Our Missionary Families

Last night was another milestone in the life of our church. The first missionary families supported by Reconciliation Church were selected by a vote of church members. We'd like to welcome the following missionaries to the Reconciliation Church family:

-Jim & Becky Carter, Alaska
-Adam & Brandie Crabtree, Greece
-Rich & Mindy Krecl, Israel
-Lionel & Carol Martin, Portugal
-Rick & Cheri Moeller, South Africa/Scotland
-New Testament Church Planting, USA

Europe was once a Christian continent...

The decline of Christianity accompanied by the rise of twin forces, secular postmodernism and Islam, is an interesting if not alarming development. Christian churches are shuttered while mosques open. Now this interesting news item, the announcement of the building of the "largest mosque in Europe":

Chechen president to inaugurate 'largest mosque in Europe'

THE JERUSALEM POST

The Russian-backed Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov will inaugurate the "largest mosque in Europe" on October 17 in Chechnya, the Russian official news agency Novosty reported.
Over 10,000 worshipers will be able to pray inside the mosque, which will be named after the president's father, Ahmad Kadyrov, who was killed in 2004.

"The largest mosque in Europe... will by inaugurated on the first day of the International Peacemakers' Conference, titled 'Islam - Religion of Peace and Progress,'" the grand mufti of Chechnya, Sultan Mirzayev, told the press.

Mirzayev underlined that approximately 50 countries have already approved their participation in the three-day conference.

The building of the mosque began more than three years ago. Surrounding the mosque will be Chechnya's Islamic administration, a religious school, an Islamic university, a hotel and a religious library.

Kadyrov, 31, is the son of Ahmad Kadyrov, an anti-Russian rebel leader who at one point was titled "Chechnya's rebel mufti" [mufti - an Islamic, cleric who issues religious decrees].
In 1999 the Kadyrovs defected to the Russian side. On March 2, 2007 then Russian president Vladimir Putin nominated Kadyrov as Chechen president.

News item: "No more LDS missionaries Russia-bound"

This little tidbit crawled across the TV screen today. While this news item applies to the LDS church, the implications for other missionary organizations and current missionaries within Russia is obvious.

Jul. 15, 2008 07:14 AM

Associated Press

PROVO, Utah - The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is no longer sending North American missionaries to Russia due to new visa laws, but are trying to find a work-around.
Missionaries who were being prepared at the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah, for service in Russia have been reassigned.

North American missionaries already in Russia will remain to complete their service, which runs two years for men and 18 months for women.

Last year, Russia began to require foreigners on humanitarian visas, which includes missionaries, to leave the country every three months to renew their visas.

"The church is working to find an alternative solution to the 90-day renewal requirement," church spokesman Rob Howell told the Deseret News on Monday. "Until an appropriate alternative is identified, new missionary assignments to Russia will be limited to those nationalities not needing visas.

PBS: "Jesus in China"

Flipping through the channels the other night, I ran across PBS's "Frontline". They featured Christianity in China. Titled Jesus in China, it looked at the relationship between the "house church" (underground) movement and the communist government. While Christian brothers and sisters are beginning to see daylight in the form of less restrictions from the government, they still deal with the specter of living in a police state.

Among the more interesting thoughts from the program:

“They’ve tried to catch me several times, but they never succeeded because God protects me.” says Wang Guiyan, who runs [a house] church. “Christianity is freedom. But Chinese Christians, they still have restrictions. They are not completely free.”

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In case after case, the Chinese government gives a variety of reasons other than faith to arrest local house church leaders. Sometimes, they demolish the house churches altogether. But the government’s attempts to control the underground church have largely failed to diminish their faith.

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“The gap is becoming larger in China between the rich and the poor, the powerful and the powerless,” he says. “I believe only Jesus, and not the communist party, can save this country and its people.”

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At the most recent Communist Party congress, President Hu Jintao made an historic move, adding the word “religion” to the party constitution for the first time. He urged party leaders to strike what he called a harmonious balance between church and state.

But not everyone trusts the party’s new friendly face toward religion. Fan Yafeng, a lawyer specializing in religious freedom, tells Osnos that the government’s acceptance of Christianity is strategic.

“To control the Chinese society, the government sometimes chooses to be lenient and sometimes tough,” he says.