us news
Myanmar: Catholic priest, catechist abducted by armed group
An armed resistance group opposed to Myanmar’s military junta in the western state of Chin has seized a Catholic priest and a catechist travelling with him.
Members of the Chinland Defence Force (CDF) seized Father Noel Hrang Tin Thang along with a catechist while they were travelling from Surkhua town to Chin state capital, Hakha on July 26, UCA News reported. Both belong to Our Lady of the Rosary Parish in Surkhua in Hakha Diocese.
Bishop’s appeal
Local Bishop Lucius Hre Kung of Hakha has called for their release, expressing concern for their safety and well-being nearly a week after their abduction.
“I call on the concerned leaders of the CDF to immediately release the pair,” Bishop Hre Kung said in a letter released on August 1. Local Catholics have also expressed concern and said prayers for the immediate release of the cleric and the catechist.
Father Tin Thang has been helping numerous of displaced people including the elderly, women and children who took refuge in the parish following clashes in early June, according to sources.
Allegations
Following the letter of Bishop Hre Kung, the CDF said the priest and catechist were in good health.
The group accused the priest of giving information to the military junta, getting medical support from the junta and urging locals to receive the junta’s support. The group said it had warned the clergy not to contact the military’s security force, and they had to arrest Father Tin Thang as he failed to comply. “We will release them only after our demands of transferring the priest from Surkhua to Hakha and signing letters of recommendation from two church leaders are fulfilled,” the group said.
However, according to the Italian news agency, AGI, the priest and the catechist were arrested in Hakha while buying medicines for the people of Surkhua. The local community denies Father Tin Thang had any involvement with the security force.
Father Paul Thla Kio, a priest of Hakha Diocese told the Vatican’s Fides news agency that the CDF has seen Father Tin Thang having contacts with a general of the army. Father Thla Kio explained that the general, who is a Catholic and attends Masses, often went to the priests’ residence. In fact, Father Tin Thang asked the general to avoid violence.
Civil resistance groups
The ousting of Myanmar’s leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her elected government by the military on February 1, has thrown the nation into chaos with nationwide protests, strikes and a civil disobedience movement, demanding the restoration of the government and the release of their leader. There have been no signs of a letup in the bloody crackdown by Myanmar’s military on its opponents in a bid to consolidate its hold on power. The offensive has re-ignited the military’s old conflicts with some of the armed ethnic organizations as well as numerous independent civil resistance groups.
The CDF is one of these civil resistance groups fighting the military. Using homemade weapons, the CDF has inflicted heavy casualties among junta forces in a conflict that erupted in Chin state in May. Clashes are still raging and more than 18,000 people have been displaced in Chin state and neighboring Magway and Sagaing divisions, according to a United Nations report on July 30. During the conflict, priests have been targeted, with the military arresting eight priests from Chin and Kachin states and Mandalay division in May and June.
Ethnic Christians
Christians are a minority in the predominantly Buddhist country, accounting for 6.2 percent of its 54 million population. Myanmar Catholics represent about 1.5 percent of the population.
Areas occupied by the Kachin, Chin, Karen and Kayah ethnic groups, who have been facing oppression and persecution at the hands of the military for decades, are largely Christian.
Thousands of innocent civilians in have been displaced by the conflict. According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Myanmar, over 220,000 people have been displaced by conflicts and insecurity since the coup.
Myanmar’s complex crises
The serious political, socio-economic, human rights and humanitarian crises generated by the coup, have been exacerbated by a raging third wave of Covid-19 infections, with an acute shortage of oxygen and near absence of the most basic healthcare.
Myanmar’s military ruler Min Aung Hlaing marked 6 months since the coup on Sunday by taking on a new title as prime minister of a newly formed caretaker government. The military-backed State Administration Council (SAC) that was formed after the Feb. 1 coup, has now been reformed as a caretaker government. The junta leader promised fresh multi-party elections in 2 years, saying he will cooperate with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on finding a political solution to the country.
us news
‘We Need a Miracle’: US Missionaries Trapped, Desperate to Get Out of Haiti amid Gang Siege
American missionaries trapped in Haiti are begging to be rescued as criminal gangs violently wreak havoc in the nation’s capital.
For the last two weeks, attacks at police stations, prisons, and the airport have been the culmination of a catastrophic humanitarian crisis taking place in the country. Nearly 1,200 people have been killed and more than 700 injured in recent days.
It has forced the US to evacuate non-essential personnel. But for some Americans, there is no way out.
Missionary Jill Dolan, who helps run Love A Neighbor, a children’s home in Haiti, and her family are trapped there, sheltering in a make-shift motel in the capital of Port-au-Prince, the New York Post reports.
According to a Facebook update from Love A Neighbor, Dolan, her husband, Ryan, and their adopted teenage children were on their way to a wedding in Florida when armed gangs took over the airport.
All flights were canceled and travel back to their home in a mountain village was impossible.
Dolan said she is in contact with the US Embassy, but little help has been offered.
