- This week on Christian World News,
troubling news for India'sChristian community.
A Hindu nationalist partywins five more years of power.
Persecution has alreadyincreased under its rule.
How much worse will it get?
- Plus, crisis in East Africa.
Hundreds of thousandsat risk of starvation.
And for young women in this region,
the horrific abuse sufferedat the hands of family.
What the church is doing to stop it.
- And a mission of mercy,
turns into a fight of life and death.
This Christian doctor, shot and bleeding,
sends a message to his family.
- Hello everyone!
Welcome to this week's editionof Christian World News.
I'm George Thomas.
And I'm Wendy Griffith.
India's Hindu-led BJP party secured
a massive landslide victory innational elections this week.
Incumbent Prime Minister, Narendra Modi
win his second term in office
following a marathon election
in the world's largest democracy.
Official data also show
Modi's party winning
303 of the 542 seats in parliament
up from 282 it had won five years ago.
Christians and other religious minorities
who have suffered intenselevels of persecution
under Modi's first five years in office,
fear the next five years couldbring even more hardships.
- Joining me now is Jeff King,
president of InternationalChristian Concern.
Jeff, great to have youback on the broadcast.
So why is India embracingthis Hindu nationalist party?
- Oh that's a great question, George.
I think there's a couple factors.
If you look around the world,
there's a drift towardsstrong men in the world.
You see it in India, in China, in Egypt,
in different places.
Other thing though, I thinkreally specific to India
is that there's a perceivethreat of Islam and Pakistan.
It looked like the electionwas gonna be a little closer.
There was a suicide bombing in Kashmir,
but you can't even point to that.
It's a much broader move.
So it is the reaction to Islam.
It is a reaction to Christianity, too.
When our Christians are seen
as the prime converters of Hindus.
So it's very much a turntowards nationalism.
- And since the BJP cameto power five years ago,
persecution, as you know,against Christians has increased.
How bad has it been?
- It's bad, you know?
We do our own internal surveys.
We're monitoring the newsand the attacks everyday.
I don't have the stats in front of me,
but it's a very very strong increase.
It happened right after Modi gained power.
And that's not by accident, George.
You know the BJP andModi are radical Hindus.
There's a lot of hatespeech towards Christians
coming out from the party.
And then Modi's big jobis just to be silent
after attacks on Christians.
And this signals, hisradical followers that
they have impunity.
There will be no consequences.
So very strong increase.
Totally correlated with the BJP with Modi.
It's now gonna get worse.
- And they won a landslide.
This was a massive victory for them.
They gained seats, as mycolleague Wendy mentioned,
in the house of parliament,in the Lok Sabha,
as they call it.
Do you expect it willget worse for Christians
in the next five years?
I very much do, George.
You know there's a couple thingsthat are really worrisome.
First of all, the breadand butter of persecution,
is gonna continue and is gonna increase.
That's attacks on Christians.
That's attacks on churches, on pastors.
Radical violent closings of churches.
But here's something even more frightening
that the word on the street,
this isn't even a word on the street,
some of it is coming from the BJP,
is that they will say, "hey,listen, we have a mandate,"
and they're gonna usethat to push the country
to change the Constitution.
Move it away from Secularism
and make it primarily Hindu.
That's gonna be a disaster.
- We have last 30 seconds here,
how is the churchreacting to this election
and how can we pray for them?
- Well, we need to prayfor brothers and sisters,
they are reacting with sadness.
It's not absolute surprise.
I think we all knew Modi wasgonna win in the recent weeks.
I'm not sure how people thought it was
gonna be this big of a landslide.
But we need to pray and weneed to get the gospel out.
This isn't the end; it's a spiritual war.
People in India need the gospel.
And the persecuted need protection.
- Okay, Jeff, thank you somuch for coming on the show.
Jeff King with InternationalChristian Concern
appreciate your insights.
- Bless you.
- Wendy.
- The growing tension in the Middle East
is highlighting the Iranianregimes abuses of human rights.
Particularly, thepersecutions of Christians
and other religious minorities.
In Washington, D.C., human rights experts,
religious freedom advocates,and politicians came together
to hear about Iran's escalatingwar against non-Muslims.
Victims of Christian persecution in Iran
also addressed the gathering,
sharing first-hand accountsof life in the Islamic regime.
- The Iranian governmentarrested and imprisoned us
because of our EvangelicalChristian faith.
