Iraqi program coordinator for the United Bible Societies (UBS) Nabil Omeish was asked about the contents of his suitcase by an Iraqi security official. Upon seeing the children’s Bibles and Scripture calendars he was transporting, officials pulled him aside for further questioning. Two other officials were dismissed from the room, leaving Omeish alone with one man. "I explained that I distribute the Scriptures to all who want to receive them," shared Omeish. "His tone became friendly, and he asked whether we distribute food packages along with the Bibles through various churches. When I confirmed this, he began to tell me his story." The official then told him that when he had been unemployed, his 10-year-old son was playing near a church and noticed local families coming out with food. His family had gone four days without food, and when the boy entered the church, he received a package of food and Bibles. When the official went to thank the pastor the next day, he was given another Bible and more food. He began reading it and listening to Trans World Radio’s broadcasts, soon putting his faith in Christ. With tears in his eyes he asked Omeish to pray with him adding, "Remember you have a brother here." (Trans World Radio/United Bible Societies)

87 NEW BAPTIST MISSIONARIES PRESENTED AT CHURCH CONFERENCE

Eight-seven new Southern Baptist missionaries were presented at a ceremony Wednesday, Sept. 13, at First Baptist North Spartanburg in Spartanburg, S.C., led by International Missions Board (IMB) Chairman John Floyd. This is the eighth largest group of new missionaries to be appointed in IMB’s history. The group’s final destinations cover 10 of the 11 Southern Baptist administrative regions and bring the total number of IMB missionaries to more than 5,100. "We cannot [divulge] the places most of [the new missionaries] are going," said IMB President Jerry Rankin. "Through their professional experience, training and education, they are able to gain creative access to restricted countries to share the gospel of Jesus Christ, many with people who will be hearing it for the first time." The event kicked off the church’s global impact missions conference that focused on South Asia this year. (Baptist Press)

U.S.-BASED ARABIC CHRISTIAN TV STATION FACES FUNDING CRISIS

The first 24-hour-a-day Arabic Christian TV channel in the U.S. is facing a shutdown if it can’t raise a minimum of $200,000 by Sunday, Sept. 24. Known as Alkarma TV, the station has been running out of the southern California home of an Egyptian-born couple. A law enforcement official visited their home on Tuesday, Sept. 12, and informed them they could no longer operate from their residence and they needed to relocate in the next 10 days. The officer said there had been a complaint against them and said that "legal measures would be taken" if they didn’t move within that time. The funds are needed to complete city requirements to an available building so the ministry can relocate there. The year-old Alkarma TV, which means "The Vineyard" in Arabic, has a potential audience of 12 million Arabic speakers in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. "We get lots of telephone calls from many people who accepted Christ because of viewing the programs as well as e-mails and letters from them explaining how much their lives have changed and they gave their lives to Jesus because of Alkarma TV," the couple said. (Assist News Service)

NEW WEBSITE CONNECTS VISITORS WITH WEALTH OF CHRISTIAN MATERIALS

In contrast to the stodgy, old-world mentality often portrayed in the media, churches and ministries have shown remarkable ability to spread God’s Word via new technologies. The latest addition is eBible.com where the online social network allows visitors not only to study up to six versions of the Bible, multiple commentaries, dictionaries and reference books, but also opportunities to share comments, questions and insights with your friends on the online community. The main service is free of charge with additional reference materials available for additional costs. Bible scholars may have particular interest in the site as it allows reading multiple Bible translations in parallel. The free technology also allows visitors to tag entries, share bookmarks, post comments and meet new friends online. (WorldWide Religious News)

