A ministry of HCJB World Radio

Today’s News Headlines:

FIGHTING FORCES MISSIONARIES TO LEAVE CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC

MUSLIM MOB FORCES CHURCH TO CLOSE IN JAVA, INDONESIA

VIOLENCE CONTINUES IN INDONESIA DESPITE END OF LASKAR JIHAD

RAPE CASE REFLECTS GROWING PERSECUTION IN NORTHERN NIGERIA

RADIO BROADCASTS HELP OPEN ONCE-CLOSED ALBANIA TO GOSPEL

1,400 TURN TO CHRIST IN 5 CRUSADES AMONG PERUVIAN TRIBE

Today’s News Stories:

FIGHTING FORCES MISSIONARIES TO LEAVE CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC Civil unrest is forcing evangelical missionaries out of the Central African Republic. Tom Cairns, international ministries director of the Evangelical Free Church Mission, says that after weeks of fighting, there is a lull in the violence. “It appears that this is just that — a lull before further fighting might occur,” he says. “As a result, missionaries from almost all the evangelical groups and agencies in Bangui have made the decision that they need to leave now. All of them are leaving within the next two days.” Missionaries working among the nomadic Fulani peoples plan to return when the situation stabilizes. “We definitely will plan to return and go back to the Fulani ministry,” Cairns says. “That’s very critical, but we just don’t have any distinct plans right now as to when that might be because we have to wait and see what’s going to evolve in the next few weeks.” (Mission Network News)

* HCJB World Radio worked with a local partner in Bangui, Central African Republic, to put a Christian FM station on the air in May 2001.

MUSLIM MOB FORCES CHURCH TO CLOSE IN JAVA, INDONESIA A mob of more than 100 Muslims stormed into a church in Bandung, Java, Wednesday, Nov. 6, terrorizing the Christians who were meeting, forcing them to leave the premises and ordering them to close the church permanently. The mob, led by the chairman of the Mosque Security Council, pelted the building with stones before entering and desecrating the church. Police who were present did nothing to prevent the mob from entering the church. Rev. Oloan Nainggolan complained to local authorities about their failure to take action. He denied claims by the Mosque Security Council that the church had no building permit, explaining that the church was built in 1990 with the relevant permissions and the agreement of representatives from local groups. The council also reportedly objected to six other churches in Bandung, and Christians are concerned that they could also become the target of mob action. (Barnabas Fund)

VIOLENCE CONTINUES IN INDONESIA DESPITE END OF LASKAR JIHAD Members of the Laskar Jihad, an Islamic extremist group, are gradually leaving Central Sulawesi and the Moluccas following the announcement of the disbanding of the organization in October. The situation is improved, but there are still reports of violence against Christians. On Nov. 2 two people were killed by a sniper in a suburb of Ambon City, and the next day two others were killed while riding motorbike taxis in a Muslim area of the city. A sniper also severely wounded a resident of Pelauw on Haruku Island Nov. 8. A number of unexploded bombs have been found — three at schools in Christian areas of Ambon, and another at a church construction site where a bomb had exploded last month. Meanwhile, evidence is increasing regarding the involvement of members of the Jamaah Islamiyah extremist Islamic group in the Bali bomb attack that killed nearly 300 people. Following the arrest of its leader, Abu Bakar Ba’asyir, in connection with the attack, Indonesian authorities are accusing him of being involved in a series of bombings of 18 Christian churches across Indonesia in late 2000. (Barnabas Fund)

RAPE CASE REFLECTS GROWING PERSECUTION IN NORTHERN NIGERIA A Christian woman whose father became a Muslim was raped after being forced to marry a Muslim is further evidence of the growing persecution that Christians face in predominantly Muslim areas of Nigeria. Rakiya, 20, from Bilkawa in Kano state, has been a Christian for 10 years, but her father converted to Islam five years ago. Rakiya was recently forced to marry a Muslim. Then four men dragged her to her new husband’s room where she was raped. A fact-finding team from Christian Solidarity Worldwide discovered that such stories are not unusual in Nigeria’s northern states, many of which have adopted sharia (Islamic). In an earlier case, a female convert from Niger state was bound hand and foot in a sharia court, thrown into the trunk of a vehicle and driven by her family to their home village where she was bound to a tree and publicly raped by a prospective Muslim suitor. The team found widespread suppression and violations of religious freedoms in the states of Niger and Plateau. (Christian Solidarity Worldwide)

* HCJB World Radio, together with partners In Touch Ministries, SIM and the Evangelical Church of West Africa, began airing weekly half-hour programs in the Igbo language in 2000. The programs air via shortwave to Nigeria’s 15 million Igbo speakers.

RADIO BROADCASTS HELP OPEN ONCE-CLOSED ALBANIA TO GOSPEL Twenty years ago Albania was one of the most closed communist countries in Eastern Europe. Religion was outlawed. However, when the country opened in the 1990s, a core group of Christians was discovered, partly because of Christian radio programs beamed from Monte Carlo. “In the last 10 years the number of churches has grown considerably,” says Lee DeYoung from Words of Hope. “There is freedom of religion. We’re excited that we were able to enter into formal agreements with two new FM Christian radio stations to broadcast our programs five days a week.” The programs are being aired in Tirana and Korce. (Mission Network News)

1,400 TURN TO CHRIST IN 5 CRUSADES AMONG PERUVIAN TRIBE A ministry in Peru has been able to plant new churches and bring aid to the impoverished Kanaris tribespeople. Marino Huatangare, founder and director of New Life Evangelistic Ministry, says that 72 worshiping groups of believers have been planted among the Kanaris. In the last six months the mission conducted five major evangelistic crusades where the gospel was preached to 5,500 people. Missionaries witnessed 1,400 professions of faith and discipled and baptized 88 new believers. The ministry also distributed shoes and clothing along with 30 Bibles and 50 New Testaments among the Kanaris. (Christian Aid Mission)

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

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