Families of AirAsia Victims Turn to God and Prayer as 34th Body is Pulled from the Sea

January 04, 2015 – Eileen Ng – AP

Relatives of those who died in the AirAsia crash sought strength in prayer Sunday, one week after the disaster killed all 162 on board, as rough weather again prevented searchers from reaching a large object on the ocean floor believed to be the plane’s fuselage.

Emotionally exhausted family members sang and cried at a tiny chapel in Surabaya, the city where Flight 8501 departed from Dec. 28. The Rev. Philip Mantofa, who heads the congregation at Mawar Sharon Church — where more than a quarter of the victims were members — urged those gathered to find comfort in their faith.

“If God has called your child, allow me to say this: Your child is not to be pitied,” Mantofa said, locking eyes with a grieving father seated in the front row. “Your child is already in God’s arms. One day, your family will be reunited in heaven.”

It is not known what caused the Singapore-bound plane to crash into the Java Sea 42 minutes after taking off on what was supposed to be a two-hour flight. Just before losing contact, the pilot told air traffic control that he was approaching threatening clouds, but was denied permission to climb to a higher altitude because of heavy air traffic.

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Following Jesus on Death Row / Christian mum faces deportation for not living with husband before marriage

Dear friends & family in Christ, We're forwarding you the following two very important article links for your ongoing prayer support for God's divine intervention. http://www.biblesociety.org.au/news/following-jesus-on-death-row http://www.9news.com.au/national/2015/02/10/09/10/christian-mum-faces-deportation-for-not-living-with-husband-before-marriage

Continue ReadingFollowing Jesus on Death Row / Christian mum faces deportation for not living with husband before marriage

Tim Tebow announces opening of children’s hospital in Philippines

December 30, 2014 – Assist News Service – Mark Ellis and Michael Ashcraft

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA (ANS) — Philippines-born Tim Tebow, famous for taking a knee and praying mid-game as an NFL quarterback, has now made a touchdown pass off the gridiron: a pediatric hospital under his tutelage opened for business this Christmas.

“I have always had a great love and passion for the Filipino people,” Tebow said in a statement. “It is so exciting to be able to provide healing and care for these incredibly deserving children halfway around the world.”

In the Fall of 2011, Tebow joined forces with CURE International to build a 30-bed orthopedic hospital in Davao City. His Tebow foundation helped raise the $3 million to fund construction and staffing.

While health services began last week, the official grand opening won’t be until spring of 2015. A 5-story building, the Tebow CURE Hospital will treat clubfoot, bowed legs, cleft palate and other congenital limb abnormalities among impoverished Filipinos who otherwise would not receive any treatment.

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Media Release: Is flying our Australian flag on Australia Day a symbol of racism or is it patriotism?? by Daniel Nalliah

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – THURSDAY 22nd JANUARY 2015

The President of Rise Up Australia Party Daniel Nalliah stated this morning from his office in Melbourne,

“As an immigrant from Sri Lanka who now calls Australia Home, when I first saw the Australian flag I just loved it. Every Australia Day I fly our Australian Flag at home and on my car. But most of all, I fly our Australian Flag every day in my heart because I love Australia and will fight to Keep Australia, Australian for the next generation.

I was shocked to read the survey results from the University of Western Australia a couple of years ago (http://www.news.uwa.edu.au/201201234297/research/study-shows-racist-views-link-car-flags) stating that flying the Australian Flag was an act of racism. I know this view is supported by the push for Multiculturalism. For me this is very offensive and at once my instincts are to react by promoting every Australian to fly the flag, not just on Australia Day, but every day of the year.

I called Australia home around 18 years, and if this is what I feel, I wonder how much more offensive it is to every patriotic Australian, especially our diggers who fought for our flag and the relatives of the many who lost their lives.

Multiculturalism has been a great mistake the West has embraced. Today the host countries in the West, such as people living in Australia, are forced to think twice before displaying their flags for fear of being called racist.

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Bereaved Israeli and Palestinian parents work together for reconciliation

Monday, December 22, 2014 – by Pat McCarthy – ASSIST News Service

JERUSALEM, ISRAEL (ANS) — Although Israeli-Palestinian relations are probably best known for conflict, a group of parents from both sides has spent 20 years working for reconciliation, inspired and united by the common experience of bereavement.

More than 600 families belong to the Parents’ Circle – Families Forum (PCFF) – brought together by the pain they share through losing a close family member in the ongoing conflict.

The grassroots group was initiated in 1995 by Yitzhak Frankental, a Jew, whose firstborn son Arik was abducted and murdered by Hamas militants while he was serving in the Israeli army.

“After Arik was murdered, I understood that I had failed as a father,” he recalled in a newspaper interview. “I had brought a son into the world but he did not live — not because he was sick, but because there was no peace. Because I didn’t do anything to promote peace.”