We were threatened and indictedwith execution by hanging
for charges of apostasy, blasphemy,
and promoting Christianity in Iran.
We have spent 259 daysin Tehran's notorious,
ebbing prison.
Where we learned why Iranis classified as among the
countries where followers of Christ face
the most extreme persecution.
- Among those invited wereAmbassador Sam Brownback,
Senator Ted Cruz, and Dr. Mike Ansari
headed one of the largestsatellite channels
broadcasting Christianprograms in to Iran.
- During this Islamicholy month of Ramadan,
Christians around the worldare praying and ministring
to Muslims in their communities.
However, one Anglican church in the U.K.
stepped over the line.
A church of Englandplanned to host a Ramadan
celebration at St. Matthewand St. Luke's church
in Darlington.
The event included aMuslim prayer service.
Church leaders even offeredto cover up the cross.
The diocese of Durhamput a stop to the prayer
ruling that non-Christian worship
is not allowed in its churches.
- Voters in Europe casttheir ballots through May 26
in what some are callingthe most important
E.U. parliament election in a generation.
Citizens in all 28 EuropeanUnion member states
are choosing 751 seats.
A new organization ofChristian political parties
in the election, is hopingto give small parties
a big voice in Brussels.
It's called the EuropeanChristian Political Movement.
It's founder is Johannes De Jong.
- The reason that we created
the European Christian Political Movement
was that we could see that in existing
European political parties,there was not much space for
an explicit Christian profile.
To Christians in Europe,know that we are there,
know that we are there,
know that there areparties at national level
that seem small in your eyes,
but at the European level, together,
as European Christian Political Movement,
we can really give thema much bigger platform
And we do.
De Jong said that the E.U.was founded by Christians
and is rooted in Christian civilizations.
- [George] Up next, race to save lives
that Christians bringing foodto a starving population.
And rescuing young girlsfrom horrific abuse.
- [Pat] People wanna know,
is there a plan and how do you find it?
- [Guy Narrator] CBN presents The Plan.
Eight Keys for UnderstandingGod's Will for Your Life.
- We're going to talk aboutGod's plan for your life.
- Is there a plan for everyone to life?
- [Narrator] In PatRobertson's latest teaching,
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- The plan of God willbe unfolded in your life
in ways you couldn't believe possible.
- [Guy Narrator] In The Plan,Pat reveals the principles
to understanding God's Will
so that you will be filledwith peace, provision, joy,
and satisfaction.
Plus, see amazing stories of how others
are living out there individualpurpose intended by God.
- God is faithful and wedid what He told us to do.
- [Guy Narrator] Live thelife God has designed for you.
- [Rob] I hope that Godworks out a plan in you
that will bring blessing,joy, peace, and happiness.
- [ Guy Narrator] Get ThePlan. Call 1-800-700-7000.
Or visit cbn.com.
- [Girl Narrator] Remember for a moment
what it was like to be a child.
You believed every story you were told.
You saw a world full ofendless possibilities.
What stories will the world's
orphans and at-risk children believe?
We believe the Bible tells the only story
truly worth believing.
We believe that every child
should have the opportunity to dream.
The chance to take challenges
and turn them into possibilities.
The chance to stand onthe promises of God.
To recognize their place inthe greatest story ever told.
They have their whole lives ahead of them.
Theirs is a world ofendless possibilities.
They are looking for a story to believe.
We will tell them that story.
Will you join us?
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- Welcome back to Christian World News.
In Nigeria, this week,
gunman reportedly kidnappedan evangelical pastor
and 16 other Christians in an attack
that also killed one person.
The incident happened in theIgabi local government area
in Kaduna state.
Reverend Zakariah Ido and 16 members
of the Evangelical ChurchWinning All were kidnapped
after midnight in theearly hours of Sunday.
A witness said 20 to 30armed Fulani extremists,
a violent, mostly Islamicgroup carried out the attack
as the church was hostinga combined choir sing.
The church has reported to have a large
mission organization andhas seen phenomenal growth
with some congregations
rather increasing as muchas 400% in recent years.
The kidnappers aredemanding 15 million naira.
That's about $41,000.
Church leaders say theycan only raise one million.
They also say they havenot contacted the police
because in past kidnap cases
the police has done nothing to help.
Pastor Bala Ido told media,
"we are only praying andmaking efforts on our own
to get their release.
We believe in the power of God."
