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As Iraqi nationals mourn the murder of Margaret Hassan, CARE International's Iraq director, they're also concerned about how her death may affect the plans of other aid agencies. Doctors Without Borders withdrew from Iraq last week, and now World Vision-Australia has announced its immediate withdrawal from the country. Staff members had already been stunned by the death of World Vision's own head of operations in Iraq, Mohammed Hushiar, who was killed on Sept. 29. The ministry has helped about 600,000 Iraqis by improving schools, hospitals, clinics and water supplies. Staff members said they will continue to assess the situation in the country, but it's unclear when they will return to resume aid operations. (Mission Network News)

CHURCHES GROW IN IRAQ DESPITE CONTINUING DANGERS, VIOLENCE

While fighting in Iraq has forced thousands of Christians to flee the country, most have stayed, and ministries such as CB International are training pastors to strengthen local churches. "The reports we get from the ground are quite positive about the growth of the church," says CB International spokesman Hans Finzel. "I think you probably heard about just the explosion of growth in the evangelical movement in Iraq because of the new freedoms. Obviously it's dangerous, but by and large, most of the country's quite peaceful. So in terms of Iraq, we see a real upswing in the growth of the church." Finzel is excited about the national Christians whom God has raised up in the Middle East, and asks prayer for strength and courage for them. "Pray that our efforts to continue to assist the church -- especially its leaders -- will go forward, so even if we can't be there because of conflict, the church will continue to grow as the leaders are strengthened." (Mission Network News)

TURKISH COUNCIL APPROVES LONG-AWAITED CHURCH ZONING STATUS

A committee acting under the Turkish Ministry of Culture has approved legal zoning of the Diyarbakir Evangelical Church, granting formal approval for the first new Protestant church to be built in southeastern Turkey since the founding of the Turkish republic. In an official document issued Sunday, Oct. 10, by Mehriban Karaaslan, director of the Diyarbakir Committee for the Preservation of Culture and Historical Sites, Pastor Ahmet Guvener was informed that the location of his church building in the city's Lalebey district had been ruled suitable. "Without question this is a direct answer to the prayers of Christians from all over the world," Guvener said. However, one church leader noted, "There's still no legal mechanism in Turkey for establishing a new church. We are thankful to have permission finally, by the good graces of the Turkish government and on the wings of the drive to enter the European Union, but this hasn't really solved the issue." (Religion Today/ Compass Direct)

CHRISTIAN EGYPTIAN INMATE COMPLAINS OF ABUSE, LACK OF MEDICAL CARE

An Egyptian Christian jailed without charges for 20 months has become emotionally disturbed and lost vision in one eye from torture and lack of medical treatment, his widowed mother said last week. Hany Samir Tawfik, 28, has been jailed continuously since March 2003. He was first arrested at Cairo International Airport on June 15, 2002, after being deported to Egypt from Saudi Arabia. He was detained for 52 days and released. However, police rearrested Tawfik seven months later because he refused their demands to spy on an evangelical Christian pastor, said local sources. Despite direct appeals by Tawfik's mother to Interior Minister Habib el-Adly, authorities have refused to release him or make public his alleged "crimes." She added that prison authorities took away his Bible and destroyed it in front of him. "He said they told him he was a 'special' case, so they had been told to give him extra suffering." (Compass)

KOSOVO'S DRAFT RELIGION LAW CONCERNS CHRISTIAN GROUPS

Some of Kosovo's religious minorities as well as the Kosovo office of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe have expressed concern about a draft religion law being discussed by Kosovo's government. They state that many of its provisions -- such as an apparent ban on religious activities by communities not registered with a new religious affairs commission, the requirement for new religious communities to have 500 members to gain registration and the ban on foreign leaders -- violate international human rights norms. "The draft law was drawn up by a group of experts under the prime minister's office and presented to the government on Nov. 17," government spokesperson Mimoza Kusari said from the province's capital of Pristina. Kusari added that some ministers have proposed changes and that the draft law is expected to be discussed in the government again this week. (WorldWide Religious News/Forum 18 News Service)

