Voice of the Martyrs, 24 March, 2022

When a front-line worker was arrested for possession of 30 Bibles that he intended to distribute, a high-ranking official protected the Christian, scolding the police officers who arrested him.  “Why did you take these books from that man?” he demanded.  “I know about this; they are my responsibility.”

The Islamic Revolution of 1979, led by Ayatollah Khomeini, created the world’s only Shiite Islamic theocracy and profoundly changed every aspect of life in Iran.  Today, many of those who committed their lives to Islam and Islamic rule are filled with despair. 

This disillusionment has opened new doors for the gospel, which is sweeping across the nation via Christian media and bold evangelists in Iran’s growing house church movements. 

However, the government continues its attempts to thwart this move of God.  Christian leaders and pastors are often arrested, tortured and imprisoned, and their families are harassed.  Some, left with no other options, choose to flee the country.

Christians are routinely fired from their jobs, and it is difficult for a known believer to find a job or rent a home.  Many Christians gather in secret fellowships and receive teaching through Christian media smuggled into the country and through broadcast media.  Several Christians are currently imprisoned, and many others are under house arrest awaiting sentencing.

International Christian Concern, 28 March, 2022  (excerpts)

She was wrapped in the elegance of an era gone by.  A refugee of the Mexican War, her English was non-existent but her stature spoke of kindness.  Within her arms was an overflowing food basket, which she laid down before the door.  My eyes caught her ghostly frame as she drifted away, the food at the door filling an otherwise completely empty home.  How did she know? Who told her?

Years later, another food basket and refugee.  This time the feet of a curly head child tiptoes around a wheelbarrow that her parents are filling with eggs, pasta, rice, and lentils.  They begin arguing with another family, worried that there is not enough for everyone.  The child’s head turns towards me, her fingers deformed by violence make their way to her mouth as she shyly looks away again. 

Our morning shopping excursion for the food packages was precipitated a few days earlier by a visit to a mass grave where 3,000 Christians, this little girl’s ancestors, were killed because of their faith.  During that visit, my feet were surrounded by adult femurs and jaw bones, as only the children were given the decency of a burial. 

For the Christians who received food packages, this mass grave created 75 years earlier was a warning of the genocide that they themselves would experience.  The inquiries of these Christians are slightly different.  Where were you?  Why did it take you so long to find us?

Voice of the Martyrs, 10 March 2022 (excerpts)

Reem is a Syrian Muslim who lives in Turkey with her husband and children.  After having dreams about Jesus, Reem reached out to front-line workers to learn more about Him.  “If there is anything about God that I do not know, I want to know it,” she said. 

Reem began reading the Bible online, but her family have discouraged her and warned her against believing in Him.  Front-line workers connected her with a pastor and his wife, who prayed with Reem and gave her a Bible.  Reem asked the pastor and his wife to keep praying for her. 

The gospel spread throughout what is now Turkey in the first century, and the region remained under Christian rule for centuries.  Now, however, fewer than 1 percent of Turks are Christians. 

Unfortunately, Islam is considered by most Turks to be part of their national identity.  Christians in Turkey have limited freedom of worship.  While there are few Turkish churches, believers boldly share Christ with their countrymen. 

A missionary was murdered in 2019.  Another missionary and two Turkish believers were brutally murdered in a highly publicized 2007 incident.  Christian converts from Islam are harassed and pressured from all sides. 

Mature expatriate believers — many of whom have lived in Turkey for decades — have long served in Turkish churches; however, the Turkish government has recently targeted these foreign workers for expulsion.

Voice of the Martyrs, 10 March 2022 (excerpts)

Pastor Ebrahim leads an unofficial church in Yemen.  One day, while the church gathered for worship and prayer, a dozen armed men burst into the church and aimed their weapons at Ebrahim and the congregation.  The leader of the armed men pointed a gun at Ebrahim’s head, threatening to kill him.  Ebrahim prayed and encouraged his congregation: “Be at peace; in a few moments we will be with Jesus,” he said.  As peace filled the room, one of the armed men called off the attack, and as the group left, they took all of the church’s equipment and Bibles. 

“Ebrahim is happy that, somewhere in Yemen, stacks of Bibles are laying for someone to pick up and learn about Jesus,” a front-line worker said.  Pray for Ebrahim and his congregation to remain firm in faith amid hostile opposition. 

For many years, the people of Yemen have suffered from civil wars and violence from Islamic extremists, including al-Qaida.  Although the situation has further deteriorated since the start of the most recent civil war, in 2015, Yemeni Christians have become bolder in their outreach efforts, though it is still extremely dangerous to even be identified as a Christian.  Small but steady numbers of Yemenis are continually being added to the body of Christ, and more are gaining interest as Christian media grows.  Most regions of the country include at least one follower of Christ.  

Converting to Christianity from Islam is a crime punishable by death, and families consider it extremely shameful for a family member to become a Christian.  Christians worship secretly in homes or in small groups outdoors.

Morning Star News, 6 March 2022

Church leaders in Sudan were detained and questioned last month after Muslim extremists upset about the presence of their worship building locked it shut.

Hard-line Muslims locked the building of the Church of Christ about 85 miles southeast of Khartoum on Feb. 21, said Dalman Hassan, an evangelist arrested on Feb. 27 and released with the church pastor later that day.

He said the Muslims accused church members of hostility toward Islam by holding gatherings on Fridays, the Muslim day of mosque prayer.

“They cause chaos and disrespect others’ religion,” read a charge against the church presented to officials, he said.

Church member Kotti Dalman said the Muslims also charged the church with providing food to children to win them to Christianity and with taking their land for the worship building.

