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Mark Olds byl po léta zločincem, ale dnes se v Ohiu dělí ve svém svědectví o Boží lásku a vykoupení s bývalými delikventy. Snaží se pomáhat druhým v jejich cestě od zločinu v rámci Služby spravedlivých, která má sídlo v Clevelandu. Olds už oslovil stovky mužů a žen, pomáhá jim hledat práci i ošacení a organizuje akce na podporu jejich rodin. Je znám i tím, že je první osobou, která byla k takové službě povolána ještě v době uvěznění. Olds dokonce vedl shromáždění se svými spoluvězni za mřížemi. Když se ve svých 30 letech rozhodl pro Krista, ukončil tím dekádu distribuce drog, hráčství, bankovních loupeží a dokonce vraždy. Olds pořádá pro spoluvězně semináře s názvem „Sedm kroků ke změně“, které vězňům pomáhají, aby se po návratu z výkonu trestu nevrátili zpět ke zločinu. Doufá, že se služba, kterou začal v roce 2002, rozšíří po celé zemi. „Je nutné nějaké praktické vedení, ale na jeden sbor je to mnoho,“ řekl Olds. „Jednotlivé sbory se musí spojit a začít pomáhat lidem, kteří se vrací do společnosti…..protože bez Krista to nemá význam.“ (Charisma News Service) |
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MUSLIM SEMINARY IMPLICATED IN DEATH OF PAKISTANI CHRISTIAN STUDENT
Pakistani police reluctantly detained a Muslim cleric last week after a
Christian university student, savagely tortured inside an Islamic seminary,
died of his injuries. Maulvi Ghulam Rasool was put under detention at a Toba
Tek Singh police station at midday on May 2, about 10 hours after
19-year-old Javed Anjum died in a Faisalabad hospital. Rasool has been
identified as a prayer leader and watchman at the Jamia Hassan Bin Murtaza
Madrasseh, where Anjum was tortured for five days last month. In testimony
videotaped by his family as he lay on his deathbed, the third-year student
in commerce at Quetta’s Government College said he was seized by people from
the madrasseh when he stopped there to get a drink of water. They pressured
the young man to convert to Islam. When Anjum resisted, his captors broke
his right arm and fingers, pulled out some of his fingernails and severely
beat him. The injuries led to Anjum’s death from kidney failure, despite
repeated dialysis treatments. Judge Qamar Zaman Khoker ordered Rasool kept
under custody for another two days to give police time to recover further
evidence and arrest two more suspects in the crime. (Compass)
RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION CONTINUES IN TURKMENISTAN
There is no slackening of religious persecution in Turkmenistan. In the last
two months authorities have reportedly fired a Jehovah’s Witness from his
job, forced a Hindu to sign a statement renouncing his beliefs, raided
religious meetings, confiscated the personal property of Baptists, and fined
Baptists and Jehovah’s Witnesses large sums of money. It was also reported
that police have sexually harassed one female Jehovah’s Witness. She has
complained to the OSCE office in Ashgabad about the police assault on her.
(Forum 18 News)
* HCJB World Radio works in partnership with Back to the Bible to air
Christian Turkmen programs. Twice-weekly broadcasts began airing from an
undisclosed site outside of Turkmenistan in 2001 and moved to daily
programming in 2003.
MINISTER FIGHTS MOSQUES’ PRAYER BROADCASTS IN U.S. CITY
Members of an Ohio church are coming to the aid of some Michigan residents
who do not want a call to Muslim prayers blasted over loudspeakers in their
community. Jim Marquis, pastor of the New Covenant Worship Center in
Wellston, Ohio learned city council members in Hamtramck, Michigan, were
prepared to pass a new ordinance allowing mosques to broadcast their calls
to prayer. Last week Marquis took nine church members with him to speak on
behalf of citizens in the Hamtramck community who felt the ordinance
exempting mosques from the city’s noise regulations would infringe on their
rights. “There’s no place that you can go. You’re going to be able to hear
it in your home; you’re going to hear it wherever you are -- you have no
choice. Five times a day you’re going to have to hear this prayer recited to
Allah,” Marquis says. Members of City Council argued that prayer calls are
no different than church bells but Marquis disagreed. (Agape Press)
INDONESIAN PASTOR TO RECEIVE URGENT MEDICAL TREATMENT
Rev. Rinaldy Damanik, an Indonesian pastor who many believe was framed on
false charges of “illegal weapons possession,” has finally received
permission to travel to Jakarta for urgent medical treatment. Damanik has
been in and out of the hospital since mid-April with a severe kidney
condition. Doctors believe he needs urgent surgery; however facilities for
this are only available in Jakarta. Members of Damanik’s support team
submitted the necessary documents to the Department of Justice and Human
Rights on April 27, asking for a letter of permission for the transfer from
Maesa prison to a hospital in Jakarta. However the submission was treated
like a “ping pong ball,” according to Mona Saroinsong, a church official and
leader of the support team. Department officials left for a tennis
tournament on April 28, leaving nobody to process the documents. Permission
was finally granted on May 3, but doctors fear the delay in medical
treatment may affect Damanik’s chances of complete recovery. (Compass)
* HCJB World Radio worked with local Indonesian partners to establish a
local Christian station in Sumba Island. Plans are also being made to
establish stations on Roti Island and at Kupang in West Timor. Equipment was
sent from the HCJB World Radio Engineering Center in Elkhart, Ind.
OC INTERNATIONAL LAUNCHES ‘VISION 2007’
As demands for help on the mission field continue to increase, at least one
organization is tired of saying “no” and is working to strengthen their
numbers, says David Daum of OC International. “Our field has given us a
resounding, ‘Please recruit more missionaries.’ OC has a goal to double in
size by the year 2007. We’re calling this Vision 2007.” Already the number
of new missionary candidates has increased. Mission leaders believe that
national missionaries can have a significant impact on their own people, but
they need training. “There are a lot of national Christians who really want
to have an effective outreach -- an effective organization in their
country,” Daum says. “They want to start a movement. They even want to send
missionaries to other countries. We can give them training, we can provide
some experience and we can just walk alongside of them.” (Mission Network
News)
EX-CON-TURNED-MINISTER REACHES OUT TO FORMER OFFENDERS
Mark Olds was a criminal for years, but today the Ohio minister uses his
testimony to share God’s love and redemption with ex-offenders. He seeks to
help others turn from lives of crime through his Cleveland-based Righteous
Men Ministries. Olds has reached out to hundreds of men and women, helping
them find jobs and clothes and organizing support groups for their families.
He also has the distinction of being the first person to be ordained a
minister while incarcerated. Olds even led a congregation of inmates behind
bars. His decision for Christ at the age of 30 marked the end of more than a
decade of drug dealing, gambling, bank robbing and even murder. Olds
continues to reach out to inmates through his “Seven Phases of Change”
seminars which help inmates develop the discipline to avoid returning to
lives of crime after they are released. He hopes to see the men’s ministry,
which he launched in 2002, spread across the country. “There has to be
practical mentorship, but it is too much for one church to handle,” said
Olds. “Churches in a community must come together and be willing to work to
help these people come back in to society . . . because without Christ there
is no point.” (Charisma News Service)
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Zprávy HCJB 11.5.2004
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