Today’s Headlines:

MAF RELEASES 5-YEAR GLOBAL STUDY IDENTIFYING NEEDIEST AREAS

‘HOSTILE TV FOOTAGE’ ADDS TO CHURCHES’ WOES IN KAZAKHSTAN

Today’s Top Stories:

MAF RELEASES 5-YEAR GLOBAL STUDY IDENTIFYING NEEDIEST AREAS

Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) released a five-year global research project today called “Operation ACCESS” intended to help design mission strategy for the next 20 years. The study focuses on pockets of people that are forgotten or unreachable because of transportation, communications and technology barriers. The study also notes regions where sustained resources such as community development, healthcare and education are unavailable. Head of the project Ghislaine Benny says MAF is already using the study in its ministry, sharing it “across Christendom so that together we can all develop strategies that would be effective in reaching some vast areas with countless number of people.” Sixty-six percent of the 364 sectors surveyed in 64 countries have no ministry in place. Five of the top 10 groups facing access barriers are in Myanmar and Nepal. MAF President Kevin Swanson added, “The apostle Paul in Romans 10:15 talked about the need to send preachers. But preachers can’t be sent unless the barriers that prevent their access and sustainability are overcome.” (Mission Network News/Religion News Service)

Details are emerging following the brutal gang rape of two Christian women in a village in north-central India’s Madhya Pradesh more than a week ago. The incident began at 3 p.m. Sunday, May 28, after villagers assaulted Gokharya Barela, the husband of one of the victims, and forced him to appear in front of a village court that demanded he forsake Christianity. When he refused, the village head, Pandya Patel, forced him to drink wine and told villagers they were free to rape Christian women. Three men then gang-raped Barela’s wife, and another woman was dragged from her home and raped by two men on the veranda. Both women attend local Indian Evangelical Team (IET)

meetings. In an apparent attempt to insulate the perpetrators from investigation, the Hindu fundamentalist organization Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) accused Christian missionaries and IET members of “forced conversions” the morning after the attacks. (Compass Direct)

‘HOSTILE TV FOOTAGE’ ADDS TO CHURCHES’ WOES IN KAZAKHSTAN

In continuing religious intolerance in the former soviet nation of Kazakhstan, recent attacks on religious minorities have used television coverage along with hostile commentary to publicly deride the groups. At a Baptist church in Aktobe in northwestern Kazakhstan, Pastor Andrei Grigoryev said that after a recent police raid, a local TV station has repeatedly shown footage of the church with negative commentary, putting it in a “dishonest and derogatory light.” The congregation, which refuses to register with authorities on principle, has been ordered to shut down. However, church members point out that Kazakhstan has signed international agreements giving churches the right to not register. Justice official Serozhatdin Baryshev downplayed international policies that he claims are up to the parliament to decide. Emphasizing national laws requiring registration he said, “Let Baptists, Hindus, Buddhists exist here, but only if they function in accordance with the law.” (Forum 18 News Service)