Coptic Girl, 16, Rescued 92 Days after Islamists Kidnapped Her
A 16-year-old Coptic Christian girl kidnapped on 28 June to be “converted to Islam, then married off or sold”, was released and returned to her family on 30 September after police found her and arrested her kidnappers in a city just outside Cairo.
Marilyn was recovered from a city named 10th of Ramadan, but she is from a village several hundred kilometres south, in the governorate of Minya.
Her village priest, Father Boutros Khalaf, told World Watch Monitor: “Recently we found out that Marilyn was held in a place in 10th of Ramadan city…. We went to the local police station and they really did their best to reach her and managed to arrest her kidnapper, Taha, and his brother, Gaber, and release Marilyn. She returned back to her family on Saturday, 30 September, after 92 days”.
Fr. Khalaf said she had “not been treated well” by Taha and his friends, but she is just “very happy to be back with her family”.
“We thank God for answering our prayers and the prayers of many other people,” he added. “And we thank all the policemen in the police station that helped us so much in releasing our daughter, Marilyn. We appreciate their great efforts.”
One of many
Her kidnapping was part of a series of disappearances in which Coptic girls were targeted by Islamist networks, who kidnap and force them to convert to Islam and then either marry them off or sell them for large amounts of money, as World Watch Monitor reported last month.
According to ‘G’, a former kidnapper who said he actively targeted Coptic girls before he left Islam, the group he was part of “rented apartments in different areas of Egypt to hide kidnapped Coptic girls. There, they put them under pressure and threaten them to convert to Islam. And once they reach the legal age, a specially arranged Islamic representative comes in to make the conversion official, issue a certificate and accordingly they change their ID”.
‘G’ said one of the strategies they used to gain the girls’ trust was for the kidnapper, a Muslim man, to tell the Christian girl he loved her and wanted to convert to Christianity for her.
“They start a romantic relationship until, one day, they decide to ‘escape’ together,” ‘G’ explained. “What the girls don’t know is that they are actually being kidnapped. Most of the time they will not marry their kidnapper, but someone else.”
Marilyn was kidnapped in this way as well. And although the name of her ‘boyfriend’ at the time was known, a young man named Taha, no arrests were made. Meanwhile, videos of Marilyn, in which she said she had converted to Islam, appeared online. In one, she held a Quran; in the other, veiled, she seemingly repeated what was dictated to her through an earpiece.
Her mother, Hanaa Aziz Shukralla Farag, seeing the video said her daughter was being forced. “She was holding the Quran as if she was holding a medal,” she said. “I see she is under pressure.”
In their desperate attempts to retrieve their daughter, Marilyn’s family wrote letters to the Egyptian president, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, the interior minister, and many other high-ranking figures, though it is unknown whether these helped to secure her release.
Bishop Hubert Victor Whitsey, who died in 1987, would have been spoken to by officers about allegations of sexual abuse from 10 victims, male and female, some of whom were children at the time of the alleged abuse.
The former Bishop of Chester is alleged to have committed the crimes from 1974 to 1982. He was bishop during this time until his retirement in 1981.
Assistant Chief Constable at Cheshire Police Nick Bailey said: “Following a thorough investigation and taking into account all of the information available, it has been established that, if Bishop Whitsey were alive today, as part of the investigation process he would have been spoken to by police.
“This would have been in order to outline the details of the allegations made and to provide him with an opportunity to offer an account of events.”
Cheshire Police said five of the claims they had investigated were previously reported to members of the clergy, of which they were able to confirm one in which the victim reported what happened to members of the clergy the day after the alleged abuse.
Richard Scorer, a specialist abuse lawyer from the firm representing four of Bishop Whitsey’s alleged victims, called for an independent review into “who failed to act when they learnt of his heinous behaviour”.
One of the alleged victims, in a statement released through law firm Slater and Gordon, said he was “young, innocent, and naive” when the bishop abused him “sexually and psychologically”, leading to a suicide attempt.
In a joint statement, the Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu and the Bishop of Chester, Dr Peter Forster said: “We are deeply sorry and apologise to those individuals who have come forward to share their account of abuse by a bishop in the Church of England who was in a position of power and authority.
“We appreciate that it is very difficult for individuals to come forward and to give their account.
“Sexual abuse is a heinous crime – and is an absolute and shameful breach of trust. We acknowledge that for survivors, the effects of sexual abuse are lifelong.”
