Bible Societies around the world distributed 20 million Bibles in 1997. The Scriptures were produced in hundreds of languages and distributed in almost every country. The total distributed, including New Testaments and gospel booklets, was 561,633,376, the Bible Society of New Zealand said. That is an increase of 5.8% from 1996. Distribution increased 84% in Mozambique and 27% in Liberia. In South American countries, some Bible societies increased their distribution as much as 125%. "It's the number of lives changed and strengthened as a result of reading the Scriptures that really counts," Colin Reed of the Bible Society in New Zealand said.

Some 200,000 New Testaments will be delivered to schoolchildren in Iraq who will use them to study about Jesus. It is the largest distribution of Scripture to children in the Middle East ever, according to Mission Network News. Iraqi authorities have approved the distribution and the Bible Society of Jordan will oversee the details.

In Muslim-dominated countries, Steve Snyder of International Christian Concern said the church is experiencing great power, expressed in "miraculous healings and visions" that are bringing people to Christ.

Doctors and nurses in one local hospital were amazed when a man who was paralyzed on one side of his body got up and walked around his room after two Christians prayed for him. "Jesus healed me," he kept proclaiming. Hospital staff and administrators kept coming to his room for days to examine him and marvel at his recovery. Many of them became Christians.

Some members of the Saudi royal family have been affected by the revival. A prince reportedly put his faith in Jesus after his Christian baker prayed for his mother to be healed of diabetes. The baker had been jailed because he claimed that Jesus had healed him of an ailment. The prince got him out of jail and questioned him. "If Jesus healed you, could he heal my mother of diabetes?" he reportedly asked the baker. She was healed within 24 hours of the prayer, Snyder said.

But the man still had to stand trial for his Christian beliefs. When he came before the judge, the baker refused to recant his testimony and the judge decided to give him a test. He brought in five people with diabetes and said that if his prayer healed them he would let the baker go, but if they were not healed, he would be beheaded. After the prayer, the people were all tested at a local hospital and no traces of diabetes were found. "That started a revival and some in the royal family became Christians," Snyder said.

The leader of an influential tribe in South Africa has given his blessing to a gospel outreach among his members. Chief Pilane of the 250,000-member Bakgatla people said that a team from Every Home for Christ could distribute gospel literature to his tribe if he could hand out the very first one, the Colorado Springs-based ministry said. World Missionary Press is supplying EHFC with six million tracts in nine tribal languages for the outreach.

More than 41,000 people have prayed to become Christians or asked for more information through the outreach, EHFC said.

Churches in Inner Mongolia are experiencing phenomenal growth. The region, located along China's northern border, had 2,000 Christians in 1984, Lee DeYoung of Words of Hope radio told Mission Network News. Today there are 150,000 believers and at least 40 large churches, he said.

The number of Christians in Asia has doubled in the last 20 years, church analyst Saphir Athyal said. More than 145 million Asians now celebrate Christmas, according to AsiaWeek magazine.

Growth has been dramatic in countries where Christianity encounters opposition. "Persecution [has] resulted in purification of the church and the strengthening of its witness," Athyal said. Three centuries of missionary work in China had produced only a few million Christians before the Communists ordered foreign workers to leave in 1950. After decades of persecution, today there may be as many as 75 million believers, including many in the underground house-church movement. In Vietnam, cell churches are expanding in cities, and rural tribes are turning to Christianity through the work of evangelists and gospel radio programs.

In South Korea, Christianity may soon supplant Buddhism. Almost 30% of the country's population profess to be Christian, and there are more Christians than Buddhists. Seoul, the nation's capital, reportedly has more churches than drugstores.

Centuries of missions work are paying off in the form of indigenous workers who start new ministries. "Western missionaries still probe faithfully for converts but, by and large, Christianity in the region has become self-perpetuating," according to AsiaWeek.