Mr. Frankental said eyebrows were raised over his conciliatory activity in his religious congregation in Jerusalem, but he never wavered in his religious faith. “My approach to religion,” he said, “is that I worship God, not the other way around. Everything that God does is for the good, even if I do not fully grasp it.”

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Christians In Egypt Find Healing by Forgiving Those Who Persecute Them

Baptist Press – William Bagsby – September 21, 2014

A year after more than 85 churches and Christian institutions across Egypt were destroyed and burned, and three years after the country’s longest serving president stepped down in the wake of nationwide protests, Christian workers there are finding an openness rarely experienced before.

Some workers noted that forgiveness — along with persistence in sharing the Gospel — shown by local Christians toward Muslims has played a large role in the change.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak stepped down after 18 days of nationwide demonstrations during what is now called the 2011 Egyptian Revolution. Since then Egypt has gone through various protests, elections, presidents and the quake of upheaval.

In August last year more than 85 churches and Christian institutions were attacked and burned as a result of demonstrations across Egypt calling for an Islamic state.

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Ben Carson Says Adults Must Teach Inner-City Youth to Respect Authority; Recounts His Own Run-In With Police

By Samuel Smith , CP Reporter November 26, 2014

Columnist, retired neurosurgeon and potential presidential candidate Ben Carson speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Oxon Hill, Maryland, March 8, 2014.

In the wake this week’s grand jury decision not to indict the Ferguson, Missouri, cop who shot and killed an unarmed African-American teenager, potential Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson claims that young males living in inner cities need to be taught how to respond better to authority.

In an interview with Bloomberg Politics Monday night, the 63-year-old retired neurosurgeon and rising conservative star was asked to recount his own childhood experience with his run-ins with inner city Detroit law enforcement.

Although Carson said that as a kid there was the possibility for many run-ins with police officers, he said he was largely able to avoid harsh police confrontations because he was taught at a young age to be “polite” and how to “appropriately” react to interactions with law enforcement and other types of authority.

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Is Mentoring the Solution to the Ferguson Problem: Kirk Franklin Thinks So

November 27, 2014 – SOURCE: EEW Magazine – Reginald Daniels

America is hurting right now, particularly those within the African American community that feel like an injustice has been done in the case of Michael Brown.

Among the leaders speaking out at this critical period is award-winning gospel recording artist Kirk Franklin, 44.

The “I Smile” songwriter is addressing the Ferguson community on Twitter and admonishing leaders to mentor urban male youth to help turn things around.

“I was raised with no father, bad neighborhood, high school drop out, food stamps,” he said. “You know what saved me..? MENTORING.”

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Top London CofE school failed to safeguard pupils from Islamic extremism

Richard Garner  – EDUCATION EDITOR – 19 November 2014

One of the country’s most successful inner-city state schools is to be failed by inspectors for neglecting to safeguard its pupils from extremism in an echo of the Birmingham “Trojan Horse” affair.

Sir John Cass’s Foundation and Red Coat Church of England school in Tower Hamlets, east London, will be placed in special measures by the education standards watchdog Ofsted for failing to monitor the activities of an Islamic society set up by sixth-formers at the school.

In particular, a Facebook site set up by the society contained links to hard-line Islamist preachers – a move which could have made pupils vulnerable to radicalisation. The society also set up its own YouTube channel which was not monitored.

According to Ofsted, that constituted a failure to safeguard the pupils – a breach for which it had to be placed in special measures. It is the first school outside of Birmingham to be failed on such a safeguarding issue.

The school is also criticised for allowing segregation between boys and girls in the playground.

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Rick Warren, Russell Moore Go on Rant Against Sex-Charged Culture

11/18/2014 Josephine McKenna/RNS – Charisma News

Prominent U.S. evangelicals Russell Moore and Rick Warren blasted the sexual revolution at a Vatican conference Nov. 18 and said it is destroying the institution of marriage.

Moore, the public face of the Southern Baptist Convention, said sexual liberation had created “a culture obsessed with sex” that had simply led to a “boredom of sex shorn of mystery.”

“Western culture now celebrates casual sexuality, cohabitation, no-fault divorce, family redefinition and abortion right as part of a sexual revolution that can tear down old patriarchal systems,” Moore told a global gathering of leaders from Catholic, Jewish, Muslim and other faiths as part of the “Complementarity of Man and Woman” conference convened by Pope Francis.

The Southern Baptist ethicist said the sexual revolution appeared to have imposed a new patriarchy that enabled men to “pursue a Darwinian fantasy of the predatory alpha male” for the pursuit of “power, prestige and personal pleasure.”

