Mission Network News

Young professionals relax in a bar in Beijing, China. (AP Images/Dima Gavrysh)

Teaching English is a big business in China. According to figures reported in state media, the English-teaching industry was worth 15 billion yuan.

As China emerges as a business giant in the global economy, senior business leaders are required to have fluency in English in order to communicate.

As a result, Erik Burklin with China Partner says: "Many young people, especially teenagers, really want to learn English. One of the motivations for them, of course, is to get wealthy, to get a better job. Many have a dream to someday travel overseas."

AP Images/Amanda Rivkin

The famine may be crippling. The Muslim voice may be strong. Fleeing refugees may crowd the borders. But the evangelistic churches in Ethiopia are linked in unity and strength like never before.

Global Advance witnessed this incredible unity at their Frontline Shepherds Conference conducted in Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa, last month.

With the Frontline Shepherds Conference, pastors were even more equipped with a sense of unity as they were trained in church growth, planting and missions. Pastors were also challenged in their personal walk with the Lord, and many committed to plant a new church within the next 12 months.

AP Images/Gary Kazanjian

Gas prices are finally starting to slowly climb back down in the U.S., and the costs are expected to continue their decline. Over the past few months oil prices have gone down, and yet shipping costs—which rose with the rise in oil costs over the last few years—remain high.

Oil prices are still higher than they were a year ago, which is part of the reason that shipping costs have remained higher as well. Even as oil prices go down, some shipping companies are playing catch-up.

Increased shipping costs have presented a significant dilemma for ministries attempting to send large amounts of aid or resources to far-away nations. Global Aid Network (GAiN), for example, has millions of meals prepared to send to East Africa where severe drought has thrown millions into levels of starvation. However, GAiN has had difficulty procuring the funds to actually send the food to Africa.

AP Images/Emad Matti

Although no one claimed the bloodiest day this year for Iraq, the attacks this week bore the hallmark of Al-Qaida.

Suicide bombers, car bombs and roadside explosives hit more than a dozen Iraqi cities and towns. The explosions killed roughly 70 people. Homes, business and houses of worship were targeted.

Todd Nettleton with Voice of the Martyrs says the group behind the Monday assault was sending a message.

"When you talk about more than 40 attacks coordinated all across the entire country, you're talking about: 'We're still here and we can make a lot of trouble.' I think the other message that they're sending is: 'You should be very afraid,'" he said.

As U.S. troops draw down and leave Iraq, the Christians there have a very real concern. Nettleton explains that they're wondering if the government can respond to the threats against them. Believers are asking, "Who will protect us? Who will make sure that our churches are not bombed, that our people are not attacked and killed?"

AP Images/Roberto Candia

Educational strikes in Chile may have lulled in violence, but they are far from over.

One article reports that 20 students from various high schools in Chile are currently on a hunger strike, prepared to forgo their academic year and their health for the cause.

Thousands of high school and university students have been demanding radical changes to the educational system in Chile for the past several months. Over the last two weeks, peaceful protests turned violent as students attempted to takeover a TV station to broadcast their concerns, lit fire to buildings and led police to bring tear gas into crowds to quell protests. According to the BBC News, damages to public and private property have now reached $2 million.

Photo by International Mission Board

Rioting across the U.K. last week led to the arrests of over 1,500 people in a matter of days.

The shocking hours of looting and criminal activity erupted out of a peaceful protest on Saturday, Aug. 6. The protest was hijacked by others with a more violent agenda against the police.

According to the Guardian, peaceful protests turned into violent criminal attacks involving petrol bombs, bricks and makeshift weapons.

Violent London riots have been raging since the police shooting of 29-year-old Mark Duggan on Aug. 4. Police were attempting to arrest him in Tottenham, a city with a familiar history of riots.

AP Images/Rex Features

Roiling balls of angry flames throb from gutted buildings and shops in north London. Rioting young people with faces masked by dark cloth wrappings clash with London riot police. Charred frames of metal that were once cars litter the streets.

Violent London riots have been raging since the police shooting of 29-year-old Mark Duggan on Aug. 4. Police were attempting to arrest him in Tottenham, a city with a familiar history of riots.

