Today’s Headlines:

16-YEAR-OLD CHRISTIAN NIGERIAN GIRL RETURNED TO HER FAMILY

TEXAS, LOUISIANA WORSHIPERS THANKFUL ‘RITA WAS NO KATRINA’

LOCAL AUTHORITIES THREATEN TO CONFISCATE CHURCH IN SOUTHERN RUSSIA

CHRISTIAN RADIO MINISTRY SPREADS MESSAGE OF HOPE IN WAR-TORN SUDAN

OUTREACH IN PARAGUAY PROVIDES TAPE-TALK PLAYERS FOR EVANGELISM

* HCJB WORLD RADIO HOSPITAL IN ECUADOR TO MARK 50 YEARS OF SERVICE

Today’s Top Stories:

16-YEAR-OLD CHRISTIAN NIGERIAN GIRL RETURNED TO HER FAMILY

Rejoice Gwammikat Daniel Chirdap, the 16-year-old who disappeared during a visit to her father’s house in Kagadama, Yelma, has been returned to her family. Rejoice disappeared on Monday, Sept. 12. Two days later her family received a letter from the Bauchi State Sharia Commission informing them it had given custody of Rejoice to the local imam, Yakubu, of Kagadama. There has been no explanation as to how Rejoice, a minor, came to be in the commission’s hands without parental consent. Following widespread publicity and high-level advocacy on Rejoice’s disappearance, the Bauchi State Police Force took action on Friday, Sept. 23, and the commission handed Rejoice over to her family. Although traumatized by her experience, a medical examination revealed that Rejoice was otherwise unharmed. (Christian Solidarity Worldwide)

TEXAS, LOUISIANA WORSHIPERS THANKFUL ‘RITA WAS NO KATRINA’

On Sunday, Sept. 25, a day after Hurricane Rita struck the Texas and Louisiana coast, worshipers thanked God that it wasn’t worse. At a Baptist church in Tyler, Texas, evacuees were treated like dignitaries and were invited to take communion. The pastor held up a broken tree branch and told worshipers, “The winds are going to blow, it says in the Bible, and we want you to be strong.” In Houston a priest thanked God that his church has electricity and that those attending Sunday mass were unhurt. He then prayed for those in Louisiana and Texas who were harder hit. After the service, one worshiper said she considers the hurricane a test of faith rather than an act of God. President George W. Bush, after being briefed in Louisiana, said: “I know the people of this state have been through a lot. We ask for God’s blessings on them and their families.” (AgapePress/Associated Press)

LOCAL AUTHORITIES THREATEN TO CONFISCATE CHURCH IN SOUTHERN RUSSIA

Local state authorities have threatened to confiscate a 600-member Presbyterian church in Mozdok, a town in North Ossetia in southern Russia’s Northern Caucasus region. Emmanuel Presbyterian Church Administrator Olga Mazhurova acknowledged that her community had “made mistakes” in the past in the way the church was built, primarily due to a lack of legal expertise, but claims it has been blocked from registration because of suspicion of its foreign connections. Mozdok is near Beslan, site of the tragic terrorist attack in September 2004 that left hundreds of schoolchildren and staff members dead. The Mozdok Presbyterians — who are predominantly Russian, Ossetian and Korean — have been able to gather freely for worship at their building since the church’s registration was liquidated in 2003, Mazhurova said. At the beginning of September 2005, however, church members were informed by local officials that there is now sufficient evidence to file suit for the confiscation of the “beautiful Gothic-style” prayer house, although no date for a court hearing has yet been set. The church was founded by South Korean missionaries about eight years ago. (Forum 18 News Service)

CHRISTIAN RADIO MINISTRY SPREADS MESSAGE OF HOPE IN WAR-TORN SUDAN

Brad Phillips of the Persecution Project Foundation says Radio Peace continues to bring a message of hope to the embattled country regardless of the political turmoil in the country. “Whether peace comes, or whether the peace agreement [signed in January after 20 years of civil war] doesn’t hold, we see Radio Peace as an opportunity to help plant the gospel in the war-torn nation. Right now, we’re really thankful that we were recently able to upgrade our equipment,” he said. “We’re broadcasting the gospel now in seven languages — Arabic, Djuba Arabic, Dinka, Bari, Zande, Nuer and English — and it’s reaching the geography of Sudan through two transmitters.” One transmitter is pointed toward southern and central Sudan while a shortwave transmitter is aimed at central and northern Sudan. Persecution Project has been working in Sudan since 1998 and has been involved in relief, discipleship and advocacy work, encouraging believers in the midst of persecution. (Mission Network News)

OUTREACH IN PARAGUAY PROVIDES TAPE-TALK PLAYERS FOR EVANGELISM

Audio Scripture Ministries (ASM) has launched an outreach in Paraguay as the result of a request from a missionary in the country two years ago. The missionary asked for some Tape-Talk players, designed for hand power, solar and/or external battery power, to assist them in reaching isolated areas, “and we were happy to help,” explained ASM’s Tom Dudenhofer. One person who took a Tape-Talk player rode a motorcycle and was able to spread the Scripture in audio to many rural villages. Through his dedication, Dudenhofer says, the church growth has been phenomenal. “From that outreach alone, 20 churches have begun in one year. Missionaries are following up on the new believers and helping place national pastors in all of these churches.” (Mission Network News)

* HCJB WORLD RADIO HOSPITAL IN ECUADOR TO MARK 50 YEARS OF SERVICE

With plans under way for the 50th anniversary celebrations of an HCJB World Radio hospital in Ecuador, the facility’s administrator sees God’s hand in five decades of healthcare in the South American country.

