world news
Ministry that led over 66K people to Christ will hold first US crusade
![](https://theendtimenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/World-Harvest-Global.jpg)
An evangelism group that recently held events in West Africa and South America that resulted in over a reported 66,000 decisions for Christ is planning to hold its first-ever crusade in the United States.
World Harvest Global, an outreach organization headquartered in Grand Prairie, Texas, which earlier this year held events in Guinea-Bissau, Zambia and Peru, is planning to hold its first U.S.-based gathering in South Carolina next year.
Jacob Ebersole, founder and president of World Harvest, told The Christian Post in an interview that his organization has been planning to hold the upstate South Carolina event for over two years.
“The team already formed for this is pretty significant,” said Ebersole. “In Jesus’ name, we’re going to see a move of God start there that will spread through the whole state of South Carolina. What happens beyond that, I’ll leave up to the Lord.”
Ebersole hopes the event next year will “reach the whole nation” through their social media strategy.
He says his ministry is “trying to walk through the lens of 1 Corinthians 13” in their evangelism events.
“You can move mountains, speak with the tongues of angels, but if you have not love, you have nothing,” he said, paraphrasing the biblical passage. “We really care about this at every level.”
“We try to make sure we do everything with excellence, and I think what’s happening is people are starting to notice, and they want to be a part of it. And so, our team is growing, and now it’s like, people from all around the world that are coming on board to be a part of what God is doing through World Harvest.”
A Muslim-majority nation located in West Africa, World Harvest held a series of crusade events in Guinea-Bissau’s capital city Bissau and the city of Gabu in late March and early April.
According to Ebersole, the country has seen a recent rise in its Islamic population. When pastors living in the nation reached out to World Harvest, it was considered “an emergency call.”
“They were like, ‘if we don’t move now, it’s going to be a Muslim state, and they are taking over quickly,'” Ebersole told CP. “And so, we met with the right people, formed our board of advisors there, in the capital city.”
“The bishops and the pastors that I was dealing with literally saw this as their last shot to take Guinea-Bissau back for Jesus.”
According to the Joshua Project, Muslims comprise just over half of Guinea-Bissau’s population, while Christian adherents comprise over 11%.
Ebersole, who has been organizing overseas evangelism events for the past couple of years, described the Guinea-Bissau event as “the most difficult campaign that I’ve ever had to go through.”
“The spiritual warfare in that almost ripped the team apart, almost ripped me apart,” he said. “But thank the Lord; He was faithful every step of the way. After about a year of plowing and getting doors shut left and right, we finally locked in the location.”
One thing helping their efforts was young people, he said, as there had been a revival before the first in-person World Harvest events. Thousands of youth showed up for worship at the field reserved for the crusade event.
According to Ebersole, the “worship and prayer on the crusade field” mutated into large crowds of mostly young people “taking the streets” in worship and even marching to the local airport.
“They could have pulled our permits, but what happened was we made so much noise in the city that it got all the way up to the president of Guinea-Bissau, and he wanted to meet us,” Ebersole said.
World Harvest leaders eventually met with Muslim President Umaro Sissoco Embaló for an hour, Ebersole recalled, with the national leader helping them get some of their equipment into the country after it was stuck at the border.
“We had just enough time to set up for the crusade that took place the next day. It was time to begin, and they were raising up the speakers and raising up the screens. So, just in the nick of time. And then, he showed up to the first day of the campaign,” said Ebersole.
“There was joy in the city. And I don’t think they had seen that before. It wasn’t like it was this aggressive, ‘we’re punching you in the face with Jesus’ thing. It was joy in the streets, and it was young people, and I was in tears just watching them do this week after week.”
After holding events in the capital city, World Harvest went to Gabu, a town described by Ebersole as “a Muslim stronghold” and the “most dangerous, dark territory in the nation.”
According to the World Harvest leader, hundreds of Guinea-Bissau youth volunteered to travel there, with impromptu worship and evangelism taking place in the city.
A local Youth With a Mission chapter supported the Gabu mission, with around 100 youth staying at their facility during the crusade.
Ebersole told CP that the Gabu crusade was “a God thing” that “had nothing to do with us” but rather was a matter of “just faith and guts.”