QUITO, ECUADOR, TO HOST FRANKLIN GRAHAM FESTIVAL THIS WEEK

Franklin Graham, in cooperation with local church and civic leaders, will hold the Festival de Esperanza (Festival of Hope) in Atahualpa Olympic Stadium in Quito, Ecuador, Sept. 21-23. Hundreds of volunteers are laying the groundwork for the festival in the areas of youth, prayer, pastors, arrangements, logistics, children’s ministries, volunteers, communications, students, language and men’s and women’s ministries. A preliminary march of 4,000 people called "Clamor por Ecuador" (Outcry for Ecuador) was held Saturday, Sept. 9, with the evangelical community, especially the group called "Mujeres de Esperanza" (Women of Hope), marching from various neighborhoods in the city to the same stadium where the festival will be held. The marchers took a stand against the corruption and poverty within the country and pledged to construct a better Ecuador through the "intervention of God in people, society and all the institutions that compose it." The festival will include keynote speaking by Franklin Graham along with guest appearances from musicians Lilly Goodman, Marcos Witt and Marcos Vidal. All programs are free and open to the public. (Billy Graham Evangelistic Association)

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Lawyers for the three Indonesian Christians found guilty of inciting attacks during religious rioting in Central Sulawesi in 2000 have said that the men will be executed at midnight Friday, Sept. 22 (Indonesian time). After issuing a stay of execution last month, Central Sulawesi Attorney General Mohammad Yahya Sibe was unexpectedly replaced. In addition, the chief of police was transferred to another district. The appeal process for the three Christians, which should have lasted up to a year, was denied within one month. “This is not justice,” said Jeremy Sewall, policy analyst for International Christian Concern (ICC). “This is deception, cover-up and appeasement.” ICC investigations have shown that during the five-year conflict centered in Poso, Indonesia, in which many Christian villages were destroyed and more than 1,000 were killed, only these three Christian men have been formally charged. ICC encourages concerned individuals to contact the Indonesian embassy on behalf of the men. (Christian Newswire/Jubilee Campaign)

* HCJB World Radio has worked with local partners to establish more than 14 local Christian radio stations across Indonesia since 2004. Broadcasts from HCJB World Radio-Australia’s shortwave station in Kununurra also encourage listeners nationwide. In addition, HCJB World Radio has helped with relief efforts since the Dec. 26, 2004, earthquake/tsunami and subsequent quakes that devastated parts of Indonesia.

SATANISTS WAGE ANTI-CHRISTIAN CAMPAIGN IN EASTERN INDIAN STATE

Satanist groups in eastern India’s Christian-majority Mizoram state are waging an anti-Christian campaign by burning Bibles, vandalizing churches and defiling cemeteries. In the early-morning hours of July 24, one group entered a church and burned Bibles, urinated on the pulpit and tore up pictures of Mary and Jesus. “It appears they sacrificed an animal on the pulpit and splattered its blood on the altar and chair of the worship leader,” said Pastor B. Sangthanga. Last year several young men in the village confessed to worshiping Satan, and this group appears to be behind the recent church attack. One study indicates the presence of 95 Satan-worshiping groups in Mizoram, and there are reports of more than 50 incidents where the group members, mostly youths in their late teens and early 20s, burned Bibles and defiled churches or cemeteries. Many believe both Satanism and drug use are on the rise in the state due to frustration with a high jobless rate among well-educated people. (WorldWide Religious News)

TEA PARTY OUTREACH DRAWS 420 PROSTITUTES IN NORTHERN TANZANIA

The many islands in Lake Victoria in northern Tanzania support a booming fishing industry and also provide a large arena for prostitution. In her burden to reach women in the sex trade, African Inland missionary Chris Hamilton has organized an innovative outreach. With the help of local Christians and a short-term team, she invited them to a special tea party. “We had done up 240 invitations, and we ran out,” said Hamilton. “People came back to me and said, ‘We didn’t have enough invitations,’ and I said, ‘Well, that’s fine, just go back and invite ladies anyway. They don’t have to have an invitation when they come.’” The next day 420 women showed up for the event and were served tea, cakes, doughnuts and door prizes in the decorated church building. A presentation centered on HIV awareness and prevention was coupled with a gospel message in which 23 women made open professions of faith in Christ. (Mission Network News)

* Staff members from the HCJB World Radio Engineering Center in Elkhart, Ind., have worked with local churches, the Lutheran Radio Center and Trans World Radio to put FM radio stations on the air in three Tanzanian cities. HCJB World Radio is also working with Radio Africa Network, a ministry of partner CCFm in South Africa, to build a radio network based in the capital city of Dar es Salaam. The first of these stations went on the air in 2002.