“We’ve contacted agencies to extract us out, they have just said it’s way too dangerous where you are, you have to stay put,” she told CBS News.
“My fear is that we will be caught in the middle of something really dangerous. We’re already on the front lines of it, we’re in a bad area,” she told the New York Post. “It’s kind of depressing. The gunfire never stops.”
Port-au-Prince is the center of political tension as Prime Minister Ariel Henry fights to stay in power while gangs demand his resignation.
Many Haitians are angry that general elections have not been held in nearly a decade. They claim that Henry was never elected and does not represent the people.
As CBN News reported, armed gangs have launched large-scale coordinated assaults against multiple government buildings and the presidential palace, after attacking prisons last week and freeing close to 5,000 inmates.
Street battles between the gangs and police have crippled Haiti’s fragile economy with United Nations officials saying half of the country’s more than 11 million inhabitants don’t have enough to eat, and 1.5 million are starving.
Reports also describe decaying bodies piling in the streets as there is no one to pick up the corpses.
Gang leader Jimmy “Barbecue” Cherizier has claimed responsibility for the attacks and says he aims to force Henry from office.
He has promised that chaos will continue if the citizens are left out of the process.
“We Haitians have to decide who is going to lead the country and what model of government we want,” he said.
Dr. David Vanderpool, who heads a ministry to Haiti called LiveBeyond, said, “This is sort of the culmination of gangs running the country for the last three or four years. The government has collapsed. The president was assassinated in ’21. The judiciary was also terminated as well as parliament. So there’s not been an effective government in place since 2021 and the gangs have had full run of the country.”
Meanwhile, people are locked down in homes and hotels, unable to leave the country by any means.
Miriam Cinotti and Lynn, who asked to only be identified by her first name, work with Dolan and say the country is paralyzed by the mayhem.
Although stranded in a different part of the country, they also see no way out as international airports are shut down.
“Nobody’s reached out to us or anything. And then of course, when we saw the non-essential workers get picked up, we were thinking well, maybe they’re going to come back and start evacuating Port-au-Prince and then have a plane for everyone else,” Cinotti told the New York Post.
“We’re worried because we’re in a country where we don’t know what’s going to happen. It’s unpredictable what’s going on, we don’t know,” Lynn said.
A spokesperson for Love A Neighbor recently posted to Facebook requesting prayer for Dolan and the country of Haiti.
“We need a miracle. Will you please join us in our prayers for a miracle? Not just for our family, but also for innocent people caught in the gangs’ crossfire. Haiti has been in a steep decline,” they wrote.
An online fundraising campaign was started to help Dolan’s organization and their family as “funds are running low due to the unexpected dire situation.”
Sources:BREAKING CHRISTIAN NEWS
us news
ലോസ് ഏഞ്ചല്സില് മണ്ണിടിച്ചിലില് നിരവധി വീടുകള് തകര്ന്നു
ലോസ് ഏഞ്ചല്സ്: യുഎസിലെ ലോസ് ഏഞ്ചല്സിനു സമീപം ഷെര്മാന് ഓക്സില് ഉണ്ടായ മണ്ണിടിച്ചിലില് നിരവധി വീടുകള് തകര്ന്നു. ബുധനാഴ്ച പുലര്ച്ചെ ഉണ്ടായ മണ്ണിടിച്ചിലില് വന് നാശനഷ്ടമാണ് ഉണ്ടായിരിക്കുന്നത്.
ലോസ് ഏഞ്ചല്സില് നിന്നും 19 കിലോമീറ്റര് അകലെ സമ്പന്നര് കൂടുതലായി താമസിക്കുന്ന ഷെര്മാന് ഓക്സില് ബുധനാഴ്ച്ച പുലര്ച്ചെ മൂന്നോടെയാണ് അതിശക്തമായ മണ്ണിടിച്ചില് ഉണ്ടായത്.
ഗോള്ഡ് കോസ്റ്റ് എന്ന് വിളിക്കപ്പെടുന്ന ഈ പ്രദേശം അംബരചുംബികളായ വീടുകളാല് പ്രശസ്തമാണ്. കാലാവസ്ഥാ വിഭാഗം അപകടസൂചന നല്കിയിരുന്നതിനാല് ഈ മേലയില് നിന്നും ആളുകളെ ഒഴിപ്പിച്ചിരുന്നു. ഇതിനാല് ആളപായം ഉണ്ടായില്ല. അഗ്നിശമന സേന സുരക്ഷാ പ്രവര്ത്തനങ്ങള് നടത്തുന്നുണ്ട്.
Sources:nerkazhcha
us news
അമേരിക്കയിലെ വിവിധ പട്ടണങ്ങളില് മലയാളി പെന്തക്കോസ്ത് കോണ്ഫറന്സിന്റെ പ്രമോഷണല് മീറ്റിംഗുകള്
ഹൂസ്റ്റണ്: ജൂലൈ 4 മുതല് 7 വരെ നടക്കുന്ന മലയാളി പെന്തക്കോസ്ത് കോണ്ഫറന്സിന്റെ പ്രമോഷണല് മീറ്റിംഗുകള് അമേരിക്കയിലെ വിവിധ പട്ടണങ്ങളില് വച്ച് നടക്കുന്നു.
