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Today’s Headlines:

CREW PREPARES TO FLY NEW MISSIONARY PLANE ACROSS ATLANTIC TO KENYA ERITREAN OFFICIALS EXPEL CONGREGATION FROM GOVERNMENT FACILITY AUTHORITIES COULD JEOPARDIZE CHILDREN’S MINISTRIES IN KAZAKHSTAN KOREAN METHODIST CHURCH IN MOSCOW MAY LOSE BUILDING SURVEY SHOW SURPRISINGLY HIGH LEVEL OF RELIGIOUS FREEDOM IN MONGOLIA 42,000 CHILDREN IN UNDER-REACHED AREAS TO RECEIVE BIBLES, LITERATURE

Today’s News Stories:

CREW PREPARES TO FLY NEW MISSIONARY PLANE ACROSS ATLANTIC TO KENYA A 14-passenger airplane is being prepared to make a five-day flight to Kenya where it will be used to help spread the gospel to remote people groups and assist missionaries living in hard-to-reach areas. The single-engine Cessna Grand Caravan will join a fleet of a dozen aircraft jointly operated by the Southern Baptist International Mission Board (IMB) and AIM AIR, the aviation support branch of Africa Inland Mission, specializing in logistical and transport support for missionaries in central and eastern Africa. A dedication service for the plane was held in Richmond, Va., Dec. 8. The plane is in Maine being fitted with an oversized fuel tank prior to beginning its long Trans-Atlantic flight later this week.

IMB missionary pilot Chad Tilley, accompanied by pilot Mike Delorenzo and mechanic Barry King, will fly the plane across the Atlantic from Newfoundland through the Azores, Spain, Crete, Egypt and Sudan before reaching Kenya. The plane is a symbol of IMB’s vision to take the gospel to all the world’s people groups, no matter how isolated they are, said IMB President Jerry Rankin during the dedication ceremony. “This plane will expand our range of carrying the gospel to penetrate those areas where even a long, hard road trip could not gain access to the people. It will provide valuable support for missionaries who serve in remote places by bringing mail and supplies, volunteer teams and missionary colleagues to encourage them.” The plane will support some 60 evangelical ministries in the region, flying to places that less rugged, less powerful aircraft cannot reach. The aircraft was purchased jointly by IMB and AIM AIR after five years of fund-raising. (Baptist Press)

* HCJB World Radio has worked with radio partners to install radio ministries in four cities of Kenya: Nairobi, Athi River, Mombasa and Tinderet. Staff members from the HCJB World Radio Engineering Center in Elkhart, Ind., also recently visited Kisumu to survey the situation for a potential radio partner.

ERITREAN OFFICIALS EXPEL CONGREGATION FROM GOVERNMENT FACILITY Authorities recently expelled a large congregation in the Eritrean capital of Asmara from a government-owned complex. The Full Gospel Church’s staff and members were ordered to permanently evacuate the large complex that had served as the congregation’s headquarters and meeting place for the past 11 years. The rented facility accommodated up to 4,000 worshipers. “They were told that as an institution, their church was violating presidential directives, that it was involved in an illegal cell-group ministry,” a local source told Compass Direct. “They were told that the church will not get any property.” Since May 2002 the government has refused to recognize the congregation and a dozen other independent Protestant churches representing some 20,000 members. All have been ordered to close their church buildings and stop both public and private meetings for worship. Meanwhile, all but six of 62 young believers who were arrested and locked into metal containers last August for having Bibles in their possession at the Sawa summer military camp, have been released. The six youths still who remain in jail have reportedly been moved from containers to underground isolation cells, where there is no light, little air and limited food. They are allowed out just once a day to relieve themselves. (Religion Today/Charisma News Service)