GERMAN PROTESTANT CHURCHES URGE COUPLES TO HAVE MORE CHILDREN

Mainline Protestant Churches in Germany are encouraging couples to have children. During its recent meeting in Magdeburg the general synod, representing 26 million church members, made a public appeal for an environment more conducive to children. Germany has one of the lowest birth rates in the world with women of childbearing age giving birth to an average of just 1.3 children. In this respect, Germany is lagging far behind other industrial nations such as the U.S., Sweden and France with a rate of 1.9. A birth rate of about 2.2 is needed to maintain a country's population at the present rate. Germany is facing a severe demographic crisis as more and more retired people will have to be supported by an ever-decreasing work force. Churches face a similar decline. The synod said that Germany has become a country with a child deficiency. Although many young couples want to have children, they find it difficult to combine children with their professional or academic career. The church parliament emphasized that children should neither be a poverty risk nor a career risk. "Employers, including the churches, should offer more flexible jobs, provide crčches and kindergartens and create more part-time positions," the synod urged. Some of the 120 church delegates criticized that the declaration makes no mention of abortion that results in the deaths of 260,000 unborn babies in Germany every year. (IDEA)

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

A court in Vietnam’s central highlands has sentenced 17 Christian Montagnards (hill tribe people) to up to 10 years in jail for “undermining national security and unity” during an Easter weekend protest, an official reported. In three separate trials in Dak Nong province last week, the provincial People’s Court handed down jail terms from three to 10 years for members of the Ede ethnic minority group, the court official said on condition of anonymity. They were convicted of forcing ethnic minority people, collectively called Montagnards, to flee to neighboring Cambodia, luring people to join protests causing national security and public disorder, and distorting the policies of the communist party and government, he said. Tens of thousands of Montagnards took to the streets in Daklak, Dak Nong and Gia Lai provinces on the Easter weekend to protest government restrictions on their Protestant Christian faith and confiscation of their ancestral lands. International human rights groups claimed 10 protesters were killed in clashes with police, but Hanoi said only two died after being pelted with rocks thrown by other protesters. At least six Montagnards have been jailed in Daklak and Gia Lai provinces for their involvement in the protests. More than 500 who fled to Cambodia have been put under U.N. refugee protection. Most indigenous Montagnards are Protestant Christians who have suffered expropriation of their land and religious persecution for years. (WorldWide Religious News/Associated Press)

300,000 ATTEND 4-DAY BILLY GRAHAM CRUSADE IN CALIFORNIA

Evangelist Billy Graham’s ministry came full circle as his Greater Los Angeles Crusade was held Thursday-Sunday, Nov. 18-21, at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif. This crusade ended 55 years to the weekend from his historic “Canvas Cathedral” tent revival in downtown Los Angeles that launched his ministry into worldwide prominence. “So many of us have been praying that God will move mightily in this town and be the beginning of a spiritual awakening,” Graham said. “But I think we’ve had a number of factors that lead to that including the whole period of President Reagan’s death. There was a spiritual tone in the whole country. I feel that people are looking for something, searching for purpose and meaning in their lives, and they can find it in Christ.” That search was evident throughout the crusade as crowds averaging more than 73,600 attended the meetings, including 90,000 teenagers for “The Concert for Our Generation” -- the largest audience for a non-sporting event at America’s Stadium. Of these, an average of more than 3,150 people came forward each night to make a commitment to Christ. More than 1,400 churches representing 100 denominations participated in the yearlong preparations, mobilizing some 20,000 volunteers. Graham has been invited to hold a crusade in the New York area in June 2005. (Billy Graham Evangelistic Association)

PASTOR IN MUSLIM AREA OF RUSSIA FACES PRESSURE FROM AUTHORITIES

Rafis Nabiullin, the pastor of a small evangelical church in the town of Aznakayevo in the mainly Muslim republic of Tatarstan, Russia, said he has been threatened by a local security service officer. He said an officer visited his apartment in late October, threatening to halt the church’s activity and drive him out of town. “At first he wouldn’t identify himself, but did so eventually,” Nabiullin said. “At the end he told me he had come ‘unofficially’ but that security authorities in the town didn’t want us there and intended to drive us out.” Eduard Khamidulin, president of the Association of Evangelical Free Churches of Tatarstan, also expressed some concern about the security officer’s visit. Danis Valeyev, the town’s security chief, denied that any of his officers had visited or threatened Nabiullin in the past year. However, he admitted issuing a warning to Nabiullin in 2003 because he had obtained an apartment “by deception” and invited children to services without the permission of their guardians. Nabiullin moved to Aznakayevo four years ago and started a small Christian fellowship in his apartment. (WorldWide Religious News/Forum 18 News Service)