Ebersole says that a little under 18,500 people came to Christ during their two crusades, not including the thousands saved through other initiatives within the West African nation.
David Hoffman, the director of Kingdom Enterprises, an outreach and evangelism ministry in Tucson, Arizona, who has recently come to know Ebersole, told CP that he was impressed by the outpouring of faith in Guinea-Bissau.
Hoffman saw videos of the youth marching posted online, telling CP that he “heard them all singing and praising God” and felt that “this is something unique because where do you see this happening?”
Hoffman was also impressed with how World Harvest “did back-to-back Gospel campaigns,” which he found “pretty incredible” because it is “hard to just go boom, boom, boom, from thing to thing” with evangelism events.
“I thought, wow, this is really legitimate. This is something where God is really moving,” said Hoffman to CP. “I was just blown away seeing some of the things that God was doing.”
Zambia
Later in April, World Harvest held a crusade event in Zambia, a nation in Southern Africa located approximately 3,400 miles southeast of Guinea-Bissau.
The evangelism group held gatherings at the capital Lusaka, a city that, according to Ebersole, is known for “gang activity [and] prostitution.”
“But the Church is on fire in Zambia,” Ebersole told CP, adding that “it was a lot easier” to organize the event and that it “was the biggest crowd I’d ever preached in front of.”
Ebersole described how, on each night that they held worship, large numbers of youth came forward to not only accept Jesus as their Lord but also to get rid of past vices.
“I saw maybe thousands of young people coming forward and laying down their idols, addictions, condoms, booze, witchcraft, magic arts,” Ebersole recounted.
“So, we pulled stuff out of the barrels; I started to put it on the stage. And oftentimes, I had to turn around and ask the pastor what this was because they were bringing some weird stuff.”
Ebersole noted that while he “had seen stuff like this before on the crusade stage,” he had not seen such activity happen “to that extent,” stressing that “it was just a constant.”
“Everybody on the platform was freaking out. Going live on Facebook and Instagram and celebrating as these kids come in tears, and they got a needle in this hand and booze in this hand, and they’re shaking over the barrel, and they let it go,” he said.
“Zambia changed my life.”
According to Ebersole, there were approximately 45,000 people who made decisions for Christ during the April crusade event in Zambia.
Peru
In May, World Harvest held a crusade in Peru, marking the first time that the evangelism organization had overseen a campaign in South America, according to Ebersole.
The event was in San Juan de Lurigancho, a heavily populated district of Lima that is generally considered a dangerous part of the metropolitan area.
Ebersole told CP that his group “chose to have a crusade there for that reason” because it was known for having “a lot of prostitution, a lot of crime.”
Ebersole recalled that he “started weeping” when he looked “out at the hotel window” and saw “that crusade field fill up,” admitting that there are times when he does not understand how it is that his events can draw such large crowds.
“I still, to this day, don’t know why people come,” he said to CP. “It’s like, you don’t really know us; I don’t know why you come and listen; I don’t know why you sit for four hours.”
“It still boggles my mind today why people listen to the Gospel, and night after night, I’d say the crowd size almost doubled night after night in Peru.”
Hoffman commended the work of Ebersole and his team, telling CP that World Harvest does “more of a sobering Gospel call” meant to “only attract people that are seriously wanting to come to Christ, as opposed to just getting caught up in the emotion of it all.”
“They’re not just looking to have a ton of people come forward and say ‘all those people came,'” Hoffman explained. “They document how many people actually come up, and then they distribute those decision cards to churches to get churches involved in the follow-up.”
“Churches in Peru are starting to have new families coming, not people that have been going to church that just got a little more excited about it, but brand-new people popping into church and starting to come after the crusades.”
Ebersole told CP that in Peru, as with other crusade locations, they held a “Celebration Day” right after the evangelism event ended, which involved connecting local pastors with the people who made decisions for Christ.
“Before their hand comes down, they have a follow-up card in their hand, and there’s a counselor there that’s been trained for months to handle that responsibility. Those cards then get taken to a designated location, and they’re treated like gold,” Ebersole explained.
On the “Celebration Day,” they distribute the cards of people who made decisions for Christ to the pastors based on which part of the city they live in, with Ebersole saying that “We’re handing the fish over to the local church.”
