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The death toll from the Dec. 15 landslides in Venezuela could reach 30,000, with 150,000 left homeless, according to government officials. Other agencies, including the Red Cross, put the death toll as high as 50,000. In the worst hit area, Vargas state along the Caribbean coast, hardship is now a way of life. The greatest need is for pure drinking water and sanitation facilities. Most schools were destroyed, and those still standing have been converted into shelters for the homeless. Further rain triggered small landslides that hampered relief efforts. At the request of Eastern Mennonite Missions, Mennonite Central Committee was planning in early January to send an assessment team to the site of the landslides. MCC has no partners in Venezuela and has not previously worked there. There are at six known anabaptist church bodies in the country, with a total membership of about 600. EMM relates closely with four of these church groups. The other two are Chinese congregations begun by Mennonite Brethren from Canada. – Mennonite Central Committee
Anja Hrykin, 13, who was kidnapped from Grozny Baptist Church by Islamist Chechen fighters on Oct. 2, is safe with a group of refugees from her church in Krasnodar, south Russia. Russian soldiers had found her in an abandoned Chechen village and brought her to a Christian family in the North Ossetian capital of Vladikavkaz a few days after Christmas. A source said she had been raped many times, beaten and almost starved to death. The child told the Christian family who took her in that she had been forced by her captors to recite the Muslim creed and convert to Islam. Medical tests confirm that she is pregnant. The whereabouts of her mother are unknown. Her father, an alcoholic who beat her and her mother, had abandoned the family long ago. Her mother had become mentally unstable due to physical and drug abuse, and was being cared for by the church. Anja has no other living relatives. She and her mother were living in the church when Islamist militants took over the premises. – Compass Direct
A new study shows that evangelical Christian couples in the US have fairly egalitarian marriages. They are much like other American families in such areas as division of household labour, family finances, child-rearing and work decisions. However, evangelical families differ from other families in that they are more likely to say the husband takes the lead in “spiritual matters” and they are more likely to report high levels of marital satisfaction. Evangelicals generally embrace conservative family values such as the recent Southern Baptist family statement declaring that wives should “graciously submit” to their husbands. However, a study by Bradford Wilcox and John Bartkowski says that stated belief doesn’t match the practice in evangelical homes; in fact, evangelical marriages may be somewhat more egalitarian than other marriages. Another study found that while evangelicals are more likely to spank their toddlers and preschoolers “more often than other parents”, they also display more warmth and affection to their children. Evangelical mothers praise and hug their children more often than do other mothers, and evangelical fathers are more involved with their children than other fathers. – ChristianWeek
Gary Yamasaki has been appointed an adjunct faculty member at Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary in Elkhart, Ind. He currently teaches at Columbia Bible College in Abbotsford, B.C., and has taught in the Association of Canadian Theological Schools (ACTS) consortium in Langley, B.C., of which Mennonite Brethren Biblical Seminary is a member. The appointment is an effort to build a link from AMBS to the MB seminary at ACTS. Yamasaki will continue to teach at Columbia. He is a graduate of AMBS and has a Ph.D. in biblical studies from Union Theological Seminary in Virginia. He published a scholarly book on John the Baptist in 1998. – Canadian Mennonite, AMBS
“Celebrating the Vision” is the theme of celebrations marking the 50th anniversary of Mennonite Disaster Service to be held at Hesston (Kan.) College June 2-4. Participants will meet members of the Sunday school classes who started MDS in 1950. Speakers will include Peter Dyck, Peter Wiebe, Robert Kreider and Millard Fuller. A banquet will be held Friday evening, and there will be workshops, displays, tours and a golf tournament. A new book depicting MDS work, The Hammer Rings Hope, will be released. An outdoor worship service on Sunday morning, followed by a picnic, will conclude the event. For more information, contact Lois Leinbach, registration chair, at MDS 2000, Box 396, Hesston, KS 67062; phone (316) 327-8448 or e-mail lrlgel@southwind.net. Registration deadline is Apr. 15. – Mennonite Disaster Service