Life in the Spirit exists to give you a deep understanding of who the Holy Spirit is, how He works in your life and how you can interact with Him on a daily basis.
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Receive the power and gifts that come through the Holy Spirit Baptism. Don’t go empty-handed; accept all that He has for you! His power is available to those who ask.
Break every stronghold with the power of the Holy Spirit. Use the power of your tongue to declare and decree the Word of God. Witness heaven move on your behalf.
Raqqa Liberated after Three Years of ISIS Occupation
International Christian Concern (ICC) has learned that Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have liberated the majority of Raqqa, the de facto capital of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and a city central to ISIS’s activities in the Middle East. ISIS had fully captured the Syrian city in January 2014.
Raqqa’s liberation three years later carries significant symbolic weight in the fight against ISIS. After the city’s capture in 2014, it quickly evolved into the extremists’ headquarters where they put their brutal vision into practice. The militants’ merciless battlefield tactics extended into their management of the city. Mass executions and terror became the norm as religious police patrolled the streets.
Before the outbreak of the Syrian Civil War, an estimated 10 percent of Raqqa’s population was Christian. Most abandoned the city while ISIS was still establishing their headquarters. A few thousand, however, choose to remain. Raqqa’s three churches were destroyed and closed. The largest, the Armenian Catholic Martyrs Church, was converted into an Islamic center that screened videos meant to attract new recruits. Christians were forced to register with the militants and pay a jizya tax in exchange for their safety.
In December 2014, ISIS released a set of rules restricting the behavior of Raqqa’s remaining Christians. Christians were banned from engaging in public acts of worship, repairing damaged churches, and reading the Bible aloud. Breaking any one of these rules was potentially punishable by death.
In March 2016, ISIS militants issued a decree banning Christians and Armenians who remained in the city from leaving. It was estimated that the Christian families who remained in Raqqa at this time numbered in the dozens.
John, a Christian who chose to remain in Raqqa, told World Watch Monitor last year, “You’re constantly alert, never looking into someone’s eyes when walking on the street; always aware of what to say and not to say.” He continued, “I saw a lot of cruelty. Every Friday they executed people. I was there when they beheaded the first man in public. They could not behead him with the first cut. He suffered so much they finally shot him.”
The liberation of Raqqa has been heavily anticipated since the liberation of Mosul from ISIS four months ago. In anticipation of ISIS’s defeat, some Christians managed to successfully escape with the help of coalition forces. According to reporting from the National, a Christian soldier who was part of the coalition said, “We got a Christian family out… This is our goal in the campaign to liberate Raqqa.”
Claire Evans, ICC’s Regional Manager, said, “The cruelty with which ISIS captured and administered Raqqa has left deep scars on the entire Middle East region. ISIS intended Raqqa to serve as an example of the goals for their so-called caliphate, and it was from here that they planned their terror across the region. Raqqa was once home to a thriving Christian community, most of whom fearfully fled because of ISIS’s efforts to eliminate all signs of Christianity. Those Christians who became entrapped inside Raqqa experienced indescribable suffering because of their faith. The liberation of Raqqa is a much-needed step in the war against ISIS; however, the broader violence in Syria continues to create a dangerous situation for Christians. There is much healing and rebuilding that is needed before Syrian Christians will consider returning to their homes.”
Courtesy: International Christian Concern. For more information, visit www.persecution.org
The Christian entertainer will stage shows at venues including London’s Royal Albert Hall, the Royal Concert Hall in Glasgow and the SSE Arena in Belfast during his ’58-18=60′ tour.
Addressing his fans, the 77-year-old said: “I am so happy to announce that I will be doing a tour to celebrate my 60th anniversary in the music business.
“I cannot believe it is already ten years since my 50th anniversary in 2008 – so much has happened, and I’m very grateful that you have kept me busy!”
Sir Cliff will also perform before fans in Newcastle, Sheffield, Nottingham, Liverpool, Manchester, Bournemouth, Brighton and Birmingham between 27th September and 26th October 2018.
Further afield, he also has performance planned for the 3 Arena in Dublin and the Copenhagen Operaen in Denmark’s capital city.
With more than 100 album releases, 123 single hits and the equivalent of 20 years spent in the UK charts to his name, Sir Cliff has been dubbed Britain’s ‘Ultimate Pop Star’.
