Lausanne World Pulse – News Briefs

AFRICA: God’s Word Reaches Remote Peoples in Their Languages
Although the Bible is not illegal or banned in some African countries, language and literacy issues nevertheless can impede the sharing of God’s word. Faith Comes By Hearing (FCBH) is responding to this challenge through tools such as its Proclaimer, a self-powered audio player with the New Testament pre-loaded on an embedded microchip. FCBH also recently completed audio translations into six African languages, including Chitonga, Chiyao, Dogon Toroso, Lukakamega, Oluluyia, and Sehwi, languages spoken by more than 7.6 million people in five countries. To date, FCBH has produced Audio Drama New Testaments in 144 African languages and hopes to record audio Bibles in two thousand languages by the year 2016. (Faith Comes By Hearing)

AROUND THE WORLD: Wycliffe International and World Evangelical Alliance Join Forces
As a new global partner, Wycliffe International has joined forces with World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) to enhance the alliance’s efforts to promote transformation rooted in the Bible. Wycliffe includes forty-nine autonomous organizations involved in Bible translation and literacy work. One quarter of the organizations lead Bible programs in their home countries. It is estimated that more than two thousand languages still do not have Scripture translations. Wycliffe’s Vision 2025 campaign hopes to have a Bible translation in progress for every language by 2025. Global Partner membership is given to international groups specializing in a ministry that contributes to WEA’s mission. (World Evangelical Alliance)

AROUND THE WORLD: World Vision Documents Desperate Measures of the Hungry
In June 2008, World Vision reported on some of the desperate measures families are taking around the world in order to feed themselves. In countries such as Afghanistan, preteen girls are sometimes sold to buy food. And in the nation of Georgia, children are being left at orphanages by parents unable to feed them. Rising food and fuel costs continue to worsen the worldwide hunger problem. World Vision wants the U.S. government to increase its response to the crisis, emphasizing that, although American families are struggling with tighter budgets, the world’s poorest families are completely devastated. (World Vision)

AROUND THE WORLD: New Director to Lead Micah Challenge International
Rev. Joel Edwards, currently general secretary of the Evangelical Alliance UK, will lead Micah Challenge International (MCI) as its new international director beginning January 2009. MCI is a joint venture between the Micah Network and the World Evangelical Alliance. MCI aims to deepen Christian involvement with marginalized communities and to urge leaders of rich and poor countries to halve extreme poverty by 2015 as part of the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals. Edwards has been involved with MCI since its inception. (Micah Challenge International)

ASIA: Asian Access Names New President
Joseph Handley Jr. has been named the fourth president of Asian Access, an evangelical mission group, succeeding S. Douglas Birdsall, who stepped down in September 2007 after sixteen years of service. Handley, 43, has been an associate pastor at Rolling Hills Covenant Church in southern California for nearly a decade. Previous to that, he established the Office of World Mission at Azusa Pacific University, also in California. Birdsall said Handley “has a great knowledge of world missions.” Asian Access, which heads into its fifth decade, began in Japan as the “Language Institute for Evangelism.” It now reaches into countries such as Cambodia, India, and Sri Lanka as well as closed countries whose identities are guarded. (Asian Access)

BELIGIUM: Systematic Religious Discrimination Reported
The Institute of Religion and Public Policy has submitted a report to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights documenting religious freedom abuses in Belgium over the last decade. The Belgian government has been criticized by the UN and other organizations for its classification of hundreds of religious groups as “harmful sects.” Currently, about six hundred religious groups in Belgium are labeled as such, including Protestant groups, Zen Buddhists, Hasidic Jews, and the YWCA. Such groups are accused of being dangerous and are targets of measures to halt their growth and existence, according to the report. (Institute of Religion and Policy)

BENIN: Catholic Relief Services Program Targets Millions with Malaria
In an attempt to treat more than two million children with malaria, Catholic Relief Services (CRS) has launched the largest home-based malaria care campaign in Benin’s history. According to a media release, the program is possible through a $24.5 million USD grant from Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria. Children will receive Artemisinin-Based Combination Therapy (ACT), a proven safe and effective treatment. Most will be able to get treatment at home in less than twenty-four hours after symptoms appear. CRS, leading a 4-member consortium, will work with more than 1,400 community-based groups to educate families and provide basic care to children infected. Ken Hackett, president of CRS, said about three thousand children die each day of malaria in sub-Saharan Africa. (Catholic Relief Services)

CHINA: Crackdown on Christians as Olympics Approach
Christian Solidarity Worldwide and China Aid Association released a report in June 2008 describing increasing government persecution of unregistered Christians in the months leading up to the Olympics. As the games approached, the Chinese Central Government increased funding toward efforts to eradicate “house churches” throughout the country. People engaged in illegal religious practices will be prevented from attending or participating in the games, and landlords have been told to refrain from renting to those participating in religious activities. (Christian Solidarity Worldwide)

CHINA: Gospels Specially Printed for Olympic Games
In a decision announced by the chairman of the national committee of the Three-Self Patriotic Movement of the Protestant Churches in China, Bibles and gospel booklets printed in China will be available during the Beijing Olympics. With the help of UK-based Bible Society, fifty thousand gospel booklets are being printed especially for the Games and will carry the Olympic logo free of charge, as approved by the Beijing Olympic organizing committee. An additional ten thousand Bibles and thirty thousand New Testaments will also be available. The announcement was made at the 18 May 2008 opening of the new Amity Printing Press in Nanjing, a facility capable of producing twelve million Bibles a year. Bibles and booklets will be available in several other Olympic event cities in addition to the capitol. (Bible Society UK)

