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EDITOR’S NOTE: The Daily Update will resume on Monday, Dec. 1. Have a blessed Thanksgiving!

Today’s Headlines:

ERITREAN POLICE JAIL 18 MORE EVANGELICAL CHRISTIANS AUTHORITIES CLOSE DOWN CHURCH IN HYDERABAD, INDIA EVANGELICALS PROVIDE FOOD AS ROCKETS ROCK BAGHDAD INTERNATIONAL CHRISTIAN EDUCATORS PLAN SCHOOL IN NICARAGUA CHRISTIANS RISK ARREST BY EVANGELIZING CHILDREN IN CHINA 20,000 EXPECTED AT URBANA STUDENT MISSIONS CONFERENCE IN DECEMBER

Today’s News Stories:

ERITREAN POLICE JAIL 18 MORE EVANGELICAL CHRISTIANS Eritrean police arrested and jailed another Protestant evangelical pastor on Nov. 23 in the town of Mendefera, taking him and seven of his church members off to prison. “The police are treating them like criminals,” local sources reported. “They are in prison only because of their faith.” A second new arrest of 10 young women from various Pentecostal churches has also been confirmed this week. The women are all incarcerated at Sawa, a military training camp. Earlier this month, two women were released from the Assab military prison. They had been jailed for the past 21 months. Fourteen other women soldiers, along with 63 men, are still being held at Assab where authorities have used torture, isolation and cruel threats to try to force them to retract their evangelical beliefs. According to lists compiled by local Protestants, at least 334 evangelical believers in prison for their religious beliefs in nine known locations across Eritrea. (Compass)

AUTHORITIES CLOSE DOWN CHURCH IN HYDERABAD, INDIA Police in Hyderabad, India, have effectively closed down a local church, reports Sam Vinton of Grace Ministries International. The believers have been without a place to worship since Nov. 10 after some Hindus complained that they didn’t want a Christian group meeting in their neighborhood. “The police have given eviction orders to our church,” he says. “They have not been able to find any place to rent because, again, the owners are Hindu or they ask for exorbitant prices. The Christians are pretty shaken up. This is the first time that they’ve ever had any kind of thing like this happen to them. They can sense a real persecution.” In spite of the lack of a meeting place, the teams reported that 10 Hindus became believers this month. “The Lord keeps working in spite of this. It’s difficult to sort all this out. All we do know is that the Christians sense very strongly that they are being marked as people to persecute.” (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.

EVANGELICALS PROVIDE FOOD AS ROCKETS ROCK BAGHDAD As rockets rocked several high profile buildings, including the Oil Ministry in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad Friday, Nov. 21, evangelical relief agencies said they will stay despite ongoing violence that already saw a reduction of Red Cross and U.N. staff. The announcement came on a day that 8 rockets fired from donkey carts hit the Ministry and soon after six other rockets slammed into the Sheraton and Palestine hotels, where many foreign journalists and diplomats used to stay. An official of the evangelical relief organization Food for the Hungry said the recent combat activity will not stop their projects. “Food for the Hungry is known for going to the hard places. And, as long as we are assured that our staff or our partners will be safe we will continue to go to these places,” said representative Tamara Dutch. “We have distributed food to families in both Baghdad and Mosul.” Food for the Hungry and its partners have helped a little over 2000 families in the two cities. Baptist and other organizations have also made clear they will continue with relief efforts at a time when church leaders report a hunger for both the gospel of Christ and aid in the war torn nation. (Assist News Service)

INTERNATIONAL CHRISTIAN EDUCATORS PLAN SCHOOL IN NICARAGUA A Christian ministry is helping bridge the gap between the rich and the poor in Nicaragua. Michigan-based Worldwide Christian Schools has received approval to build and operate a Christian school in Managua. The school will serve students in kindergarten through the 9th grade, and will target Nicaragua’s growing middle class. Steven Geurink of Worldwide Christian Schools explains the school’s mission of reaching the middle class, and its unique approach to that goal. “The school is more than just a Bible class every day. It looks at Christian education and the effect of the gospel in all areas of the curriculum,” Geurink says, “and it looks to integrate the gospel of Christ in all areas of science, math, geography and so on.” A ministry spokesman says the school’s approach is “really quite a new concept” in the region’s education system, but he believes it will be effective, especially in targeting a specific segment of society for impact through Christian education. The Managua school is a joint effort with the Timothy Project and Project Nehemiah. Nicaragua’s National Christian Academy will oversee the school, which is expected be built next spring and open by late summer or early fall. (Religion Today/Agape Press)

* HCJB World Radio works with partner ministries in two cities of Nicaragua. Radio Capilla Sin Paredes (Radio Chapel Without Walls) in Managua receives programming from ALAS, the ministry’s Latin American satellite radio network with more than 100 outlets in 18 countries. Staff members from the HCJB World Radio Engineering Center in Elkhart, Ind., also have provided technical help to a station in La Trinidad.

CHRISTIANS RISK ARREST BY EVANGELIZING CHILDREN IN CHINA In China trouble is facing many Christians who want to reach out to children in that country. Johnny Li is with Open Doors with Brother Andrew. They have created a Children’s Bible that is effectively introducing young people to Christ. However, Li says China’s constitution makes this type of outreach difficult. “You can not preach, evangelize or baptize anyone who is under 18 years old. They know that if children know the Lord, that’s dangerous for China. So our guys risk their lives.” Li says the need for children’s Bibles is great. “It’s a beautiful children’s Bible with about 150 stories. Up to now, Open Doors brought more than 1 million of these children’s Bibles to China. But we still have a long way to go because China has 500 million children who are under 18 years old.” (Mission Network News)

20,000 EXPECTED AT URBANA STUDENT MISSIONS CONFERENCE IN DECEMBER More than 20,000 college students, missionaries, and church and campus leaders will gather for Urbana 03, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship’s 20th Student Mission Convention. The event will be at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Dec. 27-31. Urbana Director Jim Tebbe says, “Students in the 21st century will be the greatest missionary force the world has ever seen. Urbana helps students find their place in God’s global mission.” The theme for this convention is “Your Kingdom Come, Your Will Be Done.” “Missionaries don’t advance God’s Kingdom, they reveal it,” Tebbe says. “Urbana will shed a lot of light on God’s global mission.” Dr. John Stott, author, theologian, and missionary from the U.K., will open the convention with a talk on radical discipleship. Each morning students will participate in small-group Bible studies and hear Bible teaching on the Gospel of Luke in the general sessions. In the evening they will be challenged with talks on lordship, evangelism, cross-cultural conversion and missions. During the afternoons, delegates can choose from 300 different in-depth topical seminars and interact with missionaries from more than 325 mission agencies, graduate schools and seminaries. (Assist News Service)

Web: http://www.hcjb.org http://www.beyondthecall.org

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