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Prayer Focus Update is a monthly information bulletin with up-to-date news on the persecuted Church to help Christians pray for their suffering brothers and sisters. You can use this for prayer groups, your own information and for inclusion in church magazines.
It is available as a printable version on the Barnabas Fund website or can be sent through the post free of charge. Please contact your national Barnabas Fund office or the UK office if you would like to receive this in the post.
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EGYPT – NEW CHURCH BUILDING LAW APPROVED AND 70% OF CHURCHES DESTROYED IN AUGUST 2013 REBUILT
Give thanks to God that, in a landmark ruling, Egypt’s parliament has approved a long-awaited new law which it is hoped will make it easier to build and restore churches. A two-thirds majority of MPs voted in favour of the bill on 30 August. The decision represents a significant breakthrough as the construction of churches has been tightly regulated by a decree issued in 1856 during the Ottoman Empire.
In further encouraging news, the Egyptian army has rebuilt 70% of the churches destroyed in August 2013 by supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood following the overthrow of President Muhammad Morsi. In January this year, President al-Sisi had promised to restore all of the churches targeted in the attacks, which is around 70 in total. All are due to be rebuilt by the end of the year.
Pray that the spirit and letter of the new church building law will be diligently followed at a local level. Pray for God’s protection over Egyptian Christians and their buildings. Ask God to be a shield around Christians in Egypt who remain vulnerable to attack, especially in rural areas. Pray that the perpetrators of the recent spate of attacks against Christians in recent months (highlighted in August Prayer Focus Update) will be brought to justice.
PAKISTAN – AASIA BIBI APPEAL SET FOR SECOND WEEK OF OCTOBER
Lift up in prayer Aasia Bibi’s upcoming appeal at the Supreme Court, which is due to take place during the second week of October.
The Christian mother-of-five was sentenced to death under Pakistan’s controversial blasphemy law in November 2010 after she was accused of making derogatory remarks about Muhammad during an argument with fellow women field-labourers.
The upcoming appeal is a positive step forward for Aasia Bibi but there are concerns that the widespread support for her death sentence could delay the hearing and even affect the decision itself, as well as cause a backlash against Christian communities across Pakistan.
Meanwhile, a one-man tribunal in Pakistan set up to investigate the riots in Gojra in August 2009, which killed eight Christians, has recommended a review of the “blasphemy” law. Five provisions in the law relating to Islam have been specifically highlighted for revision to prevent misuse and to ensure that it aligns with Article 25 of Pakistan’s constitution, which stipulates the equality of all citizens.
Pray that the appeal will go ahead as scheduled and that Aasia Bibi will get a fair and just hearing, leading to her exoneration. Pray for God’s protection over all Christians in Pakistan as the appeal gets underway. Pray that the tribunal recommendations will be implemented and thus reduce the destructive potential of the notorious “blasphemy” law.
INDIA – CHRISTIANS PLANNING NATIONWIDE PROTEST ON 1ST OCTOBER AGAINST GROWING PERSECUTION
On Saturday 1 October, various Christian denominations in India will join together for a nationwide protest against the growing persecution and discrimination that Indian Christians are facing. It is hoped the protest – which is being called by The All India Christian Minority Front (AICMF) and will happen simultaneously across all 29 states – will address the “communal forces” that have created a climate of fear amongst minority Christian communities and will prompt the government to do more to protect Christians and their places of worship.
In the first six months of 2016, almost 200 incidents of anti-Christian violence were reported.
Lift up in prayer the protest, that it will be well attended and through it God will “do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us” (Ephesians 3:20). Pray for God’s protection over India’s vulnerable minority Christian population. Pray that the government and authorities will recognise their duty of care for all people and work better to provide a safer and more equal society throughout the country.
IRAN – SECURITY FORCES ABDUCT CHRISTIAN CONVERTS A FORTNIGHT AFTER SEPARATE RAID ON HOUSE CHURCH
Five Iranian converts from Islam to Christianity were arrested by agents of the Iranian Intelligence Ministry on 26 August as they spent time with their families in Firouz-Kouh county, north of Tehran. This incident occurred a fortnight after at least eleven Christians were arrested in a raid on a house church in Isfahan. A total of at least 43 Christians were detained across Iran in August.
Pray for the safety and release of all Christians currently being detained in Iran. Ask the Lord to protect, strengthen and grow the Church in Iran. Praythat God will powerfully reveal Himself to those who seek to raid, threaten, arrest and imprison Christians.
NIGERIA – ATTACKS ON CHRISTIANS CONTINUE AS BOKO HARAM LEADER SAYS GROUP WILL TARGET CHRISTIANS
Pastor Luka Ubangari was returning home from an evangelistic visit to Golkofa village in north-west Nigeria on 21 August when he was ambushed and shot dead. The killers are suspected to be ethnic Fulani herdsmen, a violent, mainly Muslim ethnic group.
In a separate tragic incident on 22 August, a Christian student in Zamfara state in northern Nigeria was accused of blasphemy against Islam and Muhammad and beaten by a group of Muslim students. A Muslim man intervened and drove the victim to hospital, but the mob then attacked and set fire to the house of the Muslim rescuer, killing eight people.
