RELIEF AGENCY APPEALS FOR RELEASE OF 3 ABDUCTED WORKERS IN SUDAN

150+ KILLED AS THOUSANDS STAMPEDE AT HINDU PROCESSION IN INDIA

RELIGIOUS QUESTIONNAIRE IN INDIA’S GUJARAT STATE RAISES SUSPICIONS

FORMER WEA HEAD JOINS NEW MINISTRY DEDICATED TO FIGHTING AIDS

‘SCHOOL IN A BAG’ TO HELP EDUCATE SOUTH AFRICA’S AIDS ORPHANS

SCIENTIST: DISCOVERY OF PREHISTORIC MAMMAL POINTS TO CREATION

Today’s News Stories:

RELIEF AGENCY APPEALS FOR RELEASE OF 3 ABDUCTED WORKERS IN SUDAN The Adventist Development and Relief Agency International (ADRA) is appealing for the release of three of its workers who were abducted at gunpoint in western Sudan’s war-torn Darfur region Thursday, Dec. 16. The attackers also confiscated their vehicles. The workers were kidnapped while travelling through the then rebel-controlled area of Labado on their way from Khartoum to Darfur. Traveling in a convoy, the workers were part of a larger ADRA well-drilling team, carrying equipment and supplies to rehabilitate 65 damaged and abandoned wells and construct 45 new ones. They had official permission to deliver the aid to Darfur. The wells will benefit 80,000 refugees and local residents in West Darfur, an area hit hard by the civil unrest that has displaced more than 1.6 million people. ADRA’s office in Khartoum is working with the U.N. to secure the release of the workers. ADRA has been working in Sudan for more than 25 years and in Darfur since June 2004. (Adventist Development and Relief Agency)

150+ KILLED AS THOUSANDS STAMPEDE AT HINDU PROCESSION IN INDIA Thousands of Hindus panicked during a religious procession in western India Tuesday, Jan. 25, causing a stampede that killed more than 150 people and injured many others, a local official said. News agencies differ in their accounts as to what triggered the stampede which occurred near the village of Wai in the Satara district about 150 miles south of Bombay. Sharad Jadhav, Satara’s second-highest official, said the stampede was caused by overcrowding, but police said it was sparked by a fire. “A fire caused by a short circuit in a makeshift shop near the temple created panic among the pilgrims,” K.K. Pathak, inspector general of police in the region, told the Associated Press. “Some tried to flee the area, starting the stampede.” The situation grew worse when a narrow path leading to the temple became jammed with pilgrims. Television reports added that medical teams had difficulty reaching victims because of the tight space. More than 300,000 people had gathered for the annual Hindu festival dedicated to the goddess Mandra Devi on a full-moon night. (Assist News Service)

RELIGIOUS QUESTIONNAIRE IN INDIA’S GUJARAT STATE RAISES SUSPICIONS A controversial decision to make primary students in rural areas complete a religion-based questionnaire has raised suspicions about a “hidden agenda” by the government of western India’s Gujarat state. The Opposition Congress has dubbed the census in rural areas as an “attempt to disturb communal harmony” by India’s radical Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Education Minister Anandiben Patel denied any “religion-based” survey in village schools. However, she admitted that students were being asked to participate in a survey to make them better aware of their social and cultural surroundings and to sharpen their writing skills. The four-page questionnaire seeks to find out how many people belong to which religion in a village, the festivals that are celebrated, the number of religious places, and their historical importance. The survey is being conducted as part of the government’s district primary education project’s documentation exercise in each of the state’s 18,000 villages. Believers are concerned that the information will be used to create a religion-based databank in rural areas. A similar exercise was secretly undertaken by Gujarat police in the Dangs district shortly before the anti-Christian attacks in 1998. (WorldWide Religious News/The Telegraph)

* “The Voice of the Great Southland,” the shortwave station operated by HCJB World Radio-Australia since January 2003, airs more than 108 hours of weekly Christian programming in 11 languages, including nine spoken in India (English, Urdu, Hindi, Punjabi, Nepali, Malayalam, Chattisgarhi, Hmar and Meeitei). Programs in these languages are produced at HCJB World Radio’s studio in New Delhi.

FORMER WEA HEAD JOINS NEW MINISTRY DEDICATED TO FIGHTING AIDS Gary Edmonds, outgoing secretary general of the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA), is joining a two-year-old organization called Churches Together to serve as executive director starting Tuesday, Feb. 1. The ministry works to mobilize North American churches to work in partnership with African congregations in the fight against HIV/AIDS. The 55-year-old theologian from Seattle had been at the helm of WEA since July 2002. He announced his resignation at the beginning of January. Churches Together was founded by 10 local congregations in the U.S. to address the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Sub-Saharan Africa, home to 75 percent of the world’s 40 million people who have the disease. (Assist News Service)

‘SCHOOL IN A BAG’ TO HELP EDUCATE SOUTH AFRICA’S AIDS ORPHANS One in nine South Africans — more than 5 million people — are infected with the virus that causes AIDS. Those who die are frequently parents, resulting in hundreds of children becoming heads of families. Many times, these children are unable to attend a conventional school because they are locked in a struggle for survival. Rather than allowing them to go uneducated, Dr. Alan McIlhenny of the Association of Christian Schools International is spearheading a non-traditional, specially designed, basic education project called “School in a Bag.” The project involves developing the curriculum, then using resource centers to enable the Christian community to serve at-risk children. McIlhenny expects the project will be ready to launch in June. The curriculum deals with the reality of living in a broken world. He says he hopes the program will not only educate, but also “point the children to the hope they have in a God who loves them and wants them to belong to Him.” (Mission Network News)

* 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.

SCIENTIST: DISCOVERY OF PREHISTORIC MAMMAL POINTS TO CREATION A lecturer for Answers in Genesis, a creation apologetics group, says the recent discovery of the fossil of a prehistoric mammal that apparently devoured a tiny dinosaur only affirms the biblical account of creation. The scientists who made the discovery said the dog-sized mammal is the first proof that mammals hunted small dinosaurs. Dr. Terry Mortenson says this discovery needs more study — but it does not go against the Christian concept of creation. “It certainly is another black mark against the theory of evolution because they’re once again saying [that] this overturns all previous thinking about the subject,” he notes. “I have numerous quotes over the last 10 years or so of evolutionists making statements like that.” Mortenson says scientists always seem to be shocked when new fossil discoveries do not fit their ideas of how evolution is supposed to work. “There’s more and more scientific evidence that is incompatible with the evolutionary theory,” he said. “Basing your faith on evolution is like building your house on quicksand because the foundational truths are constantly changing.” (AgapePress)

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