He added: “I am truly delighted to be performing the 58-18=60 Tour… I hope you will join me… I simply can’t wait! – see you next year!”
The tour marks the first major performance fixture for Sir Cliff since he was cleared last year of sexual assault allegations – which he always denied.
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Pastor Mary Bangs’ ultimate athletic dream is to compete in an Ironman Triathlon, a nonstop 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bicycle ride and 26.2-mile run. A mother of four and grandmother of nine, and athlete from her youth, this Holy Spirit-energized competitor believes anything is possible with God. She’s born to compete, she says, even when disease or a near-fatal accident conspire to take her out of the running.
Married to Pastor Steve, Bangs manages an adrenal gland disease, Addison’s, alongside intense athletic training and competition nearly year round. Almost two years ago, her SUV was struck by a car traveling 65 miles per hour through a red light as she waited for two motorists to complete left-hand turns. The driver, a 16-year-old on his way to school, swerved enough to avoid head-on impact with Bangs, who was on her way to work, where she and Steve lead the children’s department and adults in ministry school, which prepares students to lead future churches. The carnage of metal that was her car stopped only at the tall, metal light pole it wrapped around.
A broken neck, scapula, ribs, punctured lung and crushed knee were the only casualties on that February morning in 2016, despite doctors’ predictions that other women Bangs’ age would not have survived the impact and injuries. Her saving grace, according to doctors, was Mary’s physical fitness and weight training, which she had incorporated into training for several planned endurance challenges and national sprint competitions in the spring and summer.
“A doctor told me, ‘Little did you know you were training to survive this accident,'” says Bangs, who endured three months in a leg cast, neck brace and crutches she used only when Steve wasn’t home to carry her from bed to the bathroom. Intolerant of “doing nothing” during her recovery, Steve began timing his wife—for entertainment really—when she was strong enough to hobble on crutches to their mailbox. “Yeah, I have a little competition in me, so we made the best of it,” Mary says with a laugh that defies the adversity she’s endured.
Steve, on the other hand, intentionally ignored the question of whether his wife would compete again. “I tried to stay focused on helping her get better,” he says. As Mary recovered, he saw glimpses of hope. “When she was cleared by her doctor to go the gym—still wearing a neck brace—I knew she would compete again.”
Someone who loves to teach the Word of God, Bangs applies Scripture to her own life as manager of a chronic condition and as an athlete who competes with screws in one knee. She also helps the children and students she loves as pastor to see the Bible’s relevance to their lives. “We’ve had enough stuff happen in our lives to know that God uses it for our good, and to encourage others who are facing adversity or challenges themselves,” she says.
An endocrinologist who helped Mary keep Addison’s under control during her training for and competition in a Half Ironman in 2015 himself turned to his patient for help after he, too, was diagnosed with Addison’s. “Isn’t that crazy? He called and said, ‘I don’t know if you remember me but I need your personal advice.’
“I’m like are you kidding me? You helped me prepare for the biggest event of my life,” says Bangs, who still communicates when needed with the 70-year-old doctor after he contacted her by phone last year.
In August 2017, Bangs chalked up one of her greatest athletic accomplishments since the accident, setting a personal, best record in a 10K by shaving nine minutes from a previous time. Two months later, on Oct. 10, she found in the mailbox—the one she “raced” to during rehabilitation—a letter from the organizers of the 10K. Inside was a medal and note of congratulations for finishing in the top 10. Turning over the medal, Bangs saw the 10th place inscription.
“So I got a 10th place medal in the mail on 10/10 for finishing among the top 10 which, to me, is like Jesus saying, ‘I love you and I’m with you. I want you to keep doing this,'” she says, chuckling.
Not coincidentally, a Bible verse from the Gospel of John has guided the Bangs since 2000, when they began to see the No. 10 everywhere they looked—on the clock, in Scripture, and on the calendar. In the 10th chapter and 10th verse of John, Jesus tells His disciples that He’s come to give life, abundantly, but that the enemy of souls has come to kill, steal and destroy.
“All through our lives and, specifically since the year 2000, the Lord has used John 10:10 to speak to us,” says Bangs, who believes the medal and 10th-place finish represent—not only a personal best time—but also a sign that she’s to continue training for the full Ironman Triathlon.
