On the side of a gravel road in western Zambia, a man is furiously waving his arms to attract the attention of an approaching truck. As the truck pulls over, the man shows the missionary driver a Gospel tract that flew out of the vehicle several days before. "This is the reason I've been trying to stop you. We want to know more about God!" the Zambian says. Christianity is spreading like wildfire across the south central African nation. The church grew by more than 1 million members from 1983–1993, says the mission handbook Operation World. The greatest growth has occurred in the past five years as hundreds of new churches have been planted by fervent believers who have "caught the vision" for spreading the Gospel, missionaries say.

The church in Cambodia is growing, with more than 1,000 congregations in the country, up from 50 in 1992. Church leaders in many cities and provinces are meeting regularly to plan national outreach strategies. Jesus film teams are showing the evangelistic movie throughout the country every night, and churches have been started among many tribal groups that had never heard the message of Christ.

A mob wielding machetes, sticks, and stones advanced on a team as they prepared to show the evangelistic movie "Jesus" in a southeastern Nigerian village recently. The group of 500 hostile men and teens chanted war songs as they moved closer to the Christian workers. Many of the Christians in the group fled in fear. But Cletus, leader of the team, "sent an S.O.S. to the Supreme Headquarters" in prayer. The Lord immediately answered the request and gave the team members great courage and boldness, he said. Cletus began to show the film even as the mob approached them. Suddenly the attackers focused on the screen, began to watch the film about Jesus' life and ministry, and started to calm down. When the first reel ended, Cletus teased the audience, saying he was going to pack up and leave because their initial welcome was anything but warm. But the crowd shouted "No, No," Cletus rolled the rest of the film, and as it ended, many in the audience became Christians.

A Muslim in an Asian nation said he became a Christian when Jesus answered his prayer. The man said he prayed often at a mosque but never heard from God. He met a Christian one day who told him to ask God to reveal Himself to him, DAWN FridayFax said. "He said, 'Kneel in your room and ask God in the name of Buddha, a Hindu god, in Mohammed's name, and in Jesus' name. See which name he answers to." The man prayed for 10 minutes to Buddha and 10 minutes in the name of Hindu gods, but nothing happened. Then he prayed earnestly for Allah to come to him. "In tears, I waited 10, 20, 30 minutes for an answer. None came." When he prayed in the name of Jesus, "I didn't have to wait 30 minutes. In that moment, it was as if someone walked into the room. I heard a voice saying, 'Omar, I am Jesus, your Lord. I love you.'" The man put his faith in Christ and was baptized soon after, FridayFax said.

MONROVIA, Liberia--There's a new sight to see on the streets of this squalid, bullet-scarred capital: row after row of religious institutions. "On every corner, there is a little church going on," said William Nah Dixon, a bishop who heads Liberia's Council of Churches. "Religion in general has really taken root in every direction."

The quest for spirituality has boomed since this country's devastating seven-year civil war formally ended in 1997, local religious leaders say.

The fighting--which killed more than 200,000 people and displaced at least half the prewar population of 2.5 million--has eased. But a host of other troubles has sent Liberians seeking comfort in religion:

Crime, insecurity and random violence persist. The country's infrastructure has collapsed, and unemployment is skyrocketing. Government transgressions, including corruption, intimidation, executions and torture, have caused many to lose faith in the administration of President Charles Taylor.

"Because there is a lack of faith in the law, because of widespread impoverishment and the economic alienation of large segments of the population, the options have become very limited," said Conmany Wessah, executive director of the Center for Democratic Empowerment in Monrovia. "People are resorting to prayers."

The charismatic nature of evangelism has attracted a wide array of worshipers, including many ex-combatants, in this West African nation founded by freed American slaves, where Christianity is the official religion. Anecdotal evidence shows that most new converts are younger than 30.

"I felt tired of not living in control of my own life," said Charles Vincent Johnson, 23, who has been ministering at the Deliverance Center Ministries for the past three years. "So I decided to accept Christ."

More than 2 billion people worldwide will be Christians in 2000. Researchers David Barrett and Todd Johnson estimate that there are 1.99 billion people who profess Christianity today, about one-third of the world’s population, the German Evangelical Alliance said. Roman Catholics constitute the largest group of Christians with more than 1 billion members, followed by mainline Protestants with 321 million. The world’s Orthodox churches have 222 million believers. Anglican groups, which Barrett classifies separately, report 74.5 million. Charismatics and Pentecostals, including independents and others who belong to denominations, number about 449 million, the report said. Islam is the second largest religion with 1.19 billion adherents, followed by Hinduism (774 million), non-religious (768 million), Buddhists (359 million), tribal religions (252 million), atheists (151 million), new religions (101 million), Sikhs (22.7 million), and Jews (14.2 million), Barrett said.