Zprávy HCJB 22.3.2009 - 28.3.2009

	Samaritan’s Purse smí zůstat v Súdánu, 12 jiných skupin vyhnáno
	Minimálně dvanáct, spíš však víc humanitárních organizací v březnu vyhnal z Darfuru súdánský prezident Omar Hassan al-Bashar poté, co mezinárodní soudní dvůr v Haagu (ICC) vydal na al-Bashira zatykač kvůli obviněním z válečných zločinů během konfliktu v Darfuru. Různé organizace zajišťující čistou vodu a lékařskou péči, jídlo a střechu nad hlavou pro miliony darfurských Súdanců obvinil al-Bashir ze spolupráce s ICC a vyhnal je. Tímto svým činem súdánský vůdce vymazal velkou oblast největší současné záchranné operace na světě a ohrožuje životy milionů utečenců. V nemocnici provozované vypuzenou organizací International Rescue Commitee se zdravotničtí pracovníci namáhají poskytovat alespoň omezenou péči fakticky bez léků. Tisíce lidí v rozrůstajícím se táboře jsou na této péči závislí. Súdánská vláda ujišťuje, že nastalý výpadek bude vyplněn vládními agenturami a pomocí Světového potravinového programu a dalších uskupení OSN, které zatím ještě v Darfuru působí, a že tak bude odvrácena bezprostřední krize z akutního nedostatku vody a potravin. Pracovníci pomocných organizací ale uvádějí, že tato enormní pomocná akce v Darfúru, jejíž objem šplhá do výše 1 miliardy dolarů ročně a vyžadující před 10 000 pracovníků z mnoha organizací, se již nyní zpomaluje. Prezident Samaritan’s Purse Franklin Graham se počátkem března sešel s Al-Bashirem několik hodin předtím, než ICC vydal zatykač. Organizaci bylo povoleno ve válkou zmítané zemi zůstat a pomáhat tak 200 000 obětí války v Darfúru a také působit v celé zemi. K rozhodnutí Súdánu nechat dál působit organizaci Samaritan’s Purse řekl její pracovník Ken Isaacs: „Kromě milosti našeho Pána z lidského hlediska působí i skutečnost, že jsme se vždy chovali průhledně. Před dojednání míru v roce 2005 jsme působili na obou stranách konfliktu, obě strany to ale věděly.“ Zdroj: The New York Times, OneNewsNow
	Islámský soud v Malajsii uznal křesťanovo náboženství
	Vzácný případ vítězství příslušníka náboženské menšiny přichází z Malajsie. Jeden křesťan byl v pátek 6. března soudně uznán za nemuslima. 60letý Muhammad Šah předložil svůj případ soudu šaríja ve státě Negeri Sembilan poté co Národní úřad pro registraci osob jej odmítl uznat křesťanem, když si vyměňoval občanský průkaz.. Šah byl jako křesťan vychován svou matkou, jeho muslimský otec opustil rodinu. Šahovi tehdy byly 2 měsíce. Soudce rozhodl, že Šah nikdy nebyl muslimem a proto mu může být jeho občanský průkaz změněn. Soud také uznal, že neexistuje doklad, že jeho rodiče byli manželé. Zdroj: persecution.net, The Voice of the Martyrs Canada
	Všechny zprávy v angličtině
	SAMARITAN’S PURSE ALLOWED TO STAY IN SUDAN, 12+ OTHER AID GROUPS OUSTED Sources: The New York Times, OneNewsNow More than a dozen aid groups were expelled from Darfur this month by Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir after the International Criminal Court in The Hague issued a warrant for al-Bashir’s arrest on war crimes charges in the ongoing conflict in Darfur. Accusing the groups of cooperating with the ICC, al-Bashir ousted organizations that provided clean water, medical treatment, food and shelter for millions of Sudanese in Darfur. The move by Sudan’s leader wipes away large sectors within the world’s largest aid operation and jeopardizes the lives of millions of displaced people at risk. At a clinic run by the expelled International Rescue Committee, health workers struggled, with almost no medicine, to offer limited services. Thousands of people in this sprawling camp depend on it for primary care. Sudan’s government has pledged that local aid groups and government agencies will fill the gap, and that assistance from the World Food Program and other U.N. agencies still operating in Darfur will help avert an immediate crisis of widespread water and food shortages. Aid officials say, however, that the enormous aid effort in Darfur--costing more than $1 billion a year and requiring more than 10,000 workers from dozens of organizations--is already slowing. Samaritan’s Purse President Franklin Graham met earlier this month with al-Bashir just hours before the ICC arrest warrant was issued. The organization is being allowed