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Gospel spreads in former communist stronghold
The Bible League (TBL) in Albania has introduced Project Andi, an evangelism and discipleship program for children, to meet the growing need for Scripture for that country’s children. Albania’s former communist government banned the Bible, and today children there have little or no understanding of God. TBL says Albania’s pastors are requesting materials that can be used by both children and adults. The children’s program will be introduced through churches currently using TBL’s Project Philip evangelism program for adults, which enrolled more than 5,700 Albanians in Bible study last year, double the 1999 figure. In addition, Bible League-trained Christians planted 17 new churches last year.

Broadcasters now airing Turkmen language programs
HCJB World Radio and Back to the Bible have launched a joint effort June 20 to bring more gospel radio programs in Turkmen, reports HCJB. The programs complement Trans World Radio’s Turkmen transmissions that began earlier this year and adding gospel broadcasts to one of world’s least-reached people groups. The 15-minute programs, broadcast at 9 p.m. local time Sundays and Wednesdays, air from an undisclosed medium-wave site outside of Turkmenistan. Dave Hansen, Back to the Bible’s vice president of international ministries, says his organization “adopted” the people of Turkmenistan in 1991. Turk-menistan’s Islamic government has stepped up efforts to persecute the country’s handful of believers. In recent years there have been numerous reports of officials deporting Protestant pastors, destroying Bibles and raiding house churches. Pentecostal, Seventh-day Adventist and Orthodox churches also have been affected. Compass Direct has reported severe persecution of Turkmen Baptists in the past year. The AM transmitter that airs Turkmen is also carrying programs in the Southern Uzbek language, spoken primarily in Afghanistan. Quarter-hour programs air at 8:30 p.m. local time Tuesdays and Thursdays. The transmissions complement programs that began airing last month from FEBA Radio’s short-wave site in the Seychelles.

Prison baptism in Taiwan
All 20 of the prisoners baptized at the Taichung Women’s Prison on 21 June had attended the inmates’ Bible study class and received the care and guidance of prison chaplains. Taiwan Church News reports that 90 percent of the prison’s inmates have been convicted of drug-related crimes. One baptized inmate said: “I’m serving an indefinite sentence. I’ve been here eight or nine years and have no idea when I may leave. Since I’ve come to faith in Christ I’m not so concerned about my discharge date. I spend time each day in prayer for my classmates, family and country.” Another said that it was through the Bible class and watching videotapes that she came to understand how good Christianity could be. Though she remains in jail she finds great peace in prayer, Taiwan Church News reports.

The gift of physical, spiritual sight
Christian Blind Mission is giving physical and spiritual sight to the blind in Nigeria, where the organization treated 2 million people for river blindness, Mission Network News (MNN) reports. Jeff Watson, CBMI’s director for overseas operations, says 40 million risk getting the disease. The Muslim/Christian strife didn’t affect their work. At first, however, especially the Muslim communities believed rumors that the mission’s aim was to control their population because the medicine resembled birth control pills. “But once they were treated and once they saw that we just loved the people, the people saw that we were really trying to help them,” Watson tells MNN.

Tanzania mass baptism
Tanzanian Seventh-day Ad-ventist Church leaders are calling the baptism of 10,000 believers June 23 the largest ever in the history of the church in East Africa, reports Adventist News Network. The baptisms come as the satellite evangelistic series “Africa for Christ 2001” draws nightly crowds of between 5,000 and 7,000 people at a stadium in Mwanza. The three-week event, which began June 16, is being broadcast by Adventist Global Communication Network across Africa, India and Europe.

Indian orphanages attacked, threatened
Hopegivers International in Kota, India, is being attacked by anti-Christian elements, reports Bible Pathways Ministries. India’s government advised the ministry’s founder, M.A. Thomas, on a U.S. speaking tour, to not return at this time because of potential bloodshed. Thomas recently received a prestigious Indian government award in recognition of his work with orphans and lepers. Twice recently, Hindu mobs of about 200 men attacked Hopegivers facilities. Hindus are threatening to attack all of Hopegivers’ 103 orphanages as well as Bible institutes, more than 4,100 churches, medical clinics, a hospital and homes for the blind and widowed. Recently 150,000 protesters gathered in front of the courthouse in Kota demanding that the orphanages be shut down and that all of the children be forced to convert to Hinduism.

