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Today’s Headlines:

AIDS IN ECUADOR APPROACHES PANDEMIC LEVELS, MINISTRY REPORTS CRITICS SAY PROPOSED LAW WILL CURB CHARITIES IN ZIMBABWE DOZENS OF MISSION AGENCIES ARRIVE IN GREECE FOR OLYMPIC OUTREACH 11 NIGERIAN NURSES REINSTATED AFTER REFUSING TO WEAR ISLAMIC DRESS SCHOOL CONDITIONS, RELIGIOUS ISSUES DRAW MORE TO HOME-SCHOOLS * OMS ADDS THIRD DOWNLINK IN HAITI WITH HELP FROM HCJB WORLD RADIO

Today’s News Stories:

AIDS IN ECUADOR APPROACHES PANDEMIC LEVELS, MINISTRY REPORTS At the beginning of the outbreak of HIV/AIDS in the mid-1980s, Ecuador had a virtually nonexistent infection rate. However, by 2003 the infection rate had reached an estimated 6 percent. He Intends Victory, a Christian ministry based in Irvine, Calif., dedicated to ministering to those with HIV/AIDS, sponsored a trip to Ecuador last month to sound the alarm that the disease is approaching pandemic proportions in Latin America. Ecuador, like other countries in Latin America, has seen a sharp rise in new infections in the past decade, leading many officials to focus on that area as a growing health threat for HIV/AIDS infections. More than 2,000 Ecuadorians have died of AIDS, leaving some 7,200 AIDS orphans, said Joanie Yorba-Gray of He Intends Victory. “Unfortunately, many of the behaviors that lead to spread of the virus, including multiple sexual partners, prostitution, drug abuse, tattoos with unsterilized needles and homosexuality are found in Ecuador as in many other countries around the world,” she said. “Furthermore, the predominantly Catholic country opposes the use of condoms. Many young people are at risk as sexual behavior often begins at young adolescence when there is much ignorance about sexually transmitted diseases as well as a feeling of immortality.” (Assist News Service)

* HCJB World Radio’s Vozandes Hospital in Quito has operated an AIDS clinic for more than a decade and is involved in educational efforts to help prevent the spread of the disease in Ecuador.

CRITICS SAY PROPOSED LAW WILL CURB CHARITIES IN ZIMBABWE The Zimbabwean government has drawn up legislation to curtail the activities of charities, church groups and other non-governmental organizations. Announcing the draft legislation, President Robert Mugabe said non-governmental organizations “must work for the betterment of our country and not against it. We cannot allow them to be conduits or instruments of foreign interference in our national affairs.” Civic leaders have denounced the bill as an attempt to strangle all independent, critical voices in Zimbabwe in the run-up to parliamentary elections in March next year. The bill would make it difficult for independent bodies to speak out against state torture and other human rights abuses, the prevalence of hunger and vote rigging, they warned. It also forbids local organizations from receiving foreign funding and requires them to register with the government, which can ban them. Amnesty International said, “The government will use this new bill to silence critical voices and further restrict the right to freedom of expression. It is a clear attempt to suppress dissenting views as parliamentary elections draw closer.” (WorldWide Religious News/The Guardian)

DOZENS OF MISSION AGENCIES ARRIVE IN GREECE FOR OLYMPIC OUTREACH Despite potential security issues, dozens of mission agencies have descended on Athens, Greece, as they prepare to share the gospel with thousands of athletes and guests during the Olympic Games Aug. 13-29. Greater Europe Mission, for example, will be involved in numerous outreach efforts during the games. Many performance groups will be doing programs to keep people busy during their free time. The Greek Bible Institute will house 75 people with ministries at the games. The Greek Evangelical Church’s outreach program already has distributed thousands of gospel packets, and teams have been cleaning up trash and handing out “Living Water” bottles in the name of Jesus. (Mission Network News)

11 NIGERIAN NURSES REINSTATED AFTER REFUSING TO WEAR ISLAMIC DRESS Eleven nurses who were fired from their jobs in Nigeria’s Bauchi state more than two years ago for refusing to exchange their nurse’s uniform for the Islamic dress of trousers and veil have been reinstated by the federal government. The 11 work at the Federal Medical Centre in Azare, Bauchi, one of 12 Nigerian states that has enacted sharia (Islamic law). This has created a de facto state religion in defiance of Nigeria’s secular federal constitution. The reinstatements come as a relief to the nurses, who along with their families had suffered considerable hardship during their lengthy period of unemployment. The Bauchi government also had withdrawn the nurses’ contracts and terminated the employment of their spouses. As a result, many were forced to withdraw their children from boarding schools. The federal government’s decision to reinstate the nurses brings to an end a dispute that began in 2002 when the facility’s new medical director, Dr. Sabo, issued a directive ordering all nurses to wear Islamic dress. Several Christian nurses objected on religious grounds. The Medical Centre responded by indefinitely suspending all of the nurses, a move that intimidated many to drop their protest and return to work. However, 11 refused to relent and were fired on April 24, 2002. (Christian Solidarity Worldwide)

SCHOOL CONDITIONS, RELIGIOUS ISSUES DRAW MORE TO HOME-SCHOOLS Almost 1.1 million students in the U.S. were home-schooled last year, their numbers pushed higher by parents frustrated with school conditions and wanting to include morality and religion along with English and mathematics. The estimated figure of students taught at home has grown 29 percent since 1999, reported the National Center for Education Statistics, part of the Education Department. In surveys, parents offered two main reasons for choosing home-schooling: 31 percent cited concerns about the environment of regular schools, and 30 percent wanted the flexibility to teach religious or moral lessons. Sixteen percent of respondents cited dissatisfaction with academic instruction at other schools as the third most important reason for home-schooling their children. “There’s potential for massive growth,” said Ian Slatter, spokesman for the National Center for Home Education which promotes home-schooling and tracks laws that govern it. “Home-schooling is just getting started,” he said. “We’ve gotten through the barriers of questioning the academic ability of home-schools, now that we have a sizable number of graduates who are not socially isolated or awkward — they are good, high-quality citizens. We’re getting that mainstream recognition and challenging the way education has been done.” Home-schoolers account for 2.2 percent of school-age population (ages 5 to 17) in the U.S. (WorldWide Religious News/Associated Press)

* OMS ADDS THIRD DOWNLINK IN HAITI WITH HELP FROM HCJB WORLD RADIO The third of five FM outlets planned for a Christian satellite radio network in Haiti went on the air last week, bringing additional gospel broadcasts to this needy country. “In its first week of broadcasting, response to the gospel message of radio 4VBM in Haiti is nothing less than phenomenal,” said Dick McLeish of Men for Missions, the laymen’s voice of OMS International. The outlet, broadcasting from Beaumont in southwestern Haiti, went on the air with technical assistance from the HCJB World Radio Engineering Center in Elkhart, Ind. Within the last year, downlinks also were placed in Tortue Island (4VET) and Pignon (4VEP). The hub of the network is at 4VEH in Cap-Haitien, a station started by OMS in 1951. McLeish says volunteers are needed to help distribute thousands of fix-tuned solar-powered radios that have been preset to only pick up one of the ministry’s outlets in the country. “We’re looking forward to sending teams in now to distribute these radios to people who don’t have a regular radio,” he says. “We have some teams set up for later in the fall, and then more in the first part of the year.” The broadcasts are bringing much-needed encouragement to Haiti, one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere. This year Haiti has endured political unrest — leading to the ouster of Jean Bertrand Aristide in February — and more recently severe flooding. (Mission Network News/HCJB World Radio) * * * * * * * * * * * * * 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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