Today’s Headlines:

OPERATION MOBILIZATION EVACUATES MOST MISSIONARIES FROM LEBANON

TRAVELING SEMINARY PROVIDES POST-GRADUATE DEGREES IN ASIA

RENEWED FIGHTING IN COLOMBIA DISPLACES THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE

CHRISTIAN INTERNET RADIO NETWORK ATTRACTS INTEREST WORLDWIDE

U.S. EVANGELIST DIES DURING 4TH CROSS-COUNTRY WALK

Today’s Top Stories:

OPERATION MOBILIZATION EVACUATES MOST MISSIONARIES FROM LEBANON

Operation Mobilization (OM) missionaries in Lebanon have suspended operations as the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah deteriorates. OM’s Lane Powell says the organization has active ministries in both Israel and Lebanon. “Most of the team in Lebanon left Monday, July 17, and the few who are staying will make day-to-day decisions about whether to leave, she said. “In Israel the workers are simply monitoring it hour by hour.” Powell urged believers everywhere to pray for the ongoing work of national believers in both countries. (Mission Network News)

* HCJB World Radio has worked with local partners to provide technical equipment for partner radio stations in both Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, Israel.

TRAVELING SEMINARY PROVIDES POST-GRADUATE DEGREES IN ASIA

Cornerstone University’s Asia Baptist Theological Seminary provides theological education by taking the campus to the students throughout Southeast Asia. “We take theological education to the student in their location,” explains Dean Bob Rapa. “They don’t have to leave their ministries. They don’t have to leave families. We come to them twice a year in 10 sites throughout Southeast Asia.” The seminary has sites in Singapore, Myanmar, Thailand, Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Australia, Hong Kong and South Korea. More than 400 graduates and current students from more than 20 countries participate in the program. “To my knowledge there are no accredited programs that offer full masters degrees on location throughout Southeast Asia,” Rapa adds. The school plans to expand into China, India and Nepal. (Mission Network News)

RENEWED FIGHTING IN COLOMBIA DISPLACES THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE

Recent intense fighting between the Colombian Army and FARC leftist guerrillas has displaced thousands of people in remote areas of southwestern Colombia. The U.N. reports several Indian communities that are trapped by fighting and unable to reach safety. Near Colombia’s border with Ecuador in Narino province, more than 1,300 mostly Indian people are displaced. A U.N. statement said, “With combat ongoing, thousands more people could be at risk of forced displacement in the next few days.” Of great concern are about 92 Awa Indians, including pregnant women and elderly, who have been trapped by gunfire for days in a village school with little food. At Colombia’s northern border with Panama, fighting has also placed at least 137 Embra Indians at risk. The U.N. is monitoring both Panamanian and Ecuadorian borders for refugee crossings. Colombia has the largest displaced population in the Western Hemisphere and the third largest in the world after the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sudan. (Associated Press)

* Together with local partners, HCJB World Radio broadcasts the gospel on FM stations in four Colombian cities. The ministry also continues to air Spanish programs across the country and all of Latin America via shortwave from Quito.

CHRISTIAN INTERNET RADIO NETWORK ATTRACTS INTEREST WORLDWIDE

The Christian Internet Radio Network, also known as Spiritco1.com, is celebrating its third anniversary of providing Christian Internet radio programming. “During the first three years of Spiritcol’s operations we have witnessed an extraordinary increase in our listeners who tune in from every part of the U.S. and countries around the world,” said President Henry Harris, an expert in telecommunications. “Internet radio is part of the new technologies that are changing the way radio listeners receive musical and talk show content.” Spiritco1 was developed as a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week Christian Internet radio service that allows artists to include music and spoken words as well as other projects as part of the Spiritco1 Internet Radio Play list. (Christian Newswire)

U.S. EVANGELIST DIES DURING 4TH CROSS-COUNTRY WALK

Evangelist Ted Stone, 72, died of undetermined causes Sunday, July 16, a month into his fourth “Walk Across America.” Stone served four years in prison in the 1970s as a result of drug addictions, but broke those addictions through “dependence on the Lord Jesus Christ.” He spent 29 years spreading the hope he found to others, during which time he completed three long-distance walks across the U.S., two measuring more than 3,500 miles and the third 1,700. Stone’s desire to reach drug addicts brought him many “sons in the ministry,” most of whom he found trapped by drugs. In an April interview with Baptist Press before beginning his fourth walk, Stone said, “We are in the business of changing the hearts of men and women. We represent Jesus here on the face of this earth, and broken people depend on us.” (Baptist Press)