MOB TWICE ATTACKS BOARDING HOUSE AT INDONESIAN BIBLE SCHOOL

NORTHERN NIGERIAN LEADERS IMPLORE PRESIDENT TO END ISLAMIC LAW

12,000+ BAPTISTS GATHER IN ENGLAND TO CELEBRATE 100 YEARS OF UNITY

GLOBAL AID NETWORK WORKS TO CHANGE DEADLY CHERNOBYL LEGACY

FAITH-BASED ORGANIZATION EARNS PRAISE OF FIRST LADY LAURA BUSH

Today’s Top Stories:

MOB TWICE ATTACKS BOARDING HOUSE AT INDONESIAN BIBLE SCHOOL

An angry mob has twice attacked a boarding house at a theological school in Pulo village in Indonesia’s Makasar district, east of Jakarta, causing more than $10,000 in damage. A mob of about 100 people, accompanied by a local government official, approached the Arastamar Theological School at about 11 a.m. Wednesday, July 6, while students were in a prayer meeting elsewhere on campus. The mob destroyed the tiled roof and the third floor of the dormitory, damaged walls on the first and second floors, and smashed furniture, including tables and chairs. On Thursday, July 14, the mob returned and tried to destroy the remainder of the building, but students prevented them from causing further damage. School officials have boarded up walls and erected makeshift barriers so that the school’s 300 students have places to sleep in the damaged building. The mob included members of the Islamic Defender’s Front who accused school leaders of building a church. Local Muslim leaders such as Habib Hussin, a lecturer at the University of Indonesia, have objected to the presence of the school despite the school management’s continual attempts to meet legal requirements. (Compass)

* HCJB World Radio has worked with local partners to establish up to 10 local Christian radio stations across Indonesia since 2004. Broadcasts from HCJB World Radio-Australia’s shortwave station, “Voice of the Great Southland,” also encourage listeners nationwide. In addition, HCJB World Radio has helped with relief efforts since the Dec. 26 earthquake/tsunami and subsequent quakes that have devastated parts of Indonesia.

NORTHERN NIGERIAN LEADERS IMPLORE PRESIDENT TO END ISLAMIC LAW

Church and government leaders in northern Nigeria are growing restless over President Olusegun Obasanjo’s failure to prevent northern states from using Islamic law (sharia) to persecute Christians. Nigeria’s northern Christian leaders have demanded that Obasanjo’s government put a stop to the Islamic law practiced in 12 northern states. Saidu Dogo, secretary general of the northern chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria, said the organization has written Obasanjo about Muslims demolishing church buildings, rejecting applications to build new churches, and denying land to Christians. “Yet, we see mosques being built on every corner of the streets — you don’t even need government approval in these states to build mosques,” Dogo said. In Jos, capital of central Nigeria’s Plateau state, Gov. Joshua Dariye spoke out against Islamic abuses resulting from sharia when he received the governor of northern Zamfara state, the first state to adopt sharia in 2000. (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.

12,000+ BAPTISTS GATHER IN ENGLAND TO CELEBRATE 100 YEARS OF UNITY

More than 12,000 Baptists from around the world celebrated a century of unity July 27-31 in Birmingham, England, where the Baptist World Alliance (BWA) was formed in 1905. The Baptist World Centenary Congress returned for a five-day meeting with “vibrant music, vivid pageantry and stirring stories of faith.” BWA is now an international fellowship of believers from more than 200 nations, compared to 100 years ago when 85 percent of the world’s Baptists were in Europe and North America, said BWA General Secretary Denton Lotz. Today 65 percent of Baptists are in the Two-Thirds World. “This is the new paradigm shift,” he said, adding that Christians in the Southern Hemisphere may lack money, political freedom or clout, “but they are going to re-evangelize the world.” Delegates were welcomed to England with letters from Prime Minister Tony Blair who called the world’s 35 million Baptists a “powerful force for good,” a diverse community “ready to challenge the powers that be.” Other messages came from the mayor of Birmingham and the private secretary to Queen Elizabeth II. (Mission Network News)

GLOBAL AID NETWORK WORKS TO CHANGE DEADLY CHERNOBYL LEGACY

The Global Aid Network (GAiN) is working to see the deadly legacy of the Chernobyl disaster changed. Ukraine, Russia and neighboring countries were blasted by radioactivity with the explosion of the Chernobyl power plant in 1986. Belarus received 70 percent of the fallout, resulting in alarming rates of radiation sickness. “We’re told that there are approximately 2,800 settlements located in the contaminated area with a population of more than 1.5 million people, including 420,000 children,” said GAiN-USA’s Rick Ragan. “Unfortunately, these are the poorest of the poor.” High inflation rates along with two consecutive bad harvests have left many of the Belarusian people struggling to survive. Ragan explains that GAiN wants to use the 20th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster as a platform to help the local church minister in this area. “We’re recruiting volunteers who want to lock arms with the local Belarusian churches to help with the distribution of Bibles, children’s Bible storybooks, food and clothing — all in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.” (Mission Network News)

ARABIC TV BROADCASTS LEAD TO FORMATION OF CHURCH IN SWEDEN

Ten people of Arabic descent living in a small city in Sweden recently came to know Christ through broadcasts of SAT-7, an Arabic television network. When the new believers could not locate an Arabic-language church in their city, they decided to start a church on their own. Often, SAT-7 affiliated centers in Europe help viewers find and integrate into local Arabic churches, but this time no church was available. This is the first time SAT-7 has heard of a church being founded in Europe by viewers because no church was available. (Mission Network News)

FAITH-BASED ORGANIZATION EARNS PRAISE OF FIRST LADY LAURA BUSH

World Relief, a Christian relief and development organization operating in 24 countries, has earned the praise of First Lady Laura Bush following her recent trip to Africa. At a recent reception for Maryland Gov. Erhlich, Bush shared with the audience, “I visited a wonderful church program that also gets some funding from the U.S. government, the World Relief site in Kigali, Rwanda. They work with ministers all over Kigali to provide services to people who have AIDS. They educate children who are AIDS orphans or orphans of the genocide in Rwanda. And they also work, of course, to prevent further HIV transmission.” She also visited the Evangelical Friends Church of Rwanda and George Fox Secondary School where she witnessed the efforts of a strong local church partnered with World Relief. (Religion Today/ Religion News Service)