Odhadem 120.000 osob se zúčastnilo evangelizačního shromáždění ve dnech 26.-27. července.

Děkovné modlitby za záchranu 9 horníků v Pennsylvánii.

Místní farníci v řadě míst děkovali v modlitbách za zázračnou záchranu horníků. Ukázalo se, že náhodná odstávka záchranného vrtného zařízení byla štěstím vzhledem k později zjištěnému výskytu spodní vody.

Misie v jižní Indii úspěšná.

Dle Christian Aid Mission je misie mezi Tamily ve státě Nadu nadmíru úspěšná. Odhaduje se 120.000 nových členů v asi 300 sborech.

Vysíláni FEBC v Petrohradě povoleno.

Far East Broadcasting Co. (FEBC) získala povolení k misijnímu vysílání v Petrohradě. Vysílání v ruštině by mohlo začít ještě letos.

A teenage Christian girl in Pakistan has been badly scarred after a Muslim man threw acid in her face. Gulnaz Aftab, 17, suffered burns to her face, arms and upper body when he retaliated after she refused his advances, reports International Crisis Aid (ICA) in Washington, D.C. The incident occurred in a township in Faisalabad where Aftab had been working as a telephone operator to help support her family. A local Christian leader told ICA that visitors to the public telephone office used insulting words, tried to persuade the teen to embrace Islam and told her that "beautiful girls like her should not remain in Christianity." When one man tried to touch her inappropriately, she slapped him in the face. He returned the next day and threw sulfuric acid at her, blinding her. Speaking from her hospital bed, Aftab told the ICA associate: "If I survive, I will serve the Lord Jesus for the rest of my life." ICA Director Pat Bradley said he was not aware of similar attacks, but that Christians in Pakistan are "severely persecuted in a variety of ways." (Charisma News Service)

EXPELLED ADVENTIST FAMILY IN AZERBAIJAN MAY RETURN HOME SOON

More than six weeks after being expelled from Nakhichevan, Azerbaijan, a Seventh-day Adventist family has been told that they will soon be able to return home. Pastor Vahid Nagiev and his wife, Keklik Kerimova, said that Samed Bairamzade, an official from the State Committee for Relations with Religious Organizations, sent letters to "all the relevant parties," telling them that the family could go home soon. The official denied that his office would be contacting the family, insisting that they could return home at "any time." He also denied that anyone had expelled them from Nakhichevan. (Keston News Service)

'HURRICANE JESUS' SWEEPS ACROSS HONDURAS

Nearly four years after devastating Hurricane Mitch ripped across Honduras, leaving more than 5,000 dead, 12,000 injuries and 8,000 missing, a campaign called "Hurricane Jesus" helped bring new life and healing to many. Honduras suffered the greatest damage from the hurricane when it stalled off the country's northern coast and traveled inland in October 1998. But now the winds of revival are sweeping across the nation. An estimated 120,000 persons attended evangelistic meetings in Honduras July 26-27 led by Rev. Lee Jae-Rock, senior pastor of the 75,000-member Manmin Joong-Ang Church in Seoul, South Korea. In addition to preaching, the two evening services at Olympic Stadium in San Pedro Sulawas featured a Korean-style fiesta with thousands dancing and singing along with the Manmin Praise Mission Team with people wearing national costumes and waving multicolored fans and flags in time with Christian Spanish music. Many testified to being saved and healed of various diseases. The event was broadcast on national and local television as well as on the Internet. (Assist News Service)

* Staff members from the HCJB World Radio Engineering Center in Elkhart, Ind., have worked with local partners to establish radio ministries in two cities of Honduras, Roatan and San Pedro Sula, with a third station planned for Siguatepeque.

