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Rowland Croucher

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Jul 30, 1999, 3:00:00 AM7/30/99

C U R R E N T N E W S S U M M A R Y
by the Editors at ReligionToday.com

July 30, 1999

The Alpha course (see link #1 below) is getting amazing results
in U.S. prisons, its sponsors say. The 10-week introduction to
Christianity originated in London and is being taught in 89
countries. In the United States, churches near prisons send
volunteers to conduct Alpha, then welcome the ex-prisoners and
their families into their congregations, Paula Soto of Alpha
North America, based in New York, said. The churches also give
practical assistance through ministries and social service
providers.
...Prison courses are registered in Texas, Maryland, Florida, New
York, California, Wisconsin, Washington, and South Carolina, Soto
told Religion Today.
..."The course delivers a basic nonthreatening message of love,"
Soto said. "This enables people to feel free to explore what it
means to be a Christian." During the course, participants
"experience God’s love through others in a Christian community.
Intellectually learning while experiencing the reality has proven
powerful."
...Prisoners who learn for the first time about God’s grace often
weep, one course leader said. A leader said it was gratifying to
"share and witness transformed lives."
...The course is being taught in 108 of 140 prisons in the United
Kingdom, an increase from 38 in 1997, she said. "We are praying
for the same kind of growth rate here." Alpha prison conferences
are scheduled for Austin, Texas, Aug. 2-3, and Fairfax, Va., Aug.
5-6. For information, call (888) 949-2574 or email
alp...@aol.com (see link #2 below).

More than 250 people have died in Muslim-Christian violence in
Nigeria this month. More than 120 perished in rioting in Anambra
State this week and 130 in other clashes around the country last
week, Compass Direct News said. The country’s population of 108
million is almost evenly divided between Muslims in the north and
Christians in the south.
...Politics has deepened the religious divide, Compass said.
Muslim military leaders have ruled the British colony since the
1980s, but voters elected Olusegun Obasanjo, a Christian, as
president in May. One of his first acts was to establish a panel
to investigate persecution of Christians from 1983 to the
present, leading Muslims to claim he is discriminating against
them, Compass said.
...Tensions increased when several state governments announced
they are returning to their rightful owners Christian schools
that were confiscated in 1977. Muslims say they fear their
children will be denied access to the schools, but Christians say
they have an open-admission policy. Muslims in Ilora, capital of
the northern Kwara state, have called for the removal of
Christian churches from their communities and a ban on
constructing new ones.

Kenya Baptists added 20,000 people to their churches this summer.
The Eastern Kenya Baptist Evangelistic Effort in June and July
also created 132 churches, Baptist Press said. Three hundred
thirty volunteers from the United States worked alongside Kenyan
Christians in outreaches to seven major cities and regions on the
east coast. "It feels so good to work and do what God commanded
all Christians to do -- to go teach and baptize," Kenya pastor
Samuel Katana said.
...American Christians held Bible studies in villages. More than
20 people became Christians at a study held under a mango tree,
Ron and Bonnie Burgess said. Twenty children and their mothers
responded to the message of Christ in a village, Bethany Hale
said. "I have never heard anything as joyful and sweet as 20
children praying to God at one time." Some of the volunteers will
return to Kenya next year to help train the new Christians and
church leaders.

Serbian evangelicals are fasting and praying for their country.
The Serbian Evangelical Alliance asked churches around the world
to join them in prayer July 26-Aug. 1 for people of all
nationalities living in the country, World Evangelical Fellowship
(see link #3 below) said.
..."In this challenging time we believe that only the common
prayer and fasting of millions of evangelical Christians in the
whole world could grant our needs," Lazar Stojsic, Serbian
Evangelical Alliance President, said. The group is requesting
prayer for personal and public revival, unity and fellowship
among all Christians, freedom to preach the Gospel through the
media, financial support for missions and national evangelistic
work, and support for humanitarian needs. Serbian evangelicals
also are asking Western evangelicals to "understand the
circumstances in which we live and our needs for New Testament
spiritual principles."

