Pushana gently brushes soft kisses across her daughter’s brown cheek. Her toddler turns and gazes up at her. She reaches out her tiny hand, which her mother covers with another kiss.

I first met Pushana four years ago in the Banchara community of India. She was still a teenager at that time, and she was one of the first girls who taught me about the horrific reality of nari mata — the tradition that forces girls to sell their bodies to pay for their brothers’ dowries.

This year, I got to speak with her again and meet her beautiful little girl. Pushana wants to boldly speak out about this abuse so her own daughter won’t have to suffer. And today on International Women’s Day, you can help give a voice to women like Pushana and fight for their freedom from sexual slavery.

Pushana’s family doesn’t approve of her speaking out against this work. They believe it’s simply a normal part of their culture. So, Pushana asked that I not tell you her real name or show you her picture.

I’ve chosen to use the name “Pushana” for this brave young mom because it means “protector” and “provider,” and that’s exactly what she is for her two children.

Pushana doesn’t want her daughter, whom I’ll call Angel, to follow in her footsteps someday. She dreams of her 2-year-old growing up, graduating from school, and having a beautiful wedding and a compassionate husband — everything Pushana did not.

She dreams of her little girl living in a nice house, not the tiny, one-room dwelling they now call home. The colorful paint on the walls is faded and peeling. A few dishes sit in the kitchen, located only a few feet from the bed. And in this small space, Pushana tries to give her children everything.

Pushana holds Angel on her lap as the afternoon sun casts a sliver of light in the dark room. They sit on the bed, a subtle reminder of the work that dominates Pushana’s entire life.

She is paying off the debt of three brothers’ marriage dowries. What she owes totals around $9,500 — an astronomical amount for someone living in poverty. And the interest compounds daily. Her brothers do nothing to help her with the debt, although they are aware their sister works in the sex industry to pay for their security. It will take Pushana most of her life to pay the debt.

She looks down at Angel and kisses the child’s head. Her daughter’s life could easily mirror her own if Angel doesn’t escape the traditions that her community has followed for generations.

“I don’t want her to suffer like I do,” Pushana says.

The single mother is doing her best. Her 8-year-old son goes to a good school thanks to child sponsorship, and she hopes her daughter will follow in his footsteps.

But there’s one problem. When her brother is old enough to marry, it’s Angel who will be expected to go thousands of dollars into debt for him — and to repay it with her body.

For now, though, Angel is tired of sitting on her mother’s lap. She slides off and wobbles into the sunlight.

When I ask Pushana how she will make sure her daughter doesn’t have to suffer, she doesn’t hesitate.

SOURCE: Christian Post, Noel Brewer Yeatts

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Ballarat Christian College in southeast Australia can now retain its Statement of Faith defining marriage as a union between a man and woman as a result of a settlement it reached with a former pro-same-sex marriage teacher.

As part of the settlement, the Christian college in Victoria will pay an undisclosed amount as payout and give a positive employment reference to Rachel Colvin, who filed the lawsuit backed by LGBT rights group Equality Australia, according to The Australian.

Colvin claimed she was forced to quit when she refused to adopt the school’s stance on traditional marriage.

The college’s principal, Ken Nuridin, said, “Our College provides high-quality Christian education in accordance with our beliefs. The claim has taken an enormous cost in time and resources already – detracting from the ability of a small school like ours to focus on what is important, the education of our students.”

In the 2017 Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey, more than 61 percent of voters approved a change to the law to legalize same-sex marriage.

The Ballarat Christian College case has highlighted the need for religious freedom for those who believe in traditional marriage, some Christians have argued.

Christian Schools Australia’s director of public policy, Mark Spencer, said that there was a need for the government to bring in its religious discrimination bill, which was introduced last year by Australia’s Attorney General Christian Porter and Prime Minister Scott Morrison.

SOURCE: Christian Post, Anugrah Kumar

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Megachurch pastor Jonathan Stockstill challenged hundreds of leaders at a worship conference to make sure they have the character to support their gifts. 

Stockstill, a pastor’s kid who is now lead pastor of Bethany Church in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, has led in ministry since he was 17. He said he knows by experience what it’s like to be gifted but not have the character to support his giftings.

“I had a gift, but I wasn’t as big as my gift. I’d like to tell you that when people celebrate you, they’re not celebrating you. They’re strictly celebrating your gift and you have to know that. It’s never you being celebrated,” he told pastors and worship leaders gathered at gospel singer William McDowell’s second annual Deeper Worship Intensive last week.

“There are two things that you had nothing to do with [which were] God [given],” Stockstill explained. He listed having giftings and callings as the those two things.

“The Bible says giftings and the callings of God are without repentance. Your calling is not deserved, God just gave it to you. God equipped you naturally to do certain things well,” he continued. “If you have a gift to sing, you did not give yourself that gift. If you have the ability to play or you have the ability to speak, you didn’t give yourself that. Every gift you have is simply from the Creator, the Maker, so there’s no glory in it for you.”

Stockstill is an internationally recognized worship artist who has recorded more than 10 albums and wrote over 100 songs by age 30. He used his time at the Deeper Worship Intensive to warn the many worship leaders present about the pitfalls of church fame.

“When somebody gives you praise they’re praising your gifts, and you had nothing to do with your gifts. It’s the Creator that gave you those gifts,” he reiterated. “There’s a huge distinction between your gifts and you. There are so many people who are way smaller than their gifts; their character is way smaller than their gifts.”

Stockstill shared a story about a time when he was living on his own and stayed out too late, then overslept and ran to the altar minutes before he was scheduled to lead worship. God still moved mightily that day, he said, but it had nothing to do with him.

