Pastor’s Worst Fear Realized as His Daughter Is Abducted on Her Way to School .

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Pastor’s Worst Fear Realized as His Daughter Is Abducted on Her Way to School .

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The teenage daughter of a pastor was kidnapped on Oct. 16 in Diffa, southeastern Niger, in what appears to be the first targeted kidnapping of a Christian by Boko Haram-affiliated militants in the West African nation.
The teenage daughter of a pastor was kidnapped on Oct. 16 in Diffa, southeastern Niger, in what appears to be the first targeted kidnapping of a Christian by Boko Haram-affiliated militants in the West African nation. (Wokandapix)

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The teenage daughter of a pastor was kidnapped on 16 October in Diffa, southeastern Niger, in what appears to be the first targeted kidnapping of a Christian by Boko Haram-affiliated militants in the West African nation.

The pastor’s daughter was found on Oct. 17 in a village 10km from Diffa. She has now returned to Diffa, where she is being looked after by the authorities.

Aphodiya Garba Maida, 17, daughter of a pastor with the EERN (Église Évangélique de la République du Niger), was on her way to school when she was kidnapped by three women and three men. She was able to use her mobile phone to send a message, saying that she is being held in an unknown location.

The kidnappers are likely affiliated with the Islamist group Boko Haram, and security forces in Diffa have been alerted.

The Diffa area borders Nigeria to the south and Chad to the east, and has seen an upsurge in attacks by Boko Haram in recent months. In July, militants kidnapped 30-40 women and children and slit the throats of nine other people in the village of Ngalewa, while a month earlier two female suicide bombers attacked a UNHCR camp for internally displaced people (IDPs) in Kablewa.

In February 2015 Boko Haram launched its first attack on Niger territory, targeting Diffa and the nearby town of Bosso, causing thousands to flee. Following the violence several NGOs had to suspend operations and all the churches in the region were closed.

Tensions Increasing

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There’s Something Every Christian Still Needs To Do After Being Saved

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Christ’s atoning sacrifice saved us all from sin and death, and also many other things that shouldn’t be given place in our lives. His finished work has given us the freedom to live our lives in joy, with no obligation to return back to our old, foolish ways.

Many Christians today, however, are unable to live the powerful life purchased by the blood of Christ. They think merely praying the sinner’s prayer is enough to make one get a VIP pass to heaven’s courts.

Many who are in the church today possess a form of Godliness, but deny its power (see 2 Timothy 3:2-5). Sadly, they are unable to enjoy the freedom that comes from the salvation purchased for us by the blood of Christ.

Living Free

To enjoy the freedom that Christ bought for you, there are some things you should do. It’s wrong to believe that God will be the only one making an effort to ensure you live free. While it’s true that God made the way for you to be free, it’s not a green light to do what you want without any consequences. The choice to be free and stay free is yours to make.

To help you jumpstart your faith in Christ, here are some things you should do right after you get saved:

1) Turn from old ways

First, continue turning away from your old ways. This action called “repentance” is very important. Unless we repent of our sins, they can never be forgiven and we can never be rescued from them. Think about it.

Christ the Lord died in our place because He received the punishment for our sins. Of course it would simply follow that we should all turn away from the sins that He died atoning for,

2) Replace old habits with new and Godly ones

What’s the point of repenting of your sin and then not replacing sinful habits with Godly ones? The Bible tells us that we should produce fruit in keeping with repentance. Surely the way to do that is to cut off our sinful and unfruitful habits and replace them with what pleases the Lord.

3) Live a new life in Christ

Lastly, we should all live the new life that Christ purchased for us. Through Him, we are adopted as sons and daughters of God, a people that ought to be holy because the Father is holy, a people desiring to become like Christ in character and in obedience to the will of God.

Our life in Christ is totally new, the Bible says if we are in Him we are a new creation. We are to put off our old ways and put on Christ. We are to forget our past, move on towards growth in Christ, and pursue righteousness and holiness in the Lord.