Hundreds of angry Serbs rushed a Kosovo monastery after Orthodox
Patriarch Artemije met U.S. Secretary of State Madeline Albright
there July 29. "That priest met Albright. She is Hitler," a man
yelled as the mob pushed past British peacekeeping forces and
entered the grounds of Gracanica monastery in Pristina. Between
200-300 people shouted at priests and nuns who sought refuge on a
balcony above the fray before the troops regrouped and sealed off
the building, Reuters said. The protesters blame the United
States for the destruction of their country and are furious with
Artemije for meeting with Albright. They shouted "Serbia" and
"Slobo" in support of President Slobodan Milosevic, who has been
criticized by the church.

Ideas planted during a 1996 meeting among Norway’s church leaders
are bearing fruit today. "For the first time in living memory the
vision of reproducing congregations has been thoroughly caught,"
a church leader told a Discipling A Whole Nation (see link #4
below) conference this year. More than 60 churches have been
planted in the last three years among Baptist, Vineyard, and
independent congregations, DAWN said. The State Church has opened
seven new churches, and outreaches to ethnic groups are under
way. A youth movement called the Jesus Revolution has reached
20,000 youth in 50 schools. The churches hope to start 500 new
congregations by 2005.

-----------
Current Feature Story from ReligionToday.com:

"Tremendous outpouring" of God among Chinese

The reason revival is spreading like lightning in China is no
mystery to Tom Phillips. It’s the remarkable fervency of
Chinese Christians, says Phillips, who befriends many Chinese
young people as he leads International Students, Inc., a
ministry to foreigners studying in the United States.

-----------
Today in LiveIt!

"Deal with your child's inappropriate behavior"

It's easy to ignore your children's bad behavior until it
hits the crisis stage. It's much better to help them find
ways to deal with life so they - and you - don't have to
deal with inappropriate behavior.

-----------
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Shalom! Rowland Croucher (rowl...@mira.net)

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Rowland Croucher

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Aug 6, 1999, 3:00:00 AM8/6/99

C U R R E N T N E W S S U M M A R Y
by the Editors at ReligionToday.com

Aug. 6, 1999

India’s young people are responding to the Gospel in large
numbers, an evangelist says. "The response is just incredible.
The church can’t keep up with the opportunities to reach them,"
Shad Williams, a Southern Baptist minister who makes frequent
evangelistic trips to India, told Religion Today. He and several
national associates preach in high schools, colleges, and
orphanages several times a year.
...Most students practice Hinduism, the traditional religion of
India. But many of them don’t understand the faith and are merely
following religious ritual, Williams said. "They don’t have a
consistent belief system that they can repeat back to you. And
they certainly don’t have any hope or assurance of eternal
security."
...Christians run most schools in southern India, but often the
message of salvation is not presented clearly, Williams said.
When students hear the message of Christ presented clearly for
the first time they respond in droves, he said.
...About 46,000 people responded to the Gospel in July in Tamil
Nadu state, Williams said. He and his associates preached at 34
schools in three cities, and 92% of those who heard the message
came forward to profess faith in Jesus Christ, he said. "If I
hadn’t been there personally I would be suspicious of those
numbers, but the response was just incredible."
...Williams said he preaches a "straight Gospel message" about
sin and the need for salvation. "Then I present Jesus as God’s
solution to the problem." He said he avoids manipulation and
condemnation, and stresses to students that they are free to make
up their own minds. "I want to know it was done by free will
based on good information and not browbeating." Students are
encouraged not to pray only because their friends are responding
to the message.
...Older people are responding to the message, too. Many teachers
and administrators pray at the end of the services. In village
outreaches, as many as half those coming forward to pray are
adults, Williams said. "The potential for evangelism in India is
unlimited. The church can’t keep up with the opportunities."
Indigenous partners work in the country full time, doing
evangelism and following up on converts.
...Williams makes an average of six evangelistic trips to India
and East Africa every year. He formed his independent ministry
after serving as a pastor on the staff at a Southern Baptist
Church in Memphis, and attends an SBC church in his hometown of
Adamsville, Tenn. Those wishing to participate in a short-term
mission trip can contact him at WeGoT...@aol.com (see link #1
below).