- Staying in on the continent of Africa,
severe drought in NorthernKenya has created a food crisis.
Leaving hundreds of thousands of people
on the brink of starvation.
Relief workers are tryingto get food to the people,
but they can't reacheveryone, as you can imagine.
Several relief agenciesare at work in the region
including CBN Internationaldigging water wells.
- Wendy.
- And CBN Chief Internationalcorrespondent, Gary Lane,
is just back from Northern Kenya joins us.
Tell us about the reliefwork that's happening there.
- Well, first let me tellyou about who it's going to.
It's the Turkana people in Turkana county.
There are about 350,000 Turkana there.
This is a very desolate area.
It's all desert; there'sreally little to eat.
They have palm nuts that they showed me,
that's what they're eating.
So I was with a internationalrelief organization called
United Response International.
They partnered with Harvest of Hope Africa
to bring food to these people.
And as you can see, they arepicking some of the grain
that has fallen from thesacks out of the sand
because they're that desperate for food.
- Oh, I see thatWe're helping them sift
through that but we providedrelief in three distributions.
About 500 people were fed.
It's much needed in that area,
but we didn't feed them just food.
We gave them spiritual relief as well.
Some of the workers there provided prayer,
ministered to the people, findout what their problems were,
how we can better help them,and that sort of thing.
But CBN is also doing water wells there.
I talked to one couple,they had walked seven miles
of round trip just to get water.
And then the water's dirty.
So they're in much neededwater well as there as well.
- Wow, well, there's anothercrisis happening there.
The sexually mutilated of the young girls.
- Yes.
- Tell us about that and whatthe church is doing to help.
- Well that's in the Maasai area.
And the Maasai people areprobably about two percent
of the Kenyan population.
There's 70 ethnic groups in Kenya.
This is one of them.
And in the Maasai tribe,
when a girl becomes 12, 13, 14 years old
they do female genital mutilation.
Women are considered property there
and so are their daughters.
They're also sold into sexual slavery.
I met this girl was released
because she was from a forced marriage.
Her father was trying tosell her for a couple cattle.
She didn't wanna marry the man.
The man was older than her father.
So this is a ministrythere of Maasai ladies
that help rescue the girls
from female genital mutilationand from forced marriage.
That happens in the Maasai tribes.
- Wow.
- But Wendy, we also helpto get them to a safe place
because it's one thing to rescue them
and pull them out of that situation.
It's also to get them to aplace where they're safe.
- Absolutely.
And you had an opportunity to catch up
with Sam Childers,
he's known as the Machine Gun preacher.
What's he been doing?
- That was in Uganda.
And Sam, we've known him for many years,
he's been a friend of CBN's
he is working on a secondMachine Gun Preacher movie.
It will be out in thenext couple of years.
But the interesting thingabout Sam is he received
30 million dollars forMachine Gun Preacher one.
He has not spent much of it on himself.
He's put it all back intohis ministry and orphanages
in Sudan and Uganda.- That's a lot of money.
- We hope to go back andfollow up and do some stories.
- Yeah, good for him.Yes.
- Alright, thanks for the update.
- Thank you, Wendy.
- [George] Coming up,the missionary doctor
who went to Haiti to savelives, attacked by mobs.
One man struggling for lifein the back seat of his car
records a message to his wife and kids.
That story when we come back.
(News theme song playing)
- [Narrator] It's about the competition.
- I kinda put that pressure on myself
when I think people have expectations.
- [Guy Narrator] It's about overcoming.
- We use this phrase allthe time: Keep chopping.
Keep practicing hard.
- [Guy Narrator] t'sabout going the distance.
- You know, I think as afather, it's my job to lead.
Just be the best husbandand father I can be.
- [Guy Narrator] Watch Goingthe Distance with Shawn Brown
Saturday night at 7:30.
On the CBN News Channel.
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- [Pat] How can you findGod's plan for your life?
- [Guy Narrator] CBN presents The Plan.
Eight Keys to UnderstandingGod's Will for Your Life.
- In Pat Robertson's latest teaching,
you'll discover the steps totake in following God's plan,
how to know for certainwhen God is leading you,
how get rid of spiritualblindness, and see God work.
- God said I've got a plan togive you a future and a hope.
Get The Plan.
Call 1-800-700-7000.
Or visit cbn.com
(thunder rumbling)
(fun acoustic music)
- As the poorest nationin the Western Hemisphere,
Haiti is in desperate need of help.