PRAYERS CITED IN RESCUE OF 9 TRAPPED MINERS IN PENNSYLVANIA

Just hours after all nine miners were rescued from a collapsed mine in Somerset County in Pennsylvania, local church-goers thanked God for what they called a miracle. A few miles down the road from where the men spent about 77 hours under the earth, members of the Sipesville Church of the Brethren spent part of their service talking about God's hand in the rescue effort. "It just goes without saying that everyone's joyful that they got all nine miners out alive," one woman said. Amid the soft shutter of lenses from local media, those at the service bowed their heads. "The saving of those miners is definitely a miracle of God," said Fred Slagle who sang the hymn, 'Great Is Thy Faithfulness,' to the congregation. "His timing is perfect -- with the drill breaking and everything." A drill that broke early Friday morning hampered rescuers' efforts. "Had we not run into that drill bit problem, we would have gone down there, hit the ceiling and run into the water," said Pennsylvania Gov. Mark Schweiker at a Sunday press conference. "And then God knows what would have happened." (Disaster News Network)

MINISTRY IN SOUTHERN INDIA SEES 12,000 NEW BELIEVERS IN ONE YEAR

Christian Aid Mission reports that a ministry based southeastern India's Tamil Nadu state is seeing a rich harvest of souls. Missionaries from the outreach say that within the last year there were more than 12,000 professions of faith with believers now grouped into nearly 300 small churches. The ministry also added to its force of existing missionaries on the field with work among more than 20 people groups throughout India. (Mission Network News)

FEBC GETS PERMIT TO BEGIN LOCAL STATION IN ST. PETERSBURG, RUSSIA

Far East Broadcasting Co. (FEBC) has finally broken through to St. Petersburg, Russia, with the issuance of a broadcasting permit for a local radio ministry. "We've already started broadcasting there three hours a day, and we're hoping to start a new station there," says FEBC's Victor Ahkterov. "I'm sure that with God's blessing, and our supporters' blessing too, we'll have a station on the air in the northern capital of Russia by the end of the year." (Mission Network News)

* HCJB World Radio has been working to "plant" local radio ministries in Russia since the early 1990s with partners in 28 cities nationwide. In 2000 the ministry helped launch the first Christian Russian radio satellite network in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe with affiliate stations on the air in seven cities and many more planned. The ministry has established a satellite downlink in St. Petersburg. HCJB World Radio also has been blanketing Russia with gospel broadcasts via shortwave since 1941.

FREE BOOKLET: Order your own copy of HCJB World Radio's new 20-page booklet, "God Keeps Opening Doors," by e-mailing your name and mailing address to doors@hcjb.org. You'll also receive a free bookmark.

Vyplývá to ze statistických údajů Biblické Ligy. Hodnotí se přírůstek členů sborů, zájem o biblické vyučování apod., stále je ale v Indii asi miliarda lidí ve 400.000 vesnicích, kteří po evangeliu touží, nemají zde přitom sbory a misionáři tak mají nesmírně mnoho práce.

Věřící v Senegalu ohrožování islámskou rozpínavostí i nedostatkem Biblí.

Do Senegalu, kde islám je na postupu, došlo za posledních 5 let jen asi 5000 výtisků Bible.

A Kenyan worker with World Vision was apparently killed while two workers from Germany were abducted by rebels in southern Sudan during an incident in the early-morning hours of Monday, July 29, near the town of Waat. The German foreign office in Berlin has set up a crisis center and contacted embassies in East Africa. The identities of the missing Germans have not been disclosed. The kidnappers are believed to belong to a group of rebels that have frequently changed sides in the conflict between the Christian and animist minorities in southern Sudan and the Islamic central government. Since 1983 the war has cost at least 2 million lives. The government has been trying to impose sharia (Islamic law) on religious minorities, while separatists have been fighting for a breakaway state in the south. Only a few days ago prospects to end the strife improved after Sudanese President Omar el Bashir and rebel leader John Garang agreed on peace talks in the Ugandan capital of Kampala. After five weeks of negotiations, representatives of both sides reached agreement on two important issues: The north must not impose the sharia on the south, and six years after a peace agreement is reached the south will have the right to decide in an internationally monitored referendum about whether it will remain part of Sudan or form an independent state. (Evangelical news agency IDEA)

