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Today’s News Headlines:

ONGOING CIVIL WAR IN LIBERIA DISRUPTS CHRISTIAN MINISTRIES CHINESE POLICE USE LURE OF REGISTRATION TO ARREST CHURCH LEADERS 3 CHRISTIAN WORKERS IN NEPAL RELEASED AFTER 4 MONTHS OF JAIL SLOVAKIA’S RELIGION LAW HINDERS REGISTRATION OF NEW CHURCHES PASTORS URGE KENYA’S EX-PRESIDENT TO ADDRESS CORRUPTION CHARGES NEWSPAPERS IN INDIA BEGIN REPORTING ATTACKS AGAINST CHRISTIANS THOUSANDS OF AFRICAN CHURCH LEADERS TO MEET IN HISTORIC GATHERING * HCJB WORLD RADIO AIRS FINAL RUSSIAN PROGRAM FROM QUITO

Today’s News Stories:

ONGOING CIVIL WAR IN LIBERIA DISRUPTS CHRISTIAN MINISTRIES U.S. President George W. Bush today urged Liberian President Charles Taylor to leave the West African nation and said the U.S. was weighing all options to help end the country’s 14-year civil war. “We are exploring all options as to how to keep the situation peaceful and stable,” Bush told reporters at the White House. “One thing needs to happen — Mr. Taylor needs to leave the country. In order for there to be peace and stability in Liberia, Charles Taylor needs to leave now.” White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said no decision had been made. He did not rule out the use of U.S. forces. “The political instability is such that people are panicking,” Bush said. “But the good news is there’s a cease-fire in place now.” Rebels fighting to oust Taylor hold more than half of Liberia and want him to quit. The U.S.-educated Taylor emerged as the dominant faction leader in a war that killed 200,000 in the 1990s and went on to win a 1997 election.

Last Thursday rebels pressed the capital city of Monrovia in an effort to oust Taylor. In the process, hundreds of civilians died, and hundreds more were wounded. Evangelical Baptist Mission’s Doug Boisvert said the situation is precarious, forcing the ministry to suspend leadership training in the country. “We need to hold our brothers and sisters up before the Lord, so they can go beyond their limits and trust God,” he said. (Reuters/Mission Network News)

* HCJB World Radio works in partnership with ELWA, a radio ministry founded by SIM in Monrovia in 1954. Liberian staff members at the station and the ELWA hospital are committed to maintaining their operations as long as possible, but late last week the station was forced off the air after the diesel generator ran out of fuel. Many Christians from SIM-related churches have been deeply affected by the refugee crisis. Some of the pastors and others from the affected areas are seeking shelter at the ELWA compound. The staff is working to locate fuel in the city, but conditions are “extremely difficult.” The station will be off the air until more fuel becomes available. ELWA had been destroyed twice by civil war, first in 1990 and again in 1996. The station went back on the air in 1997 with a small FM transmitter. Then in 2000 HCJB World Radio provided a low-power shortwave transmitter, again enabling the station to cover the region. ELWA broadcasts the gospel in 10 languages and plans to add more as resources become available.

CHINESE POLICE USE LURE OF REGISTRATION TO ARREST CHURCH LEADERS Church leaders in southern China’s Yunnan province were thrilled when police said they could get government registration for their church group. The group had sought registration, giving legal sanction to their church meetings since the Chinese government changed the church registration law in 1994. They were told to bring their leaders to a meeting to sign the needed documents, but when 12 leaders arrived, officers of the Public Security Bureau, the Court Marshall’s office and the prosecutor’s office awaited them. The 12 were arrested without warrants or required documentation. “Police say these are lawbreakers,” said a church spokesman. “But this clearly shows that these are patriotic citizens trying to follow their country’s laws if they can do so in good conscience.” Eight of the leaders were sentenced to three years of “re-education through labor.” This sentence can be given in China without filing formal charges or a formal trial. The other four leaders were indicted and held for trial, which means they could face even stiffer sentences. During a 1997 anti-cult campaign, eight of the group’s leaders were sent to a labor camp. Some were put on public display where police encouraged passersby to spit on them. “This is business as usual for the underground church in China,” said the church spokesman. (Religion Today)

3 CHRISTIAN WORKERS IN NEPAL RELEASED AFTER 4 MONTHS OF JAIL Three Nepali Christian workers who were jailed four months ago were released on June 20. The three had been on their way to visit a Christian family in Pyuthan district when they were stopped and interrogated by police. After finding Bibles and other Christian literature in their bags, the police arrested them on charges of carrying Christian literature, preaching Christianity and attempting to convert others to Christianity. The believers never denied their Christian faith throughout their hearings, but they denied ever attempting to force others to become Christians — a crime in Nepal. False witnesses were brought forward during their trials in an effort to condemn them. The three workers faced three to six years in prison. Fellow believers appealed the case to a higher court which overturned the lower court’s decision and order the believers’ release immediately without bail. The Christians are now with their wives and children, yet their ordeal has not ended. They must still report to the district court for the next few months until their release becomes permanent. (Missions Insider Report)

