Free Republic

A best-selling author and critic of Islam says he can't understand why U.S. President Barack Obama and the United Nations are not expressing more outrage over the execution-style murder of three Christian missionaries in Yemen, apparently by al Qaeda. According to a spokesman from the Yemeni Embassy in Washington, nine foreign nationals -- four German adults, three small German children, a British man, and a South Korean woman -- were abducted on June 12 after they ventured outside the city of Saada without their required police escorts. Days later the bodies of German nurses Rita Stumpp and Anita Gruenwald, and...

The fate of three of nine foreigners abducted in Yemen last week is known — their bodies were found, shot execution style. The whereabouts of the other six — including three children under the age of 6 — remain a mystery. But terrorism experts say their abductors and killers are almost certainly not a mystery. They say the crimes bear the mark of Al Qaeda, and they fear they are the handiwork of the international terror organization's No. 2 man in the Arabian Peninsula: Said Ali al-Shihri, an Islamic extremist who once was in American custody — but who was...

A few years ago, my mom was called to be the Relief Society president in our tri-lingual ward. I remember watching as she painstakingly translated every e-mail, note and newsletter into Spanish and Portuguese. She became friends with women who didn't speak her language. She made sure every lesson was translated. One time, a cranky, English-speaking sister complained about the volunteer interpreters who sat in the back of the Relief Society room and offered hushed translations of the lessons. The sister said they made it hard to concentrate. Without flinching, my mom defended the interpreters and kindly explained that it...

Muslim Morocco expels 5 Christian missionaries (03-29-2009)‎ RABAT, Morocco (AP) — Authorities have expelled five Christian missionaries from Morocco on the grounds that they were illegally inciting Muslims to convert ... http://www.dailyreligious.com/archives/26942

A Jewish outreach organization has called on mainstream booksellers including Barnes & Noble and Amazon to remove a Christian missionary version of the traditional Passover Hagaddah from the Judaism sections of online and conventional bookstores. Rabbi Tovia Singer, director of Outreach Judaism, said, "Despite the innocent-sounding title 'Passover Family Pack: Everything You Need to Enjoy a Passover Seder Dinner,' the guide quickly departs from the traditional holiday message once it is opened." Jewish families seeking to celebrate the ancient exodus of the Jewish People from Egyptian slavery find once they open the package that they are encouraged to express their...

SNIPPET: "Nytta Norton of Bryant, Alabama, says her son, 48-year-old Bob Norton, has been serving as director of Adventist Medical Aviation - Venezuela. SNIPPET: "She says searches have failed to locate the plane he was piloting, which also carried his wife, two adults accompanying two sick children, and a missionary who taught at an Adventist school. Norton says her son "grew up with a missionary spirit and was carrying on for his dad," who was killed while piloting a missionary plane that crashed 29 years ago in Mexico."

WEST PAWLET, Vt. – Four years ago in this remote valley hamlet, the last eight members of the financially strapped United Church of West Pawlet voted to disband the congregation. Tad Perry remembers the wrenching vote as “one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do.” But now on a nine-degree Sunday morning, a steady plume rises once again from the chimney behind the steeple. Inside, nearly 50 people singing catchy hymns with piano accompaniment help make the tiny sanctuary feel close to full. And the voice from the pulpit bespeaks what’s taking place—not only here, but in formerly...

After nearly a decade of service in the West African Muslim nation, the Fultons, missionaries from an Assemblies of God church in Britain, experienced a string of difficulties, including a disagreement that led them to part with their local church. At about the same time, David reduced his role as an army chaplain and was assaulted by a man he described as a Muslim fundamentalist. "Now how [a growing extremist element] should be dealt with, I don't know," David wrote in an e-mail to supporters. "(I have suggested that we arm the Muslims with sticks and the Christians with machine...

Disaster Training Conference Planned for Missionaries, NGOs and Aid Workers to Reach the World’s Hotspots BARTLESVILLE, OKLAHOMA (ANS) -- Ever wondered what it is like to spend time in a refugee camp? Now you can have that experience and gain valuable tools and knowledge on working in some of the world's hotspots, areas where there is war, disaster or persecution of Christian believers. Strategic World Impact (SWI), a faith-based mission organization located in northeastern Oklahoma will hold its 10th Disaster Assistance Response Training (DART) Conference from June 14 to June 19, 2009 at Oklahoma Wesleyan University in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. Space...

Atheist realizes Africa needs Christianity As an atheist, I truly believe Africa needs God Missionaries, not aid money, are the solution to Africa's biggest problem - the crushing passivity of the people's mindset.Before Christmas I returned, after 45 years, to the country that as a boy I knew as Nyasaland. Today it's Malawi, and The Times Christmas Appeal includes a small British charity working there. Pump Aid helps rural communities to install a simple pump, letting people keep their village wells sealed and clean. I went to see this work. It inspired me, renewing my flagging faith in development charities....

