SHANGAI AUTHORITIES PLAN TO DEPRIVE WANBANG MISSIONARY CHURCH OF IT'S RIGHT TO WORSHIP; PRAY AND MAKE A DIFFERENCE

SHANGHAI, -- The following statement is by Pastor Liu Tongsu, an eyewitness to these events:

On the morning of February 10, 2009, six Chinese police officers and officials from the State Administration of Religious Affairs (SARA) visited the chief pastor Cui Quan of Wanbang Missionary Church of Shanghai and ordered him to cancel the 4th Seminar of Chinese Urban House Church Pastors Fellowship. Pastor Cui Quan argued and claimed that the church has its rights. He also pointed out that as the authorities tried to ban the conference at the last moment when most attendants to the seminar had already arrived and checked into hotels, it was really impossible to cancel the conference by that time. The visiting officials persisted in their original order and threatened that if the conference was not canceled, the government would terminate the conference with coercive measures. The next morning, two police officers again came to the church and again ordered that the conference be stopped. Pastor Cui Quan came up with various flexible plans in an attempt to comply with the order, all to no avail. He then had to announce that the conference be held as originally planned. Again, the visiting police officers threatened that they would use harsh and coercive measures to stop the conference.

During the lunch, the delegates to the conference decided that though they had the right to get together, they did not want to make things difficult for the local police or bring unnecessary troubles to Wanbang Missionary Church. Therefore, they decided to move the conference to another location. On the afternoon of February 12, when the conference ended at another place, Wanbang Missionary Church found that the police had ordered the landlord of Wanbang Church to terminate the rental agreement within 30 days. At this time, the congregation of 1,200 of Wanbang Missionary Church faces losing their site of gathering that they have legally rented. Therefore, they are deprived of their right to Sunday worship.

This act of the Chinese government is a serious violation of the people's basic rights and it is committed in a very unreasonable manner.

(1) In using coercive measures to end a small-scale academic seminar, the authorities will obviously deprive the people of their right to assemble.

(2) While Wanbang Missionary Church changed the site of the conference out of their understanding of the difficult situation the police found themselves in, it is very unnatural and is against human nature for the police to take revenge on the church for trying to cooperate.

(3) Terminating a civil agreement that is completely in line with the legal process, through the use of a state compulsory organ (police) is already a violation of more than one law. We urge people from all walks of life to appeal to Shanghai government to stop its persecution of Wanbang Missionary Church and we also ask Shanghai government to end out of their own accord all improper and unconstitutional acts.

CHRISTIAN RADIO REACHING MILLIONS IN MUSLIM NATIONS; PRAYERS MAKING DIFFERENCE....

The new president of HCJB Global says the Christian radio ministry now has an estimated seven million mostly-Muslim listeners in North Africa and the Middle East.

Wayne Pederson says the Arab world is full of "lost people who need Jesus, and they're getting tired of a message of hate and are looking for a message of love." He says that through HCJB radio broadcasts, the gospel is penetrating Muslim societies -- so much so that entire households, and in some cases entire villages, are converting to Christianity. "When Jesus came, He didn't just preach. He healed. And so we want to do both -- preach on the radio and heal through our healthcare. People in that part of the world are coming to Christ as households, as communities. Entire villages are coming to Christ together," he notes.

"Each household has seven to eight people in a household. So we're saying conservatively, we've got seven million listeners. In a huge Muslim section of the world, you've probably heard stories of how the gospel is penetrating that society. An independent survey has found that we have a million households a week listening to our broadcast in North Africa and Middle East."

PASTOR T.D.JAKES STEPSON FACES CHARGE

DALLAS — The stepson of megachurch pastor T.D. Jakes has been arrested on an indecent exposure charge.
Dallas police say Jermaine Jakes is accused of exposing himself to two undercover vice detectives last month. He turned himself in Thursday and was released on a $1,000 personal recognizance bond.
His lawyer, Faith Johnson, didn't return a call to the AP on Thursday. She told Dallas-Fort Worth television station KTVT: "We are aware of potential allegations involving Jermaine Jakes and are undertaking our own investigation of these allegations at this time."
According to an arrest affidavit, the younger Jakes showed himself to the detectives in a public park near his stepfather's church.
Jakes' stepfather is a Dallas megachurch pastor who gave a sermon at the prayer service for Barack Obama on the morning he was sworn in as president.

