Today’s Headlines:

EVACUATION OF GAZA STRIP LEAVES BELIEVERS IN TENUOUS POSITION

PROTESTANT CHURCHES IN RUSSIA FACE CHALLENGE FINDING PLACES TO RENT

U.S. VETERAN LAUNCHES 90-DAY PRAYER CAMPAIGN TO COMBAT TERRORISM

CHURCH MEMBERS, INMATES WORSHIP JOINTLY AT 92-YEAR-OLD’S INITIATIVE

* NIGER’S FIRST CHRISTIAN-RUN RADIO STATION HAS ‘IMMEDIATE IMPACT’

Today’s Top Stories:

EVACUATION OF GAZA STRIP LEAVES BELIEVERS IN TENUOUS POSITION

With the evacuation of Israel’s Gaza Strip complete, the big question is how to achieve a lasting peace, says Erich Bridges of the Southern Baptist’s International Mission Board. Many issues remain unresolved, leaving believers in a tenuous position for new ministry. “Depending on how that plays out, Palestinian Christians may or may not be able to continue what they’ve been doing,” he said. “But they certainly hope that they can continue . . . We’re fooling ourselves if we think that political peace is coming any time soon. It’s not. But peace can come through Christ.” Bridges also urges prayer for the Jewish settlers whose lives have been devastated by the evacuation from Gaza. “Pray that they would look to see who God really is and open their hearts and minds to Jesus when they see He is truth.” He expressed concern for the thousands of Messianic Jewish believers who continue to face persecution in parts of Israel. “Our workers are laboring to share Christ with everyone on all sides,” Bridges said. “Pray for real religious freedom among Israelis and Palestinians. If they’re free to choose and they really search for the truth, we know where the truth lies and that’s in Jesus.” (Mission Network News)

PROTESTANT CHURCHES IN RUSSIA FACE CHALLENGE FINDING PLACES TO RENT

Most Protestant communities in Russia do not have their own church buildings and are obligated to rent premises for worship, the majority of which are still state-controlled, even though there is nothing in Russian law enforcing this trend. Many times as soon as it is known that a place will be rented for a Protestant service, it simply becomes unavailable. Anatoli Pchelintsev and Sergei Sychev, two Moscow-based lawyers specializing in religious believers’ rights, both agreed that problems renting premises for worship are getting more frequent — and they’re not connected with any law. While evidently not requiring any legal basis, Sychev suggested that rental restrictions might be linked by correlation to the Russian Ministry of Education’s July 2000 circular letter warning against “penetration by nontraditional religious organizations into educational institutions.” He also explained why there can be no redress for religious organizations refused legitimate access, “Usually the premises are state property and their administrators are supposed to inform the federal authorities when they lease them officially. As they don’t do this, they don’t need to give any reasons for refusing to lease.” (Forum 18 News Service)

U.S. VETERAN LAUNCHES 90-DAY PRAYER CAMPAIGN TO COMBAT TERRORISM

A former officer in the U.S. has started a 90-day prayer campaign to win the war on terror that began Wednesday, Aug. 24, and goes to Thanksgiving Day (Thursday, Nov. 24). Maj. Danny Davis, a veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan, is asking Christians to pray daily for forgiveness of their own and the nation’s sins, that God will vanquish terrorist leaders, and that God will provide peace and a safe homecoming for America’s troops. On his prayer campaign’s website he says, “If many people are praying in concert, God only knows what might happen! The best and brightest minds all over the world are working feverishly trying to contain, quell, or defeat terrorism and have thus far been completely unable to even slow it down. In my opinion, God alone is able to do it.” (AgapePress/Associated Press/http://www.majordavis.org)

