LOCAL CHURCH LEADERS IN BELARUS FACE INCREASING OPPOSITION ‘DRUNKEN COWBOYS’ SUSPECTED OF KILLING MISSIONARIES IN GUYANA MALAYSIAN CHRISTIAN AWAITS COURT’S DECISION ON CONVERSION ISSUE 2 MINISTRIES JOIN FORCES TO TOUCH INMATES AT 2,000 PRISONS WORLDWIDE SURVEY: COLLEGE FRESHMEN IN U.S. ON A ‘SPIRITUAL QUEST’ MINISTER URGES BELIEVERS TO ‘REDISCOVER AMERICA’S CHRISTIAN ROOTS’

Today’s News Stories:

LOCAL CHURCH LEADERS IN BELARUS FACE INCREASING OPPOSITION Reports from native missionaries in Belarus confirm what much-publicized recent events indicate — believers continue to suffer under the most repressive religion law in Europe. The law, passed in 2002, requires that all religious groups register with the government. However, registration is so difficult to obtain that few groups have been granted official status — without which they are not allowed to construct buildings. Local contacts say that the situation is “very difficult” for believers in Belarus. They are not allowed to preach publicly, and many churches must meet in secret. (Christian Aid Mission)

‘DRUNKEN COWBOYS’ SUSPECTED OF KILLING MISSIONARIES IN GUYANA More information is available about the murders of Richard and Charlene Hicks, missionaries with Wycliffe Bible Translators who were murdered in Guyana on Wednesday, March 30. Family members said that two “drunken cowboys” lured Charlene out to the gate of their home where they killed her. Then they murdered her husband, stole the equivalent of US$35 and burned down their house. The suspects later went to a local bar where they bragged about their crimes and continued drinking before fleeing across the nearby border to Brazil. Brazilian authorities are looking for the men but have not yet located them. The Hicks’ co-translators said they will continue working on the Wapishana Bible. (Mission Network News)

MALAYSIAN CHRISTIAN AWAITS COURT’S DECISION ON CONVERSION ISSUE Seven years after she converted to Christianity, a Malaysian woman is still waiting for a High Court ruling on her right to remove the word “Islam” from her identity card. In 1998, Azlina Jailani, as she was then known, applied to the National Registration Department (NRD) to have the name on her identity card changed to Lina Joy to reflect her conversion to Christianity. NRD officials agreed to alter the name, but refused to switch her religious status. In the latest hearing on the case on Monday, March 7, senior federal counsel Umi Kalthum Abdul Majid said that Joy abused the legal system by requesting the change from the NRD instead of from a sharia (Islamic law) court. Joy has repeatedly argued that, as a Christian, she is not subject to sharia. Her case highlights the need for Malaysia to set clearer ground rules for religious conversions. (Compass)

2 MINISTRIES JOIN FORCES TO TOUCH INMATES AT 2,000 PRISONS WORLDWIDE Purpose Driven Ministries, a global outreach of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., and Chuck Colson’s Prison Fellowship have formed a partnership to reach out to inmates and their families worldwide. The alliance will be key in an innovative global mission to marginalized people unveiled by Saddleback’s founding pastor, Rick Warren, on Sunday, April 17, before an audience of more than 30,000 at Angel Stadium in Anaheim, Calif. The partnership will open the door to put Purpose Driven Ministries’ “Celebrate Recovery” addiction program in more than 2,000 prisons around the world and involve more than 20,000 churches in outreach to prisoners’ children through Prison Fellowship’s Angel Tree program. At the church’s 25th anniversary celebration on Sunday, Warren spoke of his desire to mobilize his constituency to care for prisoners as Jesus demanded. Colson, who was also present at the special service, said the two ministries are a “natural fit,” and the new partnership will help expand the outreach of both. “The whole notion of The Purpose-Driven Life — which is genius — has a particular impact for [prisoners],” Colson said. “The vision for using it is to reach out to the marginalized and broken in the prisons and raise them up to become leaders.” (AgapePress/Purpose Driven Ministries)

SURVEY: COLLEGE FRESHMEN IN U.S. ON A ‘SPIRITUAL QUEST’ A new national survey finds that young college students in the U.S. are in a serious search for deeper meaning and purpose in their lives. The study indicates that more than three-fourths of those students believe their religious spiritual beliefs provide them with strength, support and guidance. The nationwide survey of freshmen, conducted last fall by the Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), polled more than 112,000 freshmen attending 236 colleges and universities. The study, titled “Spirituality in Higher Education: A National Study of College Students’ Search for Meaning and Purpose,” found that 80 percent of those first-year students believe in God, and 83 percent believe life is sacred. Three-fourths of those surveyed say they are searching for meaning or purpose in life and would like their schools to help them explore such questions. While 77 percent of those with a low level of religious engagement support legalized abortion, only 23 percent of those with substantial religious engagement support it. Two-thirds of students with low religious involvement feel casual sex is acceptable, but only 15 percent of the more religious students agree. About one-fourth of those surveyed described themselves as “born-again Christians.” (Religion Today/AgapePress)

MINISTER URGES BELIEVERS TO ‘REDISCOVER AMERICA’S CHRISTIAN ROOTS’ Peter Marshall, a minister who is well known for his books and lectures on the Christian heritage of the U.S., believes in order to see national revival, the church must rediscover the country’s spiritual roots. He said corporate prayer movements such as the U.S. National Day of Prayer on Thursday, May 5, and the Global Day of Prayer on Sunday, May 15, are steps in the right direction. But the son of former U.S. Senate Chaplain Peter Marshall and author Catherine Marshall noted that winning the culture war also requires that Christians remember why they’re fighting. “People don’t realize why America is worth saving,” Marshall said in an interview. “We must rediscover our Christian roots.” Marshall believes U.S. churches should hold regular American heritage classes. “This nation’s future is very much in doubt,” said Marshall, a Presbyterian minister who leads Restoring America Ministries based in Orleans, Mass. He pointed to issues such as abortion and homosexual marriage that are destroying the traditional nuclear family. (CharismaNOW)

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