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At least three armed men entered St. Paul's Church in Patoki, Pakistan, Sunday, Jan. 25, firing several rounds during a prayer service. No injuries were reported. Eyewitnesses said that three of the attackers, Azad Hussein, Mohammad Ali and Amanat Ali, yelled, "We will teach you a lesson and even demolish your church," while firing rounds from semi-automatic weapons. "These men have a butcher shop in front of our church," said Rev. Saleem Gill. "They throw animal remains in our compound which is nauseating to worshipers." Gill said that prior to the attack, the three men would often disrupt services by playing loud music and taunting congregants -- especially women -- with vulgar comments. When church officials asked these men to stop their disturbance, they threatened to demolish the building and entered the church premises the next day to open fire, Gill said. The All Pakistan Minorities Alliance (APMA) sent a team of investigators to the site and filed a complaint with the local Sadder Police Station on Jan. 27. APMA Chairman Shahbaz Bhatti said, "The Christian community is fearful that the perpetrators will return to attack again if authorities do not deal seriously with this case." Bhatti said police are often reluctant to protect non-Muslim minorities and have sought to "hush up" this incident. The callousness of the police has further increased Christians' concerns that more violence will follow. (Freedom Now News)

WEAPONS CACHE DISCOVERY RAISES CONCERNS FOR INDONESIAN CHRISTIANS

Indonesian police say they have found almost 30 bombs plus guns and ammunition in a district where Muslims and Christians have battled in recent years. The bombs and weapons were found on cocoa plantations in the Poso district of Central Sulawesi in eastern Indonesia Jan. 19. An investigation is underway to trace the owners. While police are saying that the villagers may have wanted to secretly point clues to the owners and disarm them, there are other concerns related to the find. Nearly 1,000 people were killed in Muslim-Christian battles after sectarian violence broke out in Poso in 2000. The government brokered a shaky peace deal in December 2001, but sporadic violence continues. In the worst bloodshed in 2003, gunmen killed 10 people in attacks on mainly Christian villages in October. A senior security official has blamed the al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah terrorist group for those killings. The find has raised concerns for the continued security for ministries working in the area. Many agencies have been evacuated from the area. (Mission Network News)

CHRISTIAN BROADCASTER LAUNCHES SATELLITE TV BROADCASTS IN U.K.

United Christian Broadcasters Ltd. (UCB) has added the medium of television to spread the good news of Jesus Christ throughout the U.K. and Ireland. UCB TV officially went on the air today on the Astra digital satellite platform on channel 677, although test transmissions began on Dec. 1. The new service helps spread the gospel to a broader audience. "Christian television throughout Europe has tended to be saturated with programming drawn from a narrow denominational base," says UCB TV Broadcasting Manager John Green. "Some evangelical churches have been unable to present the gospel as they would like; others have waited until the right platform arrived -- one that they could align themselves with. UCB TV is that platform -- a Christian television station thoroughly committed to reaching the people of the U.K. and Ireland with the gospel." UCB has a vision to spark Christian revival across the U.K. by broadcasting quality Christian radio programming via radio, digital satellite TV, cable and the web. (Assist News Service)

MINISTRY PLANS TO DISTRIBUTE 250,000 BIBLES IN IRAQ BEFORE DOORS CLOSE

World Help believes the window of religious freedom in Iraq may be small. That's why the ministry is gearing up to saturate the nation with God's Word. "We feel like we only have a six-month window to saturate Iraq with Bibles and New Testaments," said spokesman Vernon Brewer. "At the end of June when the U.S. plans to hand over the control of the government to the Iraqi people, we feel like there'll be no guarantee that there will be any religious freedom whatsoever." A Muslim-controlled government could change that. As a result, World Help is working to distribute 250,000 New Testaments in the country. "We also want to be involved in an Iraqi-led church planting movement, and to see the church in Iraq strengthened and equipped for a systematic home-to-home, door-to-door approach to sharing the gospel," Brewer said. (Mission Network News)

