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.

Morning Star News, July 16, 2019 

Authorities in Cuba have notified the presidents of two Christian denominations that they would not be allowed to travel to a religious freedom event in Washington, D.C.

State Security agents have also forcibly detained independent journalist Ricardo Izaguirre, an active member of an unregistered charismatic Christian churches after he visited a human rights watchdog group in Havana.

He has since been held incommunicado by authorities, according to Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW).

The incidents were the latest in a campaign of repression against the evangelical Christian community in Cuba.

Evangelical leaders suspect mounting pressure on Christians is rooted in their outspoken opposition to proposed constitutional changes aimed at legalizing homosexual marriage in Cuba.  Christians fear it also practically guarantees that the campaign of repression against outspoken Christians will continue.

Open Doors, July 2019

In Burkina Faso, peace has been shattered and the country is under attack.

It’s the scale and speed which has taken people by surprise. A country previously known for peaceful coexistence between different religious and ethnic groups has descended into chaos with the incursion of extremist Muslim groups. In the northern and eastern parts of Burkina Faso they are loudly proclaiming their allegiance to so-called Islamic State and raising new fantasies of a caliphate.

The church has been targeted. In the space of four months, seven targeted attacks have claimed the lives of 23 Christians. An unknown number of pastors and their families have been kidnapped and remain in captivity.  On 27 June, four Christians in the village of Bani were killed by an armed group who targeted those wearing crosses.

“The Jihadists started threatening the church by sending warnings to stop worship services in various communities,” said an Open Doors team member who visited displaced Christians. “At first, they said they were against women and men worshipping together in the same church. Then, in no time, the believers were warned not to hold any Christian worship services at all.”