A ministry of HCJB World Radio

A Ministry of HCJB World Radio

Today’s News Headlines:

CHRISTIAN AID GROUPS TO ASSIST WAR-TORN LIBERIA AS TAYLOR RESIGNS INDIA’S EVANGELICALS CLAIM VIOLENCE IS OFFICIALLY COORDINATED UAE FORMALLY DEPORTS FILIPINO PASTOR U.N. SAYS ETHIOPIA IS WORLD’S GREATEST HUMANITARIAN CRISIS CALVARY CHAPEL BEGINS BROADCASTS IN THE UK MEDICAL VOLUNTEERS TO HEAD FOR AFGHANISTAN

Today’s News Stories:

CHRISTIAN AID GROUPS TO ASSIST WAR-TORN LIBERIA AS TAYLOR RESIGNS President Charles Taylor, blamed for 14 years of bloodshed in Liberia, resigned today and surrendered power to his vice president. It remained unclear when — or if — Taylor would go into exile in Nigeria as promised, and rebels besieging the capital, Monrovia, threatened more violence if the former warlord does not leave the country immediately. Rebels have rejected Taylor’s choice of successor and demanded that a neutral candidate be chosen to preside over a transition government until elections can be held. Pickup trucks full of armed rebels raced toward the front today as insurgents threatened to resume fighting if Taylor stays in the country. While he has accepted an asylum offer in Nigeria, he has hedged on when he will go. As the arrival of West African peacekeeping forces and the first U.S. Marines mark a step toward ending two months of bloody conflict in Liberia’s capital of Monrovia, Christian aid organizations are responding to reports of widespread starvation and disease in the city. “We are heartened by the arrival of the first stabilization force and hope this will finally allow the safe flow of humanitarian aid in the country,” John McCullough, executive director of Church World Service, said in a statement. The humanitarian agency is made up of 36 Anglican, Protestant and Orthodox denominations. Humanitarian agencies estimate that all of Liberia’s 3 million people will need emergency assistance in coming months. The situation in the capital is growing increasingly dire as fighting splits Monrovia into rebel and government sides. “All of Monrovia is generally displaced,” Charles Pitchford of the Lutheran World Federation said in a statement. “All civilian members of Liberian society, high and low, need humanitarian assistance.” Fighting between Taylor’s government and rebel forces has devastated the capital, killing well over 1,000 people and spreading hunger and epidemics among Monrovia’s 1.3 million residents and refugees. (AP/Religion News Service)

* 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.

INDIA’S EVANGELICALS CLAIM VIOLENCE IS OFFICIALLY COORDINATED The state of Kerala in India has been a safe haven for Christians, but the All India Christian Council (AICC) says that a hate campaign has now begun there. “The RSS, a fundamental Hindu group, has had phenomenal growth in Kerala,” said an AICC spokesperson. “Almost every village in the state has a squadron of militant khaki-clad, sword-wielding RSS volunteers who have been indoctrinated to fight against minorities.” AICC revealed that the Rev. T. A. Koshy, General Secretary of the Mar Thoma Evangelical Association in Kerala, made some startling remarks in a recent speech in Tiruvalla, Kerala. He said, “The notion that the Church of Kerala is the driving force behind the evangelical activity in India has gained prominence. As a consequence, the idea that the ‘Kerala Church must be destroyed’ is being secretly propagated. What we see are the organized attempts to destroy the church. It has come to a point that those who wear (priestly) robes are perceived as problematic. The indoctrination now being given even to the children is that Christians, even if they are neighbors, are to be attacked.” (Assist News Service)

UAE FORMALLY DEPORTS FILIPINO PASTOR Following lengthy judicial delays, the United Arab Emirates deported Rev. Fernando P. Alconga back to Manila on July 23, more than nine months after he was arrested in Dubai. “We have a smile on our lips and tears on our cheeks just to be here,” Alconga said in a telephone interview from Manila. The Filipino pastor said a representative from the presidential palace and a TV camera crew met him, his wife and son on the tarmac at the Manila airport. A Filipino pastor living in the UAE since 1994, Alconga was arrested at a Dubai shopping center last November and jailed for “preaching other than the Muslim religion” because he gave an Arab Muslim a Bible. In April, a criminal court found him guilty of the charges, but the presiding judge suspended his one-year prison sentence. After a series of appeals, his deportation order was upheld by the Supreme Court on July 12. Alconga said he believed that his arrest and trial helped unify the Christian community, both in the UAE and internationally. “Since I’ve arrived home, I’ve seen that Filipinos are more aware of the difficulties of Christians in the Middle East,” he said. (Compass Direct)

U.N. SAYS ETHIOPIA IS WORLD’S GREATEST HUMANITARIAN CRISIS Ethiopia is emerging as the scene of the world’s greatest humanitarian crisis. The United Nations says not since 1984 has the food security issue in this area been so severe. Famine response is also falling short, but aid officials say food alone isn’t enough to prevent thousands from dying. Living Water International’s Lew Hough says this is where their work breaches traditional response methods. “Ethiopia is a good example of an area that is on the edge of a really desperate situation. We’re trying to work with other aid agencies and other development groups to go in and begin to provide a large scale source of clean water for some of these areas.” Hough says through their training, they teach the local believers the value of ‘hands-on’ faith. (Mission Network News)

CALVARY CHAPEL BEGINS BROADCASTS IN THE UK Calvary Chapel Radio, featuring Bible teaching and worship music for 24 hours a day, began broadcasting in the UK by satellite at midnight July 14th on Sky Digital 906. This new channel can already be picked up in nine million British homes. Pastor Chuck Smith, senior pastor of Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa, California, in the U.S., said in an interview that he is praying that this new satellite station will bring a “spiritual revival” back to the British Isles. “We are really excited by the fact that we now have ’24/7′ teaching of the word of God and worship music radio station up and running in the UK,” said Chuck Smith. “It s the first all teaching and all worship music station in the UK. I’m just watching and waiting to see how the Lord is going to use it.” (Assist News Service)

MEDICAL VOLUNTEERS TO HEAD FOR AFGHANISTAN Afghanistan is very much on the hearts of a group seeking to help Afghans create a new future for their country. For two weeks in August and September, a team of medical volunteers from Memphis, Tennessee, in the United States, plans to teach in hospitals in Kabul and Herat. They intend to hold a clinic in a village without medical and dental care, reported Cindy Taylor, a neonatal ICU nurse at Memphis’ Methodist University Hospital and a team member. The project is part of an ongoing partnership between medical, education, business, government and church leaders in Memphis and Afghanistan. The partnership was forged in October 2002, when seven officials of Afghanistan’s interim government participated in meetings that focused on the country’s post-war development needs. The “Memphis-Afghan Friendship Summit” (MAFS) resulted in a list of specific ways the Americans plan to help the people of Afghanistan start rebuilding their lives. “One of the greatest needs is for people who are willing to offer their expertise, skills and resources to come and invest in the lives of Afghans,” said Mark Morris, chairman of International Friendship Summits, the nonprofit organization in Memphis that organized the meeting. (Baptist Press)

* * * * * * * * * * * * * James A. Ferrier Web: http://www.hcjb.org http://www.beyondthecall.org