Today’s Headlines:

UNIDENTIFIED ASSAILANTS BEHEAD 3 CHRISTIAN SCHOOLGIRLS IN INDONESIA

BAPTIST MISSION RUSHES AID TO HURRICANE WILMA VICTIMS IN MEXICO

PASTOR ELECTROCUTED DURING BAPTISMAL SERVICE IN TEXAS CHURCH

COURT ASKS INDIA’S GOVERNMENT TO REVIEW RESTRICTIVE ADOPTION LAWS

OPEN DOORS REFOCUSES ATTENTION ON NATIONS HIT BY TSUNAMI

Today’s Top Stories:

UNIDENTIFIED ASSAILANTS BEHEAD 3 CHRISTIAN SCHOOLGIRLS IN INDONESIA

Unidentified machete-wielding assailants attacked a group of girls attending a private Christian high school in eastern Indonesia’s Central Sulawesi province Saturday, Oct. 29, beheading three of them and seriously wounding a fourth, police said.

The students were ambushed while walking through a cocoa plantation on their way to class in the Poso Kota subdistrict. The rural area is close to the provincial capital of Poso about 900 miles northeast of Jakarta.

Police spokesman Made Rai said that about 1,000 police, including reinforcements from other parts of the country, were securing the remote regency of Poso, reported Reuters. An additional 300 officers were expected to arrive on Sunday.

The three headless bodies of the girls, dressed in brown uniforms, were left at the site of the attack. Their heads were found at separate locations by residents two hours later. “So far no witness has been questioned and no suspect arrested,” said Raj.

The attacks occurred despite a government-mediated truce signed in early 2002 that brought Muslims and Christians together after fighting on the Moluccan Islands left up to 9,000 people dead in three years. The government agreed to be responsible for law enforcement and security aspects of the agreement.

But since then a series of bomb attacks and assassinations have targeted believers. Christian leaders have repeatedly criticized the authorities in Jakarta for not doing enough to find the perpetrators and bring them to justice. The Christian-Muslim conflict in Sulawesi is an extension of a wider sectarian war in the Moluccas. (Assist News Service/Christian Solidarity Worldwide)

BAPTIST MISSION RUSHES AID TO HURRICANE WILMA VICTIMS IN MEXICO

Hurricane Wilma’s 125 mph winds claimed eight lives and caused widespread damage to Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula the weekend of Saturday, Oct. 22. “Our main concern at this point is just the health and safety of people . . . primarily just keeping folks alive,” said Doug Millar, a missionary with the Southern Baptist’s International Mission Board (IMB). “IMB personnel in the area are safe. They and their local Baptist partners already have started basic relief in the form of water purifiers, rice and beans. Food staples have been purchased using Southern Baptist World Hunger and Relief funds. They also will provide clothing and housing supplies. We have had major destruction, not only in the poor areas, which normally in a flood would have tragedy, but even in the main hotels in the hotel zone. There was a 30-foot [wall of] water that went across the hotel zone into our bay that devastated the area.” Millar added that Hurricane Wilma’s slow path across the peninsula intensified the damage. (Mission Network News)

PASTOR ELECTROCUTED DURING BAPTISMAL SERVICE IN TEXAS CHURCH

A Baptist pastor was electrocuted as he was about to perform a baptism at his church in Waco, Texas, the morning of Sunday, Oct. 30. Rev. Kyle Lake, 33, died at University Baptist Church in Waco when he grabbed a microphone while partially submerged in the baptismal. Dudley’s wife, Jamie, said doctors attending the service performed chest compressions on Lake until he was taken to a Waco hospital where he was declared dead. About 800 people attended the Sunday-morning service which was larger than normal because it was homecoming weekend at nearby Baylor University. The woman being baptized apparently had not stepped into the water and was not seriously injured. Lake was the church’s pastor for the last seven years and the author of two books published by Relevant Books: Understanding God’s Will and the new release, Understanding Prayer. Lake is survived by his wife and three young children. (Assist News Service/Associated Press)

COURT ASKS INDIA’S GOVERNMENT TO REVIEW RESTRICTIVE ADOPTION LAWS

India’s Supreme Court issued a notice to the federal government on Monday, Sept. 26, asking it to respond to the absence of laws enabling religious minorities to legally adopt children. Currently only Hindus can adopt a child. The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act of 2000 would allow Christians and other religious minorities in India to adopt, but confusion about state empowerment of adoption agencies has stalled implementation. Of approximately 12 million orphans in India, only 5,000 are adopted each year. (Compass)

OPEN DOORS REFOCUSES ATTENTION ON NATIONS HIT BY TSUNAMI

Each year Open Doors USA releases its World Watch List which ranks 50 nations where persecution of Christians is the worst. For the third year in a row, North Korea stands at No. 1 followed by Saudi Arabia and Vietnam.

However, during the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church Sunday, Nov. 13, Open Doors has chosen to turn its attention on the countries hardest hit by last December’s tsunami — Sri Lanka, India and Indonesia — which rank 29th, 34th and 37th respectively. The tsunami only added to the long-term suffering already being endured by the believers in these countries.

In Sri Lanka the tsunami left almost 40,000 people dead and 2.5 million others displaced. Persecution of Christians there has increased in recent years. Statistics from the World Evangelical Alliance show that from January 2003 to March 2004, more than 140 anti-Christian incidents were recorded.

These incidents ranged from mild threats to death warnings, arson and the destruction of church buildings. Buddhist monks in Sri Lanka are pushing for an amendment to the country’s constitution that would make Buddhism the state religion and enact anti-conversion laws.

India also has seen an increase in the severity of persecution the last year with numerous attacks on Christians. Hindu leaders are seeking to enact a comprehensive law banning religious conversions in India as part of a new campaign to stem the “increasing” number of conversions from Hinduism to Christianity.

Muslim leaders in Indonesia want to implement sharia (Islamic law)

nationwide. Congresses held in Jakarta and Sulawesi in the last year recommended that sharia principles be introduced through a revision of Indonesia’s criminal law. Meanwhile, provincial councils are including more sharia principles in local bylaws. In some provinces governors have restricted freedom of worship for Christians. (Open Doors USA)