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Today’s Headlines:

12 YOUNG BELIEVERS ARRESTED IN ERITREA AS CRACKDOWN CONTINUES EXHAUSTED EVANGELIST LEAVES HUNGARY AFTER NEAR COLLAPSE POLICE OFFICER REAFFIRMS BAN ON UNREGISTERED UZBEKISTAN CHURCH SOUTHERN BAPTISTS TO RESUME FOOD DELIVERIES IN IRAQ AS RISK DROPS U.S. COMMISSION VOICES CONCERNS ABOUT PROPOSED AFGHAN CONSTITUTION RUSSIANS TURN TO MORAL EDUCATION AS POPULATION PLUMMETS

Today’s News Stories:

12 YOUNG BELIEVERS ARRESTED IN ERITREA AS CRACKDOWN CONTINUES Continuing a nationwide crackdown against Christians, police in the Eritrean capital of Asmara have arrested 12 believers who were meeting in a home for worship. Nearly all those arrested were young people and members of the Dubre Bethel Church. The police chief demanded that each of the jailed Christians pledge in writing to deny their faith in order to be released. When the six women and six men refused, the chief ordered that their food rations be withheld. Meanwhile, church leaders have been unable to get information on 57 young believers arrested and locked into metal containers since Aug. 19 as punishment for having Bibles with them during their summer military camp at Sawa. Local authorities also have refused to give any information about the status and whereabouts of 10 Christians arrested in Massawa Aug. 24. At least 230 Christians are in prison for their faith in Eritrea where the government refuses to give recognition to any faiths except the four “official” religions: Orthodox Christian, Muslim, Catholic and Evangelical Lutheran. Some 12 independent Pentecostal and charismatic denominations representing 20,000 adherents have been targeted since May 2002 when they were ordered to close their church buildings and stop all meetings for worship — even those being held in private homes. (Religion Today/Charisma News Service)

EXHAUSTED EVANGELIST LEAVES HUNGARY AFTER NEAR COLLAPSE American evangelist David Wilkerson left Budapest, Hungary, Sunday, Oct. 5, pledging to reduce his schedule after canceling a public rally because of exhaustion. Organizer Attila Fabian, president of the Evangelical Pentecostal Fellowship in Hungary, said the 72-year-old evangelist returned to New York where he lives and leads the 8,000-member Times Square Church. His son, Gary, told thousands of Hungarians at a rally on Saturday that his father “just about collapsed” after preaching on Friday. “My father was so weary and exhausted as he had gotten sick in the last couple of days,” he said. “Back at the hotel he could barely walk.” David’s health problems emerged following a frantic four-week tour that included evangelistic rallies and pastoral conferences in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Belarus and Hungary. Despite the setback, more than 200 Hungarians, including drugs addicts and alcoholics, gave their lives to Christ during David’s last public appearance on Friday. The Wilkersons encouraged pastors of all denominations to renew their faith in Christ and accept the challenges of Hungary’s post-communist society during a three-day pastoral conference that preceded the public events. (Assist News Service)

* HCJB World Radio’s partner station in Oradea, Romania, airs three hours of Hungarian programming to Hungary each week. The ministry also recently signed a partnership agreement with YesRadio in Budapest to broadcast Christian programs via the Internet. The partner ministry also has applied for a local FM license.

POLICE OFFICER REAFFIRMS BAN ON UNREGISTERED UZBEKISTAN CHURCH Anti-terrorist police officer Alisher Kurbanov, who recently banned an unregistered Baptist church from meeting for worship in the northwestern Uzbekistan city of Navoi, has dismissed complaints about the move. “This is not a church at all, just a religious mob,” he said. “Under Uzbek law a church is not allowed to operate without registration, but the Baptists refuse to register.” The ban came after Kurbanov reportedly confiscated books from a mobile Baptist street library on Sept. 27 and threatened library organizer Nikolai Nikulin with criminal prosecution. Nikulin already has served a 10-day prison sentence for his work with the church. The ban on the Navoi Baptist church appears to be the latest move to forbid the activity of all unregistered Protestant churches in Uzbekistan. The Navoi congregation split from the All-Union Council of Evangelical Christians/Baptists in 1961 when further state-sponsored controls were introduced by the denomination’s leadership at the time. The church has refused state registration ever since. It is one of more than 3,705 unregistered Baptist congregations affiliated with the Council of Churches throughout the former Soviet Union. (Forum 18 News Service)

SOUTHERN BAPTISTS TO RESUME FOOD DELIVERIES IN IRAQ AS RISK DROPS Southern Baptists will resume delivery of food packets to Iraq Tuesday, Oct. 7, after a five-week delay due to concerns for the safety of humanitarian workers in the country. The arrival of Southern Baptist volunteer teams had been interrupted after information was received that a remnant of Saddam Hussein loyalists in the country were intentionally targeting humanitarian workers for attacks. The Aug. 19 truck-bomb attack on the U.N. offices in Baghdad marked the first time a non-military organization had been targeted since Hussein’s regime was overthrown in late March. During the past month, however, the vast majority of attacks have occurred after dark and have been directed at military targets. “The threat level has decreased,” said a ministry spokesman. “We are hearing very positive things about foreigners from local people. We will resume volunteer projects focused on the distribution of food boxes. But teams will be smaller with less than 10 people.” Boxes previously delivered in Iraq have helped open people to the gospel with many recipients have been asking for Bibles. A local worker reported that Shiite Muslim mosques in Baghdad held a special day of prayer in appreciation for the food boxes. (Baptist Press)

U.S. COMMISSION VOICES CONCERNS ABOUT PROPOSED AFGHAN CONSTITUTION The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom issued a press release Wednesday expressing serious concerns about the proposed constitution for Afghanistan that could be approved as early as December. The New York Times reported that the proposed constitution would enshrine elements of sharia (Islamic law), including blasphemy, apostasy and other religious crimes. When commission representatives spoke with Afghan Chief Justice Fazl Hadi Shinwari, he told them that he accepted the Universal Declaration on Human Rights with three exceptions: freedom of expression, freedom of religion, and equality of the sexes. He said the Koran is the “only law.” If this constitution is ratified by the grand council, Islamic law could be used to suppress dissenting thought or religious faiths. (Voice of the Martyrs)

RUSSIANS TURN TO MORAL EDUCATION AS POPULATION PLUMMETS Unbridled sexual promiscuity combined with runaway abortion and rampant drug use could mean the end of Russia as we know it today, says Sergey Rakhuba of Russian Ministries. The country’s population is dropping by about 1 million per year as the death rate outpaces the birth rate. Rakhuba says that’s why Russian Ministries is mobilizing evangelicals to get involved in teaching biblical morality. “Young people are very much interested,” he said. ” So our people mobilize local churches who introduce the subject. The Ministry of Education in one region asked us if we could provide enough curriculum to be able to be used in the public schools.” Rakhuba hopes this will help stem a declining population and turn the country to Christ. “If Russia’s population continues declining [at the present rate] and issues such as abortion and morality in the younger generation are not addressed, Russia could be simply be wiped off the globe in 50 to 70 years.” (Mission Network News)

* HCJB World Radio reaches across Russia with a variety of radio ministries. The mission has been sending gospel broadcasts across the country via shortwave since 1941, first from Quito, Ecuador, and now from the U.K. In the early 1990s the ministry began “planting” local radio ministries in Russia and now works with partners in more than a dozen cities. In 2000 HCJB World Radio helped launch the first Christian Russian radio satellite network (operated by Christian Radio for Russia), reaching across Euro-Asia. Downlinks have been installed with more than 26 partners in Russia alone.

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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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