Barnabas prayer January February 2015

BARNABAS FUND – AID AGENCY FOR THE PERSECUTED CHURCH

barnabasprayer To help you pray for the persecuted church

January / february 2015 barnabasfund.org

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Thank you for your prayers for our persecuted brothers and sisters in Christ, which make such a difference to them. We sometimes have to change or omit their names for security reasons, and we have only limited space to share their stories.

But the Lord knows the people and places we are praying about. Thank you for your understanding.

Please do not feel limited by the specific prayer requests, but pray as you feel led. On each Sunday we have provided a set prayer; please feel free to use these in their current form, to adapt them as you prefer, or to use the information they contain to frame your own prayers.

tents, which were previously used by the British army in Afghanistan, are being transported by truck and will provide a safe, warm home for 600-1,000 displaced Iraqi Christians.

The complex also contains washing machines, showers, toilets and a large meeting space, and each tent is equipped with air-conditioning and heating. Pray that “Sawra Village” will bring hope to the displaced Christians and a place of rest and peace from where they can restart their lives. (“Sawra” means “hope” in Assyrian.)

January Thursday 1 As Iraqi Christians look ahead to the coming year, the future must seem very uncertain. The previous twelve months saw the sudden rise of Islamic State (IS) and its rapid seizing of territory causing hundreds of thousands of Christians to flee their homes to escape its brutal anti-Christian rule. The homes they were in last 1 January have now been given to IS fighters, and realistically it is doubtful that the Christians can ever return to their ancestral lands. As they wonder where they will be a year from now, pray that they will cling to the promises of Scripture and know that “the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go” (Joshua 1:9).

Friday 2 Pray for the safe arrival of a state-of-the-art tented village in Iraqi Kurdistan, due in mid-January. The

Former British military tents, provided by Barnabas Fund, will provide shelter for up to 1,000 displaced Christians in Iraq Saturday 3 “They have turned it into a mosque!” Archbishop Nicodemus Daoud of Mosul, Iraq, broke down and wept as he uttered these words about his cathedral, now under the control of Islamic State (IS). When IS militants were just 300 metres from his residence, he had finally left the city, and joined 160,000 or more Iraqi Christians who had already fled from IS’s advance to the relative safety of Iraqi Kurdistan. He also said he had

learned how true it is that treasure in heaven is far more important than possessions on earth, and this is what he preaches to the displaced and dispossessed Christians. Pray that God will strengthen all displaced Iraqi church leaders, so they in turn can strengthen the faith of their traumatised congregations.

Monday 5 Lift up in prayer the Egyptian parliament, as they intend to vote early this year on a proposed law that will remove restrictions on building churches in Egypt. According to Egypt’s new constitution, passed a year ago, parliament is required in its first session to issue a law “regulating the construction and restoration of churches in a way that ensures that Christians perform their religious rites freely”. Under current laws, Christians struggle to meet the legal requirements when attempting to build a church, which include being 100 metres away from a mosque and receiving permission from the head of state. Pray that the law will pass and that Egypt

Tuesday 6 Hundreds of Egyptian Christians took to the streets in Samalout, Minya province, on 16 September to pressurise police into finding a 37-year-old Christian woman, who had been abducted two weeks earlier. Christian women and girls are very vulnerable to abduction by Muslims, and the police will seldom act to rescue them. Pray for all Egyptian women now being held against their will in Muslim homes, most likely after being forcibly converted to Islam and married to their abductor. Pray that the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, will remind them of all that they know of God’s Word and strengthen them in their Christian faith (John 14:26).

Wednesday 7 “Continue to remember those in prison as if you were together with them in prison, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering” (Hebrews 13:3). Three Christian converts from Islam were arrested in Iran on 27 September by intelligence officers. The men, Shahram Ghaedi, Heshmat Shafiei and Emad Haghi, are believed to have been targeted because of their involvement in a “Jesus Film” project. Please, Lord, be with Shahram, Heshmat and Emad throughout their imprisonment and use them there for Your purposes and Your glory.

