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Today’s News Headlines:

2 AMERICAN MISSIONARIES, UGANDAN STUDENT KILLED AT TRAINING CENTER MACHETE-WIELDING MOTORCYCLISTS KILL CHRISTIAN WOMAN IN INDONESIA HINDU FUNDAMENTALISTS BURN DOWN CHURCH IN INDIA SAUDI KING ENDORSES HUMAN RIGHTS ASSOCIATION DESPITE CHURCH BAN CHURCHES, MINISTRIES PERSEVERE IN NATIVE AMERICAN RESERVATIONS WORLD VISION TAKES AIDS MESSAGE ON THE ROAD ACROSS U.S.

Today’s News Stories:

2 AMERICAN MISSIONARIES, UGANDAN STUDENT KILLED AT TRAINING CENTER An American missionary couple and a Ugandan student were killed in an attack on a Christian agricultural training center in a Muslim area of northwestern Uganda the evening of Friday, March 19. Warren and Donna Pett of Brookfield, Wis., missionaries serving with Africa Inland Mission (AIM), were teachers at the Evangelical School of Technology, a ministry of Here’s Life, a Ugandan Christian outreach near Yumbe. The Petts, both in their late 40s, had served at the center for about a year.

“The Petts were returning home with some of their students and fellow teachers who were Ugandans when they were attacked by a group of thugs and killed,” said AIM spokesman Paul Gazan. One of the students was also killed while another was injured. A female German development worker sent out by the agency, Christian Co-Workers International in Stuttgart, was unhurt. The bodies of the Petts have been flown to Kampala and will later be transported to the U.S.

Press reports indicate that seven men wearing military-style uniforms and armed with AK-47 rifles entered the school and began shooting and robbing. They also burned buildings and vehicles. U.S. embassy officials say the situation is being investigated, but no arrests have been made. Ugandan army spokesman Maj. Shaban Bantariza said it’s unlikely that any rebels were involved in the attack, but added that investigations are ongoing.

How will this affect the future of the mission work in the region? “Those are questions that we’ll have to investigate and answer at a later time,” Gazan said. “We do have other missionaries in the area, and we have to be very concerned for their safety.” AIM is involved in agricultural training and medical outreach. The attack took place in an area known for its folk Islam where people are “more hardened to the gospel,” he said. (Mission Network News/IDEA/Reuters)

* HCJB World Radio, together with the Evangelical Churches of Kampala and FEBA Radio, broadcasts the gospel locally in Uganda on two FM transmitters. HCJB World Radio also worked with Jesus Focus Ministries to put a 500-watt FM station on the air in Masaka. Programs air in English and Luganda.

MACHETE-WIELDING MOTORCYCLISTS KILL CHRISTIAN WOMAN IN INDONESIA Motorcyclists wielding machetes recently attacked Christians in Donggala Regency in eastern Indonesia’s Central Sulawesi region, leaving one dead and five injured. The evening of Thursday, March 11, four men riding on two motorcycles sped through the Christian village of Maranatha, 18 miles south of the regional capital of Palu, leaving death and bloodshed in their wake. Nuci, a 40-year-old mother of two, died two hours after receiving fatal injuries to her head, neck and back. A witness to the incident described how she heard the roar of the motorbikes, followed almost immediately by a baby’s screams. She ran towards the cries and found Nuci, bleeding to death and crawling towards her baby. The situation in the village is still tense, but no further incidents have been recorded. Hundreds of villagers are now standing on guard with machetes, spears and handmade guns. The dead woman’s relatives have called on the police to respond decisively as they fear that this is the start of another round of anti-Christian attacks. Meanwhile, five suspected members of Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) were convicted on charges of terrorism in Palu District Court Monday, March 15. Three of them, described as key local JI members, were jailed for six years while the others received sentences of three and five years. JI has been blamed for the Bali bombings and widespread church bombings on Christmas Eve 2000. (Barnabas Fund)

* HCJB World Radio worked with local Indonesian partners to establish a local Christian station in Sumba Island. Plans are also being made to establish stations on Roti Island and at Kupang in West Timor. Equipment was sent from the HCJB World Radio Engineering Center in Elkhart, Ind.