VETERAN BROADCASTER REPORTS ‘TREMENDOUS REVIVAL’ IN IRAQ

Veteran radio broadcaster Norm Nelson recently returned from his sixth visit to war-torn Iraq where he met with local Christians. This time he visited the least-dangerous northeastern Kurdish region to explore church growth for his daily radio program, “Compassion Radio.” He returned with stories of a “tremendous revival” taking place in that region. “The Kurdish church there is very evangelistic in its outreach,” said Nelson. “Its mentality is, ‘God has given us an opportunity here. There’s a great deal of openness towards the gospel right now, so let’s take advantage of this and spread the gospel as widely as possible.’ My feeling is that the really significant thing happening in Iraq is spiritual in nature. It is not political; it is not military, although those things impact the lives of the people both negatively and positively. But the successful way in which God’s people are communicating the gospel -- reaching out to others in that part of Iraq as well as other parts of Iraq -- is a sign post pointing to what God is doing. It’s a very exciting time in Iraq in that regard.” (Evangelical News/Assist News Service)

MUSLIMS ATTACK MISSION SCHOOL, TARGET 70-YEAR-OLD MISSIONARY

Muslim militants in India’s only Muslim-majority state of Jammu and Kashmir attacked the Good Shepherd Mission School at about 11 a.m. Monday, Sept. 11. A mob of 250 to 300 people -- mostly students from the nearby Government Degree College -- destroyed a boundary wall and damaged the school building and equipment. In May 2003 a national newspaper named Dutch missionary Jim Borst, 70, who runs the school and has lived in the state since 1963, as one of the few people in India trying to “convert Muslims to Christianity.” Since that time he has been the target of complaints from Muslim extremist groups attempting to get him thrown out of the country. They also have accused him of “forcing conversion through the guise of education.” So far, Christian organizations have successfully prevented government intervention to expel Borst. (Compass Direct)

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In an effort to prevent Islamic hard-liners from spreading their extremist ideology, lawmakers in Jordan have passed a law allowing only a state-appointed council to issue fatwas (religious edicts). Currently, groups such as the powerful Muslim Brotherhood movement and other smaller hard-line Islamic groups issue edicts. The law also makes it illegal to criticize state-sanctioned fatwas. The legislation follows a pledge by Jordanian King Abdullah II to tighten legislation to prevent radical viewpoints from taking root in the wake of recent terror attacks. Last month saw a series of similar legislation that severely penalizes involvement in terrorist acts and a law that gives the state authority to approve mosque preachers to avoid allowing Muslim militants from spreading their message from the pulpit. Al-Qaida in Iraq claimed responsibility for a terror attack last November in Jordan’s capital that killed 60 people. (Assist News Service)

IRAN TO DEBATE THE HOLOCAUST, OFFICIAL CALLS IT ‘EXAGGERATED’

Iran is planning to host a debate about the historical accuracy of the Holocaust with one Iranian official calling the historical event “exaggerated.” Iran is displaying caricatures of the victims, and the Associated Press reported that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has called the Nazis’ killing of 6 million Jews a “myth” and saying that Israel should be wiped off the map or moved to Germany. The U.S. Outgoing Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said the nation may sponsor a conference debating the reality of the Holocaust. “God willing, a conference on the Holocaust will be held in the autumn,” Asefi said. “I have visited the Nazi camps in Eastern Europe. I think it is exaggerated.” (Religion Today)