MINISTRY AIMS TO COLLECT 100,000 PAIRS OF SHOES FOR ORPHANS

Buckner Orphan Care International is giving feet to the gospel through its Shoes for Orphan Souls program. This year Buckner is working to collect 100,000 pairs of shoes with plans to collect 150,000 next year. The ministry is now raising funds to ship 11,000 pairs of shoes to orphans in St. Petersburg, Russia. “The opportunity gives us to go in a share the gospel because we have opened the door through providing shoes for these children is just tremendous,” said Buckner spokesperson Amy Norton. “We can go in and put shoes on children’s feet and ask if we can do a vacation Bible school and the answer is almost always, yes.” (Mission Network News)

* INSTABILITY FORCES MOST MISSIONARIES TO EVACUATE CÔTE D’IVOIRE

A resumption of fighting, ethnic conflicts and lack of progress in resolving a two-year-old division of the West African nation of Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast) have forced most missionaries to leave the country.

Jon Shea, SIM’s deputy international director for West Africa, said all SIM staff members and their families were evacuated from Ivory Coast last week. Eight persons from the northern city of Bouaké left by land for Bamako, Mali, on Saturday, Nov. 13. In addition, a group of 21 SIM missionaries, along with personnel from Christian and Missionary Alliance and other mission agencies working in the coastal city of Abidjan, left via a jointly chartered aircraft on Tuesday, Nov. 16.

Both groups from SIM have since met in Dakar, Senegal, for debriefing. “All of the missionaries will either be redeployed in West Africa, or they will begin home leave,” Shea said. “No one is going back to Ivory Coast for now.”

A total of 46 foreigners (including the eight persons from SIM) from the International Christian Academy (ICA) outside of Bouaké were evacuated from the country on Saturday, Nov. 13. The school for missionary children, owned by Colorado-based Conservative Baptist International (CBI), is operated by a consortium of mission agencies. The school had reopened this fall with a limited enrollment after being closed two years ago.

Shea explained that it was the Nov. 6 bombing attack against a school nearby ICA, occupied by French military peacekeepers, that triggered the immediate French destruction of the Ivorian air force and subsequent retaliation against French nationals throughout the southern part of the country.

CBI spokesman Rick Allen said two ICA staff members have remained at the ICA campus along with French forces. “The rest of our staff have gone up to Mali, Senegal or the U.S.,” he said. “The only other missionaries staying in Ivory Coast are way up in the northern part of the country at the hospital in Ferkessédougou. Up until now things have been quite calm in that area, and they’ve been able to carry on life as usual.”

New Tribes Mission announced on Tuesday, Nov. 16, that most of its missionaries had “safely left Ivory Coast in the wake of the increased unrest and anti-foreign violence. The mass exodus of foreigners from the country has made evacuation difficult and prolonged as roads and flights are congested.”

Ruth Hubbard of Wycliffe Bible Translators’ communications department said all of the ministry’s personnel in Ivory Coast were evacuated this weekend, including 15 adults and three children. All are Americans except for one Canadian couple. They are now either in France or Mali, awaiting further instructions. “It was a pretty low-level evacuation,” Hubbard said. “There were no problems, no incidents . . . just small logistical problems . . . with so many people trying to leave the capital. Everything went well, and everyone is safe and fine.”

All three missionary couples serving with HCJB World Radio in Abidjan also have been safely evacuated from the country, including Sub-Saharan Africa Director Lee Sonius and family, missionaries on loan from SIM. They arrived in the U.S. this weekend for home ministry assignment along with another American couple. A French couple with HCJB World Radio returned to their home in Paris, France, last week via a French military flight.

Fighting in Ivory Coast’s resumed on Nov. 4 with bombing raids on its rebel-held north. A Nov. 6 air strike killed nine French peacekeepers and an American, prompting immediate French destruction of Ivory Coast’s tiny air force. Clashes erupted in much of the government-held south, pitting President Laurent Gbagbo’s loyalists against foreigners and members of other ethnic groups. Many other foreign nationals were endangered as well as those targeted by loyalist groups.

As the refugee crossings into Liberia continued Sunday, local people were emptying their own food stocks to feed hungry, exhausted newcomers, said a local official, Albert Farnga. Villagers have been reduced to stripping rice out of the fields before it was ready for harvest “to save our brothers and sisters,” he said.

In other recent developments, U.N. helicopters escorted by peacekeepers flew the first food aid Sunday, Nov. 21, to the Liberian border town of Butuo which has been overwhelmed by thousands of refugees from Ivory Coast. Children swarmed the helicopters, setting down in a soccer field, before the blades even stopped turning -- desperate to get at the grain, oil and beans inside.

