News headlines for October 29th 2002

(Nepal)–Topping the news, Nepal’s Maoist rebels say they are ready for peace talks. An increasingly deadly insurgency has racked the Himalayan kingdom for six years. Against the backdrop of a newly appointed Cabinet, FARMS International’s[1] Joseph Richter trained a partnership outreach. With the ministry in its fledgling stages, he’s keeping an eye on the current events. “The new government, right now, that was installed by the king has come with much opposition. I don’t know exactly how this is going to play out, whether things will stabilize, or things will get worse.” Richter says church body is eager for the help FARMS brings to their poverty-stricken country. “It’s made it a little more difficult in some areas, but in fact, the believers there see this as a real encouragement at a time when they’re oppressed not only by the Hindu government of Nepal, but now, also by the Communist Maoists.”

(Chad)–Meanwhile, two new outreaches are hoping to touch the hearts of the people of Chad. Book of Hope’s[2] Bob Hoskins says as the country recovers from civil war and faces incredible economic turmoil, opportunities for the Gospel abound. “Some of our colleagues got a license for what’s called ‘Hope Radio’. November the 15th, the Hope Radio station will begin to broadcast from N’Djananja, the capitol of Chad. In connection with the launch of Hope Radio, we’re launching the Book of Hope distribution in the schools there.” While Chad is predominately Muslim, Hoskins tells the government that the Book of Hope can help with AIDS and drug and alcohol abuse. “I say,’I know you don’t believe Jesus as God as I do, but your Koran says that Jesus is one of the greatest of the prophets and His teachings are acceptable in Islam. And so, these are the teachings of Christ on ethics and morality and because of the need and because of the rational, they’re accepting it’.”

(Israel)–A Christian organization that sponsors children around the world is asking Christians to pray for the safety of these children. According to World Vision,[3] one of their 13-year-old sponsored children was killed by violence in the Gaza Strip. This is the second time this area has been hit by the Israeli government. World Vision officials say more than nine-thousand children and their families benefit from World Vision in Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Pray that many will turn to Christ as a result.

(International)–Next, Back to the Bible[4] recently launched Project Reach. The goal of the project is to reach people through new Gospel radio programming, each people tin China, Russia, the Middle East, Sri Lanka, and India, and also through the Internet. The agency needs $800,000 to fund the strategy. Back to the Bible reports that their effort is ongoing because many people still do not have consistent Bible teaching in their native language.

(USA)–And finally, a discipleship ministry that wants everyone to read through the Bible in one year is making it easier for people to read the Bible in other countries. Bible Pathway Ministries'[5] Karen Hawkins says their reading-through-the-Bible material is already on-line, but it’s growing. “Coming January we will have German on-line, which will be our 11th language on-line. And, we have six more Indian languages which will be added soon after that.” According to Hawkins, they have an incredible need for a Spanish proofreader to help with their Spanish on-line version. She says having the material on-line is important. “We find that we are receiving emails even from Arabic-speaking countries now. Often, there are no pastors or anyone that has had Bible training, particularly in the Islamic-controlled countries, and many of them have never had Bible school…and this helps them.” You can get a copy of Bible Pathway at BiblePathway-dot-org[6] .

[1] http://www.gospelcom.net/mnn/media/group.php?agencyAb=FARMS [2] http://www.gospelcom.net/mnn/media/group.php?agencyAb=BOH [3] http://www.gospelcom.net/mnn/media/group.php?agencyAb=WVI [4] http://www.gospelcom.net/mnn/media/group.php?agencyAb=BTTB [5] http://www.gospelcom.net/mnn/media/group.php?agencyAb=BPM [6] http://www.biblepathway.org