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Today’s News Headlines:

* IMPROVING SITUATION IN LIBERIA RENEWS HOPE AS AID SUPPLIES ARRIVE 62 CHRISTIAN STUDENTS IN ERITREA ARRESTED FOR HAVING BIBLES ANTI-CHRISTIAN FORCES IN INDIA TO DECIDE FATE OF LOCAL CHURCH 12 LAOTIAN CHRISTIANS REMAIN IN PRISON FOR REFUSING TO RENOUNCE FAITH COURT UPHOLDS LIFE SENTENCES FOR 2 MEN ACCUSED OF BURNING KORAN COMPASSION INTERNATIONAL EXPANDS OUTREACH TO BURKINA FASO

Today’s News Stories:

* IMPROVING SITUATION IN LIBERIA RENEWS HOPE AS AID SUPPLIES ARRIVE The situation in the Liberian capital city of Monrovia is finally improving, said Rick Sacra, associated director for SIM Liberia, in an e-mail report that arrived today. “Monrovia is at last a basically peaceful city and people are beginning to move around freely,” he said. “The peace process and the deployment of the ECOMIL (peacekeeping) troops are reported to be moving on slowly but surely. Displaced people on the eastern side of Monrovia at the Sports Complex and the Kendeja Culture Center (both sites close to the ELWA radio campus of SIM/HCJB World Radio) have not yet received any food distribution,” but these are expected to begin next week.

Fuel continues to be a concern in the city with gasoline selling at “anywhere from $5 to $10 a gallon,” Sacra said. However, ELWA was able to obtain 1,000 gallons of diesel fuel for its generators and vehicles at the price of US$2.80 earlier this week.

SIM is working to help other ministry partners organize feeding programs for displaced children in the city. “Unfortunately, there are too many kids for us to help all of them in our areas, but we want to do what we can,” Sacra reported. “We have received a pledge of assistance from one organization in the U.S. Programs are getting under way to feed up to 600 children every day after a program of songs, Bible stories and games. We hope this will allow some children to experience God’s love in a very practical way.”

Sacra added that Rev. Do Young Choi, who accompanied him on his trip to Liberia, has been surveying various displaced centers in the area. Choi, along with partners in the Evangelical Church Union of Liberia (SIM-related churches), are assessing needs of the displaced people in Monrovia. SIM leaders are considering the possibility of mission families returning to Liberia sometime in the next month. (SIM)

In recent developments, Reuters reported that Moses Blah, Liberia’s caretaker president, will meet with the main backer of his country’s biggest rebel group today when he visits Guinea as part of a regional tour designed to end 14 years of bloodshed. Blah was due to meet Guinea resident Lansana Conte, named in a U.N. report as the biggest supporter of Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD), the larger of two rebel factions holding about three-quarters of Liberia. LURD fighters have taken shelter in Guinean barracks where they were provided with ammunition and weapons, and Conte’s troops have shelled Liberia in the past. There was no official word on whether Blah, who steps down in October, would raise the issue of Guinea’s support for the rebels during the talks.

Meanwhile, warring factions Thursday named 54-year-old Christian businessman Gyude Bryant to lead the country’s interim government after Blah steps down. The aim of the new administration to be headed by Bryant — as chairman rather than president — will be to end all violence, disarm wild warrior bands, get hundreds of thousands of refugees home, and hold elections in 2005. “My top priority will be to heal the pain, the hurt and the wounds that we have accumulated over the years,” Bryant said. He is a key figure in the Episcopal Church, one of Liberia’s main religious denominations. He had urged Taylor to step down, but at the same time has been critical of the rebels. “Being a God-fearing person, he will take care of us,” said Joseph Tarplah, a soldier who has not been paid for 15 months in the battle-scarred capital of Monrovia.

Associated Press also reported that a military plane carrying delegates of Liberian peace talks collapsed on its wheels and skidded across the tarmac as it took off from Ghana on Thursday, officials said. No one was hurt. Airport workers, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the plane was badly overloaded with goods that delegates and others had bought in Ghana. “We are all fine,” said George Doweh, a Liberian journalist who had been aboard the plane. “There is no serious problem, but there is shock.”

Liberia’s bloodshed started with a civil war triggered by Liberia’s former president, Charles Taylor, in 1989 and has spread chaos throughout the region, spilling into Sierra Leone, C ´te d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast) and Guinea. Liberia has accused C ´te d’Ivoire President Laurent Gbagbo of backing a second rebel faction, known as Model, and Sierra Leone of sending supplies to LURD. Taylor, now exiled in regional powerhouse Nigeria, also meddled in wars in neighboring countries.