Thursday 8 Pray for the two men in Kazakhstan who have been given a tenday prison sentence for distributing Christian literature. Kazakh authorities confiscated 252 Christian books

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Sunday 4 Dear Lord Jesus, we pray to You today for our courageous brothers and sisters in Egypt who have kept the flame of the Christian faith burning in their land for 2,000 years, despite generations of discrimination and persecution. We praise You that their witness has drawn many to You despite knowing the suffering that is likely to follow. We pray also for President al-Sisi, who has expressed a determination to improve the situation of Egyptian Christians. Please guide him in ways of righteousness, justice and peace and use him to be a blessing to Egypt and all its people.

will uphold its constitution, which greatly improves religious freedom in the country.

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from them, including Jesus: More than a Prophet. This particular title underwent “expert analysis”, which claimed that the book contained “elements inciting religious hatred and discord”. The two men, Vyacheslav and Zhasulan, were also fined the equivalent of four months’ average wage in Kazakhstan for repeatedly distributing religious literature without state permission. Pray that Christian in Kazakhstan will continue to have courage to obey the Lord’s command to witness for him (Acts 4:19-20).

Friday 9 Three months ago Kyrgyzstan’s State Commission for Religious Affairs announced a proposal to tighten the country’s already very repressive religion law.

Under the proposal all religious organisations will be required to re-register with the authorities, and the number of founding members required for organisations seeking registration will rise from 200 (already a difficult target for rural churches) to 500. There would also be harsher punishments for those convicted of taking part in unauthorised religious activities. Please pray that Christians in Kyrgyzstan will be strong and courageous, not afraid or dismayed, as they face a deteriorating religious liberty situation (Joshua 1:9).

Saturday 10 Give thanks that a threeday camp in Central Asia last year, which Barnabas funded, provided a precious learning time about God’s plan for families. The ten participating couples, all Christian converts from Islam, had unwittingly continued in their Muslim customs and mindsets. As unregistered home churches

are forbidden to gather together openly, the church leaders struggle to find opportunities to teach converts Christian family values. Afterwards the ten couples felt so empowered by what they had learned that they started teaching other families – both Christian and Muslim – about godly family relationships. Pray that the teaching may continue to spread.

Sunday 11 Heavenly Father, we lift

up Christians in Uzbekistan who are persecuted simply for having Christian literature in their homes. We pray for them that they will have peace in their hearts day by day, despite knowing that at any time police could raid their home. Please bless Artur who was fined 50 times the minimum monthly wage. Bless Maksim and Tatyana who had 65 books (including children’s Bibles) seized in a raid. Bless Aleksei and Diana whose home was raided by twelve police officers taking two Braille Bibles, other literature and a laptop. May they count their persecution pure joy, knowing that the testing of their faith produces perseverance and maturity.

Christians at worship in Uzbekistan Image Source: Kevin Hamm, Flickr

Monday 12 Lift up in prayer Aasia Bibi, a Pakistani Christian mother, whose appeal against her conviction under Pakistan’s “blasphemy law” was rejected and a death sentence confirmed at the Lahore High Court on 16 September. She has been in prison since being falsely accused of defiling the name of Muhammad during an argument with Muslim co-workers in 2009. Please pray that Pakistan’s Supreme Court will overturn her conviction and that she will be released.

Wednesday 14 “Benjamin”, a Cameroonian secret believer from a Muslim background, was falsely accused of being a member of Boko Haram. The man’s uncle had discovered Benjamin’s conversion and forced him out of his job as an insurance agent, so Benjamin had fled to live with his brother. Eventually his brother noticed that Benjamin would not join in Islamic prayers. Soon after this, Benjamin was arrested by Cameroonian soldiers, beaten, tortured and imprisoned because of a tip-off that he was a member of Boko Haram.

Thursday 15 Thousands of Christians in northern Cameroon have been displaced because of the brutality of Boko Haram. Repeated raids by the Islamist group have forced many to flee with nothing but the clothes on their backs. Displaced Christians are living in appalling conditions.