“The key to it, though, is the work that we do with the Church leading up to the crusade,” Ebersole added. “So it’s six months of time with the pastors preparing them for this harvest and that’s really the follow-up system. We come in with the infrastructure, but it’s the heart cry that the pastors have to follow up with these people that we care about.”
According to Ebersole, there were a little under 3,500 decisions made in their Peru event, with one local pastor reporting that six new families had started attending his church because of the crusade.
Victory and pain
When thinking about the successes of his ministry outreach, Ebersole told CP that “all of this is blowing my mind,” adding that “being faithful in a little has turned into something that I have never anticipated.”
Ebersole said he came from a broken home and did not become a Christian until he was a teenager in 2006 when a pastor preached the Gospel to him outside a restaurant parking lot.
“Little by little, I started to realize that God was calling me to preach the Gospel to lost people the same way that that pastor did,” he said, saying that looking at his life trajectory “is still sort of freaking me out, a little bit.”
“So, in a strange way, I know as ministers, we preach from a place of victory, but I also simultaneously preach from a place of pain, remembering who I was then.”
Sources:Christian Post
world news
12-year-old Christian girl forcibly converted by Muslim man who kidnapped her in Pakistan
![](https://theendtimenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Fairey-Shaukat.jpg)
Pakistan — A Pakistani Muslim man abducted, forcibly converted and married a 12-year-old Christian girl as police delayed efforts to recover her, family members said.
Parveen Shaukat, a Catholic widow and mother of eight children, said that Muhammad Asad abducted her youngest daughter, Fairy Shaukat, from the Habibabad Mandi area in Pattoki Tehsil, Kasur District of Punjab Province, on Aug. 9.
“Fairy had gone to a nearby shop to buy groceries in the afternoon, but she did not return home,” Shaukat told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News. “My sons started searching for her but could not find her. We then filed a complaint with the police, but their attitude was not welcoming. Instead of helping us, they delayed the registration of a First Information Report [FIR].”
She said a neighbor later informed the family that he had seen Asad abduct Fairy.
“We informed the police about the accused, but they still did not take any action, giving sufficient time to Asad to convert the minor child and contract an Islamic marriage with her,” Shaukat said.
The impoverished mother said police finally registered an FIR on Aug. 10, but were slow to make efforts to recover the child.
“On Aug. 13, my sons received the Nikahnama [Islamic marriage certificate] of Fairy through WhatsApp from an unknown number,” she said. “We were shocked to see the document and urged the police to take action against this underage marriage. When the police finally raided the house of the accused, he was not there. It’s nearly 20 days now that I haven’t seen my child, and we have no information about her safety.”
Shaukat said she didn’t believe her minor daughter could go willingly with the suspect.
“Fairy is just 12 years old. She had no access to a cell phone and rarely went out of the home by herself,” Shaukat said. “She was abducted by Asad, who we have heard is a loafer. He targeted my child for sexual exploitation, and my heart sinks every time I think of how she is being treated in captivity.”
After failing to find a trace of their child, the family contacted Christian attorney Sumera Shafique for legal aid.
“I’m filing a petition in the Lahore High Court for the child’s recovery,” Shafique told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News. “It’s very unfortunate that police delay action in cases involving underage minority girls, which allows the perpetrators to scar these children for life.”
Shafique said she also intends to charge the suspect with various crimes, including child marriage and rape, after he and the girl appear in court.
Officers have registered a case against Asad with kidnapping a person from lawful guardianship, punishable by up to seven years in prison under Section 363 of the Pakistan Penal Code.
“But this charge is not enough,” Shafique said. “The accused not only kidnapped the child, he converted her and contracted an Islamic marriage to save himself from prosecution,” a common practice by kidnappers to sexually exploit underage minority girls.
She called for strict enforcement of anti-child marriage laws as well as criminalizing forced conversions of underage girls.
“The new anti-child marriage bill submitted in the Punjab Provincial Assembly is a good initiative, but there’s a need to ensure that it is implemented in letter and spirit,” she said. “This is a major weakness in our law enforcement and judicial system, that though relevant laws already exist, they are not implemented.”
