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Today’s News Headlines:

TERRORIST ATTACK ON BALI PUTS BELIEVERS ON EDGE IN MUSLIM COUNTRIES CHINESE POLICE RE-ARREST 4 CHRISTIANS HOURS AFTER RELEASE FROM PRISON CHRISTIAN BUSINESSMAN KIDNAPPED IN PAKISTAN CHURCHES WORLDWIDE TO OBSERVE DAY OF PRAYER FOR PERSECUTED CHURCH POLITICAL UNREST IN HAITI OPENS DOORS TO SHARE THE GOSPEL GERMAN MISSION LEADER: EUROPE IS ‘SPIRITUALLY DISTRESSED AREA’

Today’s News Stories:

TERRORIST ATTACK ON BALI PUTS BELIEVERS ON EDGE IN MUSLIM COUNTRIES Terrorists linked to al-Qaida are being blamed for a deadly bomb attack on the Indonesian resort of Bali on the weekend that killed more than 188 people. Some think that terrorist activity may increase in the days ahead, says Open Doors U.S. President Terry Madison. “Just imagine what it’s like for the believers in Indonesia, trying to take care of those who have been set upon by the jihad warriors. I think this is part of this same al-Qaida and other guerrilla force activity. This is part of the whole ferment of both political and religious hatred.” Madison says workers with Open Doors are much more cautious now. “The believers in Pakistan, Indonesia and other places of the world are increasingly on edge, realizing that there are forces at work that would seek to not only hamper and hinder their worship of the Lord, but actually seek to do bodily harm to them.” (Mission Network News)

CHINESE POLICE RE-ARREST 4 CHRISTIANS HOURS AFTER RELEASE FROM PRISON Four Christian women who were set free by the Jingmen Intermediate Court last week have been re-arrested by officers of China’s Public Security Bureau and sent away for three years of “re-education through labor.” The four women had been released only hours earlier after a retrial ordered by the Hubei Province Supreme Court. They had planned to file a lawsuit against guards and officials who tortured them repeatedly during their incarceration. Feng Ping Xiang, 32, Xicun Meng, 27, YingPing Li, 28, and Xian Zhi Liu, 31, were arrested only hours after the court freed them. They had been facing prison sentences from two years to 12 years before the retrial. “The police in Jingmen clearly acted to prevent these women from suing them,” said Voice of the Martyrs spokesman Todd Nettleton. “How could they possibly have committed a new crime in the few hours they were free?” The four women were repeatedly sexually molested and tortured . . . until they signed documents saying that South China Church founder Gong Shengliang had raped them. Gong was convicted on rape charges last week and sentenced to life in prison. Nettleton hopes that U.S. President George W. Bush will discuss the issue of falsely imprisoned Christians in China when he meets with Chinese President Jiang Zemin in Texas later this month. (Voice of the Martyrs)

CHRISTIAN BUSINESSMAN KIDNAPPED IN PAKISTAN Ainsworth Lal, a 71-year-businessman and former Christian schoolteacher in Pakistan, has been kidnapped by some men whom he knew through previous business deals in the country. Kidnapped about two weeks ago, his captors are demanding a ransom of about US$7,000. Lal’s son-in-law, Australian Christian newscaster Philip Smith, said this has been confirmed as a “genuine kidnapping” and that he has been threatened with harm if the money demanded in not found. “My father-in-law is being kept in a home in Peshawar in northwestern Pakistan,” said Smith who works as a newscaster at United Christian Broadcasters Australia. “He is being fed and allowed to bathe, and is in good health physically despite experiencing considerable emotional trauma which is evident from the tone of his voice.” Smith is urging believers to pray for his father-in-law’s soon release. (Assist News Service/UCB Australia)

CHURCHES WORLDWIDE TO OBSERVE DAY OF PRAYER FOR PERSECUTED CHURCH Thousands of churches across the U.S. and worldwide will focus on suffering Christians during the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church Sunday, Nov. 10. This is one of the largest prayer events in the world and has been observed since 1996, Open Doors U.S. President Terry Madison. Ten Christian agencies have collaborated to sponsor the event. “In my many talks with persecuted Christians around the world, I always ask them what can we in the West can do to support them in their walk with the Lord,” Madison says. “No. 1 on the list is prayer. They want us to pray with them and for them. But not just one day a year!” An estimated 200 million Christians face persecution around the world. (Religion Today)

POLITICAL UNREST IN HAITI OPENS DOORS TO SHARE THE GOSPEL Political unrest is leading to open doors for sharing the gospel in Haiti, says Dick McLeish of Men for Missions. The ministry’s original plans last month to enter an area of the country called Sector 4 had to be scrapped due to an uprising. That led them to enter Saint Michelle. “What we found was that God had already gone ahead and prepared the people for exactly what we were there for,” says McLeish. Christian workers quickly set up a meeting to distribute radios tuned to pick up Christian programming aired in the community. “We thought we were initially going to meet with 40 pastors in the area,” McLeish says. “When we got there in the church on Saturday night there were 145 people there. Including pastors, church leaders and lay people that were there to hear about ‘Operation Saturation’ and were excited to learn how to share their own faith.” (Mission Network News)

* HCJB World Radio worked with local partners in Haiti to help establish local Christian radio ministries in Port-au-Prince and Tortue Island.

GERMAN MISSION LEADER: EUROPE IS ‘SPIRITUALLY DISTRESSED AREA’ Detlef Bloecher, director of German Missionary Fellowship in Sinsheim, says Europeans have cut themselves off from their Christian roots and are indulging in materialism and individualism. “God’s commandments are trampled down, and ancient paganism is rearing its ugly head,” said Bloecher. “Bible-believing Christians are few and far between,” he says, accounting for just 3.2 percent of Germany’s population. In other countries the percentage is even lower: 0.3 in Belgium, 0.5 in Austria, 0.6 in France and 0.8 in Spain. Only strict Islamic countries and some Asian nations have a lower percentage of Christians. “Europeans seem almost immune to the gospel,” says Bloecher. “Germany needs African evangelists, Korean Bible teachers, Brazilian student missionaries and American church planters to come here.” (IDEA)

* * * * * * * * * * * * * James A. Ferrier Web: http://www.hcjb.org http://www.beyondthecall.org * * * * * * * * * * * * *

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