to stay in the war-torn nation, feeding more than 200,000 victims of war in Darfur and conducting outreaches throughout the country. Of Sudan’s decision to let the humanitarian group stay, Ken Isaacs of Samaritan’s Purse said, “In addition to the Lord’s favor, in human terms [one reason is] the fact that we have always conducted ourselves transparently. Even when we were working on different sides of the conflict before the peace agreement was signed in 2005, both sides knew we working on the other side as well.” *Medical teams from HCJB Global Hands in Ecuador have collaborated with Samaritan’s Purse in disaster response ministries in Latin America. A team spent a week in Peru, providing medical assistance, distributing supplies and counseling those affected by an earthquake that hit on Aug. 15, 2007. Later that year a team from Ecuador traveled to Mexico, joining with Samaritan’s Purse to provide relief to flood victims. The two ministries joined other organizations in response to flooding in Ecuador in 2008. MISSIONAL CHURCH WEBSITE PARTNERS WITH CHRISTIANITY TODAY INTERNATIONAL Sources: Christian Newswire, Christian Post The clear buzzword in the evangelical church today is “missional.” It’s heard in every type of church and network--small, medium, and large. The three major shifts in thinking and behavior seen in a person or church that goes missional are: from internal to external in terms of ministry focus; from program development to people development in terms of core activity; and from church-based to kingdom-based in terms of leadership agenda. Christianity Today International has partnered with Shapevine.com to distribute world-changing ideas to a wider audience, so they can be better understood and engaged. Shapevine co-founder Alan Hirsch says that “missional” is simply a group, whether it be a large church or a small group of Christians, that organizes around the mission of God, not only inside the church walls, but out in the world. Shapevine.com brings people together around missional ideas. It specifically provides videos that hi ghlight stories of Christians engaging the culture, media-based training to help Christians live, learn and lead missionally, and forums for people to share ideas and stories. Christianity Today International is a not-for-profit communications ministry with 11 magazines and print newsletters, more than 40 e-newsletters, and a website (www.ChristianityToday.com). AUTHOR CHALLENGES CHURCHES TO BETTER TRAIN YOUTH TO DEFEND THE FAITH Source OneNewsNow Youth pastor and author Sean McDowell says churches have many opportunities to encourage and equip young people to live life with a biblical worldview. Statistics show that more than 50 percent of young people will leave church once they start living on their own. McDowell cites many reasons teenagers leave church--among them a lack of deep, meaningful relationships with adults. He also contends churches must do a better job of training young people to defend their faith. “One of my friends and I...actually take our students up to [the University of California] Berkeley, and we invite atheists and agnostics to present [their arguments] to our students, and we train them how to defend their faith. And let me tell you something, these kids absolutely eat it up and they love it,” he notes. “Why? Because there’s drama, because we’re challenging them, and [because] we’re trying to think outside the box and prepare them to mak e a difference for Christ.” McDowell recently released a book with his father, Josh McDowell, titled Evidence for the Resurrection. POPE OFFERS GOSPEL AS ANSWER TO AFRICA’S PROBLEMS Sources: Religion Today, Crosswalk, Catholic News Service Catholic News Service reports that Pope Benedict XVI arrived in Cameroon yesterday with a message of hope and unity. Benedict said he came as a pastor, not a politician, but nonetheless stood ready to combat injustice. “In the face of suffering or violence, poverty or hunger, corruption or abuse of power, a Christian can never remain silent,” the pope said. “At a time of global crisis in food shortages, financial turmoil and disturbing patterns of climate change, Africa suffers disproportionately: More and more of her people are falling prey to hunger, poverty