While officiating a wedding on Saturday June 3, 47-year-old Filipino pastor Mocsin Hasim received a text message saying, "Pastor, you will die today." He had been receiving death threats for months, so he ignored the message and left via motorcycle with his 22-year-old daughter Mercilyn after the wedding. Their bodies were found in an isolated area near the motorcycle. Hasim was shot 19 times, mostly in the back, while his daughter was shot five times. There are no known witnesses, but the Muslim extremist group called the Moro Islamic Liberation Front is suspected. Hasim was affiliated with the Christian & Missionary Alliance Church of the Philippines and had been ministering among one of the fiercest of the 13 Filipino Muslim tribes for about 10 years. His wife and three remaining children have moved due to ongoing threats since the attack. (Evangelical News/Open Doors)

CUBAN PASTOR UNEXPECTEDLY RELEASED AFTER 4 MONTHS IN PRISON

After spending more than four months in prison, Cuban pastor Carlos Lamelas was unexpectedly freed on Monday, June 26. He returned home to his wife and two young daughters in Havana after spending 126 days in jail on charges of attempting to aid Cubans emigrating illegally. Most, however, point to his calls for increased religious freedom in Cuba to be the real reason behind his imprisonment. While in jail, Lamelas was held in a cell with numerous other prisoners and was not allowed outside. His health suffered and he was only allowed closely monitored, weekly, 15 minute visits with his wife. A mountain of supportive letters awaited him upon returning home and Lamelas said, "Our feet are on the ground, but our hearts are in the clouds." (Assist News Service)

* HCJB World Radio continues to air Spanish programs to Cuba via shortwave from South America. Hundreds of listeners have enrolled in the ministry’s Bible Institute of the Air, a Spanish correspondence program that incorporates radio broadcasts. In addition, the mission has worked with partners to hold numerous pastors’ workshops in Cuba since the mid-1990s.

NEWBORN BABY BULLDOZED AFTER MUSLIM EVICTS CHRISTIAN FAMILY

A poor Pakistani Christian and his family resided in a home that had been in their family for more than 40 years when a prominent Muslim businessman named Nazar Mohammad laid claim to the property. The Christian, Mansha Masih, was absent from his home in the village of Gadi Wind in the Kasur district of Pakistan when Nazar and several others accompanied by police entered the home, beat his wife and threw their belongings out of the house. Mansha’s newborn son was still inside on a bed when the men bulldozed the building, throwing the child out of the house. The child died of chest injuries, and police fled the scene. Mansha was threatened when he attempted to file a complaint. When Mansha took the baby to the hospital, Nazar was already there speaking with the doctor, claiming that the child had died of starvation. Nazar has already begun construction on the property. (Voice of the Martyrs)

POLICE SHUT DOWN RELIGIOUS RIGHTS FORUM IN MALAYSIA

Malaysian hotels are refusing to host a series of religious rights forums after Muslim protestors shut down a May 14 event, accusing organizers of being "enemies of Islam." Malaysia faces a dilemma from confusion based on a dual legal system based on both civil and Islamic law (sharia). Despite having an official permit for the meetings, police shut down the forum in Penang state. Lawyer Malik Imtiaz Sarwar, president of the National Human Rights Society and a speaker at the forum, told local reporters. "We have lost the ability to dialogue. If we cannot speak on the constitution, where are we as a nation?" Recent controversy has surrounded a woman named Lina Joy who wanted to change her religion on her national ID card after converting to Christianity. There was also controversy when the sharia court insisted that national mountaineering hero M. Moorthy converted to Islam shortly before his death despite friends’ reports to the contrary. (Compass Direct)

PASTOR, WIFE WALK 2,800 MILES IN TREK TO ‘RECLAIM AMERICA’

Pastor Rick McKinney and his wife, Jane, are only 20 miles from completing their 2,800-mile, cross-country walk. The couple left from Los Angeles on Jan. 1 with the self-proclaimed vision of "reclaiming the freedoms, families and faith of our founding fathers." They plan to enter Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, July 4, with a walk up the steps at the Supreme Court building. The couple calls their trek the "Walk to Reclaim America." Covering about 20 miles a day since January, they have been interceding for America along the way while interacting with those along their path. Near the end of their last full day of walking, Rick said, "I am walking purely on emotion and the Lord’s power. The last few miles have been some of the hardest." (Christian Newswire)

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