* CHILDREN ARE ABDUCTED, SOLD, BOUGHT - Human trafficking was becoming a major money-making operation for local and international syndicates, minister in the presidency Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said on Wednesday.

Addressing delegates attending a three-day human trafficking conference in Durban, Tshabalala-Msimang said scores of women and children experienced severe trauma, abuse and human rights violations.

"Human trafficking is becoming a major money making operation for local and international syndicates."

Tshabalala-Msimang said scores of children had gone missing across the country. "They are those who are being abducted, sold and bought for exploitation."

The conference was being held in Durban because KwaZulu-Natal was identified by the Western Cape-based children's organisation Molo Songololo as one of the notorious entry, transit and destination points in the country, said Tshabalala-Msimang.

"It is encouraging though that KwaZulu-Natal has formulated an action plan, whose implementation is being supported by the Films and Publications Board and the Airports Company of South Africa."

Tshabalala-Msimang said the plan to counter human trafficking, pornography, prostitution and brothels, would form a model and reference point for the other provinces, which would be establishing their inter-sectoral task teams this year.
She said she had visited the Eastern Cape on Monday to interact with the people of Lusikisiki on the issue of child abduction, forced and early marriages.

"The SABC had reported that in the past two years more than 200 school girls from as young as 12 years old had been forced into marriages in Lusikisiki area alone. We found out that "ukuthwala" or forced marriage was indeed still being practised in remote villages in the Eastern Cape," added Tshabalala-Msimang.
(IOL.co.za, 25 Mar 2009) (to index)

* 'POSSESSED' PUPILS IN HOSPITAL - More than 50 pupils from an Eastern Cape school have been rushed to hospital since last week, after behaving as though they were "possessed by demons".

Johannesburg - About 51 pupils from Nompumelelo Junior Secondary school in Lusikisiki have been admitted to hospital since Thursday last week, after behaving as though they were "possessed by demons", the principal said.

"They start behaving hysterically and say that they see women from their villages who have died and left their children behind," said principal Sonwabile Sihlobo on Monday.
"The dead women tell the pupils that they should not be at school if their [the dead women's] children can not."

On Thursday nine pupils were admitted to hospital. On Friday, 23 were admitted and on Monday another 19 pupils were admitted - all of them at the Saint Elizabeth hospital in Lusikisiki.

He said the children - who were mostly girls - would first break out into song. They would then start screaming, jump up and down, cry, lose feeling in their legs and fall down, try to punch their stomachs because they complain of cramps, roll on the ground and then eventually faint.
Sihlobo said this would occur mostly when prayers were being performed at the school.

"I was praying in my mind today [Monday] when the pupils became crazy. Their screams are scary, its almost as if it's not their voices. They also try to hit you if you come near."
He said the ambulance was immediately alerted "because the school knew what they were dealing with".

When the ambulance arrived, paramedics, teachers and caretakers of the school had to hold the children down. Some also tried running away.
"We managed to grab them and strap them down to beds."

Doctor Vusumzi Kalala, director of clinical governance at Saint Elizabeth Hospital, said the children were suffering from "ama fufuniana" or hysteria.
Kakala said people suffered from hysteria after losing self-control due to overwhelming fear - and the children believed that they were possessed by "something evil".

"The evil that they see is of the women who have died. One can manifest that. The human mind can do many things...although, I have never seen so many of them seeing the exact same thing."

He said they arrived at the hospital strapped to beds, and remained restrained until they calmed down.

The pupils also became so energetic during their fits that they dehydrated to a dangerous level. They were medicated for dehydration at the hospital.
"We had to sedate most of them and when they wake up, they recall absolutely nothing."

He said a number of priests were called into the hospital to pray for the children. They were also receiving counselling from a team of doctors, nurses and social workers.

Earlier this month, 90 Windsor Secondary School pupils in Ladysmith were rushed to hospital, after suffering from dizzy spells and "fits".
The children had difficulty breathing, fainted, had fits, screamed and jumped, and became hysterical.

A similar incident was also reported at Mahlenga High School in northern KwaZulu-Natal in 2007.

Sihlobo said that classes at Nompumelelo school had to be cancelled on Monday but normal schooling would resume on Tuesday.

