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More than 1,000 people remained in temporary accommodations last week, afraid to return home after conflict erupted between Christians and Muslims living in the Mamasa regency in Sulawesi, Indonesia. The dispute arose over a law that divided Polewali Mamasa into two separate territories. Some Muslim residents objected, saying the split would place them in Christian-majority Mamasa. Riots broke out on Friday, Oct. 15, between Christians supporting the bill and Muslims opposing it. As fighting continued, residents fled their homes and took refuge in nearby villages. The governor of West Sulawesi said people should be encouraged to return home as the first step in resolving the conflict. (Compass)

ZANIBAR POLICE ARREST 3 SUSPECTS AFTER ATTACKS ON CHURCHES

Police on the small, predominately Muslim island of Zanzibar off the coast of Tanzania have stepped up investigations and arrested three suspects after two Catholic churches were destroyed and a small Protestant church was set ablaze in a spate of violence in mid-October. Roman Catholic Bishop Augustine Shao said it wasn’t clear who carried out the attacks. “We had no sour relationships with our [Muslim] brothers and sisters. You may find one person talking against another religion but it is not a common thing.” The local Guardian newspaper reported that the Zanzibar mufti, Sheikh Harith bin Khelef, condemned the attacks on churches in the Unguja South region and called on Muslims in Zanzibar to respect freedom of worship. Early this year, tensions increased on the island when an Islamist group held an illegal rally. Zanzibar is a generally peaceful, semi-autonomous territory of Tanzania governed by secular political parties. (Compass)

SUDANESE REBELS DEMAND SEPARATION OF RELIGION AND STATE IN DARFUR

Sudanese rebel leaders demanded that Islam be kept out of government in the war-torn region of Darfur western Sudan, opening up another potentially dangerous rift between them and the Khartoum government. Seeking a political settlement to the 20-month-old civil conflict, rebel leaders called for a clear division between religion and the state in Sudan. “We are now prepared to start deliberations on the political issues following the appeal of the international observers and facilitators,” said Mahgoud Hussein, spokesman for the rebel Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM). “We want a clear distinction between the state and religion. Right now in Sudan you have a situation where Islam is given prominence over other religions. This shouldn’t be so. Even though I’m a Muslim, we want religion to be a personal thing with every citizen having the freedom to practice what he believes in.” The rebel demand was immediately rejected by government negotiators who insisted that mainly-Muslim northern Sudan, including Darfur, should be governed under the principles of Islamic law. Darfur’s warring parties have been meeting in Abuja, Nigeria, for more than a week in a bid to find a way out of a conflict which has claimed more than 70,000 lives and driven 1.5 million civilians from their homes. The rebels launched an insurrection last year to fight for greater autonomy and public spending for their region, alleging that Khartoum’s Arab-led regime discriminates against black populations. (WorldWide Religious News/AFP)

CHURCHES IN ENGLAND CLOSING IN LARGE NUMBERS

While England currently allows religious freedom, that may be changing in the minds of those who live there. Jack Shiflett is with the Association of Baptist for World Evangelism (ABWE). He says in some cities Asians make up about 75-percent of the population. Shiflett says that's evident in the landscape. "It's not uncommon in East London or in other places to see former churches that are now mosques or temples." It's also more risky to preach the gospel. "There's a risk of being threatened and beaten up and then turned over to the police after the fact. So, it is a serious situation already in England even though there is freedom of religion on every hand." Shiflett says with the influx of foreign religions and unhealthy churches, evangelicalism is slowly dying. "ABWE's ministry there is to come along side the local church and to strengthen them. And, what our primary ministry in the last 18 years has been church rescue." That involves discipleship and evangelism training. (Mission Network News)

LUTHERAN CHURCH IN FINLAND LOSES 70,000+ MEMBERS IN 4 YEARS

The proportion of the Finnish population belonging to the country’s main religion, the Evangelical-Lutheran Church, continues to decline, says Kimmo Kääriäinen, head of the Church Research Institute. During the four-year period covering 2000 to 2003, a total of 70,583 people resigned from the church. Contributing to the trend was Finland’s new religious freedom legislation that eases the process of leaving the church as well as a new law on burial that guarantees the same prices for grave plots for both members and non-members of the Lutheran Church. Weddings and child baptisms in Lutheran churches also saw gradual declines in recent years. Last year 84.1 percent of the Finnish population -- a total of 4.39 million people -- were members of the Finnish Evangelical-Lutheran Church. About 90 percent of young people attended Lutheran confirmation classes. Only a small minority of church members attend Sunday services regularly, and even attendance at traditional Christmas and Easter services has been declining of late. (WorldWide Religious News/Helsingin Sanomat)

