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Today’s News Headlines:

CONTINUED FIGHTING IN BURUNDI CONCERNS CHRISTIAN MINISTRIES NIGERIAN CHRISTIANS DEFY BAN ON EASTER CELEBRATIONS DISCORD FORCES MONGOLIA’S ONLY CHRISTIAN TV STATION OFF THE AIR CHRISTIAN LEADERS DEFEND RELIEF EFFORTS PLANNED FOR POST-WAR IRAQ INTERNATIONAL DAY OF PRAYER FOR VIETNAM SET FOR MAY 4 * APOYO EVENT HELPS 70 MEXICAN PASTORS BALANCE MINISTRY, FAMILY

News Stories:

CONTINUED FIGHTING IN BURUNDI CONCERNS CHRISTIAN MINISTRIES Fighting is continuing in the east-central African country of Burundi despite a power-sharing agreement that will go into effect May 1. However, Burundi’s main rebel group is stepping up mortar attacks on the capital city of Bujumbura, making it difficult for ministries such as World Vision to operate. “We’re trying to maintain our programs and our witness,” says World Vision’s Rob Solens. “This is a period of power-sharing transition between the Hutus and the Tutsis. We’re committee to sticking it out. If things do deteriorate in Bujumbura, we would discuss the possibility of an evacuation, but that’s not at all being considered for the present.” The U.S. Embassy has placed a curfew on its diplomats and is urging Americans to move into the city. Solen says the need for aid is great. “There are a lot more refugees both internally and externally right now — people who need support — and that’s probably going to get worse until things stabilize following this transition.” (Mission Network News)

* Staff members from the HCJB World Radio Engineering Center in Elkhart, Ind., worked with local partners to install a Christian FM radio station in Bujumbura in 1999. The antenna supplied through Galcom International in Canada.

NIGERIAN CHRISTIANS DEFY BAN ON EASTER CELEBRATIONS Christians in Nigeria defied a three-day ban on Easter celebrations across the country and trekked to their many churches to participate in Holy Week services. Police officials ordered a dusk-to-dawn curfew from Friday to Sunday, and designated Saturday as a “no-travel day” in an effort to stem electoral fraud and political violence as the country held its presidential and gubernatorial elections. Church leaders, however, denounced the ban as a deliberate attempt to curtail the religious liberty of Christians. “The restriction was an attempt to prevent Christians from celebrating Easter,” said Dr. Olusola Ajolore, Kwara state secretary of the Christian Association of Nigeria. Political violence was lower than expected, although two Christians were killed and several others injured on Saturday evening while returning from worship services in Ilorin. International observers certified the elections as “free and fair.”

Incumbent President Olusegun Obasanjo won an overwhelming victory in the weekend elections, officials announced Tuesday, but the main opposition party rejected the result as fraudulent and threatened massive protests. Obasanjo, a professing Christian, moved quickly to build goodwill following an election marked by sporadic violence and allegations of polling misconduct, urging the opposition in a nationally televised address to accept his victory peacefully. Obasanjo won 62 percent of the 42 million votes cast, said Election Commission Chairman Abel Guobadia. Former junta leader Muhammadu Buhari finished second with 32 percent. Eighteen other candidates took the remaining votes. Nigeria has lived under a democratic civilian regime for only the past four years and is still making the political transition from more than three decades of military dictatorship. (Religion Today/Associated Press)

DISCORD FORCES MONGOLIA’S ONLY CHRISTIAN TV STATION OFF THE AIR Disagreements among its Mongolian and American partners have forced Mongolia’s Eagle Television off the air in the capital of Ulaanbaatar. Tom Terry, the station’s general director, said the “Mongol partners want full control of the station, or enough control that they can turn it into their propaganda machine. As of today (April 22) Eagle TV does not exist.” Terry said the situation reached boiling point last Wednesday when the attorney for the station’s Mongolian partners sent him a letter indicating that he was going to file a lawsuit this week to dissolve Eagle TV and shut the operation down. Fearing that such a move would result in the loss of station’s assets, Terry and the station staff quickly moved all of the broadcast equipment to a “secure location.” The station is sponsored by the Americans in Mongolia (AMONG) Foundation based in Sioux Falls, S.D. Terry plans to put the station back on the air after forming a new broadcasting company. “The new Eagle TV will not be the voice of any political party. It will be the voice of you, the people of Mongolia,” he said. (Assist News Service)

