Countering Extremism in the Age of Identity Politics

https://www.chiangraitimes.com/opinion/countering-extremism-in-the-age-of-identity-politics/

Sino Israelindo Pac

http://www.atimes.com/article/is-china-getting-too-close-to-israel/ the Sino Israli NGO's can serve as dual purpose, sort of double edged swords US based Sino Israeli

Guangxi Nanning Christian Church Hosts 2016 Volunteer Worker Meeting

On Oct 15 Guangxi Nanning Gonghelu Christian Church hosted the 2016 Volunteer Worker Meeting titled "Grace and Hope." At least 300 people participated including the pastoral workers and volunteer teams from Gonghelu Church. The meeting was held in Emanuel Church with volunteer training, new volunteer worker dispatch, yearly church ministry review, volunteer team presentation, questions and answers of the Bible and church knowledge, tug of war, a gift exchange, and other sections. According to the Guangxi CCC&TSPM website, on one hand the meeting convened because of God's grace, and on the other hand it is about the prospects of the next year's ministry. The meeting specially invited Pastor Wang Conglian, chairman of Guangxi Christian Council to give a sermon titled "Fear God" to advise and encourage the congregants. Pastor Wang cited Acts 2:40-47, 5:1-11, 8:1-.3, 9:31 and other verses. He summarized that a fundamental premise of the prosperous Gospel of the apostolic church was to fear God. Pastor Wang mentioned that as servants of God, whether pastoral workers or volunteer workers, only through a right understanding of God will we have righteous service. God is love, but He also inspires fear; God is a devouring fire and a jealous God (Deu 4:24). If we love God we must have a fearful heart toward God. The New Volunteer Worker Dispatch Ceremony followed, presided over by Pastor Zhao Hongmei, director of Gonghelu Church. There are 24 new volunteers joining the ministry this year. Pastor Zhao said that the yearly volunteer meeting will continue to provide a time for resting and get together. She also expressed that the church will continue to improve the volunteer system for people to participate more in the church ministry, grow in ministry, and establish a sense of ownership to build the church of God with one heart.

Christians fleeing Pakistan are stuck in Thailand

Letter to Thai Prime Minister March 9, 2015 Kingdom of Thailand The Secretariat of the Prime Minister Government House, 1 Phitsanulok Road, Dusit, Bangkok 10300 General Prayut Chan-o-cha, Prime Minister Honorable Prime Minister – With great respect, I am contacting you on behalf of the human rights volunteer group Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.) regarding the need to assist Christian refugees who have fled from Pakistan due to the oppressive religious discrimination that they are facing in that country, and who are seeking asylum. (R.E.A.L. is based in the United States of America.) These Pakistan Christian refugees have applied for asylum with the UNCHR, including women and children, who are refugees from religious oppression in Pakistan. I urge the government of Thailand to grant asylum to these refugees, or to at least give them the opportunity to seek asylum in the United States of America through the U.S Embassy in Bangkok. I thank you for your stand on women’s rights, yesterday, on International Women’s Day. There are many women, however, who need your leadership, as well as children and men among the Pakistan Christian refugees who have fled Pakistan seeking safety and asylum. There many thousands of Pakistan Christian asylum seekers who are contributing members to your nation and your economy while they await the decision on their asylum applications with office of UNHCR in different cities of Thailand. Today, March 9, 2015, I have been hearing reports from Pakistan Christians whose fellow refugees are currently being arrested in Thailand today, and are being held in Thailand Immigration Detention Centres (IDC). We have heard from Pakistan refugees as to the immediate and urgent situation for the Pakistan Christian asylum seekers in Thailand, who have communicated directly with our human rights group on the plight Pakistan Christians seeking asylum. Pakistan Christian refugees seeking asylum by Thailand have been communicating in an appeal to human rights groups to address their plight. One such Pakistan Christian asylum seeker, Jarvas Jerry, died last week as he was waiting for medical care, which apparently came too late. Mr. Jarvas Jerry died in the Siri raj hospital Bangkok on February 28, 2015. He had applied for asylum with the UNCHR. I join with other human rights groups in appealing to your mercy and your own stand on human rights, just yesterday, to protect such rights for the safety and dignity of Pakistan Christians seeking asylum. I join the voices of other human rights groups on behalf of Pakistani Christians as token of mercy and human rights to ask you to direct the Thailand police to not make unnecessary arrests under immigration rules to allow their UNCHR applications to be considered. I have appealed to your Ambassador here in the United States as well as to others. Please show the mercy and the commitment to human rights to these Pakistan Christian refugees, which you expressed in your speech to the world on International Women’s Day on March 8. We share those common goals together, sir. Surely, mercy to these Pakistan Christian refugees would be great demonstrations of our ability to mutual demonstrate such support. Please let me know what we can do to assist. Fr. Jim Thomas

Tibetan communities devastated by Nepal quake

On 25 April, a 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck Nepal leaving more than 8,000 people dead and thousands homeless. The earthquake caused much devastation amongst Tibetan communities both in Nepal and Tibet. Ten Tibetans are reported to have died in Nepal and, according to Chinese state media, 25 in Tibet. A second earthquake hit Nepal on 12 May. CLC Missions team are praying for more assistance from our Christian relief partners to be forthcoming. Father Jim Thomas and Jake Sanders from CLC Missions will be reporting more on this during his visit to Nepal in October 2015.

