Today’s Headlines:

BAPTISTS HELP SHELTER MUSLIMS DISPLACED BY FIGHTING IN LEBANON

1,500 KOREAN CHRISTIANS ORDERED TO LEAVE AFGHAN ‘PEACE FESTIVAL’

NEW ‘BILLION-DOLLAR BILL’ TRACT FIGHTS COUNTERFEIT CLAIMS

Today’s Top Stories:

BAPTISTS HELP SHELTER MUSLIMS DISPLACED BY FIGHTING IN LEBANON

Up to 750,000 Lebanese displaced by fighting between Israel and Hezbollah are flooding schools, shelters and temporary housing. About 1,000 of these have sought shelter in the Beirut Baptist School and the Arab Baptist Theological Seminary in Beirut, housing about 1,000 refugees. Baptist Christians are caring the refugees, mostly Shiite Muslims, even though the groups rarely interact due to normal ethnic and religious tensions. Southern Baptists are channeling nearly $50,000 in aid to Lebanese Christians to provide food, medicine, blankets and other supplies to families fleeing the fighting. Nabil Costa, director of the Lebanese Society for Educational and Social Development (also known as the Lebanese Baptist Society), says, “We are not trying to force anything on them. The first thing they ask us is, ‘Do you want to convert us to Christianity?’ And we tell them, ‘You are here because we love you. We want to show you that we love you and take care of you.’ We are earning our Christian credibility.” (Baptist Press)

Fifty house church members remain detained by Chinese government officials after the destruction of their large house church on Saturday, July 29, in the city of Hangzhou in Zhejiang province. Among the 50 in custody, four are still unaccounted for. Because the Chinese central government still denies the existence of the 50 prisoners, family and church members are concerned for their safety and the availability of medical treatment for injuries. The Chinese House Church Alliance sent out an urgent statement calling for an independent international investigation into the incident as well as requesting the international community become involved to pressure China for the release of the Christians and to ensure the church has a proper house of worship. The destroyed church is the fruit of missionary work by China Inland Mission and British missionary Hudson Taylor dating back to 1867.

1,500 KOREAN CHRISTIANS ORDERED TO LEAVE AFGHAN ‘PEACE FESTIVAL’

1,500 Koreans, mostly evangelical Christians, who had entered Afghanistan for today’s “peace festival” have been ordered to leave the country because of pressure from Muslim clerics and safety concerns. Stern warnings from officials in both South Korea and Afghanistan preceded the gathering, prompting most of the Koreans to leave the country. Concerns that the group would use the gathering to spread Christianity sparked strong rhetoric, but organizers insisted that the event wouldn’t include any religious activities, focusing instead on encouraging South Korean humanitarian groups to join reconstruction efforts. More than 500 Muslim clerics protested the festival in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif where some 200 Korean Christians attended despite official warnings. (WorldWide Religious News)

NEW ‘BILLION-DOLLAR BILL’ TRACT FIGHTS COUNTERFEIT CLAIMS

The maker of the million-dollar bill tract, brought to fame in June by a Texas branch of the U.S. Secret Service seized a shipment of tracts claiming they were counterfeit, has now produced a new “billion-dollar bill tract.” The company’s owner, Ray Comfort stated, “I was surprised that a Texas judge sided with the Secret Service in believing that the million-dollar bill is too close to real currency, and for weeks we’ve been expecting them to seize (the rest of) our supply.” In answer to these accusations, Living Waters has produced a new tract modeled after a fictional billion-dollar bill with two Bible verses hidden on the front and a 170-word gospel message on the back. The addition of a full-color image of Charles Spurgeon also shows it’s a fake as well as giving “perceived value” according to Comfort. He contends that the attention shown by the Secret Service has been a good thing. “It was because of them that the million-dollar bill received worldwide publicity!” he said. (Assist News Service)