Endangered Christians | Ain't Complicated

Under Siege

Another Christian executed in Somalia

Earlier this month, underground church leader Madobe Abdi escaped an attempted kidnapping in Somalia.

Compass Direct News reports Islamic militants caught up with him March 15 and murdered him. What made his death more alarming is that Abdi was an orphan raised as a Christian rather than a convert from Islam.

Islamic militants have hunted leaders of the underground church movement as a means of discouraging others from responding to the Gospel.

Is it working?

1,000 attacks on Christians in 500 days

A study shows that in 500 days, there were 1,000 attacks on Christians in India’s Karnataka state alone, reports Compass Direct News.

India has not exactly been known for its peaceful attitude toward Christians, especially after several months of attacks in Orissa state in 2008. At that time, attacks were predominately made by Hindu extremists, as they appear now to be in Karnataka. Karnataka, however, never seemed a likely target for Christian persecution.

“[Karnataka] is not in that area of India where you would expect there to be as many attacks,” says Dave Stravers of Grand Rapids, Michigan-based Mission India. “It’s in the south; the northern part of India is where more of the radical Hindus live. One of the reasons it’s not surprising, however, is that this is one of the places where the church is growing faster in India.”

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“What’s happening in Karnataka is perhaps a little bit ominous because a Hindu political party has control of that state,” says Stravers. “Even though these attacks are not legal attacks, nevertheless when a Hindu party gets in power, it seems to encourage the unruly elements in the country to undertake this kind of violence.”

And I feel bad because our pet hen died this afternoon….

Perspective. How we all need good perspective.

Genocide Ignored…Where?

Yeah. What country is referenced below?

“UN employees reported that over 3,300 villages have been burned to the ground,” says Klein. “It’s surpassing what happened in Rwanda and Darfur, and yet nobody seems to notice.”

Despite the nearly unprecedented conditions, the Word of God continues to permeate through the region. Klein says that even children in the Vision Beyond Borders orphanages pray for the soldiers that killed their families. Klein says the Lord is in fact using this time to draw many away from witchcraft and animism and toward Christ.

“Even in the midst of [so many] horrific things going on, the Gospel is going forth, and many people are coming to faith in Jesus Christ.”

Klein is excited that the Gospel is moving forth, but he urges the Christian world to do something for their suffering and ignored brothers and sisters.

“A lot of these Karen people feel like they’ve been abandoned.”

Source: Mission Network News (But I challenge you to first guess the country as a comment below.)

Then remember to pray for these folks and those who minister to them.

Somalia

persecution for Christians -- #persecution, #somalia, #islamic-law --

Somalia is almost exclusively Sunni Muslim, with less than one percent of the population Christian.

Lee DeYoung with Words of Hope says they beam hope in. “The wonderful message of Jesus Christ is unknown to most Somalis. The Gospel radio programs are a lifeline in very troubled times.”

Somalia ranks fourth on the Open Doors World Watch list, a compilation of the 50 countries where persecution is the worst.

Last April, Parliament voted unanimously to institute Islamic law. It was a disastrous move made with the hope that it would undergird support for the government. Instead, Christians find themselves closely monitored by both the government and the Islamic militias.

More than 20 Somali believers were martyred publicly in 2009. Most recently, on January 1….

Christians know they run a risk when following Christ.

[…]

Pray too, that in the midst of challenges, Somali Christians will remain unshaken from the work the Lord has given them, trusting Him to bring eternal results

Source: Radio transcends difficult ministry ground

Buried: Sifra and Ocean

I do not live in a news vacuum. But I just learned this: Florida teen murders street preachers.

Titus Sifra and Steven Ocean have been buried. I assume.

So has the story of their murder and apparent martyrdom. I just used Google to search the Web for stories mentioning both of their names. Results: 64 pages. So I did a news search. Results: 3 pages. Finally I did a blog search. Results: 5 pages.

Everyday hundreds of people fall victim to street violence in the US. On the evening of Jan. 30, Steven Ocean, 23, and Titus Sifra, 24, became victims as well when Jeriah Woody, 18, shot and killed them at point-blank range after they shared the message of Christ with him, according to a witness.

The witness said Woody got a phone call and said he “had to go” after listening to the two for 15 minutes. He turned and started walking in the other direction, but then he suddenly turned back towards the three men wielding a gun. He shot Sufra at point-blank range. When the Ocean ran, he chased after him, shot him from behind, walked up to him and shot him in the head execution style. The witness ran in the other direction and escaped.

However, although the case is almost two weeks old now, there has been little media coverage.

Did you know?

Algeria: Despite Laws

Despite laws preventing conversion, Muslims are turning to Christ in what’s being called an amazing move of the Spirit in Northern Algeria.

In 2008, Algeria put into full effect a new anti-conversion law that prohibited efforts to convert Muslims to another religion and gave the government the right to regulate every aspect of Christian practice. This law was a direct attack against Christians since almost all Algerian Christians are converts from Islam. The new law could make nearly all Christian churches in the country illegal.

Despite this new law, 2009 has been an incredible year for evangelical church growth, says Pastor Youssef Jacob with Operation Mobilization. “We have churches that have grown 802%. Many converts have come from Islam with no Christian heritage, no Christian background, no resources whatsoever, no training. But they just believe in God and His Word.”

Jacob says the Kabylie people are the most responsive in the Kabylie region, which is home to more than 2,000 towns and villages. “In every village and every town there are Christians, and there are churches,” says Jacob. “In one town, actually there are more churches than mosques, which is a big miracle to happen in the Middle East.”

Source: Mission Network News

Eritrea: 30 Christian Women

Arrested in Eritrea

A religious rights advocate in Washington, DC is condemning the arrest of more Christians in Eritrea. According to International Christian Concern, 30 Christian women were arrested in Asmara, the country’s capital city.

International Christians Concern’s Regional Manager for Africa and South Asia Jonathan Racho says, “The Christians were praying at a house at the time Eritrean officials raided the prayer meeting, arrested all of the people, and took them to the police station.”

Their children and grandchildren told ICC sources that they are concerned about the safety of their loved one. Racho is concerned, too, “because we know that Christians who are imprisoned in Eritrea are mistreated, they face torture, and there are cases where Christians were tortured to death.”

Racho is baffled by their arrests. “They don’t pose any security risk to the country. These are just old married people. They have just come together to pray. It doesn’t make any sense to arrest moms and grand-moms for praying together.”

Most of the detainees are members of Faith Mission Church, an evangelical body. The church has been carrying out evangelistic and development activities in Eritrea for over five decades. It was forced to go underground in 2002 after Eritrean officials required all religious groups to register. The officials then allowed only three Christian denominations to register. They include: the Eritrean Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Lutheran denominations.

Their Parents Died

And So Did His Camel

Rescue units restore hope in the form of vegetables

According to the Encyclopedia of Nations, Zambia’s population totaled 10.8 million in 2003. Of those, 600,000 are AIDS orphans.

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Bob Bland with Teen Missions said, “[The orphans] are not taught the things they would normally learn in a village situation, such as how to grow a garden, because there’s no one to train them. At our rescue units, one of things we do is try to help them grow gardens.”

Often times, they lack the tools needed to plant, but Teen Missions provides what they need. “To do that, we provide a hoe,” Bland said.

So far, these orphan gardens have proven very successful, and in one village, a child’s garden is the only source of vegetables for a whole village.

Teen Mission has 33 rescue units throughout Zambia working to provide safety, food, medical needs and education to these orphans.

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