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Today’s Headlines

VIETNAMESE WIDOWS, PASTORS SUFFER HARDSHIP CHRISTIANS IN KAZAKHSTAN FEAR LOSS OF RELIGIOUS FREEDOMS EUROPEAN UNION URGED TO INCLUDE CHRISTIAN VALUES IN CONSTITUTION MINISTRY TO PERSECUTED CHRISTIANS NAMES NEW PRESIDENT GERMAN MISSION ‘DISCOVERS’ GERMANY AS NEW MISSION FIELD RELIEF OUTREACH SHIPS CONTAINER OF MEDICAL SUPPLIES TO IRAQ

Today’s News Stories

VIETNAMESE WIDOWS, PASTORS SUFFER HARDSHIP Vietnam’s persecution of evangelical Christians has left many widows without support, scores of pastors imprisoned for their faith, and more in great hardship. Christian Aid has received the names of 36 widows who are in dire straits. About 20 of these are from the Koho people group; about a dozen are ethnic Vietnamese; and the rest are from other minority tribes such as the Ede and Jera. Their names are kept confidential for security reasons, but their stories are similar. Many of their husband/pastors were reportedly killed by the government for working for “anti-government organizations of tribal people.” These men left behind congregations of hundreds and surviving widows who are now old and sick. The Montagnards, a tribal group from Vietnam’s highlands, are accused of being traitors to the government because they align with Christianity, a “foreign” religion that authorities identify with their old enemy, the U.S. (Missions Insider)

CHRISTIANS IN KAZAKHSTAN FEAR LOSS OF RELIGIOUS FREEDOMS Christians in the predominantly Muslim nation of Kazakhstan are concerned that they could lose religious freedoms. Bible Mission International’s Mark Reimschisel said there are whispers of a new law on religious limitations where the government would restrict the activities of evangelicals. Church leaders have a goal of planting 300 churches in the region by 2005. Bible Mission International is coming alongside churches to help. “In the reality of day to day living people here have to deal with persecution from their husbands beating them, from their families rejecting them, and a lot of tough things that come with people embracing the gospel in a Muslim country,” Reimschisel said. In spite of all this, the ministry is doing well. Churches are being planted with the help of children and youth ministries. “What we’re proposing is to come in and take 30 of the key youth leaders, get them involved in the discipleship mentoring program and have them work right along with frontline pioneer church planters,” he said. (Mission Network News)

EUROPEAN UNION URGED TO INCLUDE CHRISTIAN VALUES IN CONSTITUTION The vice president of the European Parliament and Christian parties and organizations from nearly a dozen countries have appealed to the European Union to include Christian values in its soon-to-be-adopted constitution, an official said Sept. 13. The plea came after a gathering in Lakitelek (an area southwest of Budapest). “A constitution that isn’t brave enough to refer to its roots would be incomplete,” argued European Parliament Vice President Ingo Friedrich in a statement released by the Hungarian news agency MTI. “It would be a mistake to think of the European community as based exclusively on economics,” he said. Gerard Geijtenbeek, the foreign secretary of the Dutch Christian Union party, said several Christian delegates, who are part of the recently established European Christian Political Movement, are expected to set up their own fraction in the European Parliament next year to counter the European Peoples Party (EPP), the largest fraction. The Dutch official said it was difficult to recognize the EPP as a “family party” amid an increase of recognized homosexual unions, abortions and euthanasia cases. While he recognized that an increasing number of Muslims live in Europe and many churches are empty, Geijtenbeek said it was important not to forget the continent’s heritage. “The historical background of Europe is based on the Christian way. Europe is changing, but if you look to the Christian families, protection of life, responsibility of citizens, the protection of the weak . . . these are all Christian values,” he stressed. (Assist News Service)

MINISTRY TO PERSECUTED CHRISTIANS NAMES NEW PRESIDENT Carl Moeller has been appointed new president/chief executive office of Open Doors USA. Open Doors is an outreach to Christians worldwide who are being persecuted for their faith in Christ. Moeller, 42, who served as a pastor at Saddleback Valley Community Church in Lake Forest, Calif., says he is “thrilled to accept the position.” His ministry began in 1983 when he joined Campus Crusade for Christ International. “My experience with Campus Crusade had a profound impact on the nature of my ministry as well as my personal spiritual development. I gained a world Christian perspective from working with church leaders in the communist countries of eastern Europe. My wife and I found that the church was vitally alive despite decades of persecution and harassment from government officials.” Moeller has a bachelor’s degree in biology from Pennsylvania State University and a master’s degree in divinity from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Illinois, and will receive a Ph.D. educational leadership and policy from the University of Utah in December. (Open Doors)

GERMAN MISSION ‘DISCOVERS’ GERMANY AS NEW MISSION FIELD Liebenzell Mission, one of the major German missionary sending agencies, is discovering its secularized home country as a mission field. In some parts of eastern Germany the percentage of Christians is much lower than in many traditional mission areas in the Third World, said Director Martin Auch. Liebenzell Mission sent out two missionary couples to northeastern Germany, formerly a communist area for four decades. In the new outposts of Schwerin and Neubrandenburg, Christians comprise only 1 percent of the population, 87 percent call themselves atheists, and the rest are nominal church members. With the help of 250 Christian teenagers, the Liebenzell missionaries organized evangelistic outreach programs in towns and holiday resorts along the Baltic Sea this summer. The ministry has more than 240 missionaries in 23 countries. (Religious Media Agency)

RELIEF OUTREACH SHIPS CONTAINER OF MEDICAL SUPPLIES TO IRAQ While the U.S. is asking the United Nations to take a more active peacekeeping role in the region, Christian organizations such as Food for the Hungry are helping with physical aid, said ministry spokesperson Tamara Dutch. “Food for the Hungry has just shipped a container with $700,000 worth of medical supplies that’s being distributed,” she said. “That is our largest shipment that we have given to Iraq so far.” Dutch said the container will help re-supply hospitals. “We have everything from antibiotics to painkillers, gloves, gowns, gauze, oxygen masks and surgical kits.” Two Baghdad hospitals are sharing the desperately needed medical supplies. Food for the Hungry works with churches, leaders and families to overcome poverty by living in healthy relationships with God. (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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