Charisma Magazine

A last-minute settlement last week cleared the way for a 77-foot cross to be constructed along Interstate 10 in south Texas.

The 70-ton metal cross will be part of a $7 million Sculpture Prayer Garden to be built on 23 acres near Kerrville, Texas, about 100 miles southwest of Austin.

The garden will be filled with works by charismatic artist Max Greiner, known for his 18-foot The Coming King sculpture, which illustrates Jesus on a white horse as described in Revelation 19. The bronze statue sits outside Trinity Broadcasting Network's headquarters in Costa Mesa, Calif.

An Assyrian pastor the Iranian government accused of "converting Muslims" is being tortured in prison and threatened with execution, sources close to the case said.

State Security agents on Feb. 2 arrested the Rev. Wilson Issavi, 65, shortly after he finished a house meeting at a friend's home in Isfahan,  located 208 miles south of Tehran. His church, The Evangelical Church of Kermanshah in Isfahan, is a 50-year-old church body affiliated with the Assemblies of God that caters to the local Assyrian population.

An uneasy calm prevailed in Plateau state, Nigeria, Monday following the killing of hundreds of Christians early Sunday morning in three farming villages near Jos by ethnic Fulani Muslims.

The mostly ethnic Berom victims included many women and children killed with machetes by rampaging Fulani herdsmen. About 75 houses were also burned.

The Purwakarta regency government had revoked the building permit for Santa Maria Catholic Church when Islamists threatened local residents and officials into opposing the project, church leaders said.

"The concern of Christians in Mosul is growing in the face of what is happening in the city," said Chaldean Archbishop of Kirkuk Louis Sako. "The tension and struggle between political forces is creating an atmosphere of chaos and congestion. Christians are victims of political tension between political groups, but maybe also by fundamentalist sectarian cleansing."