Today’s Headlines:

CHINESE AUTHORITIES RAID, DESTROY CHURCH BUILDING WHILE 10,000 PRAY

LEBANON CRISIS FUND OFFERS AID AS FIGHTING DISPLACES 500,000 CITIZENS

‘MASSIVE’ CONVERSIONS TO CHRIST REPORTED IN IRAN DESPITE REPRESSION

VANDALS IN MEXICO KNOCK CHRISTIAN RADIO STATION OFF THE AIR

Today’s Top Stories:

CHINESE AUTHORITIES RAID, DESTROY CHURCH BUILDING WHILE 10,000 PRAY

On the afternoon of Saturday, July 29, a large house church building in Hangzhou, China, was destroyed, and many Christians were arrested and wounded during the confrontation. Eyewitnesses reported that several thousand anti-riot police, military police and government workers along with 300 military vehicles surrounded the church around 1:30 p.m. while 10,000 house church members were inside praying. Police then used electric shock batons and anti-riot shields to disperse the crowd and beat several hundred whom attempted to protect the building. The building, built on private land purchased by a local Christian couple, was nearly completed when the government declared it “illegal” and moved in to destroy it. The local government has repeatedly denied the Christian’s formal requests to build despite the fact that the church met all requirements. In 2003 three house church members were imprisoned for reporting similar destruction of a large house church in Nayang. (China Aid Association)

* HCJB World Radio-Australia’s shortwave station in Kununurra broadcasts 7.5 hours of Mandarin programming each week.

Two Bhutanese Christian men known as “Benjamin” and “John” were reportedly released and reunited with their families on Saturday, July 29. The two were arrested on Jan. 7 in the small town of Paro after sharing the gospel with a non-Christian family. International Christian Concern (ICC) solicited international pressure for the release of the two men after avenues within Bhutan reached a deadend. Jeremy Sewall, ICC’s regional policy analyst for South Asia, asked for continued prayers for the men as they rebuild their lives as well as prayer for Bhutan. “Government officials there continue to struggle with wanting to allow more freedom but also fearing that they will lose their identity to western culture,” he said. (Christian Newswire/http://www.persecution.org)

LEBANON CRISIS FUND OFFERS AID AS FIGHTING DISPLACES 500,000 CITIZENS

With an estimated 500,000 displaced people within Lebanon, human needs are tremendous and promise to remain so long after the current fighting stops. One Christian school in a Muslim area of Beirut reports having 760 refugees camping in its classrooms as a local Christian church supplies food, toiletries and medicines. Middle East Christian Outreach has partnered with the Lebanese charity Bridges of Love to establish the Lebanon Crisis Fund to help provide aid and long-term support to people identified by local churches and Christian organizations as people who would benefit from the fund. (Evangelical Press Association/ Middle East Christian Outreach)

‘MASSIVE’ CONVERSIONS TO CHRIST REPORTED IN IRAN DESPITE REPRESSION

Voice of the Martyrs (VOM) President Tom White says that despite all the terrorist activity and Muslim persecution of Christians, an estimated 500 to 600 Iranians are converting to Christianity each month. Seven Iranian Christians who share their stories are featured in White’s new book Iran: Desperate for God. A country ranked in the top-10 persecutors around the world is failing to stop “massive” numbers of conversions to Christ despite reports that Christians “continue to be subject to harassment, arrests, close surveillance and imprisonment.” Iran is one of the youngest nations in the world with about 70 percent of the population under 30 years old. “We’ve met with Iranians in several countries across Europe, we’ve met with Iranians in Iran, and when they encounter the love of Christ or forgiveness, which is alien to their beliefs — especially the radical Islamic approach in Iran — they are amazed and curious about Christ,” White says. (Agape Press/Voice of the Martyrs)

VANDALS IN MEXICO KNOCK CHRISTIAN RADIO STATION OFF THE AIR

Radio New Vision in the Mexican town of Nogales, across the border from Nogales, Ariz., has been off the air since Friday, June 16, due to massive vandalism. Drug and occult forces had been threatening the ministry for several years, even putting a price on the life of Station Director Hector Manuel L ³pez Delgado, a local lawyer/pastor. Two previous attacks in 2005 were thought to be thieves stealing copper wiring, but were recently revealed to be part of the effort to close down the station. In the most recent incident, vandals climbed to the transmitter and used axes and other tools to destroy the facility. With 85,000 listeners, XHEN, a rented AM station, at times reached a No. 1 ranking in area ratings. The ministry began broadcasting in February 2002 and was funded by church offerings and charitable donations. (Compass Direct)

* The World Radio Network, a cooperating ministry of HCJB World Radio, has 23 outlets, most of them Spanish-language stations and repeaters along the U.S.-Mexico border, including an FM station in Nogales, Ariz.