Today’s Headlines:

CUBAN AUTHORITIES CONFISCATE PRESS USED TO PRINT SCRIPTURES

MINISTRY PROVIDES LIGHTHOUSE FOR GOSPEL AMID FLOODING IN GUATEMALA

OFFICIALS LEVEL CHURCH USED AS SANCTUARY FOR NIGERIAN LAW OFFICERS

ECUADOR’S WAORANI CHRISTIANS SEEK TO REACH VIOLENT TRIBE

Today’s Top Stories:

CUBAN AUTHORITIES CONFISCATE PRESS USED TO PRINT SCRIPTURES

Cuban police raided a private home and confiscated printed Gospels of John and a small printing press in the city of Col ³n Sunday, Oct. 9. Five plainclothes secret police officers entered the house in the morning and called in 12 armed, uniformed police who used a truck to haul away the Scriptures and the press. Officials called the materials “subversive and dangerous.” Police then took Pastor Eliseo Rodr ­guez Matos to the local police station for interrogation. Matos is the leader of an Assembly of God church. Police also called Caridad Diego, Cuba’s minister of religion, in Havana. She is an atheist who supports the communist government in restricting evangelism. Diego said the confiscated printing press was “very dangerous.” “We agree with the government’s assessment,” said Tom White, executive director of Voice of the Martyrs, USA. “The Word of God is dangerous. It can produce eternal freedom in the midst of evil tyranny!” White was a prisoner in Cuba 25 years ago after the plane from which he was dropping Christian leaflets crash landed there. (Voice of the Martyrs)

MINISTRY PROVIDES LIGHTHOUSE FOR GOSPEL AMID FLOODING IN GUATEMALA

Disease now threatens the survivors of Guatemala’s mudslides that resulted from Tropical Storm Stan. Aid has been slow in getting through, mainly because of the devastation to the area’s infrastructure. More than 130,000 people have been directly affected by the storm and its impact on the region, said Guatemalan President Oscar Berger. AMG International’s Roger Thomas says the organization is still getting damage reports. “We’re fearful that mudslides have completely covered the town [where we have a children’s project],” he said. “Two of our projects have been flooded, and they tell us that they have lost everything. But some of our other projects have fared better and are actually being used as shelters for the communities in which they live.” Ministry continues amid the crisis, but there are many prayer needs. “They’re a lighthouse for the area where people can come,” Thomas said. “If there are any supplies, that’s where they will be. In many cases, roads are not passable and relief supplies are not getting through yet. Food is a situation in the capital city because it’s not able to get into town.” (Mission Network News)

OFFICIALS LEVEL CHURCH USED AS SANCTUARY FOR NIGERIAN LAW OFFICERS

Authorities in Nigeria’s Kano state have demolished a church that catered to law officers in a police barracks. The Deeper Life Bible Church in the city of Kano was destroyed on Aug. 4. Michael Agbahime, 54, pastor of the church’s Brigade Group, said officials from the Kano state Environmental Agency and Islamic law enforcers known as Hisba demolished the facility. Agbahime said that Nigerian police authorities had permitted the church to build the sanctuary for law enforcement personnel at their request, a common practice across the country. “We have not received any explanation as to why the church was demolished,” he said, “and neither did the government of Kano state inform police authorities on the reasons for her actions.” Agbahime believes the church was destroyed as part of a campaign to Islamicize the state. (Compass)

ECUADOR’S WAORANI CHRISTIANS SEEK TO REACH VIOLENT TRIBE

In May a young man named Cawe from the Waorani tribe in Ecuador informed Dan Edwards, a Calvary Chapel Chino Valley missionary, that some of the Waorani Christians want to spread the gospel to a splinter group known as the Tagaeri. Members of the group have continued the revenge killings that were once prevalent among the Waorani. There will be a large celebration in January 2006 to mark the 50th anniversary of the death of five missionaries who were killed by the Waorani Indians — then known as Aucas — in the jungles of Ecuador. This celebration is to commemorate what God has done in the lives of the Waorani and how He has used those faithful men to bring the gospel to their people. After this historic occasion concludes, Edwards and Cawe decided another one will commence — the mission to reach the Tagaeri. Jim Elliot, one of the five men who were killed, wrote, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” Fifty years later that same sentiment has risen within the hearts of the Waorani. Now they desire to reach the Tagaeri, knowing full well that it may cost them their lives. (Assist News Service)