31 January 2007 Daily Update from HCJB Global

Today’s Headlines:

KENYA CARJACKINGS CLAIM LIVES OF 3 AID WORKERS, EX-MISSIONARY

CHURCH STONED IN TURKEY WITH RELIGIOUS TENSIONS ALREADY HIGH

PHILOSOPHY CHANGE BEHIND MINISTRY’S NEW NAME, LIFEWIND

3 CHINESE CHRISTIANS ARRESTED, OTHERS FILE LEGAL ACTIONS

Today’s Top Stories:

KENYA CARJACKINGS CLAIM LIVES OF AID WORKERS, EX-MISSIONARY

Geoffrey Chege, East and Central Africa regional director for the aid agency CARE International, was shot dead during a carjacking on Saturday, Jan. 27, in an upscale suburb of Nairobi, Kenya. He was 57.

Chege was apparently returning from a prayer meeting with his wife when the incident took place. She was not hurt. “We are deeply saddened and stunned by this senseless death,” said CARE President Helene Gayle. “No one was more committed than Geoffrey to uplifting the poor and vulnerable.”

In a similar incident the same day, two U.S. women and an aid agency employee were shot dead in a village 12 miles west of Nairobi. Killed were former Presbyterian missionary Lois Anderson, her daughter, Zelda White, and an unidentified aid worker. They were murdered when rifle-bearing carjackers stopped the vehicle. Two other persons in the vehicle were unhurt. Police authorities reported that “at least one woman was shot because she took too long to leave the car.”

Doug Welch, area coordinator for Africa of the Presbyterian Church U.S.A. (PCUSA), said Anderson and her husband “served as PCUSA missionaries for more than four decades in Sudan and Kenya. They are known across East Africa for their decades of service to the church, especially in the area of theological education.” White lived in Kenya with her husband. Nairobi has gained a reputation for carjacking with a wave of attacks on foreign diplomats in the last year. (Assist News Service)

CHURCH STONED IN TURKEY WITH RELIGIOUS TENSIONS ALREADY HIGH

Religious tensions in Turkey, already high after the Jan 19 murder of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink in Istanbul, were again stirred when a Protestant church in the Turkish Black Sea Port city of Samsun was damaged by unknown assailants on Sunday, Jan. 28. The attackers threw stones at the two-story Samsun Agape House church building during the night, breaking more than 10 windows. “The attack was the latest against Christians in this predominantly Muslim country,” Pastor Mehmet Orhan Picaklar, the priest of the Samsun Agape House told Salem Voice Ministries. “There were no casualties, but this [is damaging] to Turkey. This attack depicts Turkey in a bad way before international public opinion.” The pastor added that this was the seventh or eighth attack on the church in the last three years and that he is “constantly receiving death threats by e-mail.” The church moved to the new building just two weeks earlier. A recent rise in Turkish nationalism by young people in Black Sea towns has been spotlighted because the suspected young murderer of Dink and his supporters from the region’s town of Trabzon. (Assist News Service)

PHILOSOPHY CHANGE BEHIND MINISTRY’S NEW NAME, LIFEWIND

The traditional medical mission known as Medical Ambassadors International has integrated evangelism and community development to supplement its medical ministry. To better reflect this approach, the ministry has changed its name to LifeWind International. “It’s inspired, really, by the biblical concept that the Holy Spirit is like the wind, as Jesus said . . . it’s like the breath of God that breathes life into human beings,” said Dr. Bob Paul of LifeWind. “So we mean to point towards the life-transforming power of the Holy Spirit through the name LifeWind.” One of the organization’s foundational ideas is called Community Health Evangelism (CHE) which is designed to be a comprehensive strategy for empowering community change and mobilizing a community’s potential. Through CHE, community volunteers are equipped to evangelize, make disciples, improve health and organize community development projects. (Mission Network News)

3 CHINESE CHRISTIANS ARRESTED, OTHERS FILE LEGAL ACTIONS

A house church raid by Chinese security forces in the Zhangchong township of Jinzhai county on Wednesday, Jan. 24, resulted in the arrest of three church leaders. They were released later in the day following “intensive interrogation.” Eyewitnesses reported that the officers took pictures of every Christian in the room and asked for their names and identities.

Police also confiscated Bibles, hymnbooks, acoustic equipment, a blackboard and the tithe box. There was apparently no documentation approving or justifying the raid. A report by the China Aid Association said, “The police warned the three church leaders that they are not allowed to gather without the registration to the government.”

Elsewhere in China, several leaders who were detained for 15 days have taken legal action to have officials rule whether or not their religious rights were violated. This action, becoming more common among Chinese Christians, continues to build legal foundations and precedents for Christian activities into the legal system, requiring local authorities to provide a legal basis for their actions. (China Aid Association/BosNewsLife)

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