More Christians killed in Nigeria worldwide in 2013

Nigeria has topped the list of countries where Christians were persecuted most worldwide in 2013.
More Christians were said to have been killed in Northern Nigeria last year than in the rest of the world combined according to Jubilee Campaign, a human rights organization.
The Executive Director, Ann Buwalda, of the Jubilee Campaign told The Christian Post that an estimated 1,200 Christians were killed for their faith in Northern Nigeria last year.
“We documented 1,200 Nigerian Christians in the North of Nigeria who were killed, some by Boko Haram, some by Fulani herdsmen. These two types of attacks are persistent within several of the Northern Nigerian states,” said Buwalda, a participant at a Panel sponsored by the Hudson Institute in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 14, 2013, where issue regarding Boko Haram and the persecution of Christians in Northern Nigeria was addressed.
Buwalda also noted that “Statistically, we are looking at approximately 60 percent of the world’s Christians that were killed for their faith last year was in Northern Nigeria.”
Other members of panel were Emmanuael Ogebe, an international human rights lawyer and Adamu Habila, a Nigerian Christian who miraculously survived a heinous attack perpetrated by the outlawed Boko Haram group.
Habila, who spoke about his experience when Boko Haram militants stomped his neighbourhood and massacred the Christian community and how he cheated death by divine providence. According to him, one of the militants asked if he would convert to Islam. When Habila refused, he was shot in the head at close range and was left presumably dead.
“I give thanks to God Almighty for keeping me alive up to this moment. I know if not because of God I am a dead man now. But because of His grace I am still alive in order to testify the goodness of God in my life and the work of God in my life.” Habila recounted.
The Boko Haram sect which has an anti-western stance and a similar group called Ansaru has been recently, officially designated as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs) by U.S State Department.
According to the Jubilee Campaign, thus far this year 200 Christian martyrdoms have been recorded in Northern Nigeria. Hundreds of Christians and Muslims in Borogo, Bauchi State, held a special prayer session for peaceful co-existence in the country recently.
The Chairman, Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) in Bogoro, Reverend Joshua Yakubu Tukur, was quoted to have said that prayer is the only solution left to solve the socio-economic challenges in the country.
Reverend Tukur also cautioned politicians to desist from overheating the nation’s polity, which he noted may portend a great danger and threat to peaceful co-existence in the country.
The security crisis in Nigeria has been raging since the deadly Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram began its insurgence in 2009. The Federal Government military approach in combating the numerous acts of violence perpetrated by this sect against the Christians, nominal Muslims and government institutions, has defied solution as the group is resolved to establish a separate Islamic state in Nigeria’s northern states.

How God healed me of lung ailment – Saxophnist, Kunle Ajayi

Miracles abound a plenty. They are evidences of the Almighty God’s wonder working power. As Christians, miracles are meant to build one’s faith and trust in God.
For Pastor Kunle Ajayi, Director of Music at the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), he is a living testimony of a patient suffering from a lung problem who is today a renowned saxophonist.
In a recent interview with The Nation, Ajayi reveals that the miraculous healing of his lungs led him to play the saxophone.  Since twenty nine years, Ajayi has been playing the musical instrument  due the promise he made to God.
Hear him: “I started playing saxophone around 1984/85 because I had a lung problem and the Lord healed me of that disease. This made me promise Him that if He heals me, I’ll blow for Him.
“I have a message to the people that this is what the Lord has done for me. I’ve a message to the people because he has given me beyond what I imagined even what I asked for. I give Him all the glory.”
The lung problem made him feel he might not live for long. “I never thought I would be 20, 30 or even 40 years and God has taken me beyond what I imagined, “he recalled.
Since then, the 1997 RCCG ordained cleric has continually blown the saxophone, leading people in heart rending worship. His dexterity with the sax pitches him among the best saxophonist in the country.
Speaking on the rumoured exit from RCCG, Ajayi has this to say: “I don’t know about that. I’m still in RCCG by the grace of God and I’m the music director.”
Recognising the power of gospel music, the cleric says: “God can use gospel music to effect changes. The gospel musician can have impact in the life of the people and even when the younger people see their light.
“I think gospel music has a lot to do. Put a gospel music artiste somewhere with lot of instruments and you’ll see people will gather round him. We should start with schools, not just shows that will fetch us money. We should invest our money and time in all these. By the grace of God, the government will hear us and listen to us.”
Ajayi advises gospel musicians to lead a holy life devoid of pride. “My advice to gospel musicians is that we should remain in God’s presence.
“We should live a holy life and we should run away from money and pride because these things destroy. We need to humble ourselves.”
Instead of exhibiting pride, Ajayi admonishes artistes of gospel genre to remain humble despite their achievements.
“A lot of artistes when we started playing or release one album and it sells a few thousands, they become their gods.
“We should humble ourselves. The Bible says the love of money is the beginning of evil. If we know these two keys and rely on God’s grace, we would go places,” Ajayi says.
If death comes knocking, Ajayi says he is a fulfilled man having lived thus far: “Even if I die now, I’m fulfilled because the Lord has kept me alive.”