Butuo, just two miles from the border, has received the largest share of what local U.N. officials say are 19,000 refugees crossing from Ivory Coast. (HCJB World Radio/Mission Network News/SIM/Conservative Baptist International/Evangelical Baptist Missions/Wycliffe Bible Translators/Associated Press)

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

Police in Gyanja, Azerbaijan, raided a worship service being held by a registered Seventh-day Adventist congregation on Saturday, Nov. 20, arrested and interrogated two church leaders, and fined and threatened one with deportation. Fifteen police officers raided the service at about 11 a.m. and then reportedly brought in a film crew from the Azerbaijan News Service (ANS) television to record the event. Adventist leader Rustam Akhmedov, one of those fined in the raid, says he was especially upset that the crew interviewed children despite the protests of parents. Firdusi Kerimov of the State Committee for Work with Religious Organizations denied suggestions that the raid represented harassment of the Adventist community. “Everything was done in accordance with the law,” he insisted. (WorldWide Religious News/Forum 18 News Service)

* HCJB World Radio is bringing words of hope and encouragement to people across Afghanistan via radio. Together with partners, Christian broadcasts go out via AM in three of the country’s major languages, Turkmen, Uzbek and Southern Uzbek.

NATIVE MISSIONARIES IN PAKISTAN REPORT PERSECUTION, GROWTH

A native gospel worker with an indigenous ministry in Pakistan’s Potohar region was kidnapped in October and held for three days, suffering repeated beatings and deprivation of food as his captors tried to force him to renounce his faith. Ministry leaders in the region reported that local police refused to listen to his complaints or to seek out and punish his kidnappers. Several native missionaries working in other isolated Islamic villages in rural areas of Pakistan were also threatened and beaten in September by those who opposed their work. Reports indicate that certain radical Muslims and rogue police officers have actively and sometimes violently opposed Christians. Despite these episodes, churches in Pakistan continue to grow as more and more people turn to Christ. Native missionaries are taking full advantage of the relative freedom they currently enjoy, distributing Bibles and Bible portions by the hundreds to spiritually hungry individuals. In one hitherto unreached region, gospel workers recently gave more than 900 Bibles or portions to those who requested them. In much of the country, churches are becoming crowded and more people choose to follow Christ. (Christian Aid Mission)

CHURCHES IN KOSOVO GROW RAPIDLY WHILE REACHING OUT TO MUSLIMS

The United States invaded Kosovo five years ago to bring freedom to Serbia. Today Protestant churches there are growing, but Christians who are sharing Christ with the nation’s Muslim majority face a challenge. Brothers Artur and Driton Krasniqi, who pastor the 100-member Fellowship of the Lord’s People in Pristina said the changes in Kosovo are paramount. “In the history of Kosovo there has never been such freedom as today,” Artur told Charisma magazine. Driton, who like his brother is not yet 30 years of age, added: “Under Serbian rule [until 1999] there were seven Albanian Protestant churches in Kosovo, all suffering from ongoing persecution. Today there are some 25 churches and church plants, and there is freedom, even though it is not perfect. There were 150 to 200 believers. Now there are at least 10 times more.” Church growth has been significant in Kosovo, but is still below expectations, Driton said. “In the face of war, the religious interest peaked, but now money -- or rather, the lack of money -- is topmost on people’s minds,” he said. (Religion Today/AgapePress)

MINISTRIES UNITE TO HOST MEN’S EVANGELISM EVENTS IN HAITI

Global missions and relief organization New Directions International (NDI) is partnering with Promise Keepers (PK), the international men’s ministry, to produce a series of prayer events and men’s meetings in Haiti Dec. 9-12. More than 25,000 are expected to attend the “Haiti at the Cross” spiritual enrichment conference, being held in conjunction with the nation’s bicentennial celebrations. The conference will take place in the National Stadium in the capital city of Port-Au-Prince along with other events in surrounding areas. NDI Chief Executive Officer J.L. Williams will be a key speaker, along with PK President Tom Fortson. “God is doing a great work in Haiti,” said Williams. “To change a nation you have to change the men. We want Promise Keepers to help change the men of Haiti—especially those with influence and in the business community.” (New Directions International/Promise Keepers)

* Staff members from the HCJB World Radio Engineering Center in Elkhart, Ind., are working with OMS International to establish a satellite radio network based at 4VEH outside the city of Cap-Haitien that will deliver programs to FM stations nationwide. Downlinks have been installed in Tortue Island, Pignon and Beaumont, and at least two more are planned. HCJB World Radio also helped partner World Gospel Mission with a small station in Port-au-Prince.

