The Persecuted Church Across the World

Persecuted Church North Korea 20th Sept 2017

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NORTH KOREA: ‘SO MANY COMing TO FAITH’

Open Doors 05 September

“The spiritual battle always intensifies when God is doing something amazing.”

These are the words of an Open Doors contact who has worked with North Korean refugees in China for many years. He has asked us to pass on this message to all those who pray for North Korea and ministries like his:

“Please know that your prayers have been answered. Yes, North Korea is still a very dark country and the people suffer day in, day out. Yes, there’s extra tension because of North Korea’s missile and nuclear tests. But never before have I seen so many North Koreans come to faith as nowadays.”

Many North Koreans risk their lives to make the dangerous and illegal journey over the border into China in search of work or food to take back to their families.

But it’s in China that many North Koreans hear the gospel for the first time.

The Persecuted Church Across the World

Persecuted Church Austria 20th Sept 2017

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Austria: Jihadism based on Islamic theology

Barnabas Fund August 2017

A major academic study has shown that many jihadists and other radical Islamists have a deep understanding of Islamic theology.  It comprehensively refutes the claims made by many politicians and other public figures in the West that radical Islam is a perversion of Islam and jihadists have little knowledge of Islamic theology.

The 310-page study, by Ednan Aslan, professor of Islamic religious education at the University of Vienna, was based on 29 in-depth interviews with radical Muslims in Austria.

Western governments must grasp the fact that the jihadists’ persecution of Christians and other non-Muslim minorities is primarily driven by interpretations of Islamic theology that go back centuries.

Barnabas, Missions

Barnabas Update 20th Sept 2017

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Myanmar (Burma) – September Update 2

Global One

 An estimated a quarter of a million Rohingya refugees have been forced to flee Myanmar due to conflict and burning of villages. No choice remained but to flee to neighbouring Bangladesh. Without basic everyday essentials, the Rohingya are living in squalor without food, shelter or even vital medical attention.

The Rohingya are considered some of the most persecuted minorities in the world, and the current atrocities only demonstrate their continuous suffering. Rejected and unwanted, this ethnic minority group face ostracization. They are denied basic citizenship rights in a country which they have called home for generations.

Yet Christian Rohingyas are doubly disadvantaged. The country refuses to acknowledge them and the Rohingya tribe rejects Christians who’ve converted from Islam.

Blythswood, Missions

Blythswood Update 20th Sept 2017

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Talita Kum 

Wary and bemused, 4-year-old Madalina squats in the doorway of her home.  Who are these people?  And what’s in these brightly wrapped boxes that they have brought?

 The knitted hat and mitts that Madalina has found in her box will help to warm her up.  The sweets will give her energy and the toys will stimulate her hands and her imagination.

Come September, four of the children from this family will be enrolled in Talita Kum, Blythswood’s after-school programme for children from low-income homes.

Madalina should be joining them by the time she is seven, if her mother agrees to let her go to school.

Jacksons, Missions

Jacksons Update 20th Sept 17

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We have booked an appointment for a visa interview in Manchester for Friday 22nd September.  Pray that we’ll get clarity over which category of visa would be best to apply for. The letter of invitation from South Africa is currently being couriered to England and should arrive any day now. 

 Pray for the lives and attitudes being changed through InReach groups continuing in Nigeria. 

James, now at Glasgow University, and Ruth, at college in Scunthorpe, are both settling into this stage of their education. 

Check our latest leaflet in the rack which describes what we hope to do and includes a helpful little map showing the countries that benefit from NetACT’s work at present.

Thanks for all your prayers.  The mountains that arise are moving out of the way one by one.

Barnabas, Missions

Barnabas Update 1st Sept 2017

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Myanmar (Burma) – September Update 1

Tearfund

Hours from the nearest town, lies a flourishing healthcare training centre, situated in the Chin State of Myanmar. The immense challenges of the topography surrounding the centre testify of people’s yearning to learn, inspired by the vision of one man, Dr Sasa.

Too many mothers weren’t surviving childbirth, children were dying from diarrhoea and other preventable diseases were claiming lives.

