Today we zoom in on our churches throughout Asia as they join together in the international day of prayer and fasting (March 26).

A powerful message concerning the need for world missions. Each person has the responsibility to carry the gospel on. Thousands die everyday who have never heard the gospel before. Mati Simm shares at an LA house church service as they meet under “social-distancing conditions”. He breaks a message of prayer for the nations.

Listen from 39:00 – 1:09:00 for the introduction to the Baltic churches and Mati’s sermon message.

In his sermon, Mati references a conversation he had with a brother who went to Estonia on the One Year Challenge.

He asked the brother, “Why do you want to stay here?”

The brothers response?

“It’s really hard to convert atheists… and I love it!”

That’s inspiring faith. Listen for more.

Taken from “The Plagues That Might Have Brought Down the Roman Empire”, and article written Caroline Wazer of the Atlantic. Reference is made to a historian (Michael McCormick) who shares the Christian role in this piece of history. Inspiring for a generation facing an outbreak and fear regarding the Corona Virus.

For Bishop Cyprian, the plague that came to bear his name was hard proof of the superiority of Christianity over traditional Roman religion. Seeing the pestilence as an opportunity to put their most deeply-held beliefs into action, early Christians beatifically set about caring for the sick and giving proper burials to the dead.

On the other side of the religious divide, the pagan establishment was overwhelmed with fear. Traditionally, Roman priests interpreted epidemics as a sign of displeasure from the gods. Evidence in the form of new iconography on coins and references to extraordinary state-organized sacrifices suggests that the Plague of Cyprian was no different. As Harper notes, sources agree that, “the epidemic undermined the social fabric of pagan society” while “the orderly response of the Christian community, especially in the burial of the dead, presented a stark contrast.”

Check in on one of our Campus Ministry OYC sites in Cali! San Luis Obispo is kicking off a new campus ministry at Cal Poly University! 

The University – https://www.calpoly.edu/

The Area – https://www.timeout.com/san-luis-obispo/things-to-do/best-things-to-do-in-san-luis-obispo

There’s a lot going on in Bend, a newer OYC site that is very active! You can listen to their podcast here

Here’s the tourist side of things…

Bellingham, WA. The home of a fairly new OYC site, a young campus ministry, and a growing church. Take a look at the Bellingham area, it really is an unparalleled location. Close to mountains, the ocean, forests and great parks. But don’t just go as a tourist! Go to serve! Bellingham is looking for an intern!

An aerial view of the campus

Learn more about the OYC here, and the university here!

What’s going on with the most populated country in the world and history?

Read more here, and be sure to check out what the OYC is doing in China!

Get an inside look at the Berlin Church. This video is from a few years back, and interviews a young disciple studying and helping to lead the campus ministry in Berlin. He cam on a One Year Challenge, and stayed to continue the mission. There are certainly are many ups and downs, great to see the example of faith in Berlin, that we aren’t living for comfort and the best experience, but to rely on God and trust in Him.

Currently, we don’t have an OYC site in Berlin, but check out these other sites in Europe!

• Budapest, Hungary
• Prague, Czech Republic
• Birmingham, UK
• London, UK

Christianity in Communist China

In this articles list of ‘9 Things You Should Know About Christianity and Communist China’, you will find inspiration, sadness, and maybe fear.

China, in regards to faith, has both sides of the coin; see these two points from the article.

7. In 2019, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) noted that as a Christian in China, your Bible may have been rewritten by the Chinese government, your church shuttered or demolished, and your pastor imprisoned. In an ongoing effort to “sinicize” religious belief (i.e., make religious belief Chinese in character), the communist Chinese government arrested more than 5,000 Christians and 1,000 church leaders. The government also continued its persecution by closing down or demolishing thousands of churches.

8. The number of Protestant Christians in China has grown from 1 million in 1949, the year the Communist Party came to power, to more than 49 million in 2010. Experts believe that number could more than triple over the next generation, and by 2030 the People’s Republic of China, which still remains officially atheist, could have more churchgoers than America does.

This week, we zoom in on Mexico and Latin America. We don’t have an OYC site in these regions, but it is inspiring and worth sharing if not for the vision of what can happen in other regions of Latin America and the world for that matter!

We have OYC sites in Bolivia and Argentina, and churches all throughout Latin America which are fighting for the kingdom of God!