HCJB s místními spolupracovníky vysílá evangelium na FM ze čtyř kolumbijských měst. Z Quita souběžně na krátkých vlnách pokrývá vysíláním ve španělštině celý světadíl.

*Nejnovější zprávy v originální anglické verzi jsou vždy zde (klikněte).

Four murders occurred last week in two separate attacks on missionaries and their families. In Micronesia, Seventh-day Adventist pastor Ruimar Duarte DePaiva, 42, along with his wife, Margareth, 37, and 11-year-old and their son, Larisson, were killed, authorities and regional church officials said. Their 10-year-old daughter, Melissa, was also hospitalized with undisclosed injuries. All were attacked at their home near a church mission academy in Babelthaup, Palau. The DePavia family had been in Palau for only 17 months, serving at the Koror Seventh-day Adventist Church. In Kenya, missionary Paul Ritchey of Hagerstown, Md., was shot to death by a group of gunmen who invaded and robbed his residence in the western Kenyan town of Malaba near the Uganda border. He was working with Outreach Baptist Church in the town and had been ministering on both sides of the border. Ritchey, who had been traveling to Kenya for several years, was a member of Hagerstown's Bible Brethren Church. (Adventist News Network/Christianity Today)

2 CHRISTIAN AID WORKERS RELEASED IN COLOMBIA UPON RANSOM PAYMENT

Two evangelical aid workers kidnapped on Wednesday, Dec. 17, were released unharmed Tuesday, Dec. 30, after negotiators met ransom demands from the armed group holding them. Sources in Colombia announced on New Year's Day that attorney Juan Castilla Urueta, 31, and Jhony José Ríos Anaya, a 39-year-old businessman, regained their freedom in exchange for a reported payment of 30 million pesos (US$10,800). A band of armed assailants kidnapped the two men while they were visiting war refugee families at La Esmeralda, a community farm near the city of Sincelejo. La Esmeralda belongs to the Commission for Restoration, Life and Peace of the Council of Churches of Colombia, raising food and cash crops for peasant families displaced by Colombia's civil war. Ricardo Esquivia of the commission traveled to Sucre to aid in negotiating the hostages' release. "We did what we could," Esquivia said. "It was enormously difficult, because you have to ponder if it helps to pay (ransom) or not. But at the end of the day, you have to place life before anything else." (Compass)

* Together with local partners, HCJB World Radio broadcasts the gospel on FM stations in four Colombian cities. The ministry also continues to air Spanish programs across the country and all of Latin America via shortwave from Quito.

GUARDS EVICT CHURCH MEMBERS FROM BUILDING BEFORE CHRISTMAS

Guards loyal to the new "owners" of a Methodist church in the Russian capital have evicted church members who were holed up inside in an effort to protect their place of worship from illegal seizure, said Russia's Methodist leader, Bishop Ruediger Minor. The new owners' claim to ownership appears to be without any legal foundation and is disputed by the church. At least 10 guards from the Rodon security company "violently and with the use of force" evicted pastor Kim-Jun-Kyu and his family (including two young children), along with other church officials. Church members immediately contacted the police who took the guards to a police station but soon released them. Church members were forced to hold a Christmas service on the street outside the church. Problems began for the United Methodist Kwan Lim Church in 2002 when, unknown to the church, a group of individuals held what they claimed was a valid church meeting. They changed the church's founding document and replaced the leadership. Moscow's Justice Department registered the new founding document without checking the authenticity of it. Police have now sealed the building against both the guards and church members. (Forum 18 News Service)

SRI LANKAN PRESIDENT WARNS AGAINST ATTACKING CHRISTIANS

Since the sudden death of one of Sri Lanka's highest ranking Buddhist monks in mid-December, elements within the country are stirring up hatred with wild conspiracy theories, claiming minority Christians as the culprits off his death. President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga warned that she would deal firmly with anybody who incites the Buddhist public to attack Christians and their places of religious worship by spreading rumors about the death of Gangodawila Soma Thera who died suddenly due to a heart attack. Following intelligence reports that organized groups with political patronage are preparing to incite violence in the coming days, the president summoned high-ranking police officers, including those from the provinces and instructed them to maintain law and order and deal firmly with any trouble makers. The president appealed to the media to act responsibly and help maintain law and order as well as ethnic and religious harmony in the coming days. (International Christian Concern)

