AsiaLink Ministry Highlights of 2014
Minority Tribes Of Burma
Always good to hear of people getting a hold of the Word of Life and so we rejoice that 32,000 Karen Bibles with hymnals have finally arrived for the S’gaw Karen people. They will be given away for free to the neediest of the Karen, such as in the refugee camps.
Sex Trafficking In Southeast Asia
Sex-trafficking of young girls is pandemic in this part of the world. Traffickers target vulnerable children as young as 10. We've partnered with a project in one country for a number of years now. The goal is to rescue and rehabilitate teenage girls. This is what happened in 2014:
- Girls Reached: 48, ages 15-20
- 9 girls from bars came to do activities, including learning about beauty
- Girls who received Christ: 7
- Outreach staff are connecting with 17 bars
- Number of girls followed up regularly: 11
- Girls who moved to the shelter: 7
- Girls within the project who are able to take on more responsibility and are demonstrating increasing spiritual maturity: 6
- Girls who are serving in the project as staff: 2
War In The Middle-East
Last Christmas AsiaLink had an appeal for the war-torn countries of this region. Here’s some of what happened amongst a portion of refugees:
- Distributed aid items such as matresses, pillows, blankets, heaters, food boxes, baby milk powder
- Provided trauma counselling for over 200 refugee women
- Medical treatment for almost 4,000 refugees
- Discipled twenty refugee families in new weekly home groups
- Reached over 5,000 refugee children through our children’s program
- Enlisted 1000 prayer partners
Digital Word For Dark Places
For many Christians in Asia, the risk of owning a physical Bible is simply too great. Other mediums have to be developed to provide God's Word. Hundreds of MP3s were distributed in two of the most restricted and persecuted nations* on the planet. (*cannot be named due to the risk to the ministry and local Christians).
Bibles For Asia
Each year, teams from the UK journey to Southeast Asia to provide housechurches with Bibles. The shortage is simply immense. Just 10% of Vietnamese Hmong Christians own a Bible. In Laos, under half of the 80,000 Khmu Christians have their own copy of God's Word. Despite the ability to print inside one country, housechurches are still asking for 30million more Bibles. One of the ways we serve the churches in Asia is to physically haul books across the border. In 2014, literally thousands of Bibles were provided, but, don't let that put you off from joining one of the teams! –– our friends in Asia are in desperate need of more help in this work. You don't need to preach, teach or evangelize. It doesn't matter if you are young, middle-aged or elderly. All you need is to be available, have two weeks spare, and be a donkey for Christ! Email us for more information.
The Back And Beyond of Nepal
Bishnu has been our main partner in Nepal for 10 years now. He is a passionate evangelist. Historically we have helped with tracts and Gospels for him to distribute. AsiaLink continue to do this but have also been working with him for a couple of years to grow his work by training other evangelists and travelling to more unreached groups in Nepal. This year Bishnu, along with other workers, travelled to the back and beyond of Nepal, distributing, preaching and discipling. Bishnu focussed on unreached areas in the far West such as Kapilbastu, Swayambhu and Dhangadhi.
Relief and Rehab In The Philippines
The Philippines is a somewhat unusual country for AsiaLink to work in as it has one of the largest Christian populations in Asia. Of course, that made it easier to connect with local believers who had jumped at the chance to help those islands most seriously affected by the typhoon last November and floods this November.
At first it was the emergency needs, those that addressed the basic life-or-death situation people found themselves in. Some needed medical care, others shelter while some had no food or drinking water. As the months progressed, so the focus shifted from relief to rehabilitation. The destruction to property, housing, schools and public buildings was beyond belief. Many people had lost their ability to buy and sell and go about their ordinary lives. In April 2014, four months after the Nov 2013 event, bodies were still being discovered.
A third phase focussed on projects to assist people in rebuilding their livelihoods. There are still large groups of refugees and displaced people who have been unable either to work or to establish a new home. Our latest funds have been used to help feed hungry and homeless people as they wait to get back on their feet.
Having local Filipino believers involved in so many conversations with ordinary people has been an amazing opportunity.
To give to the ministry of AsiaLink and HistoryMakers, go here: http://www.asialink.org/get-involved/give/