“Does anyone really believe these things will empower women and children?” he asked. “We see the wreckage of sexuality as self-expression all around us, and we will see more yet.”

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A Diverse and Powerful Egyptian Church

By Dr David Curry , Christian Post Guest Contributor – November 13, 2014

In June and July of 2013, Tahrir Square became a place where history was made. This Cairo, Egypt landmark housed the largest outpouring of protest against the radical Jihadist agenda in the Middle East, with estimates of over 20 million people protesting the rule of the Muslim Brotherhood. The loss of power for the Muslim Brotherhood brought repercussions to Egyptian Christians, both Coptic and evangelical, as the Brotherhood sought to both appeal for support among Islamic radicals, and punish Christians for speaking out against the brutality of the Muslim Brotherhood. Hundreds of churches were burned to the ground, homes and businesses were attacked and many Christians lost their lives.

As CEO of Open Doors USA, I have the privilege of regularly interacting with heroes of the faith, people who have suffered great persecution. I often meet people who have lost their entire families, businesses and homes, simply because they choose to be followers of Jesus. I was in Tahrir Square last January when Egyptians voted to adopt the new constitution and chart a path away from the rule of Islamic Jihadists. I watched as the Brotherhood demonstrated with violence, desperately trying to hold on to their death-grip of power over Egyptians. And I watched as Christians were targeted for brutality.

But just days ago, I returned again from Egypt. What I saw this time was a Church that has grown strong in spite of the horrendous difficulties that it faces. I saw Christians, both Coptic and evangelical, who have come to understand they must seek a common path together in faith. These are important first steps. What I saw was the first steps in the rebuilding of an Egyptian Christian Church focused on the saving grace of Jesus.

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New Year’s Eve & New Year 2015 program at CTFM at 30 Star Crescent in Hallam

Dear friends & family in Christ, 31st December—New Year’s Eve Worship Service at 9.30pm with Communion followed by supper (bring a plate of finger food) – no hot food please…

Continue ReadingNew Year’s Eve & New Year 2015 program at CTFM at 30 Star Crescent in Hallam

Pope Francis Creates Panel to Process ‘Backlog’ of Appeals From Priests Accused of Sexual Abuse

By Michael Gryboski , Christian Post Reporter – November 12, 2014

The Vatican announced Tuesday that Pope Francis will set up a panel to help process the “backlog” of appeals from priests who’ve been accused of committing sexual abuse against minors. The new judicial body, or college, will be overseen by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

“Hearing the appeals is a very important job, especially those on abuse of minors, and the backlog of cases is at risk of absorbing all the time of the congregation,” Vatican spokesman Fr. Federico Lombardi told The Tablet, a Catholic news weekly.

“[The accused] shall have his case examined by the whole body of members of the congregation, the ordinary session, which may also examine other specific cases upon papal request, and/or examine cases referred to it by the newly created college,” he added.

The new college will mostly focus on appeals from defrocked priests, according to Reuters, which reports that “Under the changes, the new commission would handle appeals while an existing office in the doctrinal department would continue to handle initial cases. The Vatican said earlier this year that between 2004 and 2013, it had defrocked about 850 priests who had been accused of sexual abuse of minors.”

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Muslims Sexually Enslaving Children: A Global Phenomenon

September 4, 2014 by Raymond Ibrahim

As shocking as the Muslim-run sex ring in Rotherham, England may seem to some—1,400 British children as young as 11 plied with drugs before being passed around and sexually abused in cabs and kabob shops—the fact is that this phenomenon is immensely widespread. In the United Kingdom alone, it’s the fifth sex abuse ring led by Muslims to be uncovered.

Some years back in Australia, a group of “Lebanese Muslim youths” were responsible for a “series of brutal gang rapes” of “Anglo-Celtic teenage girls.” A few years later in the same country, four Muslim Pakistani brothers raped at least 18 Australian women, some as young as 13. Even in the United States, a gang of Somalis—Somalia being a Muslim nation where non-Muslims, primarily Christians, are ruthlessly persecuted—was responsible for abducting, buying, selling, raping and torturing young American girls as young as 12.

The question begs itself: If Muslim minorities have no fear of exploiting “infidel” women and children in non-Muslim countries—that is, where Muslims themselves are potentially vulnerable minorities—how are Muslims throughout the Islamic world, where they are dominant, treating their vulnerable, non-Muslim minorities?

The answer is a centuries-long, continents-wide account of nonstop sexual predation. Boko Haram’s abduction and enslavement of nearly 300, mostly Christian, schoolgirls last April in Nigeria is but the tip of the iceberg.

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Council Puts Christ Back Into Christmas – City of Greater Dandenong

Dear friends, Further to the email we sent around six weeks ago, you may click the following link (then click the Springvale Dandenong region) to read an excellent front page…

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