CHURCHES DEMOLISHED AT REFUGEE CAMP IN SUDAN

More than 10 Christian churches and a church-run vocational training center in the sprawling Wad el Bashier refugee camp in West Omdurman, Sudan, have been demolished by authorities in an ongoing urban re-planning exercise, affecting thousands of people. Sources in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum said that makeshift worship centers erected by Christians fleeing two decades of civil war or natural disaster have been demolished, many of them within the last two months. As part of urban planning policies dating back to the early 1990s, poor residential areas in and around the camp, including some squatter camps, are being demolished, and residents are slowly being allotted plots of land. In many cases, they are rendered homeless for months. An estimated 15,300 households have been affected by demolition in the areas around the camp, a temporary home to some 50,000 Sudanese. The people are given a "deserted piece of land" without water supply where they put up their own shelter and struggle to find medical care, sources said. A U.N. report states that almost 7,500 shelters, houses and latrines will be affected and that the current plan is to demolish the entire area before allocating new plots rather than carry out the demolition in incremental steps as in the past. Due to conflict and natural disasters, Sudan has Africa's largest displaced population, estimated at more than 4 million people. The U.N. report notes that the average household contains seven members, and more than 90 percent live below the poverty line. (Compass)

RELIEF WORKERS SHARE CHRIST IN AFTERMATH OF IRAN'S EARTHQUAKE

Following Iran's devastating earthquake Friday, Dec. 26, that left more than 40,000 people dead, World Vision's John Schenk says needs are critical because of the winter weather. The ministry has already sent in two airlifts of emergency supplies and moved ground teams in from Afghanistan. "World Vision is moving in essential shelter materials," he says. "This is a devastating earthquake -- 70 to 80 percent of the buildings in this city are gone. Tents, tarpaulins, blankets, water purification kits, water buckets -- these are the things that mean survival in this environment." Schenk says such efforts can be more effective in opening witnessing opportunities than traditional outreaches. "We're living out the gospel. It's not the gospel as it's presented, necessarily, in North American circles. This is a Muslim country, and we are presenting our faith through our hands and our feet." Andrew Ryskamp, executive director of the Christian Reformed World Relief Committee (CRWRC) based in Grand Rapids, Mich. agrees. CRWRC is raising money to help rebuild quake-damaged area. "A number of communities in the hillside have been affected. It's probably about 40 degrees at night, so shelter is really needed." While evangelical churches are rare in Iran, the CRWRC is working with them to help. "We're familiar with the Middle East organizations that are into the house church network (and can) respond in a way to show them what Christian care really is," Ryskamp says. "This is an opportunity to witness to them in a powerful way." The quake struck the city of Bam in the southeastern part of the country, registering 6.7 on the Richter scale. (Mission Network News)

* HCJB World Radio, in cooperation with FEBA Radio, broadcasts weekly Christian programs to Iran via shortwave in the Luri language. There are less than 100 known believers among Iran's 4 million Luri speakers.

URBANA '03 DRAWS 19,000 STUDENTS INTERESTED IN MISSIONS

Mission agencies are seeing a bumper crop of college students eager to get to the mission field. SIM's Terrell Nelson said the students he met at InterVarsity Christian Fellowship's Urbana '03 in Illinois were a diverse group. Some were just exploring the opportunities of the mission field and others were searching for full time mission work. Nelson gave two workshops while at Urbana, speaking about things prospective missionaries need to know before they decide to get involved in missions. "I found that these were very appropriate for some because they actually want to know, 'What are the steps, how do I get from her to a cross-cultural ministry overseas that God has prepared for me?'" More than 19,000 students attended Urbana '03. (Mission Network News)

MINISTRY DECLARES 2004 'YEAR OF THE BIBLE' IN FORMER SOVIET UNION

The Bible League (TBL) has declared 2004 the "Year of the Bible" for Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States. In partnership with the major evangelical denominations there, TBL is launching the campaign to encourage people to dust off the Bible and read it -- some for the first time. The massive campaign spans denominations, borders, and languages across the former Soviet Union. (Mission Network News)

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