Results include flow of Bibles into Socialist Nicaragua.
The Nicaraguan government flew in the parts for a plastic swimming pool earlier this month. The pool was not to be built at the home of some Sandinista elitist—far from it. Its destination was a large prison in Managua, where 700 prisoners were waiting to be baptized.
Their new faith in Christ, and the revolutionary government’s apparent encouragement of it, are among several remarkable developments in the Central American nation. The most recent is the revolutionary government’s request for 800,000 popular-language New Testaments.
The first 100,000 entered the country from Colombia earlier this month, mostly through funds provided by the Full Gospel Business Men’s Fellowship International (FGBMFI). Now the United Bible Societies is raising funds for the remaining 700,000.
The New Testaments will be distributed free through local churches, and are earmarked specifically for prisoners and the thousands of Nicaragua’s new readers. In the unprecedented 1980 “Great National Literacy Campaign,” literacy in the nation of 2.4 million nearly doubled—from 48 to 88 percent.
Alberto Cárcamo, general director of the UBS office for the Americas (one of four regional headquarters) in Mexico City, said interior minister Tomás Borge Martínez requested the Bibles, realizing that “if the new readers don’t get material to read, they’ll lose what they’ve learned. “But Cárcamo also attributed the choice of reading materials to Borge’s “Christian principles.”
Borge, himself tortured and his wife and daughter killed by guardsmen of deposed dictator Anastasio Somoza, attests to a personal experience with Christ, coming largely through the ministry of the FGBMFI. He has attended a number of FGBMFI’s functions in Central America, most recently a one-day event in Panama to which he flew.
Observers say Borge’s spiritual healing is most evidenced in his reconciliatory measures toward former enemies and his treatment of political prisoners. Borge publicly denounced and apologized for the executions of several hundred Somocistas by revenge-bent Sandinista guerrillas soon after the June 1979 change of government. He emphasized that revenge and murder is not the Sandinista policy. He secured early release for some of the 7,000 political prisoners, and hopes to better the conditions in overcrowded prisons where the estimated 4,200 prisoners remain.
At a meeting of the local Managua Full Gospel Business Men’s chapter last July. Borge voiced his burden for the prisoners and asked FGBMFI officials for help (CT, Sept. 19, 1980). The charismatic-oriented group, with headquarters in Costa Mesa, California, responded by sending in several thousand Bibles, as well as local pastors to minister to the prisoners. These efforts are not hurt by the fact that the government’s head of prisons, Chester Alvarado, is a Christian. FGBMFI director for Central and South America, Newman Peyton, Jr., said he recently prayed with Alvarado to accept Christ as Savior.
Peyton, based in Houston, said the FGBMFI’s vision for Latin America is to reach its heads of state with the gospel. He directs this work with Latin America Mission affiliate Jonás Gonzalez, the Texas-born FGBMFI Latin America coordinator based in Costa Rica, who joined FGBMFI 13 months ago after extensive ministry with LAM-related agencies.
FGBMFI-sponsored prayer luncheons and meetings with Latin American political and government leaders are low-key. Usually a well-known figure shares his personal testimony, and meetings are often on a one-to-one basis. Peyton emphasized the apolitical nature of FGBMFI—that the group will extend the gospel to anyone, regardless of a person’s politics: “We’re not anti-capitalist, anti-Communist, or anti-anything—just pro-Jesus Christ.”
FGBMFI officials prefer not to publicize their meetings with Latin American heads of state, but there are indications that this behind-the-scenes witness is making a substantial impact. According to Peyton, FGBMFI officials met in late April with provisional president Policarpo Paz Garcia of Honduras and “God touched him.” At FGBMFI’s request, Costa Rican president Rodrigo Carazo Odio was host to a December 1979 dinner meeting that brought together Honduran and Sandinista leaders at a time when their respective nations were involved in a bloody border dispute.
Largely because government leaders of Guyana have been influenced favorably for the gospel, that “whole nation is going through a born-again experience,” Peyton asserted. He mentioned again the positive effect of Borge, who, while not a member of the three-man ruling junta, is the “real power” in Nicaragua as its Minister of the Interior.
United Bible Societies officials hope Christians will take advantage of the open door for Bible distribution in Nicaragua. Many observers believe free nations earlier missed their chance by not answering the Sandinista government’s request for teachers during the literacy campaign. Cuba did, however, sending in at least 1,800 teachers who taught reading, as well as the Marxist line. Christian leaders want to pump in Christian materials to keep pace with the prevalent Marxist ones. Right now the government allows the churches almost complete religious freedom.
