A ministry of HCJB World Radio

Today’s News Headlines:

VIOLENCE IN C ”TE D’IVOIRE CONTINUES TO IMPACT MINISTRIES NEW COALITION AIMS TO REACH 30 MILLION UNCHURCHED GERMANS MOB THREATENS TO KILL INDIAN MISSIONARY, DESTROY HOME PLAN TO CLOSE INDONESIAN REFUGEE CAMPS IMPERILS CHRISTIANS INDONESIAN CHURCHES FEAR WAR AGAINST TERRORISM COULD ERODE RIGHTS * HCJB WORLD RADIO AIDS VICTIMS OF VOLCANIC ERUPTION IN ECUADOR

Today’s News Stories:

VIOLENCE IN C ”TE D’IVOIRE CONTINUES TO IMPACT MINISTRIES In the West African country of C ´te d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast), continuing rebel violence has set back another outreach opportunity in the country. Michael Cassidy of African Enterprise says his ministry was hoping to hold a citywide mission this week in Abidjan, but the unrest made it impossible. “Both the local churches and the various embassies all advised us that this wasn’t the time to go ahead,” he said. “People were too preoccupied with the crisis. The churches couldn’t think about something like the citywide mission because they were coping with refugees. Therefore, with very great regrets, we were asked to put the mission on hold.”

Meanwhile, Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo opened talks Tuesday with a regional rival in the country’s growing conflict. Gbagbo’s meeting with President Blaise Compaore of Burkina Faso “would be about the crisis and the consequences it is having,” Gbagbo spokesman Toussaint Alain said. Ivory Coast has made repeated veiled accusations against its neighbors, especially Burkina Faso, for allegedly backing rebels behind a two-month-old rebellion that now has split the nation. As Gbagbo headed to neighboring Mali for the talks on the war, the U.N. refugee agency appealed Tuesday on behalf of its victims, asking other West African nations to keep their borders open to civilians trying to escape the fighting. Rebels who launched the uprising control the north, and a newly emerged band of insurgents now hold the west. A 1,000-strong French force is in the country to safeguard foreign nationals and monitor an Oct. 17 cease-fire that crumbled last week. Peace talks between the northern rebels and the government have been deadlocked for weeks over rebel demands that Gbagbo resign. (Mission Network News/AP)

* HCJB World Radio is a partner with FM station Fr ©quence Vie (Frequency Life) in Abidjan, operated by SIM and local churches. The station continues to air programs of hope and encouragement, broadcasting 17 hours daily in French and some local languages.

NEW COALITION AIMS TO REACH 30 MILLION UNCHURCHED GERMANS A “Coalition for Evangelism” has been set up in Germany made up of representatives from various denominations and parachurch agencies under the umbrella of the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization. The aim of the coalition is to reach 30 million unchurched Germans with the gospel. Rev. Ulrich Parzany, general secretary of the German YMCA and main speaker of the European ProChrist outreach, was elected chairman of the coalition. He is working with the German Evangelical Alliance and the Association of Missionary Ministries. Parzany said the continued secularization of Germany calls for a broad united response by Christians. The coalition is in the planning stages of a “Strategy 2006.” That’s the year Germany will host the World Cup of soccer. Outreach and follow-up programs will be coordinated, including courses from ProChrist, Willow Creek and Alpha. The national Lausanne Committee will move the office from Stuttgart to Kassel early next year and assume responsibility for the coalition. The Lausanne movement began in 1974 after an international congress on mission and evangelism in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is a network of Christians acting as catalysts for worldwide missions and evangelism. (Evangelical News Agency IDEA)

MOB THREATENS TO KILL INDIAN MISSIONARY, DESTROY HOME On Nov. 17 a group of 200 people attacked the house and threatened the life of a local missionary leader in India’s Maharashtra state. They cut telephone wires, disrupted a prayer meeting and began to verbally abuse and threaten the missionary’s wife and three young children. When they learned that the missionary was not there, the attackers started to trash the household amid screams of the children, and destroyed the church sign board. The mob held the family captive in the house until evening, waiting in vain for the missionary’s return. They repeatedly warned his wife that they had come to “burn” them. Later they left, warning the family to leave the town immediately. The upper-caste house owner also asked them to vacate. The attack came just days after a district assistant also was also beaten up. The missionary and his wife are from the “untouchable” Dalit background. After the attack, friends helped the missionary family move to a faraway town. The missionary is praying for funds to pay for his moving expenses and to purchase a house so he can carry on the work of the ministry without being forced to leave by a landlord of another religion. (Christian Aid Mission)