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. ELWA is broadcasting a message of hope on a limited schedule as diesel fuel is available to operate its generators. (HCJB World Radio/SIM/Reuters/AP)

62 CHRISTIAN STUDENTS IN ERITREA ARRESTED FOR HAVING BIBLES More than 60 teenage Eritrean students caught with Bibles at a compulsory military training camp have been arrested and subjected to severe punishment in the past two days. Documented reports from the tiny East Africa nation confirm that military commanders at the Sawa Military Training Camp ordered a search of students’ personal effects. On Tuesday, Aug. 19, they confiscated Bibles from 35 Protestant students, put them under arrest and subjected them to severe torture. The following day another 27 teenage believers were incarcerated with them. The youths are reportedly locked in metal shipping containers with no light, high temperatures and a limited oxygen supply. This week’s arrests bring to 213 the known total of evangelical Christians known to be jailed for their faith in Eritrea. The 62 teenagers represent most of the country’s 12 independent Protestant denominations which have been refused legal status by the Eritrean government for the past 15 months and ordered to stop meeting for worship. A harsh government crackdown on Protestants was launched last February. The country’s independent Pentecostal and charismatic churches now have some 20,000 adherents — most of them emerging from a mushrooming renewal movement begun five years ago within the Orthodox Church. (Compass)

ANTI-CHRISTIAN FORCES IN INDIA TO DECIDE FATE OF LOCAL CHURCH A Gospel for Asia (GFA) church with 51 believers in the village of Jharkhand, India, is being attacked while anti-Christian leaders meet to decide its fate. Many in the village have expressed their desire to beat the local GFA missionary and the new believers, steal their land and other belongings, and ultimately drive them out of the village. As the village meeting continues, they are pressuring leaders to inflict maximum harm on these believers. Village leaders already have made at least one decision — the Christians must pay a fee to even meet together for church services. GFA missionaries from other villages have traveled there to encourage the believers. This persecution follows the conversion to Christianity of three influential families in the village. (Gospel for Asia)

12 LAOTIAN CHRISTIANS REMAIN IN PRISON FOR REFUSING TO RENOUNCE FAITH A group of 12 Christians in Laos are being pressured to abandon their faith while being held in prison. They were part of a group of 21 Christians from the Bru tribe living in Muang Nong in Savannakhet province of southern Laos. They were imprisoned in May for refusing to renounce their faith. Nine of the believers were later released, but the 12 leaders remain in detention. The district police chief and district administrative head in Muang Nong said they would be released if they signed affidavits stating they would no longer follow Christ or worship Him. However, the 12 rejected the proposal and therefore remain in prison. (Christian Solidarity Worldwide)

COURT UPHOLDS LIFE SENTENCES FOR 2 MEN ACCUSED OF BURNING KORAN The High Court in Pakistan has upheld the life sentences of two Christians, reported the Barnabas Fund, an organization that promotes human rights. The two men, 45-year-old Amid Masih and 40-year-old Asif Masih, who aren’t related, are imprisoned for allegedly burning the Koran. The men had been prosecuted under Pakistan’s “blasphemy law” for supposedly desecrating the Islamic book. The men claimed they were framed as many Islamic radicals are unhappy about the number of Muslims turning to Christ in the region. (Mission Network News)

COMPASSION INTERNATIONAL EXPANDS OUTREACH TO BURKINA FASO Compassion International, a child sponsorship ministry, continues to expand its ministry to the poverty-stricken people of West Africa with a new outreach in Burkina Faso. “One reason was church receptivity,” says Compassion spokesman Mark Yeadon. “As we went in there, we were embraced and welcomed by a ready and willing church wanting and desirous to be able to develop programs for children in poverty. We felt that there was just fertile soil to be able to maximize our impact in a short period of time.” Yeadon said the government was also receptive and allowed the ministry to register. He asks for prayer, not only for their financial needs, but also that God would opens doors for the gospel. “We’re praying for the right staff — a godly group of individuals where we can build our nucleus in order to launch our ministry — and openness on behalf of the churches when we actually get into the logistics of developing programs. We also need wisdom on exactly where to go.” Burkina Faso is the first of several West African countries where Compassion hopes to help. (Mission Network News)

* HCJB World Radio has worked alongside local partners in eight cities of Burkina Faso to help begin local radio ministries. Broadcasts air in nine languages: Arabic, Bissa, Dioula, French, Fulfuld ©, Goulmac ©ma, Kass ©na, L ©l © and Moor ©. Partner stations are being planned for an additional two cities in Burkina Faso.

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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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