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Today’s News Headlines:

LIBERIANS FLOCK TO CHURCHES AS FIGHTING SPREADS IN CAPITAL CHINESE POLICE RAID HOUSE CHURCH, ARREST 3 LEADERS CHURCHES URGE U.S. TO LIST INDIA AS ‘COUNTRY OF PARTICULAR CONCERN’ 2 BRAZILIANS CONVICTED OF HATE CRIME FOR EVANGELIZING SPIRITISTS MIDDLE EAST PEACE GROUP TO HOLD FIRST-EVER YOUTH CAMP SIM PARTNERS LAUNCH HOSPITAL CHAPLAINCY TRAINING IN NIGERIA

Today’s News Stories:

LIBERIANS FLOCK TO CHURCHES AS FIGHTING SPREADS IN CAPITAL As fighting rages in the Liberian capital of Monrovia, neighboring West African countries are readying peacekeepers. The deployment means a reinforcing strength behind the ouster of Liberian President Charles Taylor. Evangelical Baptist Mission’s Doug Boisvert says he hopes the crisis will end soon. “With everybody shifting around so much, it’s been hard to know even where everybody is [so we can work with local churches] to provide some assistance.” While the precarious political situation worsens, people are flocking to local churches in search of hope, Boisvert says. “Churches are being swamped by people who just don’t know what to do, and what they’re going to find when they return to their homes. So ministry is going on . . . they’re just making do with what they have.”

In recent developments, artillery shells crashed into the U.S. Embassy compound and refugee-crowded neighborhoods this morning, killing at least 12 Liberian men, women and children and wounding more than 100 people in the bloodiest barrage in days, reported the Associated Press. The onslaught brought new, desperate cries from Monrovia’s trapped people for a multinational peacekeeping force — promised for weeks but with no firm deployment date yet set. “I want to tell George Bush to do something hurriedly, very fast and quickly. People are dying every day,” cried Emmanuel Sieh, 28, who was part of one of the frantic crowds spilling onto the streets in front of the U.S. Embassy following the barrage.

The artillery barrage sent 15 to 20 shells crashing into the neighborhood of the embassy shortly after daybreak. Thousands of refugees have packed into the district, hoping for some safety from proximity to the heavily guarded facility. One shell struck inside the high-walled embassy compound, exploding harmlessly on rocky ground, a U.S. official said. Another hit near two boys who stood brushing their teeth in a yard near the embassy, killing both.

West African leaders have promised a multinational force for Liberia. The U.S. has yet to announce a decision on requests to take part in the peacekeeping force. Government forces blamed the attack on rebels who are fighting to oust Taylor, a warlord-turned president behind 14 years of near-perpetual conflict in the country. He has promised to step down when foreign peacekeepers arrive, but has repeatedly reneged on promises to cede power since June. (Mission Network News/AP)

* More than 1,000 refugees have taken shelter at Radio Station ELWA in Monrovia as the country’s political crisis continues. Despite the unrest, the radio station and hospital continue to operate as long as diesel fuel is available to run the generators. HCJB World Radio works in partnership with ELWA, a ministry founded by SIM in Monrovia in 1954, to air the gospel across the country and West Africa. The radio station was destroyed twice by civil war, first in 1990 and again in 1996. ELWA 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 RAID HOUSE CHURCH, ARREST 3 LEADERS Officers of the Chinese Public Security Bureau (PSB) raided an unregistered house church in Xiao Shan City in Zhejiang province early Sunday, July 13, breaking up a prayer and devotional meeting, assaulting Christians and arresting three church leaders. The raid came at 4 a.m. when Christians were meeting for prayer. One of those arrested was Shao Cheng Shen who helped found the church more than 25 years ago. Two of the church’s leaders, Wei Min Xu and Chong Dao Gao, were also arrested. Police did not offer any arrest warrants or documentation for their actions. The three are being held at an unknown location, and their families had not been told their whereabouts or allowed to see them. Another Christian who was on the PSB’s “most-wanted list” escaped through a church window during the raid and remains in hiding. The church building has been destroyed by government agents three times in its history. But each time the congregation rebuilt the building despite not having government permission. The church is connected with “The Little Flock” founded by Chinese Christian martyr Watchman Nee. An affiliated congregation in Heng Peng Village was also raided during services on July 6 when more than 300 PSB officers and military police demolished the church building. This church also had refused to register with the communist religious authorities. (Voice of the Martyrs)