CHRISTIAN LEADERS DEFEND RELIEF EFFORTS PLANNED FOR POST-WAR IRAQ The fact that Southern Baptists and other evangelicals will assist with relief efforts in Iraq has drawn worldwide attention. Walter Brueggemann, a religion professor at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Ga., criticized the aid efforts, calling them an attempt by evangelicals to “impose their faith on that culture.” Richard Land, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, disagreed. “We are doing this to help people who are hungry, and we’re not going in there . . . to hold an evangelistic crusade,” he said. “But if they ask us why we’re there to do it, we’re going to tell them it’s because we love them and because Jesus loves them.” Another Baptist leader, Albert Mohler Jr., said in an interview with Time magazine that the “secular world tends to look at Iraq and say, ‘Well, it’s Muslim, and that’s just a fact, and any Christian influence would just be a form of Western imperialism.’ The Christian has to look at Iraq and see persons desperately in need of the gospel. Compelled by the love and command of Christ, the Christian will seek to take that gospel in loving and sensitive, but very direct, ways to the people of Iraq.” Meanwhile, the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) has received a grant of 500,000 Euros (US$538,442) from Spain’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs for humanitarian relief operations in northern Iraq. The project will enable ADRA to organize and operate camps for 2,700 refugees. In addition to operating the camps, ADRA will work with non-governmental organizations in the region to provide food aid, water, blankets, clothing, kitchen utensils, kerosene lamps, tools and medicine and a team of healthcare workers. (Religion Today/Adventist News Network)

INTERNATIONAL DAY OF PRAYER FOR VIETNAM SET FOR MAY 4 Open Doors is encouraging Christians worldwide to remember the church in Vietnam Sunday, May 4. This special day has been designated as the International Day of Prayer for Vietnam by several organizations concerned about the situation in this Southeast Asian nation. “We have a very simple theology,” a leading Vietnamese pastor said. “If you have problems, pray. If you have more problems, pray more!” While Vietnam’s laws promise religious freedom, in practice the government continues its policies of religious repression among the population of almost 80 million. “Having spent a week in Vietnam late last year, I can attest to the persecution of pastors and other Christians, many of those with whom we spoke with had been imprisoned at least once for their faith,” said Jerry Dykstra, media relations coordinator for Open Doors USA. Persecution is especially intense among the minority tribal groups, or Montagnards, in the central highlands and northern mountain regions where the church has grown dramatically in recent years. Hundreds of Montagnard churches have been closed, and more than 50 pastors and church leaders have been arrested during the last few months. (Open Doors)

* APOYO EVENT HELPS 70 MEXICAN PASTORS BALANCE MINISTRY, FAMILY Dozens of pastors — many of them weeping — came forward at a church in Ciudad Ju ¡rez, Mexico, March 25, as they renewed their commitment to put Christ first not only in their pastoral ministry but also their family lives.

They came in response to a message by Pablo P ©rez who directs the Mexican arm of Apoyo, a joint pastoral training outreach of HCJB World Radio and Leadership Resources International during the ministry’s first event in Ju ¡rez, Mexico. This is a city of 2 million across the border from El Paso, Texas. Nearly 70 Hispanic pastors gathered at Grace and Truth Evangelistic Center in Ju ¡rez for the two-day event March 24-25. Apoyo members Ray Morris and Eliezer Gonz ¡lez also shared from God’s Word, giving illustrations from their own lives.

“I was surprised at the impact of this message,” said P ©rez, who admitted his own struggles balancing the pressures of ministry and family. “The pastors made a commitment to rest in the Lord and not try to serve Him in their own strength. The Lord must be preparing something special for these ministers!”

Pastor Javier Gasca of the Resurrection Church in Ju ¡rez said he could truly identify with messages. “We are always looking for God’s purpose for our lives,” he said. “It’s a challenge to be better servants of God.” Pastor Lorenzo Chavira of the Good Shepherd Church agreed that it’s a “privilege to be good husbands as well as good pastors.”

Participants also received copies of two Apoyo books for pastors: Recuperating Family Intimacy by Bill Mills and Gonz ¡lez, and Victory Over Discouragement by Mills.

At the final closing session the evening of March 25, more than 150 people from the community joined the pastors for a time of music, worship and preaching. At the close, about 30 couples publicly recommitted their marriages to Christ.

The following two days the Apoyo workshop moved to El Paso where a small but enthusiastic group of pastors took part in a similar event.

“The highlight of my time in El Paso was sharing the gospel preaching on a live television program (channel 38) hosted by pastor Adolfo Alvarez,” P ©rez said. “Tensions because of the war in Iraq created a wide open door and I shared the gospel. Two people called during the program to say they had accepted Christ!”

The two Apoyo events will be followed up with a seminar in Ju ¡rez next September to help pastors improve their preaching. P ©rez is also working to start a TNT (Training National Trainers) program in Ju ¡rez. This process also has begun in Oaxaca. About a dozen pastors will be handpicked from each area for this three-year program which involves quarterly training, preparing ministers to teach the same principles to their Mexican colleagues. (HCJB World Radio)

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