The version being sent to Nicaragua is Dios llega al hombre (literally “God comes as man,” and is the Spanish equivalent of Good News for Modern Man). (U.S. supporters can contact the American Bible Society, 1865 Broadway, New York, N.Y. 10023 about the Nicaraquan project). The Bible cover carries the seal of Nicaragua, and the words of the national hymn. Time will tell whether the New Testaments bring a spiritual revolution with as much impact as the political one in Nicaragua.
Scotland
Luis Palau Returns For Glasgow Crusade
The motto of Scotland’s largest city is “Let Glasgow flourish through the preaching of the Word and the praising of his name.” The acids of modernity in recent years have abbreviated that to the opening three words, but Luis Palau opted for the original version when earlier this month he opened his five-week crusade in Kelvin Hall.
A revival of wintry weather kept attendance down to about 4,500. To his listeners, the 46-year-old Argentinian spoke of a different kind of revival that would restore Scotland to past spiritual greatness—when its preachers trusted the Bible and its missionaries were sent all over the world, including Palau’s own Latin America.
Palau has strong Scottish links: his maternal grandmother was a Balfour. A Scots businessman’s testimony was used in his own conversion as a boy, and he has already conducted crusades in northwest and southeast Scotland. He stresses, nonetheless, that he does not see himself as “a missionary to darkest Britain.”
But Palau expressed concern at the Glasgow meeting that 2,000 Scottish churches have been closed since 1929, and that a large segment of the population in the land of John Knox is not being reached by the gospel. “It’s either back to the jungle or back to the Bible.” he told his Scottish hearers.
Palau is convinced that “many people have images of what evangelical Christianity is all about that are twisted and totally misleading.” He left those first-day listeners in no doubt about his own concept, and several dozen responded by going forward for counseling at the close of the meeting.
This largest crusade in Glasgow since Billy Graham came to the same hall in 1955 has a budget of some $700,000, of which almost half had been raised before the 900-strong choir rose for the first hymn.
J. D. DOUGLAS
Zimbabwe
Shattered During War, Evangelicals Regroup
The Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe (EFZ)—then Rhodesia—collapsed in 1978 at the height of the liberation struggle, when it was difficult to call meetings. In addition, most of the officers of the fellowship, which was born in 1963, were missionaries, some of whom left the country as the guerrilla warfare intensified.
Last month—just a week before Zimbabwe celebrated its first anniversary—delegates from 10 evangelical denominations and mission organizations met in Salisbury and determined to revive the organization (which had 25 member bodies before its collapse). They elected an interim executive committee, with Philemon M. Kumalo, ordained in the Brethren in Christ Church and principal of Ekupheleni Bible Institute, as chairman. Bishop Joshua Dhube of the United Baptist church and a member of Parliament in Prime Minister Robert Mugabe’s government was elected secretary; Wilbur Beach, a TEAM missionary, was selected as treasurer.
According to Dhube, the general citizenry views favorably the liberal-leaning Zimbabwe Christian Council. Some member denominations in the ZCC identified with the nationalists during the protracted warfare, whereas some evangelical missions were sympathetic to the Ian Smith regime.
One of the EFZ’s weaknesses, argues Willfred Strom, EFZ chairman from 1968 to 1972 and one of the committee members in the interim executive, “was that it was too mission oriented. Now, it should reflect the new reality in Zimbabwe.”
The resurrected EFZ’s success or failure, supporters say, may depend on its ability to interpret the orthodox Christian message within the context of African experience.
NGONI SENGWE
Mexico
Protestants Are Tormented Still In The Villages
Hostility against the thriving Presbyterian church had been building for some time in San Lorenzo Temexlupan, a small town in the state of Oaxaca in southern Mexico. More than 300 people had accepted the message of salvation—even though only a small part of the New Testament had been translated into their language, one of the many Zapotec dialects, through work of the Summer Institute of Linguistics (Wycliffe).
Then in March, hostility exploded. The president of the congregation, Valentino Martinez Marcial, was found dead on the road beside his burro, seven bullets in his body. Valentino, 28, had been the SIL translator’s principal translation assistant for the local language.
Soon after, another member of the church, Vicente Marcial Francisco, 26, was also murdered. Strangely, the authorities reportedly did not bother to write up the deaths as crimes that needed investigation.
A few days later, a mob armed with sticks, axes, and machetes marched on the simple Presbyterian chapel and destroyed it. Another member of the church was shot, but escaped; a fourth victim, beaten badly about the head and left for dead, also survived.
By that time, the believers got the message and fled. A group of 47 sought refuge in the town of Santa Rosa Mata Galtinas where in past years several believers were killed. But the town fathers held a meeting and voted that no refugees could stay. Fleeing again, a large group of believers from San Lorenzo arrived at the gates of San Pablo Presbyterian Church in the city of Oaxaca, capital of the state. They requested food and shelter for an indefinite time. Others fled to Mexico City and other parts of the country.
