REPORT SHOWS ESCALATING CRACKDOWN ON CHINA’S HOUSE CHURCHES TURKISH COURT TO ASSESS INJURED CHRISTIAN’S CONDITION ALBANIAN CHRISTIANS PRAY IN ANTICIPATION OF NATIONAL ELECTION JONI EARECKSON TADA’S ORIGINAL PAINTINGS SURVIVE DEVASTATING FIRE MAINLINE CHURCHES LOSE GROUND ON LIST OF U.S. DENOMINATIONS

Today’s Top Stories:

REPORT SHOWS ESCALATING CRACKDOWN ON CHINA’S HOUSE CHURCHES Reports are emerging from China that a nationwide campaign against unregistered house churches is underway. Numerous house churches have been raided in recent weeks, hundreds of people have been arrested and many remain in prison. In the latest incident, a news release from the China Aid Association (CAA) reported that at about 8 a.m. Friday, June 24, while house church Pastor Chen Dongming was holding leadership training at his home in Hezhai Village in Henan province, about 50 Chinese police and public security officials raided his house without a search warrant. About 100 pastors from several major cities (including Kaifeng, Xinxiang and Jiaozuo City) were taken away and held at the Qi County Detention Center. Most of the pastors were released at approximately 6 p.m. the same day after being interrogated. However, nine of them, including pastors Chen Dongming, Wei and Jin, remain in jail. Eyewitnesses said more than 50 plainclothes security officers surrounded the village with three large trucks and a number of police cars, and went directly to Chen’s house early June 24. After bursting into the building, the security officers conducted thorough body searches of all of the male and female pastors. Police confiscated private property such as cash, chairs, televisions, books, blankets and rice. One pastor who was released said the church leaders were accused of “engaging in an illegal religious gathering.” (Assist News Service)

TURKISH COURT TO ASSESS INJURED CHRISTIAN’S CONDITION The Orhangazi Criminal Court in northwestern Turkey has set Friday, July 8, as the date to assess new medical reports on the condition of Turkish Christian Yakup Cindilli. He continues to recover from severe injuries inflicted in October 2003 by ultra-nationalists accusing him of “missionary propaganda.” His attackers’ trial was postponed for 15 months so the court could determine the extent of Cindilli’s injuries. “After more than 40 days in a coma, it’s a miracle that Yakup is alive today,” said Ismail Kulakcioglu, pastor of the Bursa Protestant Church. Cindilli’s family reportedly wants his court case to conclude at the July 8 hearing without trying to obtain compensation from his attackers for his long-term disabilities. But that decision remains with Cindilli who has recovered sufficiently to speak for himself. Despite pressures from his religiously conservative Muslim family to renounce his faith, “Yakup is very committed to stay faithful to Jesus, in spite of what happened,” a member of the Bursa church noted. (Compass)

* HCJB World Radio worked with Words of Hope and local partners to help establish Radio Shema, an FM station in Ankara, Turkey, in 2003.

ALBANIAN CHRISTIANS PRAY IN ANTICIPATION OF NATIONAL ELECTION With a parliamentary election planned for Albania on Sunday, July 3, Enkelejda Kumaraku of Trans World Radio (TWR) says the ministry has organized a nationwide prayer effort. “We’ll have a big national prayer meeting all-night prayer on Saturday July 2,” he said. “Believers from all across the country will come together and humble themselves before God and just leave everything that is happening in our nation in God’s hands.” TWR has been airing special programming to coincide with the event. The parliamentary election is too close to call, according to a second poll by Mjaft and Gallup that was published on Sunday, June 26. Former President Sali Berisha’s Democrats are projected to get 35 percent of the vote compared to 34 percent for Prime Minister Fatos Nano’s Socialists. On Friday Berisha told the German news agency DPA that he expects the Democrats to win “an absolute majority” in the 140-member parliament. (Mission Network News/Southeast European Times)

JONI EARECKSON TADA’S ORIGINAL PAINTINGS SURVIVE DEVASTATING FIRE Joni and Friends, the international ministry and disability outreach of Joni Eareckson Tada, reported that her collection of original art survived the devastating fire that destroyed the Biblical Arts Center in Dallas, Texas, on Tuesday, June 28. “When I learned that the museum storing virtually all of my original paintings was engulfed in flames, I was stunned and shocked to think that 30 years of my artwork was about to be destroyed,” Tada said. “A few minutes later I remembered, ‘Joni, God wants you to hold all things lightly.”‘ Remarkably, the six-alarm fire that was fought by firefighters for hours caused only minor damage to the area in the basement where her paintings were being stored. (Joni and Friends)

MAINLINE CHURCHES LOSE GROUND ON LIST OF U.S. DENOMINATIONS Mainline Protestant churches no longer dominate a list of the 25 largest American church groups, according to the National Council of Churches’ 2005 Yearbook of American & Canadian Churches. Pentecostal and African American churches made significant gains, the yearbook reported, and the Southern Baptist Convention with more than 16 million members and a growth rate of 1.18 percent remains the second-largest denomination in the U.S. The data for the report was gathered by churches in 2003 and reported to the yearbook in 2004. The publication provides information on 217 national church bodies with 150 million members, including brief church histories and contact information for church leaders, according to an NCC release. Mainline Protestants have increased their mission activity for the first time in a quarter century, the report said, and American Christians are “attempting great things” in missions. Mainline church agencies reported an increase of 600 missionaries from the number reported in 1966, the release said. (Christian Recorder)

CORRECTION: An article in Wednesday’s update should have said that the Auschwitz, the site of a former death camp that is now the home of a Christian radio station, is in Poland. * * * * * * * * * * * * * Harold Goerzen HCJB World Radio E-mail: Phone: 1-719-590-9800 Fax: 1-719-590-9801 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. _______________________________________________ HCJBDaily mailing list

with subscribe in the subject line.

with unsubscribe in the subject line.