Eastern Cape police spokesperson, Captain Mduduzi Godlwana, said if an incident such as this was reported - police would check the school for illegal drugs that could result in the children's "uncanny" behaviour.
"Even if that is the case, it won't be on such a large scale," Godlwana said.
(News24.co.za, 23 Mar 2009) (to index)

* 'DEATHBED CONFESSION' MAN CHARGED - A US man who thought he was dying and confessed to having killed a neighbour in 1977 has been charged with murder after making a recovery, US media say.

James Brewer could now face the death penalty over the unsolved killing in Tennessee 32 years ago, reports say.
Convinced he was dying after a stroke, Mr Brewer reportedly admitted to police he shot dead 20-year-old Jimmy Carroll.
The 58-year-old, who had fled Tennessee after the killing, was arrested after his condition improved, reports say.

"He wanted to cleanse his soul, because he thought he was going to the great beyond," said police detective Tony Grasso, who interviewed Mr Brewer in an Oklahoma hospital, The Oklahoman website reported.

Mr Brewer had reportedly moved to Oklahoma from Tennessee after jumping bail after he was originally arrested and charged with Mr Carroll's murder in 1977.
The former factory worker changed his name to Michael Anderson and settled down with his wife, Dorothy, in the town of Shawnee.
The couple became active members of the local church, where Mrs Brewer established a Bible study group, reports say.

After suffering a stroke, Mr Brewer called police to his hospital bedside earlier this month, where he reportedly made the confession.
Detectives said Mr Brewer had admitted killing Mr Carroll, who he believed had been trying to seduce his wife.
However, Mr Brewer survived the illness and surrendered to authorities in his former home town of Hohenwald, Tennessee, after they were notified by the Oklahoma police.
(BBC News, 23 Mar 2009) (to index)

* BERKELEY PASTOR SENTENCED TO 30 DAYS IN JAIL – On 21 Mar 2009 Rev. Walter Hoye II was sentenced to 30 days in the Alameda County Jail. His crime? Standing on the sidewalk in front of an Oakland California abortion clinic holding a sign that read, "Jesus loves you and your baby. Let us help."

Rev. Walter B. Hoye II, an African American pastor from Berkeley, was found guilty in Alameda County Superior Court of unlawfully approaching abortion clinic clients at an abortion clinic in Oakland.

Rev. Hoye was taken from the court room in handcuffs to begin serving his 30 day jail sentence. Additionally, he was fined $1,000 and ordered to stay more than 1,000 feet from the abortion clinic for 3 years.

Rev. Hoye is a mild mannered, soft spoken but direct man. He is the Executive Minister (Pastor) of the Progressive Missionary Baptist Church of Berkeley and is an assistant chaplain for the Golden State Warriors. He coaches children’s sports. Walter’s wife, Lori, has stood by him every step of this journey.

Walter is an African American pastor who feels a special calling to work for the end of the genocide-by-abortion that has been taking place in the African American community.

As part of his pro-life ministry, he stands in front of an abortion clinic in Oakland with information offering alternatives to abortion and carrying a sign reading, "Jesus loves you and your baby. Let us help." On May 13, 2008, he was arrested for allegedly violating the newly enacted "Access to Reproductive Health Care Facilities" ordinance in Oakland’s Municipal Code.

During his trial, a video tape of his activities was played showing that he violated neither the spirit nor the letter of the ordinance. The jury, based on incomplete instructions from the judge, relied on the testimony of the abortion center director and convicted him of two counts of "prohibited harassment of individuals seeking access to health care facilities".
(Values Advocacy Council, 22 Mar 2009) (to index)

* NO EVANGELICAL COLLAPSE - It is true that not only Evangelism, but all forms of Christianity, except the Pentecostal Charismatic churches as a sub-species of Evangelism, are indeed on the back foot in north America and Western Europe. This is mainly because they have been battered by the gale force and prevailing winds of scientific humanism, the neo-pagan spirit of our age, plus post – modernism, all of which have slowly taken the West out of what used to be called Christendom into a post-Christian era.

However, it would be misleading to conclude that Evangelicalism world- wide is in retreat or collapse. In fact, the contrary is the case. For example in one of the landmark volumes of this past decade, "The Next Christendom – Coming of Global Christianity", by Philip Jenkins professor of history and religious studies at Penn State University in the United States, the author affirms on the basis of wide and meticulous research that: "We are currently living through one of the transforming moments in the history of religion worldwide. Over the past five centuries or so, the story of Christianity has been inextricably bound up with that of Europe and European – derived civilisations overseas, above all in North America... but over the past century, the centre of gravity in the Christian world has shifted inexorably southward to Africa, Asia and Latin America. Already today, the largest Christian communities on the planet are to be found in Africa and Latin America. Whatever Europeans or North Americans may believe, Christianity is doing very well indeed in the global South – not just surviving but expanding."