INNOVATIVE CHURCH IN CHICAGO SUBURB ATTRACTS HUNDREDS OF YOUTHS

An outside-the-box church ministry is touching the lives of youth in Chicago and beyond. Each Saturday night in the suburb of Mount Prospect, more than 400 teenagers and young adults cram into Heart and Soul Café -- home to Souled Out Ministries (SOM) which mixes such things as upbeat music, powerful preaching, video and dance -- all crafted for youth, by youth. There is also a family-oriented service on Sunday mornings. “Youth ministry is our calling. It’s what we are all about,” said staff member Joe Manahan. “We want to equip kids to see their schools as the mission fields that they are.” Equipping means that youth are mentored and in turn mentor others. Ten years ago God gave SOM founders Ed and Cathi Basler a vision to reach youth on an international level. Before 1994 the couple had been working through their church to reach teenagers with the gospel. During a period of prayer and fasting, God prompted the couple to make a major shift in direction. They felt led to begin a separate youth church with a heartbeat for missions. Within months they had launched SOM. (Religion Today/Charisma News Service)

© Copyright 2004 - HCJB World Radio - Colorado Springs, CO USA - btc@hcjb.org

Brian O'Connor, a Christian from India who had been imprisoned in Saudi Arabia since last March, regained his freedom on the weekend and was flown back to Bombay on Monday, Nov. 1. O'Connor was arrested on March 27 and subsequently tortured by the Saudi Muttawa (religious police). "After his torture by the Muttawa in a mosque he was taken to the police," said a spokesperson for International Christian Concern (ICC), the human rights group that had been pressing the Saudi government for his release. O'Connor was jailed and charged with selling alcohol and possession of Bibles and pornography. On Wednesday, Oct. 20, he was sentenced to 10 months in jail and 300 lashes before being released last weekend following international pressure. "His release highlights the power of advocacy, and we thank all the individuals who made calls on his behalf to the Saudi embassy and to members of Congress," the ICC spokesperson added. (International Christian Concern)

MEXICAN INTELLECTUAL CRITICIZES PERSECUTION OF EVANGELICALS

Persecution of evangelical Christians in Mexico in the past and heated questions about how it continues today were raised by Mexican intellectual and political analyst Carlos Monsivái who spoke at a symposium in Chiapas, Mexico, Oct. 19-22. The event addressed Protestantism in Latin America and the Caribbean. Monsivái reviewed the origins of Protestantism in Mexico in the 19th century, explaining that his own grandfather was among the first evangelical converts in the state of Zacatecas in northern Mexico. Monsivái said that as a child, he was also scorned by his neighbors, classmates and teachers for being a Protestant. Evangelicals in Mexico have experienced persecution and martyrdom for years, especially in especially rural areas "where preaching the Protestant faith was a great risk," he said. Monsivái added that while leftist groups in Mexico avidly support the rights of indigenous peoples, they fail to stand up for their religious rights, especially minority Protestant groups. "Why do none of the groups that defend indigenous rights even mention religious persecution?" he asked. "Why is the inclusion of religious persecution within the field of human rights so slow?" (ALC News Service)

DISPUTED INDONESIAN CATHOLIC SCHOOL REOPENS AFTER 3 WEEKS

Heated disputes regarding a Catholic school in Tangerang, Indonesia, have yet to be fully resolved despite a meeting between government ministers and local residents on Wednesday, Oct. 27. A district official had allowed Catholic residents to hold services at the school on weekends after an application was rejected for a church building permit. On Sunday, Oct. 3, a crowd of Muslim residents attacked the school during Sunday mass and erected a brick wall in front of the school gate. Students were kept home from school for three weeks while parents and religious leaders met with local and national authorities. On Oct. 27 a compromise was reached, allowing the students to resume classes (using the back gate to enter the school) but ending church services on school grounds. The Indonesian Catholic Community Forum said it would pursue the matter further since freedom of worship is a "basic constitutional right" in Indonesia. (Compass)

* HCJB World Radio worked with local Indonesian partners to establish local Christian stations in Sumba Island and Kupang, West Timor, with help from the HCJB World Radio Engineering Center in Elkhart, Ind. Plans are also being made to establish a station on Roti Island later this year.

