The New Boston First Church of the Nazarene could be without a building for up to a year after a drunk driver crashed his truck through a wall.
“I was notified about this about four o’clock this morning,” Pastor Mike Percell told reporters. “We’re waiting on the state to come with structural engineers and insurance companies adjusters to decide what to do. Right now the (New Boston) Fire Department has condemned the sanctuary so we’re moving next door to the (New Boston) Community Building for our services starting Sunday. The rest of the building is intact – no problems.”
The Portsmouth-Daily Times said the accident happened around 3:15 a.m. Friday.
The driver, 21-year-old Samuel Gibson, reportedly tested .13 for blood alcohol level, well above the point for Operating a Vehicle under the influence of alcohol or drugs. The truck was reportedly traveling so fast that it went airborne before striking the church and landed on its roof.
Gibson and his passenger suffered only minor injuries and were treated and released from a local hospital.
Pastor Percell said the damage inside is more significant than outside because the walls and roof are now unstable.
The crackdown on churches in China is ramping up again.
Chinese police in Wenzhou forcibly removed the cross from the top of a local church building. The members of the church gathered around the fallen cross, weeping and praying for the men who conducted the removal.
The congregants had tried to protect the cross atop Longgang Huai En Church but hundreds of police descended on the building and overwhelmed the church members. The government said the cross on top violated the city’s ordinance on the height of buildings within the city.
The government workers did make an unusual step in allowing the church members to keep the cross inside their building.
The Chinese government is cracking down on churches in Wenzhou, called the “Jerusalem of China” by local Christians because of the revival of faith in the city. The International Chrsitian Concern says that the government has not only encouraged local officials to remove crosses from buildings but are offering political promotions to those who succeed in shutting down churches.
An apparent Satanist is burning Bibles on the lands of various churches near Mesa, Arizona.
Police say that the suspect has burned Bibles on six different occasions since May. The Bibles are usually ripped apart before they’re burned and so far there’s been no evidence left behind for police to use in their investigation.
Officials say the incidents are “bias crimes” and that at one of the churches, the arsonist scrawled “Hail Satan” on the church’s gates.
The first burned Bible was found on Mother’s Day at Mesa Baptist Church.
“Mother’s Day morning we were opening up our double doors and as we came out we walked right up on a burned Bible,” Pastor Mark Rice told KSAZ-TV, thinking at first it was a prank. “When it happened [again] a week later, we knew it was intentional.”
The pastor said the “Hail Satan” message was carved into the church gates with a nail or knife in letters three inches high.
Pastor Rice said he hopes that the situation doesn’t turn any more violent or destructive than it has been already.
A new report from the Pew Research Center shows that China and Russia are the top countries in the world for destruction of churches by government organizations.
Pew collected information on “demolition of houses of worship, and the seizure of religious groups’ property and government raids of houses of worship that result in property damage.”
China, which has been conducting very high profile crackdowns on Christian congregations in their country, only has 5 percent of the population calling themselves Christians according to the CIA World Factbook. Russia shows 15-20% of the population as Russian Orthodox and only 2% as just Christian.
The two nations were joined in third by Tajikistan, a 90 percent Muslim country, as having more than 100 documented cases of churches being destroyed by government groups.
The next tier (from 10 to 99 incidents) included Iran, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Pakistan and Indonesia.
The only two nations in the Americas that were on the list of 10 or more churches destroyed was Cuba and Venezuela.
The Islamic terrorist group Islamic State of Iraq and Syria has destroyed the tomb of the Prophet Jonah.
The terrorists gleefully went into the tomb with sledgehammers and took turns destroying the resting place of the Old Testament prophet. The terrorists filmed their efforts and posted them online saying it was the will of Allah for the tombs to be destroyed.
The members of the terrorist group say it is against the teachings of Islam to give special attention to tombs and it doesn’t matter if the tomb is for another faith. If the tomb is within their land, the group says they have the right to destroy it.
The tomb of the prophet Seth was also destroyed by the terrorists but no video of that destruction was posted online.
