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Today’s News Headlines:

KYRGYZSTAN REJECTS CHURCH’S APPEAL TO LOWER $110,000 TAX BILL CLOSING ARGUMENTS HEARD IN CASH-SMUGGLING CASE IN RUSSIA 20 CHINESE HOUSE CHURCH CHRISTIANS DETAINED IN 4 SEPARATE INCIDENTS INDONESIAN CHRISTIANS PERSEVERE DESPITE NEW TERRORIST THREATS 10,000 MISSIONARIES IN INDIA’S NAGALAND STATE ‘POISED TO SPREAD GOSPEL’ * HCJB WORLD RADIO-AUSTRALIA LAUNCHES URDU BROADCASTS

Today’s News Stories:

KYRGYZSTAN REJECTS CHURCH’S APPEAL TO LOWER $110,000 TAX BILL The Pentecostal Church of Jesus Christ’s appeal to the Kyrgyzstan’s Ministry of Finance against what it calls an unjust tax demand for the equivalent of US$110,000 was rejected on Friday, Aug. 15. “The taxes are simply a means of crushing the church,” said senior pastor Vasili Kuzin. Kyrgyzstan’s tax code exempts charitable bodies from tax, while the religion law prescribes taxes only on religious organizations’ business activities. Natalya Shadrova of Kyrgyzstan’s Committee for Religious Affairs agreed, saying, “It is true that the activity of religious organizations is not subject to taxation, and if the situation is indeed as you say, then the tax inspectorate is breaking the law.” Kuzin contents that the high proportion of ethnic Kyrgyz people group — historically Muslims — who are part of the church’s membership is the main reason for the authorities’ opposition to the church’s activities. (Forum 18 News Service)

CLOSING ARGUMENTS HEARD IN CASH-SMUGGLING CASE IN RUSSIA Appealing for wisdom and justice, lawyers for a Harvard Divinity School student charged with smuggling $48,000 in cash into Russia made closing arguments Wednesday, Aug. 20, in a case being closely watched by thousands of American evangelicals. “We’re not talking about some kind of dirty money,” Anatoly Pchelintsev told the court. “It was collected by Russian believers in America to help the poor and needy here.” His client, Andrew Okhotin, a Baptist youth pastor in Massachusetts, is accused of trying to bring the cash through Moscow’s main airport without declaring it to customs officials. During the late-March incident, Okhotin says he duly filled out a customs declaration which inspectors ignored, choosing instead to demand bribes of first $10,000 and then $5,000. A significant part of the three-hour proceeding was devoted to reading into the record dozens of faxed and mailed appeals for justice from hundreds of evangelical Christians, Okhotin’s professors and a letter from eight U.S. congressmen. Okhotin’s case resonates deeply in Christian circles not only because they view him as the victim of venal customs officials, but also because his father was convicted in 1984 for his leadership role in the underground Baptist church and spent years in a Soviet labor camp. (Religion News Service)

20 CHINESE HOUSE CHURCH CHRISTIANS DETAINED IN 4 SEPARATE INCIDENTS Chinese officials continued their crackdown on Protestant Christians this summer with the detention of 20 believers in four separate incidents. Six house church leaders in the southern Chinese province of Hunan were sentenced July 7 to between 18 months and two years of “re-education through labor” by local government officials. They were among 80 Christians who were picked up by the police June 28 while attending the funeral service of a believer. In another incident, five Christians are being detained in the Shayang Detention Center in Jingmen City, Hubei province, after being arrested on July 14 and 22. Six Christians from Zhejiang province have also been held in the Lan Tian Hotel in Hangzhou City since July 13. They were told that they will not be released unless they sign a paper applying for registration for their house churches. Three house church leaders from Sichuan province were also recently sentenced to re-education through labor. (Christian Solidarity Worldwide)

