TSotC Team Member Profile
Ros Jackson
Ros Jackson is an intercessor who comes with a wealth of ministry and missionary experience along with her husband Dennis. They take regular short-term missionary teams into the Solomon Islands along with other eldership responsibilites at their local church. Ros is the News Editor for "This Side Of The Cross".
Email: News@thissideofthecross.com
Article Archive here
Things God spoke to me through the flood - You ARE Equipped!!! Part 2
As the floods subsided the call went out for people to come and help those suffering damaged homes and businesses. The good heart in people stirred and so many responded that the Mayor was anxious as to how they would manage them all. 7000 helpers on the first day!!! Stations were set up at various vantage points on the outskirts of the city and people were called to register as volunteers at these points. They were then put on buses and sent to places all over Brisbane where streets were ready for the workers to come in.
These were eager volunteers, rushing to the stations ready to do what they could for a people who have lost everything they once owned? 7000 helpers overwhelmed the Mayor. Do you think God is overwhelmed by the number of us who are responding to His call? Some of us are still “sitting at home watching from the sidelines” in our comfort zones. We get excited when we read of the things people are doing for the Lord in third world countries and grieve when many are persecuted – but what about the call God has whispered in our ear. Have we leapt from the lounge of our “Christian living room” to respond with great enthusiasm and passion?
As I watched the television news reports, seeing these queues of compassionate people, God dropped a word in my spirit - “This is what I dream my queues to look like, people ready to run to wherever I call them with this same passion carrying all the tools I have given them for the work ahead.” These volunteers knew exactly what to collect from their storage places to take with them on duty. God, too, calls an “equipped” people. We see the ones who have already answered the call with hearts filled with compassion, keen to reach lives in jeopardy all around the world. They have collected all the tools required from their “storage places”, busily cleaning up after these “floods of evil” have wreaked havoc and left such devastation behind. They are equipped and going. But how long is that queue?
Volunteers for the flood clean up were asked to bring with them any tools useful for the job at hand. They were arriving with mops, buckets, scrubbing brushes, rubber gloves and disinfectants. The days were now sunny and very hot, so hats, sunnies and sunscreen were essential. They were very keen, and as they were interviewed by the media, they were obviously emotionally charged and ready for action. They saw a need, and so, forgetting what lies behind them and pressing towards what lies ahead they charged to their stations, literally.
Every person had different tools according to the task they saw they could accomplish. Equipped saints around the world are heeding God’s call. Some are teachers and go with text books, some doctors who would take stethoscopes and some are builders carrying hammers and saws. All running with the equipment they were confident in to bring about some good. But, in the flood rescue program, it was noted even though people were warned - some were going with the right tools, but they were not “wearing good protection”. We saw people in shorts, sneakers, (some even in thongs) and sleeveless t-shirts. The word was to wear long sleeved shirts, long pants and tall rubber boots, mosquito repellant and sunscreen. The risk of infection was high. The water they would be moving in was now full of infections from raw sewerage, chemicals and sharp and dangerous objects not evident to the eye. The warning had its purpose and we heard of some who disregarded the word, suffering infections and sickness. You know God equips us but he also says to take notice of His protection orders as well. If we walk in “dirty water” we risk “infection”.
In the flood cleanup, we are helping people to come back to what was once theirs. Sounds so much like what Jesus’ commission is for us while here on earth. To go out and help people get back what was once theirs in the Kingdom of Heaven.
So the “flood of evil” has done its damage in the lives of good people all around the world. God has put out the call. How long is the queue in response? Have we got the equipment already given us? Are we clothed in the right protective gear?
God spoke these words to my heart and pray they may comfort and strengthen you as you heed the call and run to the “volunteer’s center” fully equipped in hand and Spirit!!!!
2 Samuel 22:
29 You are my lamp, O LORD ; the LORD turns my darkness into light.
30 With your help I can advance against a troop; with my God I can scale a wall.
31 "As for God, his way is perfect; the word of the LORD is flawless. He is a shield for all who take refuge in him.
32 For who is God besides the LORD ? And who is the Rock except our God?
33 It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect.
34 He makes my feet like the feet of a deer; he enables me to stand on the heights.
35 He trains my hands for battle; my arms can bend a bow of bronze.
36 You give me your shield of victory; you stoop down to make me great.
37 You broaden the path beneath me, so that my ankles do not turn.
Out of the Floods - Part 1 - "Let go and Live!!!"
