persecution | Ain't Complicated

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

December 13

1571 — Hans Misel is martyred for his faith after refusing to recant his Anabaptist beliefs. According to Martyr’s Mirror, when the executioner brought him to the place where he was to be executed, he said to him, that if he would recant, he still had authority to let him go. But he refused, and would there seal his faith with his blood, and so far as he was concerned, he said, he might proceed. Thus he was beheaded and then burnt, and as they could not burn him quickly enough, they cut him into pieces and burned the pieces. When the executioner had struck off his head, so that the same lay on the ground, his body still remained erect, with the hands uplifted, as though he were praying, till the executioner pushed him over with his foot. It was also said that his head and hair could not be burned, but that it was found entire and undisfigured in the ashes, and was thus buried.

(Being an Anabaptist, that is of particular interest to me. Thanks to Google Alerts and Voice of the Martyrs for the info.)

In other news…

1545 — The first session of the Counter-Reformation Council of Trent opens. Responding to the spread of Protestantism and the drastic need for moral and administrative reforms within the Roman Catholic church, it met on and off for 18 years.

1949 — The Knesset votes to move the capital of Israel to Jerusalem.

1972 — Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt begin the third and final moonwalk of Apollo 17. This was the last manned mission to the moon.

1981 — General Wojciech Jaruzelski declares martial law in Poland to prevent dismantling of the communist system by Solidarity.

2006 — The Baiji (aka Chinese River Dolphin) is announced as extinct.

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.

Kidnapped in Columbia

Sixteen members of Colombia’s Kogui tribe were recently kidnapped in an attempt to force them to recant their Christianity, says Voice of the Martyrs Canada. Currently held in a remote location, these believers won’t be released until they renounce their faith in Christ.

Consisting of men, women and infants, the group was captured during a community meeting summoned by the Kogui governor. Believers were taken prisoner by the governor and his followers; community leaders shouted insults at the Christians throughout the night. Non-Christian leaders who supported the imprisoned believers were shamed.

The governor intends to eradicate the Christian faith from Kogui members through imprisonment and forced denial of the faith. The world’s highest coastal range, Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, is home to the Kogui people, and Kogui Christians number around 120 of the entire 11,000-member tribe.

Reportedly, two of the kidnapped infants have fallen seriously ill. Pray for their recovery and for the immediate release of these believers.

Source: Mission Network News