SRILANKA TO PASS THEIR FIRST ANTI-CONVERSION BILL: PRAY AND MAKE A DIFFERENCE....

CARROLLTON, Texas, -- Sri Lanka's Parliament is expected to pass the country's first anti-conversion law next month. The proposed legislation, titled "Bill for Prohibition of Forcible Conversions," was presented a second time to members of Parliament in January. It is expected to easily pass when it is presented for a vote in February.Gospel for Asia missionaries work throughout Sri Lanka. They minister to people whose lives have been battered by a 26-year-old civil war and numerous natural catastrophes, including floods and a tsunami. In addition to the individual missionaries, GFA has a Bible college, Bridge of Hope centers and radio broadcasts in two languages in Sri Lanka. The GFA Bible college was targeted by protestors last year, but the protest ended peacefully. "Our missionaries only want to share the love of Christ with the people of Sri Lanka," said K.P. Yohannan, Gospel for Asia president. "They are not forcing anyone to change their faith. The reality is that those who choose to follow Christ know that they are opening themselves up to persecution and ridicule. It is not a decision these people make lightly."The proposed anti-conversion law, originally submitted in 2004, calls for penalties including fines up 500,000 Sri Lankan rupees ($4,425) and/or seven years in prison for anyone who tries to convert a Sri Lankan citizen from one religion to another by using force, fraud or allurement. The harshest punishments are reserved for those convicted of converting women or children.

The bill was drafted by the Jathika Hela Urumaya political party, whose leadership is comprised of Buddhist monks. A leader of that party has been quoted as saying that U.S.- funded Christian missionaries are one of the greatest threats facing Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka's constitution guarantees freedom of thought, consciences and religion. However, it also calls for Buddhism to hold the "foremost place."Sri Lanka is a tiny island off the southeast coast of India. Of the country's 18.8 million residents, 71 percent are Buddhists. Another 12 percent are Hindu, and 8 percent are Muslim. Evangelical Christians comprise only about 1 percent of the population. A number of observers and commentators are saying the legislation is in reaction to the decline in the number of Sri Lankans choosing to follow the Buddhist teaching. Buddhist leaders have expressed concern about the growth of Christianity, especially in the country's rural areas. These Buddhist activists accuse Christians of offering jobs or money in order to get people to convert to Christianity. They were also harshly critical of many Christian aid organizations that worked in the country just after the 2004 tsunami.Christians in Sri Lanka say elements of the bill allow vast leeway in interpretation and could result in the criminalization of most Christian activity aimed at helping the poor.

"Our Lord commands us to take the Gospel to all people, both the wealthy and the poor," Yohannan said. "We need prayer that God will grant us the ability to continue ministering to the spiritual needs of all Sri Lankans, and when it is appropriate, the ability to continue providing for the physical needs of the country's poorest residents."

After the bill was read in Parliament the first time, Sri Lanka's Supreme Court received 22 petitions challenging its validity. The court ruled that two of the clauses--the first requiring those who participated in a religious conversion ceremony to report it to a government official and the second prescribing punishment for such conversions--were ruled unconstitutional. The bill was amended and no longer contains those two clauses.

JUDGE TELLS A CHRISTIAN WOMAN: ' I WILL KILL YOU ' WHO CHOOSES TO WORSHIP JESUS

A woman arrested at the Cairo airport because her identity card described her as a Christian has been threatened for her faith by the judge in her case, according to a new report.
Authorities in Egypt deprived the woman's two children, ages 2 and 4, of food to try to coerce her to abandon Christianity and return to Islam.
According to the Assyrian International News Agency, a woman identified as Martha Samuel Makkar was arrested Dec. 13 as she, her husband, Fadl Thabet, and two sons were trying to leave Cairo for Russia.
Makkar, formerly known as Zainab Said Abdel-Aziz, was accused of carrying forged government documents, because she identified herself as a Christian. Islamic law forbids Muslims from abandoning the faith.