“We had a great day of worship, but it wasn’t because I was great on the inside. I didn’t have character. I wasn’t there on time. I inconvenienced the whole worship team. I was selfish, thought only about myself. I had no character, but my gift was there,” he confessed.

“Unfortunately, in churches [today], people with gifts get positions without having the character to support it.”

Becoming senior pastor of his church nine years ago has really given Stockstill a new perspective when it comes to the people he allows to serve in his ministry.

“It’s one of the toughest things in the world to care about somebody’s true person more than their gifts. Because we [as pastors] have a tendency … if a person can sing to let them sing, if a person can play, let them play,” he acknowledged.

The minister wants leaders to understand that they need “to really be focused on who you are. Take your gifts away, are you an example worth following?” he asked.

SOURCE: Christian Post, Jeannie Law

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Turkey is the only Muslim country in the world with no state religion. Although it is officially a secular nation, Turkey is 99.8 percent Muslim. Christians make up less than 0.2 percent of the population. So it’s a big deal that SAT-7 TÜRK, a Christian satellite TV channel, is celebrating its 5th anniversary in Turkey.

SAT-7, a satellite TV ministry to the Middle East and North Africa, started SAT-7 TÜRK five years ago to reach Turkish speakers with the Gospel. SAT-7 TÜRK made history as the first Christian satellite channel on the government-regulated Türksat 4A satellite.

David Middleton with SAT-7 says, “To be actually accepted by the government and given a license and given the opportunity to actually broadcast our programming, in a sense, I think that that trust speaks partly to the reputation we have as a ministry.”

“The team [members] still turn the television on and pinch themselves when they see the channel broadcasting on the air live. It’s still a sense of thanks and gratitude that we have this opportunity.”

The SAT-7 TÜRK team is relatively small as far as media is concerned. Forty team members work full-time on the 24-7 broadcast.

In the next couple of years, SAT-7 TÜRK wants to grow the interactive aspects of their live programming, specifically on social media. The channel also wants to feature more dramas and high-quality programming that uses television to its full potential.

“Some programming tends to be low in its reliance on video so that, for instance, a speaker or a talk could equally be covered on radio. It’s not really using television to its full advantage,” Middleton says. “But programming like drama, you’re getting writers and people who have a real knowledge of the culture to express themselves…through the visual medium.”

SOURCE: Mission Network News, Lyndsey Koh

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Much is changing in Sudan, and women play an important role in the transition.

Some estimates say women made up two-thirds of the protest movement that ousted President Bashir last spring. Sudan’s transitional government appointed the first female chief justice in the Arab world in October, and the draft constitution requires a 40-percent quota of women in future hires.

“Women are really excited to play a greater role in the new Sudan… they are working towards achieving that with encouragement and help [from] the wider community,” says a Gospel worker we’ll simply call “Ida.” She serves in a significant leadership position within Sudan.

“Women have really stood up and they have started [taking] their first step. They’re making good progress; moving ahead and taking up roles, and fighting for their rights.”

SOURCE: Mission Network News, Katey Hearth

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Every now and then, I read an article about some fairly well-known person who says, “I was a Christian, but I’m not a Christian anymore.”

So how does this happen? How does someone get to that point?

I can guarantee that the steps that led to that statement go back a long way. It doesn’t happen suddenly. They didn’t wake up one morning and say, “I’m going to deny my faith and turn from God today.”

No, it’s a series of steps and compromises that always lead to something like that.

For example, we know about Simon Peter’s open denial of Christ. But where did it start? It began with a prideful attitude. In the upper room, Jesus told His disciples that one of them would betray Him and that He would be crucified.

But Peter said, “Even if everyone else deserts you, I never will” (Mark 14:29, NLT).

Then Jesus told him, “I tell you the truth, Peter—this very night, before the rooster crows twice, you will deny three times that you even know me” (Mark 14:30).

Peter thought there was no way this could happen. That was pride. And the Bible says that pride goes before a fall. This was Peter’s first step down.

His next step down was sleeping when he should have been praying. Jesus took his three friends Peter, James and John to the Garden of Gethsemane and said, “Keep watch and pray, so that you will not give in to temptation. For the spirit is willing, but the body is weak!” (Matt. 26:41).

But instead of praying, they fell asleep. Then, when the temple guard came to arrest Jesus, Peter drew his sword and cut off the ear of the high priest’s servant.

The problem with Peter was that he boasted when he should have been humble, he slept when he should have prayed and he fought when he should have trusted the Lord. Then he ended up openly denying Him.

Those smaller steps led to bigger steps. Small things turn into big things. And little sins become big sins.

SOURCE: Charisma News

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Pope Francis livestreamed his prayers to giant screens in St. Peter’s Square on Sunday — breaking centuries of tradition because of Italy’s deadly spread of the novel coronavirus.

The 83-year-old pope — who tested negative for COVID-19 after suffering from a cold — appeared for a few seconds at a Vatican palazzo window to wave to the small crowd gathered in Saint Peter’s Square.

But he made no comments from the window, with his traditional Angelus Prayer and blessings for the first time ever being streamed onto large screens in the square, broadcast live from the Vatican’s apostolic library.

Francis said he felt “caged” as he delivered his blessings in a way authorities hoped would keep away large crowds during the outbreak that has seen 233 deaths and 6,000 cases in Italy, Agence France-Presse reported.

“I am close through prayer with the people who suffer from the current coronavirus epidemic,” the pope said in his message, AFP said.

SOURCE: New York Post, Lee Brown

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