In a Sprint Triathlon 18 months after the accident, Bangs proved to herself she could compete, despite personal doubts, poor performances and an Addisonian crisis, an acute failure of the adrenal glands. “I ended up winning and—not just winning—but standing on the podium a full 10 minutes ahead of the next finisher,” she says. In another competition, an Olympic-distance Triathlon, a flare up of Addison’s left Bangs powerless; her daughter sadly carried Mary to the bathroom.
In losses and victories, Bangs turns to the Lord, her source of physical and spiritual strength. On one occasion, He told her to stop supplementing her diet with all vitamins except a B Complex, calcium, magnesium and protein. Symptoms that previously dogged her immediately disappeared.
This past summer, Bangs completed a Metric-Century Ride (62 miles), an Olympic-distance Triathlon and a Sprint Triathlon. On Tuesday, she qualified for the Olympic-distance race at the 2018 USA Triathlon Age Group National Championships on Aug. 11 in Cleveland, Ohio.
Bangs has written An Accidental Testimony in which she shares raw emotions that surface when she talks about the fateful winter day her morning commute to work took a detour in an ambulance to the hospital. “None of this should have happened. But God is faithful. His miraculous power was at work in my body. He is the God of the impossible in any and every situation. Choose to believe Him and His Word. His love never fails. I don’t believe He was the author of that accident, but I do believe He caused it to work for good, because He is good,” Bangs writes.
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(Photo: USDA Agricultural Research Service/Peggy Greb)A diet rich in soy and whey protein, found in products such as soy milk and low-fat yogurt, shown in the image, has been shown to reduce breast cancer incidence in rats.
Scientists have found in a recent study that a protein-rich diet plan can actually help an individual lose weight faster. According to scientists, one person can lose up to 12 lbs. in just 16 weeks if his diet contains more protein.
The study, conducted by scientists at the University of Washington’s School of Medicine in Seattle and the Oregon Health and Science University in Portland, yielded interesting and quite surprising results. It involved putting 19 test subjects on various diets and recording how much weight they have lost throughout a given period of time.
The diet was done in 16 weeks, broken down into two shorter stings and one long stint. For the first stint, the diet lasted for two weeks, and the test subjects were fed with a weight-maintaining diet of 15 percent protein, 20 percent fat, and 50 percent carbohydrate. For the next two weeks, they ate a calorie-restricted diet, with the same percentage of fat and carbohydrate but with 30 percent of protein.
The final stint involved a diet plan for 12 weeks and had the test subjects eat an ad-libitum or free-feeding diet, where they ate 30 percent protein, 20 percent fat, and 50 percent carbohydrate.
The results of the study showed that as the amount of protein intake increased, weight loss became easier for the test subjects. According to the scientists, this is because increasing the amount of protein in the diet helps keep the intake of carbohydrates controlled and constant. “This effect of protein may contribute to the weight loss produced by low carbohydrate diets,” said the study.
In other weight loss news, “Survivor” winner Jericho Malabonga recently showed off his dramatic body transformation after completing tough physical challenges on a Samoan beach for 55 days. He posted a photo of himself on Instagram earlier this week and captioned it, “Before and after survivor #nofilter. Fitness peeps help get me back into shape!” He won $500,000 of cash prize during the “Survivor” finale last week.
Colorado Christian Baker Now Asked to Make Birthday Cake for Satan
The Colorado Christian baker who was sued for refusing to make a cake for a same-sex couple has been asked to design a cake celebrating Satan’s birthday.
“I would like to get a quote on a birthday cake, for a special event,” said the email request to baker Jack Phillips, sent Sept. 30.
“It is a cake that is religious in theme, and since religion is a protected class, I am hoping that you will gladly bake this cake. As you see, the birthday cake in question is to celebrate the birthday of Lucifer, or as they [sic] are also known Satan who was born as Satan when he was cast from heaven by God.”
The request was asking for a price quote for the cake, which also included an “upside down cross, under the head of Lucifer.”
Phillips, owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop, has a case before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Previously, Phillips refused to make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple’s marriage reception. He was found guilty of discrimination by a Colorado state agency and the courts.
Phillips said he couldn’t design cakes that involve witchcraft and explicit sexuality.
“The request for Jack to make a cake celebrating Satan proves the danger of using these kinds of laws to force people in the artistic profession to create artwork that violates their beliefs,” Jeremy Tedesco, a senior counsel at Alliance Defending Freedom, told The Daily Signal.
