INSURGENTS BACK DOWN ON THREATS AGAINST CHURCH WORKERS IN INDIA

HINDUS IN INDIA ATTACK PRAYER MEETING WHILE POLICE TAKE LUNCH BREAK

DOORS OPEN IN NIGER AFTER MISSIONARY SCHOOL CLOSES IN IVORY COAST

CHRISTIANS IN NORTHERN NIGERIA THREATEN TO BOYCOTT 2005 CENSUS

NEW BIBLE TRANSLATION IN RWANDA SURVIVES AMID ETHNIC CONFLICT

VOLUNTEERS TO REPAIR, ERECT CROSSES ALONG U.S. HIGHWAYS NATIONWIDE

Today’s News Stories:

INSURGENTS BACK DOWN ON THREATS AGAINST CHURCH WORKERS IN INDIA Insurgents in the northeastern Indian state of Assam have backed down from their threats to kill workers with Gospel for Asia (GFA) in the area unless the ministry paid 8 million rupees (nearly US$185,000) by Thursday, March 10. “God has answered your prayers — our prayers — for the situation in Assam (a state in northeastern India),” said GFA President K.P. Yohannan in an e-mail report. “But this news comes with the warning that the danger has not passed.” After word of the extortion demand went out, “immediately, hundreds of thousands of believers — possibly millions — like you around the world began to pray for the situation,” Yohannan said. “The official hierarchy of this insurgent group — one that has never backed down in the past and has enforced its demands in blood — told our leaders in Assam that they were giving more time so they could ‘study’ our work and ministry among their people. Praise God, everyone is safe for now. We don’t know whether ‘more time’ is a few more days or perhaps a few weeks, but it is clear that God has intervened and touched their hearts in a favorable way for now.” (Gospel for Asia)

HINDUS IN INDIA ATTACK PRAYER MEETING WHILE POLICE TAKE LUNCH BREAK Christians from a small Indian village will have their day in court Monday, May 9, following a violent attack on a prayer meeting. Members of a radical Hindu group broke up the meeting in the village of Dhanora in central India’s Madhya Pradesh state Wednesday, Feb. 23. Four Hindu men who identified themselves as members of two extremist groups — Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the Bajrang Dal — attacked the prayer meeting and left several Christians badly injured while police who were assigned to guard the Christians failed to protect them. The attack took place while the constable went to have his lunch at about 4 p.m. Local Hindus have since pressured the Christians to drop their complaint, threatening them with “death and burning down of their houses.” Meanwhile, India’s top Christian leaders presented an unofficial “white paper” to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday, March 11. The document listed more than 200 violent incidents against Christians occurring in the first 10 weeks of this year and called on the government to protect the Christian minority. (Compass)

DOORS OPEN IN NIGER AFTER MISSIONARY SCHOOL CLOSES IN IVORY COAST A new door of opportunity has opened for International Christian Academy in Bouake, C ´te d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast), after turmoil in the country forced the school for children of missionaries to shut down for the second time last fall. “I know doors close sometimes, but it’s exciting to see what God can do in terms of opening up other doors of opportunity, and we’re really walking through that experience right now,” says Paul Jackson of Evangelical Baptist Mission. “Most of the Ivory Coast families have relocated to Niger’s capital city of Niamey.” That’s where staff members are continuing to train missionary kids (MKs). “Some of our folks are going to be continuing in training of MKs,” Jackson said. “We have an elementary school in Niger where probably 90 percent of those children come from Muslim families. It is an incredible opportunity for evangelism,” Jackson says. “We are now broadcasting an hour-and-a-half a day on public radio. And we’ve had opportunities to present evangelistic programs on Nigerian television.” (Mission Network News)

* In cooperation with local partners, HCJB World Radio helped plant a local Christian station in Niamey, Niger, in 2004.

CHRISTIANS IN NORTHERN NIGERIA THREATEN TO BOYCOTT 2005 CENSUS The northern chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has threatened to mobilize Christians to boycott the upcoming national population census if religion and ethnicity are deleted from the questionnaires. Speaking at a press conference in Kaduna on the weekend, Secretary Saidu Dogo said the national secretariat of CAN had already endorsed the position. Dogo explained that inclusion of religion in the census questionnaire would help to determine how many Nigerians belong to each religion in the country. “The National Population Commission should, without further delay, include ethnicity and religion in the forthcoming national head count so that Nigerians and the world over will know the true position of the number of adherents to the different religions in Nigeria, as it is done all over the world,” he said. “As for ethnicity, it is important that we know the number of tribal groupings in this country because the Christian community wants to help government in areas of education and health by establishing schools and hospitals. The statistics will go a long way in assisting us to make the proper projections.” (WorldWide Religious News/This Day)

* 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.

NEW BIBLE TRANSLATION IN RWANDA SURVIVES AMID ETHNIC CONFLICT “I am overjoyed; this is a time for celebration,” said Rev. Anasthase Kajugiro, general secretary of the Bible Society in Rwanda, at the recent launch of the Kinyarwanda Common Language Bible earlier this year. The project had nearly been abandoned in 1994 when turmoil and violence swept across Rwanda. With ethnic conflict raging in the streets of Kigali, the revisers and translators were forced to leave their work as the city was evacuated. The almost-completed translation was left on floppy disks in their office. After months of chaos, when Bible Society work started up again, its members found that, amidst the devastation, the floppy disks had somehow survived undamaged. Rev. Giles Williams, who lived in Rwanda for more than eight years while coordinating the project, stood alongside the leaders of the various denominations who had supported the work. “It was not always easy, and looking back today I can see how God both protected us and blessed this project,” Williams said. (Bible Society)

VOLUNTEERS TO REPAIR, ERECT CROSSES ALONG U.S. HIGHWAYS NATIONWIDE Bernard Coffindaffer, a wealthy businessman turned lay minister, spent millions placing crosses along U.S. highways in 29 states. After he died in 1993, the inspirational symbols were destined to deteriorate and be forgotten. However, a volunteer group called Crosses Across America in Mississippi has re-energized the cause with a goal to blanket America’s roadsides with crosses. Crosses along highways often create controversy, but Coffindaffer believed they were the best way to inspire people. The volunteer group wants to refurbish the existing 2,000 crosses and put up new ones. “At the conclusion of this, we will have crosses every 25 miles all across America,” said Sara Abraham, executive director of the group. The project will cost an estimated $7 million. (Assist News Service) * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Web: http://www.hcjb.org http://www.beyondthecall.org * * * * * * * * * * * * *

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