Barnabas Fund, 24 May 2021

Armed men, suspected to be jihadist militants, attacked a baptism ceremony in a village of Oudalan province, Burkina Faso on 18 May, killing 15 people.

Many others were forced to flee the village, located in mainly Christian northern Burkina Faso near the border with Mali, in fear of their lives.

While no jihadist group has claimed responsibility for the attack, groups affiliated to both Al Qaeda and Islamic State are active across Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger.

The Sahel region of Africa, along with parts of West Africa such as Nigeria, has in the last few years become the epicentre of global jihadist activity.

Earlier this month a church was vandalised during a terrorist attack in Niger which left five dead and two seriously injured.

In August 2020 at least six people, mostly children, were killed and four others injured when an improvised explosive device detonated on a road in northern Burkina Faso.

Church in Chains, 25 May 2021

On 23 May, Pastor Yang Hua (44) of Huoshi “Living Stone” Church in Guiyang, Guizhou province was brutally beaten after local Chinese Communist Party police learned that he planned to make a visit next day to Christian friends in Qingdao, Shandong province. Pastor Yang, whose birth name is Li Guozi, previously spent two and a half years in prison for “divulging state secrets” and was released in June 2018.

The perpetrator of the attack in the police station in Guiyang was in plainclothes and said he represented the district level Committee of Political and Legal Affairs. The attack took place in front of three other local officials.

Pastor Yang’s injuries included scratches to the head and neck and the authorities sent him to the local A&E by ambulance. The attack also triggered a flare up of his pre-existing pancreatitis, for which he is to undergo a medical check-up.

Pastor Yang’s imprisonment was part of a crackdown on Living Stone Church that included the house arrest of co-pastor Su Tianfu, with whom he had founded the church in 2009. It grew to become Guiyang’s largest house church and resisted the authorities’ pressure to join the government-sanctioned Three-Self Patriotic Movement, resulting in raids, fines, confiscation of church property and detention of members.

While the pastor was in prison, he reported that government prosecutors had threatened the lives of his wife and children as well as his own life.

Voice of the Martyrs, May 13, 2021

The three majority-Muslim groups (Shiite Arab, Sunni Arab, and Sunni Kurdish) that compose modern-day Iraq have been in conflict for centuries. Attacks by the self-proclaimed Islamic State (ISIS) forced tens of thousands of Christians to flee the country, leaving a small but bold and faithful remnant.

For many of these Iraqi Christians, much of their day-to-day life is focused on survival, and yet they faithfully advance the gospel. Many of Iraq’s Muslims have rejected Islam and become open to Christ for a variety of reasons, including the corruption and violence rampant among both radical Sunni Muslims (including ISIS) and Shiites (including the Iraqi government, backed by Iran).

These circumstances provide a unique opportunity to share the gospel with Iraqis searching for hope and truth. The violence and instability have also led to a revival among traditional Christians, many of whom have come to saving faith and become bold witnesses for Christ.

Voice of the Martyrs workers see doors of opportunity open for ministry to an unreached and unengaged people group in Iraq. The Shabak of Iraq are Islamic with very little Christian presence among them. They experience harsh discrimination from other Iraqis and Kurds, including violent attacks, which presents a barrier to reaching them with the gospel. But VOM workers now see signs of opportunities to share the gospel with this group.

Church in Chains, 12 May 2021

China continues to tighten its grip on religion, the State Administration for Religious Affairs has introduced new “Administrative Measures for Religious Clergy”, which came into effect on 1 May.

Under the new Administrative Measures, those who “engage in religious teaching activities” must register on a database of religious clergy and will be given an identification number and a clergy certificate. Anyone not registered on the database will not be permitted to undertake ministry.

To qualify, according to Article 3, “Religious clergy should love the motherland, support the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party, support the socialist system, … practice the core values of socialism, adhere to the principle of independent and self-administered religion in China, … operate to maintain national unity, religious harmony, and social stability.”

Registered churches must sing patriotic songs, fly the national flag, install surveillance cameras, listen to pro-Communist Party sermons, put up portraits of the president and display quotes from his speeches extolling “core socialist values”.

International Christian Concern 05/15/2021

Believers who have a deep passion for the persecuted are few and far between in the Church. Often, those who have a heart for the persecuted find themselves alone in their congregation.

Jeremiah was called as a prophet by God to call out the sins of Israel in a nation filled with idolatrous practices. Though he suffered much for his calling, he never stopped revealing God’s messages to Israel.  Jeremiah was known as the lonely prophet and we know his pain.

Like Jeremiah, we who carry the burden of the persecuted are compelled to share their plight with those around us in the Church. Sadly, much of the Church cannot be bothered with the persecuted.

We pray that you will be encouraged by the words of others who share your burden.  For we have also seen and been transformed by their faith and are encouraged by their courage, sacrifice, and growth.

The Western Church needs the persecuted for they are the antidote to Western Christianity in all its weakness and lack of depth.

Together, we will continue to call out to the Church to remember those in prison and to learn from and be transformed by them. We must obey the Father’s call to care for His suffering children.