December 2001

Welcome to the final IMB Collegiate eNewsletter for Fall semester 2001.  What's Inside:  People Group Info:  Hazara of Afghanistan, Prayer Needs, Mission Projects in North Africa/Middle East, The Average Muslim, Arab Students leave US Schools, Call to Prayer, More on Ramadan, Bible study:  Dreaming of Jesus.

Unreached People Group (UPG) focus: The Hazara of Afghanistan

"To go where no believers have gone before," is the cry of Christian workers among the Hazara people of Afghanistan. No official missionaries currently work among the Hazara who live in the isolated Central Mountain Range of Afghanistan. The few isolated Hazara seekers and believers have only radio broadcasts to tell them the Good News, and converts to Christianity can face torture or death for their decision to follow Christ. Although the Taliban cited the Hazara population at only five percent, the CIA claims that they are more than 19 percent of the population of Afghanistan, a significant number of people with little or no access to the gospel.

Missionaries in the area tell us: "To date, most Hazaras have not heard. They remain locked behind some of the most rugged and least developed mountains in the world. Until recently, they lived in one of the most restrictive political climates in the world. They have never met a follower of Christ, let alone one that could speak their language. They cannot read, and they know their language is not written, anyway. More than 7 million Hazaras around the world live every day without any access to the words of God in Hazaragi, the language of their homeland. But that is changing.

"In these days God is opening the door for His Word among the Hazaras. Because short wave radio is the primary source of outside news, "Hope for Hazara" Christian radio is being broadcast. The very first publication in the Hazaragi language was a Christian magazine which is also posted on a Hazaragi web page. This web page is linked to all the political Muslim Hazara web pages, as it is the only written item the Hazara have ever seen in their heart language (using a modified Persian Script they can read)."

The script of the JESUS film has been translated, and voices are being assembled for the JESUS film to become the world's first feature film in Hazaragi! Beyond all this is the work needed to complete the Dari Old Testament, the language most educated Hazara read, and the nearest one to their mother tongue.

"An informal Hazara Media Network is emerging so that all have a chance to hear. A few years ago, no one could conceive that a Hazara could be a Christian-yet a military commander coming out of the mountains declared that there were so many Christians in one district now that they have their own radio station. Hearing of and from Hazaras who follow Jesus revolutionizes the possibilities of others doing the same. None of this is without risk. People's lives and the completion of the task are seriously at risk."

In the transitional government for Afghanistan, the Hazara will hold 3 posts, and one of the two women chosen to be a part of the new government is a Hazara woman. The political situation is changing for the Hazara, but when will their spiritual situation change?

"In these days God is opening the door for His Word 

 "Whom shall I send and who will go for us?" - Is. 6:8

"Ask the Lord of the Harvest to send out laborers into His harvest fields."- Matt. 9:38

Prayer Points:

• Pray that God Himself will see through to completion the translation of the Bible into Hazaragi.
• Pray for the dissemination of God's Word into Hazara hands. God has sent forth His Word, and promises it will accomplish all His purposes. Ask God to fulfill His promise in our days.
• Ask that God would bring forward His person/people to develop the oral Bible Stories.
•  Pray that the daily and weekly radio broadcasts would be effective and reach the Hazara people.
•  Pray for protection and financial support for these endeavors. Pray that it would bring isolated seekers and believers together.
•  Pray that concentrations of Hazaras in London, Amsterdam, Stockholm, Hamburg, Brussels, Copenhagen, Moscow, Washington DC, Vancouver, British Columbia, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Australia would find Christ. Pray that they will start churches, becoming a resource for their people's access to the Gospel around the world. This is already starting to happen!
•  Pray that God would bring forward local Christian leaders to shepherd the churches beginning to emerge among the Hazaras.

Project List for East Asia

Details on all projects are available on the web at www.thetask.org/students on the Mission projects link.

• Check out this student testimony about reaching North Africans in France from summer 2001 at www.thetask.org/students/Archives/testimonies.htm. 
• Read the story of students working with Muslims in Norht Africa ("Hot Summer") at www.thetask.org/students/Archives/stories.htm. 

The Average Muslim

While a mental picture of a Muslim may be a turban or a veil, the fact is 60% of all Muslims are under the age of 19 and over half live in urban areas. Today's teen profile of Levi's, Nike shoes, cell phone, fast food, and MTV describe many of today's followers of Islam.

- From Arab World News, July 2001, reprinted in The Ivy Jungle Network's Campus Ministry Update August 2001

Arab Students Leave US Schools

In the wake of the September 11 attacks, hundreds of Arab students have left US universities to return home. Many say that parents have been a primary factor, asking students to come home for fear of violence or harassment on campus. The Saudi Arabian government has offered free airfare to any of its citizens studying in the United States.