In Christ our past sins are forgiven and forgotten, our conscience is made clean, and condemnation is taken away. We are freed to live for Him who died for us.

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Fulani Militants Raid Village, Kill 28 Women and Children

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Fulani Militants Raid Village, Kill 28 Women and Children

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Fulani Militants Raid Village, Kill 28 Women and Children


 International Christian Concern (ICC) has learned that Fulani militants raided Nkedoron community in Plateau State, Nigeria. During this raid, the militants attacked and killed at least 28 people, mostly Christians, including many women and children. This struggle between Fulani militants and Christian farmers has been an ongoing and bloody struggle for years. As the Fulani continue to migrate south, militants clash with more Christian villages. This year alone, there have been more than 30 attacks on these Christian villages, leaving more than 250 killed and hundreds of homes burned down.


Rev. Andrew Okebe, the Zonal Coordinator of Christian Association of Nigeria, Miango District, told ICC, “The soldiers had told the women and children to go and hide in the primary (elementary) school class at night while the men in the village constituted a vigilante group and join[ed] the soldiers in patrolling the area. Sadly, the militia descended and the soldiers fled, leaving the defenseless villagers to be massacred by the terrorists.”


According to Rev. Okebe, these persistent attacks have left villagers feeling like the security operatives assigned to their communities are not committed to protecting and securing their lives from the aggressors whom they believe to be Islamic jihadists who want occupy their land. This attack followed only a few weeks after a Fulani militia invaded Ancha, a neighboring village to Nkedoron, where 20 members of a Baptist church were murdered in cold blood.


The most disturbing part of this attack is that there were members of the military stationed in the village. These soldiers are a part of Operation Safe Haven, which is the government’s attempt to confront the Fulani militant violence in the Middle Belt. Even though these soldiers were on the scene before the attack, they did nothing to prevent this terrible atrocity. It has left many questioning the dedication of these men to protecting the communities they are charged with protecting.


ICC’s Regional Manager for Africa, Nathan Johnson, stated, “We pray for those who are suffering the pain of loss. This unbelievable act of violence is becoming all too common for Christian villages in Nigeria’s Middle Belt region. The government of Nigeria must not only condemn the violence, but take the necessary steps to ensure that the perpetrators are punished and unable to commit these acts again. Until then, Christian villagers in the Middle Belt will be left to wonder if their community will be next.”


 


For more information on Christian persecution, visit www.persecution.org.


Photo courtesy: ©Thinkstockphotos.com


Publication date: October 18, 2017

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Christian exhibition one-stop shop for churches

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Christian exhibition one-stop shop for churches

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The Christian Resources Exhibition (CRE) in Surrey this week was designed to provide churches with all their service needs.

Thousands of attendees could find church-orientated products, from stained glass to sound systems, cassocks to conference venues, bibles and bespoke heating systems. There were also some quirky items- such a ‘holy socks’.

Brett Pitchfork, CRE’s organiser told Premier: “It’s a big bazaar of everything you can imagine – and an awful lot you probably wouldn’t have thought of that are useful for those working in church leadership.

“We’ve got a flight simulator from the Mission Aviation Fellowship so you can actually have a go at flying a plane in a simulator in some of the conditions the MAF pilots would be doing.

“There are so many different things and lots of different speakers as well.”

Around 200 organisations took part in the event, which also had dozens of seminars available.

Pitchfork added: “Today I bought some holy socks for my Grandson. Why? They were Noah’s ark socks and I thought he’d love them.

“We’ve got a lot of people coming in from churches, people who are involved in leadership – everyone from the Sunday school teacher through to bishops are here to explore what’s new and what’s available to their ministries.”

Listen here for the full interview. Premier’s Cara Bentley began by asking what the exhibition is like:

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How Soon Before David Wilkerson’s Earthquake Vision Comes to Pass—Or Has It Already? .

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How Soon Before David Wilkerson’s Earthquake Vision Comes to Pass—Or Has It Already? .

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As natural disasters pummel all corners of the earth, David Wilkerson’s words in The Vision and Beyond sound frighteningly accurate.

