Voice of the Martyrs, 12 September 2019

Bakhrom’s Kholmatov’s family are looking forward to his expected release in April of 2020.

According to his wife Gulnora, the first two years were a struggle, but now she feels like she is nearing the end of a difficult season.  She began to suffer from severe high blood pressure after her husband was detained.

Fortunately, she has started to experience an improvement in her health.

Pastor Bakhrom Kholmatov was detained by police in April 2017 and sentenced in July 2017 to three years in prison. The 44-year-old was arrested after National Security officers raided Good News of Grace Protestant Church, beating church members in addition to arresting the pastor. The officers confiscated items including the pastor’s computer and the book More Than a Carpenter by Josh McDowell.

Officials claim that Christian songs found on Pastor Bakhrom’s computer and the More Than a Carpenter book are “extremist materials”.

The overwhelming need of those released from prison is “a job”.  A major factor in re-offending is lack of honest employment.

Studying the Gospel is hard work for prisoners.  But they’re bringing their Bibles, thinking and asking questions.  Pray for Denzel who has applied to transfer from a cell of 26 to one of only 4 people to have fewer distractions from Bible study and prayer.

Mr van Dyk, the chaplain in maximum, is being worn down by the system, despite his attempts to help.  The funding grant for the position of Field Director and the Restorative Justice courses has not yet been approved for this year.

The NetACT staff need wisdom to decide whether to go ahead with the training sessions in Nigeria, in light of increased tension between Nigeria and South Africa.

Justo Mwale University in Zambia is now ready to start training their staff and the students on NetACT.  Fraser was disappointed to receive news that the librarian there who was about to pass on the NetACT training to others in her institution has had to leave her job.

Daniel Centre

One André has left the Centre as he wasn’t integrating.  A second André is back for a second chance after a troubled first spell at the Daniel Centre.  A third André and another young man are currently being interviewed for admission.

Income from Blythswood’s Romanian shops which supports the Daniel Centre and Talita Kum has been dropping in recent months.

Blythswood Romania has been helping to build a local village school in Kenya – where they themselves are giving rather than receiving.  The school is already among the top 10% of achieving schools in Kenya.

 Talita Kum

 School begins again on September 9^th when the work of Talita Kum takes off again for a new academic year.

 There has so far been no progress in hiring a consultant to meet the October deadline to begin the revamping and extension of the TK3 and TK4 buildings.

The 1-week circus school run by a Swiss organisation in Jimbolia was a great summer experience for children and staff from TK2.

Adi is currently running an Art camp which contributes money to Blythswood’s projects in Romania.

Christian Solidarity Worldwide, August 18, 2019

Between 1998 and 2007, Heyeona Ji fled North Korea 3 times and was repatriated 3 times.  During this time she endured unimaginable suffering, including torture, human trafficking and forced abortion.  Sadly her story is not unique – countless others have had similar experiences.

The North Korean regime remains infamous for its brutality and oppression.  Every single aspect of life is controlled, and religion, or anything else that could be seen as a threat to the stranglehold of the state, is harshly punished.

It is estimated that over 200,000 North Koreans are held in kwanliso prison camps, where they experience horrific torture and sexual violence and are forced into slave labour.

Pray for enduring faith for all who, like Heyeona Ji (now living in South Korea), endure repatriation, torture and imprisonment because of their faith.  Even the slightest indication during interrogation that she was a Christian would have meant being sent to a political prison camp or being executed.

Call for freedom of worship in Algeria

Barnabas Fund, 19 August 2019

Church leaders called on Algerian authorities to guarantee freedom of worship after the closure in August of a second church in Tizi Ouzou province.

Officials sealed the church on the instructions of the provincial governor. It was also on his orders that another church in the town was sealed on 27 May.

The World Evangelical Alliance “deeply regretted” the latest action, which brought the number of forced church closures in Algeria to at least five since the beginning of 2018. “Many more churches are threatened with closure, amid denial of formal registration by authorities,” it added.

Officials started regularly visiting churches in late 2017, asking about permits to operate as churches from the National Commission for Non-Muslim Worship. However, despite numerous requests, it has been reported that the commission has never issued a permit.

Concerns remain high that Islamist extremists will attempt to fill the political vacuum left by the departure of 82-year-old President Bouteflika in April.