AUTHORITIES COULD JEOPARDIZE CHILDREN’S MINISTRIES IN KAZAKHSTAN Kazakhstan authorities are putting pressure on Christians who minister to children, says Mark Reimschisel of Bible Mission International. He said the head of their children’s ministry was summoned and told he didn’t have the right to conduct religious activities outside the church. Reimschisel says a decision wasn’t reached, but he’s concerned. “What we’re worried about in this particular instance and what the legal council has told us is that this could set a very dangerous precedent that could ultimately wipe out existing children’s ministries all across Kazakhstan and other republics in central Asia.” Reimschisel urges believers to pray. “This has sweeping ramifications for what happens the rest of the year,” he says. “The clubs that they have in schools and apartment complexes are primarily AWANA clubs and some other outreach clubs. But this will also affect what they do in the summer and in the fall when they do their camping programs.” (Mission Network News)

KOREAN METHODIST CHURCH IN MOSCOW MAY LOSE BUILDING A Korean Methodist church in Moscow, Russia, may lose its building after the city’s justice department allowed outsiders to change the building’s ownership without the church’s knowledge. On Tuesday, Dec. 9, just three days after the prosecutor’s office dropped its investigation into the disputed transfer, guards loyal to the new “owners” seized the building, although the pastor and some church officials remain holed up inside. “We are staying here round the clock to try to prevent the illegal seizure,” said administrator Svetlana Kim. “But we know they won’t pay any attention to us.” Authorities declined to explain why they allowed the ownership change to happen without informing the congregation. Maksim Zubov of the federal Justice Ministry pointed out that “no one has the right to change the founding document of a religious organization without its knowledge.” Church officials suspect that the problem could be related to corruption among city officials. Bishop Ruediger Minor, head of the United Methodist Church in Russia, said the ” whole thing could only happen because of some (at least silent) support from administrative and other structures.” Kwan Lim United Methodist Church was founded and registered in 1991 and gained re-registration with the Moscow justice department in December 1999. The congregation, which has some 180 members, built its own church in northern Moscow in 1995 with financial support from Methodists in South Korea. Services are held in Russian and Korean. (Forum 18 News Service)

SURVEY SHOW SURPRISINGLY HIGH LEVEL OF RELIGIOUS FREEDOM IN MONGOLIA In its survey analysis of the religious freedom situation in Mongolia, Forum 18 News Service found a surprisingly high degree of religious freedom in the country. Observers say this may be because Mongolia has only one paid official dealing solely with religious issues instead of an extensive state bureaucracy. However, Protestants said there are incidents of unregistered churches being threatened or fined as well as a widespread tendency by state authorities to demand random “fines” or “donations,” but this appears to be the action of individual local council members. There is rising social concern about the activity of Christians in the country, particularly due to a belief that they advocate suicide. However, there appears to be less fear of new religious influences in Mongolia than in surrounding countries. Protestants report few obstructions to their social ministry in state institutions such as prisons, children’s homes or hospitals once local officials are familiar with their work. Mongolia’s 1993 law on religion limits the number of Buddhist monasteries and monks, bans the organized introduction of foreign religions, and gives the state preference for Buddhism. However, these measures reportedly are not enforced, and registration is not compulsory for religious organizations. (Forum 18 News Service)

42,000 CHILDREN IN UNDER-REACHED AREAS TO RECEIVE BIBLES, LITERATURE The International Bible Society expects to distribute 42,000 Bibles and copies of Christian literature this fiscal year to children who might never hear about Jesus otherwise. The teams work in Kyrgyzstan, Romania, Serbia and Slovakia. IBS recently launched a project that encourages North American children to purchase copies and then pray for children in Eastern Europe who receive Bibles via the ministry. In Kyrgyzstan, a predominantly Muslim country, IBS will provide 3,000 My First Bibles with Kyrgyz, Russian and English text on each page. In Romania, IBS teams will distribute 13,500 Romanian translations of Jesus: The Story of His Life Gospels of Mark and 9,500 God’s Big Story books to orphans. In Serbia the ministry will hand out 6,000 Serbian My First Bibles to orphans and refugee children. IBS will also give 5,000 Slovakian copies of Jesus: The Story of His Life to orphans, and another 5,000 to children of prison inmates. (Mission Network News)

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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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