Helping stop India’s poverty throughliteracy
Ramabai Mukti Mission schools aim to address poverty through Christian education. Mission Network News reports that the schools need elementary teachers, mission worker David Scott says, especially English-speakers because learning English is essential for Indians to get a higher education. Teachers will work with students for 10.5 months and have the chance to share the Gospel.

Bible sales may be banned in Turkmenistan
In March, Turkmenistan’s booksellers received letters from the government telling them of a ban on selling the Bible, reports Keston News Service. Bibles were available from bookstands for about $5 a copy until earlier this year. Bibles are not sold on the general market, says the communications director for Seventh-day Adventist region that includes Turkmen-istan, but some have been available through Russian Orthodox churches. This former Soviet republic has been increasing restrictions on minority religions, destroying churches, disbanding groups worshiping in private homes, and jailing church members and pastors, reports Adventist News Network and Compass Direct.

Europe’s churches just say no to labeling
Churches in Europe are asking the European Union (EU) to not allow immigrants to be painted as potential criminals and to do more to protect those seeking asylum, reports Ecumenical News International (ENI). Oppression, conflict, poverty, drought and unemployment have forced citizens of many of the world’s nations to seek residence outside their homelands. Migration has thus become a “permanent global phenomenon.” A document the Churches’ Commission for Migrants in Europe (CCME), Caritas Europa and other groups presented to the EU’s executive body, says: “A person who exercises his or her right to search for better living conditions should not be considered a criminal simply for doing so. Human dignity is fundamental and has to be respected, regardless of whether someone has documents or not. The churches stand for this in society and call on the EU to do so as well.”

Latin America’s haves and have-nots
According to the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, 224 million Latin Americans live in poverty, reports the New York Times. That’s about 36 percent of the region’s people, and better than the 41 percent who were considered poor 11 years ago but worse than the 35 percent classed as poor in 1980. Under a succession of generals, dictators and caudillos, the rich-poor gap there remains the world’s greatest. Many experts say improving education is the best way to ensure a fairer distribution of the economic benefits of market openings because greater skills translate directly into higher wages. “But only 15 percent of Latin American children make it to the ninth grade, even though spending on education has increased in at least 13 nations,” the Times reports. Peruvian economist Hernando De Soto says, “Latin Americans get to choose their leaders, but once they are in place, it’s the old cliques that make the bottom-line decisions that are suitable to their own needs, not the people’s needs. These nations may look like democracies and sound like democracies, but they certainly do not function in the same way that true democracies function.” Colombia’s former President César Gaviria, who now heads the Organization of American States, says, “People see the corruption and the problems with education, health and judicial impunity, and they think that is democracy. All of that has created a sense of skepticism about democracy.” And, says Mexican writer Carlos Fuentes, that skepticism has opened the door to what he calls the area’s “oldest and most deeply rooted tradition: authoritarianism.”

Anti-immigrant violence in Russia
Skinheads are beating, even killing, African, Asian and Chechen refugees in full view of the police and public. They see attacks on people of color as defending their national identity and cleansing their country of foreigners who don’t belong there, reports the Los Angeles Times. The problem is on the rise. Of the self-appointed ethnic cleansing squads, the Times writes, “Generally they are young men from working-class backgrounds, dropouts and rebels who steep themselves in right-wing tracts and obtain a sense of belonging from their gangs. At night they go on “hunts” for victims, usually in small groups.” In April, more than 100 skinheads stormed a market and beat vendors from Asia and the Caucasus. Meanwhile, Russian authorities downplay the severity of anti-immigrant violence.

It may be true, but you can’t say that in China
China’s Central Propaganda Department ordered the firings of the editors of Southern Weekend, known as China’s most daring national newspaper. The reason, reports Time: they printed a story suggesting that a gang leader who killed 22 people and stole more than $650,000 during a six-year crime spree, was the product of a warped society. The editors upset Chinese officials by suggesting that the criminal represented “the weak” of China and showed more mettle than corrupt officials who “feign civility and filch riches,” Time reports. Christian workers-and most everybody else in China -take care not to say, write or even e-mail anything that could be construed as critical of the government.

