LUTHERAN GAY CLERGY PROPOSAL PASSES FIRST HURDLE

MINNEAPOLIS — A proposal to allow people in same-sex relationships to serve as clergy in the country's largest Lutheran denomination has passed its first hurdle.
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's national convention began Monday in Minneapolis. A proposal likely to get a final vote Friday would let individual congregations hire gays and lesbians in committed relationships as pastors.
Critics of the proposal moved Monday to require a two-thirds supermajority of the 1,045 voting delegates for approval, rather than a simple majority. But the effort fell short, with only 43 percent of delegates supporting it.
ELCA Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson says the majority versus supermajority vote shouldn't be seen as strongly indicating the debate's ultimate outcome.

SANGGU CHURCH IN HENAN PROVINCE, CHINA, BANNED FOR SECOND TIME BY LOCAL GOVERNMENT

HENAN, CHINA -- ChinaAid has stated that on Thursday, August 13 at 8:00 p.m. (Beijing time), two Laojie Christian Church leaders were guarding their church building in Shandong village, Sanggu town, Xiayi county of Shangqiu in Henan province, China, when they were arrested by authorities.
At the time of the ChinaAid press release, Li Guangren and Zheng Xiancai were still being detained by the Public Security Bureau of Xiayi County.
A ChinaAid spokesperson told ANS, “The arrests are the latest in a series of incidents in which authorities have attempted to confiscate the church building by force. Laojie Christian Church is an unregistered house church with more than 200 believers, and has been meeting at their current location since April 1987.
“Recently village officials began working with real estate developers to build a highway that would go through the location of the church property. In this development, government officials could sell the church property at a higher price, resulting in high profits.
“The Village Party Committee of Shandong village proposed to exchange the church’s current for land half the size and in another location. When Laojie Christian Church of Sanggu turned down the proposal, requesting a more equitable exchange of land, the Village Party Committee of Shandong Village threatened to demolish the church’s building by force.”
ChinaAid stated that on August 6, 2009 the Bureau of Religious and Ethnic Affairs in Xiayi County issued a second notice officially banning Laojie Christian Church in Shandong village, Sanggu town, Xiayi county of Shangqiu in Henan province.
The document declared the church “an illegal site for religious activities” and banned the church. In addition, the document accused the church of “being indifferent” and taking a “laisser-faire attitude” toward the previous document abolishing the church issued on June 27, because the Christians have continued to meet at the site. Since May 26, Christians from the church have been guarding the site almost 24 hours a day.
Laojie Christian Church of Sanggu sent the following three cell phone numbers of church members and invites the international community to contact them:
+86-15836894749
+86-15836444898
+86-1583682-6038
For more information, go to: www.ChinaAid.org

HARVEST CRUSADES REACHES 4 MILLION ON HISTORIC NIGHT

The Harvest Crusades made history Sunday night, breaking the 4 million mark of persons reached.
Some 50,000 people filled Angel Stadium in Anaheim, Calif., to capacity to hear evangelist Greg Laurie talk about heaven and to celebrate the ministry's 20th year of crusade evangelism in Southern California. Another 5,000 were turned away at the gate.
"You know, people have asked me what has been the highlight of the Harvest Crusades for me over the last 20 years," Laurie said as he addressed an enthusiastic crowd. "I've recounted some experiences ... but I have to amend that. I would say tonight is the highlight for me ... because tonight we just broke our record.
"We have reached in person ... 4 million people."
Along with the large attendance at the stadium, thousands more joined the crusade on the Internet and on their iPhones. This was the first time live streaming was available for iPhone and iPod Touch users.
It was the final night of the three-day Harvest Crusade which, for the first time, packed the stadium two nights in a row. And for Laurie, it was like "a slice of heaven."

"This is just a preview of things to come," the well-known evangelist, dressed in his signature black button-up shirt, said.
Joining Laurie on stage on the special night were his family and Pastors Chuck Smith of Calvary Chapel and Rick Warren of Saddleback Church.
"I don't know why you think you came here tonight, but you're not here by accident," Warren, bestselling author of The Purpose Driven Life, said in a familiar statement. "A thousand years before you were born, God knew you would be here tonight."
More than 4,500 people made decisions for Christ on Sunday, bringing the total number of professions over the three nights to 11,969 and over the last two decades to 329,572.
"What can I say? To God be the glory," Laurie said. "This is the power of the Gospel. This should encourage us all to never be ashamed of the Gospel or embarrassed about our faith. These are people that are ready to believe, people that want to know the answer."
After 20 consecutive years of preaching the Gospel in a large venue in Southern California, Laurie explained that continues to hold the crusades because he is a man under order.
"I have a Commander-in-Chief called Jesus," he recently wrote in a devotional. "He has commanded me to go into all the world and preach the Gospel."
"We have the solution to humanity's problems," he added. "We have the way for people to know God. If we only apply that in our own lives and keep it to ourselves and never tell others, then certainly that is falling short of what God would want."
On Sunday, the long-time evangelist told people how to get to heaven and what heaven will be like.
Heaven, he assured, is a real place for real people. It's a prepared place for prepared people, he added.
"Why would we reject a gift like eternal life? It's the only gift that keeps on giving."
Making sure he told the complete story, Laurie also reminded listeners that there is also a hell.
"God doesn't send people to hell. If you end up in hell you'll have no one to blame but yourself. The last thing God wants is for you to spend eternity separated from Him."

Encouraging the thousands to make their life count, Laurie invited them to choose spending eternity with Jesus.
The anniversary event concluded with a fireworks show and worship led by Chris Tomlin. In total, 126,000 people attended the historic crusade.

