and “cried with a deep sorrow,” she says.

“While I was crying, Somebody touched me on the shoulder. I thought it was my mother…the Person touched my shoulder [and] called me ‘My daughter,'” described Sayujya.

“I was shocked because it was a gentleman’s [voice]. I stood up immediately and turned towards Him; but I found nobody behind me. I looked around the corners. I was surprised to [find] nothing because I was quite sure that [Someone] had touched me and called me as daughter,” continued Sayujya.

(more…)

Continue ReadingAmazing Testimony of How Jesus Revealed Himself to a Hindu Girl from a Royal Family

5 Women Missionaries Beaten Publicly in India for Sharing Gospel

Charisma News – 7/26/2013 Taun Cortado

Five women have been beaten by a man in the Andhra Pradesh region of India while sharing about the love of Jesus in a public marketplace. Amazingly spared, they retreated to safety, thanking God for the honor of suffering for His sake.

The women, all leaders in the Gospel for Asia (GFA)-sponsored Women’s Fellowship ministry, had been sharing with store owners and shoppers when one man demanded to know what they were doing. The assault began with a powerful slap to the face of one woman and continued to the others, one of whom was isolated and surrounded by five men.

“Jesus promised persecuting and hardships,” says Daniel Punnose, vice president of GFA (gfa.org). “These young ladies see it worth facing the beatings in order to share the love of Christ.”

The women, Bansari, Jaladhi, Kuyil, Sunita and Viveka, were beaten on their faces, ears and heads. All report that no bystanders came to their defense during the ordeal and that they miraculously escaped from their multiple attackers and were delivered from further harm.

(more…)

Continue Reading5 Women Missionaries Beaten Publicly in India for Sharing Gospel

India Missionary Released After 8 Years of False Imprisonment

Charisma News – 3/28/2013 – Abby Carr

After eight years of false imprisonment in India, Gospel for Asia-supported missionary ‘Samuel’ (center) is surrounded by prayers of thanksgiving upon his recent release from prison (Gospel for Asia)

After eight years of imprisonment under false accusations, and numerous delays in justice proceedings, a Gospel for Asia-sponsored missionary in India has been released.

Brother Samuel was arrested in 2004 in Jharkhand, India, on charges of participating in insurgency riots that left 19 dead. Despite avowing his innocence from the beginning and having no connection with the incident, he was immediately jailed. Within prison, he continued his ministry, sharing with others the good news of God’s love.

“I was thrilled to receive the phone call informing us that our Pastor Samuel was released from prison,” said K. P. Yohannan, Gospel for Asia (GFA) founder and president. “Jesus told us we should not be surprised of such persecution when we follow him. Yet I am so relieved to know our prayers have been answered. Our brother has remained faithful to his calling and now is free again.”

(more…)

Continue ReadingIndia Missionary Released After 8 Years of False Imprisonment