The country’s largest parachurch organization has joined the
largest Protestant denomination in stating its support for
traditional marriage roles for husbands and wives.
...Campus Crusade for Christ has adopted the Southern Baptist
Convention’s 1998 resolution (see link #2 below) that affirms the
role of the husband as the provider for the family and calls on
wives to submit graciously to their leadership. The evangelical
ministry announced its statement July 28 during its biannual
meeting in Fort Collins, Colo. About 5,000 staff members and
their children attended.
..."A wife is to submit herself graciously to the servant
leadership of her husband even as the church willingly submits to
the headship of Christ," the Campus Crusade statement reads.
...It affirms that God ordained the family as comprised of people
related to each other by marriage, blood, or adoption, that
marriage is the uniting of a man and a woman for a lifetime, that
the husband and wife are of equal worth before God, and that
children are a blessing from God from the moment of conception.
...The statement adds a sentence that says in a marriage lived
according to those guidelines, "the love between husband and wife
will show itself in listening to each other’s viewpoints, valuing
each other’s gifts, wisdom, and desires, honoring one another in
public and in private, and always seeking to bring benefit, not
harm, to one another."
...The Christian community "is tired of divorce," Dennis Rainey,
executive director of Campus Crusade’s FamilyLife division, said
in announcing the statement. He praised the Southern Baptist
Convention and Campus Crusade founders Bill and Vonette Bright,
calling their stands couragous.
...Rainey predicted that other denominations and other parachurch
organizations "will do something similar because marriage and
families are so valuable to their missions."
...Controversy has been swirling in the academic world over the
role of marriage partners, Wayne Gruden, a professor at Trinity
Evangelical Divinity School (see link #3 below), told Religion
Today. "The result, in some quarters, has been to say that
scholars disagree, so who can decide?" The two statements could
begin a trend among leaders in evangelical organizations to
declare that they "know what the Bible says about marriage and
the family and don’t think it’s unclear," he said.

More than 200 Turkish Christians and foreign tourists openly
evangelized in the heavily Muslim country, World Pulse magazine
said. The St. Paul’s March was sponsored by Wheaton, Ill.-based
Good News Publishers in conjunction with several government
agencies. It marked "the first official evangelistic outreach
given an official stamp of approval by the Turkish government,"
one participant said.
...Marchers presented the Gospel through personal witness,
open-air preaching, and literature distribution. Non-Christians
were given a book called Toward 3000, which features the Gospel
of Luke, the Book of Acts, and a coupon to request more
information about Jesus Christ and the Bible. Christians
distributed more than 5,750 copies. Organizers expect to make the
march a yearly event.

Russia’s Protestant broadcasters have reached a milestone. The
Moscow Department of Justice approved registration of the
Association of Christian Broadcasters of Russia and the
Commonwealth of Independent States on June 24. "There has never
been an organized functional body of religious broadcasters in
Russia," International Russian Radio/TV (see link #4 below) said.
Christian broadcasting was illegal in the country before 1990.
...The association was formed after IRR/TV hosted the first Media
Missions Conference in October. More than 500 men and women
involved or interested in Christian broadcasting attended. "These
were unforgettable days of fellowship for obtaining professional
know-how for television ministry," a participant said. A second
conference is planned for this fall.
...The ministry will teach a course in Christian broadcasting
from August to December. Twenty-five students will be trained
with curriculum supplied by Burlington, Canada’s Geoffrey R.
Conway School of Broadcasting and Communications. IRR/TV will
provide instructors, equipment, and meeting facilities.