LUTHERAN GAY POLICIES FACE CLOSE VOTE : PROPOSAL WOULD ALLOW CLERGY TO HAVE OPEN SAME SEX RELATIONSHIP

America's largest Lutheran denomination has reached its crossroads on homosexuality and allowing openly gay clergy, with crucial votes slated at its biennial assembly this week in Minneapolis that participants say are too close to call.
"We recognize we're in for some long conversation this week," said Virginia Synod Bishop James F. Mauney, who oversees 42,000 members in 163 churches across the state. "I am hopeful that our worship will guide our conversation and we will be guided by the Holy Spirit."
The gathering of 65 synods representing the 4.6-million-member Evangelical Lutheran Church in America mirrors a denomination split over homosexuality.
Only celibate gay clergy can serve in ELCA churches. A small majority - 54 percent - of ELCA clergy support gay ordination, according to a Clergy Voices survey conducted in May and posted recently on the denomination's Web site.
Of the two main documents on sexuality issues that will be considered at the ELCA assembly, one is a proposed social statement, "Human Sexuality: Gift and Trust," which, as a statement of church teaching, must be passed by a two-thirds vote (about 700 people) of the 1,045 voting members present.
Eight years in the making, the 33-page treatise is a theological and teaching document that sets out denominational policy on a variety of topics ranging from marriage to pornography, and defines human sexuality as a "gift and trust." It will be debated Tuesday afternoon and put to a vote Wednesday.
The other document, called a "Report and Recommendation on Ministry Policies," recommends a change in ELCA ministry policies so Lutherans who are in "publicly accountable, lifelong, monogamous, same-gendered relationships" can serve as ELCA associates in ministry, deaconesses, diaconal ministers and ordained ministers.
The document would set up the ordination of openly practicing gays as a local option, under which each synod could choose or refuse to adopt the policy.
Discussion is slated for Thursday, and a vote is scheduled for Friday afternoon.
But on Monday night, Lutherans will vote on whether the document, known in shorthand as "the recommendation," can be passed by a simple majority vote; that is about 520 people, greatly lowering the bar for passage. However, a two-thirds majority vote is needed to agree that the sexuality recommendation can pass with a simple majority.
Bishop Mauney said everything hinges on Monday night's vote.
"My sense is the vote will be very, very close," said Bishop H. Gerald Knoche of the 90,000-member, 182-church Delaware-Maryland Synod. "My synod is pretty evenly divided."
The convention delegates vote as individuals, but of the 65 synods, 37 have indicated they approve the sexuality statement and 34 have indicated that they approve of the recommendation - both numbers only a bit more than a majority of the synods.
Bishop Knoche said "many" Lutherans are concerned about the sexuality statement "for what they see as a false starting point theologically. The document bases most of its theological work [about sexuality] on the idea of trust."
The Lutheran understanding of sexuality traditionally begins with the creation account in Genesis and "is based on [mankind] being created male and female," he said. "This document does not begin there. They base their reasoning on faith and trust," in order to include same-sex relationships, he added.
Both bishops raised the specter of angry reaction from overseas Lutherans should the ELCA agree to ordain gay clergy. After the Episcopal Church voted to consecrate an openly gay bishop in 2003, Anglican bishops overseas revolted and led the way in drawing thousands of Episcopalians out of the denomination and into breakaway Anglican groups.
"Like the Anglicans, we have a large number of Lutherans in Africa, and they are opposed to change," Bishop Knoche said. "The Lutheran bishop of China told us how damaging to their work it would be if [the recommendation] would pass."
Other issues coming before assembly include an agreement to enter into the full communion with the United Methodist Church and a vote on whether to partner with the United Nations in malaria and AIDS eradication programs.

FIRST HOLY COMMUNION IN THE MOON

First Communion on the Moon
As we remember the first men on the moon, let's not forget the first supper on the moon -- the Lord's Supper, served and received by an elder in the Presbyterian Church, Apollo 11 astronaut Eugene 'Buzz' Aldrin.
"This is the (lunar module) pilot," Aldrin said on July 20, 1969. "I'd like to take this opportunity to ask every person listening in, whoever and wherever they may be, to pause for a moment and contemplate the events of the past few hours and to give thanks in his or her own way." Aldrin's way was to serve himself communion, using a kit provided by the pastor of Houston's Webster Presbyterian Church.
Aldrin's brief and private Christian service never caused a flap, but it could have. Aldrin has said that he planned to broadcast the service, but NASA at the last minute asked him not to because of concerns about a lawsuit filed (later dismissed) by atheist Madelyn Murray O'Hare after Apollo 8 astronauts read from Genesis while orbiting the moon at Christmas.
Did NASA do the right thing by making Aldrin keep his religious beliefs to himself?
As an elder in the Presbyterian church, Aldrin had the authority to conduct what is called an "extended serving" of the Lord's Supper. But Aldrin was representing the United States of America that day, and in many ways, all of his fellow earthlings. Should he have even conducted a private religious service?
"In the radio blackout," Aldrin wrote in Guideposts magazine in 1970, "I opened the little plastic packages which contained the bread and the wine. I poured the wine into the chalice our church had given me. In the one-sixth gravity of the moon, the wine slowly curled and gracefully came up the side of the cup. Then I read the Scripture, 'I am the vine, you are the branches. Whosoever abides in me will bring forth much fruit.'
"I ate the tiny Host and swallowed the wine. I gave thanks for the intelligence and spirit that had brought two young pilots to the Sea of Tranquility. It was interesting for me to think: the very first liquid ever poured on the moon, and the very first food eaten there, were the communion elements."
One small sip for man, one giant leap of faith for mankind.
The small chalice Aldrin used for the wine went back to Webster Church. Each year on the Sunday closest to July 20, the congregation celebrates Lunar Communion. "Communion can be celebrated anywhere," senior pastor Mark Cooper said Sunday. "Even cramped up in a lunar module on the moon."
Aldrin wasn't the only person to bring his faith to the moon that day. The astronauts left behind a tiny silicon chip containing a message of peace from four U.S. presidents and 73 other world leaders. Seven of them made references to God -- the presidents of Brazil, Ireland, South Vietnam and Malagasy, the king of Belgium, Pope Paul VI -- and Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran, who wrote:
"On this occasion when Mr. Neil Armstrong and Colonel Edwin Aldrin set foot for the first time on the surface of the Moon from the Earth, we pray the Almighty God to guide mankind towards ever increasing success in the establishment of peace and the progress of culture, knowledge and human civilisation."
UPDATE: I asked On Faith panelist Richard Mouw about provisions for self-serve communion. Mouw is president of Fuller Theological Seminary. He also is representing the Presbyterian Church-USA as co-chair of the official Reformed-Catholic Dialogue. Mouw's response:
"For our Reformed theology, communion is something that necessarily takes place in a congregational context, with two requirements. It is tied to--accompanied by-- the preaching of the Word and it requires at least one elder assisting the minister. Two exceptions: chaplains in military and other settings are given a blanket approval to conduct a communion rite without an elder. And a minister and elder may bring the elements to a sick or shut-in person--with the understanding that this is an extension of the congregational rite that has recently taken place. There is simply no provision for a solitary self-serving of communion. It is difficult to think of a theological rationale even as an unusual event."