Should men shake hands with women ?

By Samson Adeyanju Uwala
How do you perceive handshake with women? Many are of the view that handshake with the opposite sex is not right; especially with a woman who is not their wife.
This practice is in line with the position of some churches where men are not allowed to shake women’s hands. What’s the position of the Bible on handshake? Are there examples from the Holy Book?
Some Christian leaders in an interview with The Guardian newspaper shared different views on the issue.
While some said those who imposed such restrictions on themselves have a reason, others believe that the rule that men should not shake women is in order to impose self discipline.
According to the Secretary General, Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria, Abuja, Rev. Fr. Ralph Madu,  there is nothing of  importance in greeting among anyone.
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“There’s no way that the church would say men shouldn’t shake women’s hands. These are extreme things. Does it mean that if one shakes hands with women, he goes to hell or what? If someone is suffering from that kind of complicity, it might be better for him not to shake hands with women. To me, there is nothing in shaking women’s hands. You don’t shake a woman’s hand, but you kiss her. That is one problem with our church here in the third world and that is why we are lagging behind”
In his own view, a clergy in the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Pastor Funso Odesola who is also the Special Assistant to the General Overseer, said shaking hands with women is not forbidden, but embracing someone who is not your wife, is not accepted.
“We shake hands with women, but we don’t embrace somebody that is not your wife. Women are human beings too. The Bible didn’t say we should not shake hands. In fact, there is no place in the Bible where one can find that one should not shake hands, which is a sign of fellowship and acceptance.
Pastor Odesola, added “So to me, the idea of not shaking hands portrays a ‘holier than thou attitude’. The women are not less than men and are accepted into Christ’s fold”
Corroborating Odesola’s view, His Grace, Most Revd (Dr) Solomon Abimbola, Primate, The First African Church Mission Incorporated, Worldwide, stressed that there is nothing wrong in shaking hands with a woman.
“I don’t see anything bad in that. From the onset, those who brought Christianity to Nigeria and the way of exchanging greeting are the British, who are into hand shaking. Since inception, that is the way we have been greeting ourselves in the church. I see nothing bad in exchanging greeting, when you shake a woman as a man”
However, the Church Secretary, Deeper Life Bible Church, Pastor Jerry Asemota, believes that for one to make success of the Christian Race, then one need to have some self-imposed Discipline.
According to him, it is part of the instructions given in the scriptures about things we should do or shouldn’t do.
“In the scriptures, Paul was writing to the Gentiles, Romans, Corinthians and Ephesians. And in his writing to the Jew who were scattered abroad, he talked about greeting one another with a holy kiss and of course, when you say ‘holy kiss’ that means you are not having any evil intention within you.
“ Don’t forget too that for you to make success of your Christian race, you need to have some self-imposed discipline, which if not done will result in people falling into sin”
In his own opinion, Bishop Olanrewaju Obembe, the Presiding Bishop, El-Shaddai Bible Church, Ikoyi, disagrees with Asemota, said it’s a tradition that cannot be substantiated with God’s word.
“Down through the church age, you find that some church leaders have developed tradition that cannot be substantiated with God’s word. The Bible says “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus” which is important. What some churches practice is segregation and that is why men and women don’t sit together there.
He added “I am yet to come across a scripture, where such was stated. In our church, we shake hands and those who feel it would make them impure or corrupt, should know that our santification is not that superficial. It goes deeper than that”

RCCG commences 63rd annual convention

By Adeyanju Uwala, Staff Correspondent
The Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) will on Monday 3rd August, commence its 63rd Annual Convention programme at the Redemption Camp, Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.
The one week convention, with the theme: “The All-Sufficient God” will attract both local and international members with the aim to unify Christians all over the world.
A statement signed by the General Overseer, Pastor Enoch Adeboye,  said this year’s theme holds a lot of promises for members who will feel the impart in ways they never imagined.
“The Lord has preserved us to see another Convention of His Church and to participate in the blessings that He alone can give. We therefore welcome you to the convention of “The All-Sufficient God”. This year’s theme holds lots of promises for all of us who will participate in all the proceedings and our lives will be imparted in ways we have never imagined”.
Pastor Adeboye  added that, there will be salvation galore during this convention, as it is the opportunity many have been waiting for in order to make peace with God.
“Since it is God’s nature to give more than we need, the anointing that will operate during this convention take you to the level of “running over”. That was the anointing that took the shepherd boy and made him a king and the progenitor of the King of kings. This same anointing turned the son of a farmer to a great prophet and the father of kings. This anointing will touch individuals, organizations will be transformed and whole nations will rejoice,” he said.
He,]  also  pleaded with members to obey all camp rules.
“Please remember to obey all camp rules and be at the right place at the right time. Be in meditation and take time to reflect on the message God sends to you through His ministers. You will not be disappointed that you attended this year’s convention”.