Village chiefs in Liberia are appealing to Christians for help.
Churches, schools, and clinics are badly needed in the country,
which was torn apart by a seven-year civil war that ended in
1997, Partners International (see link #5 below) said. The San
Jose, Calif.-based ministry works with a church-planting group in
the country.
...Nineteen chiefs asked the group to rebuild damaged churches
and start new ones. Church leaders are given complete freedom to
work and talk about Jesus Christ in their territories because the
chiefs have seen the positive impact that churches bring,
Partners said.
...The ministry has started about 60 churches in the country,
including 12 in Monrovia, the capital, Partners said. Gospel
workers usually spend two months preaching and living in a
community before they start a prayer group, which develops into a
church. About 300 people became Christians through the ministry
in 1998 and 2,000 are predicted to be converted this year, it
said.

-----------
Current Feature Story from ReligionToday.com:

Americans are "in trouble" with God, Blackaby warns

The United States is in danger of God’s judgment but
Christians don’t really believe it, Henry Blackaby says.

-----------
Today in LiveIt!

"Ten ways to get along with parents"

A household containing parents and teens can be a
combustible atmosphere. Here are 10 tips for getting along
with parents.

C U R R E N T N E W S S U M M A R Y
by the Editors at ReligionToday.com

Aug. 5, 1999

A small force of child evangelists is making a big difference in
Mexico City. Evangelism in Depth for Children, a program
developed by Miami Springs, Fla.-based Latin America Mission (see
link #1 below), teaches churches to organize evangelistic clubs
that teach youth how to make dramatic presentations and share
their faith with individuals, LAM said.
...More than 250 children in 26 churches were trained in 1998,
and they evangelized 830 children in hospitals, orphanages, and
street outreaches, Elizabeth Gaspar, the group’s director, said.
...A 13-year-old prayed with 10 children who made decisions to
become Christians during an outreach. "Really, the Holy Spirit
gave me the words and the power to share," Delia Maria Marquez
Perez said. Some children have led adults to become Christians,
LAM said.

Noah’s Ark is landing in Hong Kong harbor. A replica will be
built on Ma Wan Island as part of a theme park that will include
a creation-science museum and a meditative prayer garden
featuring works by Christian artists, journalist Dan Wooding
said. Asian Outreach (see link #2 below) director David Wang is
overseeing the Christian elements of the park, which also will
feature an archaeological museum, a solar observatory, and an
aquatic research center.
...The Ark and the surrounding Rainbow Paradise are the main
attractions for children. The exhibit will portray God’s love for
mankind, Wang said. "Visitors will learn about the days of Noah
and that God has a saving plan, and that He signed His plan with
the signature of a rainbow." The park is backed financially by a
development company and is expected to be completed in 2002.
Organizers expect that half of the visitors will come from
mainland China.

Protestant soldiers in Russia are under pressure. The Society of
Christian Military Personnel, in Transbaikal, holds meetings on
ethics, a religious freedom group at Stetson University said. The
group translates religion news from Russian newspapers and posts
it on a web site (see link #3 below).
...The group will weaken Russia’s armed forces, an editorial in
On Military Duty, a newspaper for soldiers in the region, said.
Alexander Yaremenko, who leads the Russian Orthodox publication,
questioned the group’s motives since it was created by "sects of
Baptists and Pentecostals." Its real aim is to "deprive our army
of its true spiritual basis established over centuries," he said.
...Capt. Andrei Cheprasov, the society’s president, said his
group has been discriminated against. Officers in other units
won’t let the group hold meetings with their men, and many
soldiers are afraid to talk with members, he said. "We are afraid
of you," the commander of a unit that refused to allow meetings
told Cheprasov. The group is trying to meet with the Orthodox
bishop of the region.

