‘Paris of West Africa’ draws mission focus
ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (BP)-- Standing beside Ébrié Lagoon, Hotel Ivoire rises 24 stories into a humid sky. The luxury hotel's white tower is an Abidjan landmark. It soars high over the lush green landscape stretching out below and is hedged by gardens and pools. It is situated in the Cocody area, an affluent locale where embassies, Ivory Coast's foremost university and wealth reside.
MISSIONS: How God is at work in Abidjan
ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (BP)-- As I pored over news stories to prepare for the trip to Ivory Coast, not much of the nation's recent storyline encouraged optimism. Abidjan, a city formerly known as the "Paris of West Africa," seemed littered with tales of violence that left marks in bullet-pocked walls and on people's hearts. Accounts of bloodshed and strife caused by a decade of civil war filled my background notes. Even the airport I flew into, reconstructed and modernized now, had been looted and damaged during fighting, which culminated in the Battle for Abidjan in April 2011.
WEEK OF PRAYER: Layman embraces African city’s challenge
ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (BP) -- Dinner was a far cry from a Baptist church supper. On this night, six members from Valley Baptist Church in Searcy, Ark., squeezed into a modest home in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, of a Muslim family breaking their Ramadan fast.
Off beaten path missionaries take Gospel
SAN LUIS, Peru (BP) -- Josh Murphree doesn't live at the ends of the earth, but he says can see it from his back porch.
Remote village spiritual ‘battlefield’ for church
CORDOVA, Peru (BP) -- When Chris Lane* was growing up, he couldn't have dreamed God was preparing him to live two years in the Peruvian Andes.
Ancient cities, adventure not new for MKs
CHAVIN DE HUANTAR, Peru (BP) -- Jordan and Trevor Pennington know all about the Incan Empire, the South American civilization that seems almost mythic to most schoolchildren in the United States.
WEEK OF PRAYER: Beijing’s masses keen for relationships
BEIJING (BP) -- Beijing is an urban center peopled by the rich, politically privileged -- and utterly poor.
Outwardly, it's strikingly modern with its Bird's Nest Olympic Stadium and rapidly expanding state-of-the-art subway system. It's ancient, too, with the Forbidden City of Imperial China at its heart. It's blatantly communist with the Soviet-styled Great Hall of the People set in the city center –- yet capitalist with posh shopping areas shimmering with luxury designer goods nearby. It's also a magnet, drawing people from throughout the country as they flow in from provinces seeking employment and a better life. Thomas*, a Christian worker in Beijing, sees the drawing power of the capital city as a strategic place for reaching into China's provinces with the Gospel message. "Beijing is a city that breathes people," Thomas reflects. "Every day hundreds of thousands of people travel in and out of the city. At peak times there are more than a million travelers per day. Some stay only a few days, yet others stay much longer. "A few who come are already Christians from two strong Christian areas of China -- Henan and Anhui. Most are not and know more about Coca-Cola than Christ," Thomas continues. "Whether they come as tourists, on business or looking for some kind of employment, we want all who enter the capital of the Middle Kingdom to learn of the eternal Kingdom and the Emperor who died on a cross for them," Thomas says. Unprecedented growth When Beijing's population hit 19 million in late 2009, it had already surpassed the government's target to keep the capital's population below 18 million until the year 2020. Government officials are searching for ways to slow the city's growth, as infrastructure can't keep up with the surging population, which has now reached more than 20 million. "The size of Beijing doesn't intimidate me," Thomas says. "It's not a mass of humanity. You learn to read it socio-demographically ... once you get above a million, it doesn't really make a difference. You look at where you have the relationships." China is riding the same wave of urbanization as the rest of the globe. The United Nations estimates that by 2050 nearly 70 percent of the world's 10 billion people will be living in cities, up from only 30 percent living in cities in 1950. A similar scenario is occurring in China but -- as in its economic and industrial development -- at a much more rapid pace.WEEK OF PRAYER: Beijing’s young adults become U.S. couple’s focus of outreach
[QUOTE@right@190="God is preparing people and putting them in our path. And it's just amazing."
-- Christian worker in Beijing]BEIJING (BP) -- When Steve* was diagnosed with prostate cancer just before he and his wife Lisa* were planning to move to China, some friends took it as a sign.
Olympics meant giant workload for London
LONDON -- To prepare a city even as sophisticated as London for a concentrated influx of hundreds of thousands of international visitors and athletes is a massive undertaking.
Olympics meant giant workload for London
LONDON -- To prepare a city even as sophisticated as London for a concentrated influx of hundreds of thousands of international visitors and athletes is a massive undertaking.