COMMON MISTAKES WORSHIP LEADERS MAKE

Worship is an act of reverence to God because of who he is
WHAT WE DO IN WORSHIP LEADING
1. We raise an alter of sacrifice to Him
2. We show people how to do it and when they get connected, they develop their own style.
3. We make the sound a harmony of heaven and earth in sacrifice
So, you must learn to keep attention on God and not yourself
• Your dressing
• Your song choice
• Your stage attitude must align with what keeps the spirit of worship high
All of these goes a long way to tell if your will #songlead or #worshiplead #theworshipleader
Attitude: It is a settled way of thinking or feeling about something.
In every worship engagement, you must understand your rights and privileges as well as your position and responsibility. This should determine your attitude as a worship leader.
First you must understand the fact that it is a privilege to be in a love relationship with God Almighty.
He is God all by Himself.
Nothing you do can add to or reduce from God. He can do without us but we cannot do without Him.
A simple example is He make the sun to shine without any legislative procedure that gives terms and condition.
He makes the rain and the wind to come on us.
What if the wind refuses to blow and oxygen is out of circulation, what will happen to us?
God is faithful and loving so He deserves our praise.
Dear #theworshipleader, Standing before people from time to time being at the spotlight can be very interesting and deceptive at same time. You must realize that the Object of worship is not you but God.
You are leading a people who are not professional musicians and since your worship leading is in songs, you must carry them along each time you lead.
You must be patient and sing easy songs that majority of the people can connect with rather than those songs that gives you that “tight musicians'” feeling.
You must never be rude when they drag. Just understand with them and switch to whatever song works best.
You might have set the song outline and rehearsed beforehand but it is better to work with the Spirit and be spontaneous to go off the script if your script is not working worship.
Note: It is the people’s connection to God that makes you successful in worship leading.
Worship is effected only when there is a spiritual transmission that the peoples signal can assess through divine connection.
Worship effectiveness is beyond the people dancing.
Worship effectiveness is beyond the shouts.
It is usually defined by How much of God is experienced.

"GOD THE WORSHIP LEADER" BY REV. VICTOR ATENAGA

Worship is the act of showing reverence to God for who he is.
One day I was in God’s presence as my custom was for several hours studying and worshiping. From my experience, I could tell this presence was not going to diminish but increase. The manifestation of God in my bedroom was so real that I could almost physically handle it. I saw the beauty of His presence and I began to tell Him “Jesus you are beautiful”
Under that effulgent presence I will kneel down, lie on the floor, stand up and kept going on in such circle.
In my experience as a worship leader, from time to time, without the sense of religion I would have a pull in my spirit to do something like raise my hand or any of those acts of worship. Any time, I did in obedience; I discovered that there will be an increase in the flow of the manifest presence of God and glory rise.
Another clear example is an experience I began to have at the early days of my worship leading in church; I will make a list of songs and have everything planned out. The syncopations, transpositions and modulations all intact but will get something different as the leading in my spirit to do. I will usually lose my peace until I make that move and as I do, there will be a change in the atmosphere and the degree of flow the audience catches up with.
In my indulgences, I began to realize that after all, I am really not in charge, I am only a vessel by which God expresses Himself and reaches out to His people with blessings. Yes I could come out of love to bring Him an offering in songs, but He conducts the flow.
What a privilege!
By this, I started learning how to depend on the Holy Spirit for all my worship and ministerial engagements and the testimonies has only but increased from level to level.
When we worship, we sing God’s word back to Him.
Singing is defined as the act of making music through lyrics.
What differentiates gospel music from any other is usually their lyrics.
And what differentiate a worship song from any other kind of gospel song, is the lyrics as well.
When we worship, we sing God’s word back to Him.
Who reveals His word to you,? God (The Holy Spirit)
“…the Spirit of truth shall teach you all things…” John 14:26
It is the volume of the word you have that determines the depth of your worship.
Your spiritual experience cannot be solid without an encounter with the Holy Spirit. This is what births the fellowship with the father and that simply is the true definition of worship.
Worship is not just a combination of two words but unification of two acts that translates into one worthy meaning. Worth and Ship: Worth discovered and expressed out of a relationship experienced.
Worship
So the less you know of God the lesser the strength of your worship.
God is the self revealing One – Jehovah
What you know of him is only what he reveals to you or that you can grasp.
Worship is beyond singing. It is the act of singing the kind of song God loves and want to hear at the moment.
One day I was to lead in worship and I planned the process at home before coming, step by step line by line. I got to church and was following my script all the way. As I did, I found out that the flow was minimal. I kept putting pressure thinking it will change as I have seen at different other time. The more I pushed, the more it weighed me down. And the Holy Spirit asked me, when are you going to follow my lead? So, I humbled myself and followed. When I did, within the next one minute, the atmosphere changed and the presence of God was so strong that the service almost ended with the session. I handed over the microphone to the pastor but he struggled for almost one hour to continue.
It is only the Spirit that can tell what is in the mind of God so follow him.
“…knoweth what is in the minid of the Spirit…” Romans 8:27
Worship is singing to God about who He is.
In order to lead worship with grace, you need to have a personal relationship with the Father so it can play out in your normal worship leading experience. This is what they call the anointing. When the value of your relationship with God is evident in your ministry. This only happens by relationship.
I will continue next week same day and time on how you can enjoy a fantastic relationship with the Holy Spirit.
With the consciousness that to lead in worship is not same as song leading, we must lead them in the direction of Gods desire thereby conducting a session where the people can experience an unforgettable experience.
Dear #theworshipleader I like the concert feeling but only spiritual encounter combined with the entertainment of musical combo can give that special feeling.

