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Today’s News Headlines:

MINNESOTA PASTOR, 2 EUROPEAN JOURNALISTS RELEASED FROM LAOTIAN JAIL 5 MORE UNDERGROUND CATHOLIC CHURCH LEADERS ARRESTED IN CHINA 9 VIETNAMESE BELIEVERS SENTENCED FOR CHRISTIAN ACTIVITIES SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTIST CHURCH MEMBERS IN UZBEKISTAN FACE SUMMONS ADOPTION SERVICE RESUMES MINISTRY IN CHINA AS SARS RISK DROPS 500 PASTORS EXPECTED AT CHURCH-PLANTING SEMINAR IN INDIA

Today’s News Stories:

MINNESOTA PASTOR, 2 EUROPEAN JOURNALISTS RELEASED FROM LAOTIAN JAIL A Lao-American pastor and two European journalists were freed by the Laos government on Wednesday, July 9, less than two weeks after being sentenced to 15 years in jail amid international pressure. Pastor Naw Karl Mua, who lives in St. Paul, Minn., was sentenced with Belgian photojournalist Thierry Falise and French cameraman Vincent Reynaud on charges of obstructing the work of the police and possessing a weapon and an explosive device. People worldwide questioned the charges, suggesting the real reason for the arrest was their plans to report on the Hmong rebels, the remnants of a CIA army that fought communist forces during the Vietnam War. The Laotian government has denied the long-running rebellion exists and describes the guerrillas as “bandits.”

The three men were arrested on June 3 after they were caught in a firefight involving Hmong rebels and villagers in which a guard was reportedly killed. Falise described the two-hour trial in which he was convicted as a “mockery of justice,” the BBC reported. Sodom Phetrasy, deputy head of the Laotian Foreign Ministry’s press department, said the three were released because of concerns expressed by France, Belgium and the U.S. “We would like to maintain good relations with these countries,” he said. While relieved to be free, Mua, who served as an interpreter for the two journalists, is concerned about two Hmong rebels who were arrested with them and are serving 15-year sentences. Phetrasy said the government has no plans to release the two rebels. (Assist News Service)

5 MORE UNDERGROUND CATHOLIC CHURCH LEADERS ARRESTED IN CHINA Five clergy members of China’s underground Roman Catholic Church were detained Tuesday, July 1, in Baoding, Hebei, a city 70 miles west of Beijing. A report from the Cardinal Kung Foundation indicated that Kang Fuliang, Chen Guozhen, Pang Guangzhao, Joseph Yin, and Li Shujun were arrested when they were on their way to visit another underground priest, Lu Genjun. He had recently been released after serving three years in a labor camp. This comes two weeks after yet another priest, Lu Xiaozhou (Bosco), was arrested on June 16 while ministering to a dying Catholic in Wenzhou, Zhejiang. (Voice of the Martyrs)

9 VIETNAMESE BELIEVERS SENTENCED FOR CHRISTIAN ACTIVITIES Vietnam has sentenced nine members of a banned branch of Christianity to 18 to 30 months in prison for their alleged actions against the state. The nine members of the Montegnard ethnic minority founded a branch of “Dega Protestantism,” a type of evangelical Christianity followed by many Montegnards in Vietnam’s central highlands, in April 2001. The Vietnamese government approves a form of Protestantism among the six religions it recognizes, but regards all other faiths as illegal. The nine recruited 70 followers in Gia Lai’s Krong Pa district and were indicted for sabotaging national unity in May 2001 when two of the accused “incited local believers to flee Vietnam and speak ill of the regime,” according to a report the official Vietnam News Agency issued on Wednesday, July 2. The communist Vietnamese government regards “Dega Protestantism” as a rallying creed for Montegnards seeking an independent homeland and has set out to eliminate its practice, Human Rights Watch reported earlier this year. More than 200 Montegnards have been detained in the last two years for participating in protests in 2001. Evangelical Christians have been heavily targeted in the government’s crackdown on indigenous highlanders. (Religion Today)

SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTIST CHURCH MEMBERS IN UZBEKISTAN FACE SUMMONS Members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Nukus (capital of the autonomous republic of Karakalpakstan in northwestern Uzbekistan) who were fined more than two months ago following a raid in February have summonsed to appear at the city court in Nukus July 20. Charges are unclear as Deputy Procurator Sultan Ibragimov refused to say why they were being brought to court again. Religious affairs official Nurula Jamalov said he had told the procuracy that Adventist leaflets confiscated during the raid “should not be distributed in Uzbekistan” but denied that he had banned the Bible, eight copies of which were seized in the raid. In that incident National Security Service officials burst into a private apartment in Nukus where 12 Adventists were meeting and began to search the premises despite having no search warrant. The officials confiscated hundreds of Kazakh-language leaflets and eight Bibles. The church members were later fined the equivalent of $23 each. Officials never returned the confiscated Bibles. (Forum 18 News Service)

* HCJB World Radio airs weekly Uzbek broadcasts to Uzbekistan via shortwave. An estimated 15 million Uzbek-speaking people are within range of the broadcasts. Uzbek is also one of four languages that HCJB World Radio airs to Afghanistan from an AM station outside the country.

ADOPTION SERVICE RESUMES MINISTRY IN CHINA AS SARS RISK DROPS In China the Severe Acute Respiratory Virus (SARS) is no longer causing delays for Bethany Christian Services. Each year the ministry places dozens of Chinese children in the homes of Christian families in the U.S. Bethany’s Bill Blackmire says the China program is back up and running. “In the past two weeks about 30 of our families have received referrals from China and will be traveling in the next several weeks to go pick up their children. On May 15 China suspended giving referrals and invitations for travel to their country due to the SARS epidemic.” Blackmire says placing children in homes is ultimately a form of evangelism. “When a family adopts a child, they cloth the child, feed the child and do all those things, but they also do eternity work with that child, and expose them children to the gospel. Raising them in a Christian environment is just an excellent thing to do with these children.” (Mission Network News)

500 PASTORS EXPECTED AT CHURCH-PLANTING SEMINAR IN INDIA The combined shortage of Bibles and lack of pastoral and leadership training in India provides a fertile ground for cults and false teachings. Eric Vess of World Help says one of the ministry’s projects is to help train church leaders in India. “This November we will be co-sponsoring a conference with a local partner called EPIC in Siligory in northeastern India’s West Bengal state,” he says. “This a strategic area where up to 500 pastors will come to be encouraged and to be inspired and to be taught in church planting and training. A lot of these pastors endure incredible persecution on a daily basis.” Vess says the outreach relies on national partnerships to choose what’s best for local leaders. “Sometimes the training that we provide is the only opportunity that the pastors may have the entire year to meet with other pastors, to be encouraged and to hear someone give them some ideas to increase their vision.” (Mission Network News/World Help)

* 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 HCJB World Radio-Australia’s new shortwave site in Kununurra, Australia.

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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