New bill
In a bid to criminalize underage marriages in Punjab Province, the provincial government on April 25 submitted the Punjab Child Marriage Restraint Act, 2024, in the provincial Assembly, which would raise the legal age for marriage for both males and females to 18 years. Previously the legal age for marriage for girls in the province was 16.
Under the proposed bill, anyone who marries a girl or boy younger than 18 or arranges such a marriage — including parents or guardians — would face two- to-three-years in prison and a fine of between 100,000 Pakistani rupees ($360 USD) and 200,000 rupees ($720 USD).
At the time of marriage registration, the marriage solemnizer, secretary of the union council and marriage registrar would check the Computerized National Identity Card (CNIC) of the girl or boy, passport, educational certificate or other documents proving both are at least 18 years old. Attested copies of these documents would be required to be attached with the application of marriage certificate.
Rights activists say that, though raising the legal marriage age to 18 years for both boys and girls will help in preventing child marriages, certain amendments are required to ensure that minority girls also get due coverage of the law. Such amendments would override all “special” laws related to determining a girl’s age of maturity, they say, including Sharia (Islamic law), which allows girls attaining puberty to be considered adults.
Pakistan ranked seventh on Open Doors’ 2024 World Watch List of the most difficult places to be a Christian, as it was the previous year.
Sources:Christian Post
world news
ഇറാഖിലെ അങ്കാവ യുവജന സംഗമം : ഒരുമിച്ച് കൂടി രണ്ടായിരത്തോളം ക്രൈസ്തവ യുവജനങ്ങൾ
![](https://theendtimenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Anqawa-Youth-Meeting.jpg)
ഇസ്ലാമിക് സ്റ്റേറ്റ്സ് തീവ്രവാദികള് വിതച്ച കനത്ത ദുരിതങ്ങളില് നിന്നു കരകയറി വരുന്ന ഇറാഖില് ക്രൈസ്തവ യുവജനങ്ങൾ ഒരുമിച്ച് കൂടി. ആഗസ്ത് 22-24 തീയതികളിൽ അങ്കാവ – എർബിലിലെ മാർ ഏലിയ ദേവാലയ അങ്കണത്തിൽ നടന്ന ഏഴാമത് വാർഷിക അങ്കാവ യുവജനസംഗമത്തിൽ ഇറാഖിന്റെ വിവിധ ഭാഗങ്ങളില് നിന്നായാണ് രണ്ടായിരത്തോളം യുവജനങ്ങൾ ഒത്തുകൂടിയത്.
2014ൽ ഇസ്ലാമിക ഭീകരരുടെ വരവോടെ പതിനായിരകണക്കിന് ക്രൈസ്തവ കുടുംബങ്ങളാണ് മേഖലയില് നിന്നു പലായനം ചെയ്തതെന്ന് പൊന്തിഫിക്കൽ സന്നദ്ധ സംഘടനയായ എയിഡ് ടു ചർച്ച് ഇൻ നീഡ് നേരത്തെ വെളിപ്പെടുത്തിയിരിന്നു. ഇതില് 9,000 ക്രൈസ്തവ കുടുംബങ്ങള് മേഖലയിലേക്ക് മടങ്ങിയെത്തിയിട്ടുണ്ട്. ഇറാഖിലെ പ്രധാന ക്രൈസ്തവ നഗരമായ ക്വരാഘോഷിൽ അധിനിവേശത്തിന് മുന്പ് ഏകദേശം അരലക്ഷം ക്രിസ്ത്യാനികൾ ഉണ്ടായിരുന്നതായാണ് കണക്ക്. ഇതില് ഏകദേശം 25,000 പേർ മടങ്ങിയെത്തിയിട്ടുണ്ട്. മേഖലയില് ക്രിസ്തു സ്നേഹത്തെ പ്രതിയുള്ള യുവജനങ്ങളുടെ ഒരുമിച്ച് കൂടല് വിശ്വാസത്തിന്റെ വലിയ സാക്ഷ്യമായാണ് നിരീക്ഷിക്കപ്പെടുന്നത്.