An estimated 15,000 people were sharing just two water supply points in Minawao. Food and medical support is also insufficient; more than 100 people died in one month from malnutrition.

Ask our heavenly Father to give His faithful children in Cameroon their daily bread and other needs.

Friday 16 In September Islamic State (IS) militants laid mines around a church in Deir al-Zour, Syria, and destroyed it with a blast that resonated through the city. Constructed in 1989-1990, Holy Martyrs church commemorated the Armenian and Assyrian genocide which peaked 100 years ago. Its compound included a memorial and a museum, containing not only documents about the genocide but also the remains of some of its victims. Many refer to Deir al-Zour as the “Auschwitz of the Armenian Genocide” because hundreds of thousands of Armenian and Assyrian Christians were forcibly removed from their homelands in Ottoman Turkey and marched across the desert to Deir al-Zour, with huge numbers dying on the way. Pray for Christians in Syria reeling from the shock of this event and the savage message conveyed by IS’s choice of target.

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Tuesday 13 Remember Christians in northern Cameroon whose communities have been attacked numerous times by Boko Haram. For example, in September 2014, two separate raids on the northern village of Tourou and its surrounding area left 26 Christians dead. Among those killed were a Christian worker and the son of a pastor. Eight churches had to be closed because of the destruction and five believers’ homes were burned down.

Pray for those who have been bereaved, that they will know God’s comfort.

Pray for his release and restoration to full health. Barnabas Fund is assisting with some of his legal and other needs.

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Saturday 17 A Christian grandmother in Syria, who is receiving regular aid from Barnabas, said that she is comforted by knowing that her God is no stranger to suffering. Last year her grandchildren were still living with their parents in Mhardeh, one of Syria’s last unviolated Christian towns.

But then fighters from the al-Qaedalinked al-Nusra Front attacked the town with mortar bombs, first killing the father and five months later, the mother. The grandmother is now taking care of her three grandchildren, the oldest of whom is six. Pray that Christians and all Syrians mourning the loss of loved ones will experience God’s comfort and that the violence in Syria will cease.

Sunday 18 Almighty God, we pray for the many thousands of Syrian Christians who have fled from the cities to seek safety in the mountainous “Valley of the Christians” near Homs. We think of the desperate overcrowding, the lack of food, the shortage of heaters and even blankets to keep themselves warm during winter in one of the coldest places in Syria. We pray for milder weather than normal and an early spring. We ask that bronchitis, pneumonia and other winter illnesses will not spread among the displaced Christians.

Above all, we ask that they will know Your presence and peace despite their suffering and turmoil, and that all they have endured for Your Name will draw them closer to You. Monday 19 Please continue to pray for the displaced Christians in Iraq and Syria, as Islamic State (IS) has continued to consolidate their power

in the region by Islamising institutions and societies. IS has carried out mass executions of national police and army officers, regulated education for young students, and enforced a strict dress code for women. Abandoned Christian homes in Raqqa, Syria have been given to Muslims jihadis from the West.

Please pray for Christians who see no possibility of returning home due to IS’s control over the area.

Tuesday 20 Give thanks to the Lord that seven Christian villages in northern Iraq were liberated following a push by Iraqi and Kurdish forces to reclaim territory captured by Islamic State (IS) militants. The villages, located near Mosul, in the Nineveh plain, the heartland of Iraqi Christians, were liberated in September, only a month after many of its residents were forced to flee as IS militants descended upon the area. Pray that God will guide the former inhabitants with wisdom to know whether they should return home now or remain in other safer locations.

Wednesday 21 Praise God that Christian children from the persecuted Christian-majority Karen people in Burma (Myanmar) are experiencing God’s healing at a Barnabas-funded Christian children’s home in Thailand.

