Thanks for choosing to receive e-mail from HCJB World Radio. Please add to your e-mail address book or safe sender list to ensure that you receive these e-mails.

Today’s Headlines:

CHRISTIANS TO CHALLENGE SRI LANKA’S PROPOSED ANTI-CONVERSION LAWS HINDU MOB STORMS CHURCH BEING BUILT IN VILLAGE OF INDIA VIETNAM ALLOWS RECORD NUMBER OF STUDENTS TO ATTEND SEMINARY SIM HOSTS SEMINARS TO HELP MOBILIZE BOLIVIANS FOR PRO-LIFE MINISTRIES FEWER MISSION GROUPS SERVING AT THIS YEAR’S OLYMPIC GAMES MINISTRY URGES AFRICANS TO EVANGELIZE ASIAN IMMIGRANTS

Today’s News Stories:

CHRISTIANS TO CHALLENGE SRI LANKA’S PROPOSED ANTI-CONVERSION LAWS Christians in Sri Lanka are preparing a legal challenge to a new anti-conversion bill that was debated by the Sri Lankan parliament today. The private member’s bill, submitted by the Buddhist Jathika Hela Urumaya party, has been anticipated for months. If enacted, the Prohibition of Forcible Conversions of Religions Bill would require individuals who convert from one religion to another to inform local authorities within a prescribed period. Violators could be imprisoned for up to five years or fined up to 150,000 rupees (US$1,475). Those who “convert or attempt to convert” others by force would face similar sentences. The Minister of Buddhist Affairs is also expected to table a government bill called the Act of Safeguarding Religious Freedom that would not be limited to “forced” conversions. The draft states, “No person shall convert or attempt to convert or aid or abet acts of conversion of another to a different religion.” Violators of this law would face up to seven years in prison and heavy fines. The National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka and other Christian groups in the country have been campaigning against both proposed laws, and will launch a legal challenge this week in the Supreme Court. The anti-conversion laws were introduced after a period of rising anti-Christian violence in Sri Lanka. More than 45 churches have been attacked since January, and during the past year more than 140 churches have been forced to close due to attacks, intimidation and threats. (Christian Solidarity Worldwide)

HINDU MOB STORMS CHURCH BEING BUILT IN VILLAGE OF INDIA Police in western India’s Gujarat state are on the alert after a local church was attacked on Sunday, July 18, sparking communal tensions. A group of 20 people stormed a church that was being built in the village of Rohiyal Talal in the Surat district. Police said the mob damaged the church’s side walls, iron grills and windowpanes late Sunday. “The desecrators arrived in a jeep armed with spades and axes and did the damage to the church,” said a senior police official. “Though we have been able to maintain law and order and there has been no untoward incident as the fallout of the alleged act of desecration, the situation still appears to be tense.” Police have identified the accused but still haven’t made any arrests. Officials confirmed the involvement of three members of the right-wing Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council). Suresh Ada Varli, who was supervising the church’s construction, filed the police complaint late Monday. (WorldWide Religious News/IANS)

VIETNAM ALLOWS RECORD NUMBER OF STUDENTS TO ATTEND SEMINARY In an unprecedented decision, the Vietnamese government has authorized 90 students to enter St. Joseph’s Major Seminary in Hanoi this year. Bishop Joseph Ngo Quang Kiet of Lang Son, apostolic administrator of the Hanoi Archdiocese, said that the authorization is a sign of hope for the Catholic Church in northern Vietnam, Vatican Radio reported. In the 2004-2005 school year the seminary will have a record number of students. The seminary, which opened in 1989, was previously only allowed to register a maximum of 60 seminarians every two years. Because of the government’s control over the seminaries, most dioceses in northern Vietnam have a shortage of priests. In Hanoi, for example, each parish priest assists between 5,000 and 10,000 members. (WorldWide Religious News/Zenit)

SIM HOSTS SEMINARS TO HELP MOBILIZE BOLIVIANS FOR PRO-LIFE MINISTRIES “One of the gaps in the vision of the Bolivian church has been in the area of family issues such as abortion, homosexual marriage and cloning,” says Eldon Porter of SIM. In response to this need, he invited Reed Olson, Focus on the Family’s director for Latin America, to conduct a series of seminars in three Bolivian cities (La Paz, Cochabamba and Sucre) the last week of June. More than 1,500 people came to hear the speakers, including two leading Latin American experts in the area of bioethics. In preparation for this series, Porter encouraged closer interaction among various independent ministries by facilitating a pro-family network in the country. Top government officials attended a dinner, and key church leaders had the opportunity to meet and hear the specialists who led the events. Bolivian leaders of the various pro-family ministries also received training and encouragement from the Focus on the Family team. Becky Porter, who recently opened a crisis pregnancy center in Cochabamba, said that while abortion is illegal in Bolivia “it’s probably more common than in the U.S. or Canada.” Regarding cloning, research groups may be moving their work to Bolivia where

laws are less stringent. The Porters serve the churches of Bolivia by training leaders, encouraging greater unity and helping pastors with housing. The event attracted the attention of the country’s main radio and television networks which aired numerous interviews and debates. (SIM)

* HCJB World Radio has worked with local radio partners to plant local AM and FM stations in the Bolivian cities of Santa Cruz, Tarija and Tupiza. Four stations with eight transmitters in four cities (La Paz, Caranavi, Santa Cruz and Sucre) are also affiliated with the ALAS, the ministry’s Latin American satellite radio network that makes Spanish programs available to local stations 24 hours a day.

FEWER MISSION GROUPS SERVING AT THIS YEAR’S OLYMPIC GAMES Fewer ministries are planning evangelistic outreach at this summer’s Olympics than at the event four years ago in Australia. Greece is a country “quite different” than Australia where hundreds of churches got involved, says International Bible Society (IBS) spokesperson Sue Hyde. “There are not nearly the same percentages of evangelicals in Greece. As a result, there’s not nearly the same kind of infrastructure on the ground to do all the preparations leading up to massive evangelism there.” But the lack of churches isn’t the only problem. “I think the whole world we live in today is different than it was in 2000,” Hyde said. “The threat of the possible terrorism in Greece also may have frightened some people off. There are far fewer short-term teams going to do actual ministry on the ground than there were in Sydney.” IBS is printing thousands of New Testaments and Gospels of Mark (called One More Powerful) to assist in the outreach. (Mission Network News)

* HCJB World Radio has worked in partnership with Hellenic Mission Union International to establish a radio studio in Athens, Greece.

MINISTRY URGES AFRICANS TO EVANGELIZE ASIAN IMMIGRANTS Africa Inland Mission (AIM) is spearheading an initiative to encourage African believers to evangelize people from India and Pakistan who are living in the region. “These people are Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs and Jains,” says AIM spokesman John Becker. “Many of the immigrant communities in East Africa are from the upper echelons of Indian culture. So the opportunity to reach them in Africa is there.” Living in a foreign culture, they are often more open to the gospel than they would be in their home country, Becker explains. “One of our main strategies is to challenge the African church, which is strong in many countries, to motivate these brothers and sisters to see the Asians as not just people who have their own faith and their own culture, but to help them see that they can reach these people.” (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 * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Editor’s Note. Feel free to forward this to any interested friends. Our lists are distributed for information purposes and to encourage prayer. HCJB World Radio does not necessarily endorse or support the activities on which it reports. _______________________________________________ HCJBDaily mailing list

with subscribe in the subject line.

__________ NOD32 1.819 (20040722) Information __________

This message was checked by NOD32 antivirus system. http://www.nod32.com