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Today’s Headlines:

TURKMENISTAN OFFICIALLY OUTLAWS UNREGISTERED RELIGIOUS ACTIVITY 2 EGYPTIAN CHRISTIANS REMAIN IN SAUDI PRISON DESPITE PRINCE’S ORDER TURKISH CHRISTIANS REFUSED NEW RELIGIOUS IDENTITIES MISSION INDIA GIVES HOPE TO VICTIMS OF ABUSIVE CHILD LABOR MISSION AMERICA COALITION NAMES VONETTE BRIGHT HONORARY CO-CHAIR NEW TELEVISION NETWORK BRINGS PROGRAMS TO U.S. PRISONERS

Today’s News Stories:

TURKMENISTAN OFFICIALLY OUTLAWS UNREGISTERED RELIGIOUS ACTIVITY Turkmenistan’s harsh new religion law, which came into effect Monday Nov. 10, outlaws all unregistered religious activity, and a criminal code amendment prescribes penalties for breaking the law of up to a year of “corrective labor.” Turkmenistan joins Uzbekistan and Belarus in defying the international human rights agreements they have signed by forbidding unregistered religious activity. Only Sunni Muslim and Russian Orthodox communities can achieve registration in the country. Even before the new law came into effect, members of various religious faiths in the country have been fined, detained, beaten, threatened and fired from their jobs. Others have had their homes confiscated. Some have been banished to remote parts of the country or deported for taking part of unregistered religious activities. (Forum 18 News Service)

* HCJB World Radio works in partnership with Back to the Bible to air Christian Turkmen programs. Twice-weekly broadcasts began airing from an undisclosed site outside of Turkmenistan in 2001 and moved to daily programming earlier this year.

2 EGYPTIAN CHRISTIANS REMAIN IN SAUDI PRISON DESPITE PRINCE’S ORDER Six days after the third-ranking official in the Saudi government ordered their release, two Egyptian Christians remain in police custody in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Arrested on Oct. 25, Sabry Awad Gayed and Eskander Guirguis Eskander were reportedly accused of establishing a non-Muslim place of worship. The two Coptic Christians were active in a house church of expatriate Christians meeting privately for worship in the Saudi capital. Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz Al-Saud, who holds the titles of second deputy prime minister and minister of defense, had ordered the two men set free on the morning of Nov. 4. The prince was reportedly alerted to the men’s arrest by a written complaint signed by one of their friends, Gamal Ramzy, who declared that the two men were being jailed without a valid reason. After reviewing the charges lodged against the two, the prince issued orders for their immediate release. Family friends in Riyadh confirmed Monday that the two men are still being held. Known for his moderate stance on religious freedom issues, Prince Sultan has repeatedly insisted that non-Muslims living and working in the country have the freedom to worship privately within their own homes, but under the strict Islamic laws followed in Saudi Arabia. Christians and other non-Muslims are forbidden to meet for public worship. (Compass Direct)

TURKISH CHRISTIANS REFUSED NEW RELIGIOUS IDENTITIES Two months after Deniz Kasan and Turgay Papakci said their wedding vows before 200 relatives and friends at the Istanbul Presbyterian Church this summer, the bride’s application to change her religious identity was refused. Her local “population bureau” told her she could not change her religious identity from Muslim to Christian as her new husband had done two years earlier, saying her church was “not recognized as an official house of worship.” Begun nine years ago, the steadily growing congregation has met in the historic All Saints Anglican Church in Istanbul’s Moda district since late 1997. Another new Christian in the church, 21-year-old Beyza Gun, received an identical refusal the same week. The pastor, Rev. Turgay Ucal, responded, “Any Turkish citizen over the age of 18 has the legal right to change his religious affiliation by signing a simple statement to that effect.” Ucal’s congregation has hired a local lawyer to contest the rejection of both applications. (Compass)

* Staff members from the HCJB World Radio Engineering Center in Elkhart, Ind., installed a 2-kw transmitter with local partner Radio Shema in Ankara, Turkey, in early 2003. This was a joint project with Words of Hope.

MISSION INDIA GIVES HOPE TO VICTIMS OF ABUSIVE CHILD LABOR In India where an estimated 11 million children live in “extremely abusive” child labor situations, including slavery, Mission India is bringing new hope. Ministry spokesman David DeGroot says many abused children are attending the mission’s Bible Club programs. “These kind of kids often pop up at our children’s Bible clubs,” he says. “They’re often able to sneak into our clubs in the evening hours. Some of them literally have to sneak in because their handlers — in some cases their slave masters — don’t want to release them, but they find ways to get into our clubs.” More than 3 million young people are expected to participate in the Bible club program in the next year. DeGroot says reaching them is critical. “Almost half of India’s population is now children. You could almost say that India is a nation of children,” he says. “In just a few years they are going to be the leaders of India. These children need to be reached.” In addition to those in abusive situations, India has another 30 to 50 million child laborers. (Mission Network News)

MISSION AMERICA COALITION NAMES VONETTE BRIGHT HONORARY CO-CHAIR Vonette Bright, co-founder of Campus Crusade for Christ International, has been named honorary co-chair of the Mission America Coalition (MAC). The announcement was made at the coalition’s annual meeting in New York last month. She joins Billy Graham and John Perkins of the Christian Community Development Association who are also honorary co-chairs. Her late husband, Bill Bright, served as MAC honorary co-chair until his death in July 2003. In making the announcement, MAC Chair Paul Cedar emphasized that he was “delighted that Mrs. Bright has accepted the invitation to serve in this role. She has been strategically involved in the coalition since the beginning, and her involvement through this position will be significant.” Bright said she was pleased to step into this role because, “To me the MAC is an awesome demonstration of God’s power and His desire that we all work together under His leadership to advance His kingdom.” She added that by focusing on the important biblical principle of spiritual unity, “denominations, churches and ministries partner together through the coalition, demonstrating our response to Jesus’ prayer in John 17 for the unity of believers as a witness that God had sent Jesus to the world.” (Assist News Service)

NEW TELEVISION NETWORK BRINGS PROGRAMS TO U.S. PRISONERS Prison Television Network (PTN) is a new television network designed specifically to help meet the spiritual and educational needs of the growing prison population. FaithTV announced it has entered into an affiliation agreement with the new network in which PTN will be sending FaithTV programming to many of the nation’s prisons, augmenting it with educational and entertaining programming as the network develops. The network, launched Nov. 1, features Christian programming, educational programming, adult literacy courses, GED preparation, college credit courses and wholesome entertainment. PTN founder Buddy Winsett said his first visit inside high-security penitentiaries left him sleepless for months. “They were hungry for the Word of God and rehabilitation in their lives,” he said. “I knew then that I had to find a way to give them a network 24 hours a day that offered education, hope, and above all, Jesus.” The U.S. prison population is more than 2.1 million — a number that keeps growing. A study performed for the Florida Department of Corrections revealed that inmates who attend religious services get fewer disciplinary reports than inmates who do not. Religious programming not only is an essential element to control inmate idleness, it’s a cost-effective means for providing a safer, more manageable environment. (Assist News Service)

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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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