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Today’s Headlines:

22 EGYPTIAN CHRISTIANS BEATEN, TORTURED IN NEW CRACKDOWN COLOMBIAN LAWYERS DEFEND CHRISTIANS ON FLIMSY TERRORISM CHARGES THEFT OF CAR, VIDEO EQUIPMENT DOESN’T HALT MINISTRY IN SLOVENIA ARMENIAN CHRISTIANS IN IRAQ LAUNCH EVANGELISTIC NEWSPAPER ONGOING PERSECUTION IN INDIA BRINGS OUT BEST IN BELIEVERS MYANMAR MINISTRY MEETS ORPHANS’ PHYSICAL, SPIRITUAL NEEDS

Today’s News Stories:

22 EGYPTIAN CHRISTIANS BEATEN, TORTURED IN NEW CRACKDOWN Twenty-two Christians, including many secret converts from Islam to Christianity, have been arrested by Egyptian police and are being “beaten, interrogated and tortured,” reported Barnabas Fund, a group that supports persecuted believers. The abuses began when Christians were taken from Alexandria to police stations in the capital city of Cairo as part of a new anti-Christian crackdown that began Tuesday, Oct. 21. Among the first to be arrested were two converts from Islam, Yusuf Samuel Makari Suliman and his wife, Mariam Girgis Makar. The following day, seven others were also arrested and taken to the office of the attorney general. On Thursday, Oct. 23, that number rose to 22 as other “converts and Christians who have tried to assist them were rounded up and arrested in dramatic sweeps by police.” Local Christians fear the arrests will continue and that many other converts from Islam who have been living quietly as Christians may also be arrested. Egyptian authorities have not yet reacted to the charges; however, hard-liners say they want to rid the country of all “Western” (Christian) influences in the mainly Islamic country where Christians comprise about 6 percent of the population. Officially, the 22 arrested Christians being charged with “falsifying identification papers,” apparently because they changed their Muslim names to Christian names. (Assist News Service)

COLOMBIAN LAWYERS DEFEND CHRISTIANS ON FLIMSY TERRORISM CHARGES The Association of Christian Lawyers in Colombia is defending a pastor and several lay church leaders arrested by security forces near the city of Sincelejo and jailed on terrorism charges. Deivis Manuel Carrascal, 23, pastor of the AIEC evangelical church in Colos ³, was arrested at his home at 5 a.m. Aug. 20. Also arrested were Manuel Monterroza, a Christian school teacher from nearby Chal ¡n, and at least seven other active members of an evangelical church in that village were among the 156 persons arrested in the pre-dawn military sweep. An ex-guerrilla who wore a hood over his head to conceal his identity, reportedly identified the suspects as former comrades in arms. “This man says he trained Deivis to use explosives,” explained a spokesperson from the Sincelejo chapter of the Commission for Reconciliation. “But this was supposedly in 1983. At that time my client was only 8 years old!” The defendants stand charged with rebellion against the state and acts of terrorism, crimes punishable by 20 to 30 years in prison. (Compass)

* 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.

THEFT OF CAR, VIDEO EQUIPMENT DOESN’T HALT MINISTRY IN SLOVENIA A gospel video ministry in Slovenia was helping to organize a pastors’ conference in Croatia last February, and was responsible for the main speaker and the audio/video portion of the conference. The leaders arrived at the conference center early with all their video recording and viewing equipment loaded in their car. After making preparations inside, they went back to the car only to find that it, along with all their equipment, had been stolen. In spite of this, the missionaries were able to share their ministry with the pastors at the conference and still take orders for more than 300 videos. Without a vehicle, however, they would have to cancel their annual summer ministry tour of the churches of former Yugoslavia and would also be unable to move their offices to a new location. As the missionaries began to fast and pray, God provided. A local Christian loaned them his second car so they could make the move to a new office location easily and take their scheduled missionary tour of the Yugoslavian churches. After six months, the stolen car was retrieved. “We have had a fresh experience of how God can help when people get humble and get closer to Him,” the leader said. “When we thought it was over, He took us by the hand and led us further. When we thought it was impossible, He made it possible.” The ministry produces Christian videos in four languages, Slovenian, Croatian, Serbian and Macedonian. (Missions Insider)

ARMENIAN CHRISTIANS IN IRAQ LAUNCH EVANGELISTIC NEWSPAPER Amid hardship and killings in Iraq, local Christians are stepping up efforts to preach and spread the good news of Jesus Christ. Armenian Christians recently launched Norayek (New Dawn), an evangelistic newspaper with Bible-related news stories. “We are issuing it in Arabic so that all Iraqis will be able to read it,” said editor Raffi Karakashian, one of the newspaper’s founders, in a statement. “The Armenian bishop blessed it. I believe one day I’ll see Iraqis more open to Christianity.” (Assist News Service)

ONGOING PERSECUTION IN INDIA BRINGS OUT BEST IN BELIEVERS While anti-conversion legislation has been passed in some states of India and ongoing persecution is a growing concern, Dr. Bobby Gupta of HBI Global Partners says the pressure is bringing out the best in Christians. “We’re seeing the church respond to persecution by saying, ‘If they’re getting on our case, we need to give our lives even more to Jesus Christ so that God can do greater things.’ Never in the history of missions in India, have people been more responsive to the gospel. More churches are being planted, and young people are giving their lives to the Lord and wanting to do more for Him.” HBI is training nationals through the ministry’s Bible institute. “The No. 1 need is for us to decentralize,” Gupta says. Plans are to establish 10 training centers in the next five years at a cost of $150,000 each. Work already has started on four of the centers. (Mission Network News)

* HCJB World Radio-Australia’s new shortwave site Kununurra airs 6.5 hours of daily English programming across South Asia, including India. Two half-hour programs in Urdu, airing Monday through Saturday, went on the air in July, and plans are being made to launch Hindi programs. A radio training center for South Asia has been established in New Delhi. In partnership with FEBA Radio, HCJB World Radio also airs weekly Christian programs to eastern India via shortwave in three languages: Bhojpuri, Chattisgarhi and Mundari.

MYANMAR MINISTRY MEETS ORPHANS’ PHYSICAL, SPIRITUAL NEEDS A ministry in Myanmar (formerly Burma) is finding an open door as it meets the needs of hundreds of needy children in the predominantly Buddhist country. One ministry assisted by Christian Aid reaches out to more than 70 orphans who attend government schools in two separate villages. In addition, the ministry assists 27 orphans who live with relatives. Although they are unable to build enough accommodations to care for so many, they managed to open Christian schools in two other villages where there were no government schools and sent in two teachers for the 117 boys enrolled there. The teachers belong to the local Christian church and conduct Sunday school as well as personal evangelism among the children and their families. When they learned that the families had no anti-malaria medicines and that family members were suffering from the disease, they obtained and shared some of the medicines from one of the children’s homes. (Missions Insider)

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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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