In a recent episode of The Jim Bakker Show, Bakker himself reads from the book and discusses how these prophecies may be coming to fruition.

Take a look.

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Utah High School Cheerleaders Scream N-Word in Video

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An Instagram video of five high school girls screaming racial slurs and profanities has gone viral, urging school administrators to investigate the offensive clip.

REUTERS/Carlo Allegri/File PhotoA protester holds up an anti-racism sign as Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, U.S., July 28, 2016.

The five white teenage girls have been identified as students from Weber High School in Pleasant View, Utah. School administrators were made aware of the video when it started making rounds on social media.

In the 10-second clip, the group of senior and junior girls dropped expletives.

“We are shocked by the conduct of these students and the contents of the video,” a statement from the Weber School District reads. “School officials have started an investigation and the matter is being taken very seriously. We are trying to determine when the video was made, where it was filmed, why the students would engage in such conduct, and how the clip ended up on social media.”

A report by KTVX stated that Utah, based on a study conducted by the FBI in 2013, had the most number of reported hate crimes among other states in the country with a history of hate crimes.

Jim Dabakis, a state senator, once said that the perpetuity of such crimes is due to Utah’s ineffective actions, that the state does so little to fight them.

The school’s initial findings from the investigation seem to suggest that an app generated such expletives. They believe that the girls may have uttered an incoherent phrase like “surgeon cuff” which barely makes sense. Moreover, they believe that the original clip was initially uploaded to the app which played it backwards and then produced the profanities.

Netizens took to social media to condemn the video, parents included. Many are convinced that the school is only trying to make excuses for the girls’ misconduct.

The school has yet to determine how the students involved would be disciplined, but expulsion from the cheerleading squad is one of the possible consequences.

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Christian Aid supports eco-lodge made famous by new Daniel Radcliffe film

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Christian Aid supports eco-lodge made famous by new Daniel Radcliffe film

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‘Jungle’, which debuts this week, is based on the real-life story of Yossi Ghinsberg who survived getting lost in the Amazon Jungle.

Ten years after Ghinsberg escaped, he set up an eco-lodge with the indigenous community of San José de Uchupiamonas that helped rescue him.

The lodge, Chalalan, is supported by Christian Aid through its collaboration in ACRE (Access to Capital for Rural Enterprises).

The group supports small and medium sized enterprises and helps them to become investment-ready and to access the long-term capital they need to grow.

Rodrigo Mariaca

 

Made using local materials and solar-powered electricity, the lodge employs 40 people and invests in health and education projects that benefit the 750 people living in San José.

Its visitors are taken on jungle treks by indigenous guides who share their knowledge about the wild life and stress the importance of protecting the forest that is threatened by deforestation and the effects of climate change.

Ghinsberg said: “Chalalan is a beautiful, sustainable and profitable project made by and for the local people. I wanted to give something back and this was the best way I knew how. It is an enchanting place and anyone who wants to experience the Amazon is in good hands here. “

 

Ghinsberg said working with the film’s director and Radcliffe has been ‘overwhelming’.

He added: “I never imagined that my story would be told in this way. Any attention that Chalalan receives as a result of this, is just fantastic.”

Christian Aid said it hopes the film will “help shine a light on Ghinsberg’s humanitarian efforts in Bolivia and on the importance of supporting enterprises in poor rural settings.”

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White People Don’t Understand the Depth of America’s Racism .

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White People Don’t Understand the Depth of America’s Racism .

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Young Boy Denied Kidney Transplant Because Father Violated Probation

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A hospital denied a 2-year-old boy a life-saving kidney transplant when they learned of his father’s probation violation.

REUTERS/Keith BedfordSurgeon Karim Zalazun looks at a monitor displaying a donor kidney for patient Adam Abernathy, who participated in a five-way organ transplant swap, in New York, August 1, 2012.

Anthony Dickerson was supposed to donate his kidney to his son, AJ Burgess, who was born a month early and came without functioning kidneys. Dickerson is a 100 percent match for the toddler.