NANCY EIESLAND WROTE OF A ' DISABLED GOD ' IS DEAD AT 44

By the time the theologian and sociologist Nancy Eiesland was 13 years old, she had had 11 operations for the congenital bone defect in her hips and realized pain was her lot in life. So why did she say she hoped that when she went to heaven she would still be disabled?

The reason, which seems clear enough to many disabled people, was that her identity and character were formed by the mental, physical and societal challenges of her disability. She felt that without her disability, she would “be absolutely unknown to myself and perhaps to God.”
By the time of her death at 44 on March 10, Ms. Eiesland had come to believe that God was in fact disabled, a view she articulated in her influential 1994 book, “The Disabled God: Toward a Liberatory Theology of Disability.” She pointed to the scene described in Luke 24:36-39 in which the risen Jesus invites his disciples to touch his wounds.
“In presenting his impaired body to his startled friends, the resurrected Jesus is revealed as the disabled God,” she wrote. God remains a God the disabled can identify with, she argued — he is not cured and made whole; his injury is part of him, neither a divine punishment nor an opportunity for healing.
Ms. Eiesland (pronounced EES-lund), who was an associate professor at the Candler School of Theology at Emory University in Atlanta, died not of her congenital bone condition, nor of the spinal scoliosis that necessitated still more surgery in 2002, but of a possibly genetic lung cancer, said her husband, Terry.
Ms. Eiesland’s insights added a religious angle to a new consciousness among the disabled that emerged in the 1960s in the fight for access to public facilities later guaranteed by the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. The movement progressed into cultural realms as disabled poets, writers and dramatists embraced disability as both cause and identity.
Pointing out that anyone can become disabled at any time, the disabled called those without disabilities “the temporarily able-bodied.” They ventured into humor, calling nondisabled people bowling pins because they were easy prey for wheelchairs.
Ms. Eiesland’s contribution was to articulate a coherent theology of disability. Deborah Beth Creamer, in her book “Disability and Christian Theology” (2009), called Ms. Eiesland’s work the “most powerful discussion of God to arise from disability studies.”
In an e-mail message, Rebecca S. Chopp, the president of Colgate University, who is known for her feminist theological interpretations, characterized Ms. Eiesland as “a, if not the, leader of disability studies and Christianity and disability studies in religion.”
In four books and scores of articles, Ms. Eiesland’s scholarship also included a much-cited book on the dynamics of churches in an Atlanta suburb. Groups like the World Council of Churches asked her to speak on disability.
For 10 years, she consulted with the United Nations, helping develop its Convention on the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities, which was enacted last year. The convention describes the disabled as “subjects” with rights, rather than “objects” of charity. It explicitly endorses spiritual rights for the disabled.
Nancy Lynn Arnold was born in Cando, N.D., and grew up on a farm nearby. Operations to remedy her birth defect began when she was a toddler. Her parents also took her to faith healers. She wrote that she was a poster child for the March of Dimes, a charity that some advocates for the disabled criticize for its appeals to pity.
After she was fitted with a full-leg brace at age 7, her father told her: “You’re going to need to get a job that keeps you off your feet. You’ll never be a checkout clerk.”
In high school, she won a national contest with an essay on the inaccessibility of rural courthouses in North Dakota. She organized a letter-writing campaign on the issue.
She enrolled at the University of North Dakota, where she campaigned for ramps into the library and accessible parking spots. She dropped out after her beloved older sister was killed in an automobile accident.
Nancy and her stricken family joined the Assemblies of God and moved to Springfield, Mo., where the church has its headquarters. She enrolled in Central Bible College, which trained ministers, and graduated as valedictorian in 1986. She became an Assemblies of God minister, but gradually drifted away from the denomination.
She became a student at Candler, where she studied theology under Ms. Chopp. Ms. Chopp remembered Ms. Eiesland’s complaining that for all Christianity’s professed concern for the poor and oppressed, the disabled were ignored.
“I looked at her and said, ‘That is your work,’ ” Ms. Chopp said.
After a stunned silence, Ms. Eiesland accepted the challenge as fodder for a master’s thesis, which evolved into “The Disabled God.” She earned her master’s degree in 1991 and her Ph.D. in 1995, both from Emory.
Ms. Eiesland is survived by her husband; their daughter, Marie; her parents, Dean and Carol Arnold; two brothers, Neal and Victor Arnold; and two sisters, Katherine Arnold and Jocelyn Gracza.
As she strove to define new religious symbols, Ms. Eiesland’s metaphors were startlingly incisive. She envisioned God puttering about in a “puff” wheelchair, the kind quadriplegics drive with their breath.

