TWO CHRISTIAN NURSING STUDENTS AND A CHRISTIAN HOSTEL WARDEN TERMINATED OVER BLASPHEMY ACCUSATION IN PAKISTAN;PRAY AND MAKE A DIFFERENCE...

Two female Christian nursing students and a Christian hostel warden have been terminated from college over a blasphemy accusation that was leveled against the students by their Muslim roommates on February 13.
Trouble for the Christian nursing students, Amara and Sitara, began when they hung a picture of Jesus Christ in a shared hostel room.
Islamic tradition explicitly prohibits images of Allah, Muhammad and all the major figures of the Christian and Jewish traditions.
Muslim students desecrated the picture by tearing it up and hurling it down after the Christian students refused to remove it voluntarily.
The administration of the nursing college allegedly took no action against the Muslim students, who committed the alleged incident.
Christian-Muslim tension among students at the nursing college escalated after Muslim students accused their Christian roommates, Amara and Sitara, of desecrating Quranic verses on February 13.
Their Muslim accusers and some staff of the hospital have threatened legal action against the Christian students.
Martha, the hostel warden, told the Sharing Life Ministry Pakistan that she had served Fatima Memorial Hospital for 15 years.
She said: “I would stay at the hostel even on my day-offs and give very little time to my family. “The nursing students and hospital administration gave me due respect before this incident,” the terminated Christian warden told SLMP.
ANS has learnt that the Muslim students allegedly turned against Martha when she asked them to restrain from blowing a trivial matter out of proportion.
The Medical Superintendent, Ayesha Nouman did not take any action against the Muslim students, who spoke harshly to Martha.
Instead of taking some disciplinary action against the Muslim students the medical superintendent terminated her.
Martha told SLMP: “I am ready to face any sort of persecution for Christ.
“This is just a termination. I don’t care about my career. I can sacrifice my life for Christ because He died for me.
“I am not afraid of persecution rather I feel honoured to be persecuted for Christ. I also encouraged Amara and Sitara to remain strong in Christ.”
Muslim students still want legal action be taken against the terminated Christian nursing students.
According to the SLMP situation at the nursing college remains tense and they received reports which said Muslim students allegedly thrashed Christian nursing students at the college.
The Ministry alleged that Pakistan TV Geo News and Channel 5 did partial reporting on the incident.
SLMP urged Christians across the world to pray for protection of Amara, Sitara and Sister Martha.

THREE-SELF PATRIOTIC MOVEMENT ( TSPM ) IN COLLISSSION WITH GOVERMENT OF CHINA TO PERSECUTE HOUSE CHURCH CHRISTIANS ; PRAY AND MAKE A DIFFERENCE..

HEILONGJIANG-- Mrs. Cheng Fengying's house was seized illegally in January 2009 by officials from the Three-Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM), Religious Affairs Bureau (RAB) and Public Security Bureau (PSB) after years of continual persecution.

Cheng Fenying, 54, is a preacher and evangelist. She, her husband Xie Tongxing and her 25-year-old son Xie Chengwei hosted a house church in their home with more than 200 members, but government officials threatened each believer to keep them away from the house church.
Photo: Mrs. Cheng Fengying holds a banner "Innocent Citizen From HeilongJiang Province" standing in front of the house of former Communist Party chief, Zhao Ziyang, who was under house arrest after he showed sympathy to the students in the 1989 protest.
Cheng Fengying sent the following letter on February 17, 2009:
My name is Chang Fengying and I am 54 years old. My husband's name is Xie Tongxing and he was a native of Guangming Village, Fulu Township, Muling City, Heilongjiang province. Both my husband and I were disabled in our childhood years. I gave myself to the Lord and became a Christian in 1990. I went to the Three-Self Patriotic Movement church between 1990 and 2003, then I came to see the true nature of the TSPM. I left the TSPM and began to meet in house churches. In July 2006, the TSPM church of Muling City colluded with the government. They worked in cooperation with the State Administration for Religious Affairs (SARA), the Public Security Bureau and the head of Guangming Village and came to put sealing tape on my house and to forbid us to meet at my house. The TSPM also sent groups of thugs to raid my house again and again in which they looted, beat up people and smashed our belongings. I called 110 (the equivalent to 911 in the U.S.) and the police wouldn't intervene. With no other alternatives, I went to Beijing and sued the authorities there. During the consecutive lawsuits, my husband was so scared that he died... Soon after my husband passed away, the TSPM colluded again with the government on July 3, 2007 and canceled my house ownership title through illegal means.
During the 2008 Olympic Games, I was detained in a black prison (prison cells privately established by government officials) where I was injured in my arms. In January 2009, the TSPM took away my housing property by making use of the court. During this time, we could not have normal meetings. In the meantime, my family was so persecuted by the TSPM and the government that it is ruined with death and misery. My child has fled from the persecution and there is no way for him to come back home.
I hereby implore my brothers and sisters around the world to pray for me and show concern for me. I also implore the Lord to protect my family so that we can still hold gatherings. I implore the Lord to enable the court to rule on a fair basis and hope that legal professionals can assist me in this case.
Your humble fellow Christian,Chang Fengying