Most of the 104 children at the home were witness to horrific violence to their family and neighbours by the Burmese military and spent days in the jungle suffering hunger and thirst to escape the soldiers. Some were forced to work as child soldiers. Pray that one day they will be able to return to their villages and live out their faith in peace.

it difficult to support themselves in the new village where they are now living, as their farm and land are in the old village. The elderly head of one family died soon after being relocated, which friends think is because of the distress of leaving his ancestral home.

Praise God for their faithfulness and pray that they will find hope in His specific promise of eternal life for those who have left fields for Christ’s sake (Matthew 19:29).

Thursday 22 Give thanks that six of seven imprisoned believers were released in Laos on 3 October after being detained for five days. The Christians had been eating lunch at the home of Pastor Sompong Supatto after morning service when they were arrested by village security officials and police officers. However, weeks after his arrest, it was reported that Pastor Sompong was still in custody, handcuffed and his legs in stocks. Lift up Pastor Sompong in his suffering and pray for his release.

Friday 23 Six Hmong Christian families in Laos were forced to leave their homes in Ko Hai village, Khamkeut district last year because they refused to deny Christ and return to the animist beliefs of most of the villagers. Two of the men had already been detained for a month, in an effort to make them renounce their Christian faith. The families find

Sunday 25 Dear Lord Jesus, we ask

you to comfort the grieving relatives of the Nigerian school-boys killed in suicide bomb attack at a Christian school in Potiskum, Yobe state, in November. At least 47 died and many more were hurt as they gathered for morning assembly. Please lay your healing hand on the injured and restore them to full health. Please touch also the hearts of those who planned this attack and encouraged the suicide bomber to do it, leading them to repentance and a true understanding of what pleases God.

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“I feel safe and love to sing songs to Jesus,” said a Karen child from Burma about her life at a Barnabas-funded children’s home

Saturday 24 On 23 October believers in Vietnam’s capital, Hanoi, held a protest outside an official building demanding that local authorities stop construction work on land that legally belongs to a church. Church members said that the authorities’ move to fill in an 18,200 square metre lake on church land is in violation of the law; they believe that this action was taken in order to reduce the influence of the church in the region. Pray that the government will cease its harassment and that Christians will be given true freedom of religion.

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Monday 26 Christians in north-eastern Nigeria are in extreme danger of attack as the Islamist group Boko Haram seek to expand control in the area. The predominantly Christian city of Mubi was seized by Boko Haram on 29 October and its name was changed to Madinatul Islam, which means “City of Islam”. It is apparently intended to be Boko Haram’s headquarters. Residents were trapped, churches and homes torched, and there were reports that Christians were tortured and killed.

Christians were given three options: leave, convert to Islam, or be killed.

Some 13,000 people fled the city. Cry out to the Lord for believers who are trapped, bereaved, injured, destitute or homeless because of the attack.

Tuesday 27 “We need help. Our people are dying.” Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, president of the Christian Association of Nigeria, spoke out about Boko Haram’s attacks. “I believe as bad as the situation is, with God, all things are possible. I know that there is God. He will not forsake us. We have restrained our people so much and we will continue to restrain them.

But I beg Nigerians not to let this continue.” Pray that the Nigerian military will succeed in freeing the territory that Boko Haram has seized.

Pator Oritsejafor also appealed to Nigerian Muslims: “You defeat an ideology with a superior ideology.

Boko Haram will not listen to me. I want to make an appeal to our Muslim clerics and Muslim political leaders to come together and see how they can help us solve this problem.” Pray that moderate Muslims will condemn the cruelty and violence of Boko Haramm,

despite the risk that they themselves will face by speaking out.

Wednesday 28 Attacks by Muslim Fulani herdsmen against Christians in Nigeria are increasing at an alarming rate in Kaduna state and Taraba state.

On 14 September Christians were killed and homes were burned in Tunari village, in the Wukari area of Taraba state. An estimated 20 men, women and children died in the attack.

A similar incident occurred in Kaduna state where one person was killed and three others seriously injured in an assault by armed Fulani herdsmen as worshippers attended a morning church service in the village of Ungwan Powpow. Pray that God will comfort the victims’ families and that He will bring their assailants to justice.

