Story number 1 for 16 Dec 1999

We begin today’s newscast in Sudan where the country’s president has declared emergency rule as a power struggle reached a critical point this week. Words of Hope’s Lee DeYoung just returned from Sudan. He says as Christians in the south are maintaining peace the government is getting nervous. “Some Christian activities in Khartoum have been given some degree of freedom, as kind of a show case for the rest of the world, which recently have been experiencing greater persecution – greater restrictions, strictly because they’re afraid of that peace in the south is going to make it harder for them obtain their objectives.” DeYoung says that increased pressure isn’t effecting church growth. “The attacks against Christians in areas they do control have if anything not led to the reduction of Christian activity, but rather to an explosion of Church growth. When force is applied against the church it often actually leads to the opposite of the intent.”