JESUS CHRIST GOES ' KABUKI ' IN JAPAN SUPERSTAR PLAY

TOKYO - A rickshaw, women in elaborate brocade kimonos, the echo of bamboo flutes. And Jesus of Nazareth, his face painted white with the flaring red lines typical of makeup in Japan's kabuki theater.
All share the stage at Gekidan Shiki, one of Japan's best-known theater troupes, in its revival of the hit rock opera "Jesus Christ Superstar" -- with some very Japanese twists.
First adapted by Shiki founder Keita Asari in 1973 from the original, a 1970 album by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice followed by a 1971 Broadway production, the "Japonesque Version" is one of several local adaptations of the play around the globe. Shiki also does a more conventional "Jerusalem Version."
"There was a New York version, and I thought I should do a kabuki version," Asari said recently, surrounded by cast members after the musical's final dress rehearsal in Tokyo.
"Then later I was told it was too avant-garde, so I made another version, the Jerusalem Version, in response."
"Superstar" depicts the last week of Jesus Christ, including his betrayal by Judas Iscariot, his arrest, his appearance before Pontius Pilate and, finally, his crucifixion.
Asari's production is a powerful, if sometimes disconcerting, blend of Japan and Jerusalem.
Jesus, Judas and the others have faces made up with the ghostly white foundation and flaring lines, in red or black, of kabuki. One woman flaunts a Japanese parasol.
A man wears a version of a sumo wrestler's wrapped mawashi loincloth over white jeans, and some musical numbers include bamboo flutes and Japan's traditional three-stringed shamisen.
JAPAN, JERUSALEM, THE SIXTIES
But Japan really comes to the fore in a surreal scene where Jesus meets King Herod, who appears on stage in a white rickshaw accompanied by two women in kimonos.
Herod, who sings the honkytonk number "King Herod's Song," has elaborate tattoos covering his upper body in the style of Japanese gangsters and wears a garish happi coat.
Adding to the bizarre nature of the production are 1960s touches such as the white jeans worn by all the cast and the long, crocheted vests worn by the otherwise bare-chested Jesus and Judas, who also appears to have an Afro hairdo.
To Toshihide Kaneta, who plays Jesus in the current production, this melange is all part of the appeal.
"Even though over 35 years have gone by since it was first performed, this very original combination of kabuki makeup and jeans still hasn't lost its freshness," he said in a statement.
Inevitably, some poetry is lost in translation.
The line "To conquer death, you only have to die" that Jesus sings in "Poor Jerusalem" becomes the less stirring "to overcome death," while "blood money" in another song is simply "money."
How many of the story's deeper echoes come through in Japan, which has only a small Christian minority, is another question.
Among the more mundane admonitions of Asari's post-rehearsal critique of the cast's performance, such as telling Jesus to "collapse a bit more when you're being held by the soldiers," were urgings for them to "feel awe" as they performed.
"Judas' betrayal was dramatized well, it was easy to understand," said Setsuko, a woman in her 60s who was in the audience and who said she hadn't known the story before.
"You can't think of it as religion. The songs and dances were powerful, it was enjoyable as a play."

FIVE KILLED IN CHRISTIAN - MUSLIM CLASHES IN NIGERIA; PRAY AND MAKE A DIFFERENCE....