BRITISH VERSION OF 'THE 700 CLUB' LAUNCHES IN U.K. ON WEEKENDS

"The 700 Club," one of the world's most popular Christian television programs, has launched a weekly British version of the program that airs across the U.K. For more than 40 years Pat Robertson has hosted this daily magazine program that features Christian news, testimonies, interviews and music. A new weekend edition of "The 700 Club," hosted by Paul and Fiona Jones, now airs on God TV. Paul was the lead singer of the 1960s pop group Manfred Mann. He continues to hold concerts and hosts a weekly music program heard by 6 million people on BBC Radio 2. The British version of "The 700 Club" includes testimonies and interviews from around the world. The Joneses will also record segments on location nationwide, giving the program a local British flavor. In conjunction with the program, CBN is also setting up a telephone prayer line service for British viewers. (Assist News Service)

FRANKLIN GRAHAM ENCOURAGES CHRISTIANS TO VOTE IN U.S. ELECTION

Evangelist Franklin Graham is encouraging Christians to exercise their right to vote in today's U.S. election. Only 15 million of an estimated 60 million U.S. evangelicals voted in the last presidential election in 2000. Graham, president of Samaritan's Purse, believes today's election will play a major role in shaping America's future. "It's probably the most important election in my lifetime," he says. "I'm not going to tell people how to vote, but clearly you need to examine what the candidates stand for and how they align with God's principles and the Scriptures and vote for that candidate or those candidates that really best represent the Christian point of view." Studies indicate that nearly two-thirds of Americans say their faith has little to do with their voting decisions, but Graham says it's important for believers to apply biblical standards at the polls. He also encourages voters to study each candidate's stand on all issues carefully before casting a vote. (AgapePress)

RELIGIOUS RIOTS ERUPT IN LIBERIAN CAPITAL, CURFEW IMPOSED

Religious riots between Christians and Muslims erupted in the Liberian capital of Monrovia on the evening of Thursday, Oct. 28, and continued on Friday morning until U.N. peacekeeping troops restored order and the government imposed an indefinite curfew. Officials at the city's main John F. Kennedy Hospital were not immediately able to give casualty figures, but ambulances raced across the city all day carrying the wounded. Reuters reported that at least four people were killed. Residents said the trouble began Thursday evening over a land dispute in the eastern suburb of Paynesville and quickly escalated after a car was set on fire near a mosque. Muslim crowds subsequently burned down three churches, and on Friday morning Christian youths armed with sticks, knives and broken bottles burned down the Muslim Congress High School in central Monrovia, the only Islamic high school in the city. They also tried unsuccessfully to burn down the two main mosques in central Monrovia. Some shops were looted.

The rioters were prevented from torching the city center mosques by Nigerian peacekeepers who patrolled the city in white armored cars while U.N. helicopter gunships clattered overhead. Troops from Ghana and Ireland were also involved in helping to restore order. A seven-month program to disarm and demobilize Liberia's three armed factions is due to end on Sunday, Nov. 7, and an official campaign to repatriate more than 300,000 refugees from other West African countries began earlier this month. Jacques Klein, the U.N. Secretary General's special representative in Liberia, said in a radio broadcast that the 15,000 U.N. peacekeepers in the country would respond with "maximum force" to any attempts to disturb the peace. Klein added that it's questionable whether Liberians are "really ready to put violence behind them and work for peace, reconciliation and reconstruction."