CHURCHES URGE U.S. TO LIST INDIA AS ‘COUNTRY OF PARTICULAR CONCERN’ Given the climate of increasing violence against Christians and other religious minorities and recent laws that infringe their constitutional rights, church leaders in India have expressed regret about the refusal of the U.S. government to designate India as a “Country of Particular Concern” (CPC). Last March officials in the Bush administration published a list of countries, citing Myanmar (Burma), China, Iran, Iraq, North Korea and Sudan for severe religious freedom violations, but left off other nations where Christians suffer. “We never said there is religious persecution in India, but there have been a number of attacks on Christian institutions,” said Donald D’Souza, head of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India, in criticizing the U.S. decision. In May the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom reported that it was “deeply disappointed that U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell did not designate India, Pakistan, Laos, Saudi Arabia, Turkmenistan and Vietnam” as CPCs. The commission added that there have been “hundreds of attacks on Christian leaders, worshipers and churches throughout India,” and the commission is “increasingly concerned about abuses of religious freedom in India, including the communal violence and killings that took place in the state of Gujarat last year.” (Compass/Open Doors)

2 BRAZILIANS CONVICTED OF HATE CRIME FOR EVANGELIZING SPIRITISTS Two Christians were recently fined the equivalent of $300 each for their participation in an annual evangelistic outreach on the beaches of S £o Paulo, Brazil, reported Charisma News Service. The Umbanda and Candomble spiritist groups sued Baptist pastor Joaquim de Andrade, 41, and Aldo dos Santos Menezes, 33, accusing them of violating Brazil’s “hate crime” law by distributing tracts that spiritists say “disparaged the African goddess Iemanja.” They charged Andrade and Menezes with “inciting evangelicals to commit acts contrary to the liberty of religious belief.” During an April 16 hearing, a S £o Paulo judge fined Andrade and Menezes and warned them that if they did not stop proselytizing spiritists, they would face stiffer consequences next time. “This is a precedent-setting case,” said former Brazilian resident Paul Carden, director of the Centers for Apologetics Research. “If Christians cannot freely share their faith with interested bystanders in a public place without the potential of some punishment under the pretext of having committed a hate crime, then this profoundly alters the spiritual equation in that country.” (Religion Today)

* HCJB World Radio broadcasts the gospel in Portuguese to Brazil via shortwave from Quito, Ecuador, and maintains a world office and radio studios in Curitiba. Portuguese programs, which have been on the air continuously since 1947, generate more listener letters than any language service at Radio Station HCJB in Ecuador. The ministry’s Portuguese programs also air on local radio stations across Brazil.

MIDDLE EAST PEACE GROUP TO HOLD FIRST-EVER YOUTH CAMP A group dedicated to peace in the Middle East called Musalaha Ministry of Reconciliation is making final preparations to hold its first-ever junior high summer camp. “This project began as a conversation between a few youth leaders at last September’s youth leaders’ conference,” said a Mashala spokesman in an e-mail report. “One asked the question, ‘Why don’t we have a camp?’ From that time we have met as a planning committee, recruited a director and camp staff, and coordinated and planned with the staff. Next week the campers will come!” The youth camp will run Monday to Friday, July 28-Aug. 1. Musalaha was founded on the belief that through faith in Jesus, the Messiah, there is hope for a lasting reconciliation of Jewish and Palestinian believers. “We find that it is important to expand our work among young people, particularly in light of the fact that they too are very influenced by the political situation,” the spokesman said. The staff comprises youth leaders and camp counselors from both Palestinian and Israeli backgrounds. “The plan is to put Arabic and Hebrew speaking counselors together in a cabin and at every activity. . . . They are committed to reconciliation and also to sharing the love of the Messiah with the young people.” The program includes Bible teaching, worship, cultural activities, dance, arts, crafts, drama, photography, games and outdoor activities. (Assist News Service)

SIM PARTNERS LAUNCH HOSPITAL CHAPLAINCY TRAINING IN NIGERIA Evangel Hospital and Jos Evangelical Theological Seminary, both related to SIM in Nigeria, are offering their first chaplaincy training module this month. SIM missionary Scott Cunningham in Nigeria has worked with the committee to develop the program — believed to be the first from an evangelical perspective in West Africa. Tim Herron, a hospital chaplain from the U.S., is teaching the pilot course. One of Cunningham’s former seminary classmates, Herron is a survivor of a brain tumor and continues to deal with the effects of the disease and the treatment. Following his recovery, he studied chaplaincy and counseling and founded an organization in Texas named Overcomers. “Tim has a wonderful perspective on God’s purposes in suffering and on life and death issues, which he is communicating to these 10 Nigerian chaplains,” Cunningham says. (SIM)

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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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