KINGFISHER INTERNATIONAL FAMILY NEWS
FEBRUARY 2019
ISSUE 7
Whatever the season - be prepared St. Paul challenged his young protege, Timothy, to “Preach the word of God. Be prepared, whether the time is favorable or not. Patiently correct, rebuke, and encourage your people with good teaching.” (2 Timothy 4:2). Around the world today, there is a rising sense, both of the unfavourable times and the urgency to ‘preach the word of God’. In India, over Christmas in one church in Delhi, 150 people accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour. Over the past few months in that country, ten new Kingfisher churches have been planted: two in Delhi, one in the Punjab, five in Harridwar and two in Uttar Pradesh.
sponsorship project that so many of us support. Lives are changing, churches are being strengthened, leaders are being equipped. Even in the UK, where we are used to hearing of decline in church attendance, of people abandoning the faith, a recent article The Times a different picture that is beginning to emerge: “The number of atheists in Britain has fallen in the past year, according to a survey suggesting that more people are attending church, albeit irregularly. It has long been assumed that the decline in weekly congregations is down to Britons losing their religion and abandoning church. A YouGov survey of 1,660 people commissioned by The Times found that the number of those going to church may have grown in the past year.” (The Times, December 28, 2018)
In Africa, there is a fresh urgency to spread the word, as Kingfisher teaching is taken to Rwanda, to Zimbabwe, to Kenya. Each of these countries is experiencing increasing social and economic instability, and yet there is a hunger for the word of God, a deep desire to be equipped to be disciples of Christ, to see people come to know the Lord and to plant churches.
In Spain, Living Water church in Mojacar reports new life, church growth and a sense of purpose and life. Whilst the world is experiencing economic uncertainty, social and political upheaval, and the situation regarding the UK and the EU in particular is providing great instability, the Kingdom of God continues to grow and expand and people increasingly are searching for answers, for community and for security. Whatever the season - be prepared to reach out with the love and security that Jesus Christ offers and that this world is increasingly desperate for.
In the Philippines, where approximately 90% of the population is Christian and the country itself is the 5th largest Christian nation on earth, the lives of the Dumagat tribe are being transformed as they begin to harvest their ginger crop, the seeds for which were provided as part of Kingfisher’s Harvest Appeal in 2017. The shelters are almost all built now to provide accommodation for the Dumagat families as the children attend Sibug Elementary school, courtesy of the DEP
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Dumagat Education Program update
News from India
Resources available
KINGFISHER INTERNATIONAL FAMILY NEWS
Dumagat Education Program update When the children who attend Bulak school came to pick up their DEP sponsored supplies in December they got to watch TV (powered by a generator) while they ate their meal. The children at Sibug school were given a cuddly toy each when they picked up their supplies.
The Mission House in Rio Chico is now fully furnished and has already had it’s first visitors. I’m sure you’ll agree that it looks absolutely amazing! 2
KINGFISHER INTERNATIONAL FAMILY NEWS
The gospel on the move in India The Holy Spirit is continuing to move in India, with the spiritual battle heating up. The past few years have seen a marked rise in the amount of persecution that Christians have experienced in that land. Open Doors, in its 2018 World Watch List report that India ranks eleventh in the top 50 countries where Christian persecution is at its worst. Radical Hindu extremists launch violent attacks on churches, often without fear of prosecution, and spread false propaganda about Christians, saying that they are forcing people to convert. However, the truth of the matter is that Christianity continues to grow.
conference in that city among local congregations. What we discovered is that Christianity is growing rapidly there too. In 2001 there were 292,800 Christians in the whole of the Punjab. Now there are around 900,000, again mainly among the Dalits. Since that conference in 2017, our National Director, Simon Haq has overseen the planting of a church in Amritsar, which saw 70 people come to Christ on the first day. Simon, in addition to being Kingfisher’s National Director in India, also pastors a church in the Delhi area. It recently had to move to larger premises and has been having multiple baptism services each week.
A decade ago, Christianity accounted for 2.5% of the population in India. Now, that stands at 5.8%, which represents a massive increase. Most of the conversions to the Christian faith (somewhere between 70% - 90%) are among the Dalits, the low-caste (‘untouchable’) groups, and increasingly, it is among the under 35s that growth is occurring.
Simon was invited to Rajasthan, a state in northern India, to speak at a Methodist church. As he ministered among the congregation, the District Superintendent of the Methodist church was filled with the Spirit, which is very exciting news from the church in that area.
It is against this backdrop that Kingfisher is seeking to encourage and support local congregations both in the Delhi area and in the Punjab. Amristar, the home of Sikhism is close to the border with Pakistan and not the obvious place for seeking to church plant - and yet, in 2017, Kingfisher held a two-day
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KINGFISHER INTERNATIONAL FAMILY NEWS
Resources - My Child book If God were to speak to you, what might He say? Do you fear that He would point to your faults and failings, to the unfulfilled commitments, to the compromise and speak to you of His disappointment in you? What would a loving Heavenly Father say to you, His child? How would He lovingly encourage His children to grow to experience their best life?
My Child reveals forty things that the Father longs to say to each one of us; forty encouragements to grow into the people He knows we can be. Now in printed book form at a cost of ÂŁ5, available from the resources page on our website www.kingfisher.org.uk
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