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Today’s Headlines:

MEDIATORS NEGOTIATE RELEASE OF 85 SUDANESE BOY SLAVES VIETNAMESE PRESS CALLS IMPRISONED CHRISTIAN ACTIVIST ‘HOOLIGAN’ MARTYRED MISSIONARY’S WIDOW LEAVES INDIA AFTER 20 YEARS EGYPTIAN CHRISTIAN WHO SURVIVED TORTURE HELPS PERSECUTED CHURCH MISSIONARY: POLAND ‘HARDER TO EVANGELIZE’ SINCE FALL OF COMMUNISM FAITH-BASED GROUPS PLAY MAJOR ROLE AT AIDS CONFERENCE IN THAILAND

Today’s News Stories:

MEDIATORS NEGOTIATE RELEASE OF 85 SUDANESE BOY SLAVES Through the mediation of the Arab-Dinka Peace Committee at Warawar in southern Sudan, 85 black Sudanese boy slaves were freed from their Arab masters last month. The release was documented last week by an international team of researchers sponsored by Christian Solidarity International. The freed slaves were among the tens of thousands of black women and children who had been enslaved by Sudanese government-sponsored militias during two decades of civil war. All of the boys reported that they were forced to work without pay, and were frequently beaten and subjected to racial insults. More than 80 percent of the boys reported that they had been forced to practice Islam against their will, while 18 percent claimed they had been raped by their masters or by their masters’ friends and relatives. Sudan’s Islamist government has long sponsored slave raiding in the southern part of the country to intimidate non-Muslim communities that have resisted the imposition of Arab-dominated, Islamic rule. As a result of a U.S.-supported cease-fire in southern Sudan, the Khartoum government has recently suspended slave raiding there. But it has revived the practice among the black African tribes of Darfur in western Sudan. (Christian Solidarity International)

VIETNAMESE PRESS CALLS IMPRISONED CHRISTIAN ACTIVIST ‘HOOLIGAN’ Facing pressure from international organizations calling for the release of pastor Nguyen Hong Quang, the official Vietnamese press has released defamatory statements against the prisoner, referring to him as a “hooligan,” a “gangster” and a “habitual criminal.” Two recent press releases from the Vietnam News Agency outline Quang’s “criminal” activity, including various arrests and imprisonment from 1984 to 1987 for “disseminating counterrevolutionary documents.” The charges against him have included organizing illegal meetings, obstructing police officers, organizing protests and obstructing the demolition of “illegal construction.” While the press releases seek to justify Quang’s imprisonment, Voice of the Martyrs spokesman Glenn Penner suspects that the accusations mask the real reason for his incarceration. “Quang was arrested because he was fighting for the religious freedom of Christians in Vietnam,” he said. “This is something that the present government of Vietnam is not prepared to allow.” (Voice of the Martyrs)

MARTYRED MISSIONARY’S WIDOW LEAVES INDIA AFTER 20 YEARS Gladys Staines, widow of murdered Australian missionary Graham Staines, is leaving India after more than 20 years of ministry among leprosy patients in one of the country’s poorest states. Her husband and two sons, Philip, 10, and Timothy, 8, were burned alive in their vehicle by a mob in India in 1999. Last year an Indian court sentenced one man to death and 12 others to life imprisonment over the killings. Staines said she is leaving India because she wants to spend more time with her 91-year-old father and her teenage daughter who wanted to study in an Australian university. “I feel totally exhausted. I need time to reflect,” she told journalists. Staines said she would come back to visit and keep her work going. Last week she inaugurated a new 10-bed hospital named after her husband. She added that she held nothing against India. “I take back a lot of love from the people of this country,” she said. Dara Singh, the man who was sentenced to death over the murders, is said to have led a militant campaign against Christians and Muslims. However an investigation has found no evidence that hard-line Hindu groups organized the grisly attack. (WorldWide Religious News/BBC)

