Today’s Headlines:

INDIA’S SUPREME COURT AGAIN DELAYS CASE ON RIGHTS OF DALITS

GOSPEL FOR ASIA TEAM ARRIVES IN EARTHQUAKE ZONE IN INDIA

CHRISTIANS URGED TO REACH OUT TO VICTIMS OF DISASTERS WORLDWIDE

ZAMBIA’S ‘CALL BOYS’ FIND INNOVATIVE WAYS TO SPREAD THE GOSPEL

* HCJB WORLD RADIO HELPS SIM INTERNATIONAL WITH PAKISTAN QUAKE AID

Today’s Top Stories:

INDIA’S SUPREME COURT AGAIN DELAYS CASE ON RIGHTS OF DALITS

India’s Supreme Court has again delayed its decision to grant basic human rights to Dalit Christians — this time postponing the case until late November. Gospel for Asia President K.P. Yohannan believes the delays stem from political pressure being placed on the court. “The upper caste is trying with all their abilities to stop it, and I imagine they have found some politicians or even some in the judiciary to stall it. And now, my thinking is, we need to pray, whoever that individual or individuals the Lord will change their heart.” Under the current law, Dalits “lose some of their basic constitutional rights when they become Christians,” Yohannan explained. “They are no longer eligible for affirmative action placements in education, employment, government and many other areas — rights granted to Dalits who are Hindu, Sikh or Buddhist.” (Mission Network News/Gospel for Asia)

GOSPEL FOR ASIA TEAM ARRIVES IN EARTHQUAKE ZONE IN INDIA

After receiving permission to enter India’s sensitive Kashmir region, a team of native missionaries with Gospel for Asia (GFA) has arrived in Srinagar after a precarious 13-hour journey into the mountainous region devastated by the Oct. 8 earthquake. Controlled by the military due to border conflicts with neighboring Pakistan, the region was initially closed to relief work, but with the help of a Christian military couple from a Believers Church, GFA was granted permission to bring emergency relief supplies to minister to thousands of hurting Kashmiris. GFA President K.P. Yohannan reported that permission has also been received from the Pakistan Embassy to send a relief team into that country to minister to the victims there. The earthquake that hit Pakistan and northern India measured 7.6 on the Richter scale and caused significant damage to the GFA Bible College in Jammu. (Gospel for Asia)

CHRISTIANS URGED TO REACH OUT TO VICTIMS OF DISASTERS WORLDWIDE

Mary Marr, chief executive officer of the Christian Emergency Network (CEN), is calling on Christians everywhere to recognize that the number of natural disasters occurring around the world is causing people to ask questions about God. “If ever there was a season when this generation of the body of Christ can share the hope found only in Jesus Christ, this is it,” she said. “If we as believers are living our faith, then our living and verbal testimonies will help draw our family, friends, neighbors, co-workers and even perfect strangers to Jesus Christ despite the images they are seeing on the TV screen or even experiencing. . . . Jesus modeled a sacrificial life. It is time for us to do the same, if we are not already.” CEN was formed by several Mission America Coalition members after the 9/11 terrorist attacks “to respond effectively with one voice through a united pray-care-share media and ministry response.” CEN has more than 5,000 Christian ministry and media organizational partners as well as 47,000 church partners across the U.S. (Assist News Service/Christian Emergency Network)

ZAMBIA’S ‘CALL BOYS’ FIND INNOVATIVE WAYS TO SPREAD THE GOSPEL

The “call boys” of Zambia are young men who stand at bus stops helping load people into buses. Society views them as lower than prostitutes. Christian World Outreach (CWO) says these young people are now committing their lives to Jesus and are making incredible outreach decisions. CWO’s Greg Yoder says it all started two years ago when he invited these young men to dinner which grew into a Bible study. “Many of them became Christians, and then it became a discipleship group with the young men. These are brand-new Christians who knew nothing of what Christ had done for them,” he said. “Now they’re saying, ‘We want to do ministry.’ And they’ve actually started to have an outreach to street kids. They have suggested taking children into their homes and mentor them and teach them Bible stories.” The young men are also sharing the gospel at bus stops where they work, and want to do more to tell people about Christ. (Mission Network News)

* HCJB WORLD RADIO HELPS SIM INTERNATIONAL WITH PAKISTAN QUAKE AID

In response to the devastating Oct. 8 earthquake in the disputed Kashmir region on the India-Pakistan border, HCJB World Radio sent a medical team from Ecuador Wednesday, Oct. 26, to assist workers from SIM International in an effort to help some of the neediest victims in the next two weeks.

Staff members from HCJB World Radio’s Hospital Vozandes-Quito will join with medical staff from the U.S. who are en route to Pakistan. Other medical teams are arriving from South Korea, U.K. and South Africa. SIM and its partners’ doctors are serving in remote areas affected by the 7.6-strength earthquake, with surgeons pulling 12-hour shifts to treat emergency cases.

SIM’s Pakistan director said the Ecuador team will be assigned to serve in some of the worst-hit areas where people have received little or no aid. “I can’t be specific about the location at this point,” he stated in an e-mail message. “But we will now be seeking to place the Quito team (and subsequent teams) . . . in rural areas.”

SIM International Director Malcolm McGregor expressed gratitude for the HCJB World Radio team’s quick response to the appeal for help. While SIM has been active in Pakistan for many years, it has not been involved in medical work there. In view of the immensity of the problem, SIM is participating with other medical ministries in the country to publicize the overwhelming needs and help coordinate deployment of volunteers.

“This is a reflection of the body of Christ responding from different parts of the world. It’s the gospel in action,” he said. “To share across organizations is what partnership is all about!”

The leader of the Ecuador team urged believers to pray “as we seek to serve Him in these challenging circumstances.” The Quito-based multinational team (U.S., German and Ecuadorian) includes two surgeons, two family physicians, an anesthesiologist, a nurse and a doctor’s wife. Last March he and a team from Ecuador treated both tsunami and earthquake victims on Nias Island, Indonesia, as part of a relief trip originating from Quito.

Asking for its partners to help support the emergency medical teams, the SIM website states, “All are working in stressful medical and living conditions. All have also left behind families and jobs to meet needs in the wake of the earthquake. Pray for stamina, health and safety. Pray that supplies and medicine would last, especially in the area of anesthesia and orthopedics.

“Looking beyond the current emergency treatment of casualties is a need for massive rebuilding,” the SIM website added, referring to a local clinic destroyed by the quake that also damaged a girls’ high school.

Meanwhile, medical supplies have been pouring in — much of it supplied locally in Ecuador but also from abroad. A U.S. donor answered a team member’s request for supplies with, “Consider it done! And is there anything else that you need?”

McGregor added that relief efforts build on the long-term relationship between HCJB World Radio and SIM. “We’ve been doing a lot of partnership in radio ministry, and it’s great to be extending it in another area, especially when you’re under enormous pressure,” he said. “As Christians we want to stand alongside Muslims when they are suffering a great deal and show them love in practical ways.”

Officials confirmed that 54,000 people have died in the quake which hit the mountainous Kashmir region along the Pakistan-India border. Tens of thousands more were injured with up to 3 million left homeless in the quake zone. The World Food Program reported that some 500,000 people in remote areas have received no aid at all. (HCJB World Radio/BBC)