By Caleb Campos –
Tracking his online banking, China busted a Christian pastor who was printing Bibles this month. He is in jail today.
Online monitoring is the new way governments hostile to the Gospel are cracking down on missionaries.
What’s the solution? A Christian hackathon to find a way to transfer funds without the digital fingerprint used by repressive governments like China, India, North Korea and Afghanistan.
“You have a couple hundred people here, says Eugene Bach at a hackathon in Brazil. “This has been a phenomenal experience of hackers from Brazil and all over the world, looking at ways to solve issues for missionaries.”
Coders, designers and other technological professionals from not just Brazil (Italy and Nigeria were there too) gathered for three days to brainstorm and write code to solve problems for missionaries. Another problem they’re addressing is getting Bibles in countries where they’re banned.
“Three days, no sleeping, pizza all over, energetics – coffee, bull energy drinks – and the Holy Spirit,” says Danilo Santos from Back to Jerusalem Brazil.
#HACK is an annual Christian hackathon. They have been held by a group called Indigitous since 2013. They’ve had 10,154 participants from 174 cities in 63 countries since keeping track in 2016.
Technology is NOT just the frontier of physical war. It is the frontier of spiritual war.
“The enemy has waged war against the church. And as technology advances they’re using more and more ways to control,” says Bach, head of Back to Jerusalem. “They don’t want the Gospel to go around the world and complete the great commission.”