Montagnard Refugees Documented in Cambodian Jungle

Montagnard Refugees Documented in Cambodian Jungle PHNOM PENH — ; At least 85 Montagnard refugees from Vietnam are hiding in Cambodia's malaria-infested jungles, Radio Free Asia Axel Martin reports in an exclusive story. Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday dismissed reports of Christian Montagnard refugees in the area and threatened to remove by force any who might flee there. Correspondents for RFA's Khmer service met at least 85 Montagnards — ; all members of Vietnam's mostly Protestant, minority hilltribes — ; currently hiding in the deep jungles of Rattanakiri Province. The Montagnards, who are split into 14 small groups, include 61 men, eight women, and 16 children aged from 20 months to 13 years. In separate interviews, they said they lacked food and drinkable water and were suffering from malaria as well as unexplained fevers and rashes. Many said they had fled central Vietnam's Gia Lai Province after tens of thousands of Montagnards staged a demonstration April 10-11 to demand religious freedom, independence, and the return of their ancestral lands. The Montagnards suffered hundreds of injuries and at least 10 deaths during a crackdown by police and pro-government mobs, according to witnesses. Several said they had been beaten, jailed, and persecuted by Vietnamese authorities after the protest. 17family150.jpg Montagnard family in Cambodia, July 2004 Photo: Ratha Visal © ; 2004 RFA Romah Fu, 33, also from Gia Lai Province, said Vietnamese police beat him until they broke several ribs after he refused to renounce his religious beliefs while in custody for joining the Easter protests. He fled, he said, when he learned that four Vietnamese soldiers had been asking after him. Another man, Sev Huch, 40, of the Jaray ethnic group, now lives in a tiny shelter covered with waterproof canvas, along with his wife and seven young children. Sev Huch said he was arrested by Vietnamese authorities during the Easter demonstrations but was later freed conditionally. After he protested his treatment in detention, he said, police were looking for him — ; so he packed up his family and fled across the border. "Please help us," he said, speaking through a translator in the Jaray minority language. "Please have pity on us." Another man reported through an interpreter: "We demanded the right to own our ancestral land and cultivate it, but many of us were jailed. We were afraid, so we fled to Cambodia." On Monday, the Cambodian Interior Ministry said there was no evidence to back up reports that Montagnard refugees were living in the border jungles. A day later, Hun Sen told journalists such reports were spread by "liars." Hun Sen agreed, however, to let the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) open offices in northeastern Cambodia, though he warned they should not become refugee camps. The Cambodian government has objected to UNHCR efforts to help the Montagnards, saying they are not political refugees but economic migrants. More than 160 were deported from northeastern Cambodia in April alone. "Who can we help when there is no person?" Hun Sen asked. "I don't know how and whom to distribute [aid] to since there is no person to give it to.'" Hun Sen also warned that he would use military force to crack down on the Montagnards if they set up clandestine bases inside Cambodia to fight for a separate homeland in Vietnam. The Montagnards, who fought with U.S. forces during the Vietnam War, differ from other Vietnamese in their ethnic background and their religious faith. The top UNHCR official in Asia, Jean-Marie Fakhouri, accused Cambodia in May of failing in its international obligations in its treatment of the Montagnards. In June, an official with the Cambodian Interior Ministry's Central Office for Security told RFA that nearly 100 Montagnards were in UNHCR custody in Phnom Penh. In 2001, more than 1,000 Montagnards fled to Cambodia following a massive government crackdown on their protests against religious repression and land confiscation. Many eventually resettled in the United States.

Global Hope Network and IPPNW 2010 Conference.

Hi all, we just attended the International Physicians for Prevention of Nuclear War Conference in Basel, Swtizerland. We were with our dear brother in Christ, Richard Holt, from the Geneva office of Global Hope Network (http://globalhopenetwork.org/) Also Major General Vinod Saighal and Long hair Leung Kwok Hung from HK We made many new friends and there will be more updates on those people and how they will be involved in our humanitarian, human rights and refugee assistance work.Have a look at the website @ - http://www.ippnw2010.org/

Fr.Jim Thomas
ACHRVN Director
amandfm@mail.com
Chiang Mai and Mae Sot,Thailand