Nearly 100 people, including 20 evangelical priests, were killed Friday after a passenger jet crashed after takeoff from Cuba.

According to FaithWire.com, the 20 clergymen had been meeting in Cuba’s capital city. The plane was headed for the province of Holguín.

“On that plane were 10 couples of pastors. 20 people. All of the Nazarene Church in the eastern region,” said Maite Quesada, a member the Cuban Council of Churches, according to NBC News. 

Transportation Minister Adel Yzquierdo said 110 people were killed in the crash.

“We have the black box in our hands, in good condition,” he said, according to Reuters.

Three women, however, were rescued from the plane wreckage. They are in critical condition. 

Emiley Sánchez de la O, 39, of Holguín, Cuba has been named as a survivor. According to reports, she has serious burns, a broken leg and a traumatic brain injury. She is on a ventilator.

“She is alive but very burnt and swollen,” a relative of the 39-year-old told reporters.

Another survivor is 23-year-old Gretel Landrove, according to Reuters.

“My daughter is a fighter, she’s strong, she’ll save herself,” said Amparo Font, Landrove’s mother.

Eyewitness Yasniel Diaz said it looked like the pilot tried to attempt an emergency manuever but failed.

“The explosion shook everything,” he said. “I started running. I was so…

The Rev. Gregory Stevens, a California pastor who has been highly praised for his “ability to relate to people,” stepped down from his role at a progressive Baptist Church in the wealthy city of Palo Alto last week after sparking furor over his comments that the city is an “elitist sh** den of hate.”

Stevens, who is associate pastor of First Baptist Church in Palo Alto, had recently made several controversial tweets about the city’s residents, among other things. Those tweets became an issue during a city council hearing last Monday when the council was considering the church’s request for a conditional use permit that would allow its facility to be used as a community center and thus lease space to outside tenants.

According to a letter that was addressed to the city council and Palo Alto residents, City Clerk Beth Minor expressed concern over Stevens’ “troubling recent tweets” and felt they should come to the city’s attention.

“Should this type of person and the organization he represents oversee a Palo Alto Community Center? Should a person that hates the City of Palo Alto, hates the Palo Alto Police Dept, hates Palo Alto residents, makes fun…

A large white cross that had stood on state property in Michigan for nearly 70 years has been removed after the Michigan Association of Civil Rights filed a complaint.

According to The Christian Post, the cross had stood on Sackrider Hill in the Waterloo Recreation Area in Jackson County since 1950. It is owned by the Grass Lake Ministerial Association, which will be helping remove it to a permanent location.

John Pepin, deputy public information officer for Michigan’s Department of Natural Resources (DNR), explained what happened:

“Basically, it came down to, there was a cross that we didn’t own that was on land that we did own. We worked with the people that owned the cross and they voted to support removing it to a permanent location.”

While the Michigan Association of Civil Rights spearheaded the process to remove the cross from state land, other groups were in favor of allowing it to stay.

Grassroots Jackson, a Michigan volunteer group, even started a petition, urging the Michigan DNR to reject the complaint about the cross.

In the petition, Grassroots Jackson called the cross “historic,” and referenced a 1992 decision by the DNR that “allowed the cross to stay.”

The group was ultimately unsuccessful in their petition, however, when the cross was removed this week.

Publication date: May 21, 2018

…… Read More

Click here to read the rest of the story from our content source/partners – Christian Headlines.

قالب وردپرس