Recently, I was watching the news footage on the flooding catastrophe in Brisbane near where we live. I believe it has hit world news so you will be aware of these horrific days for people of our state of Queensland in Australia, and now some of our southern states are experiencing similar weather and flooding. It is absolutely devastating to watch people having every earthly possession ripped from under them, leaving them vulnerable and traumatized.
One scene that played before our eyes was of a man as he saw his yacht – his home containing all that he owned – floating rapidly down the flooded Brisbane river. It crashed into some debris and started to take water. Then the man rushed out to it in a small tin dinghy and begins to climb on board. All the time they are being dragged further down the river at rapid pace. He wanders back and forth on the outside of the rail obviously stressing as to how he could save it and is about to climb on board when the yacht plunges further into the river. People are yelling from the sidelines to “get off the boat” but he is either not able to hear them or he is so intent on getting on board to somehow save his things - he takes no notice of their terrified warnings. Then suddenly, the boat starts pulling down into the surging current and he jumps off the boat, grabbing for his small dinghy. But it was too late. As the yacht sank, it drew him down into the murky, raging torrent with it. His testimony to the news reporter later says that he was dragged to the bed of the river and had to scramble for the surface. This yacht was HIS home and he had determined in his mind to rescue it – at the risk of his own life. This man was almost drowned trying to save his earthly possession. He was trying to fix a problem that was way out of his league, experienced as he may have been as a yachtsman.
God challenged me at this point as to how much I do that. I rush into gear, charged with emotion for the project at hand, trying to salvage things in my own strength - things that are way out of my league. Things God never intended me to do on my own? Taking on things that are driven by emotions rather than the will of God - how unwise is that. Surely the One who sees and knows all things would be a wiser one to seek advice, direction and strength from.
Proverbs 3: 5. “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; 6. in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.”
We, as people, can be very demanding on each other and, yes, there are many in great need of care. But operating from our own need to be able to “fix” things can be our undoing. Not only do we risk losing the very thing we are trying to “save”, we risk losing our own “life” as well. Wisdom and strength must come from the Lord in everything we do.
1 Corinthians 1:25 This "foolish" plan of God is far wiser than the wisest of human plans, and God's weakness is far stronger than the greatest of human strength.
1 Chronicles 16:11 Search for the LORD and for his strength, and keep on searching.
Muslims in Bangladesh Beat, Deprive Christians of Work
Refusing to recant Christianity, victims are attacked on rumors of disrespecting Islam.
Special to Compass Direct News
LOS ANGELES, November 2 (Compass Direct News) – Muslim villagers last month beat a 63-year-old Christian convert and his youngest son because they refused to return to Islam, the father told Compass.
The next day, another Christian in a nearby village was beaten and robbed in related violence in southwestern Bangladesh.
Aynal Haque, 63, a volunteer for Christian organization Way of Life Trust, told Compass that his brothers and relatives along with Muslim villagers beat him and his son, 22-year-old Lal Miah, on Oct. 9 when they refused to recant Christianity. The family lives at Sadhu Hati Panta Para village in Jhenaidah district, some 250 kilometers (155 miles) southwest of the capital city, Dhaka. It is in the jurisdiction of Sadar police station.
Haque’s relatives and villagers said that he had become Christian by eating pork and by disrespecting the Quran, he said.
“I embraced Christianity by my own will and understanding, but I have due respect for other religions,” Haque said. “How can I be a righteous man by disrespecting other religions? Whatever rumors the villagers are spreading are false.”
At a meeting to which Haque was summoned on Oct. 9, about 500 men and women from several villages gathered, including local and Maoist party leaders.
“They tried to force me and my son to admit that we had eaten pork and trampled on the Quran to become Christian,” Haque said. “They tried to force us to be apologetic for our blunder of accepting Christianity and also tried to compel us to go back to Islam. I told them, ‘While there is breath left in our bodies, we will not reject Christianity.’
“When we denied their allegation and demand, they beat us severely. They ordered us not to mix with other Muslim villagers. They confined us in our house for five days.”
Haque has worked on his neighbors’ land for survival to supplement the meager income he earns selling seeds in local markets, but the villagers have now refused to give him work, he said.
“Every day I earn around 50 taka to 100 taka [70 cents to US$1.40] from the seed business,” he said. “Some days I cannot earn any money. So, I need to work villagers’ land for extra money to maintain my family.”