Sources:christiansworldnews
world news
യു.എ.ഇയിൽ പൊതുമാപ്പിൽ സന്ദർശകവിസ കാലാവധി പിന്നിട്ടവർക്കും പിഴയില്ലാതെ നാട്ടിലേക്ക് മടങ്ങാം
![](https://theendtimenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/UAE-amnesty.jpg)
ദുബൈ:യു.എ.ഇയിൽ സെപ്റ്റംബർ ഒന്ന് മുതൽ നിലവിൽ വരുന്ന പൊതുമാപ്പിൽ സന്ദർശകവിസ കാലാവധി പിന്നിട്ടവർക്കും പിഴയില്ലാതെ നാട്ടിലേക്ക് മടങ്ങാമെന്ന് അധികൃതർ സ്ഥിരീകരിച്ചു. നേരത്തേ റെസിഡൻസി വിസക്കാർക്കാണ് ഈ ആനുകൂല്യം പ്രഖ്യാപിച്ചിരുന്നത്. പൊതുമാപ്പിൽ നാട്ടിലേക്ക് പോകുന്നവർക്ക് നിയമവിധേയമായി യു.എ.ഇയിലേക്ക് മടങ്ങിവരാൻ വിലക്കുണ്ടാവില്ലെന്നും അധികൃതർ പറഞ്ഞു.
കാലാവധി പിന്നിട്ട എല്ലാത്തരം വിസക്കാർക്കും പിഴ, എക്സിറ്റ് ഫീസ് എന്നിവയില്ലാതെ സെപ്റ്റംബർ ഒന്ന് മുതൽ രണ്ടുമാസം നാട്ടിലേക്ക് മടങ്ങാൻ കഴിയുമെന്ന് യു.എ.ഇ ഐ.സി.പി അധികൃതർ വാർത്താസമ്മേളനത്തിൽ പറഞ്ഞു. ഇവർക്ക് രേഖകൾ ശരിയാക്കി യു.എ.ഇയിൽ തുടരാനും അവസരമുണ്ടാകും. കാലാവധി പിന്നിട്ട വിസയിൽ കഴിയുന്ന മാതാപിതാക്കളുടെ നവജാത ശിശുക്കൾക്കും ഈ ആനുകൂല്യം ലഭിക്കും. സ്പോൺസറുടെ ഒളിച്ചോട്ട പരാതിയുള്ള പ്രവാസികൾക്കും പൊതുമാപ്പിന് അപേക്ഷിക്കാം. സെപ്റ്റംബർ ഒന്നിന് മുമ്പ് കാലാവധി തീർന്നവർക്കേ ആനുകൂല്യം നൽകൂ. എന്നാൽ, അനധികൃതമായി യു.എ.ഇയിൽ പ്രവേശിച്ചവർക്കും നാടുകടത്തൽ ശിക്ഷക്ക് വിധിക്കപ്പെട്ടവർക്കും രാജ്യത്തെ മറ്റ് നിയമവിധികൾ ബാധകമായിരിക്കും.
ദുബൈയിലെ ആമർ സെന്ററുകൾ, GDRFAയുടെ അവീർ കേന്ദ്രം, അബൂദബിയിൽ ICPയുടെ ഷഹാമ, അൽദഫ്റ, സുവൈഹാൻ, അൽമഖ കേന്ദ്രങ്ങൾ, മറ്റ് എമിറേറ്റുകളിലെ ഐ.സി.പി. കേന്ദ്രങ്ങൾ, അംഗീകൃത ടെപ്പിങ് സെന്ററുകൾ എന്നിവയിൽ പൊതുമാപ്പിന് അപേക്ഷ നൽകാം. ഐ.സി.പിയുടെ മൊബൈൽ ആപ്പ്, വെബ്സൈറ്റ് എന്നിവ വഴിയും പരാതി നൽകാം. ഇവർ ബയോമെട്രിക് പരിശോധനക്ക് കേന്ദ്രങ്ങളിൽ നേരിട്ട് ഹാജരായാൽ മതിയെന്നും അധികൃതർ പറഞ്ഞു.
Sources:globalindiannews
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Travel3 months ago
യാക്കൂസ കരിഷ്മ:ഓല സ്കൂട്ടറിനേക്കാൾ വിലക്കുറവിൽ കുഞ്ഞൻ കാർ; സിറ്റി യാത്രകൾക്ക് ഇനി ഇവൻ മതിയാവും
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