PRO-ISRAEL FACEBOOK GROUP HACKED AND DESTROYED BY A PRO-HIZBALLAH GROUP

The story of Todd Snider and his Facebook group “I Wonder How Quickly I Can Find 1,000,000 People Who Support Israel,” which appeared on FrontPage last Friday in the article “Facebook Jihad," has taken a bizarre new turn.
Snider, you may recall, is the enterprising and dedicated fourteen-year-old who last summer started a Facebook group that quickly grew to become the largest pro-Israel group on the popular social networking site. Snider’s group, “I Wonder How Quickly I Can Find 1,000,000 People Who Support Israel,” which he founded in July 2008, had over 180,000 members by mid February of this year.
But on February 15, 2009, Snider’s Facebook group was hacked and destroyed by a pro-Hizballah group calling itself “Lebanese Shee’a Hackers.” The hackers completely erased the original site content and replaced it with threatening, obscenity-laced pro-jihad, anti-Israel propaganda datelined Bint Jbeil, South Lebanon: “DEAR ADMINS, DON’T WASTE MY AND YOUR TIME , LEAVE THIS GROUP ITS BETTER FOR BOTH THIS IS THE LAST TIME ILL EDIT YOU INFO , NEXT TIME AND IN A COUPLE OF HOURS YOU WILL LOOSE EVERYTHING RELATED TO THIS GROUP….”
Facebook did nothing to stop these hackers from destroying Snider’s site, answering repeated entreaties for help from him and others with blandly evasive form letters. Snider said that Facebook received “hundreds of messages and complaints” from group members, “including some to high-ranking officials through connections,” but remained “entirely unaffected by this type of pressure, likely because many of its employees themselves are anti-Israel.” And then last Friday afternoon, Facebook actually disabled Snider’s account, explaining rather bizarrely that the young man had been “misusing [its] features.” Facebook did this despite the fact that Snider was clearly listed as the creator of both the original “I Wonder How Quickly I Can Find 1,000,000 People Who Support Israel” and the replacement group he began in February after the hacking.
But Facebook’s seeming capitulation to the pro-jihad and anti-Israel sentiment that has elsewhere migrated to the U.S. from Europe may have been more a bureaucratic snafu than a calculated political gesture. Around the same time that Facebook officials deleted Todd Snider’s account, it also finally deleted the original “I Wonder How Quickly I Can Find 1,000,000 People Who Support Israel” group site, with the menacing material from the pro-Hizballah, pro-jihad, anti-Semitic hackers. This indicates that the complaints that Facebook received after the FrontPage article appeared Friday had results. It is disappointing, however, that it took Facebook authorities so long to take action, and that apparently public pressure was the only thing that moved them to do so.
It may be also that Snider’s account was disabled because he was still listed as the creator of the hacked group. In that case, then, we hope Facebook will restore his account forthwith, and provide him with some way to contact the 180,000 members of the original group who had signed on to his crusade; his new group, which he established in February after the original group site was hacked, has only 3,000 members.
Todd Snider deserves our admiration for his stand against Internet jihadis – and the strange story of his Facebook group illustrates anew how ubiquitous and persistent those jihadis are. Snider also deserves the wholehearted support of everyone who supports Israel at the front line of the global jihad. Facebook members, whether or not they belonged to the original group, should join his new group, also called “I Wonder How Quickly I Can Find 1,000,000 People Who Support Israel.” A million people should sign up to protest the attacks of the digital jihadis who are increasingly attempting to compromise our internet freedoms.
The Internet jihadis must come to see that they will meet a determined, informed resistance, and that their thuggery will not stand – just as they must in the wide world beyond the curious confines of Facebook. All too many in the West seem determined instead to take the path of appeasement. They would do well to learn from the example of Todd Snider.

ANOTHER NU METAL BAND KORN MEMBER BECAME A CHRISTIAN

A member of nu metal band Korn will release a book on Tuesday about his journey through addiction, faith, and recovery.

And, no it’s not former guitarist Brian “Head” Welch, who split from the group in 2005 following his conversion to Christianity.
This time, it’s bass guitarist Reginald “Fieldy” Arvizu, who is still a member of the band but reveals how different he is now from his former self in Got the Life.
“I was an expert at drinking, smoking dope, popping pills, using foul language, being mean, and partying without any remorse,” Fieldy recalls in his soon-to-release book, published by Harper Collins. “You don’t get that good at anything without lots of practice.”
The turning point for now 39-year-old came after his father became ill.
“When Dad got sick, I thought I could fix him because I had money, power, and influence,” he recalls. “I was rich and famous, right? I thought I could fix anything.”
As time went by, however, his father’s condition went from bad to worse. Every doctor Fieldy took his father to insisted that he had cancer, though all the tests returned negative.
To cope with the mounting frustration, Fieldy turned to partying, drinking, smoking, and pill popping – activities he had been engrossed with for the last twenty years of his life.
But Fieldy’s “deep denial” of his father’s illness would soon come to an end. In 2005, Fieldy’s father – a “total Holy Roller, completely into Jesus” – died.
And following his father’s dying wish, Fieldy found God.
“I’ve been clean for three years. I don’t fight with my wife anymore. I don’t lust or cheat anymore .... I don’t wake up feeling like hell anymore. I don’t spend money on things I later regret anymore. I don’t deny my blessed life that has been waiting for me ... anymore,” Fieldy writes since his father’s death.
“Losing Dad was my wake-up call to see that I had to change the way I lived or I was going to die, too,” he adds.
With never-before-seen photos and never-before-heard stories, Got the Life offers Fieldy’s raw, candid, and inspiring story of rock and redemption.
The bassist’s hope is that his thoughts will somehow inspire readers.
“Don’t waste your life. There are only so many hours in a day and you can never get those back,” he writes. “You were made to make a difference.”
Today, Fieldy is a happily married father of three who lives in Southern California. He is also still a member of Korn and working on a new album with the band as well as a few side projects. Among the side projects is his own clothing line, Immanuel One Twenty Three.

MISSIONARIES IN PANAMA WAGE WAR ON DRUGS; PRAY AND MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN PANAMA

SAN BLAS ISLANDS, Panama - If you want to find the major source of United States' illegal drug problem, you have to look no further than Latin America.
Colombia alone accounts for almost 80 percent of the world's cocaine supply. As traffickers become more creative in getting their product to market, the war on drugs gets tougher.

Panama is the bridge between the Colombian drug runners and their major U.S. customers. That is forcing the Colombian and Panamanian Governments to work together to stop the flow. Their front line is a remote jungle on their border. It is there that a primitive tribe of Indians is caught between the forces of good and evil. They are called the Kuna.
There are 360 islands along the Caribbean coast of Panama, that make up the homeland of the Kuna people. You might not think such an idyllic place would be the scene of fierce warfare, but that's exactly what's happening here.
I visited the island of Ustupu, near the Colombian border. It is rarely seen by tourists, with life going on as it has for centuries for the Kuna who live on this crowded island. We visited Chief Jonatan, to ask his permission to be there.
The Kuna are a gentle people who make their living from the sea. Fishermen leave at dawn in dugout canoes, diving for their catch. And that's when problems arise.
Narcos 'Expect' Locals to Run Drugs
Drug runners sometimes leave floating bundles of cocaine near the islands, making it known that they expect the product to be transported to the city. This lessens the risk the traffickers face, but makes life dangerous for the Kuna.
"Maria" is a Kuna woman.
"The traffickers come mostly in the middle of the night, and the people are often reluctant to say anything to the authorities about it because the drug runners have threatened to kill them if they do," she said.
The average income here is just over $100 per month. That makes it tempting for some of these Indians to transport the drugs to the city, where the drug runners have promised big rewards.
I took a ride to the nearby mainland with a local fisherman, to the place where these Kuna bury their dead - and sometimes hide the drugs.
They say that they have a rule in their community that they don't want any drugs on their island. So if the fishermen find drugs, they bring them up here into these rivers and hide them until such time as they can figure out what to do with them. If they do take the drugs to the narcos, they could get caught by the police and put in prison. But if they don't, the narcos get angry and come cause trouble for the people in the villages.
Christian Missionaries
Some Kuna have become addicted to cocaine in the process. But there's another group trying to influence these islanders: Christian missionaries. And where the narcos bring threats and intimidation, these evangelists bring the good news of God's love.
Keith and Wilma Forster have dedicated their lives to helping these people. For the last 37 years, they have been instrumental in translating the Bible into the Kuna language. In that time, they've seen first hand the war between good and evil.
"The unbelievers said to the believers, 'If you touch those Bibles, we will hand you over to the terrorists like we did the missionaries,'" Keith said.
Some of their fellow workers were even killed.
"They came in on a Sunday evening, took all three missionaries simultaneously, and we never saw them again," he said.
But those sacrifices haven't been in vain. The number of Kuna Christians has grown steadily through the years, and the Church on this island is reaching out to other Kuna pastors throughout the province.
Over 100 Christian leaders from other islands came to a conference, spending an entire week in intensive training, led by a team of American missionaries. The men spent hours in study and scripture memory, while their wives learned hymns and did their own training.
After nightfall, the village came together and filled the local meeting house for a time of worship by the light of a generator -- complete with dances and hymns in their native tongue.
Tensions will remain high in this region as long as the drug trafficking continues. But Kuna Christians are optimistic that the gospel's influence will continue to flourish, and one day this tropical paradise will send missionaries around the world.

