Contagious Joy!

Pastor Dioni and Josephine Yake (pronounced, yeah – kay) have a contagious joy! Their joy is full and running over. One can’t help but smile, when this radiant couple smiles at him. Talented, joyful, dedicated ministers of the Lord, spreading the communicable joy of the gospel.  Dioni (pronounced like, Johnnie) and Josephine deeply understand just how GOOD the Good News is! It is SO good that it would be a shame not to share it! When is shows like this, on-lookers are like, “what in the world!?” It’s a joy like no other! It’s because of the complete and amazing salvation Jesus gives that we have a JOY that is “indescribable and glorious!!!”  Read 1 Peter 1:7-9.

They live and serve the Lord in Ivory Coast, in a region in the southwest part of Ivory Coast, a region called Man. Yes, the name of the region is Man. And man needs the Lord! (pun intended) All the men, women and children of Man need to experience this JOY.

Please pray for Pastor Dioni and Josephine as they faithfully announce the extremely good news of over-flowing joy!

JOY!        JOY!        JOY!

Got JOY?

It’s yours for the asking. Contact me.

Faithful Mali Pastor

Pastor Has Urgent Need

Russia: No Evangelism Outside Church

Please pray more fervently than ever for Russian pastors and missionaries. Have you heard about the new law that Russia put into effect last summer? It prohibits any evangelism outside of the church. This is including Christians meeting in house churches, of which there are hundreds.  Harold Zimmerman, his 2007 study of the world house church movement, states that there were over 800 house churches in Russia.

Zimmerman, H. (2007). Case study (Russia): The house church movement of Mother Russia. In R. Zdero (Ed.), Nexus: The world house church movement reader (pp. 338-340). Pasadena, CA: William Carey Library.

Joel Griffith, with Slavic Gospel Association, said that this law has very wide-spread ramifications. According to an article written by Eekoff Zilstra in the January issue of Gleanings (Christianity Today), there have been at least 32 pastors/church leaders arrested and prosecuted since last summer, of which 18 were convicted of breaking the law and incarcerated.

Praise International supports national Russia pastors in Russia. They have express a serious concern about how the government will enforce the law among their churches. Please pray for Russian pastors, church leaders and missionaries. Thank you.

Below are a few of the Russian pastors whom we have sponsored. If you would like to sponsor a pastor through Praise International, please contact us.

Faithfully Preaching the Word

 

Gypsy: Romania’s Worse Social Stigma

The European Roma Rights Center (ERRC) reported that in Romania, being a Gypsy is the worst social stigma. Generally speaking, Romanian strongly look down upon the Romani people.  Mădălin Voicu, a popular Musician and Politician in Romania, himself of Romani descent, said of his own people:

“Our gypsies are stupid. They could at least be crafty but they aren’t. They are just primitives and they manage to irritate the entire society which is already watching them closely […] They run through the country and Europe barefoot, slimy and dirty, wearing clothes which are more likely to disgust you than make you feel sorry for them […] Begging, soliciting and being disorganized will never bring them any advantages.”

If this Romani pronounces these strong words about his own people, do you think the average Romanian thinks any better of them? The Romani people make up the biggest minority in Romania. It seems like that are the outcasts of society.  They are not allowed live in the same vicinity as Romanians, so they have their own villages, their own gypsy guettos.

But, at the risk of sounding trite, I’ll say, THE GYPSIES NEED THE LORD. I praise God there are men and women of God who accept the call to preach the gospel among the Romani people. Of course, ninety-nine percent of the time, these are Romani pastors feeling drawn to evangelize their own people. But there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s natural.

[I do know of one case where a Romanian man felt called to preach the good news in a Romani village and to start a Romani church. I say, hats off to this brave, compassionate man! I visited this devout pastor’s home several years ago. He was very sick at that time and I had the privilege of praying over him.]

Praise International is very honored to sponsor several Romani pastors who are preaching the good news and starting churching among the Romani people.  Decebal and Nicoleta is one of those pastoral couples.

My wife and I had the pleasure of being a guests in their home. It was a wonderful experience to drive up this rugged dirty road and to visit the mountainous village of Ciuta, situated in the foothills of the Transylvanian Alps. The village Main Street was a narrow, bumpy dirt road. Many people came out of their humble abodes to see our car. It was very rare to see cars up in their village. Plenty of horse-drawn wagons.

Pastor Decebal took us to the end of “main street” and there on the right were two churches, a small old Church and next it was a much bigger Church building under construction. These are the churches pictured below. God is using Decebal and Nicoleta to reach the Romani people of Ciuta village. I thank God for giving them a burden to reach their own people for the Lord. Pray that God give them lots of perseverance and compassion and strength, that God anoint this ministry so that all the people in the village might be saved!

Get a Kick out of Sharing the Gospel

An excellent high school prof and a Taekwondo Blackbelt instructor, Pastor Alexandru has a perfect platform for sharing the gospel. Whatever he does for the Lord, he does it “with class.” Because of the quality of his work, God has given him favor with the school principal, which is of key importance.

Alexandru is member of a very large and highly respected Christian Taekwondo association. Several of the blackbelt instructors are national champions, some are world-class champions. There is one fundamental difference between this Taekwondo club and the others: instead of teaching students the zen philosophy, which is typically taught along with all of the martial arts, these trainers teach Christian principles. In fact, all the blackbelt instructors in this club are trained and certified to use the Bible studies of Kay Arthor’s Precepts Ministries International. Through this creative strategy, many of the Taekwondo students come to know Jesus as their personal Savior.

Many (if not all) of these blackbelt Taekwondo instructors, like Alexandru Curbet, are pastors who are evangelizing and starting new churches. This strategy has proven itself to be effective. They also use the Precepts teaching materials in their churches to train Church members, youth and even the children.

Another method that Alexandru and Valentina use for reaching more people with the gospel is through English classes.  Valentina is an excellent English teacher. Besides being a mother to two beautiful children, she also teaches English privately throughout the year.  In the summer, they organize English camps.

Praise International is proud to sponsor Pastor Alexandru and Valentina Curbet. Please pray for them, their family, their outreach to people in the community and the discipleship training of the members of their Church.  Thank you.