One hundred twenty-five needy children attended "Homeless Camp"
in Maryland. The offspring of homeless families enjoyed a week of
fun sponsored by the Mount Vernon Baptist Association of the
Southern Baptist Convention (see link #4 below).
...High school students from Northern Virginia and Maryland
served as volunteer counselors, and the SBC’s World Hunger Fund
provided food. Several campers became Christians as a result of
the ministry, the SBC said. Many homeless families need help
feeding their children when school is not in session.
...The denomination is encouraging young people to help feed
hungry people. Its Dime-A-Day for Hungry people coin folders
provide a way for children to set aside 10 cents a day. The money
goes a long way, especially in foreign countries. A dollar
provides food for a North Korean famine victim for five weeks and
$1.70 buys a month’s worth of milk for an infant in Argentina.
Older students are encouraged to attend retreats called BEAT (Believers
Everywhere ATtack) Hunger at which they learn about fasting and
raising support to fight world hunger. Baptist youth also can
save family donations in rice bowl banks or place collection
canisters in businesses or churches.

Iranian Christians worship in the Farsi language each week in
Seattle. The Persian Church of the Good Shepherd is an outreach
to Iranians and other Farsi-speaking people in the area. Services
are led by lay pastor Mansour Khajenpour, the son of a
Presbyterian missionary. The church is a ministry of the Seattle
Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Frontier Mission
helps support the church. It also funds the republishing of a
classic Iranian hymnbook that has been out of print in Iran for
30 years. The book is used in Seattle and in European gatherings
of Iranian Christians, Presbyterian News said.

Marches for Jesus, ordinarily annual events, have continued
during the summer in some urban neighborhoods. Called "Marches
for Jesus - in the hood," they are block parties, complete with
balloons, candy, and a picnic in the park, March for Jesus (see
link #5 below) said. The purpose is to feed the hungry, visit the
elderly, and serve people to demonstrate God's love.
...A sound truck and a food truck lead the monthly neighborhood
march in the housing projects of Atlanta. As the trucks pass by,
tenants come out on their porches to watch and wave. Children run
out of the buildings, and marchers hug them, pass out candy, or
carry children on their shoulders.
...The march ends in the park in the middle of the complex. A
worship band plays, grills fire up, youngsters toss footballs,
and teams play with the children and go out with care packages of
food for residents. Suburban Christians minister alongside
inner-city Christians.
...Young and old, rich and poor, and black and white are all
together, Tom Pelton of March for Jesus said. "It's more than a
picnic. It's the church at its best... loving, sharing,
worshiping, and serving. For one Saturday afternoon a month this
place known for crime, drugs, and hopelessness, is filled with
righteousness, peace, and joy...the Kingdom of God."

Aug. 2, 1999

Memories of the Columbine High School massacre are continuing to
stir Christian teen-agers to be bolder in proclaiming their
faith. The urgent need to evangelize fellow students has been the
theme at rallies around the country since the shooting at the
Littleton, Colo., school in April. A rally in San Jose, Calif.,
in June drew 16,000 people.
...Bruce Porter (see link #1 below), the Littleton pastor who led
the funeral for Columbine shooting victim Rachael Scott, has
become a central figure in the youth movement. Porter, pastor of
Celebration Christian Fellowship, and his wife Claudia are
hosting a national rally in Littleton Aug. 6-7.
...The event, called Torchgrab, alludes to the challenge Porter
delivered at Scott’s funeral to "take up the torch" dropped by
the victims. Some of the victims were singled out for attack
because they were Christians, and the Porters refer to them as
martyrs. Speakers at the rally include Ron Luce of Teen Mania,
Bob Weiner of Youth Now Ministries, and pastor Porter.
...The rally is intended for serious Christian students who are
living with integrity and moral purity, and who long to introduce
their fellow students to Christianity, Claudia Porter told
Religion Today. Those who attend will receive 15 hours of
training, and will be asked to make a serious commitment to reach
and disciple at least 10 non-Christian students at their schools
within six months. Five hundred students are registered and "we
can’t answer the phones fast enough," she said. Call (888)
220-5030 to register.

