Thursday, January 3rd, in the year of our Lord 2019
By Jonathan Clark
Persecution of Christians Expected to Rise Worldwide in 2019
Persecution against Christians is set to rise in 2019, warns Release International which is supporting Britain’s foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt in his call for the UK to help persecuted believers around the world.
Release International listed several countries of concern for persecution, noting Islamic attacks in Nigeria, government crackdowns on churches in China, and Hindu nationalist attacks in India. Other countries of concern were North Korea, Eritrea, and Pakistan.
1 Peter 4:12-13 says, “Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you . . . But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings.”
Bolivia’s Commitment to Protect Religious Freedom
Bolivia’s President Evo Morales signed an agreement with representatives of the evangelical church in the country to protect religious freedom, reports Evangelical Focus.
Bolivia is in the process of drafting a new religious freedom law after President Morales revoked a law criminalizing Christian activities last year.
Israeli Abortions Have Dropped in Half
Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics reports that the number of abortions and abortion requests in the country have dropped by about 50 percent over the last 30 years. In 1988, 18.6 out of every 1,000 women requested an abortion, while in 2016 nine out of every 1,000 women requested an abortion.
The murder of unborn babies has been legal in the State of Israel since 1977 under a strict set of circumstances. However, 99.3 percent of abortion requests have been approved by Israel’s eerily named “termination committees.”
UK Divorce Rate Dropped Dramatically
The divorce rate in the UK continues to fall according to research from the Marriage Foundation which found the number of 13- to 15-year-olds not living with their natural parents has declined from 40 percent to 36 percent over the last 13 years. The data also showed a decline in marriages in general.
The Marriage Foundation said the UK divorce rate is projected to fall to 23 percent in the next decade.
Judah 1: Getting Missionaries to the Field by Air, Becoming Christian Airline
Judah 1 is the world’s first Christian airline that has already taken missions groups to places like Honduras and Nicaragua. Now, the airline is applying with the FAA to become a commercial airliner so they can take a large variety of Christian missionaries to countries around the world.
The World View spoke to Everett Aaron, President and Founder of Judah 1,about the mission behind the airline.
“Well, the purpose of Judah 1 is to facilitate God’s people, i.e. missionaries, in doing what they do but making their jobs a lot easier. Most missionaries are aware that flying on the airlines; first of all it’s very easy to do. You can hop on an airline and pretty much go anywhere in the world. One of the two major issues they run into is that, one if you’re carrying a team, say, of 10 people or more, it’s usually impossible to get them all on the same flight. Usually the groups that are taking more have to split them up among different flights, in which case, they lose an entire day of getting their team, sometimes two days, of getting their team sent to the mission field where they’re going to. We’re able to transport an entire team at one time. Our smallest airliner that we have which is an MD83 fits 136 people.”
Stay tuned for a World View Special Report following today’s newscast about Judah 1, their work with missionaries and how they are going to become a full-fledged Christian airline by this summer.
Boy Scouts Considers Bankruptcy
Last month, the Boy Scouts of America began considering filing for bankruptcy, reports Market Watch.
This comes as the major youth organization faces declining membership and lawsuits over abuse allegations against employees.
Decisions by the Boy Scouts to allow girls, boys pretending to be girls, and homosexual leaders have led many Christians to pull their children out and join faith-based youth outfits like Trail Life whose membership has grown to 27,000.
My 9-year-old son Honor is in Trail Life. I recommend I highly. Learn more about Trail Life and find a troop near you at their website, www.TrailLifeUSA.com.
God said in 1 Samuel 2:30, “Those who honor Me I will honor, and those who despise Me shall be lightly esteemed.”
Trump Willing to Wait for Border Wall Funding
The U.S. government partial shutdown entered its 12th day yesterday with President Donald Trump announcing it will last “as long as it takes” over his demand for border security funding including a $5 billion outlay for the wall. Republican and Democratic congressional leaders attended a meeting at the White House yesterday to hear a plea for a border wall with Mexico.