Dan Shedd, administrator of Hospital Vozandes-Quito (HVQ), cited instances of answered prayer for “people who didn’t seem to have hope, but God did a miracle.” He and the hospital staff anticipate a full week of festivities in early October to celebrate God’s past faithfulness, even as the mission’s Healthcare Division looks toward future ministry.

Such answers to prayer may have saved patients’ lives on occasion. But at other times the prayers were for the hospital itself, seeming to draw its last breath. Shedd recounted how at times it looked like the facility would close, “but the Lord provided to keep the doors open.”

He quoted a favorite maxim of the hospital’s founder, Canadian Dr. Paul Roberts, “When God is going to do something wonderful, He begins with a difficulty. When He is going to do something very wonderful, He begins with an impossibility.” Shedd added, “And we have seen this over and over again!”

The idea for the hospital began in 1946 when HCJB World Radio co-founders Clarence Jones and Reuben Larson approached Roberts, who was still a medical school student, about missions work in Ecuador.

“I spoke on a couple of other occasions with Clarence Jones and Reuben Larson, and they told me of their dream of establishing a medical work in Ecuador,” Roberts explained. “They said they needed a doctor in Ecuador for two reasons. One was to establish a missionary clinic. I think they then had 30 missionaries and ‘boy, we need a doctor for 30 missionaries!'”

That same year Jones wrote to mission trustees, explaining the need for health workers to provide “medical supervision for our HCJB family, both national and foreign.”

Roberts continued, “Clarence Jones and the others felt that if they could establish an Indian hostel where people could stay the night and be treated with Christian love . . . and also care for the missionaries, it would be a good idea.”

Dr. Harry Rimmer, missionary voice of the “Morning Cheer” radio program in Philadelphia, visited Ecuador and asked Clarence Jones how he might help HCJB. Rimmer and Dr. George Palmer, director of the same program, then began raising funds to build an Indian Clinic in 1948.

As a result of these fund-raising efforts, the Albergue y Dispensario Ind ­gena (Indigenous Hostel and Dispensary) was inaugurated on April 28, 1950. In practice, it didn’t serve as an overnight hostel, but as an outpatient clinic, said Roger Reimer, former director of the Healthcare Division.

But Roberts had a much bigger dream than just a clinic for missionaries or a small Indian hostel clinic. He envisioned a large, modern hospital where all Ecuadorians would receive the best medical care possible, regardless of their ability to pay. He also envisioned a teaching hospital where Ecuadorian doctors and nurses would be trained and a place where God’s love would be shown to everyone who entered its doors.

In 1952 Roberts and George Palmer began raising funds for the mission-run hospital which opened as Rimmer Memorial Hospital on Oct. 12, 1955. It is now commonly referred to as Hospital Vozandes-Quito. “Vozandes” is Spanish for “Voice of the Andes,” named after the international shortwave radio station that was founded in Quito by Jones and Larson in 1931.

Exactly 50 years later, a celebration will be held at Hospital Vozandes-Quito on Wednesday, Oct. 12, featuring worship services in the chapel, singing in the corridors and personal greetings to people upon entering, said Jennie Van Schaick, an HVQ assistant administrator. It’s part of a sustained effort to exemplify the hospital’s motto, “To the glory of God and the service of Ecuador.”

Other events include a Family Day for hospital employees, missionaries and their families. Roberts is scheduled to be a guest speaker at a celebratory evening that is set for Friday, Oct. 14, with dignitaries from Ecuador’s government and representatives of national and provincial medical associations as invited guests. Among the many invitees is Ecuadorian President Dr. Alfredo Palacio. “He is a cardiologist and we are very much hoping that he will attend,” said Van Schaick.

Missionaries who served in the hospital will be honored on Saturday, Oct. 15, in a tent set up in the courtyard of Radio Station HCJB (across the street from the hospital). The following day Pastor Jos © “Chema” Reinoso will speak at a service of gratitude. Reinoso is associate director of HCJB World Radio’s Latin America region.

Van Schaick said the former and present hospital administrators will commemorate the occasion with “stones of remembrance” and stories of the blessings that God has bestowed during their times of leadership at HVQ.

“We would also like to especially thank Dr. Juan Rold ¡n for his interest in documenting the history of the hospital in his new book, The 50 Years of Hospital Vozandes,” Van Schaick added. (HCJB World Radio)