Today’s Headlines:

PAKISTANI WOMAN LONGS FOR HER CHILDREN WHILE BEGINNING A NEW LIFE

‘SATANIC CULT’ SUSPECTED OF VANDALIZING PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN INDIA

INTERSERVE WORKERS EVACUATED FROM LEBANON TO AVOID KIDNAPPING

POPULARITY OF AUSTRALIAN SLANG BIBLE PROMPTS SECOND VOLUME

ANCIENT LATIN PSALM BOOKLET FOUND IN IRISH BOG, OPEN TO PSALM 83

Today’s Top Stories:

PAKISTANI WOMAN LONGS FOR HER CHILDREN WHILE BEGINNING A NEW LIFE

A Pakistani Christian woman, Maria Samar John, who was kidnapped and sold into marriage with a Muslim man, continues to pray for the return of her two children. Her husband, Abdul Gaffer, hid Joshua and Miriam, now 7 and 5 years old, from their mother in September 2004. Authorities resisted searching because they feel a Muslim upbringing is preferable. Lawyers helped John divorce Gaffer following a forced marriage at age 17 where Gaffer beat her constantly for not reading the Koran or saying Muslim prayers. She is preparing to remarry a Christian man she met while living in a shelter and learning a new trade. Despite this happiness, she continues to long for her children. “The wound that I have because of [losing] my children can never be completely filled until they come back,” she said. Lawyers offer little hope John will ever regain custody of the children. (Compass Direct)

* HCJB World Radio sent two medical teams from Ecuador to Pakistan following the Oct. 8, 2005, earthquake that left tens of thousands dead and thousands more injured and homeless. Staff members helped SIM International with relief efforts.

‘SATANIC CULT’ SUSPECTED OF VANDALIZING PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN INDIA

The Kawnpui Hmarveng Presbyterian Church in eastern India’s Mizoram state was vandalized the night of Sunday, July 23. A New Testament was completely burned, and a second Bible torn. The vandals also urinated on the chair of the meeting chairman and dripped blood on the bench reserved for the church elders, where around 300 people attend typical Sunday services. Rumors that a satanic cult was behind the incident are strengthened by reports that a group of high school students had confessed to worshipping Satan last year. “Someone from Kolasib town told me that burning the Bible and blood sacrifice are some of the rituals practiced by a satanic cult,” said church committee Chairman Upa Zahlira Zote. “Whatever happened here is akin to his theory. We ask God to forgive them.” (WorldWide Religious News)

INTERSERVE WORKERS EVACUATED FROM LEBANON TO AVOID KIDNAPPING

Foreign workers with Interserve in Lebanon are being evacuated due to Hezbollah’s history of kidnapping westerners. Interserve’s Doug VanBronkhorst says the organization rarely leaves an area, even during unrest, but with Israeli attacks intensifying, the organization is examining Hezbollah’s track record. “In the past, what they’ve done is to kidnap westerners, particularly Americans, and use them for leverage and pressure against the U.S. government,” he said. “So our feeling is that westerners there are not just in general danger, being caught up in the middle of a violent war, but they are actually perhaps targeted or could be targeted.” He notes that if Americans are targeted, working alongside Lebanese friends could place the national workers in danger as well. Interserve assists the church in Lebanon through a variety of works, including humanitarian and medical aid, development work and educational and teaching roles, ministering to students. (Mission Network News)

POPULARITY OF AUSTRALIAN SLANG BIBLE PROMPTS SECOND VOLUME

A second volume of a popular version of the Bible in Australian slang was released this month. The initial volume, written by devout Christian author Kel Richards, has sold more than 100,000 copies since 2003 in a country where sales of 18,000 qualify as a bestseller. Not everyone is elated with how the new volume that opens. “Out of the blue God knocked up the whole bang lot. . . . . God said ‘let’s have some light’ and bingo — light appeared.” Richards was inspired to do the second volume by many letters saying the Australian slang version had prompted more Scripture reading in traditional Bibles in a country where only 9 percent regularly attend church. “People make the mistake of thinking that Australian English is just slang,” Richards says. “It’s much richer than that, and it’s a language of the heart. It’s quirky and funny but it can also convey seriousness and emotion. It connects with people at a deeper level than standard English.” (Christian Science Monitor/WorldWide Religious News)

* HCJB World Radio-Australia operates a shortwave station in Kununurra, reaching across the Asia/Pacific region with programs in 20 languages, the majority produced at studios in Delhi, India. Studios in Melbourne are used to record programs in English and Oromo, a language spoken in Ethiopia.

ANCIENT LATIN PSALM BOOKLET FOUND IN IRISH BOG, OPEN TO PSALM 83

An ancient book of psalms was unearthed in Ireland last week by a construction worker who was digging up bogland for topsoil. Archaeologists date the approximately 20-page book back to the years 800-1000, noting the first discovery of an early medieval document in two centuries. “There’s two sets of odds that make this discovery really way out,” said director of Ireland’s National Museum Pat Wallace. “First of all, it’s unlikely that something this fragile could survive buried in a bog at all, and then for it to be unearthed and spotted before it was destroyed is incalculably more amazing.” Ironically, the book of Latin text was found open to Psalm 83 which mentions enemies of Israel who say “Come, let us destroy them as a nation, that the name of Israel be remembered no more.” Experts are examining the book and hope to find ways to open other pages without damaging them. (AP/CNN.com)