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Archive for the ‘Africa’ Category

Look Out, Hollywood

Thursday, October 29th, 2009

Some Christians are pretty excited that, over here in America, it looks like we might be seeing a bit of a surge in Christian-tinged filmmaking. But, according to Christianity Today, we’re far behind the curve. Nollywood — shorthand for the burgeoning film industry in Nigeria, Africa — is churning out faith-tinged films by the score. About a fifth of the nearly 900 films churned out by Nollywood in 2006 — almost 200 films — were considered Christian.

Not that even Christians there are uniformly thrilled. Sounds like Nigerian believers have many of the same discussions we have here: Are we transforming culture, or are we being transformed by it? Are we tools for Christ? Or are we using Christianity as a tool to sell more stuff?

While Nollywood looks remarkably Christian compared to Hollywood, some Lagos pastors and film producers think Nigeria’s film industry is full of idolatry and social evils and don’t want their ministries associated with it. In 1995 the National Film and Video Censors Board tracked almost 200 G-rated movies and few others. By 2005 over 1,300 movies rated 18-and-older were outpacing G movies by 6 to 1.

“Half of the Christian movies are not done by faith-based organizations, but by directors who want to take advantage of the strong religious inclinations of Nigerians to sell [movies],” [Nigerian arts and culture reporter Obidike] Okafor said. “The others do it to promote their faith.”

I’d be interested to see a Nollywood produced movie. Would you? Have you?

Tags: Africa, culture, movie, Nigeria, Nollywood
Posted in Africa | Permalink

O.J. Award: Dr. Lawrence Czer

Friday, September 25th, 2009

It’s a rare doctor indeed who makes house calls. Most can’t be persuaded to cross the street to give a check-up.

Then there’s Dr. Lawrence Czer, cardiologist at the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute in California. He crosses oceans to fix folks in need — and he does it for free.

Czer is, in a sense, a medical missionary from the Lighthouse Church in Santa Monica, Calif. Twice a year, he and a medical team travel to Africa and give aid where needed in some of the poorest, most war-ravaged places on the continent. The Los Angeles Times serves up a very nice profile of the good doctor, who says he’s just doing his best to be the hands and feet of Christ.

“We don’t stay in great hotels,” Czer tells the Times. “We’re with the people. We don’t exclude anybody. We see the poorest of the poor. We lay hands on people. We touch people. We tell them we love them. We think that’s what, probably, Jesus would do if he were walking the earth at this point.”

I think Dr. Czer deserves a little O.J. on us, don’t you think?

Tags: church, health care, missionary, O.J., Poverty
Posted in Africa, O.J. Award | Permalink

O.J. Award: Rob Smith and EarthWise Ventures

Friday, September 11th, 2009

We’ve talked some this week — maybe too much — about the Christian Church’s flaws and foibles: How church sometimes makes folks uncomfortable, how Christians sometimes rub others the wrong way and how, sometimes, Christians miss the message of their very own faith.

But it’s important to remember, always, that Christians are doing amazing work in every corner of the world, making lives easier, better and safer. The Church feeds, clothes and educates literally millions of people, and often works miracles in the bleakest of places. It serves as a much-needed lifeboat in stormy waters.

And we’re not just speaking metaphorically, here.

EarthWise Ventures, founded by Rob Smith, is working on building a ferry system serving the countries around Lake Victoria, particularly Uganda. Once upon a time, 30 percent of the Ugandan economy depending on business brought through Lake Victorian ferries. But, with the ferry system all but gone, shipping has dried up and upwards of 1,600 people who travel between Uganda and Tanzania daily do so on a dangerous, two-day bus ride.

Smith, who already founded a non-profit to feed and house AIDS orphans and widows now wants to revive the ferry system, one boat at a time. He’s raised more than $800,000 for the first ferry (which will cost an estimated $1.2 million), and he hopes eventually to operate 10 on the lake — all of which will run on biofeuls. And, while the ferry system will be a for-profit business, according to The Washington Times, Smith says it’ll serve a real, tangible need.

“We’re doing this because of our sense of calling to Africa,” he told the Times, “which is primarily to reach out to the poor and needy.”

For more information about the project, go to EarthWise’s Web site here. And, while you’re at it, raise a glass of O.J. in salute.

Tags: Africa, charity, church, missionary, O.J.
Posted in Africa, O.J. Award | Permalink

O.J. Award: Emmanuel Kadege

Friday, August 28th, 2009

Rwandan Emmanuel Kadege would’ve had every reason to turn his back on faith.