KANO, Nigeria — Five people were killed and four injured Saturday in sectarian clashes between Muslims and Christians over places of worship in northern Nigeria's Bauchi state, residents said.
Government officials, however, blamed the violence on disaffected local politicians and said they had asked troops to take over security duties from the police in the immediate area affected.
Muslim youths attacked Christians and burned churches in reprisals over the burning of two mosques overnight in the state capital Bauchi, which the Muslims blamed on Christians, residents told AFP by telephone from Bauchi, 300 kilometres (200 miles) northeast of Abuja.
"I saw five dead bodies on the streets this morning, one of them was burnt," resident Muazu Hardawa said.
"One of the dead bodies was one of five Muslim youths shot by police deployed to the area to restore calm when a mob insisted on burning a church," he said.
Hardawa said three churches in nearby Kofar Dumi neighbourhood were burnt during the violence.
Bauchi state governor Isa Yuguda said he had ordered troops to be deployed to restore order in the city.
The region was rocked by religious and political violence in November that killed hundreds of people in the central city of Jos.
Tensions have risen in Bauchi since February 13 when members of a pentacostal church opposite a mosque in the area barricaded a pathway outside the church used by Muslims attending Friday prayers, residents said.
A truck had broken down in the middle of the road separating the church and the mosque, blocking the passage and the Muslims had to use a narrow path between the truck and the church, further inflaming tensions, according to resident Babayo Hassan.
He said a police detachment stationed in the area had to intervene by removing the barricades and appealing for calm on both sides.
"Angered by what they saw as provocation, an unprecedented number of Muslims attended the Friday prayers and the congregation overflowed to the church's gate but there was no incident," Hassan said.
"But around 3:00 a.m. two mosques in the area went up in flames. The Muslims accused the members of the church for the arson and enraged Muslim youths went on a rampage," he added.
The Christian-dominated neighbourhood was a centre of bloody sectarian strife in 2004 when Muslim-Christian violence in the town of Tafawa Balewa, some 100 kilometres away spilled over to the city, and houses, mosques and churches were burnt, Hardawa said.
The north of Nigeria is predominantly Muslim, with many states introducing Sharia law, but there are significant Christian communities in the region as well, leading to sectarian tensions and clashes.
The Bauchi state government blamed disgruntled politicians for the latest mayhem.
"This is a crisis fomented by troublemakers intent on causing disaffection in the state," state governor Yuguda said in a broadcast aired on state-owned radio.
"It is fuelled by disgruntled political elements who do not wish the state well and the government will not condone it," he said.
"I have ordered soldiers to take over the restoration of normalcy in the affected area from the police," the governor added.
The police authorities in the city have refused to comment on the violence.

COUNSELLOR SUSPENDED AFTER TEENS HEAR ' CHRISTIAN MUSIC ' IN CALIFORNIA; ACCUSED OF EXPOSING CHILDREN TO UNAPPROVED RELIGIOUS ACTIVITIES

A Southern California counselor with nearly two decades of experience with foster children is challenging a decision that she be punished after four teens she took on an approved day-long outing encountered a beach festival – and heard Christian music.
The 18-year employee, according to the lawsuit, took four teen girls from the Orangewood Children's Home, which was launched as a private facility but now is owned and run by Orange County. "What happened to this counselor was insane and unjust," said Brad Dacus, president of the Pacific Justice Institute, who is defending the counselor.
"Allowing teenagers to overhear a few minutes of Christian music while at the beach should not result in a six-week suspension," insisted Dacus, who said the counselor's name is not being released.
A county spokeswoman said officials had not seen the complaint. But it was a personnel issue, they said, so there would be no comment.
Pacific Justice said the lawsuit was filed after an extensive course of "administrative remedies" proved fruitless.
The complaint explains the counselor took the four teen girls on the field trip during the summer of 2006, first to a 5 kilometer run and then to the beach.
"At the beach, the group encountered a 'Surf Jam' taking place at the Huntington Beach Pier. The group also overheard Christian music for about 10 minutes while they were eating," the institute said.
After the outing, the counselor was ordered into a "disciplinary meeting" that focused on the inappropriateness of Christian music.
No punishment was imposed immediately, but weeks later after another meeting at which the same subject was reviewed, the counselor was suspended six weeks for "exposing children to unapproved religious activities."
The lawsuit was filed in Orange County Superior Court seeking to recover the financial losses from the suspension and vindicate her constitutional rights, the institute said.
Dacus told WND the circumstances were disturbing.
"It just goes to show how anti-faith some [people] are," he said.