Today’s Headlines:

MUSLIM MOB IN KYRGYZSTAN ATTACKS CHURCH PLANTER AND HIS SON

PRAYER FOR SRI LANKA SOUGHT, 16 AID WORKERS SHOT IN CIVIL WAR

NEW REPORTS OF PERSECUTION IN INDIA FAIL TO DETER CHRISTIANS

ISLAMIC-TRAINED FIGHTER KILLS 223 BEFORE GIVING HIS LIFE TO CHRIST

Today’s Top Stories:

MUSLIM MOB IN KYRGYZSTAN ATTACKS CHURCH PLANTER AND HIS SON

A mob of about 80 people beat a Bible League-trained church planter and his son in Kara Kuldza in southern Kyrgyzstan on Friday, July 28. The church planter was left with severe head injuries and broken fingers. The mob also ransacked his home and the building where the church meets, gathering and burning all the religious books. Federal investigators in Kyrgyzstan have begun an investigation. “The methods are the same in each situation,” said the Bible League’s director in the country. “An angry mob led by an Islamic cleric enters a worship service or the home of a church planter and gives an ultimatum to stop all religious activities and leave — or their church and home will be burned and their children and wife will be defiled. In several locations the wives of the church planters have, in fact, been raped when the church planters did not flee.” Kyrgyzstan’s population is 75 percent Muslim. (Bible League)

PRAYER FOR SRI LANKA SOUGHT, 16 AID WORKERS SHOT IN CIVIL WAR

The World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) is encouraging Christians worldwide to keep the war-torn island of Sri Lanka in their prayers. “Please pray for this country and for the Christians who risk their lives to reach and care for those caught in this civil conflict,” said WEA International Director Geoff Tunnicliffe. “While the world’s attention is fixed on the equally tragic events in the Middle East, little media coverage is given to the Sri Lankan civil war that is taking scores of innocent lives and displacing thousands of people in the island country.” Recent conflicts include the slaying of 16 staff members with the French aid agency, Action Contre la Faim (Action Against Hunger). Government forces and the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam represent the two warring factions. The two groups blamed each other for the killing of the aid workers. (Religion Today/Pakistan Christian Post)

NEW REPORTS OF PERSECUTION IN INDIA FAIL TO DETER CHRISTIANS

Gospel for Asia President K.P. Yohannan is seeing evidence of growing persecution of Christians in central India. Four students were jailed for two days, accused of “converting Hindus” by distributing Christian literature in Bagalkote, Karnataka state. In another July incident in Maharashtra, three students were hospitalized after a group of anti-Christian extremists beat them with belts and large sticks as they returned from sharing the gospel in a neighboring village. Local residents intervened to break up the attack and rescue the believers. Not long after this in Chattisgarh state, two pastors’ wives were “dragged before the community council, stripped naked and beaten for accepting Jesus and following Him,” reported M.A. Lalachan, a GFA regional leader. Despite these setbacks, all the Christians remain “determined and committed to the cause.” (Gospel for Asia/Assist News Service)

ISLAMIC-TRAINED FIGHTER KILLS 223 BEFORE GIVING HIS LIFE TO CHRIST

After being taught to kill Christians, Jews and Americans at age 13 to further Islamic causes, Zachariah Anani was credited with 223 kills, mostly against rival militias. After an Operation Mobilization missionary’s street-corner preaching caught his attention, Anani gave his life and soul to Christ. He boldly shared his conversion with his family and was sentenced to death for “apostasy.” His own father hired three Kurdish assassins to kill him. “There have been 18 attempts on my life,” he notes. “My father said recently the last thing he wants to do to make him closer to God is to kill me.” Anani is now the director of evangelism for Millions to Millions Ministries International and has taken his incredible testimony before Muslims throughout the U.S. and Canada. Mansa Musa, founder of Millions to Millions says Anani’s testimony is “extremely powerful. I call him a modern-day Paul.” (Assist News Service)