++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

B.A.S.I.C. NEWSLETTER #48
April 5, 2005

I Cor. 16:9   For a wide door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many adversaries.

NEWS FROM SISTER CHURCHES - As we read these, let us pray to God giving Him thanks that we can work together to serve Him and that His Word does not return to Him void.   Praise God!  Lutheran Church of East Africa has an evangelist faithfully working at Bumbuli, Tanzania gathering people around His Word.   Previously fifteen had applied for membership. Etago CLC in Kenya has opened a preaching station in the house of William Kenyatta at Olegumi.   This is among the Masai people. May this generally unreached people be reached by us and others. The Bharath Evangelical Lutheran Church in India has seen the Word go forth in baptism.   At Pudhucherri seven were baptized by Pastor Paul Raj after confessing their sins.   Pastor Victor reported that they were planning 36 baptisms in Kadapa District. In Nairobi, Kenya a group has formed around the Word in number now 29.   We are sending them literature and Pastors Jeremiah and Alex of the CLCEA are visiting them on the Word.

TO THE EAST BOTH NORTH AND SOUTH   part 6
In the West - From 1075 to 1122 there was the struggle in western Christendom, a power struggle, between the church and the empire. And there was in 1095 the beginning of the wretchedly misdirected crusades.   So while the Lord's disciples may have become befuddled and misdirected in the West, God was not contained, but active in the East.
1000-1200 in the EAST - The records show evangelism in Burma, Siam, Annam, Malaya, Java and Sumatra. The presence of Christians in the kingdom of Malea (North Burma)in the ninth century is clearly recorded.   Marco Polo discovered Nestorian Christians amongst the Shans when the Mongol armies entered Burma in 1252.   Sources so far available suggest that the churches of Sumatra and Java (Indonesia), like those of Ceylon, Burma, Siam and the Malay Peninsula at that time grew from the work and witness of resident foreign traders-Persian, Arab and Indian - sometimes assisted by visiting missionaries but often having their own clergy. Samarkand retained its churches, schools and monastic cells under a succession of Arab and Turkish rulers for almost 1000 years, the Samarkand churches surviving even the Mongol invasion of 1220. In 1248 an Armenian visitor to Samarkand attended worship there and Marco Polo estimated one in ten, approximately 11,000 persons, to be Christian.   Evidence of the city's importance as a center for mission eastwards has also been found in the presence of engraved crosses located along the direct route between Samark and and Lhasa,and a Ladakh inscription records the visit of a Samarkand Christian on an embassy to the ruler of Tibite in 841-2.   A thirteenth century monument in Chinkiang, eastern China, declares Christianity to be the dominant religion of Samarkand. All of this outlines the early history of Christianity in Asian countries and illustrates the extent and persistence of the mission undertaken by the churches in the East beyond the limits of the earlier Persian Empire.   There were flourishing Christian communities in west Asia until at least the thirteenth century, in the ninth century, members of the Nestorian and Jacobite communions still apparently outnumbered those of all Greek and Roman churches.   In the tenth century Albiruni had declared that the majority of populations in Syria, Iraq and Khurasan were in fact Christian and until the thirteenth century almost half of the seventy-five bishoprics in fifteen provinces of the old Persian Empire still survived.

Pastor Koenig

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

B.A.S.I.C. NEWSLETTER #49
April 15, 2005

I Cor. 16:9   For a wide door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many adversaries.

A PRAYER - While we usually don't subscribe to too much of what Francis of Assissi said, the following is good.   "Lord make me an instrument of Thy peace.   Where there is hatred, let me sow love, where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is sadness, joy; where there is darkness, light." "O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console; not so much to be understood, as to understand; not so much to be loved, as to love.   For it is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, it is in dying that we are born again to eternal life."  I know I have trouble with these things.   I would say that it is a good prayer for our selfish age.

TO THE EAST BOTH NORTH AND SOUTH   part 7 - conclusion
Tibet - A Tibetan manuscript has been found on which is painted across in Sassanian style.   The cross has been identifed as the work of a local Tibetan artisan.   Some texts in translation today from these long years ago in Tibet show strong Christian influence and treat salvation by grace, which they say interrupts the operation of Karmalaw. THE EVIDENCE that has been found and that is being found indicate that Christendom in Asia was more widespread and earlier that many generally realize.   The list of evidence is fascinating: Syriac materials, documents in Iranian and old Turkic, the Nestorian Monument, Chinese manuscripts, paintings, carvings and artifacts, letters, historial and biographical narratives.The Nestorian Monument was discovered at Sian-fu (Chang-an) in 1623. It apparently was originally in the Nestorian monastery at Chouchih, southwest of Sian-fu, in 781.   Measuring over nine feet high and more than three feet wide and a foot deep it has a tablet headed with a Persian inscribed cross standing in a lotus blossom and edged with flame, flowers and cloud formations.   The text inscribed has one thousand nine hundred Chinese characters along with seventy words of Syriac and appoximately eighty names of bishops, presbyters, monks and others.   This text outlines Bible teaching on: creation, the fall of all people, the birth of Jesus, who is described as establishing good works and right faith, unfolding life and abolishing death.   It also deals with the ascension, the work of the Holy Spirit, the twenty-seven books of Scripture and baptism. Among Chinese manuscripts the "A-lo-pen" documents were written by or for the first bishop of the Chinese church of the east about 641.   All this and more points out how our gracious God was at work in time harvesting souls for eternity in areas we generally don't think about.  It is clear that there were vast numbers of Christians in their churches throughout Asia which were stretched over vast distances for over twelve centuries wholly independent of European Christendom.   We may at times forget Rev. 7:9 "a great multitude which no man can number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and tongues."In heaven we will be with that vast and varied multitude praising Him. Now let us praise Him for what He has done in His thrust to the East with the Gospel.   Our God outstripped the Eastern Orthodox church after the great schism and worked well beyond the eastern Patriarch's spiritual reach.We can always pray that the past is prologue to the future.   The People's Republic of China is the most populous nation rivaling India.   From the eleventh to the fourteenth centuries God was at work there with His Word from Mongolia to the southern and eastern China (in for instance: Yunnan, Kwantung and Kwangsi).   It is estimated by some that perhaps ten percent of Chinese are Christians, this includes both the formal churches and the vast number of 'house' churches.   Who knows? God does!   That would be truly astounding.   In India with its democracy there the Christians number perhaps four to eight percent.   God was at work and is at work to reach out with the precious water of life.   What a true joy to see the record of His work in Asia and to anticipate a learning more of what He is doing even now though unknown to us. The material in these seven parts was taken from:   "Handbook of Source Materials for Students of Church History" by William G. Young."The Spreading Flame" by F.F. Bruce, "Hidden History of Christianity in Asia" by John C. England,"An Introduction to Indian Church History" by C.B. Firth.

Pastor Koenig