3,000 BAPTISTS MERGE IN HOUSTON FOR SUPER BOWL WEEKEND OUTREACH

Thousands of Baptists are descending on Houston this weekend to take part in evangelism activities leading up to the National Football League's 38th Super Bowl game Sunday, Feb. 1, pitting the New England Patriots against the Carolina Panthers. More than 3,000 local and out-of-town Southern Baptists will assist with NFL-sponsored events and other local events such as greeting visitors at airports or working in the "NFL Experience," an interactive, football-oriented theme park. David Fannin, pastor of Nassau Bay Baptist Church and chairman of the Houston Super Bowl Evangelism Project, says while the Super Bowl itself is not an evangelistic event, there are many opportunities for Christians to share Christ. "We want the Christian community to be involved in those projects via volunteering to work in and around them so that we could have a Christian presence there to kind of permeate that event," Fannin says. The objective, he says, is that participation will open the door for witnessing opportunities -- "not only with those who they work with, but perhaps with others as the Lord might open that door." More than 200 of the area's Southern Baptist churches have registered to take part in a variety of Super Bowl outreaches. The goal is to have a Christian presence in many of the activities and event surrounding the NFL championship game on Sunday, Fannin adds. More than 500 church volunteers are expected to pray over all 69,500 seats at Reliant Stadium. (Religion Today/Agape Press)

* HCJB WORLD RADIO JOINS SIM TO CELEBRATE ELWA'S 50TH ANNIVERSARY

After surviving 15 years of civil war, there was an air of renewed optimism and hope as missionaries joined hundreds of excited Liberians for the 50th anniversary celebration of Radio Station ELWA, founded by SIM in Monrovia in January 1954.

Lee Sonius, director of HCJB World Radio's Sub-Saharan Africa region and a missionary on loan from SIM, traveled from Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, for the event on Sunday, Jan. 18. He called the trip a "dream come true" as he reminisced about his years in Liberia and saw a bright future for the station. He and his family lost all of their personal possessions after being forced to evacuate from the country, first in 1990 and again in 1996, as rebels destroyed the station twice.

"By the time the 50th anniversary program concluded at about 5 p.m. Sunday, the gym was packed with a standing-room-only crowd," Sonius said. "People were looking in the windows and others were standing at the back. We finished with a candlelight procession out of the gym to symbolize the idea of 'keep the torch burning.' This was the motto printed on the ELWA 50th anniversary T-shirts.

"I found myself thinking back on the many events that had transpired in the last 50 years," he added. "The first hymn played on ELWA (Eternal Love Winning Africa) on Jan. 18, 1954 was 'Great is Thy Faithfulness.' Truly, God has been faithful to ELWA over the years-both in the good times and the difficult times." That was also the first song played on Radio Station HCJB in Quito, Ecuador, on Christmas Day, 1931.

Simultaneous celebrations, connected via live telephone hookup, took place at SIM's Charlotte, N.C., headquarters on Sunday with more than 200 participants. These included former ELWA missionaries, some of the station's founders, a number of adult "missionary kids" whose parents had served at ELWA, and Liberians now living in the U.S. They spent three days remembering the past and challenging one another for the future. Extensive displays of photo albums, historic documents and audio archives recalled ELWA's achievements through the years.

Despite four separate missionary evacuations as a result of the fighting and the destruction of the broadcasting facilities more than once, ELWA is again broadcasting a message of hope and peace.

ELWA most recently went back on the air in 1997 with a small FM transmitter provided by HCJB World Radio. Three years later HCJB World Radio provided a low-power shortwave transmitter, enabling the station to again cover the entire region with gospel broadcasts while continuing medical and education ministries in Liberia.

The future again looks promising with a newly erected 330-foot tower increasing the station's impact throughout Liberia and beyond. ELWA is now operated exclusively by Liberians in partnership with SIM and HCJB World Radio. Two SIM families (one from the U.S. and one from South Korea) recently joined the staff. The station broadcasts the gospel in 10 languages and plans to add more as resources become available. (HCJB World Radio/SIM)

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