News headlines for December 31st 2002 ==========================================================

(Yemen)–We begin today’s newscast in Yemen, where a Muslim extremist gunman shot and killed three American missionaries and seriously wounded a fourth Monday at a Southern Baptist hospital in southern Yemen. The International Mission Board’s[1] Wendy Norvelle. “A single gunman burst into the room where three of our personnel were meeting and opened fire. Those three, Bill Koehn, Kathy Gariety and Martha Myers, were killed immediately. The gunman then reportedly moved to another room where he wounded our pharmacist, Don Caswell.” Norvelle says the security threat isn’t likely change their outreach in Yemen; already, their workers are responding. (NORVELLE:19) We have a quote from one of our workers who was there soon after it happened, and she said that, “We can’t let someone with a gun make us afraid to do what God wants us to do. We are asking people to pray that these deaths will not be a senseless waste, but that God will complete all He’s intended here and that He will be glorified.”

(Pakistan)–We turn next to Pakistan where four people are in custody following a deadly Christmas Day church bombing. Pakistani authorities issued extra security measures during the 2002 Christmas season, but on the day of the attack, according to Voice of the Martyr’s[2] Todd Nettleton: “There were no police present at the church in spite of warnings about possible attacks relating to Christmas services and Christmas celebrations and so forth. It demonstrates that there may be warnings at the national level, but at the local level, those warnings never seem to get carried out effectively.” Nettleton says mission workers are now working especially carefully. “I think every Christian in Pakistan understands that there is risk to evangelistic outreach, especially among Muslim people, and I think those risks will continue. We would hope that the police would step up their efforts to provide protection, but we’ve seen in the past that that hasn’t always happened.”

(Ivory Coast)–Rebels in Ivory Coast said this week a U.S. missionary caught behind their lines was safe and well and would soon be handed over to the Red Cross so he could escape. The U.S. embassy in the West African country declined to comment further on the whereabouts of William Foster, a Lutheran missionary who had been living for the past eight years near the Liberian border. The area has fallen into instability since a failed coup in October. Many missionaries have since evacuated the area.

(Bangladesh)–Meanwhile, a women’s group that was started in the mid 90’s in the urban slums of Dhaka, Bangladesh has successfully expanded. Kristen VanderBerg with the Christian Reformed World Relief Committee[3]

, says they started a savings and loan project where women could save money, invest it and then use it to help others. “We really want to help empower communities so that they can help each other escape poverty for the long term. So this women’s group is one way that we carry out that ministry.” The Paira (Pie-ra) women recently graduated from the program but decided to keep it going in the name of Christ. “They set some new goals for themselves such as learning about health to help continue caring for their children, starting an adult literacy program, they wanted to start a scholarship program for three families that were even more poor in their communities so that their children can go to school.”

(USA)–And finally, Christians in the United States interested in world missions are invited to a special conference January 23rd through the 25th. Global Missions Fellowship[4] , an evangelical ministry of church planting through saturation evangelism, is sponsoring the conference in the Dallas, Texas area. The conference will offer more than two dozen unique workshops grouped into six ministry tracks including church planting, pastor/church leader training, how to lead short term mission teams, and more. Go to our web site for more information.

[1] http://www.gospelcom.net/mnn/media/group.php?agencyAb=IMB [2] http://www.gospelcom.net/mnn/media/group.php?agencyAb=VOM [3] http://www.gospelcom.net/mnn/media/group.php?agencyAb=CRWRC [4] http://www.gospelcom.net/mnn/media/group.php?agencyAb=GMF ———————————————————————

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