Recent violence there, however,
has increased the risk for aid groups
working in the island country.
- Riders even ambushed one groupon a mission trip recently,
and as Chuck Holton tells us,
they're thanking Godfor a miraculous escape.
- [Chuck] As Venezuela'seconomy has plummeted,
some neighboring countriesare feeling the pain as well.
A sweetheart deal on petroleum
between Venezuela andHaiti ended last July
which led to a 50 percenthike in the price of fuel.
Haitians took to the streets,
burning tires and blocking roads.
In the following months,
more than 70 protestors died in the riots.
Amidst all these strife is arising tide of gang violence.
Turning some parts ofHaiti into no-go zones.
Even for the police.
This group of Christianmissionaries arrived in April
with computers and suppliesfor a community center
they're helping to build.
Shortly, after leaving theairport in Port-au-Prince,
things went terribly wrong.
- About four hours, orthree and a half hours
outside of Port-au-Prince,came upon a gang of people
that were stopping the traffic.
We were the first ones to hit it
because we were the only ones there.
I've been there a hundred,two hundred times,
I've never had any major problems.
So it's not a normal thing that happen.
This is a very rare thing
that we've never encountered before.
- [Chuck] What concernedthe missionaries most
was that many in the crowd were armed.
- The truck was justtotally swarmed with men,
with guns and weapons.
And they were pounding on the windows,
trying to break all the windows to get in.
And then they were on the hood,
and then they were up on thetop, trying to get our luggage.
There's one man standingthere with his gun,
and he has two white linesdown his cheek and to his chin.
And it reminded me of voodoo.
- We came around thecorner and all of a sudden,
here are the roads blocked off.
There's burning tires, there's debris,
there's a mass crowd of hundred,hundred twenty people there
well armed with guns.
And as we started approaching,
they started firingthese guns up in the air.
I'll be perfectlytruthful, at that moment,
I thought, "we're gonna die."
- Drew Pasler was drivingthe second vehicle
along with the team doctor, Doug Burbella.
- And as we were approaching, he said,
"slow down a little bit."
So I'm cautiously approaching,
as I'm watching thesepeople start pouring in
from the sides of the road.
Swarming the vehicle in front of me.
That was when I saw arifle come around the side,
we thought that they weregonna execute everybody.
So we started reversingand Doug is yelling,
"go, go, go!"
And as I'm going, that'swhen we started hearing
guns fire that were being pointed at us.
- [Chuck] With their vehicledisabled by the gun fire
bandits quickly over took the truck.
I could see that there wasa motorcycle next to us
and they had a machine gun.
The window blew out behind my head
and a couple seconds afterthat, I heard Doug yell,
"I'm dying, I've been hit."
- [Chuck] As the gangemptied both vehicles,
the situation continued to deteriorate.
- And that's when Ifirst looked back to see
that his face was covered in blood.
I could see that he had twovisible wounds and possibly more
just based on the amountof blood that I saw.
- [Chuck] Then the gunman put his rifle up
to Dr. Burbella's head.
But before he could pull the trigger,
something extraordinary happened.
Maybe 30 seconds later, afterthey had taken my cellphone,
I could see that they havemy bag out of the truck.
A man on motorcycle justpulled out of nowhere
in front of me.
And he looked at me and he said,
"it's okay, it's going to be okay."
He said this which wasbizarre in perfect English
with no accent.
Not even yelling, just kindof normal talking voice,
he just said something inCreole in two to three words.
And everybody around us that had the guns
just kind of stopped.
- Everything changed.
The whole demeanor of thecrowd just stood back.
I don't know what theysaw, but they stepped back.
And the tension was gone.
- [Chuck] But the crisis wasn't over.
Doug Burbella was slowlybleeding to death.
- Doug had so much blood on him,
we thought that he had been lung shot,
shot through the vitals,but we couldn't do anything,
because you physically couldn't move.
And during the course of the trip back,
Doug was fading in and out, in and out,
at one point in time, he said,
"look I'm not gonna make it,
would somebody pleaserecord my last words."
- When Doug finally left Haition a life-flight aircraft,
they brought him hereto Delray Medical Center
in Delray Beach Florida.
The doctors and surgeons whoworked on him since then,
removing the bullets and bullet fragments
from his neck and face,
say that the fact that he's still alive
is nothing short of a miracle.
- I didn't say much.
I just felt like I had to say something.