PLAN TO CLOSE INDONESIAN REFUGEE CAMPS IMPERILS CHRISTIANS Thousands of Indonesian Christians who were forced to flee their homes by Islamic terrorists in the last three years may face even a bleaker future if the government follows through with plans to shut down existing displaced persons camps. “Thousands of refugees in Manado and Bitung are facing an uncertain future,” reported a key observer. “The Indonesian government is in the process of closing a number of the refugee camps, placing thousands of refugees in crisis again. Their plan is to send most of them back to their home islands. That is a worthy goal, but many of the islands are still dangerous. There are places like Ternate where all the churches have been destroyed and every Christian fled during the fighting. . . . Ternate is under Islamic law. It would be impossible for returning Christians to practice their religion.” Indonesian officials failed in two previous attempts to close the refugee camps as Christians were afraid to return to their homes, the contact said. “The government’s plan affects thousands in these refugee camp. This forces thousands to move to new locations. Some are too sick to make the trip, and many are upset and confused.” (Christian Aid Mission)

INDONESIAN CHURCHES FEAR WAR AGAINST TERRORISM COULD ERODE RIGHTS Some Christians in Indonesia fear that the government will use the security clampdowns in effect since the Oct. 12 bombing in Bali as an excuse to curtail the human rights of minority groups in the country, including those of churches. Problems facing Christians in Indonesia, who make up less than 10 percent of the country’s 210 million people, were highlighted in a recent gathering of Asian churches and members of the Evangelical Mission of Southwest Germany. Participants heard that churches could also face harassment in a “new war against terrorism” following the bomb attack on Bali that killed nearly 200 people, many of them Australian tourists. Tony Waworuntu of the Christian Conference of Asia, an ecumenical grouping with 121 member churches in 18 Asian countries, voiced his concern at a press conference in Stuttgart before a meeting focusing on Indonesian “women against violence.” (Episcopal News Service)

* HCJB WORLD RADIO AIDS VICTIMS OF VOLCANIC ERUPTION IN ECUADOR HCJB World Radio brought physical and spiritual encouragement to residents of the remote Ecuadorian town of Oyacachi near the Reventador volcano the week of Nov. 18 as a mobile medical clinic visited the area. The volcano, 60 miles east of Quito, erupted on Nov. 3, covering the town with about 2 inches of gritty ash and causing health problems for residents and livestock.

A six-member team traveled about three hours across treacherous roads to reach Oyacachi and spend four days helping out, said HCJB World Radio physician Dr. Oswaldo Rodr ­guez. “I noticed ash still piled up in the streets and on the dirt roads, and we noted the smell of sulfur in the air,” he said.

When asked what medical problems were treated in this village, Rodr ­guez noted that there was an increased incidence of respiratory difficulties, eye problems, irritated throats and mild rashes. The team also heard reports of damage that had been done to the livestock of this farming region and finding clean pasture was an obstacle for the agriculturists.

Dr. Ulrich Walther, who has been in Ecuador for only three months, was part of the team. “It was a new experience for me, and I found the food very good and the living quarters we were given clean and sufficient,” he said. “The people were so friendly, with the older Quichua people looking to the young ones to translate into Spanish for them so we could converse.”

Approximately 500 people live in the village, and about 300 came to the mobile medical clinic for treatment. In appreciation, the community presented each member of the team with a wooden craft.

The 11,683-foot Reventador volcano erupted on Sunday, Nov. 3, with ash reaching as far away as Quito. The volcano has erupted 24 times since 1541. The most recent eruption, in January 1976, produced ash and lava. Similar eruptions occurred in 1972 and 1973. Reventador is the third volcano to erupt in Ecuador since 1999. Quito was covered in ash three years ago when the nearby Guagua Pichincha volcano erupted. Tungurahua, another volcano 105 miles south of Quito, reawakened in 1999 after eight decades of inactivity and has gone through a number of eruptive cycles. (HCJB World Radio)

* * * * * * * * * * * * * James A. Ferrier HCJB World Radio U.S. Ministries Communications Director E-mail: Phone: 1-719-590-9800 Fax: 1-719-590-9801 Web: http://www.hcjb.org http://www.beyondthecall.org * * * * * * * * * * * * *

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