Algerian Kabyls: Making Acts seem like a dress rehearsal

"People meet daily in their houses for prayer. They tell of dreams and visions, and experience healing and deliverance. Ex-terrorists and spirit healers accept Jesus as their Lord. Churches are formed. This is not an excerpt from Acts, but is happening today among the Kabyls in Northeast Algeria," writes Operation Mobilisation's Debbie Meroff.

"The Algerian population of around 35 million is composed mainly of two people groups: the Berbers, and the Muslim Arabs, who later conquered the land. After the French left in 1962, the new government tried to unite Algeria under one language, religion and culture. That was difficult, particularly for the Kabylian Berbers; they had Christian roots, and their protests were often answered with military force. This oppression had a side-effect: their anger towards anything Arabic prepared their way to Jesus.

New Christian churches are forming all over the Kablyian area. So far, they have been able to resist denominational influences and foreign leadership. Many people hear the gospel through Christian radio and television programmes, and up to 274 people contact the Christian staff each month. Christians hope to gather the scattered believers in new churches, and aim to plant churches in all of Algeria's 48 larger towns."

Unexpected openness among Chinese building workers Outside the desert, Algeria seems to be one huge building site; new hotels, hospitals, offices and apartment blocks are being built everywhere, and Chinese building workers are always involved. There are over 70,000 Chinese building workers in Algeria, working 13 hours each day, 7 days a week, with 10 days vacation each year, for US$ 400 per month. The men live in overcrowded accommodation on the building sites, watched over by Communist bosses.

After work, there was not much to do except smoke and sit around, until Chinese tourists brought large amounts of Christian literature to Algeria. Now, every building worker wants his own Chinese New Testament, and there is often a tumult when the few Bibles are handed out, and hundreds of copies of the Jesus Film are in circulation. A growing number of them are coming to faith in Christ. The Algerian government does not concern itself with these developments, as long as they are limited to the Chinese. The Communist bosses sometimes refuses access to the barracks, but the workers then just climb over the wall...
Source: OM News, http://www.ch.om.org