Headlining today’s news, the evangelical mission community has been touched
by the Kenya Airways crash. The plane went down in the ocean Monday after taking
off from the Ivory Coast. Summer Institute of Linguistics’ Stuart Shepherd says two of
their workers, Bob and Ruth Chapman from Canada, were on the plane. “They have
not found them among the survivors, but of course, we’re guessing that the search is
going on. So, it doesn’t look very hopeful, but we can not categorically say either way
what has happened to them.” Shepherd says the Champman’s are leaders in the
organization. “Bob and Ruth were within a few months ago, were recently appointed to
this work, to head up the work of Bible translation and linguistic analysis in the
continent of Africa. So, this is a blow.” Shepherd is asking people to pray for fellow
staff members and the Chapman family as they deal with this tragic situation.
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Meanwhile, in war torn Liberia, Christian ministries are helping the needy both
physically and spiritually. Feeding Starving Children International is helping the
West African Children Support Network provide safe drinking water for areas outside
Monrovia. The Network’s Maria Luykan explains. “They drink water from nearby
creeks. And these creeks are the same water way that they bath in, they drink it, the
pigs are in there. I mean they use it for latrine. People there suffer from river blindness,
all kinds of disease, cholera, dysentery.” Luykan says churches can share Christ’s love
easily in Liberia because everything is needed. “They certainly need a lot of clothing,
food, educational materials to interest them, toys, they don’t even have that. Anything
you can possibly think about in your household is really needed in Liberia right now.
But, more specific is the medical, educational and food.”
The National Religious Broadcasters have declared victory following the FCC’s
reversal of guidelines for Christian broadcasting. NRB president Brandt
Gustavson says there was a huge outcry from broadcasters, citizens and members of
Congress protesting the so-called “additional guidance” the FCC wanted to impose for
religious programming. Since its inception in 1944, the NRB has tried to maintain
access to the airwaves for the Gospel message.
Elsewhere, we turn to the United States where World Servants is seeing fruit
from a ministry in the Appalachian area. Ruston Seaman explains how they’ve built
up the outreach. “We kept asking ourselves, ‘What more could we do to help the local
churches develop a complete ministry?’ So, World Servants developed a community
leadership training to help these pastors and leaders understand their position in Christ
and their ability to work together. Each of these community groups has been able to
develop programs out of that training.” Seaman says as with most ministries, there are
tests as well. “Pray that the mission experience would not just be a one-week event
either in the lives of the participants or at the community level. [Pray] that people would
[not only] understand how God can use the mission teams as a way to begin
something, but that also, the ongoing work of ministry in these small neighborhoods
really is the responsibility of the local congregations, and that God would raise up
faithful leaders with a vision for the future.”
We begin today’s newscast with a look at an ominous anniversary. It was seven
years ago today that missionaries Mark Rich, Dave Mankins and Rick Tenenoff were
taken hostage by Colombian guerrillas. They, along with their families, were working
among the people of Panama with New Tribes Mission. Mission spokesman Guy
Sire says while they know very little about their whereabouts, but they have been
checking leads. “One lead that was a sighting of the men turned out to be false,
however another lead arose that states the men are alive and so we’ve yet to pursue
that one. Defecting guerrillas claim that the men were executed some years ago,
however their accounts conflict with each other.” Sire is encouraging people not to give
up. “We are doing our best to try to resolve this as quickly and thoroughly as we can
and we just need folks to just continue to stand with us in prayer and we appreciate
everyone that does.”
Next, Compass Direct is reporting that Saudi Arabian officials continue to hold
four Filipino Christians in jail, but have released their wives and children. Saudi
religious police arrested 16 believers at a home Bible study in early January. Earlier
reports indicated that the children’s imprisonment was intended to pressure their
parents into revealing more about the activities of the Church. Currently, those that
remain in jail are in solitary confinement and face a possible deportment.
Next, Compass Direct is reporting that Saudi Arabian officials continue to hold
four Filipino Christians in jail, but have released their wives and children. Saudi
religious police arrested 16 believers at a home Bible study in early January. Earlier
reports indicated that the children’s imprisonment was intended to pressure their
parents into revealing more about the activities of the Church. Currently, those that
remain in jail are in solitary confinement and face a possible deportment.
Opposition to evangelistic outreach in Pakistan continues even as the country
endures terrorism from its neighbors. International Friendship Evangelism’s T. E.
Koshy says the hostility faced by believers is often very serious. “The parliament
passed a law, which is known as the ‘blasphemy law’. That means [with] any statement
derogatory to the Allah, there can be capital punishment. So that means, if you preach
the Gospel, that’s a blasphemy-and that’s why in Pakistan, there is so much
persecution.” Koshy says in spite of the discrimination, people continue to hear the
Gospel. Although, he adds that for many believers in Pakistan, there is no going back.
“The persecution has been highly intensified in the recent months and years. Unless
people are willing to lay down their lives, it is not going to be very easy. If I’m afraid of
my death, I’m not worthy to follow my Jesus. So, I went, preached the Gospel, and the
Lord protected us. Over 5000 people accepted the Lord.”
Meanwhile, officials at the Jesus Film Project have some ambitious goals for the
current year. We talked with the director of the Jesus Film Project Paul Eshleman. He
shares some of the challenges facing the ministry that’s attempting to put the story of
Jesus in everyone’s language around the world. “I think the biggest challenges will be
those areas where the Jesus film doesn’t have access in the countries to free
distribution. We’re going to be using extensively the Jesus film on video cassette and
audio cassette. We would hope during this year to distribute some 10-million video
cassettes throughout the world.” According to Eshleman, they’re planning to produce
the radio version of the Jesus film in more languages this year. “We’ve developed a five
half hour radio programs and rather than push forward to get the Jesus Film completed
in some of the smaller languages of 10 or 15,000 people, we’re going back and
developing it for audiences of 20, 30 and 50-million.”
We begin today in Mozambique where a missionary was gunned down in his
attempt to save his family. Martin Brooks with Good News for Africa says the
attack took place last week at their training facility there. He says four armed robbers
made their way past security and broke into two homes…including that of Cecil Bird.
“The robbers kicked in the back door. He grabbed a baseball bat. They shot into the
room. They didn’t hit him at that stage. He ran through the house to get the front door
open to get his family out. They followed Cecil out the front door and shot him twice.”
Bird died at the scene. Brooks says most of the suspects have been identified. He
reminds us that prayer for missionaries is vital. “You never know. The Lord is using it
for good. I would ask that the people would pray for his students that are coming to
study. For the students that Cecil has touched since he entered the country in 1993,
that the Lord’s kingdom would be advanced.”