Lee Sonius, director of HCJB World Radio's Sub-Saharan Africa region, said the fighting has not affected partner Christian station ELWA in Monrovia. "I have heard directly from ELWA, and everything is OK there up to now," he said. HCJB World Radio works in partnership with ELWA, a ministry founded by SIM in Monrovia in 1954, to air the gospel across the country and West Africa. The radio station was destroyed twice by civil war, first in 1990 and again in 1996. ELWA most recently went back on the air in 1997 with a small FM transmitter. Then in 2000 HCJB World Radio provided a low-power shortwave transmitter, again enabling the station to cover the entire region. ELWA broadcasts the gospel in 10 languages and plans to add more as resources become available. (WorldWide Religious News/U.N. Integrated Regional Information Networks/HCJB World Radio)

© Copyright 2004 - HCJB World Radio - Colorado Springs, CO USA - btc@hcjb.org

Police in the former Soviet republic of Latvia say an American missionary has been found slain in his apartment in the capital, Riga. A police spokeswoman said the man was found with a knife plunged in his chest and what appeared to be strangulation marks around his throat. He wasn't immediately identified. Investigators found the victim's apartment in disarray and suspect he may have been robbed. The U.S. embassy said it was trying to contact the victim's family. There are Mormon, Baptist and Jehovah's Witnesses missionaries working in Latvia. Most of the country's 2.3 million residents are Lutheran, Russian Orthodox or Catholic. (WorldWide Religious News/Associated Press)

CHRISTIANS WARY AS NEW INDONESIAN PRESIDENT TAKES OFFICE

This week's inauguration of new Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono promises to address sectarian and security issues, but there's been a marked rise of violence against Christians, says Voice of the Martyrs spokesman Todd Nettleton. Rebels are trying to increase their influence on a new government by creating an administrative diversion, he says. "If the government is less stable . . . they're less likely to take a strong against radical Islam," Nettleton says. "For ministries that are working there, obviously, the biggest question is safety. 'Is it safe for us to meet?' 'Is it safe for us to do our work?' 'Is it safe for us to be here?' When you're thinking about safety [it detracts from the ministry]."

5 CHRISTIANS CHARGED WITH 'WOUNDING RELIGIOUS FEELINGS' IN INDIA

A court in eastern India's Orissa state has charged five Christians with the crime of "wounding the religious feelings" of Hindus after a complaint was lodged in the state's tribal belt. The Christians were released on bail on Thursday, Oct. 28. Lawyer Pratap Chhinchani, who will defend the five in court, said he believed a Hindu extremist group was behind the complaint and that the charges were false. Meanwhile, the World Hindu Council (VHP) continued its "reconversion" drive in Orissa unhindered by local authorities. Christians reject the term "reconversion to Hinduism" since most tribal converts were animists before they became Christians. However, Indian law regards tribal peoples as Hindu in origin. (Compass)

* "The Voice of the Great Southland," the shortwave station operated by HCJB World Radio-Australia since January 2003, airs more than 108 hours of weekly Christian programming in 11 languages, including the following languages spoken in India: Urdu, Hindi, Punjabi, Nepali, Malayalam, Chattisgarhi, Hmar, Meeitei. Programs in these languages are produced at HCJB World Radio's studio in New Delhi.

1,500 LEADERS ATTEND WORLD EVANGELIZATION FORUM IN THAILAND

"A New Vision, A New Heart and a Renewed Call" was the theme of the 2004 Forum for World Evangelization in Pattaya, Thailand, Sept. 29-Oct. 5. The forum, hosted by the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization (LCWE), drew more than 1,500 Christian leaders from nearly 130 countries to focus on the task of global evangelism. With an emphasis on reaching the people most in need -- children, the poor, the oppressed and abused, and those living with disabilities -- participants were challenged to recommit themselves and their ministries to evangelism. Prior to the event, an international research effort identified 31 crucial issues affecting global evangelism. Based on that research, forum leaders established issue groups to define each issue, conduct research and collect information on ministries already successfully engaging the concern. Paul Cedar, outgoing LCWE international chair, and International Director David Claydon stepped down from their posts at the end of the event. Cedar will now serve Lausanne as a senior adviser while Claydon has been named ambassador-at-large. Rev. Douglass Birdsall, president of Asian Access, was elected LCWE executive chair, and Ted Yamamori, president emeritus of Food for the Hungry International, was appointed LCWE international director. (Assist News Service)