Iraqi authorities also announced the discovery of 53 bodies south of Baghdad who appear to have been executed by Islamic terrorists. An investigation is underway to determine who ordered the killings.
Congregants of the Church of Christ in the Thiba Al Hamyida area of Khartoum stood by helplessly as Sudanese government officials destroyed their church building.
A church member told CNN that the government came in during Sunday mass and said they would be destroying the building. About 70 security personnel, some armed with guns and tear gas, used a bulldozer to destroy the building.
“They wanted to beat us or throw tear gas on us,” the church member said.
Reverend Kwa Shamal told the Morning Star News that government officials made it clear they were to not ask questions about why they were destroying the church. The government also gave no compensation to the church for the destruction of their building.
The pastor said the church’s congregation will meet in a tent this Sunday.
A group of Chinese Christians who could not stop the government from destroying their church building stood and sang hymns as the workers stripped crosses off the building.
The Chinese government continued their crackdown on any Christian emblems in Wenzhou City. The city had been the source of a major movement of Christianity that the government claimed was illegal and sought to end.
The government has gone as far as to destroy a multimillion dollar church building that took five years to build within weeks of the church’s official opening. The government claimed that the building violated building codes and had to be destroyed.
The government is now blocking any website that makes mention of the crackdown on churches in Wenzhou, saying that the information in violation of Chinese law and that they are nothing more than propaganda which is aimed to overthrow the government.
Local Christians have told aid organiztions that over 360 churches have been destroyed in the last few weeks in the Zhejiang Province which includes Wenhzou City. All of the buildings were destroyed for “illegal construction” and are going to be replaced with government buildings aimed at “urban development.”
On Sunday, Chinese authorities told Christians in Zhejiang province they are no longer allowed to gather and worship.
The government also demolished 10 church buildings using the same claim that all the buildings had violated “building codes” for the region. The government has now destroyed 64 churches since the forced demolition of a $4.8 million Sanjiang Church building on April 28th.
“There is a church building that also houses a grocery market about 1/3 miles from my home,” a house church worshipper from Yueqing County in Wenzhou told China Aid. “The people were notified to implement an order that all gatherings shall stop from this Sunday. If people there don’t stop their gatherings, the building…will be confiscated.”
Government officals have also been ripping down any crosses they find on buildings or along roadways.
Christians in the Wenzhou area say that the latest crackdown by the government is unlike any previous actions because they are trying to completely obliterate any sign of Christianity. Elderly residents noted in previous crackdowns, even when churches were turned into warehouses for the government, the crosses on the buildings are not removed and destroyed.
Christians who have challenged the government’s action have found themselves suspended from jobs, had their factories and businesses sealed and suffered tax audits that cause great expense.
A wildfire in the Texas panhandle has destroyed at least 100 homes and caused hundreds to flee the flames.
Fire officials say the fire began around 4 p.m. near Fritch, Texas.
The fire raged through the night and destroyed the homes despite the fact firefighters had the flames over 75% contained. The fire has not hit the main part of Fritch but has left many homes in the area without power as the flames took out power lines.
The Texas Forestry Service has been flying aircraft over the site dropping flame retardant chemicals in an attempt to keep containing the fire.
Over 1,500 acres were confirmed to have been burned in the blaze whose origin is still not known by fire officials. A spokesman with the Hutchinson County emergency services said that it could be days before people can return to their homes or check to see if their home survived the fire.
The Texas panhandle has been in emergency drought conditions for months.
The Chinese government is opening up a war on Christians.
Authorities used police to break through a human barricade to bring in heavy equipment for the destruction of a newly built church in Wenzhou. The church had made worldwide headlines when the worshippers formed a human shield around the building a month ago in an attempt to stop the government from their announced intent to tear it down.
The government claims they aren’t attacking Christians but that the building had violated multiple buildings codes and was unsafe for occupation.
However, church members have reported being harassed by police both at the church and at their homes. Also, they have found electronic devices spying on their phone calls and at least one person has been harassed by secret police for a phone conversation.
The head of Zhejiang’s Ethnic and Religious Affairs Committee has said before the move on the church building “Christianity’s spread has been too excessive and haphazard.”