Despite high tensions between the two parties, CBN News reports a number of Senate Democrats and Republicans meet weekly to pray together. Democratic Senator Chris Coons chairs the group with Republican Senator James Lankford and describes the prayer time as “the best hour of the week.”
God Spared Churchgoers from Stray Bullet
And finally, in God’s providence, a stray bullet from a New Year’s Eve Celebration came through the ceiling of The Ramp Church in Fort Worth, Texas, hitting the stage and missing the pastor, reports Fox News.
Pastor Evan Risher held the bullet up to show the congregation, saying it was “only by God’s grace” that no one was hurt.
Matthew 10:29-31 asks, “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.”
Close
And that’s The World View in 5 Minutes on this Thursday, January 3rd in the year of our Lord 2019. Subscribe by iTunes or email to our unique Christian newscast at www.TheWorldView.com. I’m Adam McManus. (Adam@TheWorldView.com) Seize the day for Jesus Christ.
Special Report: How Christian Airline Evolved
Time now for a World View Special Report by Emily Swanson. I’m Adam McManus.
One of the biggest problems missionaries run into on their way to another country is losing their luggage. Some have it stolen; others have luggage that just goes missing between the U.S. and their destination country.
Everett Aaron, Founder and President of Judah 1, told The World View that they are able to transport a large amount of cargo along with the missionaries so it isn’t misplaced or stolen.
“The next thing missionaries have problems with is transporting their cargo. Most missionary groups like to ship their cargo; they ship it via shipping container. And a lot of things they run into; they actually ran some statistics that show that around 50% and that can vary from 60%, sometimes down to around as low as 40%, 50%, depending on the group that did their statistics, of missionaries actually lose their cargo when they ship it via shipping container. That’s a huge problem because they ship medical supplies, their food in.”
Aaron remarked that sometimes the shipping containers that missionaries use can be lost overboard, the contents stolen, or they end up sitting in shipping yards for months.
“Sometimes it’s just lost. There are accidents with shipping containers being lost overboard when they’re on the container ship. They get stolen. The biggest problem is that people will steal the supplies; even Bibles I found out, get stolen. Even Bibles; they’re one of the largest black market items in the world cause they’ll steal them and sell them. And of course the medical supplies is also a big deal, because obviously those could also be sold on the black market. And sometimes they just get tied up in the bureaucracy of the governments because of corruption.”
Aaron said that Judah 1 has the special ability to transport the supplies in a timely manner without being stolen or misplaced.
“Judah 1 is able to transport the cargo along with the team in the bellies of their aircraft. Our MD80, the airliner that you see on our website, that we currently have; that aircraft can carry 17,000 pounds of cargo in the belly of it which is wonderful. It’s limited in size; there are certain things we can’t take, like cars. We can’t ship those over as of yet. Maybe in the future, but not right now, we can’t do that. Right now, mainly medical supplies, dental chairs, things of that nature; those are the things we can carry in there. That is the purpose of Judah 1; our job is to make missionaries, helping them make their job easier, so that’s what we do.”
Aaron said that the official commercial part of Judah 1 is not officially in the air. He talked about their goals for the next year.
“First of all, we are just launching; we’re not in the air yet. We’re in the process of getting our FAA and Department of Transportation certification. And that’s what’s called a 121 certification which means we’re an airline. We’re transitioning from being private to an airline. We will not actually begin flying until we receive our certification. Tentatively, the date’s set for the beginning of the summer of this year. Sometime around June or July, we should have our certifications in place, in which case we’ll begin flying.”
To see a video of their MD80 returning from its first test flight, go to their Facebook page at Judah1Inc.
Aaron said that they will bring some larger aircraft into the fleet this summer which they call the “God Force.”