Someone also requested that Phillips make a second Satan-theme cake, which would show Satan smoking a joint.
Foreign Office minister Mark Field said he will write to Hong Kong’s chief executive following what Speaker John Bercow described as “utterly scandalous” treatment of Benedict Rogers.
Bercow said those responsible for the decision to bar entry “have certainly heard the last of it”.
Rogers, of the Conservative Party’s Human Rights Commission, told Premier he was turned away by immigration officials after arriving at Hong Kong airport earlier this month.
Speaking in the Commons, Tory MP Fiona Bruce (Congleton) said: “Do ministers share concerns and if so what action is the Foreign Office taking at the apparent continuing erosion of the one country, two systems principle in Hong Kong following booksellers’ disappearances, the recent imprisonment of a democratically-elected representative and last week the refusal of entry into Hong Kong on a purely private visit of UK citizen and human rights campaigner Ben Rogers, who is watching our proceedings today?”
Field said UK-Hong Kong relations remain broadly strong, adding: “However, I very much accept her position that we are very concerned that Ben Rogers was denied entry to Hong Kong on October 11 in absolute disregard of the one country, two systems principle.
“The Foreign Secretary issued a statement and the Foreign Office director general for economic and global issues summoned the Chinese ambassador on this issue over the past few days.
“We’ve also made representations to both Beijing and I shall be writing to Carrie Lam in Hong Kong in the days ahead.”
Bercow thanked Field for his remarks and for Boris Johnson’s statement on the issue.
He said: “Ben Rogers is an outstanding and articulate champion of freedom, democracy, human rights and the rule of law in Asia and elsewhere, well known to members on both sides of the House and his treatment was frankly utterly scandalous.
“Those responsible have certainly heard the last of it – of that I think we can be sure.”
A worker clears fallen trees off a road during Storm Ophelia. (REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne)
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Three people died as Tropical Storm Ophelia battered every corner of Ireland on Monday, knocking down trees and power lines and whipping up 10-metre (30-foot) waves.
Over 330,000 homes and businesses were without electricity in the Republic of Ireland at 1915 GMT, down from an earlier peak of 370,000. Ireland’s Electricity Supply Board described it as an unprecedented event that would affect every part of the country for days.
About 200 flights from Ireland’s two main airports at Dublin and Shannon were cancelled. The airports will reopen on Tuesday as the cleanup begins.
Two people were killed in separate incidents when trees fell on their cars—a woman in her 50s in the southeast and a man on the east coast. Another man in his 30s died while trying to clear a fallen tree in an incident involving a chainsaw.
The storm, downgraded from a hurricane overnight, was the worst to hit Ireland in half a century. It made landfall after 10:40 a.m. (0940 GMT), the Irish National Meteorological Service said, with winds as strong as 190 kph (110 mph) hitting the most southerly tip of the country.
There was some flooding in the western city of Galway, but the storm-force winds were set to clear the rest of the country by midnight and conditions return to normal on Tuesday.
“There are still dangers out there but the cleanup has started in some areas and the job of getting the country back to work has begun,” the chairman of Ireland’s National Emergency Coordination Group, Sean Hogan, told a news conference.
The armed forces had earlier been sent to bolster flood defences, while public transport services and hospitals were closed. Schools in both Ireland and Northern Ireland will remain shut for a second day on Tuesday.
There were at least 5,000 “damage points” across the country, Hogan said, including hundreds of roads blocked by fallen trees. Photos on social media showed roofs flying off buildings, including at Cork City soccer club’s Turner’s Cross stadium where the roof of one stand had collapsed.
Most peopled heeded Prime Minister Leo Varadkar’s advice to stay indoors, with major cities remaining almost empty all day.
The storm was expected to move towards western Scotland overnight. It brought dust from the Sahara and smoke from wildfires in southern Europe that turned the sky over London an unusual shade of yellow.
British media were comparing Ophelia with the “Great Storm” of 1987, which subjected parts of the United Kingdom to hurricane-strength winds 30 years ago to the day.
The Irish government said the storm was likely to be the worst since Hurricane Debbie, which killed 11 in Ireland in 1961.
It passed close to a western Ireland golf course owned by U.S. President Donald Trump, who has been planning a wall to protect its greens from coastal erosion.
Similar storms in the past have changed the shape of stretches of the Irish coastline, climatologists said.
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