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Today’s Headlines:

IMPRISONED VIETNAMESE CHRISTIAN HOSPITALIZED WITH ‘MENTAL DISEASE’

CLOSING OF CHURCH IN MUSLIM AREA OF INDONESIA SPARKS PUBLIC DEBATE

INTERNATIONAL AID HELPS RESTORE BASIC SERVICES IN AFGHAN VILLAGE

CHURCHES IN BELARUS KEEP GROWING IN SPITE OF GOVERNMENT POLICIES

BELIEVERS URGED TO PRAY DURING WORLD AIDS DAY WEDNESDAY, DEC. 1

LOW-TECH EVANGELISTIC METHOD STILL IMPACTS HIGH-TECH WORLD

Today’s News Stories:

IMPRISONED VIETNAMESE CHRISTIAN HOSPITALIZED WITH ‘MENTAL DISEASE’ Le Thi Hong Lien, the sole woman among six Mennonite church workers sentenced to prison in Vietnam Friday, Nov. 12, has been hospitalized with a “mental disease,” say prison officials. She was arrested on June 30 and sentenced to 12 months in prison on Nov. 12. At the trial, codefendant Rev. Nguyen Hong Quang was so alarmed at Lien’s appearance that he asked the court to take her immediately for a medical examination. The judge refused but agreed to allow her to remain seated for the proceedings. Lien’s parents attempted to visit her in prison twice this week, but prison officials prevented access. Her parents subsequently filed a report stating, “During her time in prison, our daughter was seriously abused and beaten.” Lien, 21, had been a zealous church worker specializing in teaching the Bible to small children. (Compass)

CLOSING OF CHURCH IN MUSLIM AREA OF INDONESIA SPARKS PUBLIC DEBATE Members of a Protestant church in Indonesia continue to wait for resolution on an incident Sunday, Oct 24, in which Muslim neighbors attacked a local church. Authorities then shut down the church, reported Komintra News. The violent incident was the third since the Nusantara Indonesia Christian Church was established in 1997 in Puri Kosambi, Karawang. Approximately 500 attackers identified as members of the Front Pembela Islam (FPI) vandalized the church, damaging the roof, sound system, pews, doors and windows. As a result, the congregation ceased to hold meetings. A day later, the FPI approached local authorities and asked that the church be closed permanently. Meanwhile, results of a survey published in The Jakarta Post showed that 40.8 percent of Muslim respondents do not agree with Christians conducting worship services in Muslim neighborhoods. (Compass)

* 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.

INTERNATIONAL AID HELPS RESTORE BASIC SERVICES IN AFGHAN VILLAGE International Aid (IA) is reaching out to help a devastated Afghan village north of Kabul where there is no running water, electricity or public sanitation. The Afghan government asked IA to help restore health services in the village of Taingi Saidan. Working in partnership, the teams have provided medicine, trained doctors, dug wells and provided water filtration system — ministries that have increased goodwill and opened doors to share the gospel with local residents. IA is also working with community leaders to explore launching child survival efforts in the region, providing general health activities and promoting preventive healthcare for the entire community and improving prevention. Village leaders and the local population have already expressed their “strong support” of this initiative. (Mission Network News)

* HCJB World Radio is bringing words of hope and encouragement to people across Afghanistan via radio. Together with partners, Christian broadcasts go out via AM in three of the country’s major languages, Turkmen, Uzbek and Southern Uzbek.

CHURCHES IN BELARUS KEEP GROWING IN SPITE OF GOVERNMENT POLICIES Slavik Radchuk, Christian Aid Mission’s field director for the former Soviet Union, says that indigenous ministries in Belarus are seeing “many more people come to the Lord than they have in a long time.” This encouraging news comes even as reports continue to emerge from the country that government leadership is becoming ever more dictatorial in nature since the country passed the most repressive religion law in Europe. Government policies include severe restrictions on evangelical churches. All religious groups are required to register with the government, yet the registration process is so difficult that only Russian Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Jewish groups are eligible. Non-registered evangelical churches are not allowed to construct church buildings unless they have at least 100 adult members who have signed official forms. Many churches struggle with facilitating growth since open-air evangelistic meetings are illegal, as are house-church meetings with more than five people in attendance. Government policies also prohibit or make it difficult to rent space to evangelical church groups. (Christian Aid Mission)

BELIEVERS URGED TO PRAY DURING WORLD AIDS DAY WEDNESDAY, DEC. 1 World Vision estimates that in the two decades since the AIDS pandemic began, more than 30 million have died worldwide while another 38 million are living with HIV/AIDS. Global AIDS Prayer Partnership estimates that 14,000 people are infected by HIV each day while 8,000 more die from the disease daily. In addition, more than 15 million children (younger than 17 years old) are orphaned because of AIDS. The two organizations are encouraging churches and individuals to take action as the world commemorates World AIDS Day on Wednesday, Dec. 1. A prayer chain has been set up to help Christians become aware of the specific prayer needs of people whose lives have been devastated by the disease. The groups are also encouraging churches and individuals to help financially to address the needs of the millions who are suffering, widowed or orphaned. World Vision’s website, http://www.worldvision.org, suggests ways to sponsor a child and offers suggestions on how to use favorite sports and activities to raise funds and awareness for the AIDS dilemma. (Global AIDS Prayer Partnership/World Vision)

LOW-TECH EVANGELISTIC METHOD STILL IMPACTS HIGH-TECH WORLD Even in today’s high-tech age, the lowly gospel tract still delivers a powerful message. Since they began in the late 1700s, millions of tracts in dozens of languages and have reached even the remotest, most unlikely locations. One of the most common criticisms of tract evangelism is that it’s too confrontational. “But Jesus was the most in-your-face evangelist ever,” tract evangelist Ray Comfort, founder of Southern California-based Living Waters Publications, told Charisma magazine. Christians hand out millions of tracts every year. In July, Jews for Jesus planned to hand out 1 million tracts in New York City alone. Globally, its workers have passed out more than 40 million tracts. Jews for Jesus Director David Brickner believes few other methods of evangelism are as powerful as passing out tracts. Veteran tract writer Jack Chick’s cartoon-style booklets have become icons and are in the Smithsonian Institution as symbols of American religious pop culture. Only about 2 percent of American Christians regularly share their faith. (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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