Thursday 29 Give thanks to the Lord that four Nigerian schoolgirls, who had been kidnapped by Boko Haram six months earlier, managed to escape from a camp run by the Islamist group in Cameroon. They were part of a group of around 270 kidnapped from their school in the predominantly Christian town of Chibok, Borno State, on 14 April. They walked west for more than three weeks until they arrived, starving and traumatised, in a Nigerian village. Pray that God will protect these girls and their families and that the rest of the kidnapped girls will make it home safely. Boko Haram claims that all the kidnapped Chibok girls have been converted to Islam and married off.

Friday 30 Thank the Lord that a food distribution funded by Barnabas helped 2,000 Christian families in

famine-stricken western Kenya survive last year’s drought. Each family received 16kg of maize, 3.3kg of beans, cooking oil and salt. Women greeted the food relief trucks arriving at their church enthusiastically with song and hands raised high. And children who had been lying on the ground from weakness and hunger were soon noticeably better after drinking the milk given to them while the food distribution was in progress. Pray that the Lord will bless the region this year with a bountiful harvest.

church members had been receiving threats from Muslims, who had vowed to reduce the number of Christians in the area. Despite government efforts, attacks against Christians in Tanzania are on the rise. Please pray for the widow and children (aged four and two) of Dioniz Ng’wandu, 31, who died in the attack, and for the full recovery of the injured believer.

February Sunday 1 We thank you, Lord, for

Hungry Kenyan Christian children drinking milk provided by Barnabas Saturday 31 On 9 October, as four Christian men met to pray in an unfinished church building in Tanzania, masked men with machetes attacked, killing one Christian and seriously injuring another. Dioniz Ng’wandu, 31, died in the attack, leaving behind a wife and two children, aged four and two. Before this incident

Monday 2 Pray for the Sri Lankan believers in the Matale District, as local authorities threated to demolish a temporary shelter being used by a church for worship services. During a meeting, the chairman of the provincial council lashed out at the pastor and said that he would ensure that the shelter was demolished and that the church’s plan for a permanent building would never be approved. The church in question was established 17 years ago, and according to Sri Lankan law, there is no legal requirement for places of worship to obtain

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the public commitment made by the Prime Minister of Nepal, Sushil Koirala, that religious freedom will be upheld in the country’s long awaited constitution. We pray that this will be an encouragement to our brothers and sisters in Nepal’s growing Church, who are often discriminated against by the Hindu majority. Please protect Your people in Nepal and guide Prime Minster Koirala and all other decisionmakers in Nepal to ensure that his promise about religious freedom is kept.

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registration. Pray that the Lord will protect His Church in Sri Lanka and that Christians will be granted true freedom of religion.

Tuesday 3 Two Christian workers in Polonnaruwa District, Sri Lanka were on their way to visit a Christian family in Siripura village on 22 October but were stopped by a mob of about 300 villagers led by three Buddhist monks who stood outside the Christian home to prevent the visitors getting there. They shouted threats to warn them against entering the village.

Many Christians in Sri Lanka are encountering opposition like this.

Pray that their Christ-like response may soften the hearts of those who persecute them.

Wednesday 4 Give thanks to God that the Bilaspur High Court in India has opposed a ban on non-Hindu missionaries entering villages in the Bastar district of Chhattisgarh state. The ban had been agreed to by more than 50 local assemblies in Bastar; however, the Chhattisgarh Christian Forum filed a petition with the High Court to oppose the ban.

Despite the High Court’s stance, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), a militant Hindu fundamentalist group, demands that the ban is fully implemented. Pray that the Lord will protect His Church in India, especially in Chhattisgarh state where Christians are under great pressure.

