Asia/Pacific Updates

Prayer Requests

Missionary Jiep Gonzales has been summoned to the Ministry of Land in regard to the property deeds purchased for the Indochina Mission Training Center to be built in Mae Sai, Thailand. Please pray that all will go well with this appointment, and that building on the property can commence soon. Also, continue to pray for Albert Gonzales, who remains in the US for rehabilitation after his heart bypass surgery, and for itineration to continue raising support funds. 

Missionaries Hobert and Marguerite Howard will be departing the US this week on the long journey to India, where much work awaits them in preparing for the annual pastors' conferences in four locations. Pray for strength, health and protection as they travel, and for blessing as they enter their 59th year of ministry in missions!

Pray for income to increase for IPHC missions, as we are facing budget shortfalls which will hamper ministry on every field.

Pray that 2010 will be a year of great faithfulness and fruitfulness in IPHC missions around the world!

East Asia a Hub for Human Trafficking

A United Nations report documenting the slave trade and sex trafficking of women, children, and men all over the world singled out East Asia for a dubious distinction: Victims from this region were detected in more than 20 countries in regions all over the world, making East Asia a hub for intercontinental trade of human beings, especially adult women. One of the terrible ironies of the report: Women often traffic other women.

"It is shocking that former victims become traffickers," said Antonio Maria Costa, the head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime. "We need to understand the psychological, financial and coercive reasons why women recruite other women into slavery."

-- source: World magazine

Christians Unite for Christmas Outreach in Thailand

Christians in Thailand are uniting to share the gospel as part of an outreach sponsored by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) that launched Thursday.

More than 36,000 Christians representing some 1,700 churches across Thailand will host friends and neighbors in homes, churches and schools to watch sermons by evangelist Billy Graham and his son, Franklin, during the three-day My Hope Thailand initiative.

"In a country where only one-half of 1 percent of the population belongs to an evangelical church, the need for the gospel is tremendous," said Bill Conard, vice president of international ministries at BGEA. "But the church is ready, and we are eagerly anticipating what God will do through His people."

The programs, dubbed into the Thai language, will also include testimonies and songs from prominent Thai Christians and will be offered on nationwide radio stations. On Saturday, the evangelistic program will be broadcast on television.

-- Read more in Charisma News Online

Weekly Prayer Requests

See the updated list of weekly prayer requests on the page at right.

Most People in the World Lack Religious Freedom

Two out of three people in the world live in countries with high levels of restrictions on religion, a new Pew Research Center report found.

Sixty-four nations out of 198 countries and territories – about one-third of the countries in the world – analyzed have high or very high restrictions on religion. Though a minority of countries are restrictive, these countries have large populations. That translates to nearly 70 percent of the world’s 6.8 billion people living in countries with high restrictions on religion, which mostly affect religious minorities.

Pew studied both government actions, such as constitutional limitations or prohibitions on religious speech, as well as social hostilities by private groups, such as religion-related terrorism and violence between religious groups.

Looking just at the 25 most populous countries, the most restrictive on both measures are Iran, Egypt, Indonesia, Pakistan and India.

The study also found that most countries promise religious freedom in their constitutions or basic laws, but only a quarter fully respect this legal right in practice.

-- from The Christian Post

Miracle Christmas in Vietnam

This Christmas season witnessed an extraordinary public gathering and celebration by the beleaguered Christians of Vietnam.

Christian sources reported that some 40,000 people gathered in a hastily constructed venue in Ho Chi Minh City to worship God, celebrate Christmas and hear a gospel message— an event of unprecedented magnitude in Vietnam.

Having finally secured permission from the authorities after much struggle and prayer, organizers had less than two days to turn a vacant field into something that would accommodate a stadium-size crowd. They had to bring in ample electricity, construct a giant stage, rent 20,000 chairs and set up the sound and lighting.

Christians described the event, titled "With Our Whole Hearts," in superlative terms. For house churches, large gatherings are both very rare and very special, and for many this was their first glimpse of the strength of Vietnam's growing Christian movement. Thousands of Christians joined a choir of more 1,000 singers in loud and joyful praise.

A popular Vietnamese Christian Web site and other reports indicated up to 8,000 people responded to the gospel message indicating a desire to follow Christ.

Friday's event also made history in that it was streamed live on the Vietnamese Web site www.hoithanh.com and viewed by thousands more in Vietnam and by Vietnamese people around the world.

Read the full story in Charisma News Online.

Answered Prayers

See the updates on the prayer request page at right, for answers to prayer!

House Church Leaders Jailed in China

Bypassing the court system, China arbitrarily sentenced five more leaders of the Fushan Church in Linfen City, Shanxi Province, on Monday, this time to re-education labor camps for two years, according to China Aid Association (CAA).

A Chinese court last week sentenced five house church leaders to three to seven years in prison after they were arrested en route to Beijing to file a complaint about an attack on their church, according to the advocacy organization. The five leaders sentenced to labor camps this week were accused of "gathering people to disturb the public order" after they organized a prayer rally of 1,000 people the day after military police and others attacked their church members and building on Sept. 13.

The church leaders, including four women, were arrested on Nov. 11. They had helped to organize a prayer rally after the Sept. 13 attack on the Fushan Church branch congregation in Linfen, when some 400 uniformed police and civilians bearing shovels, batons, bricks, iron hooks and other weapons had beaten members of the church who were sleeping at the nearly finished factory building used as a worship site.

Full story in Charisma News Online.

Rebuilding: Churches, Homes and Lives

The Indonesia branch of IPHC is heavily involved in disaster relief efforts in the Padang area, which was struck by a devastating earthquake on September 30. Two churches were totally destroyed by the quake, while ten were heavily damaged and can no longer be used.

The believers are looking for alternative places to meet for worship, and have to wait for the government to provide tents for the purpose. In the meantime, they are meeting in homes, many of which also suffered severe damage.

Rebuilding is tough for Christians, as they face discrimination from the government as well as many of the relief organizations, which only help Muslims in the area. Please pray for the volunteer workers from our other churches in Indonesia who have gone to help their brothers and sisters in need.

Christmas List

What better gift to give this Christmas than helping to spread the news of Christ’s birth to the ends of the earth? Check out the Christmas List page at right for gift suggestions. And now you can give online, from the comfort of your own home! Giving to missions guarantees a merry Christmas!