Christian Ministries in U.S. Reach Out to Haiti, Iran
by Allie Martin and Chad Groening
December 10, 2004
(AgapePress) - A global missions and relief organization based in North Carolina is trying to make a difference for Christ in Haiti, while another U.S.-based ministry out of San Jose, California, is reaching out to millions of Iranian Muslims through satellite television.This weekend, New Directions International in North Carolina is sponsoring a series of conferences for men in Haiti. The event, co-sponsored by Promise Keepers, is called "Haiti at the Cross." J.L. Williams, who founded NDI, says the ministry has worked hard to lay the groundwork for the Promise Keepers conferences.
One way it has done this, Williams notes, is by keeping focused on the PK value of racial reconciliation. He says NDI "has always been, since our inception back in the tumultuous civil rights days, seeking to be proactively involved in racial reconciliation" and to be "an interracial ministry from the biblical standpoint." Williams says his group has always sought earnestly to model racial reconciliation and was invited to Haiti "to try to demonstrate and share that model."
NDI's founder says that missions outreach and relief organization has been working in Haiti for decades, and now he believes the Caribbean nation is ripe for revival. During the years the ministry was laying its foundation there, Williams remarks, "little did we realize that it was perhaps not only for all the interim years, but for such a time as this, to stand alongside our Haitian brothers and sisters and try to be agents of reconciliation and change in the country."
"Haiti at the Cross" is being held in conjunction with the Caribbean nation's bicentennial celebrations. The conference series wraps up this Sunday with a closing event at the National Stadium in Port Au Prince.
Meanwhile, the head of another Christian organization in the U.S. is celebrating 14 years of reaching out to the Islamic world with the gospel. Through a ministry aimed at reaching Muslims for Christ, he says he has been able to reach millions of Iranian Muslims, thanks to satellite television.
Beaming the Gospel to Iran
Donald Fareed is a native of Iran who fled to the United States at the time of the Iranian Revolution in 1979. Fourteen years ago he came to know Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior and founded the San Jose-based Persian Ministries International.
And now, thanks to a Muslim acquaintance, Fareed is able to beam his weekly evangelistic television program into Iran. "The Muslim satellite station I'm on is a secular, pro-democracy station," he says. "The owner is a friend of mine, and he's a pretty secular Muslim."
Although Iran's radical Islamic regime prohibits satellite ownership, PMI's founder says millions of Iranians are nevertheless being reached by his Christian broadcasts. "Having a satellite is illegal in Iran," he points out, "but we are estimating that 30 million people have access. The government right now has so many things to deal with, so the people have satellite."
Fareed's satellite programming ministry is reporting tremendous results. He says PMI is reaching millions and leading thousands of Muslims to Christ through the broadcasts, and the ministry has set its sights on a lofty, Great Commission-inspired goal. Fareed's vision, he says, is to see one million Muslims convert to Christianity in Iran by the year 2007.