Sixteen religious and civic leaders went on a "Journey Against
Hate" July 22-24. They traveled through Illinois and Indiana
along the path taken by Benjamin Nathaniel Smith, who police say
shot two people to death and wounded nine this month in a
racially motivated rampage. Smith committed suicide when police
caught up with him.
...About 500 people attended "Journey Against Hate" rallies, news
conferences, and prayer vigils in Skokie, Peoria, Springfield,
Decatur, and Champaign-Urbana, Ill., and Bloomington, Ind., ELCA
News said.
..."People of faith have to stand up, especially when racism is
done in the name of the church," Nancy Tegtmeier, associate
director of the Illinois Council of Churches, said. She said she
was referring to the World Church of the Creator, which ELCA News
described as a white supremacist group Smith belonged to.
...The religious leaders stopped at the East Peoria, Ill., home
of Matthew Hale, leader of the World Church of the Creator. As
Hale sat on his front porch, they prayed for God to change his
heart, Tegtmeier said. "It was a powerful experience to stand in
prayer in front of Matt Hale’s home."

Students at a Bible school in an Asian nation have fled from
their campus. Most left last week because of increased ethnic and
religious rioting in the area, the Assemblies of God (see link #2
below) said. They are housed at an army base with 10,000 other
displaced people, and are holding all-night prayer meetings for
their safety and the safety of their campus, the AOG said.
..."The most important thing to pray for now is a miracle of
food," a source in the country said. The base has insufficient
food, and rioting has created a shortage. Many people are also in
need of medical attention. Despite the situation, the students
are hopeful. "They really feel the whole world is praying for
them," the source said.
...A mob invaded the campus July 28, but did not destroy
anything, the AOG said. About 3,000 people occupied several of
the school buildings for several hours, the denomination said.
Ten students who had stayed to guard the campus escaped to a
nearby ship and returned after the mob left. Rioters destroyed
several buildings in the area, but left the Bible school
untouched.

Evangelical Christians afraid of attacks are fleeing a region in
Chiapas, Mexico. Police in San Juan Chamula are disarming people
after three were injured in a gunfight over religion, the Latin
American and Caribbean News Agency said. The incident took place
July 22, when three evangelicals began preaching in Icalumtic
village. Local residents, who practice a mixture of Roman
Catholicism and an ancient pagan faith, opened fire on the
preachers, the news agency said.
...About 150 evangelicals fearing reprisals have fled San Juan
Chamula since the incident, pastor Esdras Gonzalez, president of
an evangelical organization in Chiapas, said. Local religious
leaders who consider evangelicals a threat to their cultural
traditions have destroyed or blocked the construction of five
evangelical churches in the past 18 months, he said. About 25,000
evangelicals have been killed or forced to leave the state since
1974 because of religiously motivated violence, news reports
said.

Hundreds of new house churches were started last year in India,
Kingdom Ministries says. The Swiss-based strategy network
supports 140 Indian church planters. "A year ago, we had 35 house
churches. Today, we have more than 100," a church planter in
Madhya Pradesh named Daniel said. He and many Indian Christians
have been beaten several times, and he receives threats from
radical Hindus, he said. But the spiritual openness in the nation
is almost unprecedented. "In the first few months of 1999, we
baptized 340 people, despite threats of imprisonment," Daniel
said.
...Signs and wonders happen "all the time," Kingdom Ministries
said. Doctors were unable to stop a villager who was considered
to be demon-possessed from crawling around on her hands and knees
and eating grass. When a church planter arrived in the village,
he explained to the woman that Jesus could free her from her
torment. After he prayed for her, she became normal again, the
ministry said, and as a result many villagers decided to become
Christians.