TRIAL DATE SET FOR PASTOR OF MENNONITE CHURCH IN VIETNAM

Rev. Nguyen Hong Quang, a prominent rights activist and general secretary of the Mennonite Church in Vietnam, is scheduled to be tried on Friday, Nov. 12, in a case that has been plagued by irregularities and inconsistencies. Contrary to Vietnamese law and practice, authorities refused to give Quang's wife a copy of the indictment which was turned over to the court by police investigators more than a week ago, and they refused to give her a copy of the court's decision to try him. She was also denied her biweekly visit with her husband on Friday, Oct. 15, and went to the prison daily after that in an effort to see him. She was finally told a week later that she would not be allowed to see her husband unless she agreed to try to convince him to admit to his "crime." Quang was arrested on June 8 on the charge of "inciting others to resist officers of the law doing their duty." Meanwhile, constant pressure is being placed on Mennonites in Vietnam's central highlands. On Friday, Sept. 24, attackers destroyed a Mennonite church, office and home of another pastor named Chinh. (Compass)

MINISTRY FACILITATES 25,000 ADOPTIONS WORLDWIDE IN 60 YEARS

An evangelical organization responsible for placing thousands of orphans with families worldwide is celebrating 60 years of service. Bethany Christian Services not only facilitates adoptions, but helps with a crisis pregnancy center, other counseling and meeting humanitarian needs. "Throughout the years we've been able to place about 25,000 children into adoptive families," said ministry spokesman Roger Bouwma. "Of those, about 9,000 are international children. We work in 16 different countries, doing both international adoption work and social service work." In addition to adoptive families, Bouwma says more people are needed to support poor families financially. (Mission Network News)

© Copyright 2004 - HCJB World Radio - Colorado Springs, CO USA - btc@hcjb.org

At about 9 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 23, a group was gathered in a home in Karawang, Indonesia, for a choir rehearsal when a group of Muslims came to complain, annoyed by the music. Nothing further developed, but the next evening a police officer came to the Nusantara Indonesia Christian Church and warned the pastor and his family to flee for their safety. After taking his family to the home of a church elder, the pastor returned 15 minutes later to find a mob of approximately 500 people surrounding the building and beginning to vandalize it. Again, he fled, but the destruction continued for two hours. As a result, the door and windows were damaged, the pews destroyed and the sound system vandalized. The next day some of the attackers met with local authorities to discuss the closure of this church. (Voice of the Martyrs)

* HCJB World Radio worked with local Indonesian partners to establish local Christian stations in Sumba Island and Kupang, West Timor, with help from the HCJB World Radio Engineering Center in Elkhart, Ind. Plans are also being made to establish a station on Roti Island later this year.

MUSLIM EXTREMISTS SHOOT, WOUND CHRISTIAN LEADER IN IRAQ

An evangelical Iraqi Christian leader was shot last week by radical Muslims, say recent reports received by Christian Aid Mission. The man sustained two bullet wounds to his shoulder and one to his leg. He is alive and recovering from the attack. The leader reportedly had been warned by extremists to remove the cross from the top of the building where he regularly conducts services and to stop leading Christian meetings. He ignored the demands. The attack on this pastor is the latest in a string of violence against Christians in Iraq. On Saturday, Oct. 16, five church buildings were bombed in Baghdad. Thousands of Christians have fled the country, afraid of the growing animosity of militant Muslims. (Christian Aid Mission)

TERRORISTS THREATEN TO ATTACK BIBLE SCHOOL IN SOUTHEAST ASIA

The U.S. embassy in a restricted country of Southeast Asia continues to receive reports that terrorist organizations may attempt to carry out attacks against Western connections, including mission agencies. Bob Bland of Teen Missions says the ministry has received a direct threat. "In one of the sensitive countries where we have a Bible school [a local television station] broadcast live that [the terrorists] were going to attack our Bible school on Nov. 14 after Ramadan ends," he said. "We take that very seriously. Of course we're concerned for the sake of our students and for the sake of the ministry. There are people out there who will attack Christians, so we need prayer for the safety of these young people." Bland adds that the 25 students at the Bible school are having a "great impact" in the area through child evangelism. (Mission Network News)

'JESUS' FILM MAKES LASTING IMPACT IN UKRAINIAN PRISONS

The first effort to show the "Jesus" film in a Ukrainian prison a year ago reaped unexpected results as 120 inmates came to Christ. Since then, a permanent ministry has been established in the jail system, says Brian Birdsall of the Jesus Film Project. "There's a church cell group that meets in this prison, and when people are released, they go back to the local church which planted this sister church in the prison," he says. "There's a great sense of ownership and camaraderie between the central church in Kirovograd and the cell church that's been planted in the prison." While the "Jesus" film was launched 25 years ago and contains no high-tech special effects, it continues to be a "wonderful evangelistic tool in Ukraine," Birdsall adds. (Mission Network News)

