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Today’s News Headlines:

CHRISTIAN PAKISTANI WOMAN WINS DIVORCE 5 YEARS AFTER KIDNAPPING PRESBYTERIANS TO LAUNCH SECOND PROBE OF MISSIONARY CHILDREN ABUSE SERBIAN BISHOP JAILED FOR 5 DAYS AFTER CONTROVERSIAL BAPTISM RELIGIOUS FREEDOMS MAY SUFFER IN WAR ON TERRORISM, SPEAKERS WARN PARTNERS LAUNCH 2 NEW SHORTWAVE PROGRAMS IN EGYPT, ERITREA MINISTRY THRIVES IN VIETNAM DESPITE ONGOING PERSECUTION

Today’s News Stories:

CHRISTIAN PAKISTANI WOMAN WINS DIVORCE 5 YEARS AFTER KIDNAPPING Five years after she was kidnapped, sold and forcibly married to a Muslim stranger, a young Pakistani Christian woman has won legal divorce from the man. In a landmark decision, the Lahore Family Court granted Maria Samar John formal dissolution of her 1998 marriage to Abdul Ghaffar. Now 23, she was only 17 when she was tricked by a Muslim relative to leave her home in Lahore. She was locked into a room by herself for five months, until the day armed men arrived with a stranger she realized was to be her bridegroom. The man, Ghaffar, paid John’s kidnapper the equivalent of $2,000, and a wedding ceremony was performed. In September 1999, pregnant at the time, she managed to find a house key and escape Ghaffar’s home with the couple’s baby son. Her divorce suit, aided by the Lahore-based Center for Legal Aid Assistance and Settlement, took 26 months to resolve. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan reports that 226 underage girls were kidnapped in Punjab province in 2001 under similar circumstances. Only 12 were recovered and returned to their families. (Compass)

PRESBYTERIANS TO LAUNCH SECOND PROBE OF MISSIONARY CHILDREN ABUSE The Presbyterian Church (USA) will launch a probe to investigate abuse allegations from Egypt and Cameroon. The church’s General Assembly Council authorized the investigation last month. The panel, which will continue its work through 2009, will investigate alleged abuse against missionary children at the American Presbyterian Mission in Alexandria, Egypt, between 1950 and 1980, and at the Hope School in Elat, Cameroon, in the 1960s. “We want to be part of the healing for anyone who has already had something happen to them that shouldn’t have happened, but we also want to prevent something from happening again,” said Rev. Marian McClure, director of the church’s worldwide ministries division. The panel would only handle abuse claims against former church employees. Any charges that are filed against current employees would be handled in a separate process. The panel was called because the allegations in Egypt and Cameroon were beyond the scope of a 173-page report issued last October that unearthed abuse at a missionary school in the Congo. That report found 48 separate incidents of abuse involving at least 22 women and girls. (Religion News Service)

SERBIAN BISHOP JAILED FOR 5 DAYS AFTER CONTROVERSIAL BAPTISM Bishop Jovan Vranisskovski of the Serbian Orthodox Church was arrested in Bitolj, Macedonia, on Sunday, July 20, where he was trying to baptize a grandchild of his sister in a Macedonian Orthodox Church. He was prevented from doing so and then arrested and sentenced to five days solitary confinement. Relatives and co-workers of Vranisskovski are concerned about his medical condition, claiming that he was brutally arrested and physically molested afterwards. “The Macedonian government has no links with the church canonical issues or disputes in this regard,” said Mirjana Konteska of the Macedonian Ministry of the Interior. “To our knowledge, Mr. Vranisskovski was defrocked from the Macedonian Orthodox Church three weeks ago and thus has no legal rights to perform religious rites in religious sites. The priests in the church called the police with charges of disturbing public peace and order. He resisted an officer, and after arrest he, and his party, were brought before a magistrate judge who sentenced him to five days in prison for disturbance of public peace and order and resisting a police officer.” (Forum 18 News Service)

RELIGIOUS FREEDOMS MAY SUFFER IN WAR ON TERRORISM, SPEAKERS WARN Main speakers at an international conference on Freedom of Religion or Belief, July 17-18, stressed the importance of respecting religious freedom while fighting terrorism. “The threat of terrorism must not be used as an excuse to infringe on the right of individuals and groups to freely choose and manifest their religion or belief,” said Ambassador Christian Strohal, director of the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). Jonathan Gallagher, deputy secretary general of the International Religious Liberty Association, added that he is “highly concerned at recent developments in many nations that have reduced religious freedom in the name of national security. The rise in religious intolerance and discrimination must be combated, for the risk of destabilization and inter-religious violence is grave when the religious beliefs of faith communities are disregarded.” More than 200 delegates representing 55 European and Central Asian countries attended the conference. (Adventist News Network)

PARTNERS LAUNCH 2 NEW SHORTWAVE PROGRAMS IN EGYPT, ERITREA The Voice of the Martyrs and High Adventure Gospel Communication Ministries recently launched two new shortwave radio programs into Egypt and Eritrea. “The Road to Emmaus,” an Arabic program, is being broadcast into Egypt at 10:45 a.m. (local time) each Friday on the shortwave frequency of 17595 kHz. “The Voice of Light” program airs to Eritrea at 8 p.m. Tuesdays on the frequency 13810 kHz. Local pastors in Canada produce both programs. “We are so pleased to have a significant role in these programs,” says Glenn Penner, communications director for the Voice of the Martyrs. “Both programs are meeting a vital need in their respective countries. ‘The Road to Emmaus’ presents the gospel in a way accessible and understandable to Egyptian Muslims while ‘The Voice of Light’ is more directed to encouraging Eritrean evangelicals who are being persecuted for their faith; Half of this program consists of dramatic readings of our best-selling book, ‘Jesus Freaks.'” (Voice of the Martyrs)

MINISTRY THRIVES IN VIETNAM DESPITE ONGOING PERSECUTION Recent reports from Vietnam have confirmed longstanding worries about religious liberty in this country as new converts face discrimination and government surveillance. In spite of this situation, at least one ministry in the country is thriving. Stephanie Tebow of Educational Services International explains through teaching, staff members have opportunities to address students’ deeper questions. “Our students begin to question and ask, ‘Why are you a Christian?’ and ‘I see the difference between your life and mine. I want to know more about this Jesus Christ that you have in your life.’ What happens next really depends on where they live,” she said, referring to the persecution of believers. Tebow urges believers to pray “that our people will be given greater access, that there will be less suspicion and that our efforts to witness a lifestyle and to stand with and partner with other Christians would grow.” (Mission Network News)

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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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