Why do some cultures require women to wear veils?

In 2009, French president Nicolas Sarkozy gave a speech that called burqas "a sign of subjugation, of the submission of women." Sarkozy vowed that burqas, the facial veils worn primarily by Muslim women, would not be welcome in France because the country didn't believe that women should be "imprisoned" or "deprived of identity" [source: Carvajal].
Veiling has been a particularly hot-button issue in France, which has the largest Muslim population in western Europe. Just a year earlier, the country made headlines for denying citizenship to a woman who wore a veil. Despite the fact that her husband and children were born in France, authorities claimed that the woman had not assimilated properly, presumably assumedly because she refused to take off her veil [source: Bennhold]. And it's not just a topic of discussion in France: British politicians such as Tony Blair and Jack Straw have said that the veil sets women apart, and Egyptian officials banned veils in university settings, citing concerns about security [sources: Eltahawy]. In the U.S., a judge dismissed a small-claims court case because the plaintiff refused to remove her face veil [source: Applebaum].
As Sarkozy's speech suggests, it's very hard for some people to imagine that women wouldn't want to remove their veils immediately if given the chance. Requiring women to wear a burqa is just one way that the Taliban terrorized women in Afghanistan; failing to don the garment earned women public beatings. After troops entered Afghanistan to take on the Taliban in 2001, reporters spoke of women walking into the streets and ripping off their veils [source: Whitlock]. To some, this made the burqa an enduring symbol of an oppressive and dangerous regime.
That's not the only symbolism the burqa has taken on; the garment now means so many things to different people that it can be difficult to suss out its real meaning and purpose. To those like Sarkozy, the veil is a dehumanizing prison that turns women into second-class citizens. To others, the veil is a sign of modesty and piety as well as a badge of honor. It's possible to see the veil as a rejection of Western values and the uniform of a dangerous subculture, while some who wear the veil insist that a ban like Sarkozy's would represent censorship, repression and an affront to freedom of religion.
So what does the veil mean, exactly?

Veiling Vocabulary

The history of veiling is so long that it's impossible to know when or where it started. Though Muslim women are associated with veiling, the practice began before Islam. It's likely that the veil started as a sign of privilege; women who didn't have to work wore veils because they didn't have to worry about the practicality of the garment.
Before we go any further, though, it's necessary to stop and clarify some vocabulary. Often in the West, all veils and head coverings are thought to be burqas, but that term only applies to a small subset of garments. A burqa is a word primarily used in Afghanistan to denote a full-body cloak that thoroughly covers the face of the wearer; there may only be a mesh screen for the eyes. There are also full-body cloaks that don't obscure the face, such as the abaya in Saudi Arabia and the chador in Iran; both of these countries mandate that women cloak themselves.
Hijab is a very general word that encompasses all sorts of head coverings and scarves. These scarves don't necessarily have full gown accompaniments, but they might. A niqab is a face veil that can be worn with a hijab so that everything but the eyes remains veiled. The two terms at the center of debates about the veil, therefore, are burqa and niqab, as these are the coverings that obscure the face.
Though hijab refers to the headscarves that Muslim women wear, the word also refers to the reason why many women wear the scarves in the first place. In Arabic, hijab means barrier and partition, but within the Islamic religion, it also refers to principles of modesty and behavior that adherents believe the Prophet Muhammad wishes them to live by. Calls for modesty appear in the Quran, but as with most things involving these veils, scholars are divided on what exactly the verses mean.