VIETNAMESE CHRISTIANS SURPRISED AT U.S. AMBASSADOR’S COMMENTS

Church leaders in Vietnam were surprised when John Hanford, U.S. ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom, made comments indicating progress in religious freedom within the country. At a briefing on Friday, Sept. 15, Hanford said, “Vietnam has turned the corner and made enormous progress on religious freedom.” Most believe the comments to be the precursor to a recommendation that Vietnam be removed from the U.S. State Department’s list of Countries of Particular Concern, a U.S. blacklist of worst religious liberty offenders. Church officials in Vietnam, however, see modest progress in religious liberty at most and are concerned that removing Vietnam from the list will encourage the country to relax efforts to change. Christian groups still report highly intrusive questions required for church registration and that registrations from more than 500 ethnic minority churches of the Evangelical Church of Vietnam North in the past year “were either rejected outright, ignored or returned unopened.” (Compass Direct)

UPDATE: NBC REQUIRES ‘VEGGIETALES’ TO EDIT OUT ‘PREACHING TO KIDS’

In order for the popular Christian-themed “VeggieTales” cartoons to be aired on NBC on Saturday mornings, the network is insisting any biblical or evangelical messages in the shows be edited out. Phil Vischer, the cartoon’s creator, says the program will still present Bible stories, but the network is requiring the removal of sections where the original cartoons “turn to the audience and preach at them.” Vischer admits he is “not thrilled” about the cuts but does not believe the cuts compromise the integrity of the program’s basic messages. “There is the kind of compromise that Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego refused to do,” Vischer says. “But there’s also the kind of compromise that [the apostle] Paul did when he said, ‘I will be all things to all people’ -- where he wanted to kind of adopt the culture of the people he was trying to reach; not offend them, but find a way to get the gospel in front of them. And I think that’s a little more what we’re trying to do here.” (Evangelical News)

* HCJB World Radio is working with “VeggieTales” to create the Spanish-language version of the cartoon in the studios of Televozandes, the television arm of HCJB World Radio.

* VETERAN JAPANESE HCJB WORLD RADIO PROGRAM PRODUCER DIES

Hisako Ozaki, a longtime missionary and on-air personality with HCJB World Radio’s Japanese Language Service, died Sunday, Sept. 17, in Wheaton, Ill., after a lengthy bout with cancer. She was 81.

Hisako Kawashima was born in Ebina, Japan, on Jan. 1, 1925. She married Kazuo Ozaki in Japan on March 21, 1961.

The Ozakis were accepted as missionaries with HCJB World Radio in Quito, Ecuador, in 1963 to produce and air programs for Japanese immigrants in South America.

Kazuo had already sent programs to Quito from Japan as directed by Dr. Akira Hatori, a radio pastor and director of the Pacific Broadcasting Association which sponsored the Ozakis’ work for many years. But the plea for Japanese personnel in Quito came after the station’s broadcast director heard a program tape played backwards.

Arriving in Quito on Jan. 6, 1964, the Ozakis’ first task was learning the Spanish language. Their programs in Japanese began airing on May 1, 1964.

Thirty-six years later, the last regular Japanese language broadcasts from Radio Station HCJB in Quito ended on Dec. 31, 2000, with a one-hour special live broadcast. Guests in the studio (and listeners via e-mail) shared words of appreciation for the Ozakis’ untiring service to audiences in South America, Japan and the world.

While that ended Japanese programming on HCJB by shortwave, programs resumed four months later via the Internet and a local satellite digital station in Japan, according to DX Listening Digest.

The Ozakis also made annual appearances on the station via special programming. For the May 1, 2003, program a special concert was held in Quito to celebrate 39 years of Japanese ministry. Among those attending the event was Hiroyuki Hiramatsu, the Japanese ambassador to Ecuador who gave the opening remarks.

During her ministry years in Quito, Hisako corresponded with listeners to the programs that she and her husband hosted. When in mid-1969 Kazuo was hospitalized with a gastric ulcer, he left the radio work in the hands of Hisako and a visitor—both with experience in the office but not in the studio.

After subsequent decades of on-air experience with her husband, Hisako wrote to a shortwave hobbyists’ publication that although radio is mass media, each time she entered the studio she conversed with one listener at a time. “The voice is most important,” she wrote. “It tells whether you’re revealing your soul.”

