Cybermissions: Using computer and internet technologies to impact lives for Christ

June 18, 2011 Leave a Comment

Imagine packing 500 hours of Bible college training on a $13 chip that plays from a cell phone. Add speakers to the cell phone for only $20 and a group of pastors can be trained in places far-removed or unreachable by conventional means.

Cybermissions training in the Amazon River basin

“I don’t need a visa to get into these countries,” says John Edmiston, founder of Cybermissions. (www.cybermissions.org) “We tunnel in and then we blast away.”

Edmiston started Cybermissions in 2001 to serve the church in Southeast Asia, especially pastors who had no training. Now their reach is global, with more than a million people each year making use of training materials they provide.

Through one of their contacts in Bhutan –- a country governed by a Buddhist-dominated monarchy hostile to the Gospel, Cybermissions materials are training dozens of pastors. “We’re reaching underground Christians,” Edmiston notes. “Through one man we’ve reached Bhutan.” Read more of this post

Filed under Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, North America, Oceania, South America

Suspected Drug Traffickers Kidnap Pastor in Mexico – Michoacan state church leader abducted during Sunday service

April 16, 2011 Leave a Comment

Compass Direct News (CDN) is reporting that suspected drug traffickers have kidnapped a pastor in Mexico.

The kidnapped pastor

The CDN story said, “Some 500 worshippers were gathered for last Sunday’s (April 10) worship service at the Christian Center El Shaddai [a Pentecostal church] in the Mexican city of Lázaro Cárdenas, Michoacan at about 8:15 a.m. when four masked men burst in firing machine guns into the air.

“Before the frightened believers realized what was happening, their pastor, Josué Ramírez Santiago, had been whisked away. The following day, the pastor’s family received news that the criminals wanted a ransom of 20 million pesos (US$1.8 million).” Read more of this post

Filed under Latin America, Mexico

The Perceived Car Bomb Threat in Mexico

April 14, 2011 Leave a Comment

By Scott Stewart

On April 5, Mexican newspaper El Universal reported that a row of concrete Jersey barriers was being emplaced in front of the U.S. Consulate General in Monterrey, Mexico. The story indicated that the wall was put in to block visibility of the facility, but being only about 107 centimeters (42 inches) high, such barriers do little to block visibility. Instead, this modular concrete wall is clearly being used to block one lane of traffic in front of the consulate in an effort to provide the facility with some additional standoff distance from the avenue that passes in front of it.

Due to the location and design of the current consulate building in Monterrey, there is only a narrow sidewalk separating the building’s front wall from the street and very little distance between the front wall and the building. This lack of standoff has been long noted, and it was an important factor in the decision to build a new consulate in Monterrey (construction began in June 2010 and is scheduled to be completed in January 2013). Read more of this post

Filed under Latin America, Mexico

Cuban Pastor On Conditional Release Prohibited From Preaching

March 28, 2011 Leave a Comment

Cuban pastor Omar Gude Perez, who was granted conditional release from a six-and-a-half year prison sentence in February, was informed by judges in early March that under the conditions of his release, he is prohibited from preaching and has had his movements confined to the city of Camaguey.

Pastor Gude Perez, a leader of a fast growing network of independent churches, was convicted in a summary trial in July 2009 on trumped up charges of “falsification of documents”. Read more of this post

Filed under Cuba, Latin America

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