Burqas and the Quran

In the Quran, policies for women's dress are mentioned in several passages; we include two of the most oft-cited here, using translations from the BBC:
Chapter 33, Verse 59: O Prophet! Tell thy wives and daughters, and the believing women, that they should cast their outer garments over their persons: that is most convenient, that they should be known (as such) and not molested.
Chapter 24, Verses 30-31: Say to the believing men that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty: that will make for greater purity for them: And Allah is well acquainted with all they do. And say to the believing women that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty; that they should not display their beauty and ornaments except what must ordinarily appear thereof.
There is no doubt among Muslim scholars that the faithful, both male and female, must maintain modest dress. Men should be covered between the navel and the knee, and in another passage, they are directed not to wear silk. But scholars differ over female dress because of the words "except what must ordinarily appear thereof." Some believe that the hands and the face must ordinarily appear in the course of a woman going about her day, and that a full face veil isn't required. After all, if Muhammad meant for women to be completely covered, then why would men be instructed in the very same passage to avert their gaze in the name of modesty? If a woman was fully covered, there would be no need for a man to look away. To these scholars, hijab, or a head covering, is necessary, but a niqab or a burqa is not [source: BBC].
A minority of scholars, though, believe that since full covering is possible, thanks to the burqa and the niqab, then faithful women should cover their face and their hands completely. Full covering, including of the face, is a sign of extreme piety. Regardless of which way women choose to interpret the passage, hijab is a religious obligation and will fulfill the first passage, in which women are called upon to be recognized as Muslims in public.
It's worth noting that another passage in the Quran includes a list of people in whose presence a woman may go unveiled. These include husbands, brothers, fathers, slaves and other Muslim women.
On the next page, we'll consider some reasons why women wear the full veil when some scholars say it's unnecessary.

 

Reasons Women Wear Burqas Debates over whether to ban the burqa often assume that women are forced by men to wear it. In many Muslim countries, women lack equality and basic rights that other women take for granted; therefore, the burqa may seem to be is just one more example of patriarchal control.
There is some evidence that women in particularly conservative countries are forced to wear a burqa or niqab out of fear of beatings, arrests or honor killings. But what of those women in France who Sarkozy addressed in his 2009 speech? Many of these women, both in strictly Islamic countries and in Western countries, have insisted to countless reporters that wearing a full covering is their choice and their right [sources: Vincent; Clark-Flory]. As believing Muslims, they interpret their holy text to mean that their faces must be covered.
Many women also say that the hijab isn't a tool of subjugation at all, but rather a means for equality. Their reasoning for this is that in public, they aren't judged on their appearance. They are free from unwelcome male advances and liberated from objectifying leers. Naomi Wolf, writer of "The Beauty Myth," commented in an editorial for the Sydney Morning Herald that these women were far from sexually repressed; they just kept their sexual appeal under wraps in a way that made it more special within the bonds of marriage.
Another reason women say they continue to wear the veil is for purposes of group identity [source: Perlez]. It's a badge of honor and solidarity in a world full of negative opinions about Islam. Some women have suggested that if countries like France were to ban the veil, it would only cause more women to wear it in defiance [source: Sullivan, Adam]. So should it be banned?

Reasons Women Wear Burqas

Debates over whether to ban the burqa often assume that women are forced by men to wear it. In many Muslim countries, women lack equality and basic rights that other women take for granted; therefore, the burqa may seem to be is just one more example of patriarchal control.
There is some evidence that women in particularly conservative countries are forced to wear a burqa or niqab out of fear of beatings, arrests or honor killings. But what of those women in France who Sarkozy addressed in his 2009 speech? Many of these women, both in strictly Islamic countries and in Western countries, have insisted to countless reporters that wearing a full covering is their choice and their right [sources: Vincent; Clark-Flory]. As believing Muslims, they interpret their holy text to mean that their faces must be covered.
Many women also say that the hijab isn't a tool of subjugation at all, but rather a means for equality. Their reasoning for this is that in public, they aren't judged on their appearance. They are free from unwelcome male advances and liberated from objectifying leers. Naomi Wolf, writer of "The Beauty Myth," commented in an editorial for the Sydney Morning Herald that these women were far from sexually repressed; they just kept their sexual appeal under wraps in a way that made it more special within the bonds of marriage.
Another reason women say they continue to wear the veil is for purposes of group identity [source: Perlez]. It's a badge of honor and solidarity in a world full of negative opinions about Islam. Some women have suggested that if countries like France were to ban the veil, it would only cause more women to wear it in defiance [source: Sullivan, Adam]. So should it be banned?

India: Eleven killed in Mumbai building collapse

At least 11 people have died after a building collapsed near India's western city of Mumbai, police say.

Many others are feared trapped beneath the three-storey building in Thane after the incident early on Tuesday.
Reports say the municipality had declared the old, dilapidated property dangerous to live in, but residents had refused to vacate.
More than 100 people have died in residential building collapses in Mumbai in the last two years.
Rescuers are searching through the rubble for survivors after the building in the Naupada area collapsed while families were sleeping inside, an official said.
"Eleven bodies have been recovered and seven people pulled out alive. Another one person is missing," rescue official Alok Avasthy told the AFP news agency.
He said people were living in the 50-year-old building even though it "had been declared unsafe by the government two years ago".