- [Chuck] Doug wants peopleto learn from his ordeal.
- [Doug] I want people to know that
if God can carry me through this,
with no loss of any function, really
whatever problems you have,they're equally minuscule.
It's a miracle.
And if God can do this inthis tragic of an event,
I think it's a shout out to say,
"hey you're problem isalso equally as small."
God can carry you through it.
From Delray Beach Florida, I'mChuck Holton, for CBN News.
- Man, I was just on the edge of my seat
watching that interview.- Incredible story.
I wonder if the terroristor the gang, the mob
saw an angel?
- I think so.Yeah.
- Just suddenly diffused.
Which was incredible.- Yeah.
- Incredible.
Well since Chuck visited him,
Dr. Burbella has beenreleased from the hospital.
And is expected to make a full recovery.
He plans to return toHaiti as soon as possible.
- I'm not surprised.Yeah.
- One of those folkshas been there 200 times
so hats off to you guys.
We'll be back right after this.
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- [Guy Narrator] As the worldwatches from the outside,
- It's a big diplomatictug-of-war here in the Middle East
- [Guy Narrator] Go inside thestory with Jerusalem Dateline
- Israeli archeologists aretalking about a discovery
that could change the thinkingabout the Temple Mount.
- [Guy Narrator] Join CBN Jerusalem
Bureau Chief, Chris Mitchell.
And get the biblical perspective
on the event shaping the world.
- What starts in Israel then ends up
going into other places.
- [Guy Narrator] Watch Jerusalem Dateline.
Friday night at 9:30 onthe CBN News Channel.
- Orphan's Promise's committed
to loving and serving at-risk children.
To helping keep families together,
and to creating opportunities for strong,
and sustainable communitiesaround the world.
We are working in over 60countries around the world
and with your help, we can do even more.
There's an old Africanproverb I love that says,
"if you want to run fast, run alone
but if you want to run far, run together."
At Orphan's Promise we want to run far
so we can touch the lives
of as many orphan andvulnerable children as possible.
But we don't want to go alone.
We're out to change the world
one child, one family,one community at a time.
Will you join us?
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- Meet the pastors whoare preaching the gospel
in a fresh, fearless way.
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- I'm Roberto Torres-Cedillo.
Join me each week for Next Gen Voices.
And watch God transform a generation.
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- Welcome back!
This month the Jerusalem'sstudio, Daystar,
one of the largest Christiannetworks in the world,
was firebombed.
Did you know that?
- I did.
As my colleague, Chris Mitchell,
reports the attackdestroyed its new studio,
but the network, well,they plan to rebuild.
- [Chris] The fire beganearly Saturday morning.
When an arsonist started afire in the Daystar studio.
- Daystar was in the midst ofa major renovation and upgrade
of its studio here in Jerusalemoverlooking Mount Zion
and the Temple Mount.
The fire destroyed the new work
and much of the existing facility.
- The control room is, I'd say,probably totally devastated.
- [Chris] Dave Sharett,the general contractor,
overseeing the renovations,showed us the destruction.
- This is where we film from.
There were four cameras thatwould be back in this area here
and Marcus and Joni, or their interviewee,
would be sitting here.
And then you have thisfabulous view behind them.
- [Chris] These before and after shots
reveal the extent of the devastation.
- We're here in thenew Daystar T.V. studio
in Jerusalem, Israel.
- [Chris] Marcus and Joni Lamb dedicated
the Daystar Jerusalemstudio in March of 2011.
Daystar is one of the largestChristian television networks
in the world.
It reaches more than 200 countries
and nearly 700 millionpeople with its programs.
Daystar was in the homestretch
of its Jerusalem construction.
- We just started with the construction
on putting things back,getting electric in place,
and getting the walls built
so we can meet our June 1st deadline
and then this happened.
- [Chris] Even in themidst of the destruction,
Sharett believes God is at work.
- [Dave] I believe that Godhas a reason and a purpose
and at the very least, He'llredeem what has happened here.
So these ashes will raise up.
Be raised up.
And proclaim the glory of God.
- [Chris] Daystar pledges to continue
their Jerusalem operationsand asks for prayer
for continued protection.
Chris Michell, CBN News, Jerusalem.
- Let's continue to pray for them.
- Thank God nobody was hurt.
- Folks that is it for this week's edition
of Christian World News.
- Until next week, from all of us here,
goodbye and God bless you.
