Today’s Headlines:

200,000 STUDENTS JOIN ‘DARE TO BE A DANIEL’ TRAINING PROGRAM

MILITANTS IN INDIA KILL PROMINENT CHRISTIAN, ATTACK VILLAGERS

CONVOY OF HOPE HELPS UGANDA REBUILD FOLLOWING TRUCE

HONDURAN GOVERNMENT GIVES GRANT FOR HEALTHCARE PROGRAM

AUSTRALIAN CHRISTIAN BROADCASTING PIONEER DIES AT AGE 89

An actor handpicked by Chairman Mao’s wife to star in several Chinese movies in the 1970s is the featured guest on the weekly program, “World Radio,” produced by HCJB World Radio-Australia. The actor later became a Christian, and now he and his wife lead a thriving church in Beijing.

Podcast or listen online to the second part of this story by checking the following link: http://www.hcjb.org/worldwide/australia/world_radio_programme.html

Today’s Top Stories:

200,000 STUDENTS JOIN ‘DARE TO BE A DANIEL’ TRAINING PROGRAM

The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) announced this week that its latest ministry, “Dare to Be a Daniel,” has reached an important milestone much earlier than expected. Launched last May, BGEA has sent more than 200,000 “Dare to Be a Daniel” training kits free of charge upon request. The program uses the biblical story of Daniel to teach “tweens” (ages 9-14) to live their Christian faith in their daily lives and train them how to share their faith. The program, created by BGEA President Franklin Graham, challenges youths to focus on several keys to Daniel’s success with corresponding Bible verses to memorize. To successfully complete the training, they must recite the verses to their pastor. The training kits also include an interactive CD-ROM containing Christian music, testimonies and the Bible. “Daniel excites me for the courageous ways he took a stand for God. He kept his heart pure and shared his faith,” said Graham. “Through the inspiration of Daniel, this is a unique opportunity for young people to take a stand for Christ in their communities.” (Billy Graham Evangelistic Association)

MILITANTS IN INDIA KILL PROMINENT CHRISTIAN, ATTACK VILLAGERS

Christians in India continue to be the brunt of attacks from extremist groups as seen in two recent incidents. Earlier today (Nov. 21) two unidentified militants killed a Christian convert from Islam on a busy road in the village of Mamoosa in northern India’s terror-stricken state of Jammu and Kashmir. Bashir Ahmed Tantray, a 50-year-old engineer, was shot dead, apparently by Islamist militants, as he stood at a busy bus stop near his parents’ house in Mamoosa, a local Christian source said. He had accepted Christianity about a decade ago and was an active Christian worker. He is survived by his wife, two daughters and two sons.

On Tuesday, Nov. 14, adherents of a Bodo tribal religion in northeastern India’s Assam state forced nine families from their homes for converting to Christianity. The villagers destroyed six of the nine families’ homes, forcing the Christians to take shelter in a primary school. The nine families live in four villages in the Kokrajhar district of Assam.

Their ordeal began when a Pentecostal meeting held in the village of Haldibari on Monday, Nov. 13, infuriated the Bodo tribal people who organized their own religious gathering. At their meeting, the tribal people of Haldibari — some of them sympathizers of the Hindu extremist group Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) — resolved to force the Christian families out. That afternoon 25 Bodo villagers attacked the homes of three Christian families in Haldibari, and the violence soon spread to the neighboring villages of Moflabari, Jamduguri and Basdari. (Compass Direct News)

CONVOY OF HOPE HELPS UGANDA REBUILD FOLLOWING TRUCE

A recent truce between the Ugandan government and rebels with a paramilitary group, Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), has brought a steady ray of hope to countless Ugandans. Missouri-based Convoy of Hope has embarked on a project to provide 30 community center buildings in the region to serve as medical clinics, schools, counseling centers, houses of worship and agriculture stations. “Nearly 2 million people have been left homeless as a result of the war and emotional scars inflicted on the country will take years to heal,” said International Director Kenton Moody. “These centers are the beginning of a provision of hope.” The goal of the centers is to assist people with their basic needs and inspire them to rebuild their homes and reestablish their farms and villages. To help speed that process along, Convoy of Hope is providing seeds, pots, pans and even homes for ministers in the area. (Evangelical News/AG News)

HONDURAN GOVERNMENT GIVES GRANT FOR HEALTHCARE PROGRAM

Through International Aid’s “Befriend a Village” program, work is being done to help the rural, poor villages in Honduras. It began when the government saw how the ministry could help meet people’s crucial needs, said Myles Fish of International Aid. “One opportunity led to another, and it eventually led to the Honduran government offering us a grant to conduct what they call a community-based healthcare program in, then 24 villages, now 38 villages,” Fish said. “It’s an extremely remote, extremely poor area, and the government saw us as a vehicle to provide a level of health services that they could not provide. So they extended the invitation to us, and we’ve taken what they’ve requested and have built on it, several different layers, so that it’s really become a very effective program — not only to address the health issues in those communities, but for us to have an opportunity to express who we are in Christ and to proclaim the gospel.” The programs have been well-received in the various villages which have a population of between 2,000 and 5,000. (Mission Network News)

AUSTRALIAN CHRISTIAN BROADCASTING PIONEER DIES AT AGE 89

Australian religious broadcasting pioneer Rev. Vernon Kenneth Turner, 89, died on Saturday, Nov. 18, following a lengthy illness, just two months after his wife, May Elizabeth, passed away. Turner was born in Adelaide in 1917, and he lived there until his family moved to Sydney in 1931.

At the age of 7 he built his first microphone from a wooden Beecham’s Pills box and some mica and carbon granules. He later built much more sophisticated microphones. Before leaving Adelaide, he frequented the local radio stations after school. In 1937 he was accepted by Anglican Archbishop Howard Mowll for training for the ministry at Moore Theological College. After two Sydney parishes, he and his wife spent several years as missionaries in the outback of New South Wales.

In 1938 Turner began his first weekly radio broadcast called “Church News” which continued for many years. The outbreak of World War II in 1939 interrupted his studies that he resumed in 1946 at Emmanuel College at the University of Queensland, the training college for the Presbyterian Church, and he was licensed in 1951. By the late 1950s Turner and his staff were producing 800 weekly programs for 100 commercial stations across Australia. Among them were programs such as “Counsellor,” “Rev Gordon Powell,” “World Church News” and “From the Bible.”

In 1955 he called the first meeting of the Christian Television Association and was its first secretary. Having applied for an FM radio license for Sydney 23 years earlier, it was finally granted in 1978, and 2CBA-FM began broadcasting in March 1979, Australia’s first Christian FM station. Since then the station has operated 24 hours a day, reaching the entire Sydney metropolitan area. His daily program, “Morning Devotions,” aired for more than 20 years until his retirement in 1996. Funeral services are planned for St. David’s Uniting Church in Haberfield Friday, Nov. 24. (Worldwide Photos)

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