Barnabas Fund, 20 February 2019

A Christian father of five was beheaded on 11 February in Odisha state, eastern India, because of his Christian faith.

Anant Gand, 40, became a Christian 9 months ago.  His recent baptism angered locals in his village, said local Christian leader Shibu Thomas. His execution-style murder was carried out by Maoist Naxalites at the behest of local extremists. 

Anant’s 6-year-old son witnessed his father being dragged out of their home by three men on the day he was killed. Anant’s wife and four young daughters were not at home at the time of the abduction.

Anant’s body and severed head were later found on a nearby road.

Naxalites are communist guerrilla groups in India. They killed Pastor Gurumurthy Madi in August 2015 in Odisha, because he would not hand over a fellow Christian pastor who had previously been a Naxalite. Another Christian leader was killed by Naxalites in Chhattisgarh state in the same month.

Christian Solidarity Worldwide, February 28, 2019

In 2016, the Colombian government signed a peace agreement with the guerrilla groups that control some parts of the country, yet religious groups in some areas still face many dangers.

New converts to Christianity, churches and church leaders are regular targets for extortion and kidnapping by armed groups, and violence is common.

Pray for God to comfort the wife and five adult children of Pastor Elfren Martinez Pérez, who was shot and killed on 16 September 2018 outside his home in Antioquia by members of an illegal armed group.

Changes to the original peace agreement are both a concern and a potential setback to peace.  Pray that the Colombian government and the FARC would adhere to their commitments under the agreement.

With an increase in extortion and other threats from illegal armed groups in many parts of the country, pray for the protection of religious leaders who live and work under constant threat.

The power situation has improved since last month, but there are still occasional power-cuts across the country.

Pray for Fraser who has had to resist the invitation, from an unexpected source, to cut some ethical corners in his work.  Thankfully other people involved support him in doing what is right, even against the prevailing wisdom.

Give thanks that NetACT received confirmation at the weekend that a substantial grant they had applied for has been agreed.  This will fund the regional training events that Fraser will be doing across Africa over the year. 

Pray for those organising and running a new Restorative Justice programme starting in Drakenstein prison next week, and particularly for the inmates who will attend.

Continue to pray for the staff at Hugenote College who have got an increased workload to get the new Social Work degree running by mid-March.

Ruth had some of her college work stored on a memory stick which has broken.  Pray that she would find somebody with the expertise to recover the information from it.

Talita Kum

Talita Kum is situated near the Serbian border.  Blythswood has 20 part-time and full-time staff at Talita Kum led by Adrian Poppa.  Talita Kum 1 (TK1) caters for school years 1 to 4 and TK2 for years 5 to 8. 

Many EU projects started in Romania were closed down because of widespread corruption in the use of the money.  Very unique in Romania, only TK2 of all those projects was finished before the EU pulled the funding.

They are therefore now hopeful for a new grant to fund TK3 (for years 9 & 10), and TK4 (for years 11 & 12) to close the current gap between Talita Kum and the Daniel Centre. 

The town significantly has no school drop-outs now. 

Daniel Centre

The Daniel Centre is situated in Cluj in Transylvania in NW Romania and was started to cater for leavers from large State-care orphanages, most of whom are not orphans, but have been abandoned by parents in the drug culture, or from the Roma community or with disabilities. 

The Daniel Centre has recently changed from being fully residential to having 4 independent flats with a communal unit.  They are praying about whether to lay off their night-staff but one severely epileptic young man needs 24/7 care and cannot be left unattended at night.

Christian Solidarity Worldwide, February 8, 2019

Since the introduction of new Regulations on Religious Affairs last year, Chinese churches have experienced growing harassment.

Many churches, even those registered with the government, have experienced increased intimidation, closures and demolitions; as well as the forced removal of religious items from church buildings and a ban on children attending services.

Early Rain Church is an unregistered church in Chengdu that has experienced intense harassment.  A police raid was launched in the early hours of 9 December last year.  Over 100 church members were arrested, including the pastor and the leaders, and seminary students.  Pray that God would watch over Early Rain Church and protect them.

Pray for healing for Pastor Yang Hua, the leader of Living Stone Church, who was released from prison in June.  His health has suffered severely from his time in detention.

