Today’s Headlines:

CHINESE BELIEVERS DOUBTFUL NEW RELIGION LAW WILL INCREASE FREEDOMS

GEORGIAN BAPTISTS FACE CONTINUAL PRESSURE FROM OPPONENTS

WORLD EVANGELICAL ALLIANCE’S SECRETARY GENERAL RESIGNS

MISSIONARY URGES BELIEVERS TO HELP REBUILD IRAQ’S DAMAGED CHURCHES

FEEDING, TECHNOLOGY PROGRAM BRINGS HOPE TO IMPOVERISHED KENYANS

JAMES KENNEDY TO BE INDUCTED INTO NRB HALL OF FAME

Today’s News Stories:

CHINESE BELIEVERS DOUBTFUL NEW RELIGION LAW WILL INCREASE FREEDOMS Chinese believers are taking a wait-and-see attitude regarding the country’s new religion law that comes into effect Tuesday, March 1. The New China News Agency characterized the Religious Affairs Provisions, first announced on Nov. 30, 2004, as a “significant step forward in the protection of Chinese citizens’ religious freedom.” Lawmakers say the provisions will help Christians cut through often-impenetrable bureaucracy when applying for official registration and could safeguard religious property rights. One article grants permission for churches to establish social service projects such as kindergartens, orphanages and clinics. However, Christians are concerned that any improvements could be more than offset by new provisions that punish members of unregistered religious groups. (Compass)

GEORGIAN BAPTISTS FACE CONTINUAL PRESSURE FROM OPPONENTS Two small independent Baptist congregations in villages of the Republic of Georgia continue to face attacks and threats from local residents in an apparent effort to force them out of the communities. On Tuesday, Dec. 28, unknown attackers smashed windows of a house church in Kuchatani where up to 15 local Baptists met for worship. This was the latest in a series of attacks on the house, said Pastor Levan Akhalmosulishvili, a leading member of the Association of Christian-Baptist Churches. The home had only recently been repaired after being vandalized in October. In a separate incident on Monday, Nov. 8, a mob of up to 600 people forced Baptists to stop construction of a house for Baptist deacon Zurab Khutsishvili in the town of Velitsikhe. The mob surrounded his house for three hours, carrying banners declaring, “We’re Orthodox, we don’t need Baptists!” Gurjaani District Gov. Akaki Tsikharulidze denied accusations that he was among the local officials who encouraged the riot. “The Baptists are just 12 families, and the villagers say they already have one church,” he said, referring to the local Orthodox church. “But it isn’t true to say that the Baptists can’t build non-Orthodox places of worship.” (Forum 18 News Service)

WORLD EVANGELICAL ALLIANCE’S SECRETARY GENERAL RESIGNS Rev. Gary Edmonds, secretary general of the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) since July 2002, has unexpectedly resigned from his post. Edmonds, a 55-year-old theologian from Seattle, Wash., gave no reason for his resignation which takes effect at the end of February. In accepting the resignation on behalf of the WEA’s international council, Chairman Ndaba Mazabane of Durban, South Africa, said Edmonds was “instrumental in helping the WEA reflect and draw on its rich history in order to build a strong and viable global movement that is relevant to the 21st century.” Meanwhile, the WEA’s global leadership council recently ratified the appointment of Bertil Ekstr ¶m, 52, from Brazil as the organization’s executive director-designate effective in July 2006. Ekstr ¶m is well known throughout Latin America as a church and mission leader. He is an ordained pastor and a missionary with InterAct, a Swedish mission society. Ekstr ¶m has also led the Brazilian Association of Mission Agencies and has been one of the leaders of the association’s professors. The WEA is a global network of seven regional and 124 national evangelical alliances and 104 organizational ministries, representing approximately 400 million evangelicals. (World Evangelical Alliance/Assist News Service)

MISSIONARY URGES BELIEVERS TO HELP REBUILD IRAQ’S DAMAGED CHURCHES A veteran American missionary based in Japan has issued an urgent appeal to believers worldwide to help rebuild the more than 20 churches in Iraq that have been damaged or destroyed in recent terrorist attacks. Rev. Kenny Joseph, an American-born Assyrian Christian, says the churches were targeted in a series of attacks that began in early August when four churches in Baghdad and one in Mosul were hit. Dozens of Christians died in the attacks. Earlier, terrorists also began targeting stores owned by Iraqi Christians. One Iraqi believer estimated that up to 40,000 Christians have fled the country because of the threat of terrorist attacks. The Assyrian Christians trace their roots to the people of Nineveh, the original people of Iraq, to whom Jonah ministered. (Assist News Service)

FEEDING, TECHNOLOGY PROGRAM BRINGS HOPE TO IMPOVERISHED KENYANS While the gap between Kenya’s poor and the rich continue to grow, Steve Peifer of Africa Inland Mission (AIM) says the ministry has launched a feeding and technology program. He says there is a direct corollary between nutrition and academic achievement. “The cost is pretty minor,” he said. “I can feed a child a lunch six days a week for a month for between $1 and $1.50. If we had 15 years where every Kenyan kid got a meal, stayed in school and learned technology, we could break the back of poverty in that country.” AIM launched the outreach program after Peifer visited Kenya and got a first-hand look at the country’s desperate situation. He visited a classroom where he saw students lying on the dirt floor. When he asked the teacher why, she replied, “Today is Thursday. They haven’t eaten since Monday. If they sit up, they faint.” He also noticed that there was only book for every 11 students. Peifer added the program is opening doors to share the love of Christ with Kenyans when they realize that Christians around the world care about them. (Mission Network News)

JAMES KENNEDY TO BE INDUCTED INTO NRB HALL OF FAME The National Religious Broadcasters (NRB) announced that it will induct Dr. D. James Kennedy into its Hall of Fame in February. The NRB, an international group of broadcasters with more than 1,700 member organizations, will present its Hall of Fame Award to Kennedy on Tuesday, Feb. 15, at its annual convention in Anaheim, Calif. Kennedy is senior minister of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church and president of Coral Ridge Ministries, an international Christian broadcast organization that reaches into 200 countries. More than 3 million people in the U.S. tune in to his radio and television programs each week, as do millions more around the world. The Hall of Fame Award recognizes “invaluable contributions to the field of Christian communications, all the while exhibiting the highest standards of conduct and evidence of faithfulness in Christ,” said NRB President Frank Wright. While Kennedy’s media outreach began in 1974 with radio, his connection to Christian broadcasting dates back to 1953. He went to Fort Lauderdale in 1959 to pastor Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church. Since then he has founded nine other ministries. (Religion Today/Coral Ridge Ministries News)

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