CASE COULD BAR COACHES FROM PRAYING WITH PLAYERS

To Coach Louis Thompson, praying with his Lincoln County High School football team is as important as leading them to winning seasons — maybe more important.
"Every day when we finish practice, we take a knee, bow our heads and say the Lord's Prayer — every day. We don't miss a day," Thompson said.
"Along with the Lord's Prayer at practice, we have a silent prayer before each game where I tell them to pray for themselves and their teammates.''
But a case making its way to the U.S. Supreme Court could prevent Thompson and other coaches of public schools from praying with their teams, even if the players initiate the prayer on their own.
School district policies and practices vary widely across Tennessee. In Metro Nashville, coaches and teachers are officially barred from taking part in student-led prayers, though some said they do so.
Knox County's policy states there is to be no prayer during school-sponsored activities, only a moment of silence.
"I don't know that we have a policy, but all of our coaches have been told that it's to be student-led,'' said David King, director of athletics for the Lincoln County Department of Education.
"I go to a lot of the games throughout the county and the majority of them do have student-led prayer before the game, and some of them do after the game, too."
High court to decide soon
The Supreme Court is deciding whether it wants to review a case that banned an East Brunswick, N.J., high school football coach from kneeling or bowing his head while his team prayed.
A ruling on whether the court will review the case is expected within the next two weeks.
While a U.S. Supreme Court ruling could clarify the issue once and for all, some legal experts say the law already is clear.
"There's a pretty bright line here — school officials may not pray with students during their contract day," said Charles Haynes, senior scholar at the First Amendment Center.
"I don't think the coach has to leave the room. He can just stand silently and watch. But he can't participate."
While acknowledging a 1962 Supreme Court decision that severely restricted the role public school employees may play in organizing religious activities, supporters of team prayers say banning any participation by the coach goes too far.
"I understand that a coach cannot lead the prayer, but just to be there bowing his head? This violates a person's personal faith," said Steve Robinson, Middle Tennessee director of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.
" … I really believe that some of our founding fathers who drafted the constitution would turn over in their grave if they knew that we were debating this. I don't believe this was their intent whatsoever."
'You just need to be careful'
Coach Marcus Borden went to court after East Brunswick school officials ordered him to stop praying or engaging in any religious activity with his high school football team.
A U.S. District Court ruled in 2006 that Borden could silently bow his head and kneel while his team prayed, but the case was appealed and the U.S. 3rd District Court of Appeals unanimously reversed the lower court ruling.
Borden filed a petition in October asking the U.S. Supreme Court to take up the case.
"We are hopeful that the Supreme Court will grant (Borden's) petition … so that public school coaches throughout the nation will have a clear understanding as to how they may respond to player-initiated voluntary prayer," his attorney Ronald Riccio said.
Supporting the school district's side is Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a civil liberties watchdog group based in Washington, D.C.
"The main message we're trying to make to folks is that you just need to be careful about bringing any of these religions into school because the way you treat one is the way you must treat them all," said Rob Boston, senior policy analyst for the group.
"Coach Borden was leading his team in prayers that maybe many people in the community felt OK about.
"But what if he'd been saying other types of prayers from some tradition that folks were not so comfortable with? You have to be careful in opening that door."
Furthermore, Boston said, Borden's religious advocacy while coaching extended 23 years and went well beyond passively taking part in team prayers.
"Coach Borden said, 'All I really want to do is bow my head.' But from our perspective, he wants to do a good bit more," Boston said.
"He had a long history of organizing prayer, picking students to lead them, writing them and he even had a chaplain coming in and praying with students.
"He'd been involved with these religious activities for a long time and then all of a sudden he said, 'All I really want to do is take a knee and bow my head.' And the court just said, 'You cannot divorce yourself from your own history.' "
Effect could be profound
If the Supreme Court decides to hear the case, its ruling would have broad implications, offering strong precedent that would be used by attorneys in cases around the country.
The effect could be profound.
In the moments after his last game as Tennessee football coach, Phillip Fulmer knelt with his players for a post-game prayer. Depending on the high court decision, such a display by a football coach at a public university could become an issue, noted Robinson, of the Christian athletes group.
"In that last game, an ESPN commentator was trying to interview Coach Fulmer and he said, 'Wait a minute, I want to pray with my guys,' " Robinson said. "They want to take his right to do that away?"
The American Football Coaches Association, which held its annual convention in Nashville last month, also filed a petition in favor of allowing the coaches to participate, after its board voted unanimously to support Borden's case.
"Anybody that believes in freedom and believes in the opportunity to express yourself as a coach and … to engage in activities with your team when they choose to do something should be very concerned about this," said Grant Teaff, executive director of the coaches association.
Maplewood High School football Coach Ralph Thompson, who is not related to the Lincoln County coach, worries about seeming unsupportive if he doesn't acknowledge the team prayer.
"The way we've handled it in Metro is that none of the coaches can actually be the ones that lead the kids in prayer," he said. " … As coaches, we'll stand a couple of feet back from the huddle that they get in and quietly, to ourselves, we'll say the Lord's Prayer.
"The concern for me as a coach is that it may look like I don't want to have anything to do with religion if I am not allowed to bow while they pray. It makes it look like I don't condone it or I don't like it.
"It's like I'm saying, 'If that is something y'all want to do, then you go ahead. I'm not going to be a part of it and my coaching staff is not going to be a part of it.' "
Haynes, of the First Amendment Center, acknowledges that this part of the country, in particular, could have a tougher time adjusting to the reality of the law.
"In the South especially, this is seen like Mom and apple pie and the flag — it's natural to pray before games," he said. "It's painful for people to give that up."
Players' views vary
Sam Morris, a senior on the Hendersonville soccer team who described himself as atheist, said he would prefer that coaches didn't take part in the team prayers.
"I have no problem with other players praying because that is their own personal belief and I can respect that," he said. "But when I think that the government or a teacher is imposing their beliefs on me, then it makes me feel uncomfortable."
Morris' father, Tom, says he's fine with a coach taking part, as long as the prayer is clearly the idea of the players.
"I don't think coaches should be allowed to lead or organize prayers in an athletic event," he said. "If the coaches are just there to participate, I don't have any problems with that."
Waled Tayib, 17, a Muslim student who plays on the Overton High School football and soccer teams, is accustomed to being surrounded before each football game by teammates who say the Lord's Prayer.
"I just bow my head and say my own prayer inside,'' said Tayib, who is of Kurdish descent. "I think that type of prayer is OK even with the coaches there kneeling or with their heads bowed or whatever."
Many opponents of team prayers hope the high court decides not to hear Borden's case.
"Since 1962, the Supreme Court has been pretty clear that any employees at public schools cannot lead students in prayer and that includes principals, teachers and coaches," Boston said. "Now I know a lot of coaches bend that rule, but technically they're not supposed to.
"If the Supreme Court declines to hear the case, all they're saying is they consider the 1962 decision to be good law. … If they decide to hear the case, it could mean the justices are interested in taking another look at what role prayer should play in the public school system."
Any move in Tennessee to strengthen the ban on teams' or coaches' ability to pray would probably be met with hostility, said Louis Thompson, the Lincoln County coach.
"I'm going to continue to do it," he said, "and I couldn't care less what the Supreme Court says or does."