CHRISTIAN AGENCY BUILDS HOPE FOR YOUNG GIRLS IN ZAMBIA

Village girls who want an education in Zambia are often forced to drop out of class because of the adversity they face such as teen pregnancy, HIV and poverty. Bob Bland of Teen Missions International said one headmaster built a special dorm for girls who wanted to continue their education. In the year since then, the growth has led to another request. "They've asked us to build more because they've got more girls coming in," Bland says. "While we thought that maybe half of those might flunk out, none of them did, and so they're still going to be in school. New we have 50 more girls who want to come in." Bland says the spiritual results of the outreach are even more exciting. "Out of the 67 girls, every one of them has accepted Christ as their personal Savior! We see this as an opportunity to not only win people to Christ, but also to strengthen them in the Lord and to give these girls an education." (Mission Network News)

* HCJB World Radio, in cooperation with In Touch Ministries and a local partner, added weekly Bemba programs in 2000. The programs air on Zambia's Radio One Network, covering the country and much of Malawi, going out via shortwave, AM and FM. In 2003, weekly half-hour programs were added in the Nyanja language.

THRIVING LOS ANGELES CHURCH TRIES TO 'TURN CHRISTIANITY UPSIDE DOWN'

A flourishing multicultural, multiethnic, multi-location church that formerly met in a downtown Los Angeles nightclub is getting the attention of Christian leaders for the way the congregation is reaching people in their 20s. Mosaic, which has services that include a creative mix of spirituality, the visual and performing arts and borrowings from non-Western cultures, has also caught the attention of The Los Angeles Times which recently spotlighted the church. Emphasizing relationships and serving other people, Mosaic has grown in less than six years from less than 100 members to nearly 2,000 with sister "communities" in San Francisco, Seattle, Manhattan, Atlanta and Nashville and more underway in Germany, Spain and Scotland. The congregation's membership represents 57 nationalities, almost half of them Asian and the rest a mixture of Hispanics, whites, blacks and others. About 80 percent are single; the average age is 24. "Mosaic is the talk of many Christian leaders who want to reach out to the younger generation," the newspaper observed. Its unusual name is meant to reflect the diversity of its members and a "broken and fragmented humanity that can become a work of beauty under the artful hands of God," said Erwin Raphael McManus, Mosaic's senior pastor. The church is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention, but does not subscribe to all the stances of the nation's largest Protestant denomination. (Religion Today/Charisma News Service)

© Copyright 2004 - HCJB World Radio - Colorado Springs, CO USA - btc@hcjb.org

The American missionary who was killed in Riga, Latvia, on Monday, Nov. 1, served with Campus Crusade for Christ. However, ministry spokeswoman Karen Dye said his name and additional details are not being released pending an investigation by authorities. A police spokeswoman said the 49-year-old missionary was found with a knife plunged in his chest and what appeared to be strangulation marks around his throat. Investigators found the victim's apartment in disarray and suspect he may have been robbed. The missionary had been living in Latvia for more than two years. Rev. Gregg Anderson, serving in Latvia with an evangelistic ministry called Seventy-Times-Seven, is calling on Christians everywhere to pray for missionaries worldwide on Sunday, Nov. 7. "I am shocked and puzzled at this atrocious crime," Anderson said. "I am asking the Christian community to pray during worship services this Sunday and especially for this man's friends and his family." (Assist News Service/Mission Network News/Campus Crusade for Christ)

INDONESIAN CHRISTIAN INJURED IN DRIVE-BY SHOOTING

On Thursday, Oct. 21, unidentified drive-by snipers shot and injured Hans Sanipi, a 25-year-old Christian. Sanipi was speaking with several other people in front of the church when two men on a motorbike passed and shot randomly into the crowd. Christians and Muslims alike are speculating why police have not yet found the mysterious "drive-by" killers who have murdered at least five Christians and injured 11 others since last April. Meanwhile, Muslim youths attacked pig farms owned by Christians on Oct. 20, claiming the smell of pigs was offensive, "especially during [the Islamic holy month of] Ramadan." (Compass)