Jenkins affirms that Christianity, and here he is speaking primarily of evangelical Christianity, should enjoy a world wide boom in this new 21st century, but the majority of believers will neither be white nor European, nor Euro-American". Jenkins predicts that in 2025 there will about 2,6 billion Christians, mainly in the Southern hemisphere. Thus, while Western Christianity, as we know it, may decline in our life time, nevertheless the day of Southern Christianity is dawning. And this dramatic growth, says Jenkins, will even exceed that of Islam so that there will "by 2050 still be about three Christians for every two Muslims worldwide. Some 34% of the world's people will then be Christian, roughly what the figure was at the height of the Europeans world hegemony in 1900".

Interestingly enough, Jenkins notes that southern-hemisphere Christians in this developing era will be more conservative, evangelical and biblically based in terms of their beliefs and moral teaching. They will also have a "very strong supernatural orientation" with the dominant Christian current being "traditionalist, orthodox, and supernatural".

He affirms that it is not easy, even now, "to convince a congregation in Seoul or Nairobi that Christianity is dying, when their main concern is building worship facilities big enough for the 10 000 or 20 000 members they have gained. And these new converts are mainly teenagers and young adults. Nor can these churches be easily told that in order to reach a mass audience they must bring their message more into accord with Western secular orthodoxies".

Thus Jenkins predicts what he calls "a new Christendom" which will "offer a higher set of standards and morals which alone could claim to be universal". In all of this, Christianity on our own continent may hold a major clue to the future of the faith as Africa almost certainly will sometime in the century become the major fulcrum of world missions, ably backed up by South-East Asia, China and Latin America. In reality the Christian growth rate in Africa can indeed be described as explosive, with some 1 500 new congregations being planted every month and some 25 000 people a day entering the Christian faith either by conversion or baptism into Christian families.

So biblically committed Christians everywhere should take heart, particularly if they live in the southern hemisphere or especially in Africa.

Biblically committed Christians "should not lose heart", not only because southern-hemisphere Christians will surely re-evangelise the North, but also because "Christianity as the world's most missionary faith," has a history of renewing itself, even in the most culturally inhospitable places.
(The Witness, 19 March 2009) (to index)

* EXCERPT FROM THE AGM OF THE FAMILY ASSOCIATION (ADF) AND CFT-FRANCE - Jean-Pierre from CFT-France writes, "The main topic was a project of law by the government which will grant civil rights on children to a third person beside the father and the mother. In a divorced family, where one parent is now living with another person, this third person has no right to sign official papers for the children. The project of law plans to grant this third person the same rights as the biological father or mother. In the project of law, they do not mention "father" or "mother", but only "parent", so that they include a same sex couple. The homosexual lobby is very happy with this project, because it is a great success towards children adoption by homosexuals."

The project will be discussed in Parliament in April. We call on Christians to write letters to the President and the Parliament.
(CFT News France, Mar 2009) (to index)

* ON A LIGHTER NOTE - An atheist created a case against the upcoming Easter and Passover holy days. He hired an attorney to bring a discrimination case against Christians, Jews and observances of their holy days. The argument was that it was unfair that atheists had no such recognised days. The case was brought before a judge. After listening to the passionate presentation by the lawyer, the judge banged his gavel declaring, "Case dismissed!"

The lawyer immediately stood objecting to the ruling saying, "Your honour, how can you possibly dismiss this case? The Christians have Christmas, Easter and others. The Jews have Passover, Yom Kippur and Hanukkah, yet my client and all other atheists have no such holidays." The judge leaned forward in his chair saying, "But you do. Your client, counsel, is woefully ignorant.."The lawyer said, "Your Honour, we are unaware of any special observance or holiday for atheists."

The judge said, "The calendar says April 1st is April Fools Day. Psalm 14:1 states, 'The fool says in his heart, there is no God.' Thus, it is the opinion of this court, that if your client says there is no God, then he is a fool. Therefore, April 1st is the day. Court is adjourned."
(CFT News, Mar 2009) (to index)