Now, according to Compass Direct News, she has been granted bail, and released to rejoin her husband and sons at home pending her forgery trial.
However, the release was not without complications.
Makkar's lawyer, Nadia Tawfiq, reported that Judge Abdelaa Hashem questioned Makkar closely about her Christian faith during a courtroom hearing.
The decision to grant her bail came Saturday in the hearing before Hashem after Makkar told the judge about her new Christian faith and her abandonment of Islam.
Tawfiq told Compass Direct "the judge then said, 'I want to talk with Martha alone,' so we all left the room, and he said to her, 'Nobody changes from Muslim to Christian – you are a Muslim.'
"And she said, 'No, I am a Christian.' He told her, 'If I had a knife now, I would kill you,'" the lawyer said.
Makkar, 24, has said she's been enduring death threats from police and members of her extended family for the five years since she converted.
There is no established legal precedent in Egypt for allowing people to leave Islam. And national law doesn't provide a channel through which to change the religious designation on an identity card.
The Compass report said George Abyad, 67, and Masood Guirges, 55, employees of the Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate in Alexandria, also were arrested on suspicion they aided Makkar with her papers.
Egypt formally recognizes Islamic Shariah law as the source of justice, and Christians have faced persecution there for generations.
The American Center for Law and Justice has participated in a fight to keep a man who fled Egypt from being deported from the U.S. A recent decision from the 3rd U.S. District Court of Appeals gave Sameh Khouzam the right to challenge Egypt's "diplomatic assurances" that he would not be tortured on his return to the Middle East nation.
Egypt has been demanding his extradition in a homicide case he alleges is trumped-up. The case has been highlighted by spokesman Sam Grace of Coptic News.He praised U.S. District Judge Thomas Vanaskie's earlier ruling that Khouzam "most assuredly has a right not to be tortured."
Grace earlier told Christians in Egypt are hostages
"We live in a time that is really as bad if not worse than the time of the martyrs," he said.
Multitudes of Christians have been attacked, and many killed, yet not one Muslim ever has been convicted in the attacks, he said.
"The why is very simple, because Shariah law says the blood of the Muslim should not be shed for the blood of an unbeliever," he said.
Grace said since Egypt's constitution concludes laws derive from the Quran, persecution of Christians is not only allowed but endorsed by the government.
"In the last 10 years, more than 5,000 Christians have been massacred in Egypt,"Hundreds of businesses and homes first have been looted, then burned and destroyed. Churches have been burned and destroyed."
Grace told that attacks, lootings and burnings are common in Egypt on Fridays, after the local imam preaches violence against Christians at his mosque.
"The life of a Christian in Egypt is now worth zero. Every Muslim now knows killing a Christian [is not prosecuted]," he said.
A report from the Coalition for the Defense of Human Rights concluded Coptic Christians in Egypt have been harassed, tortured and killed by Muslims for 1,400 years.
"They have been subjected to all kinds of hate crimes including, the abduction of young Coptic girls, the killing of Coptic women and children and the destruction of their places of worship," the report said.

10 MEN CHARGED FOR RAPING A CATHOLIC NUN IN ORISSA;INDIA

BHUBNESHWAR, India — Police in eastern India have charged 10 men with gang raping a Catholic nun during weeks of anti-Christian violence last year, an official said Thursday.
The violence between Hindus and Christians in Orissa state followed the killing of a Hindu religious leader in August. Police blamed Maoist rebels, but conservative Hindu groups blamed Christian residents and set fire to a Christian orphanage.
The state government said 32 people died in the clashes that followed. The Catholic Bishops' Conference of India said at least 40 Christians were killed.
The nun, her face hidden behind a scarf, had told reporters in October that she was raped on Aug. 25 when a mob attacked a prayer hall where she worked in the state's Kandhamal district.
She said a group of about 50 men tore off her clothes and raped her. Later, she said, she was paraded naked, together with a priest, past several policeman who she says did not help her.
On Thursday, investigating officer Dilip Mohanty said that 10 men, including two the nun had identified from a lineup on Jan. 5, were charged with gang rape — a specific charge under Indian law. If convicted, the men face up to 10 years in prison.
Twenty others have also been brought up on charges related to their alleged rioting during the attack on the prayer house where the nun worked, police official Jitendra Koel said.
Mohanty said the investigation into the attack would continue and police was looking for other attackers and members of the mob.
Relations are usually peaceful between Christians, who make up 2.5 percent of India's 1.1 billion people, and Hindus, who account for more than 80 percent.
However, Orissa has a history of anti-Christian violence, with hard-line Hindu groups claiming Christian missionary groups are forcing or bribing people to convert, charges denied by Christian leaders.