Morning Star News, August 16, 2019

The husband of a 32-year-old mother of two children in Somaliland, an autonomous region of Somalia, discovered that his wife owned a Bible and divorced her.  She knew she must leave the homestead.

She had become a secret Christian in 2016 after the leader of an underground church explained Christ’s death and resurrection to her – but she had never owned a Bible.

The couple had gone to Kenya for medical treatment for her father and she found a Somali-language Bible there.  

Returning home, she had forgotten to lock the drawer where she hid her Bible.  Her husband warned her not to come close to the children or he would take the Bible to the Islamic court and she would be killed by stoning for becoming an apostate.

“God has spared my life, and my fellow underground Christians in other regions of Somalia have received me and shared the little they have, but I am very traumatized,” she said.

World Watch Monitor August 9, 2019

While the Afghan government is engaged in peace talks with the hard-line Taliban movement, radical Islamist groups are spreading their ideology at universities.

Basira, a 22-year-old student, was beaten up twice earlier this year, at her university in Kabul, when her headscarf slipped from her head. In both cases she was accused of being a bad Muslim and of promoting Christianity. 

Radicalisation is growing, also among her professors. Meanwhile authorities also confirm radical groups like Islamic State use universities to spread their ideology and to recruit new fighters.

Since IS was driven out of Iraq and Syria, it has its sights set on Afghanistan where the group is expanding.  

The core of IS militants in Afghanistan consists of many disgruntled Taliban splinter groups and, reportedly, some returning fighters from Syria. They will try to attack in Afghanistan, and, for Christians, this basically means that they need to continue to keep their faith hidden.

The Malawian election results from May are still under dispute and protesters planned to close all borders including airports last week but the protest did not affect any of the NetACT visitors who all left Malawi on Friday.

 Restorative Justice had a family day in Drakenstein on Saturday.  The inmates were all under 25, most of them nearer 20 years old.  “I didn’t think I was doing anything wrong,” one gangster said. “Now I can see how much I hurt people.”  Pray that they will acknowledge that true and lasting change can only happen with God’s help.

InReach (the discipleship course Dawn helped to produce in Nigeria) is being used to great effect, not least in the dangerous areas of the country troubled by Boko Haram sympathisers.  Pray for safety and that the light will continue to reach the darkest places. Pray that whatever the cost, believers old and new will know that nothing is worth denying Christ for.

Pray that Ruth will be guided to find the right flat share in Glasgow for her course starting there in September.

Talita Kum

The summer camps were all encouraging, the TK2 camp in Austria was welcomed and helped financially by Catholics there.

 Adrian’s EU fund application has now passed the Administrative stage and 40% of other candidates have dropped out, increasing Talita Kum’s chances of success.  He still needs €11,000 for consultant to meet the October deadline to begin the revamping and extension of the TK3 and TK4 buildings.

 A Swiss organisation has brought a 1-week circus school to Jimbolia and children and staff from TK2 have been accepted to join the school free of charge, which Adrian now sees as a very positive thing for the children.

Daniel Centre

The Centre’s annual audit went well for Balazs, but they will have to apply next year for re-accreditation.  Bureaucratic corruption is rife in Romania and can lead to long delays.

 The reprisal of the After-Care meetings and the Christianity Explored Course are due to start in September.

 1 new resident is expected this month and a troubled previous resident has returned on probation.

World Watch Monitor, July 12, 2019 

Iraq’s Christians want the West to say the plain truth.

“If we don’t say what is really happening in the region, which is ethnic cleansing of both Christians and Yazidis, we allow Islamic State and other perpetrators to get away with it,” says Tim Stanley, columnist, for The Telegraph.

IS fighters are still active and have, in recent weeks, torched hundreds of acres of land and crops, “owned by infidels”, in northern Iraq.

Iranian-backed militias have moved into areas previously held by IS, discouraging people to trade with Christians.

The UN has been reluctant to recognise the violence against Christians and Yazidis as genocide.

The US has sent an aid package of US $35 million to the region to support Iraqi Christians and Yazidis who had suffered under IS occupation.

Christians often are considered to be instruments of Western governments and, as such, a threat to national identity or security. The challenge, then, is to help Christians without exposing them to undue risk.