Thursday 5 Twelve Christians were injured during an attack by a group of Hindu extremists in the Bastar district of India’s Chhattisgarh state on 20 October. A group of 40

Christians were attacked by around 50 assailants with knives, sticks and axes. The Christians had gathered in Madota village for what was intended to be a mediation meeting to resolve rising tensions with the local Hindu community. Upon arriving there was no one from the district administration to greet the Christians; instead, they were ambushed by militants. Eleven of the twelve injured were hospitalised.

Pray that the Lord will heal those who were injured in the attack and that the assailants will be brought to justice.

Friday 6 On 4 November, a group of eight Christians meeting in a church in the village of Kotla in Madhya Pradesh state, India were attacked by Hindu radical Bajrang Dal activists.

After being stripped and beaten by their attackers, the Christians were then arrested by the police. The Hindu radicals told police that the Christians were planning forced conversions. In August 2013, the Madhya Pradesh Freedom of Religion Act was toughened and has often been used to make false accusations of forced conversion. Pray that Indian Christians will not be intimidated and will continue to proclaim the Gospel.

Saturday 7 Thank God that a church building in Bangladesh, erected with help from Barnabas Fund, has given the poor and needy rural congregation a precious place of worship and improved many relationships. Before, the village’s 85 Christians would meet for worship in front of each other’s houses, while in the rainy season they could not meet at all. The congregation feel that the building has brought them a greater unity. It

has also improved relations with the other villagers, because the church premises are used for community activities such as pre-school classes and vaccination programmes.

Sunday 8 Lord God, we cry out to you

for the family and friends of Shehzad Masih and Shama Bibi, a Christian husband and wife, who were brutally killed in November by a Muslim mob in a Pakistani village near the town of Kot Radha Kishan. The couple were beaten and then burned alive in a brick kiln furnace after local media reported that Shama had burned pages of the Quran and thrown them in a rubbish bin. We ask that You will bring good even out of such horrific suffering, and that the outcry in Pakistan about this incident will lead to a lasting improvement in the situation of Christians.

Monday 9 Praise the Lord that an Argentinian pastor survived an attempt on his life. Marcelo Nieva

Tuesday 10 A law passed in Bolivia last year requires all churches and non-profit organisations to re-register their legal charters. They will now have to hand in detailed data of their membership, leadership and finances.

Furthermore, they will have to comply with a new administrative structure based on the worldview and beliefs of the indigenous Aymara people.

Please pray for the Christians who are challenging this law through Bolivia’s judicial process. Pray that they will be watchful, stand firm in their faith, be courageous and be strong (1 Corinthians 16:13).

Wednesday 11 Cuban pastor Mario Felix Lleonart Barroso and his wife Yoaxis Marcheco have been repeatedly harassed by the authorities. Yoaxis was arrested on 16 October and threatened with imprisonment. She was told to stop having contact with “counter-revolutionary elements”, an accusation that was also levelled against her husband earlier in the month. Pray that the Lord will protect Rev. Barroso and his wife and that the Cuban church will be granted complete religious freedom.

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This Bangladeshi congregation feels a greater sense of unity as they can meet together in their new building

was shot multiple times by gunmen as he drove through the city of Rio Tercero on 21 October 2014.

Marcelo’s outreach to support victims of domestic abuse, sex trafficking and drugs had made him an enemy of many, and his lawyer expressed concerns over his and his church’s safety as he recovers in hospital.

Please pray for Marcelo’s physical healing, for the church’s protection and that his ministry will be able to continue.

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Thursday 12 Lift up in prayer those affected by a grenade attack on a church in the southern Philippines on 8 October. Felomina Ferolin, a 54-year-old nurse, and teacher Gina Cabilona, 39, were killed in the attack, which targeted a mid-week service.

At least 40 worshippers were inside the building when two men on a motorbike fired a grenade launcher at the door of the church in Pikit, on the island of Mindanao. Three injured Christians were hospitalised, one in a critical condition. Pray that the Lord will comfort the surviving families and that the assailants will be brought to justice.

Friday 13 Pray for the Filipino Christians living in Zamboanga City, Mindanao who narrowly escaped an attempted bomb attack on 11 October.

