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Today’s News Headlines:

VIOLENCE IN KENYA SETS BACK EVANGELISTIC OUTREACH NIGERIA’S CHRISTIANS VOW TO PROTECT THEMSELVES AGAINST ATTACKS LEADING MEMBER OF CHINA’S UNDERGROUND CHURCH DETAINED AGAIN NEW ASSOCIATION TO COMBAT EMPTY CHURCHES IN EASTERN EUROPE DISCIPLESHIP CONSULTATION SET FOR SRI LANKA NEXT JULY MINISTRY USES UNUSUAL TOOL TO HELP BELIEVERS SHARE THEIR FAITH

Today’s News Stories:

VIOLENCE IN KENYA SETS BACK EVANGELISTIC OUTREACH Evangelical ministries in Kenya are responding to the recent terrorist attacks in that nation. Tom Dudenhofer of Audio Scripture Ministries in Holland, Mich., says he expects conditions to get even worse. “There is an element of being unsure about the ability of things to remain stable when it comes to the safety of missionaries, the protection of property and things like that. I don’t believe it’s specifically directed to the terrorist situation. I think it has more to do with the disintegration of law and order.” Dudenhofer says the instability has had a direct affect on the ministry in Kenya. “Our facilities there were robbed. Our security guards were drugged. The robbers made entrance with a ladder over a fence and then cut a hole in a roof. They made off with all of the electronic equipment from our recording studios and stole a car.” (Mission Network News)

NIGERIA’S CHRISTIANS VOW TO PROTECT THEMSELVES AGAINST ATTACKS Nigeria’s Christian leaders say they will defend themselves if the authorities fail to protect them against Muslim militants who are accused of killing more than 200 believers in late November. The British Broadcasting Corporation quoted Catholic Archbishop John Olorunfemi Onaiyekan as saying that Christians were “tired of turning the other cheek,” after days of bloodshed that also included the destruction of several churches. Christian Solidarity Worldwide, with close ties to persecuted churches, said that Christians were singled out by mobs of Muslim youths who protested against the Miss World contest that has since been moved to London. It is believed that Christians are the main targets as they are seen as defending Western values. Analysts say the attacks are also meant to pressure President Olusegun Obasanjo, who is said to be a born-again Christian, and is seeking re-election next year. Nigeria has seen a steep increase in inter-religious violence since several northern states adopted sharia (Islamic law) in 1999. More than 6,000 people are believed to have died as a direct result of sharia-related clashes, many of them Christians. (Assist News Service)

LEADING MEMBER OF CHINA’S UNDERGROUND CHURCH DETAINED AGAIN A leading member of an underground church and his wife have been detained as part of a crackdown on dissidents before the start of the Communist Party Congress, reported the New York-based Human Rights in China (HRC). The Associated Press said that police recently took Hua Huiqi and Ju Mei from their Beijing home and took them to the northern province of Shanxi. Huiqi is one of the earliest and most important members of Beijing’s underground church and has been beaten and arrested on many occasions because of his religious activities. Police did not present a warrant, and they gave no reason for taking the couple. “Once again under the pretext of conducting the 16th Party Congress in a peaceful and stable atmosphere, the Chinese government is abusing human rights,” HRC President Liu Qing said. In the weeks leading up to the congress, the government banned books, blocked Internet sites and clamped down on other activists. China allows only government-monitored churches and has harassed and imprisoned Christians who worship outside the official system. (Religion Today)

NEW ASSOCIATION TO COMBAT EMPTY CHURCHES IN EASTERN EUROPE Influential Christian intellectuals have founded the Budapest-based Central and Eastern European Association for Mission Studies to combat the growing number of empty churches in the region, officials confirmed Saturday, Nov. 30. If the trend continues, for example, there will be “no Anglican churches” in the region by the year 2030, warned Birger Nygaard, general secretary of the association. Other mainline denominations could face a similar fate, but membership in Pentecostal churches is rising, he said. Traditional churches in countries behind the former Iron Curtain are believed to be especially vulnerable to losing membership as several generations grew up in a communist society which discouraged Christian missions and an active religious life. Dr. Anne-Marie Kool, the Dutch cofounder of the association, said that “after a short renewal, after the collapse of communism, membership of the main denominations decreased.” Membership in the Hungarian Reformed Church, the country’s largest Protestant denomination, decreased to 1.6 million from 2 million. The smaller Lutheran Church saw a similar dip, falling to 300,000, a loss of 100,000 members. (Assist News Service)

DISCIPLESHIP CONSULTATION SET FOR SRI LANKA NEXT JULY The second Asia-Pacific Consultation on Discipleship is set for Colombo, Sri Lanka, July 9-12, 2003. The theme is “Telling the Truth: Discipling Nations Through the Power of Truth.” Participants will be able to hear and interact with more than 15 leading Christian speakers from around the world. The keynote speaker will be Dr. Ajith Fernando, Youth for Christ’s national director for Sri Lanka. (Worldwide Photos)

MINISTRY USES UNUSUAL TOOL TO HELP BELIEVERS SHARE THEIR FAITH A ministry called EvangeCube is helping North American Christians to use an unusual tool to share their faith more effectively. The ministry teaches believers to use a folding cube with pictures to help share the gospel message, says EvangeCube’s Nathan Sheets. “We focus on questions such as, What is the gospel? What is evangelism? What is prayer and evangelism? Then we go through the logistics of how to work through the EvangeCube. The most important part about training seminar is actually the third hour which is taking Christians out and doing evangelism.” Sheets believes these seminars will have international implications. “In the next 10 years we pray that God will use us to go into 100 countries and each country go into 1,000 churches to train 100 Christians in personal one-on-one evangelism,” he says. (Mission Network News)

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

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