SCHOOL SECRETARY THREATENED AFTER HER DAUGHTER MENTIONS JESUS IN LONDON; PRAY AND MAKE A DIFFERENCE.....

A school secretary whose daughter mentioned Jesus to a classmate now is facing discipline, including the possibility of dismissal from her position, for having sent an e-mail to friends from her home computer asking for prayer about the issue.
The case is developing, according to a report in the London Daily Mail, for Jennie Cain, a receptionist at Landscore Primary School in Crediton, Devon.
Her daughter, Jasmine, age 5, attends the school and recently was scolded by a teacher for talking about God and her faith, the report said. She was in tears after the discipline, the paper said.

Cain, who has worked at the school part-time since 2006, said after her work shift was completed – as a parent – she went to talk with teacher Sharon Gottelier about the situation. She then was summoned to the office of Principal Gary Read the next morning, where she was told "how he wasn't happy about her making statements about her faith," Cain told the paper.
After meeting with Read, Cain went home and e-mailed a prayer request about the situation to some friends at her church, and soon she was notified of the pending discipline for her statements in the e-mail.
"I felt embarrassed that a private prayer e-mail was read by the school – it felt like someone had gone through my personal prayer diary," she told the paper. "I feel my beliefs are so central to who I am, are such a part of my children's life.
"I do feel our beliefs haven't been respected and I don't feel I have been treated fairly. I don't know what I am supposed to have done wrong,' she said. She reported she doesn't know how the school got a copy of her e-mail.
Christian Institute spokesman Mike Judge said children should be allowed to discuss religion without interference from teachers, the report said.
Cain said she now is being investigated for professional misconduct, and Read has confirmed the school's board of governors is involved.
It is the second incident of Christians being disciplined or threatened by employers in the U.K. over issues of prayer in just the last few weeks.
It was just days ago WND reported a Christian nurse in Britain had been threatened with dismissal for offering to pray for her patients' recovery.
A report from the Christian Legal Centre said the nurse, Caroline Petrie, later was restored to her position.

INDIA TO LAUNCH COW URINE AS SOFT DRINK, A NEW WAY OF PROMOTING HINDUTVA; PRAY AND MAKE A DIFFERENCE...

Does your Pepsi lack pep? Is your Coke not the real thing? India's Hindu nationalist movement apparently has the answer: a new soft drink made from cow urine.
The bovine brew is in the final stages of development by the Cow Protection Department of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), India's biggest and oldest Hindu nationalist group, according to the man who makes it.
Om Prakash, the head of the department, said the drink – called "gau jal", or "cow water" – in Sanskrit was undergoing laboratory tests and would be launched "very soon, maybe by the end of this year".
"Don't worry, it won't smell like urine and will be tasty too," he told The Times from his headquarters in Hardwar, one of four holy cities on the River Ganges. "Its USP will be that it's going to be very healthy. It won't be like carbonated drinks and would be devoid of any toxins."
The drink is the latest attempt by the RSS – which was founded in 1925 and now claims eight million members – to cleanse India of foreign influence and promote its ideology of Hindutva, or Hindu-ness.
Hindus revere cows and slaughtering them is illegal in most of India. Cow dung is traditionally used as a fuel and disinfectant in villages, while cow urine and dung are often consumed in rituals to "purify" those on the bottom rungs of the Hindu caste system.
In 2001, the RSS and its offshoots – which include the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party – began promoting cow urine as a cure for ailments ranging from liver disease to obesity and even cancer.
The movement has often been accused of using more violent methods, such as killing 67 Christians in the eastern state of Orissa last year, and assaulting women in a pub in Mangalore last month. It also has a history of targeting foreign business in India, as in 1994, when it organised a nationwide boycott of multinational consumer goods, including Pepsi and Coca Cola.
The cola brands are popular in India, now one of their biggest markets, but have struggled in recent years to shake off allegations, which they deny, that they contain dangerous levels of pesticide.
Mr Prakash said his drink, by contrast, was made mainly of cow urine, mixed with a few medicinal and ayurvedic herbs. He said it would be "cheap", but declined to give further details about its price or ingredients until it was officially launched.
He insisted, however, that it would be able to compete with the American cola brands, even with their enormous advertising budgets. "We're going to give them good competition as our drink is good for mankind," he said. "We may also think of exporting it."