Ten Commandments going back to school in Mississippi

ACKSON, Miss. (BP)–Where there’s a will, there’s a way.

At least, that’s what the Mississippi Baptist Convention’s youth ministry team believes when it comes to getting the Ten Commandments into schools across the state.

Saudi Arabia Deports Eritrean Christian

After 20 weeks in a Saudi jail for participating in prohibited Christian activities, Eritrean Christian Girmaye Ambaye was deported from Jeddah by plane back to his home country on Saturday, August 9.

Pastor and Six Family Members Burned to Death in Nigeria

A zealous Christian preacher in the northern Nigeria city of Kano and six members of his family died in a house fire on April 22. Christian leaders in the city believe Muslim militants deliberately set the fatal blaze.

Eritrea Jails 170 Protestant Christians

A total of 170 Protestant Christians have been jailed, beaten and threatened with death by Eritrean security forces in a harsh crackdown during February and March.

Muslim Extremist Murders Kurdish Christian

Kurdish Christian Ziwar Mohammed Ismaeel was shot dead in front of his taxi stand last month in Zakho, the northern-most city in the Kurdish safe-haven of Northern Iraq.

India’s Christian Leaders Brace for Anti-Caste Rally

NEW DELHI, October 26 (Compass) — Christian leaders planning to attend a large anti-caste system “conversion” rally in New Delhi on November 4 are bracing for a Hindu extremist backlash.

Arab Christian Blocked From Leaving Sudan

ISTANBUL, January 30 (Compass) — A Sudanese convert to Christianity was refused permission to board a flight to Uganda this morning at the Khartoum airport, where state security police said their computers identified him as a criminal.

Turkmenistan Atakov Freed from Prison, but Pressure Continues

Turkmenistan’s most prominent religious prisoner, the Baptist Shageldy Atakov, has been freed before the end of his four-year sentence, Keston News Service has learnt. The US-based Russian Evangelistic Ministries and the German-based Friedensstimme Mission, which maintain close ties with Baptists in the former Soviet republics, have both confirmed that Atakov was released from prison in the Caspian port city of Turkmenbashi (formerly Krasnovodsk) early on 8 January and has now been reunited with his wife Artygul and five children in the town of Kaakhka close to Turkmenistan’s southern border with Iran. “Jesus has given me a Christmas gift,” Atakov was quoted as saying (many Christians in the region celebrate Christmas on 7 January).

Azerbaijan Baptist Pastor Vows to Fight Court Liquidation

Sary Mirzoyev, pastor of the Love Baptist Church in the Azerbaijani capital Baku, has told Keston News Service that he will fight attempts next week to liquidate his church as a legal entity. The hearing in the liquidation suit, brought by Rafik Aliev, chairman of the State Committee for Relations with Religious Organisations, begins on 23 January at the court of Baku’s Narimanov district. Aliev is alleging that Pastor Mirzoyev preached against Islam and that therefore the church has violated the country’s religion law and should be liquidated. “They have alleged that we are arousing religious hatred,” Pastor Mirzoyev told Keston from Baku on 18 January. “I said nothing against Islam or against Muslims.”

Largest Public Outreach by Christians in Afghanistan

LAKE FOREST, CA (ANS) — “Advent in Afghanistan” may have been the largest public outreach by Christians to students in the history of Afghanistan. It began when Norm and Cher Nelson, from the radio ministry, Compassion Radio, accepted an invitation to take the experience of Christmas to 30,000 school children in 49 schools in an historic region of Afghanistan during late November and early December 2002.

Ethiopian Evangelicals Still Jailed Without Charges

Evangelical Christians in northern Ethiopia confirmed yesterday that instead of being released as expected, two local church elders jailed without charges for 10 months were remanded back to prison two days ago by a local court judge.

Chinese Christian Family Beaten and Left in the Cold

At about 8:00 p.m. on Sunday, January 5, 2003, approximately 10 unidentified men burst into the home of Brother Hua Huiqi and his wife, Ju Mei in Beijing. Forcing all of the members of the household, including Hua’s elderly parents, to lay on the floor, the attackers savagely beat the family, breaking one of the legs of Hua’s 80-year-old father. They then confiscated all of the home’s portable heaters, leaving the family to suffer from the cold of winter. It is believed that the intruders were either sent by the police or could even have been plain-clothes policemen.

Families of South China Church prisoners complain of injustice

The letter outlines inconsistencies between the way the retrial was handled by judges of the Jingmen City Middle Court and the mandates of China’s criminal court statutes. “The families of all the victims feel deeply sad and worried about the result,” the letter states. Complete text of the letter is available on the VOM web site at www.persecution.com.

Vietnam: Hmong Believers in Crucible of Persecution

Reports out of Vietnam indicate that tribal believers, especially among the Hmong, are being cruelly pressured by the government to give up their faith and return to animism.

They Sang in their Cells in Bangladesh Despite Persecution

Three Gospel for Asia Bible school students in Bangladesh were sharing Christ in the village of Vasu during a six-month ministry assignment. Muslim extremists, angry to see a Gospel witness in their village, went to the police with false claims that the young men were terrorists.

Stars Cameron, Gilyard Strive for Excellence in Witness Through Acting

(AgapePress) – The new Left Behind movie is on the way. Fans all over are holding their breath until October 29 when Left Behind II: Tribulation Force will hit store shelves in VHS and DVD formats. Natural disasters, terrorist-triggered tragedy, the turn of the century — no doubt all have contributed to heightened interest in spiritual themes and “end times” prophecies in the Bible. But nothing has done more to cultivate that interest than has the wildly popular Left Behind novel series by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins.

Worthy Christian News