Church members said the land belongs to a Catholic school, and that Muslims fabricated the land-grab charge because they don’t want a Christian congregation worshipping in the area.  Police requested and received ownership papers showing the land did not belong to the Muslims, church members said.

Following two years of advances in religious freedom in Sudan after the end of the Islamist dictatorship under former President Omar al-Bashir in 2019, the spectre of state-sponsored persecution returned with a military coup on Oct. 25, 2021.

International Christian Concern, 03/02/2022

In the blink of an eye, life can completely and permanently change.  Young Nancy from Kenya knows this all too well.  On one ordinary evening, she and her family were sitting outside when a neighbour approached.  Without warning, he detonated a suicide bomb, killing himself and Nancy’s parents.

In the aftermath of tragedies like this, we’re often left wondering why.  In this particular situation, part of the explanation is that the neighbour had turned to radical Islam and he felt that it was his duty to attack this Christian family.  But on a wider scale, we’re reminded that we are in the midst of a spiritual battle and Jesus told us to expect persecution in this life.

While we may not fully understand why these atrocities take place, we believe that God spared Nancy for a reason.  We are going to stand beside her in the coming years, providing her with educational support to set her up for success in the future.  In turn, we pray that she will see that the church never left her side amidst life’s darkest moments.

Barnabas Fund, 22 February 2022

A Sri Lankan pastor was served with a notice barring him from holding church services in his home.

The letter – citing communications between the police and Sri Lanka’s central government – asserted that express permission is required for a building to be used as a place of religious worship.

The letter added that there were objections to Christian worship taking place in the pastor’s home from the local authority overseeing Buddhist affairs.

The pastor, who has been using his home for worship since 2013, has sought the necessary permission several times, but has received no response from the Ministry of Buddhas asana and Religious Affairs.

A Barnabas Fund contact explained that the law does not in fact require official registration for places of worship.

“The government is trying to get the information about house churches,” he explained. “This is a new development by the Ministry trying to crack down on house churches.

Sri Lankan Christians, who make up 8% of the population, suffer discrimination and harassment and sometimes violence from Buddhist extremists, Muslim extremists and Hindu extremists.

Morning Star News, 14 February 2022 (excerpts)

Christian churches, seminaries and other ministries have been shaken by a Dec. 20 government announcement that all religious information on the internet will be forbidden unless organizations obtain government permission – an option that is not open to unregistered house churches.

Only 5 government-approved religious organizations may apply for such permission: The Three-Self Patriotic Movement (representing officially-approved Protestant churches), the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association and the official organizations of Buddhism, Islam and Taoism.

The measures follow complaints by President Xi Jinping that prohibitions against using the internet to “advertise” religion were easily eluded and more should be done to make sure that the internet and social networks are not used as tools for “religious propaganda,”  according to religious rights magazine Bitter Winter.

“They can broadcast sermons and lessons but would be checked by the authorities for their ‘Sinicized’ content, making sure they promote socialist values and are not used as proselytization tools,” according to Bitter Winter.

Religious universities and colleges may disseminate content via the internet only to their students; any attempt to spread religious content to minors or “induce minors to believe in religion” will lead to the termination of the license.

“Organizations which will not obtain the license, and individuals, may not disseminate any religious content or even allusions through the internet,” it stated.  “Sharing images or comments on ‘religious ceremonies …’ will be severely prohibited.  Xi Jinping asked for a crackdown on religious content on the internet.”

Christian Solidarity Worldwide, 15 February 2022  (excerpts)

Five United Nations (UN) Special Procedures have signed onto a joint communication to the Cuban government requesting information about the treatment and detention of Cuban Protestant pastor Reverend Lorenzo Rosales Fajardo, who participated in nationwide peaceful protests in July 2021. 

The communication also raises concerns regarding alleged threats, torture and other mistreatment that the pastor has suffered at the hands of Cuban State Security.  It calls on the Cuban government to provide information on why the pastor was arrested, the justification for the charges against him and why he was held in incommunicado detention. 

The communication, dated 16 December 2021, gave the Cuban government 60 days to respond to their request, but no response was provided.

Reverend Rosales Fajardo was arrested on 11 July 2021.  He has been imprisoned in Boniato Maximum Security Prison since August 2021 and is facing charges which include ‘disrespect’, ‘assault’, ‘criminal incitement’ and ‘public disorder,’ for which the government has previously indicated that they are seeking to impose a 10-year prison sentence.  He was tried on 20 and 21 December 2021 and informed that he would be sentenced on 5 January 2022, but this has been repeatedly delayed.

Barnabas Fund, 15 February 2022 (excerpts)

Police in Pakistan have registered a murder case against over 150 Muslims following the death of Christian shopkeeper Pervez Masih on 14 February in Lahore.

The incident happened after a group of Muslims was involved in an altercation the previous evening with Pervez at the games shop he ran. The dispute was apparently settled following the intervention of mainly Christian members of the local community.

The next morning, however, the Muslims went to the shop with guns, clubs and iron bars. One of them hit Pervez with a brick, causing a critical head injury. Pervez, in his late 20s, died in hospital.

Large numbers of police officers have since been sent to the area to calm tensions where Christians are a minority.

Police Superintendent Sukhera said, “We engaged elders of the Christian community and defused the tension.”

A team from the Centre for Legal Aid Assistance and Settlement, which provides legal aid to Christians, is investigating the killing and helping Pervez’s family following the funeral, held on 15 February.

Prime Minister Imran Khan said his government has “zero tolerance” for those taking the law into their own hands and perpetrators would be dealt with by “the full severity of the law” and action taken against “police who failed in their duty”.