മാര്ച്ച് 16-ന് ന്യൂജേഴ്സിയിലെ ഇന്ത്യാ ക്രിസ്ത്യന് അസംബ്ലിയില് വച്ചും, 17-ന് ഫിലാഡല്ഫിയയിലുള്ള എബനേസര് ചര്ച്ച് ഓഫ് ഗോഡില് വച്ചും, 22-ന് ഒക്കലഹോമയിലും, 23-ന് തുള്സാ ഒക്കലഹോമയിലും, 30-ന് ഹൂസ്റ്റണിലുള്ള ഐപിസി ഹെബ്രോണില് വച്ചും, 31-ന് ഡാലസ് അഗാപ്പേ ചര്ച്ചില് വച്ചും ഈ മീറ്റിംഗുകള് നടക്കുന്നതായിരിക്കും.
ദേശീയ നേതാക്കളോടൊപ്പം വിവിധ സഭകളിലെ പാസ്റ്റര്മാരും, പ്രതിനിധികളും സംബന്ധിക്കും. നാഷണല് കണ്വീനറായി പാസ്റ്റര് ഫിന്നി ആലുംമൂട്ടില്, നാഷണല് സെക്രട്ടറി രാജു പൊന്നോലില്, നാഷണല് ട്രഷര് ബിജു തോമസ്, യൂത്ത് കോര്ഡിനേറ്റര് റോബിന് രാജു, ലേഡീസ് കോര്ഡിനേറ്റര് ആന്സി സന്തോഷും പ്രവര്ത്തിക്കുന്നു.
ലോകോത്തര സൗകര്യങ്ങളുള്ള ഹൂസ്റ്റണിലെ ജോര്ജ് ആര് ബ്രൗണ് കണ്വന്ഷന് സെന്ററാണ് വേദിയായി തെരഞ്ഞെടുത്തിട്ടുള്ളത്. ലോക പ്രസിദ്ധരായ നിരവധി കണ്വന്ഷന് പ്രഭാഷകര് കടന്നുവരുന്നു. യുവജനങ്ങള്ക്കും കുട്ടികള്ക്കും സഹോദരിമാര്ക്കുമുള്ള മീറ്റിംഗുകളോടൊപ്പം ഇംഗ്ലീഷിലും മലയാളത്തിലും മീറ്റിംഗുകള് ക്രമീകരിച്ചിരിക്കുന്നു.
ഈമാസം വിവിധ പട്ടണങ്ങളില് നടക്കുന്ന പ്രമോഷണല് മീറ്റിംഗുകളെ സംഗീതസാന്ദ്രമാക്കുന്നതിനായി പ്രമുഖ ക്രൈസ്തവ ഗായകനായ ഇമ്മാനുവേല് ഹെന്റി കടന്നുവരുന്നു. ഈ സംഗീത സായാഹ്നം തികച്ചും സൗജന്യമായിരിക്കും.
Sources:nerkazhcha
-
us news9 months ago
നോർത്ത് അമേരിക്കൻ പെന്തക്കോസ്തൽ റൈറ്റേഴ്സ് ഫോറം : രാജൻ ആര്യപ്പള്ളി പ്രസിഡന്റ്; നിബു വെള്ളവന്താനം സെക്രട്ടറി
-
us news7 months ago
നോര്ത്ത് അമേരിക്കന് പെന്തക്കോസ്തല് റൈറ്റേഴ്സ് ഫോറം; അറ്റ്ലാന്റാ ചാപ്റ്ററിന് പുതിയ ഭാരവാഹികള്
-
us news10 months ago
‘The Biggest Water Baptism in History’: 4,166 Baptized at Historic Beach from Jesus Movement
-
world news10 months ago
Muslim Husband Found Out His Wife Became a Christian; He Beat Her, Starved Her and Left Her in a Wild Animal Park—But God…
-
National6 months ago
ബൈബിൾ വിതരണം ചെയ്യുന്നതും നല്ല മൂല്യങ്ങൾ പഠിപ്പിക്കുന്നതും മതപരിവർത്തനമല്ല: അലഹബാദ് ഹൈക്കോടതിയുടെ നിര്ണ്ണായക വിധി
-
world news8 months ago
37 Christians Killed in Nigeria in Three Weeks
-
world news10 months ago
ലേലത്തിൽ വെച്ചിരുന്ന ലോകത്തിലെ ഏറ്റവും പഴക്കമുള്ള ഹീബ്രു ബൈബിളിന് റെക്കോര്ഡ് തുക: ലഭിച്ചത് 314 കോടിരൂപ
-
world news10 months ago
യുഎഇ യിൽ ക്രൈസ്തവ ആരാധനാലയങ്ങൾക്ക് ഇനി ലൈസൻസ് നിർബന്ധം