U.S. ENVOY TO VISIT VIETNAM AMID RELIGIOUS CRACKDOWN (RFA)

8:52:09 PM    

ONE CHINESE CHRISTIAN RELEASED BUT OTHERS COULD FACE DEATH PENALTY  (ANS)

China has released one of three detained Chinese Christians, who played a key role in the country's growing house church movement, a leading religious rights watchdog said late Wednesday, October 15.

8:44:03 PM    

PLAN TO PARTICIPATE IN IDOP: NOVEMBER 9/16, 2003

Once again IDOP is just around the corner.  To mobilize your friends and church to pray VOM (The Voice of the Martyrs) has a kit which includes a video and DVD entitled "The Communion of Saints Under Fire."  They also have downloadable pdf documents which you can view and print out with the free Adobe Reader. 

Open Doors which was founded by Brother Andrew also produces a free IDOP kit. They also have free pdf documents for download which include church bulletin inserts on IDOP and a sermon outline.

Assist News Service produced an excellent article on IDOP callled INTERNATIONAL DAY OF PRAYER (IDOP) FOR THE PERSECUTED CHURCH - 9/16 NOVEMBER 2003
It would also be a good resource to print out or forward to friends and members of your church family.

MORE LINKS:

The International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church 
http://www.persecutedchurch.org

http://www.idop.org

1:39:23 PM    

Christian Aid just received testimonies of several Christian workers in Vietnam. Here are excerpts from a few of them:

1:09:53 PM    

The Bulang of China - people profile

The Bulang, also known as the Pula or Samtao, are a minority group of nearly 90,000. Most of them live in the mountainous regions of the Yunnan province, which is located in south central China. One distinguishing feature of the Bulang is the men's practice of tattooing their limbs and torsos.

10:52:52 AM    

BAPTISTS PERSECUTED IN CENTRAL ASIA REPUBLICS (ANS)

Baptists and other evangelical Christians are "beaten, fined, detained, deported and sacked" from jobs in at least two central Asian republics which were part of the Soviet Union, ASSIST News Service learned Tuesday, October 14.

10:34:56 AM