INDIAN CHURCH LEADERS QUESTIONS PROMISED SECURITY AFTER ANOTHER MURDER IN ORISSA

Nearly four months after tension in riot-hit Kandhamal, Orissa, India, had subsided, the murder of a Christian last week has raised eyebrows on the security of Christians and claims of "normalcy."

On Feb. 19, the body of Hrudayananda Nayak, 40, was found in a jungle near his home village of Rudangia, in Kandhamal district.
Local people claimed that Nayak, a Christian, was living in relief camps after violence broke out in the district. However, a day after his return to the village, he was killed.
"Somebody may have hit him on the head, causing his death," District Superintendent of Police S. Praveen Kumar said.
Rabindra Parichha, a social activist, claimed that Nayak, among other Christian leaders, was on the hit list of Hindu radicals.
Nayak, he said, was the fourth Christian to be abducted and killed after violence ebbed down by the end of October.
“The state should take strong action against the culprits," Parichha said.
According to Father Prasanna Singh, a parish priest in Kandhamal, the murder revealed to the world that violence against Christians still continues in sensitive areas. The murder committed during an afternoon has shocked the Christians in the state, the prelate added.
Violence broke out in August last year and has rendered thousands homeless, dozens murdered and hundreds of churches razed down.
The violence was sparked after Hindu fundamentalists accused Christians of slaying a local Hindu leader on Aug. 23, 2008, for which the Maoists had repeatedly claimed responsibility.
Earlier this month the state government had announced the shutdown of relief camps in Kandhamal district.
Despite church leaders opposing the hasty decision of the government, the Kandhamal district collector announced the closure of several relief camps, forcing many to return to homes that may have been destroyed and with little money and no immediate employment.
The National Council of Churches in India told Christian Today that victims in the state are reluctant to return to their villages, due to increasing "religious segregation" and scurrilous threats demanding "re-conversion to Hinduism."
Nayak’s murder is indeed a case in point to affirm that government claims of "safety" for Christians returning to villages are distrustful, the Church body commented.
Earlier this year, India’s Supreme Court ordered the state government of Orissa to protect the tens of thousands of Christians being targeted by Hindu extremists. Church leaders have accused the Orissa government of failing to protect the state’s persecuted Christians.

CHRISTIAN BOOK STORE VADALIZED IN TURKEY:PRAY AND MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN TURKEY

On Feb. 12, a Turkish Bible Society bookstore in the city of Adana was vandalized by Muslim extremists for the second time in a week,News reported.

Security cameras showed two Muslim youth vandalizing the storefront of the Soz Kitapevi bookstore. They were kicking and smashing glass in both the window and the door. The door frame was also damaged.

On Feb. 7, the glass of the front door was smashed and the security camera mangled. The bookstore had in the past received threats from Muslim extremists. Last November, a man reportedly entered the bookstore and began making accusations that the bookstore was linked to the Unites States Intelligence Agency and said, “You work with them killing people in Muslim countries, harming Muslim countries.”

VOM actively supports believers in Turkey with encouraging radio broadcasts. VOM assists local Christian workers who share the gospel with their neighbors in the communities they live in. Pray for the safety of the bookstore and its owners and workers. Ask God to protect believers in Turkey and that these acts of vandalism will not develop into more serious attacks.