HINDU FUNDAMENTALISTS BURN DOWN CHURCH IN INDIA Hindu fundamentalists burned down the Elim Prayer Mission church in Gudiyattam, India, Friday, Feb. 20, following a late-night prayer meeting. Established in 1992 by eight local Christians, the small congregation has ministered in Gudiyattam and many surrounding villages, establishing 17 sister churches. On the night of Feb. 20 the congregation participated in an evening prayer service that lasted from 10 p.m. to 2:15 a.m. After the believers left the church and returned home, the building was attacked by Hindu fundamentalists who set it on fire and let it burn to the ground. The congregation is now holding services in the open air at the site of the burned church. (Religion Today/ International Christian Concern)

SAUDI KING ENDORSES HUMAN RIGHTS ASSOCIATION DESPITE CHURCH BAN King Fahd bin Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia, has formally endorsed the establishment of the National Human Rights Association to promote and monitor human rights in one the world’s most repressive nations. This announcement followed a conference on human rights last October that concluded, in part, that “tolerance of faith is required by Islam which also prohibits coercing people to follow a certain religion.” Saudi Arabia forbids any evangelism, and anyone who converts a Muslim faces jail, expulsion or execution. Even foreigners are not allowed to gather for worship. Since 1992 more than 360 foreign Christians in Saudi Arabia have been detained for gathering to worship privately. In March 2003 Prince Sultan told reporters that Christians are free to worship privately, but reiterated that no church buildings will be allowed. “We are not against religions at all,” he said. “But there are no churches — not in the past, the present or future.” (Voice of the Martyrs)

CHURCHES, MINISTRIES PERSEVERE IN NATIVE AMERICAN RESERVATIONS Ministry isn’t easy on native American reservations in the U.S., but churches and ministries are laboring to make a difference with the gospel. Although the environment resembles that of a Third World country, they say the reservations are ripe for a move of God. Denominations have generally failed on reservations. Statisticians estimate that only 5 percent of native Americans are born again because they tend to be intellectual and philosophical in their approach to God. Evangelist LeRoy Hayes began tent evangelism seven years ago. He conducts reservation revivals across the Pacific Northwest and the Great Plains. He’s learned the obstacles to native ministry and has ideas about how to solve them. “The first obstacle is previous religion,” he says. “The natives have seen different denominations teach them to do it their way. . . . Many are going back to their traditional religions because the ‘white man’s religion’ is all mixed up. The next obstacle is a lack of discipline.” He believes the solution involves erecting two tents — one just for children — and ministry teams from outside the reservation that are trained in inner healing and deliverance and who can stay for at least three weeks. (Religion Today/ Charisma News Service)

WORLD VISION TAKES AIDS MESSAGE ON THE ROAD ACROSS U.S. World Vision continues to rally support in the global fight against AIDS. The ministry’s nationwide campaign is designed to educate communities of how AIDS is devastating families, resulting in a growing number of widows and orphans. President Richard Stearns says the ministry also plans to take that message to the International AIDS Conference in Bangkok this summer. Stearns says there are now 14 million children around the world that have lost one or both of their parents to AIDS, resulting in a social catastrophe. “You can imagine not having parents to raise them and not having any economic means of support,” he says. “Many of them are becoming street children.” World Vision has made it possible for the love of Christ to be shared on a personal level, he says. “People think about this issue and wonder what they can do.” World Vision has launched a program called “Hope Child” that allows an individual to sponsor a child from a high-incidence AIDS community. “The child might be an orphan, but is certainly vulnerable to the circumstances,” he says. (Mission Network News) * * * * * * * * * * * * * 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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