Category Archives: Argentina

Argentina: Persecution News Update

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The link below is to an article reporting on persecution news from Argentina.

For more visit:
http://www.christiantelegraph.com/issue27012.html

Falkland Islands: Islanders Want to Overwhelmingly Remain British

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The link below is to an article with the latest news concerning the Falkland Islanders wish to remain British.

For more visit:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/mar/13/falkland-islanders-belong-britain-argentina-honour

Falkland Islands: Vote to Remain British Overwhelming – Who Were the Other Three?

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The link below is to an article reporting on the vote to remain British in the Falkland Islands. However, it appears three voted otherwise – who were these three and what were they thinking lol?

For more visit:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2013/mar/12/falkland-islands-referendum-votes-yes

Unprecedented Appearance of Foreign Evangelist in Vietnam

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Luis Palau preaches at Protestant centennial in spite of government putting up obstacles to event.

HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam, April 11 (CDN) — The first appearance by a U.S.-based evangelist preaching at a major event since the 1975 communist victory in Vietnam helped the country’s Protestants to celebrate their centennial last weekend after government officials gave last-minute approval.

In what seems to have become standard government procedure in Vietnam, permission requested months in advance was granted – at a venue several kilometers from the one organizers sought – just three hours before the first major celebration of the Centennial of Protestantism in Vietnam (1911-2011) at Thanh Long Stadium in Ho Chi Minh City on Saturday (April 9) was scheduled to begin. Argentine-born Luis Palau, who has preached in person to 28 million people in 72 countries, delivered the gospel
message.

A second night of celebration began at 7 p.m. on Sunday.

The venue change meant equipment staged in one part of the city had to be moved to the new location before it could be assembled, church leaders said. It also meant notifying many thousands of people invited to one venue about the change to the other, they said.

Given the lack of government cooperation, the leader of Vietnam’s Evangelical Fellowship (of house churches) said the fact that the event went ahead at all was “an absolute miracle.”

By word-of-mouth, Internet, Twitter, Facebook, and especially phone texting, thousands of people got word of the change as technicians and hundreds of volunteers made heroic efforts to ready the stadium. Vietnamese police proved surprisingly helpful in redirecting people from the original site to the new location.

At 9 p.m. – two hours after the schedule start – huge banners reading “PRAY FOR VIETNAM” and “GOD LOVES VIETNAM” were unfurled to welcome the Luis Palau Team and thousands of people to the festival, which joyfully combined the centennial celebration with Easter.

After opening prayers and welcome by Vietnamese leaders, Palau’s son Andrew Palau gave testimony to how God delivered him from alcoholism and drug addiction and called him to Christian service. An Intel Corp. vice-president also gave testimony to how God blessed his life and his business. Pastor-musician Don Moen, known for songs such as “Give Thanks,” “God is so Good,” and “God will Make a Way,” provided inspirational music followed by exuberant congregational singing.

Palau began his message at 11 p.m., delivering a concise and clear evangelistic sermon, and about 800 came forward as he invited people to receive Christ. It was after midnight before people began to depart for their homes.

The second celebration proceeded Sunday evening (April 10) in a more orderly and timely fashion. More than 12,000 people filled the seats and most of the chairs set up on the stadium field. In response to Palau’s second message, more than 1,000 people, according to one organizer, came forward in response to the call to follow Christ.

Photos and Vietnamese text on the events are readily available at http://www.hoithanh.com, and clips of the arrival of Palau and Moen in Vietnam may be found on YouTube. They were welcomed at Ho Chi Minh City’s Tan Son Nhut airport by hundreds of enthusiastic young people carrying banners and flowers.

Dr. Nguyen Xuan Duc, president of the Vietnam World Christian Fellowship, said he was very encouraged about the future of the church in Vietnam.

“These are watershed days for Protestantism in Vietnam,” he said. “There is no fear, but rather wonderful spontaneity and irrepressible joy. Events like this happen in spite of the government and without the blessing of some overly conservative church leaders. What we see is young, vibrant, lay-led, internationally connected and very media-savvy.”

While Moen, Palau and others spoke on Sunday night, also appearing in Ho Chi Minh City was iconic singer/songwriter Bob Dylan – whose performance sold only about half of the 8,000 seats at RMIT university.

A week before in Beijing, censors who reviewed Dylan’s song list allowed an unabashedly Christian song beginning, “Jesus said be ready for you know not the hour in which I come,” but did not allow “Blowin’ in the Wind” and “The Times They Are A-Changin’,” according to The Associated Press. Brad Adams of Human Rights Watch complained that, in an earlier day, Dylan – whose music contributed to opposition to the Vietnam War – would never have let a government tell him what to sing, according to the AP.  

Vietnamese organizers and the Palau team now travel north to Hanoi for similar events on Friday and Saturday (April 15-16). As yet there is no indication whether authorities there will be more accommodating than they were in Ho Chi Minh City.

Report from Compass Direct News
http://www.compassdirect.org

Plinky Prompt: Describe Your Dream Vacation

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Patagonia: My Dream Vacation

Patagônia … BOA SEMANA!

My dream vacation is one that I will probably never go on – it is trekking through the Patagonian wilderness. I have loved everything about Patagonia from the moment I read about it in a wilderness article some years ago. I don’t believe I’ll ever go there though.

BAD EXAMPLES DO NOT INVALIDATE THE VALUE OF PRIESTLY CELIBACY

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Bishop Juan Ruben Martinez of Posadas in Argentina said celibacy cannot be reduced to a “mere imposition of the Church” and that “bad examples and even our own limitations do not invalidate the contribution of so many who, in the past and today, give their lives for others,” reports Catholic News Agency.

Bishop Martinez said that a “materialistic vision” of man that is based solely on “instinct and the physiological” makes it difficult to these values as a “gift of God” and an “instrument of service to humanity and to the common good.” He recognized that “from materialistic anthropology, celibacy and monogamous marriage tend to be considered as something unnatural.” However, he warned, “To reduce celibacy to a mere imposition of the Church is in fact to insult our intelligence and Christ himself who was ‘the eternal high priest,’ ‘celibate,’ and gave his life for all of us, and he himself recommended it. It is to insult the biblical texts which show great respect for celibacy and chastity for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven, and it insults the Fathers, doctors and pastors of the Church from apostolic times to the present.”

“Uniting celibacy with the priestly ministry is a more radical Gospel choice made by the Church based on her authority and supported by the Word of God and the testimony of the saints and of so many men and women who, throughout history, strove and strive through this gift and even through their own frailties to give everything exclusively to God and his people. Bad examples and even our own limitations do not invalidate the contribution of so many who, in the past and today, give their lives for others,” the bishop said.

He went on to note that only on the basis of faith can we have “a profound understanding of issues such as life, the family, marriage, the Church and her mission, the priesthood and celibacy.”

Bishop Martinez encouraged Catholics to pray for vocations to the priesthood and religious life, “trusting in the initiative of God and man’s response,” and he thanked God, who continues to call young people to consecrate themselves to God and their brothers and sisters. “They respond to the call because they believe in love,” he said.

Report from the Christian Telegraph