A CHRISTIAN CANDIDATE FEARS FOR HIS LIFE PRIOR ELECTION: PRAY AND MAKE DIFFERENCE......

Istifo says already lined up replacement in case he is killed before voting, as two Sunni candidates were assassinated.

HAMDANIYAH, Iraq - Sami Habib Istifo, a Christian candidate in Iraq's provincial elections, has already lined up a replacement in case he is killed before voting day tomorrow, as two Sunni candidates were murdered in Mosul and Baghdad.
The 49-year-old member of one of the war-torn country's many minority groups is standing in the town of Hamdaniyah, in the northern province of Nineveh.
"I do not rule out the possibility that I may be killed before the election, so a person has been chosen to take my place," said Istifo, a wry smile on his lips.
Istifo has kept a very low profile in campaigning for the election, addressing only three public meetings and too afraid to venture across to the nearby city of Mosul to pick up his election posters.
As a result, only the posters of Sunni Arab and Kurdish candidates have been plastered on walls across the town.
Instead he is relying on the support of "influential" Chaldeans, Assyrians and Syriacs to secure him a seat on the Nineveh provincial council.
He is one of three Christian candidates for the seat and, according to his campaign manager Jamal Daoud, "stands a good chance of winning."
Istifo said he had been reluctant to throw his hat into the electoral ring.
"My friends insisted I stand and eventually they persuaded me," said the small-framed Istifo, adjusting his tie that disappeared into a V-necked pullover.
"I would have preferred not to stand but I had no other choice. One doesn't say no to one's friends," said Istifo, a professor at a technical university in Mosul.
Countrywide, more than 200 Christians have been killed since the US invasion in 2003. Reports suggest that over one million Iraqis (mainly Sunnis and Shiites) were killed during the same period of time.
Christians make up around three percent of Iraq's 29 million overwhelmingly Muslim population.
Around 800,000 Christians lived in Iraq in 2003, but the number has since shrunk as many members of the various communities have fled the country after the US-led invasion, according to Christian leaders.
Meanwhile, two Sunni candidates were assassinated in Mosul and Baghdad.
The first murder occurred in Baghdad, where armed men opened fire on Omar Faruq al-Ani, a candidate for the Iraqi Concord Front, the main Sunni group in the country's parliament, police and army officials said.
The second victim, Hazim Salim Ahmed, a Sunni standing for the Iraqi National Unity list, was shot dead outside his home in the northern city of Mosul.

KINDNESS OF A CHRISTIAN FOOTBALL COACH HAS BEEN REWARDED

Grapevine Faith Christian football coach Kris Hogan did something unusual in November by asking his team's fans to cheer for an opposing team. The coach's kindness resulted in something else unusual: an invitation from NFL commissioner Roger Goodell to attend the Super Bowl.
Hogan was scheduled to leave today for Tampa, Fla., where he will meet with Goodell and attend Sunday's game. He will also spend time later today at the Super Bowl's "radio row," where radio stations want to talk to him about Grapevine Faith's Nov. 7 game against Gainesville State School, a juvenile correctional facility.
Before the game, Hogan e-mailed parents of his players and asked some of them to sit in the stands on Gainesville State's side of the field and cheer for Grapevine Faith's opponent. He also asked the parents to create a spirit line for the opposing players, who normally have no fans to cheer for them, to run through before the game. Hogan even had copies of the Gainesville State roster distributed to fans so they could cheer for the players by name.
The story attracted national attention, which Hogan said surprised him.
"We never intended for this to go outside our fences," he said Tuesday. "It kind of saddens me that it got so much attention. We should all be used to people taking advantage of an opportunity to help another human life."