Today’s Headlines:

POLICE KEEP MILITANTS FROM SEIZING CHRISTIAN HOSPITAL, ORPHANAGES

CITY GOVERNMENT IN VIETNAM LEGALLY REGISTERS 3 CHURCH GROUPS

BILLY GRAHAM, IN LIKELY FINALE, EASES NEW ORLEANS’ SUFFERING

Today’s Top Stories:

POLICE KEEP MILITANTS FROM SEIZING CHRISTIAN HOSPITAL, ORPHANAGES

Christians continue to face intense pressure from Hindu radicals in northwestern India’s Rajasthan State. On Monday, March 13, Hindu militants threatened to take over a hospital and orphanages run by Hopegivers International, but that didn’t happen. “Police did help keep the militants back,” explained Hopegivers’ Michael Glenn. “They did come and surround the facilities, and apparently they are now very upset with the police and the chief minister of the state over there. Now they’re putting [the authorities] in an awkward position, saying that they’re betraying the Hindus.” Glenn says the crisis continues as Hopegivers founder M.A. Thomas and President Samuel Thomas remain in hiding after they narrowly avoided being lynched by a mob of 150 radical anti-Christians on Monday, March 6. While the situation remains tense, Glenn says Hopegivers is rejoicing in the establishment of 20,000 churches and graduating more than 10,000 students from its Bible schools in India. (Mission Network News)

CITY GOVERNMENT IN VIETNAM LEGALLY REGISTERS 3 CHURCH GROUPS

Local government officials in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, have granted longstanding requests of three church organizations to legally function in the community. The city’s Bureau of Religious Affairs last week granted a request for registration to a faction of the Vietnam Mennonite Church led by Rev. Nguyen Quang Trung as well as Grace Baptist church led by Rev. Le Quoc Chanh and a grouping of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. House church leaders in Vietnam noted that all three organizations represent only a part of their church traditions in Vietnam. Sources said the government chose the smaller, more compliant Mennonite faction led by Trung rather than the larger one led by activist Pastor Nguyen Hong Quang who was released from prison only last August. One Vietnamese Mennonite missionary said this development was a “significant setback” for the Mennonite churches led by Quang. Authorities raided his home and church headquarters in the city’s District 2 dozens of times, once partially dismantling the facility while he was imprisoned during 2004 and 2005. (Compass)

BILLY GRAHAM, IN LIKELY FINALE, EASES NEW ORLEANS’ SUFFERING

In what he called his last sermon, Billy Graham voiced a message of thanks and encouragement during the March 11-12 “Celebration of Hope” at the New Orleans Arena. “This is probably the last evangelistic sermon I’ll ever preach,” the 87-year-old evangelist told an overflow crowd of 17,800 people on Sunday.

Graham recalled how he watched in shock as Hurricane Katrina destroyed New Orleans’ levee system, flooding much of the city. But days later, he said, “We saw the great men and women who helped carry people [to safety] in helicopters . . . and we knew the God of love was watching over us. God loves you.”

The 87-year-old preacher used a modern analogy to offer the promise of forgiveness found in Christ when a sinner trusts Jesus as Savior, “He deletes all your files; they’re totally erased.” And speaking to an audience no doubt familiar with the potential suddenness of death and destruction, he invited those listening to “decide for Christ here and now — because you never know when your time is coming.”

Of the 30,500 people attending the two-day event, 1,432 responded to the invitation to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. The festival was organized in partnership with 215 area churches, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Samaritan’s Purse.

It was a historic reunion of sorts at the New Orleans Arena. In addition to being introduced by his son, Franklin Graham, he was joined in the evangelistic festival by two longtime partners in ministry: singer George Beverly Shea, 97, and crusade director Cliff Barrows, 82. That legendary trio has ministered together at Billy Graham crusades for more than 60 years. (AgapePress/Associated Press/Assist News Service/Evangelical News/Baptist Press)