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Today’s Headlines:

MAOIST REBELS IN NEPAL CONTINUE TO TARGET CHRISTIANS TERRORIST ATTACK LEAVES IRAQI PASTOR PARALYZED FROM CHEST DOWN ISLAM SPREADS IN SOUTH AFRICA, ESPECIALLY IN BLACK TOWNSHIPS NEW CHRISTIAN WEBSITE EXPOSES KILLING OF CHILDREN WORLDWIDE LACK OF FULL-TIME SURGEON JEOPARDIZES MISSION HOSPITAL IN TOGO SURVEY: PROPORTION OF UNCHURCHED PEOPLE IN U.S. DOUBLES IN 10 YEARS

Today’s News Stories:

MAOIST REBELS IN NEPAL CONTINUE TO TARGET CHRISTIANS Fresh clashes between Maoist rebels and government troops in Nepal have left dozens dead. The Maoists, who are fighting for a communist state, control 60 percent of the country. As the fighting continues, Gospel for Asia President K.P. Yohannan is concerned for the safety of the ministry’s team members. One pastor was recently imprisoned and another who was kidnapped by Maoists is still missing. “We have some sketchy information,” Yohannan says. “We’re not sure what is happening with him. All we know is that he’s still alive.” He adds that the Maoists appear to be targeting believers. “We need to pray,” Yohannan says. “This is a time when lots of people are coming to the Lord in the countryside. At the same time, we are faced with this opposition.” (Mission Network News)

TERRORIST ATTACK LEAVES IRAQI PASTOR PARALYZED FROM CHEST DOWN An Iraqi Christian leader who was shot three weeks ago by Muslim extremists is in stable condition but has been paralyzed from the chest down. The pastor was attacked in a town in northern Iraq on Friday, Oct. 22. The attack came on a day that was supposed to be a special celebration of thanksgiving for a new church building that he and his congregation had recently acquired. They had been forced to leave their old building by a landlord who had received threats from Islamic extremists if he continued to allow Christian meetings on his property. As he was traveling to the celebration, someone leaned out of the window and shot him at close range with a pistol. One bullet went through his leg and two through his shoulder, one of which damaged a nerve, causing him to lose all sensation from his chest down. A native gospel worker who recently returned from a visit with the injured pastor said, “It’s really something to visit a person who is even happy while not being able to move any part of his body below the chest. . . . God knows what He’s got in mind. We know that the pastor has been in the hands of the Lord Jesus from the very beginning.” (Christian Aid Mission)

ISLAM SPREADS IN SOUTH AFRICA, ESPECIALLY IN BLACK TOWNSHIPS Black South Africans, drawn to the Islam practiced by African immigrants, are converting in growing numbers and slowly changing the face of religious affiliation in the overwhelmingly Christian country. “The numbers have gone up dramatically if you look at the census figures … there is massive growth especially in the (black) townships,” said Dr. Shamil Jeppie, an expert on Islamic history in Africa at the University of Cape Town. Immigrants from Central and West Africa, escaping poverty at home for life in the continent’s economic powerhouse, have brought with them a new “Africanized Islam.” Just 650,000 South Africans (less than 2 percent of the population) are) Muslim. Christianity — practiced by 80 percent of the country’s 45 million people — is still the predominant religion among blacks. But an estimated 75,000 Africans are now Muslim compared to less than 12,000 in 1991, reported the Human Sciences Research Council, a government-funded institute. (WorldWide Religious News/Reuters)

* HCJB World Radio has worked with local partners to plant local radio ministries in six South African cities: Cape Town, Johannesburg, Durban, Pinetown, Roodepoort and Badplaas. HCJB World Radio is also helps with projects such as the Living Hope Community Center (a ministry of partner Fish Hoek Baptist Church) near Cape Town, South Africa.

NEW CHRISTIAN WEBSITE EXPOSES KILLING OF CHILDREN WORLDWIDE An international website dedicated to documenting and exposing the killing of children and young people was simultaneously launched Tuesday, Nov. 16, in the British House of Commons by Alistair Burt and Lord Alton of Liverpool, and in the U.S. by Senator Brownback and Congressmen Franks and Pitts. Stopkillingchildren.com, which has been set up by Jubilee Campaign, was an idea conceived by Alton during a visit to Brazil last February. In Brazil four to five children are killed every day. More than 60 such cases in Brazil have been documented in the past two months. One example is 8-year-old Samanta Isidoro Gon §alves who was killed on Sept. 24 by a stray bullet in R ­o de Janeiro’s Bonsucesso neighborhood. She was reportedly going home from church and when a bullet pierced her head while she was crossing the street. “When children are killed in the U.K. or U.S., it is front-page news,” Alton said. “In places like Brazil where violence against children is commonplace, the lives of children who are killed are easily forgotten. Many people assume that the dark days of the killing of children have been consigned to the pages of history. By reporting the daily murder of innocent children, the website will enable us to raise awareness of the scale of the problem and leverage pressure on the governments to stop the killing.” (Jubilee Campaign)

LACK OF FULL-TIME SURGEON JEOPARDIZES MISSION HOSPITAL IN TOGO Sharon Rahilly, nursing educator with Association of Baptists for World Evangelism’s hospital in Togo, says the need for a surgeon there has reached a critical stage. “We have talked about everything from having to close the hospital if we do not have a surgeon to curtailing activities — perhaps giving forced time off to the hospital employees. We have no career surgeon for Togo on the horizon.” Rahilly says the hospital is the third busiest in the country. (Mission Network News)

* International Media Ministries, HCJB World Radio’s partner in Lom ©, Togo, broadcasts 17 hours of daily programming on an FM station in 10 local languages. The SIM studio in Parakou, Benin, also records Christian Kotokoli programs that air on local stations in Togo.

SURVEY: PROPORTION OF UNCHURCHED PEOPLE IN U.S. DOUBLES IN 10 YEARS The proportion of Americans who claim no religious affiliation has doubled in the last decade and now stands at 16 percent of the population. This is one of the findings of a new study on religious identity which noted that only Catholics (24 percent) and Baptists (17 percent) outnumber the people who don’t identify themselves with organized religion, The Los Angeles Times reported. Based on telephone interviews with more than 10,000 people, the nationwide survey by the Institute for Jewish & Community Research in San Francisco showed that about one in six answered “none” or “no religion” or described themselves as secular, humanist, ethical-culturalist, agnostic or atheist. Their ranks will continue to grow, and they’ll soon outnumber Baptists, said Gary Tobin, president of the institute and a co-author of the study titled, “The Decline of Religious Identity in the United States.” Residents of the West lead the nation in the proportion of those who don’t identify with a religion — 24 percent compared to 14 percent for the rest of the country, except New England which had 21 percent. Men (20 percent) are less likely to identify with a religious denomination than women (13 percent). The study also found that those reared without a religion are much more likely than others to have children who have no religion. In mixed-religion families, children reared in both parents’ religions are more likely not to choose any religion. (Religion Today/Charisma News Service)

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