“Also at that time we’ll be bringing on board some larger aircraft. A Boeing 767, as well as several additional MVs as well. So, that’s going to enable us to carry more people. The 767 carries 30 tons of cargo. We fly all over the world. We don’t have bases in other countries, but we fly all over the world. We’re based in Texas — Dennison, Texas. We can lead out; we can fly anywhere in the world. We can take teams to Israel, Haiti, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras.”
Aaron said that they will strategize with different Christ-centered missions groups around the world to coordinate enough people to fill up a flight.
“We work with a lot of different organizations. So, the advantage is, if you have a team; say you only have 10 people at your church, and they’re going to Honduras. Well obviously it would not be economical for you to say, ‘Hey we want to get your plane, and we want to go to Honduras.’ With 10 people, the cost of that would not be economically feasible. But what we do is we have a lot of people who are traveling, and mostly missionaries. They’re all coming mostly during the summer times, but we work all year around. We put these groups together. We have eight groups that are wanting to go, in let’s just say, June. This group has 10. This group has 50. This group has another 20. So we fill up our airplane.”
Aaron talked about the private trips they took before pursuing a commercial certification.
“We actually rented airliners back in 2013 to do a trial run to see how this works. So we rented an MD80 twice. We rented a 737 twice and a 727. So we rented those aircrafts to try this out and see how it works. The groups that we took were beside themselves.
“First of all, everybody’s Christian that are on the plane. Our pilots, all of our flight crew are Christians. Before you take off, the usual airline procedures that are required, go over the safety briefing. But the pilots; not only do they welcome you on board the aircraft, they pray with you before the plane leaves. We heard this gasp throughout the cabin. ‘Yes they’re praying with you.’ ‘This is wonderful!’ There was an 88-year-old lady, who had been on the mission field since she was 16. She had her birthday the day we were flying them down to the Honduras. And we actually had her birthday party on the airplane.”
Aaron went on to describe the fact they can even have times of worship on the plane.
“We have worship on the plane. So, it’s definitely an experience unlike what missionaries have ever experienced before. The other thing is that when you get into the country, because we work with a group called World Fuel. Bottom line, they take care of all our fueling around the world to make sure our fuel’s there. But they also help handle customs for us.”
Aaron said that the time they went to Honduras, World Fuel helped them handle customs and get the missionaries and their luggage into the country in record time.
“We went in there. We carried 8,600 pounds of food, little rice bags, with a special soy mix, so it had micro nutrients in it. And we carried it in; we got 80 missionaries, all their food, supplies, and luggage, off the plane and loaded onto their trucks in less than 45 minutes.”
Aaron explained how you can get involved in supporting Judah 1, which is a non-profit organization.
“We have a website which is simple www.judah1.com. We also have a Facebook page which is Judah1, Inc. So you can connect with us that way to follow what’s going on. We’re updating those on a daily basis, the website should be updated weekly.”
Aaron shared the biggest prayer request for the airline.
“As far as prayer requests, we need prayers for wisdom, as we go through the process of certification with the FAA. It’s a pretty daunting task, because there’s thousands of pages worth of manuals, which we’re writing. That’s again just to ensure safety, that we know what we’re doing. That’s what that’s for, but we have a wonderful team of professionals that are working with us.
“Our Director of Operations has got 17,000 flight hours, and our missions pilot has 21,000 flight hours. So, we have professional teams working with us. These are people that have experience obviously, and know what they’re doing with the larger airplanes.”
Aaron said to also keep them in prayer for finances as they are a non-profit.
“Also finances; we are a non-profit. That’s one of the other things that makes us a first with the FAA. We’re the first Christian airlines, and we’re also the first non-profit airline. We are a 501(c)3. We can come share at your church to talk about what you want to do and see how we can, even if your church doesn’t send missionaries, maybe you can support other teams that are going.”
Aaron said that Judah 1 is having an open house on February 2nd in Denison, Texas. So, if you live in the area, stop on by.
This has been a World View Special Report. I’m Adam McManus.