CHURCH MEMBERS, INMATES WORSHIP JOINTLY AT 92-YEAR-OLD’S INITIATIVE

Rather than bringing church to inmates at a nearby correctional facility, one Alabama church is bringing the inmates to church, thanks to the vision of 92-year-old Bloise Zeigler. He served as mayor of Oak Grove in Talladega county for 20 years until his retirement at age 87, and has been a member of First Baptist Church in Sylacauga since he came to Christ in 1948. As mayor, he often utilized prisoners as free work crew labor which led to his empathy for the incarcerated. “I’ve just got a compassion for these fellas,” Zeigler said. “Some of them in there aren’t bad at all, they just made a mistake.” First Baptist Pastor Keith Pugh said Zeigler initiated the move to involve inmates from the Childersburg Community Work Center in church activities in December 2003. As a result, chartered buses full of prisoners now head to First Baptist for Sunday services once a month. Zeigler says the secret to winning prisoners’ souls is to treat them with respect as fellow human beings. He gets a multitude of letters from prisoners and former inmates expressing gratitude, often quoting Scripture to him by heart. Several ex-prisoners attend First Baptist, and one is going into the ministry. (Religion Today/Baptist Press)

* NIGER’S FIRST CHRISTIAN-RUN RADIO STATION HAS ‘IMMEDIATE IMPACT’

When HCJB World Radio joined with a group of local believers and various mission boards to start the first Christian-run station in the West African country of Niger last October, they never dreamed that it would have such an immediate spiritual impact. HCJB World Radio bought and installed the equipment for Radio Espoir (Radio Hope) in the capital city of Niamey which is 98-percent Muslim.

More than half of the 1 million residents in Niamey tune in to the station “at least from time to time” said Martin Brown who serves on the station’s management team. About 20 percent of the content is “overtly Christian” while the remainder is of general interest to listeners.

“Another 500,000 people who live in the villages around the capital can also hear the signal,” he said. “For example, in Fulani villages around the city, there is a huge following when Radio Espoir is broadcasting programs in their language (Fulfuld ©).” Programs also air in French, Hausa and Zarma with plans to add broadcasts in Tamajeq.

An informal listenership survey conducted by a staff member at Radio Espoir last spring indicated that the outlet has become the third-most-listened-to station in Niamey out of 16 outlets, finishing ahead of Niger’s national station and broadcasting giants such as Radio France International and the British Broadcasting Corporation.

“We learned that if we can make good programs, we will get a lot of listeners,” Brown said. “I didn’t think that we would make such an impact. I thought that people would be more hooked into the stations that they already listen to. However, due to the many inexpensive radios in the country, people are continually fiddling with the dials and come across new stations like ours. Also, due to different languages, people will always search out new programs in their mother tongue.”

He said Radio Espoir is having a “major impact on women who can listen to the gospel at home during the day. Dr. James Dobson, for example, has a long-term effect on mothers who hear his advice and change the way they bring up their children.”

While the broadcasts do not reach the area of Niger that has been hardest hit by the country’s famine, leaving thousands of people on the brink of starvation, the ministry is involved in “long-term development that will change attitudes towards the poor,” Brown said. “We want long-term solutions, not simply quick fixes. We’re in contact with World Vision and other developmental organizations to try and get them to do development programming to put on the air.”

He added it’s a challenge to find the right balance of Christian programming. “If we push our message too hard we could get a backlash, but the constant trickle of the gospel into people’s homes will have a very profound impact.” But even government officials have expressed their pleasure with the content of the programming, and the station has “gained a very substantial audience in the first few months, giving competition to the other commercial stations.”

Another challenge is the country’s unreliable power supply which fluctuates from 154 to 230 volts. “I have three circuit breakers on the line to the transmitter as well as a regulator and a UPS,” Brown explains. “It’s so bad that I’ve had three UPS units burn up on me!” The station has been forced to broadcast at power as low as 30 watts even though it is licensed to operate at 600 watts.

“Our aim is to become the top radio station in Niamey with top-quality programs,” Brown added. “We have the right to have stations across the country, and when we have the resources, we will open a second station in Maradi, the second-largest city of Niger with a population of more than 200,000.” (HCJB World Radio)