and disease. They cry out for reconciliation, justice and peace, and that is what the church offers them.” The trip is the pope’s first visit to Africa, and he visited the continent only once as a cardinal in 1987. * HCJB Global Voice signed a partnership agreement Eternal Life Mission in 2002 to plant a Christian radio station in Bamenda, Cameroon. CREDIT CRUNCH AFFECTS CHURCH CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS, GIVING BY CONGREGATIONS Sources: Evangelical News, Associated Press Reports by companies that specialize in church mortgages reveal that foreclosures and delinquencies for congregations are on the rise. With credit scarce, church construction sites have gone quiet, holding shells of sanctuaries that were meant to be completed months ago. Congregants have less money to give, and pastors who stretched to buy property in the boom are struggling to hold onto their churches. Metropolitan Baptist Church, for example, has ceased construction on a $30-million campus in Largo, Md., that was to include a 3,000-seat church, education center and 1,100-car parking lot. Construction at New Life Anointed Ministries International in Woodbridge, Va., stopped last spring after loans were cut off. At Seabreeze Church in Huntington, Calif., a new complex was completed in 2007. But a drop in donations, partly due to a rift between the pastor and some church members, forced the church to renegotiate for an interest-only mortgage. The church owes other debts as well, including $1.2 million on bonds that helped finance the project. Amid the turmoil, at least one ministry is offering advice on weathering the severe economic downturn. Program guests on “The Coral Ridge Hour” recently offered biblical counsel such as living within one’s means and avoiding debt. “Debt is something that enslaves,” said author Randy Alcorn. “The Bible says, ‘the borrower is slave to the lender.’” Others who have joined him include Robert Sirico of the Acton Institute and Calvin Beisner, author and national spokesman for the Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation. According to the American Bankers Association, the average U.S. family owes $8,000 in credit card debt. CHURCH MEMBERSHIP: WHO’S COUNTING? AND HOW? Sources: NCC-USA, rlgmedia Just how many church members are there anyhow? Only God knows for sure. But the job of counting church members falls to frailer institutions like your church office or communion headquarters. Each year more than 200 American and Canadian Christian communions report their numbers to the Yearbook of American & Canadian Churches which adds them up. The 2009 Yearbook, published this week, announces the result. There are 146,663,972 church members north of the Río Grande. Writing in an essay, “The Meaning of Membership: Reassessing the Counting of Sheep,” Rev. Eileen Lindner said for some churches “membership accrues to children brought for baptism.” For others, a youth’s confirmed intention to follow in the faith tradition marks membership while still others rely primarily upon adult affirmation of faith or of a born again experience in adulthood. That makes comparisons “quite difficult,” Lindner says. Some chur ches count active and inactive members while others keep all baptized infants on their rolls. Some traditions, Lindner points out, estimate the number of members in their churches. Many Orthodox and African American communions base their estimates on the ethnic or racial population in neighborhoods. LEFTIST GUERRILLAS THREATEN, KILL CHRISTIANS IN COLOMBIA Source: Compass Direct News Having been sentenced to die by leftist rebels for holding Christian worship services in 2006, a pastor in Colombia’s northern department of Arauca took seriously the death threats that guerrillas issued in mid-March, according to Christian support organization Open Doors. The National Liberation Army (ELN) rebels telephoned a pastor of Ebenezer Church in Saravena to have him meet them at a site on the Arauca River. When the pastor met the rebels, they spent three hours warning him that area pastors had three options: cooperate with the guerrillas’ cause, leave or die. Although the ELN has been at odds with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in Arauca, they co-exist