His youngest son also worked in neighbors’ fields as a day-laborer, besides attending school.
“We cannot live if we do not get farming work on other people’s land,” Haque said.
Haque, his wife and youngest son received Christ three years ago, and since then they have faced harassment and threats from Muslim neighbors. His other grown son and two daughters, as well as a son-in-law, also follow Christ but have yet to be baptized. There are around 25 people in his village who came to Christ under Haque’s influence; most of them remain low-profile to avoid harassment from the villagers, he said.
The weekly worship service in Haque’s shanty house has been hampered as some have been too fearful to attend, and the 25 members of the church fear the consequences of continuing to meet, Haque said.
Officials of Way of Life Trust tried to visit the area to investigate the beating of Haque and his son but were unable due to security risks, said Jatish Biswas, the organization’s executive director. They informed the district police chief, who instantly sent forces to provide safety for the Christians, Biswas said.
Villagers thought that if they were able to get Haque to renounce Christianity, then the other Christians would quickly return to Islam, according to Biswas.
Reverberation
Hearing of the incident in Sadhu Hati Panta Para the next day (Oct. 10), Muslims in Kola village about five kilometers (nearly three miles) away beat a Christian friend of Haque’s and robbed his seed shop.
Tokkel Ali, 40, an evangelist in one of the house churches that Way of Life Trust has established, told Compass that around 20 people arrived at his shop at about 11 a.m. and told him to go with them to Haque’s house.
“The presence of so many people, most of whom I did not know, and the way they were talking, seemed ominous to me, and I refused to go with them,” Ali said. “I said, ‘If he wants me to go to his house, he could call me on my mobile.’”
One person in the crowd pointed toward Ali, saying that he was a Christian and had made otherwise innocent people Christians by them feeding pork and letting them disrespect the Quran, said Ali. Islam strictly prohibits eating pork.
“That rumor spread like wildfire among other Muslims,” Ali said. “All of a sudden, a huge crowd overran me and started beating me, throwing my seeds here and there.”
Ali said he lost consciousness, and someone took him to a nearby three-storey house. When he came to, he scrambled back to his shop to find his seeds scattered, and 24,580 taka (US$342) for buying seed had been stolen, along with his bicycle.
Accustomed to earning just enough each day to survive, Ali said it would be impossible for him to recover and rebuild his business. He had received loans of 20,000 taka (US$278) from Grameen Bank (Nobel Peach Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus’ micro-finance entity), 15,000 taka (US$209) from the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee and 11,000 taka (US$153) from Way of Life Trust to establish the business. Ali ran a similar seed business in Dakbangla market in Kola village.
“How can I pay back a weekly installment of 1,150 taka [US$160] to the micro-credit lending NGOs [Non-Governmental Organizations]?” he said. “I have already become delinquent in paying back some installments after the looting of my money and shop. I’ve ended up in deep debt, which has become a noose around my neck.”
Ali said he has not dared filed any charges.
“If I file any case or complain against them, they will kill me, as this area is very dangerous because of the Maoists,” he said, referring to a banned group of armed rebels with whom the villagers have links. “Even the local administration and the law enforcement agencies are afraid of them.”
Ali has planted 25 house churches under Way of Life Trust serving 144 people in weekly worship. Baptized in 2007, he has been following Christ for more than 10 years.
“Whenever I go to bazaar, people fling insults at me about that beating,” he said. “Everyone says that nothing would have happened if I had not accepted Christianity, an abhorrent religion to them. People also say that I should hang myself with a rope for renouncing Islam.”
Since the beating, he has become an alien in his own village, he said.
“Whatever insinuation and rumors they spout against me and other believers, there is no language to squash it,” he said. “I have to remain tight-lipped, otherwise they will kill me.”
He can no longer cross the land of one of his neighbors in order to bathe in a nearby river, he said.
“After that incident, my neighbor warned me not to go through his land,” he said. “Now I take a bath in my home from an old and dysfunctional tube-well. My neighbors say, ‘Christians are the enemy of Muslims, so don’t go through my land.’ It seems that I am nobody in this village.”
Biswas of Way of Life Trust told Compass that Christians in remote villages lack the freedoms guaranteed in the Bangladeshi constitution to practice their faith without any interference.
“Where is religious liberty for Haque and Ali?” Biswas said. “Like them, many Christians in remote villages are in the throes of persecution, though our constitution enshrined full liberty for religious minorities.”