As a radio team, Kazuo and Hisako developed a style of their own easily recognizable by their listeners. Their on-air presence was jovial and happy, taking listeners into their family relationships and their daily life in the Ecuadorian Andes. Kazuo reinitiated Japanese shortwave programming on June 3, 2006, this time from HCJB World Radio-Australia’s station in Kununurra.

When the shortwave listening boom hit Japan in the 1970s, Hisako managed replies to the ever-higher mountains of mail arriving at the Ozakis’ office. The Japanese Language Service’s letter count skyrocketed from 5,572 in 1971 to 63,416 in 1976. Yet the Ozakis showed an uncanny ability to remember names of listeners and specifics they’d written about in letters.

Days before Hisako’s death, her son, Michio, talked briefly of her at the mission’s annual meeting in Quito. Leading worship, he’d arranged for a picture of his mom to appear on the screen between songs. A collective sigh escaped the crowd as they viewed Hisako in her hospice bed in Wheaton with her grandchild and Michio kneeling beside.

“My mom never felt qualified to be a missionary,” Michio said. “She never graduated from high school; she didn’t have training in radio production. And yet God used her.” What followed was the worship song, “When It’s All Been Said and Done,” by Jim Cowan. The lyrics of the first verse state, “When it's all been said and done. There is just one thing that matters. Did I do my best to live for truth? Did I live my life for you?”

Hisako is survived by her husband, Kazuo; two sons, Michio and wife, Anne Marie, in Quito and Yuji and his wife, Michiho, in Tokyo; and a daughter, Joyce, and her husband, Dave Kerns, in Wheaton; as well as six grandchildren.

Memorial gifts remembering Hisako will go toward the creation of a home studio to record Kazuo’s Japanese radio programs that air twice weekly from HCJB World Radio-Australia’s shortwave station in Kununurra. Gifts sent to the mission’s international headquarters in Colorado Springs should be payable to HCJB World Radio and marked, “Japan Project - 782008.” (HCJB World Radio/DX Listening Digest/Asia Focus)

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Pope Benedict XVI’s controversial remarks on Tuesday, Sept. 12, which cited the words of a Byzantine emperor who said the teachings of Muhammad were "evil and inhuman" and denounced the Muslim "command to spread by the sword the faith" was taken as an insult to Muslims. Now the comments are causing fears of violence directed at Christians worldwide.

Five churches in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in Israel were firebombed last weekend, raising tensions for the already beleaguered Palestinian Christians. Somalia marked the first fatalities resulting from the Pope’s comments on Sunday, Sept. 17, when Italian nun Leonella Sgorbati, 70, was shot in the back as she left a class she was teaching at a pediatric hospital in Mogadishu. Her bodyguard was also killed. The nun, as she lay dying, said to those around her, "Forgive, forgive, forgive."

Al Janssen with Open Doors is concerned the attacks against Christians will continue and is planning to visit some areas where Christians are a "severe minority" and "fear that their work could be attacked." Radical Muslim groups continue stirring tensions, declaring jihad against the pope and calling for retaliation against both Christians and Jews. (Mission Network News/Religion Today/Assist News Service)

BAPTIST CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTOR FREED IN DISPUTED AREA OF AZERBAIJAN

A young Baptist military conscript in the unrecognized republic of Nagorno-Karabakh in the South Caucasus, officially part of Azerbaijan, has been freed from prison, ending a two-year jail sentence handed down to him for refusing to swear the military oath and take up weapons as a matter of conscience. After completing his jail sentence on Tuesday, Sept. 5, Gagik Mirzoyan, 20, was held for another eight days then reassigned to a military unit. Baptist Pastor Garnik Abreyan said, "No one is doing anything bad to him in the unit, but they are still pressuring him to swear the military oath and take up weapons." The Baptists are uncertain if further action will be taken against Mirzoyan during the three months left of his required military service. He was beaten several times while in the hands of the army and while in prison. (Forum 18 News Service)

* HCJB World Radio, in partnership with Hosanna and local partners in Baku, Azerbaijan, has recorded the dramatized Azeri New Testament as part of the Faith Comes by Hearing project. The recordings, completed in 1998, have been made into a series of radio programs.