When Emory Hospital learned that Dickerson spent time behind bars for violating his probation, they denied the family the surgery. He was arrested for possession of firearms.

Janet Christenbury, the hospital’s director of media relations, told the Daily News that their policies for organ transplantation are meant to maximize the chance of success for organ recipients and minimize risk for living donors.

She emphasized, “Transplant decisions regarding donors are made based on many medical, social, and psychological factors.”

The hospital reportedly agreed to reevaluate the case in 2018 if Dickerson maintains good behavior for three to four months prior to donating his kidney.

The surgery was scheduled early in Oct. but Dickerson was arrested by authorities in Gwinnett County just before that.

Carmella, AJ’s mother, is worried that her son will not make it to 2018. She said that the toddler needs bladder surgery. More importantly, the boy’s body is failing. A few months ago, the two-year-old suffered a stroke, which only made the transplant more urgent.

“‘He’s been through a lot,” the mother said. Unconvinced about the hospital guidelines, Carmella believes the hospital is punishing their boy for his father’s actions.

AJ could be placed on the kidney transplant waiting list but chances of getting an immediate transplant are slim. The National Kidney Foundation suggests that the patients on the list would have to wait three to five years on average. On the other hand, AJ, being a child, will be one of the priorities.

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Five Unintended Consequences of Short Pastoral Tenure

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Five Unintended Consequences of Short Pastoral Tenure

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By Jonathan Howe

Not a week goes by when I don’t hear of a pastor leaving one church headed to another. It happens. We all get that. Unfortunately, some of the names or churches mentioned are the same ones I heard just months earlier. For this post, I’ll refer to anything shorter than 6-9 months tenure as a “short pastorate.

While some circumstances do call for quick pastoral turnover, it’s hard not to wonder if some churches fire their pastor (or the pastor bails) too quickly. Regardless of which side cuts the other loose, the church and pastor are nearly always worse off as a result. The unintended consequences of short pastoral tenure take their toll on both sides.

  1. Members lose trust in the pastors, and pastors lose trust in churches. This seems obvious, but if a pastor leaves a church and the church feels like the pastor burned them in the process, the next pastor will find the deck stacked against them. If the pastor is the one burned, there will be a greater scrutinizing and distrust of the next church—if there is a next church.
  2. Your current church will wonder if it will happen to them. If you had a short pastorate at your last stop, the church you go to will inevitably wonder if the same will happen to them. Trust is hard to gain and easy to lose. Short pastorates eat up trust on both sides of the equation.
  3. The staff is demoralized. Regardless of where the blame for the short pastorate lies, the staff is left to pick up the pieces after a pastor leaves. They have to answer the questions, deal with more uncertainty, and try to move forward in a new normal they weren’t expecting—and one they often contributed little to.
  4. The vision of the church is clouded. When a new pastor comes in, a new vision and direction is usually cast. After a short pastorate, there is great uncertainty about the vision and direction of the church. Do you continue in the direction the last pastor was leading? Do you return to what it was before the short pastorate? Does someone internally rise up and cast a new vision? Those are just three options. And it’s likely that different areas of the church will gravitate to a different one. Then you have a whole new set of problems.
  5. Financial waste. This is the most practical consequence of a short pastorate. Financial resources are expended to find a new pastor only to turn around and spend that much or more to do it again within just a few months. It’s a wasteful use of funds. Money for ministry becomes money for mistakes.

In closing, if you’re in a situation and considering leaving your church after just a few months, I exhort you to reconsider and pray earnestly. Far too often “God told me” becomes a convenient cover for “this is hard, and I want out.” Churches, the same goes for you. Far too often “God told us” becomes a convenient cover for “we don’t want to change.”

Jonathan Howe serves as Director of Strategic Initiatives at LifeWay Christian Resources as well as the host and producer of Rainer on Leadership and SBC This Week. Jonathan writes weekly at ThomRainer.com on topics ranging from social media to websites and church communications. Connect with Jonathan on Twitter at @Jonathan_Howe.

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