Driven by a God-given determination, Dr Sasa set about developing a training centre where people could come to study as community health workers.  ‘It was about being able to support people spiritually and socially as well as medically – a totally holistic approach to healing.’

His passion rubbed off on hundreds of locals who have helped him construct a mini-campus in the jungle, complete with training hall for 500 people, dormitories and offices.

The centre has trained more than 300 community health care workers from 150 villages and provided them with basic medication – the first time these villages have been able to access any form of healthcare at community level.

Jacksons, Missions

Jacksons Update 1st Sept 2017

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Jacksons – September Update 1

Thank God that our police clearance certificates from both the UK and Nigeria have arrived.

Every time we look at the requirements for South African long-term visas, we find another document to be acquired or certified at a cost. Pray we’ll see clearly what we need. 

Fraser will apply for either a long-term volunteer’s or a visitor’s visa.  We are unsure whether Dawn should apply for a visa as a volunteer in her own right or apply for an accompanying spouse visa.

Please pray that we’ll know which is best – to go as an accompanying spouse we’d have to get an apostille (government proof) to our marriage certificate at an additional cost – as we don’t want to apply for the wrong category and be declined.

The South Africans are busy drafting invitation letters for us to present at the visa hearing.  Pray that they will arrive safely in the UK and will say all that needs to be said.

The Persecuted Church Across the World

Persecuted Church North Korea 1 Sept 2017

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Church growing in North Korea despite strong persecution

Christian Institute 18 August

Christianity is growing in the despotic state of North Korea despite the horrendous persecution of dissenters.

A North Korean defector who works with the country’s underground church said that people are refusing to worship the Kim family, as they were told to do in the past and that, people “are looking for something else to sustain their faith”.

The man’s testimony coincides with an annual report on global religious freedoms by the US State Department, released yesterday.

In some cases, the persecution of religious dissenters can be as extreme as execution, torture and imprisonment.

Open Doors believes that the number of Christians killed or imprisoned is increasing, estimating that around 70,000 are in labour camps.

The Persecuted Church Across the World

Persecuted Church Kenya Sept 2017

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Kenyan Christians killed for refusing to recite Shahada

August 22, 2017 By World Watch Monitor 

Three Kenyan Christians were hacked to death by Al-Shabaab militants on 18 August after they refused to recite the Islamic prayer of faith.

The three men were held at machete point and ordered to recite the Shahada. When none of them did, the attackers began to tie them up. When the men resisted, they were hacked to death.

Last month, Al-Shabaab beheaded nine Kenyans. One witness said the attackers were “specifically looking for non-Muslim men”.

Al-Shabaab has targeted Kenyan Christians for years. This has left behind a trail of pain and destruction, and has instilled fear among regions where Christians are the minority.

April 2015, Al-Shabaab attacked Garissa University College, killing 148 people – mainly Christian students.  June 2014, attacks left 52 people dead. The militants struck a shopping mall in 2013 in an attack that left 68 people dead. They separated Muslims and killed Christians in one of the deadliest attacks in the city.

The Persecuted Church Across the World

Persecuted Church Laos 1 Sept 2017

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LAOS: HEALINGS LEAD MANY TO FAITH IN CHRIST

Open Doors 18 August 2017

Beun* is a believer in Laos – pictured below, although we can’t show his face for security reasons.

He became a Christian after Christians who cared for his dying brother. “When I heard that Jesus is the King of Kings and that Jesus is love, I decided to follow Him, even though this was the first time I had heard about Jesus,”

He then began to pray for healing for others. One person came to him with kidney stones. “He asked me if Jesus could help him. I said: ‘Jesus can help you, but I can’t.'”

“I prayed for him. At midnight, he had severe pain in his kidney. He had never experienced so much pain before. In a vision or a dream, a man with long hair and white clothes came to him and poured water on him and into his mouth – the more water he got into his mouth the better he felt.

“After the vision, he fell asleep and slept through the rest of the night. When he woke up the next morning and went to the toilet, the kidney stones were no longer there.”

Beun and other Christians travel to distribute Bibles, teach and hold worship meetings in other villages.

*name changed for security reasons