The improvised explosive device was defused at the scene by security forces with no reports of injuries.

Many Muslims live in Mindanao, which has been suffered decades of violence by Islamist militants seeking greater autonomy. Members of two other militant Islamist groups in the Philippines, Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters and the al-Qaeda-linked group Abu Sayyaf, have recently pledged allegiance to the militant group known as Islamic State, which is persecuting Christians in Iraq and Syria. Pray that the Lord will continue to protect His people in the Philippines.

Saturday 14 Pray for Christians in the southern Philippians as the largest Islamist rebel group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), announced that it will be forming a political party

called the United Bangsamoro Justice Party (UBJ). This agreement follows a decades-long Muslim insurgency for an independent Islamic state, in which Christians were targeted in violent campaigns. Pray that the creation of a semi-independent Islamic region called Bangsamoro will not lead to Christians in the region being oppressed or discriminated against.

The mayor of Wao, a predominantly Christian town on Mindanao, has asked that his town be exempted from the Bangsamoro government and the rule of sharia law.

Sunday 15 We praise and thank You,

Lord, that Iranian Christian Homayoun Shokouhi was granted conditional release from prison on 10 November 2014 after his family had appealed.

We pray for the two remaining Christians in prison from the group in Shiraz arrested with Homayoun on 8 February 2012, Mojtaba and Vahid, that they will be sustained and strengthened in the Lord. We ask too that You will change the hearts of those in power in Iran, so that holding house-church meetings and sharing the Gospel will not be punishable offences.

Monday 16 A shopkeeper in Lahore, Pakistan, has been selling shoes been designed to insult Christians. The shoes were printed with crosses on their soles. In Pakistani culture, to place anything on the ground is to insult that object, and any symbol on the sole of a shoe is considered defiled.

Christians held demonstrations in early October after it emerged that police were reluctant to act. Pakistan’s “blasphemy law” lays down draconian

punishments for anyone considered to have insulted Muhammad or the Quran, but does not protect other religions. Pray that the downtrodden and despised Christians of Pakistan might know the Lord as their shield, their glory and the one who lifts their heads high (Psalm 3:3).

Wednesday 18 Continue to pray for Meriam Ibrahim from Sudan, now living in the USA with her disabled husband Daniel and their two young children. Although her conviction and death sentence for apostasy from Islam was overturned in June 2014, some of her relatives appealed against the decision to free her. Her case has therefore been brought before Sudan’s Supreme Court. Meanwhile Meriam has launched a campaign against religious persecution to help those who have been arrested because of their religion, saying, “There are others who are in worse conditions in Sudan than what I was in.”

Meriam Ibrahim Friday 20 Christians in North Korea are brutally punished, along with their whole families, in the country’s notorious labour camps. Although little news of our suffering brothers and sisters reaches the outside world, our Heavenly Father knows what they need (Matthew 6:32). Commit these courageous believers into His hands.

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Tuesday 17 A Christian school in Pakistan that Barnabas Fund built in 2012 and continues to sponsor is lifting almost an entire generation of local Christian children out of illiteracy and poverty. Before the school opened, only 10% of the Christian children in the area were being educated. Now, thanks to the minimal fees the Christian school charges, 80% are in school.

And the children no longer have to undergo the discrimination they experienced at other schools because of their faith. Pray that the remaining 20% of local Christian children will also start attending the school and that the children will grow up to be strong ambassadors for Christ.

Thursday 19 Ask God to protect the lawyers in Sudan who are representing Meriam Ibrahim, as they take her case to Sudan’s Constitutional Court.

They have received death threats from Islamic extremists. In line with sharia law, Sudanese law prescribes the death penalty for those who leave Islam. But Meriam’s legal team will challenge this on the basis of Article 38 of Sudan’s 2005 interim constitution which states that, “no person shall be coerced to adopt such faith, that he/she does not believe in”. If the Constitutional Court were to decide that penalising apostasy is unconstitutional, it could open the way to full freedom of religion for Sudanese Muslims who wish to change their religion; pray for this outcome.