VOLCANIC ERUPTIONS PUT PEOPLE ON ALERT IN DEM. REP. OF CONGO

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, recent volcanic eruptions near the city of Goma have put the people on alert but present "no immediate threat" to humans. Africa News reported that a large plume of ash above Mount Nyimuragira that erupted on Thursday, July 25, poses no immediate danger to man but may hurt animals in the Masisi area west of the volcano. The volcano continues to produce "huge quantities" of ash which has been blowing in a westerly direction. The Goma area was nearly destroyed by January's devastating lava flow, but experts say the current eruptions are not affecting populated areas. "It's a little bit off the beaten path, and away from the city of Goma," says Sam Vinton of Grace Ministries. "So we're hopeful that this will not affect any of our ministries or add to the misery of the lives of the people." The ministry lost a warehouse during the eruption earlier this year, but this didn't stop the ministry's evangelistic outreach. "We're working with the Bible Society now [to have Bibles printed]. There's no way that those Bibles that we lost in the warehouse can be recovered, of course," Vinton says. "Fortunately, we had a separate order that went straight to Bukavu where our headquarters are. So at least we had 1,000 Bibles that we've been able to distribute." (Mission Network News/Africa News)

* HCJB World Radio works with local partners in the Democratic Republic of Congo to broadcast the gospel on FM stations in Boma, Bukavu and Kinshasa. Programs go out in English, French, Kikongo Fioti, Lingala, Luba and Swahili. Weekly programs in the Songe and Kikongo San Salvador languages also air from local FM stations in the country. In addition, HCJB World Radio airs Kikongo Fioti programs via shortwave from Ecuador. After January's volcanic eruptions, some of the refugees from Goma fled as far away as Bukavu where HCJB World Radio partner Richard McDonald operates a Christian FM radio station started in 1992.

JEWS FOR JESUS ORDERED TO STOP OUTREACH IN UKRAINIAN CITY

Authorities in Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine, ordered Jews for Jesus (JFJ) to stop their first evangelistic campaign in the city last week, calling it an "unapproved mass event." Orthodox Jewish leaders and local government officials pressured the chief of the Department of Internal Policies after observing JFJ activities that began July 4. Since it started, the campaign had distributed more than 370,000 tracts, and a team of 18 prayed with 96 Jewish people and 196 non-Jews to receive Christ. Another 2,100 people requested information through the mail. "We are disheartened that the local authorities are not only denying our right to present the gospel to Jewish people in this manner, but have closed their eyes to the anti-missionary attacks we've endured," said Mikhail Vashengoltz, one of the leaders of the campaign. In the last few weeks the JFJ team had been assaulted and had some of their tracts stolen. In addition, Shmuel Kamenetsky, a rabbi in the Jewish community in Dnepropetrovsk, labeled the missionaries a "sect" on local television. Jewish leaders also have threatened to withhold humanitarian aid and obstruct the process of emigration to Israel by any Jewish person who dialogues with the ministry. (Charisma News Service)

MINISTRY IN INDIA SEES 500% INCREASE IN RESPONSE TO THE GOSPEL

With three months still remaining in the Bible League's 2001-2002 fiscal year, response to the ministry's outreach in India is "astounding" with conversions up more than 500 percent from the previous year. The ministry has recorded 32,041 new church members or baptisms in the country so far this year, up from 5,333 last year. Attendance at Bible study groups also rose to 129,040, up 49 percent, with small-group Bible studies increasing 181 percent to 5,101. In addition, the ministry expects to plant 300 churches by the end of this fiscal year, surpassing last year's total of 279. The Bible League only began its India ministries in 1999, and has opened offices in four Indian states. Dan Eastep, TBL's director of India ministry, says there are still 400,000 villages without a church in the country. "There are 970 million people in India who are not Christians but who are eager to learn about Christ and the Scriptures," Eastep says. "So you can imagine just how massive an undertaking this ministry is." (The Bible League)

BELIEVERS IN SENEGAL FACE ISLAMIC AGGRESSION, LACK OF BIBLES

In the face of expanding Islamic aggression in Senegal, believers are in need of encouragement. Less than 5,000 Bibles have entered the country in the last five years, and even fewer New Testaments, says the Bible League's director of Africa Ministries. The ministry's goal is use the Scriptures to make disciples, but many more Bibles are needed. (Mission Network News)

* HCJB World Radio works in partnership with Brethren Assemblies and SIM in Dakar, Senegal, to make weekly Christian broadcasts available across the country on an FM network. More than 3 million people speak Wolof. RIFT IN LUTHERAN DENOMINATION DEEPENS