ACTOR GEORGE CLOONEY JOINS PLEA FOR U.N. ACTION IN DARFUR REGION

American actor George Clooney is calling on the U.N. to do more for those facing genocide in western Sudan’s Darfur region. Clooney visited the Darfur region with his journalist father in April and gathered stories of the death and suffering in the region. In an informal briefing to the U.N. Security Council organized by Holocaust survivor and humanitarian Elie Wiesel, he encouraged U.N. forces to replace the African Union (AU) forces that are slated to withdraw on Sept. 30. "After Sept. 30 you won’t need the U.N. You will simply need men with shovels and bleached white linen and headstones." Clooney believes the exit of AU forces will leave no protection for these people and cause the aid workers to leave. "The 2.5 million refugees who depend on that aid will die," he said. Powers within the Sudanese government are opposing the arrival of U.N. forces. (Assist News Service)

EVANGELICAL LAWYERS STRENGTHEN CHINESE HUMAN RIGHTS MOVEMENT

Lawyers, pastors, journalists and human rights leaders across China have united to form the new Human Rights Protection Movement (HRPM) to battle for positive changes in China. Using the strategies and examples of civil rights activists in the U.S., the group’s members travel at a moment’s notice to fight injustice, defend villagers and stand up for persecuted believers of any religion. HRPM leaders have said, "We pray that a Chinese Martin Luther King will arise from the church in China." The HRPM began with only 24 members in 2002, but has now grown to 300. The group is the official legal counsel for the Chinese House Church Alliance which represents more than 300,000 members and receives an average of 30 requests for legal services each week. Human rights activism among Chinese Christians has arisen in recent years. The older generation believed suffering silently for Christ was more noble than actively opposing injustice. However, the link between activist change and Christianity in China appears to be strengthening. Even though many times the group’s legal actions do not effect change, one member said, "It is a grassroots way of building a rule-of-law culture in China." (Christianity Today)

ETHNIC MINORITIES SLOW CHURCH’S DECLINING NUMBERS IN ENGLAND

A recent survey by British think tank Christian Research shows that long-term decline in church attendance in England has been slowed by people from ethnic minorities. Statistics show that up to one-third of churches are growing, especially those with predominantly black congregations. Worshipers from black communities now outnumber white churchgoers in London. While the growth of black churches has been recognized for some time, the figures show that it has been significant enough to affect overall church attendance in the U.K. Church attendance in England has been in decline since the 1950s and an estimated 1 million people gave up regular church attendance in the 1990s alone. The overall number of people attending church on Sundays has still dropped considerably since the last comparable research in 1998, but the decline has slowed as Britain becomes more ethnically diverse. Only 6.3 percent of England’s total population attends church. (WorldWide Religious News/BBC)

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Human rights group International Christian Concern (ICC) was informed that the three Indonesian Christian men facing the death penalty have been executed by firing squad. The men were executed just after midnight Friday, Sept. 22 (Indonesia time).

Fabianus Tibo, 60, Marinus Riwu, 48, and Dominggus da Silva, 48, were found guilty of leading a Christian militia that launched a series of attacks in May 2000, including a machete and gun assault on an Islamic school where dozens of men were seeking shelter. Human rights workers say the men’s 2001 trail was a sham, and that while it was possible the men took part in some of the violence, they almost certainly were not the masterminds. Others note that only a handful of Muslims were punished in connection with the violence, all punished to 15 years in jail or less.

ICC Policy Analyst Jeremy Sewall said, "I am deeply saddened at this news, and ask all concerned Christians to pray for the families of these men. This is a tragedy. This is not justice." The execution had been stayed last month by the Attorney General for the Central Sulawesi district, Mohammad Yahya Sibe, but he was unexpectedly replaced. His replacement pushed the men’s appeal forward and went ahead with the execution.