In September, officials in Beijing shut down one of the largest unregistered Protestant churches in the city after months of pressure.  Pray that the congregation of Zion Church would find a safe way of meeting together and worshipping.

130,000 Christians gather in Islamic UAE

Barnabas Fund, 5 February 2019

An event held in the United Arab Emirates on 5 February was attended by over 130,000 Christians; a startling occurrence in a region where Christian converts from Islam risk imprisonment for apostasy.

The UAE has one of the fastest growing Christian populations in the world, mainly due to the inward migration of Christian workers. The country has around 700 Christian congregations, but mainly from the 81% of the population who are non-citizens.

The 48-hour papal visit to the UAE this month is unprecedented for the Arabian Peninsula and may signal a softening of the government towards the Christian community, estimated to number over one million.

Individuals belonging to non-Islamic faiths may worship in private in the UAE, but face restrictions on practicing their religion in public. Proselytizing to Muslims or preaching “against Islam” is prohibited by law and carries a prison sentence of up to five years.

Christian Solidarity Worldwide, February 10, 2019

Over the past couple of years, the state of Uttar Pradesh has seen a huge surge in violence against Christians, mostly stemming from allegations of forcible or fraudulent conversions.

Pastors have been arrested along with their families during Sunday services; some have even been woken up in the middle of the night and arrested.  Meanwhile, the police have failed to take action against the rising tide of violence; and hate speech is rife, with one government official quoted as saying, “Muslims have no business being in India.”

Pray that strong action would be taken against officials who fuel animosity towards religious minorities, including Bharat Singh, the MP who claimed that Christian missionaries are a threat to the unity and integrity of the country.

Ask God to protect pastors and their families throughout Uttar Pradesh from actual and threatened violence, and to give them a spirit of peace as they lead their churches during this time.

Middle East Concern, Feb 1, 2019

Human Rights group Article 18 reports that on 23 January, Sina Moloudian (26), was arrested in Esfahan and then on 25 January Ismaeil Maghrebinejad (64) was arrested in Shiraz.

Iranian intelligence agents arrived at the house of Sina without producing an arrest warrant, broke down the door and arrested him in front of his parents. The agents confiscated his computer, phone, Bible and other Christian materials, as well as a cross.

Witnesses saw him being dragged out of his house with bruising around his eyes. Later, he was able to call his family to say that he was going to be taken to court to face charges and that he was being held in Dastgerd Prison, although the Iranian authorities later denied this.

Ismaeil, who converted in the 1980’s and has experienced considerable difficulties on account of his faith, reportedly including an attempt on his life, was arrested in Shiraz on 25 January.

Security agents then took him to his house and conducted a search without producing a search warrant and confiscated his laptop, phone and Christian books. Ismaeil has now been released on bail.

The Bible study at Stellenbosch prison again had a lively discussion on whether you can be both a follower of Christ and a member of a prison gang.  One “atheistic” Muslim is coming to find out more about Jesus. He is open to following Christ when he knows enough.

Dawn is now back in the UK for February to be there when Ruth turns 18 on the 11th.  She will be speaking to the youth group in the church where she grew up.

Fraser will be spending most of February developing training materials for the NetACT portal.  Pray for the library staff as they get to grips with Fraser’s new system of cataloguing Hugenote College library and for Fraser as he creates training materials at the best level for the ways the college will use it. 

We are having power cuts of 2-4 hours per day.  Pray for this to be sorted out as the weather in Wellington has reached 40°C this week.

Our sincere thanks to Castle Street for increasing
their giving to us this year.

Talita Kum & Daniel Centre

We are now in touch with Balazs Csiszer (Director of Blythswood Romania) following his January visit to Blythswood Deephaven.

He will be available, starting with our next bulletin, for fortnightly chats on Skype to update us on news and prayer needs for Talita Kum and the Daniel Centre.

The new term is now underway for Talita Kum and the young ones back into their school-day routine.  Pray for the staff of Talita Kum as they model the life of Christ to their young charges while serving them meals, helping them with their homework and providing showering facilities for them.

Romania has produced pastors like Richard Wurmbrand who, back in the 60s, wrote the Christian best-seller “Tortured for Christ” about his many years spent in Communist prisons.  Pray that the young men who pass through the Daniel Centre will have a similar vision to that of Wurmbrand to impact their country as he did.