Today’s Headlines:

PARTNERSHIP PROVIDES AFFORDABLE WHEELCHAIRS TO WORLD’S POOR

MARONITE CATHOLICS ATTACK, VANDALIZE BAPTIST CHURCH IN BEIRUT

2 CHRISTIANS ARRESTED IN SOUTHERN LAOS TO STOP EVANGELISM WORK

* ECUADOR’S TUNGURAHUA VOLCANO: ASHFALL AND ANXIETY

Today’s Top Stories:

PARTNERSHIP PROVIDES AFFORDABLE WHEELCHAIRS TO WORLD’S POOR

Working in partnership with the California-based Free Wheelchair Mission (FWM), World Vision is setting its sights on helping the world’s poor who are disabled. A typical wheelchair, critical to the world’s more than 100 million disabled poor who often have to crawl on the ground or be carried, can cost hundreds of dollars. Now, thanks to this partnership, donors can provide a wheelchair to a needy adult or child for about $14. Haunted by memories of watching a Moroccan woman crawl across a dirt road 27 years ago, mechanical engineer and FWM founder Don Shoendorfer designed an inexpensive wheelchair using ordinary plastic patio chairs, inflatable mountain bike tires and a few other parts to make lightweight, durable mobility available at a low cost. The joint project hopes to give mobility to at least 16,000 people around the world. FWM is donating each wheelchair and a portion of the shipping costs while World Vision will distribute the chairs through its work overseas. (World Vision)

MARONITE CATHOLICS ATTACK, VANDALIZE BAPTIST CHURCH IN BEIRUT

Maronite Catholics attacked a new independent Baptist church near Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, Aug. 2, breaking doors and windows, stealing computer and sound equipment, and beating men and groping several women. The assault began with 10 Maronite men beating Pastor Raymond Abou-Mekhael and another man as they retrieved items from a parked car. Ten others shortly joined in while police looked on and “even advised the attackers on what to steal and vandalize,” said Abou-Mekhael. The attack followed a long saga of conflict that arose due to public criticism from the local Maronite bishop whose main complaint was that the Baptists planned to “steal” Maronite parishioners from his flock. The congregation had agreed not to meet in the new building until an agreement could be made. They were inside the church during the attack in order to prepare to host war refugees from southern Lebanon. The Maronite Church is an Eastern Rite church in communion with Rome. Approximately 20 percent of the Lebanese population (half of Lebanon’s Christians) belongs to the denomination. (Compass Direct)

2 CHRISTIANS ARRESTED IN SOUTHERN LAOS TO STOP EVANGELISM WORK

Two Protestant Christians in southern Laos have been arrested to prevent them from pursuing their evangelization work. In a story published by AsiaNews, the Lao Human Rights Movement reported that the two men, A-Kouam, 60, and A-Vieng, 35, were arrested on Friday, Aug. 11, and are being held in the city of Depone in the southern province of Savannakhet. The movement cites “reliable sources” who said the arrest of the men “is meant to stop the spreading of the Christian religion, especially among religious minorities.” The Paris-based human rights group is highly critical of the communist regime and believes the anti-Christian repression comes at a time when more and more people are starting to question the party’s ideology. Christian organizations working in Laos report a growing number of Christian churches despite the persecution. (Assist News Service)

The execution of three ethnic Indonesian Christians has been “stayed indefinitely,” a spokesperson for International Christian Concern said on Wednesday, Aug. 23. The international civil rights organization, nevertheless, is continuing to urge Christians to contact the Indonesian embassies in Washington, Ottawa and London to press for “a wide-ranging investigation” into Christian-Muslim violence on eastern Indonesia’s Sulawesi Island six years ago “so that everyone who is guilty can be charged or amnestied.” Meanwhile, Indonesia’s Supreme Court has rejected a second appeal for a pardon of the three men, reported AsiaNews. A defense attorney for the men said he will challenge the court’s ruling by contending that it only has authority to make a recommendation to the country’s president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, regarding the appeal for a pardon. The three men, Fabianus Tibo, Marianus Riwu and Dominggus da Silva, were convicted in 2001 for inciting Christian-Muslim violence that led to the killing of some 1,000 people in the Poso port region. The execution of the three men by firing squad had been scheduled for Saturday, Aug. 12, but was delayed at the last moment. (Baptist Press)

* ECUADOR’S TUNGURAHUA VOLCANO: ASHFALL AND ANXIETY

As people sweep volcanic ash from rooftops, streets and even their crops following the violent eruption of the Tungurahua volcano Thursday, Aug. 17, a haze hangs over Ecuador’s central highland provinces.