California and New York had the highest abortion rates in the
country in 1996. The federal Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention in Atlanta released the findings of a state-by-state
study of abortion statistics for 1996, the latest year for which
figures are available, Reuters said. A total of 1,221,585 legal
abortions were performed in the United States that year. The
abortion rate rose only slightly that year, but remained near its
lowest level in more than two decades, the CDC said.
...California had 280,180 legal abortions in 1996, about 39 for
every 1,000 women of child-bearing age. That was down from 1994,
when it had the most in the nation with 308,564 abortions. New
York had the second-highest number with 152,991, or 37 per 1,000
women. Wyoming had the nation’s lowest rate, with 208 legal
abortions in 1996, or 2 per 1,000 women.

Aug. 3, 1999

Christian ministries are streamlining their efforts to better
meet the needs of Russian children. More than 50 representatives
of 33 ministries working across the country gathered in Moscow
July 9-10 to establish To Russian Children With Love, an
organization to organize and coordinate outreaches to orphans and
street children, Russian Ministries said.
...The needs of Russia’s 1.2 million street children and 650,000
youth living in orphanages are staggering. More financial
resources and workers are the greatest needs, the ministries
said, but they also saw the need to work together more. The new
organization will help the ministries, which include homeless
shelters, halfway houses, Bible clubs, and Christian camps, to
identify unmet needs and begin to meet them. Urgently needed
ministries include training in work skills, children’s Gospel
literature, and increased material aid to orphans and street
youth. The ministry also plans to hold a national day of prayer
for children who are at risk.
...Russians care deeply about their children but the economic
situation prevents them from helping, Russian Ministries’ Peter
Deyneka said. "The current economic crisis in Russia requires
foreign financial and other specialized assistance from
Westerners in order to physically and spiritually assist Russia’s
nearly 200,000 children at risk."

One hundred-sixty-six people in 161 villages in India became
Christians this spring. About 70 pastors and evangelists in
Kotakonda Kurnool district made evangelistic trips to the
villages from April-June, the India Missions Association said.
...Christians distributed more than 700,000 tracts at a Hindu
festival last year. India Every Home Crusade, Asian School of
Evangelism, and Emmanuel Bible Institute sent teams to the Urs
Fair in Ajmer last October with materials in Hindu, Urdu, and
English. They also gave out 1,000 Scripture portions.

The July 31 bombing of a cathedral in Pristina, Kosovo, is part
of a concerted attack on the Serbian Orthodox Church, leaders
say. The bomb, which rocked surrounding buildings but did little
damage to the church under construction, is the latest in a
series of more than 30 attacks on Orthodox monasteries and
churches in the province, Reuters said. "I think there are people
who want to destroy, symbolically, Orthodox churches," Bernard
Kouchner, United Nations administrator in Kosovo, said.
...Orthodox leaders say ethnic Albanians are behind the violence.
"At the moment, the Albanian extremists are organizing a
systematic campaign of destruction of Orthodox churches with the
intention to blot out all the traces of Serbian existence in
Kosovo," Father Sava, a senior member of the church, said.
Kosovar Albanians considered the building, under construction for
three years, as a provocation and a sign of Serb encroachment in
the province, he said.

Two Christians died in attacks on a northeastern Colombia town.
The pastor and several members of the Presbyterian Church in
Antioquia hid for two days from marauding paramilitary forces
that ordered everyone to leave the town within four days. They
claimed they were ousting rebels from the area, ALC News reports.
About 100 families from the town have fled to nearby towns, but
they have no food or housing. Christians are increasingly caught
in the conflict (see link #1 below) between rebels, paramilitary
troops, and government troops. Some believe that Christians are
targeted for violence because they claim no earthly allegiances.

The Lebanese Army has released a Christian accused of
collaborating (see link #2 below) with rebel forces. A military
court threw out the charges against Paul Younis and ordered him
released three days later, International Christian Embassy
Jerusalem said. Younis was arrested solely because he works for
Middle East TV, a south Lebanon-based station owned by the
Christian Broadcasting Network, ICEJ said. Prosecutors said the
station is controlled by the South Lebanon Army, a 2,500-member
force that opposes the government and claims to represent the
aims of the Christian Marionite community in the region.

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