According to the American Council for Education, nearly 40,000 of the 570,000 foreign students studying at US colleges and universities are from Arab countries, so the number leaving is actually small. Kuwait has asked its students to stay. Other countries have encouraged those students who do leave to return for the spring semester.

- From the Associate Press, September 25, 2001

Call to Prayer

Seven Southern Baptist leaders have issued a call to prayer on behalf
of the world's Muslims, who are asking God to reveal himself to them as
they observe their holy month of Ramadan. A mighty concert of prayer on
Dec. 16 -- at the close of Ramadan -- may stir a great spiritual
awakening among Muslims. Join your Southern Baptists in this day of prayer Dec. 16. For more information, visit
www.acalltoprayer.net.

More about Ramadan

What is Ramadan? Ramadan is a Muslim religious holiday occurring right now through Dec. 15. It is a time that Muslims around the world take each year to fast, pray, and seek God. They fast from sun up until sun down. They do not eat or drink beverages during that time (in some stricter societies they don't even swallow saliva).

During this time, Muslims usually become more strict about praying five times a day (one of the five pillars of Islam), and they go to the mosque more frequently to hear readings from the Koran.

Ramadan is also a time for community, a time to share large meals in the evening, and to share their lives with one another. This is a time each year that Muslims take very seriously. They desire to seek God more fully and to be found pleasing to him. Dreams and visions are more frequent during this time as well.

I want to invite you to spend extra time in prayer this month for the Muslims in Paris and around the world. Pray for God to reveal himself in the person of Isa (The Arabic name for Jesus, pronounced "Ee-sah.").

-- From Ginger, an ambassador for Christ in Western Europe

Bible Study: Dreaming of Jesus

How does God reveal Himself to you? Think through this question and write your answers below.

What does your list say? Does God speak to you through the Bible? Through friends, ministers, or a sermon? Has God ever spoken to you in dreams and visions? In the Western world, we often limit God to revealing Himself through sermons, Bible studies and the advice of godly counselors, but we discount dreams and visions as suspect. By contrast, many people in other countries, including most of the Muslim world, consider dreams and visions as standard vehicles through which God will speak to them.

Speaking at Two Rivers Baptist Church recently, Dayna Curry, one of the two women jailed by the Taliban for sharing Christianity, said that God is reaching Afghan Muslims through their dreams. Curry said that an Afghani woman she knew was under stress, wondering how to feed and clothe her 8 children. One night, the woman had a dream that Jesus walked into her home, placed his hand on each of their heads and told her "not to worry because I will be their father."

"[The woman] came to us and wanted to know how to get closer to Jesus," Curry said.*

The Bible makes much of dreams and visions, too. Find as many places as you can in the Bible where God reveals Himself through dreams. Try looking in your concordance** under the word "dream(s)" for a starting point. Write down the verses you find.

Now look up Gen. 37:5-10 and Acts 10: 9-36. How did God speak to Joseph, Peter, and Cornelius?

Do you see how God revealed His character and His will through these dreams and visions? Joseph learned that God is faithful to provide for His people even in times of famine and that he (Joseph) was to be part of that plan of provision. Peter learned that God is not a respecter of persons, i.e. that either Jew or non-Jew was welcome into relationship with Him and that he (Peter) was to treat people the same way. Cornelius learned through his vision about a man who could tell him about Jesus so that he and all those with him would be saved.

Just as God used dreams and visions throughout the Bible to reveal Himself and His will, He often still reveals Himself in this manner to Muslims. On Dec. 12, Muslims around the world will celebrate the Night of Power, a night when many stay up all night, asking God to reveal himself to them and expecting God to speak to them in dreams. Will you pray that God will reveal Himself in the person of Jesus through dreams and visions during the Night of Power this year? Will you ask the Holy Spirit to guide Muslims into the Truth of Jesus as they desperately seek Him on Dec. 12? Would you and your friends commit to pray around the clock on Dec. 11-12 since Muslims live in all the time zones of the world?

If you know Muslim students on your campus, ask them what they did on the Night of Power. When you tell them that you prayed that God would reveal Himself to them, a great conversation about Christ could open up! You might be the answer to your own prayer by introducing Muslim students to Jesus because of the Night of Power.

* "Dayna Curry challenges Christians to answer call to missions," by Todd Starnes, Baptist Press, Dec. 6, 2001.
** The concordance is usually at the back of your Bible with key words at the top of the page like you find in a dictionary.