Hues of gray, brown and white dominate landscapes that were once breathtaking patchworks of verdant green vegetables and yellow corn on the Andean hillsides. But beyond the region’s ash-affected appearance, there is an emotional tightness-a mental strain-as people anxiously await what Tungurahua will do next.

Experts are warning that growing gas and magma pressures lie beneath Tungurahua’s relative calm after pyroclastic flows and tons of ash poured forth from the “Throat of Fire” volcano. The director of Ecuador’s Geophysics Institute, Hugo Y ©pez, said there’s no question that Tungurahua, 80 miles south of Quito, will erupt again. It will. The question is when.

Communities on the volcano’s western slope are on “orange alert” which means the eruption process is irreversible and could start within days or weeks. This is used only when studies forecast that the “pre-eruptive phase” has begun.

Despite its close proximity to Tungurahua, the city of Ba ±os, just five miles away from Tungurahua’s eastern slope, remains on “yellow alert,” warning of an eruption that could begin in weeks or months. Questioned by Quito’s El Comercio newspaper, Ba ±os Mayor Fausto Acosta said “the yellow alert continues because 93 percent of the city’s families live directly or indirectly from tourism.”

In the volcano’s most recent blast, thousands of people were displaced when communities were destroyed. At least five people were killed with dozens reported missing.

A British missionary nurse, Sheila Leech, director of HCJB World Radio’s Healthcare Division, perceives another potential threat if people in communities surrounding the volcano fail to get proper assistance in the near future. The whitish-gray or brownish views of today could become, for some Ecuadorians, a slow fade to black-the black of blindness.

The ubiquitous ash “is causing corneal irritation-corneal scarring-and it’s causing burns on the cornea that could lead to blindness,” said Leech.

In spite of massive cleanup efforts, the ash of Tungurahua still cloaks nearly every environment. Leech told of “the magnitude, the absolute, incredible extension of this ashfall.”

Comparing it to a mid-July Tungurahua eruption, she said, “Last time we went and we saw it (ashfall) in a more limited area. This time it’s on all the mountains, all around. Everywhere! And there was this brown haze-brown dust in the air. All the time.”

Ecuadorian President Alfredo Palacio declared a state of emergency for Tungurahua, Chimborazo and Bolivar provinces and said the government plans to release funds to aid disaster victims.

Visiting the town of Guano with a team from Hospital Vozandes-Quito, Leech received a seemingly impossible request from the municipal mayor. Several other communities are under his administration.

“Se ±orita,” the mayor told her, “the most important thing that you could do for us is if you could find us 38,000 eye protection goggles.” As HCJB World Radio’s international healthcare coordinator, she can access funds to respond to emergencies.

In fact, in the last two years she’s deployed quick-response medical teams to disaster zones in Pakistan and Indonesia. But of the mayor’s request she said later, “There aren’t that many eye protection goggles in the country (of Ecuador)!”

Team members took supplies of eye drops, surgical facemasks, medicines and stores of food and 500 gallons of water on their Aug. 23 trip to Riobamba, a city now threatening fines for those who fail to clean up the ash on their property.

Team members also encouraged people, telling that donors worldwide made their trip to the ash-devastated area possible and that others shared in their pain and suffering. “And as they thanked us we told them, ‘Don’t thank us, thank God.'” Leech told of “wonderful opportunities to talk about the love of the Lord and to show them in practical ways.”

Hospital Vozandes-Quito Medical Director Diana Freire was vacationing with family members in her hometown of Riobamba when the blanket of ash dropped on the city. She and her father helped Leech’s team from Quito get connected with local authorities to see about providing future help from a mobile medical clinic.

Settlements such as Chilubu, Choglontuz and Pilitagua were wiped away when pyroclastic flows consisting of lava and other volcanic materials raced down Tungurahua’s flanks, destroying everything in their path. In Bilbao, about 80 percent of the adobe brick homes were destroyed. Ecuador’s government announced a building campaign to relocate families displaced by the eruption.

“One of the main needs in the communities is drinking water-any water at all,” Leech said, explaining that ash has contaminated springs, and pipes have burst in gravity-fed water systems as the earth shifted.

“Municipal authorities are getting out water tankers, but people don’t have anything to receive it in. So they need to be able to get some plastic containers, some storage facilities in the communities and in the refugee centers for storing water.”

Guano is known as “The City of Springs,” but resident Beatriz Cunalata told El Comercio, “The springs are full of ash. It’s dangerous to drink the water. We boil it, and on Monday we stored it in tanks. There’s no alternative.”

Leech added, “We have some requests for sending our medical brigades up there, and we’ll be looking at those requests and seeing how we can meet the requests of those communities.” (HCJB World Radio)