Anything for an audience
To get young people to read the Bible, four Swedes are putting out a glossy magazine-esque Old Testament that will feature supermodels photographed by top fashion photographers. “We had the idea to contemp-orize the Bible and make it accessible to 15- to 30-year olds,” one of the Swedes tells London’s Daily Telegraph. German supermodel Claudia Schiffer is among top models expected to appear in the new Illuminated Bible. The text will be the King James Version. One photographer whose work will appear in the Bible has photographed Schiffer and Madonna, the singer. The Church of Eng-land’s head of the Church Society, which promotes Christianity within the denomination, says of the project, “It sounds like a gimmick that is entirely unnecessary.”

Political youth groups reach out to Russia’s kids
Young people in Russia are looking to pro-government organizations for hope that their parents lost when the Soviet Union collapsed. In that generation, groups such as the Young Communist League, or Komsomol, were charged with the task of instilling kids with devotion to totalitarianism. The groups brought young people discipline and focus, reports the Christian Science Monitor. Russia’s government is funding them again. “Their focus ranges from military-style training, religion, music fan clubs, and summer camps, to business programs for budding entrepreneurs,” the Monitor reports. One youth group hails President Vladimir Putin, who has vowed to restore order, national power, prestige and patriotism to Russia. One member of parliament and youth organization head tells the paper, “A lot of time has been wasted while a new, free generation has emerged. Their brains were never washed.”

Nepal post-massacre
Times are uncertain in Nepal, the world’s only Hindu monarchy, following the deaths of nine Nepalese royal family members at the hands of Crown Prince Dipendra who went on a palace shooting rampage June 1. The turmoil may affect Nepal’s tiny church, Christian Aid Mission’s Nepal representative Sarla Mahara tells Mission Network News, especially as Maoist rebels have been positioning themselves to take over the government. That’s a real threat as the rebels could take advantage of the chaos. “The late king was a pro-democracy guy, so he really had nothing against the Christians; but now, it’s so unstable,” Mahara says. The new king, in contrast, appears to Mahara as a hard-liner not committed to democracy, which could mean trouble for the church. A spokesman for Christian Aid tells Religion Today that the old king allowed Christians to operate without fear of being imprisoned, although anti-conversion laws are still on the books. “It’s a very tough situation for the Christians,” Mahara says. Nepal’s 400,000 Christians comprise 2 percent of the population. Since Nepal became a constitutional monarchy in 1990, the country has had some measure of religious freedom, although its official religion is Hinduism. Nepal’s church has grown about tenfold in the decade since then.

Praying to Cambodia’s Pol Pot
More than a quarter century has passed since Pol Pot, head of Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge government, launched his plan to create a perfect Communist agrarian society by killing as many as a fifth of its people in its 1975-1979 reign of terror. Cambodia has never recovered.

Even so, in the three years since Pol Pot died under house arrest, he has become something of a patron saint to villagers of the Dangrek Mountains, reports the New York Times. His grave has become a place to pay respects, leave offerings and even pray for lottery numbers, health and good luck. “Some say his spirit can cure disease,” the newspaper writes. In his quest for an agrarian utopia, he massacred educated people and abolished commerce, religion, the arts and family life. After his ouster, he continued to wreak havoc on Cambodia through the Khmer Rouge guerrilla movement, which died only after he died. Still, no truth commission has ever set the record straight on the violence that shattered or destroyed practically every living soul in the country, so Cambodia’s history has been buried in silence and denial. Many there still don’t know who to blame for what happened. “And so the Cambodian people are free to reinvent their past in an attempt to ease the pain,” the Times reports. One former soldier tells the paper, “He was a great leader, but the people under him were very bad. I had no problem with him. I liked Pol Pot. I liked everybody.” Another says, “I used to be against Pol Pot. Now I think of him as a hero and a patriot who defended the nation. This was his territory, so I pray to him for protection. Sometimes I see him in my dreams.”

August 17, 2001