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Today’s Headlines:

INDONESIAN PASTOR RELEASED FROM PRISON ONE YEAR EARLY

BELIEVERS MOBILIZE AS KENYA’S FAMINE COULD AFFECT 2 MILLION PEOPLE

MENNONITE MISSIONARY IN TURKEY ASSAULTED, THREATENED WITH DEATH

THUGS ATTACK CHRISTIAN PRAYER HALL IN SOUTHERN INDIA

CHRISTIAN EGYPTIAN TEENAGERS FIGHT FORCED MUSLIM IDENTITIES

HOPE COMES TO SIERRA LEONE VILLAGE CALLED ‘THERE IS NO GOD’

Today’s News Stories:

INDONESIAN PASTOR RELEASED FROM PRISON ONE YEAR EARLY Rev. Rinaldy Damanik, imprisoned on what many believe were false charges, walked free today almost a year earlier than his original release date. Damanik, a prominent figure in peace negotiations between warring Muslim and Christian communities on the eastern Indonesian island of Sulawesi, was convicted on charges of “illegal weapons possession” in June 2003 and sentenced to three years in prison. With allowance made for time already served in police custody, he was due for release in September 2005. Many observers believed Damanik was innocent. Witnesses in court said they were tortured by police and forced to give false evidence. Judge Somanada admitted that “many irregularities” had occurred during the alleged discovery of the weapons and during the trial, but he still delivered a guilty verdict. “The release of Pastor Damanik is really an answer to the prayers of thousands of Christians around the world,” said Open Doors USA President Carl Moeller. Idrus. R. al Habsy, a leading Muslim cleric, became a staunch advocate for Damanik’s release after hearing about his campaign for peace. On Aug. 20 the elderly cleric wrote to the Minister of Justice and Human Rights declaring Damanik to be a “man of good character” who “should be allowed to go free.” Al Habsy died of a serious illness just three days later. However, his actions paved the way for Damanik’s early release. (Open Doors)

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

BELIEVERS MOBILIZE AS KENYA’S FAMINE COULD AFFECT 2 MILLION PEOPLE In Kenya, a country where an extended dry season could put more than 2 million people at risk of starvation, is also having an impact on Christian outreach. Ben Omollo, director of Compassion International in Kenya, says the famine jeopardizes more than 10,000 children who are sponsored through the ministry along with their families. “They face severe malnutrition, suffering or even starvation if nothing is done to intervene now,” Omollo said, adding that sending help is an investment both in the present and the future. “We show our love not only to the children that are Compassion-assisted, but to the community as a whole. We focus on prayer and dependency on God so that it is very clear that we are waiting on God and that the love of Christ is felt through the support that comes from our friends and the international community.” (Mission Network News)

* HCJB World Radio has worked with local partners to install radio ministries in Nairobi (two stations), Mombasa and Tinderet.

MENNONITE MISSIONARY IN TURKEY ASSAULTED, THREATENED WITH DEATH A Mennonite missionary in Turkey was gagged and bound last week by three men posing as “spiritual seekers” wanting to know more about questions of faith. Bob Stauffer of Rosedale Mennonite Missions (RMM) received a call from Wilbur and Shirley Miller on Tuesday, Nov. 2, saying Wilbur was in a meeting with three young men (about 17 years old) who posed as seekers in spiritual things through the ministry’s website. He had met with them at least once previously. “After the study they blindfolded Wilbur, gagged him and tied him up,” said Mim Musser, RMM’s human resources director. “They pulled a gun and knife and said they were going to ‘finish him off.’ They claimed to be Muslims who were given orders from al-Qaeda. Wilbur believes he was tied up for [as long as] two hours.” The attackers then ransacked his office, stealing a “substantial amount of cash” from the office. “The young men said they have been watching Wilbur’s house,” Musser said. “They told him it was a problem if he stayed in town . . . and he was not to return to his office. They left the office with him, and at some point freed him.” Police continue to investigate the incident. (Assist News Service)

THUGS ATTACK CHRISTIAN PRAYER HALL IN SOUTHERN INDIA Miscreants attacked a Christian prayer hall and disturbed proceedings in Mangalore, a city in southern India, Monday, Nov. 1. Police said about 15 people threw stones and ransacked the prayer hall during the morning meeting. Police have registered against a local person. In an unrelated incident, three persons were injured when two groups of Christians clashed at a church in Belthangady in the Dakshina Kannada district. (WorldWide Religious News/PTI)

CHRISTIAN EGYPTIAN TEENAGERS FIGHT FORCED MUSLIM IDENTITIES Two teenage Christian sisters in Egypt have gone to court to contest the forced change of their official religious identity to Islam. Iman and Olfat Malak Ayet, now 17 and 18 years of age, were reared as Christians by their Coptic Orthodox mother. Their father left his Christian wife, baby daughter and unborn child in 1986, converted to Islam and married a Muslim. He then changed his daughters’ official identities from Christian to Muslim several years before his death in November 2002. In order to enter their final school examinations and then apply for university acceptance, the Christian sisters must first be issued their national identification cards. The formal identity cards will declare them Muslims if the State Council verdict, due at the end of November, isn’t in their favor. “How can these children be forced to become Muslims, when they have never practiced Islam in their entire lives?” Coptic Christian lawyer Naguib Gabriel asked the court at the third trial hearing on July 6. A final verdict on the two sisters’ case, which is being tried before the Administrative Court of the State Council in Doqqi, was set for Tuesday, Nov. 16. But the hearing is expected to be delayed for a week as it falls at the end of the holy Islamic month of Ramadan. (Compass)

HOPE COMES TO SIERRA LEONE VILLAGE CALLED ‘THERE IS NO GOD’ When native missionaries in Sierra Leone were searching out areas in need of the gospel, they came across a rural village with a name that means, “there is no God.” Stricken by the hopelessness such a name implies, they immediately made plans to take the message of Christ to this isolated community. The village is in a northern province of Sierra Leone that has become an Islamic stronghold. Those who are not Muslims practice occultism, consulting juju gods and living in constant fear of evil spirits. This particular village was known throughout its district for its terrible name. Native missionaries visited the village to build relationships with the chief and elders. God blessed them with favor, and chiefs gave the missionaries permission to start gospel work. Missionaries are using a holistic approach to evangelism, bringing physical aid to this poverty-stricken community in the name of Christ, thus opening people’s hearts to His truth. The community has asked the missionaries to take over the village school, which was suffering desperately from lack of leadership. Now, a new generation will hear the gospel. Missionaries face many obstacles in their work, but native gospel workers are determined to give this village a new name by the power of Christ. (Christian Aid Mission)

* * * * * * * * * * * * * 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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