|
Bloody Christmas for Christians
From Belgrade to Bethlehem and the borders of Bangladesh, Christians experienced bloodshed last Christmas amid growing sentiment against the Christian faith. Analysts have linked the attacks to the U.S. war against terrorism.
A grenade attack killed three girls worshipping at a Presbyterian church in Daska, Pakistan, about 100 miles south of Islamabad. Earlier bombs exploded at a church in eastern India, where a priest was injured and scores of others wounded as assailants threw bombs at a midnight Christmas service in a Catholic church.
The attack in the town Malipota near the India-Bangladesh border, 20 miles northeast of Calcutta, forced the priest and some of the 1200 worshippers inside to hand over their valuables, including money from the church safe and wrist watches. Elsewhere in Asia, Christians gathered despite warnings of possible Islamic attacks.
In Indonesia, police seized 550 pounds of a fertiliser usable in explosives that they say was to be delivered to a fugitive bomber, Associated Press (AP) reported. And there were even troubles in former Communist countries, such as Yugoslavia. AP said about 30 hard-line Serb nationalists prevented dozens of worshippers from attending an Anglican Christmas eve church service that was to be held in a Serbian Orthodox chapel in Belgrade, the Yugoslav capital.
Even in Bethlehem, the place Christians regard as Jesus birthplace, Christmas was a sad affair. There were no signs of Christmas decorations, in what officials said was protest against the occupation of the West Bank town by Israeli troops. – Assist News Service
SENEGAL: New Testament Recorded in Chants, Koranic Style
One of the powerful communication vehicles in the Islamic world is the use of chants that emulate the style of the chanted Koran.
While controversial among orthodox clerics, among common people who grew up hearing the sounds of their scriptures chanted, a deep emotional connection exists when the chants are heard.
After three years of hard work the New Testament was released by cassette in the Wolof language of Senegal. In addition the team now has the Gospel of John recorded in a chanted Koranic style. This is proving to be a powerful way of presenting God’s Word. – Global Worship Report
Afghanistan’s Poppy Problem
O pium production was projected to be 10 times higher last year. In 2001, the Taliban boasted a 94 percent reduction of poppy cultivation. Afghan poppies account for around 80 percent of Europe’s heroin supply.
Development agencies face the daunting task of helping create alternative income sources for poppy farmers. A farmer today can expect to bring in US$6,250 per acre of poppy, but only US$25 per acre of wheat. – World Pulse
Vietnam Closes Over 350 Churches
Information has been coming out of Vietnam about a recent wave of government repression against Montagnard (a collective name for Vietnam’s many minority tribal groups inhabiting the Central Highlands) evangelicals in Vietnam’s Central Highlands.
Documents acquired last October by religious and human rights workers in this country confirm that by last September, 354 of 412 churches had been forcibly disbanded in Dak Lak province alone. By mid-October, about 50 Christian pastors and elders in this province had been arrested or had "disappeared."
It is expected that the remaining 58 churches in the province will soon be closed. Also, Vietnam’s normally cautious Roman Catholic Conference of Bishops has recently released a letter decrying the persecution of Catholic Montagnards.
Montagnard churches are historically part of the Evangelical Church of Vietnam (South). Last year, 26 years after the country was reunified under communism, the ECVN(S) was granted legal recognition. However, only a handful of the many hundreds of Montagnard churches were allowed to identify with the ECVN(S).
This latest move against churches in Dak Lak is the most severe persecution since 1975, when churches were closed and church leaders put in re-education camps for years. – Maranatha Christian News Service
Muslims Find Christ in Saudi Arabia
But not in the hundreds, as claimed.
Although Saudi Arabia works hard to keep the Bible from crossing its physical and electronic borders, some in the staunchly Muslim kingdom are coming to know Christ.
A report in the January issue of Charisma magazine details how foreign believers working in the country have encountered some Muslims who want to know more about Jesus after having dreams about Him.
However, resident expatriates say such conversions do not number in the "hundreds" often claimed.
Saudi Arabia leads the world roster for unbending regulations designed to keep its Muslim population untainted by Christian influences. Although almost a million of the country’s seven million foreign workers are Christians, the laws forbid them to gather for public worship. Private worship is supposed to be permitted, but it is widely known that the religious police offer a standing bounty of 50,000 riyals (five years’ salary) to anyone who exposes a house church.
Famine in Africa
An increasingly severe famine in Ethiopia and southern Africa has prompted an urgent call for help from relief organisations, reports Associated Baptist Press. Recent reports from the United Nations World Food Programme indicate there are food shortages in Ethiopia and six countries in southern Africa. Complicating the food crisis are the ongoing HIV/AIDS pandemic and a recent outbreak of cholera.
The Atlanta-based Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, which has a relief partnership with World Vision, is calling on individuals and churches to respond with money and volunteer assistance.
With a serious drought worsening in many regions of Ethiopia, the number of people needing food aid is expected to rise sharply from six million to between 10 and 14 million people this year.
One Billion Gideons Bibles Distributed
Sept 11, 2001, will stick in our minds as long as we live, but by comparison only a relative handful of hardworking, faithful Christians will remember Sept 10. That was the day The Gideons International reached the one billion mark in Bible and New Testament distribution.
Those ubiquitous hotel and motel room Bibles were first placed in 1908. Today, Gideons in 175 countries put them also in prisons, schools, military bases, college and university campuses, hospitals, nursing homes and rehab centres – places the Gideons call "the human traffic lanes and streams of everyday life".
Around the world, some 235,000 volunteers and auxiliary (wives of Gideons) place nine Scriptures every five seconds. Bibles and New Testaments are distributed in 80 languages.
Having reached the one billion-milestone, the Gideons have a new slogan: "Why one billion Scriptures is not enough." Their goal for the June 1, 2002 – May 31, 2003 fiscal year is to place 60.5 million Scriptures worldwide. Their annual budget is US$90 million, which comes from donations.
Amazing stories surface showing how God continues to use the Bible to touch the lives of people, many of them in tough circumstances. – World Pulse
Church trends in U.K.
Over 20 percent of all British churches grew at least 10 percent in the ‘90s, according to Religious Trends. Growing churches tend to be small, friendly (especially to ethnic minorities), offer Alpha courses and have a sizeable youth population.
More people go to church in Scotland than in England. Charismatic churches are often larger than other churches – more than double the average churches. – World Pulse
Call for Equal Rights for Christians in Turkey
The International Society for Human Rights (ISHR) in Frankfurt has called for equal rights for the Christian minority in Turkey. It also criticises the detainment of journalists and the closing of human rights offices.
Nearly all 64 million inhabitants of Turkey are Muslims. The number of Christians is estimated to be around 110,000 or 0.2 percent of the population.
According to ISHR, church life continues to be restricted. Theological seminaries of the Armenian and Greek Orthodox churches remain closed so that the training of priests is impossible.
Some evangelical churches are threatened with closure, as happened to a 40-year-old congregation in Iskenderun last June. There is no legal framework for the Roman Catholic Church and its social ministries. – idea |