Nigerian Christians also face the prospect of intensified attacks from Boko Haram after the group’s new leader, Abu Musab al-Barnawi, reportedly stated that they will no longer engage in indiscriminate attacks, which have claimed Muslim as well as Christian lives, but instead will move to “blowing up every church that we are able to reach and killing all of those who we find from the citizens of the cross.”
Ask the Lord to surround the family and friends of Pastor Luka with His love, peace and comfort. Pray for God to comfort the grieving relatives of the eight Muslims who died in the arson attack, victims of a revenge attack on the Muslim who helped to rescue a Christian. Pray for God’s protection over Nigeria’s Christian population as Boko Haram narrow their focus specifically to Christians and their property.
CAMEROON – KIDNAPPED CHRISTIAN REMAINS HELD AND BOKO HARAM TAKES REVENGE
Lift up in prayer the Christians living in the town of Kolofata in northern Cameroon following two attacks that are suspected to have been carried out by Boko Haram.
On 12 August, four Christians were kidnapped whilst working in their fields. Two of the four kidnapped were first released to get hold of 100,000 FCFA (£130 – the average wage in Cameroon is around £2,000 per year) to pay as a ransom to secure the release of the other two, who are the husband and mother-in-law of one of those released. The ransom was paid and the mother-in-law was released, but the husband remains held and appears to have been taken away from the area.
In the other incident in Kolofata, on 14 August, residents were forced to flee their fields and properties after attackers, again believed to be linked to Boko Haram, looted the town. Gazawa Alhadji, a father of three, was killed. Barnabas Fund has been told by a senior church leader in Cameroon that he was probably killed because six months ago he was part of a group which tackled four Boko Haram members as they headed for the Kolofata market. The government gave him a medal for bravery and a reward of 600,000 FCFA (£780, $1,030). This was apparently seen as a challenge to Boko Haram who then did everything they could to kill Gazawa.
Pray for the safe release of the Christian man that remains held. Pray that the family of Gazawa Alhadji will know deeply the words of Psalm 68:5 – “A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling.” Ask the Lord to keep from harm Christians in northern Cameroon who are susceptible to attacks from Islamist groups.
RUSSIA – CHURCH PASTOR FIRST TO BE PROSECUTED UNDER COUNTRY’S NEW ANTI-TERROR LAWS
A church pastor has been the first known person charged under the Russian government’s new anti-terror laws, which have placed draconian restrictions on religious freedom. Officials raided a Christian children’s camp in Noyabrsk in Siberia, near the Arctic Circle, on 20 July, the first day the new legislation came into force, and later charged him with “the conducting of missionary activity”. He was found guilty and fined 5,000 roubles (around £58). Of the six people known to have been charged under the new laws so far, four are Christians (two of them non-Russians) and all have been found guilty.
Ask the Lord to grant wisdom and courage to Russian Christians - as well as Christiansin Russia from overseas - as they seek to serve God in light of the new laws. Pray that the concerns Christians have regarding the laws will be heard by the Russian government and addressed accordingly.
SUDAN – TRIAL UNDERWAY OF FOUR CHRISTIANS WHO COULD FACE DEATH PENALTY
Lift up in prayer four Christians who are currently on trial in Khartoum, Sudan’s capital, for committing at least seven crimes. The charges include waging war against the state and espionage, both of which carry the death penalty as the maximum sentence. The four men comprise three Sudanese nationals and an aid worker from the Czech Republic.
Rev. Hassan Abduraheem and graduate student Abdulmonem Abdumawla have been held since December 2015, whilst Rev. Kuwa Shamal has been detained since May 2016. Petr Jasek was also arrested in December 2015, just four days after arriving in the country. The Sudan Tribune reports that according to Mladá fronta Dnes, a daily Czech newspaper, Jasek is being held for documenting instances of Christian persecution in Sudan.
Pray that the four Christians will be given a fair hearing and that they will not be convicted of any false charges. Ask the Lord to equip and empower all Christians in Sudan as they remain at constant risk of pressure and persecution, often at the hands of the country’s Islamist government which rules the country according to sharia. Pray that Christians in Sudan will be given greater freedom to live and share their faith.
UZBEKISTAN – PRESIDENT WHO OVERSAW RUTHLESS REPRESSION OF CHRISTIANITY DIES
Lift up in prayer Uzbekistan following the recent unexpected death of its president, Islam Karimov, at the end of August. The 78-year-old had been in power for 27 years. Under his leadership, Uzbekistan was one of the strictest Central Asian republics and a very harsh and difficult place for Christians. President Karimov, who had ruled the country since it first gained independence from the USSR, had made no arrangements for a successor.
Pray that God will direct the appointment of a new president and that under new leadership Christians will be granted more freedom.
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Tuesday, 20 September 2016
"THE PRAYER FOCUS UPDATE" FROM THE SPLENDID BARNABAS FUND WHICH HIGHLIGHTS THE PERSECUTED CHURCH!!
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