COLOMBIA: Rescued Hostage Says It’s a Miracle
Rescued political hostage Ingrid Betancourt said that her July 2008 rescue from the hands of Colombian FARC rebels was “a miracle.” “God, this is a miracle…There is no historical precedent for such a perfect operation,” Betancourt said in a statement from Bogota. Betancourt, who was rescued along with fourteen other hostages, had been held for more than six years since being kidnapped in February 2002 while campaigning for the Colombian presidency in areas controlled by the FARC. Among the other hostages were eleven Colombian security forces members and three American defense department contract workers. (ASSIST News)

ETHIOPIA: Life Sentences Given to Church Attackers
An Ethiopian court has sentenced three Muslim men to life imprisonment for the 2 March 2008 machete assault on two churches, which killed one person and injured seventeen. The sentences were handed down on 26 March; however, victims’ families only learned of the sentences after their right to appeal had expired. Of an additional seventeen people initially arrested for the attack, six remain in prison while the others have been freed. Christian sources believe three local Muslim officials instigated the attack. A Christian district politician attempting to expose the three has been removed from his position. (Crosswalk.com)

GERMANY: WSCF Applauds German Company for Halting Zimbabwean Money Deliveries
The World Student Christian Federation (WSCF) happily received news that German company Giesecke & Devrient (G&D) has halted production of banknotes used to pay Zimbabwean president Mugabe’s government officials and militia. While the company cited the action as a response to an official request by the German government as well as international sanctions by the European Union and United Nations, WSCF had joined German human rights groups and civil organizations in an advocacy campaign making Germans aware of the connection between G&D and the violence in Zimbabwe. In a 25 June 2008 letter, WSCF’s Southern African Human Rights Office pleaded with the German government to put pressure on G&D. WSCF is a global federation of student Christian groups, founded in 1895 by the North American evangelist and global ecumenist John R. Mott. Local and national groups that make up the federation are largely known as Student Christian Movements (SCMs). (World Student Christian Federation)

GERMANY: Feelings about Evangelism Changing
While many Protestant clergy still have reservations about evangelism, a recent study shows that attitudes are changing in Germany. The Research Institute for Evangelism and Church Development at the University of Greifswald conducted the study on behalf of the evangelistic project ProChrist. Although much of the clergy cited spiritual care of the flock as their main concern, younger mainline theologians are becoming more open to evangelistic activity. However, German clergy felt largely helpless in spreading Christian faith. (ASSIST News)

IRAQ: Partners International Ministries Opens Third Christian School
With support from Iraqi authorities, Partners International Ministries (PIM) opened its third Christian school in Northern Iraq. The school is located on three acres of land donated by the Iraqi government, and an official of the Iraqi ministry of education attended the opening. The official was quoted as saying, “…whatever you hear, this is a place where we value democracy, and everyone is welcome.” A PIM official said the school is perceived as a place of reconciliation. PIM has been working in Northern Iraq for fifteen years. (Partners International Ministries)

UZBEKISTAN: Government Television Program Incites Religious Hatred
Uzbek state-run television has repeated the showing of a film promoting intolerance of religious minorities. This second showing of the film entitled “In the Clutches of Ignorance” was in Russian, whereas the first showing in May 2008 was in Uzbek. Timing of the broadcast, which was before live coverage of two Euro 2008 football matches, was designed to attract as many viewers as possible. Some saw the airing as a government effort to stir up Muslims against Christians. Many religious communities have been targeted by the secret police and at least one church was raided the day after the broadcast. (Forum 18 News)

UNITED STATES: HCJB Global Appoints Acting President
HCJB Global, a mission organization working through media and healthcare, has appointed James “Jim” Allen as its interim president, replacing Dave Johnson, HCJB president since 2001. Allen, 65, has been senior vice president since 1997. A graduate of Biola University in California, Allen hopes to help the organization transition smoothly during its search for a permanent president. Allen has ministered in more than sixty countries. He and his wife joined HCJB Global in 1984 primarily to pastor missionaries. (HCJB Global)

UNITED STATES: Expositor Named for Intervarsity Conference Urbana 09
Ramez Atallah, general secretary of the Bible Society of Egypt and program chair of the Lausanne III World Congress, will be Bible expositor at Urbana 09, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship’s twenty-second student missions conference. The conference will be held in St. Louis, Missouri, 27-31 December 2009. Born in Egypt, Atallah spent his adolescence in Canada and became involved with InterVarsity while attending McGill University. InterVarsity’s student mission conference, first held in 1946, is one of the longest running institutions of North American evangelism. Many distinguished Bible teachers have presented at Urbana, including John R.W. Stott and Ajith Fernando. (InterVarsity Christian Fellowship)

YEMEN: Christians Arrested for Promoting Christianity
Authorities in Yemen have arrested seven Christians in the province of Hodiada for allegedly promoting Christianity and distributing Bibles. According to Washington, D.C.–based International Christian Concern (ICC), the seven were taken into custody on 18 June 2008 and then transferred to the capital city of Sana’a. ICC sources believe the prisoners may face torture by Yemeni security personnel. (International Christian Concern)

ZIMBABWE: Mugabe Declares “Only God Will Remove Me”
Since the Zimbabwe elections on 29 March 2008, sources have reported numerous people murdered, thousands of homes burned, and hundreds of thousands of people displaced from their homes. President Robert Mugabe has stated, “Only God, who appointed me, will remove me.” Mugabe’s violent campaign has led to the opposition MDC party to pull out of the election, and several African countries are voicing harsh criticism of Mugabe’s tactics. However, despite a United Nations appeal, South African president Thabo Mbeki has not condemned Mugabe, a stance that has him at odds with his own cabinet according to insiders. (ASSIST News)

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