Today’s Headlines:

MILITANT GROUP IN ERITREA RELEASES GROUP OF DETAINED CHRISTIANS

SUDANESE BELIEVERS FEAR RETURN OF CIVIL WAR AFTER TRAGIC DEATH

PERSECUTED CHINESE HOUSE CHURCH PASTOR DIES OF ILLNESS AT AGE 91

400 SHORT-TERM MISSIONARIES TRAVEL TO CAMPUSES WORLDWIDE

STARBUCKS PRINTS PRO-HOMOSEXUAL MESSAGE ON COFFEE CUPS

Today’s Top Stories:

MILITANT GROUP IN ERITREA RELEASES GROUP OF DETAINED CHRISTIANS

Christian watchdog groups are concerned about what appears to be an escalating course of repression in the East African country of Eritrea. Kevin Turner of Strategic World Impact (SWI) says for those who are arrested, there is often little or no recourse. “They can’t go to some legal, physical power-some judiciary within the country-because it’s corruption, it’s unjust, and there is no ethical law. But they can appeal to the King of kings, and we’re seeing God really work some incredible acts of deliverance.” Turner points to the release in early August of several SWI staff members who had been detained by a militant group because of their association with a Christian organization. While the ministry is rejoicing in the news, he says it’s a clarion call for believers worldwide to pray earnestly for persecuted Christians in countries such as Eritrea and Sudan. (Mission Network News/Strategic World Impact)

SUDANESE BELIEVERS FEAR RETURN OF CIVIL WAR AFTER TRAGIC DEATH

The tragic death of Sudanese Vice President Dr. John Garang, a professing Christian, in a helicopter crash on Sunday, July 31, is raising concerns among believers who are afraid it could spell an end to the country’s tenuous power-sharing peace accord. SIM’s Steve Strauss agrees that without the architect of the accord, war is a possibility. “The impact of all of this is the whole peace process is hanging rather tenuously,” he said. “We really need for Christian folks around the world to be praying that God will allow the peace to go forward.” Strauss says SIM partnered with churches in Nigeria and Ethiopia to send out teacher-evangelists into southern Sudan. That partnership was aimed at nurturing the church and rebuilding Sudan’s destroyed educational system, but “All of that could be in jeopardy depending on what happens as a result of the plane crash, and the death of John Garang, so we just need people to pray that God will allow the peace process to go forward, and allow us to continue ministry in southern Sudan.” (Mission Network News)

PERSECUTED CHINESE HOUSE CHURCH PASTOR DIES OF ILLNESS AT AGE 91

Allen Yuan, a well-known Chinese house church pastor who endured more than 21 years of suffering in China’s prisons and labor camps, died of pneumonia in a Beijing hospital Tuesday, Aug. 16. He was 91. His funeral is set for Friday, Aug. 19. After the Japanese surrender at the end of World War II in 1945, Yuan returned to Beijing and started a church in a rented hall. Every year he saw some 20 to 50 people come to Christ and follow Him in baptism. After Mao Tse-Tung came to power in 1949 and began China’s communist regime, Yuan was one of 11 pastors who refused to join the newly formed official Three-Self Patriotic Movement. Beginning in 1955, the 11 pastors were arrested and imprisoned. “During those years in prison my wife suffered untold hardships in bringing up the children,” he said. “I was sent to near the Russian border doing farm work, growing rice. Wang Ming Dao and I thought we would die martyrs there. In the labor camp it was very cold, food was bad, and the work was hard, but in 22 years I never once got sick. I was thin and wore glasses, but I came back alive. Many did not.” Yuan was released in December 1979 after being in prison for 21 years and eight months. Until his death, Yuan continued to face difficulties and threats from government officials and police. However, he continued to minister via his underground church, baptizing more than 700 new believers in covert ceremonies this year alone. (Voice of the Martyrs)

400 SHORT-TERM MISSIONARIES TRAVEL TO CAMPUSES WORLDWIDE

Campus Crusade for Christ (CCC) will send out 400 short-term missionaries this month to work on university campuses around the world. They will live among and minister to college students for one-year terms of service. Most of the new missionaries are recent college graduates who, as students, were reached with the message of Jesus through, and became involved with the ministry in the U.S. “I’m excited that so many students desire to spend a year of their lives investing in eternal things,” says Mark Gauthier, national director of CCC’s U.S. campus ministry. “Our vision has always been to reach the students today, win the world tomorrow. We’re trying to do all that we can to work with our partners in the world to create environments on campuses where students can learn what it means to be a follower of Christ.” Keith Bubalo, the national director of CCC’s Worldwide Student Network explains, “College students share many similarities the world over. English is often spoken, helping our [short-term missionaries] to quickly connect. We are partnering with our national ministries to help establish and grow the ministry on their campuses. In a few years, their graduates will be leaders influencing their own nations. Together, we are bringing the reality of Jesus to the university students of the world.” (Assist News Service)

STARBUCKS PRINTS PRO-HOMOSEXUAL MESSAGE ON COFFEE CUPS

After nearly a decade of lying low, Starbucks has reentered the homosexual rights movement, putting at least one conservative watchdog group on alert. The international coffee shop chain has begun a program called “The Way I See It” which is a collection of thoughts, opinions and expressions provided by notable figures that now appear on Starbucks’ paper coffee cups. One of the quotes is by author Armistead Maupin who advocates the homosexual lifestyle. It reads, “My only regret about being gay is that I repressed it for so long. I surrendered my youth to the people I feared when I could have been out there loving someone. Don’t make that mistake yourself. Life’s too [expletive] short.” A conservative public policy organization called Concerned Women for America sounded the alarm after one of its employees received a cup bearing the pro-homosexual message. A company spokesman said Starbucks began the “The Way I See It” program as an “extension of the coffeehouse culture-a way to promote open, respectful conversation among a wide variety of individuals.” (Baptist Press)