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Kovid to 150 people who attended a church camp in Texas
Nearly 150 children and adults have tested positive for COVID-19 after attending a church summer camp in Texas, officials announced.
The Clear Creek Community Church, based in League City, Texas, announced that Sunday services would be canceled this week due to the number of cases.
Over 400 people participated in Camp Creek, a four-day camp for 6th to 12th graders, in late June.
Upon returning, more than 125 of the people who attended tested positive for the virus, the church said in a statement, and “hundreds more were exposed to COVID-19 at camp.”
The Galveston County Health District, which is investigating the outbreak, told ABC News that 57 Galveston County youth and adults who attended the camp tested positive for COVID-19 and more than 90 people, including non-Galveston County residents, have self reported to the district that they tested positive for the virus, bringing the total tally to at least 147.
It’s not clear if the campers who are eligible for the vaccine were vaccinated prior to the camp trip. The church has not responded to ABC News’ request for comment.
The church is contacting all those impacted.
“From the beginning of the pandemic, we have sought to love our neighbors by practicing strict safety protocols. We are surprised and saddened by this turn of events. Our hearts break for those infected with the virus,” Bruce Wesley, the church’s lead pastor, said in the statement.
The church recommended in-person worship starting April 7 and allowed for the removal of masks in May, in accordance with the state’s phased reopening.
The Galveston County Health District was notified of the first positive case tied to the camp on June 27, GCHD said in a release.
Of the 57 Galveston County cases, six are breakthrough cases, defined as someone becoming infected more than 14 days after their second COVID-19 vaccination, according to the department.
In total, 47 of the cases are among those 12 years and older, and 10 cases are in children younger than 12.
“This is a reminder that COVID-19 is still here and we have to take precautions,” Dr. Philip Keiser, the Galveston County local health authority, said. “If you’re old enough to get vaccinated and haven’t, now is the time. These vaccines are safe and offer the best protection against COVID-19 to you, your family and your community.”
In Galveston County, the population of those aged 12 and up is 57% partially vaccinated and 52% fully vaccinated. Overall in Texas, 51% of the population aged 12 and up is fully vaccinated, per state data.
White House officials recently said younger Americans seem “less eager” to get the COVID-19 vaccine. At the moment, anyone 12 and older can receive the Pfizer vaccine. Those who are 18 and older are eligible for the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines.
“Younger people, particularly those in their 20s, have felt less vulnerable to the disease and, therefore, less eager to get shots. They were made eligible later, so they have not been eligible as long, and we continue to see hundreds of thousands of young people vaccinated each week,” White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator Jeff Zients told ABC “This Week” co-anchor Martha Raddatz.
In a new ABC News/Washington Post poll, among those not vaccinated, 74% said they probably or definitely won’t get a shot, which is up from 55% in April.
The result may be increased cases among youth. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data released July 2 shows that confirmed COVID-19 admissions among those under 18 increased 11% over the past week.
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‘Something Demonic in That’: The Real-Life Evil Driving Slaughter, Horror of Global Persecution
By all accounts, Christian persecution is worsening across the globe. Joel Veldkamp, head of international communications at Christian Solidarity International, is among those who know the full extent of the issue, often observing its evils firsthand.
And these diabolical infractions — from killings to land seizure to discrimination — have a rooting, Veldkamp believes, in the overarching spiritual battle between good and evil.
“I think the way the Bible speaks about how the powers and the principalities operate is very important, because, what drives the powers and the principalities of the air — you might say, the evil spiritual powers of the world — is a desire to unseat God and to be the most powerful, the most important thing in the universe,” he said. “And we see a lot of the temporal powers, so states, governments, terrorist groups, are driven by a similar desire — a desire for supremacy, a desire to remake the world the way they want to see it be remade.”
These individuals and groups will essentially “give themselves over to evil” to achieve their stated goals and aspirations. The result of these tragic quests can often be seen in the deadly persecution observed in various nations across the globe.