Way of Life Trust has aided in the establishment of some 500 house churches in Bangladesh, which is nearly 90 percent Muslim. Hinduism is the second largest religion at 9.2 percent of the 153.5 million people, and Buddhists and Christians make up less than 1 percent of the population.
www.compassdirect.org
Iraqis Mourn Victims of Massive Attack on Church
Islamic extremist assault, security force operation leave at least 58 dead.
By Damaris Kremida
ISTANBUL, November 2 (Compass Direct News) – Amid questions about lax security, mourners gathered in Iraq today to bury the victims of Sunday’s (Oct. 31) Islamic extremist assault on a Syrian Catholic Church in Baghdad, one of the bloodiest attacks on the country’s dwindling Christian community.
Seven or eight Islamic militants stormed into Our Lady of Salvation church during evening mass after detonating bombs in the neighborhood, gunning down two policemen at the stock exchange across the street, and blowing up their own car, according to The Associated Press (AP). More than 100 people were reportedly attending mass.
A militant organization called the Islamic State of Iraq, which has links to al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, claimed responsibility for the attack. The militants sprayed the sanctuary with bullets and ordered a priest to call the Vatican to demand the release of Muslim women whom they claimed were held hostage by the Coptic Church in Egypt, according to the AP. The militants also reportedly demanded the release of al Qaeda prisoners.
“It appears to be a well-planned and strategic attack aiming at the church,” said a local source for ministry organization Open Doors.
About four hours after the siege, Iraqi security forces launched an assault on the church building, and the Islamic assailants blew themselves up. It was unclear how many of the 58 people dead had been killed by Iraqi security personnel, but the militants reportedly began killing hostages when the security force assault began. All who did not die from gunshots and blasts were wounded.
The dead included 12 policemen, three priests and five bystanders from the car bombing and other blasts outside the church. The Open Doors source reported that the priests killed were the Rev. Saad Abdal Tha’ir, the Rev. Waseem Tabeeh and the Rev. Raphael Qatin, with the latter not succumbing until he had been taken to a hospital.
Bishop Georges Casmoussa told Compass that today Iraqi Christians not only mourned lost brothers and sisters but were tempted to lose hope.
“It’s a personal loss and a Christian loss,” said Casmoussa. “It’s not just people they kill. They also kill hope. We want to look at the future. They want to kill the Christian presence here, where we have so much history.”
Casmoussa, who knew the priests who died, said that this attack will surely drive more Christians away from the country or to Kurdish administrated northern Iraq.
“Those who are wounded know that it is by the grace of God they are alive, but some of them don’t know exactly what happened,” said Casmoussa. “There is one hurt man who doesn’t know if his son is still alive. This is the drama. There are families that lost two and three members. Do I have the right to tell them to not leave?”
The attack was the deadliest one against the country’s Christians since Islamic extremists began targeting them in 2003.
“It was the hardest hit against the Christians in Iraq,” said Casmoussa, noting that no single act of violence had led to more casualties among Christians. “We never had such an attack against a church or Christian community.”
Memorials were held today in Baghdad, Mosul and surrounding towns, said Casmoussa, who attended the funeral of 13 deceased Christians including the dead priests.
“At the funeral there was the Shiite leader, the official spokesperson of the government ministers,” Casmoussa said. “All the discussion was flippant – ‘We are with you, we are all suffering,’ etcetera, but we have demanded a serious investigation. We can’t count on good words anymore. It’s all air. We’ve heard enough.”
The Rev. Emanuel Youkhana of the Church of the East told Compass that Iraqi Christians have been systematically driven out over the last five years. He said this attack came as no surprise to him.
“I’m not surprised, in that this is not the first time,” said Youkhana. “In the last five years, there has been a systematic terrorist campaign to kick out the Christians from the country. [They are saying] you are not accepted in this country. Christians should leave this country.”
Youkhana said that in the same way that the Jewish community has disappeared from Iraq, the Iraqi Christians, or Medians as they are called, “are in their last stage of existence” in Iraq.
The Iraqi government is to blame due to its lax security measures, Youkhana said.
“I’m ashamed of the minister of defense, who came on TV and said it was a successful and professional operation – 50 percent of the [congregation] was massacred,” said Youkhana of the assault on the Islamic terrorists by Iraqi security forces.
He said that in order for Christians to have any hope of staying in Iraq, the government must come up with a political solution and set up an independent administrative area, like that of the Kurdish administration in northern Iraq.
