Pray for the World: 14 March 2006

Pray for the World: 14 March 2006 Update From HCJB World Radio
Today's Headlines:

WORLD VISION WARNS OF 'CATASTROPHIC FAMINE' IN EAST AFRICA

NORTHERN NIGERIAN STATE SEEKING FOREIGN SUPPORT TO TRAIN JIHADISTS

U.S. CONGRESS QUESTIONS LIMITS ON RELIGIOUS GROUPS TRAVELING TO CUBA

MEDICAL AMBASSADORS WORK FOR LONG-TERM SOLUTIONS, WITNESS

APPLICATIONS UP MORE THAN 8% AT CHRISTIAN COLLEGES ACROSS U.S.

Today's Top Stories:

WORLD VISION WARNS OF 'CATASTROPHIC FAMINE' IN EAST AFRICA

World Vision's relief staff in East Africa fears that at least five
countries in the region may be heading for a catastrophic famine not seen
since the mid-1980s. The most affected countries include Ethiopia,
Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania and Burundi. Six additional nearby countries are
also suffering from a long-term food crisis that has been complicated by
drought. Reports from the region suggest that 37 million people are
already suffering from critical hunger and another 162 million are
malnourished. World Vision U.S. Africa Director David Scheiman said that
although the world has yet to see the horrific scenes witnessed in
Ethiopia in 1984, millions are on the verge of starvation. "A lot of
people are malnourished and weak. They have already lost or sold their
animals. They don't have a coping mechanism," he said. Lack of media
interest in the tragedy has made it difficult to raise funds for relief
efforts. "The press is not engaged because as yet there are no images of
extreme starvation," Scheiman explained. "But if we don't deal with it
now, it could happen." (World Vision)

NORTHERN NIGERIAN STATE SEEKING FOREIGN SUPPORT TO TRAIN JIHADISTS

The Nigerian government recently said intelligence agents had found that
the northern state of Kano was seeking foreign support to train 100
jihadists among vigilante enforcers of sharia (Islamic law) called Hisbah.
The state sought to train the militants in "intelligence" and the
"practice of jihad" with the help of foreign Islamic governments, said
Nigerian Information and National Orientation Minister Frank Nweke Jr.
Christians in Nigeria's northern states where sharia has been implemented
often complain of assault, harassment, intimidation and flagrant violation
of the religious rights of Christians by the Hisbah. One Christian leader
called this a "terror machine" in the hands of fanatical Islamic
governments aimed at
strangulating Christianity in northern Nigeria. (Compass)

U.S. CONGRESS QUESTIONS LIMITS ON RELIGIOUS GROUPS TRAVELING TO CUBA

More than 100 members of the U.S. Congress have signed a letter to
Treasury Secretary John Snow questioning changes in his department's rules
that have halted the ability of some religious organizations to travel to
Cuba. "We understand the complicated political reality that exists between
the United States and Cuban governments," states the March 3 letter.
"However, we believe it is inappropriate and unacceptable for politics and
government to serve as a hurdle and now as a barrier to faith-based
connections between individuals." The concerns addressed in the three-page
letter are also scheduled to be the subject of a Capitol Hill meeting
Wednesday, March 15, involving politicians, administration officials and
religious leaders. The growing reaction to regulation changes comes after
the policy was modified in September 2004. Since then, some mainstream
religious organizations have found that their requests to the Office of
Foreign Assets Control for license renewal were denied. (WorldWide
Religious News/Washington Post)


MEDICAL AMBASSADORS WORK FOR LONG-TERM SOLUTIONS, WITNESS

In times of natural disasters, human catastrophe and other emergencies,
people tend to throw money, aid and assistance at the problem, but Medical
Ambassadors International's Bob Paul says that causes problems of its own.
"When help is given in such a way that it encourages people to become
passive and have their hand out and expect others to simply do things for
them, it breeds an attitude of dependency," he said. Instead, Medical
Ambassadors uses a program called Community Health Evangelism (CHE). "We
send in a very small team of two or three people who build a long-term
relationship and begin to work with the people in that village to come up
with solutions to problems on their own," Paul says. CHE workers often
share their faith during the process. "What you also get are not people
who may make a short-term decision for Christ because they think they have
to do that to get something, but instead you get a discipleship process
that really allows people to develop a meaningful and lasting relationship
with the Lord," he said. (Mission Network News)

APPLICATIONS UP MORE THAN 8% AT CHRISTIAN COLLEGES ACROSS U.S.

Evangelical Christian colleges are attracting record numbers of
applications this year in a trend that bodes well for schools that were
struggling to survive just a generation ago, reported The Chicago Tribune.
Applications have jumped between 8 percent and 10 percent at the 238
colleges that belong to the North American Association of Christian
Admissions Professionals. Twenty-five percent of those schools are barely
breaking even financially, so the news is good even though the enhanced
competition for spots means disappointment for some high school seniors
who thought their credentials were good enough to get in. "On Jan. 15 we
had thousands and thousands of applications from students who in prior
years would have been admissible, but we had to wait-list them," said
James Steen, assistant vice president of admission and enrollment services
at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. Standards also appear to be rising as
average SAT scores among Baylor applicants is 1,225, up from 1,198 last
year. Enrollment at the 102 evangelical schools belonging to the Council
of Christian Colleges and Universities increased 70 percent since 1990,
moving to 230,000 from 135,000. This marks a turnaround from the 1960s and
1970s when religious colleges struggled to attract enough students.
(Religion Today)=================

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