SURVEY: U.S. DONORS GIVE PRIORITY TO DOMESTIC POVERTY RELIEF

Compassion International has released the details of a study conducted by Barna Research showing that U.S. donors support domestic poverty relief over international relief by an eight-to-one margin. Compassion President Wess Stafford says Americans believe that governments in Third World countries should step in to alleviate the problems. “I still think Americans don’t fully get it,” he said. “They don’t fully understand the scope of the problems that these developing nations are facing. People in poverty are lacking resources, basic resources that we take for granted that we’re so blessed with.” Compassion, a child developmental agency, is working to make a difference in a world where nearly 30,000 die children every day due to malnutrition, Stafford says. “Whenever anything goes wrong in a developing nation, it goes really wrong. There’s no safety net -- nothing from the government that can step in and help people out in very difficult times.” (Mission Network News)

* WIFE OF FORMER HCJB WORLD RADIO PRESIDENT DIES IN FLORIDA AT AGE 81

Marjorie Van Der Puy, wife of late HCJB World Radio President Dr. Abe C. Van Der Puy, of Keystone Heights, Fla., went to be with the Lord on Monday, Nov. 22, following a courageous battle with cancer. She was 81.

Born to Christian parents in Clifton Hill, Mo., on June 11, 1923, Marj grew up in Idaho. She received Christ as her Savior at the age of 12 through a series of evangelistic meetings.

Marj attended the College of Idaho and Long Beach Junior College in California. Then she transferred to the University of Southern California and the California School of Nursing where she graduated with a bachelor of science degree in 1947. She also completed her master’s degree in education from Azusa Pacific University in California in the mid-1970s.

Marj married her first husband, missionary pilot Nate Saint, in 1948. They went to Ecuador that same year to open up Mission Aviation Fellowship’s work in that country. Marj also served in nursing. Their three children, Kathy, Stephen and Philip, were born in Ecuador.

In January 1956 Nate and four of his co-workers were killed while attempting to take the gospel to the Waorani Indians. Six months later, Marj and her young children moved from Shell to Quito to begin serving with HCJB World Radio. In 1966 she married Abe Van Der Puy, a widower with three children. His first wife, Dolores, had died of cancer.

Abe and Dolores had served with HCJB World Radio since 1945. He later became president of the mission (1962-1981), and worked in many key administrative positions. He went to be with the Lord on April 3, 2003.

Marj’s ministries have included radio programming, accounting, medical work, running the mission’s guesthouse in Quito and helping in mission representation. She is survived by six married children: Lois Spragg (a former HCJB World Radio missionary), Mark Van Der Puy, Joel Van Der Puy, Kathy Saint Drown, Phil Saint and Steve Saint, president of Indigenous People’s Technology and Education Center (I-TEC). She had 17 grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren.

Several years ago, when asked what her most satisfying experience was as a missionary, Marj replied, “Seeing young people make the same commitment to Christ as I had at their age and knowing how wonderful it is to be involved in something that will still be worthwhile a million years from now! If I had to choose life’s work again, I’d choose the same way.”

For information on making a memorial gift, contact I-TEC at 10575 SW 147th Circle Dunnellon, FL 34432, call (352) 465-4545 or e-mail I-TEC@I-TECusa.org.

HCJB World Radio, the world’s first missionary broadcast organization, has been touching lives around the globe since 1931. Together with its local partners, HCJB World Radio now has ministries in more than 100 countries and broadcasts the gospel in nearly 120 languages and dialects. The mission’s passion is to communicate the gospel of Jesus Christ, so that people are transformed and become active, vital parts of the body of Christ. HCJB World Radio also ministers through healthcare and training . . . doing whatever it takes, so all may hear. (HCJB World Radio)

For information on making a memorial gift, contact I-TEC at 10575 SW 147th Circle Dunnellon, FL 34432, call (352) 465-4545 or e-mail I-TEC@I-TECusa.org.

HCJB World Radio, the world’s first missionary broadcast organization, has been touching lives around the globe since 1931. Together with its local partners, HCJB World Radio now has ministries in more than 100 countries and broadcasts the gospel in nearly 120 languages and dialects. The mission’s passion is to communicate the gospel of Jesus Christ, so that people are transformed and become active, vital parts of the body of Christ. HCJB World Radio also ministers through healthcare and training . . . doing whatever it takes, so all may hear. (HCJB World Radio)

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