without conflict. FARC guerrillas control the southwestern department of Huila where four Christians were killed last November. The victims’ pastor, Hernan Camacho, has moved with his family out of the area after receiving death threats. “[The FARC guerril las] say that we, the evangelicals, are their worst enemy because we teach the people not to take up weapons,” Camacho said. * Together with local partners, HCJB Global Voice broadcasts the gospel on FM stations in four Colombian cities. The ministry also continues to air Spanish programs across the country and all of Latin America via shortwave from Quito. UPDATE: ISLAMIC COURT IN MALAYSIA RECOGNIZES CHRISTIAN’S FAITH Sources: persecution.net, The Voice of the Martyrs Canada In a rare victory for religious minorities in Malaysia, a Christian man was legally recognized as a non-Muslim by an Islamic court on Friday, March 6. Mohammad Shah, 60, brought his case to the sharia court in Negeri Sembilan state after the National Registration Department refused to acknowledge his Christian faith when he applied for a new identity card. Shah (who goes by the alias Gilbert Freeman) was raised a Christian by his mother after his Muslim father abandoned the family when Freeman was only 2 months old. As a result, the judge ruled that Freeman had never been a Muslim and his identity card could therefore be changed. The court also found no evidence that Freeman’s parents were ever legally married. CHINESE OFFICIALS AGREE TO HEAR CASE OF JAILED UYGHUR CHRISTIAN Sources: China Aid Association, Christian Newswire A Communist Party committee at the highest government level in China’s Xinjiang Uyghur antonymous region will hear the case of Alimujiang Yimiti, a Uyghur Christian, according to an inside source. Alimujiang has been held in detention by authorities since January 2008 for preaching Christianity. This committee, which is the final arbitrator on all cases among the law enforcement agencies in the region, will make its final decision on Alimujiang’s case. His court trial was held on May 27, 2008, and the verdict was that his case should be returned to the local Public Security Bureau (PSB) prosecutors because of “insufficient evidence” against him. Since Alimujiang’s trial, authorities have not allowed his family to see him and have been passing the case back and forth between law enforcement agencies. ChinaAid recently received a letter from Guli Nuer, the wife of Alimujiang Yimiti. She wrote: “Alimujiang … has been a believer of Jesus for 14 years. Belief in Jesus has made great changes in Alimujiang’s life and has made him really a good citizen who loves his country and his people….” Soon lawyers will travel from Beijing and petition to meet with Alimujiang. Sources report that Alimujiang is highly respected in the prison and is praised by people there. He insists on his innocence and adheres to his Christian beliefs. DAUGHTER OF POLITICAL PRISONER IN MYANMAR: ‘I WILL NEVER SEE MY FATHER AGAIN’ Source: Christian Solidarity Worldwide A 20-year-old woman in Myanmar (Burma), Wai Hnin Pwint Thon, told attendees at the Global Day of Prayer for Burma this month; “Unless the situation in Burma changes, I will never see my father again.” Wai Hnin’s father Mya Aye is currently serving a 65-year prison sentence for peacefully protesting against Myanmar’s brutal military regime. He is suffering from a severe heart condition that could cause him to die in prison. Fearing her own arrest, Wai Hnin told Premier Christian Radio’s Cindy Kent that she came to the U.K. in 2005 and now volunteers at Burma Campaign UK, assisting their work in releasing the country’s many political prisoners. Her 8-year-old sister still lives with her mother in Rangoon. Baroness Caroline Cox, chief executive of the Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust, presented firsthand evidence of the famine sweeping Chin state and the plight of the Shan people. This year’s event was particularly impor tant in light of the upcoming 2010 elections being planned by Myanmar’s military regime. This comes following the devastation caused by Cyclone Nargis and also the Chin famine. © Copyright 2009 - HCJB Global - Colorado Springs, CO USA

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