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Today’s Headlines:

POLICE IN AZERBAIJAN BEAT UP BAPTIST MEMBER, CONFISCATE LITERATURE EUROPEAN EVANGELICAL ALLIANCE TO EMPHASIZE RELIGIOUS LIBERTY ISSUES EUROPE LESS ‘CHRISTIANIZED’ THAN MOST AMERICANS REALIZE ECUADORIAN PRESIDENT JOINS 40,000 AT EVANGELISTIC RALLY IN GUAYAQUIL SIERRA LEONE AMPUTEES FIND HOPE THROUGH MINISTRY’S EFFORTS RACE TO SATURATE HAITI WITH GOSPEL BROADCASTS MOVES AHEAD

Today’s News Stories:

POLICE IN AZERBAIJAN BEAT UP BAPTIST MEMBER, CONFISCATE LITERATURE Authorities in Stepanakert, Azerbaijan, recently beat up a member of an unregistered Baptist church and threatened to inject him with mind-altering drugs for distributing religious literature on the street. They also threatened his wife. On Sept. 28 two men in civilian clothes approached Tigran Nazaretyan while he was running a “street library” in Stepanakert. Without identifying themselves, they took several tracts that he had offered them and left. Later when Nazaretyan approached the local Baptist church, police met him and took him to the police station where they interrogated and beat him. They also confiscated all religious literature at the church. Police say these measures are legal under martial law which bans the activity of “religious sects and unregistered organizations.” However, local believers insist that martial law restrictions have ended and “there are no restrictions on the activity of any religious communities.” Other Protestant groups and Jehovah’s Witnesses also have faced restrictions on their activities. A member of another Protestant church who asked not to be identified said his small congregation can meet for worship in Stepanakert, “but only as long as we keep a low profile.” (Forum 18 News Service)

* HCJB World Radio, in partnership with Hosanna and local partners in Baku, Azerbaijan, has recorded the dramatized Azeri New Testament as part of the Faith Comes by Hearing project. The recordings, completed in 1998, have been made into a series of radio programs.

EUROPEAN EVANGELICAL ALLIANCE TO EMPHASIZE RELIGIOUS LIBERTY ISSUES The European Evangelical Alliance (EEA) has set up a special taskforce that is represented in the European Union (EU) to help it formulate a policy on “religious liberty and ethics questions,” the organization reported. The EEA, representing more than 10 million evangelical Christians in 33 countries, made the announcement amid concern among its supporters that the EU constitution would make no reference to God and Christian values. In a statement to following a five-day general assembly meeting in Budapest, the EEA said it had started a “public affairs team with a sociopolitical officer and representative to the European Union. The EEA aims to raise awareness of religious liberty issues and legal position of evangelicals within each country with a view to being able to respond more systematically to increasing challenges in this area.” The meeting in Budapest was attended by about 150 evangelical leaders from 31 countries, including officials from the European Evangelical Missionary Alliance and the Hope for Europe Round Table, an initiative to reach Europe with the gospel. (Assist News Service)

EUROPE LESS ‘CHRISTIANIZED’ THAN MOST AMERICANS REALIZE Mission leaders often face misconceptions by Americans as they work to reach Europe with the gospel. Greater Europe Mission’s Ted Noble says many people believe that Europe is “Christianized” and has already been reached with the gospel, but true believers are few. “Of the 27 countries we work in, 14 are less than 1 percent Christian, and most of those are less than 0.5 percent evangelical. So when you think of Europe, think about the place that actually has less evangelicals than even most of the Islamic countries of the world.” Noble says while older adults have been negatively influenced by the state church, young people haven’t. “They’ve had no contact with the church, so there’s a new openness to spirituality as a whole. People think of Europe as a place that’s burned over with the gospel. The last generation was, but this generation has never been touched. That’s why we’re finding a responsiveness that we’ve not seen since World War II.” The search for spiritual truth is also seen as teens turn to cults, Islam and other religions. Noble says English camps and Internet cafes have been effective in reaching young people for the Lord. (Mission Network News)

ECUADORIAN PRESIDENT JOINS 40,000 AT EVANGELISTIC RALLY IN GUAYAQUIL Ecuadorian President Lucio Guti ©rrez joined a crowd of 40,000 evangelical Christians in Guayaquil the evening of Wednesday, Oct. 22, featuring popular Puerto Rican preacher Yiye Avila. One of Latin America’s most popular speakers, Avila conducted a three-day campaign as he spoke in Guayaquil for two nights and one night in the coastal city of Machala. Guti ©rrez, who became Ecuador’s president last January, arrived at the event with Deputy Ren ¡n Borb ºa and provincial Governor Alberto Merch ¡n amid tight security. After receiving a Bible at the event, the president raised it up and read a passage from 2 Chronicles 1:10 which says, “Give me wisdom and knowledge, that I may lead this people, for who is able to govern this great people of yours?” When he asked the crowd, “Who lives?” they replied in unison, “Christ!” However, some members of the crowd booed the president to which Avila replied, “You elected the president. Instead of criticizing him, you should pray for him that he would do his job well.” (ALC Noticias)

SIERRA LEONE AMPUTEES FIND HOPE THROUGH MINISTRY’S EFFORTS Rebel movements emerged in Sierra Leone in the late 1990s, wreaking terror in the lives of residents by randomly cutting off the hands or feet of thousands of men, women and children. A ministry in West African country, assisted by Christian Aid Mission, is making a difference in their lives. Rae Burnett, Christian Aid’s Africa director, visited the country in 1999 and held a 3-month-old baby whose hands had been cut off. After Burnett’s visit, Christian Aid began sending aid to a local ministry providing food, kindness, personal attention and hope in Christ to some of these amputee victims. “One amputee I met for the first time on the street was a soldier and the very first amputee of the war,” the leader of the local ministry said last week. “His two arms were amputated by rebels. He was sent with a letter tied around his neck from them to the government. When I invited him to our office the next day and gave him a bag of rice, he wept and said that we were the very first people to care for him that much in all these years.” The ministry recently distributed food to 60 amputees and their families who have been unsuccessful in obtaining government assistance. The ministry distributes the food, regardless of the recipient’s religion, while proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ. (Missions Insider)

RACE TO SATURATE HAITI WITH GOSPEL BROADCASTS MOVES AHEAD Through Men for Missions, the laymen’s arm of OMS International, teams are helping with “Operation Saturation,” a plan to give every Haitian household the opportunity to hear the gospel via local Christian radio. The project is a movement to ensure that everyone in Haiti has access to the gospel through broadcasts picked up on fixed-tuned radios. The “Every Creature Crusade” committee met with the ministry leader to see which areas of the country have the least access to Christian broadcasts. Meanwhile, people are responding to the gospel. Thirteen baptisms were held this month as a result of the committee’s outreach — eight at Gaudin and five at Bayeux. Haiti is a country full of turmoil with ongoing political unrest, economic problems and other social stresses. In addition, the government of Haiti plans to make voodoo the country’s official religion by 2004. The next phase of the project comes with the necessary approvals for expanding the ministry of Radio 4VEH, as well as the financial backing for day-to-day operations. The next partner station to go on the air will be on Haiti’s southern peninsula where 4VEH only reaches the coast. A new building for the station has been erected, and radio equipment is en route. (Mission Network News)

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