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Today’s News Headlines:

CHRISTIANS WORLDWIDE FOCUS ON PRAYER AS WAR WITH IRAQ LOOMS POLICE JOIN HINDUS IN EXPELLING MISSIONARY FROM VILLAGE IN INDIA CALIFORNIA CHURCH, CITY REACH AGREEMENT ON BITTER LAND DISPUTE GALLUP POLL: TWO-THIRDS OF AMERICANS BELIEVE IN EXISTENCE OF SATAN MINISTRY PLANS TO PROVIDE BIBLES TO 500,000 ORPHANS IN RWANDA RETIRED DUTCH SEA CAPTAIN GIVES AWAY 18 MILLION BIBLE STORYBOOKS

Today’s News Stories:

CHRISTIANS WORLDWIDE FOCUS ON PRAYER AS WAR WITH IRAQ LOOMS From Colorado Springs to Cameroon and Budapest to Bangkok, Christians around the globe are setting aside time today to pray for revival in a broken world, especially with an impending war against Iraq. In the Hungarian capital of Budapest, Bible-believing Christians began praying at 3:33 p.m. local time after similar events in Asia and the Pacific following Internet appeals from the World Prayer Team based in Colorado Springs, Colo. Believers everywhere are being urged to pray for at least three minutes at 3:33 p.m. today — the third day of the third month of the third year of the third millennium. Church observers said this is also a key date for the non-Christian world as the New Age movement is holding a worldwide “experiment into global consciousness.” Tamas Kiss, spokesman of the Agape Church, an evangelical congregation involved in the project with dozens of groups across Hungary, said that non-Christians around the world are voicing their opposition to believers today. “So our pastor asked everybody to pray for Christians around the world as well as the spiritual health of the planet.” The World Prayer Center is asking Christians to pray that Saddam Hussein would step down, that any weapons of mass destruction employed by Iraq during the war would be “powerless,” and that God’s light would overcome the darkness. (Assist News Service)

POLICE JOIN HINDUS IN EXPELLING MISSIONARY FROM VILLAGE IN INDIA Police in a village in northern India recently joined radical Hindus in expelling a native missionary from the area. The missionary graduated from a locally run training institute in the region. “He was leading the most successful ministry in one of our stations,” said a mission leader. “In the last two years he established a congregation of more than 40 believers and had another 40 who were being prepared for baptism. He recently held a crusade in his village where about 500 people came and heard the gospel. Many were miraculously healed.” As news spread throughout the surrounding villages and the missionary’s reputation grew, he became a target of the fanatics from nearby cities. Hindu radicals went to the missionary’s village, threatened him and took him by force to the police station, accusing him of converting Hindus to Christianity. Police then threatened him and forced him to leave the area. Such incidents are becoming increasingly common across India as Hindu extremism increases. (Missions Insider)

* In partnership with FEBA Radio, HCJB World Radio airs weekly Christian programs to eastern India via shortwave in three languages: Bhojpuri, Chattisgarhi and Mundari. A five-hour block of English programs also beams across India from a shortwave site in Kununurra, Australia. The ministry is investigating potential opportunities to help launch local Christian stations in key cities across India.

CALIFORNIA CHURCH, CITY REACH AGREEMENT ON BITTER LAND DISPUTE After a lengthy battle pitting an expanding California church against a local government eager to carry out its own development plans, Cottonwood Christian Center in Cypress (near Los Angeles) has reached an agreement with the city that promises to end the widely publicized conflict. At the heart of the dispute was an 18-acre tract that the church bought more than three years ago for a building expansion that local officials then blocked by not granting construction permits. Located in Orange County, Cypress city officials wanted to develop the land commercially with the hopes of attracting a large discount retailer. As the conflict escalated, the church sued the city which then took steps to seize the congregation’s property by “right of eminent domain.” With the help of the Washington, D.C.-based Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, the congregation won a preliminary injunction last August, barring the city from taking the land. Cypress officials approved an agreement a week ago that will allow the city to buy the property it once threatened to take by legal force. (Religion Today)

GALLUP POLL: TWO-THIRDS OF AMERICANS BELIEVE IN EXISTENCE OF SATAN Americans’ belief in the existence of Satan roughly mirrors the country’s general religious profile, yet the devil transcends categories that typically determine religious attitudes such as age, religiosity and education. Sixty-eight percent of Americans believe in the devil while 20 percent do not and 12 percent are unsure, according to a Gallup poll released last week. In 1999 85.5 percent of Americans said they believed in God. Seventy percent of Catholics believe in the devil compared to 79 percent of Protestants and 83 percent of self-identified conservative Christians. Republicans, at 79 percent, are the most likely to believe in the devil compared with 67 percent of Democrats and 59 percent of independents. Across age and education, however, belief in the devil varies less. Seventy percent of adults ages 30-64 said the devil is real, along with 66 percent of adults ages 18-19. Similarly, 70 percent of high school graduates say the devil is real, along with 68 percent of college graduates. Fifty-five percent of people with postgraduate degrees also acknowledge Satan’s existence. (Religion Today)

MINISTRY PLANS TO PROVIDE BIBLES TO 500,000 ORPHANS IN RWANDA Discipleship and evangelism are the focus of a Bible distribution program in Rwanda. Genocide and AIDS in that African country nine years ago resulted in 500,000 orphans. World Help’s Vernon Brewer says literacy and discipleship programs through the church will help turn the tide. “To help rebuild the country of Rwanda they need to rebuild it on the Word of God. So we want to flood that country with copies of God’s Word. We can provide a Bible in their own language and dialect and have it printed and distributed [within the country].” Brewer adds that the ministry is involved in more than just distributing Bibles. “We immediately are setting up a child sponsorship program,” he says. “We’re also making plans to help construct an orphanage facility for AIDS prevention and a training center to teach these orphans a trade.” (Mission Network News)

RETIRED DUTCH SEA CAPTAIN GIVES AWAY 18 MILLION BIBLE STORYBOOKS In 1989 retired Capt. Warmolt Houwing of the Dutch Merchant Navy discovered the illustrated Bible storybook, He Lived Among Us. After obtaining the copyright, he started giving the books away to fellow seamen in the port of Antwerp. Giving away these books has become the lifelong mission of 65-year-old Dutchman Warmolt Houwing. By enlisting the support of others, he has printed and given away more than 18 million copies in 27 languages. He distributes the books at no charge, working with various non-profit organizations. Houwing’s purpose is to proclaim the gospel in this attractive, nonintrusive way, especially in China, Indonesia, India and the Middle East. Houwing served in the Dutch Merchant Navy from 1953 to 1983. Starting as a cook boy, he finished his last 10 years as captain, sailing all kind of vessel from freighters, to tankers, to passenger ships and tugboats. In 1986 after a dramatic conversion, he gained a fresh start in life. His conversion led to sailing as relief captain on the Mercy Ships vessel Anastasis and the Operation Mobilization ship Logos. In 1988 he began working as an evangelist to fellow seamen in Antwerp. “Our main target group was the Russians,” he said. “Every day about 17 Russian ships docked in Antwerp with approximately 1,000 sailors. I smuggled tens of thousands Bibles and New Testaments to them.” Since 1989 he has concentrated on printing and distributing the illustrated Bible storybook. The book is also available on the internet in 18 languages at http://www.gospelcomics.com. (Assist News Service)

* * * * * * * * * * * * * 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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