Today’s Headlines:

FACT-FINDING TOUR: MANY CHURCHES FORCED TO CLOSE IN INDONESIA

24-HOUR ‘VALUE-BASED’ TV NETWORK TO LAUNCH IN INDIA IN 2007

RADIO STATION, MINISTRY PARTNERS TO SEND CHRISTIAN BOOKS TO INDIA

BOOK OF HOPE DISTRIBUTED TO SOLDIERS, REBEL FIGHTERS IN COLOMBIA

JOURNALIST URGES CHURCHES TO INFORM MEMBERS OF PERSECUTION NEWS

Today’s Top Stories:

FACT-FINDING TOUR: MANY CHURCHES FORCED TO CLOSE IN INDONESIA

A fact-finding mission to Indonesia in September revealed “alarming and growing evidence of religious persecution against minority Christians,” said Christian Freedom International (CFI) President Jim Jacobson. “Religious persecution targeting minority Christians in Indonesia, particularly in West Java, is both systemic and systematic,” he said. Members of the fact-finding mission visited numerous forcibly closed churches in West Java. CFI urges the Indonesian government to allow religious freedom, intervene and stop the forced shutdown of churches, and to denounce the radical Islamic group, Anti-Apostasy Alliance Movement, which is working to close churches and ultimately eradicate Christianity in the country. “They use fear, intimidation, threats and obscure government regulations, in cooperation with local officials, to accomplish their goal,” Jacobson said. At least 35 churches in Bandung and neighboring regions have been closed by Islamic mobs during the past year alone. (Religion Today/Assist News Service)

* HCJB World Radio has worked with local partners to establish more than 12 local Christian radio stations across Indonesia since 2004. Broadcasts from HCJB World Radio-Australia’s shortwave station in Kununurra 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.

24-HOUR ‘VALUE-BASED’ TV NETWORK TO LAUNCH IN INDIA IN 2007

Ashvin Dhyriam, director of GoodNews Television in India, announced a plan to launch a 24-hour “value-based” television network in India in 2007. GoodNews Television is a production company that Dhyriam and his father started in 1995. “The main aim and vision of GoodNews Television is to package and present gospel programs of the love of Jesus in secular stations so that people can reach out,” said Dhyriam. “We are currently buying time on 14 leading secular stations, and we produce on an average about 800 half-hour programs per month.” GoodNews Television programs are produced for both Christian and non-Christian viewers. Dhyriam said one of the goals of the ministry is to train young people in TV production, “So GoodNews Television in collaboration with Loyola College, a premier institute of learning, offers a comprehensive practical training in TV technology” with 20 students now being trained. He added that there are millions of viewers in the Gulf region, South East Asia, China, Myanmar, Malaysia, Brunei, Sri Lanka and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. (Assist News Service)

RADIO STATION, MINISTRY PARTNERS TO SEND CHRISTIAN BOOKS TO INDIA

Radio station WTGN and Christian Resources International (CRI) has teamed up to collect used Bibles, books and bucks for believers in India. They called it the “Great Crate Project,” and Christian radio listeners donated Bibles, commentaries, and other Christian literature and raised money to ship the container to India. “So many people are trying to get other materials out there that aren’t proclaiming Christ as the only way of truth and of salvation, so hey; we got to fight back a little bit,” said WTGN Station Manager Scott Young, CRI’s Fred Palmerton added, “Each one of those books will get read over and over and it’ll get passed on and reused. . . . Each one of those people will have an opportunity to meet the Lord. It isn’t about growing radio stations, and it’s not about growing ministries. It’s about saving souls and reaching the lost. That’s my prayer, that we just reach the lost just effectively as we can.” (Mission Network News)

BOOK OF HOPE DISTRIBUTED TO SOLDIERS, REBEL FIGHTERS IN COLOMBIA

Book of Hope International’s Bob Hoskins is concerned about the guerrilla fighting, drug trafficking and kidnapping that has plagued Colombia. “You’ve got an entire generation that’s just grown up within the firestorm of violence and conflict fueled by drugs and extortion.”

Hoskins says only a miracle could begin to change it all, and he believes it’s happening. “Here’s the miracle,” he said. “God has touched the hearts of leaders in the Colombian military, and they’ve asked us to bring the Book of Hope. So we’re actually delivering the Book of Hope to the army and navy bases and to soldiers on the battlefield.”

Young rebel soldiers are also getting the Book of Hope, he said. “In the last month we delivered 2,500 books to these child soldiers that are out in the jungles with the rebel groups,” he said.

The Book of Hope combines the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John to tell the life story of Jesus Christ in chronological order. It also includes a plan of salvation that helps guide readers to faith in Christ. (Mission Network News)

* Together with local partners, HCJB World Radio broadcasts the gospel on FM stations in four Colombian cities. The ministry also continues to air Spanish programs across the country and all of Latin America via shortwave from Quito.

JOURNALIST URGES CHURCHES TO INFORM MEMBERS OF PERSECUTION NEWS

Veteran journalist Dan Wooding has issued an appeal to pastors of churches worldwide to “open up their congregations to news updates about the persecuted church.” Wooding, 64, founder of Assist News Service in Garden Grove, Calif., suggests that pastors appoint a correspondent from their church to share regular updates about the persecuted church at their weekend services. “I believe it is vital that Christians become aware of what is happening to their brothers and sisters around the world so that they can pray for them and also get involved in helping them in a practical way,” said Wooding. He gives regular live updates about the persecuted church in two radio programs that he co-hosts. “Pastor’s Perspective” is an hour-long program that airs three times weekly on several U.S. stations, and “Window on the World” is a five-minute weekly program that is carried by more than 420 U.S. stations and 50 others worldwide. (Assist News Service)