The Washington Post reports that the host of "The Lutheran Hour," a St. Louis-based radio program carried in more than 1,000 communities, has been temporarily taken off the air in a "deepening rift within one of the most theologically conservative Protestant denominations, the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod." Rev. Wallace Schulz, a vice president in the church and also the Lutheran Hour's main preacher, took action against a New York pastor who had prayed with Muslims, Jews, Hindus and Sikhs in an interfaith 9-11 service at Yankee Stadium last fall. Schulz ruled that Rev. David Benke was guilty of syncretism -- mixing Christian and non-Christian beliefs -- "because he had prayed with 'pagans' in the Sept. 23 service organized by Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and emceed by Oprah Winfrey," reported the newspaper. When "The Lutheran Hour" came under heavy fire following Schulz's decision, the ministry voted to suspend him. Schulz declined to comment on Benke's suspension or his own. He said he was not acting in his role as a speaker with radio program when he ruled against Benke, but as the second vice president of the Missouri Synod. The incident points out a key question facing the church: Should Christians take the gospel into the public square in a pluralistic, multicultural society? To many members of the Missouri Synod, praying with people of other faiths is a profound betrayal of their history and beliefs. (Further discussion available at URL: http://www.concordtx.org/msnews/dpreact.htm - saved by hcjb.cz.) (Religion Today)

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Americké školačce zakázáno číst z knížky o Ježíšovi. Ve státě Massachusetts probíhá soudní státu pře proti školskému úřadu jménem sedmileté školačky Laury. Děti ve škole dostaly za úkol, aby přinesly knihy o Vánocích. Laura přinesla knihu popisující narození Pána Ježíše. Nebylo jí ale dovoleno z ní číst, protože je „náboženská“. Škola připouští knihy o vánočních „tradicích“. Rodiče se pokusili ve škole zasáhnout, ale marně.

Církev na Myanmaru roste. V Myanmaru (Barma) je církev tvrdě potlačována, přesto roste. Většina obyvatelstva jsou buddhisté.

Překlad Bible do dalšího indického jazyka dokončen. Bibles for the World dokončili překlad Bible do řeči národa Hrangkhol žijícího v severovýchodní Indii.

Americká kadeřnice nabízí „kostel v salonu krásy.“ V jednom lousianském salónu krásy si mohou zákaznice mezi mytím, trvalou a natáčkami poslechnout duchovní hudbu, modlitby, svědectví i duchovní pomoc majitelky. To jim pomáhá najít vnitřní jistotu. Její manžel a další pastor vedou místní sbor, kam řada zákaznic našla cestu.

The Canadian Embassy in Ankara summoned an Iranian Christian family stranded in central Turkey for a second immigration interview the morning of Tuesday, July 30, igniting hopes that the Canadian government is giving fresh consideration to their case for religious asylum. Accompanied by his wife, Atefeh, and three daughters, Mahmoud Erfani was granted a 90-minute interview by a Canadian immigration official. Although Erfani's first application to the Canadian Embassy was rejected in late April, this second interview was granted on the basis of "new and relevant information" which the Iranian convert to Christianity submitted to the embassy on June 21. Erfani detailed Iranian government persecution of several relatives in his native city of Mashhad since he fled Iran three years ago. He also produced a Turkish court indictment against an Iranian Muslim who harassed him and his family in Nevsehir since they left Islam to become Christians. The Erfanis, who became Christians 21 years ago, have been seeking asylum since fleeing across Iranian border to Turkey in July 1999 after being evicted from their home and threatened by authorities unless they renounced Christianity. (Compass)

SECOND-GRADER PROHIBITED FROM SHARING BOOK ABOUT JESUS

The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) filed a lawsuit July 29 against a Massachusetts school district on behalf of a second-grade student whose school refused to let her share a book about the birth of Jesus with her class. The suit was filed on behalf of Jessie and Robert Greska of Leominster and their 7-year-old daughter, Laura, who attends Northwest Elementary School in the Leominster Public School District in Massachusetts. The suit contends that when Laura was given an assignment last year to bring a book to class about her Christmas traditions, the teacher stopped Laura from sharing the book, The First Christmas, which focuses on Jesus' birth. The suit contends that while the school district permitted students to present books covering a wide variety of Christmas traditions, the teacher stopped Laura from reading further saying the book was not permitted because it was "religious." Laura's parents tried to resolve the issue with the school superintendent but were told religious books were not permitted. The ACLJ is asking the court to declare the school district's action invalid and unconstitutional and is requesting the court to permanently enjoin the school district from engaging any further in this type of discriminatory action. (Religion Today)

