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Today’s News Headlines:

NEW PARTNERSHIP COULD SPEED UP BIBLE TRANSLATION BY 100 YEARS 11 MEXICAN EVANGELICAL CHRISTIANS JAILED FOR PUBLIC WORSHIP KAZAKHSTAN POLICE RAID HOME BIBLE STUDY, INTERROGATE PARTICIPANTS CUBAN CHURCH LEADERS WARN OF ACUTE BIBLE SHORTAGE MINISTRY SETS VISION TO CUT AVOIDABLE BLINDNESS IN HALF BY 2020 * HCJB WORLD RADIO RUSHES AID TO RESIDENTS OF TOWN NEAR VOLCANO

Today’s News Stories:

NEW PARTNERSHIP COULD SPEED UP BIBLE TRANSLATION BY 100 YEARS A new missions partnership could accelerate by 100 years the translation of the Bible for the estimated 1 billion people who still do not have God’s Word in their own language. Leaders of the Southern Baptist International Mission Board (IMB) and Wycliffe International announced the agreement in Dallas Nov. 1. Under the new plan, IMB will appoint missionaries to fill needs for translators, share more information about church planting and translation projects and coordinate strategies for taking the gospel to unreached people groups. About 3,000 language groups have no access to a Bible translation in their own language. At the present pace, translations for all of them will not be completed until 2150. Through this partnership, the task could be completed by as soon as 2050, said Wycliffe Executive Director John Watters. IMB Senior Vice President Avery Willis added, “Everybody deserves to have the Word of God in the language they love, the language they cry in and get mad in and rejoice in. If we are going to communicate the gospel to these last people groups, the Bible has to be translated into their languages. That’s overwhelming. We recognize it is impossible for us, but it is not impossible for the Lord. That’s why partnership is critical.” Wycliffe’s 5,000 missionaries have helped translate the New Testament into more than 500 languages, and more than 1,400 projects are underway. (IMB/Wycliffe)

11 MEXICAN EVANGELICAL CHRISTIANS JAILED FOR PUBLIC WORSHIP Pastor Jes ºs Hern ¡ndez, a native of San Juan Chamula in Mexico’s southern state of Chiapas, was jailed recently along with 10 other evangelical Christians after celebrating a public worship service in the town. The Tzotzil tribal center, seven miles west of San Crist ³bal de las Casas, has been a hotbed of persecution since evangelical Christianity came to the area in the 1950s. Reformed Church missionary Al Schreuder, however, said that persecution of evangelicals has decreased since 2000. “It’s been a long time since we’ve seen anything like this,” he said. But the final outcome encouraged Schreuder as the tribal president intervened to keep his assistants from beating up the evangelicals. However, he reportedly told the group, “We don’t want your religion here. We want you to leave and not come back.” (Compass)

KAZAKHSTAN POLICE RAID HOME BIBLE STUDY, INTERROGATE PARTICIPANTS A recently received report from Kazakhstan indicates that police and officers of the National Security Committee raided a home Bible study, Sept. 8, being hosted by Baptist church leader Kormangazy Abdumuratov. After taking details, searching and videotaping the apartment and those present, the Baptists were taken to police headquarters where they were interrogated. After up to two hours of questioning, everyone was released except Abdumuratov. The police told him to write a statement declaring that he would stop holding religious meetings in his home. He refused and was threatened with imprisonment as he had been caught three times for taking part in unregistered religious meetings. After six hours he was finally released. Subsequent TV coverage called the Baptists a “dangerous cult” and accused Abdumuratov of being a “traitor to the Kazakhs . . . bought off by foreigners.” (Keston News Service)

CUBAN CHURCH LEADERS WARN OF ACUTE BIBLE SHORTAGE Importing Bibles into Cuba through official routes has become “next to impossible,” say church leaders in the country. The government regularly seizes shipments. Also, the number of foreign Christians bringing Bibles into the country has dropped significantly since January 1998 when Pope John Paul II visited the island nation. Due to the highly publicized visit, some people assume that Cuba now has “complete religious freedom.” The drop in the supply of Bibles comes at a time when the church in Cuba is seeing unprecedented growth. A Nazarene congregation recently saw 31 people come to Christians in one week in October. The growth left the congregation with a serious problem: only five Bibles were available to share among the new converts. “We know that God sees our needs and will provide for us, but please pray with us that there will be enough spiritual food for our people,” said a Cuban pastor. (Compass)

MINISTRY SETS VISION TO CUT AVOIDABLE BLINDNESS IN HALF BY 2020 Recent statistics show that in struggling countries, one person goes blind every five seconds, and a child goes blind every minute. Christian Blind Mission International’s Jeff Watson says that’s why the ministry is part of an international coalition. “We’re trying to stop all avoidable blindness by the year 2020,” he says. He estimates that blindness could have been avoided in 45 million people worldwide. “What we want to do is get it down to 25 million by the year 2020 rather than let it get up to 75 or 80 million [if the present trends continue].” Watson says as with all ministries, actions speak louder than words. “When we minister to people with Christ’s love, they see that we are very sincere about our faith and really want to help them, and they started asking questions about our faith.” (Mission Network News)

* HCJB WORLD RADIO RUSHES AID TO RESIDENTS OF TOWN NEAR VOLCANO Residents in a remote town near the Reventador volcano east of Quito received encouragement this weekend when HCJB World Radio responded to their appeal for help after an eruption on Nov. 3 covered the region with ash. On Saturday a caravan of three vehicles traveled 21/2 hours across treacherous roads to bring much-needed food to 120 families in Oyacachi affected by the volcano that coated the area with up to 2 inches of gritty white ash.

“We responded after getting a call from the community’s Antisana Foundation a few days after the volcano erupted,” said Community Development Director Sheila Leech who was visiting the ministry’s international headquarters in Colorado Springs. “Other villages in the area received help from oil companies, but Oyacachi, an evangelical Christian community, got nothing.”

The ash damaged crops and caused respiratory problems in cattle in the agricultural area. “Because the people in this town were so well organized, things were very orderly when the food was handed out, and everyone who needed food got it,” Leech said. “Then the community pulled together what little food they had to feed the volunteers!”

Community development staff will return to Oyacachi on Monday, Nov. 18, to hold a weeklong mobile medical clinic, providing physical and spiritual care. “Normally when we hold a clinic, we ask the community to provide food for the workers. In this case we said we’d bring our own food, but the people insisted that they would help feed the team!”

Meanwhile, Quito’s international airport reopened on Sunday after being closed for a week due to ashfalls from the 11,683-foot Reventador volcano, 60 miles east of Quito. However, some major airlines such as American and Continental are still refusing to land at the airport. Elementary and secondary schools in Quito and area were again canceled on Monday after authorities detected the strong smell of sulfur in the air, especially in the western part of the city. The foul-smelling cloud quickly dissipated, and classes resumed today.

Geologist Patricia Mothes of the Geophysical Institute in Quito said in an interview Monday with Ralph Kurtenbach, news director of Radio Station HCJB, that it’s not unusual for gases to be detected by people even after traveling long distances. “The human nose is capable of picking up very low concentrations of sulfur gas that smells like rotten eggs. It’s very noticeable to an individual.” She added that since the gas is heavier than air, it tends do sink to the lower parts of the city. Authorities say that while the volcano is much quieter now, small eruptions are expected to continue for months. (HCJB World Radio/Reuters)

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

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