VENUE CHANGED FOR TRIAL OF EX-MUSLIM IN IRAN ACCUSED OF ‘APOSTASY’

BILLY GRAHAM HEADQUARTERS DEDICATED IN NORTH CAROLINA

LOANS TO POOR CHINESE RESIDENTS OPEN WITNESSING OPPORTUNITIES

EVANGELISTIC OUTREACH FOCUSES ON PANAMA’S LAST UNREACHED TRIBE

GALLUP POLL: U.S. TEENAGERS LACK BASIC BIBLE KNOWLEDGE

Today’s News Stories:

VENUE CHANGED FOR TRIAL OF EX-MUSLIM IN IRAN ACCUSED OF ‘APOSTASY’ Iranian authorities abandoned preliminary hearings against Christian convert Hamid Pourmand before a sharia (Islamic law) court in Tehran last week, apparently after news of his trial leaked out to the international press. Officials informed the Protestant lay pastor’s lawyer and family that he was being transferred from Tehran’s Evin Prison to his home city of Bandar-i Bushehr to stand trial. Officials did not indicate when the prisoner would be moved or when his trial would begin. If convicted of apostasy and proselytizing under Iranian law, he could face the death penalty. Pourmand, 47, was arrested by the Iranian security police last September for deserting Islam 25 years ago to become a Christian. A former colonel in the Iranian army, he was serving as lay pastor of an Assemblies of God congregation in Bandar-i Bushehr. After five months in solitary confinement, he was convicted by a military court martial in mid-February for “deceiving the Iranian armed forces” about his conversion, and he was sentenced to three years in prison. Judges at the military tribunal discounted written evidence stating that his army superiors knew about his Christian faith, calling the documents “falsified.” An Iranian source added that Pourmand’s wife and sons “feel very alone now. They are isolated, without any source of income and no place to go when summer comes.” (Compass)

* HCJB World Radio, in cooperation with FEBA Radio, broadcasts weekly Christian programs to Iran via shortwave in the Luri language. There are less than 100 known believers among the 4 million Luri speakers in Iran and Iraq.

BILLY GRAHAM HEADQUARTERS DEDICATED IN NORTH CAROLINA The new headquarters for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) was dedicated in Charlotte, N.C., Saturday, April 23, moving from Minneapolis, Minn., where the ministry was located for more than 50 years. Graham, 86, spoke to the crowd of about 500 invited guests and media representatives. “I thank God for Charlotte and all the things it has meant to me through the years,” said Graham who was born in this city where his father had a dairy farm. People in the area are saying, “Billy Graham has come back home.” His nephew, Melvin F. Graham, welcomed guests to the event while BGEA President Franklin Graham spoke to the audience before introducing his father. Musical highlights included 96-year-old George Beverly Shea singing, “How Great Thou Art” in his characteristic strong clear voice. “Over half a century ago, God led us to establish this organization as a tool in His hands to reach the world for Christ,” Graham added. “Our articles of incorporation and our mission statement make it clear that we exist to preach the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ to all we can by every effective means available to us and by equipping others to do the same. That purpose has not changed, and I pray it will never change.” (Assist News Service)

LOANS TO POOR CHINESE RESIDENTS OPEN WITNESSING OPPORTUNITIES The situation of millions in China has become worse during the economic rebirth of the nation. HOPE International-China Director Jim Nelson says conditions are especially hard for impoverished women in the country, but his ministry helps by providing the capital the people need through personal loans. Like all HOPE programs, they focus on China’s self-employed people living in poverty who have little or no access to formal credit. Complementary ministries include children’s clubs and summer camps organized through partnership with the local church. Nelson says the staff builds relationships with people through the loan process. Staff members deal with spiritual poverty while addressing people’s physical needs. “In many cases we’re handing out a flyer with one hand and handing out a tract with the other,” Nelson said. “We’re sharing two products — one is the gospel, the other is the loan.” (Mission Network News)

EVANGELISTIC OUTREACH FOCUSES ON PANAMA’S LAST UNREACHED TRIBE New Tribes Mission (NTM) is making Panama’s Naso people a priority with its Chronological Teaching program. Numbering only about 4,000, the Naso are Panama’s last unreached tribe as most have never heard the good news of Jesus Christ. Instead, they worship rocks. “They live in northwestern Panama,” explains NTM’s Jim Repke. “The only way to get up into their villages is by river travel. There hasn’t been anybody there to teach them the Bible.” Repke says Bible translation in the Naso language has started and could be completed within two years. “Ancestral worship (is what) they have,” he adds. “They have a rock that they call their ‘grandma god,’ and they even call the river their ‘grandma.'” A group of 18 to 30 Naso people are participating in NTM’s teaching that began about a month ago. (Mission Network News)

* HOXO, a cooperating radio ministry of HCJB World Radio, broadcasts Christian programming across Panama City 24 hours a day via AM and FM. Although most programming is in Spanish, programs also air in Cantonese and English.

GALLUP POLL: U.S. TEENAGERS LACK BASIC BIBLE KNOWLEDGE There’s considerable ignorance about the Bible among U.S. teens, judging from a Gallup Poll released Tuesday, April 26. Fewer than half of the 1,002 youths polled knew that Jesus turned water into wine at the Cana wedding, and nearly two-thirds couldn’t identify a quote from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount or the relation of the road to Damascus to the Apostle Paul’s conversion. About one-in-10 thought Moses was one of Jesus’ 12 apostles. The poll, with a sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points, accompanied a report issued by the Bible Literacy Project (BLP) of Fairfax, Va. The literary project interviewed 41 high school English teachers who are regarded as outstanding by their colleagues. Forty of those teachers said knowledge of the Bible gives students a distinct educational advantage. In September the nonpartisan BLP, which promotes academic study of the Bible, plans to release a textbook designed for public school use. Speaking for the project, Charles Haynes of the First Amendment Center said Americans are misinformed about the fact that nonsectarian academic study of the Bible in public schools is legal. He said major secular educational organizations and a range of religious denominations have issued a consensus statement on how to properly conduct such Bible classes. (WorldWide Religious News/Associated Press)

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

Editor’s Note. Feel free to forward this to any interested friends. Our lists are distributed for information purposes and to encourage prayer. HCJB World Radio does not necessarily endorse or support the activities on which it reports.