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Brother
Andrew clocks up 1 million smuggling miles
Amsterdam, March 19th, 2005 (ACPress.net).
Dutch evangelist
Andrew van der Bijl was told by doctors 50 years ago that he
was "too weak to travel" because he suffered from
chronic back pain. Since then, he has logged up an estimated
1 million miles in his untiring efforts to take the Bible to
countries where the authorities do not want it.
This veteran preacher, known as Brother Andrew to Christians
worldwide, has done nothing but travel since his outreach to
the persecuted church began in 1955. His courage has inspired
millions since then. He has visited 125 countries and logged
an estimated 1 million miles since his first missionary trip.
In the 1950s and 1960s, he successfully transported thousands
of Bibles into communist countries, and a 1967 book about his
adventures, "God's Smuggler," gave his ministry the
worldwide support he needed to expand. In 1981, during an ambitious
effort called "Project Pearl", Open Doors delivered
a shipment of 1 million Bibles to China by way of a huge sailing
vessel.
Brother Andrew is now 76, and the organisation he founded, Open
Doors With Brother Andrew, has 27 offices around the world,
350 full-time employees and an army of volunteers. They smuggle
1 million Bibles to China annually and distribute tons more
to 45 other countries. No one really knows how many Bibles Brother
Andrew and his organisation have smuggled into closed countries.
As long as his health is good and the suffering church needs
Bibles and face-to-face encouragement, Brother Andrew said he
must go.
Source: Charisma. Editing: ACPress.net
Oldest existing Bible
manuscript to be reunified digitally
London, March 27th, 2005 (ACPress.net).
The oldest Bible
in the world, which was divided into four parts and distributed
to four different countries over a century ago, is being re-united
by computer. The Codex Siniaticus will be brought together for
the first time in more than a hundred years, according to an
agreement announced by the British Library.
The agreement will allow the unification and digitalisation
of the Codex, the oldest extant manuscript of the Bible in the
world, the various sections of which are currently held in museums
in Egypt, >Russia, Germany and Britain. The option of having
access to the Codex Siniaticus digitally through a CD-Rom will
mean that a historical document too fragile to touch can be
studied once more.
The reunification agreement was signed in London by the Archbishop
of Saint Catherine's, Damianos of Sinai, the director of the
German Library, Ekkehard Henschke, Alexander Bukreyev of the
Russian Library, and Lynne Brindley from the British Library.
The digital format of the Codex will allow scholars to re-translate
and study the biblical text. The project, which will cost more
than a million euros, will take four years.
The Codex Siniaticus was written by three scribes who inserted
and corrected sections of the text, which is something experts
will now be able to analyse. It is written in eight, narrow
columns on both sides of the paper, a system which might have
come from papyrus scrolls. The Codex includes the oldest extant
sections of the Old Testament and the oldest complete New Testament,
as well as two other Christian texts dating from the 1st century
AD.
The Codex itself dates from the 4th century when Christianity
was spreading under Constantine, and spent many years in the
monastery built on the spot traditionally accepted as the one
in which Moses received the Ten Commandments from God on Mount
Sinai. Apart from the fragments of this Codex, the monastery
holds more than 3,000 Greek, Arabic, Armenian and Coptic manuscripts.
The Codex Siniaticus remained complete for many centuries at
St. Catherine's Monastery in the Sinai. In the mid-nineteenth
century, a German scholar took part of the manuscript to Germany
and Russia, and the British Museum
acquired another section in 1933.
Source: Agencias. Editing: ACPress.net
Search for pastor's
remains at military base in Peru
Lima, March 27th, 2005 (ACPress.net).
More than 15 years
after the disappearance of Jorge Párraga, a pastor in the Peruvian
Evangelical Church (IEP), who was arrested by the Army during
the years of political violence in Peru, the government has
ordered a search for his remains at a military base.
On October 23rd, 1989, Párraga was arrested along with several
others by an Army patrol in the town of Atcas, in Yauyos Province,
about 90 miles south-east of the capital, Lima. They were taken
to an unknown destination. His wife and the National Evangelical
Council of Peru took up the matter with the authorities but
tried without success to get any information as to his whereabouts.
The case reached the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights,
a group with whom the government reached an amicable arrangement
in 2001, promising to investigate the 150 or so cases in which
human rights had been violated. Among them was the case of Pastor
Párraga. Finally, the authorities have ordered the exhumation
of human remains at Manta military base, in Huancavelica, next
to Yauyos. It is thought that Párraga was secretly buried there
having been murdered by the Army.
The Christian organisation, 'Peace and Hope', who announced
the decision to investigate the base, have called on the Christian
community to be vigilant to ensure that justice is done, that
they accompany the relatives of Párraga and of others who were
murdered as they collect their loved ones' remains, to ensure
that those responsible are brought to justice, and that the
families are suitably compensated.
Source: ALC. Editing: ACPress.net
Helicopter anointing
sheds little light on Costa Rican TV operation
Costa Rica, March 28th, 2005 (ACPress.net).
Following the
serious accusations made in the 'Nación' newspaper and by evangelical
leaders against TV Enlace, the paper has published an interview
with the TV station's Chairman, Jonás González, in which he
merely says that everything he owns is the fruit of a wise investment
blessed by God. He also offered to open up the company's accounts
for public viewing, but though asked to do so, has not yet actually
done it.
TV Enlace broadcasts in 55 countries and defends the transparency
of its operation and claims its investments have been blessed
financially by God. In less prosaic terms, it attributes its
spectacular growth to the firm's vision, the support of the
TBN network, and the fact that it holds TV-marathon fund-raising
events every 3 months. As to the large areas of land it owns
in Costa Rica, it says some of it has come as donations from
Christians, or sold to them at a knockdown price.
González was also asked about his personal property, as he has
a 112-hectare estate in Santa Eulalia, and a further 145 hectares
which was registered in 1992. However, González says he has
actually owned the second property for 35 years but that it
was not properly registered until 12 years ago, and that it
is an investment on his part. As to the helicopters which neighbours
say land on these properties, González claims this was an isolated
case: "a pastor from Alajuela who wanted to anoint his town
from a helicopter, and I told him to sprinkle a bit of water
over the Mount of Prayer." Whatever else this is, it is hardly
orthodox Protestantism.
As for financial transparency, the newspaper asked González
to send them a copy of his accounts. González agreed, but has
not yet fulfilled his promise.
Source: Agencia Órbita. La Nación. Editing: ACPress.net
Ecumenical march
for peace in Brazil
Blumenau, Brazil. March 28th, 2005 (ACPress.net).
More than 5,000
people marched for peace through the streets of Blumenau on
March 5th as part of the Ecumenical Campaign 2005 whose motto
is 'Blessed are the peacemakers.
Banners, songs and two vehicles with musical bands aboard accompanied
the marchers who called for peace in the family and in society,
paying special attention to women and children who are victims
of aggression, and adding a call for wars around the world to
cease. At the end of the march, an ecumenical celebration was
held, in which Catholic priests and evangelical ministers participated.
The service was led by a Lutheran minister, Romeu Hoepfner.
The marchers recited the "ecumenical Lord's Prayer", read Bible
texts and asked God for peace.
A minister involved, Clóvis Lindner, said the aim of the march
was to achieve a less violent society in which people can talk
to each other and consciously promote peace.
Source: ALC. Editing: ACPress.net
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