SOMALIA: NUNS KIDNAPPED BY ISLAMIC MILLITANTS RELEASED ; PRAY FOR SOMALIA

NAIROBI, Kenya – Two nuns working in northeast Kenya who were kidnapped last November have been freed and arrived here from Mogadishu, Somalia on Thursday (Feb. 19), but they are still traumatized.
Caterina Giraudo, 67, and Maria Teresa Oliviero, 61, both of Italy, are receiving medical care, and top leaders of the Roman Catholic Church are providing them spiritual counseling. Pastor Alois Maina of Mandera, a close friend of the nuns, told that a representative of the pope and the Cardinal of Kenya are among those counseling the nuns, who on Nov. 10 were abducted at gunpoint by suspected Islamic militants.
Father Bongiovanni Franco, who worked with the sisters in Mandera, told Compass by telephone that the sisters are fatigued.
“Their movement from one place to another, and living in house confinement most of their stay in Mogadishu, seems to have affected their health – it was like a prison cell,” Fr. Franco said. “Apart from the spiritual attention being given to the sisters, there is also the need for intensive medical examination for them.”
The nuns had been kidnapped from Elwak, near Mandera, and taken across the nearby border into Somalia. Some 20 armed Somali men suspected to be members of the Islamic insurgent group al Shabaab – said to have links with al Qaeda – had taken them away in a midnight attack using three vehicles.
Asked about the circumstances surrounding their release, Fr. Franco said, “At the moment, our focus is on spiritual and medical needs for the sisters.”
Fr. Franco added that the two nuns cultivated friendly relations with some Muslims while in Somalia, in spite of being taken there by force.
“Thank you for your prayers and concern – indeed this has helped our sisters to be released,” Fr. Franco said. “We have just completed our evening prayers with them. We are planning for a two-day retreat with the sisters.”
Fr. Franco told that the delicate security situation of the two nuns at the moment preempted the possibility of interviewing them about their ordeal. Last week Sister Giraudo reportedly told Italian television channel Sky Italia by telephone, “We are very happy ... We were treated well, we are fine.”
Sources said the two sisters are staying somewhere in Eastleigh, a few kilometers from the city center of Nairobi.
Working in Kenya since the early 1970s, the nuns had provided medical and nutritional care to poor children, the elderly and expectant mothers. They are reportedly members of the Contemplative Missionary Movement P. de Foucauld.

INDIAN NUN CLAIMS SEX IS RIFE WITHIN CATHOLIC CHURCH

Bookshops throughout India's Christian communities in Kerala have already sold out of Amen, the autobiography of Sister Jesme, who has alleged that priests and nuns not only broke their vows of celibacy with each other but regularly forced novices to have sex with them.
The Catholic Church in India is mired in a series of sexual controversies, and has only just begun to recover from the dismissal of a senior bishop who "adopted" an attractive 26-year-old female companion as his "daughter".
The book by the former nun reveals how as a young novice she was propositioned in the confession box by a priest who cited biblical references to "divine kisses". Later she was cornered by a lesbian nun at a college where they were teaching. "She would come to my bed in the night and do lewd acts and I could not stop her," she claims.
When she was sent to Bangalore to stay with a priest known for his piety, he lectured her about the need for "physical love" and later assaulted her.
"Back in his room, he tried to fondle me and when I resisted, got up and asked angrily if I had seen a man. When I said no, he stripped himself, ejaculated and forced me to strip," she writes.
According to Sister Jesme, senior church officials twice tried to admit her into rehabilitation clinics and claimed she had mental problems after she complained about the scale of sexual abuse and the number of illicit affairs between nuns and priests.
Dr Paul Thelekkat, a spokesman for the Syro-Malabar Catholic church said he had some sympathy for sister Jesme, and respected her freedom to express her views, but he believed her claims were trivial. "How far what she says is well-founded I can't say, but the issues are not very serious. We're living with human beings in a community and she should realise this is part of human life," he told the Daily Telegraph.

ARCHAEOLOGISTS UNEARTH RELICS FROM ERAS OF FIRST AND SECOND TEMPLES

The Israel Antiquities Authority on Monday announced the discovery of a large building dating to the time of the First and Second Temples during an excavation in the village of Umm Tuba in southern Jerusalem.

The excavation was conducted by Zubair Adawi on behalf of the antiquities authority, prior to the start of construction there by a private contractor. The archaeological remains include several rooms arranged around a courtyard, in which researchers found a potter's kiln and pottery vessels. The pottery remains seem to date from the eighth century B.C.E. (First Temple period).

According to the antiquities authority, the site was destroyed along with Jerusalem and all of Judah during the Babylonian conquest. Jews reoccupied it during the Hasmonean period (second century B.C.E.) and it existed for another two hundred years until the destruction of the Second Temple. During the Byzantine period, the place was re-inhabited during the settlement of monasteries and farmsteads in the region between Jerusalem and Bethlehem.

The excavators also found royal seal impressions on some of the pottery fragments that date to the era of Hezekiah, King of Judah (end of the eighth century B.C.E.). Four "LMLK" impressions (which indicate the items belonged to the king) were discovered on handles of large jars used to store wine and oil. Seals of two high-ranking officials named Ahimelekh ben Amadyahu and Yehokhil ben Shahar, who served in the government, were also found. The Yehokhil seal was stamped on one of the LMLK impressions before the jar was fired in a kiln and this is a rare example of two such impressions appearing together on a single handle.

Excavators also discovered a Hebrew inscription - dating 600 years later than the Kingdom of Judah seals - on a fragment of a jar neck. An alphabetic sequence was engraved below the vessel's rim in Hebrew script that is characteristic of the beginning of the Hasmonean period (end of the second century B.C.E.). Three years ago, the remains of a monastery from this period were also excavated. Together with the current findings, they confirm the identification of the place as "Metofa," which is mentioned in the writings of the church fathers in the Byzantine period.

PALESTINIAN CHRISTIANS URGE POPE TO CALL OFF MAY VISIT TO ISRAEL

A group of Palestinian Christians has asked Pope Benedict XVI to call off his planned visit to Israel and the West Bank this coming May. The 40 community activists wrote to the pope that his visit would "help boost Israel's image and inadvertently minimize Palestinian suffering under Israeli occupation." The group urged the pope to link his visit to a series of Israeli measures, including improved access to Christian places of worship and halting taxation of church properties.

Christians from the West Bank, like their Muslim counterparts, need special permits to reach Jerusalem and its holy places. The pontiff is to visit the Holy Land May 8-15, including stops in Jordan, the West Bank and Israel.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert last week confirmed the pope's spring pilgrimage, avoiding any mention of tense Catholic-Jewish relations over the pontiff's rehabilitation of a Holocaust-denying bishop. This will be first by a pope to the Holy Land since John Paul visited in 2000. Catholic-Jewish relations have been extremely tense since Jan. 24, when Benedict lifted excommunications of four renegade traditionalist bishops in an attempt to heal a schism that began in 1988 when they were ordained without Vatican permission.

One of the bishops, Richard Williamson, denies the full extent of the Holocaust and says there were no gas chambers. The Vatican has ordered him to recant but he so far has not done so, saying he needs more time to review the evidence. Faced with Jewish anger over Williamson's remarks on the Holocaust, the pope said during a meeting with American Jewish leaders on Thursday that "any denial or minimization of this terrible crime is intolerable." A detailed itinerary of the pope's visit is not yet available. It would be the third visit of a reigning pontiff to Israel since the state was created in 1948. Pope Paul VI made a one-day stopover from Jordan in 1964, but since the Vatican and Israel did not yet have diplomatic relations, he avoided any statement or act that could be interpreted as even indirect recognition of the Jewish state. In March 2000, Pope John Paul II made a five-day pilgrimage to Israel and the Palestinian territories, during which he visited Christian and Jewish holy sites.