"We pulled a family of five to safety with the help of a sniffer dog who tells us that there is still some life in there," Mr Avasthy said.
Tuesday's incident comes a week after nine people were killed when another three-storey building collapsed during heavy monsoon rains in Thakruli, a Mumbai suburb.
Property prices and rent in Mumbai are among the highest in Asia. Many citizens are forced to live in old, dilapidated properties in a land-scarce city where an estimated 60% of its 18 million people live in slums and shantytowns.
There are more than 14,000 buildings in Mumbai that are more than 70 years old.
Between 2008 and 2012, there were 100 building collapses in which 53 people died and 103 others were injured, authorities say.
Poor construction material and building practices are often blamed for many of the building collapses in India.
Last year an 11-storey building in southern Tamil Nadu state collapsed following heavy rain, killing 61 people, mostly workers.

Rising Star Gospel Talent Show Returns BIGGER! N1m Grand Prize. Register NOW!

Rising Star Gospel Talent Show Returns BIGGER! N1m Grand Prize. Register NOW!

Uyo, NG — Finally, gospel music artistes can heave a sigh of relief as they now finally have a platform they can look forward to every year for a chance to garner leverage, gain exposure and get a shot at winning a grand prize that can help further their ministry.
That platform is the RISING STAR GOSPEL TALENT SHOW, a novel and timely effort that was berthed to discover, showcase and support talented and anointed gospel music ministers across Nigeria and beyond.
The euphoric excitement that trailed the Season 1 of the show was shared amongst gospel music enthusiasts as the show is uniquely and professionally packaged to meet with global standards.

The said edition was held in 2014 and recorded a remarkable success that its participants are yet to recover from. It had an audience of clergymen, politicians, Nollywood veterans, gospel music artistes, media personalities and a huge cross section of music enthusiasts.

The overall winner, Miss Uforo Mathew, got the sum of N500, 000 while the first and second runners up got N300, 000 and N150,000 respectively.

This year, RISING STAR GOSPEL TALENT SHOW has returned bigger, better and with its Grand Prize more ‘pricier’. Already, registration for auditions has been kicked off and many participants have registered through the platform’s website.
Speaking about this, the show’s Project director, Mr Charles Emmanuel, pointed out that Rising Star has returned to continue from the success of its first edition.

This year, we have expanded its reach, boosted our team and increased the grand prize so as to give gospel music singers a better rise. Registration for the platform is strictly done online. We have a form on the website that intending participants can register through”, he said.

So, if you are a gospel artiste and think you can be on this platform, click below and enter for it.
To register, click this link http://risingstargospel.com/register.html

Nigeria Boko Haram crisis: Army rescues 178 people

The Nigerian military says it has rescued 178 people from the Islamist militant group Boko Haram in northern Borno state.

In a statement released on Sunday, it said that 101 of those freed were children and a further 67 were women.
The statement did not say if the girls abducted from a school in Chibok in April 2014 were among them.
The military also says that a Boko Haram commander was captured and several camps were cleared.
Boko Haram has killed some 5,500 civilians in Nigeria since 2014.

More than 200 of the Chibok girls are still missing, more than a year after they were kidnapped from their school in northern Nigeria.
Last October, the government said it had secured an agreement for a ceasefire and the release of the girls taken from Chibok, but Boko Haram subsequently denied this.

Parents of the Chibok girls have been campaigning for their release for more than a year

The abduction of the girls in Chibok sparked global outrage with many joining a campaign online to free them using the hashtag #BringBackOurGirls.
Several nations including the US and China vowed to help find them and there have been reported sightings of the girls, but none has been found to date.

At least 2,000 women and girls abducted by Boko Haram since the start of 2014, according to the human rights organisation Amnesty International.

Boko Haram's insurgency, and the army campaign against it, have killed more than 15,500 people since 2012. The violence has recently spread to neighbouring Niger, Chad and Cameroon.

Boko Haram at a glance

• Founded in 2002, initially focused on opposing Western-style education - Boko Haram means "Western education is forbidden" in the Hausa language
• Launched military operations in 2009
• Thousands killed, mostly in north-eastern Nigeria, abducted hundreds, including at least 200 schoolgirls
• Joined Islamic State, now calls itself "West African province"
• Seized large area in north-east, where it declared caliphate
• Regional force has retaken most territory this year