Following Duggan's death, his friends and family gathered for a peaceful protest at the Tottenham police station. But things did not stay peaceful after 300 people joined the protest and violence quickly erupted.

AP Images/Santiago Leon

The United Nation Refugee Agency (UNHCR) says the number of Somalis arriving in northeastern Kenya continues to grow, with thousands more arriving each week.

The stream of refugees is the most obvious sign of drought conditions in Somalia. Numbers provided by UN show that almost half of Somalia's population, 3.7 million people, is affected by the current crisis. The Horn of Africa famine could claim an entire generation by the time it's over. Worse, al Shabaab—a militant rebel group—was standing in between the starving people and the food brought in by the international community.

Years ago one ministry was working hard to help pick up the pieces of the Soviet Union by delivering aid to the many who were receiving only 10 percent of the income they had received in the past. As the ministry struggled to meet the numerous needs of those around them, their leader had a thought: Why can't we mobilize people to come and bring humanitarian aid with them?

Eventually this ministry became the Global Aid Network (GAiN). And out of that one thought came GAiN's Advocates program.

"[GAiN advocates] come on as official representatives of GAiN wherever they happen to live," says Tom Miller, who works in Volunteer Opportunities at GAiN. "That saves the ministry massive amounts of money and provides the opportunity for many people to be involved in international ministry right where they are."

Islam has been in the spotlight via the news a great deal this year and in recent years. Especially during Ramadan, Muslims are on the hearts of believers. Many have joined in prayer efforts for the Muslim world this month, from Aug. 1 to Aug. 30.

But is it enough? Is the Muslim world a bigger mission field than we thought?

As Operation Mobilization celebrates 50 years of ministry in the Muslim world, Julyan Lidstone, the leader of OM's ministry in Western and Central Asia, believes reaching this growing population is more vital now than ever.

Recently we told you about a grassroots effort to dedicate Haiti to Christ. According to those who participated, God moved.

Pastor Robert Ulysse, a minister in the northwest region of Haiti, says they prayed each day at a different crossroad in the region.

According to Ulysse, "After we closed the seventh crossroad event on Saturday, a Voodoo priest named Solivert Josep, came forward with his wife. They both declared that they wanted to renounce their Voodoo practices in favor of the 'Living God.' We filled three pickup trucks with Christians and drove to the Joseph's home to remove and burn their Voodoo articles."

The Bible has been translated into hundreds of languages across the globe, but obstacles hinder accessibility. Can people afford the Scriptures? Is the Word allowed in every nation? Can people there even read it?

Faith Comes By Hearing is obliterating these obstacles, and all with one quick click.

"Now, for the first time in history, you have one application that can singly distribute the Scriptures in all the languages of the world—spoken by at least five billion people," says Troy Carl, Faith Comes By Hearing's national director. "We're very, very excited about the accessibility of the Word of God to anybody, anywhere, at any time."

While almost 13 million people are on the brink of starvation in the Horn of Africa, relief agencies are frustrated that they may be unable to help those most desperate. It's not because they don't have the food. It's because terrorist groups linked to al-Qaeda are preventing the aid from getting there.

Todd Nettleton with Voice of the Martyrs says Somalia is the biggest challenge. "The al-Shabaab militant terrorist group has made it a stated goal to completely rid the country of Christians. They literally are hunting down Christians, and anyone who is thought to be Christian or rumored to be a Christian is a potential target."

Well-known Christian aid groups have been forced out of the country in areas where al-Shabaab cell groups are in power. Nettleton says: "There's so much lawlessness. And in the midst of that, you have so many people who are starving to death. But the reality for someone who identifies themselves as a Christian to go in: they really paint a target on their back just to go into the country."

A half a million minor girls are working as prostitutes across India.

The problem is especially significant in West Bengal. In just one year, 2,500 teenage girls were trafficked from the region. Some girls were kidnapped, others coerced into a life of sexual slavery.

Women with children sometimes choose to enter the realm of brothels and slavery as a means of survival. According to the EFCA ReachGlobal website, the average daily wages for rural women laborers in India is 34 to 43 upees (76 to 96 cents) a day, but prostitutes routinely make 100 to 300 rupees ($2.25 to $7.75) per customer and average three or four customers per day.