Just weeks after he was baptized, according to Charisma Magazine’s J. Lee Grady, Kadege’s village –made up of folks from the country’s minority Tutsi tribe — was attacked by Hutus during the country’s horrific 1994 genocide. His assailants shot him, cut his legs to ribbons and forced him to watch as they raped his sister. The attackers let Kadege and his family live — but they destroyed everything they owned, almost everything they were.

Now, 15 years later, the scars on his legs are still visible. But Kadege, now a pastor, is preaching a message of forgiveness to Hutus and Tutsis alike. He and his sister have even forgiven the men –now imprisoned — who raped her: In fact, Kadege tells Grady, his sister has even visited them.

“I am preaching reconciliation, and that is really touching the hearts of people,” Kadege said.

Forgiveness is hard enough when we have nothing too serious to forgive. It takes a special man indeed to forgive such atrocities. But the fact Kadege is helping his country forgive as well — well, an O.J. Award doesn’t seem to quite cover it.

Tags: forgiveness, genocide, global, Rwanda, tragedy
Posted in Africa | Permalink

When Christians are Killed

Thursday, August 13th, 2009

Two stories yesterday remind me that Christians sometimes still risk their lives for their faith — perhaps even in the United States.

ABC News reports that Fathima Rifqa Barry, a 17-year-old Christian convert, ran away from her Ohio home because she feared her Muslim father would kill her. Rifqa fled all the way to Florida to seek refuge with Blake and Beverly Lorenz — pastors she found on Facebook.

There’s more to this story, of course: Rifqa’s parents say they have no intention of killing their daughter — they just want her back. And the Ohio police say her father seems genuinely concerned for his little girl, according to the Associated Press.

There is no such possibility for earthly reconciliation for four Christian aid workers in Somalia. An extremist Muslim group beheaded them when they refused to convert — or possibly reconvert — to Islam.

“All the four apostates were given an opportunity to return to Islam to be released but they all declined the generous offer,” according to an eyewitness quoted by International Christian Concern, an organization that monitors Christian persecution worldwide. Al-Shabab, the group that kidnapped the four orphanage workers, told the victims’ families not to expect the bodies to be returned, “as Somalia does not have cemeteries for infidels.”

Tags: convert, honor killing, Islam, murder, Muslim, orphans, persecuted Christians, Somalia, Sri Lanka
Posted in Africa, Asia | Permalink

Where Christianity Comes with a Cost

Thursday, July 16th, 2009

photo by Shayan Sanyal

Are the Culture Wars getting you down? Has someone hauled away the Ten Commandments statue from your courthouse? Filed a lawsuit trying to get the words “under God” removed from the pledge of allegiance? Wished you “happy holidays” last Christmas at the mall?

Folks, we’ve got it easy. I was reminded of that yet again today, reading over the news.

In Yemen, three Christian aid workers were killed — possibly, Christianity Today reports, by Muslim extremists. The women were found with “missionary materials” nearby, and the group with whom they worked had been warned to stop evangelizing in the region. Another three workers, along with three children under the age of 5, are still missing.

In Malaysia, nine Christians have been arrested for allegedly prostyletizing to university students, according to the Associated Press. It’s illegal for non-Muslims to evangelize in the country, and Muslims who try to accept Christ — or convert to any other non-Muslim faith — routinely undergo counseling and rehabilitation. Some are sent to prison for good measure, too.

In China, authorities raided a youth camp and detained five youths, the Christian Post says. ”One eyewitness told ChinaAid that during the raid, the police told the Christian leaders that, ‘it is forbidden for those under 18 to believe Christianity ….” the story said.

Christianity is the largest faith in the world, claiming more than 2 billion adherents. In the United States, more than 75 percent of us claim to be Christian — an overwhelming majority.

So I sometimes forget that there are countries where Christian hegemony isn’t a given, where wearing a cross could get you beat up, and carrying a Bible might land you in prison.

I know the fight over what to call December’s shopping season is an important one to lots of people, and rightly so, perhaps. But at the same time, we can’t forget about the folks in far off lands who, at times, truly feel embattled — where Christianity can come with real casualties.

Tags: China, Christian, Christianity, culture wars, detain, Islam, Malaysia, murder, Muslim, news, persecution, pledge, prison, Yemen
Posted in Africa, Asia, Middle East, culture war | Permalink