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Today’s Headlines:

2 AUSTRALIAN PASTORS TAKEN TO COURT FOR CRITICIZING ISLAM YOUTHS ARRESTED, SATANISTS BLAMED FOR DAMAGING SERBIAN CEMETERY SATELLITE TV INCREASINGLY USED TO SHARE GOSPEL IN IRAQ CHRISTIAN FARSI TV PROGRAMS ENCOURAGE IRANIAN BELIEVERS SCOTTISH MAN APPOINTED AS SIM’S INTERNATIONAL DIRECTOR INDONESIAN TRANSLATION OF NEW TESTAMENT COMPLETED

Today’s News Stories:

2 AUSTRALIAN PASTORS TAKEN TO COURT FOR CRITICIZING ISLAM Two Australian pastors could receive “significant fines” if found guilty of committing “blasphemy” against Islam. The Barnabas Fund reported that pastors Danny Nalliah and Daniel Scot were taken to court by the Islamic Council of Victoria and three Australian Muslims after making critical statements about Islam on a website and at a Christian seminar in March 2002. The case is due to be heard by a court in the state of Victoria in southeastern Australia later this month. Nalliah and Scot are accused of violating the Victorian Racial and Religious Vilification Act, passed in 2001 to promote intercultural and interfaith harmony in Victoria. The result of the case could have ramifications in other parts of Australia and beyond. Christians in Victoria fear that the Islamic Council is using the case to stifle all criticism of Muslims. Similar legislation against religious “hate speech” is before the parliaments in New Zealand and the U.K., raising concerns that misuse of such laws could hamper free speech. (Charisma News Service/Barnabas Fund)

YOUTHS ARRESTED, SATANISTS BLAMED FOR DAMAGING SERBIAN CEMETERY Serbian police have arrested two youths suspected of desecrating a Catholic cemetery in the northern Serbian town of Novi Sad. The two suspects, a boy and a girl from a local school, destroyed some 80 headstones in the cemetery early Sunday, Sept. 28. The Beta news agency quoted Novi Sad Police Chief Bosko Arsenijevic as saying the two were under the influence of a “large quantity of alcohol.” While he ruled out any “political or religious motives,” police officials and leaders of the estimated 300,000 ethnic Hungarians in Serbia’s Vojvodina province blamed the attack on a “Satanist cult” as tombstones were shattered and crosses pulled out and stuck upside-down. Government officials suggested the latest violence showed a deeper spiritual problem in Serbia. “The violence and intolerance are signs of lack of any faith or morals, regardless of the perpetrators’ religious affiliation,” said the Serbian Ministry of Religion in a statement. (Assist News Service)

SATELLITE TV INCREASINGLY USED TO SHARE GOSPEL IN IRAQ Satellite television is being used to help spread the gospel in Iraq, says a staff member with SAT-7, a Christian Arabic television network for the Middle East and North Africa. He recently returned from a trip to Iraq where he noticed people putting up satellite dishes — something that had been illegal under the former regime. Some believers are recording programs delivered by SAT-7 and distributing them to people who have little or no other access to Christian materials. Iraqi Christians are requesting prayers for security and stability in their country and continued freedom to pick up the Christian broadcasts via satellite. (Mission Network News)

* HCJB World Radio reaches across North Africa, the Middle East and Europe with Christian Arabic programming aired via shortwave, satellite and local stations. The Radio Al Mahabba (Radio Love) Arabic satellite network airs programs direct-to-home 24 hours a day. This region has the world’s highest concentration of personal satellite dishes.

CHRISTIAN FARSI TV PROGRAMS ENCOURAGE IRANIAN BELIEVERS Christians television programs that began airing to Iran in the Farsi language a year ago have sparked numerous e-mails, letters and telephone calls from viewers, telling how they’ve been encouraged by the broadcasts. “I thank God for your beautiful program, which is broadcast every week for us” wrote one viewer. “It brings us happiness and joy to our hearts.” Iranian Christian Broadcasting (ICB) went on the air last September, culminating a decade of prayer. ICB is on the air six hours a week to an estimated 175,000 Christians who live in or near Iran. As broadcast hours expand, so is the number of programs being produced by ICB. This month a new Christian drama with a humorous touch called “White as Snow” was launched. A new young people’s program, “Youth Caf © Net,” that began airing in July has been well received. ICB is an independent television service for the Christians of Iran. (Iranian Christian Broadcasting)

* HCJB World Radio, in cooperation with FEBA Radio, broadcasts weekly Christian programs to Iran via shortwave in the Luri language. There are less than 100 known believers among the 4 million Luri speakers.

SCOTTISH MAN APPOINTED AS SIM’S INTERNATIONAL DIRECTOR Malcolm McGregor, director of SIM’s U.K./Northern Europe office, has been named the ministry’s international director. He will take office on Dec. 19 when Jim Plueddemann steps down after 10 years in the position. McGregor, an architect, and his wife, Liz, a musician, are both Scottish. Their initial association with SIM came in Nigeria where they were employed in their respective professions. After meeting some SIM missionaries they became increasingly involved in discipleship ministries and eventually joined the ministry as affiliates. They served with SIM in Ethiopia for 11 years in architectural design, management, music and discipling young people. The McGregors moved to the U.K. office in 1996 as Malcolm rebuilt the leadership team and moved the office to a strategic location. He also restructured many procedures and administrative functions, initiated a new discipleship/missions training program for young people, and designed and implemented ways to engage the local church in world missions. Malcolm says his desire is to see SIM become both “a church-planting movement and a mission-planting movement that embraces its founding principles of faith and risk, sacrifice, courage and calling and endurance.” Plueddemann will become a professor of missions and chair of the Intercultural Studies Department at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Ill., in January 2004. (SIM)

INDONESIAN TRANSLATION OF NEW TESTAMENT COMPLETED World Bible Translation Center’s Roger Massey says a ministry team has completed a translation of the Indonesian New Testament and is preparing to go to press. “Our first-run printing will be 2,500 copies, and those copies will all go to Indonesian church leaders,” says Massey. A second-run printing of 50,000 copies is earmarked for Jakarta. He urges believers to pray about the situation in Indonesia as Muslim extremists continue to persecute Christians in parts of the country. “Pray for a hedge of protection around those Christians who live in high-risk areas,” he said. “Pray for those who live out their faith, and pray that the examples of their lives would be reason enough for people to turn to the Son of God.” (Mission Network News)

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

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