“People's spiritual needs must be met as well,” said GFA (Gospel for Asia) President K.P. Yohannan.
Posted on 01/06/2005 6:20:15 PM PST by Land_of_Lincoln_John
CAIRO, January 6 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Asians in areas battered by last week’s killer tsunami,triggered by a 9.0 magnitude underwater quake, are falling prey to proselytizing and human trafficking.
Immediately after the tidal waves devastated several countries, a number of Christian missionary groups rushed to the affected areas to offer not only relief aid, but more importantly spiritual counseling.
Gospel for Asia, a group seeking to train and send 100,000 native missionaries into the most unreached areas of Asia, was among the first on the scene of the tsunami disaster in India and Sri Lanka.
According to its Web site, GFA’s volunteers are working around the clock to bring food, clean water, medicines, clothing, shelter, and spiritual counseling “in the name of Jesus” to those who lost everything in the killer tidal waves.
“People's spiritual needs must be met as well. That's why GFA takes the dual approach of physical relief and spiritual sharing. It is the only way to provide true hope to those who have lost so much,” said GFA President K.P. Yohannan.
GFA deployed at three different camps in Tamil Nadu, the second most affected place in India, more than 60 counselors who are “comforting, praying for and offering the hope found in Jesus to the tsunami victims.”
Ever since the killer tidal waves left its scares on millions of Asians, reports were rife about proselytizing campaigns carried out under the disguise of humanitarian assistance.
In an e-mail sent to IslamOnline.net a group of students identifying themselves as Achehnese studying in Malaysia and now back home to help relief efforts complained that surviving Muslim orphans have been approached by Christian pastors and families.
Trafficking
The UN warned that tsunami children are victims of a vicious trafficking campaign (Reuters)
In another related development, the UN said it had received reports of adults posing as foster parents and children being shipped from Indonesia to Malaysia for sale, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
John Budd, UNICEF Indonesia Communication Officer, said that UNICEF's Malaysian office had received an SMS Tuesday advertising 300 orphans from Aceh aged between three and ten who could be bought.
“It's chilling…What this indicates is that they have got children or they have a network where they can identify a child and take them,” he said.
The UN official also said that Medan was a well-known center for trade in children.
“There are ruthless criminal gangs based out of Medan who have been involved in this for a very long time,” he said.
The Indonesian government estimated that 35,000 children have been made homeless, orphaned or separated from their parents in Aceh, which remains in chaos 10 days after the tsunamis destroyed much of its west coast.
Vice President Yusuf Kalla also announced a ban on adoption put in place earlier in the week amid an increasing number of reports started surfacing about human traffickers spiriting children out of Aceh.
He said the children would be placed in orphanages run by the government, Islamic foundations or Muslim boarding schools.
The government also said Tuesday that children under the age of 16 would not be allowed to leave Aceh without their parents.
Authorities have in the past arrested people on child trafficking charges in Medan, where the rings are well known for selling babies for adoption to people in Malaysia and Singapore.
Officials have said children and the elderly were worst hit by the disaster because in many cases they could not flee without help.
“People's spiritual needs must be met as well,” said GFA (Gospel for Asia) President K.P. Yohannan.
bttt
We want your $$, not your God.....but the money most Christian's give is in Jesus name and for the love of Christ.......
How they can mention GFA in the same article as people who are preying on children for sale to child sex rings is beyond me. These liberals are so anti-Christian, they equate spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ to Child trafficking. How SICK!!!!!
Muslims will object to proselytizing!
I love it. Missionaries are lumped in there with child-traffickers. That just goes to show what the author thinks of Christians.
My thought as well.
Bingo!
As opposed to Muslims who typically convert people at the end of a gun barrel?
"PREY TO PROSELYTIZING"??? Is this headline for real? So Christians are a THREAT to the Tsunami victims? I have now seen it all.
The goal of a Christian missionary is to lead people to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. They do a lot of other things in the name of Christ to help toward that end. They do not "force" conversions by means of physical violence, but lead folks through Bible study and love to the Savior Jesus Christ.
Don't forget where this article comes from - "Islam Online." Obviously, they aren't going to think Christian missionaries are a good thing - sad to say...
So, will the UN do MORE to stop the Proselytizing, or More to stop the Prostitution? What will they choose to deem evil?
He said the children would be placed in orphanages run by the government, Islamic foundations or Muslim boarding schools.
The Muslims are smart. They know, better than American Christians, how important children are to furthering their cause. Most American Christians have given their children over to the common culture. Muslims would never do something that stupid.
That is why I have a niggling feeling that they will win the war, even though we may win some battles.
"How they can mention GFA in the same article as people who are preying on children for sale to child sex rings is beyond me."
When I read this article, I did not take it this way - as selling children into sex rings. I think they are more afraid of children being adopted by loving, caring American parents. Perhaps I'm naive - and I know that there are horrible cases of selling children into this, but I do not think that is what they are afraid of - much more afraid of Americans, especially Christian Americans, who would raise these children in their own faith. JMHO.
So, will the UN do MORE to stop the Proselytizing, or More to stop the Prostitution? What will they choose to deem evil?
The UN is the only ones with moral authority. Where have you been?
the ragheads really want the kids for themselves so they can place them into MADRAS's and train and indoctrinate them to become suicide bombers......what a windfall for them.....sooo many kids available without parents to care for them.
Thanks for the ping!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.