Will new military base help defeat Boko Haram?
Why Boko Haram remains a threat

How Smart Rings Work

You're out to dinner with some old college friends. Appetizers are ordered, drinks are served and everyone's having a good time. You're about to launch into a hysterical anecdote about your toddler's bout of diarrhea on an airplane when your pal Becky gets a text.
OK, your story can wait while Becky replies. It'll just take a second. But now Sarah has pulled out her phone and is replying to a friend's tweet. Um, awesome airplane story involving explosive bowel movements waiting to be told ... Too late, Marcy's phone whistles for her attention. Maybe it's a friend's Instagram photo of a pygmy goat or a work email or a calendar update to order more cat food. Whatever it is, it's apparently more important than your unforgettable poop story!
It's official, we have become slaves to our smartphones. The constant stream of buzzes, whistles and alerts from our devices steals our attention away from the here and now of real life. Every face-to-face interaction must be shared with the third "person" in the room — our needy and demanding smartphone.
Smart rings may offer a solution. (Yes, we're trying to solve a too-much-technology problem with more technology.) Instead of clutching your phone at all times, or constantly peeking into your purse to check on the latest "ding," you can wear a tasteful piece of jewelry on your finger that gives you a subtle nudge when (and only when) you receive an important message.
By wearing a smart ring, you can untether from your phone, or at least separate yourself from the lure of the screen. The phone can stay in your purse while you mingle at a party. The ring can be programmed to let you know when the babysitter texts or an important work email needs to be answered. Otherwise, everything else can wait while you enjoy some rare face time with friends.
Like smart watches and smart bracelets, smart rings are riding the cultural obsession with wearable technology. Some smart rings are designed to deliver custom notifications from your smartphone. Other smart rings aspire to become remote controls for every smart device in your life: TVs, cameras and thermostats.
Are smart rings really the next big thing, or just the latest case of overhyped, underwhelming "vaporware?"

What's Inside a Smart Ring?

Since very few smart rings are actually being sold, it's hard to know exactly what's inside these finger-mounted devices, but we do have some clues.
The backbone of every smart ring is Bluetooth technology. Bluetooth is a close-range wireless technology that allows any two Bluetooth-enabled devices to communicate with each other as far away as 328 feet (100 meters) [source: Bluetooth]. You've probably seen hands-free Bluetooth headsets that let you make cell phone calls without actually holding the phone. Like those headsets, smart rings contain a Bluetooth chip, which is really a small radio that can transmit and receive signals from nearby devices.
Like many Bluetooth-enabled devices, smart rings need to be paired with a smartphone to work. Once your phone recognizes and pairs with the smart ring, the two devices can talk to each other. Bluetooth makes it possible for smart rings to function as notification devices, and also as remote controls for Bluetooth-enabled devices and appliances.
Bluetooth is considered a low-power technology, but it still needs juice, so smart rings must contain some type of battery that can be recharged using a docking station or a wireless recharging pad.
In a futuristic twist, some smart rings use finger-pointing gestures to control Bluetooth-enabled devices. Point at the TV and draw a power button in the air to turn it on. Swipe your finger to the right to advance to the next slide in a PowerPoint presentation. For gesture-based devices, the smart ring must not only contain a Bluetooth chip, but also some kind of motion-sensing engine. The motion-sensing hardware and software detects the real-time position of the ring and sends that data via Bluetooth to the target device.
What you won't find on most smart rings is a screen. Yes, there are a few prototypes with a fingernail-sized display, but the whole point of a smart ring is not to stare at it like your phone. Without a screen, though, smart rings rely on smartphones as the chief way to program and interact with them.
That's why all smart rings comes with an associated smartphone app. The in-phone app is how you can customize the smart ring's settings and configure it to update you with notifications from other apps such as Twitter, Instagram, email and calendars.

Smart Ring Notifications

One of the few smart rings that has moved beyond the prototype stage is Ringly, a fashionable gem of a device whose sole purpose is to deliver notifications from a paired smartphone. A woman wearing Ringly — the initial gemstone designs are marketed to women — can leave her phone in her purse and still feel connected to her most important contacts and social network feeds.
Ringly works by letting the user program the smart ring to deliver a custom notification for specific types of messages and also for specific contacts. Ringly can send notifications using four different vibration patterns and five different colors [source: Ringly].
Using the Ringly app, users can match one vibration pattern to text messages, for example, and another to incoming phone calls. Since not all calls are equally important, the user can further customize Ringly to blink red when the text is from her boyfriend or green when the phone call is from work.
The MOTA DOI SmartRing is a sleek device initially offered in bling-free white or black. Like Ringly, the SmartRing pairs with a smartphone and vibrates when the user receives messages or updates from his or her social media feeds.
Where the SmartRing differs from Ringly — and almost all other smart rings — is that it actually has a tiny touchscreen display. Along with a vibration, the ring displays an icon identifying the source of the notification. It can even display a short message, stock-ticker style, like a tweet or a calendar alert. Swipe right or left to toggle through your notifications. Its website says the product will also be available later in 2015.
Key to using both Ringly and the SmartRing is the intuitiveness of the devices' apps. The SmartRing's app isn't yet available, as of June 2015. But the Ringly app, free on iTunes and Google Play, is getting solid reviews. Under the "notifications" tab, you can assign different vibrations and colors to a long list of smartphone apps and functions: text messages, phone calls, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, even Uber, the car service.