EGYPTIAN CHRISTIAN WHO SURVIVED TORTURE HELPS PERSECUTED CHURCH An Egyptian Christian brutally tortured for his faith by Egypt’s military police is now a political refugee living in Canada who has used his freedom to start an international organization for persecuted Christians. Maged El Shafie, a 27-year-old law student who fled his native land in 1999, endured horrific physical abuse after the police discovered he started an underground Christian organization that eventually grew to thousands of people. “I was physically tortured for seven days because I wouldn’t give the police the names of my Christian friends,” El Shafie said. When he was under house arrest, one of his guards said that a court had secretly sentenced him to death on charges of trying to change Egypt’s national religion. That night El Shafie fled the country. When he reached Israel, El Shafie changed his name to Mack Smith and immigrated to Toronto in February 2002. El Shafie started One Free World International, a human-rights organization for persecuted Christians that broadcasts “River of Love,” a weekly Arabic-language radio program. He said 425 Egyptian Muslims have come to the Lord through the program. One Free World is raising funds to buy farm machinery and other practical tools to send to persecuted Christians. (Religion Today/Charisma News Service)

MISSIONARY: POLAND ‘HARDER TO EVANGELIZE’ SINCE FALL OF COMMUNISM “Poland is harder to evangelize since the fall of communism,” says Arkadiusz Delik, director of Operational Mobilization in Poland. “We were hoping that when we received our freedom from communism, it would be easy to interest people in the gospel, but actually it harder. People are more concerned about money, television, entertainment, but not about God. For instance, when the OM ship, Logos, came to Poland in 1990 . . . some 90,000 people came on board. But 10 years later . . . only 7,000 came on board the same ship at the same place despite the fact that we had better books and programs. People in Poland aren’t hostile, but they are indifferent. They don’t care.” Arkadiusz says his main aim is to recruit Polish Christians to be involved in missions and to encourage Polish churches to multiply their efforts. “We also encourage missionaries from around the world to come to this country to help evangelize Poland. The proportion of evangelical Christians in Poland is the least in the whole of Europe — just 0.13 percent of the population of around 40 million.” (Assist News Service)

* DEO Recordings, HCJB World Radio’s partner ministry in southern Poland, operates 24-hour-a-day FM radio stations in five cities, making gospel broadcasts available to more than 3 million residents. The ministry is also awaiting approval of a broadcasting license for a sixth city of 1.5 million. A Christian satellite radio network to link the Polish stations and expand the ministry is planned. Programs also air via the Internet (visit http://www.ccm.pl).

FAITH-BASED GROUPS PLAY MAJOR ROLE AT AIDS CONFERENCE IN THAILAND Unlike the International AIDS Conference in Barcelona, Spain, two years ago, Christian groups played a major role in this year’s conference in Bangkok, Thailand, July 11-16. At the 2002 event, faith-based organizations were widely ignored. This year marked the first time that an inter-faith exhibit was given space. Organized by Catholic Relief Services (CRS) with support from the U.S. Agency for International Development, the religious exhibit gave attendees a chance to see the wide range of care and support that faith-based groups provide worldwide. More than 23 groups participated in the exhibit, representing Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist and Hindu traditions.

World Vision’s Lynn Arnold says the secular world is becoming more accepting of Christian assistance. “They could see the value of a faith-based organization when they actually witnessed a World Vision staff member being with a person dying of AIDS,” he explained. “They said at that moment it was only an organization like World Vision that could have provided the support that this person needed.” Arnold said the international Christian community isn’t doing enough to help AIDS orphans and widows. “Are we to shelter behind the judgmental attitude, or are we to follow what we’re called to do? If the church fails here, many who are searching will die without Christ.”

Christo Greyling, World Vision’s regional HIV/AIDS and church relations adviser for Africa, added that churches and other religious groups are key to preventing HIV transmission and provision of care for those affected by HIV, including children. “Unfortunately, they lack resources and training, and donors have typically kept away from providing them with what they need,” he said. “We’re saying that if you want to reach the children in Africa, one of your best investments is in the faith-based community.” He urged the international community to commit “at least 10 percent of global funding” for the care and support of AIDS orphans.

In many developing countries, faith-based groups and institutions provide nearly half the care to people affected by HIV/AIDS, CRS reports. This is care not just for those who are sick, but for families and communities affected by the disease and for the people who are left behind. A recent UNICEF study shows that more than 90 percent of religious organizations in six African countries provide some type of care and support to AIDS orphans and other vulnerable children. (Mission Network News/Assist News Service/World Vision) * * * * * * * * * * * * * 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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