SLOVAKIA’S RELIGION LAW HINDERS REGISTRATION OF NEW CHURCHES Leaders of smaller Protestant churches along with Muslims and Hare Krishna devotees are complaining about a provision in Slovakia’s law that renders new religious communities with less than 20,000 members ineligible to gain legal status as religious communities. “Unregistered communities have no legal status and cannot build places of worship,” said Jan Juran, director of the Culture Ministry’s church affairs office. Martin Huncar, assistant pastor of the Word of Life Church in Bratislava, says his church has not tried to register as a religious community because he knows it will be refused. “Of course we want registration, we want our normal rights,” he said. “But with only about 100 members we don’t have enough people.” Huncar said the church has been forced to register with the Interior Ministry as an organization conducting social work and Christian work with young people. “We cannot have the word ‘church’ in our legal documents, but this is wrong,” he said. “Spiritually we are a church.” Without registration the church cannot conduct legally valid weddings or funerals and is not allowed to work in schools or prisons. All churches started in Slovakia since 1990 have had trouble obtaining registration, but some of those denied this status are much older, including the Nazarene Church. (Forum 18 News Service)

PASTORS URGE KENYA’S EX-PRESIDENT TO ADDRESS CORRUPTION CHARGES Church leaders in Kenya are urging former president Daniel arap Moi to appear before a corruption regulator, the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission (KACC), to answer questions on his involvement in a bank scandal centering on state funds when he was in power. Euro Bank, a small local bank, collapsed in February, taking with it public funds worth the equivalent of $24 million. Francis Chahonyo, a former Kenya Postal Corporation director, told the anti-corruption court last week that he was ordered by Moi to deposit the money in the bank. The anti-corruption police have since asked Moi to record a statement on this allegation, triggering protests. Anglican Archbishop Benjamin Nzimbi appealed to Moi to appear before the commission to prove his innocence. “Leaders have responsibilities when they hold office,” said Nzimbi. “The president should come forward to explain, the same way a father would do to his children.” But the leader of the parliamentary opposition, Uhuru Kenyatta of the Kenya African National Union (KANU) has urged Moi not to record any statement with the police. “We are upset by the way the government is tormenting the former president,” he told a press conference on June 19 in Nairobi. The government has held its stance that the former president should make a statement to clear his name of alleged corruption during his 24 years of rule. (Episcopal News Service)

NEWSPAPERS IN INDIA BEGIN REPORTING ATTACKS AGAINST CHRISTIANS Two major newspapers in India are reporting on the escalating persecution of Christians in that predominately Hindu nation. Mission India, a Michigan-based ministry that supports more than 500 Christian workers, says newspapers have documented about 50 attacks against Christians in the southern Indian state of Karnataka alone. Until recently, attacks against Indian believers had gone mostly unreported in the secular press. Incidents involving Mission India’s workers are continuing at a rate of one or two a month. (Mission Network News)

THOUSANDS OF AFRICAN CHURCH LEADERS TO MEET IN HISTORIC GATHERING Thousands of church leaders representing dozens of denominations will meet in Pretoria, South Africa, July 7-11, to address serious problems affecting the region. Called the South African Christian Leadership Assembly (SACLA), participants from all sectors of society and the church will look at ways of tackling HIV/AIDS, crime, violence, poverty, unemployment, racism, sexism and the family crisis. SACLA, a joint project of the South African Council of Churches, the Evangelical Alliance of Southern Africa and African Enterprise, will emphasize interaction and cooperation among Christians of different denominations, races and professions. SACLA promises to make history as the most denominationally representative church assembly ever held in South Africa, and possibly even Africa. (SACLA)

* HCJB WORLD RADIO AIRS FINAL RUSSIAN PROGRAM FROM QUITO After 62 years of Christian Russian broadcasts from HCJB World Radio in Quito, Ecuador, the final program aired at 11:30 p.m. EDT Saturday and Sunday, June 28-29. Peter Deneyka produced the first Christian Russia radio program that aired via shortwave from Radio Station HCJB, the Voice of the Andes, in March 1941. Three months later the station began broadcasting regular programs in Russian.

The first missionary to broadcast regularly in Russian was Constantine Lewshenia. He and his wife, Elizabeth, worked with Slavic Gospel Association for nearly 60 years, serving many years in Quito, and later in Chicago after moving there in 1976, helping produce Russian-language programming that aired from Ecuador. Constantine went to be with the Lord on March 15, 2003.

The final Russian language program to air from Quito was produced in the studios of the Slavic Gospel Association, a mission founded by Deneyka. Elizabeth Lewshenia and Deneyka’s daughter, former HCJB World Radio Russian broadcaster Ruth Petrovna Erdel, hosted the program. Erdel, along with her late husband, Jack Shalenko, served in Russian programming in Quito for many years.

While Russian programming is no longer airing from Quito, broadcasts continue to emanate from England on a nightly basis. Staff members in Germany produce the programs and air them from a leased shortwave site in England to Russia, Ukraine and Belarus.

HCJB World Radio’s has shifted its emphasis to preparing and developing a new generation of Christian Russian radio programmers who will carry on the work of broadcasting within Russia and other countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States. HCJB World Radio’s Euro-Asia staff works to train potential broadcasters as well as develop studios and, when possible, radio stations that local believers will operate.

HCJB World Radio also helped to develop and support a 24-hour-a-day Christian programming service in Russian that is distributed nationwide by satellite. It is in Moscow and is known as New Life Radio. (HCJB World Radio)

FREE WORLD WALL MAP: Full-color, 22-inch by 34-inch world wall map. To order, e-mail your name and mailing address to or visit http://www.hcjb.org.

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