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.

Elderly imam awarded for saving Christians

Barnabas Fund, 30 July 2019

An elderly imam who saved the lives of Christians fleeing a murderous attack by Muslim Fulani militants in Nigeria, received an award recognising his courage on 17 July.

Abubakar Abdullahi was given the US International Religious Freedom Award for selflessly risking his own life in June 2018 to “save members of another religious community” when the militants attacked at least ten villages in Plateau State, killing scores of Christians and burning homes in a two-day rampage.

The 83-year-old sheltered 262 fleeing Christians, hiding women and children in his home and the men in the mosque in Nghar village. He then confronted the gunmen and refused them access, insisting everyone inside was Muslim.

He said later that he wanted to help because, 40 years previously, Christians in the area had allowed Muslims to build the mosque.

Morning Star News July 30, 2019 

Persecution of Christians in Bihar state, India, has so intensified in the past two years that Pastor Shelton Viswanathan didn’t dare call police after Hindu extremists broke bones in his hand and foot.

“The Hindu nationalist extremists are walking into churches and are disrupting prayer services – on a weekly basis, we hear of threats and attacks on home churches and pastors. Christian persecution is widely spread across Bihar, and it appears to be a much planned, systematic opposition created to target activities.”

Originally from the Andaman Islands in the Bay of Bengal, Pastor Viswanathan said he moved to Bihar in 2003 in obedience to a call from God to serve in Bihar. He pastors a congregation of 18 people at a house church.

In a report published in 2018, the U.S. based Pew research centre gave India the highest score for “social hostility” towards religious minorities, including Christians.

In the first quarter of 2019, there were more than 80 reported cases of mob violence against Christians.

World Watch Monitor, August 2, 2019

Eritrea’s Orthodox patriarch, Abune Antonios, placed under house arrest in 2007 after he refused the regime’s attempts to interfere with church affairs, has been expelled by pro-government bishops for heresy in a move widely seen as part of a government push for more control over the Eritrean Church.

Eritrea’s Christian gospel singer Helen Berhane, who was imprisoned for her faith, had raised the issue of religious persecution and the plight of the 90-year-old church leader with US President Donald Trump in Washington the previous day.

The patriarch, who suffers from health problems, allegedly said his fellow clergy did not care for his wellbeing.

Eritrea is 7th on Open Doors International’s 2019 World Watch List of the 50 countries in which it is most difficult to live as a Christian.

Give thanks for the men who publicly renounced their membership of prison gangs this past week.  There will be eight weekly follow up sessions so please pray for powerfully changed lives.

Pray that the Restorative Justice team will regain strength this week to be ready for the next course which starts with juveniles on Monday.

Fraser is preparing the internet portal training to be delivered to librarians from NetACT partner colleges in Malawi and the surrounding countries. Pray that he’ll get the level right and that the trip (leaving August 18th) will be smooth.

Talita Kum

30 attended Adi’s very encouraging summer camp for HIV-affected young adults.  19 attended the TK1 summer camp with an Inverness Royal Academy team, and 18 from TK2 have just started their summer camp.

The annual audits for Talita Kum have all gone well though Adi has not received back the official reports yet.

They should hear by November if the EU funds application for Talita Kum has been successful.  €11,000 is needed for consultant fees to meet the October deadline to begin revamping and extending the TK3 and TK4 buildings to access EU agency funding already committed for those.

Daniel Centre

The Centre had its annual audit this week and Balazs was somewhat nervous about doing this for the first time.

 The After-Care meetings have been suspended for the summer because of poor attendance but on the evening when this was announced, 12 ex-residents turned up!

3 potential residents, due to appear this past month, have failed to materialise, which is a cause for concern.

An ex-resident Talin now has a job, become the first of their young men to get married and acquire a mortgage.  He and his bride will stay in the Daniel Centre till their new house is ready for occupation.

Balazs has been encouraged by a visit to a college in Chisinau, the capital of neighbouring Moldova, where more than 1000 Muslim-background students from Moldova and the old Soviet Union have received Bible and Business training over the years to go back to their home countries.

Barnabas Fund, 11 July 2019

Many Tamil Christians and Hindus in Sri Lanka are being ordered by Muslim extremists to convert to Islam or leave the villages where their families have lived for generations.

The majority of Tamils are Hindu, while around 20% are Christians.

Muslims came to dominate the area when they moved to new homes built for victims of the Boxing Day tsunami of 2004.

Violent clashes are reported to have taken place as Tamil families have resisted the extremists’ threats to convert. Local sources say Tamils in the entire Eastern province are being targeted.

The majority of Sri Lankans are Buddhist, with Hindus and Muslims numbering an estimated 14% and 9% respectively, and Christians around 8%.

The largest Christian population is found in the Tamil speaking regions in the north and east of Sri Lanka.

Islamic State bombs two Syrian cities

Barnabas Fund, 15 July 2019

Islamic State (IS) claimed responsibility for detonating a car bomb in front of a church in north-east Syria on 11 July.

Reports said at least eight people were injured in the city of Qamishli, which is held by the Kurdish YPG militia.

Earlier that day, a bomb killed 11 civilians, including children, in Afrin on the Syrian border with Turkey. Many others were wounded, some seriously, in the explosion at an entrance to the city.

One report said the bomb was planted in a fuel tanker left in a residential area of Afrin and that many homes were damaged in the explosion and subsequent fire.

Afrin, which is north of the capital Aleppo, was held by the Kurdish YPG until 2018 when it was seized by Turkish-backed militia.