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Today’s News Headlines:

ATTACKERS HURL GRENADE AT ARCHBISHOP’S RESIDENCE IN COLOMBIA INNOCENT PERUVIAN CHRISTIAN RELEASED AFTER 8 YEARS IN PRISON RELIGIOUS TENSIONS IN INDIA RESULT IN CATALYST FOR CHURCH GROWTH MISSISSIPPI COURT RULES THAT FETUS HAS ‘PERSON’ STATUS FOOD AID SENT TO HELP 18,000 STARVING ETHIOPIAN CHRISTIANS MINISTRY WORKS TO MAKE IMPACT IN SINGAPORE AS MATERIALISM GROWS

Today’s News Stories:

ATTACKERS HURL GRENADE AT ARCHBISHOP’S RESIDENCE IN COLOMBIA At 8 p.m. Friday, Aug. 22, a fragmentation grenade was thrown at the residence of Catholic Archbishop Antonio Giraldo Jaramillo in Medell ­n, Colombia. The archbishop was not in his residence when two men on a motorcycle threw the grenade that damaged the parking area and wounded two policemen. Jaramillo has called for reconciliation and dialogue, saying, “If someone has something against the church, the best thing would be for us to meet and talk.” Catholic and Protestant churches frequently have been the target of drug cartels and rebels fighting the government in Colombia. More than 38 Protestant Christian leaders and other church members in Colombia have been killed by terrorists this year. (Voice of the Martyrs)

* Together with local partners, HCJB World Radio broadcasts the gospel on FM stations in four Colombian cities. The ministry also continues to air Spanish programs across the country and all of Latin America via shortwave from Quito.

INNOCENT PERUVIAN CHRISTIAN RELEASED AFTER 8 YEARS IN PRISON A Christian widower has been reunited with his seven children after serving almost eight years of a 10-year prison sentence. Julian Jorge Godoy, 42, lived in the small village of Ayacucho in Peru. When Shining Path guerrillas swept into the area and took control, they appointed Godoy as commissariat, a position he was forced to accept or be killed along with his wife and young children. He also had to attend the guerrillas’ ideological meetings. In 1991 Godoy and his family fled to Huamanga. In 1995 a captured Shining Path terrorist accused him of participating in subversive activities. Godoy turned himself in to the police, believing that when they heard his story they would understand. Instead, he was detained for 11 days, tortured and later sentenced to 10 years in prison. The Peru-based human rights organization, Paz y Esperanza (Peace and Hope), took up Godoy’s case and petitioned for an emergency release on humanitarian grounds. Godoy was released this July. In the 1990s ex-president Alberto Fujimori put into place “emergency” terrorist laws designed to eradicate terrorist groups from Peru. He implemented a system of arbitrary detainment and “faceless judges.” Thousands of innocent civilians were picked up by the military or police during this time and unjustly convicted. (Assist News Service)

RELIGIOUS TENSIONS IN INDIA RESULT IN CATALYST FOR CHURCH GROWTH Authorities in India have stepped up security in most major cities following the deadly bombings in Bombay on Monday, Aug. 25. John DeVries of Grand Rapids, Mich.-based Mission India, says the extremist Hindu-Muslim tensions are building. “Christians are the object of hatred of both of these groups,” he said. “In a very real way, Christians in India have two terrorist types coming after them rather than just the one as in some other countries of the world. But these two groups, the Muslims and the Hindus, are also after each other.” DeVries credits the hostilities and the anti-conversion movement as the catalyst triggering recent church growth in India. “The persecution is just like pouring gas on a fire. Where it comes, it makes people seriously commit to Christ,” he said. (Mission Network News)

MISSISSIPPI COURT RULES THAT FETUS HAS ‘PERSON’ STATUS Mississippi’s highest court has ruled that a fetus is a “person” worthy of some legal protections under state law. In a ruling that one of the court’s justices criticized as an attack on abortion rights, the Mississippi Supreme Court ruled Aug. 21 that a Bolivar County, Miss., woman had the right to pursue a wrongful-death lawsuit on behalf of her unborn child. The fetus was 19 weeks old at the time the woman miscarried. The 6-2 ruling means that, under Mississippi’s wrongful-death statutes, fetuses can be included under the definition of “person.” Tracy Tucker sued a car repossession company, a credit union and a Cleveland, Miss., doctor and hospital after suffering a miscarriage in 1997. She alleged that emotional distress brought about by the repossession of her automobile and misdiagnosis by medical professionals led to the miscarriage. The ruling allows her to proceed with her lawsuit. Under Mississippi law, women already had the right to sue for the wrongful death of babies born prematurely or late-term fetuses that otherwise would have been expected to live had they been born. However, the new ruling expands that right to mothers with unborn children that have not reached the so-called stage of “viability,” or ability to live outside the womb. (Associated Baptist Press/Maranatha Christian News Service)

FOOD AID SENT TO HELP 18,000 STARVING ETHIOPIAN CHRISTIANS Open Doors with Brother Andrew is delivering food and other supplies in Ethiopia with the goal of helping 18,000 Christians who are facing severe hunger. If present trends continue, Ethiopia’s food shortage will be worse than the 1984 famine that killed 2 million people. Recent reports put the number of Ethiopians in need of food at 13.2 million. Tens of thousands of children are severely malnourished. Open Doors plans to send three months’ supply of staple grains, wheat, cooking oil and blankets to one of the famine-stricken regions. Leaders and training students in Open Doors’ long-time partnership of local churches will deliver the supplies to ensure that the food reaches the hungriest people. “We are boldly moving forward to help our brothers and sisters by providing food and blankets,” says Open Doors founder Brother Andrew. “We need to meet both the physical and spiritual needs of these Christians.” He adds that evangelical Christians face “persecution in Ethiopia and all across East Africa. This is why we boosted our commitments to strengthen them spiritually this year by providing urgently needed training. We’re also providing Bibles, commentaries, training manuals and other Christian materials. But now we must do more to help their physical needs as well.” (Open Doors)

* Staff members at HCJB World Radio-Australia’s studios record Oromo language programs that are aired to 28 million speakers in Ethiopia and Kenya via FEBA Radio’s shortwave facilities.

MINISTRY WORKS TO MAKE IMPACT IN SINGAPORE AS MATERIALISM GROWS The island nation of Singapore is a well-developed, bustling, economic success story. Patrick Delaney, a church planter with Baptist World Mission, said there is much work to be done for Christ. “We started a church, and now we’re in the process of transitioning by training a national whose been called to the ministry. We’re hoping to turn the work over to this person in about 21/2 years.” Delaney describes the ministry’s biggest challenge as the struggle for the heart. He says many are caught in the grip of a vise made up of religion and wealth. “Those two sides of that vise squeeze the heart and soul of an individual making that heart less and less open to the truth and the light of the message of the gospel.” (Mission Network News)

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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