“Just now I was watching on TV the coverage of the funeral,” Youkhana said. “All the politicians are there to condemn the act. So what? Is the condemnation enough to give confidence to the people? No!”
It is estimated that more than 50 percent of Iraq’s Christian community has fled the country since 2003. There are nearly 600,000 Christians left in Iraq.
“More people will leave, and this is the intention of the terrorists: to claim Iraq as a pure Islamic state,” said Youkhana. “Our people are so peaceful and weak; they cannot confront the terrorists. So they are fleeing out of the country and to the north. This is why we say there should be political recognition.”
Five suspects were arrested in connection with the attack – some of them were not Iraqi, and today an Iraqi police commander was detained for questioning in connection to the attack, according to the AP.
“We can’t make political demands,” said Casmoussa. “We are making a civic and humanitarian demand: That we can live in peace.”
Following the funerals today, a series of at least 13 bombings and mortar strikes in predominantly Shiite neighborhoods of Baghdad reportedly killed 76 people and wounded nearly 200.
www.compassdirect.org
Church Building in Israel Set Ablaze
Unidentified arsonist guts bottom floors of Jerusalem ministry center.
By Wayne King
ISTANBUL, November 4 (Compass Direct News) – An unidentified arsonist in Israel set fire to a Jerusalem church building that has long been a focal point for anti-Christian sentiment in a Jewish ultra-Orthodox-leaning neighborhood, church officials said.
On Friday (Oct. 29) shortly before 1 a.m., someone broke the basement windows of the Jerusalem Alliance Church Ministry Center and set fire to its bottom floors. An area resident noticed the fire and called the fire department, which arrived 20 minutes later and found the church basement engulfed in flames.
Firefighters extinguished the blaze, ventilated the smoke and left after inspecting the rest of the building, said Jack Sara, senior pastor of the church.
Smoke and the noise of the blaze had awakened 10 volunteer workers who were sleeping at the church’s overnight facilities. The volunteers, who were visiting Israel from the United States and Denmark, went to a nearby hospital and were treated for smoke inhalation; they were released several hours later, church leaders said.
The church building sustained approximately $85,000 of smoke and fire damage. The fire largely gutted the basement and destroyed recent renovations.
Sara said he had difficulty understanding how the arsonist could have carried so much hate; whoever set the fire had to know people were inside the church, he said.
“He not only intended to burn a room but to kill people,” Sara said. “Whoever did it intended to kill people.”
According to Sara, fire investigators initially said the fire was accidental. Then they shifted and said the fire was arson, only to change back again to their original claim that it was accidental.
Although the Israeli press reported that investigators had not formally announced their findings, Sara said investigators told him the fire was “very suspicious.” Contrary to some reports, he insisted that there were no candles lit in the basement when the fire broke out.
Sara said his church, which hosts several congregational groups including expatriates and both Arab Christians and Messianic Jews, routinely receives threats. Referring to Orthodox Jews, militant Palestinians and even some Orthodox Christian communities, Sara said he receives hatred “from all sides.”
It is not unheard of for ultra-Orthodox extremists to burn churches or Bibles in Israel. Not far from the ministry center is the Narkiss Street Baptist Church. In 2007, the church was damaged in a fire believed to be set by ultra-Orthodox Jews. The church building had been rebuilt on the site of a church facility destroyed 25 years prior by anti-Christian groups.
Other recent anti-Christian attacks in Israel have included the bombing of a Messianic Jewish pastor’s home that left his teenage son clinging to life, the disruption of religious services by mobs of protestors and assaults on members of groups deemed “missionaries” by far-right, Orthodox Jews.
The Alliance Church building was constructed roughly 100 years ago. Palestine Bible College was founded at the building.
In 1948, after Zionist leaders declared the establishment of the State of Israel, the church opened other buildings in the Old City of Jerusalem to serve Arab Christians hampered from attending religious services by newly established political realities. Since 1967, Sara said, the building has been used for many purposes.
Sara said his church will host a prayer meeting on Saturday (Nov. 6) to ask for protection of the congregation and for a blessing on its enemies.
In a statement provided to the press, Sara said he wanted the church building to be “a beacon of light reflecting God’s love to all people.”
“We will continue to serve the Holy Land residents from this place, proclaiming peace and justice for all human beings, declaring God’s love for all of our neighbors, friends and enemies,” he said.
www.compassdirect.org
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