A ministry of HCJB World Radio

Today’s Headlines:

EGYPTIAN BORDER POLICE DETAIN MAN SECRETLY MARRIED TO CHRISTIAN FRANKLIN GRAHAM INVITED TO HAND OUT CHRISTMAS SHOEBOXES IN SUDAN MATERIALISM BECOMING GREATEST THREAT TO CHINA’S CHURCHES VIETNAM’S MONTAGNARD CHRISTIANS FACE INCREASING REPRESSION BIBLE DISTRIBUTION MINISTRY BOOSTS CHURCH GROWTH IN CAMBODIA BARNA SURVEY: JUST 4% OF AMERICANS HAVE ‘BIBLICAL WORLDVIEW’

Today’s News Stories:

EGYPTIAN BORDER POLICE DETAIN MAN SECRETLY MARRIED TO CHRISTIAN A Coptic Christian secretly married to a woman convert from Islam was apprehended for the second time last week while trying to leave Egypt for Canada. Boulos Farid Rezek-Allah Awad, 31, was stopped at the Libyan border on Nov. 25 and detained by Egyptian border police for 12 hours. Once the authorities had confirmed Rezek-Allah’s identity, he was refused exit permission and released. Upon returning to Cairo, security police summoned him for interrogation and told him that he was blacklisted and would never be allowed to leave Egypt. An officer monitoring the case since Rezek-Allah’s first arrest nine months ago demanded to know the whereabouts of his wife, Enas Badawi Yousef Guirguis, 27. When told that Enas had managed to leave the country, the policeman vowed to find her. “I’ll bring her back and cut her into pieces in front of you,” he reportedly told Rezek-Allah. Sources in Egypt say Rezek-Allah’s only hope of leaving Egypt and be reunited with his wife is through direct intervention by President Hosni Mubarak or Interior Minister Habib al-Adli. (Compass)

FRANKLIN GRAHAM INVITED TO HAND OUT CHRISTMAS SHOEBOXES IN SUDAN More than 100,000 shoeboxes filled with toys and gospel literature are headed to children in war-torn Sudan. Transport planes filled with the boxes collected by Operation Christmas Child leave this weekend for Sudan. Rev. Franklin Graham will fly to that country to help hand out the shoeboxes to children. Graham, who has been highly critical of the religion of Islam since 9/11, says he was invited to Sudan — a Muslim nation — by the African nation’s foreign minister to meet the president. After clarifying that it was indeed him they wanted to invite, Graham was told the Sudan government asked him to bring his Christmas program there because they wanted him to “part of the peace process.” Operation Christmas Child plans to deliver 7 million shoeboxes individually packed by American donors to 95 countries worldwide. (Religion Today/Agape Press)

MATERIALISM BECOMING GREATEST THREAT TO CHINA’S CHURCHES Amidst conflicting reports on the Chinese government’s harassment of believers, the church appears to be standing firm. A closer look, however, has revealed divisiveness among believers. Yet, China Partner’s Erik Burklin senses a growing unity of the house church movement and the registered church. “Both sides are not only willing to talk to each other but also to start fellowshipping with each other. There are many house church Christians who attend a registered church on the weekends, while people who attend a registered church on the weekends will go to a house church for further Bible study during the week.” Burklin says there is a different subtle threat creeping into the church. “I think what happens within the church and what happens from the government is not so much detrimental to the Chinese church as the growth of materialism and the desire to become rich and wealthy.”(Mission Network News)

VIETNAM’S MONTAGNARD CHRISTIANS FACE INCREASING REPRESSION Recent reports were received from the central highlands of Vietnam telling of increased mobilization of soldiers repressing Montagnard Christians. This crackdown allegedly involves Army Division 198 whose members are reportedly sweeping several villages of Dak Lak province looking for Christians and fleeing refugees. In the village of Buon Kdun there is another division conducting sweeping operations that reportedly involve shootings, beatings, arrests, disappearances and electric shock torture of Montagnard Christians and beatings of women whose husbands are refugees living in the U.S. In May the U.S. International Commission for Religious Freedom stated, “The increased repression of religious freedom has been reportedly sanctioned at the highest levels of the Vietnamese government.” The U.S. State Department, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and numerous non-governmental organizations have recently confirmed such human rights violations directed against hill tribe Montagnards, many of whom are Christians. The situation appears to be a sophisticated form of ethnic cleansing by the Vietnamese authorities who view Christianity and freedom of expression as a threat. (Montagnard Foundation)

BIBLE DISTRIBUTION MINISTRY BOOSTS CHURCH GROWTH IN CAMBODIA Cambodia has a church growth rate of 25 percent annually. This year, working in conjunction with local churches, the Bible League (TBL) placed more than 65,000 Bibles in 364 newly established churches. Most of these new converts learned about the Word of God through small group studies as part TBL’s “Project Philip.” The mission is planting an average of seven churches per week in Cambodia. (Mission Network News)

* HCJB World Radio, in cooperation with Campus Crusade for Christ, worked with a local partner to plant Cambodia’s first Christian radio station in 1998. New Life Radio in the capital city of Phnom Penh broadcasts the gospel in Cambodian and English.

BARNA SURVEY: JUST 4% OF AMERICANS HAVE ‘BIBLICAL WORLDVIEW’ Relatively few Americans have a biblical worldview — even among devoutly religious people. That’s the conclusion by the latest study of the Barna Research Group, suggesting that a large share of the nation’s moral and spiritual challenges is directly attributable to the absence of a biblical worldview. Released Monday, Dec. 1, the survey of 2,033 adults discovered that only 4 percent of Americans have such a perspective on life, and only 9 percent of those who called themselves Christians have a biblical worldview. The research defined a biblical worldview was as having a firm belief in six specific religious views: Jesus’ sinlessness, God’s sovereignty, salvation through faith in Christ alone, the reality of Satan, the Christian’s responsibility to witness, and the inerrancy of Scripture. “Although most people own a Bible and know some of its content, our research found that most Americans have little idea how to integrate core biblical principles to form a unified and meaningful response to the challenges and opportunities of life,” said President George Barna. “We’re often more concerned with survival amidst chaos than with experiencing truth and significance.” When compared with the views of Americans with a non-biblical perspective, those who have a biblical worldview were 31 times less likely to accept cohabitation (2 percent vs. 62 percent, respectively); 18 times less likely to endorse drunkenness (2 percent vs. 36 percent); 15 times less likely to condone gay sex (2 percent vs. 31 percent); 12 times less likely to accept profanity (3 percent vs. 37 percent); and 11 times less likely to describe adultery as morally acceptable (4 percent versus 44 percent). (Charisma News Service)

FREE WORLD WALL MAP: Full-color, 22-inch by 34-inch world wall map. To order, e-mail your name and mailing address to .

* * * * * * * * * * * * * James A. Ferrier HCJB World Radio U.S. Ministries Communications Director E-mail: Phone: 1-719-590-9800 Fax: 1-719-590-9801 Web: http://www.hcjb.org http://www.beyondthecall.org * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Editor’s Note. Feel free to forward this to any interested friends. Our lists are distributed for information purposes and to encourage prayer. HCJB World Radio does not necessarily endorse or support the activities on which it reports. _______________________________________________ HCJBDaily mailing list

with subscribe in the subject line.

— Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).

Related Articles:

• SUDAN & BURMA: CHRISTIAN REFUGEES IN PERIL
• Pray for the World 6 February 2012
• PRAYER OF A HUMBLE SERVANT
• Prayers for Help in Times of Trouble
• Pray for the World (January 31, 2012)

This work, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Australia License.