Among other examples, Veldkamp cited Nagorno-Karabakh, a small, landlocked region between Armenia and Azerbaijan that had long been steeped in Christian history and was populated by mostly Armenian Christians.
“This is a place where there’s 1,700 years of uninterrupted Christian history,” he said. “This is a place where some of the first translations of the Bible were made into languages outside of Greek. This is a place where just generations and generations of people have carried on the faith, and last year it was destroyed.”
Veldkamp decried “an ethnic cleansing campaign by the dictatorship of Azerbaijan,” which included a siege and military attack that eventually drove out the entire population.
“Again, I think there’s something demonic in that we had a nine-month lead time on this,” Veldkamp said. “Everyone could see it happening. We could see it coming down the pike. We knew how this was going to end. And no one in the world seemed to be able to muster the political will to do anything about it.”
The end result is the exile of these Armenian Christians and a loss of Christian history, with many lives upended in the process. Veldkamp said coping with so much suffering can be difficult.
“Sometimes [I] get messages from people who have family members who are being held hostage in Azerbaijan right now,” he said. “And I feel really helpless, and at a loss of what to say — to comfort them. It can be difficult.”
Yet Veldkamp finds solace in the Bible, where he sees people hundreds — and even thousands — of years ago facing the same pressures believers face today.
Veldkamp described Scripture as often telling the “story of the people of God under pressure.” And those pressures are still unfolding today in countries like North Korea, China, and Nigeria, among many others. And, tragically he said the problem is worsening.
“It’s getting worse for a few specific reasons,” he said. “But mostly having to do with the increased competition and even wars that we’re seeing between the superpowers now — between the U.S., Russia, and China, that are always competing for influence in different parts of the world.”
Veldkamp said the “illusion of an international order” that once persisted in the 1990s and beyond is “starting to come apart.”
“Dictators and terrorists feel fewer compunctions about carrying out their programs,” he said. “So, in places like South Asia and Southeast Asia, we’re seeing a lot of governments take steps to really restrict free practice of religion in ways they wouldn’t have before. In Africa, we see that jihad is spreading from country to country, really piggybacking off of the conflict between Russia, and the U.S., and China for influence in Africa.”
Unfortunately, the safeguards that once “restrained human evil” are no longer holding back the chaos, leading to a situation that gives little more than a “grim outlook,” according to Veldkamp.
Whether it’s addressing Azerbaijan’s horrors or deadly persecution in Nigeria, Veldkamp encouraged Christians and Americans more broadly to stand up and speak out.
“Often, U.S. policy towards these countries will just get set, and it’s very difficult to change the policy once it’s set,” he said. “But we’re in a moment now where we can have some influence because we have a new president … there will be new policies, new policies are being formulated, and now is the time to raise our voice.”
Veldkamp continued, “I would really encourage Christians, especially Christians who voted for President Trump to make their voices heard … tell [his team], ‘I care about Nigeria. I care about Armenia. I care about Christians in Syria. I care about this issue.’”
Sources:faithwire
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സീനിയർ പാസ്റ്റേഴ്സിനെ ആദരിച്ചു
ചിക്കാഗോ: കഴിഞ്ഞ അര നൂറ്റാണ്ടോളം ചിക്കാഗോയിൽ സഭാ പ്രവർത്തനരംഗത്ത് പ്രശംസനീയമായ നേതൃത്വം കൊടുത്ത നാല് സീനിയർ പാസ്റ്റർമാരെ ചിക്കാഗോ ഗോസ്പൽ മീഡിയ അസോസിയേഷന്റെ ആഭിമുഖ്യത്തിൽ നടത്തപ്പെട്ട സമ്മേളനത്തിൽ ആദരിച്ചു.