Don Posterski has been appointed director of church relations with World Vision International. Since 1990, he has been vice-president of national programs for World Vision Canada. He will create partnerships between the relief organization and church groups. He is an adjunct associate professor of Christianity and culture at McMaster Divinity College, and has written a number of books about the church in Canada, including his latest book Future Faith Churches. – World Vision
On Jan. 2, 15 churches from 12 denominations in Niagara Falls, Ont. closed their doors to encourage their parishioners to attend “Worship 2000: A Millennial Service of Worship for the Christian Community of Niagara Falls”. A local hotel was filled with 1700 adults and children. The leadership team of the Niagara Falls Ministerial Association designed the event so Christians could worship collectively on the first Sunday of the new millennium. The service was “contemporary with traditional elements” and included a joint worship team, a mass choir and the recitation of the Apostles’ Creed and the Lord’s Prayer. John Gladstone, pastor emeritus of Yorkminster Park Baptist Church in Toronto, spoke, calling on Christians to live their faith boldly and authentically. A children’s program featuring a children’s praise band and “Veggie People” ran concurrently with the service. – Stephen Mortley (Niagara Falls Christian Fellowship)
A Canadian Prayer Assembly is scheduled for May 26, 2000, 6:30 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. at Frank Clair Stadium in Ottawa. The theme is “If My People. . .”, taken from II Chronicles 7:14. The prayer assembly is designed to unite Canadians in prayer and fellowship and to celebrate the diversity of Christian faith in Canada. Organizers sponsoring the event include Aglow of Canada, Campus Crusade for Christ, Canada In Prayer, Canadian Youth Network, Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, Focus on the Family, March for Jesus, National Days of Prayer for Native Canadians, One Way Ministries, Promise Keepers and Watchmen for the Nations. More information can be obtained by phoning (877) 747-7073. – Promise Keepers Canada
Santa Cruz, Bolivia, has about 1 million people, and ranks as one of the fastest-growing cities in South America. Evangelical Christians count for less than 10% of the local population. Bolivia, the poorest country in South America, is the only country in the region where Billy Graham has never preached. In mid-November, his son Franklin conducted a four-day crusade in Santa Cruz, which a total of 130,000 people attended. Counsellors registered 19,212 decisions during the crusade, of which 63% were first-time commitments to Christ. Graham plans to conduct the bulk of his crusades in the Two-Thirds World. – World Pulse
Global life expectancy has improved from around 30 years in 1900 to about 65 today. Life expectancy in poor regions of Asia, Latin America and Africa has increased from 41 years in the 1950s to 63 today. – World Pulse
In India, an estimated 2 million female children are aborted every year. The ratio of females to males in India has declined from 972 females for every 1,000 males in 1901 to 927 for every 1,000 today. In Bihar and Rajasthan, there are only about 600 females to 1,000 males. – World Pulse
“Jesus of the People” is the title of a painting showing Jesus as a dark-skinned man that won a contest sponsored by the National Catholic Reporter. The magazine held the contest to update the image of Jesus for the year 2000. It described the winning painting as a “more gentle Jesus . . . modelled on a woman”. The painting, created by Janet McKenzie of Island Pond, Vt., was the top choice among 1,678 entries from 19 countries. – Evangelical Press News Service
Menno Sell, now 87, and his wife Clara retired from church planting in 1976 and moved to Lancaster County, Pa. They started working at Mennonite Central Committee’s SELFHELP Crafts (now Ten Thousand Villages) in Ephrata, Pa. Teased by the program director in 1980 that Sell should live up to his name by selling handicrafts outside the store, he and Clara began marketing the crafts every Tuesday at Roots Country Market in Manheim, Pa. Nearly 20 years later, they have sold over $373,135 of TTV handicrafts at the market. – Mennonite Central Committee
Honduras owes a total of $6.9 billion to creditors such as the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, foreign governments and private banks, according to Jubilee 2000. Of its 1996 revenues, which totalled $1 billion, Honduras spent $867 million, or 80% of the total, on debt service. Jubilee 2000 is a campaign aimed at cancelling the debt held by Third World countries. – MCC
Gladys Staines, wife of slain missionary Graham Staines, plans to remain in India to help with the construction and administration of a 40-bed hospital in Baripada, India. In January 1999, her husband and his two sons were burned to death by a Hindu mob in the Orissa district of India. – EPNS
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Last modified May 4, 2000.
© 2000 Mennonite Brethren Herald.
Published by the Canadian Conference of MB Churches.
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