Missionaries, not aid money, are the solution to Africa's biggest problem - the crushing passivity of the people's mindset. Before Christmas I returned, after 45 years, to the country that as a boy I knew as Nyasaland. Today it's Malawi, and The Times Christmas Appeal includes a small British charity working there. Pump Aid helps rural communities to install a simple pump, letting people keep their village wells sealed and clean. I went to see this work. It inspired me, renewing my flagging faith in development charities. But travelling in Malawi refreshed another belief, too: one I've been trying to...

CBS's 48 Hours is re-airing a special on a unique Christian camp -- and the camp's founder is encouraging people to tune in. The Lord's Boot Camp is located in south Florida's swampland and is run by Teen Missions International. Both were founded in the early 1970s by Bob Bland and offer teenagers an intense two-week training session before they embark on overseas mission trips. Bland told OneNewsNow that the camp portion was created after one of the mission teams encountered some close calls. "And in [19]72 we took a team to Peru and we said, 'Boy, so many things...

We are asking prayer for safety,well-being and release of the Korean hostages from Taliban terrorists. 2-3 of the hostages have been murdered! Negotiations for release are political, so the process is slow and painful. Please pray for families involved waiting for their loved ones. Thank You for your prayerful support. Hebrews 13:3..Remember the prisoners as if chained with them, and those who are mistreated, since you yourselves are in the body also.

Subject: Missionaries in Kenya know Obama Thought you'd find this interesting. Celeste and Loren Davis are Missionaries in Africa and can shed some firsthand light on one of our Presidential candidates. Thanks for sending out an alert about Obama. We are living and working in Kenya for almost twelve years now and know his family (tribe) well. They are the ones who were behind the recent Presidential election chaos here. Thousands of people have been displaced by election violence (over 350,000) and I don't know the last count of the dead. Obama, under 'friends of Obama' gave almost a million...

Religious persecution is well-known in Uzbekistan, where human rights group accuse the government of imprisoning hundreds of Muslims for practicing their faith outside state-approved institutions and labeling them extremists bent on overthrowing the secular government. Now, the government of President Islam Karimov is taking a broader aim against believers -- this time targeting primarily fringe Christian missionary groups. A recent documentary on Uzbek state television condemned such groups as the Jehovah's Witnesses, Christian Gospel Church, and Blagodat (Grace) as creating a "global problem, along with religious dogmatism, fundamentalism, terrorism, and drug addiction." The documentary, "In the Clutches of Ignorance," featured...

Here is the text of an e-mail I received today from a family member in Israel: "Urgent Prayer request: I just talked with Pastor XXXX from Ariel, he was at the hospital because his son XXXX opened a package that was left at their door step and it exploded. He is in critical condition and has wounds to his head, neck, chest and legs. Pray for XXXX and XXXX who are the parents." I X'd out all names to protect the identity of the families, and it's reasonable to expect that this was a targeted attack. God will know who...

Jordan Churches slam foreign missionaries seeking to upset stable ties between Muslims, Christians. AMMAN - Jordanian Christians are up in arms over the activities of foreign missionaries in the Muslim conservative kingdom which is rich in biblical sites, including the spot where Jesus was baptised. The row erupted after the government announced last month that it had deported an unspecified number of expatriates for carrying out Christian missionary activities under the guise of charity work. The move was welcomed by several Christian figures, with many voicing concern that foreign missionaries were seeking to upset the traditionally stable ties between Muslims...

A judge has given a thumbs down to a family of American missionaries who had sought permission to remain in Germany, where they have been serving a church work in Nurnberg. "Yesterday we learned that the court has refused to rule on the Robinsons' behalf. The court's ruling was entirely on a procedural matter; the court refused to deal with the question as to whether the refusal to grant a permit to stay in Germany is ill-founded or not...," he said. When they arrived, they applied for a residency permit, required by the government. But local authorities immediately reacted to...

A group of Franciscan nuns from Glasgow are trapped in desperate circumstances in their missionary compound in Kenya. The sisters, who are sheltering 1,500 vulnerable people in the convent, faxed an emergency plea to the leader of Scotland’s Roman Catholics for help. Sister Kelly, the head of the order in Kericho, in the southwest of the country, said that she was protecting men, women and children from marauding gangs, but was running out of food and water. The Sunday Herald reported that in a desperate communication to Cardinal Keith O’Brien in Glasgow, Sister Kelly said: “There are currently 1,500 people...

As Masai warriors guarded the Kenyan orphanage where sisters Brittanie and Aubrie Vander Mey and friend Jamie Cook worked, the three wondered how they would make it back to West Michigan. They had planned to spend two months caring for orphans affected by HIV or AIDS at the Omwabini Centre in Kimilili, but post-election violence cut short their stay. Newscasts told them the violence was coming closer each day to the orphanage, about 180 miles from Nairobi and 45 miles from Eldoret, where 35 people died when a church filled with women and children was burned last week. Today, the...