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Saturday 21 Indonesia’s new government, led by President Joko Widodo, has promised to give equal rights to religious minorities. New laws will protect Christians and other religious minority groups from attack and discrimination and will make it easier for them to obtain permits to build places of worship. Give thanks to God for new hope for Christians and other minorities. Pray also for the smooth implementation of these new regulations, which are opposed

by Islamists.

Sunday 22 Dear Lord Jesus, we pray for the many expatriate Christians living in Saudi Arabia, especially those from Africa and Asia who are treated worse by the authorities if they catch them practising their faith. We pray also for Saudi converts from Islam – only You know how many there are. Please continue to protect them from the death sentence which Saudi law decrees for those who leave Islam. Thank you for the freedom we have to meet together to worship You without fear. Please sustain the faith of those in Saudi Arabia who take such risks to meet discreetly for prayer with other Christians and of the secret believers who can never have fellowship at all. Watch over their coming and going both now and forevermore (Psalm 121:8).

Monday 23 Praise God for the highprofile message brought before the House of Lords by the UK’s Prince Charles in November. Lamenting the suffering of Christians in the Middle East and elsewhere, he called on Muslim leaders to raise

awareness about religious persecution in Muslim-majority countries. Give thanks also that the case of Aasia Bibi has been discussed in the House of Commons. Fifty-four British MPs signed a letter expressing their deep concern about the injustice of this Pakistani Christian woman’s death sentence for “blasphemy”. Pray that British politicians will be prompted to further action.

Tuesday 24 Many Iraqi Christian women and children have been taken captive by Islamic State (IS) militants and sold as slaves. IS released a shocking document that revealed the prices of Christian slaves. These prices varied from 50,000 dinars (£27; €34; $43) for women aged 4050 to 200,000 dinars (£107; €136; $170) for children aged one to nine.

Yazidi women are also being enslaved.

Sharia allows Muslims to take human beings as slaves as part of their war booty in the context of jihad. Pray that the Lord will protect all women and children who are currently slaves in Iraq or elsewhere. Pray that the international community will act to set them free.

Wednesday 25 Thank the Lord for the generosity of Barnabas Fund supporters and the untiring work of local churches in Iraqi Kurdistan, which have provided food, hygiene articles, and other basic needs for tens of thousands of displaced Christians.

In this region there is normally snow lying on the ground in January and February. Pray for the effective distribution of blankets and heaters to help the homeless survive the winter cold. Many had arrived in Kurdistan

last year with only the clothes on their back after fleeing from IS militants last summer.

Thursday 26 Sixty converts from Islam in Burundi were greatly encouraged by each other’s testimonies when they met together for workshops funded by Barnabas. Sharing together, as well as studying the Scriptures, helped equip them to stand firm in their Christian faith, even when facing violence and rejection by their Muslim families and communities. Pray that they may continue strong in the Lord, remembering everything they were taught and build themselves up in their faith (Jude 20).

Saturday 28 Pray for Barnabas Fund’s “Save the Christians of the Middle East” petition. Pray that it will be effective in drawing the attention of politicians and decision-makers to the plight of Christian in the Middle East, especially Iraq and Syria. Pray that leaders of many Western countries will intervene to protect Christian minorities in the Middle East, will provide humanitarian aid and will welcome Christian asylum-seekers.

Burundian converts from Islam at a workshop that strengthened them in their faith

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Friday 27 At the time of writing it was predicted that the food crisis in South Sudan might become a fullblown famine in early 2015. Please pray for the long-suffering people of this Christian-majority nation, whose

land was devastated by decades of civil war against the Islamic North as the Southerners fought to prevent sharia being imposed on them. Pray that the Church may play a leading role in helping to bring peace and a measure of prosperity to this desperately poor country. Due to the civil war, many of today’s Church leaders have had very little formal education. Pray that the Holy Spirit will equip them for the challenging task God has given them.

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