INDONESIAN CHRISTIANS PERSEVERE DESPITE NEW TERRORIST THREATS More warnings of terrorist acts are surfacing in Indonesia as tensions rise throughout the Christian community, especially since believers have been targeted in recent years. While the persecution takes place in isolated pockets, the Christians persevere, says Back to the Bible’s Gregory Bacon. “For example, I was introduced to a pastor who showed me some land that he and his congregation had purchased to build a church. Unfortunately, the community has refused to allow them to construct a church building. What they’ve done is dump all their garbage onto that land.” While the community protested the Christians’ presence, church members found another way to continue the outreach, Bacon explained. “The community has allowed this church to erect a tent in the street. They worship in that tent, but have to take it down after the service.” (Mission Network News)

10,000 MISSIONARIES IN INDIA’S NAGALAND STATE ‘POISED TO SPREAD GOSPEL’ Nagaland, one of the world’s most mysterious lands tucked in the mountainous, jungle-covered northeastern corner of India, has 10,000 missionaries poised to take the gospel to nearby lands, said Nagaland’s Christian president, Isak Chishi Swu, while visiting California Saturday, Aug. 23. “We want to penetrate China, Cambodia, Myanmar, Vietnam, Laos and Nepal with the gospel,” he said. “We have 10,000 missionaries who are ready to go.” Swu said the outreach is being held up by the finalization of peace talks between the Indian government and the 4 million people of Nagaland — an Indian state established in 1961 — that borders China, Myanmar and Bangladesh. “We want to request the whole world to pray for us that the peace process with India will be successful so that God will then release us to preach the gospel around the world, particularly in the neighboring countries. We are not demanding our independence from India, but we do need recognition.” The soft-spoken 73-year-old president was born in a hamlet called Chishilimi in the Sumi region of present-day Nagaland. “In 1921 my father was one of the first converts in Nagaland,” Swu said. “God used him mightily, and he and some colleagues converted our whole tribe during a period of four or five years. Before this, our tribe was pagan.” He says that 95 percent of the Naga people are Christian. (Assist News Service)

* HCJB World Radio-Australia Launches Urdu Broadcasts For the first time, HCJB World Radio began airing programs in the Urdu language July 21, making additional Christian broadcasts available to more than 80 million speakers across South Asia. Urdu speakers live mostly in Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Malaysia. The programs air from HCJB World Radio-Australia’s new shortwave site in Kununurra, “The Voice of the Great Southland.”

Director of Ministries Dennis Adams says initial response to the half-hour programs, which air each morning and evening Monday-Saturday, has been positive. “Since we started the Urdu broadcasts we have heard from Lahore, Pakistan, that various groups have been formed to listen to the broadcasts, followed by a time of discussion. That’s exciting news!”

The programs complement longtime Urdu broadcasts to the region from Christian organizations such as FEBA Radio and Trans World Radio. Urdu is the first language other than English to air from the Kununurra site.

The Urdu program, called “Danish Kadah,” was commissioned by partner ministry Asia Aflame Network and produced by Pakistan Christian Radio Ministries. “The program content is arranged into modules designed to teach Christian doctrines to believers and help in church planting,” Adams says. Asia Aflame has organized an extensive follow-up network to respond to listeners’ needs.

The Urdu broadcasts began about six months after the Kununurra station went on the air in January in English. The English programs have attracted a loyal audience across the region with hundreds of listeners responding via letters and e-mails from throughout the South Pacific and South Asia.

“Our English programming is designed to provide a balance that moves between pre-evangelism, evangelism and Bible teaching,” says Adams. “There are programs that focus on the various cultures such as the music of Asia, the Pacific, New Zealand and Australia. We also have an Australian country music program, a tourism program called ‘Destinations,’ and special programming for teenagers and younger children.”

The next language to go to air is most likely to be Hindi, “probably in April 2004,” Adams says. “Other languages will probably not go on the air until we have a second transmitter. Hopefully this will be sooner rather than later! We’re hoping to begin 2.5 hours of morning broadcasts to East Asia before the end of this year, subject to the completion of a new antenna.” (HCJB World Radio)

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* * * * * * * * * * * * * James A. Ferrier HCJB World Radio U.S. Ministries Communications Director E-mail: Phone: 1-719-590-9800 Fax: 1-719-590-9801 Web: http://www.hcjb.org http://www.beyondthecall.org * * * * * * * * * * * * *

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