http://www.assistnews.net/Stories/2007/s07010106.htm
Saturday, January 20, 2007
"Christian Believers Executed in N. Korea"
By Michael Ireland
Chief Correspondent, ASSIST News Service
ARTICLE SNIPPET: "NORTH KOREA (ANS) -- Reports about four Christians being executed for their faith in North Korea are circulating in the Christian media.
North Korea
According to Mark Kelly of Baptist Press: "The Democratic People’s Republic of North Korea is well-known as a country where Christians are persecuted for their faith. Because the government there keeps a tight lid on communication, however, only rarely does specific information leak out."
Quoting the World Bible Translation Center’s Gary Bishop in a conversation with Mission Network News (MNN), Kelly reports that one man who worked as an evangelist was executed after being caught with two Korean New Testaments in his possession.
Bishop says North Korean Christians are becoming increasingly uneasy about possessing a Bible.
He said: "A man that's known to be an evangelist. He's probably not an evangelist to anyone other than his family members, but he was caught with two of our Korean New Testaments in his possession and he was executed for that."
Kelly writes that Bishop also told Mission Network News: "A woman and her grandmother were washing clothes when a New Testament fell out of the woman’s clothing. Somebody reported it, and both she and her grandmother were quickly executed. And an army general who had become a believer was caught evangelizing men in his unit and was executed by a fellow officer."
Kelly says Bishop told MNN that despite the oppression -- or perhaps because of it -- God seems to be working.
Bishop said: "In response to a very, very oppressive government (and) human injustices people are looking for an answer other than their own government. And, I believe that's awakening the resilience of believers in North Korea to say, 'We have another answer. There is another way to believe.'"
MNN reports that thousands of North Korean Christians have been killed for their faith. Many more are in work camps."
http://www.assistnews.net/Stories/2007/s07010110.htm
Saturday, January 20, 2007
"Honduran Christian Leader In Hiding"
By Dan Wooding
Founder of ASSIST Ministries
ARTICLE SNIPPET: "TEGUCIGALPA, HONDURAS (ANS) -- Carlos Hernandez, president of the Association for a More Just Society in Honduras, is in hiding following a death threat immediately after the killing of well-known lawyer Dionisio Díaz García who was often called the “lawyer for the poor.”
Hernandez of the Association for a More Just Society received the death threat immediately after his associate, attorney Dionisio Diaz Garcia, was shot to death on his way to court on Monday, December 4th, Steve Geurink of Worldwide Christian Schools told Mission Network News.
Dionisio Díaz García was shot to death in his pickup truck while driving to court by two masked gunmen on a motorcycle. The gunmen shot Díaz in the head and chest from close range. This murder was the first time in years that a human rights advocate has been murdered in Tegucigalpa.
According to Mission Network News, both men have ties to the ministry of Worldwide Christian Schools (WCS) in Honduras."