സീനിയർ പാസ്റ്റർമാരായ റവ പി വി കുരുവിള, റവ ജോസഫ് കെ ജോസഫ്, റവ പി സി മാമ്മൻ റവ ജോർജ് കെ സ്റ്റീഫൻസൻ എന്നിവരെയാണ് വിശ്വാസ സമൂഹം ആദരിച്ചത്. സിജിഎംഎ ജനറൽ സെക്രട്ടറി കുര്യൻ ഫിലിപ്പ് യോഗനടപടികൾക്ക് നേതൃത്വം നൽകി. രക്ഷാധികാരി കെ എം ഈപ്പൻ,പ്രസിഡന്റ് ഡോ അലക്സ് ടി കോശി, വൈസ് പ്രസിഡന്റ് ഡോ ടൈറ്റസ് ഈപ്പൻ, ജോയിൻ സെക്രട്ടറി ഡോ ബിജു ചെറിയാൻ, ട്രഷറർ ജോൺസൺ ഉമ്മൻ എന്നിവർ സംഘടനയുടെ പുരസ്കാരം പാസ്റ്റർമാർക്ക് നൽകി.
എഫ്പിസിസിയുടെ ഉപഹാരം കൺവീനർ ഡോ വില്ലി എബ്രഹാം സമ്മാനിച്ചു. ജെയിംസ് ജോസഫ്, ബ്യൂല ബെൻ എന്നിവർ എംസി മാരായിരുന്നു റെവ ജോർജ് മാത്യു പുതുപ്പള്ളി മുഖ്യാതിഥിയായിരുന്നു.
Sources:nerkazhcha
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അമേരിക്കയെ വീണ്ടും മഹത്തരമാക്കാൻ ദൈവം എന്നെ സംരക്ഷിച്ചു: ഡൊണാൾഡ് ട്രംപ്
“അമേരിക്കയെ വീണ്ടും മഹത്തരമാക്കാൻ ദൈവം എന്നെ സംരക്ഷിച്ചു” എന്നു പറഞ്ഞുകൊണ്ട് തനിക്കു നേരിട്ട രണ്ടു കൊലപാതകശ്രമങ്ങളെ അതിജീവിച്ചതിന് ഡൊണാൾഡ് ട്രംപ് ദൈവത്തിനു നന്ദി പറഞ്ഞു. ജനുവരി 20 ന് അമേരിക്കയുടെ നാല്പത്തിയേഴാമത് പ്രസിഡന്റായി അധികാരമേറ്റ ട്രംപ് തന്റെ ഉദ്ഘാടന പ്രസംഗത്തിലാണ് ഇപ്രകാരം അനുസ്മരിച്ചത്.
പ്രസിഡന്റ് ജോ ബൈഡന്റെ കഴിഞ്ഞ നാല് വർഷത്തെ അമേരിക്കൻ ‘വിമോചന ദിനം’ എന്ന് തന്റെ പ്രസംഗത്തിൽ വിശേഷിപ്പിച്ച ട്രംപ് ഇപ്പോൾ മുതൽ അമേരിക്കയുടെ സുവർണ്ണകാലം ആരംഭിക്കുന്നുവെന്നും ഇതിനുവേണ്ടിയാണ് എന്റെ ജീവൻ സംരക്ഷിക്കപ്പെട്ടതെന്നും പങ്കുവച്ചു. “ഇന്ന് മുതൽ, നമ്മുടെ രാജ്യം അഭിവൃദ്ധി പ്രാപിക്കുകയും ബഹുമാനിക്കപ്പെടുകയും ചെയ്യും. നമ്മെ മുതലെടുക്കാൻ ആരെയും അനുവദിക്കില്ല. എന്റെ ഭരണനാളുകളിൽ അമേരിക്കയെ ഞാൻ ഒന്നാമതെത്തിക്കും” അദ്ദേഹം ഉറപ്പുനൽകി.
നമ്മുടെ രാജ്യത്തെയും ഭരണഘടനയെയും ദൈവത്തെയും മറക്കുകയില്ല എന്നും അദ്ദേഹം തന്റെ ഉദ്ഘാടനപ്രസംഗത്തിൽ ഉറപ്പുനൽകി.
Sources:azchavattomonline.com
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