Morning Star News, March 7, 2021

Church leaders have confirmed reports that Islamic terrorists who threatened to execute a pastor they abducted in northeast Nigeria freed him on March 3.

The president of the Church of Brethren in Nigeria, Joel S. Billi, told church leaders on March 4 that he had spoken to Pastor Bulus Yakura after he was freed.

“Speaking to Yakura over the telephone today was heart-touching,” Billi said, adding that Pastor Yakura told him, “I am fine, thank you for your prayers and concern,” according to Musa.

Nigerian newspaper the Premium Times had reported that Pastor Yakura, a pastor abducted from Pemi village near Chibok, Borno state in an Islamic terrorist attack on Christmas Eve, was freed after Christians met ransom demands.

Morning Star News, March 4, 2021

A court in Algeria has convicted and sentenced in absentia a pastor and another Christian to two years in prison and a heavy fine, accusing them of “shaking the faith” of Muslims with Christian literature at their bookstore.

Pastor Rachid Seighir and Nouh Hamimi learned by a written notification slipped under the door of their church building in Oran that they had been sentenced to prison and fined 500,000 Algerian dinars (US$3,745).

The pastor was the manager of the now-closed bookstore, where Hamimi worked as a salesman. The judgment reads that they are condemned for “distributing publications or any other propaganda undermining the faith of a Muslim.”

Pastor Seighir of Oratoire Church in Oran said the conviction was mere retaliation in a conflict over the bookstore going back to 2008, when he was convicted of the same charges and acquitted on appeal.

“This case is the logical continuation of the three judgments in our case that we have won against the Governor of Oran.  On April 12, 2018, the order was issued by judgment for the closure ordered by the governor to be effectively cancelled.  Unfortunately, the governor resisted and refused to comply.”

The Christians have appealed their conviction and sentence, he said.

Morning Star News, 28 February 2021

Local officials and other tribal animists in a village in eastern India locked council doors, tied up pastor Lakshman Oraon and beat him for more than an hour.

“I did not shout or cry before them,” Pastor Oraon told Morning Star News. “I was praying, praising the Lord, remembering His sacrifice for me on the cross.”

The elders of Jungur village, Latehar District in Jharkhand state had summoned him and other village Christians on Jan. 24 to demand that they help fund the ritual worship of tribal deities. When he refused, he said, they tied his hands behind his back, knocked him to the floor and struck his back, head and face.

“When they tied me and started kicking me, I was not at all angry. The Lord reminded me of the verses in Matt. 5:11-12,” Pastor Oraon said, reciting in Hindi Christ’s statement that followers are blessed when others revile and persecute them, and that they rejoice. “I received great strength from these words. There was a smile on my face all through.”

Barnabas Fund, 19 February 2021

New government measures, which will include a database of church leaders, look set to introduce even more state control over Christian ministry in China.

The Measures for the Administration of Religious Personnel issued by the State Administration for Religious Affairs, first announced in November 2020, will come into effect on 1 May 2021.

Key among the measures is the creation of “a database of religious personnel” listing all those authorised by the state to perform religious ministry. Church leaders not registered in this database will not be permitted to undertake ministry.

In order to be registered church leaders must be those who “love the motherland, support the leadership of the Communist Party of China, support the socialist system, abide by the constitution, laws, regulations, and rules, [and] practice the core values ​​of socialism”.

The database will include “the basic information of religious personnel” and each pastor, or other religious leader, added will be given an identification number.

The new rules obligate churches and religious organisations to conduct formal assessment of their  pastors. The churches must use this assessment to apply “rewards and punishments”, which will also be recorded in the database.

Voice of the Martyrs, 25 February 2021

A Syrian boy who came to Christ while taking refuge in another country continues to follow the Lord.

Ishmael left Syria with his family when the war broke out. He started school in the country where they were living as refugees but had to leave school at age 8 in order to work and help his father provide for the family.

A front-line worker met Ishmael and helped him get back into school. “I became like an older brother to him,” the front-line worker wrote, and he and Ishmael met for weekly Bible studies.

After several years, Ishmael’s family decided to return to Syria, and Ishmael has kept in touch with the front-line worker. “Sometimes he reminds me to study the Bible even more than what is in our Bible study program,” the front-line worker said.

Pray for Ishmael to continue to grow in his faith and pray for him to be able to continue his education. Pray also for the front-line worker who is touching the lives of many Syrians like Ishmael.