CHRISTIANITY DECLINES IN EUROPE, GROWS IN SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE

While Christianity is losing ground in the Europe, it is making fast progress in the southern hemisphere. Paul Rajashekar, dean of Lutheran Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, pointed out in a lecture at the University of Leipzig in Germany that Europe is becoming a post-Christian society. A century ago more than half of the world's Christians lived in Europe; today only a quarter. By comparison, Africa and Latin America constituted only 12 percent of Christianity at the turn of the 20th century. Today these regions make up 40 percent of the 2 billion or so Christians worldwide. At the present rate, Europe will account for one-fifth of the World's Christians by 2025; Africa and Latin America for more than half. Rajashekar believes one of the main reasons for this trend is the difference in understanding the Bible. While Western theology has removed the "mystery" from the Bible, Christians in Africa and Latin America do not see it simply as a historic document but as God's living Word. "They have no problems with miracles or apocalyptic statements in the Bible." (Evangelical News Agency IDEA)

CHURCHES MULTIPLY IN MYANMAR DESPITE RECENT BRUTALITIES

As a regional security forum continues in Brunei this week, leaders from Myanmar (formerly called Burma) are having to answer for the brutality of the last few months. As if in an early preparation, Global Advance's David Shibley held a Frontline Shepherds' Conference in Myanmar where nearly 500 church leaders came for encouragement and teaching. Shibley says there was evidence that the tensions were wearing. "I spoke with several pastors who said that their church-planting efforts in the areas that have been affected by the skirmishes have been curtailed because of the conflicts that have been going on." Shibley says the gospel will go forward in spite of the challenges. "This is a very heavily Buddhist nation, and yet these particularly young pastors were very committed to seeing growth in their churches, and also to planting new churches, particularly among the unreached people groups of Myanmar." (Mission Network News)

BIBLE TRANSLATION COMPLETED IN ANOTHER INDIAN LANGUAGE

Rochunga Pudaite of Colorado Springs-based Bibles for the World says the Scriptures are now ready to be printed in another language in India. After more than six years of work, Pudaite says the translation now completed in mid-June, and the Hrangkhol people are going to be the beneficiaries. The Hrangkhol people in northeastern India number about 15,000 speakers. Pudaite says while the translation work is complete, funds are still needed for the printing. (Mission Network News)

* In partnership with FEBA Radio, HCJB World Radio airs weekly Christian programs to eastern India via shortwave in two languages: Chattisgarhi and Mundari. HCJB World Radio also broadcasts 11/2 hours of English programming daily to India via shortwave from South America. The ministry is investigating potential opportunities to help launch local Christian stations in key cities across India.

LOUISIANA HAIRDRESSERS OFFER 'CHURCH IN A BEAUTY SHOP'

Customers of a beauty shop ministry in a Louisiana community not only get their hair groomed, but their souls also receive a makeover, reports The Baton Rouge Advocate. Patrons of Full Gospel Exquisite Design in Baton Rouge are "energized and their self-esteem is lifted in between perms, hair weaves, washings and roller wraps with prayer, gospel music and spiritual help." When Carla Gaines and her husband, Kelvin, opened the shop in 1987 they wanted to do things differently. "The shop is where we'd do hair and listen to gospel music," Carla, 37, said. "We'd pray for people and have church in the beauty shop. I would minister to the people in the shop while getting their hair done." The couple grew up in the inner-city neighborhood near their shop, and they wanted to provide a service in a salon where people could feel loved and accepted. "That allowed me to groom their hair and their spirits," she said. Carla stepped down as a beautician in 1998 to open Miracles by Faith Full Gospel Ministries with her husband and co-pastor. Many of the couples' customers also attend their church. "This salon is different," said Errin Gaines, Carla's sister-in-law. "They take everybody in. The down and the out, too." (Charisma News Service)

FREE BOOKLET: Order your own copy of HCJB World Radio's new 20-page booklet, "God Keeps Opening Doors," by e-mailing your name and mailing address to doors@hcjb.org. You'll also receive a free bookmark.