ICC urges believers to "pray that the Christians in Poso will not seek revenge for these executions and that instead they would trust God to administer justice in his own time." (Christian Newswire/Associated Press)

CHRISTIAN BANDS POPULAR IN BELARUS DESPITE TIGHT RELIGIOUS LAWS

Despite religious restrictions written into the laws of the Eastern European nation of Belarus, popular music there has a decidedly religious theme. In this case, laws that the state has placed on the media actually help spread the Christian message. Since January 2005 all FM radio stations in Belarus may devote no more than 20 per cent of their airtime to foreign music. Several other popular Belarusian rock bands are banned from public performance due to their declared opposition to President Aleksandr Lukashenko. In this arena, several high-quality Belarusian Christian bands have achieved broad public support. For example, almost every week since June a group called Salvation has held first place on the state television program, "Silver Marathon," where viewers vote via text message for their favorite current pop song. Salvation’s popular song contains openly Christian lyrics. When asked if tight state religious restrictions could be prompting religious themes in Belarusian music, the lead singer from another band called New Jerusalem, Aleksandr Patlis said, "If they try to stop God one way, we’ll try another." (Forum 18 News Service)

CUTTING-EDGE WEBSITES TO TARGET TECH-SAVVY YOUTH IN EAST ASIA

The International Bible Society (IBS) is developing a series of cutting-edge websites designed to present God’s word to the tech-savvy youth in East Asia. A potential audience of a half-million youth from the Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia where Islam and Buddhism severely restrict the freedom to investigate Christianity will be presented with the gospel message and the person of Jesus Christ in an accessible, dynamic and interactive forum. Research has shown that religious beliefs adopted when young will most often carry on into adulthood. IBS is seeking the $16,000 needed to develop and operate the website for the first year. (Mission Network News)

CHRISTIAN FAMILY STANDS STRONG IN THE FACE OF PERSECUTION

Members of a Christian family in central India have refused to back down from their faith despite some big consequences. The man, known only as Immanuvel, converted to Christ when a pastor visited their home and shared the gospel with him, his wife and four children. After hearing of their conversion, villagers began verbal harassment and stirring up trouble. The opposition grew when Immanuvel’s daughter, Amija, enrolled in a Gospel for Asia Bible college. The village chief threatened, "Take her out of the Bible college and bring her home, or forget about her forever." Immanuvel bravely answered that he would forsake neither his daughter nor his Jesus. The enraged chief excommunicated the family from the village and imposed a fine of 5,000 rupees (US$109) for anyone caught speaking to the family. The family expressed a willingness to face any consequence for the sake of Jesus and even began traveling to other villages to spread the gospel rather than bowing to their neighbors’ urging to deny the name of Christ. (Assist News Service)

RECONSTRUCTION OF MONGOLIAN RADIO STATION NEARLY COMPLETE

Three years after a fire destroyed the building of Mongolian radio station WIND-FM, Far East Broadcast Co. (FEBC) reported that reconstruction of the facility is nearly complete. Generous donor gifts are sufficient to complete the exterior of the building before the harsh Mongolian winter hits in a few weeks. "We’ve struggled for three years to complete this project, encountering nothing but resistance and obstacles," said FEBC President Gregg Harris. "So to be able to complete the WIND-FM building is a huge relief and an even bigger praise!" In the last five years the station has impacted many lives, but the fire limited the station’s outreach efforts. When completed, the new building will expand the radio station’s capabilities. "God is really moving in Mongolia," he added, "and it’s exciting to be able to join in what He’s doing!" (Far East Broadcast Co.)

* Staff members from the HCJB World Radio Engineering Center in Elkhart, Ind., worked in conjunction with Far East Broadcasting Co. to provide a 500-watt FM transmitter and antenna for WIND-FM in Mongolia in 2001.

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