Realizing local authorities were against the believers, the San Pablo pastor, Saul Velasco Cervantes, and other Presbyterian leaders sought an audience with the governor of Oaxaca. He offered to send soldiers to escort the people back to their homes. But leaders in San Lorenzo swore to kill every one of the Presbyterians as soon as the soldiers departed.
Despite the deaths, the news got out slowly: Pastor Velasco told a local reporter what was happening, and on April 29 a Mexico City evening paper, Ovaciones, headlined in letters three inches high: “HOLY WAR,” adding incorrectly that two Presbyterians had been burned to death. Some radio stations around Mexico picked up the story, but most of the press ignored it.
The “war” aspect was typical of Roman Catholic attitudes toward the introduction of teachings other than their own in rural Mexico, but Oaxaca Presbyterians are not clear whether the persecution is being directed by Communists or Catholics. However, as recently as June 1979, the Catholic archbishop of Oaxaca publicly attacked the Summer Institute of Linguistics without supporting evidence, accusing the translators of being agitators, “proselytizing and provoking violence and deaths in Oaxaca upon inducing the Indians to division …”
On April 30, the National Assembly of the Presbyterian Church began to consider what action to take regarding the Oaxaca incidents, said its president, Juan Garcia. If enough funds were available, there was a strong possibility of publishing full-page statements in major Mexico City newspapers to make the public aware of the problem and lead the authorities to take corrective action.
ELISABETH ISAIS
World Scene
A mass evangelistic rally in West Berlin scheduled for June 5–7 has created a furor in advance of the event. The heavily advertised Berlin ’81 is to be held in the 78,000-seat Olympic Stadium. It is the project of Volkhard Spitzer, charismatic pastor of the 500-member Christian Center in Berlin. The German Evangelical Alliance, the Berlin Ecumenical Council, and a number of Lutheran church entities have disassociated themselves from the rally. They cite Spitzer’s claim to divine instruction in launching Berlin ’81, his handling of prophetic topics, and advertisemets that show as participating some leaders who have declined to attend. Spitzer said he is shocked that a meeting designed to reach people for Christ could “still meet with such opposition in Germany,” and insisted he has no plans to develop a new movement.
Evangelicals in Yugoslavia have taken a step toward cooperation, but are finding harmony elusive. Last December an evangelical council formed, with members (churches and individuals—not denominations) from among the Baptists, Brethren, Lutherans, Methodists, Reformed, Assemblies of God, and other Pentecostal groups. But soon afterward, certain Baptist leaders opposed the council, accusing it of ecumenism. In Yugoslavia, “ecumenical” would indicate the inclusion of Roman Catholics, Serbian Orthodox, or Muslims, but none of those are part of the new evangelical fellowship. A Yugoslavian correspondent attributes the discord to a personality conflict between Baptists and Pentecostals rather than a matter of conscience, noting that those seeking to undercut the council previously served together at the international level with no qualms.
The Hungarian Bible Council is incensed that mission organizations have pirated its ecumenical version of the Hungarian Bible. The council, which represents Reformed, Lutheran, Free, and Orthodox churches, first published the version in 1975, and so far has printed 80,000 copies. But council president Tibor Bartha, a Reformed bishop, says the churches are “deeply grieved” that the version, protected by international copyright law, “was being printed without our knowledge in a printing press somewhere in the West, and being regularly smuggled into our country.” He stated that rumors that the Bible is in short supply in Hungary are false. The thousands of copies of the pirated edition flooding second-hand bookshops at almost half the official price, he said, are undercutting the economic viability of producing the new version, and also threaten to bring all Bible distribution in Hungary into disrepute.
American Protestants have launched a TV station in Southern Lebanon. Sponsored by television evangelist George Otis’s High Adventure Ministries of Van Nuys, California, it began beaming its signals last month into the heavily Palestinian Tyre and Sidon region. The same organization installed a radio transmitter in Major Saad Haddad’s so-called Christian Enclave along the Israeli border in 1979. The Israeli-protected strip is populated equally with Maronite Christians and Shiite Muslims.
The Brother Andrew organization has been strongly criticized by a new Hong Kong-based grouping of Christian organizations that focuses on assisting the church in mainland China. In its first newsletter, the Fellowship of China Ministries takes Open Doors to task for releasing a book with “an unneccessarily agitative title, God’s Smuggler to China, despite warning from the fellowship. The FCM expresses deep regret and discourages the distribution of this book in Hong Kong.” An officer of the fellowship (whose members are Asian Outreach, the Chinese Church Research Center, the Christian and Missionary Alliance, Christian Communications Ltd., Far East Broadcasting Company, and Trans World Radio) noted that it is not illegal for Bibles to enter the People’s Republic, and that to suggest that this is the case is to tag Christians who distribute them as violators of the law.