Lots More Information

Author's Note: How Smart Rings WorkWe are living in the golden age of vaporware. Thanks to crowdfunding websites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo, aspiring entrepreneurs can raise staggering amounts of cash with nothing more than a great promo video featuring slick digital renderings of a product that doesn't yet exist. Unlike a venture capitalist, who conducts market research before investing, and expects to see prototypes and works in progress from the company, the typical Kickstarter investor just wants first dibs on a groovy gadget that may never really be a viable product. Researching this article, I found tons of breathless blog posts about smart rings, but few contained any hard facts beyond the companies' own press releases. A visit to the Fin Facebook page shows months between posts and several anxious fans asking for updates and possible release dates, with no replies. I'm all for the democratization of startup funding, but with it comes the risk of more fizzled gadget fantasies.

Smart Ring Gestures

Here's where things get a little weird. Using a smart ring as a hands-free notification system that pairs with your smartphone seems reasonable enough, but do we really need to remotely control every device in our lives with our pointer finger?
The Japanese company Logbar seems to think so. In 2015, it started selling the Ring ZERO, a device that allows its user to control any number of Bluetooth-enabled devices with a series of finger-based gestures. To turn on the lights, you point at the ceiling and draw a light bulb in the air. When you take a picture with your phone, you can flick your finger upward to upload it to Facebook. Draw a bird in the air to send a Tweet or a music note to play a song.
While some people might think it's fun to play charades with their iPhone, the Ring ZERO is more of a parlor trick — or the awkward first draft of a future technology — than a truly useful device. Is it really any easier to draw a picture of a camera in the air than to click the camera icon on your phone? Plus, most smart rings are big and clunky, probably because of all of the motion detection hardware stuffed inside. And you usually have to take them off when you wash your hands [source: Campbell-Dollaghan].
If you have a hard time remembering all of the gestures required by Ring ZERO, good luck with Fin, a smart ring worn on your thumb. This device — no release date has been announced, and may never be — works by tapping the thumb against your other fingers. To skip to the next song on your iPod, drag your thumb across your other digits. To lower the volume on the TV, drag your thumb slowly down your pointer finger. To use Fin as a gaming controller, point your fingers at the screen and cock your thumb to shoot!
One smart ring remote control that actually exists is the NFC Ring. NFC stands for near-field communication, a radio protocol similar to radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags [source: Donovan]. The NFC Ring can communicate with any other device containing an NFC chip. For example, you can unlock your smartphone or tablet simply by sliding the ring along the back of the device. You can also unlock an NFC-enabled door with a tap of the ring.

What if the sun disappeared for a week?

If you happen to live in one of the many areas of the world that are prone to long, cold and dark winters – or even short, cold and dark winters – then your day-to-day life gets appreciably more pleasant when the sun comes out and the flowers start to bloom. Folks tend to get jazzed about spring because it means packing away puffy coats and leaving the office before the sky turns black. In moderation, the sun does a body good. It helps get you out of bed in the morning, strengthens your bones with vitamin D and might ward off a seasonal form of depression [source: Loria].
In other words, we'd all be sleepy weaklings battling psychological issues if the sun suddenly took a week's vacation. While it would certainly harsh the mellow of beachgoers, losing the sun would also have a more immediate and significant impact on the planet and the people who inhabit it [sources: Otterbein, EarthSky].
The first thing that you'd probably notice is that the planet would become pretty dark and pretty cold pretty darn quick. Although it may not feel like it, Earth is constantly spinning. This rotation is marked in calendar days: The daylight hours are those during which your particular place on the planet rotates toward the sun, and the night falls as the same spot rotates away. If the sun disappeared, the day would bleed into night in about 8.5 minutes, the time it takes for the sun's light to reach us here on Earth [sources: Otterbein, EarthSky].
The cold spell would be less severe and not as immediate as the shift to near darkness. The planet's temperature would drop to about zero degrees Fahrenheit (minus 17.8 degrees Celsius) over the course of the week. That's certainly chilly, but it's not enough to freeze off the human race and other forms of life on the planet. Not right away, at least. No sun means no photosynthesis, the process by which plants convert sunlight into energy. As plant life begins to wither and die, animals that eat it would be left without sustenance [sources: Otterbein, EarthSky]. (It would take about a full year for surface temperatures to plummet to minus 100 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 73.3 degrees Celsius). The frost wouldn't only be on the pumpkin at that point, it would also be severe enough that humans and many other life forms wouldn't be able to survive without a steady source of energy and heat [sources: Otterbein, EarthSky].
The biggest impact of the sun taking a powder for a week wouldn't be on Earth's surface, but in outer space. At the same time that our planet is constantly spinning, it's also orbiting around the sun. The sun has a diameter roughly 100 times that of Earth and exerts a gravitational pull on all the planets in our solar system. Gravity causes our planet to circle around that big star in the sky. Without gravity, the planet would simply float off into space. Among other dangers, Earth could eventually slam into a comet, meteor or even another planet. Let's just hope that it has its own sun and some decent beaches [sources: NASA, Otterbein, EarthSky].