Around the World: Bible education in Pakistan, church planting in South Sudan and more quick takes
Around the World is our monthly rundown of news briefs, links and quotes from Churches of Christ all over the globe. Got an idea for this column? Email Erik Tryggestad at [email protected].
Featured image (above): Church members recently conducted a three-day seminar in Newsite, Aweil, South Sudan.
The slave trade plagued this rural African community in the 19th century. Civil war engulfed the region in the 20th century.
In the 21st century, “spiritual growth in Aweil is beyond our dreams,” said longtime missionary Dennis Cady. He and Chuck Dennis oversee the Starfish Foundation, which supports multiple evangelistic and educational efforts in South Sudan’s Jonglei State.
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In 2020, Churches of Christ in Jonglei sent four evangelists on a 600-mile trek to Aweil to teach students in the World English Institute Bible correspondence course who requested baptism. The initial 13 converts taught Bible and planted churches. Cady and Dennis conducted a leadership training seminar in December 2023. South Sudanese evangelists conducted a second seminar in March and a third in July.
“At the time of the December seminar, there were seven congregations in that region,” Cady said. “They set the goal of seven new congregations by the end of 2024.
“As of Aug. 26, there have been 853 baptisms and 37 new congregations in 2024 in the Aweil area.”
The Starfish Foundation provides funds for sheets of metal and stackable plastic chairs for the congregations in Aweil.
See thestarfishfoundation.net to contribute or for more information.
AUSTRALIA
SYDNEY — About 200 Christians from 19 Churches of Christ gathered for the annual Macquarie Lectureship. Speakers were Les Totman, Dale Hartman, Graham Wall, Brett and Lesley Christensen, Bob Marks, Roberto Quintanilla, Peter Van der Laan, Satish Samuel and Nicholas Bargholz.
BRAZIL
URUÇUCA — A new Church of Christ meets in this small town in the northeastern Brazilian state of Bahia. The congregation came to life as seven people were baptized following an evangelistic campaign conducted by students and staffers from EBNESR, a theology school in Recife, Brazil.
“We ask for prayers,” workers with the school said in a recent newsletter, “so that other people come to know the Gospel through the testimony and preaching of this small church in southern Bahia.”
Bunthoeurn Ly of the Phnum Sampov Church of Christ baptizes a woman in Battambang, Cambodia.
CAMBODIA
BATTAMBANG — Workers with E412, named for Ephesians 4:12 (“to equip his people for works of service”), used a recent financial gift to refurbish and “upgrade” their baptistery, said minister Phanat Ouch. The upgrade came just in time. Two women who listen to a gospel radio program sponsored by E412 asked for further studies. Minister Bunthoeurn Ly, who works with a Church of Christ in Phnum Sampov, immersed them in the baptistery.
Youths study Scripture at a camp in Italy.
ITALY
MONTESPERTOLI — One hundred youths and 34 adults participated in a weeklong Bible camp hosted by Churches of Christ. The group traveled to Poggio Ubertini, a Christian retreat center near Florence, said Tonia Vitalone, one of the coordinators.
The camp was “a week of studying the Word, prayer and lots of fun,” she said. “We’re tired but happy.” Five people were baptized during the camp.
PAKISTAN
SAHIWAL — Preparing gospel preachers in a country that’s 96 percent Muslim is difficult.
But the Sahiwal Bible College has faced even bigger challenges since losing two of its biggest financial supporters in 2017.
The school, launched in 2004, has graduated 46 Christians who work across the nation of 235 million souls, said director Naeem Sabir.
“We accept students from all four provinces of Pakistan,” Sabir told The Christian Chronicle. “After the three-year program, they’ve started new congregations and are working amongst communities. They are working in different villages and cities throughout Pakistan and are helping people to follow Jesus’ footsteps.”
Central Missions International, a Florida-based nonprofit, supports mission work in Pakistan as well as India, Uganda and Haiti. See cmiministries.org to contribute or for more information.
The post Around the World: Bible education in Pakistan, church planting in South Sudan and more quick takes appeared first on The Christian Chronicle.
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