Today’s Headlines:

WORLD VISION COMMENCES FEEDING PROGRAM IN SUDAN

PHILIPPINE GOVERNMENT LOOKS TO END EXTREMIST VIOLENCE

MACEDONIA SENTENCES SERBIAN ORTHODOX BISHOP TO PRISON

BUS CRASH KILLS 46 CHURCH MEMBERS, GUESTS IN EL SALVADOR

ENGINEERING TEAM TAKES ON MISSIONS RECYCLING PROJECT

WORLD VISION COMMENCES FEEDING PROGRAM IN SUDAN

In collaboration with the United Nations’ World Food Program, World Vision began a five-month food aid program last week, which will distribute 22,075 metric tons of food to 250,000 internally displaced people in Sudan’s Darfur region. Despite a recent peace agreement, conflict continues in the western province of Darfur. More than 2 million Sudanese are now in urgent need of food and medical attention. U.N. Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland called the situation “the most dramatic race against the clock that we have anywhere in the world.” The Sudanese government has promised to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian assistance. World Vision Australia’s CEO, Tim Costello, recently returned from the region and reported the devastation and dire needs of displaced people in Darfur. “Kalma camp is barely liveable right now. There isn’t enough clean water, sanitation is almost non-existent and many of the children are very sick and malnourished, which is why the distribution of food is critical,” he said. (World Vision)

PHILIPPINE GOVERNMENT LOOKS TO END EXTREMIST VIOLENCE

Published reports from a Friday meeting between Christian and Muslim leaders and the Philippine government say talks with the Defense Department centered around the fight against terrorism and a cooperative effort to end sectarian violence. Although not directly linked, the announcement comes as 17 Abu Sayyaf kidnappers who captured Filipino and foreign tourists from a resort in the southern Philippines in 2001 were sentenced to death by a local court. It was the first mass conviction of members of the Abu Sayyaf who have been kidnapping and killing Christians and foreigners in Mindanao islands since the early 1990s. The Philippines is about 80 percent Christian. Muslims make up about seven percent of the population, with extremists an even smaller percentage. Some guerrilla groups have engaged in attacks against Christians, creating a tense environment for evangelistic work in some parts of the country. (Mission Network News)

MACEDONIA SENTENCES SERBIAN ORTHODOX BISHOP TO PRISON

A renegade bishop of the rival Serbian Orthodox Church in Macedonia, who hosted a house church meeting earlier this year, remains in custody after he was sentenced to 18 months in prison despite international calls for his release, Macedonian media reported. Bishop Jovan, leader of the Ohrid Archdiocese of the Serbian Orthodox, was reportedly convicted by a local court in Bitola of “inciting ethnic and religious hatred, discord and intolerance.” His lawyer, Vasko Djordjijev, told media that his client would appeal the conviction. Amnesty International (AI) and other human rights groups say the charges against Bishop Jovan, stemmed from a police raid in January on an apartment where he was holding a secret Sunday mass with nuns and monks. All four monks and seven nuns were released after about 30 hours, but Bishop Jovan was re-arrested on January 12. According to Forum 18 News Service, Bishop Jovan previously received a suspended two year jail term for conducting a baptism in July 2003, on condition he did not commit any further “offences.” The court ruling is seen as a new round in the long-standing demarcation dispute between the Serbian and Macedonian Orthodox Churches in the Balkan republic, which broke away from Yugoslavia in 1991. (ASSIST News Service/BosNewsLife)

BUS CRASH KILLS 46 CHURCH MEMBERS, GUESTS IN EL SALVADOR

Tragedy struck an Assembly of God church and Latin America Child Care school (LACC) in Guatijiagua, San Miguel, El Salvador, on August 14, when a bus carrying 61 church members and guests plunged over a precipice. At least 46 people, including Pastor Jos © Antonio Aviles, his wife and three children and the LACC school director and his family, died in the crash. Mario Gomez, a church member and the bus driver, and his 17-year-old daughter also were killed. Many others are injured. The church rented the bus so that members and guests could attend a baptismal service. The brakes failed on approach to a curve, and the bus plunged into a 100-meter (328-foot) deep ravine near the town of Carolina, El Salvador. (Assemblies of God News Service)

ENGINEERING TEAM TAKES ON MISSIONS RECYCLING PROJECT

A group of engineering students from an InterVarsity chapter at Northwestern University in Illinois went to Cairo, Egypt, to help tutor English at the Boys Recycling Center. The team was sent to Mokattam, the garbage city of Cairo. The Boys Recycling Center relies on the money earned from recycling to run many of its programs such as English lessons, computer class and camps to various parts of Egypt. The center has been largely successful at recycling things like shampoo bottles and plastic water and soda bottles. However, the InterVarsity team was told that the center had yet to find a way to recycle Tetrapek, the waxy-substance lining juice boxes. The engineers immediately tackled the problem. Andy Ong, a Junior bio-medical engineering student who was with the group, said, “I never thought I’d actually use what I learned in engineering class over there in Cairo to design something.” Ong says his trip sharpened his missions perspective: “God has shown me that He can use pretty much anybody through any occupation and that He will use you if you are serving Him on missions, or wherever you are; overseas, in Cairo, or even here back in urban America. God will use whatever skills you have, whatever gifts you have.” As for the Tetrapek recycling prototype, Ong says they were limited by lack of time, resources and money. Although the team wasn’t able to finish it before they left, they gave the center advice on how to pursue the project. (Mission Network News)

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