INDONESIA ASKS MOST AID GROUPS TO LEAVE TSUNAMI-AFFECTED AREAS

NIGERIAN UNIVERSITY REOPENS 2 MONTHS AFTER CHRISTIAN’S MURDER

VIETNAMESE PROTESTANTS EXPRESS DOUBTS ABOUT NEW RELIGIOUS POLICY

MERCY SHIP BEGINS 4 MONTHS OF MINISTRY IN FIRST VISIT TO LIBERIA

AFRICA TO BE FOCUS OF FIRST GLOBAL DAY OF REPENTANCE AND PRAYER

MINISTRIES FORM COALITION TO ENCOURAGE CHURCH PLANTING IN U.S.

Today’s News Stories:

INDONESIA ASKS MOST AID GROUPS TO LEAVE TSUNAMI-AFFECTED AREAS The government of Indonesia is asking aid groups not involved in reconstruction to leave areas affected by the Dec. 26 earthquake/tsunami. However, the government emphasized that foreign help is still needed in the hard-hit community of Banda Aceh. International Aid President Myles Fish says his ministry has no plans to leave the area. “We’ve already gotten a letter of endorsement from the minister of health, so we think that we’ll be one of the agencies that will be invited to stay,” he said. “But we’d appreciate people praying that the door would stay open for us.” The ministry already has delivered $11 million in aid and has started trauma counseling training. Staff members also plan to begin medical equipment repair training, a ministry that is expected to have a lasting spiritual impact. “The training programs . . . are particularly effective because that gives us long-term, face-to-face contact and the opportunity to get to know people and share our faith,” Fish Says. “So we’re full of anticipation.” (Mission Network News)

NIGERIAN UNIVERSITY REOPENS 2 MONTHS AFTER CHRISTIAN’S MURDER Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University in Nigeria’s Bauchi state reopened on Monday, Feb. 28, under tight security, two months after a group of Muslims killed a Christian student on the campus. However, the school failed to meet the demands of Christian leaders who sought the prosecution of the suspects in the crime. The leaders are also demanding the reinstatement of five other Christians who were expelled for conducting an evangelistic outreach. The school was closed after Muslims attacked some Christian students in December 2004, leading to the brutal murder of Sunday Nache Achi, an evangelical student leader on the campus. (Compass)

* HCJB World Radio, together with partners In Touch Ministries, SIM and the Evangelical Church of West Africa, began airing weekly half-hour programs to Nigeria in the Igbo language in 2000. In 2003 weekly broadcasts were added in two additional languages, Yoruba and Hausa. HCJB World Radio also has helped with radio ministries in six cities with more in the planning stages.

VIETNAMESE PROTESTANTS EXPRESS DOUBTS ABOUT NEW RELIGIOUS POLICY Vietnamese Christians are puzzling over the country’s new “Instructions Concerning the Protestant Religion” that Prime Minister Phan Van Khai released as a policy document on Friday, Feb. 4. The instructions promise some changes for the better, such as allowing Protestant denominations that were active in Vietnam before 1975 to apply for legal registration. However, veteran observers believe the policy statement merely aims to quell the international outcry regarding the ongoing persecution of Christians, particularly in the central highlands. Few expect real change to take place. Two police raids on the Mennonite Church in Ho Chi Minh City in the past two weeks, resulting in the arrest and questioning of 19 Christians, have reinforced their doubts. Some house church leaders dismiss the instructions as “just window dressing to fool critics and diplomats.” (Compass)

MERCY SHIP BEGINS 4 MONTHS OF MINISTRY IN FIRST VISIT TO LIBERIA The Mercy Ship Anastasis has arrived in Monrovia, Liberia, for the ministry’s first visit to the war-torn West African nation. Volunteers serving with Mercy Ships will provide a wide range of specialized medical services and assist in community development projects in the next four months. The outreach follows an invitation from the Liberian Council of Churches, the Liberian government and U.N. officials. Mercy Ships President Don Stephens says the ministry will offer “desperately needed operations and medical procedures that are unavailable in Liberia,” while the Rebuilding Hope Project will assist refugees in 12 communities with water and sanitation, education and agriculture. “Liberia is one of the neediest nations on the face of the earth,” Stephens says. “Ninety percent of the people living inside of Liberia subsist on less then $1 a day; 150,000 people have lost their lives due to the country’s 15-year civil war. An additional 850,000 Liberians are refugees, either internally or in [neighboring] nations.” (Mercy Ships)

* HCJB World Radio works in partnership with ELWA, a ministry founded by SIM in Monrovia in 1954, to air the gospel across the country and West Africa. The radio station was destroyed twice by civil war, first in 1990 and again in 1996. ELWA most recently went back on the air in 1997 with a small FM transmitter. Then in 2000 HCJB World Radio provided a low-power shortwave transmitter, again enabling the station to cover the entire region. ELWA broadcasts the gospel in 10 languages and plans to add more as resources become available.

AFRICA TO BE FOCUS OF FIRST GLOBAL DAY OF REPENTANCE AND PRAYER More than 200 million Christians around the world are expected to participate in the first Global Day of Repentance and Prayer. Transformation Africa is coordinating the event that will see Christians join in 18 hours of continuous prayer. Organizers say they will make history on Sunday, May 15, as they begin praying when the sun rises over the islands east of New Zealand and continuing until it sets over Hawaii and Alaska in the west. The prayer initiative will be preceded by 10 days of fasting and prayer. On Friday, May 13, students are being encouraged to kneel down for 30 seconds during school to pray for God’s blessing. That will be followed by a night of prayer for the whole world by youth around the world, culminating with the prayer event. (Mission Network News)

MINISTRIES FORM COALITION TO ENCOURAGE CHURCH PLANTING IN U.S. A coalition of ministries is joining forces to encourage believers in the U.S. to plant new churches. The Massive Surge Network, an organization that helps in the planting of new churches in America and worldwide, has produced green wristbands with the message, “Live Your Purpose, Change Your World.” Network spokesman Chris Browne says organizers were looking for a way to encourage others to fulfill the Great Commission and plant New Testament churches and came up with the idea of the bracelets. “We were sitting around talking about what color they should be a few months ago,” he recalls. “We were actually sitting in a car after our meeting, and the stoplight changed, and the guy in the back seat said, ‘Hey — green means go.’ And we thought, ‘You know what? That really sums up the idea of what we want to communicate’ – that as believers we are all commanded to go. Our mission field is right where we are, wherever we work or live, our family, our circle of influence, but it’s also around the world.” The Massive Surge Network is partnering with the Jesus Film Project and Dynamic Church Planters International. (AgapePress) * * * * * * * * * * * * *

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