MOB STEALS MEDICAL EQUIPMENT FROM CHRISTIAN HOSPITAL IN NEPAL

Staff and patients at the Dr. Iwamura Memorial Hospital and Research Center in Bhaktapur on the outskirts of Kathmandu, Nepal, were helpless when about 200 people swarmed the facility on Thursday, Oct. 7, taking medical equipment valued at 3 million rupees (US$41,700). The hospital had previously been threatened several times by rebel groups in the area. The head of the hospital, Purnima Gurung, was out of the country at the time. "God is good," said Gurung who continues to operate the hospital. "He will not forsake nor leave us in any circumstances. He is always with us." In other news, believers from a church that was destroyed by attackers in western Nepal two months ago, continue to meet in homes. There are also reports of new converts as a result of this outreach. (Voice of the Martyrs)

KOREAN MISSIONARIES CARRY GOD'S WORD TO HARD-TO-REACH PLACES

South Korea has rapidly become one of the world's largest source of Christian missionaries. A South Korean missionary in an unnamed country speaks of introducing Jesus to Muslims, the most difficult group to convert. In Baghdad, South Koreans plan to open a seminary even after Iraqi churches were bombed in recent attacks. In Beijing they defy the Chinese government to smuggle North Koreans to Seoul while sharing the gospel with them. With more than 12,000 missionaries abroad, South Korea is second only to the U.S. with 46,000 missionaries and ahead of Britain's 6,000. The Koreans have joined their Western counterparts in more than 160 countries. Imbued with evangelistic fervor, they have become known for aggressively going to the hardest-to-evangelize corners of the world. Their actions are at odds with the foreign policy of South Korea's government which is trying to rein them in. It is the first time that large numbers of Christian missionaries have been deployed by a non-Western nation, one whose population remains two-thirds non-Christian. "It is very difficult," said the South Korean missionary, "but not impossible. We are planting one church at a time." (WorldWide Religious News/The New York Times)

RENEWED FIGHTING IN CÔTE D'IVOIRE JEOPARDIZES CHRISTIAN SCHOOL

Warplanes in Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) are again bombing the rebel town of Bouake in the northern part of the country in a renewed outbreak of hostilities. After hitting the rebel stronghold Bouake on Thursday, Nov. 4, Ivory Coast's armed forces bombed at least three towns east and west of the insurgents' main base and sent troops toward a buffer zone policed by U.N. soldiers. Henry Aussavy, a spokesman for 4,000 French troops in Ivory Coast, said three army helicopters fired rockets in the Bonguera area east of Bouake while two warplanes bombed the towns of Baoulifla and Seguela to the west. The raids were the first major hostilities since a truce signed in May 2003 ended fighting which had killed thousands and uprooted more than 1 million people. A cease-fire line cuts across the middle of the former French colony.

Evangelical Baptist Mission's Chris Marine says the bombs fell uncomfortably close to the International Christian Academy (ICA) which is about three miles outside of Bouake. "The French military that evacuated the school two years ago are still living on campus," he said. "The report that we have is that ICA staff and students are safe and unharmed." The school reopened on Sept. 1 following the 2002 coup. The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs warned that the fighting threatened to cut off thousands of people in Bouake from urgently needed relief aid. Marine is calling for believers around the world to pray. "Pray for peace in the country, and then pray for all missionaries living in the country, as well as for the school. Pray for the safety of the Christians who are living in the town of Bouake that is being bombed." (Mission Network News/Reuters)

* Fréquence Vie (Frequency Life), an HCJB World Radio partner FM station operated by SIM and local churches in the coastal city of Abidjan, broadcasts a message of hope and encouragement in Côte d'Ivoire. The station airs 17 hours of daily programming in French and local languages.

* HCJB WORLD RADIO-UK RELAUNCHES CHRISTIAN AUDIO WEBSITE HCJB World Radio-UK has relaunched Audiopot, the only Internet resource for creative Christian audio in the U.K. Audiopot is an online library containing nearly 1,000 audio items relating to the Christian faith, including award-winning material from the U.K.'s top Christian radio production groups. Designed to challenge a non-Christian audience the spots are short (rarely longer than three minutes), creative and thought provoking. The site is dedicated to the memory of late HCJB World Radio-UK engineer Chris Coleman who worked to launch the site in its present-day form almost up to the moment of his death from cancer last July. (HCJB World Radio)

© Copyright 2004 - HCJB World Radio - Colorado Springs, CO USA - btc@hcjb.org