The execution of Saddam Hussein has predictably increased the violence between Sunni and Shia Muslims in the region. The Chaldean patriarchate of Baghdad estimates that half of the country’s Christian population has fled to safer ground. In neighboring Syria, the international charity Aid to the Church in Need is providing shelter and food to more than 35,000 Christians who have sought refuge there. Meanwhile, Open Doors continues working to distribute Scriptures in the region. A coordinator says the distribution team is highly dedicated: “Our workers drive around in the country with their cars full of Christian books to as many churches and bookshops as possible.” Open Doors USA’s Carl Moeller says the ministry has distributed 22,000 copies of the children’s Bible in Iraq. “The children are the most impacted by these children’s Bibles because they’ve never had [one]. Most of them have never, ever had a book that had pictures along with the stories. Working with an Arab publisher, we’ve been able to produce a Bible that is absolutely beautiful, and these kids just light up on it.” (Mission Network News/Assist News Service)

MIME TROUPES SHARE GOSPEL FOR HOURS BEFORE ROSE PARADE

The evening before the 118^th Rose Parade wound its way down Colorado Blvd. in Pasadena, Calif., on New Year’s Day, participants in the mime ministry known as the Action Impact Mission were sharing the gospel with spectators camped along the parade route. Martin Davis, in his 11th year heading up the annual, multifaceted outreach, joined two mime teams, and more than 50 other volunteers to spread the gospel to the parade’s captive audience on New Year’s Eve. The two teams performed five times each at different locations from early evening to about 9 p.m. using various songs to show the death, life and resurrection of Christ after drawing a crowd with a megaphone. Each year the crowds expect to see the mimes. “They ask for more,” said Linda Stafford, head of the San Diego troupe that brings a team each year. “[The crowd] really appreciates the entertainment. We get people who are crying at the end and saying, ‘thank you.’” The mime teams are joined by volunteers from local churches who distributed more than 7,500 pieces of gospel literature this year alone. (Baptist Press)

NEW BIBLE DISTRIBUTION PROGRAM SENDS 100,000TH NEW TESTAMENT

Just nine months after Voice of the Martyrs (VOM) launched its new Bibles Unbound program last February, the program just mailed the 100,000th New Testament. Dr. Mike Earls of Beggs, Okla., recently mailed the 100,000th copy to a man named Mohammad in Egypt. Bibles Unbound allows Christians in the free world to mail New Testaments directly from their home to a person in a nation where distribution of the Bible is illegal or restricted. Once they have God’s Word in the privacy of their own homes, these people will often read through it and begin to form questions about Christianity. The program appealed to Earls and his family because of the hands-on nature of mailing a Bible. “It makes the kids more a part of the ministry so their prayers are a little more tangible,” he said. “They’ve actually laid their hands on the Bibles, thought about the people, prayed about the people.” (Voice of the Martyrs)

CHURCH DATA IDENTIFIES KEY FACTORS FOR ACTIVE CHURCH GROWTH

A recent study sponsored by the Cooperative Congregational Studies Partnership has found several key factors that seem to indicate whether or not a church congregation is growing. A plan to recruit and incorporate newcomers, clarity of mission and ministry, contemporary worship, involvement of children in worship, geographic location, a website and the “absence of conflict” were found present in most of the churches that were actively growing. The survey also found that the average mainline denominational church was less likely to grow than nondenominational, evangelical congregations. Also of interest was the fact that Roman Catholic congregations are not growing in comparable numbers to the overall population of Roman Catholics in the U.S. The survey data was drawn from previous surveys of 884 randomly sampled congregations from many faith traditions and denominations. (Episcopal News Service)

OFFENSIVE TV PROGRAMMING IN JAPAN DRAWS AMERICAN COMPARISON

Scantily dressed dancers on a New Year’s Eve television program in Japan prompted hundreds of complaints from viewers in that country. Contrite Japanese broadcasters apologized before the program even ended. Jan LaRue, chief counsel for the group Concerned Women for America, used the incident to draw attention to American broadcasters’ quest to “push the bounds of decency to see how much smut they can get away with.” She believes the incident proves that “average people all around the world do not want to be subject to offensive programming. If only American broadcasters would heed the complaints of their viewers, they might actually provide family-friendly entertainment rather than mere shock value.” She also compared CBS’s half-hearted apology for Janet Jackson’s “wardrobe malfunction” during the halftime show of the Super Bowl game on Feb. 1, 2004, to what she called the “quick and contrite apology by the Japanese.” (Christian Newswire/Agape Press)

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