In Mali, new workers needed to fill a void
RICHMOND, Va. (BP) -- Marvin knows what it's like to walk along a dusty street in Mali in the sweltering heat. Unemployment is high in this West African country, and young men pass the time sitting beneath shade trees beside the road, talking and drinking tea.
Outcasts in Bulgaria see family’s commitment
SOFIA, Bulgaria (BP) -- Before Sunday morning, the man shaves, takes a bath and tries to make himself look as presentable as possible, considering he lives in a field. He attends a Bulgarian church, but as a Roma, he won't be welcome unless he tries to look Bulgarian. Though he is a believer, he must blend in to attend the church.
WEEK OF PRAYER: European refugee center lacks funds but not opportunity
EUROPE (BP) -- She is looking for a little good news. Shirin has found her way to a refugee center in Europe run by Southern Baptist workers. A worker calls Shirin's grown daughter in the United States -- Shirin is desperate to reconnect. 
Once a businesswoman in Kabul, Afghanistan, she also was a mother and a wife, married to a man with a prestigious government job. Then the Taliban showed up. They mercilessly killed her husband. Her children were taken from her and raised to hate her and the more culturally liberal way of life she embraced. 
She eventually left Afghanistan, joining thousands of other refugees migrating through Iran, Turkey and Greece toward the hope of a better life. Wandering is part of the nomadic history of many minority peoples of Central Asia. Sadly, running is part of it as well: running from war, persecution, discrimination, poverty. "War! War! War!" Shirin laments. "Why?" The news from Shirin's daughter is devastating. "Tell her I died 20 years ago" is the message she receives. For a woman tired of running and longing for a home, the words strangle what little hope she has left. Where is home? It is not with her daughter. It is not Afghanistan....
WEEK OF PRAYER: Pakistani Christians thank missionaries
Missionary answered the call at age 70
SKOPJE, Macedonia (BP) — A few months after Gef Smock was born in Michigan in 1933, she spoke her first words — in the Macedonian language. But it would be more than 70 years before she would see God use the language she learned from birth to share the Gospel with Macedonian people. “Sometimes I […]
Gypsies becoming ‘more open’ to Gospel
EDITOR’S NOTE: This year’s Week of Prayer for International Missions in the Southern Baptist Convention will be Dec. 4-11 with the theme of “His heart, His hands, His voice — I am Southern Baptist missions” from Acts 1:8. Each year’s Lottie Moon Christmas Offering supplements Cooperative Program giving to support Southern Baptists’ 5,000 international missionaries’ […]
WEEK OF PRAYER: Gypsies in Macedonia find roots in Christ
SKOPJE, Macedonia (BP) -- The tattered blanket hanging loosely in the doorway of the cinderblock house does little to keep the shouting inside from drifting out into the dusty streets of Dame Gruev.
WEEK OF PRAYER: Missionaries help Japan’s homeless find hope
TOKYO (BP) -- As the sun rises over Japan, millions rise early to head to work. An intricate system of commuter trains and subways moves countless men and women from the comfort of their homes to a skyscraper in Tokyo or a factory in neighboring Nagoya. Together, the two cities represent the business and manufacturing facets of the country's economy.
Hisaya Kazu, 62, also rises early from his cardboard cocoon to go to work. By 3 a.m., Kazu is picking up aluminum cans and other debris in Sakae Park in Nagoya. He cashes in the aluminum for enough yen to buy his meals for the day. As day breaks and the city wakes, Kazu, who is homeless, finds a place to hide, away from public view. "The police don't bother me, and the city [officials] know who I am," he says. "They know I keep the park clean so it is OK for me to sleep here at night. They just don't want to see me during the day." Like many affluent nations, Japan isn't quite sure what to do about its homeless population. The Japanese government usually does not publish statistics on homelessness. However, local Christian workers familiar with the situation estimate that more than 1,000 of Nagoya's 2.2 million people are homeless. In Tokyo, with more than 12 million people, more than 4,000 people live under bridges and in parks.