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."

30 TH ANNIVERSARY OF N.I.V BIBLE;COPYING THE BIBLE BY HAND , ONE PERSON PER VERSE

Reading the Bible aloud start to finish takes about 77 hours. Writing by hand the entire holy book? Try six months.

To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the New International Version of the Bible, the publishing house Zondervan is inviting people across the U.S. to copy a verse in their own hand."What better way than to let everyone participate?" said Moe Girkins, chief executive of Zondervan, the North American publisher of the NIV Bible, as it's commonly known. "Anywhere people love the Bible, we want to go."The six-month Bible Across America tour is visiting 90 cities and will include contributions from all 50 states. When the tour ends next month in Dallas, more than 31,000 people will have written a verse.

With about 14,000 verses transcribed, the tour visited Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., recently, offering churchgoers a chance to write verses from Mark, John and 1 and 2 Chronicles.After attending a Sunday morning service with her husband, Larry, and their 3-year-old son, John, Heidi Fritz chose to write a verse from John. The book appealed to her, she said, because it includes many passages of Jesus speaking in the first person and offers "lots of practical advice."Chronological order left her with John 8:3: "The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group." It wasn't exactly the kind of passage she had hoped for, but she said she was still glad to participate."It's an opportunity to re-create history," she said, comparing the project to early Bibles that were copied by hand.

Still, the Fritzes said they have no intention of handwriting all 31,173 verses of the Bible. "One verse is enough," they said.Inevitably, with limited leeway in choosing a verse, some participants are dealt less memorable or unsavory passages. So far, such verses have not deterred participants, said Tara Powers, a tour spokeswoman."People who love the Bible love the whole story," she said. "The tough stories need to be put in context."Angela Fish, whose husband and two daughters joined her in each writing a verse, agreed."It's a terrific opportunity to be part of God's word," she said. "Isn't every word of the Bible important?"For Fish, transcribing a verse reinforced messages of the Bible.

"Whenever you write something down, you take your time, kind of ingest it," she said.Lisa Duncan, 46, said writing 2 Chronicles 10:9 inspired her to revisit the Bible. "I want to go home and read this story and know the whole story of it," she said.Angela Fish's 8-year-old daughter, Emma Sandeman, said it was just "cool to write something in the book."Participants write each verse twice, producing two originals of the book. When complete, one copy will be donated to the Smithsonian Institution, the other to the International Bible Society, which holds the copyright to the NIV Bible. Zondervan will scan and format the handwritten pages for a textbook-sized Bible, to be published as "America's NIV."Many contributors said they looked forward to reading the completed handwritten Bible."It really touches me, being able to read it in other people's hand," Larry Fritz said.That's assuming, of course, that everyone's handwriting is legible.Ron Mitori, 62, said he initially thought his penmanship would be too difficult for others to read. But wanting to contribute, he decided to write a passage in print instead of his usual cursive."It makes me feel like I'm part of something that's bigger than me," he said after carefully inking each letter in John 7:46.To ensure the accuracy and legibility of each passage, tour volunteers provide the text of each verse on a small piece of paper and stand ready with white correction tape. A clear, illuminated box with black ruled lines sits underneath the 11-by-17-inch pages as participants write.After transcribing a passage, participants each receive a card listing the verse they wrote. When the Bible is published, an index will include every writer's name and corresponding verse.

SADDLEBACK ( RICK WARREN ) TEACHES FAITH LESSON USING 10,000 GROCERY BAGS

Trust in God and fill 10,000 grocery bags with food was the challenge heard by attendees of Saddleback Church this past weekend.

As part of his current sermon series on prayer, Saddleback’s founding pastor Rick Warren gave a message on “The Prayer of Dependence” where he urged attendees to pray and depend on God for their daily bread.
The sermon was especially timely because of heightened anxiety over the economy as well as concerns over whether the stimulus package passed by Congress last week will work.
But Warren reminded his congregation that depending on God means seeing God as the source for everything.
“Whatever your need is – physical, emotional, relational, spiritual, whether it is the need in your body, in your mind, or a need in your soul or a need in your spirit – God says ‘I will take care of that need if you will depend on me,” Warren preached on Sunday, according to an audio file posted on the church’s Web site.
Christians need to trust in Him to provide the necessities they need in life, and also share whatever He gives, the California pastor noted.
“There’s nothing I need that God can’t supply,” Warren told his congregation. “It means that as a child of God, as a follower of Christ I should never, and you should never, have a scarcity mentality."
“What is the scarcity mentality? Scarcity mentality says, ‘I’m afraid there isn’t enough. There isn’t enough to go around. So I’m going to panic, I’m going to worry. I’m going to get anxious, I’m going to be afraid.' There’s more than enough to go around friends,” the megachurch pastor assured.
To apply the lesson, the church distributed more than 10,000 empty shopping bags at the end of the services and challenged its congregants to overcome their economic fear with faith and take care of their neighbors’ need.
"The number one way that God tests your faith? Money," Warren said. "God wants to know: Are you going to worry, or are you going to trust me? … When I meet others' needs, God takes care of mine."
Saddleback Church encouraged participants to give the bag filled with nonperishable food to friends and family in need, but most of the parishioners said they'd rather bring the bags back to the church for it to distribute, according to The Orange County Register.
The southern California megachurch is expected to in turn donate the bags to local food banks that are desperately in need of supply.
Operation Blessing International, a Christian relief and humanitarian ministry, reported, for example, a 343 percent increase in partner applications from food pantries across the country for provision recently.
But despite the economic depression, Saddleback parishioners after the service appeared enthusiastic to help put food on the table for needy locals.
Ruthie Daniel expressed willingness to participate in the food drive despite identifying herself as a “person in need.”
"This is my way of giving to God, because I know he'll supply my needs," she said, according to The Orange County Register. "This sermon was just perfect for me today, because I'm going to trust him and not worry. … I think this is going to be a really great week for me."
Across the country, food banks have been reporting a drastic rise in demand for assistance as the economic depression deepens. The Maryland Food Bank, for instance, saw an increase in demand of 25 to 50 percent since last summer, according to WBAL-TV. Meanwhile, food banks in Gulfport, Miss., say they’ve experienced about a 30 percent increase in families needing food, according to WLOX-TV.